December 11th, 2009

I was walking somewhere this morning. As I crossed over what I thought was a clear corner between a parking lot and a sidewalk, something grabbed my right foot. I went down on to the concrete. It wasn’t a particularly hard fall, and I had managed to shift my weight on to my left side, which somehow helped to disperse the impact’s energy. And in that hurried moment just after the fall, as I was laying there on the wet ground (we’ve been having some actual weather this week), I watched in slow motion as my iPhone tumbled through the air, landing on its back, right next to me. I mentioned above that I had managed to fall on my left side. And I almost always carry my iPhone in my left coat pocket, and I almost always keep that pocket zippered up. But for some reason, this morning, I hadn’t zipped the pocket closed. A couple guys nearby, who witnessed the fall, asked if I was OK.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m fine. But my phone’s not.” I could see that the iPhone had been damaged. I picked it up to get a closer look. Here’s what I saw:

I put the iPhone back into my coat pocket, remembering to zip the pocket closed this time. I got back up on my feet and tried to piece together just what had happened. Apparently, that corner between the parking lot and the sidewalk that I had carelessly stepped over was bordered with just-taller-than-ankle-high landscaping fences. A combination of me being legally blind, the relatively low light caused by overcast skies, along with the fact that I was wearing sunglasses (it was still bright enough out that I needed them) kept me from noticing that those little fences were there. I was wearing headphones that were attached to the iPhone. I’m pretty sure that, as I fell down, the iPhone slid out of my pocket, and the momentum of my body falling forward swung the phone up in to the air by the headphone cables. It’s doubtful that the phone would’ve come through the fall unscathed even if I wasn’t wearing headphones. And I realized later that, as I fell on to my left side, it’s still possible the phone might’ve been damaged even if I had properly closed my coat pocket, as I might’ve fallen on to it. Regardless, the damage was done. I played around with the phone for a bit after that to see if it was still operable. And it is. It actually works just fine. But even though it’s still technically functional, it’s not very usable. Later in the day, I went to the San Luis Obispo Apple Store. After waiting around for a bit, I had a short consultation with a dude from the Genius Bar. He said that they could fix the broken phone right there at the store for $199.00. They could just pop the broken glass off and replace it, good as new. I told him, at that price, I’d have to give it some thought and come back later. He then also told me that, while they don’t recommend it, you can usually find places online that’ll perform the same procedure for less money. I actually already knew that. While I was waiting for my Genius time, I used one of the many in-store Macs to do some research. I found the website of a company called uBreakiFix. This company offers the same repair for $79.99. That’s close to a third of Apple’s price. Later in the evening, after I had returned home, I looked around to see if there was any serious dirt on uBreakiFix, and I didn’t find anything negative. The company looks to be a legitimate operation. I’ve already ordered the repair service and I’ll be shipping my iPhone to them the beginning of next week. It’ll suck to be without the phone for a few days. Obviously, if I had just paid Apple’s price, I’d already have the phone repaired. But the inconvenience is worth the money that I’ll save. And as soon as I get the phone back, I’ll definitely be purchasing a protective case. It’s one of those things that’s been on my mind for awhile. But, I just never got ’round to doing it.

Procrastination is bad.

Tags: Apple Computer, California, Flickr, iPhone, San Luis Obispo, uBreakiFix
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