The Hackery

Solid work for low cost.
I brought a Macbook with an SSD to install and with a malfunctioning keyboard. The service was prompt — they under-​promised and over-​delivered because it was done really quickly. (note: the Mac guy said he was off Saturdays and they are closed Mondays, so you want to come in early in the week).
Because they have a lot of used parts and components for sale, they managed to replace my keyboard with a perfectly working used one. Their suggestion — I thought I was just gonna have to pony up for a new keyboard.
The overall cost, parts + labor, was probably less than just buying the replacement keyboard from Apple, let alone installing it (the SSD they installed was bought by me elsewhere so its price was not included).
Another way to think of it is that people who deal as much with old/​used computers as The Hackery seems to do have to be a lot better at diagnostics than the guys who only manage to dump out old parts and swap in new ones. So even if you are servicing newer equipment, it’s good to know they know the repair trade.

I found the Hackery via Unilocal and, after my laptop died due to an issue with the adapter connection, I decided to take it in. (My initial thought was to go to the Geek Squad but they quoted twice what I paid at the Hackery.)
I went in on a Tuesday. There were three guys working when I arrived and I was helped right away (there were two or three other customers in at the same time). The guy did a bit of a test and then quoted the price ($ 90 for 90 mins of work) and said they had the piece in stock and it would cost $ 10, or hopefully he could fix and re-​use my current broken piece. I was told it would be ready to pick up by Friday or Saturday. I was there probably five minutes.
They called Thursday (Wednesday was a holiday) and said it was ready! I was surprised at how quick it was. I was able to go in the next day, pay the $ 90 and was out in just a couple of minutes. These guys are great and I highly recommend them! They’re very reasonably priced, especially compared to many people’s first go-​to.

Just went here to get my MacBook fixed. There was water damage. The service was great, the prices fair, and overall very helpful. I’d definitely recommend.

I’ve come here several times and given this shop quite a fair share of business. The last time I came, the owner told us he’d be with us in a few minutes after he ordered dinner and helped out another customer.
We ended up waiting almost a full hour just to be helped, with no notice whatsoever. When we asked about why we had to wait so long, he basically said it had nothing to do with him because the customer he was helping only should’ve taken 5 minutes and he hadn’t eaten lunch.
Just a brief mention during the hour we waited that he would be awhile would have been greatly appreciated since we could’ve just come back another time. Also, not feeding yourself shouldn’t be an excuse to give shitty customer service. Definitely not coming back. They clearly see no value in their customers, or in their customers’ time.

I have a Macbook Pro (Mid 2010) that I bought for school and for the last few weeks it’s been running pretty slow, actually it stopped working. Everytime I turn it on, it gives me this white screen with the «Do Not Enter» sign. I’m a sentimental person, and I wasn’t ready to give it up yet.
Then comes The Hackery, it was the first Repair Centre that shows up in Unilocal.I was thrilled to read all the positive reviews from their guest. So, I packed up my Macbook Pro, took a deep breath and bravely took the Bus 16 that goes through East Hastings.
My god, it was worth the trip. These guys are so nice, so helpful and Man, they know their shit. It turns out that my computer’s hardware is dying. It took them 2 days to fix my computer and now its running like new with new beefier memory. I can’t thank enough these guys for saving my computer. I definitely recommend these guys for your computer needs.
Thanks guys!

Customer service was borderline. The clerks that served me had a difficult time listening to anything I said when describing my problem.
Computers are a big part of our livelihoods these days; businesses should be sensitive to that.

I saw these guys at this year’s Mini Maker Market 2014. They went through a demo and a presentation on how a computer is recycled. I was looking for a place like this and was in the back of my head, therefore, it was cool that there was a presentation. I have an old netbook that isn’t working, therefore, it’s on my things to do list to get it checked out. Look out for an updated review, however, in the meantime in regards to their presentation at the festival I found this to be very informative and an eye opener.

These staffers are knowledgeable and trustworthy.
I brought my Samsung laptop in after a friend’s child destroyed the case around my monitor.
They fixed the case at a reasonable price. I was so happy to have my laptop back.
Here’s what I wrote based on my first interaction with the Hackery.
For any repair specialist, I seek out two qualities: Expertise and trust. The Hackery offers both. And they’re friendly and not stingy with their time.
I brought in my old HP5690y, which had given me the blue screen of death. Before opening it up, the guy at the front desk told me that that model had a particular problem with capacitors. He opened it up and then showed me how the capacitors were bulging, a sign of damage. He said it wasn’t worth it to fix it and that I was better off getting a new PC.

Took my virus infected laptop in on a Sat, said 3 – 4 bus days. So called on Thurs and was told hard drive was going bad and screen cable defective which was causing screen to go from bright to dark (knew that and told them when I dropped it off but was using an external monitor so no problem). Guess they might have called by Fri. Picked it up and was told better to get a new one, no charge for looking at it. Decided to try #2 on the list and dropped it off on a Fri. Was totally repaired and ready the following day! Even fixed the screen, maybe loose connector. Same price. So don’t give up if you get bad news!

This morning at 5 am my laptop stopped working. It’s a big writing weekend, our IT guy is away and I couldn’t reach his replacement. Serenity now! Serenity NOW!
Since Google is our friend, I enquired and The Hackery was recommended, via Unilocal.I called and received good problem-​solving over the phone.
I arrived and received good assistance and a temporary solution to the problem which will get me operational until my IT guy can look at the laptop.
For their trouble, they charged me $ 5 for a part.
The whole thing took maybe 10 minutes.
I will be back if/​when this type of circumstance occurs again… I’m adding The Hackery to the referral list and will recommend highly.
Much gratitude…

These guys are truly the best. I feel like my computer is totally safe with them — they’re not trolling through, looking for naked pictures. They would be sorely disappointed in mine, not because they don’t exist but because I don’t look that good naked. But anyway, I truly, truly recommend these guys for anything from a broken key or button to a totally dead laptop that they can pull all these nostalgic (and probably) naked photos of you and recycle the crap out of what remains. 5 stars _+++!

