Barry’s Computer Consulting & Repair

Woke up yesterday to a cracked iPhone 6– really, in my sleep? Had an interview downtown and was stressed out. After an hour of grueling questions, I was left on my own recognizance. On to the next issue, what to do with my cracked iPhone. I’ve experienced many iPhone mishaps, but this was the first cracked glass. I am diligent and use a Speck CandyShell Grip Case and have never had a problem even though I am a super spaz and drop/​throw my phone unconsciously, all the time.
Recently, I purchased the CandyShell Card Case so I can have the convenience of always having my credit card– losing your phone is now a whole new animal. I must say that having my credit card handy is quite dandy. I was skeptical cause this new case is hard plastic vs. the flexible rubber– so awesome! I wish they would add the cc feature to my ol’ fav rubber one. Oh well, so many other things to focus on.
Long story short (well not that short), I found Barry on Unilocal while driving back on the Edens– OK citizens arrest, I used my Unilocal app while driving. Sorry guy driving next to me in that stupid white tiny, itty bitty car. And why do they call it the Edens anyways? Doh– my ADD at it again.
Back to Barry, he’s was available immediately and drove straight there. The process took under 20 mins. and the price was $ 115, less than all the other Joes out there. He’s smart, fast and a super nice guy. I definitely recommend him. He also has a precious lil baby so please be quiet as she may be taking her beauty nap ;-). Don’t forget to mention you found him on Unilocal for a 10% discount, yay! Oh, one last thing, bring cash!

We had recently been told (by Geek Squad) that our laptop hard drive was damaged to such an extent that they could not retrieve any data. They recommended a company that could «dive deeper» and see what was possible. I was not able to find any reviews at all on the company they suggested, so came to Unilocal to see if we could find someone to recover the data from our damaged hard drive, –someone close with good reviews. Barry’s reviews were so numerous and positive, we decided to take our business to him. His positive reviews are well earned. He was very quick to reply, he was very upfront on what to expect (or not to expect). Once the problems were identified, he explained a couple different options available, and costs for those — and his price was very reasonable — certainly less than what we’d been told to expect from the Geek Squad folks. He was able to recover most of our data, and replace the hard drive so that our laptop was usable once again. I certainly felt like I could trust him.
That’s a big deal to someone with as limited technical savvy as myself — I know so little about the technology behind my computer problems, I am totally at the mercy of they guys working on it — they could literally tell me anything, and I’d not know otherwise!
I would definitely use him again.

Fixed my iPhone 6 screen in under 10 minutes. Barry was very friendly and knew what he was doing. He was also the cheapest out of all the other places I looked at. If I ever have future phone or computer problems I now know where to go.

Barry has great service. I’ll definitely come back to him for other repairs and also send my friends and family to him. I took in my Galaxy S5 to get the glass replaced because it was cracked. Great customer service! Barry is truly customer-​oriented and though he never said this, his continued time, energy, effort gave me guaranteed satisfaction. He generally finishes his work faster than expected and also makes follow up calls to confirm that all is well with the repair. Oh! and also, make sure you ask questions because Barry is more than happy to inform/​educate you on what he’ll be doing with your device, computer, etc. Most other repair services aren’t always read to do that. His work is transparent.

My dealing with Barry was fabulous, he is as good or better than the others are saying. What do you look for in this type of business? Skilled, responsive, ready and waiting at appointment times, fair prices, friendly, approachable, helpful, gets the job done properly. He checks all the boxes.
He installed a larger hard drive on one MacBook Pro and additional memory on a second MacBook Pro. He explained all the options and suggestions with regard to the hard drive and everything went so smoothly, timing, communication, were all great. I highly recommend him.

My computer wouldn’t power up at a time I needed it the most. I got Barry’s name and phone number from a repair shop which needed ten days to repair it. Since I needed it done right away they gave me Barry’s name. He found the problem in the charging receptacle in the computer. Barry had another appointment he had to honor in a client’s home before he was able to work on mine. In a couple of hours he had the problem fixed and did not charge me an arm and a leg for his quick and efficient service. When I picked up my repaired unit, I dropped off my daughter’s lap top for Barry and he had it fixed the following day. Thank you Barry!

I had Barry work on my Macbook, and he did an amazing job. Responsive, fast service, professional, and all at a decent price.
I’ve used others in the area, and would definitely recommend Barry going forward.

Barry was able to help me the same day with my computer issues, with minutes of our initial call. He was very knowledgeable on what it would take to fix my laptop. He also was able to back up all of my data on an external drive for a very reasonable price. I would highly recommend him for any hardware /​software problem.

I cracked two cell phone screens and found Barry on google. Took a chance and feel great about the experience. Very professional and helpful. I will look to direct or encourage more business his way. It’s like a good book you feel you need to recommend.

Barry has replaced cracked screen’s on both an iPhone 6 and an iMacBook for our family and has done a great job. He is very pleasant, fair and communicates clearly what he can do and when he can do it. The repairs were first class. Great experience, great service. THANK YOU Barry.

I have given my computer to barry for repair and recommended many of my friends and we never get disappointed. All of the time he was done the job very well with low price. All of my friends liked barry’s service. Thanks Barry for your great help and keep up the good service.

