Joe iPhone Unlock & Repair Services (JIURS) — Local services in Berkeley

We searched this place online and decided to give it a try due to its review. What a disappointment. We took our iPhone in because it stoped working. We made an appointment. They took the phone and told us it will be about 45 min before they can tell us what’s wrong. They also told us it will be $25 if they couldn’t fix it. We agreed. 45 min later the guy came out saying they couldn’t fix it and suggested we get a new phone or buy a used phone from them. We took the phone and left. As soon as we got in the car, we noticed the phone is different. Ours had a crack in the screen protector and had no scratches on the side because it was always in a case. So we texted them saying we will come back because we thought they accidentally switched the phone. When we went in, the guy said he doesn’t have another iPhone inside and that this is our phone. I told him about the screen protector and how ours was broken. He said he changed it because he thought he broke it. Well why didn’t he tell us that when he gave us the phone back? Did he not think we will notice or he didn’t want to admit he broke the screen because he thought he broke it. Also the screen protector he put on the phone, was all scratched. When we asked why did he say he gave us a new one, he said he never said he put a new one on. So he was just going to keep the used screen protector on and not even mention it. He then told us to call T-Mobile and ask them to give us the phone IMEI number. As if that’s Proof. Of course it’s going to match because it’s our phone. We told him we can’t even access the phone at all so how are we going to get the IMEI number. Then he asked us to get the number from the sim tray. Then he suggested to pull the sim try so I can get the IMEI from it as if that can’t be changed, placed in an old phone and give it to us. Bottom line is the case of this phone is not ours. He then texted us a picture of the broken screen indicating it’s part of the service and then he said he didn’t appreciate us accusing him of switching the phone. We didn’t accuse anyone. We simply asked if a mistake was made. There was no need for him to get that defensive which further makes me suspicious of the whole thing. Never again will I ever set a foot in that place. ...

I would not go back to Joe. I needed my screen replaced and he said he would look to see how much it would cost, then charged me the exact same amount it would have been to go get it fixed at Apple. When my phone was returned to me, the screen was uneven (poking up at the bottom) and my phone was glitching, pressing multiple keys on the keyboard randomly, taking a video instead of a picture, or just freezing at a random spot. None of this happened before he "fixed" my phone. I texted him about the issues I had, and he told me to restart it, with no luck. I brought it back to him the next week with proof of the glitches and he was running behind on appointments. He works at a coworking space, which I have absolutely no problem with, but he needs to buzz in each client individually, which he does while actively in the middle of a repair. He did so in the middle of my initial repair, which made me feel uneasy that he was able to focus to put on my new screen, and did it the second time as well. He quickly took it back to his room, buzzed in some other people while he was looking at my phone, then told me to restart it again and to come back another time. I didn't come back because I didn't trust him with my phone any more. I honestly feel as if I have been scammed. This happened about 7 months ago and my phone is still glitching. I have never written a review before, but I had such a bad experience I just wanted to put it out there. At least for a cracked screen, I would recommend you go somewhere else, or better yet directly to Apple, which I will be...

Overall, Joe did a fast and efficient job but I would not do it again and would not recommend him.

I took an iPhone 5s with a cracked screen and he did the job remarkably fast and the replacement screen looks good and seems to work well enough.

The reasons I'm giving a low rating is that the experience left me feeling like something malicious may have been installed on my phone. He used my phone to do a couple of things without my permission. I unlocked it at his request but then he sat facing me with the screen out of my view while he tested it. I noticed he had opened apps on my phone without showing me what they were exactly. He also used my youtube account to subscribe to a couple of channels without asking me. When I asked him about it after the fact he said that it was part of the"testing and checking."

He did all the testing on my old, cracked screen which actually worked fine, I simply wanted to fix the glass so it didn't worsen. Once the new screen was installed he didn't bother to take the plastic cover with the barcode off or see if it worked at all. No "testing and checking" was required for the freshly installed screen, I guess.

Now I'm living with the feeling that something malicious may have been installed or done to my phone. It wasn't worth...