http://www.google.sk/support/forum/p/base/thread?tid=37944c62f1b88866&hl=en&start=120

I posted a few times in the second thread.

When you Google a product, you may use Google shopping. Next to products, are links to reviews.

What makes resellerratings.com an extortion based website?

a) You cannot respond to reviews without paying to be a merchant member. Unlike Google Places, Yelp, and other reputable sites, you have to pay just to reply to false and half true reviews.

b) What you pay to be a merchant member depends on what they perceive your revenue to be. The more you make, the more you have to pay for the same service.

Apparently Home Depot pays over $7000/mo to respond to reviews that I could pay $99 to, just because “they make more.”

My personal opinion; it’s disgusting. It is perfectly legal and I support their right to run their business. I also find it disgusting. They take advantage of the fact that Google & Bing use them to extort money out of small businesses so they can reply to reviews left on the site. How much you pay depends on how much you make.

The idea we have here is to charge what we feel is fair for

a) The effort required.

b) The skill required.

c) The time we put in to learn the skill required.

d) The tool required.

e) The likelihood that something will go disastrously wrong.

f) The part availability and cost.

The idea amongst many businesses in New York, is to charge what “people are willing to pay.”

I wish my conscience allowed this. I’d be a very rich man by now.

I am glad that the people I have the privilege to work alongside everyday feel the same way.

Before I delve into this blog entry, let’s first define what I mean when I say “split back” Unibody. A split back Unibody is a Unibody Macbook Pro from 2008, when the battery was user removable. Every Macbook  where the back cover is user removable is a split back Unibody. These are not unibodies, they’re dualbodies. You kinda got lied to.

The display assembly is comprised of two sheets of metal adhesed together. When the adhesive fails(it fails more often on the larger, heavier 15″), they separate, and do something similar to the image you see below to the glass.

Ouch

Most of the time, you’re stuck buying a used, poor condition assembly for $700-$800 for a split back Unibody. It’s not compatible with the more affordable 2010 and late 2009 models. It’s discontinued which has raised the price of these pieces considerably.

We’re a company that can create new parts for you utilizing the machinery uses when manufacturing your Macbook. We can assemble them from scratch in a dust free environment with expert precision, only replacing the exact parts that are broken instead of replacing the entire assembly. We can fix your problem – parts, labor and all, for less money than the part cost used. The parts we use will be new. You can watch what our engineer does as he works.

15″ Unibody Macbook Pro Display Assembly 2011

15″ Unibody Macbook Pro Display Assembly 2010

Many companies have offered these services in the past, with two common pitfalls.

a) They buy the part from Apple, at high markup and pass it off to you.

b) They give you a used assembly, which leaves you feeling cheated and $400-$900 poorer.

We are getting original components at great pricing. As such, our pricing will be much more competitive.

Whether you are a PC repair store that does not want to deal with “how do I get that glass off?” to get to the bad LCD, or an end user who has a dent in the corner, we have the service for you.

Look out for these services in the future.

I’ll let you put together what’s going on here, through these three pictures. Make sure to use a fine tooth comb to search for nonsense.

Let’s go on to a simpler picture to draw a conclusion from. Less fun.

The last route of a pathetic situation: signs & promotions where discounts are offered if you’ll “like” a place or review them on Facebook. If someone offers you anything, even $3 off to leave a good review or improve their public image, wonder why. Why are they willing to pay for their reviews or reputation? Likely because they’re unskilled, lack organization, and don’t offer anything of unique, true value.

Lastly: Citysearch is to self-reviewing as Nigeria is to email banking scams. One shouldn’t buy toilet paper utilizing information from Citysearch.

If you want to see the eBay ads:

Theirs:  http://cgi.ebay.com/iPhone-4-Cracked-Glass-Screen-Repair-Service-/300573826929?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45fb989f71

Ours: http://cgi.ebay.com/iPhone-4-Cracked-LCD-Glass-Screen-Repair-Service-/290571245208?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a7655698

I’m sure this will get changed once they get wind that I caught them copy and pasting our entire work.

