American Tech, Inc.

Saved my life
I pour water all over my mac accidentally and they fixed and returned it back to the next day! The owner was also really nice and helpful!

Exposed a fraudulent repair by General Systems in Oakland. Fixed it right for half the price. Would go back in a heartbeat.

I found American Tech by accident and what a delightful accident. I had an older HP that had burned out the Mother Board a couple of years ago. I had managed to replace the Mother Board but could never get the computer to work again. I gave up. When I saw the Flat Rate I decided to give it a try. I dropped off the laptop and the next day I was told it was fixed and it worked fine. I have to say I am delighted that the old laptop is working again. I have since wiped the HD’s and installed Windows 7. With only 4GB RAM it is a bit slow but works great. I am very happy with the service and courtesy of this shop.

I’ve used these guys i think 3 times over maybe 2+ years and I have nothing but great things to say about their service. Maybe they’re not warm and fuzzy but honest and able yes. I had a HD crash, needed a new cpu on another occasion and had just strange laptop behavior on another which turned out to be just a cleaning. The price was good and I don’t think the lower reviews sound fair.

I had a very good experience with this shop. My son’s Macbook Pro was broken – light went on but no screen or start up sound. We took it to several places and were told at all of them that it was likely that the main board was blown and it would cost several hundreds of dollars to replace – and was not worth it because the computer is a few years old. At this shop, he told us he’d had many cases where simply soldering the board back in repaired the problem. Since we wanted to recover the data from the computer in any case, he charged $ 100 to resolder the board to determine whether that would fix it – and if it did not, he would recover the data for no extra charge. Since it costs at least $ 69 to recover the data by itself we decided to take the chance, AND, voila, resoldering the board fixed the problem. It was a very good deal for us. Save us many hundreds of dollars. And no other shop we consulted suggested this approach.

I wrote a review for these guys after getting my computer fixed. However, when I took it home I found that the repair man had broken one of the keys on my keyboard. With further observation to the keyboard I could see small chips in the keyboard where it looked like someone had stuck a screwdriver down where the keys are. I will never use these guys again. they didn’t even have the decency to at least mention the damage.

Right before leaving for Christmas holidays my notebook crashed and I brought it for the repair to American Tech.
It took 1,5 days to get my notebook repaired. Service was provided in a timely and effective manner. Neccesary explanations as to what the problem was and what has been done were received. I got my notebook back fixed and properly working. I’m glad to have used their services.

I was on the verge of replacing my computer because the case was so beaten up but they repaired it back to working and beautiful condition for very cheap. Very friendly service.

NEVER again will I take my chances on a Craigslist find for these kinds of services.
I found this place on a Craigslist ad for Computer services. Sounded like a decent deal and honest offer. I took my Macbook Pro with my own diagnosis in hand (I work in IT and know my way around a mac fairly) hoping this guy would maybe know more than I do and have some solution that I was not aware of. But it didn’t turn out that way.
His diagnosis: Bad partition (which I was aware of already)
Solution: to erase and reformat the HD for $ 69 (without saving data)
Price with data extraction was much higher.
Reformatting my HD is what I wanted to avoid in the first place and which is WHY I bothered taking it in to him. The data extraction price was too high so I turned down the repair and was charged $ 49 regardless of not having any work done to it. I took my mac home and reformatted the drive myself and had it working in less than 40 minutes.
I will say the $ ⁶⁹⁄₉₉ prices are reasonable for the work he is offers to do but a $ 50 charge for a diagnosis that even I, the non-​mac-​expert takes less than an hour to do? or that an Apple Genius would have done at no charge… Heck, even Office Depot wouldn’t have charged me.
I understand small businesses like these need to survive so I do not mind paying a small fee for his diagnosis. but a reasonable one and not without letting the customer know BEFORE leaving the pc there. The fee is not stated anywhere in the shop nor the receipt he gives you, nor does he tell you himself. He tells you AFTER he already diagnosed your PC, so he can charge you. Unfair practice.
A less nicer and smarter customer probably would have NOT payed.
*** Also, beware that the $ ⁶⁹⁄₉₉ prices only cover basic repairs, if parts are needed you will have to pay for parts aside from the repair fee, there are extra charges for certain things such as data extraction and other stuff.

