Patrick Nyhan lives here in Santa Rosa and this case started with a phone and an admission.
He works at the Hertz Equipment rental yard in Ukiah which in Sonoma County used to be called "Big 4 Rents" before Hertz decided to move into equipment rental and bought them.
His background is as a Mechanic. The admission?? That he had tried to repair his iPad2 and he was calling to engage me to "repair my repair" (his repair).
He knew he had gotten in over his head. His iPad is a 64GB WiFi and cellular enabled model, which cost nearly $900 when new. As he described things, he had fallen into the traps that are set for novices at this. He had destroyed the WiFi/Bluetooth antenna and in lifting the old glass off had ripped in half the connections for Power on/off and volume up/down.
Although I usually need 4 days to bring an iPad back use after this, I committed to get it back to him a little over a day later.
In the case of an iPad2, I charge $130 as the labor aspect to work on it plus any needed parts. The fact is, it takes about 5 times longer to go through everything and put it right.
The new upper glass was $35 and the WiFi connection part was $12 and the on/off wire harness was also $12 bringing the cost of the repair to $189
I got two calls from Lea Kacher-Leake who lives in Vacaville California (95687) before actually got each other live on the phone. She had her iPod in her... well the note sent with the Red 16GB Nano 5th Gen iPod explains it.
"Hi Frank,
My iPod was in a purse pocket when a bottle of water opened in my purse. I didn't realize the iPod was in there and didn't take it out until I discovered it that night. The leather of the purse absorbed most of the water, but it was a humid environment and the iPod was in there for several hours before I discovered it.
Currently, I have a white screen and the audio is working. It played a song but the scroll wheel didn't work to adjust the volume or turn it off. It played one song and stopped (thank God... or I'd hear the little speaker it was out of songs) and still had a white screen. Hopefully, it's not terminal!"
It arrived on Friday and by 9:30 that night I had it working again perfectly. I was able to correct the scroll wheel problems and actually did have to replace the LCD screen.
The new LCD was $33 so the total repair was $73
I got a message from Karen Guile who lives in a suburb of Kansa City Kansas called Shawnee Kansas (66203). The message read,
"Hi, Frank! I live in Kansas City, and I've got an iPod Classic that has told me it needed to be reset because it was corrupted. Unfortunately, resetting it did not help because it remained corrupted. (interestingly enough before I reset it, it would play on our Sony docking station just fine, but when I tried to use it with head phones, the screen would go dark and I could not do a thing with it. Also, the battery would drain ridiculously fast.)
I don't know much about iPod technology (or any technology for that matter), but I did a little looking around on the internet and it sounded to me that a) it was something semi-serious like the hard drive; b) there was no chance in hell of me being successfully pulling of a do-it-yourselfer in this case.
So, I saw your site while looking for repair places and just really liked your forthrightness and the way you write. And, I'm interested in any award-winning wine as well. Could you tell me if you think you could fix my iPod and, if so, how/when should I send it to you?
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Karen Guile"
I replied within 14 minutes of her sending the message. As I've said, I am a very responsive correspondent in email. I got back this message within moments.
"I appreciate your quick response, Frank! I will be sending you the iPod in the next few days.
Have a wonderful afternoon!
- Karen"
When the iPod arrived it came with a letter that hinted at the iPod's problem having originated from her using it at the gym and sweating into the docking port.
In fact there was moisture damage on the battery recharge circuits which is what kept it from operating properly. I went through the iPod and corrected all of its problems.
I had to replace the battery and that was a $16 part, but she got her $300 iPod back working perfectly for $56.
|
«Previous Page 583 |
Next Page 585»
Page 600 |
Page 550 |
Page 500 |
Page 450 |
Page 400 |
Page 350 |
Page 300
Page 250 |
Page 200 |
Page 150 |
Page 100 |
Page 50
I'm in Sonoma County... Northern California wine country.
If you live nearby, are traveling through or live in the San Francisco Bay Area bring your iPod to me and I can do the work while you wait or go wine tasting for a while. Send me an
email just to make sure I have on hand whatever parts your repair will require.
Call or email me
with questions or to set up a repair. You can also call, I am here most days from 8am to 8pm
Toll Free 1-877-IPOD-PRO (1 - 877 - 476-3776)
Send the device to:
Frank Walburg
2145 Service Court
Santa Rosa, Ca 95403-3139
Methods of payment
Back to Top
| | |
