RIPOFF- Headlee Motherboard Repair Service

[neilslade]

This guy is all over the web rumoured as a motherboard repair expert-- The guy is a swindler and a liar in my experience- which goes beyond dreadful....

Gary Headlee Motherboard Repair Service Midvale Utah

My story

If anyone has a Gary Headlee experience to share, let me know
neil@neilslade.com I am pressing charges of mail fraud and theft

Report by Neil Slade

www.NeilSlade.com



CONCERNING THEFT OF SERVICES and THEFT OF $50 for alleged repair- not produced- for video card by

Gary Headlee Motherboard Repair


Gary Headlee
692 Lennox St.
Midvale, Utah
84047
801-567-9150

Gary Headlee Motherboard Repair ripped me off $50 for a "claimed" repair of my ATI 9700 PRO video card, and further made me wait over SIX WEEKS before the card was returned to me, still non-functional. The card is valued at around $200, with a new replacement ATI card costing nearly $300. The card also was fitted with a Zalman silent heat sink valued at $40.

He apparently lied, and made conflicting repair stories about the card on two occasions-- first stating that "I've already spent a couple of hours on your card and haven't figured out what is wrong". See the actual email regarding this below.

Then several weeks later, apparently forgetting his first story, stating, "Your card works fine, I couldn't find anything wrong, but will let it run for a while to make sure its okay."

When the card was finally returned to me after repeated phone calls over a SIX WEEK period, it was still not operational, and Headlee kept the $50 I had sent him in advance for the repair.

Use of another ATI card in my computer's AGP slot produces an expected monitor result without any adjustment. Use of the "repaired" card produces absolutely NOTHING on the monitor- the card is DEAD. All of my motherboard's latest drivers and chipset drivers have been installed. It's not my computer- its the card- it's DEAD and Headlee LIED about it working on his inspection- for all I know, that never even occurred. Independent inspection of the card by a professional computer repair technician on the following day it arrived here substantiated that the card was still not operational.

I discourage ANYONE from doing ANY business with Mr. Headlee and instead encourage simple replacement of a broken motherboard, or use of warranty if available.

Headlee asks for CASH PAYMENT or MONEY ORDER payment for "repairs", yet

1) does not give a phone number on his web site,

2) uses an un-listed untraceable anonymous registration for his web page that does not have any contact information

3) Apparently refuses to reply to any email communications except under threat of law enforcement.

CASE HISTORY:

JANUARY 4, 2005

The first week of January 2005 I sent in my video card for repair after viewing Headlee's web site at

http://www.motherboardrepair.com/

It looked like a respectable web site, and well documented. I sent Headlee an email regarding my possible card repair, but did not receive a reply.

None the less (and a VERY STUPID MOVE, I must admit) I followed the instructions on the web site for video card repair and sent. I sent it in with delivery confirmation via priority mail on Jan 4, 2005, and the requested $50 repair fee in cash- the excess which would be refunded if the repair did not require a lot of work.

The web site stated 1-2 day turn-around for repairs.

Delivery confirmation showed that Headlee received the card two days later on Jan 6.

JANUARY 17, 2005

After waiting TWO WEEKS and not receiving ANY replies to my emails, nor receiving my card back, or ANY COMMUNICATION whatsoever, I set out to find a phone number for Headlee.

Headlee's phone is untraceable, and unlisted, and can not be found anywhere on the Internet.

My last resort was to call The Midvale Utah Police and report what had happened. They instructed me to contact my local Denver Police and report THEFT OF SERVICES. They then told me to have my local police contact them, and they would contact Headlee if possible and look into the matter.

My local police then contacted the police in MIDVALE UTAH, who then contacted Headlee immediately- and FINALLY apparently under threat of law enforcement action he contacted me by phone. He then offered a number of excuses why he had not looked at my card yet. He then said he would look at it in 3-4 days and would email me with the results. This was around January 17.

A week went by and Headlee made absolutely no contact again.

FEBRUARY 4, 2005

I began sending a series of emails to Headlee's email address (from his web site) capman@att.net since he did not leave a phone number when he called back.

After sending at least a dozen emails, and finally an EXPRESS MAIL TRACKABLE LETTER DEMANDING RETURN OF MY CARD Headlee finally replied with an email, and left his phone number.

