There just isn't anybody on the planet like Mark--he's the real deal when it comes to knowing all…read morethe technical aspects of his profession, and he has the biggest heart for people he serves. He's kind, patient, friendly/fun to deal with--and his generosity outdoes anyone I've ever met in the business world, and personally. He and I have had a great relationship for a long time--I first came to him with a 2nd-hand computer and Zero knowledge about what to do with it. It had viruses and all manner of issues--which doesn't begin to detail my own issues (I was always a wreck, panic-city...and Mark just dealt with it all calmly, and got me and the computer back on the road again repeatedly). Now that I'm past 70, lots of stuff unrelated to computer and Internet, are a challenge for me. So when my laptop (replaced the computer) wasn't acting "right" recently, I needed his help. I called and asked if he knew anyone who made house calls, since I could no longer get to his shop. He said, "I do"--oh my gosh, a gift from Heaven! It was fun having him in my home. He explained how replacing the old drive with a solid state one would see me through the rest of my blogging days, and I said, "do it". He took the laptop to his shop, performed the surgery, brought it back to me...and charged me what he knew I could afford. So I'll be forever indebted to him...but wait there's more. I told him there was a British 4-episode series I was enamored with, and couldn't get the DVD because the Region wouldn't work for me. He told me could put it on a flash drive...I had 3 of them and prayed he could fit all 4 episodes among them. Now here's what sets Mark apart from the rest of the herd--he said he would do it in trade for a pan of my lasagna! And today when he came back to give me a brief tutorial, he said he'd purchased a bigger flash drive to put the series on. I would have bought one myself, but didn't have Clue One what to get. So I reimbursed him for that, and next up will be the lasagna! He's just the best friend an old gal who's an English Major--NOT tech-savvy--can have. He really cares--his business and personal ethics are above and beyond many folks'. If you need help, go straight to Mark--don't waste time "researching" the best--HE IS THE BEST. Thanks Mark, God bless you abundantly.

Mark is a master of his craft, very affordable, fast and just a very nice guy. He upgraded my PC to…read morewindows 11 after the microsoft system checker told me my PC was not compatible for the upgrade! Well clearly they were assuming i didn't have access to a master tech like Mark! I am thrilled to have found him and needless to say he is my go-to tech guy 100% now. Thanks so much Mark!

Last year, I dropped my machine off at this store for repairs. I was on my way out of town for my…read moremother's memorial, and was trying to keep up a cheerful front. Unfortunately, the woman I will only refer to as "B" decided that I do not actually deserve my own machine. She chastised me when I told her the problem my machine was having, and even BATTED MY HAND AWAY when I went to touch my own machine. As I was leaving, I playfully said "Goodbye" to my machine and "B" literally rolled her eyes at me. I could not bring myself to go back to that store, so my husband retrieved my machine, but I've been so upset about "B"s behavior that I haven't even touched the machine for the past year. I used to LOVE sewing, and "B" completely ruined it for me. I hope you're proud of yourself, "B".

I love this company and this is a favorite location. You can count on Top notch teams and they…read moreprovide so much support and knowledge to your Sewing and Embroidery Journey! I just went to a fabulous Sew Fun event and was so inspired by the lovely Charlotte. This lady is so helpful and supportive to us all. Team Bellevue..Thank you for always taking great of us all! So grateful to you all.

