Bringing Gadgets Back from the Dead
dan tynan on Jan 22 2008 at 3:13 pm | Filed under: Gadgets, PC World
(A slightly altered version of this article appeared in the February issue of PC World magazine.)
My iPod Mini was dead. It had shuffled off its mortal coil and joined the choir invisible. It had ceased to be. It was an ex-iPod.
Well, the screen still worked. But the battery wouldn’t hold a charge. And when I popped in the headphones it produced an ear-piercing screech not unlike a Ted Nugent guitar solo.
Once again I was facing the fix-it-or-forget-it conundrum. This time, instead of littering the landscape with another dead gadget, I explored the fix-it route.
CPR or DNR?
First I went to FixYa.com, an online support community. I could have posted my problem for free, but instead I paid $10 to get instant advice from the site’s “Elite Experts.” Within minutes I received an email instructing me to open the dingus and start soldering any loose connections I find.
It was probably good advice, but a little too do-it-yourself for me, so I went with Plan B. I shipped the Mini off to Rapid Repair along with a $10 check to cover return shipping. They promised to give me a quote within 48 hours of receiving my gadget. Two days later a technician named Mike gave me the bad news. The Mini’s battery had swollen, busting connectors on the main board; there were also 25 bad sectors on the 4GB hard drive. Total cost of repair: $140.
According to Buymytronics.com, a site that buys broken gadgets and sells them for parts, an iPod Mini in this sad state would fetch precisely $8.04. (A brand new, factory-sealed model was only worth $36.40.) On the other hand, a groovy new iPod Nano, with the ability to play videos as well as tunes, would cost only about $150.
I asked: Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to toss the Mini and get a Nano? Yes, Mike reluctantly agreed, as he watched $140 fly out the door. Then he offered to recycle my Mini for me and refund my $10.
Surprisingly, only about 5 percent of the gadgets they receive aren’t worth fixing, says Aaron Vronko, service manager and co-founder of Rapid Repair, which handles 500 broken iPods a week, as well as Microsoft Zunes and game consoles. Most fixes involve replacing bad batteries or screens – stuff that’s relatively easy and cheap. Vronko’s rule of thumb: If the repairs cost less than 60 percent of replacement, fixing makes more sense.
“You’ll get another year out of it – and by then there will be new devices that offer more storage and features for less money than you’d pay today,” he says.
Fixed Costs
The friendly geek repair tech may soon become a part of all of our lives, says Stephen Baker, VP of industry analysis for the NPD Group. Technology has become so embedded in our homes that it’s now a necessity, not a luxury.
As devices become more networked – and able to have problems diagnosed and receive updates across the Net – the cost of fixing them will drop, he says. That will inspire bigger players to step in and dominate the multi-billion dollar home repair market now served by companies like Best Buy’s Geek Squad and Circuit City’s Firedog.
“In the next few years we’ll likely see a major PC maker, electronics manufacturer, cable or phone company wrap all this stuff together and say ‘for X dollars per year we’ll keep everything running,’” Baker says. “Just as you pay someone to come fix your sink when it leaks, you’ll have to pay someone to help you manage your electronics.”
