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The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

by Anthony Magnabosco on December 3, 2010

'Doh!

'Doh!


We encounter lots of people in our line of work. Most all of our customers and their repairs go very smooth, and the only time we hear back from a customer is when they have another iPod, iPhone, or iPad to send our way (we love repeat customers, btw). I am always amazed, however, how the thousands of great experiences we have had can get over-shadowed by the challenging customers – the times when things do not go as planned.

We have helped literally thousands and thousands of customers, and have been thanked by many, many people. But for some reason, I think my staff and I seem to remember most vividly the times when things do not always work out the way we had intended.

To help illustrate this point, I want to tell you the (true) stories of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good
A day or so before Thanksgiving, we had two customers in our lobby. The woman at the counter was checking in her son’s iPad, which got smashed up while he was away in Iraq. When the order taker at the front counter waived over a technician to inspect the device, it became apparent that the customer might also need a new backplate. The customer reluctantly agreed to also pay for a new backplate for her son’s iPad, and headed out the door. The other customer in the lobby had overheard the entire conversation, and told us that he wanted to cover the cost of the lady’s iPad backplate. Wow! He did and later, the woman was so pleased to have such a nice person sympathize with her situation.

The Bad
In this situation, we had a customer that had spilled water on her brand new 5th Generation iPod nano and the LCD went out. She sent the device to us, we replaced the LCD and the battery, and the device was working great. When she received it, however, it was dead. Not completely unusual with water-damaged devices, but we stepped up and had her ship it back to us on our dime and we ended up replacing another part in it, again, at our expense. The device sails through testing and works great. She gets it back, and it is dead. Definitely frustrating, but again, with water-damage of this magnitude, not entirely un-heard of. We get it sent back to us again, and we determine that the logic board on the device is toast – all the new parts we installed were working great, but the logic board finally succumbed to the initial water trauma. The customer contacted me and we discussed this most unusual situation, and I explained that we see odd things when it comes to water damaged devices. We agreed to credit her account in full for all of the parts she had paid for (even though they were still inside her device) and send the device back to her (which was actually working for us again as we packaged it up and sent it to her). Well, she received it back a third time and guess what? The device was not working again. Surprising to hear us since it was actually working for us here but again, not entirely unusual because of the unpredictability with water damaged devices. But the customer did not call me. She did not email me. But she did file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I was frankly dumbfounded, as it was my understanding that the customer fully understood that these things can happen with water damaged devices, knew that we had credited her account despite our parts still being inside, and surely must have known the tremendous amount of labor that went into not only working with her troubled little nano, but all the labor it took to communicate with her, receive her device in, ship her device out, etc. Why sumbit a milliamp BBB complaint when I am available to work something out!? Anyways, we finally ended up resolving the situation with this customer, and she is happy now and we are happy now, and we both have a new-found respect for the temperamental nature of water damaged iPods!

The Ugly
Nothing frustrates me more when we have someone that is rude to us after we have expended effort to answer persons’ questions to the best of our ability and in a timely manner. But that is what happened with this recent exchange between my Customer Service Representatives and person who was inquiring about a repair and apparently lost sight that there was another human being with feelings on the other side of their conversation:

~~
Matthew Robert Posted on: 27 Nov 2010 3:36 PM
From: ‘tarheelfan14@gmail.com’
Ok so my friend let me borrow his new iPod touch 4g and I broke the screen it fell face first on the pavement. But his iPod is jailbroken so i wsa wondering if you can fix jailbroken ipods

David C. Replied on: 29 Nov 2010 10:36 AM
Dear Matthew,
Thanks for contacting us. It really doesn’t affect us if the device is jail broken. We can replace the glass either way. If you have any other questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Have a great day.
Here’s a link to our 4th Gen iPod Touch repair,

http://www.milliamp.com/4th-gen-ipod-touch-repair.html

Best regards,
David C.

Matthew B. Posted on: 01 Dec 2010 8:50 AM
From: ‘tarheelfan14@gmail.com’
Can you give me a lower price

David C. Posted on: 01 Dec 2010 9:54 AMMatthew,
Sorry, but we cannot offer this at a lower price. Have a great day.
Best regards,
David C.

Matthew B. Posted on: 01 Dec 2010 10:15 AM
From: ‘tarheelfan14@gmail.com’
Well you just lost buiessnes for me and 6 of my friends

Marian C. Posted on: 01 Dec 2010 10:52 AM
Well, we are sorry to hear that, Matthew. Your business would be very much appreciated. We truly wish our well-trained repair technicians would be able to get your iPod touch up and running again with our high-quality parts, but we hope that you’ll let us know in the future if you’d like to use us for any repairs.

P.S. To keep from getting burned by any other companies, please remember that the 4th Generation iPod touch is built in a way that the LCD and outer glass/digitizer are fused together as one piece and cannot be installed separately. Any company advertising otherwise is not selling a legitimate part. Also, the repair is $128 which is $109 for the part plus $19 for labor.

Best regards,

Marian C.

Matthew B. Posted on: 01 Dec 2010 11:00 AM
From: ‘tarheelfan14@gmail.com’
Well a companie that apple says has real parts does it for 84.99 so Hahahahah

David C. Posted on: 01 Dec 2010 12:19 PM

That’s great! We’re sorry we couldn’t have been a better help, but keep us in mind for any other future repairs you may need. Good luck!
Best regards,
David C.

Matthew B. Posted on: 01 Dec 2010 2:25 PM
From: ‘tarheelfan14@gmail.com’

O just suck a Wang

From: Anthony Magnabosco
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2010 9:23 AM
To: ‘tarheelfan14@gmail.com’

Matthew,

If the maturity of your responses below to my Customer Service Agents (who were only trying to assist you with your questions) is any indication of what kind of friends you may be hanging around with, we do not want your referrals. Besides, we owe our competitors a Christmas present anyways, so please head elsewhere. Good day, sir.

Best regards,

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner

Milliamp LTD | Repairs for Apple’s iPod, iPhone, and iPad
5890 De Zavala Road Suite 107
San Antonio, TX 78249
Cell Phone: 210-787-9482

To which this most eloquent individual replied:

From: Matthew B. [mailto:tarheelfan14@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2010 4:55 PM
To: Anthony Magnabosco

Hey my friends are fine but u rme sonny boy speak English need
~

Huh?!

Now, let me ask you. You just read about three different scenarios that occurred this week – which one sticks out in your mind? The good, the bad, or the ugly?

Have a great weekend, y’all.

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner

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CSI: Milliamp

by Marian on November 26, 2010

I think there is a murder that needs to be investigated here at Milliamp. I’ve kept quiet for far too long and feel it’s time to speak up! It just seems so wrong to let a poor, innocent soul go like that and keep mum about it. The evidence is clear – this was purely intentional. I can’t quite put my finger on who I think did it (Mr. Mustard???), but I have reason to believe that there’s a conspiracy to considering involving the City of San Antonio’s sanitation department. I know, I know! It’s a really bold claim, but if they think that they can get away with this, they’re out of their minds!

I came across this terrible scene over a month ago and have been turning a blind eye to it. I was enjoying some fresh air when I saw some red sequined fabric from underneath the corner of the dumpster on the side of our building (yes, the same building where we have customers walk in daily to get their broken iPods, iPhones and iPads fixed). Naturally, being drawn to shiny things, I floated over but to my horror found that underneath this behemoth of a trash receptacle was a poor…squooshed…adorable…teddy bear. Yes, a teddy bear. How could anyone be so cruel to something so cute & cuddly? Naturally, I tried to pull it out from underneath its massive captor, but it was just beyond my level of strength. Sadly, I had to leave the stuffed victim in its final resting place…under a dumpster. Where’s the dignity? *shaking my head*

The guilt really has been eating away at me and I had to tell someone about it. Until another trash day comes, I think our little friend will have to stay put out there in the cold all alone. I shudder at that thought, but perhaps she went quickly. We can all hope.

Moral of the story? Adhere to all warning labels on things that could potentially kill or maim you or end up like our friend.

P.S. This was purely a joke, but this teddy bear has seriously been under that dumpster for over a month. It’s weathering quite well considering the regular change of climate, but I don’t think that little thing is going anywhere anytime soon. Pretty funny though, right?

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Podcast Spotlight – Too Beautiful To Live

by Wes on November 24, 2010

One of the things I love about having an iPhone is the access I have to the iTunes store, specifically the vast array of FREE podcasts I can stream at any time. Over the past several years, I have become a huge fan of podcasts, from NPR to sports talk I have found a number of podcasts I listen to regularly. For those you you unfamiliar, a podcast is typically a recorded show made available for download, the download does not have to be from iTunes, I simply use iTunes as my main source. For example, I’m a huge fan of NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” a news quiz show that airs every Saturday morning, but I’m a late sleeper so I don’t normally get to hear it live, but I’ll go download the podcast and enjoy it whenever I’m ready to listen. Actually, It’s almost like a DVR for radio shows and a whole lot more.  I’ve chosen to spotlight my very favorite podcast, Too Beautiful To Live (TBTL for short).

