What are your current views on Mail in motherboard Repair?

[lots2learn]

I couldn’t find a suitable place on the forum to post this so I stuck it here

In 2018 the following video was uploaded by Jason at STS Telecom


Stuck between a rock and a hard place - A harsh reality about YouTube & me
It seems that show casing one's expertise in motherboard repair on You Tube whilst increasing reputation seems to have a backlash effect i.e. attracts an unproportionate level of damn difficult repairs.


You also seemed to confirm this with a comment…..

"What I've learned is that mail-in microsoldering is over, and that is what is best for the world. Local people should be going to their local microsolderer and getting same day audio ic done just like a screen change. We are definitely shifting our focus to our local market, and as sad as it is that few people send us viable mail in repairs anymore,we are going to have a heck of a lot of fun making friends with our local competition. "

Three years later I noticed that you still offer mail in board repair on your website. What is your view on Mail In Board Repair vs walk ins now days, particularly with the no contact situation presented by covid. over the past two years? Has ipads rehabs percentage breakup of business between walk ins, mail ins changed with covid? Curiously I also noticed that your most common repairs in 2021 are as the same for previous years - signature failure problems with the iphone 6 and the iphone 7. I find this odd(and alarming) I would have hoped it would have shifted to more recent models like the iphone 8, iphone x, iphone XS that might attract higher repair fees? What are your views today?

[Jessa_the_Professa]

Mail in iPhone board repair is not a viable business strategy in the US in 2021 for most people. Local board repair is still active, especially for data recovery. Mail in MacBook repair is still active. This may change in the future.

In the US, board repair ability has blossomed at the local level, we have trained over 500 board repair technicians and many more via YouTube that we’ve never met. Most customers can get common problems solved locally. This is a good thing.

Franchise repair dominates the landscape in the US and they have solidified an in house network for their own board repair needs to funnel to a couple of regional guys.

“Easy” iPhone signature problems that occurred in bulk epidemics are waning right now—although this may change. Touch disease and audio ic were so common they supported many board repair shops. There are common faults in the split board models but not at the same level as the two big epidemics and solving those problems for repair much more laborious to the point of not being feasible—however data recovery of those damaged devices for local customers is a huge need. Get the data from the damaged board and transfer to their new phone that they got as part of an insurance plan.

Most US customers have some sort of phone insurance where their option to replace their damaged phone is cheaper than the cost of rebuilding the damaged phone for repair.

Mail in board repair is very attractive —get broken devices mailed right to your home and make money from your living room, while helping people! Therefore it is also extremely competitive. Young people with no overhead who can’t drive to any other job are willing to spend all day working on a board because it’s FUN and happy to charge $20. This makes it difficult to start up a primarily mail in board repair business that has a purpose of being profitable. The folks that are doing it successfully rely on referrals from years of being in business with an established reputation.

Mail in board repair has declined from the majority of our business to a minority that is maybe 10%.

If you are not in the US, then mail in board repair may indeed be a perfectly viable strategy as it once was here. Especially if you have a chance to become the established guy with all the local referrals.

[lots2learn]

Thanks for the clarification. Just want to be sure I understood. … iphone models with split layer motherboards eg iphone X, XS, XS max are actually a lot more difficult to repair than the older single layer motherboards iph7, 8 etc? The split layer makes troubleshooting/repair more difficult ... even with the split layer test jig? And, it seems that data recovery, provided one has the skills, bypasses a lot of the hurdles Apple (deliberately?) puts in front of 3rd party repairers to get a working phone, bypasses warranty issues and fills the void that Apple has created(through self interest) in insisting to customers that unless they have backed up to icloud before their phone took a dunk in water, went under a car etc, that their data is lost forever.

[Jessa_the_Professa]

Split board models must be perfectly soldered back together or you may get tiny problems that are difficult to test—such as GPS antenna for example. That is an extra layer of challenge for something like a charging chip replacement.

I have no opinion on Apple and any possible motivations. I would assume they are interested in making dense logic boards because they can fit a bigger battery in a small phone.

data recovery only requires getting the phone to boot make image accept touch and connect to usb