Core Care Apple Authorized Service Provider

They charge $100 up front for service. Checked it out and told me it was the motherboard and would cost $350 for a new one. Because of the age (2005) I decided it was time to invest in a newer Mac. They moved everything onto the new laptop and got it up and running for me at no additional charge. Of course there were a few silly things that changed so I took it back and they spent another half hour or so tweeking the problem areas. These guys are great for any Mac repair.

Great! They got me in and out same day. Even showed me a couple of shortcuts I didn't know about. I've used them for several years and they are terrific.

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All of a sudden, I started getting "alerts" from my Mac Mini (2011, model 4,1 version) that some of my applications could not write to disk. So I did a backup (Time Machine) and then tried to run diagnostics (Disk Utility). But after a "Verify" operation the hard drive started making clicking sounds and wouldn't reboot at all (it just displayed a gray screen and a folder with a question mark).
Being new in town I went straight to Angie's List to search for a repair shop (I really didn't want to have to resort to an Apple Store). I found Core Care was an authorized repair shop and close by. So I showed up on Monday morning just as they were opening. I spoke with Casey and we talked about likely causes and resolutions, and costs, all of which I thought were reasonable. But when they checked the serial number they found that the Mini was still under warranty, which was even better!
On Wednesday I called in to check for a status, and the repair tech said he had just finished replacing the drive and re-installing everything. I then inquired about adding more memory and he said that would be simple, but a "cost" service, not a warranty service, which I expected, and authorized. Although the Mini was ready for pickup on Wednesday, I wouldn't have been able to get there before closing, so I picked it up on Thursday morning instead. And when I got it home and booted it, everything was working again and has been ever since.

On one service call, installed new Mac OS. Was prompt and entirely satisfactory. On second service call, installed new hard drive and was also entirely satisfactory. On third service call, however, staff seemed uninterested in discovering a software conflict problem that was solving crashes. In other words, I find CORE a good service center for hardware problems, but not so with software issues.

I've done business with Core Care for several years and the staff is always competent, friendly and fair. They are frequently busy answering the phone and servicing customers but somehow they manage to get things done in a reasonable amount of time. This is one place where I don't mind waiting. Sacramento Mac owners are very fortunate to have Core Care and Casey. They are the best I've seen since I bought my first Mac 128 back in 1984.