Broke your iPhone 6 screen already? (This actually happened, on live TV, right out of the box.) Apple was unsure last Friday, but now it’s offering a plan to fix it.
The company announced it sold more than 10 million new iPhones, breaking a record in the first three days of iPhone 6 sales, and it released iPhone 6 repair costs on its support website over the weekend. Per usual, breaking your screen is going to cost some serious bank.
Screen repairs cost $109 for an iPhone 6 and $129 for the iPhone 6 Plus, in addition to a $6.95 shipping fee. If, however, you were smart enough to anticipate shattering your screen and paid the extra $99 AppleCare+ warranty fee, Apple will replace your screen for $79. Probably a good investment, yes?
After turning in your phone for the repair service, you’ll receive a replacement or your fixed phone in three to five business days, according to the site.
Calls to several local iPhone repair stores revealed people are dropping iPhone 6’s as expected. Jet City Service Repair in Lincoln Park received two calls last Friday, the day it was released, and about four more over the weekend, said store manager Mike Rebman, 28, of Logan Square.
“That’s a lot more requests a lot faster than in the past,” Jet City Service Repair owner Matt McCormick, a 41-year-old Hyde Park resident, said. The store is waiting to offer screen repairs for a couple months, when supplier costs will decrease, he said. Three people were on a waiting list for the store’s repairs.
Two other locations had received one call each since Friday’s release: Chicago iRepair in the South Loop and Direct Repair in the Gold Coast neighborhood.
“They are a little bit easier to break,” said Chicago iRepair manager Dell Bridges, a South Loop resident in his 40s. “It’s not unusual. I would say [screen damages] will be just as common as the [iPhone] predecessors.”
Local repair stores have to wait about two weeks for screen replacement parts to become available from suppliers, said Leo Carrera, a technician at iFix Cell Phone’s Lakeview location.
“Parts come from manufacturers outside of Apple,” Carrera, a 24-year-old Portage Park resident said. “They can be from South Korea, China, Illinois. There are plenty. There’s a big market out there.
uBreakiFix Chicago in Lincoln Park hasn’t received calls about broken iPhone 6’s yet, but the employees there are making bets (not with money) for the first call. “There’s always a pool in the store every time the iPhone comes out,” said Ron Jansen, 28, the store’s district manager and a Roscoe Village resident. “My guess is within the first week.”
Jansen has had success with his estimates: When the 5s came out, he guessed the first person would come in with a broken phone the day after the release, and he won the informal bet.
There are 88 uBreakiFix locations nationwide and in Canada, and the company received 25 calls overall since Friday and was waiting to hear from more stores on the West Coast as they opened, said a customer service specialist. She added iPhone 6 parts were on the way to the company’s distribution center and would be available in stores soon.
One Apple customer service representative said she had already received a few calls yesterday from people with cracked screens and phones they dropped in water. “There’s a lot of clumsy people,” she said. An Apple public relations representative couldn’t be reached for immediate comment.
The bottom line? Just don’t drop your new fancy phone and let us all be jealous, OK?
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