We Deliver, Well...

A freakish thing happened to a friend yesterday.  He was minding his own business and exiting a gas station in Little Rock.  A reckless driver crossed a couple of lanes of traffic and clipped his car.  Luckily, our friend was not hurt.  However, he had his iPhone sitting on the dash of the car and the phone went flying into a cup of water.  The iPhone was completely dead from liquid damage.

Our friend is in a job where he communicates through his iPhone a lot.  Lots of text messages, lots of phone conferences, etc.  He is in a position of leadership and people need answers and decisions from him on an hourly basis.  It was a real problem when his phone was dead.  So, he brought the liquid damaged iPhone to us and we were able to fix it within 24 hours.  Normally, that is the end of the story.

Well, our friend had a busy schedule today.  Jam packed, if you will.  And, he needed to head out of town on a business trip.  Based upon this need, we became a delivery service today.  We set out to get him his iPhone back so he could start conducting business again.  The only problem is that his office moved to a different part of Little Rock recently and we did not know that.  It took awhile but we finally were able to get his iPhone just in time for him to leave town this afternoon.

Thus, we do deliver sometimes.  This was a long-time friend who had a need. (Plus, his family breaks their smart products about once a month).  We were glad to help.  We don't advertise delivery but we do advertise going above and beyond.  Today was one of those days and we were happy to do it.

iPhone 5 Does Not Surprise

iPhone 5 Does Not Surprise

By all accounts, the new iPhone 5 is a good product.  It is thinner and lighter, has a bigger screen, runs faster, and is just generally an improvement over the iPhone 4s.  What it is not is ground-breaking.  It is not revolutionary.  That is not necessarily a horrible thing.  We view the iPhone 5 as what the iPhone 4s was supposed to be.

The main thing that is impressive about the iPhone 5 is that the marketing by Apple is nothing short of brilliant.  As evidence for this claim, you should take a look at this YouTube video of a segment on the Jimmy Kimmel show - http://goo.gl/Gp1GB - genius!  The Apple brand is so powerful that people just believe anything that Apple tells them.  That is a dangerous proposition but so far Apple has not abused the customer.

Without a doubt, people in Central Arkansas and beyond will be lining up to purchase the new iPhone 5.  There will be people sleeping outside the Little Rock Apple store to be the first to buy the new device.  There will also be people that break their screens and drop their iPhone 5 in the toilet.  That, after all, is why we are in business.  We are here to help.    

UPCOMING CUSTOMER APPRECIATION DAYS

UPCOMING CUSTOMER APPRECIATION DAYS

We believe in giving back to our loyal customers.  Next month, on October 5th in Little Rock and October 12th in Conway we will have Customer Appreciation Days.  We will be cooking some hot dogs and giving away a special prize.  Last year, we gave away an iPad.  Could it be the new iPhone this year?  You'll want to follow us on Facebook to find out: http://www.facebook.com/FirstClassCellularRepair.

Our new Chenal location had a great Summer and we appreciate all of our new customers.  We're always here for you and be sure to watch next month.  Thanks!

Should I fix my phone or wait for the new one?

As many of you know, the iPhone 5 is rumored to come out in September.  So when people break their phone a few months prior to a big launch such as this, they are left asking themselves whether they should get their current device repaired, replaced, or just hold out for a new device.

Personally, I would have to get my device repaired or replaced.  I am constantly on the go and use my phone to stay in constant contact with clients and my store managers.  If I do not have my phone, I am unable to perform many daily tasks.  Plus I do not want to go worrying if I am going to cut my finger or face on a cracked screen or deal with a pesky power button that won't allow me to lock my phone.

Many people hold off on repairing their devices because they want to save for the latest and greatest.  We totally understand that, but did you know that you can usually sell your device back to a local repair shop or even to companies such as Gazelle who will typically pay you either what it cost to get the device repaired or more whereas if you just kept the broken device, it would not be worth much at all if anything!  As of right now, most repairs on an iPhone 4 or 4S cost less than $100.  A good condition iPhone 4 or 4S can easily sell for $150 to $250.

If anyone reading our blogs ever has a question, I would love to hear it!  Feel free to email me at jonathan@firstclasscellular.com

HERE WE GO AGAIN

You surely heard in the last week that the rumors are flying around about the new iPhone 5 (or whatever name the newest version of iPhone will have).  Can you say liquidmetal?  It sounds like something out of The Terminator movies.  According to Wikipedia, liquidmetal is "an alloy that combines a number of desirable material features, including high tensile strength, excellent corrosion resistance, very high coefficient of restitution and excellent anti-wearing characteristics, while also being able to be heat-formed in processes similar to thermoplastics."  Cool stuff.


We don't know for sure if the new iPhone will have a liquidmetal case.  In fact, we don't know anything for sure about the new phone.  We just know that the "marketing geniuses" at Apple are at it again.  They run the same play every time and we fall right for it.  Apple allows the rumor mill to stir regarding what the new version will look like and when it will come out, then they allow people to pre-order, then they run out of phones the first week and only then do they actually pay to advertise.  Then they make a bundle of money.


At our store, we have a split on the iPhone.  Half of us have iPhones and half of us have Droid Razors.  In other words, half of us don't mind that Apple is just leading us done a path of their choosing.  And, the other half thinks they are smarter than us.  Regardless, the newest iPhone will come out whenever Apple wants it to come out.  It will have some cool new features and it will likely set a new record for sales.  The reason I know this is because that is the same thing that happens every time.

THE DEATH OF BLACKBERRY

Did you know that before the iPhone there was the Blackberry?  Lots of people had them.  People liked them.  Having a Blackberry was cool.  Now, they are basically extinct.  The parent company, Research in Motion, has all but given up on trying to revive the product.

You might be reading this thinking: "I still like my Blackberry".  Well, there are still some people that have America Online e-mail addresses too but that company is a dinosaur and so is the Blackberry.  I had a Blackberry back in the day - for about two weeks!  Then I dropped it in the water and there was not a way to fix it at that time.  Now, we have an entire business model built on repairing smart phones and other products such as iPods and iPads.  Drop your phone in the pool, no problem.

There is a lot of debate over why Blackberry has gone under.  Maybe it was bad management.  Maybe they did not allow enough apps on their product.  Maybe the iPhone and Android are just better products.  Maybe all of that.  Regardless, I just asked one of our techs when was the last time we fixed a Blackberry and the response was: "Are they still in business?"  That is never a good sign.  The Blackberry is dead.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT iPODS

Most of the devices that we fix are iPhones with broken glass/screens.  iPhones are the biggest brand so that is what we see the most.  We can fix an iPhone typically in less than 30 minutes.  Today, I had a customer ask "Can you fix my iPod?".  Answer: Of course, we can.  The iPod broken screen is essentially the same process as fixing the iPhone screen.  However, they are delicate devices.  Their parts are so small that they can easily rip or tear when not handled properly.  We had to learn that lesson the hard way in the past.

We currently charge $54.95 to fix the digitizer or $59.95 to fix the LCD in the iPod Touch 2nd and 3rd generation.  In the iPod Touch 4th Generation (with camera) we charge $94.95 because the digitizer and LCD are fused together making the part more expensive.  We don't ever forget that we can fix iPods but we wanted to remind you of the same.