Hi all,
(tl;dr at bottom)
I'm a longtime Macrumors reader and lurker on the forums, so hello everyone! I'm in a bit of a bind. I made the very stupid mistake of taking my iPad Air to a local computer repair shop here in Davis, California to get the glass replaced over 6 weeks ago. I had caused the damage myself by smooshing it in my laptop bag and didn't want to pay $300 for just replacement glass. The business has good reviews on Yelp but most of the reviews are for laptop repairs, but they offer flat rate iPad and iPhone repairs as well.
After dropping it off I received a phone call a couple days later that it was ready for pickup. When I arrived at the store, there was a plastic film over the glass so I started to take that off so I could inspect it. The front desk clerk immediately said I shouldn't take that off until I got home, which sounded fishy so I said I wanted to make sure everything worked before leaving. When I took the film off, I immediately noticed concentric circular scratches all over the LCD, like someone had taken steel wool and brushed the LCD. Well crap.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt that they somehow actually didn't see this but it seems obvious that they did, and they took it back and said they would look into it. I received a call the next day saying that it was the LCD and it had likely been done during the repair, and they would fix it. A week later, I received another call saying it was ready for pickup again. I go to the store to pick it up and turn it on and they're like "see, everything's fine". I notice the home button is a lot looser than before and there are scratches all over the bezel from prying off the glass. I mention this and the repair guy said that was impossible to avoid, wtf? I then go to a white page and notice 3 giant dark spots on the LCD. Again, how could they have not noticed this? They take it back and say they will look into it.
So now they have had my iPad Air for another 3 weeks while trying to get a new LCD from whoever sold them the faulty one. I realize these are almost certainly not official Apple parts and I'm very skeptical that they're going to be able to find a replacement display that is of sufficient quality. Not to mention the bezel is all scratched which has killed the resale value. I've called them many times, each time they say they need a few more days and then never call me back.
So my question is this, I know the warranty with Apple is now voided as it's obvious to see. If I ask for the device back will Apple still repair it out of warranty if I explain to them what happened (for $300?)? Should I send a letter to the repair shop requesting that they replace my device and then contact consumer affairs if they don't, since the damage was caused by them and not me? Or am I just totally screwed here? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Unfortunately I naively didn't take any pictures of the initial damage. I do have a receipt for the original repair that says "replace glass" and I have a phone log of all my interactions with them, giving me a timeline of what has happened. They also refunded my initial payment at my request (when I picked the iPad up after the LCD replacement I didn't notice the dark spots until after I had paid), so I have a record of that as well.
tl;dr - Took my iPad Air to an unauthorized repair shop, they damaged it significantly and still have it (it's been over a month). What should I do now?
(tl;dr at bottom)
I'm a longtime Macrumors reader and lurker on the forums, so hello everyone! I'm in a bit of a bind. I made the very stupid mistake of taking my iPad Air to a local computer repair shop here in Davis, California to get the glass replaced over 6 weeks ago. I had caused the damage myself by smooshing it in my laptop bag and didn't want to pay $300 for just replacement glass. The business has good reviews on Yelp but most of the reviews are for laptop repairs, but they offer flat rate iPad and iPhone repairs as well.
After dropping it off I received a phone call a couple days later that it was ready for pickup. When I arrived at the store, there was a plastic film over the glass so I started to take that off so I could inspect it. The front desk clerk immediately said I shouldn't take that off until I got home, which sounded fishy so I said I wanted to make sure everything worked before leaving. When I took the film off, I immediately noticed concentric circular scratches all over the LCD, like someone had taken steel wool and brushed the LCD. Well crap.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt that they somehow actually didn't see this but it seems obvious that they did, and they took it back and said they would look into it. I received a call the next day saying that it was the LCD and it had likely been done during the repair, and they would fix it. A week later, I received another call saying it was ready for pickup again. I go to the store to pick it up and turn it on and they're like "see, everything's fine". I notice the home button is a lot looser than before and there are scratches all over the bezel from prying off the glass. I mention this and the repair guy said that was impossible to avoid, wtf? I then go to a white page and notice 3 giant dark spots on the LCD. Again, how could they have not noticed this? They take it back and say they will look into it.
So now they have had my iPad Air for another 3 weeks while trying to get a new LCD from whoever sold them the faulty one. I realize these are almost certainly not official Apple parts and I'm very skeptical that they're going to be able to find a replacement display that is of sufficient quality. Not to mention the bezel is all scratched which has killed the resale value. I've called them many times, each time they say they need a few more days and then never call me back.
So my question is this, I know the warranty with Apple is now voided as it's obvious to see. If I ask for the device back will Apple still repair it out of warranty if I explain to them what happened (for $300?)? Should I send a letter to the repair shop requesting that they replace my device and then contact consumer affairs if they don't, since the damage was caused by them and not me? Or am I just totally screwed here? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Unfortunately I naively didn't take any pictures of the initial damage. I do have a receipt for the original repair that says "replace glass" and I have a phone log of all my interactions with them, giving me a timeline of what has happened. They also refunded my initial payment at my request (when I picked the iPad up after the LCD replacement I didn't notice the dark spots until after I had paid), so I have a record of that as well.
tl;dr - Took my iPad Air to an unauthorized repair shop, they damaged it significantly and still have it (it's been over a month). What should I do now?
