iRepair iPhones

There’s gold in them thar broken Macs and iPhones!

A growing tide of Apple gadgets with dead buttons, cracked screens and lost data is migrating away from repair desks at the tech giant’s slick retail stores -- and toward upstart shops like Dr. Brendan’s Mac Repair which offer lower-cost repairs.

After opening its first store last fall in the East Village, the chain has quickly grown into three stores, with additions in Brooklyn and Greenwich, Conn., with plans for several more New York-area stores in the coming year.

“Business in the East Village is already 300 percent of what it was in January,” says 30-year-old Brendan McElroy, who opened his first storefront on St. Marks Place last fall.
Gadget fixer Brendan McElroy is building a brand by doing iPhone repairs that the “Genius Bar” at Apple stores won’t usually do.
Daniel Shapiro
Gadget fixer Brendan McElroy is building a brand by doing iPhone repairs that the “Genius Bar” at Apple stores won’t usually do.

Clients include 33-year-old Perri Gorman who, in addition to getting her iPhone 4 repaired, recently paid to switch the body to a lime-green color with a bright pink home button. (Total cost: $160).

“People are constantly stopping me on the street asking ‘Where did you get that?’” Gorman says.

Last year, McElroy had built a neighborhood reputation by repairing iPhones out of his fifth-floor apartment -- a side gig he developed after repairing his own iPhone with parts he bought off eBay.

“I had as many as 20 to 30 customers a day coming into my living room,” McElroy told The Post, noting he had lured clients with flyers and ads on Craigslist. “The other tenants weren’t too crazy about that.”

The St. Marks shop -- whose exposed-brick walls and sleek counter-tops evoke Apple’s cool aesthetic -- is already expanding into a second storefront across the street to help meet the expected 100 percent growth McElroy is forecasting, an increasing share of which is coming from business customers.

“We all own and love Apple products, and I think they offer a fair policy of backing up their product,” McElroy says, brushing off the notion that he’s a competitor. “When it comes to out-of-warranty repairs, Apple has to draw the line somewhere.”

Nevertheless, some clients say they came to McElroy’s store partly out of frustration with the service at Apple’s “Genius Bar.” Confronted with cracked screens and dead home buttons, techies at the Genius Bar frequently suggest buying a new gadget rather than replacing it.

“With the Genius Bar, you have to wait and wait for an appointment and they’re never on time,” gripes Victoria Phillips, a 31-year-old writer. “It’s a pain in the ass.”

McElroy -- who, less than three years ago, was still tending bar in Hell’s Kitchen -- says he’s angling to open as many as 20 stores across five states in the next two years, with New Jersey and California locations likely.

The growth will be mostly self-funded, according to McElroy, though he’s also in talks with regional partners.

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