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United We Repair: Solving Tech Repair’s Biggest Challenges

The tech repair industry stands at a critical crossroads. While consumer demand for repair services continues to grow, several significant barriers prevent our industry from reaching its full potential. At the Tech Care Association (TCA), we believe that by uniting our 1,700+ members and thousands more independent tech repair professionals across the nation, we can overcome these challenges and create a thriving ecosystem that benefits repair businesses, consumers, and the environment.

TCA Logo

WHY THE TCA SHOULD LEAD THIS FIGHT

As the leading non-profit trade organization for tech care professionals, the TCA is uniquely positioned to champion this industry-wide movement. Our 501(c)(6) non-profit status means we’re not driven by shareholder demands or profit motives—our sole purpose is advancing the interests of our members and the broader tech care ecosystem. This structure allows us to focus entirely on advocacy, industry unification, and creating tangible benefits for repair professionals across all 50 states. Unlike for-profit entities, every resource we generate goes directly toward fighting for right to repair legislation, negotiating with tech giants, developing alternative supply chains, and creating new business opportunities for our members.  By uniting under the TCA banner, repair professionals gain a powerful, mission-driven advocate whose success is measured not by profits, but by the prosperity of its members and the sustainability of the tech care industry.

It is important to note that we already partner with other likeminded organizations and seek to partner with any and every organization that is working to make the industry stronger.

Let’s examine the four most pressing issues facing our industry today—and how collective action through TCA can help us overcome them.

Right to Repair Tech

RIGHT TO REPAIR: Building on Recent Momentum

The right to repair movement has gained significant traction, with Washington State recently becoming the sixth state to pass comprehensive legislation—and the strongest to date. This landmark victory provides companies like yours with greater access to parts, tools, and documentation needed to repair their devices.

However, most of us still lack these basic rights. Major manufacturers continue to implement software locks, parts pairing, and other tactics that make repairs unnecessarily difficult and expensive. These restrictions affect 54.3% of repair shops according to our recent survey, limiting your ability to serve customers effectively.

By working together through TCA, we can amplify our collective voice in state legislatures across the country. Our growing membership gives us the legitimacy to testify before lawmakers, share real-world impact stories, and demonstrate how repair restrictions harm small businesses and consumers alike.

GOOGLE AD RESTRICTIONS: Following the Locksmith Playbook

Many repair shops struggle with Google’s restrictive advertising policies, which often treat legitimate repair businesses like potential scammers. This significantly impacts customer acquisition and drives business toward manufacturer-authorized options.

There’s a proven path forward. In 2017, locksmiths faced similar challenges but overcame them by working together as a formal industry organization. Through collective action, they established the “Local Services” certificate and “Advanced Verification” process, allowing legitimate businesses to prove their credibility through business licenses and proper documentation.

TCA is positioned to negotiate with Google on behalf of the entire tech repair industry. By establishing industry-wide standards and verification processes, we can help legitimate repair businesses regain visibility while protecting consumers from actual scammers. Our collective bargaining power is far stronger than any individual shop or agency could achieve alone.

TARIFFS: Navigating Rising Costs While Creating Opportunities

The recent tariff increases on imports from China (34-54%), Vietnam (46%), India (26%), and South Korea (25%) present significant challenges for our industry. These tariffs directly impact the cost of devices and repair parts, potentially forcing price increases that could deter customers.

However, this challenge also presents an opportunity. By working together through TCA, we can:

  1. Advocate for specific exemptions for repair parts, arguing that they support small businesses and extend device lifespans, reducing e-waste, and making our economy more resilient
  2. Push OEMs like Apple and Samsung to increase domestic manufacturing, creating more accessible supply chains
  3. Develop group purchasing power to negotiate better terms with suppliers

The data shows consumers are increasingly turning to repair rather than replacement as device prices rise. With historical pricing trends showing aftermarket components becoming more affordable as device models age, our industry is positioned to thrive despite these challenges—if we work together.

PARTS AVAILABILITY: Creating Alternative Supply Chains

Parts availability remains one of the most significant barriers to repair, with 48.1% of shops identifying it as the biggest threat to the industry in our recent survey. OEM restrictions, serialization, and error messages continue to limit access to quality components.

At GRE2025, the TCA announced an exciting new initiative by one of our partners to address this challenge head-on. By leveraging our collective purchasing power and industry connections, we’re working to establish alternative supply chains that provide reliable, high-quality parts at fair prices.

Additionally, as right-to-repair legislation continues to advance, we’re positioned to negotiate directly with manufacturers as a unified industry voice. Rather than thousands of individual shops facing these giants alone, the TCA represents a powerful coalition that can demand fair access to parts, tools, and documentation.

But only if we all work together!

UNITED WE REPAIR: Tackling the Tech Care Industry's Biggest Challenges

United We Repair

BUILDING A COALITION FOR CHANGE

The challenges facing our industry are significant, but they’re not insurmountable. By uniting under the TCA banner, repair professionals gain strength in numbers and a powerful voice in shaping the future of our industry.

In the coming weeks, the TCA will be announcing several major initiatives to address these challenges directly. We’re building coalitions with environmental organizations, consumer advocacy groups, and other stakeholders who share our vision of a sustainable, accessible tech repair ecosystem.

Together, we can transform the tech repair landscape, ensuring that local repair shops thrive while providing consumers with the affordable, accessible repair options they deserve.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT TODAY

The time for action is now! As the challenges facing our industry intensify, so does our resolve to overcome them—together. The Tech Care Association invites your business to become an integral part of this growing movement by joining our 1,700+ members nationwide.

