Let me tell you a story about how I HAD TO CALL THE POLICE TO GET MY PHONE BACK…read more
(Tl:dr- these guys will tell you anything you want to hear to get your money, they also seem to have three business names for the same place)
Day 1, Thursday. Call these people up and tell them I have a Samsung 7 with a broken display screen and want to surprise my guy by fixing his phone. Guy on the phone (the smaller one of the 2) tells me "oh yes, come down it will be 40 minutes!" GREAT!
Go down an hour later, just the one guy there. He looks at the phone and sees cracks in the plastic backing of the phone and tells me I HAVE to replace both. Uh. Ok. I guess. Then he quotes me $200. The same price as the deductible on our insurance. He's already got the phone and I'm a little anxious but I agree. Screw it, I think, I just want it done quick.
THEN he tells me, without looking anywhere, that they don't have the parts and he can have them in the morning ..."early". He asks for a down payment of $100 plus tax. I don't feel good about it but I pay it. I tell him I'm taking the phone back home and will bring it back in the morning so my guy didn't notice anything missing and spoil the surprise.
Day 2. 11am I drop the phone off, the parts still hadn't arrived. He is already acting weird and over-explain-y but I think nothing of it. I told him no worries and just call me later when it's ready.
No call ever comes. I call just before 5 worried they'd closed and forgotten me. Same guy answers "yeah the delivery did not come. Maybe tomorrow." No apology. Seems annoyed that I'm disappointed. I say ok, knowing my surprise was ruined but at least the phone would be fixed. Shit happens, right? I tell him ok and hang up.
Day 3. No calls. I call again later in the afternoon and he says "yeah, the delivery did not come." NO APOLOGY. "Monday morning, 8am it will be here" he lies. Sorry did I spoil the suspense?
Day 4 is Sunday and they are closed.
Day 5. No calls. Now my guy is involved and HE calls. They tell us it will be ready at 8 PM(!). 8pm comes and goes, no call. Then they call us at 8:30 and rudely tell me to come get the phone. We didn't plan on going out at 8pm, but to just pick it up the next morning. But again, whatever, it's fixed!
Walk in to two men this time. They show me, careful not to hand me, the phone. The display screen is fixed, the back plastic is completely missing, exposed phone guts and all. We look at them confused. I ask why he told me it was done on the phone. They begin what would become an hour of saying the same things to me, except slower and slower like I was an idiot.
He says "you pay now (the remaining $100 of my $200 quote) and bring phone back in 2 days and I fix the back."
I say "no, Ill pay the balance when the job is done." I explain calmly to him that this is atrocious customer service, that I've been told something different every day and now they had just demanded I come get the phone at night and pay in full and just hope the back comes in. I say I will bring the phone back and pay the 2nd half when the 2nd half of the job was done. Obviously we want the back. And what if something happens to it?
He then tells me I'm robbing him because he paid $170 for the screen on the front and only $30 for the back. So I owe him $70 if I want the phone.
That's right folks. He said his cost of goods totaled $200. So this is a no-profit business? I'm a business owner, I tell him, that makes no sense.
They start shouting at us to leave the store, that their landlord makes them close at 8, "YOU WANT YOUR PHONE I WANT MY MONEY" he yells. So I tell him calmly I'm not leaving and he can argue with the police and we will honor what they say.
I start filming as they're getting hostile until an officer shows up. He listened patiently and after a few minutes, he told the guys to just give the property back and settle it in court if they want. They argue with him too, "we spent $200 and the boss (who is not in the country they said) would charge HIM" and all this bullshit. The cop clearly put together that no business would charge zero profit and he asked us to go outside.
A few minutes later he came out with our backless phone. DO NOT GO HERE!!! Con artists!
