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People always ask us why they should pay us to repair their cell phone instead of using their service provider’s insurance (especially when it costs them more). Our answer:

• You know the history of your phone – in all likelihood, you will receive a refurbished replacement and not a new phone.  That means the cell phone you receive will be one that has had previous issues (that could be anything) and this means it has been repaired.  The concern – the ‘insurance’ companies tend to operate on a volume based model and quality can suffer if not correctly monitored.  Additionally, most are returned with non OEM chargers and batteries.

• You phone has all of your information – while most service providers offer a process to transfer your user data (contacts, pictures), some information like downloaded ringtones, installed apps and text messages may NOT be easily transferred if they can be done at all.  Sometimes spending a few extra dollars eliminates a whole lot of hassles.

• We can get your phone repaired properly, faster in most cases and warranty that repair with less hassle. – With the ability to perform most repairs within a few hours, the down time is considerably less.  We also warranty our work with a no hassle 90 day warranty AND that warranty repair can be done immediately.  Most ‘insurance’ providers only back the phones for 30 days.  Then you’re very likely to have a hassle to get it replaced (which in itself adds more down time).  As for being ‘repaired properly’…

We routinely see a number of cell phones in for repair that had previously been replaced under ‘insurance’.  In many cases the repair was not done correctly, the quality of the repair was substandard, and/or the quality of the parts used in the repair were substandard / non OEM, or worse.  The last 4 LG handsets that came in to us with issues (shortly after being replaced by the same ‘insurance provider’) illustrate these problems.  One came in with a defective touch screen.  While all looked well, it was obvious that the phone had been repaired.  Small grommets were missing and ground tapes were not seated properly.  Not, in our opinion, a quality repair.  Another 2 had charging issues within a day or two of receipt.  In both cases, the soldering was sloppy and incorrect directly leading to the failure in one.  The other had significant board damage that had circuit paths bypassed by running fine wires from the terminal fittings directly to board components.  This repair is wrong, and not only would the unit not work for long as repaired, it’s totally unsafe.  The last phone had an aftermarket touch screen (identified by the extra long flex cable and other markings) which failed.

The bottom line:  Even if you have a cell phone protection plan, repairing your phone when possible is the smart choice;  it is cost effective and can save you unnecessary hassles down the road.

Does this mean you should skip the option for cell phone protection altogether – not necessarily…  (We will visit this topic in another post.)

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 6:31 pm and is filed under Cell Phone Repair. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.