Alex Audio Video & Computer Service

I’ll try to keep this as non editorial as I’m capable of so that this review isn’t written off as being belligerent. I brought in my 1980 bang and olufsen console record player as there was a short that was causing it to randomly turn off. I live in St. Paul so this was a bit of a drive. They charged $ 50 to begin looking at it. A week later, they called and said they didn’t have the expertise to repair it, and that they would refund the $ 50. At this point I wondered why they even took it in, but at least I was going to be refunded my money.
When I arrived a few weeks later (it took me a while to get back there from St. Paul), I walked in to see my unit sitting out on a table in their showroom. Something about the top looked eschew so I went and looked at it. The dust cover for the record player, was snapped off. I waited my turn, and patiently asked «so what happened to my record player?» The person behind the counter didn’t handle my item so she called the woman who was. She immediately informed the person who was there that she knew for a fact it was brought in that way. I asked to speak directly to her, where she defensively told me that there was no way they broke the item. Frustrated, I left without my item after asking them to investigate further when the repairman who handled the console was back in. They promised to call after further investigation.
A number of days later, no call. I called them– was met with hostility from the same woman I spoke with on the phone originally. After applying logic and reason to the situation, she finally asked «so what do you want me to do?!?» I asked her to simply return my unit back to the condition in which I left it. She seemed perplexed as to how to do this (do you not work at an a/​v repair place?!?) at this point I was pretty exasperated, so I offered to find the replacement part as she seemed incapable of using the Internet to do so. A 1 minute search later, I found the part for $ 40 on eBay. I sent her the link. I am giving them 2 stars because they did follow through on purchasing it and installing it. In the end she did begrudgingly admit they broke it… and never did I receive an apology. I don’t think all of the staff at Alex are of the same ilk, just be warned.

I recently stopped into the store to get a few parts replaced on a board for a Samsung TV and they only charged me for a $ 10 dollar labor charge where everyone else I called had a service fee of a minimum $ 100 dollars. I had already did my research and diagnosed what was wrong with it and didn’t want to have to pay a service fee when I already knew what needed to be replaced. I would recommend this company for replacement parts as well as diagnoses however I didn’t need that but I am sure they would be good at that as well as they have been in business for many years.

I recently went in to Alex TV to have my 36″ Sony tv repaired and I was amazed. I was greeted as soon as I walked in the door by Sara, Alex’s wife, I believe. I was fully expecting her to tell me that my TV was too old, and not worth repairing. She assured me that the techs in the back would be happy to take a look and was sure they could repair it. She said she would give me a call the next day and let me know what they could do. I explained that I knew it was an older model and really didn’t want to spend a lot, but the picture had always been excellent. She agreed that this model typically had an excellent picture, and that she understood my concerns as to the cost. Well, to make a long story short, she called the very next day and said the problem with my set was very repairable and at a cost that I found to be very reasonable. What amazed me, was that I had actually found a tv repair that did exactly what they had promised and didn’t attempt to gouge me. That is very rare, and I would highly recommend Alex TV to anyone that values honesty, and professionalism.
Thank You Alex TV! I will be back with all my electronics repair issues, and I will tell all my friends to do the same!

I had a very good experience at Alex Audio and Video Service. I needed a new bulb for my DLP television and simply took the casing out of my television, drove up to Alex’s, got a replacement in five minutes and paid a fair price compared to what you find elsewhere.

You can’t trust what Alex tells you. On other web sites I notice people have had the same unsatisfactory experience I did. I would give them zero stars if that were possible. Perhaps with simple repairs they have done a good job for some people. In my case, a $ 2,000 home theater receiver, they completely failed, and misled me to boot.
The problem is, as others have noted, some Alex employees will tell you anything but the truth about what they are doing. My dealer, Stereoland, sent my high-​quality Rotel home theater receiver to Alex for warranty repair because they can’t do repairs themselves. Alex had the receiver for nearly a month without repairing it. Each time my dealer asked how they were doing they said they were «waiting for parts from Rotel, which is very slow.» I finally contacted Alex myself, and they told me the same thing.
Then I went to Rotel, asking them why they had not sent the parts to Alex. Rotel told me Alex had not even ordered the parts yet — after nearly a month! Alex misled my dealer and me.
On Rotel’s recommendation we have retrieved the receiver from Alex and are sending it to Rotel in Massachusetts for repairs or replacement. That will take even more time, but at least I can trust what they tell me.
If I were Rotel I would revoke Alex’s repair authorization, since Alex blames Rotel for their own poor performance, and still doesn’t get the job done. I can accept honest mistakes, and I can accept the truth about delays on hard-​to-​do things, but I really hate B. S!
All in all, my $ 24,000 home theater system will probably be without its «brains» and sound for a total of around two months; most of that time while it sat doing nothing at Alex. To give Alex some credit, yesterday they did send me an email apology for their poor performance and said they will strive to do a better job. I hope so.