Whether you operate a repair shop that could help by becoming a CAPACITOR ($100/yr) level member, RESISTOR ($250/yr), or higher membership tiers, or maybe you are an industry partner that can strengthen our ecosystem by starting at the MANGANESE ($1,200/yr) level, the NICKEL ($5,000/yr), or maybe you want to go all in and become our first COBALT ($20,000/yr) level member, your participation directly empowers our collective voice. Every membership strengthens our ability to advocate for right to repair legislation, negotiate with tech giants, develop alternative supply chains, and create new business opportunities that benefit us all. Our recent survey shows that 92.3% of our members rely on repair work for the majority of their revenue—your livelihood is exactly what we’re fighting to protect and enhance. Don’t face these industry challenges alone. Visit our website today to select the membership tier that’s right for your business and join the thousands of tech care professionals who are proving that united, we repair not just devices, but an entire industry’s future.

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Simplifying Your Tech Repair Shop Pricing

Stop juggling complicated pricing formulas for your repair shop. The secret to profitable, transparent pricing isn’t in complex calculations or random discounts – it’s in this simple formula: Parts (with markup) + Labor (hourly rate × time) = Final Price. We’ve analyzed hundreds of TCA member experiences to bring you this streamlined approach that’s revolutionizing how successful repair shops price their services. Whether you’re struggling with multi-component repairs or looking to boost your bottom line, this proven system will transform how you price repairs…

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RLA 2025: A New Era of Opportunity for Tech Repair

RLA 2025: A New Era of Opportunity for Tech Repair

RLA 2025 & the TCA: A New Era of Opportunity for Tech Repair

The 21st Annual Reverse Logistics Association (RLA) Conference and Expo, held at the World of Hyatt Rio in Las Vegas from March 11-13, brought together industry leaders for three days of powerful discussions about the future of sustainable technology, repair, and reuse. As your representative in this space, I was excited to participate in content-driven panel discussions, keynotes, and the RL Masterclass that directly impact our tech repair community.

Understanding the Reverse Logistics Ecosystem

RL Masterclass

The conference kicked off with an engaging three-hour RL Masterclass led by Rich Bulger, Peter Evans, and Deborah Dull. This essential session focused on transforming reverse logistics into business innovation, helping attendees understand how to maximize product lifecycles profitably while minimizing environmental impact.

Right to Repair Progress
During the Industry Partner Forum, Gay Gordon-Byrne from Repair.org delivered encouraging news about the right-to-repair movement. “We’re hearing less and less in opposition from manufacturers,” she noted, highlighting that five states have now passed consumer electronics repair bills. While cell phone repair has become “low-hanging fruit” due to increasing OEM support, challenges remain in data center equipment repair – an area where The Repair Association is actively seeking industry collaboration.

Innovation and Future Trends
Brian Comiskey, Senior Director of Innovation and Trends at the Consumer Technology Association, shared compelling insights about CES 2025 trends and their implications for returns. A particularly striking statistic revealed that Gen Z consumers own an average of 13 tech-enabled devices each – representing an unprecedented opportunity for our industry. This demographic’s significant device ownership, combined with their strong interest in sustainability, creates a perfect storm of opportunity for tech repair businesses.

Circular Economy Champions
The Circular Economy session featured powerful insights from industry leaders including Jennifer Foxworthy (HP’s Head of Certified Renew Partner Program), Joyce Cruts (VP Supply Chain at ACER), and Stephen Beard (Global Head of Sales, GSS at Flex). A striking moment came when Jennifer asked attendees about unused devices at home – the overwhelming response highlighted the massive opportunity for our industry in device reuse and repair.

Automation and Efficiency
Rebecca Latson (Dell), Rob Lawson-Shanks (Molg), and Sean Magann (Sims Lifecycle Services) led an enlightening session on how automation is revolutionizing the industry. Their discussion revealed how new technologies are making device reuse more cost-effective and efficient – crucial for our members, as our recent survey shows 56.5% cite parts availability as their primary challenge.

Customer Service Excellence
Corinne Copello and Jason Bell from Nordstrom delivered a compelling keynote about returns capabilities. Their message about accepting returns without exception to build lifetime customer loyalty resonated strongly with our industry’s focus on customer service.

Innovation Spotlight: RLA 2025 Startup Competition

RL STARTUP CONTENDERS:

RL STARTUP CONTENDERS:

The conference’s startup competition showcased five innovative companies revolutionizing reverse logistics:

– In the Loop (intheloopai.com)
Leveraging AI to optimize reverse logistics processes

– Patturn (patturn.io)
Using advanced pattern recognition to streamline returns management

– SendBack (sendbackreturns.com)
Simplifying the returns process through innovative technology

– Sotira (sotira.co)
Developing comprehensive reverse logistics solutions

– Verae (verae.com)
Creating technology-driven returns management systems

In an inspiring outcome, two women-owned businesses took top honors: Sotira won the Judges’ Award, while SendBack secured the Audience Award. Read more about the startup competition here.

Strategic Position in Reverse Logistics

What became crystal clear throughout the conference is that our industry’s extensive network of physical locations across communities nationwide positions us perfectly within the reverse logistics ecosystem. With repair shops in virtually every community, we represent an existing infrastructure that could revolutionize how returns, repairs, and device recycling are handled.

Consider the advantages:
– Local Presence: Our members operate in communities where consumers live and work
– Technical Expertise: We already possess the skills needed for device assessment and repair
– Established Infrastructure: Our physical locations can serve as community tech care hubs
– Community Trust: We’ve built relationships with local customers and businesses

This hyperlocal approach to tech care isn’t just convenient for consumers – it’s essential for making our industry more profitable while supporting sustainable practices. By integrating more deeply into reverse logistics operations, repair shops can:
– Create new revenue streams through returns processing
– Partner with manufacturers and retailers for warranty repairs
– Serve as local recycling collection points
– Provide refurbishment services for returned devices

Looking Ahead: Opportunities for TCA Members

The conference reinforced several key opportunities for our members:

1. Automation Integration
New automated solutions could help address parts availability challenges, which our recent survey shows affects 56.5% of our members.

