Who Are These People Really?
If you’ve been online long, you may have noticed a lot of obviously smaller repair businesses- usually local- who operate almost entirely through their Facebook page. We’re not talking about reputable established companies- such as ourselves!- who happen to have a Facebook page alongside a legal business setup with premises, employees, website, etc.
We’re talking about so-called companies that only exist through Facebook, with little sign of them anywhere else online… let alone in real life! That’s because most of them aren’t proper businesses- just a single person working from home though a Facebook page, usually in their spare time after working all day at their main job.
Why Not Repair That Smartphone, Tablet or Laptop Yourself?
Generally, when we set a price for a repair, we think it’s fair. We’re in business to make a profit- no apologies for that- but we aim to do so by providing a reliable service at a decent price.
From the customer’s point of view though, it might not always be so obvious why a certain repair costs that much. For example, they might compare what we charge with the cost of the equivalent replacement parts on eBay and notice a difference. Sometimes that difference might appear to be huge. “Hmm”, you’re maybe thinking, “those guys are raking it in- I can do that cheaper myself using an online guide”. Right…?
Diagnostic & Stripdown Charge- What You Pay For (and What You Don’t)
Although the majority of our repairs are successful, it sometimes turns out that it’s either impossible or impractical to repair some devices. Typically, this is because the damage is simply too great, because the parts are unavailable or because it’s likely to be uneconomic. Often the customer themselves decides not to go ahead with the repair (usually due to the potential cost).
Where this applies, we only charge a moderate diagnostics/stripdown fee. This is generally far lower than the cost of a full repair (£20* in most cases at the time of writing), and is intended to cover the cost of our technician’s time (and associated overheads) needed to track down and diagnose the problem.
