Apple Repair Company Broke my girlfriend's Ipod Touch 4g

[Zetta_x]

My girlfriend dropped her Ipod Touch 4g and the glass pretty much cracked everywhere and still in working condition. Being that she doesn't make enough money to repair it and she had just bought it used not too long ago, I decided to get it fixed for her.

I have repaired Ipod touch 2g glass before, but it took two times because I ended up breaking the small ribbon trying to put it back on (no biggie, 10 dollars for replacement). I understand that the 4g requires not only a screen replacement but the digitizer also. The parts wouldn't have costed much and I think the OEM parts are like $60, anyways I didn't want to fix it myself so I took it to a local company that does ipod repairs. I paid $90 to have a professional to fix it.

So I gave it to them and they said it was only going to take a few hours. I returned later that day and they fixed the glass, but the lcd is only displaying a white screen. They have tried the home button and volume up combination with no success. They told me they need to have the lead technician to look at it.

It's been 3 weeks and they still have not fixed it. They tell me often they will call but they are not making any headway with getting it fixed. So not only did I potentially pay four times as much to get this repaired, it's still not fixed after almost a month.

So I'm asking GBAtemp, does anyone know what is going on?

Also, legally, can they return the broken ipod to me, give me the 90 dollar refund and tell me sorry or can I get some compensation? What I'm trying to ask is, is there a chance that my girlfriend is going to be ipod less after all said and done?

My girlfriend has a daughter and it took her almost a year to save up enough "SPENDING" money to buy it (I said spending money because she makes a decent amount of money but the cost of so many things makes it not spending money).

 

[Originality]

Disposable income...

Depending on where you live, repair companies are only liable to return the iPod as is with a refund for the amount of the service provided, so you're not out of pocket. Sometimes from that they take out the costs of parts, but not always because they're not supposed to.

This would also be the time where I would think about sending it to Apple.

 

[Zetta_x]

Thanks for the reply Originality!

An update:

They still have not fixed the Ipod touch; they have disassembled it and even went as far to desolder and resolder the battery. It's been a week or two since my last visit and I dropped in for a surprise. I asked them how the ipod is going and they told me the battery was dead so they had to charge it. They plugged it in and it was not charging. After a minute of fiddling around, it finally started to charge. So now I fear, not only is the LCD screen being faulty, the battery is also being faulty.

Keep in mind, I gave it to them in working condition (it was still very usable other than the cracks) and now they disassembled it so many times I think they destroyed it.

This repair company, the tech center, has 5-6 different locations in California. So they are an emerging business, I'm going to talk to corporate and if they cannot give me an Ipod in working condition, I will tear the company down.

Edit: Still no progress...

 

[Thanatos Telos]

Wish you luck.

 

[Zetta_x]

Thanks Thanatos. Finally, after 2 months. They returned the Ipod touch back to me completely unusable. Their justification is that pre-existing damage.

I'm willing to pay someone if they can prove that this was not pre-existing damage because the White screen problem has been known to happen outside pre-existing damage.

 

[DaggerV]

Write the company up, give bad reviews, and spread word of mouth, and never use them again. Meanwhile save up money for new ipod, give gift to gf, enjoy bjs.



Or send it to apple, though that's going to cost a bit.

 

[Zetta_x]

This is my review:

My girlfriend dropped her Ipod touch 4g - Glass broke. It was perfectly functional at the time. She dropped it about 3 feet.

After two months, they are returning my Ipod back no longer in working condition. They claimed that by dropping it, it had some pre-existing damage (other than the glass) but yet this damage did not break the connection to the LCD screen until they attempted to repair it. They are taking no responsibility that they broke it and using a loophole to take me out $225. My guess is they cannot explain what actually happened to the Ipod. I gave it to them working, I got it back not working.

My girlfriend is now using her old Ipod Touch 2g that has a broken glass since none of us can afford to buy her a new one.

Oh yeah, they have a picture on the window that says you can get $5 off the next repair if you give them 5 stars.

Edit: I refuse to remove this review until they can actually explain what happened. If they knew what had happened, they wouldn't have spent 2 months. Every item that goes into this shop is going to have damage (hence repairing). If they accidentally break your device, they are going to say it was from the existing damage. Until they can accurately physically explain why it was working when it went in and not working when it went out other than the vague term (pre-existing damage), I will not change my review.

The way I see it, they are going to eat at $225 of my income in the future. I'm going to put in equivalent effort to make sure no one else gets scammed by this company because they will not take responsibility.

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Edit2: Since a number of people already have found my review helpful, here is the rest of the story

Picked up my Ipod touch 4g. After receiving my first call in two months about the issue to come pick it up. Upon Arrival, they told me to wait 30 minutes to they can take out the good lcd. Also surprise, the paper saying you get $5 off your next repair by sending a 5 star review disappeared. I don't know if they read my review or they finally realized that is shady as hell, but I still saw the tape that it was connected to on their glass window. Maybe they knew I was going to come pick it up and they didn't want me to write this review?

They replaced the new lcd screen with a broken one that was not the original one. I know this because the LCD screen and ipod touch 4g glass come together and the new one did not have a broken glass.

Being someone who has worked in hardware and software before, I understand that problems can happen, blaming it on pre-existing damage is just unprofessional. I also know the complete tare-down of the Ipod touch 4g system and all of it's components. So I asked them, what's wrong with my ipod touch 4g, "It's the preexisting damage..." so I asked, "is it a ribbon or solder," the clever response I was given "Are you testing me?"

I'm forced to believe, they have no idea what is wrong with my Ipod touch 4g, they use their advantage that my ipod came in with a cracked screen to legally justify not giving me compensation for their mistake.

Edit3: Upon research, the white screen problem I am facing is a common problem when replacing Ipod Touch 4g. It has nothing to do with pre-existing damages.

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I have the money to purchase something, but the way I was treated is building up so much rage. I'm almost willing to invest $500 to hire people to protest the store.