The on/off/lock button on Brendan’s HTC phone had stopped working, so seeing a Phone Repairs stall in Mumbai on our way to dinner, we foolishly thought it could be a good idea to get it fixed.

BIG MISTAKE!

We stood and watched as a guy got out his impressive tool kit and pulled the phone apart into 30 pieces, screws flying everywhere on the table. He did some soldering on a piece of metal, taking it off, putting a different one on, slowly piece the phone back together, and then repeat the same process about 7 times. Finally, at 10pm (almost 2 hours later – thank god they’d brought us a chair!), the guy told us to come back in the morning. A slightly worried Brendan and I left the phone with them while we attempted to find food.

The following afternoon at 12.30, we returned to their stall and they tried to ask us to come back at 2pm. We explained that our train to Udaipur was leaving at 2pm and if they couldn’t fix it, it’s fine but please can we have it back. The guy (a different guy to last night) made a phone call, opened the table drawer in which there were maybe 20 phones, and took out the HTC. Without saying anything, he got out a new set of screwdrivers and we watched as he repeated the process of taking it all apart down to the chip, 4 times despite us insisting that we had to leave for our train. it hadn’t been touched since we left it the previous night. Finally, an hour and a half later, I snapped. I lost it. I told him he clearly couldn’t fix it, and to put it back together NOW as we had to leave for the train right there and then.

He clumsily put the phone back together, and now the top and bottom pieces of the back of the phone do not fit on properly. We got a taxi to take us to our hotel, wait while we got our bags and made him put his foot down to the station (which wasn’t far to be honest)

We only just made it.

All in all, the big lesson we learnt here is, do NOT take your phone, or any electronic device for that matter, to a repair street stall. Even in Mumbai!