As a Training Center Owner, I felt it necessary to share my view on the Biden Laptop story and our Right to Repair. I know that the story has not been verified and there is still so much in the air. However, true, or not, the wide read of this story will affect customers’ perceptions of repair shops, not all but a good bit of readers. This could be completely fake and the shop completely innocent or guilty, it will still affect people who read a story saying the shop shared private data. Social media has great power, no matter if the story is true or not, people will attach to it. I also want to say, never ever should a customer’s emails be read, photos be flicked through or data shared. No shops should be doing this and if you are, you are the problem with us getting more traction with eh Right to Repair. Run your business right, respect your customers, run a reputable business.

Articles to read:

DIY Techs/Business Owners

Are privacy and processes an issue at repair shops? Some yes, some no. We stress in class to our students that forms, processes, and privacy are the top concerns when starting your business. Every week we receive students from around the country in our Cell Phone Repair Training Courses. People who invest in themselves and want to learn the right way to open a repair shop. Not just guess and learn by trial and error on people’s devices using YouTube videos to start their business, like so many techs have. I know this is a touchy subject for some reading this, but this is my opinion on the correct path to opening a business, you have a right to yours as well.

Zero Professionalism

Many of students bring with them stories of local shops and their nightmarish way of running a business. These interactions created a drive in my student to want to open a proper repair business to service their community properly. Shops and mobile techs who run at half professionalism, some at zero professionalism, do more than ruin Right to Repair. These ‘techs’ create their own competitors on their journey. And Yes, even techs who have taken courses may have never followed the teachings and run rouge businesses to their liking. Maybe worse, the course does not even cover business, which we find to be true in most courses. CellBotics spends a full day on business and support after.

I believe at some point; this must be addressed. If the repair industry is to claim its value, it needs to have a set standard, or we will lose trust in our industry as a whole. Especially when this news article is so vastly read, it is not a good look, true or not. When opening a repair business, it is a serious venture. You are handling people’s sensitive devices, be it a computer, tablet or cell phone. You are giving the customer the perception you will care for their item properly and with privacy, and you should take steps to always do that. As most shops do run this way, we have hope.

Where do we draw the line?

With that being said, where do we really draw the line? I believe if a shop actually found pedophilia photos on a computer or phone, no matter who it belonged to, and turned them in, the shop would be hailed, rightfully so? Sometimes a shop can save a life by accident. Simply looking at a phone to test the device and you see a child in danger and you do the right thing? Or is it not the right thing to turn in? I only bring this up to say, it is a hard line to draw. Privacy is privacy, and people have a right to it, but when is it ok? Never? Maybe? Sometimes? If it was your child on a computer? Would you be more angry privacy was validated or that the shop did nothing? As a shop how do you swallow that vision and do nothing? These are really hard questions to answer. We all have our opinion, but what is the industry standard? None for cell phone repair. What should be done when shops do these types of things? With no standard, there is no process to follow. Should there be a special exception for things involving minors? Or is Privacy a top concern? You decide for yourself, I’m just provoking thought and contemplation on the larger issue.

CellBotics and Setting Standards

Here at CellBotics we do set the standard in Training and would love to see standards come out industry wide and be a part of it. We have the know-how and experience of what successful repair shops look like. We understand how important processes, paperwork, customer expectations, and everything else that goes along with that, means for the Right to Repair and our industry. But who leads the way on this? It seems Right to Repair is working at it on the government side for tools, but it would be nice to have a program that eventually could build customer recognition for shop standards, such as Wise is doing. As we fight for our Right to Repair, us as an industry, have nothing showing we deserve it. We go to the court dates and push that we deserve access to these tools and other items, yet stories like these come out giving the manufacturers more fighting power.

Let’s make the change!

If you are reading this and have the same desire, let’s connect! Customers need to know when they come to a shop, what to expect, and that this expectation will be met. Below id, like to share some of the stories we have dealt with, just so you can see the extreme issue with no standard, and no proper training for owners, and technicians alike. As people on YouTube hail that DIY learning is the way to open a business, I beg to differ. Not every new business owner is savvy enough or has the know-how to properly interpret a video. In-person, hands-on, real-life training will always be best for our field, in my opinion. This is especially true when a course is laid out to take you from 0-100 the proper way, not just using your search bar. Really, how can you search for a term when you don’t even know it exists.

