Hostile Owner - Terrible Experience - Lost Hundreds…read more
On March 11, 2026, I brought three iPads to Cellular Nerds for screen replacements. When I picked them up several days later, all three appeared to have new screens. BUT wait.
However, during our drive to Disney on March 13 right after pick up, two of my three children began experiencing issues with their iPads on the drive to Orlando--problems we had never encountered before. One device had a broken, sticky home button, while the other refused to stay on and charge.
After returning from vacation, I contacted the owner on March 25 to discuss these newly observed issues. The owner assured me the repairs were under warranty, apologized, and promised to fix them.
When I dropped off the iPads on March 25, Eric, the owner, explained that a stepson or son-in-law had assisted with repairs and made several mistakes, again offering an apology. By April 9, Eric informed us that the home button was fixed, but claimed my child intentionally broke it which is a complete false claim. I asked if he and his son moves the buttons around when he fixes the screens he admitted yes. He also said the iPad that wouldn't stay on or charge likely needed a new battery, with no mention of possible water damage after review of second drop off. Weeks went by without any update, so we reached out again on April 17th. Eric then admitted weeks later he had forgotten to order the battery.
On April 24--nearly a month and a half after our initial drop-off--I called Eric for another update. He then suggested the battery was not the issue, and the problem might lie with the motherboard. At that point, he recommended we consider purchasing a new iPad. A new IPAD that had a scratched screen and worked perfectly before the handling of Cellular Nerd.
During our conversation on April 24, I politely requested a refund for the iPad that remained nonfunctional after repairs, even offering to return the screen he installed. Immediately after my request, the owner responded by yelling, using profanities and obscene language, then abruptly hung up. I called back right away to express my discomfort and disappointment with their disrespectful behavior, which was entirely uncalled for and unlike anything I'd experienced before. The profanity continued and hung up again. My wife tried talking to him and the behavior continued.
My wife and I were so disturbed by Eric's hostility that we called and requested assistance from the Navarre police department to retrieve our devices. My elderly mother whom later retrieved the devices was also treated with disrespect.
I am sharing this account to document our unfortunate experience transparently and clearly with Cellular Nerd, supported by our receipt and documented timed date stamps.
We are out 100's of dollars and an IPAD that doesn't work. My son continues to cry about it and my family continues to be shocked by the owners disgusting behavior. We regret our decision to trust Cellular Nerd and will NEVER return.