Wow.... I've been going to Alexanders Bead Bazaar for years and was really surprised at the…read morenegative comments. I wish we had an Alexanders on the South End and I really dreamed about the store when I lived back East for 3 years! I could not find any stores with decent prices. Trust me when I tell you that Alexanders is heads above their competition - and not just in the NW. When I lived in Seattle ABB used to be the place I wanted to shop more than any other store, and have recommended it to at least a dozen beaders. Even when I taught classes at a different store. They beat out Bead World which is too expensive and predictable in their bead selections. Glad some of y'all have deeper pockets than I do to shop at BW. If you have a business license you want to get signed up to save moreat ABB where you have to have a minimum sale of $20 to qualify for the discount, which is easy to do. ABB's goal is to find moderate priced items for the Scottish souls, which I admire. Even their rough gem strands for $3 that I put into some of my more eclectic work. They have a lovely selection of $3 pearl strands too. Occasionally markdowns on $1 strands that I scarfed up and wish I'd bought more. And I l-o-v-e the 25 cent charms. Such fun! I over-do those every time. But once I overbought something and they kindly reimbursed me. No hassles, and no telling me it had to be store credit, which would be okay too. (unless the customer was POd) As for staff - I have enjoyed talking to the owners over the years, Sam is passionate about being able to give a good deal for those of us who are thrifty beaders, but they also have the high-end gems on strings that I enjoy just gazing at and dreaming of what I could make. You know that 'zen' state you go into while gazing at beads? And I actually broke down and bought a couple of the pricey ones at different times. They also put half price sales on those unique and expensive beads - so you need to keep an eye out. ABB is certainly more accessible than gem shows all year long - and I need to feel the bead so I get a 'feel' for the texture and colors of my designs - cannot do that with Fire Mountain, which often disappoints me when I receive my orders. Scrawny beads for supposedly cheap prices. (rolling eyes) I go to most of the gem shows around the NW and in Oregon, Texas and Ohio... and still enjoy going back to Alexanders to see what Sam Savar has managed to dig up in his travels. One of the owners is a wonderful beader and teaches classes. Their artwork and fine beading examples are around the store to peruse, and they don't panic that you might want to know how something is done - ergo, 'copy' their beadwork. So check out their website and blog - get on ther mailing list so you know when the sales are coming up. Only staff negative I can think of - sometimes the ABB clerks talk about things that are too personal, and not related to beading, and it is a small store so you can hear everything. Their lack of professionalism disturbed me once or twice, but overall I don't see it as a reflection of the store or the owners. I also had help when I asked for it, and they let me browse - and visualize - to my heart's content from the moment I walk in the door and pick up a basket - showing my ABB shopping savvy. Otherwise they'll ask if you want a basket. The only thing that really bothers me is that they are not open on Mondays. Seems that every time I go visit my family North of Seattle for a weekend and come back by Alexanders they are not open. I even went by bus one day taking an hour trip just to find them closed. Frustrating. I wish they would change that. I was serious when I offered to work there just on Mondays. LOL! Owner suggestions - besides opening on Mondays - please seriously consider moving the cash register about five feet closer to the door so they can see the front door better, and relate to incoming and outgoing clients so the clients feel more connected. Why not have a Suggestion Box so one could make proactive comments privately, or request different items? One could sign up for the mailing list there too.

The large Alexander Beads Shop in some photos here are from the old shop. The new shop is very…read moresmall and Carrie's mostly vintage type ethnic beads.

It seems like nowadays it's so hard to find a PC repair place where the guys actually know what…read morethey're doing. I've used the Geek Squad and others in the past and they were worse than useless. But not these guys! They were recommended to me by my neighbor, who is a Programmer with a major software company, and boy was he right. My computer crashed and would not reboot. They were able to repair it to the point of booting, and it could be used, but it was really old and definitely past its expiration date, so I reluctantly decided it was time to move to a new computer. They were able to recover all of my data (which I had of course failed to back up for months) and my web bookmarks. Phew! And it cost WAY LESS than I was expecting. I then ran into some issues with my old monitor not working with my new computer, and they helped me figure it out without charging me any extra, even though realistically they should have because this had nothing to do with what I had already paid for. I find the negative reviews baffling -- could it be that they are putting their review in the wrong place? I've seen this happen to a friend of mine who has a small business, and he regularly gets negative ratings from people who thought they were rating a different company with a similar name. Nothing I saw over 3 days of interacting with these guys even remotely resembled the negative comments. Bottom line -- if you have issues with your computer, definitely start here. This is the kind of small, local business we need to support.

