Micromend

I'm not surprised that these guys get mixed reviews; their expertise is technical rather than making customers feel socially comfortable. If you want that, go to the Apple Store. What you DO get here is expertise, and in my experience with Micromend this comes at a reasonable price. Yes, the place looks like an explosion in a parts factory, but they have done excellent work for me and for two friends. Repairing my iPad's screen was quoted at 1/3 of Apple's price, and after chatting with them for a couple of minutes I knew they were experts in this process. (I am an experienced IT journalist, I can tell easily between BS-ers and experts.) The job was done perfectly. I had a problem with an iPhone, and it was correctly identified and the price was 1/4 of Apple's. Don't come here if you want your hand held or your ego stroked. And DON'T - as another commenter did - come 10 mins before closing with a dead laptop and complain that you didn't get the right files retrieved before they closed. That's idiotic. DO come here for quotes on fixing out-of-warranty Mac, iPad or iPhone problems. They've done good work for me, and for fair prices.

Can you give zero stars? I'm so incensed with how rude, flippant, unprofessional and condescending these guys are I cant really be bothered to write much more. Taking one look at their shop when I went in should have said it all really. my mistake!

I like Russell : you’ve just got to “get”
his little ways. He can be quite brusque
& he does himself no favours that way.
Larry is a bit expensive,but his work is
good.

I'm really surprised by the reviews already mentioned. I've been to this place a few times over the past three years for my old G4 Mac and my iphone. I've consistently had really good service there. I don't know his name, but the Mac guy I always see isn't a great conversationalist, but he gets the job done for cheaper than quoted at other places. Last year I inherited an iphone and took it somewhere else to have it unlocked. They royally messed it up, and I took it to Micromend (where I should have gone in the first place) where they wrote some custom software and fixed all the prob for 20 quid in 2 days. I've since been in for some minor iphone probs that have been instantly fixed and not always charged due to the 2-minute fix time.

Granted, the space is tiny, there's computer innards everywhere and it sometimes smells of charred electronics but they've constantly done a good job for me. My mac had some hardware issues that they fixed. It ended up being a bit of a patch job and didn't look a professional as a factory refurb may have, but cost a fraction of the price and worked brilliantly!

Personally, I won't go to any other mac repair shop.

Yes, I am trying to post this in as many places as possible. Because I missed the reviews and other people should NOT! Do not go to this place unless you want to waste your precious time for months and months!
I never write reviews for places, but this time I have to. To warn other people who might end up in the same situation. Don't fall for their nonsense like I did! I should have checked the reviews before going in this place, I was already hesitant to give my laptop them. I had looked up reviews for the shop YoYoTech, I told them my laptop's issue and they gave me a number and said this guy will help you. They did not say this person was not even a part of their company! This shop, Micromend has two guys, one who repairs Macs and one who repairs PCs. I don't have anything to say about the Mac guy, because I have a PC. The guy for the PCs, never called back, I constantly had to ring to see what was going on with my laptop. He asked me for an insane price and even though I had told myself I would simply get a new laptop if the cost of fixing was too high,I still went ahead with it because he told me I had to make a decision fast (this was a phone call). He turned it on in the shop, it worked, I paid, went home. I turn it on at home and it stopped working after 10min. After this...it was just a nightmare, he did not supply me with a receipt till after 2 weeks! So I had no proof whatsoever that I used his services. He said he had a look at it, let me take it back, didn't work again, etc. I felt this was turning into one big joke. He was terribly rude and told me that if I didn't like it then the door is right there. I have never EVER been treated in such an incompetent way. My laptop is completely useless now, and I feel very very cheated. Doesn't start his work on time and keeps you waiting for months, rude rude and terribly rude. You cannot treat customers this way. The fact that they have had the police there because a customer flipped out doesn't seem to worry them much. They should take a hint. While there, a girl came into the shop and before she could speak he said 'not ready yet.' The door says 'it's not a right to enter, it's a priviledge.' Arrogant, incompetent, terrible! Thinking about the time and money I've wasted on this place just brings back a lot of frustration and anger.

Quite simply the worst service I've ever experienced – steer clear of these nasty, rude, incompetent clowns.

On the night my laptop broke I called the store at 6pm to see what time it closed and was told 7pm - I said I could get to the store for 6.45pm and asked if that was too late to have my laptop fixed, as there was another computer repair shop I could go to if that was the case. I was told that was fine and I arrived at the store 6.50pm with my laptop. The guy, Russell, promptly opened it and the issue was diagnosed - so far, so good.

Then the problems started. I needed to retrieve data from my laptop for an important university assignment due in the next day, but the guy wouldn't let me see what data he was copying, and I was chastised like a naughty child for asking. He told me not to worry he would copy the entire desktop. While he was copying the data, I innocuously asked as to why some of the files wouldn’t copy. He shouted at me that he had a young child and mother to get home to who were waiting for their dinner, and he didn’t have time to answer such stupid questions.

He then told me he didn't have time to put my laptop back together - even though it had only taken him 5 minutes to dismantle it. If I wanted it put it back together he would charge me £40 for an hours labour. I really needed the data for my assignment the next day and I didn't want to leave the laptop dismantled as I felt there was a risk he hadn’t copied the data properly, but I didn’t have a spare £40 and he assured me the data transfer had been correctly done. I was clearly upset, but the dude couldn’t have cared less.

When I got home I realised he hadn't copied the desktop as he said he would and the data I needed was sitting in my hardrive in the store which had now closed.

I returned to the store the next morning and dealt with someone called Larry. Larry told me that it didn’t surprise him Russell messed it up as Russell is a Mac expert and my laptop was not a Mac. Larry said he could transfer the data for me but I would need to give him something for his time – despite the fact that his colleague had messed up the data retrieval to begin with. Larry told me I had been undercharged and would either need to pay more (and it was a lot more) or else leave him the laptop as recompense for the 15 minutes it took him to get my data off the hardrive.

The laptop was knackered and I had a new one at home so agreed to leave it to him – but told him I wanted my hardrive back, to which he agreed. However when he had finished copying the data and I went to leave the store he didn’t want to give me the hardrive - I had to threaten to take the entire laptop back and just pay him extra before he would return it to me.

It’s also worth mentioning that the few people who came in and out during my time in the store were equally badly treated and pissed off. Retail hell – use only if you’re a masochist out for a beating.