"Eek! Methinks not." is a damn understatement. I'm writing this fresh after my latest experience with Direct Repair. I apologize ahead of time for length and any profanity, but I MUST vent.
I have an iPhone 5 that is experiencing issues charging. I researched around and decided DR was worth my while. I took a train and a bus to the shop, where the charging port replacement took no more than 20 minutes, pretty smooth, or so I thought. Upon leaving the downtown Chicago area, I started to realize my once great signal reception was now very poor. I used to pretty much get strong LTE signal anywhere I go (I've even gone hiking in the mountains in Colorado and even had decent signal there.) No biggie I thought, maybe just a loose connection or something minor. I went in for the repair Jan 7th, 2014 (Friday), went back Monday (2/10/14) and explained the issue. They promptly took the phone to the back and ensured everything was hooked up nicely, returned it to me and sent me on my way. LTE was looking good for about 15 minutes (just in time to have me on the train) when the signal started to get worse. After a long walk to the train, bus, and to the shop, I return on Wednesday (2/12/14) where this time they replace the lightening port they had installed, then sent me on my way. I was feeling lucky, but no. By then, I had already tried every troubleshooting step I could take short of opening the damn phone myself. Restored from backup, restore as new phone, new SIM card, 1 hour of tech support with my carrier (who states an LTE tower is 1.8 miles away) I return yet another time that Friday (2/14/14) and ask for another attempt to fix. They discover a very thin ribbon cable was loose and had been slightly cracked. They replaced that ribbon and sent me on my way. By this time, the staff turned from happy to rude. I was hoping that would solve my issue but this was not the case. After yet another frustrating weekend of little-to-no signal, I returned there yet again today, Monday (2/17/14) where one of the staff told me he would return the phone to it's original state with my original parts plus a refund. All while being very rude. You broke my phone, not me. I said that's fine and got my phone back 15 minutes later. Once I'm half way home, I realize my microphone isn't working. My voice sounded like I was very far from my mic. I return to the shop and tell them my microphone isn't working. The guy comes from the back and argues with me that I should take the phone to Apple. I state that I will but I at least want my microphone to work. The guy scoffs, rolls his eyes at me, and goes to the back where I can see him pretty much throw my phone on their work bench.
After 15 minutes, the nicer of the 3 guys comes out and returns my phone to me. I test it and the microphone works.
So now I'm sitting here with a phone that doesn't charge and gets horrible signal now. On top of that, since the phone was opened by a 3rd party technician, Apple won't even look at the phone. So what turned out to be a simple $60 repair has resulted in me needing to buy a new phone.
My experience with Direct Repair was AWFUL. 1.5 hours of my life wasted each trip I had to make there. The only helpful lesson that I learned from DR is to definitely get insurance instead of having to deal with this shit in the future. I was polite and understanding each time I returned to the shop, there was zero need to become rude and annoyed with me. I personally work in IT where the bulk of my work is supporting and maintaining solutions with end users. I understand tech problems aren't always fixed on the first try and sometimes it becomes a trial-and-error route. But they pretty much just gave up on me...
Direct Repair can go Directly Fuck Themselves. read more