I did not have any upgrades so I can not speak to that. I usually go to a place in Menlo park that I like but my guy was very busy and it would have taken me a week to get my pc back so I decided to come here even though it was far. Scottie was very nice and knowledgeable, he admitted that he didn’t know certain things. I paid 30 dollars extra to have my computer seen that day. Ended up being 100 dollars to get the virus off and they had it done by 6 so I was happy!

i had a bad experience with these guys. unfortunately i took my pc to josh. all i needed was a tune up and a Ram upgrade. i didn’t know what kind of RAM i need and replace the old ones. that was the whole point me taking it there. anyway he said he’ll get it from another vendor which was in a walking distance and replace the old ones. he promised that it’d be taken care of by the end of the day next day. since it was my husbands day off and i couldn’t carry it, i was happy that it’ll work out for me. the next day around 3 pm i called and asked if it was ready they said that it won’t be ready until the next day. i was pissed but can’t do anything about it. the next day in the morning they called and told me that it is ready. when i went there to pick it up, the guy who checked my pc for spyware and such told me that they didn’t do RAM upgrade becausse he didn’t know and other guy was (josh) not around at all. i was very disappointed. all he did was search for viruses and malwares and such and download some windows updates. only for this i had to pay $ 69 and left very unhappy. i do not recommend this place to anyone. you will waste your money.

I beg to differ w/​the other reviewers. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with American Tech for both my business and home. In fact, I referred them to a friend of mine and she also had great service from them. They’ve given me repeated discounts on a variety of service calls, have stayed for hours fixing a variety of software issues, given me all kinds of phone support on issues unrelated to any of their products or services, and enabled features on my system that I never would’ve known about. They’ve even found ways for me to get «professional» level software at majorly discounted prices. Tonight I referred them to another friend, too!

They took two weeks to fix my laptop after letting me know it will take 5 days. Then they charged me ~$ 250 for a common computer part. It was one third of the price of my laptop but I had to go on, because the $ 69 diagnosis fee is non-​refundable. So when it says $ 69 flat rate, it is the fee for just looking at your computer and telling you what is wrong, how much it will cost, and how long they will take — and if you think that the quote is too expensive or the time is too long, and choose not to move on, you lose $ 69 — plus some storage fee. So it is designed to rip you off. Also, the diagnosis was $ 69 but I dont know why they charged $ 99 for me. They told me it was because of «hard work» that they have done diagnosing my laptop. What a sketch pricing scheme. And even it was fair from their perspective, it just was not fully explained in detail, and most importantly, it was not mentioned «at the beginning.» They really should have let me know that it «could» cost around 250 «at the beginning» before they charged me the 99 diagnosis fee. I of course asked them for a rough estimate, but they said they have «no idea.» in order to trick me into paying 99 and then moving on with them.
To summarize, they took two weeks when they said they would take 5 days, and charged me an outrageous price without notifying me at the beginning, and NOT ONLY THAT, they broke a button on my keyboard. I swear that the button was working really well (I have many witnesses) before I took it to them. When I went to their shop to pick up my laptop, I realized that the button was broken. When I asked them why the button was broken, they said that the button was like that in the first place and was not their responsibility… What could I say??? It is not like I can bring all my witnesses or anything if they continue to assert that it was broken in the first place… I really believe that a computer repair shop should repair computers rather than breaking them. DO NOT GO.