2. Strategic Partnerships
With 38.5% of our members seeking insurance and warranty partnerships, the connections made at RLA open new possibilities for collaboration.

3. Sustainability Leadership
As Dr. Pinar Martin from Amazon highlighted in her keynote on consumer electronics reverse supply chains, sustainability is becoming increasingly crucial in our industry.

4. Innovation Adoption
The startup competition demonstrated how new technologies could help our members streamline operations and improve customer service.

Call to Action

The opportunities in reverse logistics are clear, and our industry is uniquely positioned to capitalize on them. With Gen Z’s growing device ownership and our established presence in communities nationwide, the potential for growth is tremendous. Want to learn more about how your repair business can benefit from these emerging opportunities? Contact us at TCA to discuss how you can get involved in shaping the future of tech repair and reverse logistics.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue building partnerships and creating opportunities for our members in the reverse logistics ecosystem.

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Leveraging Your Socials To Make Your Tech Repair Trend

Repair People, you might be doing your socials all wrong… in fact most of you are 😁

First of all, social media is a tricky beast at best. Most tech repair businesses are just doing them flat out wrong. The biggest mistake? A lack of original and/or creative content! The second biggest mistake is giving up on it too easily! The third… wasting your time on forums (GO GET NEW BUSINESS!!!).

So stop reposting or copying content, don’t use templates either and stop wasting time. PRO TIP: whatever you do DON’T post offensive content that will piss off potential customers. Think before you post, but don’t think too hard! Please save your offensive/controversial comments for personal posts on personal accounts. Bottom line: Get out there as often as possible and post across multiple platforms about your work.

Here’s the Big Secret to Success

Talk about repair. That’s the big secret. Talk about

You repair things, right?! So that’s what you should be posting about every day. Post the stuff you repair. Your success stories.

Right?! Think about what you do. You repair stuff. You have so much original content that walks into your shop every single day! You might not think it’s a big deal but it’s pretty freaking amazing what you do. You improve peoples lives. You save them money. You save their data (don’t call it data, btw. You save memories, pictures, videos, contacts, etc.).

Viral Success Stories

Money Talks Wireless in Bridgeport, CT. is a master at what he does. Click on his page and then check his content. I know not every one can does these kind of videos and that’s okay. The point is he’s talking about repair and how it impacts people. That is what you need to do. His shop has over 1,200reviews on Google with a 4.9 rating. He is the star of his town because he talks about repair!

The dude has almost 600K followers on Instagram, almost 6M subscribers on YouTube & Tiktok. All he really talks about is repairing peoples tech. This is what you do and what you should be talking about each and every day. Talk about repairing tech that others said can’t be repaired.

Here’s a great example. Apple said no, he proved them wrong.

Proving Apple Wrong is a Winner

Here’s another great example from Computer Repair Doctors in Cleveland, OH. That I reposted on LinkedIn and it blew up overnight. They posted about fixing a MacBook that the Apple Store said couldn’t be fixed. It went from a thousand dollar loss to a cheap repair for their customer. PEOPLE LOVE THIS KIND OF CONTENT!

Not every post you make will be a winner. In fact most will not be. The goal is to help people imagine what could be with repair. That will lead them to your door. That will equal more business.

IDEAS OF CONTENT TO POST

-Tell your story! People want and need to hear it.

-Before & After shots of devices that you fix.

-Like the story above, someone said it couldn’t be fixed… but we fixed it.

-What you think is mundane (battery replacement, new screen, etc.). It educates folks!

-Unique things that you fix or unique fixes for tough repairs.

-Community members that you have helped out (the mayor, local biz person, etc.).

-Great reviews that you get on any review site. Simple screen grab & post.

-Stories about your staff and how great they are!

-Contests & giveaways each month.

This isn’t just about getting likes and views. Your posts will help educate your customers who are thinking about using your business. Social media can help you to do that, but you have to post.

Don’t make it one-sided

Be sure to follow others and like what they do. Repost what they are doing in your community — other businesses that is — reposting your partners cat videos might not help. Unless you’re On The Geaux Repair, who incorporates cats into their repair business. We posted about them recently on LinkedIn.

You can also find a list of Tech Repair Content Creators on our website at: https://techcareassociation.org/tech-repair-content-creators-boost-your-business-with-expert-help/

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We Care For Tech A New Look For Your TCA

Take a Look at the TCA Rebrand & Learn About Our Non-Profit Status

The Tech Care Association is a mouth full to say the least, so we often refer to ourself as the TCA. As we enter into our fourth year of serving the Tech Care Industry we are rebranding and making the shortened version of our name official. So we have legally updated our name to a dba and will be called the ‘TCA’ from this day forward.

In doing so we thought it would be nice to redesign our logo as well (see it above) and clean things up a bit. We chose a circle to represent circulatory/sustainability while incorporating the segments of Tech Care Industry that we serve: REPAIR, SUPPORT, REUSE, & RECYCLE (see more below). Each of which are vital to keeping tech out of landfills and reducing e-waste.

We also wanted to shorten our motto to make clear what we do and who we represent. So we chose, We Care For Tech as the brand new TCA motto. The TCA is a non-profit trade association that represents companies that “take care” of tech after it’s sold. Any company that is in the tech care space is welcome to join our trade association here.

The Four Pillars of our Membership

REPAIR – The TCA believes that repair is the most important aspect of the tech care industry. These professionals are on the front lines of our industry and help people extend the life of tech each and every day by performing critical repairs to keep tech running. As such a majority of our members are in the tech repair space. The TCA operates a consumer facing directory for people to find our members at www.WhereToRepair.org. We seek to help repair people thrive while helping people find the best that repair has to offer.

SUPPORT – Much like tech repair tech support serves on the front lines of our industry. One of the biggest challenges for tech support companies is their battle with fraudsters who are are common across the internet. The TCA seeks to help people identify and use legitimate companies that serve in communities everywhere.