TBTL started out around three years ago as a 3 hour weekday radio show on KIRO in Seattle, WA, and has evolved into a daily podcast of varying length. The show was cancelled on KIRO around a year ago, but those who made the show were determined to have it live on, so they went the podcast route. TBTL is hosted by Luke Burbank, a hip, witty 30-something who has extensive experience in radio journalism, loves his whiskey, and loves to talk about pop culture. Burbank is flanked by producer Jen “Flash” Andrews, a sweet, peppy voice of reason that keeps Luke grounded and the show on track. Lastly, there’s Sean DeTore, originally the engineer for the show when it was on the air, but he has become a semi-frequent guest of the show in its new format. The best way to describe what TBTL is about is to say nothing and everything. For the most part, the show focuses on pop culture, music, current events, and off the wall topics that seemingly appear at random; it sounds chaotic, but it’s actually quite endearing. The show also has a language all its own, from calling it’s listeners “10s,” as in their “10s of listeners,” to the recurring set of sound bites they use to augment the show.  Luke, Jen, and Sean have such charisma and magnetism that after listening to only a few episodes you feel as if the three of them are good friends that you hang out with everyday. I have to say that my favorite segment is “Awesome, Not Awesome,” a quick summary of current events that the crew deems either “Awesome” or “Not Awesome.” It seems simple, but it’s the commentary and banter between the hosts that make it fun. It’s really quite difficult to sum up this show succinctly, but I have to suggest that you give the show a listen, you’ll be hooked.

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Finish Line, Here We Come.

by David on November 24, 2010

Hello Milliampers!! How the heck have you been?! Can you believe that tomorrow is thanksgiving? This year has gone by way too fast. 

So, im in a band. I think I may have mentioned that before. We’re called THE SKY DIVIDED. In October of 2009, we started working on our first record. We tracked 2 songs and were extremely impressed with the studio quality. So much in fact that we decided we were not ready for the studio. We decided to slow everything down and re-evaluate who we were as a band. We started to look at the songs we had and what we could do to make them better. For the past year we’ve had between 20 to 30 songs to work with, some finished and some just small parts. We picked out 10 songs that we really really liked and started developing them. We even changed the way we played shows. How? Instead of playing 3 to 4 times a month, we cut it down to 1 or 2 a month. We would play new songs at shows to see how they would fit and how people would react to them. Back in March we tracked another 2 songs. Thats 4 songs done. Great! We thought we would we would have the record done in no time after that. Wrong. We got offered some pretty good shows between April and July, so we spent the summer playing shows. August is where things picked up. I spent a little time doing scratch tracks and writing even more new songs. lol Since September we’ve been in the studio trying to finish up the record. We FINALLY picked the 12 songs that would go on the record. More importantly, these are songs that we are excited to be playing live for the next year or so. As of right now, there is only 3 songs left that need to be tracked. :) The finish line is not too far ahead friends. Im so excited that we’re so close to being done. We should start mixing the record late December and have it available late January. Maybe you’ll find some of our songs on your iPod after you get it back repaired! ;-)

We’ll thats it for me friends. Have a great holiday and be safe. Until next time, stay classy….

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How Bout Them?

by admin on November 23, 2010

This blog post is about my life as a Dallas Cowboys fan. They’re doing awful this year and have an injured star quarterback. And although they’ve impressively won the last two games, there is pretty much no chance of making the playoffs. It is times like these that your fan-dom is truly tested.

I became a Dallas Cowboys in 1992, when they won Super Bowl XXVII. Sure, it’s easy to jump on to a team’s bandwagon when they win a Super Bowl, but hey – I was 9 years old, and my whole family were already big fans. I was previously a fan of their rivals, the Washington Redskins, but only because the local high school team was the Donna Redskins.

From that moment forth, I watched every game, cheered with my family, and put up posters of Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, and Emmitt Smith in my room. I went through some of my old stuff not too long ago and found a bunch of sketches I made of those guys as well. I had a Cowboys football, chose #22 as the running back in Pop Warner (Emmitt’s number), and got a soon-to-be-worn-out Dallas Cowboys jacket for Christmas.

But those were easy times to be a Cowboys fan. They won two more Super Bowls in the next 3 years, and made the playoffs until 1996. But in 1997, they had an awful season, plagued with injuries and didn’t even get to the playoffs. Thus started a dark decade of being a shamed Cowboys fan. By this time, I was 15 years old, trying to get rid of my childhood ways and interests. But I never gave up on my team! Over the next 12 years, the Cowboys went through 4 head coaches and made the playoffs a every now and then. But they were never really appreciated or noticed by the rest of the league the way they used to be. Bill Parcells put together the good team we have now, and Romo has led them pretty well. They’re good/not great, but the moral of the story is: Don’t be a lame fan! Root for your team even if they are 3-7 :(

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Smashed Apple iPods, iPhones, and iPads

by Anthony Magnabosco on November 19, 2010

paul-fairchild-ipod-art

paul-fairchild-ipod-art

Being in the business, we have seen a lot of smashed iPods, iPads, and iPhones.

iPods run over by a tank, iPads run over by a car, iPod touch with dumbbells dropped on them, and the way-too-common iPhone-dropped-in-a-toilet.

