Update: Louis Rossmann has posted a follow-up video in which he says that he has been contacted by IP lawyers acting for Apple but is not currently being faced with a lawsuit. He said there is an issue with a schematic, but Apple is said to like the channel.
Tekserve, the go-to third-party store for Apple product repairs in New York City, has announced that it is to close after 29 years. The service center will close at the end of the month, and the retail store on August 15th, reports the NY Times.
If the service center photo looks familiar to those outside NY, it’s because it’s such a fixture in the city that it featured in a Sex and the City episode, where Carrie’s Mac crashed …
It was the Apple Store in New York City before there was such a thing as an Apple Store.
Before iPods and iPads and iPhones, before Apple started selling and servicing its devices out of a glass cube on Fifth Avenue, the eclectic Tekserve store on West 23rd Street in Manhattan was where customers went for upgrades to their PowerBook laptops or to have their computers fixed.
Competition from the six official Apple Stores, Best Buy and online sales meant that the company was no longer doing enough business on the sales side of the business to make continued operation viable.
Those who prefer to do their own repairs may also be losing a valuable resource. Louis Rossmann’s YouTube channel has been an invaluable source of detailed tutorials for DIY repairs, some of them detailing how to perform component replacements rather than the whole-board approach typically taken by Apple Stores. But in a somewhat vague video posted last night, Rossmann indicates that they may be about to disappear.
“We love our customers, and we love what we do,” CEO Jerry Gepner said. “But there comes a point where that doesn’t make sense anymore, as much as we love it.”
While Rossmann doesn’t say so explicitly, he implies that he has received a takedown notice for his videos, and Reddit is speculating that Apple may be behind it. It’s unclear what might form the basis of any takedown notice, though Rossmann does express strong views on Apple’s approach to repairs, and some of the videos do include Apple schematics. We’ve reached out to Apple and will update with any response.
Rossmann also runs a MacBook repair business in NY, and the video gives the impression that this too may be under threat as he seemingly plans to fight any case that results.
Update: Rossman updates us on his ‘plight’:
