Who Got the Hookup? Cheap Tech Fixes in NYC

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Aside from the words “FINAL NOTICE”, “EVICTION NOTICE” and “CLOSED BY HEALTH INSPECTOR” there are few messages that strike fear into the heart of a Broke-Ass quite like seeing that sinister-looking exclamation point on your iPod or that wallpaper striped pattern on your iBook that means your logic board is dunzo.  All of us have experienced the dismay of turning on your wildly expensive item only to be greeted by weird messages, indecipherable symbols or ominous beeping noises.  Lacking the technological knowledge required to do anything more than nervously stare at the screen and reboot time and time again, many of us fall prey to the time-sucking, wallet-draining lure of the Genius Bar.  Yes, the people there do know what they are doing, but they aren’t the only game in town.  In the interest of saving your Broke-Ass some cash, here are some alternative services you can use to get your Powerbook whirring again with minimal financial fallout.

Tekserve

The mother of all third party service centers, Tekserve offers provides Apple Warranty & AppleCare Repairs and Spill Cleaning for Apple computers and Apple displays. Beyond Warranty Repairs, On-Site Professional Services, Rentals, Data Recovery, and Upgrades are available for many devices. This spot is located and Chelsea and while it isn’t dirt cheap it’s a veritable bargain compared to paying what the Apple store would have you shell out for the same kind of service.  In the case that your baby is beyond repair, you can..gulp…abandon your computer there and allow the parts to be recycled. Think of it as an organ donor center for your computer.

Tekserve

119 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011
(between 6th & 7th Avenues)

Portatronics

This spot is the go-to place for anyone who has any kind of laptop, Mp3  player, Smartphone or Kindle.  You can email them with your “symptoms’ and they’ll write back, letting you know what you can expect to pay.  They’ve got three locations in Manhattan and work incredibly fast.  When my iPod stopped delivering sound to my left headphone, I bought new heahphones.  Still no left-ear sound. After talking to someone at the Apple store, he clued me in that wrapping my headphones around my iPod when I stored it in my bag was rattling the headphone jack and had dislodged it.  He told me that Apple could fix it for $200, but then pulled a Portatronics card out of his pocket and whispered “they’ll do it for cheaper”.  He was right.  I called over there, brought my iPod in and $80 bucks later my iPod was as good as new in roughly the time it took me to buy and consume a Pinkberry.  Best part? Lifetme guarantee. If it ever gets messed up in the same way again, the folks at Portatronics will fix it again for no fee.

Portatronics

Greenwich Village:
169 Thompson St (at West Houston St)
New York NY 10012
11am-7pm, Mon-Sat
Take the A,C,E,B,D,F to W 4th St ,1 train to Houston or 6 train to Bleecker St in Manhattan.

Mikey’s Hookup

“If I don’t have it, you don’t need it!”  This is the bold statement issued by a cartoon Aryan, presumably Mikey himself, on the homepage of this awesome spot.  If you can tear the staff away from the in-store Ping Pong table, this is a great spot to go to get 3rd party electronic equipment, DJ equipment, printer ink and a host of other technology related products for every conceivable electro-need.  When my Apple issued power cord starting sparking and burning (!) I hopped on the ol’ G train to Billyburg and got myself a compatible version. Yes it’s bigger and clunkier, yes it was absolutely not cheap and yes the battery-piece gets weirdly hot during use, but since my machine is so old, Apple doesn’t even MAKE my power cord anymore, so thank God for Mikey’s.

Mikey’s Hookup

Williamsburg
88 North 6th Street
718-599-8906
7 Days: 10am'“8pm

DUMBO
70 front street
718-596-1312
M'“F: 9AM'“7PM

SAT-SUN: 10AM'“6PM

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