RESUSE – Over the last ten years companies that refurbish tech have exploded into the marketplace. And companies that buy and sell used tech have too. The TCA seeks to find more ways to partner with these companies in our network of tech repair companies who often buy and sell used products.

RECYCLE – Too much tech ends up in landfills or forever suspended in time in peoples junk drawers. By working with recyclers the TCA hopes to get more tech back into the marketplace and then make sure it ends up in the proper recycling streams when it is actually at end-of-life.

Companies that work in these four areas of tech care are welcome to join the TCA and participate in TCA governance. Because we believe tech repair is the most important aspect of the industry we have special membership packages for these professionals that allow them to join the association for a reduced rate. Those packages for tech repair companies can be found here.

Companies that are in Tech Support, Tech Reuse, Tech Recycle, and related companies can join as industry partners here.

The TCA is an IRS Approved Non-Profit Trade Association

The TCA was approved by the IRS to operate as a 501(c)(6) non-profit trade association. This is an important designation from the IRS that allows the TCA which can lead to thousands of dollars of resources that can be put back into the organization, which would have otherwise gone straight to the U.S. government. We took this important step to serve our community for many reasons and it will allow us to serve you better in the years to come.

It should be noted that the TCA is the only not for profit trade association that serves the tech care industry.

The TCA is always to happy to work with other organizations in the industry to help the tech care industry thrive! We know we don’t everything and we can’t possible do everything. This is one of the reasons we operate the industries ONLY complete tech care industry events directory on our website AND the TCA we have links to other organizations listed in the TCA resource hub. We are always happy to partner with other organizations to help everyone in the industry succeed.

Let’s all work together to reduce eWaste by keeping tech in the market longer with repair, support, reuse, and proper recycling!

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A Trade Association For Serious Tech Repair People

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The TCA is a Member Based Group for Serious Tech Repair People

The TCA (Tech Care Association) launched in November of 2000 with the primary goal of helping to unite the tech care industry — those that take care of tech after it’s sold. In other words, people in: tech repair, tech reuse/refurbishing. tech support, and tech recycle. The vital businesses in tech circularity that care for tech from the cradle to the grave and keep it in the market longer.

Organized as a not-for-profit corporation in the state of Virginia and recently recertified by the IRS as a 501(c)(6) organization. Founded by Rob Link who got into the industry in 2000 after a successful career in the wireless industry. He was inspired to start the TCA by the Auto Care Association, a longstanding and successful trade association for people that take care of automobiles after they are sold. The similarities of the two industries is uncanny and only separated by the price of the product (cars v. tech) and the time in market (over a century v. decades).

One of the biggest similarities in the two industries is the common cause of fighting for Right To Repair legislation across the country. The Auto Care Association fought and won its first battle in 2012 and they have been fighting the OEMs ever since. The other similarities in the two industries are the number of products that they support in the market (288M cars v. 310M phones). Repair and reuse is a major part of both industries, as well as recycling. Aftermarket accessories are a big part of each industry as well.

In addition, other similarities are the distribution model: cars are serviced mainly by independent community based shops and so is tech repair. The industry structure: cars have parts distributors that offer various types of parts – so does tech repair. As with most repair industries the repair techs that work in these two industries are, to quote a friend, “fiercely independent”.

What Sets Apart The TCA from Other Organizations?

First of all, we support anyone and everyone who is serious about helping tech repair people. In fact, we even list other organizations on the TCA website and invite them to partner with us to help further the industry. We don’t see any of these groups as competition to our mission and goals. Our industry can support multiple groups. Additionally we invite our members to join and support other organizations. We work closely with many of them and hope to work with more.

So in no particular order, here are some of the ways we help the industry:

  • The TCA www.WhereToRepair.org is the only nationwide directory of community based tech repair businesses that anyone can join.
  • We offer FREE resources in the TCA Resource Hub that are available to anyone.
  • Your TCA works daily to promote the industry to more people in order to help you get more business.
  • We are actively seeking unique partnerships that will drive business into your shops.
  • The TCA works on matchmaking companies within the industry to help everyone get better and more productive outcomes.
  • We help support and promote Right To Repair legislation so that we can all have an even playing field to succeed.
  • Your TCA is working on software products in collaboration with other companies to help further the industry.
  • The TCA is zealously searching for companies outside of the traditional phones, tablets, and computers that need and want our member services.
  • We invite you to visit our website for more information at www.TechCareAssociation.org

Why is it The Tech Care Association and Not the Tech REPAIR Association?

This is a question we get a lot and one of the reasons we have grown so slowly. People get confused and we’ve had to work on raising awareness in the industry itself.

To complicate things even more, others use different names to refer to the industry. Some still call it the “cell phone” repair industry — which is outdated and simplistic. Others want to refer to it as the “wireless” repair industry — kind of limits what we do to just wireless devices. And there are other names too. We believe our industry is complex can can serve many areas that includes smartphones/wireless devices and so much more. Consumer electronics is a great place to start but if it has a cord and a board then consider it TECH!

Let’s start with why the word TECH. Tech is a higher category that encompasses so much more and leaves a lot of opportunity for the future. Cell phones and smartphones are tech. Tablets and computers are tech. Consumer electronics are tech. Using the word “Tech” leaves open many more opportunities than one specific category.

Now the tricky one, the word CARE. Again, let’s think big picture. Repair is a form of care for tech. So is tech support, which many of our members do each day. Reuse and refurbishment are also forms of tech care. Many of our members participate in this process, from buyback to reselling devices and the repair/refurbishment process in between. In fact, I could give you a long list of companies that started as repair shops and moved into refurbishment of devices and now process millions of devices a year.

