Micro Center

Problems with software purchased for new hard drive. No follow-up support & unable to reach store manager. I remember when Micro Center was THE place for computers. It has now gone the route of BestBuy in its relentless runaround for the customer, using remote support to essentially provide no support at all.

Took my laptop in to Micro Center. They were able to get it updated to the latest Windows 10 feature release 1909. They used a Windows media thumb drive to update the OS in-place and preserved all my data and programs. Service turnaround was 2 days, and everything is working fine. Tech support department very professional and courteous. Good experience.

It went great!

Returned with it and Ryan at the knowledge bar made it right and was so pleasant and professional- also hardworking!

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I'd give them an A.

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They have been fairly helpful. They seem to know their stuff. The salesman there was very helpful when we purchased the laptop. I had a couple of questions and he put things in perspective, and that worked out. I go back to them because they have good service and the salesmen are all knowledgeable. I have always gotten god service there.

The help desk employee, David, was very helpful and did what he could accomplish in his role. I didn't feel rushed through the process but did end up leaving my computer with their sevice department. There was no charge for this initial consultation as I had a service plan in place. I found the service in the help desk area at Micro Center to be efficient and professional.

great

Just wanted to give a shout-out to Micro Center. They are one of the last of the computer equipment and parts suppliers that still has a bircks-and-mortar presence. Their store in Columbus is really expansive and they have everything! I went in to shop for a memory upgrade for my Lenovo T440 laptop. The salesperson looked up the computer, found the appropriate memory chip, which was from Crucial, and sold it to me for exactly the same price I could purchase it for on Newegg.com.
These guys are the real thing -- a great computer store that's still as store. Love it.

unknown

MicroCenter is a well-stocked retail center with some pretty good deals and specials for those that choose to custom build a PC tower. (we got a portion of our parts there last year for those things that were competitively priced). We had a good experience.
But we recently had an issue that likely required a motherboard replacement. I took the tower in first thing Weds morning, and 3.5 days later (mid-day Saturday) had not even received the initial phone call to indicate they had started to diagnose the problem. So I called them to see what the situation was. They called on Sunday to say they needed to replace the motherboard (a like-for-like replacement, from their stock), but were not sure they were going to finish till Monday.
So it is taking several days of elapsed time without a computer, for about 90 minutes of actual service time. Obviously in no particular hurry to work on it.
Bottom line: If you are okay with not having your PC for several days, then MicroCenter may be a fine place for service. But if your PC is vital and every day matters, then I'd recommend finding a better option. Their processes aren't well-matched for prompt turnaround times. We learned the hard way, but will know better next time.

MicroCenter's response:
and quot;I am sorry to hear of your issues. The PowerSpec B721 is actually a Windows 8 Pro licensed machine.
It ships with Windows 7 Pro through the Downgrade rights of Windows 8 Pro.
PowerSpecs like all OEM manufacturers are no longer allowed to put ‘Product Stickers’ on new Windows 8 machines.
Instead the Windows 8 product key is embedded on the BIOS of the machine.
There is no Windows 7 key as it uses the downgrade rights.
As to fixing your issue, we have a few options now.
First you can reinstall Windows 7 with the PowerSpec Recovery Media that would have come with the system.
During the installation Windows will be activated automatically.
If this fails to fix the Activation issue than I would worry that the previous owner of this machine may have changed the BIOS away from the original PowerSpec BIOS for this system.
We can provide this BIOS file, but using it would be at your own risk. Improper installation may permanently damage your system. If you do not feel comfortable with doing this yourself you can bring this system into our local store for this procedure.and quot;
Since I have spent hours creating, copying user files onto my and quot;newand quot; desktop, I could not reinstall Windows 7 without significant pain, and did not want to reload the BIOS file and quot;at my own risk.and quot;
I wound up purchasing a Windows 7 Pro license key from Microsoft, and completed the activation in 10 minutes.
BOTTOM LINE: and quot;Open Boxand quot; purchases from MicroCenter obviously indicates and quot;Pre-Owned / Returnedand quot; products, and the checking that MicroCenter performs before reselling is minimal at best. I also had issues with drivers at the initial power-up of this computer that I was able to resolve myself. No out-of-the-box functionality from MicroCenter.

