Calling the iPhone Medics!!

I don’t usually endorse products or services on The MAD Blog, so when I do you can bet it’s because I am really impressed with whatever it is I am recommending. UBreakIFix iPhone repair service is one of those exceptions. Here’s the story:

The entire Richmond family was visiting Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park last week when my son Thomas had a disaster with his iPhone 3g. He took it out to type what was probably his 10,000th text message of the day when it slipped out of his grasp and fell face first to the sidewalk. When he picked it up it looked like this:

He has a protective case but didn’t have it on that day. Needless to say he was devastated because he knew two things:

1. He was not going to have a phone for the rest of that trip and
2. He was not going to get another iPhone

That second one is the killer. The reason is because iPhones may be (sort of) reasonably priced when you can get one with a 2 year contract with AT&T ($99 for his model), but what if you have only had your phone for a few months and are ineligible for a contract discount and you break it? Well, then you are SOL, because you will not be able to get a replacement for the contract price and will have to pay full retail for it. For a new 3Gs that is a whopping $399 for the 16gb and $499 for the 32gb. Whoa.

But hold on, ubreakifix.com to the rescue!

UBreakIFix is an iPhone repair service that will handle all sorts of repairs to your phone including replacing a broken touch screen, water damage, broken and unresponsive buttons, camera, rear casing and battery replacement. They have complete menus on their website, with detailed descriptions of what kinds of damage or problems you may have so you can self-diagnose the issues and order the right repair. They also have a diagnostic service that will determine what you need for you.

As it turned out Tom royally messed up his phone, not only breaking the touchscreen glass but also ruining the LCD screen. We needed both the glass and LCD replacement service… total cost with shipping was $149.00. Not exactly cheap but better than¬¨‚Ć $399 replacement phone. That kid has a lot of free snow shoveling to do this winter to pay that off… but he’d have been mowing the lawn for free all summer without UBreakIFix!

The best part was I shipped the phone off on Monday morning via overnight delivery, and we received the repaired and perfectly functioning phone back on Wednesday… 48 hour turnaround. The repairs were flawless and the phone is working just like new.

The phones are expensive and when something like that happens it’s nice to know there is a reliable and fast way to fix them that will save you some money.