Techy Boca Raton - Buy/Repair/Sell — Local services in Parkland

I took my mom’s phone in to have them look at the charging port because it wasn’t charging. They said she needed a new one and replaced it. Later that night, within hours, the phone shut off and completely stopped working for my mom. We took the phone back in and Lorenzo called later that day and said after opening it up that she must have dropped it in water in those couple of hours between there fix and when it wasn’t working. IT WAS NOT DROPPED IN WATER! There were no water marks on it and they just didn’t want to take blame for what they broke. I took it back in and another guy said yes, Lorenzo was wrong and fixed the part and it has been no issue since. At the same time, my girlfriend took her completely fine and working laptop in to have the hinges replaced because they broke and she could no longer close her laptop. After a week, they fixed it and called for us to come get it. We went and got it that night right before close. The hinges weren’t perfect, but it closed now, so we were satisfied enough to take it home. The next morning, she turned it on, and there were lines across the top of her screen that were never there before. She called to tell them about it. She was originally speaking to the front desk person, Mariana, who is very nice and helpful. She was sending her the pictures of the issues, and Lorenzo grabbed the phone and got on and at first blamed her and said they were there when he received it, then said that he wasn’t the one who worked on it and to bring it back in. She asked about a charge and he starting yelling at her saying he didn’t say anything about a cost and that there is nothing he can do unless we bring it back in. Since he originally accused her of breaking it and did not take accountability, then changed his tune to say that he wasn’t even the one to work on it and didn’t see it until after his tech did the work on it, she did not want to take it back there, for fear of breaking things worse and not even admitting they did it – AND BLAMING HER. She tried contacting the owner of the company and after leaving a voicemail for him, he texted her back. She asked if there would be a good time to speak with him and he asked the location of the store we went to – not having any other information. She told him it was the Boca Raton location and he never responded again. Afterward, we looked closer at their 4.9-star reviews. If you filter out and look at all the 1 stars, you can see the new owner has gone to great lengths to get everyone to remove their bad reviews, just offering everyone the same 50% discount. It is a shame that this company does not take accountability for anything, and just want to make their reviews look good with offering discounts to dissatisfied customers. We will NEVER return to this store or do business with this company. There seems to be so many rave reviews about Lorenzo, but he was rude, condescending, and would not take responsibility for anything that was done wrong by them, and the owner is doing everything he can to keep it all covered up and only show positive reviews. Please, if you have had a bad experience with this company, don’t let them bribe you to not share it, it helps future customers from not also having to deal with terrible companies...

Unfortunately, my experience was not the best. Lorenzo seems like a great guy and probably has extensive knowledge of Apple devices, but when it came to my phone, things just didn’t add up.

First, I understand that there’s a $60 fee just to have the phone looked at. I mentioned upfront that my phone had taken a hard fall but showed no physical damage, so I suspected an internal issue. Later, I was called and told my phone was unrepairable—in this day and age?! I was informed that the fall had caused a piece of the motherboard to separate, making it completely unusable. However, instead of offering solutions, like sourcing another phone for a motherboard swap, I had to suggest that option myself.

After doing my own research, I found a donor phone and asked if we could swap the motherboard. The answer was yes, but I was warned that my data would be lost unless I paid an additional $250–$350 for data recovery—on top of the cost of finding a donor phone. That would have put me $550+ out of pocket.

To make matters worse, when I went to pick up my phone, I was informed that they had broken my original back cover and replaced it with what they claimed was an "original" part. After checking, I found out it was not original at all. On top of that, the back of my phone wasn’t even properly sealed when it was handed back to me.

Frustrated, I decided to get a second opinion from another repair shop. By this time, I had already sourced a donor phone, so I explained what Lorenzo had told me. The new shop examined my phone and, three days later, they called to tell me the issue was just a capacitor. My data was fully intact, and no motherboard swap was needed. The repair cost me less than half of what I would have paid at the first shop.

Bottom line: Always get a second opinion. I lost $60 and ended up with a generic back cover, but it could have been much worse—I nearly spent $550 unnecessarily. If you have an iPhone, you might have a better experience here, but if you own a newer Android device, be extra cautious. And yes, my phone is officially...

9/9/20 Updated Review from May 2017 While I'm certainly no expert, I have replaced a screen on my phone before but I hate doing it. I've done research on my device and how to fix it. I called the store and the guy named Parker laughed at me because I wanted to provide my own part and said I already researched on how to fix the phone. These guys don't care how much you know, unless you are in the business they will look down on you. And obviously want you to spend money on the parts they have as well.

I eventually got the screen replaced, which not only took 3 weeks because they bought the replacement screen on ebay, but the screen quality looked terrible(looked like a cheap china knockoff) and there were several scanlines throughout. The guy said all aftermarket screens look that way, which I immediately questioned because that's not true. I shrugged it off and left. Two hours later, the screen cracked on its own. This is because the replacement they purchased was cheap. I called the store back and they said there's nothing they can do because I left the store with the phone intact. Parker then accused me of dropping the phone again and said if I don't like how they run their business, then I should not have dropped my phone. I then put in a dispute with my bank. If only they put in the same effort into my phone as they did with responding to the dispute because I was denied pretty quickly.

Looks like I got a response from the new owner at this establishment requesting I remove this review. I'll be brutally honest: unless I'm given my money back for what I went through, this review will not go down. I also still have the broken phone. If they repair it for free so I can put it on ebay and mitigate some of my losses, I will consider...