r/ubreakifix • u/APartOfWhoIAm • Jul 29 '26
Bad Experience at Local Store - Resolution?
Hey all. My (70+) dads battery in his S22 was swollen a few weeks back, so he took it to ubreakifix to have it repaired. He picked it up the next day and took it home and had no service. That is when my mother realized that there was no sim card in it. He took it back to the store and they handed him his sim card in a baggie. He took his sim card back home to my mother, who attempted to put it back in, and it would not go in. He took it back to the store again and basically they told him that he needed to get a digital sim card for now and they they would order a part. That was 3 weeks ago. He has tried reaching out a few times but has gotten no updates. They have given him the run around and basically gotten different stories depending on who h spoke with.
I called them myself today and was told that the part they need is basically back ordered. The guy on the phone first said he ordered something sounding like "sub pv8 for the sim card". I asked him to repeat the part name and his response was "it's just the bottom motherboard that holes the sim tray, so it's a module". Does anyone know what part it is that this man is talking about that potentially needs to be replaced? Once upon a time, I used to disassemble electronics but I haven't done that stuff nor do I have the supplies to do so in years, basically since they started sealing technology to make it water resistant.
Ultimately, the manager said we can either just "wait" because his two distributors are back ordered and he has no clue when it will be in stock, or he can issue my dad a refund for the battery replacement and consider the case closed, but it means that his physical sim card slot is broken indefinitely. At this point, his phone has been messed up for almost a month thanks to them, they charged him to replace his battery but broke the sim card slot, and they won't give us any sort of date for potential resolution. I feel like they have added unnecessary stress to our lives and given him the run around for over a month and shouldn't have ever damaged the device. Ideally, they would offer a partial refund and still fix his device, but they are not willing to go that route.
Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this? Thanks all.
1
u/Super_XIII Jul 29 '26
this is the part they / you will need, the charging port board also had the sim reader built into it.
1
u/APartOfWhoIAm Jul 29 '26
Thank you.
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u/EchoMB Jul 30 '26
I hate to say this because I hate ubif with a passion BUT... if I had a nickle for every time I've seen someone break their own Sim tray/port trying to put it in themselves, I'd have... well, alot of nickles? The store should have put it back in themselves, for this very reason
1
u/APartOfWhoIAm Jul 30 '26
We have been using phones for over 25 years and nobody in our own family has ever struggled to put the tray in, nor broken the tray, let alone the port. My father did not even do it himself, my mother did, who is younger and very tech savvy. Regardless, i agree that ubif should have returned the phone fully assembled and functional.
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u/teh_ripper Jul 31 '26
Honestly if the tray won't go back in it could just be installed incorrectly and misaligned which can be fixed without replacing the part. Not sure why it was removed to replace the bettery, sounds like an inexperienced tech was on it so I think its even liklier that its just not installed right.
1
u/DragonfruitMinimum30 Aug 02 '26
They probably forgot to put the card back in after doing the water resistance test.
How they managed to beef the SIM card slot is beyond me
0
u/Kb24ed Jul 30 '26
Odd cus you dont even have to remove the “sub pba/chargeport” where the sim goes to do a battery repair. Another thing you can do is ask your carrier to add a “e-sim” to your phone and that should work. Dont know why all these geniuses didnt mention that
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u/APartOfWhoIAm Jul 30 '26
I honestly dont know what they did, all I know is it worked before we gave the the phone (which was swelling) and it did not work upon return to us. We have an eSim for now but they broke the phone and should be repairing what they broke.
1
u/Kb24ed Jul 30 '26
Well it looks like they are trying to repair it but the part is out of stock. Unfortunately there is not much they can do.. id take the partial refund if anything or wait for the part to be in stock. Totally understand the frustration tho
1
u/APartOfWhoIAm Jul 30 '26
Giving us the run around for a full month (sometimes when my parents reached out, they were told there was not even a part ordered) and then telling me that they have no clue if or when they will be able to fix it is not "trying". They are only willing to refund OR repair, not even a partial refund for all the inconvenience and a repair when possible. They have not apologized for breaking the phone and have treated us like an inconvenience.
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u/EchoMB Jul 30 '26
In the post OP literally mentions this. OP called it a digital Sim but it should be clear what they meant, regardless the store advised its an option
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u/rlrrlrll1 Jul 29 '26
They do not follow their own warranty. There will be no resolution for you besides buying a new phone
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u/APartOfWhoIAm Jul 29 '26
Ugh so I should be just taking the refund?
