Mentor Computers

Mentor Computers was a computer repair business founded by Leo Oja and his wife in about 1988. Leo's wife ran this business mainly, since Leo had a full-time job as a history teacher at St. Ignatius high school.

This small business lasted much longer than the other small computer shops that were founded in the 1980s and early 1990s in Thunder Bay, such as:

• Tamarack Computers in Port Arthur (in the same mall as Optical Factory)
• Thumbusters
• A store in Keskus Mall that sold Michael his first Sound Blaster [1]
• "Thunder Bay Computers" in Fort William, which was headed by a very grumpy man

It was, for a time, co-located with "Great Canadian Coffee Company" (aka Great Canadian Coffee House), which had resized following its departure as Great Northwest Coffee Company [2] [3] from a standalone building that was torn down and occupied by a Tim Horton's at 310 Memorial Avenue. The owner of Great Canadian Coffeehouse was Jeff Paxton, and the manager was Kerr Schmidt. [4] There was a renovation on the road outside the business in 2012 [5]

Employees:

• Jay Stapleton (circa 1999 - 2014)
• Geoff Holtby (circa 2012 - 2016)

As of 2001, it had the following staff:

• Anita Oja (Operations)
• Leo Oja (Educational Consultant)
• Shawn (A+ Certified Technician)
• Rick (A+ Certified Technician)
• James (Web Design and Promotion)

It occupied at least three locations over the years:

• 226 Van Norman St, a house, in the 1990s to early 2000s.
• 250 Algoma Street South, In the early 2000s out of another house, on Algoma, while it was colocated with Great Canadian Coffeehouse
• An office at Villa Square, 106 North Cumberland Street from about 2013 to 2016.

It closed in about 2016, likely due to long-term trends in the computer industry where people did not try to repair their computers and instead bought new ones.

For a Limited Time, with the purchase of one of our premium computer systems, we can offer you a Free Nokia 918 Cell Phone with no contract just email Jay Stapleton or call 345-1995 for more details.

Thank you for considering Mentor Computers as an option for your computer purchase. We hope you take the time to read the following important points.

This year marks Mentor's 11th year of operation in the industry. During the past decade we have helped a great many people realize that there is much more to a computer than buying a few boxes. We offer a wide range of computer solutions. We would be happy to give you a quote on a computer system of different configuration, make or model. Why are our clients happy to recommend us to their friends?? The answer is often our service. We provide the following to all of our clients . . .

This means that after you have purchased your computer, you may have questions or concerns about installing new software, e.g. you may have problems configuring a new game. Mentor clients breathe a bit easier in this regard, because they know that help is only one phone call away. We provide emergency technical support. Simply phone (807)473-8957 and leave your telephone number.

As a part of our complete service protocol, we assure that your computer is functioning properly and up to factory specifications.

With every computer package, we provide two free Introductory courses selected from our collection of courses which were designed specifically for our clients. These courses are taught at our new training facility and represent your "best bet" to avoiding the usual pitfalls that people may stumble across with a new computer. Our classes are scheduled are normally scheduled for Sundays and run from 1 PM to 4 PM. After having taken several of our courses, taught by one of our computer education specialists, you can rest assured that you are using your system properly.

We are the only computer specialists in Thunder Bay to have the P.H.D. Plus for testing computers. This device is put into all our new systems to guarantee that not one circuit is faulty.

Our technical staff are members of an elite group of technical professionals who have demonstrated their expertise as microcomputer service technicians by passing a rigorous set of examinations. They have earned the designation: "A+ Certified Service Technician". "The A+ Certification program logo is a registered trademark of The Computing Technology Industry Assocation. All rights are reserved".

— Wayback machine snapshot of the Mentor Computers website, circa 27 November 1999

Sources

http://thunderbay.foundlocally.com/Business/ViewCorp.asp?CorpID=104018