WiGoMan Blog - Tech Care (Repair, Reuse, Recycle) Industry Leader

Okay, let's not call it a comeback but after not posting anything here for a little over two years I've decided to start posting about tech/cell phone repair again. Yea me! READERS : So what have you been doing the last couple of years WiGoMan? WiGoMan : Learning more about Tech Repair. A lot more, in fact READERS : What happened to that repair business you started back in 2010? Didn't you have something like 10 locations in the DMV area? WiGoMan : Long story short, after growing the WiGoClinic into ten locations across the DMV and repairing thousands of devices we hit our ceiling as a company. I wanted to take the company in a new direction but the staff just wasn't on-board. That's when I decided to sell the company and venture off on my own. Worked for a couple of repair companies and consulted with a few more. Now I'm consulting with repair companies and startups. Searching for the Next Big Thing! READERS : Cool... and what does that mean to us? ...

Be very, very quiet Apple is hunting repair shops! As reported by   MacRumors ,   9TO5Mac   and   TECHTIMES   the mighty Apple appears to be admitting that they can't handle all the device repairs that come into their stores and occur on a daily basis. They have opened more repairs to their   Apple Authorized Service Provider Program   that includes cracked iPhone screens. In other words, 3rd Party repair shops, there is a new competitor in town and they have hundreds of locations across the country. Surprise! Most of these places are not name brand shops (MBS, Inc, Sunrise Computers, etc.) but a lot of Best Buy locations are included and Simply Mac which has 72 stores nationwide. So now when you go on Apple's Support site and choose "Bring in for Repair" it will show customers these new locations and allow them to book an appointment online. Although it looks like they are still strained with the huge number of broken devices they need to serv...

Those in the Tech Repair Industry (aka, cell phone repair) all know that Apple has the lowest hanging fruit (get it?) in that the iPhone screen replacement is by far the number one repair in the industry. So much so that some repair companies don't even bother fixing anything else. Even more so, that sooooo many repair companies have tried to incorporate all things Apple into their names. I have often referred to our industry as the 'i' industry.  Research on the Repair Industry As a long time business person (in other words I've been around the block a time or two) I have been surprised at how little research has been done in the Tech Repair Industry and how little attention the media pays to, what I truly believe, is one of the most important up-and-coming industries on the planet. Most news stories are fluff pieces on industry entrepreneurs (which are awesome BTW!) or pieces about dudes stealing private pictures of women when they have their phones fixed...

In the old days - dang I sound like an old man - you would get stuff fixed when it broke. I fondly remember helping my dad carry our TV console down to the car to take to the repair shop. Heck I even remember going with dad to get a blender fixed one time at a local repair shop. Then in 1989 Gordon Jump became the "Maytag Repairman" and his character became an iconic metaphor for a professional whose services are rarely needed. You see innovation in the home appliance market had pretty much peaked by this time. So to sell more product companies like Maytag built a better product that they could charge more for and convince folks that they could do without "ol' Lonely" as he was called. Many other industries followed suit and tried to build better stuff that didn't need to be repaired as often. Really only the high-tech stuff, that was still innovating needed repair centers. The Cell Phone industry was one of those products as both Nokia and Motorola ...

Wow! In the last three months the TECH repair industry has seen some pretty big dominoes fall and I predict that 2017 will be a breakout year for the industry. It all started back in mid-August when a company most people had never heard of managed to pull down $15 million in series A funding, led by Carmel Ventures, with Sequoia Capital (a kind of serious name in investing) also participating - after seeding CellSavers with $3 million this past December. An $18 million invest in a less than one year old company kind of says something about the tech repair industry don't ya think?? Down goes a domino. August 22, 2016 | Israeli startup  CellSavers , which provides an on-demand repair platform for smartphones and other mobile devices, has completed a $15 million financing round, led by Carmel Ventures, with participation of Sequoia Capital Israel. The current funding follows the company’s $3 million round in seed funding led by Sequoia Capital in December 2...

I started the WiGoMan blog in 2010 to help spread the message and talk about the virtues of REPAIR. It started with Cell Phone Repair, then added tablets, computers, game systems, drones, circuit boards and even a Teddy Ruxpin. But now it's a new day on the WiGoMan Blog (cue Music) I got back from the Wireless Repair Expo this year at CTIA -- a show I have been attending for too many years to count -- and I realized that after the third Wireless Repair Expo the industry is still struggling to organize. The only people who want to talk to each other are a few shop owners in mainly mid-markets because the bigger guys stay to themselves for some reason - like they have some kind of super secret way to fix stuff??!! I will offer kudos to AJ Forsythe of iCracked who was one of the only larger companies to speak in public!  Anyways, I spent the last year doing a lot of research on the repair industry. I've developed hundreds of contacts around the world w...

WIGO TECH Repair in Falls Church 5657 Columbia Pike Falls Church, VA 22041 Our shop in Falls Church is not your typical "retail" location. We're located in the Rock Spring Professional Center next to Dunkin' Donuts and across Columbia Pike from UHAUL. And we don't face Columbia Pike in the center you have to drive in and around the building to find us. Rock Spring Professional Center So that's a picture of the front of the complex. You drive in one of the two entrances and then drive around the building to find us: WIGO TECH Repair in Falls Church Then in the front door, turn right and in another door. No need to knock, come right in, we love walk-in business - sometimes gets weird talking to machines all the time. Once inside you drop off whatever TECH you need fixed (phone, tablet computer, robot, drone, etc.). If you'd like to wait - because of many of repairs can be done while you wait - you can enjoy our comfy waiting area and fre...