No Doctor in this House
Anybody ever tried the services offered by this site?
There's a "contact us" page with a phone number, but when I call it I get a message saying the subscriber's mailbox is full and not accepting any more messages. Red flag! A Web site that purports to sell 24/7 PC care services for $89 a year, and I can't get anyone on the phone at 11:29 a.m. on a Wednesday morning?
There's a physical address listed in Thornwood, N.Y., about a 15-minute drive from where I'm sitting -- but take a look at their corporate HQ. Google Maps places it in the middle of a street, a soccer field on one side, a parking lot on the other.
I found another phone number on the site, of Julia Udovyk, Senior Sales and Marketing Manager at LiveRepair.com, Inc. (Ask Dr. Tech bills itself as a service of Live Repair.com -- the number is (914) 729 6641 if you want to try it.) Different company, apparently, but same message: mailbox won't accept any more messages. Red flag number 2. Senior sales and marketing managers make their living being accessible. The more successful among them don't have full voicemail boxes.
Let's take a closer look at that parent company, LiveRepair.com. Not a bad-looking site, with a pretty complete "contact us" page. Let's dial the phone number. Red flag number 3...at 11:38 a.m. I get a recording saying "this number is temporarily unavailable." I get the same recording dialing the toll-free number.
More bad news for the Doctor: The Silicon Valley branch of the Better Business Bureau has a listing for an "Ask Dr. Tech," incorporated in San Jose, Calif., in 1999, naming William Lam as CEO and principal. The Ask Dr. Tech Web site lists a William Lam as its founder. The Silicon Valley BBB says Ask Dr. Tech has an unsatisfactory record for unresolved service complaints. The phone numbers listed as contacts for the company have been disconnected.