My phone previously had water damage and was repaired successfully by a nearby (Newport KY) store. The new screen failed within the warranty period, and so they tried to repair it again. I was eventually sent to the Flornece KY store as they had a part in that New Port KY did not.
At Florence: they were unable to repair the problem, and assessed that it was due to the original water damage. They provided a full refund. I was perfectly happy with the experience at this point.
However, a few weeks later, some of the buttons and the ifngerprint scanner stopped working. When I tried to carefully inspect the exterior of the whole, I noticed that the back panel had never been properly reattached, There was a large gap that allowed me to easily pry it open. The adhesive material underneath was not even close to reattaching the back, it was enough to make it seem like the phone was back together. Under the back cover, things were even worse.
7 screws were missing that had never been replaced by the technicians who worked on my phone. This meant that the motherboard and most of the components are not secured inplace. they move around and come lose, causing various components to lose their functionality, particularly the power and volume buttons and the fingerprint scanner.
So, I have a phone in worse chase then when I brought it in, and some of the parts that I owned as part of my phone were essentially stolen or forgotten by a lazy employee who missed not one but seven screws and couldn't even care enough to reassemble the phone in a half convincing manner to make it look like it was back together.
This repair was done right before, and because of the fact that, I was leaving town for work. I am not anywhere near a ubreakifix, so their typical answers of "the repair is covered, just bring it back in". Very unhelpful solution.
I have spoken to ubreakifix employees, trying to see if they sell or ship my replacement screws, they say they cannot sell parts at all - not even screws. So, despite the problems they caused to my phone, they don't even seem to be willing to somehow get to me replacement screws for the ones they stole.
I have also asked them if they will give me the component part for the screws so I could just order them on my own (they say Google does not give individual part numbers, so they only have internal ones that are not usable by the general public ordering parts anywhere else).
I asked if they could tell me the size of the screws so I could just get generic screws that would fit. For some reason, they cannot...
So now I am stuck with a phone, in far worse condition than I took it to them in. The back is not attached, it is held to the phone by electrical tape. There is no adhesive on the back panel which provides water resistance, so if i get water or even sweat on it, it quickly gets into the inside of the phone, causing other problems. The components on the interior of the phone need to be constantly reattached, sometimes multiple times a day, although sometimes they hold up for a week or so.
I was please with my ubreakifix expeirence back in May; I was pleased with the one in June. These were done at the New Port KY store. Then the Florence store did this to my phone. I would not even care if I could just get screws from them to make it right and hold my phone together long enough to use until I can get the next Pixel. I don't know if it is the work ethic of the individuals who worked on my phone or if its this location in particular. But this experience and continued lack of a resolution from any other ubreakifix locations I have contacted about the information for the screws, or trying to get them shipped to me, or what size they are so I can just by them myself, has really turned me on my desire to use the services again.
To the point where I am ready to jump off of the Google Fi and Google phone (Nexus and Pixel) that I have been on for over 6 years - as they continue to recommend, and solely recommend ubreakifix.
on a related note, Google is just as useless when I contacted them. They won't give the part details for a screw (there must really be some proprietary secrets hidden in these screws!), and should just take it back to the original repair store of ubreakifix. Again, this is because I am no longer in town and cannot get this taken care of in this way. read more