Please add - R350 to potato your PC - to your list of your services.

I recently took my PC to the Bedfordview Shopping Center branch in Johannesburg for a clean and to have thermal paste replaced on my CPU. This branch is soon to be closing (I wonder why). The technician, Dean, mentioned he had trouble removing parts of the PC due to uncommon clips on my motherboard. He explained that this particular model had a unique clip design, which was only used for a few models before they reverted to the previous design. Despite this, he assured me that everything was fine and I could come to collect my PC.

When I arrived, my PC was not working. They informed me that one of my RAM slots had mysteriously stopped working. After some fiddling with the PC and wiggling the GPU, they managed to get it to boot up. I took the PC home and started it up, but it wouldn't boot. After opening it up and adjusting the GPU, it finally started. However, the PC was running incredibly slow. It took about 5 seconds for the exit button on a window to turn red, allowing me to close it. Opening a game caused a blue screen with a TDR video error, and the PC would not reboot, also showing a CPU overheating error.

My PC was working perfectly before I took it in for a simple clean. I had never had an issue with it since the day I bought it. Now, mysteriously, one RAM slot had stopped working, my CPU was overheating, and my GPU was crashing my PC.

I took it back and explained the situation to Dean. Another technician, Quintin, came to the counter and, without looking at anything, told me that my motherboard was damaged and I needed to buy a new one. I left the store furious. After calming down, I returned to collect my now R15,000 paperweight. When I arrived, Dean and Quintin were on a smoke break. Not wanting to wait, I found them to ask if I could take my "PC." Dean said he was still looking at it but didn't know what the problem was.

I mentioned that I had a virus that deleted my antivirus, making it impossible to remove without formatting, which he was planning to do. He suggested that the virus might be causing the problem, even though my PC was working fine before I brought it in, virus and all.

I took my PC home, formatted it, and reinstalled Windows. The PC was still not functioning correctly. After testing it for about two weeks, I contacted Dean again. He said there was nothing he could do and started recommending other people to fix my PC.

I told him to stop giving me referrals, and we ended the call.

It cost me R350 to turn my gaming PC into a potato, and that's the end of the story. The Matrix Warehouse destroyed a very expensive piece of equipment, and when I asked for a resolution, I was given referrals instead of assistance. I now have to pay to undo the damage caused by the Matrix Warehouse.

This was an expensive lesson, but at least I know that neither I, nor my family, friends, or anyone else who asks me where to get PC supplies and support, will ever use their services again.