It's one of those "uh-oh" moments that has become all too common - dropping a smartphone. It happens so often that smartphone repair shops are popping up everywhere.
Nicolas Chaar is ahead of the game. He’s been repairing phones for years. He runs International Mobile Services in Orleans in east Ottawa. And he’s never been busier. "On average we do about between 20 to 30 LCD's (screens) per day," he says.
Chaar says the advantage he offers is fast service, usually the same day. People are no longer content to send their phones away for repairs. "They're texting on there. They're on Facebook. They're on Twitter. They've got appointments for their business. People are calling them non-stop. They want their phone back right away."
U.S. Economist Professor Gregory Hamilton says nearly 25-percent of all smart phone users have cracked screens. And they take an average of six months to get them repaired. The main reason for the delay is the cost. A new screen can run anywhere from seventy-five up to five hundred dollars for a high end phone. Chaar says if the repair is still less than half the cost of a new phone then it's worth it. He points out it's cheaper to protect your phone with a good case before it breaks. One example he sells, the OtterBox case, runs around seventy dollars. The draw-back is that a good case adds bulk and weight to the phone.
But it does work. Michael Houle says it saved his phone when he dropped it... from the back of his motorcycle at ninety kilometres an hour! "It flew off the motorcycle. It became all open. I put it back together and it was still working afterwards," he says.
If you don't have a case Nicolas Chaar will even give you a discount on one… after he fixes your phone.