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My experience with Micro Center has been anything but cordial. And though it’s seems a little late to complain — seeing as how this occurred two years ago — I am still indignant towards Micro Center in that they have proven themselves to be unwilling to admit to any wrongdoing in the face of incontrovertible documentable proof — I still think I owe it to Angie’s List members to steer clear of Micro Center for their computer purchases because I believe my consumer experience is something potential buyers will want to consider before they commit themselves to making an expensive purchase at this company.

In late July of 2011 I was in the market to buy an Apple iMac. Naturally, I was looking to get the best price ... and as it happens, I
was in the neighborhood of the Micro Center on Bethel Rd.

As expected, the salesperson extolled the virtues of the iMac I had been contemplating purchasing, and I was eventually sold on buying it at Micro Center over against buying directly from the Apple Store at the Polaris Fashion Place Mall. I made my decision based solely on the fee for the data transfer — which was exactly $40 less than the Apple Store. Big Mistake.

I should also mention that I also purchased the 3-year Apple Care plan (another 160+ dollars), which — was and is — a good investment.

When I returned the next day to pickup my brand-spanking-new iMac I was profusely glad-handed by one of the store managers who handed me his business card and told me to ask for him personally if I had any problems at all. That later turned out to be an utterly worthless, hollow promise to make things right should anything go wrong ... which is what immediately happened.

Once home, I plugged in my iMac and found that I could not access anything in my iTunes — which, by that date, I had accumulated about 25,000 tracks. I immediately called the Apple Care hotline. After about 45 frustrating minutes, the Apple Care advisor gave up on every attempt to troubleshoot the problem. The Apple tech support person ( who was fully aware that I had originally purchased my iMac at the Micro Center store) directed me to take the iMac to — NOT the Micro Center store — but the Apple Store at Polaris, which I did dutifully the following morning at 9:00.

The technician at the Genius Bar worked on my brand-new iMac for about 20 minutes and concluded (after failing to access either my iTunes or Word documents — i.e., just about everything essential to the everyday utility for which my computer serves me) that Micro Center had failed to perform a complete data transfer. The Genius Bar technician also told me that it would be necessary to perform ANOTHER complete data transfer (for which the Apple Store would charge me $99). Given the substandard service I had just received from Micro Center, I elected to go with that the Apple option rather than risk losing even more data that the Wonder Boy technicians at Micro Center royally mucked up in the first place.

I returned to Micro Center the next day — written expert Apple opinion in hand — and asked that I be refunded the $59.99 I had paid for the substandard, incomplete data transfer which Micro Center had charged me. I asked to speak to the store manager who had just two days before smilingly placed his business card in my hand. But despite the expert Apple evaluation describing the problem in a written estimate, I was refused a refund for Micro Center’s mucked-up data transfer. I was however assured by the main store manager that he “would have a word” with the technician(s) who performed my data transfer — an odd thing to say seeing as how Micro Center had just denied any wrongdoing.

What's more, while my iMac was safely back at the Polaris Apple Store waiting for a professional, competent data transfer, I received a call from the Apple Store telling me that I need to come in to the store to plug and the Hard Drives on my old PC. Yes, believe it or not, the Wonder Boys at Micro Center had left ALL of my data cables to the Hard Drives unplugged and dangling. Since Apple’s policy prohibits their employees from doing any sort of work on non-Apple PCs, this meant that I had to leave work to go back to the Apple Store and re-plug all the cables that the Micro Center Wonder Boys had left dangling. Now, THAT'S what I call professionalism!

Even to this very day — and that is not an exaggeration — I continue to clean-up after the mess that Micro Center left me. There remain duplicate files and folders in nearly every Word document that I have ever created, and these originally numbered in the thousands. Thankfully, the friendly tutors at the Apple Store have been extremely helpful in assisting me in this daunting task, but there are many, many hours of time – personal time – that I must expend to eliminate these duplicates. Micro Center created this problem and they refuse to own up to their mistakes and insist on taking the minimalist approach toward customer satisfaction.

I would not trust Micro Center EVER to do ANY work on my computer. And their greedy, tight-fisted unwillingness to make things right for errors which they are solely responsible is reason enough for me to take my business forevermore elsewhere.