But the devices you see here, captured by Michael Tompert and photographer Paul Fairchild were intentionally destroyed.

Now, we are good, but this looks like damage that would be a bit beyond our repair skils!

More of these stunning images here.

Have a great weekend!

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
Milliamp LTD

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The Not-So-Simple Business Card

by Anthony Magnabosco on November 14, 2010

A lot of thought goes into our business: the things we purchase, the people we hire, the photographs that go on our website, etc. Even down do the simple things like what to put on our business cards. Now, as much as I would have liked to release a business card that my daughter suggested that we do, it just wouldn’t cut the mustard (don’t tell her, ok?!).

This business card has gone through at least ten iterations in the last three years. Here is our most recent version, being printed up right now as I type this:

milliamp-business-review-card

milliamp-business-review-card

Some of the interesting parts of the card have been highlighted in yellow – let me explain:

First, we listed the top three main repairs that we do right at the start: iPhone Repairs, iPod Repairs, and iPad Repairs

Second, we have been moving more towards showing our local 210 area code phone number and less our 800 number. It seems more and more that people don’t really care all that much about toll-free, and if we can reduce phone expenses by pushing our local 210 phone number, well then we will do that.

Third, we can’t forget our local customers, so we added ‘Walk-Ins Welcome’. In fact, we get a lot of customers sent to us from the two local Apple stores here in San Antonio, as well as the plethora of AT&T Stores that dot our city. Come on in, ask for a tour, or jump on our public wifi hot spot while we repair your device.

Fourth, we had to update the duration that we’ve been around: five years! That’s just amazing to me to think about all the things we have been through during that time.

Fifth, we just had to add the Apple iPad (and a beautifully-smashed one at that) to our business card. Of course, iPhones and iPods are still on there as well. Interestingly, we decided to change out the purple iPod nano for a milliamp.com-green colored one for artistic purposes.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget that R after our logo – it was been registered with the United States Trademark and Patent Office earlier this year.

I bet you will never look at our business card the same way again, huh?

Have a great, productive week everyone.

Best regards,

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
Milliamp LTD

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1,018,994 Video Views and Counting

by Anthony Magnabosco on November 12, 2010

one-million-views

one-million-views

Wow.

The total amount of video views on our various YouTube accounts just surpassed the 1 million mark.

It’s a testament to how long we have been around, how many people are interested in what we do, and the massive effort we have put into the iPad, iPhone, and iPod repair business.

Sure, ‘Double Rainbow’ blows us away in this area, but give us time!

Have a great weekend, y’all.

Best regards,

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
Milliamp LTD

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Noisy Neighbor Etiquette

by Marian on November 8, 2010

 

What’s a girl to do when she has got a neighbor with a loud morning ritual? I’ve been losing sleep (quite literally) over our neighbor who lives in the apartment directly above ours who’s just too dang loud at the wee hours in the AM. I will give this guy major credit for getting up at 5 AM every day to hit the gym, but I do not appreciate the fact that #125′s atrocious taste in music must be blasted for an hour as he gets ready for his day. If I have to hear Nickelback or a lame techno cover of ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ again, I will surely die. Also, infomercials from his equally loud TV will be the death of me.

I don’t get up until nearly two hours after him, but I wake up every single time and then struggle to fall back asleep. I can sleep through hail and thunderstorms, but I cannot escape the grasp of this man’s boisterous ways. In my sleepy, yet angry stupor, it always crosses my mind that it’d be the best thing at that possible moment to walk up those stairs, beat on the guys door and demand that he turn down the volume or else be the victim to my tiny little woman wrath. Obviously, this is not the most practical or graceful matter, but at five in the morning, I seriously consider it as I lie there awake.

So back to my question: “What’s  a girl to do?” On one hand, I see that our family on our first floor apartement isn’t perfect and that sometimes we’re loud past the quiet hours, but usually alcohol & friends are involved so you don’t think of anything outside of your 667 sq foot box in those moments. To be completely honest, I doubt this guy realizes he’s that loud, so I’m not jumping at the “noise complaint” route with management. Plus, he’s usually pretty quiet except for this one caveman grunting/stomping/crying fit he had recently. And that was just awkward. For all of us. Including the dog. I’m pretty sure he broke up with his girlfriend…

Anyways, do you think I should submit an official noise complaint with management or should I send dear husband to #125′s door and politely ask him to keep the volume down? I don’t want to get the guy a strike against him, especially if it can just be worked out civilly. We don’t really know him, so it might make the rest of our lease a little awkward as neighbors if we choose that route. I’ve Googled the topic, but it sounds like people have worse or different situations than us where the noisy neighbor is really at fault or is downright rude. I’d rather enlist our trusty readers to provide some warmly welcomed feedback!

