Sound Microsystems

I have a hp envy 17.6 laptop. I had a broken hinge, like the left side of the laptop was so loose. But ither than that everything was working perfectly. I went to this place to give my laptop for fixing up with the hinge. I gave it on 20^th of December and confirmed the repair order on 22^nd. But I was promised that I will get the repair fixed before Christmas, but I got it so late oly in the January 2^nd week. The hinge was replaced with a new one. To my surprise the inbuilt webcam and the microphone stopped working! I took it back to them and again they took 2 more days to check into it. I had to call them so many times to get it checked. They could not fix up the repair and now the webcam and mic isn’t functioning, but it was all fine before the service. I am so unhappy with their service and response to my issue. They are only responsible for my webcam and mic not functioning. They are Very expensive. Labor charge is $ 95, hp hinge is &149.95, tax is 24.88, freight charges $ 16.95 and the total is $ 286.78… Paid so much and now the webcam and mic not functioning, laptop has become very slow, the icons in the desktop are not there, windows explorer frequently hangs.
Totally fed up and unhappy customer.

I had another accident that destroyed my keyboard. Once again, Sound had my back and got me up and running the next day.

I was not impressed with the customer service here, they don’t seem to care. Have a laptop with a cracked screen (not a warranty repair) and wanted to know if they could fix. I told them I was short on time since I am leaving town in less than a week. The guy said they’d call me and give me a quote by end of day. I called the next day, nothing. They called me back over 48 hours later eventually, blaming the manufacturer and not acknowledging their promise. I took the laptop back, will take my business elsewhere. 2 stars only because they waived the «diagnostics» fee (essentially making one phone call to the manufacturer since there wasn’t any other diagnostic to be made.)

Great guys. Brought in my Lenovo T440S for a warranty issue with the screen and keyboard. Dropped it off around 10:30a and they had it fixed by 3p. Awesome service and will be purchasing additional Lenovo products from them in the near future.

It was good and fast, just little more expensive than I expected. I had a trouble with my wifi antenna and they changed it in half a day with Unilocal coupon for fast service.

I purchased my first Lenovo (not sure if I’d do that again) directly from the Lenovo website and had issues with the monitor within a few months. Luckily the laptop was still under warranty so I took it to Sound Microsystems since they’re an authorized service center for Lenovo. I dropped off my laptop and was told that all they had to do was swap out my screen for a new one and that it’ll only take a few hours. I was thrilled since I’m in grad school and needed my laptop back asap.
Friendly, knowledgeable and excellent turnaround time. Thanks Bryan.

I was issued a full refund and an apology and a promise to do better next time.
The apology was nice but it will be a while before I ever go back to sound microsystems.
I was however told that what happened to me was an unfortunate coincidence of bad luck and that most people do not experience what I did and that they would call before making any charges. I do hope so.

They were able to quickly address a Lenovo Warranty issue. Was very happy with their work and the fact that I could talk to a real person. It’s good o have this company stand behind the Lenovo Warranties.

Response to Aaron:
Thank you for your speedy response, but I’m afraid you’re three months too late. Yes, you did tell me to come in for a second inspection, so I emailed you to follow-​up on a good time to do so. As I’ve reiterated, I can only come in on a Saturday and prefer to have you follow up with the inspection/​fix since you know the issue already. I don’t believe that’s too much to ask. In response to my email, you said you won’t be working for a couple of Saturdays and told me to drop it off during the week after I mentioned several times I needed my laptop for work during the week. Second, I handed you the opportunity to fix the situation by emailing you in early January saying if you can show me the drive in my computer is indeed the replacement drive, I will apologize for doubting your service. I also mentioned whether or not Saturday at 11am was a good time to come in. According to the email thread which I still have, you never responded to that email. I wasn’t going to show up at your store and have you not be present that day. That was three months ago… yet you chose to respond to my Unilocal review in less than 24 hours.
Aaron, I don’t enter a shop for the intent to «mistrust» someone, otherwise I wouldn’t have spent the money to begin with and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I believe I heard correctly when I asked you if you installed or didn’t install a replacement drive, and I believe you did not install it. It’s either yes, I did, or no, I didn’t. Since you were unresponsive through email after I tried to follow-​up with you on a good time to come in for a second inspection, I ended up doing my own research and managed to access power management on Windows 8.1 (after I upgraded) by myself. There is no silent mode on/​off switch. The drive still makes the noise but I resolved it by buying an external optical drive for half the price I paid at your store, and it has proven to be beneficial for both home and travel use.

