After thousands of repairs carried out at our workshop on Hilltown, we’ve got a pretty clear picture of what goes wrong with people’s phones — and why. Dundee’s a city that keeps us busy, and we mean that in the best possible way. Whether it’s a cracked screen from a Saturday night out, a battery that’s finally given up after three years of faithful service, or a charging port packed with pocket fluff, we see the full range every single week.
Here’s a rundown of the repairs we carry out most often, along with some honest advice on what causes them, when you can sort it yourself, and when it’s time to bring it in.
1. Cracked Screens — Still By Far the Most Common
Nothing surprises us less than a customer walking in with a cracked screen. It’s the single most common repair we do, by some distance. Drop your phone face-down on a hard surface — concrete, tile, even an unlucky patch of tarmac — and you’ll usually find out exactly how fragile that glass really is.
Why does glass shatter so dramatically? Glass is extremely strong under direct compression, but it handles bending stress poorly. When a phone drops and hits the ground, the glass flexes momentarily on impact. That flexion creates tension on one surface, and once that tension exceeds what the glass can handle, it cracks. The spider-web pattern you see is the crack propagating outward from the point of impact along the path of least resistance. Modern Gorilla Glass and Apple’s Ceramic Shield are genuinely tougher than older glass, but they still crack — it’s just a matter of the height of the drop and the angle of impact.
The cost of a screen replacement varies by model. Older iPhones and budget Androids are relatively affordable. Flagship Samsung Galaxy models with curved OLED displays are at the pricier end because the parts themselves are more expensive and the job is technically more involved.
One thing we always tell customers: don’t leave a cracked screen. A small crack in the corner can feel manageable, but it creates a weak point that makes the next minor knock far more likely to cause serious damage across the full display. There’s also the issue of moisture — a cracked screen is no longer water resistant, even if your phone had an IP rating before the break. Get it sorted sooner rather than later.
2. Battery Replacements — Often Mistaken for a Failing Phone
Batteries are our second most frequent repair, and it’s one we feel strongly about because so many customers come in thinking they need a new phone when they really just need a new battery. We’ve saved people hundreds of pounds by pointing this out.
Most phones are two to three years old before battery issues become genuinely disruptive. The capacity fades gradually — you barely notice it month to month — until one day you realise you’re charging twice a day and the phone feels sluggish. For iPhone users, checking Settings → Battery → Battery Health will show you where you’re at. Below 80% capacity is the threshold where most people start noticing real issues.
Battery replacements are one of the quickest repairs we do. For most models it’s done in well under an hour, and the difference afterwards is immediately noticeable. If your phone is otherwise working fine — good screen, good camera, no other faults — a battery swap is almost always the right move before considering an upgrade.
3. Charging Port Problems
The charging port on a modern phone takes a beating. It’s plugged and unplugged multiple times a day, often at slightly awkward angles, and it sits at the bottom of a pocket filled with everything from crumbs to sand to the inevitable fluff that accumulates over months of use.
The most common charging port issue we see isn’t damage — it’s debris. The port gets so packed with compressed pocket lint that the cable can’t make proper contact. Before you bring it in, try this: shine a torch into the port and look inside. If you can see a layer of grey or dark fluff compressed at the bottom, very carefully remove it using a wooden toothpick or a non-metallic tool. Never use metal — you’ll damage the contacts. Go gently, and you might be surprised how much can come out.
If the cable wobbles around, sits loose, or falls out with the slightest bump, that’s a different issue — the port itself is damaged, usually from repeatedly yanking the cable out at an angle rather than pulling it straight. That’s when it’s time to come and see us. A charging port replacement is a straightforward repair in most cases, though it varies by model.
4. Water Damage
Dundee’s weather doesn’t help on this front, and neither do kitchen sinks, bathroom counters, or pints of lager that go over at the wrong moment. Water damage is one of the trickier repairs because outcomes vary a lot depending on how quickly a phone is brought to us and what got wet in the first place.
The first myth to tackle: rice doesn’t work. We hear this constantly. The idea behind putting a wet phone in rice is that the rice absorbs the moisture, but the reality is that rice can’t pull water out from inside a sealed device quickly enough to prevent corrosion. The moisture that gets into the phone’s internals isn’t just sitting there waiting to be dried out — it starts interacting with the electrical components immediately, and corrosion on the logic board can develop over hours and days. A phone that seems fine today can fail completely next week once that corrosion takes hold.
If your phone gets wet, turn it off immediately, remove the SIM card, and bring it to us as soon as possible. The quicker we can clean the board properly, the better the chances of a full recovery. We use specialist equipment to clean water-damaged boards — it’s not something that can be replicated at home, and time genuinely matters.
5. Back Glass Damage
Back glass damage is particularly common on iPhones, where Apple switched to glass backs from the iPhone 8 onwards. Unlike the front screen, the back glass doesn’t have a display layer behind it acting as a shock absorber — it’s just glass over a metal chassis, and it shatters just as readily as the front, sometimes more so on certain models.
What customers often don’t expect is the cost of a back glass repair on newer iPhones. The reason it’s more involved and more expensive than it might look is that replacing the back glass on models like the iPhone 11, 12, 13, and 14 requires removing the entire internal assembly — the battery, motherboard, cameras, everything. You’re essentially disassembling the whole phone to access the glass from the inside. It’s a big job even for an experienced technician.
If you’ve cracked the back of your iPhone, bring it in and we’ll assess it honestly. Sometimes a thick protective case can be fitted to protect the broken glass and keep it functional while you decide what to do — other times, depending on the extent of the damage, it needs sorting sooner.
Walk-Ins Are Always Welcome
All of the above repairs are things we deal with every day at GenioTech. You don’t need an appointment — just come in. We’re at 29 Hilltown, Dundee DD3 7AA, open Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm. Diagnosis is always free, and we’ll give you a clear, honest quote before touching anything.
If you’re not sure whether your phone is worth repairing or has multiple issues you’d like us to assess, bring it in and we’ll take a proper look. We’ve been doing this long enough that we can usually tell you within a few minutes what’s going on and what it’ll take to fix it. You can also check our full list of services to see what we cover.
Whatever’s wrong with your phone, chances are we’ve seen it before — probably this week.