I then called him to see what was going on, and he claimed to have already spent a couple hours working on my card, but to no avail, and that he would try to complete work on it in the following week.
Here are his original emails sent to me on Feb. 4:


----- Original Message -----
From: capman@att.net
To: Neil Slade
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 5:47 PM
Subject: Re: WHERE IS MY VIDEO CARD PLEASE?

I do understand the way you feel (I have been in the electronics repair buis for 35+ years), will do my best to stay in contact and repair your card.
Working out of the home has some big drawbacks..... number one drawback is that the family doesn't think I am at work, so they ask questions & favors several times each work day, add a few freinds dropping by, an emergency or two and the day is gone with no real work produced. Today alone I spent 3 hours at the vet as a favor to my son and his sick cat............... If I add the vet bill alone with lost wages for the 3 hours...........the cat had more money this week than I did.

Sorry for the poor comunications,


Gary--
Don't forget to put my website in
your favorites:
http://www.motherboardrepair.com

My home phone # is 801-567-9150 I
am usually available between
10:30am ~5:30pm MST
Message -----




From: capman@att.net
To: Neil Slade
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 2:58 PM
Subject: Re: WHERE IS MY VIDEO CARD PLEASE?

Hello,
I tried to call you 2 times today, however the line was busy.
I have spent a couple of hours on your video card, the problem seems to be quite elusive.
I hope to make progress within a few more days.
Video cards take last priority over all my other work, that is the only way I can maintain a 2~3 days turn-around for my motherboard customers.
After I finish your card, I will no longer accept video cards for repair and will remove the video card section from my web page. You are correct, I am not able to provide a high quality of service for my video card customers and no hobby is worth having the police come to my door. I know of no-one else that even attempts to repair video cards...... now there will be none.

I will be home late this afternoon if you wish to call me,


Gary Headlee
--
Don't forget to put my website in
your favorites:
http://www.motherboardrepair.com

My home phone # is 801-567-9150 I
am usually available between
10:30am ~5:30pm MST



FEBRUARY 16, 2005

Still no card, no news from Headlee. I send him the following email, to which I receive no reply.
ATI 9700 Pro card with Zalman cooler


Dear Gary,

Its now been SIX WEEKS since my video card arrived at your home for repair-

Please return it today, repaired or not, and send a delivery confirmation tracking number.

If the card is not repaired, kindly return my $50 cash.

I will expect to see my card delivered here by Saturday latest.

Thanks
Neil Slade
303-399-0418



I finally got Headlee to answer his phone, and he said my card would be looked at right after he finished his current other repair job. There was no mention of his claimed previous "couple of hours spent on the card repair" from January.

I called two days later- and Headlee had STILL NOT TRIED TO REPAIR MY CARD. His excuse this time was "I had to spent the weekend with my girlfriend for Valentine's Day". He said he now would look at the card.

I called the following day, and Headlee claimed the card was working perfectly (no mention of any work done save his claim that he spotted loose solder connections that day, which he claimed to repair.) There was no claim or mention of previous "couple hours work", since he apparently forgot his previous email and claim that he couldn't get the card to work. He said he would let the card run for a while to make sure it was okay, and then send it back.

The card arrived via priority mail on February 19, 2005 forty five days after it arrived at his home.

The card shows no evidence of repair of solder connections anywhere, and the card still does not function. This has been confirmed by an independent professional computer repair tech- the card is DEAD, still.

Headlee sent no email explaining the so-called repair, sent no invoice, and kept the entire $50 cash sent to him by me.

I have demanded the full return of my $50 payment, as there is no mention of a $50 diagnosis fee for an un-repaired card by Headlee on his site.



If anyone has had similar experiences with Headlee, please contact:

neil@neilslade.com

Denver, CO

[Dave Rave]

my video repai shop that did my boards, has stated up front on the lodgeing form, that there is $40 to cover diagnosing, and it might feel like a rip-off, (which is why i don't do it) but if he spends time looking, shouldn't he get paid for that time.?

I can spends hours trying to diagnode computer faults, and feel guilty when i'm offered money for my time, when I don't think i have achieved much.

check your paper work, remember buyer beware. ask around, and also, sit on your butt before flaming away. it saves embarassment in case he comes back later with a good offer and proves himself right.

but if he's a shonk, for real, nail his hide high!!!

