Nerds On Call Computer Repair

I am now 75 years old and only started using my computer about 10 years ago. I signed up with NERDs about years ago and they have helped me with many many problems and situations that I don’t understand or get completely confused. One they always have helped me to solve a problem as I work along with the rep. Two, if they are busy they always call back. I called today May 6^th and talked with Robert with 3 specific problems and it took about 30 min and he put up with me working slowly and solved the problems. Thanks to everyone at Nerds on Call… it has been worth every dollar.

The technical support for my 89 yo grandmother was fine and the reason they are getting 2 stars. The problem I have with this company is that when she died with 4 months of service already prepaid (she was billed for 6 months service in advance) they refused to issue a refund for the unused time. That is reason enough for me to not recommend this company.
Update 5÷11÷16: Nerds On Call contacted me and resolved this problem. We still don’t agree regarding Nerds policy but they did issue me a refund and that’s worth one more star as far as I’m concerned. If I hadn’t had to go through all this trouble to get a refund they would be getting 5 stars.
Update 5÷16÷16: When we say «the customer is always right» it is not meant to be taken literally as though every word spoken by the customer is God’s own truth. What it does mean, however, is the customer pays the bills and without them your company would cease to exist. When you publicly attack a customer you present yourself as uncaring and in this case, unsympathetic. You might argue that I am not your customer and I would agree that by your actions that unsavory situation is not likely to ever come to pass.
The story you have fabricated in an attempt to cast me in an unfavorable light does not hold any water. And it’s not because of what I said or what you said. It’s what you didn’t say, or do, that matters.
You would find it hard to convince anyone that after having agreed to close this account you should not have immediately offered to refund the remaining prepaid balance into the bank account you have on file, without me having to ask. Somehow I was able to sufficiently convince you of who I was to persuade you to close the account, but not enough to warrant your company issuing a refund.
The initial phone call to your company should have gone one of two ways: either you accepted that I had the proper authority to close the account for the deceased and facilitate the refund or you did not accept that I was in a position to do any of this and refused to do anything until I was able to verify that I was indeed authorized to be talking to you regarding this account. You however chose a 3^rd course, which was to allow me to close the account but then refuse to issue a refund, a situation I can’t help but point out is the most advantageous to your establishment, i.e. getting paid to do nothing.
I do thank you for your entertaining description regarding «your side of the story.» It has convinced me that I was correct in thinking that your company has more regard for being right than in practicing a modicum of fellow feeling in ones time of need. Did I mention that someone I care for very much died recently? I believe that is what facilitated this entire interaction and yet it is clearly more important that you be right.
So in the spirit of making sure you are seen as infallible I will state for the record that everything you said is absolutely correct and I have purported myself as a complete jerk this entire time. I will endeavor to do better the next time someone I love dies and I have to interact with asshats like you.

I needed my computer fixed, so I called Nerds on call I spoke to Sean who took care of me right away. I had my computer fixed and back to me just with in a week. I’m very happy with the work they did and Excellent Customer Service!!! Thank You Nerds on Call

Robert was amazing!!! Quickly fixed 2 VERY ANNOYING things that happened to my computer. So glad NERDS has wonderful young men like him, on staff. Thanks again for having him and making my life — more peaceful. JJ

When your «HAL 9000» is acting strange… when his programmed behavior may seem a bit deranged… if he strands you near one of Jupiter’s moons, specifically, one of the points, Lagrange… if most communication is well out of range… if you feel all of your efforts have been sadly short changed (not to mention in vain)… if he starts singing «DAISY», then slows down at the refrain (running out of rhymes)… «WHO YOU GONNA CALL???» No, not Mission Commander Dave Bowman so he can disconnect poor HAL («I’m afraid, Dave»)… CALL THE NERDS!!! I must say, I truly am uncomfortable calling them «nerds»… their technical support is on a level with the computer expertise of Mr. Spock, and he is «The King Of Cool!» I prefer calling them «exponentially copacetic computer technicians!!»
Over the last year and a half they have always cast magical spells via our «chats» and solved the problems inherent with any computer (which is simply a device that patiently responds to a series of commands)… thanks so much to all of you… I’m sure I’ll be back in touch!
A+

My experience mirrors the other poor experiences almost verbatim. They offer a free estimate and then attempt to bait and switch you for $ 179 without even looking at the computer to tell you what could be the potential problem.
I say this with all seriousness. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE GUYS. Totally unprofessional, rude, apathetic service. Waste of time and their prices are double most credible repair shops.

