Old-Fashioned Service Like This? Priceless!

In a world where getting almost anything fixed requires spending hours on the phone with customer service agents on the other side of the world or waiting in long, useless lines only to discover, in fact, you’ve been waiting in the wrong one, many of us are nostalgic for the days of old fashioned, personal service.

Whatever happened to the neighborhood handy man? Electrician? Shoe cobbler? Sometimes it seems the neighborhood dry-cleaner is the last bastion of friendly, neighborhood service.

But the other day we discovered a small, thriving shop – a throwback to these days of old-fashioned, local service and of all things, it’s a high-tech computer store. The place is just like fix-it shops of decades past – where guys you came to know got to know your electronic equipment intimately and always could help you out.
Computer shops offering personal service – even impersonal service – are fast disappearing. So what do you call a place that offers the latest in cutting edge technology, reasonable costs and friendly service? Priceless. Or, more to the point: Priceless Computers, in north San Gabriel.

Priceless Computers, which Sultan Salahuddin opened in 1995 (the shop recently celebrated its 14 year anniversary) is the one-stop-shop for everything computers – and perhaps the one place where you can always get straight answers and affordable prices.

The other day, says Atif Qureshi, the store’s Assistant Manager, a man came into the shop with a typical computer problem: “Geek Squad [at Best Buy] charged him around $500.00 [to fix his computer] and the man said they were still not able to fix it.”  “And we did fix it – for $100,” chimed in Salahuddin.

With computers everyday becoming more integrated into our daily lives, Salahuddin and his team of computer whizzes aim to provide personal, affordable repair services as well as providing low-cost machines and equipment.

“Computers are becoming a necessity now,” explains Qureshi. “Twenty years ago, people hardly had it but now every household has at least two or three computers. So the most important thing people should know is that they should have at least a decent working computer so that they can do their daily-basis work on a computer.”

He elaborates: “An average decent computer would be with a good processor and at least a 512mb RAM. That’s considered decent, and certainly virus protection is very important nowadays.”
One of the ways Priceless Computers helps consumers afford what they describe as a “decent computer” is fixing and selling refurbished machines.  For example, you can buy a Pentium 4, 2.4 with512mb, 40 gig hard drive, Windows XP Professional complete with manufacturer’s Certificate of Authenticity installed for only $59.00. That’s cheaper than the price of Window’s XP Professional alone – $150. Throw in a brand new monitor and the cost is still under $160, thanks to Salahuddin’s ingenuity, industry connections, and the forsight to buy in bulk.

“We have some basic prices, but still my prices are better than anybody,” says Salahuddin. “That’s why we say, it’s no fix no charge. If somebody bring the computer and we give them a price and if we cannot fix the problem we do not charge them.”

“In this bad economy everyone is short of money and that’s why we keep our prices reasonable. And the systems are good, up and running, so it fits their budget, customers are happy, we’re happy.”

They estimate 80 percent of their business is from repeat customers. “It’s my business, I put all my energy here, I won’t let the customer be disappointed.”
Adds Quershi: “We want everything to be right on the spot to the customer’s satisfaction. Customer satisfaction comes first. Everything else comes later.”

For more information, see www.pricelesscomputer.com.
Priceless Computers is located at 6913 Rosemead Boulevard, Suite B, in San Gabriel. Call (626) 237-2020.