Lately we’ve received questions about several local service businesses that seemed to vanish – or so it appeared to the former customers, since these were services you might not need often, so weeks or months might have elapsed between the last time you visited and the discovery that they’d closed. Such was the case for Ann, who emailed us today wondering what happened to Mobi, the tech-repair shop at 3215 California SW (where it had moved five years ago). Ann raved about Mobi’s service and said she was “absolutely floored when I called the shop today and got an automated message ‘this number is no longer in service’.” We managed to find an email address for Mobi’s owner Nathan Wong, and he replied to our questions quickly. He began, “We didn’t have much time to tie up loose ends with our clients,” and went on to explain what happened:
It all happened rather quickly. It was getting really difficult for us to remain open for various reasons, but primarily due to decisions made by large manufacturers such as Apple or Samsung.
For example; serializing different phone parts to prevent third-party repairs unless with original manufacturer parts (which were often incredibly expensive). These decisions began to affect our repairs, and soon enough I began to lose faith in the quality of parts we COULD afford. I no longer felt confident in the quality of repairs we were able to provide. It is unfortunate as Mobi took great pride in our workmanship and reliability.
Due to the instability of the industry I began to pursue a different career, and so did my employees (as I encouraged them to).
When the time came for me to move forward in my career, I no longer had the time or resources to keep things pushing with Mobi. The amount of work needed to keep up with popular franchises was exhausting and often discouraging. I ultimately wanted to sell Mobi to another repair franchise that perhaps had the resources to invest into Mobi’s success, but my property manager pulled the rug out from under us a few weeks before the deal closed. The owner of the building sold the building, and we were forced to vacate by the end of our lease in June, effectively shutting down any interest the buyer had.
County records do not yet show the building’s new ownership. Wong said he wanted to reply with details because “Mobi always advocated for transparency in our business.”
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