Complaint Review: iHospital - Tampa Florida

I am writing this as a message to all....

DO NOT USE THESE GUYS!  

The narrative of my story is simple.

1. I broke my girlfriends iPhone 6 plus, dropped it and cracked the screen.

2. She needs the phone for work, so we needed a repair asap and decided to choose the iHopsital.  This decision came because the iHospital performed a "diagnostic review," to assess the damages and then promised they could repair the cracked screen, warranty their repair, and we would be on our way the same day.  It was going to take three days to get into an actual Apple store for the repair, and the process seemed legit, so we paid them $150 to fix the phone and warranty their work.  It seemed like a solid deal.

3. After replacing the first screen, all was well...  we were out of there in about 2 hours and the phone was working fine.

4. Until the ride home.  About 15 minutes after the repair, the phone started going nuts....  and was essentially inoperable due to the screen freezing and buttons not working that you tried to touch.

5. We returned to the store to have a new screen put on the phone.  The tech told us that they get "bad batches," of replacement screens and that they would fix it.  More time spent on having them fix the phone.

6.  The phone worked for about 10 minutes....   and then it did it repeated not working correctly and was again inoperable.  So,  we repeated having them replace the screen.  More time wasted.

7. At this point major frustration set in.  In all, I believe we returned to this store and had the screen replaced 4 times.  It took several trips and talks with different techs working there.  It became a total pain in the buns.

8. The manager at this store has dark hair, a really good hair stylist, wears a lot of hair product, and was exceptionally good at not helping us out.  He would not give us resolution so we went into limbo, because he blamed everything on Apple and said we had to talk to their "corporate," location...  

I told the manager that they originally did a diagnostice, said they would fix the phone and warranty their work for a year, and they have not.

9. The manager blames Apple for having a manufacturers defect called "touch disease." Hmm.  And, since the manager used to work at Apple, then he is the absolute authority on the matter and would not listen to any of the logic I was explaining regarding the business transaction we agreed to.

It's weird that we never discussed this "touch disease," when we were discussing the diagnostic, cost of repair, service they would perform to FIX the phone, and warranty for a year after.  They never said, yeah so...  there is a possibility the phone can not be fixed... or I would have said no deal and gone to Apple.

10.  So, we were sent off to a corporate number with only a voicemail.  We never heard back from corporate.  We had spent a ton of time on this and disrupted our work days, and I felt defeated.  "Corporate," was nothing more than a way to not be acountable...

11. I took the phone to Apple.  The tech at Apple told me that they used a cheap after market screen, did not calibrate the screen of the phone when they installed the new screen, and felt bad for the problems we encountered.  I was told that Apple would replace the screen for $150 and that the phone did not have a manufacturers defect called "touch disease."  In fact, the gentleman took the time to show me a phone with touch disease and how this was not the problem at all.

12. I returned to the iHospital after calling and being told that the phone was within the one year warranty period and that they would refund my money ($150.) They could not fix the screen and this sounded like a practical business decision for both parties.

13. I returned to the store and the manager with the boy band hair told me that they would not return the money.  He furthered that by saying ONLY CORPORATE has the ability to refund money and that corporate wants to further investigate.  GEEZ.  This corporate crap again?  

Yep, and he again blamed the phone not being able to be fixed on "touch disease," something the Apple store told me that the phone does not have.  The Apple store said they could fix the phone and that the screen replacement was inferior and not properly calibrated.  And, the upfront diagnostic never mentioned anything other than a fixed phone with a warranty...

14.  So, I simply asked why they set an expectation up front to fix the phone and warranty it for a year?  This was AFTER A DIAGNOSTIC and there was no mention of anything other than a repair that was under warranty.

The manager went into his hocus pocus about how the phone had this manufacturers defect, a lie, and that he couldn't refund the money...  it was ridiculous and I felt this was just a game to wear me down and not refund any money.

I am writing this because these guys are predators.  They act like they are professionals and will promise but not deliver on their promises.  They did not fix the phone, did not keep their promise to warranty their repair, and then blamed Apple for the phone being unrepairable.  Plus, we spent at least 20 hours and several trips to the store to be lied to and talked down to.  We never heard back from this "corporate," and I really hope that this makes a difference so that you don't get ripped off like we did.  These guys are liars and have no integrity. Lastly, the manager with the boy band hair style is a deceptive slimeball and will tell you he is some Apple superhero because he worked for Apple...   I never understood why if a guy worked at Apple, he is always right and does not have to honor the business decision he entered into?  Slimeball.