Central Computers

Came in for resistors on short notice for a project. They have a small selection of DIY and Maker products and the pickings are in short supply if you are looking for electrical parts. They do carry the Arduino Uno and the Raspberry Pi as well as a few shield kits for them. However the staff weren’t too familiar with the Arduino so I’d recommend coming in know what you need. Ended up picking up some LEDs and resistor packs which would work for my project.
That being said, lots of stuff in here for computers!

I went to this store and i needed help. I am a older man.
This young man helped with what i wanted his name is Victor Yi this young man helped me with all my needs.
So i just want to say Thank You.
Good Job.

I think they are very good at fast PC overhaul, especially if you need installing software.
I had Linux installed and Tony (the guy sitting across from cashier) was at his best making sure everything worked. Not only did he save my files using a thumb drive, but he went out of his way to install the exact version I needed.
Thanks a million!

I needed a router for my new space and was eyeing some netgear routers that were each north of 250 $, a sales associate guided towards a very well price TP Link Archer C9 model that was much less expensive and just as good. Overall a great experience, very nice and intelligent people who saved me a hundred bucks, and the router I bought works great!

We have been using Central Computers for our company’s hardware needs for over 10 years now. They have a great selection and anything can be ordered at a competitive price! Strongly recommended for local businesses. Thanks Candy and Tony!

Ask for Candy! She’s hooks us up everyone. Great and friendly staff!!! Highly recommend getting my stuff they have been there for 30 years.

I’ve had some good experiences in the past with C.C. building custom computers for my music studios, which is the only reason that I will be as fair and accurate as possible with my review despite my high level of frustration with this business.
By day I run a support department for a software company, and we usually order parts from Amazon to build our own machines for new hires.
We’ve been adding more new techs than usual this year, so I said, «hey guys, I know a cool computer store just around the corner.»
There was some push back from some of my coworkers, but eventually we went and picked up an HP tower for a new hire there about 2 months ago. The idea was to support a local business and also have the ability to get the machine serviced quickly if we had an issue.
10 days ago, this plan went awry when the computer they had sold us went dead in the middle of the new tech doing an installation.
«Don’t fear», I said, Central Comp is right around the corner and they’ll take care of you.
We brought the computer over and were sure to indicate that we had purchased it there, filled out the form with our company name and they took possession of it to diagnose.
They called us 2 days later and left a message stating that we would have to take the issue up with HP, that the motherboard was fried and they didn’t have it in stock. They charged the tech who picked it up $ 30 and sent him on his way.
I called back and politely expressed my concerns, that we had bought this computer from them to try and deal locally and that this experience seemed to be in contrast to my prior good experiences there.
The gentleman told me that «I should have bought one of their custom built PCs» and that «HPs are crap.» I reminded him that he sold it to us and still have them on the floor in their store. He then became dismissive of me. He refused to refund the $ 30 that he admitted should be waived for machines that were purchased there because he said that hadn’t been made clear when it was dropped off. I know for a fact that it was made clear, and I have a receipt for the workstation, but he refused to refund the $ 30 fee anyway.
At this point I told him that we’d be taking our business elsewhere for future machines (I’m needing to buy more as I type this) and he said, «that doesn’t matter» and hung up on me!
As I mentioned, I run a support department, and I’ve never EVER had a tech hang up on a customer no matter how unreasonable or abusive they might have become.
This experience spoke volumes to me about how they value their customers.
As much as I hate pumping even more money through Amazon and out of local shops in the city, I won’t go back.
–Adam

I went into Central Computers earlier today, needing help with a complicated situation involving a KVM switch, a Mini Display Port-​to-​DVI adapter, and a female-​to-​female DVI adapter.
My setup at home, involving the above parts, along with a computer and monitor, was not working properly. Central Computers employee Harris went way out of his way to try and replicate my setup in the store, and thus help me eliminate which pieces in the chain might potentially be causing my problem.
This is something you would never get from Best Buy, unless maybe you were paying extra for Geek Squad services. And I doubt the Genius Bar at the Apple Store would have had much luck either, because too much of my issue involved non-​Apple parts.
Three cheers for Harris and for Central Computers! The next time you’re tempted to save two dollars ordering the thing on Amazon, consider buying it from Central Computers instead. Yes, their prices can sometimes be higher, but good, proper computer stores with this level of service and this caliber of knowledgeable employee are a dying breed. If we don’t keep them alive, we will all suffer.

I’ve been going here for years and have built at least 4 systems over the years. I had an issue with a power supply on a system I built from components online and they fixed it for a very reasonable price. There is a young guy at the cash register that is super helpful and will also answer quick questions over the phone. It’s great to have local specialists when it comes to compatibility issues and diagnosing mysterious behavior.

