HORROR STORY! My wife brought in her laptop that was not turning on and asked for an estimate of the following services: 1) Diagnostic Fee 2) Fee to fix the laptop 3) Fee to backup files onto an external hard drive. She explained that time was of the essence and that she needed an estimate quickly because she is a business woman who needs access to her laptop as soon as possible. One week later and no estimates had been given to my wife, and nothing had been done except an attempt to press the power button to the astonishing conclusion that it indeed does not turn on (which he was already aware of).
The owner of Aurora even admitted that he had not had time to do anything yet. There were no estimates given for any of the services he offers (diagnosing the issues, what it would cost to fix the laptop, and also the service of backing up files onto an external hard drive). So my wife said at this point since no estimates have been given, no diagnosing has been done, and no service has been done, she was going to pick up the laptop immediately because one week of not even getting an estimate is unacceptable. She said do not touch my laptop at this point and do not do any service to it as she will be picking it up.
Miraculously after nothing had been done all week, the owner texts my wife at 10pm that night with options for new laptops that he could sell her instead since she wasn't going to use him for services and since she said she would be picking up her laptop and no longer needed his services.
No estimates given, no work done, no harm no foul right? WRONG!
The next morning he called my wife and said she owed him $85 for the diagnostic fee because that night after she said she was picking it up tomorrow he took the entire computer apart including the motherboard to come to the conclusion the laptop needed a new motherboard (which my wife actually told him that's what the issue was with the laptop among needing a new keyboard/pad). So not only did he not give us an estimate for the diagnosing fee ahead of time, he took her computer apart without her consent and then charged her for it!
He held the laptop hostage until my wife agreed to pay him for services which she never agreed to and actually specifically told him not to do. Another reason she explained she didn't want the computer taken apart and diagnosed and tinkered with is if she was going to agree to ANY service first it would have been to backup files onto an external hard drive as she didn't want to risk anything else being done first, out of fear that she might lose her files.
Long story short, we got the Sparta police involved and they were kind enough to give us a police escort which we requested to go get the laptop which he was holding hostage. The owner was repulsive in his demeanor and language to my wife (of which we recorded the entire incident) and taunted my wife when we explained that we were recording his interactions for legal reasons and asked my wife if she wanted pictures of him as well and got in her face. He also told my wife that she doesn't know how to run a business and gave personal attacks which were irrelevant and even the cop had to tell him to stop his behavior. At least the cop saw a glimpse of the disgusting behavior we had to deal with.
Long story short, we got the laptop back and if we want to pursue further legal action we are within our right to do so.
CUSTOMERS: Make sure before you leave your computer with someone, have estimates in writing and also a contract if you decide to have any services done. What saved us in our case is recordings my wife had made and also our financial institution backing us up completely on this issue.
Stay safe out there, friends! read more