uBreakiFix - Phone and Computer Repair — Attraction in Boulder

This was the worst “repair” experience I’ve ever had. They broke my phone, and it got worse from there.

I’ve owned a nice phone (Pixel 8 Pro) for 2 years. The battery life had diminished enough to be annoying (it might run out by the end of the day without a charge). Otherwise it worked perfectly. I scheduled a repair and brought it in this past Saturday morning.

7 hours later, the technician called me and told me that the motherboard had been shorted out while he was putting in the new battery (I wrote down exactly what he said – this is important later). He seemed upset by what had happened and was apologetic (he introduced the call by telling me he had bad news and saying “basically the apocalypse happened”). In the end I’m so grateful he was honest with me, and I feel really sorry for him because it sounded like he was going to get punished for it. He told me he’d ordered a new motherboard which would arrive on Tuesday. It was upsetting because of the way not having a phone was going to (and did) impact me, but the worst was to come.

On Monday I called and spoke with the manager, Tyler. He immediately said he wanted to find out what the technician had told me, and that he couldn’t discuss it until he did. We hung up, and he called back later. At this point I was taking notes because that seemed strange. He seemed annoyed that the technician had told me what had happened, but told me they would be replacing the motherboard tomorrow. He said “we’ve been having issues with what that employee has been telling customers”. That got me worried. I told him I just wanted him to put back the original battery after installing the functioning motherboard. I knew I was going to have to get the phone checked out by a reputable shop (I didn’t say that), and I didn’t want to pay this one any money after what they’d done and how he’d reacted to it (I did say that).

Here’s where it got disturbing. He told me he wouldn’t put in the replacement motherboard unless I bought a new battery from them. When I pointed out that they had broken my original motherboard, he said “the old battery might have done it” and that “all he knew” was that it wasn’t working. I told him that aside from the reduced battery life, the phone was working perfectly when I brought it in, and I reminded him that the original technician had told me what actually happened. He didn’t have an answer for that, but said he wouldn’t give me the new motherboard unless I paid for the new battery, and that he could just “put the phone back together and give it back to me”.

I was pretty shocked that he’d propose giving me a phone that his store had broken (I said that) and at his attempted dishonesty (I didn't say that). He said, “well, it’s functioning”, and proceeded to say that it was only the “thermistor” that was broken, and that it worked otherwise. I asked what could happen if I used the phone with a broken thermistor, and he told me that the battery could overheat in the future or degrade. (After reading about it, it can be worse than that.)

Knowing that I now had to take this phone to a reputable and honest repair shop, to see if that was all this shop had broken, I retrieved the phone. So far, the fingerprint sensor doesn’t work (I have a message saying I need to take it in to be repaired), and I’ll find out what else is wrong when I take it in. I’ll now have to pay hundreds of dollars to recover from what they did, which is still cheaper than a new phone but disappointing.

Long story short, I would absolutely avoid this place under any circumstance. They broke my phone, the manager attempted to be dishonest about it, and they didn’t fix it or compensate me for it (rather, they wanted to hold it hostage until I paid them for a new battery even if I no longer wanted that new battery after what...

I bought a Samsung Galaxy Z-Fold 5. Within the warranty period, I was required by Samsung to have a repair done at uBreakiFix. I've taken the device to two stores now - one in Arvada, and the other in Boulder, Colorado.

The repair involved the replacement of a screensaver on the inner screen. After the work was done in Arvada, the inner screen protector - the replacement - had bubbled and separated from the screen in just 2 days, and was in worse condition than when I initially brought the phone in. Then, when I brought it back, asking for the repair to be redone, they wanted to charge me $50 to fix their faulty work.

I then called Samsung to inquire about how to have the work done properly under warranty. Samsung replenished my warranty and told me to go to a different uBreakiFix store to have the work done. They also provided a ticket number that I was supposed to give to the store, authorizing another repair under the warranty.

The second store I chose was in Boulder. When I brought the phone in, I tried to inform the technician about the information Samsung had forwarded to me, in the form of a ticket number which approved the repair under warranty, but she would not allow me to give her the information and insisted that the process of gaining approval would take up to 4 hours, when the entire process should have taken 10 only minutes. (The whole thing only took 10 minutes in the first store, and this was also Samsung's estimate).

I repeatedly tried to inform the technician that I had the information she needed, but she utterly refused to listen to me or to pull up on her computer the information that Samsung had already provided, instead becoming very angry and belligerent toward my request that she simply review these instructions.

As a result I told the tech that I didn't want their store to do the repair and asked for my phone back, whereupon she told me that she was going to cancel the repair request I'd submitted, which would in turn void my warranty.. so on and so forth.

Long story short, following visits to two uBreakiFix stores, a very simple repair is still not completed, and I've experienced nothing from this company other than headaches and hassles in the form of extremely poor work quality and horrendous customer service.

This is hands down worst experience I've ever had with a cell phone repair company. Honestly, if there was anywhere else I could go to have my phone repaired under Samsung's warranty, I would...

Went in to buy a new battery for my phone. Was told they didn’t have it in stock and would need to order it. Was charged $65.

Went back a few days later. Just needed to hand them my phone. Waited in the store for 18 minutes (I know because my parking had expired) for someone to acknowledge my existence. Yes, there were two employees and they were each helping a customer. But a simple “what are you waiting for?” would have kept me from twiddling my thumbs for an extra 15 minutes. One offered to conduct a repair while the customer waited “5-10 minutes” and still he said nothing to me. When my parking expired I decided it was time to stop being polite and stepped up to the counter. Then I was asked “what can I do for you?” At that point I told him I needed a battery I had already paid for, he took my phone, and I left.

When I returned three and a half hours later, again no “I’ll be right with you” or any acknowledgement that I was there for almost 10 minutes. When they did, I was told “oh, we need to have you do one more thing” involving disabling phone location services so they could run a diagnostic on the installed battery. I entered the password, and they took my phone to the back. Gave me no idea how long it would be. After another 10 minutes I went to the counter and asked how much longer it would be. “A few more minutes”. Left. Came back 10 minutes later. Had to wait 5 minutes. Gave me the phone, charged me the additional $35 that the battery cost.

Was the price reasonable? Yeah, but not at that service level. I’m not hating on the dudes that were working, but some acknowledgement I existed prior to it being “my turn” would have saved me over half of the 50+ minutes I spent in the door that day. And they seem understaffed.

Next time I’ll pay a little more to go to an appointment at the Apple Store and skip all this...