You know, I am not an easy person to please especially when having to give someone my personal information as in my computer. However, not only have they always fixed my problems but one thing that sticks out the most is that they remain professional at all times. Shaun, I believe that’s his name is one of the most remaining calm professional individual I have ever met.

I called Nerds on Call this morning to schedule and appointment and I expected some time later this week. Instead they sent out Robert the same day. He showed up and connected my printer to my laptop as I was having network issues and couldn’t figure it out myself. Done in 20 minutes and with a smile and positive attitude to boot!
I now have them on speed dial.
Call them for all your computer related problems. I sure will!
Mark

Most of the complaints I have read I understand both sides, having worked in technical support for most of my career. I was always surrounded by «nerds». One of the most marked attributes of being a «nerd» is that you are entirely technology focused, and not very good with social interaction. Which translates into — they don’t communicate very well. This is hurting them greatly. I think they could turn their 3 star standing into 4 or 5 stars by having a people person or persons be the face of the company — acting as a go between the nerds and the public. That was always my job — and I had to learn to speak technology to the nerds, and translate it to the customer in a way they could understand. That’s how you keep happy customers — and happy nerds.
On multiple instances I have tried to get information from the Nerds. They never remember me, even if I spoke to them 5 minutes ago. They don’t enter detailed notes in what they did into their records, they don’t stick by their promises made on the phone because they aren’t customer centric, and they aren’t friendly and positive when you speak to them. THEY NEED A FRONT PERSON to fill this gap. Again they truly are NERDS… and they give you what NERDS usually give.
That having been said, they have always reliably fixed any problem I brought to them. There are limits on what they do. They rely heavily on their «tune up» service, which is valuable but not what is needed in all instances. So for most repairs and most issues they are good at what they do. But they really need a go between so they can get the NERDS off the phone, and away from the public. As a bonus… they really should start making detailed notes of their work. Sometimes people like me, who know a bit more about computers than the average Joe, might want to know exactly what was done to fix the problem.
So if you have an expectation that the person you speak with by phone or at the front desk will be friendly, consistent, and able to access information easily — you will be underwhelmed. If all you care about is fixing your computeer, then the Nerds will probably be able to help.

These guys are good; they may even be great, but as the saying goes, ‘You’ve got to be a brain surgeon to pick a good brain surgeon.’ In short, I’m no IT expert; I’m also not terribly literate. Having said that, I’ve consulted to, and designed CRM systems for many large corporations including News Ltd and did the initial market research for Microsoft to launch Windows NT and Windows Advanced Server in Australia in the 1990’s; so I’ve had considerable experience observing many IT systems applications vendors and integrators in action, as well as had to manage our own network of servers with up to 50 users.
They fixed a ransomware attack fast and recognised a hardware problem in 5 minutes others had not recognised in a whole lot more time. So for this area, they are excellent; and good value. If you maximise the productivity of IT in your business, you suffer substantial loss the moment your systems are down — these guys charges are insignificant compared to those losses.

Ok… I don’t know what went wrong with everyone else, but we had an amazing experience with Michael at Nerds. He has been very responsive to our IT issues, including a ridiculously complicated home stereo system that another guy started and couldn’t get around to finishing. Michael is professional, smart and (really!) great at explaining some difficult concepts (for me at least). He made some great recommendations about equipment and we have enjoyed working with him. I highly recommend him for any IT challenges you may be having.

They sent me an email with completely different quotes than I had received on my original paperwork (1pg) posted above. Then told me my computer sounds still broken & to bring it in & they’d «look at it» for me. No mention of free of charge anything. I won’t go with another tech who won’t perform wrk in front of me. Ram was still missing from my machine, that was ignored; you’d think they’d have cameras watching their techs to pull footage or something. Their new (argument against my post) records were never verbalized or written for me. I have a completely diff reciept.

I have used Nerds on call for about 2 years. I had purchased a new computer and paid the major company I purchased it from to set-​it up and transfer files. Lots of problems. I had seen the Nerds on call store for quite awhile on Marconi Avenue. I called and the Service tech came out gave me a reasonable quote. Thy completed to transfer quickly and at fair price. I had several other service calls and was very happy with results and price. I am now going on my 2^nd year of a service plan. For me it well worth it. I’m not a computer person and often my updates cause real problems. The Nerds on call make repairs by remote, works good for me. Chuck

Scam Alert!!!
I called them and told them exactly what happened to my wifes MacPro. They told me to bring it in and they would do a diagnostic test on it at NO COST. When I drove all the way out there the guy says it will be $ 150.00 for the test. I told him what I was told on the phone and he just looked at me. He said we like to give the details in person. DETAILS, WTF, I gave all the details on the phone. «Well we only give a free diagnostic for software and outside physical appearance.» I said, I told the guy that water was split on the computer when I was on the phone and it would not turn on, he said we’ll run the test on it for free.
I went to another place on J street and he said there would be no charge to find out what is wrong with your computer and then you can decide what to do next. A third place told me the same thing.
Nerds on Call should be called Scammer on Call.

