Update: 8/29/10

See all of our iPhone “Do-It-Yourself” warnings posts at this link. They have become some of the most popular posts on the MacMedics Blog because they are true. Check’ em out!

So we’ve been over this before, but well meaning folks are still trying the Do-It-Yourself route on iPhones.

By our calculations you might save about $40 by doing the repair on your own, when trying to fix an iPhone 3G. If you make a mistake it’s going to be more. Also, if you’re considering this route, be sure to factor in all the costs.

1. Parts (are they real or copies?)

7. What’s the risk factor of doing a complex iPhone repair you’ve never done before.

The people that sell the parts are often the same people that make the step-by-step videos. Yes! it looks easy on video, because they edit out all the re-tries to remove the broken glass, the part where they get cut, and where they crack the LCD and/or destroy the iPhone’s frame.

When you take apart an iPhone the first few times, you’re going to mess something up. We know because we’ve seen the end results. Even if you bail on your DIY repair and come to us, our service might end up costing more if we have to un-do a previous repair attempt. MacMedics has performed the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S screen/lens/glass/digitizer repair thousands of times, so we know what we’re doing, and we can do it fast!

We had to share this e-mail and photos with you. The names have been removed to protect the innocent.

“Hi, I wanted to contact you to find out if you can help me fix my iPhone 2g.

Thank you.”

See this photo in a large size

Needless to say, this iPhone is likely beyond our help. As this is really bad and it does not appear to be disassembled in a static safe workspace to boot.

Here’s our current iPhone and iPod price list. Click on it to see it large size.

Thank you to our loyal MacMedics clients, who keep bringing us more iPhones to fix AND for telling their friends about us.

We’re finding that more and more iPhone users are just super, super dependent on their iPhones. Heavy duty users can’t even stand to leave their iPhone for same-day service (Usually only a few hours). So, to help the people that need a repaired iPhone 3G right now, we now offer Emergency While-You-Wait glass/digitizer service for the iPhone 3G (iPhone 3G S Emergency service is coming soon!)

Just bring your broken iPhone 3G into our Millersville Mac Lab and we’ll just install a new iPhone 3G top glass, digitizer, home button, and frame (all at once) for you in about 5 minutes. Maybe you’re catching a flight out of town (at nearby BWI), or you just need to get back to work right away, we’ll do it on the spot for you.

A nice side benefit, is folks that have both the common broken glass (the iPhone 3G lens) AND a broken LCD (the screen under the glass) and want their iPhone fixed on the spot can also have the repair done in about 5 minutes.

The price for this service is $199. with a 1-year warranty on the new part. Show us that you’re following MacMedics on Twitter or sign up for the MacMedics e-mail newsletter and we’ll knock off $10 this or any other iPhone, iPod, or Macintosh service!

Just give us a call at 1-866-MAC-MEDICS for more details.

So, you’re the manager for a rock bank on their summer tour and your MacBook’s LCD is sudden cracked. Sounds like you’ve got yourself a major problem as the going rate for such a repair is about $800, it could take a few days, and you’ve got to leave town in less then 24 hours for your next gig. Good thing your band was only as far away as Cordova (on Maryland’s Eastern Shore) from MacMedics’ Millersville H.Q.

A is for Avenue a Punk-Pop band happened to be in the area yesterday and thanks to the awesome word of mouth in the local Apple community, they found their way to MacMedics.

Turns out this particular MacBook (inside a backpack) on board the tour van got crunched. The LCD only had about two inches of readable screen that was viewable. So after making the arrangements for the next tour stop by way of moving windows around so they could see what they needed in the two inch section, they brought the unit into us.

Looks like the whole band stopped by to check us out while we checked in the MacBook for repair. They were leaving town the next morning, so we told them we would have it repaired and ready for them. Total turn around time about 2 hours.

Well, they are off to Connecticut for the next leg of their tour. Another happy customer! They tweeted about the repair on Twitter:

@BrianDollard “thank you @macmedics for hooking me up on tour, any mac problems check them out at macmedics.com”

Here is Brian’s review of our quick service on Yelp.com:

“While on tour with my band, the LCD screen on my MacBook was crushed while stowed in our van. We were only in Maryland for 48 hours, but Dana and his team showed some great hospitality by fixing the screen within a few hours, and saving me the $500 more the Apple store wanted to charge me. I am very grateful for their excellent customer service and will be sending them my machine if it has any future problems.”