Marian needs to get some SLEEP finally! HELP!

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Thumb Wars

by Anthony Magnabosco on October 25, 2010


As the owner of an electronics repair business, I find myself faced with challenges that I never expected. Usually these are customer-related (like the time a customer threatened us because the first two shipping attempts we made to him in Dubai still had not arrived) or supplier-related (like the time a supplier replaced his defective parts with, well, more defective parts).

But my most recent unexpected challenge has been staff-based: despite weeks of speaking to my employees in a group setting and individually about making personal texts while on the job, it was still happening – and it frankly, it seemed to be getting worse. Now, I am all about personal responsibility and taking up concerns directly with an employee, but this particular issue was becoming a real detriment to the entire organization, and ultimately, it started to directly impact the level of service our customers expect.

Effective today, we implemented a ban of all cellular and wifi-enabled devices from being on your person or at your desk – they need to be tucked away in a locker or in an automobile until break time. The ban does not apply to managers so that we can conduct business and be reachable by employees’ friends or family in the event of an emergency.

Workers with tasks that permit it can still listen to music players to help them focus or get in the zone.

This tough decision was about productivity, customer service, and respect for our fellow co-workers, and nothing more.

Now, we are not un-realistic – there will of course be times where an employee has something important going on and may need their device at their side for a day, or perhaps they are working by alone, after-hours; all good reasons for an exception to the rule.

And who knows, perhaps one day we can bring ‘em back and see how it goes.

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
Milliamp LTD

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The milliamp Wireless Advantage

by Anthony Magnabosco on October 21, 2010

the-milliamp-wireless-network-advantage

the-milliamp-wireless-network-advantage

More and more units that we repair these days have wireless capabilities built right in. iPod touch, iPhones, even iPads. With this increased functionality comes increased responsibility to make sure that the units we receive from our customers are properly repaired and tested.

For more than a year now, we have been using a great tool in the war on perfect iPod repairs: a dedicated in-house wireless network for the sole purpose of testing devices.

See, when we un-box and receive a device that has wireless capability, we search for our dedicated network on that unit, connect to it, and then pull up a browser to surf to our favorite site (milliamp.com, of course) to make sure everything is working. We repeat this process at least once more after the repair has been completed to make sure everything is still working great.

We are not aware of any other iPad | iPod | iPhone repair facility that has gone to this level of effort to make sure that your wireless back is covered.

Now, with the number of units we get in each day, this can be a pretty mundane test; while I was leaning towards calling the network ‘milliamp.com-wireless-network-for-testing-purposes-only’, my hard-working technicians convinced me to call it ‘m’ – much less typing. And for all you geeks out there, not to worry: this wireless network is completely separate from our corporate wireless network and server that our employees use on a daily basis.

This network has another purpose: it’s great to jump on if you happen to be hanging out in our lobby while we complete your repair. We might even let you borrow one of our shop iPads while you sit and relax.

Come on by and see for yourself.

Best regards,

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

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iPhone Charging Port – The Do-It-Yourself Kit

by Anthony Magnabosco on October 11, 2010

new-iphone-3gs-charging-port-dock-connector-replacement-kit

new-iphone-3gs-charging-port-dock-connector-replacement-kit

Ask anyone who knows anything about Apple iPods, iPhones, and iPads about milliamp.com, and probably the first that comes to mind is ‘repairs’ or ‘batteries’ or ‘customer service’. Well, we want to make one more phrase come to mind: ‘charging ports’. You see, we have just put the finishing touches on our iPhone 3GS Charging Port Replacement Kits and iPhone 3G Charging Port Replacement Kits (also known as iPhone Dock Connector Replacement Kits).

Our charging port replacement kit is THE kit to have on hand if your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS is not connecting to iTunes, is not charging up your iPhones’ battery, or has some other issue like a bad microphone. Rarely does one part fix so many things, so knowing where to go for your iPhone 3G dock connector replacement is going to be important for you or your friends one of these days, whether you realize it or not.

