This is Zuperstar:
In an act of defiance against technology and how it rules our lives, she decided to savage my Samsung Galaxy S3.
I lie. While I was attempting to take a selfie with her (really) she decided my phone may or may not be a delicious edible treat. It started with her sniffing the phone, then lipping it gently before we reached the nibbling stage. I give my horse full credit on her foreplay abilities and the cuteness factor she employed while doing so. However, I receive no credit for not foreseeing what happened next. Once the horse had realised that she could, in fact, get her teeth around the phone, she did just that. The phone was pulled out of my hands and flung across the stable into a wall.
A logical human would be concerned about the smartphone screen, being illogical I was far more concerned with my Star Wars drone cover I’d had custom made by Printstagram (who are offering 50% off any orders made by Tech Girls for the month of May, check the banner at the top of the page – WINNING!). While the cover survived, my screen didn’t. It had cracked all over and now consisted of a mish mash of tiny cracks that resembled a Spider’s web.
How hard can it be to get it fixed right?
Yeah, turns out, it’s a bit more of a process than I’d have expected. iFix announced they could fix the screen in a matter of hours but at a cost of R2199. I don’t know much about fixing smartphone screens but that price seemed a little bit steep for my liking. Especially considering the web genius that handles Tech Girl only spent R1600 on his iPhone 5 screen repair. For a comparative price I rang Vodacare who quoted me between R2400 and R2500 for the repair. Keep in mind this is a 2 year old Samsung Galaxy S3 set to be replaced by a new phone in a month’s time. Also… this:
Because I hate parting with money, I rang the place that takes mine every month. My insurance company said that the screen repair would be covered under my policy. I’d need to take the phone in to Vodacare so they could assess it, report back to the insurance company, get approval and then fix it. Vodacare says it will take a week in total. Past experience with them dictates I can likely expect my phone back by the end of the month which is, conveniently, around the time I get my new handset.
I think we, as smartphone users, need to petition for cheaper smartphone screen repairs. There’s no way a new S3 screen and the labour involved would cost close on the same price as purchasing the phone second hand. Also, as I realise this is a common occurrence amongst smartphone users I’ve developed a failsafe method of preventing incidents like this happening again:
