Computer Repairs When it Has to go to a shop

is something we in this day and age must have. Sending your machine to a shop for repairs should be a wonderful experience, as most companies are reputable and if you know the cause of your machine being at their facility, they don't have to do any diagnostics, only fix what you know is wrong and this should end the story, you pay for it, and it works fine.

Of course if the cause of your computers' demise is unknown by you, then a full diagnostic session will be run by the tech, the problem found and fixed. Most shops are reputable, and mine has been there before and always returned home in better shape than it was in and working fine....until......

This is the story of la machine...my computer. Who was sent to a purported computer repair shop last week for cpu fan replacement only. Only.

I am publishing this in the hopes that somehow it will help anyone who needs to put their computer in the shop and has to find a shop without knowing the reputation of said shop before dropping your life in the hands of someone you are not familiar with.

as I discovered, is a four minute job, cpu fans are relatively inexpensive. Unless you have a Sony Vaio Computer. I named her la machine.

While I was in Missouri, she started exhibiting the normal cpu fan failure, a noise coming from the interior and later on, a message telling me the cpu fan was not functioning properly....If this happens to you. Shut your machine down and get the thing to a shop.

Knowing it was going out, I pushed her til it went out completely and the message said, cpu fan not functioning and la machine shut herself down. Being in a totally new area, not knowing who to take her to, and with over seven years worth of info on her hard drive, it was only a cpu fan, what could happen?? Not a thing, wasn't concerned.

Until.....I dropped her off with STRICT orders CPU REPLACEMENT ONLY.

I had to drive quite a ways to get her there, but upon arriving back to the house, a phone call came in stating my hard drive had been damaged in the process. Might I mention before going any further on this that there is a person who lives in this house, not related to me, but lives here and is married, who KNOWS how to replace this fan but refused to do it for what ever reason. I have words I could say about this, but I choose to let God handle his attitude, the damage has been done.

So, not knowing any better, I told them to order me a NEW hard drive and install it for me, but to save my original drive as I wanted it back. This should not have posed a problem at all.....if you are an honestly run business.

the status of everything, and was told this. "We copied your hard drive and have installed an old one."

Seeing RED is not even what I did. I blew up and told them to remove the old hard drive they had installed and I would come pick her up. Anyone who knows anything (as I have discovered facing all of this) knows that when a hard drive fries, it is unable to be copied.

When I got there, I made then write down exactly what they had done to her...they handed me a generic hard drive and tried to pass it off as a SONY, my hard drive was original factory and had never been removed before. Not only this, but there was no hard drive and they had installed IF they changed the fan at all a bent and old fan (cpu) and had severely bent the heat sink to it.

Upon this discovery, I cancelled my check of $100 to the company and called my attorney. My attorney was totally flabbergasted at this situation, as he admitted himself he would lose his entire life with all the information on his hard drive. They stole my hard drive and tried to pass a piece of garbage off as my hard drive. It was not even marked Sony, but was a western digital and as stated above, my hard drive was Sony factory and never been removed. On top of all of this, they lied to me about the drive being fried. La Machine, my beloved computer is dead right now.

Pictures have been taken of the damaged fan they installed, and also the bent heat sink pins...How they managed all of this in such a short period of time, I do not know, but they are still lying stating the drive they returned belonged in the Sony.

Now, all of this could have been avoided had the person who lived here been gracious enough to install the new fan for me. As he claims, it is a four minute job. This now is all mute and my hard drive with 7 years of tax returns, all my programs, books, music is now in the possession of an obvious dis reputable repair shop .... Let us never mind internet scammers, what about the real life thieves who pose as sheep???

turned into a devastating problem for me.

Upon hooking this bogus drive up and trying to read the data off of it, it was discovered, yes, my data had been copied to it, but the drive they gave to me almost burned up reading the data. Only on for about 7 minutes, it was hot to the touch and as I do not know anything at all about these repairs I certainly am at a loss of how my machine is going to go back together. (And no, I do not have the capacity to do this, the "techie" who lives here has done all this) Why couldn't he have replaced the cpu fan for me??? He and God have to discuss that one.

I have been sharing a machine with the owner of this home, who is not the supposed techie who claims to have built many machines. He does have credentials, but what on earth would make a person so crass as to not help another when he is able. Believe me, I have been on a roller coaster of emotions over this the worst being I am living in a house with people who obviously do not care about others. If I had had the knowledge, I would have offered to do it immediately just to help someone else. May God Bless Him for his attitude. It sucks as far as I am concerned.

So, I am left with no cpu fan, heat sink bent together, no hard drive and all my information stolen due to a repair shop. I have written this hub to warn people to check the shop out well before trusting your life to a computer repair person. Make sure they are BBB verified...I discovered this shop had no BBB sticker, and please in this day and time...be careful.

My attorney told me to figure out a value ....how do you do this with all of your info for so many years???

All the paid downloaded programs, books, personal information, taxes, mortgages. Tell me please in the comments how you would feel should this happen to you. This has been hard for me to write even, but I had to. I am devastated. Who is able to be trusted anymore??? What has this world actually come to.....liars thieves, stealers of peace and harmony......

Please be careful....I do not want anyone else to go through what I am going through at this moment, nor the lawsuit to follow.