The kit itself contains one high-quality and tested iPhone 3G or 3GS charging port, and some of the most beautifully-detailed, color-printed instructions out there. The kit also comes with a very cool suction cup for removing the glass digitizer screen, a cute little Phillips-head screwdriver, and two green “spudger” (man, I hate that word for some reason) tools for disconnecting the various connectors inside the device. And milliamp.com is the only company selling a kit with this part that has thought of every little detail. A great example of this are the helpful strips of blue anti-static tape, and these super little foam dots that are criticial during the replacement process to ensure long-term repair success.

We waited a bit before releasing this product because we wanted to get EVERYTHING right on it: from the tools, to the instructions, to the little helpful extras that no one else even considered.

To learn more about our cool new iPhone 3G or 3GS Charging Port replacement kits, please head to our website now (and be sure to snatch up a fresh new iPhone 3G/S battery while you are at it!).

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

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New Battery Kits for iPhone 3G and 3GS

by Anthony Magnabosco on October 4, 2010

We have been hard at work, developing the most detailed battery replacement kits for Apple’s iPhone 3G and 3GS, and we have just made the announcement in a planet-wide press release. The kits are super – perfect for the iPhone 3G or 3GS owner that has noticed that the battery inside their phone just ain’t lasting as long as it should.

iPhone 3G/S Batteries - Now for Self-Install

iPhone 3G/S Batteries - Now for Self-Install

Our kits include a handy-dandy suction cup, Phillips-head screwdriver, a couple of green plastic pry tools, most-awesome printed instructions with color photographs, and of course the battery. Our 3G iPhone battery kit comes with a 1150 mAh battery, and our 3GS iPhone battery kit comes with a 1200 mAh battery. Both of our iPhone batteries play nice with iOS4.x and are guaranteed for ten years – notice any decrease in playtime during that time, let us know, and a new one will ship right out to you.

Should you get stuck during your iPhone battery replacement, let us know, and we will do our best to walk you through it.

I just can’t think of a better way for you to impress your friends, wife, kids – get one now!

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

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iPod Battery Simplification

by Anthony Magnabosco on September 9, 2010

smarter-ipod-video-and-classic-battery-labels

smarter-ipod-video-and-classic-battery-labels

Always looking to find ways to simplify things, one of our recent improvements was small…very small. You see, even though the iPod Video 30GB battery is the exact same one that goes inside the 6th Generation 80GB and 120GB iPod classic, we had two labels printed up – one for each type.

This added a modest layer of complexity for ordering, inventory control, order fulfillment, repairs, shipping accuracy, and so on.

Same thing with the 60GB and 80GB iPod Video battery – this guy is the same battery that slips inside the 6th Generation 160GB iPod classic.

So it finally dawned on us to simplify things and merge the two battery labels.

Oh, there is a bit of twist, these days: the newest (and perhaps last?) version of this kind of iPod is the slim-height iPod classic, which comes in a 160GB flavor as well, but is thin like the 80GB or 120GB ipod classic – takes the same battery, too.

Get your 5th Generation iPod Video (30GB, 60GB, and 80GB) Battery here.
Get your 6th Generation iPod classic (80GB, 120GB, and 160GB) Battery here.

…and look closely at the label.

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

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The Phantom Digitizer Input iPad Repair Test – Only at Milliamp

by Anthony Magnabosco on August 31, 2010

We have fixed a LOT of iPads since they hit the consumer landscape, probably more than any other iPad repair company out there. From all over the world, in fact: United States, Canada, Abu Dhabi, England, and Mexico, to name but a few.

And with that exposure comes experience. Something YOU will want to have on your side when deciding who to send YOUR iPad to when you accidentally damage it (and believe me, one day, you will!).

A great example of quantity driving quality is the “phantom input” test we now perform on every iPad screen that we change out. What the hell is that?, you must be asking. Well, on just a handful of iPads that had a smashed display, they had also sustained damage to their logic board (motherboard) from the initial trauma that broke the screen.

But the interesting thing about these iPads was that the damage was not entirely evident right from the start. It wasn’t until we learned that the digitizers were acting as if the screen was being touched when they were sitting all by themselves did we realize that we had to improve our quality control testing after each iPad repair.

At first we believed the new digitizer must have failed, a bad part, and that’s why the screen was acting like a ghost was using it. But when that same screen was placed in another (never dropped or damaged) iPad, the same new digitizer worked flawlessly – no phantom inputs.

So in typical milliamp fashion, we quickly devised a simple test that every iPad that we repair must go through (and dutifully added it to our in-house device management system called millihub), wether the digitizer was repaired or not: The Phantom Digitizer Input Test.

What we do during this test is pull up this page on our website directly from the repaired iPad, and zoom in so that we can see the following image:

ipad-phantom-input-test

ipad-phantom-input-test

And then you leave the iPad alone. If the image moves off the inverted triangle (or zooms in or out), you will notice this, and if the screen detects a tap/click, you get an image that tells you that the test failed. We let currently let this test run for 30 minutes.

