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You can also draw an analogy with cars. When I was in college, I drove several 1970's Chevy Trucks. All big block 350 engines. It broke down several times and a

You can also draw an analogy with cars. When I was in college, I drove several 1970's Chevy Trucks. All big block 350 engines. It broke down several times and all I had to do was to visit the local junkyard, go get a part from a junker truck for under $50, and within a few hours, I was able to fix my truck. These days, no way you could that with a truck bought as far back as 1995. This is the same issue with smartphones. Back in the day, it was easy to get your phone fixed. I ran both a Verizon and a Nextel service shop. The carriers were more than happy to provide training and access to tools and parts. For a mom and pop shop it took several hundred dollars for tools and a good starting point with parts (antennas, replacement screens, keyboards, flips, and main boards). Then you had a list of what they charged for each repair. Parts and costs and a set price for repairs. The carriers really don't see this as a revenue driver anymore and dropped their service centers. Now you see other "unathorized" shops springing up that handle repairs these days. the problem is the cost of the parts. A display assembly for an LG2 is somewhere in the neighborhood of $75.00. Add in labor and now you're around $125-$150 to get your screen fixed. Not bad, but most people balk at those prices and simply opt to trash their phone and find something on craigslist or ebay. Until the carriers get back involved, it's an expensive proposition (on both sides of the equation) to do phone repair.

JustSomeNobody 11y ago
Well, for one, there weren't near the EPA regulations back then...
ericabiz 11y ago
Counter-point: I co-own a repair shop and we do a ton of phone repairs, including the LG G2. Wholesale cost on the screen for a G2 is $53 right now (not $75), so we do the repair for ~$110. Given the small number of G2's still on the market, we do a fair amount of repairs on them. Sometimes people will opt to replace them, especially since the G4 is out now and the G2 is 2 generations behind. But most people don't have an upgrade available right now, can't afford to live without a phone, and -- perhaps most importantly -- really like the phone they have, and the data that's stored on it. People also hate buying on craigslist or eBay because of shoddy quality and scammers -- we've seen a ton of people get scammed with iPhones that are iCloud locked that people bought on craigslist not understanding that you can't remove an iCloud lock from a phone and it's only good for parts. This has been my experience; we do over 100 phone repairs a week on average from a single store.

JustSomeNobody 11y ago

Well, for one, there weren't near the EPA regulations back then...

ericabiz 11y ago

Counter-point: I co-own a repair shop and we do a ton of phone repairs, including the LG G2. Wholesale cost on the screen for a G2 is $53 right now (not $75), so we do the repair for ~$110. Given the small number of G2's still on the market, we do a fair amount of repairs on them. Sometimes people will opt to replace them, especially since the G4 is out now and the G2 is 2 generations behind. But most people don't have an upgrade available right now, can't afford to live without a phone, and -- perhaps most importantly -- really like the phone they have, and the data that's stored on it. People also hate buying on craigslist or eBay because of shoddy quality and scammers -- we've seen a ton of people get scammed with iPhones that are iCloud locked that people bought on craigslist not understanding that you can't remove an iCloud lock from a phone and it's only good for parts. This has been my experience; we do over 100 phone repairs a week on average from a single store.