TL;DR: they recovered my busted data, and prices and timeline may increase substantially beyond…read moreinitial estimates as they did in my case.
iPadRehab is a very skilled, VERY in-demand repair and data recovery shop near the Great Lakes Region in NY. They eventually recovered cherished data from my busted-in-a-bike-crash iPhone, and I'm grateful for that. I'm writing this review to offer the perspective of a customer who opted for the "regular" recovery service, without paying the $100 non-refundable "rush" recovery fee. If you're considering iPadRehab, be aware that data recovery in 2024 is a complicated process drawn-out process, that your repair may be stalled for weeks (for example if iPadRehab needs to order replacement chips on their end for your phone), and that prices and timeline may increase substantially beyond initial estimates as they did in my case.
My initial quote from iPadRehab for $800 plus tax said:
-"We will get started on your device within 4-6 weeks, or for our rush customers--within 1-2 days."
-"This estimate is assuming that there is no prior microsoldering attempt made to recover this board," which was true. There was no other mention of assumptions that could change the estimate.
-And to their credit, this honest bit: "Between intake and invoicing we do not update unless there is an issue."
I opted to forgo the rush service, since I honestly didn't expect my phone to be recoverable, and would have been out the $100 non-refundable "rush" fee in that case. 4-6 weeks seemed fine to me. I didn't even send in my device for a few weeks as I was considering whether I wanted to pay nearly $900 for this, but when iPadRehab reached out a few weeks later and offered to send me packaging to ship it, I said alright and shipped in my device.
4 weeks came without a word from iPadRehab, then 6 weeks, then 8 weeks. After 10 weeks, I had still heard nothing, so I followed up and they responded quickly with essentially "This process takes time, sorry we can't give you a timeline estimate." But later that very week, I finally received a message that my phone was a more complicated repair and the cost would increase to $1000 if they were able to restore it.
I'm not sure whether this was a case of "squeaky wheel getting the grease" or not, but I think I had misunderstood and taken "we will start on your device within 4-6 weeks" to mean that I would hear from them by at least 6-8 weeks later. I was also surprised by the increase in price, since the original estimate for $800 (which felt like a lot of money but apparently there are ppl on the internet charging much more for worse data recovery?!) didn't say that prices could go up more depending on what they found in their work. To iPadRehab's credit, they left this choice up to me and I think they would have returned my phone as non-recoverable had I not agreed to the higher fee.
Once I agreed to the new higher fee, my phone went to to the back of a new "queue" and I finally heard back 4 weeks later that they were able to restore the data. That time, they contacted me without my reaching out first. The whole process on iPadRehab's end lasted about ~14 weeks.
iPadRehab was the best business I could find for this repair after I started looking, and even though I didn't realize how very very busy they were (read: that this process would take months, not weeks) when I started, I'm grateful that they recovered my data. If I did it again, would I do the rush service? Now knowing that iPadRehab was able to restore my busted data, I personally would trust them more and probably use the rush service. I imagine one reason it took so long for me was that a lot of folks willing to pay $800+ for data recovery don't bat an eye at an extra $100 for rush service. I would tell my friends to use them. But mostly, I would tell my friends to back up their data!
