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Apple Begins Offering In-Store iPhone 5 Display Replacements for $149

My sleep/wake button is broken.

Does this mean that after July, I MUST get it repaired and no longer have the choice of a refurb replacement?
 
sbailey4 said:
OK You may need to go read up on AppleCare. That is a full warranty for any issue INCLUDING the accidental damage (twice) for the additional $49. All other repairs are included for 2 yrs with no deductible. Also AppleCare would cover a full replacement due to water damage or fried main board , broken home button, fried wifi chip, etc. This repair is simply a one time broken display fix for $149. If you break it again you pay another $149.
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Yeah, that makes sense. But the screen is apparently the most common and also one of the most expensive type of repair, and chances that it happens to you twice within 2 years is quite low still. So I would think that for most people, risking it and not getting AppleCare+ would be worth it, because even if the most common type of problem does happen to you (screen breakage), you won't pay more, and it probably won't happen more than once either. Then of course yes there's warranty stuff too, but considering the price of an iPhone and that most people buy a new one every couple of years, it's perhaps a bit of an overkill to pay $100 upfront just to insure it.
 
Earendil said:
Which was for the old, cheaper screens, right? These new retina screens, it turns out, cost a tiny bit more than the old ones, and are in shorter supply.
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Good point. Although at that time, the displays were about as expensive as the current iPhone.

OT and random thought:
Any time I see a quote notification, my heart skips a beat as I've grown used to harsh comments and personal attacks from my years on MacRumors. I've noticed it's gotten better, slowly. I wonder if it's due to the removal of the downvote button, which seems to engage people in discussions as opposed to passive-aggressive votes. Just, random thoughts. 🙂
 
applecare=a waste of money

having apple replace your lcd for almost the price of a contracted phone=a bigger waste of money
 
I wonder if this will be world wide this policy or only to the USA. What about if you got any dings on your iphone. Will they replace the casing of the phone at a cost too ?
 
Zwhaler said:
Wow that's expensive. They're going to make a lot of money from this. I'd rather get it done for half that by a 3rd party, but to each his/her own and to be fair it's not easy to find display replacements for that price but they're out there.
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iThinkIt said:
that's pretty fecund expensive... cheaper to get done elsewhere.
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It's not that expensive, comparatively speaking. Broken glass on the iPhone 5 apparently means that both the glass/digitizer and the LCD need to be replaced. Third parties like iResQ have this for $179 at the moment, but it used to be even higher. The article quotes another third party who used to be more expensive than Apple's new repair but is now slightly (slightly) cheaper.

Please share your sources.

I see one poster mentioned a $70 garage repair operation, but that's all I've seen so far, and not much available on a larger scale.
 
I wonder how much the other repairs will cost, if a screen repair costs roughly what the screen costs. I wonder if they'll repair the lock button on the 3GS I don't use anymore... I feel like that would vastly increase it's value... Then again, it's so old at this point I don't know if it would have any value even with the button fixed...
 
Applecare is still worth it if you keep your phone for two years IMO. Yes, you can now get the display replaced for $149 -- which is a good deal. However, the next most common accidental damage incident is contact with water. It seems Apple will still need to swap out the whole iPhone in those cases and $49 for two incidents is cheaper.

Any third party that is able to go significantly below $149 for a screen repair is most likely using knock off parts or salvage from another iPhone.
 
siurpeeman said:
note to applecare+ customers: if you crack your screen and want the whole phone swapped out and not just the screen, dunk the phone in water first.
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That would be immoral, and on a larger scale (i.e. someone driving their car into water on purpose to total it) is considered insurance fraud.
 
I think the pricing is fair. I´d rather have it done by Apple since I had two 3rd-party-repaired iPhone 4 and at least the first time it was not done properly.
First it looked fine, but the frame was a little bit bent, so the new display was under tension resulting in breaking again after a short time. I paid 99 for it.
So I expect better repair quality by Apple.
 
white4s said:
applecare=a waste of money

having apple replace your lcd for almost the price of a contracted phone=a bigger waste of money
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Contract price is irrelevant if you're already on one. I don't think $149 is an unreasonable repair cost for a phone that is $649/$749/$849.
 
Zwhaler said:
Wow that's expensive. They're going to make a lot of money from this. I'd rather get it done for half that by a 3rd party, but to each his/her own and to be fair it's not easy to find display replacements for that price but they're out there.
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... except that iFixIt used to be more expensive, and now is $10 cheaper. So good luck finding it at half the price.
 
More replaceable?

Any idea of how that will affect Apple's design philosophy?

So far it's been "glue it down if it somehow makes the iThing 1mm thinner."If Apple wants to make it easy for its own store staff to replace more things, may that change?
 
Might as well as get a factory refurbished phone (as good as new) for only $50 more. Never knew what else could be damaged in a drop.

Useful for jailbreakers I suppose.
 
b11051973 said:
My sleep/wake button has only been half working for a couple months now. I had been procrastinating getting it fixed. My niece scratched the crap out of my screen last weekend somehow. So, I went in to get it replaced, because I had heard about them being able to fix the sleep button in July. I wanted a full swap so I could get a new screen as well. 🙂
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Awesome and good idea!! I really hope Apple would give us a repair options, replacement or repair 🙂
 
sebimeyer said:
Any idea of how that will affect Apple's design philosophy?

So far it's been "glue it down if it somehow makes the iThing 1mm thinner."If Apple wants to make it easy for its own store staff to replace more things, may that change?
Click to expand...

Your post is a non-sequitor. The iPhone 5 is widely regarded as having among the most serviceable screen of any iPhone. Can be done by an amateur in a matter of minutes, without having to disassemble the rest of the phone.
 
xxnemoxx said:
To be honest, the iPhone 5 displays are expensive as hell to purchase, so $150 is actually a pretty decent price. only a couple a weeks ago the displays were about $200 for the part alone. I own a repair shop, so this is how I know.
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you're absolutely right- i own & operate a one-man repair shop too. but i have begun to see prices coming down somewhat (in wholesale) which led me to believe that they were going to be getting more easy to obtain.

i think this applecare news about the changes for in-store repairs is great news. it means that (hopefully) they'll be making devices that are more and more repairable! 🙂

- Josh
 
Hey all, I'm the originator of the initial post.

I saw a question about whether or not they will be replacing other parts of the iPhone. From my understanding, yes and no.

Apple will only be replacing anything that is immediately available to them. The front display on a 5 is really simple as long as you have the full assembly with the small parts so it would take them less than 10 minutes and you're off. You also have to deal with the Apple store and appointments and all that.

Repairs like casings and stuff that isn't immediately available will not be replaced (at this time). So on a 3GS like someone mentioned, the power button isn't readily accessible so they probably won't replace it.

Things like backs for a 4/4S, batteries, cameras, those are all right there and quick.

We are also lowering our price from the $139 to compete with them. As someone mentioned, location will help. Unfortunately there are 2 Apple stores in close range of us, one of which is about 2 miles so we will be competing heavily. Don't want the hassle of going to the mall and getting an appointment and all that? We'll have you out in ~20 minutes. If that extra $30-50 is worth it to you to have them do it, feel free.

It's all preference. 🙂
 
I'm tommy and work for Quick iFix also. This is gonna make it hard for repair shops to compete. We have been able to do the repairs glass only and can provide other color options as well as Sapphire crystal. Being able to do glass only helps us save on cost of the and doing color glass gives our customers another option that apple can't. You can check out our Facebook page for more info. Or ask them here and we can anser them. https://m.facebook.com/#!/quickifix?__user=1244678553
 
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