Here is why you should not repair your phone at your local mall

It can happen to anyone. When it does, it is horrific. As you struggle to come to terms with it, you realize what a devastating blow you have been dealt – what will you do now?

Having a broken phone is just a shock to the system as instantly you are disconnected from the world. Literally.

After doing all the “internet remedies” such as placing the phone into a bag of rice if it was dropped in water, or sticking contact-paper on the screen if it was cracked, you do a quick calculation as to when your next upgrade it due on your cellular contract.

When you realize you simply can not wait , you reluctantly realize that it needs to be repaired and curse that you didn’t take that phone insurance. At this point, you remember you that there is a cell-phone repair shop in your local Chinese mall which is where you head off to.

STOP.

I have been sent so many emails with horror stories of phones and tablets that have been repaired by these repair-shops with horrific consequences. These stories range from one customer handing his phone for a broken case and the phone was never returned as the shop owner denied having the phone in the first place.

Another customer has his phone’s screen replaced but then other faults began to appear. Eventually, the phone was taken to an authorized repair center where they discovered that the pone was stripped of its genuine Samsung parts and replaced with counterfeit components.

Another customer discovered that all her photos were copied and her pictures were used to create a fake online dating profile.

These stories go on and on so I met with Samsung’s Service Director, Richard Chetty,  to try understand the extent of this issue in South Africa:

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