Could not recommend this place more highly. The best computer repair in Vancouver, a mere couple blocks from the worst in Canada (Excel Electronics, fuck you Terry Assad you slimy malignant cunt)
Friendly, knowledgeable, and holy-​shit fast. I dropped off my non-​functional monitor at a couple hours to closing, by the time I woke up the next day there was a voice mail saying it was fixed and ready for pick up at my convenience.
If there was a 6 star rating possible I would give it. Unfortunately there’s not, so just go there and see for yourself why they are the top rated repair facility on Unilocal.Very fair pricing as well, especially for this kind of speedy repair.

Soooooooo glad I found The Hackery! I will be telling everyone I know about them. I wish everyone conducted business like this. You can tell that they are doing what they love. Honest, easy going, professional and competent. My hard drive failed last week. Dropped it off Friday around noon and picked it up at the end of their next business day. I respect and appreciate that they are all about recycling and repairing. I highly recommend them. A quote from their website: «The Hackery has a simple philosophy: if we can’t repair it, we won’t charge you! You can expect a detailed explanation of what is wrong with your computer, and a down-​to-​earth opinion of what should be done.» Also be sure to read the _​_​reviews not recommended at the end. I don’t know why they are not. As of writing this 16 out of 19 are 5 star reviews. They are what convinced me to go to The Hackery.

Upon entering The Hackery, my first impression was that this place has a very simple layout: a big table for diagnostics/​cash register on the left hand side and products available for purchase on the right hand side (old monitors, cables, keyboards, etc.). The employees seem like they’re all high school/​college buddies that opened a computer shop together — here’s the twist: each one of them is friendly, attentive, fast!
After reading the other reviews and looking at their website, I decided to give The Hackery a try since my Reverse Camera LCD Monitor (or so I thought it the was the monitor…) was no longer functioning. After the technician looked at the monitor, it turns out that the plug car adapter was malfunctioning not the monitor itself (major relief!) The technician was able to repair it in less than 5 minutes and only quoted $ 20 (compare that to buying an entirely new monitor system…).
I’m happy that they were able to help me out even though it wasn’t strictly a computer/​electronics problem. Nonetheless, these guys know what they’re doing but importantly, they know what they’re doing and how to treat customers. Excellent work guys!

My experience at The Hackery was professional, friendly and honest. I needed to remove adware from my computer and opted to pay the rush job fee. When I picked up the computer the guy said that there was no reason to charge the rush as he had the time during regular hours. I’m a customer for life!

Straight-​forward, clear and honest.
I called the hackery looking for information. I wanted to know what I could to speed up my old laptop. I was considering more RAM and an SSD — and was willing to buy it from them and pay for labor.
The person I spoke with didn’t miss a beat. He knew the exact model I was talking about, the specifics of how to update it depending on my existing setup, and was considerate to my level of knowledge about computers. He informed what my best option was, the cheapest way to go about it and never tried to push me to buy anything. He also didn’t rush me through the whole thing as many shops will do.
Highly recommend these guys from this brief experience.
The Hackery!

I’ve tried many computer repair places in my years in Vancouver, and The Hackery beats them all by miles. They are:
Skilled
Friendly
Attentive
Community-​minded
Interested in saving you money if possible
Fast
Very, very reasonably priced
I’ve come here for two computer repairs and one purchase. The first repair cost $ 1850 less than we were quoted by two other data-​recovery places, and the second repair they did while I watched, and then they didn’t even charge me (it was a silly thing on my part: one piece of bloatware was slowing my computer to a crawl).
The purchase was an amazing deal. They sold me a 15″, 2011 MacBook Pro for $ 750. When the touchpad proved to be defective, they took it in the next day and had it replaced — at no cost — in under an hour. They also took a moment to correct a problem I’d asked them about. It had nothing to do with the computer itself (it was an issue with Chrome), but he looked it up and found the fix, and got rid of an annoying pop-​up for me.
Highly recommended.

The service is so fantastic! Everyone is extremely wonderful and helpful.
As an architecture student, my laptop is my baby. They fixed the power jack problem on a gaming computer. The price is also unbeatable!
If you need anything fixed, just give this place a try. Won’t be disappointed!

Fantastic. We had a seriously run down 2008 iMac, took it in and told them what was going wrong. After diagnosing it as needing a new graphics card, we were quoted $ 300 for the work and the part replacement, but here’s the cool part, they said they were going to try to get that cost lower. (Previously, when inquiring with other professionals, we were told it would be the entire logic board and quoted at $ 900.)
We were that it would be done in a week, and in reality they called us three days later to come pick it up. And then when we went to pick it up, they only charged $ 150 plus tax!
So pleased. The iMac is happy and ready to get back to work. :) I cannot recommend this place enough. Affordable, fast, knowledgeable, all around awesome!

The staff were friendly and attentive, and bought my fried mac book without any problems, at the same quote we discussed over the phone. Although it was worth hardly more than the power source to me, the book was seven years old. I guess you can find a use for anything…
They did not have much of a store front, and seem to specialize in parts and repairs. I would go here to donate your used bits and bytes to them, even if they can’t purchase or fix what you have.
When your electronics need repairs I would see if they can’t fix the bits that get broken while you’re saving your bytes too. They are even next door to free geek, for all your laptop and electronic peripheral purchasing needs…