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by shartacct 1718 days ago
You can.

https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/service/screen-repla...

> The Apple Store and many of our Apple Authorized Service Providers offer same-day service for screen replacement.

The pricing available here (for guaranteed new, genuine parts and labor) is actually cheaper than the cost of genuine replacement screens available on ebay at first glance, the first genuine iphone 11 screen I found on ebay that wasn't a chinese offbrand or used assembly is $235 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/174952166934) whereas apple quotes $199 for a new 11 screen and replacement service.

1 comments

That's repair, not parts, and it's only screens, not any of the other many parts that often fail.

Of course the pricing is lower than buying an ebay screen, because apple won't sell you a screen, so sellers on ebay have to procure them illegally. Again, a problem that apple iself created.

> That's repair, not parts

I'm aware. It doesn't really matter if the final repair service is cheaper than buying the part and doing it yourself and leaves a better, like new result rather than a repair job done by an amateur.

> and it's only screens, not any of the other many parts that often fail.

They repair any part of the phone that fails, screens were just the first example I found are trawling for a few seconds with google. Apple does cheap battery replacements and will swap motherboards too.

Look up Louis Rossman on YouTube. There are many repairs that are trivial for a trained professional that Apple just refuses to do, nor do they provide parts for. Replace a single resistor and an "unfixable" MacBook works like new again.

The characterisation of third party repair as "amateurs" is one of Apple's creation (obviously not just them but all tech companies). Apple will wipe your data, send your phone to China and replace your mainboard at best. An actual repair technician will fix what's actually wrong right then and there and not touch what isn't - including data.

I completely understand that you don't want to fix your own device or even if you only ever want to deal with Apple, but that shouldn't be the only option.

> Look up Louis Rossman on YouTube. There are many repairs that are trivial for a trained professional that Apple just refuses to do, nor do they provide parts for. Replace a single resistor and an "unfixable" MacBook works like new again.

I know who louis is, and contrary to your opinion replacing random surface mount components until the machine turns back on is not a repair. Generally most of his work is not even for machines that spontaneously failed, it's all stuff that's water/beer/soda damaged that Apple turned away. He charges more to do those repairs and they generally don't hold, because it's impossible to remove all latent moisture and corrosion once a board is significantly damaged like that.

> The characterisation of third party repair as "amateurs" is one of Apple's creation (obviously not just them but all tech companies).

The context was the end user buying parts and repairing their machine themselves. How is that not amateur?

> Apple will wipe your data, send your phone to China and replace your mainboard at best. An actual repair technician will fix what's actually wrong right then and there and not touch what isn't - including data.

Apple themselves say they do same-day repair, so I'm not sure why you're overtly lying about that here.

> I completely understand that you don't want to fix your own device or even if you only ever want to deal with Apple, but that shouldn't be the only option.

???

I'm 100% pro repair, I'm just not getting the hate on apple for their practices. They are by far the most pro-repair company in the smartphone space (definitely NOT in the laptop space however, though their in-store battery replacements for macbooks are still cheaper than buying genuine oem batteries for thinkpads, I wish they would go back to socketed ram and ssds but that clearly isn't happening), and are the only actual company that offers in person same day repairs and mail in repairs for reasonable prices. If you want to get a pixel repaired you have to go to shady third party chain stores that are contracted by google, and usually all they will do is replace the screen and see if it works (even if the fault is completely unrelated, you can search for people's experiences with pixel 3s spontaneously bricking and find thousands of horrors stories).

> replacing random surface mount components until the machine turns back on is not a repair

Definition of repair, according to Merriam-Webster [1]:

> to restore by replacing a part or putting together what is torn or broken

It seems to me like Louis' repairs qualify. A customer walks in with a broken Mac or iPhone, he identifies the part that is broken, then he replaces it. Do you have an alternative definition by any chance?

> He charges more to do those repairs and they generally don't hold

Do you have any actual evidence that Louis' repairs are unreliable? Do his customers eventually complain about them?

> Apple themselves say they do same-day repair

Okay, but what about the data stored on the old mainboard that gets thrown out?

> They are by far the most pro-repair company in the smartphone space

Again, we seem to have different definitions here. My definition of "pro-repair" excludes any companies actively lobbying against right to repair and implementing unnecessary software features to detect replaced parts.

> If you want to get a pixel repaired you have to go to shady third party chain stores that are contracted by google

Maybe if you (and others like you) would stop shilling so hard for Apple, turning a blind eye to their anti right to repair lobbying, and encouraging others to do the same by tenaciously defending their anti-user practices on public forums, we might actually have a chance at getting right to repair legislation passed, and then you could easily get your Pixel fixed, and your iPhone, too.

Apple's lobbying and precedent-setting makes everything worse for everyone, not just for Apple users.

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/repair

What happens when Apple decides overnight to increase the price by a factor of 5? When you can't go anywhere but Apple for repair, whether or not you are overcharged is entirely Apple's decision. When you have actual choices, and actual competition to Apple's repair services, like you obviously should, it's not possible for Apple to do this.