The Chip Merchant

I have brought computers to The Chip Merchant for a number of years. Computer repair doesn’t get any better than this. A special thanks to Jason today as the had boot errors that shut the machine down. All fixed now and quickly.

San Diego Computer Consultants/​The Chip Merchant (I am not sure why they have two profiles/​names) has caused irreparable damage to my computer, and are refusing to pay for any of it. If you read nothing else in my review, read that.
I brought my laptop in to SDCC/​The Chip Merchant this summer for power issues I was experiencing while studying for the Bar Exam, which requires a working computer ²⁴⁄₇! They said they would take a look and get back to me. Come about a week later, they say a pin in my power jack was damaged, and they would attempt to resolder it. They did so for $ 120, and my computer seemed to be working fine for another 2 months.
Then, the same issues began happening again. I returned to them, and they charged me another $ 120 to resolve the issue. Without my consent, they installed a new power jack, and returned the computer to me. I plugged it in, studied for approximately four hours, and the power jack exploded, as in «POP», and smoke began billowing from the power input. FOUR hours of use and the laptop was now completely inoperable.
I returned to San Diego Computer Consultants/​The Chip Merchant with this new problem, and they said they would take a look. More than a month later, they call me and tell me my motherboard is irreparably damaged and they cannot replace or repair it. They then have the gall to tell me that they will only refund the money I paid to them, and not pay to repair or replace any of my now destroyed computer.
So not only do I now NOT have a working computer (albeit one with power issues), I don’t have a working computer AT ALL. This company destroyed my computer and has refused to take any responsibility for it. I am not asking to get rich, I am not asking for a brand new computer. I am asking for them to pay for the damage they have done to my computer, and they refuse.
To add insult to injury, I picked up my now useless laptop, and they edited their invoice to make it appear as if they are not responsible for any damage to my machine.
From everything I have seen, SDCC/​The Chip Merchant is a shady company who care about nothing but money. An honest company would admit they were wrong, pay for what they’ve done, and be receiving a five star review from me right now because they handled their business with professionalism and respect. Instead, SDCC/​The Chip Merchant seems to have behaved only to cover themselves once they learned what happened to my computer. I hope my experience enlightens you to the behavior of this company, whom (it goes without saying) I will NEVER be patronizing again, and I will be posting this story on any available outlet so people can be informed about shady companies like this.

My laptop would not boot so I brought it to The Chip Merchant for repair. Rob was the tech who worked on it. He was very helpful and asked questions about what I wanted done as well as answer my own questions. Rob kept in contact with me throughout the repair period to update me. Pricing is competitive. Glad I found a reliable business for future reference.

My notebook had died, staring blankly back at me… sad day. What to do? *Borrowed* someone else’s computer and searched Unilocal for help! Found and called TCM 20 minutes before closing and managed to drive over and drop off before they closed for the day.
Rob is an awesomely talented techie! Replaced my hard drive, and helped me to disable some pesky pop-​up at start-​up. Great pricing, fast service, and very knowledgeable employees. If you should find yourself in a bind, keep the Chip Merchant in mind!

Hands down this is your techie HQ! I had the pleasure of getting phone and in store support from Jason and Rob. Very knowledgeable, courteous and excellent customer service. I knew of this place for years, great reputation. On this occasion, I needed more RAM for a MacBook Pro. Why did I bother going to Fry’s after getting help from the geniuses at the Apple store? Fry’s mega store has bargains, but not what I needed, ugh! Thanks to Rob, he knew exactly what to do and then some, since I had other questions. Now the laptop is roaring again. I got what I expected, five star support and services. Highly recommended!

Rob at The Chip Merchant is a genius. Despite many incompatibilities and crashes he migrated data from a very old to new Mac. He worked hard until the job was done despite many system roadblocks. I love TCM

This place is awesome! I brought in an old external hard drive with lots of irreplaceable files. I dropped it and couldn’t get it to work. They recovered ALL of the files, and charged less than a plumber would just to come to my house. THANK YOU!!!

The best tech support company I’ve ever worked with. Knowledgeable, reliable and responsive. What more could we ask for?

I’ve been using the Chip Merchant for over 20 years and they consistently have top notch memory at the lowest prices, and fast shipping. Even as competition has greatly increased over the years, The Chip Merchant remains my preferred vendor for memory.

This, my third visit to TCM, has topped what has already been a steady track record of exemplary service, professionalism, and quality workmanship. I am a self-​employed professional 3D artist and found TCM through a web search years ago. Little did I know my first visit would blossom into a five year relationship of return business.
I’ve had TCM do two custom PC builds for me, and this latest visit I took the first rig they built for me in to have serious hardware upgrades (new PSU, CPU, mobo, and GPU). Nothing wrong with the parts, mind you… it’s just that PC hardware becomes obsolete usually around the 18 month mark. Anyway, they quoted me a turn around time of 2 – 3 days, yet less than a day later, I get a phone call that the upgrades were finished! And there were no hitches in the build, which was a load off my mind since dramatic hardware changes like mine can cause issues with previous OS installs. So I was incredibly pleased. Devin and Angelina in particular were fantastically awesome to work with (Devin I’ve gotten numerous quotes from in the past and worked with quite a bit, and Angelina did my actual build this time around). I am typing this review on my upgraded PC which I got home, plugged in, and was able to have up in running in only minutes.
The takeaway from this for any people out there looking to have PC upgrades, custom builds, repairs, virus removals, OS installs, etc. is to come here. You will be treated to a team of incredibly talented PC professionals (A+ certified, as if there would be any doubt) and a company that offers reasonable pricing and fast turnaround times. They are just amazing to work with. I feel grateful to have stumbled upon such an amazing company to do business with, and will be a client for life. Thanks, guys!

