An Open Letter to Apple on the Future of Repair

Dear Tim Cook and the Apple Board of Directors,

First, I want to thank you for announcing the new Apple Self Service Repair program. This is a great first step in the right direction for a world that desperately needs repairable tech now more than ever. I hope that other companies will follow your lead and make parts, tools, and manuals available to their customers.

We also agree 100 % with your statement that most repairs should be handled by a trained professional. The Tech Care Association represents tens of thousands of those trained tech repair professionals here in the US – the “popular mechanics crowd” if you will. A group that Mr. Cook recently said he loves and has been focused on his entire life. Let’s help them to thrive now and not worry about tomorrow!

We want to work with Apple to take the next steps in tech repair and find a better way of working together. This way, in our on-demand world, your customers get the best possible service imaginable.

In some ways you kind of owe us one. Because it was our industry that helped you get to this point in the first place. The men and women of the tech care industry have been working on your products for a long time. These innovative tech care people have always found ways to deliver an amazing level of service to your customers despite the challenges put before them.

When the first iPhone launched in 2007 it was the small businesspeople of the tech care industry that helped you out by offering same day repair services for the iPhone’s fatal flaw – cracked glass. It’s hard to say exactly who invented this repair process, but I do know the industry took great care of a lot of your customers for a few years before you started doing repair work in your stores. In some ways the independent tech repair industry taught you how to repair your own product. Even to this day innovative repair people are discovering new ways to fix your tech, reverse engineer it, and do advanced repair work that isn’t offered in your stores.

This industry has created an opportunity for the “popular mechanics crowd” to earn a living for themselves and create small businesses in their communities. Living the American dream! All of us want to work with you and not against you. But it hasn’t been easy for us because of your past policies on repair. Let’s work together to change that now so that their future can be more secure!

Our industry is full of professional tech repair people that take great care of their customers each day. They have worked hard to build businesses and provide for their families. They are brilliant hard-working individuals who love tech. They are problem solvers who bring joy to many of their customers when the device boots up again and memories are restored. They’re just good people!

Now that you’ve officially committed to repair let’s work together to find new opportunities for the small businesspeople that you say “you love and have been focused on your entire life” while we both continue to take great care of people who buy your tech.

Mr. Cook let’s find a sensible solution by the end of this year to expand the reasonable availability of Apple OEM parts, tools, and repair manuals to tech repair professionals.

Eagerly awaiting your response,

Rob Link on behalf of Tech Repair People Everywhere (aka, the popular mechanics crowd)

Founder & CEO

Tech Care Association