Carol D. Neubauer doesn't own a cell phone, and she doesn't use a computer.

The retired elementary school teacher and school bus driver does her writing and record-keeping on a word processor.

And when anything goes wrong with her Smith-Corona PWP-5500, she has Bob Will to fix it.

She is one of hundreds of customers from California to Florida who rely on Will to fix their still-treasured typewriters and word processors.

"He believes in these machines," said Neubauer, who is 73 and lives in Delphi Falls.

Will Repair Service has one of the largest holdings of Smith-Corona machines and parts in the country after Will bought up the company's inventory following its bankruptcy.

The repair service is run out of the basement of a Dunkirk home, and its loyal customers include filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and a number of inmates in the state prison system.

In the iPad age, these devotees don't want to give up the comfort and security of their typewriters and word processors.

"I think computers basically are so over-engineered, and come with so many programs that you don't need," said Michael Davidson, a Will Repair Service customer in San Francisco who likes that whatever he types into his Smith-Corona PWP System-14 word processor won't be stolen or infected by a virus.

Some admit they don't know how to use a computer.

Others say they just prefer the sound of an electric typewriter, the firm feedback from striking its keys and the impression left by each letter typed on the page.

A few area institutions keep typewriters on hand, and Will and a dwindling number of technicians at other local companies are still around to take care of them.

"You've got people, you just couldn't pull them away from their typewriter. They're going to use it till the day they pass, because it's just friendly, and they feel comfortable. It feels like an old friend," Will said.

Will is a second-generation owner of Will Repair Service, which also employs 30-year veteran technician Bill Verge and Will's brother, James.

Bob Will Sr. started the business in 1941 after taking a correspondence course on fixing radios, and later added TVs.

He began repairing typewriters as customers brought them in.

The walls of the company's basement work space are lined with old Smith-Corona posters that recall a time when those machines were on the cutting edge of technology.

One, featuring the actress Natalie Wood, called her portable typewriter the "best friend a busy girl ever had."

Will Repair Service gets between 100 and 150 calls per day, though many callers just ask how to install a ribbon.

The younger Will said his company is the only officially licensed Smith-Corona service shop in the world.

Owners ship their machines to Will from as far as China.

"If I told you how many ribbons I've sold you would not believe it," Will said.

His customers find him through the Internet or through Smith-Corona's main number.

Will Repair Service is one of the few companies that still performs this work, and Will has what is likely the largest inventory of Smith-Corona machines, parts and instruction manuals.

He bought up this inventory sight unseen at auction in 2005.

Will had to ship the items from Cortland back to Dunkirk in dozens of truckloads, and it took him two summers to sort through and organize all of it.

Will took a visitor to one of his three storage sites, where Verge lifted up one sliding door after another to reveal shelves stacked to the ceiling with electric typewriters and word processors.

Another large storage bay held boxes and boxes of diodes, circuit boards and other parts, along with rolls of bubble wrap and bags of Styrofoam peanuts.

"Everything's categorized, so we have a master list that we go by," Will said.

Will, who is also the handler of the prognosticating groundhog Dunkirk Dave and his rodent friends, jokes that he continues working with typewriters to keep himself in romaine lettuce.

Speaking seriously, Will said he feels a sense of responsibility to his customers. And he talks with a sense of pride about how easy the machines are to use, how advanced their spell-checking and thesaurus functions are and how well they type onto envelopes and card stock.

About 20 percent of Will's business comes from prisoners, who aren't allowed to use computers but may use electronic typewriters because they don't connect to the Internet and have little or no memory.

"They want instant service. A woman calls in, 'My son's gotta have that.' 'Ma'am,' I said, 'We've got 15 machines sent in today.' 'My son's on death row.' I said, 'We've got six others on death row and we can only do so many at a time,'" Will said.

Of the customers who don't spend their days and nights confined to a correctional facility, many just don't understand computers.

Neubauer said her pastor tried to get her to use a computer. But she finds it easier to cut and paste chunks of text, save and print on her word processor.

"I can't make [a computer] do anything," she said. "With these little Smith-Corona machines, you hit three keys and it does what you want."

Lori Babler, who is 80 and lives in Chehalis, Wash., uses a Smith-Corona DX-2600, an electric typewriter that she's had for about 20 years.

"I just have more control over my typewriter," Babler said.

She got Will's number after calling Smith-Corona and said she was glad to find a technician who knows what he's doing.

"Nobody could fix them," said Babler, who operated a bed-and-breakfast for years. "You say 'typewriter' and their eyes roll around in their head."

Some disciples, like Jim Nolan, an advertising writer in New York City, use a computer for work but say they just prefer writing on a typewriter.

The Snyder native feels a bond with the three old typewriters he keeps in his home, notably his IBM Selectric, and he shared this love in an essay he recorded for WBFO-FM.

"I kind of call upon them when I need more creative power," he said. "It feels more writerly. The clicking of the keys is one of the greatest sounds in the world."

Typewriters aren't dead yet.

Erie County has 257 typewriters and word processors in various offices, most in the Social Services and Health departments, according to the County Comptroller's Office.

Most are kept around because certain government forms are easier to fill out on a typewriter, though more of those documents are available as a PDF that can be electronically filed.

"It's the sort of software and technology that are the nemesis of typewriters," said Terrence McCormack, audiovisual librarian and head of the M. Robert Koren Center for Clinical Legal Education at the University at Buffalo Law Library.

The center keeps one typewriter in storage and leaves one out for public use, but fewer students ask for it these days.

"It's an artifact from the past now," McCormack said.

A few people are sticking around to fix these machines when they break down.

Barry Joyce, who works for Nate's Typewriters and Computers, in Niagara Falls, said he is the last technician who repairs typewriters at his shop.

He services the machines at eight or 10 institutions, including Niagara Falls Public Library, and helps a couple of walk-in customers each month.

He said when he retires, the owner -- the founder's son -- may alter the company name.

"The son is thinking about changing it to 'Copiers and Computers' or 'Computers and Copiers,'" Joyce said.

Will isn't planning to retire anytime soon, because there are too many typewriters to fix and too many loyal owners to help.

"Thank God Bob Will is there," said Davidson, a clinical psychologist in San Francisco, who likens Will to a cobbler or tailor. "They're old-style craftsmen, and I treasure them."

swatson@buffnews.comnull