Used their fantastic Unilocal deal —
$ 60 for $ 90 for
1) cloning of hard drive
2) installation of SSD
3) installation of RAM
I actually am semi-​computer tech savvy, and if it was just the latter two, I would have just done it myself, having upgraded my own computers numerous times. But I get worried about transferring things, and they did it so quickly that it was a no-​brainer to have them do it for me. It’s like I have a brand new computer now. Amazing.

I would definitely recommend their services. I used this company’s services last year. I needed more services this week, so their computer experts came to my place of business to do maintenance and repair on my server, installed a new router and reconfigured my new business computer. They also helped me by logging in remotely to help me with some issues I was encountering with my new computer. I do plan on using them again.

Used a Unilocal coupon to get my 2008 17″ MacBook Pro a hardware checkup and some additional RAM. They were really on the ball and their prices were more than fair. I’d use them again for my computer hardware needs.

I ordered a new power supply off another online retailer and realized it lacked a connector that I needed to power my video card. I searched Best Buy & Radio Shack for an adapter, but they didn’t have what I needed. I gave The Chip Merchant a quick call and they said they had some. I drove by and was greeted by their friendly staff. I was expecting to pay a few bucks for the adapter, but they gave me two for free! Just based on our quick interaction, I can tell these guys put the customer first!

I brought my computer in Chip Merchant for service (audio jack stopped working) because they recently acquired my #1 go-​to computer repair guys, San Diego Computer Consultants (SDCC). I hoped that I would get the same 5-​star service I ALWAYS got at SDCC, but I was disappointed for a variety of reasons. The computer took a long time to be diagnosed and worked on – two or three weeks (which was a disappointment in itself) and Chip Merchant only called me once or twice to give me status on the work. I had to call them multiple times to get status, and work my way through their PITA automated office phone system to try to get hold of the tech. When I finally got the computer back, the audio jack wasn’t even fixed, although they did do a nice job installing some new storage. I ended up going to Staples and bought a new $ 20 audio card and installed it myself, which is what I should have done in the first place. Oh well. Next time my computer needs service, I’ll be looking for a new place.

I used to buy stuff from this place all the time. It was a great place for computer parts as the prices were great. The staff is incredible friendly.
The issue for me is that this place is prices are TOO HIGH for parts. One of the my jobs is to keep cost down. The parts are same company or same quality. I can find the part typical a lot less (sometimes a little less). I wish they still had the great prices, but it is what is it. I don’t go there often because of that…

The Chip Merchant gets five stars from us for pricing, service, and overall customer care.
We’ve been getting clones from this place for over 10 years, and after buying and using hundreds of their hand-​built computers we remain extremely satisfied. They’ve always been there when we needed them, and we’ve asked some crazy questions and usually under incredibly tight deadlines.
Go Chip Merchant — don’t change!

These guys have hooked me up big time in the past, for a fraction of the price of Apple. In 15 minutes, I got a new memory for $ 33 (where Mac would charge $ 100. No).
Worth the drive for sure to save a bunch of dough.

Awesome service, great prices. Like other reviewers, I buy all of my memory at The Chip Merchant to upgrade my Apple computers. The pricing is literally ¹⁄₁₀^th of what you’d pay at the Apple Store. They’ve also got good deals on other components as well.
A few years back they built a gaming rig for my brother — he loved it. He doesn’t game so much anymore, but still has that same tower and it’s filled with the same components. Still running strong.
Customer service is also key at The Chip Merchant. I’ll definitely shop there again.

I found out about this place when I was visiting an Apple store. I upgraded the RAM on my Macbook to its max of 2 gig for less than $ 50 (couple years ago). They have a website and counter service. I did the counter service and the guy who sold me my chips was cool because he watched me put in my new new memory and kept one eye on me as I did it. I gave him my old RAM and took off. I did it there because I was able to recycle my old chips and I wanted to make sure I could do it on my own. The upgrading of my memory here compared to the Apple store for such a great price was too good to be true. So, I wanted to see if my Mac would accept the chips and run, which it did. I had the option of paying them to install it for something like $ 15, however, I was able to do it in a little over five minutes.
One more time –The price to increase my memory in the Apple store was crazy more. This place was great!
Sidenote– I could not remember the name of this place or the location from 2 years ago, so I googled «memory chips for mac san diego Unilocal» and I got lucky it is on Unilocal ;) I just sent them an email to see if they can upgrade my 80 gig hard drive on my Macbook.