And what about the missing word REPAIR? First off, our founder coined the phrase Tech Repair almost two decades ago when he switched the name of his “cell phone repair” company to “Tech Repair” and then continued to promote the phrase on his industry blog, The WiGoMan for years. During his time as an industry consultant he worked with companies to adopt the phrase, which culminated in Asurion renaming UBIF stores in 2021. Since that time, many other repair shops have adapted “Tech Repair” into what they name their business. And in a recent trend, Google search serves up multiple results within the industry when using the search term, “TECH REPAIR”.

While Tech Repair is a big part of what we do, Tech Care is all about device circularity, or taking care of tech after its sold — Repair, Support, Reuse, and Recycle = Tech Care.

In the End, Tech Care is All About Reducing eWaste!

Outside of our main goals of supporting the industry and helping our members thrive the TCA wants to promote the reduction of e-waste, a global crisis according to a recent UN report. We firmly believe that if more people participated in tech care we could reduce e-waste significantly.

In our industry that starts with tech repair people, who are on the front lines of the industry. These are community based repair people who take care of tech every day by fixing broken devices in their communities. Recent estimates have the number of tech repair businesses in the US alone at somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 locations. As demand increases that number grows almost daily. These shops, stores, mobile techs, and depots often participate in all four areas of tech care (repair, support, reuse, & recycle). The TCA seeks to unite these locations to build a network marketplace to service more devices, thus reducing eWaste.

A local model works because it is community based. Easy. Simple. Convenient for the customer. When these goals are met by a network of maybe only a quarter of the total number of tech repair shops in the US they could help collect tens of millions of devices each year that could flow into the reuse market. Devices could also be mined for parts to repair more. At end of life, they could be properly recycled and kept out of local landfills — improving the lives of people in that community.

Put simply, reducing e-waste benefits our industry while saving our planet and improving life for us all!

How & Who Can Become a Part Of the TCA?

The TCA is open to anyone who wants to help move the industry forward. We welcome any business from any part of the industry (repair, support, reuse, and recycle), as well as anyone who wants to partner with our members. Let’s breakdown membership categories:

Tech Repair/Retail Businesses – Shop, Store, or Mobile

We make adding your tech repair business to our network easy and affordable. You select the plan that works best for you, starting at FREE. We hope you will find value in what we do and want to upgrade your membership to a paid plan. But we want to eliminate any second thoughts you might have and get started now.

Membership gets you listed in our consumer facing http://www.WhereToRepair.org directory that will do two things for your repair business, 1) Get you more business when someone searches for a local repair business in your area, and 2) Increase the SEO of you existing website while adding legitimacy to your business.

Click on the link above to join and find out additional benefits of membership.

Tech Care Industry Partners

This is an exciting way to support the industry while promoting your business to our members. Industry partners are listed in various categories in the TCA Resource Hub so that our members can find you and do business with you. Basic listings are free (email us for inclusion) but membership gives you a lot more exposure and opportunity to get your name in front of more potential customers.

We also can help you develop a unique program to expand your business into thousands of member locations across the country. We know our programs can help you grow!

To join click the link above and find the right investment for your business to help support our mission and grow your bottom line.

Tech Care Alliance Organizations

Alliance organization membership is designed for organizations that want to participate in the Tech Association and are aligned with the TCA mission. Membership is restricted in each of these categories to organizations that are described below. All applicants must be approved before becoming members.

Click the link above to find the right membership for your organization.

Let’s all work together to make the a difference!

~~ Unity without Conformity ~~

Join the TCA Today and we can change the world!!!

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All Tech Repair People Are Welcome Here

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The TCA Welcomes Former Members of the Now Defunct ACRBO

While the ACRBO website is still live it appears as if they have stopped all operations sometime in the last 3-4 years. The site was last copyrighted in 2014, but the last blog post was in 2019. We reached out to all of the ACRBO board members and only got a response from two of them. One said he knew for sure they shut down and the other said they had not heard anything in years.

For those of you who are not familiar with the ACRBO, it stands for the Association of Computer Repair Business Owners and was founded in 2009. The site states, that “the Association was formed by Daniel Hand owner of Computer Medics of Northern Virginia LLC after realizing that there were no professional Associations for the smaller computer business owner to become part of. With the increase in membership the Association created a “Leadership” team to help maintain the site and promote the industry.” At one point serving more than 2,000 members.

By all accounts ACRBO was successful in its efforts to help its members during it’s time in operation. We would like to thank Daniel Hand and the other folks at ACRBO who moved the industry forward and welcome any former members to join the TCA to help us carry on the legacy of the ACRBO.

WHO SHOULD JOIN THE TCA?

The Tech Care Association (TCA) is non-profit 501(c)(6) trade association founded in 2020 by Rob Link that is designed for professionals in the tech care industry. Tech Care is defined as any one who “takes care” of tech after it’s sold or people who repair, support, refurbish, and recycle tech. “Tech” is loosely defined as any consumer electronics with a (mother) board and a (power) cord — the tip of the spear here are phones, tablets and computers. It is our belief that more consumer electronics need to be taken care of to reduce and eliminate e-waste in the world.

TCA members are made up of small businesses across the country that help take care of tech in their communities. These small business people are on the frontlines of the industry and, although small in size (mainly mom & pop type shops), they number in the tens of thousands across the country. Making them our largest and most important resource for tech care.

What was once considered the cell phone and computer repair industry is now the Tech Repair Industry, which falls under the larger Tech Care Industry. The TCA seeks to serve any business interested in furthering the industry to moving it forward for greater success for all. The TCA welcomes any and all companies that operate in this space into its body of members.

WHY CALL IT TECH?

In our modern society all things are becoming tech. More and more of the products we buy each and every day are becoming infused with technology. From IOT connected appliances and personal electronics (toothbrushes & sex toys) to furniture and electric vehicles. Everything is becoming TECH!