Nightmare story 1:

A graduate of ours told a customer from his state to contact me personally. When I spoke to her this is what happened. She went dropped her, under financing, iPhone X and it stopped powering on, had no crack on the glass, not sure of OLED was cracked. She first took it to a Batteries Plus and they said they tried a screen and battery but said they did not know what was wrong with it that those 2 parts did not repair it. They did not charge her anything. She then took it to a local shop who told her to leave it for a day or so they would diagnose it and call her. She paid $100 upfront at that moment.

Two days passed with no call, so she called and was told it was still in the queue. She waited 3 more days and called and was told they were still working on it and did not know yet what was wrong with it. She waited 4 more days and again, no call, so she went in. When she showed up, she was told they could not locate her device. After her getting upset they brought out an open, cracked, iPhone X.

They told her it was her phone. She said, where is my screen. Their response was, QUOTE: “Your phone doesn’t work anyway, why do you need a good screen, we kept it to reuse”. She was very upset but did not know her rights or what she could do. She asked for a refund and was told no refund is their policy, she paid for their time. She then reached out to our Trained Tech to went over the situation with her and he agreed it was so bad he wanted to bring in someone to help. When I spoke with her she was in tears. She still owed money on the phone and felt lost and abused. I told her to mail me the device. My micro soldering trainer and my self-examined the phone.

This device looked to be a practice device. Multiple items were improperly soldered together, chips misaligned, and cables broken. To top it off, this was not her board, the device was locked and blacklisted. We, unfortunately, could not do anything for her but sent her device back to her free of charge. She vows to never use a shop again that is not certified by CellBotics.

Nightmare True Story 2:

A new student shows up to class with his device. The device is the reason he is opening a store. He went to his local mall to get his iPhone 7 plus screen repaired. The phone worked perfect before the repair. When he went to pick it up the home button was not working, and he only had an on-screen button. The shop told him, that is normal, every iPhone 7 button doesn’t work after repair. He said ok, thank you, and left. He felt strange about it and let to do some research. Comes to find out that was NOT true. He returned to ask the shop to repair the button or to give him a refund. They refused and called the cops on him. He felt so taken advantage of, his new goal, is to take the shop out of his community.

Nightmare story 3:

A student of ours came in, she is in her 70s. She had taken her iPhone 8 Plus for a screen repair. She was not asked to do any forms. The person said “OK be right back that’s $159”. When the tech came back her phone was back to original settings as if it had been restored. She said, where is my photos, I really needed those and my phone numbers. The tech/customer service rep said “Of when a screen is replaced we have to restore the phone, you have iCloud just log in”. My student told them she had never used iCloud, but could they help her set it up to get her items back. They told her it had to have been done before the repair and that she should have asked when she brought the phone in. She was so upset at the loss of her information, she came to class, and she and her family are opening a shop.

Not so nightmare story 4:

A student of ours told me why he came to class. He has a Samsung S7 and when his glass cracked, he wanted it fixed. He went to all 4 stores in his area. All said something either, they are too hard, too expensive, or unable to be repaired. He did some research and found out this was not true. He even asked a store about refurbing the OLED and removing just the glass and was told on speakerphone in class “this is not possible, it’s not cost-effective, too time-consuming and very low quality, you don’t want that repair”. If you do refurb, you know this was just the shop who was not able to refurb and wanted to scare the customer to close the sale.

In conclusion

I could go on for days with stories you’d not believe. Things I have even seen with my own eyes. As I stated, I’d love to be apart of creating a program for shops and mobile techs alike, where they could get a badge certifying their processes and that they meet a guideline, as CompTIA A+ does with computer techs (CompTIA A+ also covers phones in some areas). Maybe then it would have saved the laptop issue from happening or maybe not, who knows. I’m sure depending on which side of the fence you are on you have your own opinion on this story. I’m not really poking at the story itself, but I see more of the issue it brings up as far as an industry-wide issue, true story or not.

We hope to see you in our class and that you start properly in your repair business. Nothing can be better than to have a partner like CellBotics on your business journey. I hope to see you at our new location soon! Atlanta GA Jan 2021!

Nicole Russell CellBotics Cell Phone Repair Trainer

Check out these pages:

https://cellbotics.com/cell-phone-repair-training-reviews/ , https://cellbotics.com/cellbotics-partnership-and-icracked-partnership/ , https://cellbotics.com/videos-from-the-trainers/ or Register for our class here: https://cellbotics.com/cell-phone-repair-courses-all-schedules/ and be sure to signup for our Ebook and discounts: https://cellbotics.com/cellbotics-landing/

biden hunder privacy repair repair to repair

Hunter Biden Laptop Story and our Right to Repair