Some days you get up and just know today’s not going to be your day. Granted for me that seems to be more frequent than most but the ‘bad things come in threes’ saying is pretty conclusive if you ask me.
Strike One, Two and Three!
Firstly I’d got ready, left the kids with Nanny and gone into work a whole day earlier than I had to! Realising my mistake I came home picked up the kids from my royally cheesed off mum who’s patience is wearing thing when it comes to my blunders and took them to soft play. All is going well until the boy winds up some older lads and ends up with a nice friction burn, tears and cold compress applied we decide to give up and head home to take Bono out. What could go wrong hey! Well rain, wind and a grouchy Wilba who refuses to walk resulted in a shoulder ride which would make it 3 as my iPhone 8 hurtled to the concrete!
Arrrgghhhh what was I going to do? I had no insurance, no warranty and no hope of getting it done before my trip to London on Friday morning!
Once home I googled the apple store repair charges, with Apple Care the fix would have only been £25, buy I don’t have Apple Care and was looking at about £166.44 for just the replacement screen. My front-facing camera wasn’t working either so the cost was looking nearer to £350.00!
As I dragged my jaw off the floor I contemplated using a non reputable source… some lad in a nearby village with a mini screwdriver and a dream! 😉😬 but time was limited and my phone was needed for our trip to London, not forgetting that it holds all my precious photos and personal data. I was not keen on letting just anyone at it!
Then one of my blogger friends recommended Mobile Solutions, and then another and another. How could they all be wrong? But still pessimistic I decided to check out Apple first.
The Apple Store was filled with red t-shirted staff members oozing apple-ness. But after a quick introduction and a promise of a 5-10 minute wait, 40 minutes later I’d realised that the majority of staff were sales with only 2 engineers. Had I not re-approached I think I would have still been sat there now!
To be fair though once I had been seen the service was good and price quoted for fixing was £145 cheaper than advertised. Plus the front camera screen is all included in the screen repair price. There was a problem though… my photos had not uploaded to the cloud and they could not guarantee that my data would not be lost in the process, heck she wouldn’t even give me the probability at first. When pushed she did say it can happen 3 or 4 times a day. So stressed I left to see if I could transfer my pics and check out Mobile Solutions which had been recommended to me in the Castle Mall on the 3rd floor.
My Knight in the Castle (Mall)
Oliver the owner is friendly and very helpful and even though they were busy were quick and efficient at TGIF desk and didn’t keep anyone waiting more than a few minutes. I was honest about where I had been and my quandary and he wasn’t pushy at all instead he just went through all the possible outcomes in terms of damage and what would need to be done! He also offered to have a look first and give me a quote and would put the screen back on if it was too much to fix. Oliver was much more confident that my data would be safe but did say there was always a chance it may be lost. He then went through what would be done and the options of new screens, for my iPhone 8 they range from £65 for a copy to £100 for a reconditioned iPhone screen. Undercutting apple by a considerable amount and a longer warranty too!
I went home to save my data and returned bright and early the next day. I plumped for the HO3 screen which is arguably better tech than the iPhone as it had only 1 IC which makes it quicker at communicating to the board, they have only just come out but are proving popular.
My phone was fixed within 40 minutes and I could not have been happier with the service hence the cringe-worthy photo 😬. Needless to say, after 24 hours of panic my phone was as good as new and ready for the weekend!
I would highly recommend Mobile Solutions to anyone without Apple Care for their friendly, honest and professional advice when it comes to providing support for your mobile devices. Check them out at www.mobilesolutions-ea.co.uk or call 01603 620 061 (if you can still use your phone).