“It’s not uncommon for consumers to rather buy a new iPhone than repair it. We noticed that there appeared to be some unscrupulous profiteering by the dominant market player in iPhone repairing who had captured close to perhaps 80% of the market share in South Africa,” says Joffe.
In nine months, the company was reportedly able to force repairing prices down by up to 72%, without compromising quality or service. The price of iPhone screen replacements, along with price cuts on iPads and battery replacements has dropped down to three times the original price.
“We’ve noticed that consumers are enjoying the ‘David and Goliath’ price battle and us unseating the incumbent,” adds Joffe. “Many consumers are completely unaware that they are able to replace the internal iPhone battery inexpensively and unfortunately their iPhones often become draw fillers.”
Lower prices have proven to grow the market, with more consumers realising that it’s more sensible to repair their devices which has also impacted positively on local insurance companies.
One of the biggest challenges for the company is that more than 30% of all iPhones received shows evidence that a bad attempt to repair has been made somewhere else. According to the company, shoddy workmanship shows itself clearly and consumers need to be made aware that their repairers are either not doing their job correctly, or simply stealing parts.
Danilo Acquisto 19 hours
Sandra Sithole, Rethabile Shabalala and Kimara Rampersad 14 hours
