SME Services is now RepairCraft Upper Hutt - Same great service and professional advice
Welcome to an old-school community repair service
Skilled crafters giving your stuff a second chance
Many items that might be repaired end up being replaced. We’re happy to take a careful look first and offer our best advice.
The NZ Consumer Guarantees Act (CGA) gives you certain rights in addition to any other warranty. If your item could be covered by the CGA, then you should pursue that before requesting service from anyone other than the business that you bought from. The CGA does not apply if you have something serviced by anyone other than the original seller, so check that first.
We have unique industry specific skills to assist vending machine franchisees and installers to maintain and prolong the serviceable life of their machines. Vending machines operate in harsh environments which stress the electronic and mechanical components. These units degrade and wear with time and use. A typical approach is to replace aged units with new, but in most cases repair and refurbishment is significantly cheaper and better for the planet.
As an example, we can refurbish product delivery drop sensors and restore them to as new operation at a cost that is up to 1/3 of the replacement costs of a sensor pair. Tray drive motors can be repaired and returned to operation at a significant cost reduction over replacement, and those are just two examples. Keypad units fail over time and the membrane parts can be replaced at low cost rather than replacing the entire keypad unit. We guarantee our testing to meet or exceed machine operating parameters.
If you’re in the business of operating vending machines, you’ve enough to do managing the day-to-day fulfillment, installation and servicing work. Leave the electro-mechanical repair to us, reduce replacement unit costs and help reduce environmental impact at the same time.
Contact us to discuss how we can support you and reduce your maintenance and repair costs.
RepairCraft was born from a passion to repair, re-use and recycle. There’s a lot of chatter about the disposable consumer society, even though many items can be repaired; it just can be difficult to find anyone willing to do it and with the skills and experience to do it well.
I’m Steve, and I’ve been repairing things since childhood; electronics things, mechanical things, all sorts. I trained as a telecommunications technician and got involved in computers when you had to build them yourself from a kitset in a box. Over the years I’ve built and repaired computers, microcontrollers and almost everything electronic, developing my skills and knowledge over 50 years in trade and professional roles.
Nowadays, I’m semi-retired and I take pride in working on anything and everything, bringing reasonably priced repairs to anyone who’s interested in preserving their equipment, getting a few more years of useable life out of it, or just reducing their environmental impact by saving one more thing from the landfill.
I founded, and continue to support, the Upper Hutt Repair Cafe (and Trust), a volunteer charity organisation that brings a wide range of skills and expertise together to offer no charge repair assistance to the Upper Hutt community. Every two months we offer repair and recycling advice and assistance free of charge to anyone who brings in anything which might be in need of attention.
I can often repair things that a retailer, manufacturer or another serviceperson cannot or will not repair, as it may seem uneconomic, given the high overheads of operating a full time business. Since I don’t have those overheads, and I work only when people need my help, I can keep prices down and offer a speedy result. I offer an option for you to negotiate a repair cost that works for both of us, and other cost saving options which may interest you. Please feel free to bargain!
I do what I do because I love it, and I want to put landfills out of business. If you’ve got something in need of attention and you’re not sure about getting it repaired, talk to me about it now. There’s a good chance it can be properly repaired at a reasonable cost and in good time.
Toni
Service absolutely above and beyond. Love the philosophy of reduce, repair, repurpose and recycle. Highly recommended.
Kel
Steve is amazing. I gave him quite the challenge to fix my 40yr old Casio keyboard. He was determined and persistent and now I have my much loved keyboard working again. Highly recommend.
Vicki
I had an excellent experience with Steve at SME with a Croxley turntable that wasn’t playing records well. He communicated extremely clearly and even printed out the manual for me and followed up. I would highly recommend Steve and will be using his services again.