Those that learned to take care of cell phones and computers are leading the way in this new and vital industry of tech care. These community based helpers are changing the way we look at the world and the products we buy. They help keep this massive wave of new products in the market longer, which again reduces the amount of waste that enters our ecosystem.

Tech Repair People have learned — in most cases — how to service and repair tech without the help of OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), as the Right to Repair Movement has pointed out for more than ten years now. These are brilliant people who have learned to reverse engineer tech and even fix it on a board level — a process called micro-soldering.

WHY IS TECH CARE SO IMPORTANT?

As our society relies more and more on tech these community based tech care people become even more important to our world. Our world only has so many resources to make new tech and if and when supply chains are disrupted they will be relied upon even more so.

The other main reason to support and use tech care professionals is the looming e-waste disaster that our planet is facing. An ecological nightmare is looming form all of the electronic waste our world is producing. In 2024 the United Nations declared e-waste to be a world wide crisis.

Consumer electronics make up most of this waste. E-waste can leak harmful chemicals like lead, mercury, and cadmium into the soil, which then contaminate ground and surface water. This contamination can lead to serious ecological problems, affecting not only land but also nearby water sources.

JOIN THE TCA AND SUPPORT OUR MEMBERS!

If you are a Tech Care professional please join us at: https://techcareassociation.org/become-a-tca-member/

Support our members and get you tech taken care of at: https://wheretorepair.org/

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The Way We All Succeed In Tech Repair

The tech repair industry is so much more than phones but that seems to be almost everyone’s focus. Fix more phones. Sell more phones. Get Apple & Samsung to give us better access to more phone repairs. Make Google easier to market our phone repair business to more people. Phones. Phones. Phones

Phones are the bright shiny object that every repair shop lusts over. Cracked screens are the low hanging fruit (pun intended) that gets everyone into this business.

So much so that Allstate Protection Plans recent Mobile Mythconceptions Survey declared it an $8.3billion market. Just for CRACKED SCREENS, the overall market is much bigger

But what if I told you that there is a better way?

The inspiration came to me over a year ago during a call with a major OEM (I mean a big one that sells a lot of phones). We were speaking to an influential contact that offered to help get us to the right person to get more repair work. He said to us, “have you ever considered small appliances. Because EVERYONE tries to get the phone business.”

Of course. Every repair related company in the world wants the phone business! And it’s nothing but a race to the bottom to offer the lowest prices. Whether you’re a repair shop fighting against 20 other shops in your area or a wholesaler trying to compete. Everyone wants the lowest price, which makes it tough to make any money at all.

Friends, the consumer electronics (CE) industry is a trillion dollar industry, and yes phones make up about half of it. So of course everyone’s attention is focused on phones. But think about it this way. If half of the CE industry can create a $40 billion phone repair industry (my estimate) what can the other half create?

You’ve heard me say it many times in the past. More and more products are becoming tech. That’s on display every year at CES. Workout equipment. Kitchens (pots & pans, cutting boards, small appliances, etc.), vacuums, pet products, and so much more! All of it needs to be repaired and serviced. Right now too much of it gets destroyed because it has to be shipped for service/repair.

This creates e-waste — which has become a global nightmare. If companies can get their products serviced easier, without shipping it, it’s more likely to stay in the market.

The consumer electronics industry is diversifying!

I wrote a very short piece back in July last year that got a ton of responses. A lot of repair people wanted to know how to diversify their business. I even noticed a few other people in the industry claim they had the answers. It’s an important question. Beyond that it is also an incredible opportunity.

An opportunity that one person or one company will never fully capitalize on. But one that a collaboration of companies will be able to seize. This is what I mean when I encourage the industry to work together — which some, unfortunately, never will. But that’s okay. They will just simply get left behind cleaning up the shards of glass in their shops.

Independent tech repair has all of the advantages to be able to service more diverse products. But no bigger advantage than it’s network of locations across the country (some estimate more than 25K locations). These are what I like to call community based tech care locations.

Two important points here on naming: 1) the word TECH is more ubiquitous (it covers more than phones), and 2) the word CARE includes repair but covers so much more. More means troubleshooting, support, diagnostics, setup, etc. We are the tech care industry, and tech repair is one of the biggest segments for us. AND we can be more!

Working Together – Staying In Our Lanes

We can ALL succeed if we ALL stay in our own lanes and appreciate what others do. It’s important too to have an attitude of win/win when working with partners. In other words, I win if you win. Meaning sometimes you have to give up something for someone else to win too.

For local TECH REPAIR BUSINESSES that means focusing on what you do best: Repairing tech. Advance your skills, stay focused on repair, and taking great care of customers. You are the frontline!

For ADVANCED TECH REPAIR that means opportunities to support more devices and create more solutions. Find ways to help OEMs fix their products that can scale. Fix things and post videos that help everyone learn how to do the work.

For national WHOLESALE/DISTRIBUTORS you play an important role here. Be ready to manage different parts and support more products. You are the lifeline for those in the tech repair business.

For REPAIR DEPOTS realize that your solution is a legacy one and not what customers want as a first option. There is still a lot of demand that can and will flow into your channel from the frontline.

For REFURBISHERS & RECYCLERS help design systems to pickup products from the frontline. Either using a regional hub model or a simple pickup and delivery system. Lots of opportunity for the companies that get it right.

Some of you just simply need to stay out the way. You don’t need to be a part of everything or pretend you know what you’re doing. It’s best if you ask yourself and others how can I help.

The strength here is THE NETWORK! It is all of the different segments of the industry working together to help lift up the industry. It is having a win/win attitude that is more focused on the greater good than selfish deeds.

For the TCA it means we are the glue that brings everyone together. Join us (literally become a member) and let’s all work together to make the tech care industry into what it can be!

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Tech Repair People Are Amazing – All Tech Can/Should Be Fixed

Repair People are amazing! Despite the efforts of big tech companies (OEMs) to make fixing our tech harder and harder independent repair people have shown what they are capable of time and time again. To suggest otherwise is silly.

