Always Get a Second Opinion on Maintenance
When your phone screen shatters or your laptop stops holding a charge, your first impulse might be to contact the company that made it – they made the thing, so they should be trusted to fix it. While this is not necessarily wrong, it is not always the best course of action. Your repair experience (and how much you pay for it) can vary greatly depending on where you take your device and how old it is. That’s why you should treat bad technical news the same way you treat bad medical news: always listen to other opinions.
When to take the device to the manufacturer (and when not)
If your device is covered by the manufacturer’s warranty or you have purchased an extended warranty, then yes, contact them for repair. The Apple Store is your best bet if something happens to your iPhone or Mac while it’s still covered by AppleCare. Often they fix the problem for free or offer a service at a significantly reduced price because you paid for a warranty extension.
A more serious problem is that your device is no longer under warranty. In these cases, everything from screen repair to battery replacement can be very expensive if done by the manufacturer.
To make matters worse, the company’s policy may not be entirely in line with what your device really needs. Let’s say you take your out-of-warranty MacBook to Apple and they diagnose a fatal battery problem. The problem is, they will tell you they don’t replace batteries on MacBooks, so your only real option is to buy a new one. This is exactly what happened to writer Janice Turner when she took her MacBook in for repairs. She came out with broken feelings and a brand new computer.
This type of maintenance can happen to devices of any age. You will most likely encounter a reseller suggesting that you replace your unsupported phone or laptop with a new one, but new devices are also not necessarily safe. A limited warranty usually lasts only a year, so by not paying for an extended warranty, you risk the full cost of repairs from the manufacturers. In addition, modern devices are designed in such a way that they are difficult to repair because their parts are soldered together, so they cannot be easily replaced. This increases the cost of repair, and in the first place hinders its implementation. Why waste time, money, and effort fixing something that could fail again, they would say, when you could buy a shiny new toy instead?
Third party repair shops can be your friends
Third-party repair shops, on the other hand, are not dictated by corporate politics, at least not in the same way as repair centers run by tech giants. They may not necessarily be cheap , but they have the skills and resources to solve technical problems that large manufacturers may find not worth their time.
If Ms. Turner had taken her faulty MacBook to a third-party repair shop, they might have been able to quote her a price for a battery replacement, as they would likely have the tools to complete the repair. I suspect that many times when a manufacturer makes a “buy a new device from us” diagnosis, there is a potential solution. And while sometimes it won’t be cost effective, in many cases it’s a much cheaper option.
Here’s a similar example in this classified report from 2018 : The Apple Store told a reporter that their MacBook had been damaged by liquid, which would push the repair cost to at least over $1,000. But when they took the laptop to repairman Louis Rossman, he was able to temporarily fix the problem in 90 seconds for free and cited a long-term solution in the $75 to $150 range.
It’s always your call
Remember, just because you bought a product from Apple (or anyone else) doesn’t mean you have to let them fix your devices. Whether you’re taking your device to the company that made it or to a third-party repair shop, getting a repair estimate should be free. So take your MacBook to Apple, listen to what they have to say about fixing it, then head over to your local repair shop and compare the two answers.
Don’t feel obligated to do an expensive technical repair because the rep told you it was your only option and never buy a brand new device until you get a second opinion.