From: "Brenton" 
Reply-To: Brenton , Fidonet AVtech Echo
	

After pondering the situation in my previous message, I have seen the light.

These jokers have got it made.  They open a shop which does Warranty work for
the phone manufacturers, and also perform non warranty work.  No matter, what
they do, they make a killing.

With any phone under warranty, they simply exchange the entire phone, and the
phone company wears the cost of the new phone, while paying a "service
fee" to
these goons.  When a non-warranty repair comes in, they just stick it in a box ,
and then automatically send the customer a SMS with a quote for just under
$100-, about 24-hours after the phone is received.  The SMS tells the customer
that they can Accept the Quote, Reject the Quote and pick up their phone after
paying $50-, or just dispose of the phone and not incur any charges.

If we assume that one third of the people will choose each option, these guy's
are laughing.  If people reject the quote, they make $50- for doing absolutely
nothing, other than sending a 20c SMS message, and storing the phone for 2 days.
If one third of the people actually want their phones repaired, they then repair
them and charge what is basically a flat-fee although the customers don't know
that.  Most faults would be things like dead batteries, broken LCD modules,
dirty battery SIM-card connectors and the like, with the odd physically damaged
PCB or perhaps even the occasional real fault.  Whatever, they would never spend
more than 30 minutes on any repair, which means they are making about $200 per
hour to fix them.  If one third of the customers choose to dispose of the phone,
instead of incurring the $50 quote fee, they then have a great supply of free
spare parts, batteries, and modules to repair the other third with.  A quick
check of the "dispose" phones, would probably reveal that 10 or
20 percent of
these actually don't have a fault anyway, which they then keep to "sell" to
smart-arses who catch-on to what they are really up to !

What a brilliant business model.
Anyone interested in setting up a shop with me ?

Cheers, Brenton


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