Next time you go into a big tech store (apple, Best Buy, AT&T, Verizon, etc.) and one of their salespeople tell you to just buy a new device, ignore them and take it to a repair expert at a local tech repair shop (www.WhereToRepair.org). Because I’m here to tell you that EVERYTHING can be fixed and, just like a car, you won’t know the cost of repair until a professional technician has a look under the hood. A sales rep at the Apple store, BestBuy, AT&T, or Verizon has no clue!

Listen the people who build cars or sell cars don’t fix cars. So why would people assume that the people who make tech or sell tech can fix it? Your best bet when your tech is broken is to always get advice from the people with the most experience fixing it.

CAN IT BE FIXED?

The simple truth is EVERYTHING tech can be fixed, and the final cost is in the eye of the beholder.

Yes, I know saying that everything tech can be repaired is complicated. Allow me to expand that thought by keeping in mind that I ran a successful tech repair operation for more than 10 years and we came across almost every repair scenario possible while repairing tens of thousands of devices. We always had a repair option for our customers. EVERY SINGLE TIME. Why? Because we had amazing technicians that refused to back down from a challenge. That was the culture of our shops. EVERYTHING TECH CAN BE REPAIRED!

Allow me to expand on the philosophy that everything tech can be repaired.

When a customer has a broken piece of tech the most important question for them is, “can it be fixed?’ In my shops the answer was ALWAYS YES*. Why always yes you ask? Because it’s true. Everything can be fixed. The only limitation to whether the customer will or should proceed is going to be the final cost and what their individual goal is going into the repair. Those are the variables that no one is qualified to answer expect for the customer.

Now here’s the complicated part – the asterisk if you like. Sometimes the cost is too high. Not necessarily the price but the cost of the final repair. Sure, sometimes its price. But sometimes its data or sometimes its time. Those are the main variables that may cause the customer to decline the repair, but it is rarely a situation where a piece of tech cannot be repaired by someone. The cost may be too high, the data may not be recoverable, and it make take a lot more time than the customer will allow. These are things you don’t know until you have properly evaluated the repair.

TECH REPAIR PEOPLE ARE TRULY AMAZING

Since the dawn of the modern tech repair industry, which I estimate to be around 2004, tech repair people have always risen to meet any challenge they have faced. These are amazing people whose skills (and industry) is often overlooked even to this day. I know this industry well because I was a part of it from the beginning and I have seen the amazing work that the industry has done firsthand.

First of all, the tech repair (or what started as cellphone repair) industry wrote the book on fixing tech. You see the main cellphone repair players of that day were Nokia and Motorola who were actually shutting down their repair operations nationwide because phones had become disposable. Newer smartphones (Blackberry, Palm, Windows, Symbian) had just entered the market and were complicating things. Nobody saw the iPhone on the horizon yet – it would change the industry forever.

The biggest repair challenge in that day was… trackballs on Blackberry’s. Yea, for real. The tiny little ball that gave you navigation capabilities would get gunked up and fail. Enter a brilliant entrepreneur who started selling trackballs online and made millions. Then it was charge ports which ushered in the soldering iron in tech repair shops. Soon after it was keyboards and flax cables with some of the early plastic touchscreens also finding repair shops. Then, in 2007, the first iPhone hit the market and just like Steve Jobs would later say, “Every once and a while, a revolutionary product enters the market and changes everything.” This was certainly true for the tech repair industry. iPhone changed it all!

Smartphone OEMs Were/Are Clueless About Repair

I’ll give credit where credit is due. At least Apple figured something out when their flagship device started coming into their stores on a massive scale – that little glass screen broke a lot! Unlike their smartphone competitors Apple offered a device swap when customers came to them with busted screens, which was an immediate, yet costly solution. There competitors (Palm, Blackberry, Nokia, HTC, etc.) would require you to ship off the device for repair/replacement which would often take weeks. Both solutions had serious downsides.

Immediate onsite repair was only available from independent tech repair shops. In fact, It took Apple more than 5+ years to finally offer limited onsite repair in the Apple stores. Then, as it is now, their repair offerings are lacking greatly as compared to independent tech repair shops who can do so much more.

Do you know who taught them how to repair the iPhone? You got it. It was the independent tech repair industry.

How do I know? Call it coincidence if you like but I trained techs in my shops who were VERY curious about everything we did while training, took really good notes, asked lots of questions, only worked a month or two, and then we found them working at Apple almost immediately after they left us. We also had recruiters calling my shops on a regular basis who would snag one of my techs from time to time that ended up at Apple as well. I’ve heard similar stories from around the industry.

We know that despite building a sexy device with a wonderful user interface (UI) that Apple didn’t spend a lot of time testing capabilities when they rolled out the first few iPhones. This is well documented with all of the issues the first few iPhones experienced. Obviously, they didn’t test durability either because they had zero plan for repair. By the looks of things, they assumed people would just buy a new device every year.

This lack of planning created tremendous opportunity for entrepreneurially inspired independent tech repair people to fill the gap. One that many brilliant people have filled over the years. No one taught them how to do it. They just seized the opportunity and built businesses around their hard work. Overcoming obstacles along the way.

An industry was built without any formal training as tech repair people have taught themselves how to reverse engineer tech, diagnose issues on a board level, and then use microsoldering techniques to repair the most complex issues you could imagine. These are amazing people who should never be underestimated.

Do OEMs make repair unnecessarily difficult to fix their tech? Yes, and in some cases, it should be criminal in others it’s just sloppy design. Do we need laws to force OEMs to make devices more repairable? I’m not sure. But what I do know is that if an OEM has designed any kind of repair program, then that program needs to have reasonable availability to independent tech repair shops.

Afterall, you owe us. We taught you how to fix your tech in the first place.

