1. Apple thinks the cost outweigh the benefit of some repair jobs
A common repair that we receive are iPad charge port repairs, if you take an iPad that has a damaged charge port to Apple, they may tell you that this component can’t be replaced and would offer you a replacement for $300 or more while CaseMogul may be able to repair a charge port on a tablet or iPad for $50. The reason is because the process to remove the screen on an iPad is not easy, ESPECIALLY if you are trying to remove it without cracking the glass. It takes practice, skill and a few broken iPad screens before you can do it with your eyes closed. For Apple, we think it’s just not worth it to train technicians in each city to do this kind of repair, accounting for damages, mess ups, trained employees leaving and finding other work are just a few issues Apple would have to face. It would be extremely difficult to manage. A scenario we see happening is you offer a customer the iPad charge port repair at an affordable low price because your technician has the expertise for a few months at Apple and then when your technician leaves or calls in sick, you tell that same returning customer that this time it’s going to be $300+. You can imagine how unsatisfied that customer may be when hearing that. So we think Apple feels it’s just better to inform customers consistently that this device can’t be repaired so to avoid any inconsistencies that actually may overcomplicate the repair side of the company. Luckily with CaseMogul, we can do a lot of these repairs, and given that we are a smaller company we can manage our employees a bit better to be able to consistently offer the same level of service despite how complex this training process may be.
2. Apple thinks it’s likely better to centralize the repair expertise in one location instead of trying to train every Apple store
What we think happens to a lot of the phones that you trade in is actually that it gets sent to a main repair hub of Apple where seasoned veterans armed with technology and machines can do very complex repairs. It just makes a lot more sense this way. For example, we have seen refurbished phones from Apple that have previously been water damaged, become brand new phones, upon closer inspection under the microscope you can tell that someone has worked on this phone and cleaned it out. Why wouldn’t they offer this type of service at every store? We think the machines to do this are quite expensive, and once again it would take a lot of time and money to train a team of technicians to do this type of work. In addition to that, it would also cost a lot to maintain this fleet of technicians especially considering how many locations Apple has. Apple likely thinks it makes a lot better sense to just charge people the worst case scenario for the phone and then have them all sent back to one location where a handful of golden technicians that have LITERALLY seen it all can tackle each one. Some of these phones could have just had a broken screen but to Apple it’s okay because they’ve already priced it assuming the phone is essentially not repairable. This avoids having to teach each location extremely technical repairs.
3. Apple believes keeping things simple will make sure each customer experience is a happy one, despite the price of some repairs
If you go to the Apple store and ask them to just fix the home button, a front camera or a top speaker mesh on an iPhone 7 they will likely charge you something like $170. Why is it that expensive to change a front camera? It’s likely because Apple is worried about teaching each technician the detailed steps in replacing the front camera. It’s much easier just to take a fully assembled LCD Screen that has preinstalled front camera, top speaker and home button and their technicians to replace the screen entirely. There is much less room for error or mistakes. This however means the customer has to pay for a whole screen and all the bells and whistles when they actually just wanted one small component fixed. The full assembly provided by Apple however has been carefully tested at perhaps a central hub so that there is far less chance that this customer returns complaining that after their front camera repair, they can’t hear out of their top speaker or any other potential problems that comes with dealing with multiple steps and having to remove and put back components that were previously working. Apple’s reputation would suffer once again if the customer returns over and over again complaining that the job was not done right the first time. It would also be very costly to train each tech and ask them to do many small intricate steps without ever making a mistake.
Hopefully that gives you an idea why sometimes just because Apple says they can’t fix your phone that definitely doesn’t mean we can’t fix it! Given the volume that they encounter on a daily basis, there is also less time for technicians to really look into a phone and diagnose it. So if anything give us a try! From the reasons above we’re likely to offer cheaper repair prices and better expertise than our local apple store!