The Guy Watching “My First iPhone Repair” on YouTube

Can They Fix It? Er… No, They Can’t

We got our hands on this iPhone 6 after the customer had previously taken it to a local store that had only just opened. The original problem was that the headphone socket wasn’t working- this requires swapping the charging flex, and should be fairly straightforward… if you know what you’re doing.

The customer left the phone with the shop and was told to come back later. When he returned to see if the phone was ready, the assistant behind the counter paused a YouTube video on his laptop, explained that the phone still wasn’t ready and pointed to various disassembled parts on the bench.

When the customer returned again some time after that he was told that the phone was fixed, so he paid and left. Unfortunately, the phone very clearly wasn’t fixed. Not only was the headphone socket still not working, but now the loudspeaker was broken as well!

On top of this, the customer was concerned that the charging flex hadn’t been replaced, since it was still dirty where the Lightning cable plugged in.

What We Discovered

Understandably, the customer had little confidence in the original store by this point, and brought it to us instead. When we opened the phone, we could see clearly that the charging port hadn’t been replaced. Worse, the existing port had been damaged by a sharp tool, and the loudspeaker had been damaged.

Now it gets interesting. When we showed the damaged flex to the customer, he recognised it from the video the original person had been watching on his laptop. It became clear that the original repair person had needed to look up a guide on YouTube for what should have been a very simple repair, and was following along to it while attempting to fix the customer’s phone.

A Happy Ending… But Don’t Rely On It

It’s not always possible for us to recover a phone that’s been further damaged by someone else’s botched repair, even if the original problem might have been easily fixable- for us, if not for them! Fortunately for this customer, we were able to replace the charging flex successfully, and now both the loudspeaker and headphone sockets are working again.

However, if you don’t want to risk your phone being irretrievably damaged by someone who clearly doesn’t know what they’re doing and is effectively using your phone for practise… bring it to us instead. We’ve been in the business for over fifteen years, and we do know what we’re doing!

 

You can see damage in the centre of the flex here, as well as to the corner of the speaker at the top of the image.

Another view of damage to the speaker, and further damage to the flex (centre right).

The newly-repaired phone with the old flex beside it.