First Vibes Value is underwhelming. I'm an electronics…read moreassembler and I former field service technician/electronics repair tech. Their GPUs, PC cards, networking & other peripherals are 5 - 8 generations old, yet they often want the higher end of the average price of those same completed/sold items on eBay. And sure, that's fine, if what you're selling is 100% tested/working, in great condition, cleaned and/or comes with a limited warranty. Instead, lots of items are dirty, scuffed up, damaged, and/or missing critical components. For instance, several of their motherboards were missing IO shields. Bonkers Pricing! 5-6 generation old GPUs (GTX 770, 970, RX 570 etc) were $60 - $125; SCSI cards (only $1 at RE-PC Seattle!) were $14!! By far the worst offender by a long shot was their motherboard section: They had an Asus Prime A320M-A, marked as "tested" and came with stock cooler, plus IO plate. They wanted $100!! This is an entry-level, first-gen AM4 socket (so Ryzen 3/5/7/9 CPUs) however, if you wanted to pair this board with a newer Ryzen 5000 series, for example, it wouldn't just work natively. You have to update the BIOS in the board first, and you'd 100% have to do this Bios update WITH an older Ryzen CPU, which is tricky even for tech savvy gamers. Lastly, this board and other entry level ones like it can be found elsewhere for $40 - $70, and often in way better condition, or with the BIOS update done by previous owner/seller. Other cons Some items have stickers that do say "tested", while others don't have any stickers. You have to just walk to the front and ask. Things are organized in big totes, but it's hit or miss finding parts you need, as the store as a whole is incredibly dirty and dingy, with random fully built systems, speakers/sub woofers, TVs and other electronics randomly placed in between these totes, none of which are ever grouped together. Some of their pre built laptops are up near the front desk, which I'm sure is due to the Kensington locks to prevent theft, but their desktops are everywhere, so if you're looking, your better off calling to ask ahead of time, to ask what they have in stock. Otherwise if you come in on your own, and especially if you're not a tech nerd who knows what to look for, you're absolutely going to have a really tough time finding things. The Pros 1) The staff seem knowledgeable about parts, and the repair they were working on when I walked in was a more challenging board level diagnostic test, which told me they have experience and knowledge in this field. 2) They have TONS of stock, especially in monitors, old hard to find adapters, cards etc. So, if eBay seems like it'll take too long, you'll likely find what ya need here. Repairs They do offer repairs, and I overheard a customer call on the phone and ask the guy working here if he "had updates on his PC they are fixing." The worker did acknowledge the shop did in fact still have it on their bench, but "needed another day or so to give any updates." I worked and managed a repair shop on the Eastside for 4+ years, and based on my experience, when you tell somebody only that you "need more time," it's 99% of the time due to 1 of 2 possibilities: 1) You haven't had time to even look at it; 2) You've run some diagnostics, but it yielded little/no clues as to how it can be fixed. Why transparency matters I think it's critical to communicate with customers and see their problems from their perspective. Instead of just treating them as a work order number, and getting them off the phone as quickly as possible, which is what this shop did. When I ran my shop, I always greeted the customers warmly, often by their first names (as most of them were repeat customers) and just be completely honest with them, even if it's news you may think they don't want to hear. I learned the hard way that if you don't give them information they're paying you for updates on, it often just makes follow up communications much more challenging, and can easily sour business relationships. In summary, this shop has a LOT of potential! They're in an AMAZING location, close to Microsoft and high value real estate, and they have the expertise, but couldn't help but notice the passion and organization was extremely lackluster. And yes, I realize this review focuses heavily on the negatives, but I do this from a lens of constructive criticism for my industry peers, to better improve public assumptions of the consumer tech repair industry, and to improved awareness of the right to repair laws. I hope this helps somebody, whether it's a potential customer, or the owners of this business. Thanks

My first visit to Computer & Printer Repair, I encountered a temporary sign on the overhang above…read morethe entrance, a temporary sign on the door, and a closed door with a keypad. It was locked. I phoned the number on the sign, and someone answered promptly. I described my problem: color prints, black doesn't. The guy said $40 to inspect, $80 more to fix (if possible), plus parts if necessary -- but only $40 to unclog ink. If they can't fix it, the initial $40 includes recycling fees. Not bad to fix a $300 printer with scanner. They could visit or I could take it there. I said that I was already there. The guy said that they were in Olympia for an on-site job, and gave me instructions on dropping off my printer. I did so, and waited for news. Turns out that the color cartridges were too low to test, so I had to but a color pack. (Thanks, Staples, for the Amazon price match.) I dropped off the ink. They fixed it very quickly, and said that the ink flush was all it needed. $80 plus tax. I picked it up, and finally got to meet the guy who did the repair. Alas, the printer failed the power-on self-test when I plugged it in at home. On a Sunday afternoon. I didn't get a chance to bring the printer back for another look until Friday. Next day, when they're not officially even open, they called and said it worked fine for him. (Classic computer service occurrence, right?) He suggested I try it again. Then, before I got a chance to head there to pick it up, he called again. He had reproduced the problem! He contacted someone at Brother, and updated the firmware. Problem still there. He tinkered, and found a solution: bypass part of the power-on self-test by leaving the top door open when plugging it in. Hooray! (He also said a new system board would solve the problem for real, but he couldn't get a price quote on Saturday.) Bonus: no charge. So I picked it up, and plugged it in. Oops, forgot the work-around. Fail. Unplug, wait, open top door, plug in again. Lots of start-up noises. Set the time and my wifi settings. And it printed something that had been sitting in the printer queue! I printed more today, and it's still working. Success. Bonus printer shopping advice: - Brother and Canon are good stuff, but if one breaks, they can fix it. - Epson is good, but the nearest place for repairs is somewhere in Oregon. - Avoid HP printers. They're good, but their ink policies are trouble.

Wonderful service, responsive, reasonably priced and fast repair and return! My HP color printer…read morewas acting up with black spots, blurry color and broken paper feed ... a call, text and confirmation later my printer was picked up, repaired and returned door to door with a small pickup and delivery fee. I have never wished I had more broken printers to repair but maybe you do... and are wondering if it is worth trying for the repair or buying a new (more expensive) printer. In my case, I am so happy to have found Shadley (the owner) and highly, highly recommend the service!!

