Cell phone and computer repair shop owner AMA

[DrDeezRespect]

I own and operate a cell phone and computer repair shop. Ask me anything! 

[da na]

1 minute ago, DrDeezRespect said:

I own and operate a cell phone 

Most people do nowadays, yeah

 

 

Jokes aside, how frequently do people come in with problems literally just requiring a software update rather than hardware fix? I've had many iPhone owners come to me to "upgrade their phone storage" because their 5GB iCloud is full, etc.

[DrDeezRespect]

2 minutes ago, da na said:

Most people do nowadays, yeah

 

 

Jokes aside, how frequently do people come in with problems literally just requiring a software update rather than hardware fix? I've had many iPhone owners come to me to "upgrade their phone storage" because their 5GB iCloud is full, etc.

Lol good one 

 

Its pretty common. I get at least a few older folk a day come in with "viruses" on their phones, which of course are just chrome notifications or random cleaning apps that I uninstall and send them on their way. 

[Godlygamer23]

58 minutes ago, DrDeezRespect said:

Lol good one 

 

Its pretty common. I get at least a few older folk a day come in with "viruses" on their phones, which of course are just chrome notifications or random cleaning apps that I uninstall and send them on their way. 

Do you charge individuals like that anything? Or do you just write it off?

[DrDeezRespect]

4 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Do you charge individuals like that anything? Or do you just write it off?

No I never charge for things like that. People are normally grateful for the free help and will buy a case or screen protector anyways. 

[Caroline]

Can you make a living out of that?

And say, how often do you have to fix what someone else broke inside PCs?

 

I have this curse upon me and people will ALWAYS call me as a last resort once they've tried every other "technician" in town, and because of this the PCs or appliances I get are "impossible" fixes that are time consuming and expensive for the client, it's never a botched MBR or a virus that are easy fixes but dying electronics causing reboots, water damage, dead bugs, things damaged or stolen/swapped (CPUs and RAM usually) by other technicians, I even got a computer with an obvious bullet hole in it once, but since this is a no-questions-asked business I never mentioned it to the client and he never said anything either... that's probably why I got a computer with an obvious bullet hole in it, went through the motherboard so there was no fixing that without replacing it, everything else worked just fine so I swapped board and patched the case.

Already have a job so I do that on the side, and it's not a shop but my basement

[DrDeezRespect]

10 hours ago, Caroline said:

Can you make a living out of that?

And say, how often do you have to fix what someone else broke inside PCs?

 

I have this curse upon me and people will ALWAYS call me as a last resort once they've tried every other "technician" in town, and because of this the PCs or appliances I get are "impossible" fixes that are time consuming and expensive for the client, it's never a botched MBR or a virus that are easy fixes but dying electronics causing reboots, water damage, dead bugs, things damaged or stolen/swapped (CPUs and RAM usually) by other technicians, I even got a computer with an obvious bullet hole in it once, but since this is a no-questions-asked business I never mentioned it to the client and he never said anything either... that's probably why I got a computer with an obvious bullet hole in it, went through the motherboard so there was no fixing that without replacing it, everything else worked just fine so I swapped board and patched the case.

Already have a job so I do that on the side, and it's not a shop but my basement

Yeah, in my area anyways, its good money. Enough to pay myself and an employee and be profitable. I'm looking into opening a few more locations this coming year. 

 

I don't get desktops too often unless its a build request, but when I do its usually pretty simple fixes and/or upgrades. (bad psu, dead hdd, bad ram, etc.) I do deal with water damaged devices (I use an ultrasonic cleaner) and offer device cleaning. I normally see the dead bugs and smoke residue in consoles. I don't think Ive ever ran across a device that had been shot lol. 

[TheLANguy]

Great to hear your shop is doing well! There are not as many independent repair shops as there used to.

How many people come into your shop asking about data recovery, how often is it too late?