I have a nice little story to add to the techno-whining page; this one about a nice little computer company called Computer Rennasaince.

About a year and a half ago, me, my girlfriend and my roommate at about the same time decided to purchase new computers for the townhouse we had just moved into. Erich (my roommate) and I, being major computer geeks, working for an internet service provider (InfiNet) and upgrading our own computer equipment, had looked around and bought our top of the line systems (at the time) from a local store called 3D Computers. Jenny (my girlfriend) had decided to go out on her own and get a similar system to ours for about 150 dollars less from Computer Rennasaince. The troubles started about a month later. While Erich and I had no problems with our systems even though we pushed them somewhat hard, Jenny kept having fatal errors, blue screen, general protections faults, problems shutting down and turning on the computer. Since it was under a 1 year warranty, she took it back to them, explaining the problem. They told her the next day, after looking over the computer, that it would be a 2-3 days before they could have her computer ready for her to pick up. in actuality, it
took them a week and a half before they were ready to return the computer. The computer ran fine for about another few weeks, before it started acting up again, this time with the modem not responding. Being an ISP technician, I had gone over the modem trying to get it to work with no success at all. The modem was shot, despite it being brand new. 

So, once again, we brought the computer back to the shop for them to replace the modem. A few days later, they finally had the modem replaced. At this point I was beginning to get a little wary of their
computers and their technical support people. Here was a computer shop with its own technicians on site in their repair shop, and it was taking a few days to replace a single component that they install in most of their computers and should have spares on hand; whereas whenever Erich or I went to our shop for either upgrades or new installations, 3D Computers would have the job done within an hour or two, with only one exception that they kept the computer for overnight and had the problem fixed and ready to pick up the next day. We picked Jenny's computer back up and took it home to try out. Lo and behold, the modem was not responding. Not being in a good mood by this point, we decided to take the computer back immediately. Jenny unplugs the phone line from the computer and the internal modem falls to the bottom of the case. I don't know how much you know about computers and such, but an internal card not only slips into a very tight slot (with a little elbow grease to get
it in there) but should always be screwed down to the back of the case.

All internal cards for at least PC's are designed to have this done. Yet this modem had neither been screwed down or even pushed into its slot fully. Luckily for us, Computer Rennasaince could not accuse either of us for causing this, therefore alleviating the blame from them, due to the fact that they slap a little seal tag that has to be broken to open up the computer case. We finish packing up the  computer and head back to the shop, modem card bouncing in the bottom of the case and the little
seal still in one unbroken piece. The manager working there at the time, seeing the enormous screwup that they had caused apologized and offered to not only have the modem problem fixed for real this time but to also upgrade the cpu to a faster speed. Jenny agreed and also decided to have them install the card for her scanner that she had received as a present, at an installation charge. The manager, Dave, told her that it should be ready by the end of the week. (If you think you know where this part is going, you are completely correct.) As it turns out a few weeks later, after much calling of the shop by Jenny; Dave finally said she could come pick up the computer the next day. We show up the next day to pick up her (hopefully) fixed and upgraded computer with one installed scanner card to find that Dave isn't working that day. 

Actually no one was there except one single technician, Tony. Tony shows us where the computer is and grabs the ticket for it to ring up, which, somehow, includes a charge for upgrading the computer to a higher speed, the one thing Dave had informed us was no charge to make up for their mistake. Jenny refuses to pay for the upgrade, since she wasn't informed of having to pay for it, and Tony refuses to give her her own computer to take home. At this point, Jenny is close to tears, having to deal with all the frustration and delays that these people have given her. I tell Tony that since Dave is the one who made the arrangements, that he should get in touch with Dave and straighten this out. Tony replies that he does not have any way to get in touch with his own manager Dave and that Dave's number is nowhere in the shop nor is any of the other managers' numbers available either. Either we were being blatantly lied to or the shop was majorly mis-managed as a whole, both of which I say to Tony. At this point, not only does Tony refuse to allow us to take home the computer that Jenny had bought from them, but also refuses us to take home the scanner that she had brought in with the scanner card, which had not even been bought from Computer Renaissance. We leave to return the next day with some help from from my father, a well respected probation officer of Norfolk to confront Dave about this. Dave has no excuse for what had happened and had made a mistake when he offered to
upgrade Jenny's computer, which he did not have clearance for. We end up talking with the one of the owners' of the store, but still ended up having to pay for the upgrade. Since then, just about any work that has needed to be done on Jenny's computer, we have taken to another Computer
Rennasaince shop, which still takes a couple trips to even fix one problem. Now that her warranty is up, I have been taking care of any repairs and such myself with help from 3D Computers and refuse to do any more business with Computer Rennasaince.
 

Thanks for giving me another place to warn people about the treatment that this business gives its own paying customers.

Yours Truly,
Cris May, "Panterra"