The funny thing is there are tons of companies that put effort into good design. My design is god awful – I know little to no HTML & CSS, and harbor no tasteful creativity. Just look at this website! Nothing short of the comic is appealing to the eye, and that is because the homepage comic was done by someone else.  They not only ripped me off, they ripped off bad design. That’s dumb. That’s like copying and pasting a book report you found on google and leaving the typos in.

I’ve also saved the HTML. His ad at the time can be found here: http://rossmanngroup.com/nonsense/hisiphone4_files/eBayISAPI.htm

My ad at the time can be found here:  http://rossmanngroup.com/nonsense/myiphone4_files/eBayISAPI.htm

I pay nearly $4000/mo for a warehouse & repair shop 2 blocks from Penn Station, and for assistant workers in the operation of the supply and repair company. I also make parts orders which are anywhere from $9000-$40000/pop. It’s expensive to be us in this area.

We still manage to have lower pricing for the services offered here and parts the supply company sells than anyone in a 20 mile radius, and often, than anyone in the continental U.S. You’d think considering the expense involved, this would be appreciated at times. However, there are people out there so offended that service, time, and parts are not offered for free that they will bitch, moan, run guilt trips and do whatever they can to try and get something for nothing. Allow me to explain.

Sometimes, on rare occasion, I run sales that lose the company money. A repair will be offered at cost via eBay: after return shipping to the customer, we lose money on it. I’m fine with this because it promotes the business and lets people know we exist, and sometimes, I like giving a select few something for nothing. Like a raffle.

The problem occurs when the sale ends. A flurry of angry phone calls from people who think we am trying to rip them off come in, and we get angry customers walking in a week or two after it ended wondering why it isn’t still running. This troubles me when it is mentioned that it is a sale price. Frankly, I don’t care if you’re in California and think the sale should still run. If I left the office 2 hours ago, it’s done. We don’t post times, we don’t commit to lengths. A sale runs and then it’s done. If you want to get the price, don’t wait.

If I notice the LP133WX2-TLG6 is 30% cheaper today than usual, I don’t wait two weeks, then come back storming mad when it’s back at regular pricing. I call my banker, use a temporary line of credit, buy all of them and thank the lucky stars the deal made itself available to me. Those who wait lose.

Sales don’t last forever. People can’t run companies for free, forever. When it ends, it ends. Large companies have 15% off coupons on occasion.When it ends – they sometimes let a few customers use them anyway, and that’s cool. The difference here is that the large company is selling you a product at 400%-1600% markup, so even if they give you 50% off – they’re still profiting and making good money off you.  When we offer products at 7-20% markup and offer 50% off, we’re not profiting less – we’re losing. The large company’s sale is the difference between making tons of money and making regular money. Our company’s sales are the difference between making pennies, and losing money.

Some get very angry when a sale ends. It’s interesting to see how angry a few people were that a sale of $110 on something typically $160 ended. Looking at the advertisements for five other local companies at the top of Google at the moment, in this area, gets me $250, $350, $250, $200, and $419 respectively. Our advertised price for this service on this website and others has always been $160. The price you hear when you call is always $160 – it doesn’t change upward, even if the part cost doubles. We are not dishonoring a price when we go back to the original price, because we never advertised the sale as permanent. The price to honor is $160. It is by discretion whether it will be less at any point in time.

I’ve never been one to live a lifestyle of “nice guys finish last” just because of bad experiences or bad Apples. My living is made off of bad Apples!  Cracked ones in particular. This is why I don’t publicly advertise or have an official, in writing warranty policy if you broke your shit twice that it’ll get done again for free. People will take advantage, especially on this block. It’s nice, as a small business owner, to have discretion over who you will go above and beyond to, lose money over, or put effort into when it is not expected, asked for, or feasible.

So, in ending, here’s why I think it’s bullshit when people call in angry about an ended sale:

• 99.9% of the time, our service is the cheapest in the continental U.S. Sometimes by a little  bit, and sometimes by a huge margin.
• Sales do not have guaranteed running times.
• We make less money at full price than other companies do when they run large sales. Be appreciative of that and don’t go digging for more.

That’s it for today.