Note: You must change the settings temporarily on the iPad so that it does not turn off and stays on for the duration of the test.

So long, ghosts!

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

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iPad Repair Again and Again and Again

by Anthony Magnabosco on August 30, 2010

iPad Repair Box Again and Again

iPad Repair Box Again and Again

Thought I would share a cool little way that we encourage our customers to help us recycle.

In this example, we ask our iPad repair customers to help us re-use the super-awesome box we send their iPad to them after we are done fixing it so that it can be used for someone else. Not everyone elects to do send the box back to us, which is fine, but every so often we find a customer that is game and mails the box out.

If they do this, we also encourage them to include a short note or their specific ‘broken iPad story’ along with it, so that we can share it with others. Recently, a customer named Terry sent us his iPad box, along with the following short note:

“Sorry for taking so long to return the box! Thanks for the great service, I missed my iPad and was very satisified with the work you guys did to bring it back to its former glory.”

Perhaps one day you will be using the same box we used for Terry’s iPad – and that’d be cool.

Regards,

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

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The Benefits of Communication

by Anthony Magnabosco on August 23, 2010

As you may have read in an earlier post, we have recently implemented a new device management system called ‘millihub’, and the results of all our hard work are starting to pay off. Providing timely updates via email has never been so automate for our employees, and it has never been so good for our customers.

Customers appreciate the notification when their device arrives, when it gets evaluated and we have determined what parts are needed, when we repair the device, when the device passes testing, and when the iPhone or iPod or iPad ships out, as evidenced by this recent review we received of milliamp.com:

milliamp.com_Reviews_01

milliamp.com_Reviews_01

And then a few days later, this one:

milliamp.com_Reviews_02

milliamp.com_Reviews_02

And a few days after that one, this one:

milliamp.com-reviews_3

milliamp.com-reviews_3

Like anything we do, we know there is always room for improvement. Customers may want to have these updates texted to them instead of emailed, or maybe even tweeted to them. Other customers may want pictures or perhaps even video of their in-progress repair as it happens. iPhone app, anyone? All doable, for sure, with millihub.

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

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Hola from Cancun, Mexico

by Anthony Magnabosco on August 9, 2010

Well my wife talked me into it and we snuck in one more vacation before the end of Summer – Cancun, Mexico! I was actually kind of dreading this trip – too much going on at the office these days. But I am coming around – it’s beautiful here and the people are very friendly. Went to the beach today and I was amazed that the sand was cool, despite the blazing rays of the sun beating down on it. And the water from the ocean was perfect and the waves just right. Of course, my daughter got the required braided hair to further prove to the guys hawking excursions that we were tourists, just in case they could not tell.

Oh, and here’s a short video of the kids goofing off just before we headed back out to the pool:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1J1dgxNf9Q[/youtube]

Had a brief scare this morning to find that my 6.5GB Microsoft Office email file (.ost) was corrupt – apparently it should never exceed 2GB – guess it’s time to archive some of these emails, huh?! Had to delete the file and re-build it up. It’s been running for about eleven hours now, and still going strong. Hope I am not being charged by the megabyte. So that means if you need to get a hold of me, email is still a good way to do so!

Buenos noches,

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

hola-from-cancun

hola-from-cancun

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You Don’t Know Shack – The CPU Shack Museum, That Is

by Anthony Magnabosco on August 6, 2010

We get lots of email each day, and you would not believe some of the stories we hear from our customers about exactly how their precious iPhone or iPod or iPad became damaged.

Well, we received an email from the curator of The CPU Shack Museum the other day, and he was looking to increase his collection of processors, specifically, iPhone processors. We were happy to oblige, and combed our shop for a few spare, broken iPhone motherboards. Shipped ‘em off today, in fact, just to help this worthy cause.

So if you want to learn more about microchips and the central processing unit of your favorite computer, pda, or other electronic gizmo, you need to head to one of the most comprehensive, if not quirky, sites, The CPU Shack Museum.

This website has gobs of information and interesting pictures of chips and sexy silicon, and even some pretty gutsy claims ([and I am paraphrasing:] “8-bit microcontrollers will not be replaced with their newer 16 and 32-bit bretheren for decades.” – the nerve! :-) )

This pictures shows you some of the packages that rolled into the museum while its’ curator was out for a few days:

the-cpu-shack

the-cpu-shack

Have a great weekend, everybody. I am off to Canun, Mexico with my family this coming week, but will still be checking email if you need to reach me. And of course, my crack staff is at the ready (210-568-7473) to help you out.

Will most definately try to get a blog post or two posted up here about our trip during that time.

