Why Not Save a Few Quid with “Facebook” Repair Merchants?

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.

Still, that low, low price looks very tempting- working on the kitchen table and not declaring any tax keeps overheads down, after all! Everyone likes to save a bit of money, so why not choose them instead of a proper repair business? What could go wrong with that?

Quite a lot, unfortunately…

The Drawbacks

They Can Disappear Overnight Leaving You with No Comeback…

Recently there have been a number of cases where an (apparently) established repair merchant simply vanished from Facebook overnight. They’d been running a successful business with a good reputation for a number of years when suddenly their page started getting a lot of bad comments and they disappeared.

Why does this happen? Various reasons, but as we said, these “businesses” are often just informal side-jobs. The people behind them start out doing the odd repair and as time goes on start to get more busy, due to their cheap parts and prices. They realise phone repair isn’t as easy as it looks when they start getting more and more returns on faulty jobs. Of course, they don’t make any money on those, and they don’t have enough (spare) time to do the rest of the jobs either.

No reply? Maybe they’ve given up or cut their losses. At any rate, the business- and we use the term loosely- is gone and no-one can get in contact with them. Hang on, don’t they still have your phone?

…and No Phone

A lot of people are- at best- left with no warranty, or worse, the phone, tablet or device they left with them is now missing. If someone collected their phone, do they know where the business “premises” are? Do they even have a number, and can they get a reply anyway?

It often happens that people running these informal setups will get one of their mates to help out with the repairs. In this case, that same mate- who has your phone- is probably looking for repair guy to pay him, and repair guy is avoiding him because he’s skint. Are you going to get your phone back? Who knows?

Don’t trust the Facebook profile on that count either- anyone can slap a reputable-sounding name onto Facebook page. This doesn’t mean they can’t disappear or that the profile is real.

Service… What Service?!

We’re pretty good- we have the majority of straightforward repairs done the same day or- if they come in too late- early on the following day. On the other hand, if you leave your phone with someone doing repairs informally in their spare time, you might get it back a day or two later if you’re lucky. If not, it might be weeks or worse.

Other Dodgy Practices

Genuine phone parts are valuable. (We’ve heard of unscrupulous repair merchants who’ve swapped cheap, low-quality parts for the original ones in someone’s phone, then sold the latter for a nice profit.)

Their prices may be cheap partly because they’re not paying the usual business overheads like tax, VAT and insurance. However, it’s also because they’re usually using the cheapest parts they can find.

Since these are small, fly-by-night businesses, they usually don’t have an established relationship with a wholesaler. They’ll typically source cheap parts from eBay, which means they can’t offer a proper warranty on them or be sure they’re not getting bottom-of-the-barrel rejects.

Reputation… What Reputation?!

Genuine businesses will generally have a presence and repuation on many sites such as Google and Yell where it’s harder to suppress criticism. However, these one-man “companies” typically only exist on Facebook where it’s much more straightforward to hide bad reviews.

Even then, not all businesses are the same. You should look into how long the business has been going for, into any sign of an real-life presence beyond Facebook, their (genuine) reviews and reputation and what type of repairs they can do.

Can They Fix It Anyway? Er… Possibly Not

Most people behind these dubious Facebook-only businesses are- to put it mildly- not experienced. They might- on a good day- be able to replace your phone screen without inadvertantly damaging it, or possibly even solder a jack. But they’re unlikely to be much better than your average repair-it-yourself amateur and just like those amateurs, many find themselves quickly out of their depth if anything goes wrong that’s not straightforward.

On top of this, many tablet, phone and laptop repairs requires advanced and specialised equipment to carry out, and we can guarantee that someone working from their bedroom doesn’t have thousands of pounds worth of repair machines in there.

Warranty… What Warranty?!

What sort of warranty are they offering- and is it worth the paper it’s (not) written on? How long is it? Who can you return your phone to? What if the company disappears in a month’s time?

Does the company have a proper complaints procedure in place?

Basically, can you trust these people? If the “business” is someone you really don’t know operating out of his bedroom, somewhere, we’d err on the side of caution!

Conclusion

We’d say it’s worth paying a little extra for a legitimate repair business- money which ensures taxes and overheads are paid, money which goes back into the local economy, money which pays for a business with an established reputation.

We’re not saying you shouldn’t leave your phone with some random person doing repairs in their spare time on Facebook, but… well, okay, that’s exactly what we’re saying! However, the choice is yours…