My spidey senses started tingling after the guy at the front desk asked me «how much did you pay for this new» before I left after checking in my daughter’s laptop for a repair. It’s a newer laptop, and I figured it wouldn’t be a terribly difficult fix, but this place also doesn’t like to commit to anything in their explanations – like if you ask them straight-​up «can this part be replaced?» they are hesitant to say anything. I asked, «can you fix this screen» and they said «we will take a look and see what we can do.» I didn’t know fixing screens is rocket science now, considering some kid in Elk Grove replaced my iPhone screen in 20 minutes one afternoon, so maybe I should have taken my laptop to him. But anyways, long story short, I brought in a laptop to get the screen replaced because it had been dropped and broken – everything else was fine on the machine. I finally get the quote to repair the $ 279 (new) machine – they want $ 303 to fix it. Okay, let’s break down the charges, shall we: They CAN’T fix it, it turns out, but they can send it to Acer, who CAN fix it – so they want $ 154 to «facilitate the repair with Acer» (the girl on the phone couldn’t explain what this means, but I’m assuming it covers them filling out the «help» ticket that you can do online via Acer’s website before sending them a product to repair). Next charge: $ 129 as their «minimum service fee.» Now, call me crazy, but you can’t get much more minimum in service than doing nothing and having somebody else fix the laptop, but I understand that they want their piece of the pie, too. Next charge: $ 25 to ship it to Acer (I guess that can’t be included in the «facilitating repairs with Acer» charge). Total to repair a $ 279 Chromebook: $ 303. I went online to Acer’s website and found out I can simply fill out a help ticket and ship them the Chromebook myself. .. I found this whole experience with Nerds On Call to reek of bait and switch, inflated prices, and a bunch of B.S. I would never recommend this place to ANYONE who needs a computer repair – unless paying more than the value of your item with a list of vague charges seems valid, I would take Best Buy’s Geek Squad over this.

Solid service.
I had taken my computer to their (now closed) Stockton office for repair. They were able to fix it promptly and did a good job. I purchased the optional 1 year warranty on the part when I got it.
Six months later, the part failed. However, their Stockton office was no longer open and they had moved all of the operations from that office to the location on Marconi in Sacramento. This was a bit problematic for me because what was a 30 – 40 minute drive to their offices was now well over 90 minutes for me.
I arranged time to drive up there and drop of the machine for them to look at it and see what had happened. They determined that the part had failed they gladly replaced it under warranty.
However, when I got my computer home, I found that the warranty repair work had caused an issue with the operation of my computer. I called and after discussing the issue with their customer service representatives, I was able to meet one of their techs at the halfway point (in Stockton) and drop off the computer. They diagnosed the issue and discovered that it was an issue with their repair work. They fixed it and met with me to return the computer.
Service was prompt, and their customer service was solid. They took care of the issue and backed up their service well. I would recommend these people to anyone in the area. Unfortunately, since they are now so far from me, I will not likely be able to use them if I have other issues with any other computers I own and will have to seek more local service.

My computer was on the fritz one night after deciding to start up a game of Dark Forces (classic old star wars game). Anyway, I’m a big gamer so I had a G73 ASUS and like a moron, I had the lappy on my comforter in bed as I was playing. I found Nerds on Call and liked what they seemed to portray so I gave them a try. Was greeted after waiting a minute or two just before closing so kudos to them for letting me stop by. Explained my problem and handed over the keys, so to speak and waited for their diagnostic.
They called me up a couple days later, one day earlier than they originally said :), telling me they didn’t know what the problem was yet but they’d like my permission to try putting thermal paste (I believe they said) on the CPU to see if that would fix the problem. It didn’t but they did find out the GPU was dead, fried and no good so there wasn’t much of a point to continue finding out anymore problems after that.
It was about $ 170 total to get all that done but nice as they were, they offered to let me get a new computer and bring it in to them and they’ll re-​image my old hard drive to the new computer, free of charge. They said since they weren’t able to fix my problem they didn’t want me walking away empty handed! Very kind of them, in my opinion.
Good place with nice people. Each time I got a call, the person was pleasant and professional in updating me on my computer. I only leave off a star for the strange fix, halfway through the diagnostic. If they weren’t sure what the problem was, and it was clear they didn’t even get to the GPU, why suggest a fix?

