How many of you pc repair shops also fix phones/tablets?

[willscomputerrepair]

As the post says, how many of you pc repair shops have also started repairing phones/tablets? I started way back with the 1st iPhone and have been so glad. I've fixed various phones rarely before that, but ever since I have noticed in my area the shops that still only repair computers aren't getting as much business as if they were to adapt back then. What are your thoughts?

 

[Mick]

We don't touch phones, or not hardware issues anyway. There's way too many of them to keep spares in stock and there's precious little money in it either. Plus, this is an affluent area. When phones break, mostly people just get another one. YMMV

 

[mikeroq]

We attempted some iPad glass replacements but it didn't go to well. No phone or tablet work here hardware wise. I'm just not suited for such delicate work. Have to be extra careful too when removing the glass to not mess up anything else.

You really gotta have parts on hand. These cell phone shops for instance will have parts on hand for most if not all the most popular phones. People want to get their phone repaired FAST.

 

[Your PCMD]

I have a 3rd party that takes care of tablets. I do not do phones at all nor do I send them to my 3rd party.

 

[DMC Unlimited]

We did tablets and phones for a couple of years. It ultimately wasn't worth the hassle for us for what little we were able to make on the repairs. It wasn't drawing in high-quality clients for us either. Your area may offer different results.

 

[Big Jim]

iphones are pretty easy to repair, we are the only B&M in our local area (~12 miles) that do them now.
Profit is around £50 for 20-30min work, can occasionally take longer but I see that as no different to a standard laptop/pc repair.


other phones are mainly glued together, all glue is fairly easy to remove with a hot air station.
That said, we repair very little phones that aren't iphones, as either, the phone is cheap to replace and repair not worth it or they have a flagship phone from Samsung etc and the repair is too expensive (~£350 for the latest phones)


I would guesstimate that it makes up around 20% of our business at present.

 

[willscomputerrepair]

We attempted some iPad glass replacements but it didn't go to well. No phone or tablet work here hardware wise. I'm just not suited for such delicate work. Have to be extra careful too when removing the glass to not mess up anything else.

You really gotta have parts on hand. These cell phone shops for instance will have parts on hand for most if not all the most popular phones. People want to get their phone repaired FAST.

Thats correct, we keep screens, batteries, charging ports, etc. in stock for on the spot repairs. iPad screens are delicate in the start but if you keep at it it will get super easy for you. You learn the feel of it over time.

 

[willscomputerrepair]

We don't touch phones, or not hardware issues anyway. There's way too many of them to keep spares in stock and there's precious little money in it either. Plus, this is an affluent area. When phones break, mostly people just get another one. YMMV

I have to disagree, we do TONS of phone/tablet repairs. For those who would rather buy a new device, we carry phones in the shop as well.

 

[willscomputerrepair]

I have a 3rd party that takes care of tablets. I do not do phones at all nor do I send them to my 3rd party.

What keeps you from learning tablet repairs yourself? Also why don't you do any phone repairs? Just curious

 

[willscomputerrepair]

iphones are pretty easy to repair, we are the only B&M in our local area (~12 miles) that do them now.
Profit is around £50 for 20-30min work, can occasionally take longer but I see that as no different to a standard laptop/pc repair.


other phones are mainly glued together, all glue is fairly easy to remove with a hot air station.
That said, we repair very little phones that aren't iphones, as either, the phone is cheap to replace and repair not worth it or they have a flagship phone from Samsung etc and the repair is too expensive (~£350 for the latest phones)


I would guesstimate that it makes up around 20% of our business at present.

You are right about iPhones being easiest. For example, Samsung phones specially the edge versions are a little tricky to venture into repairing but you get the feel for it. Charging port repairs require you to lift up the screen to get to the soft touch buttons at the bottom beside the home button and if you aren't careful you will break the glass or lcd and that's no fun, but you learn how to not do that and get a successful repair. We do all make/model phones. Yes the new flagship phones are expensive to repair but there are tons of people who don't get insurance and are stuck with their device, or either have data in the phone that's not in the cloud that is worth to them to do the repair.

 

[pcservices]

We don't do phone repairs because there are so many little places in our area just for phone repair. We'll do screen replacements on ipads but haven't gotten into the phone stuff. Too much stock to try to keep and people expect the turnaround time to be instant so they generally don't want to wait for a part to be ordered in.

 

[Diggs]

Also why don't you do any phone repairs?

You mean fondle slabs? If you even nick the case when opening some owners go crazy. So many do nothing but fondle their phones all day long and will notice absolutely anything different. Not worth the risk in my opinion (although I have done some tablets under duress). That and there is no money in them. There is a kiosk in every mall doing phones for almost nothing.

 

[thecomputerguy]

You mean fondle slabs? If you even nick the case when opening some owners go crazy. So many do nothing but fondle their phones all day long and will notice absolutely anything different. Not worth the risk in my opinion (although I have done some tablets under duress). That and there is no money in them. There is a kiosk in every mall doing phones for almost nothing.

I posted this same thing a LONG time ago when a lot of techs were getting into phone repair when it was easy back in the iPhone 4 days. I refused to expand my business to do this. So much liability just to make $50 in a highly competitive market. I can't imagine having to explain to a client why they think their phone is running slower after I put a new screen in, or how that nick on the side of their phone was there before they brought it in, or how the phone is heavier now after I put a screen in. People have these devices in their hands all day every day and are highly critical of anything that changes with their device.

Then you have to stock all these parts because people cant be without their devices for more than a few hours, then you have to stock parts for the parts you will inevitably break while trying to repair something unrelated completely consuming any profit margin you had on it.

 

[lan101]

I posted this same thing a LONG time ago when a lot of techs were getting into phone repair when it was easy back in the iPhone 4 days. I refused to expand my business to do this. So much liability just to make $50 in a highly competitive market. I can't imagine having to explain to a client why they think their phone is running slower after I put a new screen in, or how that nick on the side of their phone was there before they brought it in, or how the phone is heavier now after I put a screen in. People have these devices in their hands all day every day and are highly critical of anything that changes with their device.

Then you have to stock all these parts because people cant be without their devices for more than a few hours, then you have to stock parts for the parts you will inevitably break while trying to repair something unrelated completely consuming any profit margin you had on it.

Yeah I remember one guy here not sure if he's still here....thinking his name was Chris up in Wisconsin somewhere made a pretty good go of cell phones...wonder how its going these days. Sprinter something I think was his technibble name.

With all phones being throwaway after 3-4 years tops anymore and that's if you take great care of it...I just don't see anyone wanting to drop much money in it...but I'm not everybody so who knows lol. I take great care of my phone, but I'd imagine all the single mothers with 5 kids are pretty reckless with their phones but they won't have much money to repair it either.

 

[mikeroq]

Yeah I remember one guy here not sure if he's still here....thinking his name was Chris up in Wisconsin somewhere made a pretty good go of cell phones...wonder how its going these days. Sprinter something I think was his technibble name.

SprinterTech-WI

Last active Dec 2018. Looks like he closed one of his stores though. Also looks like his other two stores are now franchises of CPR cellphonerepair.com

 

[lan101]

Yep that's right. Thanks for the update.

 

[Logjam]

For what it's worth, my store is one more data point for "nope, not worth it".

That said, there's one person in town who does JUST phones, and he gets referrals from the 4 competing computer repair stores, so there's a good chance that he's making decent money if he has a good workflow down, since everything eventually filters down his way.