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Three Big Stories Offer Hope & Despair For Tech Repair

The tech repair industry had three big stories rattle its core over the last week. The biggest should come as no surprise, while the other two stories may go unnoticed by many. Either way these three stories will help shape the industry permanently going forward.

The first story should surprise no one as Apple has gone to a place that everyone should have seen coming. The serialization of their repair parts continues with the iPhone 13 rollout this week. Multiple sources have now confirmed that if you replace the iPhone 13 screen then the face id feature will no longer work. In a nutshell, this means you need to go to Apple or an Apple authorized repair location to make the part work with the phone. This is one step closer to Apple simply just disabling any and all parts that someone outside of Apple’s network tries to install during the repair process.

While the right to repair movement enjoyed a recent win the biggest tech giant in the world moved forward with making independent repair much more difficult. As I have mentioned before a right to repair law is years away at best, that’s just the way law making works. I wish it were different and I wish we could have right to repair on the books today. But we don’t. The industry needs to come to terms with it and find ways in which we can all succeed now.

One last word on right to repair, the law as it is designed now is too broad. I’ll address this in a future blog post, but it’s why I think Apple will once again be successful in defeating any attempts at legislation as we move into the new year.

Name Change at the Industries Biggest House of Repair

The second biggest industry story this past week might have slipped by you as not a big deal, but it’s huge. The country’s biggest franchise in the industry is changing its name as uBreakiFix (UBIF) parent company Asurion announced this past week they would rebrand all of their more than 650 locations from UBIF to Asurion Tech Repair & Solutions.

Sound negligible to you, right? It’s not. (WARNING: Feeling’s alert) The tech repair industry (a recent term) has long suffered from some really bad names. It started with cute medical references like; doctor, clinic, hospital, etc. (my first shops used clinic in the name BTW) and then morphed into cutsie names that incorporated; break, fix, smashed, phix, etc. At the same time many shops wanted to add Apple branding to their name with a simple “i” or they boldly added “iPhone” – which often brought nasty letters and legal action from Apple.

The worst mistake most shops made seemed innocent at first and in many ways helped bring in business and raise SEO scores. This is one I used early on too but changed when we rebranded my shops a few years later. That mistake is using the term “Cell Phone Repair” to describe your business. Sure, if that’s all you want to be go for it. But its going to limit your future and the future is now.

The name change at UBIF is brilliant on many levels and will allow them to achieve greater success in the long run. Don’t be surprised to see the CPR (Cell Phone Repair) franchise do the same in the coming year. I love the people over there but that’s a name I never really thought would last very long. You know what through, you guys do you! It’s all good.

Why a Big Announcement in the Automobile Industry Matters

Just this week Ford Motor Company made a huge announcement that they will be making their biggest single manufacturing investment EVER to build electric vehicle factories in the US. An investment of $11.4 billion to build two enormous manufacturing campuses for electric vehicles (EVs), creating more than 10,000 new jobs. You might be saying that’s fabulous. I’m all for creating new jobs – especially in US manufacturing – and I love to see US industry modernizing what it produces but what the heck does it have to do with tech repair???!!!

You might have seen this story and skimmed over it, but I doubt if most of your perked up like I did when I read the last line of this major announcement from Ford. It reads, “Ford also announced it is investing a total of $525 million across the United States over the next five years to train electric vehicle REPAIR TECHNICIANS.” In other words, TECH REPAIR PEOPLE like you!

Please hear me out and follow my logic on this opportunity.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are much, much different than the gas turbine mechanical vehicles in our current world. Repairing EVs takes a much different skillset than that of the current auto mechanic. Ford just said that in not so many words. I remember the first time I sat in a Tesla I said to myself, “Wow, this a really big iPad”. I had also recently repaired my electric lawn mower and I was frustrated how different it was from the gas-powered ones that I had worked on with my dad growing up. Then the wheels in my brain started to turn and I said to myself, “wait a minute…”

THIS IS PART OF THE FUTURE OF TECH REPAIR!

Stay with me for a minute or two. In the last couple of years, I had discovered that there was a major need for people in the appliance repair business. Mainly because many of the “old timers” in the industry had retired rather than trying to learn an almost completely different skillset repairing modern, much more tech driven, appliances. The industry needed/needs younger more tech savvy repair people.

Repairing appliances has quickly become a more tech driven ordeal and the automobile industry is starting to steer in that direction. Allow me to share two incidents in my past make that a great case for our industry to move into EV repair. The first happened by chance while the second was founded out of my own stubbornness to take no for an answer.

While getting coffee at church a bumped into an old friend who shared a story with me about taking his older BMW to the dealership and getting a $5,000 quote to make repairs to his entertainment system that had stopped working. They told him they needed to order a new “motherboard” to complete the repair. He thought it might be time to just buy a new car. I asked him if we could take a look at it in my shop – I had an awesome board repair guy working for me at the time. Long story short. We fixed the board for under $100 bucks, saving him $4,900.

A year later one of our family vehicles failed state inspection because of some issues with the electronic display. My trusted mechanic quoted $2-3K for the repair. It seemed like a simple fix to me so I asked why he couldn’t fix what seemed to be a basic electronic repair and he told me no one in the industry really messes with the electronics they just swap them out. I found an electronic repair guy in NC that specialized in fixing this type of issue. We pulled the console, shipped it, they fixed it, shipped it back, and in less than a week my vehicle passed inspection for only a couple of hundred dollars. He had never heard of this shop. Imagine how much more business is out there.

Friends, there’s gold in them thar hills! Are you ready to keep digging?

These issues highlight the type of work we’re doing for you at the Tech Care Association. We’re working hard everyday to advocate for you and your business to try and keep big tech companies open for business for our industry while we work to bring you new opportunities to expand what you do. This industry is only getting started. Please think about membership today.

Join the Tech Care Association today with a paid membership and help us to help you succeed

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