Sam – the phone man

Phone technician Sam Kennedy has some sage advice for locals wanting to protect their smart phones, devices, and tablets: keep them covered!

“Put your phone in a case, definitely, with a good screen protector!” he says from his workplace at “Need A Nerd” in Lords Place.

Sam daily sees the damage wrought on the new technologies that have transformed our lives, but which themselves are fragile and highly-sophisticated equipment.

“People come in with their smart phones, tablets, devices. You know, the things they can’t live with, can’t live without,” he explained.

“I’m always rushed; a lot are battery and malware issues…A lot are self-inflicted, but others are things like updates that go wrong,” he explains.

Some though, he laughs are of the “dog ate my homework,” variety. “Oh yeah, dogs have eaten plenty of phones and SD cards, that sort of thing. I had one that had been run-over by a truck… the owner wanted me to try and save his data,” Sam added.

Keeping family-friendly hours, “Need a Nerd” is not open at all on weekends to allow staff their own down-time but runs extended hours during the week of 8.30–6pm. “We work in shifts basically, some have a late start and a late finish,” he explained.

Rush times, outside of the usual bedlam, is “just after and just before Christmas”.

“Everyone wants their devices back as soon as, that’s just the nature of the work,” Sam says philosophically.