Time and time again, I have seen the power and beauty of Twitter with regards to our iPhone, iPad, and iPod repair business that we conduct here at milliamp.com (you can follow us at @milliamp, btw). Rather than talk about how Twitter has become a powerful tool for us to engage with our customers in near-real time, I thought that I would just show you a recent exchange here:

And this gentleman was kind enough to leave us a nice review when it was all said and done, too!

Happy New Year, Milliamp-ers! Now that we’ve got Christmas underneath our belts, we’re so excited to keep knocking out repairs left and right  like nobody’s business. We have an excellent, streamlined process in place that really makes things easy for you, as the customer, to send in something for repairs. I love talking to new people on the phone, especially when they’ve just come across our website and see a toll-free number to call. Sure, they might have all of the information they need at their fingertips from our website, but they just want to TALK to someone about what’s funky with their iPod. We’re totally, 100% a-okay with that and encourage you all to do the same! Even if it’s a simple question, please call! In the off-chance we happen to miss your phone call, please leave a voicemail and we’ll get back to you promptly.

Okay, so I’m talking about streamlined process and people calling with questions, and I just have to divulge what the number one question is:

How does this process work?

Simple, right? Well, in the world of iPod, iPad and iPhone repairs, you’ve got a lot of options. Do you want to do it yourself or do you want a fleet of experts to do the fixin’ for you? Do you want to ship it off yourself, or do you want one of our lightning-fast emailed shipping labels to be sent to you? Lastly, do you want to save some cash and get free return shipping or spend extra and get it shipped overnight just in time for your nephew’s birthday? Either way, we’re standing by to help you with any help! We’re experts when it comes to shipping AND communication, so feel confident in knowing that we’ll be giving you the lowdown on what’s your best option if you have an important shipping deadline to meet.

Believe it or not, as much information as what we have on the website about how the process works, we still have a modest stack of orphaned devices that came in without any type of real identification or order confirmation number. Yes, it’s crazy, right?! We have people that send in their naked $300 iPod without any kind of contact information! Now, let me tell you that this isn’t being broadcasted to lure any shady people in so that they can claim, “oh, yes–that’s my iPod!” You’re going to have to provide a lot of identifying details so that we can be 1,000% we’ve got a match with its rightful owner. Mistakes happen, so we realize sometimes people forget to include their order numbers!

If you want to know the secret to getting a really smooth experience with us, submit your order online or with a Customer Service over the phone before you ship your device to us. We receive a ton of packages any given week, so if we didn’t have everyone do this, we’d be swimming in a sea of homeless iPhones and iPods!!! We absolutely need to who that cute little purple iPod nano belongs to (Dads, you SAY it’s your daughter’s…), what service you would like us to complete and where we  are going to ship it back. Communication is key, so if we get a package without any name on it, we have no way to contact you (and nobody wants that). Plus, we can’t work on it until you have an order with us!

Please, if there is anything that we can put on our site to make this a bit more clear, let us know! We absolutely love suggestions and observations to help streamline the process even more. For repairs, did you know that we email you every single step of the way while it’s here? That means that you’ll know when it has arrived, when it’s repaired (or evaluated), tested and ready to ship again.

Well, happy trails, all!

Contact us at service@milliamp.com or toll-free at 1-800-809-8133 with any questions!

The grim reality of owning a device equipped with a lithium-ion battery is that the battery will lose  its ability to hold a charge as it ages. This means that your Apple iPhone, iPad, or iPod’s battery life will eventually diminish to a point where use of the device will be inhibited by the length of time the battery will hold a charge. So, when that time comes, what can you do? buy a new device? No! you can have the battery replaced by one of our expert technicians and have peace of mind knowing that if your Milliamp.com battery loses its ability to hold a charge, you’re protected by our 10 Year Battery Guarantee! As the Operations Manager at Milliamp.com, I make it my mission to ensure that we offer the best services possible, and that starts with using only the highest quality parts and maintaining methods of repair that are the industry standard. One of our most popular services is our 2nd and 3rd generation iPod touch battery replacement. These generations of iPod touch are beginning to experience diminished battery life, so we see A LOT of these devices come through our shop every day.

Back in June, Apple delivered to us their newest, shiniest, and most powerful software to date for the iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad, and they called it iOS 4. iOS 4 has proven itself to be one of the more contentious software releases Apple has ever seen, iPods and iPhones were experiencing very strange problems immediately following the software update. Issues with iOS 4 ranged from diminished battery life to error messages that left devices “bricked,” we even happened upon and addressed an iPhone 3GS battery incompatibility issue within days of the software’s release. Since June, there have been several updates to the OS meant to repair certain bugs and improve the speed at which a device processes the software, but even now, with 4.2.1 (the most recent update), there are still issues with iPods and iPhones loaded with iOS 4; specifically, battery life with the 2nd and 3rd generation iPod touch. Since the launch of iOS 4, the Apple discussion forum has been abuzz with customer concerns of this nature, resulting in a battery life thread that exceeds 120 pages of iPod owners voicing their concern surrounding the diminished battery life their devices encountered with the iOS 4 update.

Since the iOS update, we have replaced hundreds upon hundreds of batteries in the 2nd and 3rd generation iPod touch and have in turn seen a marked increase to the percentage of these devices that return to our shop with claims that our batteries’ performance was very similar to customers’ original Apple battery. As these returns became more frequent, we leapt into action and began to search for a solution, we knew the reputation of our services would depend on our success. We contacted our suppliers and demanded that the batteries be better tested before being shipped, we revised the process by which we installed the batteries, we began testing the newly installed batteries for even longer, and we even began reading and writing a battery’s voltage on the battery so that we could refer to it in the event that the device was returned for diminished battery life! When all of these preventative measures made little difference in the percentage of returned iPods, we began to perform experiments on returned devices in hopes we would uncover the source of these battery issues without having to install another battery. We found that the vast majority of returned iPods would test out perfectly well. So, what could be the explanation for an increase in returned devices and  the discrepancy  between our testing results and our customers’ experience with their iPods? As it turns out, iOS 4 was the culprit all along.

