Services specialize in iPod repair

Published on July 1, 2009
by Robin Mohr

Photo by Alison Yin | Frank Walburg, proprietor of iPod Sick Bay in California, uses a jeweler’s loop to inspect a broken iPod.

In the competitive world of iPod repairmen, Frank Walburg has found a niche: “The thing I’m really known for is water immersion,” says the 42-year-old Santa Rosa, Calif., entrepreneur, who’s rescued scores of drowned music players, cell phones, digital cameras and other gadgets since starting his repair business, iPod Sick Bay, in 2005.

Customers seek his services when they've run their devices through the wash, dropped them in the toilet or taken them for a swim. Once, a chef, bending over for a taste, watched as his iPod dove into a pot of soup.

"The circumstances on the client's side are always amusing," notes Walburg, who receives between 18 to 25 broken contraptions a week from customers who find him on the Internet or by word of mouth.

Even as other sectors of the economy take a nosedive, the repair industry that's sprung up to service broken MP3 players, cell phones and laptops is minting entrepreneurs by the dozens.

An eclectic group of computer gadget guys, these repairmen can be found from coast to coast, in large cities and small, from New York City to Peoria, Ill. Some, like Walburg, run one-man shops out of their garages or basements. Others have watched their businesses grow into million-dollar operations. And there's plenty to keep them busy.

In 2008, U.S. consumers purchased 26.6 million digital music players and 125 million mobile phones, according to The NPD Group, a marketing research company. While the gadgets come with warranties, casualties, like dropping them on the sidewalk, generally aren't covered. That's where the repairmen step in.

As New York City's iPod Doctor, Demetrios Leontaris has cheered many a Manhattan music lover since starting his roving repair business in 2003. The self-taught repairman drives around the city, making curbside stops outside office buildings and fixing music players, cell phones and laptops on the spot. He also does steady business by mail.

"I'd say 80 percent of our repairs have to do with people breaking them," Leontaris says. "It happens. It's a portable device."

His business more than doubled in 2008, reaching $200,000 in revenue, up from $70,000 the previous year. To keep up with the 100 service calls he gets each week, he's hired two technicians and someone to help with calls and e-mails. "Since the economy started going downhill, we've been getting busier and busier," he says.

Photo by Antwan Duncan | New York City’s iPod Doctor, Demetrios Leontaris, makes on-the-spot repairs. His curbside service is unique.

New Jersey resident Kevin Landy, 50, first used Leontaris' services in 2004, when the battery on his iPod died. "He fixed it in less than 10 minutes," Landy recalls of the repair that cost about $45. "I felt like I found a gold mine."

While most, if not all, of these independent repair services are started by males, the profession is open to anyone with the skills and the gumption to give the business a try, including the very young.

When setting up media interviews, Nick Fala, the founder of NF Technology Services in Westerville, Ohio, suggests a time "after 2:30 p.m." That's because he's tied up with more pressing business earlier in the day - attending high school. A 17-year-old senior at Westerville North High School, Fala fixed Apple computers, laptops and iPods for family and friends before starting his repair service in April 2007.

Photo courtesy of ThisWeek Newspapers | Nick Fala, 17, of Westerville, Ohio, turned his hobby of fixing Apple products into a part-time business.

Curious about how things worked, even as a child, he recalls dismantling his parents' computer when he was 6, but never dreamed his tinkering would lead to business success as a teen. Last summer, he received the Emerging Entrepreneur Award and a $500 prize from the Ohio Business Week Foundation. "It just grew bigger and bigger. I never imagined it would get to this scale," says Fala, who operates the business from his parents' basement and relies on his dad for help with shipping and other logistics.

Fala won't disclose his earnings, but reports business is steady, with 20 to 40 broken items coming in a week - about 15 percent of that business comes from schoolmates. He also refurbishes Apple products and sells them on his website.

Like Fala, Aaron Vronko and Ben Levy started out small, but now oversee a business with 15 employees and $2.5 million in sales last year. Their company, Rapid Repair, based in Kalamazoo, Mich., processes 500 repairs a week and guarantees a 48-hour turnaround. They've expanded from fixing iPods to servicing Zunes, iPhones and, most recently, video game consoles.

In the beginning, it was just Vronko and Levy, a pair of unemployed Western Michigan University undergrads with a broken iPod. It was 2004, and both had just lost their IT jobs with a large pharmaceutical company. "I was living on Ben's couch at the time," Vronko recalls.

Unable to find someone to fix Levy's music player, the pair did it themselves. These days, they spend less time fixing gadgets and more time managing their business, which has moved from Levy's apartment to a 3,000-square-foot retail space. The only possible downside to the company's phenomenal growth: "There's sort of a dress code now," Vronko says.