Two quality marks can look the same and have nothing to do with each other
One sends in a mystery guest, has a repair assessed by an expert and removes companies that no longer meet the standard. The other sends an invoice and a sticker.
To the customer standing outside your shop the two look exactly the same: a logo on the door. That is not just annoying for that customer. Above all it is unfair to the repairer who does have things in order and gets nothing in return.
Hence this page. Not to run down other quality marks — but to give you the questions that let you find out for yourself.
Ask them of every quality mark, ours included
Are you a repairer considering joining one? Ask these six questions before you sign. Are you a consumer who sees a logo on a door? You may just as well ask them.
Does anyone actually come round?
Admission on paper means filling in a form. Anyone can write down that they work properly. Only when someone is standing on the workshop floor do you know whether it holds up.
Is a real repair assessed?
Craftsmanship is not measured with a questionnaire. Only by bringing in a device and looking at what comes back out: which part was fitted, was the battery disconnected, what was the customer told.
Can a customer turn to anyone?
And does anything happen then? A reporting point that merely forwards your email is not a reporting point. The question is whether someone actually looks at your device and whether there is mediation if the two of you cannot work it out.
Has anyone ever been removed?
The sharpest question of all. A quality mark no one is ever thrown out of is not a quality mark but a subscription. Do ask how many companies have been rejected or removed.
How often is there a reassessment?
Assessing once at admission says something about that week, not about next year. Staff change, suppliers change, working methods slip. Without reassessment a quality mark ages by itself.
What do you get besides the logo?
Does it help you when you are stuck on a motherboard? Is anyone reachable if a customer threatens to take you to court? Or does the service amount to a sticker and a payment demand?
This is how it works with us, so that you can check it
- Someone comes round. Admission takes up to five weeks and includes a visit from a mystery guest.
- A repair is assessed. That mystery guest brings in a device. What comes out of it we determine not on paper but at the workbench.
- Customers can come to us. Through the reporting point and, if needed, with a second opinion: an expert examines the device and draws up a damage report. This costs the customer € 49,- once, and if they are proved right against an affiliated company, that company pays it back.
- Companies do get removed. If you no longer meet the standard, you get thirty days to put it right. If nothing happens, suspension follows and then termination. You then come off the members map and the logo has to go.
- Every year again. The quality mark is valid for one year, after which it is assessed again.
- Help is included. With Premium: one free motherboard repair per month, remote help when you get stuck, access to the forum and legal advice in a dispute with a private customer.
The Basis quality mark is free. Premium costs € 79,- per month and can be cancelled monthly. What exactly has been agreed is set out in the quality mark terms.
What a quality mark is not
Ours included. A quality mark is not a guarantee on an individual repair. We do not carry out those repairs and are not a party to them; the customer makes the agreement about a repair with the company, not with us. Something can go wrong at an affiliated company, as anywhere people work.
What a quality mark is: the assurance that someone looked over things before you walked in, that the company has committed to a code of conduct, and that someone is reachable if it goes wrong. Without a quality mark there is no such person.
Anyone who makes that difference out to be bigger than it is does exactly what this page warns against.
Questions we get about this
Is there no supervision of quality marks?
We are already with another quality mark. Can the two go together?
Why is your Basis quality mark free?
How many companies have been rejected?
I am a customer, not a repairer. What is in this for me?
Want to know whether you would get through?
Apply for the quality mark and we will get in touch and go through the requirements together. That conversation is free and without obligation, even if you ultimately decide not to go ahead.