A+Shacklette's Computer Repair review: Computer repair

In late December of 2022, my computer would not boot up. Because they advertised an A+ BBB rating, I took it to A+Shacklette’s Computer Repair. After he inspected it, he called to tell me that I needed a new hard drive. He quoted a price of $195, and I agreed for him to do the work. I had a 2 Terabyte (2000 gigabytes) hard drive, and I assumed that he would replace the defective one with a comparable size and quality drive. The capacity size of the hard drive is its most important characteristic. When I got home and booted my computer, I learned that the merchant had replaced my original, factory-installed 2TB (2000-gigabyte) hard drive with a 240-gigabyte drive. The "new"drive was already 1/3 full with just the data he had installed. There was no way I could restore my back-up of 500GB along with the multiple programs I use on to a drive which was only about 10% capacity of what was replaced. There were programs installed which I never requested or needed. There were 2 search engines, Office 2003 (20 years old!), several Apple I-phone programs along with an assortment of programs which I did not need or want. He informed me when I picked up my computer that he had installed a remote-access program on the hard drive so if there were any problems, he could access my computer. I was not happy at all with this blatant invasion of my privacy! I later found out that he did not load on just 1 remote access program but rather 2 – TeamViewer and Anydesk! I deactivated both when I got home, I did not think this was a new drive he installed because of all of the junk on it and immediately called him to complain. The merchant has been in business for 21 years and would have known that this hard drive he installed was not going to work for me just by the high performance and capacity of my computer and all of it’s components. He tried to sell me on the idea that his drive was solid state technology and much more efficient than the hard drive he replaced. I told him no matter how efficient this "new" drive is, there is no way I can install my 500 GB back-up and programs on a 240GB drive. After a lengthy discussion, he offered to refund my payment and he would re-install my original drive back into my computer. I told him that this was not the solution I wanted since I would still not have a computer. He then offered to install a 1,000-gigabyte drive for an additional $35. While his offer was still only 50% capacity of the drive I had originally, this seemed to be my best solution at the time. But the more I thought about how I was deceived with a much smaller drive replacement; the 2 remote access programs he loaded onto my computer without first getting my permission; the plethora of miscellaneous programs on what appeared to be a used drive; I could not trust him and was reluctant to have him touch my computer again. I went to another repair business and they installed a 2TB hard drive for about $160. I also got the inferior drive back and it had hand-writing in marker on it, which further confirms my suspicions that this was not a new drive but a used one. I am 75 years old and have been using computers for more than 45 years. I have more than just a general knowledge of them, and I truly believe that the merchant assumed that because of my age, I knew nothing about computers. I’m sure he thought he could do this bait and switch on me and I would never be the wiser. He was wrong.

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