My wife dropped her apple watch series 3 (cellular) and the screen was broken. It was working fine but there was a crack in the corner. As apple was charging me $450 so I tried to find a local repair guy. After little google search there is a shop in Melbourne cbd called icanfixit, so called the guy and he told me that he can fix it in 1 hour and will charge me $180 with 1 year warranty.
So i went there to and gave him the watch. In the evening he called me that it will take 2 days to fix. I did not raise any concerns. But now he is telling me that the watch is not charging and i have to go back to apple.
I am sure Apple is not going to touch it now as he already opened it.
What are my options now?
Broken Apple Watch 3
Comments
"1 year"
Yeah it’s highly unlikely that Apple will touch it now. Your only real hope would be as long as the repairman hasn’t replaced anything and put it back to original, as well at you not telling them that you have taken it anywhere else.
I’m pretty sure apple can tell their products has been opened by third parties when their technicians open the device.
This has happened to me with an iPhoneYeah there’s detectors on everything but that’s essentially all OP can do or throw it away and buy a new one
And this is reason number 1 why Apple tries to discourage (and tried to effectively ban) third-party repairers. Do they also do it to make money off consumers? Sure. But you're much more protected going to them too.
Apple was asking for $450 for glass replacement, new watch is for $529. It is an unreasonable kind of cost.
Okay, are you better off now with a watch that has a cracked screen and can't charge? There's smart saving money. And then there's dumb saving money.
Not helpful to hear now, but might help others.
1) Getting AppleCare for small fragile idevices is worth it because of this crap
2) Apple are pretty good at fobbing you you off when they can point to accidental exposure or water damage. But if their products cannot survive the day to day use then that is still on them.
There are heaps of reports and I have experienced a hairline crack in the corner of an apple watch with NO recalled significant impact. A hairline crack with no impact damage ie no chipping or spidering in overseas markets is remedied without cost and I was able to get the same here, though it talk some persistence.
Just sharing my experience: I refused to allow apple to fix a watch for 80% of the new product price, this is outrageous, so I sold my broken one on eBay in the bidding system and manage to pull out AUD 122.00, which I used to buy a new one. Never take your devices to small repair stores.
Good news, The icanfixit guy fixed the watch and gave one year warranty on the repair. Using the watch from last 2 weeks, no issues at all.
How long is an i year?
Looks like you're out of pocket.