The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The mobile phone repair shops in the country have been affected by the outbreak of COVID-19. The shops have run out of the spare parts, accessories and tools to repair mobile phones.
The owner of the Super Sonic Device said, “There are no tools to carry out a repairing work. Since there are no spare parts, the mobile (phone) technician has been sent home. We import the repairing parts from India and due to the lock down we cannot bring in the things,” she said.
She said that the since there is no production from the source it has become much harder for repair shops to simply order the parts they need to make mobile phone repairs. The repairs include common issues such as replacing mobile phone screens, batteries, etc.
“The factories and manufacturers of phone parts were shut down due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and had a great impact on the global supply chain of mobile phone parts. We are facing the problem and we have to sent home the costumer who come to get their mobile phones repaired,” she said.
The Apple Solutions in Thimphu said that there is a shortage of mobile phone parts and other consumer technology products.
“With concerns about the supply chains of Apple and other phone parts manufacturers, local mobile phone repair shops are feeling the strain. There are no materials for repairing mobile phones and we have to wait till the (India) lockdown opens and the production starts from the main dealers,” she said.
Meanwhile, the manager of Dolma Enterprise said that the store has run out of electronic equipment due to the stoppage of production at the source in India.
“We use to make around Nu 200,000 to Nu 400,000 in a day. At the moment the business has dropped drastically. We have almost cleared the old stock and now we cannot import electronics because the production has been stopped from the source itself and because of the lockdown,” he said, adding that even if the lockdown opens they cannot import the things because they have to depend upon production from the source.
The owner of a hardware store, Choki Enterprise, in Thimphu, said, “Sales have dropped compared to before. We have run out of stock. We cannot bring the stuff because of the lockdown. We are managing and trying to get things from other hardware shops and they are charging higher prices. We are anxiously waiting for the lockdown to be opened so that we can import the materials and the business can run smoothly as usual.”
He added that he used to make around Nu 30,000 to Nu 40,000 in a day, but due to the outbreak of COVID-19 he hardly makes around Nu 5,000 to Nu 10,000 in a day.