[neilslade]

I've got no argument for somebody stating upfront:

Pay in advance, $50 diagnose non-refundable, will apply towards repair.

What I got was a six week wait after being told a 1-2 day turnaround, no communication whatsoever until the police called the guy and asked him what was going on there, excuse after excuse, two contradictory stories about the status of my repair, then return of my card- being told "It works fine", having it arrive in a completely non-functional state, and losing my $50.

No, this is not acceptable in any way.

[hyperspace]

Here's a comment from someone else who used Gary's service. This is the only other comment I have found on our site (so far...).

http://www.bp6.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=1895

[neilslade]

I am sure Headlee has done good work in the past per comments.

The big question is when exactly did he lose all his morals and work ethics?

Carey Holzman runs a pretty big computer site, and in the past has posted links to Headlee's page.

He sent me this note after he looked at what happened to me and contacted Headlee himself--

I had an ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIC experience with Gary Headlee

details here:
http://www.neilslade.com/headlee.html

in summary

I sent $50 cash and my video card
Gary never acknowledged any receipt of card or money for two weeks (this after posting 1-2 day turn around)
He never contacted me until finally the police got in touch with him asking where my money and card were (two weeks after sending)
I didn't get my card back until SIX WEEKS LATER
IT WAS STILL COMPLETELY BROKEN
HEADLEE KEPT MY $50

A third independent computer tech verified that no work had been done on the card the day after it arrived back.

Never again will I pay for a repair in advance. This guy is scum.

Carey Holzman, computer website www.careyholzman.com removed all links pointing to Headlee's page when I gave him details of the kind of treatment I got. He now points all links to my web page and sent me this note as well:


----- Original Message -----
From: "Carey Holzman" <Carey@careyholzman.com>
To: "'Neil Slade'" <neil@neilslade.com>
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2005 12:20 PM
Subject: RE: Ripoff- Gary Headlee Motherboard Repair


> HI Neil.
>
> Thanks for the update. I'm sorry that all this has happened. How did you
> find Gary in the first place? Was it on my web-page?
>
> I've received a reply from Gary and I find it unsatisfactory. I have sent
> him a reply, however, I doubt he is going to have a change of heart.
>
> I would suggest you wait no further and proceed with filing charges against
> him. Do whatever you can to wake him up to the responsibility he owes to his
> customers.
>
> While he appears to be a very talented technician when it comes to fixing
> motherboards, he has no clue how to fix people, and that's 50% of running a
> business. Now he can spend even more than your refund defending himself,
> requiring time taken away from other money-making work, and reducing the
> work as people learn of this story and take their business else where.
>
> In short, he is unwilling to invest $50 in his business, which to me, is a
> sign of someone planning to shut the business down. To stand by a policy he
> has, that you did not sign or agree to, rather than just make the customer
> happy, is to me, immature and irresponsible. I have a conscience and I have
> no idea how he can sleep at night.
> I have changed the motherboard repair link on my page to redirect to
http://www.neilslade.com/headlee.html

> I am also going to black-out his name on the articles that appear on my site with his name in them.

Unless he has a change of heart, this is how it will stay.
Thanks again for bringing this to my attention.

Carey
www.careyholzman.com

[davd_bob]

If anyone has a Gary Headlee experience to share, let me know
neil@neilslade.com I am pressing charges of mail fraud and theft

............

If anyone has had similar experiences with Headlee, please contact:

neil@neilslade.com

Neil,
You have asked that others reply and is seem that you have posted a few on your own website. I think you can consider your work here is done.

I would suggest that you might want to clean up the last part of the article that this link points to.
http://www.neilslade.com/headlee.html
The maybe 100 repitions of the name then the active link then the services provided...takes away from the professional apearance of your efforts.

Thanks for the heads up.
David

[hyperspace]

If anyone has a Gary Headlee experience to share, let me know
neil@neilslade.com I am pressing charges of mail fraud and theft

............

If anyone has had similar experiences with Headlee, please contact:

neil@neilslade.com

Neil,
You have asked that others reply and is seem that you have posted a few on your own website. I think you can consider your work here is done.