Really quick service and good advice on systems. I have my laptop working faster with an increase of 8GB ram. He adviced me to put my Mac to factory reset mode myself, since they charge minimum of $ 29 … I saved some money being a student!

The only reason they have a star is because I have to give them one. The store is cool has decent prices but they will never receive my business again. Today my husband, who has been in the store numerous times, my brother-​in-​law walked into the store my husband carrying a bag and his brother carrying a backpack. Both are roughly 6“6′ and black; immediately they were asked to check their bags at the door. Mind you my husband has been their multiple times, just prior is a work clothes with a satchel mainly; but this time in plain clothes he needs to check his bag? While explaining to us it was there policy two young Asian gentlemen walked past us out of the store with their backpacks on. Disgusting, will I ever be able to live without the racial profiling. I cannot support a company that uses or allows their employees to use such vial practices.

Came in to buy a replacement power cord. Got great customer service! They were out of what i needed but did have something similar that was half of what Office Depot was asking. Thanks guys!

Although good selection, especially for techie types, I gave up on Central after running into defective Asus motherboards. I returned one due to bad video output. A sales person treated me like a criminal, as if I was trying to steal from her. A service person was arrogant. He knew everything, and I must be an idiot (I’m a computer technician by trade), and another technician was also extremely rude, not caring unless I wanted to pay high fees to have him diagnose the issue.
Ending up dealing with Asus directly, I actually went through 5 motherboards which were all defective in one way or another. When the last replacement RMA board reached me, I sold it privately for 40% of its original price just to get rid of it.
I bought a different brand which has been working fine ever since, but not from Central Computer.

Is Amazon same-​day too slow? Are you totally over paying through the nose for some random cable from Best Buy, or paying $ 3.99 for expedited shipping on a $ 5 ethernet cable? Come here. It’s a great place to get all the random knick knacks you need to have «right now».
So far I’ve gotten an Ethernet cable, a USB drive, and a phone charger. All of these items were a tad more expensive than online, but ultimately reasonable enough for me to get them at the store. I’ve gone here three times, and will make this a mainstay in the future.

I’ve had problems with my wifi at home for a while, so after complaining to comcast, getting a new modem, and router, neither of which helped, I finally realized it must be 1) comcast because we all know they just suck. or 2) the wifi card in my laptop.
I called Central Computers to find out if it would be possible to (with a deposit) borrow a doggle or something, to test the theory and find out of that was actually my problem — which would lead me to purchase a new wifi card and have them install it.
First, they didn’t pick up, then they didn’t return the call.
So finally I just went in and asked.
They said «no.» I said, well what if I buy it and it doesn’t help, can I get my money back. They said «no, we don’t lend out equipment that isn’t what we do here. YOu can give it to us to diagnose [i.e. take more of your money for something I wanted to do myself] or purchase the wifi. I reiterated that I’d want to purhcase the card and have them install it if that was in fact the problem, and I’d be more than happy to leave a deposit that wold cover the cost of the doggle. Still «no».
SO I left.
Then I remembered, they never called me back, so I called them and said «I left a message, but you never called me back, you don’t need to anymore, and just so you know, your customer service sucks and you’ve lost a customer.»
To which he replied, «yeah whatever.»
and i said, «Yeah, whatever is right, I’m going to Best Buy right now.»
and he said, I swear to god he said, «You’ll be back, their customer service is worse than ours.»
Welp, guess what? No its not. I got exactly what I wanted. They said I could take the wifi out for a test drive for two weeks, which I did. It is in fact the solution to the problem, so now I’m going to to buy the more expensive internal card from them as well. And my other computer needs, repairs and such, will be handled by others… thanks, but no thanks Central Computer… I’ve been a customer for well over a decade, but no more.

Well, they just tried to rip me off.
Went in looking for some parts. Found what I wanted, but there was only one left. The box was open and the cables were missing. So what did they offer to do? They offered to take 10% off the price of the part and sell me the missing cables for $ 25 (which is more than 10% of the part’s price).
So the decision was between buying a new part from someone else with a 3 year warranty for normal price and buying a previously used part from them with unknown warranty coverage for above normal price… ~_​~ Needless to say, I walked out. I’ll be avoiding them from here on whenever I can.
The only reason this isn’t a one-​star review is because they do have a decent selection. If you know what you want and they happen to have it, the staff is capable of operating the cash register.

