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Tricks and Traps in the Electronics Service That You Need to Know About

  1. Don’t allow your Insurance company or Third Party Warranty provider to direct your repair to an unauthorised repairer
    1. Insurers use repairers that are not authorised by the manufacturers for one reason – they are CHEAP!
    2. Unauthorised repairers do low cost, poor quality repairs using non-genuine (often secondhand) parts and poor quality methodologies (e.g. re-soldering circuit boards that are not designed to be re-soldered)
    3. As soon as a non-authorised repair has been done on your product, the manufacturer will no longer provide any support or assistance leaving you high and dry if you have any future issues
    4. Unauthorised repairers don’t have access to the resources (service manuals, parts catalogues etc) to be able to provide a quality repair. They haven’t invested in equipment and training and it all adds up to poor service.
  2. Quality brands will often go the extra mile for you
    1. The leading quality brands (retailers and manufacturers) want you to buy from them again so they regularly provide more service than they are obliged to under the law or their warranties
    2. Therefore, they are usually open to reasonable requests from a customer if the customer is dissatisfied with the quality of the product or the service they received
    3. Service Plus has a policy of always escalating to the manufacturer or retailer if requested by the customer, so please let us know if you are not satisfied with the resolution that we are offering
    4. Additionally, if the escalation that we do for you doesn’t satisfy you, try contacting the retailer or manufacturer directly (we’ll give you contact details if you need them) as they often take more notice when the complaint is in the customer’s own words
    5. The manufacturers and retailers that Service Plus works with are the best in the business and like to see their customers happy. You should always feel free to ask
  3. Make sure your repairer is certified under the Electrical Safety Compliance Act
    1. The most important factor in any repair is SAFETY! You and your family need to be sure that your product is as safe after repair as it was when it was purchased
    2. Fire and Electric Shock are real risks that need to be avoided at all cost
    3. Always check that your repairer is Electrically Certified
  4. Not all repairers are equal
    1. There is a huge variation in the quality of electronic repairers in New Zealand and sometimes even the big ones provide poor service. There are repairers operating from their lounge or their garage, and others that don’t have anti-static equipment that is essential for all electronic repairs
    2. Quality repairers will be authorised by the big brand manufacturers, will have top notch communication systems (web booking/tracking, email and txt updates)
  5. There are Cowboys out there – make sure you KNOW who is repairing your product
    1. Just because a repairer has a flashy website doesn’t mean they are a quality company – there are plenty of so called phone and computer repairers advertising heavily on Google and TradeMe who operate from their lounge or garage and provide inferior service
    2. You need to be sure your repairer knows what they are doing and can be held to account if needed. Remember, you are sending your valuable device to this company so you need to know you can get it back in great order – there is no need for any repairer not to be totally transparent
    3. Use Google Maps to check out where the repairer is located. If the address is a residential one, or the Street View images look like a dodgy location, alarm bells should be ringing
    4. Make sure you can find out who owns the business. You can look up the company ownership information on companies.govt.nz . If you can’t find the company’s registered name on the website, stay away!
  6. Just because your product is out of warranty doesn’t mean you can’t get assistance from the manufacturer
    1. Quality manufacturers and retailers want to be sure you will buy from them again so will often cover a repair even if the product is out of warranty based on the purchase date
    2. You may also have rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act or Fair Trading Act
    3. Service Plus is always willing to forward any requests to the appropriate party on your behalf
    4. Sometimes, though, even we can’t achieve a result that suits the customer, in which case we advise the customer to get in contact with the Manufacturer or Retailer directly for assistance
    5. Remember, if you use an un-authorised service provider, you will not be able to request assistance from the manufacturer in future