As our research and experimentation came together and as iOS 4 became more popular and more people upgraded their software, more devices were being returned, and the overarching constant in nearly all cases was the installation of some version of iOS 4.This discovery begged the question, how could there be such a discrepancy between our battery test results and our customers’ experience with their iPods? The answer to that question gradually revealed itself to us when we examined the way in which we test newly installed iPod batteries. Typically, we fully charge a device’s battery with a wall charger and then begin a four hour “playdown” in which we play the device’s music with the screen locked; all other functions are turned off. The most common story we heard from our customers was that they would leave their fully charged iPod in sleep mode overnight, only to find that in the morning, the battery was either dead or nearly dead. The realization of why this specific experience was so prevalent and widespread was quite shocking; a device loaded with any version of iOS 4 left in sleep mode with wi-fi, bluetooth, location services, and/or push notifications turned on will never actually enter sleep mode! Only the device’s screen will be locked, giving the impression that the device has entered sleep mode, but actually, under the hood, the device’s battery is  quickly dwindling away because the device’s most notoriously power hungry features are still completely active.  While we were glad to find out that our methods and batteries are perfectly good and reliable, it was infuriating to learn that iOS 4, unlike its predecessor, was created to have “persistent wi-fi,”  meaning that if wi-fi functions aren’t manually turned off, the device won’t enter sleep mode. So, while Apple advertises outstanding battery performance, they never advertise the conditions under which they attain these remarkable results; clearly, they aren’t anywhere near realistic conditions of use! While Apple does offer suggestions on how to improve battery life, they’re buried deep in the Apple website and don’t address the real battery issue, their software. So, to sum up, whether you have or have not replaced the battery in your 2nd or 3rd generation iPod touch, if you have upgraded the software to any version of iOS 4 and your device’s battery life is less than ideal, you should consider turning off all of the device’s power hungry features when the device is not in use; you can do so by simply engaging “Airplane Mode,” this feature turns off all wi-fi related functions. If after trying this approach, you are still experiencing diminished battery life, you can be confident in a decision to send your iPod touch to us to have the battery replaced, because regardless of power hungry features, a 1-2 year old device will still have lost some of its ability to hold a charge, and a brand new Milliamp.com battery will be a vast improvement from the original.

Have you had a similar experience with an iOS 4 loaded iPod touch? Let us know about it! Tell your story in a comment!

library-science-degree-solutions

~
The latest news from Apple is that its App Store now boasts more than 300,000 applications, all of which are available in 90 countries across the globe; and of this number, 40,000 are native iPad apps. Now that’s a pretty large number to choose from. The difference between apps for the iPhone and iPad is that the latter tend to be more expensive. However, there are freebies here too, and you just need to know the ones to pick to add more razzmatazz to your already snazzy device.
Pick up some Knowledge

• Free Books: If you’re a bookworm and don’t want to pay for your reading habit, this is just the app for you; it gives you access to more than 23,000 free books, all of which are free to read.
• Dictionary.com: This eponymous app is similar to the dictionary.com site which allows you to look up the meaning of any word in the English language and also provides access to a full-fledged thesaurus.
• Wikipanion: If you’re in the habit of looking to Wikipedia for your answers, then this is one app you want on your iPad – it’s not the exact replica of Wikipedia’s pages, but it does pull data from the site based on your queries.
Keep in Touch
• TextPlus: If you live in the US or in Canada, then this free text messaging app allows you send texts for free to any mobile in either of the two countries.
• Truphone: An instant messaging application that also allows you to make free Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi calls and low-cost calls to mobiles and landline phones around the world.
• TweetDeck: Hooked to Twitter and want a larger screen than your iPhone to interact with your followers and send out your tweets? Download TweetDeck today and enjoy the experience of mobile Twitter.
Enjoy your Entertainment:
• Pandora: It’s free on the iPad too, so download Pandora to listen to music from anywhere in the world and find additional information on the artists and albums.
• Urbanspoon: It’s a pain to find good restaurants in your vicinity, especially if you’re new in town. Urbanspoon helps you with your search; it suggests options and provides information based on your queries.
Useful Utilities
• Dropbox: If you’ve used this free backup tool on your desktop, you know how convenient it is to sync all your documents and files so that they’re available and accessible from any device you use. Download Dropbox to your iPad to view and edit your documents and files on your tablet.
• Google Earth: With the exception of Street View, all other desktop applications of Google Earth are available on the iPad app, so find your way and look up locations to your heart’s content.
• eBay for iPad: Looking to buy something online or hoping to sell something you own? Download this app to your iPad and see how smooth the interface is.
• Epicurious: This app provides you with thousands of recipes and also includes a shopping list for each of them; so just whip out your iPad at the store and use these lists to fill your cart before heading home to try out these recipes.
• Craigsphone: Now place and browse through classifieds using your iPad with the Craigslist app for this device – it offers a convenient interface which allows you to post and search with equal ease.
~

Thanks, Lindsay, for the awesome overview!

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
Milliamp LTD

'Doh!

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then a few days later, this one:

milliamp.com_Reviews_02

And a few days after that one, this one:

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

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.