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Review: TechRestore

techrestore.gif
By Robert Kaneko
This review is going to be slightly different for me. Instead of reviewing a product, I am looking at a service. I think that’s important to note, since any time you are looking at a service, there is a very human element to the experience.
TechRestore is a company that specializes in repairs for mobile electronic devices. They do more than that, but my impression is that their primary focus is repairing items like iPods, iPhones, gaming devices and laptops. They are also an advertiser here on the PowerPage. In fact, that’s how I found them, and I’m glad I did.
My ten-year-old son is a gadget junkie. He loves cell phones, Nintendos, laptops and other electronic devices. When I bought an iPod Touch, he couldn’t get enough of the experience. He saved for almost a year, and when the iPod Touch 2nd generation was released, he bought one for himself. That was about three months ago and he’s spent almost every day since playing with it. Interestingly, he has yet to put any music on it. He uses it to surf the Internet, handle his email and watch YouTube videos. Last week, he downloaded Text Free and my SMS inbox has never been the same. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
About three weeks ago, my son’s iPod Touch went swimming. It was a devastating moment in our house. I tried the trick of putting the iPod in a bag of dry rice. I do think that helped to leech the water out of the unit, but it wouldn’t recover. After a fair amount of research, we decided to look into the possibility of repairing the existing unit instead of buying a new one.
Enter TechRestore.
Being a long-time reader of the Powerpage, I’ve seen the banner ads for TechRestore for years. As with most ads on most sites, I’ve pretty much ignored them. This time I didn’t. The PowerPage got a click-through from me and I got sent to Tech Restore’s web site.
Click the jump for the full review…


techrestore.gif
By Robert Kaneko
This review is going to be slightly different for me. Instead of reviewing a product, I am looking at a service. I think that’s important to note, since any time you are looking at a service, there is a very human element to the experience.
TechRestore is a company that specializes in repairs for mobile electronic devices. They do more than that, but my impression is that their primary focus is repairing items like iPods, iPhones, gaming devices and laptops. They are also an advertiser here on the PowerPage. In fact, that’s how I found them, and I’m glad I did.
My ten-year-old son is a gadget junkie. He loves cell phones, Nintendos, laptops and other electronic devices. When I bought an iPod Touch, he couldn’t get enough of the experience. He saved for almost a year, and when the iPod Touch 2nd generation was released, he bought one for himself. That was about three months ago and he’s spent almost every day since playing with it. Interestingly, he has yet to put any music on it. He uses it to surf the Internet, handle his email and watch YouTube videos. Last week, he downloaded Text Free and my SMS inbox has never been the same. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
About three weeks ago, my son’s iPod Touch went swimming. It was a devastating moment in our house. I tried the trick of putting the iPod in a bag of dry rice. I do think that helped to leech the water out of the unit, but it wouldn’t recover. After a fair amount of research, we decided to look into the possibility of repairing the existing unit instead of buying a new one.
Enter TechRestore.
Being a long-time reader of the Powerpage, I’ve seen the banner ads for TechRestore for years. As with most ads on most sites, I’ve pretty much ignored them. This time I didn’t. The PowerPage got a click-through from me and I got sent to Tech Restore’s web site.
The thing I like about TechRestore versus most of the other repair sites I looked at is the fact that they don’t charge you an arm-and-a-leg for diagnostics. You ship the device to them and they look at it. They then contact you with a diagnostic report and an estimate for repair. You pay the cost of shipping the device to them and that’s it. If you decide to proceed with the repair, you pay that cost and they ship your device back to you for free. If you decide not to proceed with the repair, they will dispose of the device for free, or you can pay to have it shipped back to you.
The repair process is started by filling out a form on Tech Restore’s web site. You should send a printed copy of the same form in with your device. In the case of my son’s iPod, I sent it out the device and the form on a Friday via USPS. Now, I live in Washington State and Tech Restore is located in California, so the iPod didn’t have that far to go. However, I was still a little surprised when I received an email early Monday morning indicating that they had received the iPod and were starting diagnostics. About an hour later I received a second email indicating that the diagnostics were finished and that I should expect a call from a service technician soon.
About three hours later we received a call from a very nice guy named, “Chad.” (At least I think that’s his name. My wife couldn’t remember for sure and she’s the one that took the call.) He told us that the main logic board was fried and that it would be a US$150 repair. We asked our son what he wanted to do and he decided that he wanted to pay for the repair instead of buying a new iPod.
About an hour later, I received a third email (including a tracking number) indicating that the repair was complete and that my son’s iPod was on its way back to us. He received the iPod on Wednesday, five days, including the weekend, after we sent it out. It has worked beautifully since we got it back.
If you are concerned about the reliability of the repair, TechRestore includes a 6-month warrantee/guarantee on the repair.
Based on my experience, I would definitely recommend TechRestore for all your mobile repair needs. My son’s iPod Touch is working like new and we saved US$75 over buying a new one.