They did right by me. I had a virus invade my Lenovo laptop. After a day of investigating, the tech advised I had a bad hard drive. He got Lenovo to send a new hard drive, and my fix (which works totally fine two weeks later) cost me a bit under $ 100 despite his original estimate of $ 135. Good, honest, thorough.

These guys are awesomely damn useful and intelligent. I brought in my in warranty Qosmio several times for different hardware issues and these guys got the replacement parts next day every time. Once, when my HDD was replaced and I had no media to reinstall my Windows 7 (so no internet), the guy helped me install basic trial version of the OS which then I was able to upgrade using my own key.
In fact Aaron and I once had long talk over different brands and what their various models offer. He actually gave me pretty insight into how to chose laptop for home or office use.
I am probably going to go in again to this store to get this Qosmio’s battery replaced as it works only for about 30 – 45 minutes. Which I think is way to less to degrade to in just 11 months despite being on always on power usage. And I hope to get the same level of service.

Brought in a Lenovo with water damage under thinkpad protection. I had brought it to another shop earlier that couldn’t do the repair and even made it worse. The staff at Sound Microsystems was extremely professional and fixed the problem in three business days with no hitches. I highly recommend them.

I had my thinkpad repaired by them twice. Once, they replaced the Mobo, next they replaced the bottom case cover.
They say 1 to 3 business days, but really it is 3 business days, as they always have to order the parts, which takes 2 days and then install on the third day.
When they were replacing the bottom cover on my machine, they somehow unset the wireless card, which ruined the wifi access and did not quite get the bottom cover on right (it was not flush on one side). I was rather annoyed, having to drive all the way out to Redmond to have it fixed. However, they quickly addressed the issue, turning around the unit in 30 minutes.

The owner of this business had the opportunity to do the right thing and did not do it. Stay away from this business. Their «software» fix was a wild guess. It did not fix the problem. It took a call to Lenovo’s CEO office to get any action at all. They didn’t quibble. They didn’t prevaricate. Lenovo replaced the unit, free of charge. I’m still out the $ 200 that Sound Microsystems charged. Sound Microsystems does not stand by their work. Save your money. Send any under-​warranty Lenovo products straight to Lenovo.

I was surprised to not see more reviews on Unilocal for Sound Microsystems. I NEVER found a pc repair shop like this is California! I was unaware that some shops send pc’s out for repair (but it explains why some take so long). Sound Microsystems does their own work in house. They fixed my Lenovo in less than a day! Prices were cheap but hey I think you get what you pay for when you go cheap. And Sound Microsystems is still reasonable. And I was happy they didn’t just give up and replace all the hardware (which is what my other experiences with PC repair were like). They are authorized to do warranty repairs for Lenovo — the only viable shop I found in the Seattle area. They are friendly, efficient and knowledgeable. I’m taking in another pc as soon as I can.

I debated on sending my busted out of warranty laptop to Toshiba directly or getting it repaired at Sound Microsystems. I’m actually really glad I got it done at Sound since they provided a 30 day warranty on the repair and Toshiba wouldn’t. This ended up being crucial as the motherboard had to be completely replaced and the first motherboard they got from Toshiba actually ended up being faulty. I took it back and got another swapped out at no extra charge. Now my laptop is kicking ass again! They even cleaned up the screen.

I specifically drove my Tacoma laptops to Redmond because Aaron told me he would waive the diagnostic fee. The other authorized service provider in Renton wouldn’t, even though I knew what was wrong w/​my equipment. In a tough economy and looking to lower any of my expenses, I appreciated Aaron’s willingness to help me out.
The simple fix took a little longer than I expected –and still expensive –but the customer service was good. The location is a little difficult to find. It’s on the left, in a strip mall, by an art shop, and past the Safeway. :D