York computer business aims to provide customer service in high-tech world

It started in their garage and grew into a successful computer services business. Then Carol and Berry Chatas moved to York County, and decided to launch a new business in York.

The couple recently opened Affordable Computer Nerdz at 17 N. Congress St. in downtown York. The business is built on the foundation of Berry Chatas’ 25 years of experience with computers.

“I have a knack,” said Berry Chatas, 47, who started out working on computers for family and friends in the couple’s garage. When computers overran the space, and there was no room for their car, they opened a computer business in Winter Haven, Fla.

“I understand computers like no other,” he said. “For the most part, somebody could talk to me over the phone and I could pretty much tell them what’s going on with their computer.”

The couple ran their computer business in Winter Haven for eight years before they sold it and moved to York County. Berry did the technical side and Carol did some tech work as well as marketing, accounting and business managing.

But their life plans included a bigger picture. Berry was ordained as a minister last year, and the couple said they felt called to the Rock Hill area, where they live and plan to start a church.

Right now, Berry is doing an internship with Outbreak Church in Rock Hill, where they have been attending.

“We knew we needed to get jobs or start a business,” said Carol Chatas, 45. “We decided that starting another business is what we wanted to do, so we decided to get back into computers again.”

They scouted the area and learned there were already some other computer stores in Rock Hill, while there seemed to be a need in York, where they found a store location.

Carol Chatas said the business offers virus recovery and other types of computer repairs, including computer reloads, equipment replacement, networking and service contracts with businesses and organizations. They also custom build computers.

“If somebody comes in and they are working on a high-powered gaming system, they tell us the specs of what they need and we can build them a custom computer,” she said.

They work on both PCs and Macs, and also sell computers and related gear, she said. They also sell refurbished Macs, which are cheaper than new Macs.

Chatas said the most common computer problem is viruses. “People aren’t careful where they are going, and people aren’t keeping their virus protection up-to-date,” she said.

“Many times, viruses are so bad we end up having to reload computers and taking it back to where it was,” she said. “That’s basically wiping your computer clean and taking it back to the original settings.”

Carol and Berry both said they aim to offer a level of personalized service and assistance that’s not usually offered through a big box store.

“We’ll sit down with you,” Carol said. “We’ll show you, we take the time to work with you a little bit on things.”

Berry said he is working on a list of rates for services. He said rates depend on how much work is involved, and include virus recovery for $100 and a system reload for $90.

They plan to hire help as they need it.

“We are very much a Christian-based business,” she said. “We treat people like we would want to be treated. We want people to be happy. We are not in the business to make billions of dollars and take advantage of people. We try to be fair to people.”

Berry agreed. “You’re going to get me to help you out if you have an issue,” he said. “We believe in having a traditional style of customer service in a modern technology world. That’s what we try to do.”

This story was originally published August 28, 2015 at 4:10 PM with the headline "York computer business aims to provide customer service in high-tech world."