UPDATE #1: This review caught the attention of Nicole, who called me directly. We had a much more pleasant conversation, in which she told me that they were unable to easily test the power supply (it is a touchscreen computer). I decided I would take the time to do the testing and/​or replacement myself.
UPDATE #2: So… I received another phone call from Nicole at Nerds on Call pressuring me to improve my review on Unilocal!Now, I like to think I’m a fairly reasonable and level-​headed guy. I had previously told her I would update the review to reflect our conversation (which I did, above), and I committed again to take a «second» look. Here’s how the experience balances out for me:
Pro:
–The phone call I made was great and the person told me what I wanted to hear (+1).
–The drop-​off was average — the guy at the desk seemed to have a hard time hearing or remembering spellings — like my name and address — but I repeated myself to his satisfaction (+0).
–The first response from Nicole was nice. She explained the situation, offered a variety of solutions, and committed to following up with Leroy (+5).
Total positive: +6
Con:
–The second call from Nicole pressuring me to change my Unilocal!review was … let’s say, odd (–1).
–Driving almost one hour to discover what I was told on the phone wasn’t accurate (–2).
–Demanding (Leroy) that I pay $ 130 for the diagnostic I expected to receive for free (–2).
–Encountering Zuul (the Gatekeeper) on the telephone in all his demi-​godliness (–10).
–Returning home with zero progress and two broken computers (–2).
(I didn’t mention before that I took two for diagnostic… but it’s the whole truth. The second needs a PSU that they wanted to charge $ 140 for)
Total negative: –17
I’d give another +5 to staff at the Department of Consumer Affairs, but that’s a different review.
What do y’all think? With almost 3:1 negative rating, does this review deserve more than 1 star? I’ll add one just because I’m a nice guy…
— — — — -
Issue #1 — The Money
The power button on my computer stopped working. Last week, I took the machine apart and removed the power supply (I’ve been working on computers since 1997). I called Nerds on Call and asked if they could test the power supply for me. The person on the phone said that they could do it and there would be no charge. The person also said that they do free diagnostics on the whole computer. I said «So I should put the thing back together and bring it all to you, then,» and he agreed.
Today, I dropped the computer off at Nerds on Call and described the above conversation. I told the person at the desk that I believed the problem was with the power supply. I asked whether their diagnostic was quick enough that I could wait because the drive was more than 20 minutes, and was told that it would probably take 3 – 5 business days.
Two hours later, I received a call from Leroy saying that they tried to plug in the computer and it wouldn’t turn on. Leroy said that in order to test the power supply, I needed to pay them $ 130. This was a complete bait & switch and appears to be intended to lure individuals to their shop with a promise of free diagnostics and then coerce them into paying exorbitant fees.
Issue #2 — Customer Service
After I explained the above to Leroy and was subjected to the broken record of needing to pay for the diagnostic, I asked for contact information for the owner of Nerds on Call. I was told that Ryan Eldridge was the owner, but that I could not call him. Leroy told me that he didn’t have a phone number to reach the owner, and that he would not ask the owner to call me.
Realizing that some owners are «at a distance», I asked for contact information for Leroy’s supervisor. Leroy told me his supervisor was Nicole, but would not transfer my call to her. He also refused to provide me with a means to contact Nicole, and he refused to ask Nicole to call me.
Leroy was incredibly offensive on the phone and seemed to consider himself some sort of «gatekeeper». I tried to convince Leroy that I wanted to talk to Nicole because of his behavior (and not the real problem … because that wasn’t good enough for Leroy). Leroy said that he was able to handle any concerns I had about his behavior. Yes … this guy told me that the only person I could complain to about his service was him.
After I threatened to call the licensing bureau, Leroy agreed that he would talk to Nicole. But … he said that he would take Nicole’s response and call me back. I would not be allowed to talk to his supervisor. I asked how I could verify that he had actually had a conversation with her — he said that he didn’t have a way to do that, but he would call me back with her response.

