Krex Computers

Skip to the last few sentences if you want a lesser detailed version of my experience!
To sum it up:
Worst customer service. They charge you for their «labor» before anything which is not even a guarantee they will fix anything. I trusted them with my desktop and laptop, both of which had little to no difference upon receiving it. They said it would take two days for my desktop and it took them nearly two weeks. I had to frequently call to check up on it because they wouldn’t call due to being «busy», but I’ve never seen anyone working hard in that shop.
Pretty much asked them to fix my desktop with a motherboard issue and they tell me my motherboard is unfixable. Great… There goes $ 100 for just repeating what I knew. For my laptop, the battery charging port needed fixing and they barely got it to charge as in it sometimes does, sometimes does not.
If you didn’t want to read all this just know from my experience never to do business here! Please save yourself and others by never ever coming here. I’m out +$ 200 with not much to show but lack of customer service and all they care about is money, not people.

This is not the same KREX COMPUTERS it used to be! The old one is what I remember and loved. The original owner Steve Krex who started the store way back in the 80’s sold it to Computer Brain in 2006 or so.
I walked in there recently and asked for a standard laptop hard drive they said they had in stock on the phone. I wasted 1.5 gallons of gas just to talk to a not so nice person named Al. The store moved to Touhy in this junky strip mall, it disgusting and what little inventory looks like it should be at a flea market.
Also the photo shown is NOT their location! That alone is fraud.

Nauseating ! Discusting! An establishment which used to Be #2 in the North burbs for designing and making custom built computers at a discounted price has Failed myself and peers.. They Even charge a 15% re-​stocking fee on their damaged and defective broken desktop towers and peripherals I am told which THEY SELL ON THE MAIN FLOOR/​Show Room.
There is ONLY one techy there now who knows NOT what he is doing. ONE techy is in this company showroom of Krex computers now. Once a thriving business with techys at the store has now dissolved into a hell bucket.
Sales persons excuse: «Oh, they are not here right now., sorry,» when asked where the hell is everybody ??
My DESKTOP TOWER and FDD controller has USB defective ports in the front. My Tower was Defected which he sold to me claiming it was in *newish condition * for $ 75.00. The Button which turns on the computer was Defective because it broke/​cracked. Hardly anything works.
The main guy who runs the show there now is named Emir or Emil. He can’t be trusted with his knowledge know-​how on how to upgrade and reinstall and configure NEW peripherals onto a brand New machine!
This company has Failed post 2007. I have heard similar complaints from an A+ technician (my friend in Skokie) about their defective peripherals and custom parts in the showroom/​restocking fees., etc. It IS NOT WORTH A NEW CUSTOMER or OLD CUSTOMER’s Headache!
The techy and sales person «Emil» may be nice behind the glass counter, but he doesn’t know what he is saying or doing on the technical front.
He informed me my motherboard for an HP computer would take 3 weeks to order a New one for my injured/​defective motherboard on a laptop cause I loved the screen size 19″ inch smonitor and my old OLD. system. Techy probably Broke my motherboard or made it worse. I wouldn’t be suprised.
He also does NOT know how to install motherboards or cpu’s proficiently obviously, otherwise he wouldn’t of lead me astray to trying to buy a NEW $ 700 laptop. He is so obtuse. I am spending $ 120.00 as opposed to $ 700.00 on a 19 inch screen windows 7 OS and 80 Gig had capacity minimal. That is a Savings.
. My lead techy in Skokie was able to Obtain a NEW motherboard for my injured laptop of $ 109 over E-​commerce website, which would take 5 days to get to my apartment in Skokie for the HP system ! NOT four weeks!
SOme people think customers are so blind and stupid to the truth. I dont know what goes on behind closed doors there, but it certainly is NOT professionalism.
It’s all falsities and lies.
LOCAL CUSTOMERS: Do Not shop Krex anymore! Complete Waste of time for your Money, and the salesman/​techy is a fraud.
That’s all I have to say about that.

Me thinks not? If I could give them zero stars I would!
I had brought my laptop in to have its FAN replaced. Took a week b/​c they said they were soooo busy. Fine. Whatever. Went to turn the laptop on once I got home, and nothing. Ok, figured the battery was dead. Plugged in the wall charger and… nothing. Took it back to them the next day. Told them that they did something wrong b/​c it was working perfectly before they touched it. The guy said it was b/​c the battery was dead and had fried the internal workings of my laptop. I called bullshit. Made them look at it. They got it working, well. Kinda. It wouldn’t completely power down, nor charge even with a new battery in it. So I had someone else look at it. Turns out when they were replacing the fan, they cut the wire for the laptop to charge as well as connected a cable backwards.
Their customer service is horrible. I’d rather not have to go to Best Buy or any of that kinda stuff, but after the experience from hell, I’m not stepping foot in there ever again.

I ordered an item that was apparently in stock at the time my order was placed but 2 weeks later still have not received it. I only live one State away so shipping should not take that long. I have called and emailed several times and have not had a single response to any of my inquiries. THIS COMPANY HAS THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED. Their prices may be lower than other sites but the frustration is not worth the discount. I will never order from them again, nor will I recommend anyone else to order from them.

As of November 2009, there is a prepaid $ 75 minimum service charge.

My last 3 computers have been entirely built from parts purchased at this place. When it’s time to upgrade I don’t go running to Best Buy, Dell or Gateway, with 3 yards of mail-​in receipts to send out and a gazillion hours of AOL free, plus a free subscription to Napster for 1 year, and a junkload of useless stuff installed that I can’t get rid off my new PC.
Krex cuts through the jungle of rebate games and tag-​along ploys. You just get an honest-​to-​goodness computer for geeks, by geeks at great prices and no rebate games to play. The place is a tiny store but they got their act together. The staff is very knowledgeable and stand behind the products they sell. You can buy parts to build a computer for yourself, or they can make you a custom system fully assembled. You get the original Windows OEM CD and not some «Installation disc» offered by the big names/​big box stores.
It’s best to review their web site and decide what you want before you come in. The sales staff is not pushy, but they are experts at what they do and try their best to steer you in the right direction for best performance you can get for your money.
Four years ago when I built my previous PC, I was unable to start it up despite assembling everything correctly. One visit to Krex with my home-​built PC and a receipt, the guy took no more than 5 minutes to determine the RAM they sold was defective. No hassles at all, he replaced it on the spot and it booted up nicely and has continued to run trouble-​free right up to the end when it was time to upgrade again.
And if you’re lost on what to get, come in anyway. Even a pro like myself needed to sort out whether I should stay with AMD or give Intel another look. And I didn’t know all the security problems with Windows Vista either. The store staff and even a customer (IT manager by profession) roaming the store all piped in their advice. I must comment that the customer was your stereotypical nerd in his mid-​30s: tall, lanky fellow with thick glasses, bad moustache and mousy voice). Says a lot about the company I keep… Still, even he was knowledgeable and I left the store with the parts to build a complete system and a new wealth of wisdom on computer technology today.
Albert, the guy at the front counter was extremely helpful in subsequent visits when I needed to return or swap out a few components during my upgrade process.