Leaked Memo: Third-Party Screen Repairs Don’t Void iPhone Warranty

Image courtesy of TechStage

Like slices of buttered toast, cupcakes, and pans of lasagna, smartphones always seem to fall face-down when dropped. Third-party repair shops have popped up to help users when this happens, but using these companies while an Apple device is still under warranty has been a gamble until now.

Departing from Apple’s network of Genius Bars and authorized repair shops for services previously meant voiding one’s warranty. Let’s say that you bring your phone to a third-party repair shop after smashing the screen.

A few months later, the volume buttons stop working, and that’s when you learn that letting an unauthorized shop open up your phone means that you’ll have to pay out-of-warranty prices to get a repair of your phone.

Over the weekend, 9to5Mac shared a leaked memo to retail store employees that details a change to the company’s repair policy.

apple_store_memo

If the whole phone or the display has to be replaced to fix the problem, customers will have to pay the out-of-warranty rate to make up for leaving Apple. However, recent changes to AppleCare+ for phones mean that customers pay only $29 for screen repairs while the device is under its original or extended warranty. Perhaps that’s meant to discourage clumsier iPhone users from seeking out third-party shops in the first place.

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