FAQ

Upsie Independent Repair Network FAQs

The Upsie IRN is an Independent Repair Network of the best independent stores across the nation. You keep all of your independence and autonomy but gain the ability to receive repairs from our national protection plan program and to sell protection plans for a new income stream if you desire.

Repair Service Provider! You! Some of you have physical stores, others depots and some are on the go doing repairs in a mobile fashion. We’ll try and say “RSP” always to not exclude any of your forms of helping people receive high-quality repairs.

Clarence Bethea founded Upsie in 2015 after paying hundreds of dollars for a laptop protection plan that he couldn’t even use. Luckily he could afford to replace his totaled laptop, but what about the people who couldn’t?

Enter Upsie, protection you can count on. We strive to make our protection plans accessible to everyone via lower prices, longer purchase periods, and completely transparent terms. Perhaps most importantly, we're constantly improving our 24-7 claims process so our customers never have a bad experience like Clarence did.

We stand in our customers shoes daily to ensure that every change we make positively benefits them. Some might say we’re customer obsessed, which is true! We're so excited about the Upsie IRN because we know it will benefit our customers as much as it will benefit you.

Being on the protection plan side of the business since 2015, we’ve sent thousands of items out for repairs. We’ve heard great things from customers and sadly bad things and we felt their pain as we wanted a better plan experience from start to finish. In the spring of 2022, we hired Rob Link, founder of the Tech Care Association and former repair store owner himself, so he could help Upsie learn more about how stores operate and how we could partner together.

The Upsie IRN is FREE to sign up for and free to be a part of! Any business can complete the initial signup form at: https://upsie.com/independent-repair-network

There is no upfront cost or monthly fee to join the Upsie IRN or to receive repair orders. There is also no cost to sell protection plans. Nothing to lose by your business, everything to gain!

After you submit your business as interested in joining, we review and share our vetting form with you if you appear to be a good fit. Once the vetting form is reviewed and approved, you are invited to officially join! We’ll send you an email with an agreement, business onboarding questions and the first steps for setting up payments to you.

From there, Upsie builds you into our system to receive repairs and sell protection plans. We’ll send you some store marketing materials and written instructions for you and your staff and ensure you have all of your questions answered via a zoom call, online video or other method to help you have a successful launch.

Once you have been approved through the vetting process, you will be invited to sign a partnership agreement, complete the onboarding form and set up your payment account. (This all takes less than 15 minutes!) From there, you are ready to launch! You will be added in our system to receive repairs and we’ll send you the artwork as outlined in the FAQ to help support your protection plan sales at your store or any online efforts.

Upsie believes in the value of high-quality independent repair businesses across the nation. The Upsie IRN’s mission is to help build a strong and thriving network of these businesses, connecting them to drive mutual success through more repair orders coming their way. Upsie recognizes and appreciates that cities across the nation have different costs associated with running an organization and so pricing cannot be uniform in all places. Accordingly, here are Upsie’s three simple pricing goals:

1. Be fair to Your business to keep you thriving and growing profitably.

2. Be fair to customers by treating them with reasonable and affordable prices.

3. Beat overpriced national chains to secure relationships with the insurance underwriters and their large repair needs.

With these goals in mind, we aim to agree upon pricing with you based on an understanding of: Part Costs + Labor Costs + Margin = Repair Price

Using the right quality part originally intended for the device is always the right answer. We ask that you operate honestly, use the highest quality (OEM-like) parts available and complete repairs to the highest service standards every time. This will reduce complaints, reduce needed future repairs from lesser parts and always get the consumer back in the original experience they were having with their device! It also builds more consumer confidence in independent repair providers!

If you sold the customer the plan they are making a claim on, we will suggest your location and send them your way as long as it works conveniently for them.

If the plan was sold by Upsie:

First and foremost is convenience to the customer for getting a quality repair. Whoever is closest to their home, work or wherever they intend to be would be our preference. We will also be cross-checking this with prior repair customer feedback we’ve received to ensure a good experience for the consumer. Finally, price will be a factor when distance and customer reviews are the same.

Your business agrees to be responsible for at least a 30 day workmanship warranty on parts & labor. We know many businesses offer longer than this which is great, but this is the minimum.

Yes! Upsie offers protection plan coverage for over 60,000 household items - nearly anything that plugs in or runs off a battery. TV’s, Computers, Video Game systems, Tablets, Smartwatches, Speakers and SO MUCH MORE! When onboarding in the Upsie IRN, we will ask for more information on what sort of repairs you would like to receive so we can send them your way!