Almost every business tries to grow too quickly. There are companies that started years after I did that offer five times as many repair services, but we don’t try to. This isn’t a do it all shop. This is a shop where someone does  a particular thing to a particular device 30-50 times on one device before offering the service to the public. We will say no to something we’re 95% sure we can do & make money from if if we’re not 100% sure, and if it hasn’t been done many times to a high degree of  success. We don’t just want to know HOW to do it – we want to know every possible issue we will encounter on the way. What is most likely to break on the device? What are the side issues we are most likely to encounter from the physical damage we’ve seen so far?

When you show up at our workshop, you’re getting a tech that’s done whatever repair you requested literally thousands of times.  Someone who is disgusted at the idea of working with people who learn the craft by experimenting on other people’s devices with an iFixit.com page open as they dig into someone’s laptop. When you’re here, I encourage you to watch every step – anyone working on your device will be doing the best job available to you, in the quickest & most efficient manner. There are no mystery “back rooms.”

A good example of this for the more mature among us would be the TV repair shops of the 80s that noticed the trend in hi-fi audio that started advertising hi-fi amplifier repair. Would they apply new thermal pads to transistors? Would they match the beta value of transistors to ensure they were all sharing the load equally? No – good enough was good enough, and when your amp had a fault light 1 month outside the warranty, they weren’t there to help you. Their quick buck had been made, and while they “fixed” your device – THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE TAKEN ON THE JOB!

The Rossmann Group isn’t called quickfix, repair4u, doctoriphone or some other cheesy name because we take this seriously. This is not a quick way to make a profit.

The ethics doesn’t just exist in the experience field – it exists in the stocking parts philosophy as well. If a part isn’t stocked and ready all the time, the service will not be advertised. There is no “it will take a few days to order.” There’s no “come back later” while we scramble to find someone who can get the part you need. We don’t believe in doing a great number of services to a mediocre level of efficiency. You can go to Staples for that. We’re fully set to do what we do – all the time.

There is not a single service I would offer if I thought a better price, turnaround time, or quality of parts could be offered elsewhere in the area. There are many issues I can fix that I refer to others because it does not give me a sense of joy and accomplishment to offer another a subpar experience. An experience that would be better if they had gone elsewhere is an experience they should not have. I love money, but the idea behind making money is to support my material needs such as medicine, shelter, and food, so I am able to live a happy life. I need joy and accomplishment to have a happy life as well, and that takes priority over making more money. I can only do that with an ethical business model that serves the customers best.

The idea being, if you break your device again, you pay a reduced rate to have it repaired again instead of full price.

I’ve been doing this since 2008. However, I’ve been deathly afraid to advertise it, or to make it an official policy. People in New York City have a tendency to, for lack of better word…. “take advantage”, when something free is offered. I love the city and I love the people, but there are also times where I can’t stand the city or its people.

I have plenty of nice, kind customers. I have lots of anxious, worried customers. Lots of concerned customers. 99% of them are an absolute joy, I see them again just to hang at the studio even if they’re not having repairs done. Some even wound up becoming business partners in other ventures. I like the people aspect of this business more than anything else. I like going out to meet people at their homes and offices to repair their devices. I like the personal touch. If my life were confined to a bench and an assembly line of repairs, I’d most certainly go find a more rewarding profession.

I also have lots of vile customers who are god damn livid that I am charging them $140 to replace the cracked LCD on their computer. People who yell every step of the way, people who aren’t at their homes when myself or my assistant show up for a house call. Why should I give someone who wastes hours of my time the courtesy of future free work?

I like to pick and choose the people whom I will perform work again for, for no extra $. For most people, I don’t mind and enjoy keeping them happy. For the repairs that take an hour or two, if it’s someone who presents an exceptional challenge to work with due to stupidity, their own anger, etc, then doing work again for free if it’s not a warranty issue, isn’t desireable.

In addition to the house call business model, you can also come by the workshop to have your machine fixed. Call and set up an appointment if you want someone to go to you. Or, walk in for someone to fix your machine.

This has all been done in a manner where a price increase is not necessary, yet you still receive professional service. Break your screen and check us out!