John
Professionalism, Quality, Responsiveness, Value
Steve McDonald provided an exemplary service, went out of his way to provide advice and had the job completed to an excellent standard within two days. Without me asking for it Steve provided a guarantee that if the repair failed he would fix it without extra cost to me. I was astounded by both his competence and ability to communicate and bowled over by his professional integrity. Here is a man you can trust unconditionally.
Briar
Professionalism, Responsiveness, Value
Prompt, knowledgeable, helpful, experienced. Steve took apart an aging rebranded multifunctional music centre, found the fault and fixed it. And that without a service manual. I use this all-in-one unit to provide digital conversion services to clients and had a job coming from Auckland, so needed it back fast. Two-day turnaround – thanks Steve. You sound just like the sort of guy I need to fix the aging equipment that’s essential in the work I do.
Scott
Professionalism, Quality, Responsiveness, Value
Fantastic service from SME! The LED light on my fish tank had an intermittent fault due to a loose component on the board, causing it to fail. Steve had this repaired the day after I dropped it off, and he fixed up a few other questionable solder joints and dodgy wiring. Thanks for repairing some simple faults and keeping something from going to landfill for want of an easy repair.
Paul
Professionalism, Quality, Responsiveness, Value
SME Services (Steve) was very engaging from the start. It was very obvious he had researched my car engine management system as a result of my enquiry. Through his significant depth of knowledge and experience he was quickly able to identify the problem with the system and offer practical and pragmatic solutions which he completed the same day to my complete satisfaction. Should I need to, he would be my first port of call in the event of another electronic based problem. Thank you Steve.
Damon
I recently had some electronic equipment failure due to a lightning strike. I engaged SME to come and assess the failed components. Steve was able to come and take a look within 24 hours, he was polite, professional and efficient. Highly recommend.
Nadine
SME Services should be your only consideration. You can’t be disappointed. Originally inquired about a TV repair, then took a cheeky chance on a dead electronic sewing machine which other “fix” avenues had failed. Steve’s initial communication was clear, precise and informative. When his investigation began, he was again clear, precise, informative and provided options with estimated costs and anticipated timeframes. This is the best service I have received, the repair has amazed me, the timeframe was less than stated and the cost was also less than estimated. FANTABULOUS!
Your local repair option
We design, build, repair and repurpose electronics, modules and control systems. These systems are used in vending machines, commercial and industrial automation, test equipment, appliances, stereo, amplifiers, speakers, audio systems, toys, electric gates, pumps, alarms, fans & ventilation, access controls and monitoring and control systems of all types. We repair and refurbish at a cost much more economical than replacement units, and we restore older electronics such as vintage audio.
What we do
Our approach is to reduce, repair, repurpose and recycle. We aim to reduce the need to replace units by repairing and returning them to service. Often we can recover working parts from redundant systems, so we can reuse recovered parts to effect repairs if that is your preference and our best advice. We will guarantee those repairs to the same level as we do for new parts as far as possible.
We fully support the “Right to Repair” movement, which is gaining popularity in New Zealand and around the globe.
Why repair?
If it worked once, it can work again with the right attention. If you have a question about anything electronic, or you’d like some free advice, please use the Service or Support Enquiry option on our contact form. You can also text or call if you need an immediate response. We’re pleased to offer advice and help where we can. If it’s electronic or micro-controller based we can help.
Specialist capabilities
From our early days, we have designed, built, repaired and modified scores of electronic modules and systems. Audio systems and amplifiers, speaker systems, crossovers, sub-woofers; we’ve designed, built and deployed standalone microcontroller systems for pump controls, gate controls and automation, including on-site repairs and modifications when required. Other interesting and unique repairs have included: remote control cars, a fibre-optic fusion splicer, food-processors, AGEE electric preserver urn, power supply regulators, vehicle camera systems, vintage audio systems, large display wall clocks – almost anything electronic!
Community Facing
We also support the Upper Hutt Repair Cafe events every two months, where volunteers provide assistance and teach repair skills to the Upper Hutt community, offering time, skills and tools free of charge for 4 hours on a Saturday.
Please email