Little Shop of Hardware

As someone in the IT field my rating is based on the store and availability. I stopped in here a few times looking for some odd ball things that I would otherwise have to order online. One was a distribution amp, which they didn’t have and the other item may have been a mini-​HDMI to VGA cable which they also didn’t have. I feel that if you’re going to be that little corner store than you really should have the hard to find items. I normally just use Amazon Prime. I’d like to comment on the two reviewers that gave negative reviews based on other things. To the reviewer that wanted an OEM power supply. You elected to buy the off brand, they didn’t force you, so that’s on you. Go to Amazon or Ebay, it’s 2015. To the guy that complained his hard drive didn’t boot. There are many reasons this could happen. The chip board could have gone bad causing the disk not to spin, The platter could have cracked. Just so many things. If your PC wasn’t booting to an OS issue than they should been able to grab your files otherwise they would have to take the drive apart and try to find exact replacement parts because there’s firmware on those chipboards. It takes time to troubleshoot a PC and I’m tired of assholes like you who don’t want to pay for that time. Yes, I’m one of those guys in the back who doesn’t participate in your soap opera life and it’s by choice.

If you like dealing with that one jerk in your IT department that talks too you like your an idiot, leers at you, and becomes exasperated by simple social interaction, you’ll love this place. Completely lacking in social graces and generally a difficult in business dealings. I’ve been to the shop three times. The first time I went in and no one spoke to me. I yelled to the back, «Hello?» No response although I could hear two voices talking. I left. The second time I bought a power supply there. That worked out ok but it burnt out in six months. The third time I called again about a power supply and asked for them to order the manufacturers power supply specifically. I was told they had one in stock and I could pick it up now. It was the same knock off brand as the last one I bought from them. Boooooo! I had three bad experiences at Little Shop and I’m done with them. I am so dissatisfied I’m giving them a bad review. Hopefully they’ll read it and try and clean themselves up, but I doubt it.

I’m being generous with ONE star. I took my laptop here because I could not get it to boot up. Prior to that, I had removed the hard drive, put it into an external drive and still could not get it to read. I brought it here, where they did all the same things I did, basically told me that they probably couldn’t do anything with me, then proceeded to charge me $ 79.00. It wasn’t so much what they charged me, it was how they charged me. After giving me such a pitiful assessment, they asked me for my credit card and charged me before they even asked me whether or not I wanted to proceed. I was a bit intimidated and didn’t protest. I thought that paying the $ 79.00 would ensure that they were going to really spend some time to recover my data. But after 5 days and no call backs, I’m pretty convinced that my machine just sat there idle and was not even touched. I can’t prove it, but it’s just my feeling about this place.
I decided to call them and they confirmed that they couldn’t do anything for me. I think $ 79.00 is pretty steep for just a deposit on intended service, especially when they gave me such an unpromising prognosis in the first place.
I’ve been here before because City Paper gave them great reviews many years ago, but I think they just don’t care anymore. They probably don’t make much money and they just take wherever they can. The place is something out of a John Waters movie and the tech I spoke with looked exactly like the comic book salesman in «The Simpsons,» and with the same F-​you attitude. For such a small business, you would expect to be treated with a bit more respect. You would not feel good trusting valuable equipment to a staff that doesn’t look any better than the squalor they work in. I DO NOT recommend this place.

The store is Vintage Plus, filled top to bottom, front to back with tech. The guys are nice and ready to help.