Shame on you, Micro Center.

Waited in line awhile, but when I had my turn they were polite and helpful and completely fixed my laptop. They did not charge me anything..... they did an analysis and adjusted settings so I could once again use my Gmail. I think I would have had a charge if I had to leave it for more work. Sounds completely reasonable to me!! I would recommend Micro Center to anyone!

My employer had purchased a laptop for me on Thursday, which I decided I did not like. She had a similar problem to what I will be describing below.
I called to ask questions about the laptop on Sunday The person who answered the phone clearly had no interest in assisting me. I had to ask very specifically to speak to the Laptop Department. The young man who answered the phone could only repeat what he had been trained to say on the phone. I finally reached a man whom I assume was a salesperson. He had less than no interest in speaking to me.
I was told I would receive a return phone call to answer my questions. I waited 4 days. No call.
I entered the laptop department the following Thursday with my teenage son and his girlfriend. Each salesman looked at me multiple times and said nothing. Not even a greeting. They looked at me, then looked away. Not one of them approached me, greeted me or offered assistance. I was clearly shopping for a laptop. I was reading the details on different laptops, looking at them, talking about how they compared to the one I had, etc.
More than one salesman approached my son and offered assistance. I believe it was the third time, while I stood about 5 feet away, completely ignored as if I did not exist, that my son told the salesman he did not need help but his Mom did. The salesman looked surprised. I guess it had not occurred to him that the woman walking around looking at the merchandise he is supposed to sell actually wanted to make a purchase.
At this point I had probably been in the department for at least 20 minutes. They were not busy. The salesmen were mostly standing around.
I observed a male customer enter the department several minutes after me. He was immediately approached by a salesman. After a few minutes, I saw him with the salesman standing near the door to the back room. A man came out, shook his hand and made a big deal over the fact that he had just purchased a laptop. All this while I continued to be ignored.
If I had not been there to exchange a laptop, I would have left within a few minutes.
Eventually, the salesman who my son asked to help me answered my question and helped me to choose a laptop which I liked much better than the first one. The second one was more expensive than the first.
I explained to my son that this was an example of discrimination. It appears to me that Microcenter doesn't think middle aged women purchase computers. They seem to think their customers are all male; even if they are only teenagers.
I had been in this store many times. This was the first time I was purchasing a laptop.
I will not be returning to Microcenter. I can purchase my future computers and accessories elsewhere. I see no reason to hand over my hard earned money to a business which clearly sees no value in me, and does not want to serve me.
Disgusting.

Went well.

I had recently had ATand T U-verse TV and Internet installed in my condo. The modem was placed at one end of the condo but reception at the other end of condo (where my wife wanted her computer) was very poor.
I had heard of using house wiring for a network connection but was leery about trying it. Went to Micro Center and asked the sales associate for help. He reassured me that I could do this correctly and explained the process
When he showed me the various products they had tor this, he explained why the least expensive would work for my situation.
Took the power line adapter home and it worked perfectly.
Sales help and price were excellent.

My computer stopped working, so I took it in for diagnosis. I was told
to expect a reply in 2 days and I paid $70 up front for the diagnosis.
The technician called back that same day. The motherboard had failed.
He would see if he could get one, and it might take a couple of days.
He called the next day. Motherboard was available, but cost would be
almost as much as buying a new computer. I decided to buy new, and after
some shopping I decided to buy at Micro Center. I picked a Power Spec
machine made by Micro Center. It worked fine, but it had a new Windows 7
system, and although I was able to capture all my files from the old
disk, I could not get my address book. I took the computer to the Micro
Center service desk, and the technician there spent a couple of hours
importing all the addresses and messages. The technicians were very helpful and professional, and were unhurried and willing to spend time helping me. While I was waiting, I bought
a new monitor. Although I expected to be charged for the service,
there was no charge. (I had inquired about this at another store and was told the charge would be about $70).

I like the sales guy, their price, and their being knowledgeable. These guys would show you the best buys.

They were going to charge us $100 to do the diagnostic service. Apple got the fee waived. I would not use them again because it was a frustrating situation.