The Pod Drop — Attraction in Rochester

I had read that Apple throttles down phone performance once battery below a certain level. So hearing that, plus knowing my battery was near 5% after a day of normal use, I figured it was worth replacing the battery to see what happened.

At first I made an apt w Apple, bc who least likely to screw it up, right? Well, not only was there no direct line to the Apple Store off Hall, but you have to make an apt and drop it off for up to a day, via 3rd party phone call.

So I read the reviews of all the phone repair places and this one stood out.

At first I was a bit hesitant, bc they asked for my passcode and also pointed the phone twds me to make sure my face unlock worked. I’ve since read that some places do this to check diagnostics. Well, so far I haven’t noticed anything fishy re: accounts, finances or anything one could mess with having your passcode. So far so good. I’m a bit cautious w id theft, etc.

I did in fact notice that my phone feels faster, that I don’t have to worry about a dying phone, I can travel on airplanes not needing to immediately charge before and after trips.

There will be an icon in the settings letting you know you have an unrecognized part in the phone. I’m pretty particular about my phones home page organization and thought that could be an annoyance, but I quickly got used to it and don’t even really notice it anymore. And even if I did, I’d still do it again.

The whole thing took an hour. If your happy w your phone, this is an alternative to getting a new phone w marginal Performance increases. And if you aren’t gaming on your phone, you probably don’t need that performance anyway.

I’ve also been restricted to using wireless charging bc the charging port was too dirty to make contact w hardware. I was able to kind clean it w a toothpick but it still didn’t charge. I also had a hard time hearing phone calls, in and off speaker phone. I figured I had blown a speaker. Nope, that was just dirty/clogged too.

They cleaned both. And they both work like new now. If your phone doesn’t seem To play videos as loud or your speaker phone isn’t working well, this is huge.

In conclusion, the service, the price, the quality of work, the friendliness, efficiency, ease of drop off make this a no brainer. And with just an hour to get done, you can browse the many shops or get coffee.

I highly recommend this place. Once you are aware your phone can essentially be renewed like this, you will care a lot less about constantly upgrading the iPhone.

Update/edit 2/22: not sure when alert for the non Apple part went away but I noticed it wasn’t there today. Making the battery swap a 100% no brainer now. Battery lasts all day, phone faster. Triple thumbs up! May be the best money I’ve spent all...

I had gotten a iPhone 15 Pro and within 48 hours it had taken a fall on its face with screen protector/ camera protectors/ and a case on it. It had then led to the phones screen not working at all, but it would still vibrate. 8700 pictures and videos not backed up at ALL, my whole life of my kids and current day memories. I called Verizon since I had phone insurance on it, got the run around, you can replace it with the factory warranty (no thanks). I called Apple and got the run around- same answer as Verizon told me. We spent a week trying to wait for the phone to die so we could turn off “find my iPhone” just to replace it with the factory warranty which I didn’t want to do, losing all my data, who then referred me to DriveSavers, sent the phone over, and they told me it was something with the screen underneath (LCD) not sending power to the rest of the phone so it no longer holds a charge. It would cost $3500 to give me a copy of the data, a backup copy of the data and an external hardrive that it would be stored on. I said no lol, give me the phone back and with overnight shipping to California it took another week to get back into my hands. At this point I had added another line to my brand new plan just to have a phone, and was hoping to have the broken phone fixed within 30 days to return it back to Verizon— now less than 2 weeks. 3 iPhone repair stores I walked into, each never worked on a new 15 before, all told me the same thing along with Verizon— I wouldn’t pay $3500, that ridiculous, we’ll figure it out but it’ll be cheaper than $3500. I stopped at PodDrop, he said he had never worked on one before and he was currently out of stock for screens and it would take a few days to get one. I left and took it to 2 more stores that were open quoting more than PodDrop was. So we went with PodDrop! (For background, I live 1.5 hours away in Sandusky!) He had the phone for about a week, where he was able to hook the screen up and get it working! Transferred all my data to my new phone TWICE (because it did not transfer fully the first time). Loaded me up with extra iCloud storage so this wouldn’t happen again. Overall $3500 turned into $125 for his time of taking the broken screen off, hooking up the phone to the new screen, and data transferring it twice. And I’d do it all over again if I was in the same situation! Such great service, so helpful, professional, and great advice all around! Thanks again PodDrop for everything...

So glad to find this small business in our own backyard. I brought my Apple 13 pro to be evaluated for inconsistent charging port issues. We have a Best Buy Geek Squad service and after diagnostic work, we were told that a $450-500 repair was needed. This business offered the same repair for $150. They stated they would test the part before installing and if it did not do the trick, their labor would be $75. They also recommended a battery replacement, while the work was being completed, as mine was borderline after 3-years use. The cost of the battery would have been $75.

We had checked with a non-certified Apple T-mobile store who offered us $200 on a replacement phone. Had that been our best option, I would have paid the $225 to fix my current phone (which worked well other than the charging port issue).

The Pod Drop also recommended we check with a T-mobile certified Apple Store to see if there was a better deal on a new phone.

We did just that and chose to turn in the phone and receive a new phone at no cost, with some tweaks to our plan that did not change the monthly payment.

Returned to The Pod Drop to pick up the phone and turn it in to T-mobile.

The staff were honest, informative and professional. For this interaction, they did not make a cent, yet they earned a loyal family-customers. We will return to them for all-things cellular.

Noticed some good pricing on phone cases and other accessories too. I will be calling their store to check on stock and prices before ordering from Amazon or another big box store.

Really appreciate small...