Yes! Upsie will utilize depots in two specific areas of our business. 1) When a local option is not available or not convenient for the customer, and 2) when a repair requires advanced work that is not available locally for the customer. Depot service will also be available when and if a local RSP runs into trouble with a repair that requires advanced work.

The customer will log into their Upsie account and initiate the protection plan claims process, there is also a 24/7 claims line customers can call to start a claim.

We have heard your request and are reviewing it, but not at this time.

Should a replacement be needed, this will be handled by Upsie’s claims department.

You will get notified via email the customer would like repair work from your store. You will confirm in that email that you can do the work (have parts + skills). You will also agree to the price in this step or provide feedback. We’ll then send the customer for you to check-in and complete the work. Afterwards, you’ll confirm work completed with us, and you get paid.

Initially, communication on customers and repairs will be made directly with a member of the Upsie team. Upsie will reach out via email/phone to you when a repair in the area becomes available. Once repair part availability and pricing are decided on, Upsie will provide the repair customer with your store hours and availability. In future months, Upsie will provide a partner portal you can login to and see customer and repair needs and activity.

As for payment arrangement, Upsie will provide each RSP a merchant account. Every time a repair is completed, funds will be sent to the RSP’s merchant account within 24 hours. Protection Plan referral payments will be made within 24 hours if the purchaser buys in the same website session they scanned their QR code. Tracking of customer purchasing on future visits will be analyzed and paid within 30 days to your merchant account. Our upcoming partner portal will allow you to track sales and referral bonuses as well as all payment activity.

Upsie was founded on digital marketing practices which we are now able to bring to our partnership to ensure you always get paid for your efforts. Each business location will be given its own unique QR codes, landing pages and url. Once these are visited online, we can remember all viewers for 200 days and when a protection plan is purchased, you will be paid. No matter if they make a protection plan purchase right then or come back to Upsie another way later and buy a plan in the future, you will be paid as you drove the initial visit. If they visit through your links again, the 200 day timer resets for additional purchases and referral commissions as well!

No! Any protection plan you help drive the purchase of, you will be rewarded the commission. Upsie offers plans for almost every device in the home that runs off of batteries or plugs into the wall. Phone plans are the only subscription item at this time and the main focus of our marketing efforts with your business, but all protection plans will pay out the commission.

Yes! Shortly after launching, your business will receive an email with your official store signage. Store signage will include a unique QR code you can have customers scan as well as a unique Upsie URL specific to your store location. You can print signage off to display in store and/or print copies to hand out to prospective protection plan customers.

This QR code and url will be backed by our 200 day tracking links to ensure you always get paid your commissions. While phone and laptop protection plan subscriptions are the main focus, we can also work with you if other graphics and categories make sense for your business and what you usually repair most.

Upsie will pay a $15 commission per protection plan sold and kept by any customer for 3 monthly payments or 63 days. Plans kept shorter than this are still paid $5 per monthly payment made by the customer. Protection plans canceled before 30 days receive a full refund and no commission. Remember: We track customers for 200 days after they visit our website so we can always pay you for every customer you drive to Upsie.

Whenever possible, YES! Your business will become the preferred repair provider for any customer you sell a protection plan to. However, the customer will always have the right to decline service from your location for any reason.

We don’t currently offer any plan sales outside of the Upsie.com website. This is very intentional as we want to build a relationship with the consumer and always have them be very aware of who they can come to for help with their plan. Most big box stores sell protection plans they don’t have any connection with and that’s where bad service and lack of empathy come from. We don't want to go down that slippery slope and fail our customers.

We are building something new and really unique - and really big! With that, we are also asking a lot of questions and gathering feedback as we want to partner with you and keep learning so we build the Upsie IRN in the right way. So we ask for your patience, your feedback and your grace while we work to get this right.

Our partnership agreement is written in plain english and not burdened down in fine print. We set it up for a year-long partnership that then can be renewed. If you don’t find the relationship beneficial though, you may reject repair orders we would like to send your way. Just give us time to show you its value!

No! You can only be in one program, and the Upsie IRN program is intentionally separate from the affiliate program as we recognized the unique value of the personal relationship built with consumers during their visits and interactions with repair businesses. The IRN’s financial rewards reflect that unique value and the payment terms were built with your businesses specifically in mind.