Review of Lemon Computer

My laptop cursor was freezing up once in a while, so I took my laptop to "CHHIT Wornnarith, Ph.D" (according to his business card), the owner-operator of Lemon Computer (#143 Kampuchea Krom), who advised a new hard disk. He proposed to put in a new hard disk and transfer the content from my old hard disk. If I didn’t like his work, he would simply reinsert the old hard disk, my laptop would be as before, and I wouldn’t owe him any money. It sounded like I had no risk and this “Ph.D” sounded more credible than the other repair guys on Kampuchea Krom, so I accepted his proposal.

When I returned to pick up my laptop at the agreed upon time, CHHIT Wornnarith said the work was completed and invited me to check. I did and found 80% of the content (78 gigabytes) missing and the laptop’s left hinge broken. When confronted, CHHIT Wornnarith began to transfer more content from the old to the new hard disk. He also said that he didn’t “drop the laptop” (but did not deny that he had broken the hinge). When he couldn’t transfer all of the content, he reinserted the old hard disk, but it no longer worked.

He said my choices were to either take the laptop with the old hard disk, which no longer worked, and pay him nothing, or to take it with the new hard disk with still about 30% of the data and 2 irreplaceable programs missing and pay him for both part and service in full. As for the broken hinge, he said he doesn’t know how to fix it.

I had no choice but to take the second option. My laptop ended up with about a third of the content missing and a broken hinge, while CHHIT Wornnarith of Lemon Computer got all his money. What infuriated me all the more was his demeanor. He never apologized and showed no contrition. While uploading some of the missing data, he actually watched a Cambodian soap opera on his computer, laughing from time to time while I sat right next to him stone faced and fuming inside. From his non-chalant demeanor, it seemed that this isn’t the first time he pulled this on a foreigner.

Give him and his “Lemon” Computer a very wide berth.