uBreakiFix - Phone and Computer Repair — Local services in San Diego

After dropping my iPad and cracking the screen, I found this highly reviewed place was just a mile away and had a Groupon for a screen repair. Nice! I dropped my device off on a Saturday afternoon and was told that since they were very busy, it would be ready the next day and that they would call to let me know. This seemed reasonable and I wasn't in a rush. That's where the fun begins.

Toward the end of the next business day, I called to ask about the status of my repair. They told me that it wasn't ready but that it would be ready the following day. Annoyed, I said OK. I called again two days later (I still hadn't received a call saying it was ready). I was then told that not only was it ready, but that it had been ready "for a few days." Hmmm....

When I picked up and inspected the device, I immediately noticed a large piece of lint under the screen. It was very noticeable and should have been caught in a quality inspection. When I pointed it out, the guy at the counter said "Sorry about that. If you want, I can give you a discount." Really... your first response isn't that you'll fix the actual problem? I said that I'd rather wait to have it repaired correctly. He said OK and that it would be ready tomorrow. A familiar story...

I called two days later (since I, again, hadn't received a call) in the late afternoon and was told "O yeah, we're actually finishing that up right now." How convenient. I said I was on my way and that I'd be there in half an hour. When I picked it up, I notice the screen was crooked to the point where there was a large gap at the bottom right corner. Again, something that should have easily been caught in a quality inspection. It was obvious that it had been rushed due to my phone call. Since I needed to use my iPad that weekend, I didn't say anything and I paid / left.

This morning, my wife brought the iPad back in and explained the problem. She was told that it would be fixed and ready by 4:00. Great! She then called at 6:00, was left on hold for a total of 15 minutes (they couldn't locate the status of the order), then was told "we don't have any white screens in stock, but we can give you a black screen and then order the correct part." Why was the stock not checked when she was told it would be ready at 4:00? Since we obviously wanted the correct screen, she was told it would be fixed with the correct part by tomorrow.

Hopefully the third time will be the charm. On the surface this seems like a very clean and professional place. However, I expect that things in the back are chaotic and unorganized. This is the reflection that every interaction we have had over the past several weeks has left on us. Should I ever need another repair, I plan to...

TL;DR: Terrible customer service, 20 day wait (after a promised 4 day wait), damaged "new" phone and forgetful staff. The best thing I can say about this location is that most of the employees are nice. That being said, my entire experience here was a nightmare. My power button had broken on my phone then ran out of battery so I couldn't turn it back on. I called this business and they were very friendly and made it sound like fixing my phone would be fast and easy, all that was needed was a new phone that would be shipped in a couple days and as soon as they received the new phone they would fix it same day (this is what I was told). I brought my phone in on February 27th, my phone wasn't fixed until March 18th. I gave them a number to contact me by for updates on the phone arrival and other updates but I only ever received one phone call from them which was about something their technician wrote down wrong. Me and my partner spent nearly 20 days calling this business to ask about any updates and often got the response of "one to two days" and confusing excuses that the new phone wasn't there even though previous reports stated otherwise. Finally on the 18th when I called in for an update, I was told it would be done in 2 hours and that they would call me or I could just come in. When I showed up 3 hours later, we were told that it wasn't finished still but it would be done it 10 minutes. We were left waiting for 30 minutes. I was ready to just forgive and forget this horrible 20 day experience but then they handed me a phone in lesser quality than the phone I turned in. The inside on the screen had some foil scratched away so I could actually see some of the inner mechanisms in the phone. A big difference from the nearly brand new looking phone I brought in. Frustrated, I just paid and wanted to go home but had to ask for my original phone case, which they forgot to give back. After the 20 minute drive home, I went to go set up my new phone only to find that they had forgotten to give me my Sim card and memory card back. I had to drive back to pick it up, and the employee admitted they saw that they forgot to give it back a few minutes after we left, which made us wonder why they didn't bother to call us and inform us about it. On top of it all, not only does it seem like there was some data that wasn't recovered (even though they said they recovered everything), the fingerprint scanner stopped working 2 days later and now the function apparently doesn't exist in the system anymore. This was a nightmare experience so I warn you to stay away if you need anything other than...

GO. ELSEWHERE. As fast as you can. I brought my Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 there for warranty diagnostic and repair work. They had the device for almost 3 weeks. In that almost 3 weeks, I was given exactly one phone call to update me on the status and even then only shortly after I called for the 4th or 5th time to try to get an answer about the status, which they were unable to provide at that time.

They also told me 5 different things were going on. First it needed a Fenrir flash/update. Then that didn't work, so it needed a battery and they couldn't track the delivery for "safety reasons." Then they needed to replace the screen (the screen was not broken when I gave it to them), but told me to call the next day when the tech was in. So I did, and they said they confused my tablet with a different one and actually didn't know where mine was or the status, but the screen was fine (allegedly), and the tech who actually worked on mine wasn't actually available that day. Then in their one return call, they said they found the tablet and then said it just needed a different Fenrir update. They said they'd do more testing and call me to let me know. They never did. Five (5!) days later I finally got tired of them having it for almost 3 weeks with no information so I went to pick it up and was told it needed a motherboard replacement but "Samsung won't let us work on it or send us parts because they want us to focus on phones." Great. It took almost 3 weeks to figure that out and relay it to me? Seems like something that could have taken a couple hours at most.

They also have poor (nonexistent?) ticketing and customer service. On top of the lack of communication on their part, when I complained about their repeated inability to give me accurate information, I was told, "Do you know how many phones and tablets come through here in a day?" as if that's a reasonable excuse for losing track of someone else's property when keeping and fixing it is literally the point of the business. Also, at least half the time I called them, they couldn't give me any information because they needed to call the tech who worked on it but they're weren't working at that time. A tech repair company that doesn't actually track anything beyond what the tech knows? Really? In 2019? No ticketing system to keep information? Actually, probably not considering all the info I gave them when I dropped the tablet off was written on a scrap of paper stuck in the case of the tablet, which is absolutely absurd.

Anyway, you're better off going just about anywhere else, so do...