Basically, if you have a brand new mac they might be able to fix it, but if your mac is dated at…read moreall, or if they don't feel like actually investigating the problem then they don't do anything but take your money from you.I went here because where I wanted to go was closed on a Sunday so I figured I may as well because it's closer to my apartment.They told me right away "this is a vintage mac (apparently 7 years old is vintage) and we likely can't fix it". Ok, so i understand as an authorized mac dealer they can't fix certain things on older macs due to regulations from Apple. I still decided to leave it there in case it was a simple issue. They charged me the consultation fee up front, somewhere in the $55 range.
They called me the next day and said it was the logic board and there was nothing they could do about it. I asked if they knew any place that would fix it. They said no, they don't know of ANYONE in Toronto that can fix it.They didn't offer me any solution at all, not even a data transfer to a drive or anything. Just a "sorry doesn't work ok bye" kind of conversation.
I had a feeling they just took me for my money, so as soon as I hung up with them I called a place called All About Mac. I told the guy who answered the phone there what had happened, what Riverdale Mac said and asked if he thought he could fix it. He said most of the time the problem I'm describing isn't the logic board, it is the power supply and he has a bunch of working parts he could put into it to see if he can get it working. That night I brought my mac all the way across town to get him to check it out.
I put my mac down on the counter and he could tell right away that Riverdale Mac hadn't even bothered to open up my mac. He said if they did, there would be space between the frame and the monitor, it's a sure sign whether or not the mac had been opened up and not. I left the mac there and unlike Riverdale Mac, he didn't charge me up front.
I got a call back from All About Mac the next day. Good news, the problem isn't the logic board as Riverdale Mac said it was. It was in fact the power supply which was fried (which is what i assumed because it happened during a blackout).
I got him to fix it and went back the next day to pick it up. He told me his assumption was correct and Riverdale mac did not bother to open up my mac. He said there is foil on the inside and even the best mac technician in the world could not open the mac without slightly damaging this foil. He said if they had opened it the foil inside would have small ripples and wrinkles. He said it was still in perfect condition, therefore, it had not been opened. Professional proof that Riverdale Mac just basically stole my money from me.
So basically, I paid Riverdale Mac $55 to hold my mac overnight, plug the power cord to a wall outlet, try to turn it on, couldn't, then decided, yep it's broken and we'll just tell her this is the problem when really we did no sort of investigating at all.
I should have known nothing would have happened with my mac while I was waiting in line. Another worker was helping another customer buy a hard drive. The worker who was helping me asked the lady if she wanted her drive mac formatted. The lady said yes. The worker helping me looked at the worker helping said lady and asked him "do you know how to format a drive", the worker said no. So, the worker helping me took it and formatted it. Seriously? You work in a computer store and you don't know how to format a drive? That's computer 101. I should have walked out with my mac right then and there, but hey, hindsight is 20/20 right.
I wouldn't suggest anyone, even with a brand new mac, go here. They charge double what All About Mac charges and clearly don't do much investigation into your computers' problem. If I could give them zero stars I would. I suggest you go to All about Mac no matter how far out of your way you have to travel. If I ever have a mac problem again with any of my apple products i will again travel across town and go out of my way to go to All About Mac.
Again, I understand I had an older mac and due to Apple regulations an authorized shop can't fix certain things on older macs. But they could have at least opened up the mac and tried to investigate the problem without just assuming what the problem was (which they were completely wrong about). Instead of taking my money and my computer they could have just said no, sorry, it's too old, we probably can't fix it, we'd be wasting our time, your time and you're money.
The guy at All About Mac said based on principal and fairness I should ask for my money back by bringing my now working "vintage mac" back to Riverdale Mac and say look it's fixed, you didn't open it, you didn't investigate it at all, you wrongfully assumed what the problem was and you basically just stole $55 from me. I decided to just bite the bullet, it's not worth my time to have deal with this terrible shop with terrible employees again