So okay- was hoping to treat myself a bit a month or so ago so went in to see if they had any fun…read morenostril jewelry. I found one for $300 that I totally splurged on. Sarah was incredibly nice when they changed my piercing out for the new stud. It had a tiny chain on it that I thought had come off about a week later. I called and they asked if I knew what had happened like had it gotten caught on something but no- I just noticed it was gone one day. They said they would order a new piece and call me to exchange. A few weeks went by and I didn't hear so I called again and I was told they would give me a temp stud and send my piece to their jeweler. Okay fine- that works but it's an awful lot of trouble for me after spending $$$$. I went in to get the temp piece and immediately when I told their supervisor (short haired brunette) what I was there for- her attitude toward me and my sister totally changed up. She was short, didn't want to answer my questions and when she did she was pretty rude honestly. She gave me directions by basically pointing at things and being non-verbal. It was sort of embarrassing for her.. when Sarah took a look at my piece it was clear the tiny chain had gotten caught around the piece and under it so they just had to take it out and put it back in to fix it. Which was super embarrassing for me- haha. But they were gracious and had a chuckle with me. The three stars are for Sarah. And the other salespeople had all been kind aside from their supervisor/manager. So def stars for them as well! However- I wouldn't go back and I wouldn't recommend this place given how I was treated like a criminal trying to pull one over on them by the manager. When I left my sister mentioned that she had wanted to speak up for me but wasn't sure if she was just being too sensitive- I was relieved that I was not the only one who felt like they were being treated poorly. If you're going to spend that kind of money- you expect to not be treated like the gum on the bottom of someone's shoe.

Every time I walk in here I leave furious…read more 2 years ago I spent $550 on 2 permanent bracelets. They promised me that they would order an infinity symbol for the bracelet because they only had one at the time. 2 weeks later after no response from them, I call and ask about the status. They said oh no sorry we didn't order it. Then I go in a year later because it fell off and they wanted to charge me $60 to re-solder it. $60 when I paid $250 per bracelet? No way! So I asked to speak to a manager who of course wasn't around. So I walked out, and they followed me outside and said they will give me a one time exception to fix it. Then I go into today for my mom to get hers re-soldered. There were two employees (one with so many face piercings it was unprofessional) and one employee helping two ladies. She said I'll be right with you. 20 minutes later we are still waiting. Then the piercing gal comes and takes our bracelet out of the bag and takes it to the back room without asking. We ask her why she did that? She said well that's where she'll fix it. You never take someone's jewelry without their consent and let alone in the back room when we STILL HAD NOT BEEN HELPED. We told her, to go get it and we'll hold onto it. I ask how much longer, gal says she don't know. So after waiting 35 minutes we left. I absolutely despise this place. Oh and their cost to re-solder is $60! Robbery! If you want the worst service over and over I welcome you to enjoy this store. If you want quality customer service or staff that actually does what they promise - Go to a different store all together.

Love the selection & the sales people. Very helpful. Glad…read moreit's near my home. Every visit is like a play date!

Oh my goodness goodness gracious! This place is truly a quilter's paradise. I had never even heard…read moreof it before, but was passing through Snohomish recently and, of course, my car swerved into their parking lot as soon as I passed by. Downstairs, the place is about half fabric and half classrooms of various sizes. The fabric area is mainly quilting cottons, with a decent selection of patterns, and a recently-updated yarn area for the knitting and crochet crowd. They carry most of the main fabric designers for quilting, as well as batiks, holiday prints, and tons of solids and mixers. Accessories include any ruler, tool, or notion you could possibly need for quilting; plus they have sewing-inspired gifts, too. Upstairs, there are more classrooms (including a pay by the hour longarm rental room) and a large Bernina showroom. This area also has more patterns, as well as bagmaking supplies. The supply selection here is pretty good - lots of zippers, d-rings, etc. However, as with most things bagmaking, there just didn't seem to be enough stuff to satisfy my cravings for things like printed vinyl, waterproof canvas, rainbow zippers, etc. The sad truth for bagmakers is that it's hard to find a local option to shop these things; I end up buying most of my supplies online or at the Sew Expo. That being said, if you're a beginning bagmaker I'm sure you would find their supplies more than adequate. The staff I encountered were friendly and helpful, too - I was a little nervous about this after reading previous reviews, but I had no issues with service. I ended up buying a quilt pattern book and a really cool fabric-focused wall calendar that I can't wait to start using in January. I'll definitely be coming back here, and I hope to take a class or two in 2025.

I went to Computer Concepts last week to replace a failing drive in my NAS, and the service was…read moreexcellent. The tech who helped me was knowledgeable and, when he wasn't 100% sure about something, he was upfront about it and took the time to research the issue himself to make sure I got accurate information. That kind of integrity is rare, and I'll definitely be back. The space itself isn't flashy, but it's clear why they stay busy. You can tell the whole team cares about customer service, not just from my experience but from overhearing other techs helping other customers while I was there. Highly recommend.

Computer Concepts has been helpful and knowledgeable in solving problems that came up with our old…read morecomputer. We bought our new computer from them and have been very happy with it over the years with no problems.