I would suggest that you might want to clean up the last part of the article that this link points to.
http://www.neilslade.com/headlee.html
The maybe 100 repitions of the name then the active link then the services provided...takes away from the professional apearance of your efforts.

Thanks for the heads up.
David

(ditto...)

[neilslade]

David, and others,

After many days of posting my experience with Gary Headlee on the web, and with additional encouragement from Carey Holzman, I finally received an email from Headlee and he sent a further apology and informed me that he would be refunding my money in full in a few days. Once the money is received, I will remove my web page as well as notify bulletin board posts that the incident has been resolved--- admittedly after considerable effort on my part publicizing what happened to me on a grand scale.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

As for the multiple repeats of "Gary Headlee Motherboard Repair" "Motherboard Repair at the Component Level" etc on the bottom of the page, there is a distinct reason for this. MSN Search and other search engines list search rankings based on part on key words and the frequency in which they occur on a page. This was my insurance that this information be listed at the top of any search that would bring up Headlee's service. I was (am) determined that this kind of event no happen to anyone else, and apparently I was successful.

I'll remove the entire page once my refund is in my paypal account anyway, and Headlee follows up on this promise, so its a mute point at this stage.

Thanks for everyone's support, especially Carey Holzman who went out of his way to moderate a satisfactory solution.

Neil
www.NeilSlade.com

[davd_bob]

As for the multiple repeats...on the bottom of the page, there is a distinct reason for this. MSN Search and other search engines list search rankings based on part on key words and the frequency in which they occur on a page. This was my insurance that this information be listed at the top of any search that would bring up Headlee's service.

Now THAT was an effective method of putting pressure where you wanted it.

Add a post when you get the refund.
Just don't get your hopes up on great speed. It could take a month or more for stuff like this to happen, although your article popping up on web-searches could help speed things along.

Good luck.

[neilslade]

Gary made good on his promise and refunded my repair fee in its entirety to me yesterday along with an apology for taking so long to get around to resolving the issue.

Many thanks to Carey Holzman www.CareyHolzman.com who went out of his way to help encourage my refund with Gary.

I have heard from a couple of other people who have had satisfactory and good repair work done by Headlee previously.

I wish him the best in his businessness from this point on.

I know as a self-employed business person it is easy to miss things and get behind, but I know it is also crucially important to quickly acknowledge errors made and to treat every customer fairly.

*********

Per web page postings, actually the search engines have greatly speeded up their references to new websites-- Google showed search results within days to all of my posts.

www.NeilSlade.com
The Amazing Brain Adventure
500,000 hits a month- check it out.

Neil

[neilslade]

Unfortunately, since my own case was resolved after consderable effort, a

>>PATTERN of missing cards, cashed checks and non-comuunication by Headlee has emerged from other persons dealing with him.

New details are updated here:
http://www.neilslade.com/headlee.html

And on top of this, headlee has used my name without permission in HIDDEN HTML tags on his website home to drive traffic to his site!

see http://www.neilslade.com/headlee2.html

Alas, my case was not an isolated one.

[neilslade]

Unfortunately, since my own case was resolved after consderable effort, a

>>PATTERN of missing cards, cashed checks and non-comuunication by Headlee has emerged from other persons dealing with him.

New details are updated here:
http://www.neilslade.com/headlee.html

And on top of this, headlee has used my name without permission in HIDDEN HTML tags on his website home to drive traffic to his site!

see http://www.neilslade.com/headlee2.html

Alas, my case was not an isolated one.

[neilslade]

I removed my web pages about Gary Headlee after negotiating a "truce"- and neither of us posts a web page about each other.

Nevertheless, I have heard from other people who have suffered the same fate of missing cards and money as late as September 2005.

The guy is still up to his same tricks.

Please people

DO NOT send money or equipment to ANYONE who does not give a phone number, nor answers email.

This is your lesson.

As for Headlee-- what else can I say.

Neil Slade

[Derek]

Good work Neil.

[neilslade]

Yes, it's now 2006 and as late as last week I still hear from people unfortunate enough to send money to Gary Headlee.

Again, I am sure he has some satisfied customers-- but then there's the other group.

A fool and his mailed money is easily parted.

Take care.

[Derek]

Wow!

And welcome back, Neil