Gadget Tree Tech Services

Employee of the month, every month, despite never fixing anything and showing no sign of starting.

Some of you have already met Rue. If you haven't, come on in and say hello. She loves all the attention she can get.

Somewhere in town there's a kid who has spent all August insisting they aren't nervous about their first day at Journey. Someone else is walking into their last year at EMCS. A parent is about to rediscover the 7am negotiation. And a laptop that hasn't been opened since June is about to be asked to do a full day's work.

That last one is our department. If it's given up over the summer, bring it down and we'll sort you out one way or another.

Good luck to everyone heading back next week!

Someone put it better than we would have.

"Brought my 10 year old, slow-running laptop into this shop to see what could be done about it, if anything. The staff were very helpful, diagnosed the problem right away, and provided the fix at a very reasonable cost. Much less than a new computer would have cost me, plus the added bonus of keeping an old laptop out of landfill. They did the repair in a day and my laptop is now working like new. (If only it were that easy to get me working "like new" again, lol!) A great job and a great tech resource for this community! I highly recommend this business!"
— MA George, via Google

Always nice to keep a machine going a bit longer. Ten years out of a laptop is a good run! The landfill line in there is the part that sticks, because a laptop that keeps working is a laptop nobody has to figure out how to throw away.

Here's hoping that one is still going.

Little update on the hours for the next little bit. For the remainder of August (24th and 31st) and onwards until the 14th, we will be closing Mondays for maintenance (or Labour Day, in the case of the 7th)

Also, during the 2 week period of Monday, September 21st to Friday, October 2nd we will be closing at 4PM. Hours have been updated for this period on our Google listing as well.

Plenty of phones get written off on looks alone.

Cracked back glass, a frame that has been through a few too many drops, a screen that has gone dark and stayed dark, that is often damage sitting on top of hardware that is still perfectly good underneath. Generally speaking the parts that decide whether something is worth keeping are not the parts you can see.

We'd far rather bring one back into service than watch it end up in a drawer, and admittedly that is sometimes the answer that doesn't pay us, because now and then the honest read is that it isn't worth doing and we'll tell you that too.

If you've written one off, bring it in and we'll have a look at it with you.

Things stop working, and it's usually less serious than it looks.

A charging port that won't take a cable, a laptop that has slowed right down, a phone that was never really set up properly, that sort of thing is generally a smaller job than people expect. Alex runs the shop and is usually the one you'd end up talking to about it, most often in the same visit you walked in for, and often enough it's a same-day fix.

Here's hoping you don't need us. We're on the corner of Sooke and Church if you do.

Heading somewhere this summer?

Worth sorting out how your phone is going to work before you go, especially if you're leaving the country. Most people find out what their plan does and doesn't cover once they've already landed, and that's the expensive way to find out.

Sometimes your setup is already fine for where you're headed and we'll just tell you that – nothing to change. Sometimes there's a better way to handle it, and admittedly that's a much easier conversation to have before you leave than from a hotel lobby.

Either way you'll get a straight answer, in person, from someone in Sooke looking at the same screen you are.

Pop by before you head out and we'll go through it with you.

Not the sort of thing a shop usually brags about.

"Excellent service. Did not try to upsell anything. Instead, they suggested that my daughter's computer could be fixed instead of selling her a new one. Plus, they like my dog."
— Lynn H., via Google

That's the whole idea, really. If a machine still has life left in it we'd far rather keep it in service than sell you a replacement, and honestly it's a better afternoon all round when the answer turns out to be "this one's fixable."

Sometimes a repair makes sense and sometimes it doesn't, and we'll tell you which one you're looking at either way — including when that means you walk out without buying anything.

Thanks for trusting us with it, Lynn. Here's hoping that computer keeps chugging along for a good while yet.

(And yes, we like your dog. Rue's always happy to meet more of them!)

There's a sheet of plywood where our front door glass used to be, and lately a lot of you have stopped in front of it just to tell us you've got our back.

That's the part we want to talk about.

If you caught the news last week, you know it's been a rough stretch — seven break-ins now, five of them in the last few months. We won't pretend that's been easy. But every time it happens, the same thing happens right after: Sooke shows up. Neighbours have checked in, customers have come by on their way past just to say something kind, and other local businesses have quietly offered a hand — with repairs, with supplies, with the door itself — without being asked and without wanting anything back.

We opened this shop five years ago because we wanted to be useful to the people around us. You've turned that right around, and we're not sure we've ever felt more like part of this place.

Thank you, too, to CHEK News for telling the story with care.

We're staying put (we're stubborn like that), plywood and all. Come say hi — we'd love to see you.

Thank you, Sooke. We mean it.

If you've been into the shop, there's a good chance Alex was the one who helped you.

Alex is one of our two owners. He handles the computer and mobile side, and he's spent more than a decade in the wireless world.

East coast born, west coast raised. A car guy. And that friendly dog some of you have met on a visit? That's Rue. She's his.

Most days he's at the bench or up front, walking someone through whether a repair actually makes sense — or whether they're fine holding onto what they've already got.

If you've been in, you've probably already met him. If you haven't, say hi next time.

Thanks for supporting local here in Sooke. We appreciate it more than you probably realize.