TECH REPAIR - What Exactly is the Independent Tech Repair Industry? How Does Right to Repair Fit Into Things? And What About Hunter Biden's Laptop??!!
It has been awhile since I have had a chance to share my musings with the world about the tech repair industry. While 2020 has been a decade of a year, your friend, the WiGoMan has been busy diving deeper into the tech repair industry. In fact -- or just to sound dramatic - deeper than any human before him.
WHY THE HECK DO YOU KEEP CALLING IT THE "TECH REPAIR INDUSTRY" WiGoMan?
What was originally called the "Cellphone repair industry" has evolved greatly and continues to evolve each year -- although many are still stuck in the past. It reminds me of how computer repair people didn't want to repair cell phones when the market started to open up in 2007 (1st iPhone). Now many cellphone repair shops are doing computer repair and vice versa but many of them aren't really seeing what the potential of tech repair is going to be in the future (spoiler alert: it's going to be big).
New technology is hitting the shelves everyday friends. As repair people, if you aren't preparing yourself to fix it you are missing the forest for the trees. Almost all of it has a circuit board, a battery, and an operating system. Sound familiar?
This new generation of tech will provide more opportunities for repair, maintenance, support, refurbishment, and recycling than any other time in history. Many manufacturers are already trying to figure out how they will provide after sales support for this new generation of tech and they don't know you exist.
So, call yourself a cellphone repair shop if you want and align yourself with a trade association that is actively fighting against you (CTIA) or evolve!
WHY DON'T MORE PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT OR UNDERSTAND RIGHT TO REPAIR?
This one is on you repair people. Because the answer to the question above is apathy and selfishness. If you repair ANYTHING you should know about the right to repair movement. The companies that make stuff (OEMs) want to lock it down and force you to come to them to fix it -- cutting out YOU in the process. This is what we call a monopoly -- and I'm not talking about a cute board game that normally ends up with someone angry at what has transpired. You should be angry every day as repair people who are getting screwed by these powerful OEMs who DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU! If you give them power over you they will, at some point, get rid of you.
YOU need to learn about the right to repair issue and support it at repair.org. It's important and will determine whether you business rises or falls. Every industry has its advocacy issue(s) and repair is no different. Don't ever think that these powerful OEMs will not crush you in the blink of an eye. Stand alone or in small groups (franchise systems) and you will not stand a chance.
Look at what's happening right now in Massachusetts. Where a super powerful collection of car OEMs are spending more than $25million to defeat a right to repair initiative for independent repair shops. The OEMs are serious about the right to repair movement. Are you?
The good people who are volunteering their time at The Repair Association are helping to lead the important advocacy work of the right to repair movement forward, alongside U.S. PIRG, state by state across the country. Don't be hard of them, it took the Auto Care Association (in an almost $400billion industry) more than 10 years of hard work, collaboration, and negotiation to win the first battle for Right to Repair!
STOP WORKING AGAINST EACH OTHER AND WORK TOGETHER TO MOVE THE INDUSTRY FORWARD!!!
Here's the other thing repair people, you have got to WORK TOGETHER as an industry! All I have heard day in, and day out are repair people complaining about other repair people. It does nothing but bring the industry down. Work together and nothing can stop it.
If you want to be successful WORK TOGTHER to make the industry successful. A rising tide lifts all boats! By my estimation, the Tech Repair industry is worth at least $40billion a year but independent repair only gets a fraction of that pie. By working together as an industry tech repair people can take more of that pie. Do you know what that means? It means you make more money than you do now. Do you want to keep eating scraps or can you work with each other for a bigger slice of the pie?
The Restaurant Industry Works Together
The Real Estate Industry Works Together
The Construction Industry Works Together
The Accounting Industry Works Together
Even Lawyers Work Together
SERIOUSLY: Would you like to make more money?
THEN WORK TOGETHER AS AN INDUSTRY DUMMIES!!!
A united tech repair industry can work together to set standards and establish certifications that are fair for everyone. Standards and practices that help customers understand the industry better while promoting a better understanding of how he industry works. Put that all together and everyone's boat will rise!
TODAYS NEWS: Hunter Biden's Laptop
If you are not familiar with the story, here is a synopsis: A "repair shop owner" claims to have retrieved data (photos, video, email) from a MacBook Pro that someone dropped off at his shop for liquid damage repair but never came back for. They never got a name, contact info or any payment when it was checked-in to the shop. Then they claimed to have fixed it and tried desperately to find the owner. When they couldn't they decided it was better to download the retrieved data and leak it to the press -- in an effort to build confidence in their shops privacy policy for the community, I guess.
Let me say first that the whole thing is shady. Very Shady! But provides a few good lessons. So let me break this down into a few important points for those in the tech repair industry and for those outside looking in.
INDEPENDENT REPAIR IS BAD: Leaking personal data could have happened anywhere a human being is involved. It has happened at Apple, AT&T, the IRS, etc. So, let's not make this about independent repair shops.
NO ONE SHOULD LOOK AT MY DATA: If you need data retrieved from a device and don't want anyone to see it... have them close their eyes??? Seriously, it can't be avoided. When a tech is pulling data from a phone, computer or tablet they need to verify (quick peak) that it is there when they do the work (I'll talk about this is a future post to help clarify what should and should not happen and ways to protect yourself and your data).
NEVER CHECK-IN A DEVICE ANONYMOUSLY: No shirt, No Shoes, No Service. If I don't get a real name, a real phone number and a real email address I'm not working on anything. Most shops would never do this for liability reasons alone, much less worrying about who's going to pay you. Besides what kind of person leaves a $5,000 (+/-) computer without leaving contact info???!!!
REPORTING CRIMINAL ACTIVITY: If you work on a device and see child pornography on a device or any other obvious crime you should report it. If the police come to a shop with a warrant for anything involving a criminal case, you should provide whatever information they request. Outside of that a repair shop should NEVER take it upon themselves to take data from a device and give it to someone else or keep it for any reason.
REPAIR SHOP PRIVACY POLICIES: Every repair shop should post its policies in the shop and on their website. It is then incumbent on the customer to review said policies and ask questions. Shops should have a ZERO TOLERENCE POLICY for taking any data from a customer's device or sharing it in anyway.
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