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Aaron E. Daye/Staff photographer
Correspondent
Last Modified: Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 7:10 p.m.
With an increase in smartphones has come an increase in smartphone accidents. More Blackberrys and iPhones are ending up in swimming pools, run over by cars or dropped to the floor.
Re-Tech opened April 5 as a company that repairs, unlocks, jailbreaks — which allows users to add programs and customizations other than what’s available through Apple or iTunes – trades and sells smartphones and accessories.
With repairs costing between $40 and $90 — the most common being for cracked iPhone screens — Re-Tech provides almost every smartphone service except cell phone subscriptions, said Vorce, president of the company.
He said he opened the business because smartphones are a growing industry and he saw an opportunity to offer repairs and services that local cellphone carriers may not be able to provide.
“Not only do more and more people have smartphones now, but you really count on your devices,” Vorce said. “It’s like, ‘If my Blackberry is down, I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to get another one, a replacement or something.’ You just can’t be without your phone nowadays because it does so much more with e-mail and everything.”
Many customers don’t want to send their phones elsewhere to be repaired and cell phone carriers are referring them to local repair stores.
Vorce said Butler Plaza is an ideal location for Re-Tech because it is close to Sprint, T-mobile, AT&T and Verizon Wireless stores.
Butler Plaza also has sentimental meaning to Vorce. It was where he opened the second store in his Rhino Video Games chain, which spread across the Southeast. Though he sold the company to Blockbuster in 2004, he brought back some of his former employees to open Re-Tech.
“I’m comfortable working with them,” he said. “(They are) people that I can count on that have the skill set that we need.”