As a long time customer, it pains me to write this. I Strongly Do Not Recommend Central Computers for repairs.
After bringing in my laptop for diagnosis, I was told it had a virus. And that it would take about 3 – 5 days to remove it and fix the damage. I’m a freelance admin so this was my only lifeline to work, but of course I had to suck it up and find a way to borrow computers until it was fixed.
In short, it had a virus, and they removed it. (Great!)
It had damage from the virus, but it was still useable. (Good news!)
They said they would try to fix the damage. They said if they couldn’t fix the damage they would uninstall and re-​install my operating system. (Thanks guys!)
A 3 – 5 day quote and More than three weeks later, I was getting dicked around and treated pretty much as if I were a pretty gal in heels at a mechanic’s in 1984. After being told to call back in another week one too many times, I resorted to getting a dude to call on my behalf and get them to agree to give it back to me, in fixed condition, and soon.
Throughout, I was given nearly no information about what was going on with my computer, even though I asked nicely* over, and over, and over again.
*except for that one time when I pitifully was reduced to asking them repeatedly over the phone to just double check that it was actually my computer they were talking about that needed yet another week.
Unfortunately due to its lengthy stay — with no end in sight, I had to buy another laptop so I could keep working.
The One thing that I was told was wrong with it was that the desktop wasn’t showing icons. And when I got it home, that wasn’t fixed. I have no idea what really was damaged beyond the desktop, because of their persistent refusal to tell me. So who knows what they were actually working on for three weeks.
I am extremely disappointed that they handled my repair this way. I have been a customer of their products for many years and never expected this. So my aggravation is not just that they dicked me around, but now I have to find a new computer shop too.
I will say this, their staff is really polite. They are polite and professional as can be while they’re dicking you around. It’s an effective move to silence people.

I have a huge issue with this place. I dropped of my laptop for repairs on Wednesday and told them i needed it back asap for finals. I was told I would get a call to pick it up within 2 – 3 days.
On Friday afternoon I get a call that my laptop cannot be fixed. So, at 5:30pm, I go to pick up my laptop and I’m told it’s not at the store (???) and that I should call on Monday.
Monday morning (today I might add) I go online to check the store hours. Their website and Unilocal page state they are open Mondays at 9am.
9:15am I call and get a message stating they are closed and will be open at 9am. Uh OK? So I wait 15 mins.
9:30 I call again. Answering machine picks up again and tells me they open at 9am.
9:45 I call again. Still hearing the same message.
9:55 I call again. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
10:30am I call again and still, no one picks up.
As a customer, I’m not asking for much. I’m not asking for the store to work miracles. If something can’t be fixed, then I’ll pay what I owe and walk away with my possessions. However, I do ask that I walk away WITH MY POSSESSIONS. Not only did I have to wait 5 days until I could «possibly» pick up my laptop. I STILL DON’T HAVE IT!
If a store is going to advertise their hours for the convenience of their customers, then at least be open at those times! I’m sure the owner would love to know that he’s overpaying his workers because his employees are not opening when they should.
This place gets two stars instead of one because:
1) they did do their job and ran the tests needed to find the issues with my laptop, and
2) the worker that helped me on Wednesday and Friday was very helpful and courteous.
*Update: I called at 11:08am and finally got ahold of someone.
However, it is now 11:45am and 4 different people have picked up the phone, asked me for my case number, and have put me on hold. It wasn’t until I «very sternly» told the 4^th person to tell me where my laptop was that they connected me to «Tommy.“He then told me their testing center has not sent the laptop back to the store yet and that I would have to pick it up at 5:30pm.
Thanks. I will now dock 1 star. I will never take my business here again.

I don’t mind getting PC parts online. However, call me old-​fashioned, but I still like the feeling of going into a store and walking out with a big ol’ box of parts. I walked in with the idea of getting parts to build a high end desktop for gaming and photo editing. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted.
One of the salesmen was very helpful in choosing the parts that I wanted. He wasn’t pushy either, and was even recommending a lot of parts that were slightly less expensive than what I had in mind. It was nice of him to offer me the choice and not try to be too pushy. In the end, I had everything I needed for the new PC, and the price was only minimally higher than it might have been from Newegg or Amazon.
Even better, they installed the CPU and memory in the story and did a POST test just to show that it was working.
Overall, this was a great local experience and definitely better than going to a big box store or something. If you are in the area, I recommend checking it out.

Great store for accessories for computers: Mainly cords, drives, memory etc.
Knowledgeable and friendly staff. Very good prices.
I needed Dvi D to Dvi D cord to connect my second computer monitor at my office. Tony was great to deal with.
Hard to find places like this anymore.

Central Computer was almost a monthly stopby for computer parts in the early days of computing. it’s been a decade or 2 a since i’ve returned.
still remembering the hunt for bargains and the cheap gas.
the metered parking is only partially to blame for my lack of repeat.