Why it matters where you get your phone fixed.

With more and more repair shops popping up offering to fix your iPhone within 15 minutes and prices as low as £25 it's not surprising people are asking "Why does it matter?” and “Why is there such a price difference?"

Price is usually a pretty good indicator of the quality and service you can expect but there’s more to it.
At the budget end of repairs, you can typically expect to have your phone returned to you working, but probably not feeling like it did before.

Some of the reasons are as follows;

• Quality of parts
  With iPhone screens there are many different suppliers offering many different grades of aftermarket screens, but genuine Apple screens can only be found at Apple stores at a much higher cost.
  The grades we offer are:

  • ‘OEM’ - OEM display with high brightness and premium toughened glass built to Apple's specifications.

  • ‘Premium’ - Premium display with high brightness and premium aftermarket glass.

  • ‘Base’ - High quality display with aftermarket glass.

• Quality of workmanship
  iPhones are complex devices with dozens of screws, each can’t be swapped with another or damage may result. The process of repairing an iPhone consists of over 50 steps and several of those can result in permanent damage if done out of sequence or incorrectly. It doesn’t take a lot of pressure or force to break many of the components inside. Using the wrong or cheap tools, poor techniques or wrong parts may cause lasting damage.

• Time pressure
  In a perfect scenario it takes around 20~30 minutes to swap out an iPhone screen, however due to the damage being unpredictable it often takes longer to do properly. When technicians are under pressure to repair a phone as quickly as possible mistakes can happen, frequently ones that call for disassembly of the phone yet again, adding another 10~20 minutes to the task. Time can be shaved off the repair process by discarding 'non-crucial' parts and steps but Apple is not in the business of adding parts or steps to an iPhone assembly just for the fun of it; if it doesn't need to be there Apple wouldn't put it there.
  A more meticulous repair with better components can mean a higher repair cost, however it also means that it’s likely to be done properly. A cheaper rush job is likely to have mistakes that will reduce the operational integrity of your phone.

At the end of the day the choice comes down to you, the owner of the phone. There is a wide range of pricing for what seems to be the same repair job, but often there's reasons for the price variances outside simple over pricing.