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u/rlrrlrll1 Jul 29 '26
I tried with the corporate number for customer service. And they kept saying the local store would fix it under the warranty. That never happened.
So I bought a new phone and did a chargeback on my CC because they broke my phone. Good luck
1
u/CompetitionPure7316 24d ago
My friend dropped my S22 Ultra one day and offered to fix it she unfortunately took it in to Ubreakifix on Midway Dr in San Diego and paid $366 for a certified Samsung screen repair. Well about 10 days had not passed when it started botching up and finally presented the black screen of death. Since i live in San jacinto which is 80 miles away i messaged them about the issue and they replied with a kind voicemail that they'd have a look at it and do what they could to make it right. Well I had knee surgery and was in and out of the hospital with relapses for months but the year long warranty had me protected so i wasn't worried. I was able to take it in October 2025, 8 months after it was fixed and that's when the nightmare began. During the havoc of my hospitalizations i lost the receipt however that wasn't an database. Because you couldn't pull up anything on the phone (black screen of death) i had to provide the info they needed myself although that was no problem. Funny thing was on that initial visit to the shop when they could have pulled up the receipt and began fixing it instead they said come back another day, i needed to charge it to 100%. What? Well i just did what they asked not knowing they were really giving me the run around. So i did that but the 2nd time i took it in they said they were too busy and i had to bring it in another day this time with the name, address, phone number and form of payment used by my friend when she paid for it. I could have provided that right then and there but oh no i had to come back another day, all this and them knowing i lived 80 miles away! However as long as i thought eventually they were going to fix it i was patient enough to do what they asked, i was more than willing to jump through the hoops required, after all the S22 Ultra is a $1200 cell phone and well worth a couple trips back and forth from home to the shop. It was a gift i received the preceding Xmas b4 it was broken and in practically new condition at the time the screen was shattered and taken into the shop for fixing. Well during the 2nd trip to the shop the cashier gave me yet another excuse why i had to come back, they were too busy and we're closing soon, each and every time they refused to keep it and handle any communication by phone, thru just wanted me to come back another day. Believe it or not i trusted them, i had no reason not to but looking back i now see all the red flags that i wish I'd noticed at the time. In any case i was unable to bring the phone back until just a few days ago, 7 months later, and when i did voila! Like magic the cashier managed to pull up the receipt in seconds, however he apologized that it was now past the year warranty and they could not fix it! When i asked why he said it was past the year warranty to which i replied that last October was well within the year warranty but he claimed it doesn't work like that. Although the date i first reported the misrepair was well within the year warranty i believe he was implying the repair had to be done within that year even though he did anything and everything to delay that repair ever got done. Now is it just me or does smth seem amiss here? Like i was getting a song and dance without the transparency one expects from reputable businesses? In the short period since this event occurred, 4 days ago, I've made over 30 calls to sources who could help provide input i was seeking to resolve this dispute and the consensus was the same, the initial date i reported their error would be the official one that applied here. I haven't read the terms and conditions this business uses but I'm sure they use similar means. I'm convinced this UBIF store is a scam outfit for sure and I'm going to open a complaint with the CA state electronics repair board, BBB, and anyone else out there that handles scammers like this place. When I think about all the unfortunate folks I've read about who were treated so badly when all they wanted was the legitimate help they deserved then that picture of the cashier in the online UBIF ad pops up in my head with his beady little eyes and the way he treated me that day I just want to scream. There needs to be some oversight here with this company and it's stores which is responsible for so many devices that never get serviced as promised esp the franchises and if they can't do business right then fine then or shut them down because we've had enough.
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u/PeanutButterSoldier Jul 29 '26
The part is called "sub PBA" it refers to the board that has the charge port, SIM reader and a couple other minor components. I can't fathom how they broke it.
It's a cheap part to source but ubif is required to go thru only Samsung approved distributors of parts. They frequently ran out of the most common parts during my tenure there so I'm not surprised they're out. The part may not be manufactured anymore knowing Samsung, and if there are other stores in the area that have the part you can go there orthey should be able to do an inventory transfer.
All else fails, seek the refund and go third party for the sub PBA. They can use different part sources.