Italian service is a relative concept. It seems to be there, and it seems to be not. Whoever has come across it knows that an order in a cafe can be brought with errors in the dishes, or they can simply forget about you. I wondered if this feature of the Italian mentality extends to the phone repair service.
To begin with, I tried to use the simplest way – googled. As a result, I was offered several services within a radius of 300 meters to 5 kilometers.
When trying to call and find out the timing and cost of repairs, it turned out that most of the services found specialize in the repair of equipment Apple, and this is a modular repair, without soldering. As it turned out later, they don't like to solder (or maybe they don't really know how).
As for the timing, according to the employee, a simple replacement of the display (iPhone 6S) would take a day, and for this pleasure I was offered to pay 95 euros.
He scratched his head and continued his search, deciding to pay a personal visit and find out on the spot.
In another, at random, a service that repairs not only Apple, at my request to replace, for example, a microphone, they turned my S7 Active in their hands for a long time, talked about something lively among themselves in Italian, after which they said that there are no spare parts for it and they will not be able to make it, but they can send it somewhere, and in two weeks it will be ready.
When I remarked that it was too long, the employee just shrugged his shoulders, turned around and went into the back room, showing with all his appearance that the conversation was over and he no longer intends to waste his time on me. In response, I also shrugged my shoulders and went to the exit.
We are looking further.
In addition to similar Italian services, there are many shops in Rome selling all sorts of things for phones.
Inside such stores, most often owned by Indians, you can find almost the entire range of AliExpress, only at prices three to five times higher. In addition to selling, these guys are also involved in repairs.
When asked if they could fix my phone, the guy behind the counter twirled the phone in his hands, grabbed his phone, called somewhere and spoke to someone for about a minute in a language I didn't understand. Then he said wait. Three minutes later, another representative of the Indian diaspora entered the store and asked to see the phone that needed to be repaired. After a short inspection, the cost of the repair was announced to me – 220 euros. Laughing in his face seemed indecent to me, instead I said that it was a very high price for a microphone.
He also found an answer to this objection – it turns out that in order to fix the phone, you will have to change the display module …
It was difficult to speak, given their indescribable accent. Despite this, after he found out that I was doing the repairs myself, communication became much easier.
It turned out that the main volume of repairs is the replacement of displays for careless tourists. Most willingly they repair iPhone (who would doubt it). If we are talking about, for example, Samsung S6 / 7/8, then the price tag for the display turns out to be inhumane. However, as the service assured me, the display will be 100% original.
They also asked me if I had broken phones for sale, which they would willingly buy for spare parts, as donors for subsequent repairs.
As a result, there was a feeling that the guys are much more willing to work and look for options than their colleagues of Italian origin. Which, in fact, is not surprising.
One more feature should be known – Indians prefer to settle in large groups in one place, and many are engaged in the fact that they keep grocery stores located in the alleyways, off the main streets. Their assortment repeats that in large supermarkets, but the price is often almost twice as high, but there are always customers, because, unlike large supermarkets, these shops are open around the clock.
You can recognize them by the characteristic 'open' LED sign. This is their kind of visiting card.
Why am I talking about all this? It's simple – if you need urgent repairs, you can go to any similar store and voice your problem. The cashier will immediately make a call to whoever needs it, and you will either be escorted to the nearest master, or he will come himself a few minutes later.
Conclusion
Thus, if you managed to break your phone in Italy and the repair is out of warranty, then it makes sense to go to the Indians and try your luck with them, because when you contact a truly Italian service center, there is a risk that the repair will either last longer than your stay in Italy, or even will not be completed, and if you are lucky and everything will be done on time, the price will unpleasantly surprise you.
And it's best to forget about your phone for a while and enjoy your vacation, so that later, when you return home, you can do everything on the spot with much less troubles and much cheaper.
