WATSONVILLE—You have probably walked or driven past the sliver of a shop on East Lake Avenue scores of times and not spotted Alltronics TV Repair.
And you might not guess that the one-man operation, in business for close to four years, is a quick and easy spot to take care of that crack on your iPad, replace your phone screen or battery, or plunge deep into any number of problems with your flat-screen TV.
Meet Adrian Diaz. Only speak Spanish?—not an issue. Dropped your cell phone in a toilet? Lost all of your precious photos and phone contacts? Walk through the door at 11 East Lake Ave. with your electronic issues and there’s a good chance you’ll leave those them behind.
Diaz, who was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, said he studied electronic repair at a trade school in Mountain View, worked at an electronics repair shop to sharpen his skills and then figured he could mount the risk of running his own place.
It’s working.
He said he started tinkering with small gadgets as a kid and wasn’t afraid to pull things apart.
“Once you know how the components work, you can repair most anything,” he said while confidently working under a microscope on a Samsung phone that took a watery plunge. “The owner of this phone is worried that she lost everything, including her photos. I don’t ask what water it went into. I opened it up, cleaned it out and now let’s see if it works.”
With that, surrounded by a crowded workbench of specialized tweezers, tiny screwdrivers, pliers, magnetic tools of all kinds and a sea of spare parts scattered around his shop, Diaz added the final touch by slipping the battery in place to bring the phone back to life.
“She’ll get everything back,” Diaz said. “It’s one of my favorite things about this work: It’s a good feeling when you fix something. I like to see them leave the shop happy; it happens a lot.”
While Diaz performs most work in his shop, he does make house calls for large, cumbersome gadgets. He said there are stumbling blocks in the field, like “right to repair” standards set in place by companies like Apple.
“But we can get anything from China and that means most everything is fixable,” he said. “The iPhone has some constrictive peripherals and you have to use what they tell you to use.”
For information, call 536-5606 or visit alltronicstvrepair.com.