I contacted Barry after seeing all the positive reviews here on Unilocal and I was not disappointed. I emailed him, he called back and we talked about the issues I was having with my Mac Mini. He tentatively diagnosed the problem and told me it would only take a couple of days. I dropped the computer off the next day, within a few hours he had called me that his preliminary diagnosis was correct (it needed more RAM). He explained a couple of different options with cost of each. He was able to quadruple my RAM within a couple of hours and it was ready for pick up the same day I dropped it off!
The entire cost of the service from Barry, including parts and service, was less than I was quoted by another service for just evaluating the computer. Very reasonable.
My computer is working great! Thanks, Barry! I wish I had done this months ago!
I will keep him in my contacts for any other repairs I need in the future.
Highly, Highly recommend.

Barry did an awesome job repairing our iPad and our iPhone. He was fast, reasonably priced, easy to get a hold of, and great to work with! I will definitely be recommending BCCR to friends and family.

Service was great. Fast, reliable, and friendly. Barry is an excellent guy. Would recommend over larger businesses as Barry is genuinely interested in assisting you and not just trying to turn a profit. Will come back in future.

This is the first Unilocal review that I have ever felt compelled to write. On top of the glowing Unilocal reviews, my initial impression of Barry was very positive– he responded quickly to my inquiry and walked me through his process. I was happy to hear he did not charge for a diagnosis of the problem and I was happy to support a vet-​owned small business that was a member of the local chamber of commerce.
Barry seemingly diagnosed to problem with my laptop (replacing the screen) and performed the repair, charging me under my quoted price. Again, I was very pleased. However, when I took the laptop home, I realized that the issue was not completely rectified. Barry admitted that he had not done a complete examination of the motherboard, etc «in order to keep costs down». I was mildly annoyed at the lack of thoroughness, but I took it back to him to finish the job. He kindly offered to figure out the further issue and complete without charging additional money for labor.
When I checked in with Barry two days later, he had not yet gotten around to even looking at the machine again. I waited patiently, and then he left a voicemail stating that just one replacement cable was needed. I called him back the next business morning to confirm that he should of course perform the repair. When I again checked in 4 days later (he never reported on progress without prompting, despite promises of excellent communication), he said he had just ordered the cable that morning.
Needless to say, I was very frustrated. It was October 8, and I first dropped off my computer with Barry on September 19. The kicker, though, was that when I expressed my frustration and inquired as to why it took 4 days to order a cable, Barry immediately became defensive and accused me of being overly demanding. He also stated that I did not clearly communicate my needs with timing. I never expected it would take a month to make a repair that only involved the display. In the end, Barry made several very personal insults and refused to finish the job. I went to get my still unusable laptop from Barry and he fortunately refunded all money except for the part that he already replaced.
Based on my initial positive impression, I foolishly recommended Barry to several relatives and friends in Glenview. I also considered hiring him as a consultant for my small business. His mishandling of this situation caused him to lose out on quite a bit of business. I sincerely regret the entire encounter, as it appears I am in the minority in terms of my negative interactions with Barry. I wish I was able to report a better experience, as it would have been great to have a go-​to tech repair person so close to home and work.

Barry is a very friendly guy and is very responsive. I dropped off my MacBook Air with a broken screen and he fixed it the next day. The cost was reasonable and he had the part. Brought him even more stuff to fix after that…

Took my wife’s iPhone with a cracked screen. Barry fixed it in 10 minutes and had better prices than everyone else in the area. The phone works great and I saved a lot of money by getting it repaired rather than replaced.

Barry was a great and local resource in the northern suburbs. I live out of state and need to provide phone support to my parents who aren’t too tech savvy. Sometimes, you just need someone nearby to help out the ‘rents, and I’m glad we found Barry to help when an extra hand is needed. Windows 8 conked out on my parents’ PC and we got the lovely black screen of death. It was too much to walk my dad through, and I didn’t have time to do it myself, Barry did a quick reinstall, preserved our docs, got rid of bloatware, and gave us some good tips going forward.

My PC completely died on me one day. No one expects this to happen and so I had years and years of videos, music and documents saved there. (I had the good sense to back up photos to an external HD but never got around to doing all other documents.) So you can imagine my panic.
Because of the great reviews, I called Barry and he squeezed me in immediately. He listened to what happened and spent some time diagnosing the PC. After initially thinking there was no hope of recovering my documents — he found a way. He worked diligently and after a week or so, managed to recover my documents.
While he had my HD, we decided to upgrade the RAM and he installed a new version of Windows. All this work was very affordable (given the alternatives!) and done with care. Even after getting my computer back (works BEAUTIFULLY, I might add), Barry continues to have contact with me to make sure there’s nothing that fell through the cracks. This all with no extra fees.
I really appreciate his work ethic and of course expertise. It’s just so refreshing when a serviceman is honest and actually cares.

Barry is awesome! He replaced my iPhone 5c screen inexpensively and quickly. The customer service is second to none. There was an issue with the front camera when I initially got it fixed (I believe it was because of a faulty part on the new screen), and as soon as I sent a text letting him know what happened, he responded to schedule an appointment for the next day and replaced my screen again while I waited there. It literally took him 10 minutes to replace and he gave me a free screen protector! He even sent me a couple texts after to make sure it was still working okay.
Please use Barry! He is the most efficient and inexpensive option out there, and his customer service is outstanding!