Alameda Computer Doctor

Could not agree with Jeff more. His review is spot on. These guys are a joke. My laptop touch screen broke and we thought they could repair it. It was like let’s make a deal, with him telling my husband… I’ll get you this and sell you that and we can trade a used kindle…” & my husband telling him that we just want the screen on the laptop, which had nothing wrong but a cracked screen from someone leaning on it. They have had it for several weeks and ordered a screen, which turned out to be wrong. So after they took it all apart, they realized that what they ordered was wouldn’t. Which seemed sketchy somehow. Now, they can’t seem to fix it and it is in a pile at the shop in worse condition than when we brought it in. At this point, we can’t even attempt to fix the screen ourselves because it’s a total mess, like some college stoner played with it until it was beyond repair. But he offered to SELL us a smaller touch screen that he could put our drive in for us. Are you kidding me. I’m going to pay you $ 150 to take my computer apart and leave it in worse than it was when I gave it you and then sell me someone else’s used junk. The only reason I’m even giving them any stars is because they EVENTUALLY fixed a screen on an old iphone for my son. Even THAT was a debacle. It took weeks and after they put the new screen on, they“forgot to connect” some switch so it failed to work, which also sounded sketchy. But they eventually got it right. Prior to the new ownership, we used them and things were fine. They were slow, but ok. I’d since recommended them several times but never will again.

These guys are horrible. Like a three ring circus of well intentioned and lovable techno-​clowns. Mistake after mistake, that resulted in them not backing up, and then erasing, valuable tax files on my computer. Took me six hours to reconstruct. The shop is a mess; looks like a teenage boy’s bedroom. Completely disorganized. Don’t keep any kinds of records or receipts for their work. Don’t keep regular hours. They open when they open, or not. Shop owner Jean Pierre is a sweet old guy, who talks over his employees constantly. More like a comedy show than a computer repair shop. Prices are good, but if you value your computer and data, stay away !

Really great experience here! My laptop that I’ve had for 1 and a half years now took a drop last year, and since then it’s hard drive was becoming faulty and dying fast. It barely held out until the new year when I knew it was time to get it fixed.
Took it down here, had one of the guys take a look at it. They replaced the old disk hard drive with a newer stable state hard drive, and fixed it up. Best part was, they did it in about 24 hours! I dropped it off around 4 pm, and picked it up around the same time the next day.
If recommend these guys to anybody, they really know what they’re doing!

I wanted to show support of local small businesses around my home so chose this shop to work on my son’s laptop. They quoted me a «too good to be true» price and than claimed their supplier sent them faulty parts and didn’t trust them so returned our laptop unfixed. Then tried to hard sell my 14 year old one of their old irrelevant computers nobody wants. Here’s the worst part, there were 10 gigs of memory (8+2 configuration). When I inspected the laptop, not only was it never worked on but they removed the 10 gig memory and swapped in 8 (4+4 configuration). Like I wouldn’t notice 2 gigs missing and in a different configuration. I am sure they misquoted me so made up the faulty part story so they wouldn’t have to work on it but to try and hard sell an old computer to a 14 year old and than steal my MORE expensive memory is Unbelievable! I guess they were going to make a profit off this repair NO MATTER WHAT! The laptop was never repaired so I am pretty sure the memory they slipped in probably doesn’t even work since I cant check. The place is a joke and I should have known better to leave the laptop there in the first place. Please learn from my mistake and take your repairs to a reputable place. A big red flag is that they’ve changed their name once or twice. (Alameda computer doctor, Power light systems and probably more). Reeks of dishonesty!

It’s all about JP (Jean-​Pierre) and his friendly staff at this computer place when you need to have your computers repaired. They always know what they are doing when repairs need to happen, and you also really don’t want to go anywhere else. That will only lead to uncertainty with putting your computers into the wrong hands. You also cannot beat the prices for the repairs either. I have been to this location plenty of times over the past few years to have my systems repaired. They also come to your home address as well if you do not want to go through the hassle of bringing in your desktop. Thanks so much and keep up the good work JP and staff!

Let me preface this review by saying, I feel about computer woes approximately the same as I do when starting my taxes. Namely, they both make me feel lightheaded, sweaty and a little queasy. So when my computer died with a demoralizing, «pop,» the other day, I needed to find a person who would help both my computer AND the ailing owner of the computer.
Jean-​Pierre is the man! He did a great job of doing a quick assessment over the phone of the conditions of the death, giving both of us an idea of the nature of the issue (hardware, not virus as I had dreaded) and how much time it might take to perform computer CPR. Then the next day he made time for me to come in, and gave me an informative, unhurried, thinking-​out-​loud kind of assessment of his diagnostics. Amazingly the computer revived when he pushed the on-​button, so maybe he has magic in his fingertips.
After performing the mysterious Lazarus-​like restoration of my computer (we never did figure out why it had died), he continued the review of the computer so that I would know what was working and how to assess that stuff, and what things might die in the future. And, while I was there, he backed up all my pictures on the external hard drive I’d brought in. Only took 75 minutes!, which he genially provided for the flat assessment fee of $ 25.
Basically this guy does computer work the same way that I like to provide health care for my own patients: he fixes the presenting issue and then gives empowering, non-​judgmental information in a warm unhurried manner so that the main organism works even better in the future. I just need to learn that healing fingertip thing.

Great service. I had a number of computer problems recently (two different machines). One got a virus and would not boot, and the other had a motherboard failure. Both times I dropped off the machine and these guys just took care of it. Also, they can give fast service.

Consumers beware!
Alameda Computer Doctor aka Power Light Systems Computers is not the place to go for computer repairs, maintenance, or tower building.
We found the staff to be rude and arrogant.
We paid hundreds of dollars to have our computer «fixed» after they initially did NOT install a virus protection and our system became infected. Then we discovered that the problem was never really fixed. Even by their own admission in a statement they sent home with us, our system still may not be 100% fixed.
The owner, Jean Pierre Chelouche, is by far one of the worst small business owners I’ve ever encountered. He refuses to speak to the customer and misses set appointments without explanation or apology. The computer tech, Bill, does not interact well with customers and should never be allowed to speak with one directly. On many occasions he screamed over the phone and even hung up on me.
Consumers beware!