Let’s discuss fast reliable repair vs convenience…
Having been in the iPhone and iPad repair business for 7 years as of this writing I’ve seen how it has evolved. When I started repairing cell phones there were a minimal amount of options out there. APPLE didn’t offer repair services, and everyone had to wait out their 2-year contract for an upgrade.
So often I heard from customers “Well I have another year on my contract so I mine as well repair my phone”. Those days are long gone. Now we can upgrade whenever finance a phone, head over to APPLE for a repair, and now even have someone come to our place of business or home to repair.
Let’s talk about repairing with APPLE…
While I truly believe APPLE still holds the title for amazing customer service and having stores located all over the world to ask questions, purchase, or repair a device; it isn’t always the best option. I myself have broken my own device and headed to APPLE for a repair.
I was knowledgeable enough to know to make an appointment for the service needed or it would certainly have added a much longer wait time. I logged onto the site and to my surprise it was almost a week before I could get an appointment. That’s definitely a drag when you have a screen so broken you can hardly see it. So I headed over for my appointment only to deal with traffic, mall parking lots, and navigating the mall map to find the store.
Once I got there I checked in at my proper time thinking that would be it, nope, I had to go wait at a table to see a genius bar employee. After another 15 minutes, I finally saw someone and was asked what’s the problem. Well, my iPhone screen is broken and I’d like to repair it. After another 15 minutes of questions, tests, and signing I was told, “ok sir, your phone will be ready in 2-3 hours”. WHAT!!!.
At that point, I decided the only thing to do at the mall for that long would be to see a movie. I returned in a little over 2 hours and my phone still wasn’t ready. In the end, with all of the above hassle, I invested a little under 4 hours into this repair.
My point in all of this is that being an iPhone and iPad repair shop for over 7 years I know the time it takes to repair an APPLE device.
One of the compliments I hear most is “Wow, that was so easy”. A normal repair time for any iPhone is 10-20 minutes and an iPad is 15-30 minutes. Simple as that!
There is also the factor of cost. Of course, if you have AppleCare then that is always going to be your best and cheapest option. I always try to advise potential customers of that. In the case of no coverage on your APPLE Repair most of the time a 3rd party repair will always be able to beat the APPLE price, and sometimes by a large margin. For instance, currently, the cost of an iPhone 7 glass repair through APPLE is $129, whereas at my shop the price is $65. Figure in the hours in difference in repair time it’s a no-brainer! To add one last thing and that is while they make amazing products, it’s always nice to support small businesses with your hard-earned dollars.
Let’s talk about mobile service repair…
In the last few years, there has been a new option for repairing your iPhone or iPad device and that is mobile service. Like many trends today, we lead very busy lives and it is so convenient for things to be brought to us. We now have food, coffee, pet supplies, and even medical services delivered right to our homes or office. I’ll admit that I take part and order many of these services myself.
A few years ago I saw a service (will not mention the name) begin to pop up on my Facebook feed offering mobile repair of iPhones. With tech being the way it is I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened. I’ll admit that it had me concerned. The overhead of a physical location can be very costly depending on the area that you are in.
I thought there would be no way to compete with someone’s cost of business being a few gallons of gas and an oil change. I sat back and watched closely how the market would develop and began to see where and when it would go all wrong.
For all intents and purposes let’s call the company Repair X. This company clearly got a large round of funding and began pumping cash into Facebook and Instagram ads. I did a little research into how to become a “repair tech” within this company and found that it was as simple as a website address with a few videos to watch and a link to parts for purchase.
No courses, no required knowledge, and no previous experience necessary. They also do not require the tech to buy the parts from them. That means that a person can go and buy the lowest quality part available and make the largest profit margin. This leads to devices that break when the wind blows, poor color quality in the LCD Display, or simply stop functioning after a short time of use.
I can tell you from being a self-taught Mobile Phone Repair Professional that there is a huge learning curve. When first starting out I broke more devices worse than they already were than when they started. Of course, always in the end getting them back to proper working order. Every device is different and every generation of that device is designed differently.
Looking further into Repair X I began to notice many of the comments being the same.
My device stopped working after the replacement
The repair tech was late
The repair was more expensive than quoted
Was still charged even when my device couldn’t be repaired
My tech was creepy!
After watching Repair X for about a year and seeing an overwhelming amount of complaints the company didn’t resolve the issues…they CHANGED THEIR NAME TO AVOID THE BAD PRESS. Repair X has now changed the business name for the 3rd time.
I had an Uber driver in my office for a repair recently and was discussing mobile repair and he said he knew of many Uber drivers that were also trying to fix phones to supplement income. Think about that! Do you want someone who has this little experience opening up your $1000 device?
The last issue and to me the biggest of all is let’s say you get a repair and the device begins to have issues that clearly would fall under a warranty. When you choose a physical repair location you always have a place to go back to and make the issue right. When someone comes to you, the chance you are taking is that the tech simply doesn’t call back is much greater. Let me ask you this- would you want your car engine repaired on your front driveway by a guy you called over the phone? Likely not. Always having a location to go back to is the safer bet when it comes to repairing a device.
In a fast-paced world, convenience is key, but not in this case in my opinion. Do your due diligence and find a reputable repair shop that cares to offer the highest quality parts, is knowledgeable in the repair that they are doing, and appreciates your business. Use YELP or Google to find an iPhone or iPad repair shop in your area and feel confident in who is repairing your often very expensive device.
Gregory- owner at uBrokeiT iPhone and iPad repair