If your MacBook (Polycarbonate) has a cracked or bad LCD, we’d love to help you out. Drop it off or ship it in, we’ll turn it around same day in most cases. See hour Blog post about our $349 flat rate repair. Got a major MacBook problem with multiple part failures (like a liquid spill or a bad case of a dropped MacBook)? MacMedics can help. We certainly can replace your sad MacBook or MacBook Pro (or PowerBook or iBook too!) with a brand new Apple laptop of your choice, and take your damaged unit as a trade-in. We also have done a few used MacBook whole unit replacements as well. We take your sick unit and remove it’s hard drive and pop it into a “newer” MacBook. Prices start out at about $650 with all labor and the trade-in of our sick unit. What’s the advantage? No labor, no wait, and 1-year MacMedics warranty on the whole unit.

Nobody likes to see a broken Macintosh laptop LCD, especially us. We love Macs, so we don’t like to see them hurt and broken after a bad drop or other unfortunate incident. Replacing the MacBook LCD can be an expensive repair when you seek help from Apple. When having your MacBook serviced by the Apple Store or Apple Depot service, they will require you to also fix any other case damage that may also be damaged due to the incident that broke the screen in the first place. Also, if your unit suffered some past minor liquid damage that did not end up causing any problems with the unit, but let a trace, Apple will also require you have that repaired as well. Another factor is that when working with Apple Service, you cannot “exchange” a physically “broken” or “cracked” LCD panel. If you choose to have the repair handled by Apple you will have to purchase the LCD service part outright, which means that there is no “credit” given for the “defective” part.

MacMedics offers a flat-rate discounted LCD replacement service for the Black and White MacBook screens for $349. We’ll replace your broken or non-working) MacBook LCD with an OEM part, and return it to you as quickly as possible. If your MacBook has case issues or other problems associated with the broken LCD we’ll work with you to find the best solution for fixing those issues as well. Best of all if our replacement LCD screen has a problem it’s covered by our MacMedics full one-year warranty. (Fine print: we won’t replace the LCD if it’s been broken a 2nd time, so let’s be careful out there!)

Lots of companies are now jumping on the Mac service band wagon. When you have a major Mac service service need like an LCD or logic board, please consider that MacMedics is the regional leader in the Baltimore-Washington area for Apple Macintosh sales and service. We pioneered on-site Macintosh service, and our in-lab service is also highly regarded and award winning. Macintosh computers are highly engineered and as such they often have very small parts, various sized screws, and very tight fittings cases. All three of these things frequently trip up firms that are NOT specialized in Mac service. (see our blog post about how a big box store fried a perfectly good working iBook) We frequently see computers after they have already been someplace else and NOT properly serviced. MacMedics is an Apple Authorized Service Provider and we’ve been fixing only Macs for over 20 years. So, before you ship your beloved laptop (or desktop) to places unknown, consider sending it to MacMedics. Also, all non-warranty Apple repairs are covered by our no hassle 1-year MacMedics warranty. If it fails, we fix it free.

Most MacBook LCD repairs are completed within 24-hours, which is impossible to accomplish if you send your MacBook to the West Coast for service. Also, be sure to read our Blog post about a MacBook that we worked on recently that had been to a mail-in depot repair center.

Ship your unit into us, or drop it off and for a limited time we’ll send it back to you via Fedex standard air shipping free of charge.

Add a 7200 RPM 500 GB hard drive to any MacBook or MacBook Pro LCD replacement service for just $159 which includes a bit by bit clone copy of your data. When you get your unit back, your data will be in just the same place you left it. Also, your old drive is yours, so we’ll return that as part of the service, or we can make it into a portable back up drive for $40.

MacMedics is now also offering Apple iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S service and repair in our Millersville, Maryland office. Got a cracked screen or LCD?? Don’t pay Apple $199 to get it fixed! Come see us and we’ll take care of your iPhone 3G for $89.95 or your iPhone 3G S for $99.95. Most repairs are completed SAME-DAY, and best of all, NO LINES here at MacMedics.