Regards,

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

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Milliamp: More than just iPod/iPhone/iPad Repair???

by Wes on August 6, 2010

Where mp3 players and tablet computing are concerned, there really aren’t any worthwhile alternatives to Apple’s iPod and iPad, but where smart phones are concerned, the iPhone is great, but its not the only exceptionally awesome device out there. We at Milliamp have certainly taken note of the latter point, there are a wealth of impressive (and popular!) smart phones available on a multitude of networks! These devices’ offerings vary in form, function, color, size, interactive style, etc etc, but there is ONE thing that binds every single smart phone out there… THEY BREAK! Whether a touch screen, an LCD, a failing battery, water damage, or a worn key pad, smart phones will encounter human inflicted damage! So, with all of this in mind, we have begun to explore the myriad devices that need repair and are considering expanding our Award Winning repairs services to those devices.  Are you excited yet Milli-Fans!?!?! You should be! but don’t go and change your Facebook status (at least not yet) to proclaim to the masses that “You can’t believe it, but Milliamp will finally fix my HTC EVO’s broken glass!” because we haven’t completely settled on the devices for which we will begin to offer repair services. However, we can tell you that we are seriously considering expanding our services to different devices in the very near future, so stay tuned to our website and blog for information regarding these new services, you could even use a comment on this blog post to suggest a device for which we should offer services! It’s definitely worth noting that even though we have visions of smart-phone repair grandeur dancing through our heads, we still have our feet firmly planted on the ground and have not forgotten where our business so humbly began 5 years ago, DIY repair kits. It’s been a while since we have offered new DIY repair kits, complete with tools and instructions, for sale, but that, too, is about to change. We have already completed the photo shoot for the new instruction manuals and are in the process of carefully planning out the instructions themselves. So, I’ll leave you with that juicy morsel and the suggestion to look out for EIGHT brand-spanking-new DIY repair kits. Commence to jumping for joy.

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Vacation 2010

by David on August 4, 2010

Hello friends! Wow, its been awhile since ive written one of these things. Sorry about that. Well, this year has been going by super fast….maybe too fast? At the beginning of May I realized something…..I needed a vacation. We’ve been sooooo busy for months, I needed a little break. So I decided I wanted to go to California. I havent been there since I was 6 years old (23 now). I have tons of family out there that has been asking for me to go out there for years and years. I decided it was time. Now I could decribe to you all the cool things I saw and did….but I know what you want to know…..what did I eat?! :)

In-N-Out : So ive  had  friends and family hype this place up for years now, so i knew I had to stop and see what it was all about. My good friend and fellow technician, Jon, told me to make sure I got my burger ANIMAL STYLE. So I did. It kinda reminded me of culvers, or freddys here in San Antonio. It was a good burger and the animal style was interesting. :) Although I dont see myself craving it any time soon. They had great customer service though! Overall, this place gets a 7 out of 10.

Lotaburger: I found this place in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Sadly, it was dissapointing. It has the look of an old fashion burger, but unfortunately it had the taste of an old burger. The beef had no flavor and the rest of the burger was pretty much the same. Not very good customer service either. They get a 5 out of 10.

Stahmanns: This is a pecan farm/candy store that I found in New Mexico back in 2002 when I lived there for the summer. They have the best pecan….everything!!! The stuff is a tad expensive, but its worth it. Pecan Candies…..I cannot elaborate anymore. 10 for 10!!

Original Tommys – The BEST burger I had the entire trip. This spot is located in LA. They have a few other spots, but you know you’re at the original when there is no where to sit and they have counter tops all around the parking lot. Yep, no sitting here! You have to stand to eat your burger. The thing that made the burger great for me was the chilli they put on it. It goes soooo well with the flavor of the beef. Mmmm…..I still crave this 3 weeks later. 9 out of 10.

I stopped by a few more spots for burritos, shrimp and other things…..but I cant remember names and locations. I might post a pt. 2 to this post later, but we’ll see. I hope you get to have a vacation this summer too. Go out and eat something you’ve never eaten before…….I wont…..but you can!! :)

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Blockin’ Fire Exits

by Anthony Magnabosco on July 31, 2010

Quite a busy week, but productive. Devices seemed to be bottlenecking at Quality Control Testing a bit this week, so I jumped in to give David (who also doubles as our in-house Seinfeld Trivia Expert) a hand. Our new system has a kink in it that makes outbounding devices a little kludgy right now, so tag-teaming it until this gets fixed next week made sense.

Here is a shot from Thursdays shipment of evaluated and repaired iPods, iPhones, and iPads heading out to a few of our great customers:

boxes-shipping-out

boxes-shipping-out

Have a great weekend, from your pals at milliamp.com!

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

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