Toulouse: how to find your way in the jungle of mobile phone repairers
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the mobile phone repair market has been changing in Toulouse. Between an increase in online purchases and an increase in demand for refurbished devices, stores are adapting to new consumer habits.
Mourad Dridou is the manager of Secours Phone, a telephone repair company established in Toulouse since 2003. “At the time, there were only three of us in the city center”, explains the owner. Over the years, competition has gradually intensified.
Thanks to online merchant platforms such as Amazon or Ali Express, some customers sometimes buy the parts needed to repair their device themselves, asking the repairers to make only the change. However, the screens purchased are sometimes of too poor quality. The repairer then invoices the customer for a new screen, functional this time. “This attempt to choose the parts yourself can turn against the customer”, therefore judges Mourad.
At the stage of other specialists, Mourad, now at the head of three shops, offers several services to customers with broken smartphones: repair, unlocking and also the sale of refurbished devices. This latter part of its business has grown in recent years. “People ask for refurbished without really knowing what it is,” laughs Cyril, employee of the Cash Toulouse store. In vogue since the confinement of March 2020, the specialized online platform Back Market plays a leading role in the interest aroused by refurbished products.
“The impression of buying new at a bargain price”
Sometimes, from the view of the quote, so many parts need to be changed on their phone that customers prefer to change devices. If consumers traditionally turned to second-hand, refurbishment was now on the rise, due to an aesthetic aspect closer to a new product. A refurbished phone is a repaired device that has had its parts changed. “People have the impression of buying new at a bargain price”, sums up Cyril.
However, the refurbished is not free from all defects. Thus, wholesalers specializing in reconditioning sometimes sell defective devices to traders. “It’s simple, we send back half of it” confirms Cyril. Mourad agrees: “Apple is the only manufacturer not to market official parts. A refurbished iPhone will therefore be of lower quality because it will contain so-called compatible parts from sometimes dubious sources”, he indicates. Because of this lack of reliability, some repairers should not put on sale devices that they have not themselves reconditioned.
Infophone, a repairer based in Toulouse for 10 years, is one of them. Romain, an employee of a store located rue Saint-Rome, however, sometimes entrusts the reconditioner himself from broken devices bought back from customers. However, some supermarkets sell refurbished products. A major brand offers refurbished AirPods Pro at €209, compared to €259 new. When questioned, the employee admits not knowing the source. “We receive whole boxes of them,” he says.
In addition to the price difference with new, the ecological argument is often put forward in favor of reconditioned. However, Mourad assures: “all the parts come from China”. Since Covid-19, air travel times have doubled. Direct consequence: the price of certain screens will soon increase from 19 to 24€.