People are so excited about the new iPhone 6 that they're dropping them.
No, seriously: A man accidentally dropped his new iPhone 6 on live TV, right out of the box. The catch? Everyone has to wait a few weeks to get screens repaired at local repair stores.
"Nobody has the parts yet," said Nigel Brooks, 44, a repair technician at Chicago iRepair in the South Loop. He said he's definitely expecting customers with broken iPhone 6's, as diehards line up on the streets. But Apple's repair parts don't go on the market for about two weeks, he said. Until then, the store will put people on a waiting list for repairs.
A few calls to Apple Customer Service revealed that even Apple might not know what to do with a shattered mess of an iPhone 6. One representative said she couldn't guarantee that Apple would have replacement screens available yet.
Another representative said a broken iPhone 6 screen can be replaced if you bought the $99 AppleCare protection plan, which covers two accidental damages over two years. But if you didn't buy the plan, you'll have to pay to get the phone repaired. The representative couldn't provide a price for an iPhone 6 screen repair, but the representative said an iPhone 5 screen replacement costs $150.
An Apple public relations representative couldn't be reached for immediate comment.
"I just know it's going to happen," Brooks said, who saw two people come into the store with broken screens the day the iPhone 5s was released. "People have actually dropped them on the first day, the first hour, the first minute."
Brooks said his cracked screen repairs can range from $59 to $120, but he expects iPhone 6 screen repairs to be more expensive with the phone's new "ion-strengthened" glass. He said he's seen phones that have been dropped in toilets, Jacuzzis and one that a girlfriend threw at her boyfriend during a fight, missed his head and flew out a window.
Repair stores usually have to wait about two weeks for Apple's repair parts to become available on the market, said Marcus Choe, 43, owner of iFix Cell Phone in Lakeview and Jefferson Park. Choe said he's currently getting offers from China to supply the parts. The only thing Choe can do now is redirect people back to Apple, he said.
"Every release of the iPhone, I've had somebody," Choe said.
Apple and all phone companies continue to offer the latest, strongest, fanciest glass for phones-but as many of us know from experience, Choe said it's still no use. "They could call it Godzilla glass but people would still come in [to the store]," he said. "There's no such thing as unbreakable glass. Every phone is lighter, thinner, and when the screen gets bigger that's only going to make it more vulnerable to breakage."
One woman came in to Direct Repair on the Near North Side six times in one month, each time with a newly cracked iPhone 4 screen, said Andrew Busel, 28, president of the store. Unlike Brooks and Choe, he said he doesn't expect people to come into his store with broken phones for a few weeks.
New iPhone 6 screens currently cost suppliers around $300 to $400, said Matt McCormick, 41, founder and CEO of Jet City Service Repair in Lincoln Park. "We usually don't offer a brand new repair on the phone for that reason," he said, adding that they would have to charge customers even more than that.
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