I have used these guys twice, and got better service and results than I paid for. The first time it was for a bad motherboard. I turned my computer on and it wouldn’t start. I took it to American Tech, and they put in the new motherboard for their usual $ 99 price, and they didn’t kill me on the price of the motherboard.
The second time, it was for a tune-​up. It was in the shop for only two days and came out running like it was new. No complaints, no problems, no nothing. I won’t take my machine anywhere but to Sam and Jeff. They are great!

honest, prompt, knowledgeable and reasonably priced. What more do you want?

This service is great! Sam is genius! My computer had been attacked with lots of viruses and they not only repaired it, but suggested an upgrade in the RAM, so it is pretty much like having a new computer. It runs much faster and he explained the charges, and what they were doing. Did it cost more than the flat rate they quoted for the repair? Yes. Did I get a lot more? Yes.

I am shocked that the only review for this terrific place that made it through Unilocal’s BROKEN «filter» system is such a negative one. After going to American Tech several times for my own computers (I can’t praise them highly enough), and sending my friends there (who were also thrilled), most of the filtered reviews look legitimate to me (including, of course, my previous review).
The only advantage to American Tech having a one-​star review is that there is always parking right in front and no line! But I’m scared they’ll go out of business.
Anyway, some details: fast, accurate, knowledgeable repairs, no hard sell, inexpensive. Mac and PC (maybe Linux too). It’s practically unbelievable how much they do for $ 69 (and only $ 62 for repeat customers): wipe the hard drive (only if you authorize them to, of course), install the latest OS, diagnose and recommend hardware improvements (which are done with no further labor cost).
They deserve our full support! It’s embarrassing that Unilocal’s malfunctioning filter makes it look like Berkeley doesn’t welcome American Tech.

I’m Adithya, an MBA graduate from the Haas School of Business.
I dropped my Sony Vaio laptop and damaged my screen.
Though I saw one weird review, I went in and the technician, Sam seem friendly. I went ahead and gave my laptop.
Got a pretty reasonable quote, Much lower than what Sony gave me.
Next, Sam opened up the Comp, Ordered the New Screen and put my Laptop back together and gave it to me!
This was very useful as I could use the laptop in some form, though it had issues.
The part then came in and Sam set my laptop up in just an Hour!
Great Service, and Brilliant pricing, and my new screen works perfectly.
Highly recommend the place.
Adithya
MBA 2011
Haas, UC Berkeley

«Flat Rate $ 69 In-​store computer repair sevices» ??? Not quite. Brought my computer in for a cracked screen and when the guy hands me my initial contract, the charge is $ 99. «What about $ 69?» — Oh, that’s just the flat rate for all repairs; any hardware issue has an add-​on charge”.
I had already purchased a replacement screen and only wanted to put so much additional money into this little netbook. And didn’t I see «no repair — no charge» somewhere? Not quite. Once you ask them to look at it you have to pay that flat rate, whether or not the cost of repair is worth actually having them do it.
No thank you —
Misleading and shady…

I was excited when I took my computer in to be repaired as they had one of the best rates available. Other places wanted to charge double the rate. This shouldve been my first clue that the service would be shotty. I brought my computer in, they repaired it and talked me into paying for an extra *heat coating* to keep my computer from overheating. The issue I was having was the power connection on my dell laptop, of which these laptops are notorious for having this problem. In any case… the computer seemed to work when I got it home, but I noticed if I even just lightly moved the computer the power connection would fail… the same problem I brought it in for. I called american tech and left a couple messages… they never called me back. I tried calling several other times and they didnt answer. I figured they just blew me off so I didnt bother calling them again after a few days. Then, just today, the power connection cut out completly, rendering the computer useless unless I prop the power cord up so its pushed tight into the socket at the back. I called them back several times, and FINALLY got a live person who told me I shouldve brought the computer back to them within 14 days of the original repair… and now Id hafta pay them again to fix it. Its rediculous! They claim no knowledge of getting ANY messages or calls from me. Stay away from them. They’ll rip you off and youll lose your money and get no repairs…
I suspect the other review on here is a *plant* by the owners of the company since its the only one, and is the same review on google. So I placed my review in both places as well.