Back in October I picked up an iPhone XS from Digits. My previous iPhone X had failed due to water damage and so wasn’t covered under warranty even though the iPhone X is meant to be water resistant. Anyway, last month I noticed the volume on my iPhone XS wasn’t that loud. Turned out the bottom speaker had stopped working. Since it was covered under warranty, I decided to take it back to Digits to get repaired. But Digits wanted to keep the phone for a few days and since I didn’t feel like wiping everything off my phone and handing it over to them, I decided I’d just live with the speaker issue or maybe take it to an unauthorized Apple repair shop and have them fix it for me while I wait. It would void the warranty, but it would also be a lot more convinient.
I called up my favorite iPhone repair shop to see if they stocked the iPhone XS lower speaker but they didn’t, which ended up turning out to be a good thing! Around a week after passing by Digits, my iPhone XS modem started to fail and I was getting a weird cellular update message. My phone stop connecting to my cellphone network and removing or reinserting my sim card wouldn’t make a difference. The modem would just stop working, I’d get an onscreen update error, then my cell coverage bars turn into a warning triangle. All I could do was wait for it to start working again.
So I backed up everything on my phone, wiped it clean and dropped it off at Digits for them to repair. Around 10 days later, I get a phone call from Digits telling me that they’ve replaced my phone with a brand new one under warranty, and to come by and pick it up.
If I had gone to my usual unauthorized repair shop to fix the speaker, my warranty would have been voided and my phone would not have been replaced for free when the modem failed. This whole experience has changed my view on iPhone repairs. I usually replace my cracked screens at unauthorized repair shops because they’re a lot cheaper and a lot quicker, but after this incident, I don’t think I’m going to do that anymore. Something to keep in mind next time you crack your phones screen.
15 replies on “iPhone Authorized Repairs vs UnAuthorized Repairs”
Interesting, it really got me thinking & had changed my view too.
I would definitely won’t go to unauthroized stores anymore because its faster.
Thankyou for sharing that with us❤️🙏🏼
A similar event occurred to me. I happened to get an IPhone 6S Plus couple of years back. The phone has been thru the worst of heat in Kuwait. I relocated to Melbourne, Australia last year and noticed my battery wouldn’t last long on a charge. I decided to look up unauthorised places to change the battery online only cause the phone was old and not worth taking it to the apple store. I stumbled on the apple care page where they would change the battery of old phones for just Aud 39 (Approx 10 Kwd). With a little bit of uncertainty (Since my phone was bought from Kuwait) I went to the Apple store and gave my phone to replace the battery. They told me it would take two hours. I went back after two hours and the tech guy came out to meet me and said they can’t fix the battery cause the glue that holds the battery has melted due to heat and they would replace me with a new iPhone 6s Plus for just the price of the battery replacement charge (Aud 39). So now I have my new IPhone 6S with an extended 2 year warranty on it. 🙂 I guess apple store is better than local phone repairs.
Correct my if i’m wrong, but isn’t everything on the iphone encrypted if you’ve got a passcode lock?
no one would have been able to access your data if you’d locked your iphone.
You’re right but they would need access to the phone to test out the speaker hence why I couldn’t just hand it over with my pin code.
ah, of course.
i guess lesson number 2 here is keep everything backed up at all times (and immediately fix any issue that prevents you from continuous back ups)!
This is interesting. I had an issue with a MacBook Pro 15″ with the keyboard keys acting funny. So I looked up on Apple and they happen to have a recall/replacement program for this issue, and so I took the laptop to Gait.
After two days I get a call from them saying that it would cost me 300 KD to replace the keyboard. I told them it is under warranty and they asked me to forward them the link from Apple website, even though I told the agent who took my device and he looked up the page on Apple’s website and confirmed that it is covered.
I told the person on the phone this and his reply was, “Oh, okay sir. What was the name of the person who took your device?” – I didn’t recall his name, but then he described him to me and I said yes that’s him. Then he goes “We fired him”. (How is this relevant? Not to mention some serious privacy issue).
Anyway, after I send them the link, the next day I get another call saying that … and I am quoting:
“Sir, the keys on your laptop are crunchy not sticky so its not covered.”
I wish I was joking. He repeated it to me twice.
So, I guess the moral of the story here is – not all Apple agents are the same.
Maybe I need to try Digits.
Hahahahhaa
IT S BETTER YOU BUY UR PHONE FROM THE AUTHORIZED DEALER/SELLER.
Authorized resellers definitely have a better advantage when it comes to honoring warranties and fixing your Apple products the official way. The issue sometimes is the time they would take to fix your product. This is where the official Apple stores have an edge (and it sucks we don’t have those here), as the time they would tike to fix your products are considerably less
I have an iXs too but what is this ‘modem’ that you speak of?
And if a phone was purchased outside (US/UK), will it still be covered by Digits should anything similar happen to it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem
Do you know guys where can I color calibrate the screen of my MacBook Pro in Kuwait? I called the Apple reseller and they says they dont do it.
Why do you want to calibrate the screen? You don’t need to calibrate a MacBook Pro screen it’s already calibrated.
Thats what i love about apple. Most of the cases if you are under warranty they will replace the phone if its not repairable thats true with almost all new phones due to very low repair ability score. But the thing here is we need to be very lucky. The phone which we receive need not be new it can be refurbished also with warranty.
Anyone knows where I can get the screen of my MACBOOK PRO 13” fixed for a reasonable price .