NetStf Computer Repair

Jim answered my somewhat frantic voicemail around 5pm Saturday. After discussing what I had done to my notebook (I opened it up to «fix» a hinge and ended up with no power and hinge still broken) he said he would come by at 8:30 that evening. Called around 8 and asked if ok if he came by earlier… SURE! Came by as promised and could not fix onsite, but would have it back next day. Sure enough the next morning he called and asked when I wanted my laptop back. $ 80 and he fixed the hinge (better that I ever could) and put back the wire that I had disconnected during my «fix» attempt. Would recommend highly.

James «fixed» my laptop when I had a problem with the jack for the charger (bad connection). He told me he’d have to open up the unit and see what was causing the problem.
He did get the jack to work — he told me he had to replace a module that itself attached to the motherboard with a cable. He told me that it would cost $ 115 for parts and labor. I was relieved to hear that the motherboard itself was OK and the $ 115 was a lot less than I feared a repair might cost. (I wasn’t even sure if the unit was fixable so I was happy to get off at a reasonable cost) — it is an expensive Asus laptop that was JUST out of warranty (seems like these things have a timer so they break after a year and one day)…LOL
James brought the laptop back to me, showed me that the connection was good, the new parts worked fine, etc… booted up the computer and all seemed well.
The next day I realized that the CAPs lock light on the keyboard no longer illuminated when the CAPs lock was engaged — a real inconvenience (especially when entering passwords since you generally cannot see the letters you enter) — same problem with then NUM lock light. Both were not functioning (they were fine when I gave James the computer to fix the problem with the jack for the charger). I called him the next day and told him what was going on and his response was «I can fix it but I have to charge for the labor again — it’s a lot of labor, too time consuming for me to do for free» (to paraphrase).
I couldn’t believe that he wanted me to pay for him to fix a problem he created.
Several months went by and I lived with the inconvenience of not being able to know if the CAPs lock (or NUM lock) were engaged.
Then the same jack that he «fixed» no longer worked — at first I had to jiggle the wire and it would work (intermittently) but after a short time it didn’t work at all.
I found another repair guy (I actually saw his truck with signage saying he fixed laptops). I was behind his truck and called him from my car when we were both stopped at a traffic light here in Delray. He answered the cell number I called — I almost didn’t bother since it was a 954 area code but I had nothing to lose… turned out his shop was in Fort Lauderdale but he lived almost in walking distance of my house in Delray… We both pulled over into a parking lot and I told him the problem I had. He told me he could stop by my house on his way home from work that night and take a look. He saw that the jack was loose and tried to fix it in my house that night but to no avail — he had to take it with him. He gave me a receipt and took the laptop. He gave me a price of $ 80 to fix it without even opening up the unit for an estimate.
He called me the next day to tell me that it needed the same module that James told me he replaced (and charged me for along with the labor to install it). I expected him to tell me it would now cost more than the $ 80 he quoted me but he said the part was only a few dollars so he’d stick with the $ 80 price!
A couple of days later after he got the module (had to be ordered), he came to my house and showed me (and gave me) the old module that James said he replaced. I’m not a computer tech, but even I could see that the module that James had said he «replaced» was NOT replaced — there was just some solder that he apparently used to tighten the little jack to the module. The solder had broken and it was obvious that the job was sloppy — the module was black where the soldering iron had apparently burned it a bit.
The lights for the NUM and CAPS locks were now working… turned out that James had obviously removed the little module that has the jack and the wireless switch attached to it so he could do his soldering, but he didn’t re-​connect the wires that controlled the lights for the NUM and CAPS lock lights…(he flat out said it was «too much trouble» for him to fix a problem HE CAUSED without charging me for the labor). ???
The guy from Ft. Lauderdale who fixed it not only fixed it right, but he charged me $ 80 as opposed to the $ 115 that James charged. He did it using NEW parts and he connected the wires James left unconnected so I now have both the CAPs and NUM lock lights working, a brand new module for the power jack and wireless switch PLUS a guarantee on the work and on the parts replaced… This is in stark contrast to what I got from James — which was «it’s too much labor for me to fix without charging you again» (to paraphrase)…labor to fix an issue caused by his neglect to just re-​attach two wires he had disconnected so he could try to «fix» a part with solder while charging me for a new module.
I’ve NEVER written a negative review on any service or even on any product (with one exception of a product I bought on Amazon — only Amazon refunded the cost of the product with no questions asked). A stark contrast from the service provided by James.

My Mac was down for approximately 2 – 3 months with what appeared was a bad harddrive. I procrastinated getting it looked at thinking would be a lot of $$. I was referred to NetStf by a friend and could now kick myself for waiting so long. Jim was extremely responsive, picked up my Mac the same day I called and it was returned fully functioning the very next day with new hard drive, operating system and RAM. I could also not believe how reasonably priced the services were. Jim was very knowledgeable and honest. I will only use NetStf in the future and refer them to anyone needing computer repairs!
thanks Jim!

Great decision in going to NetStf. James knows his stuff, and worked his tail off in getting my laptop up and running again. He spent 2 days isolating virus issues, registry problems, etc., and ultimately repaired everything.
In fact, it not only works now, but runs like new. It was taking 5 minutes to login, and now up and ready in a minute (keep in mind this is a 7 yr old gateway).
James was also gracious in giving me advice on wifi issues, new laptop advice, and virus protection. In fact, he loaded some free, new anti-​virus and clean-​up software in his «spare time» (the guy doesn’t sleep).
Don’t waste your time waiting in line for geek squad, just to get 2^nd rate service. Call James/​NetStf. It’ll be your best decision of the day.

Jim at NetStf did excellent work fixing my laptop. My hard drive failed a couple of days after moving to the area, and I needed my computer fixed quickly in order to take care of a number of time sensitive, moving related tasks. I contacted Jim and NetStf based on others’ reviews, and am extremely pleased with the result. Jim is professional, corteous, honest, efficient, and offers excellent service for a reasonable price. My laptop now runs better than before the hard drive failed. I highly recommend NetStf.