I really wanted to give these guys a high rating but what started out extremely promising just turned to garbage after. It was like Midas with the golden touch had an incompetent half brother that turned everything into $hit. The original people I dealt with were phenomenal on the phone and seemed to know what they were doing (I have over 20 years in IT myself but my knowledge is so rusty and did not feel like taking the time to work on what was essentially a play computer for my wife and the nanny). After contracting them to do remote diagnostics on my work computer and game computer, we started to discuss a virus they found on the game rig. The day crew was excellent but the latter people they had work on my system did not seem as competent (I had the computer up on my big screen and was working on my laptop and periodically looking up to see what they were doing). I figured, take off the control freak gloves and let these guys do their work. It started taking too long (as in days, going into a week) so I spoke to the original person who sold me on maintenance (I think his name was Tony) and decided to trust that they could figure out the problems better if I shipped the computer to them to fix and while out there, gave him a list of things I wanted to upgrade on it along with a special request «DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DELETE OR REFORMAT HARD DRIVE WITHOUT ASKING ME AND MAKING SURE THAT THE 6 MONTHS OF BABY PICTURES AND VIDEOS ARE AT LEAST SAVED, music files to be saved after that as well» So I wait quite some time and finally get my computer «fixed» and upgraded. All my irreplaceable pictures and much of my music gone! Much of my software gone! But who cares about the software when MY CHILDS 1^st 6 months are gone!!! Luckily I had some saved on other computers but not all of them as I figured since they charged me for full backup remotely, and were going to do a local backup that they would not lose the pics. I figured wrong. Even this could be repairable since I am sure somewhere they may have the files but to add to the fact that they would call at the exact times I asked them to not call as I am unavailable (after 9am usually in the morning when I told them I am working and not near my home computer and please call back after 4pm at least) but then they would promise to call and not call me for days or weeks. Then they would call at 9am or 12 noon basically any time BUT the time I asked for a call back and say sorry we will call after 4pm or at 6pm and never call me back. I really liked the guys I spoke to there, I had nice conversation with some of them but combining this level of incompetence with a lack of caring (they charged me in total upwards of $ 1600 to upgrade the one computer and do maintenance on both yet never finished… hell, never even completed a diagnostic on my main computer but part of that is my fault since after they screwed up the first, I told them to fix that before I even think about letting them back into my main one). I was going to let this whole thing drop but they had to open up an old wound and several months later (ths was all last year) they call me last week asking about my service contract and if I want to renew it. This is the same service contract that I told them to not charge me for but they did anyways that you will see complaints for on this forum. So they ruin a computer and charge me $ 1600 or $ 1700 for it, they lose my baby pictures and files, they lose most of my music, they took over a month to do this, they never finish the work nor try to make good on it (sorry but calling me over and over while I am at work and saying oops ya we will call you after 4 or 5 and never calling, is not trying to help your client), yet they want to call me to renew a service contract that I told them I do not want and that I was nice enough to not take them to court after charging me anyways for. I tried to like these guys and tried really hard to want this to be an incredible review since as I said there are some really knowledgeable and friendly people working there, but sadly they seem to get overloaded and hand it to the Hodors of the company (my nerd reference). ME: «So where are my files?» Tech: mmmm HODOR! ME: «so you don’t have my music either» Tech: HODOR! ME: «Are you ever going to fix my computer or call on time?» Tech :“HODOR HODOR HODOR HODOR!!! (then proceeds to hit himself in the head with my computer in frustration)

I took my laptop here when my dog ripped the power cord out and messed up the DC jack. I should begin by saying that it HAS been fixed and is in working order, however, after waiting for five days for the part to come in, I finally called (because nobody had called me) and the operator said, «Oh, yeah, it’s been finished for a couple days.» So, I went to go pick it up and the gal that fixed it showed me it had been repaired, but when she booted it up to demonstrate, the battery wasn’t charging. She told me it was likely a new battery, so I took the laptop home and ordered a new battery. When the battery arrived, that was not the problem, so I was forced to take it back. After keeping it another day or two, she told me it was a software issue with Sony, but it definitely was NOT a problem before I took it in to Nerds on Call.
I picked up my laptop (this is my third visit to their location, if you’re counting, over the course of eight days) and brought it home. Imagine my surprise when I got it back to my house, and the wireless had absolutely NO range at all. Again, this was not an issue before I took it to them to repair a DC jack. I took it the next morning BACK to their location where it took an hour to re-​diagnose and figure out that she had unplugged one of the antennas and did not plug it back it. (Side note — after she had replugged it, it took another twenty minutes to figure out that the reason it couldn’t connect at that point was because of their wireless network).
Ultimately, they fixed the problem, didn’t charge me for any of the either two times I had to bring it back, and it was reasonably priced. HOWEVER, I would seriously reconsider taking anything back to them. There must be someone who is as reasonably priced but is has a slightly higher attention to detail.