5 Mistakes People Make After Dropping Their Phone (That Make Repairs More Expensive)
We’ve all been there. One second your phone is in your hand, the next it’s face-down on concrete. Your heart sinks. You pick it up slowly, flip it over, and… yeah, it’s cracked. What you do in the next few hours matters more than most people think. When it comes to smartphone repair in Grande Prairie, we see the same avoidable mistakes over and over and honestly, these mistakes end up doubling or even tripling the repair bill. Sometimes they turn a fixable phone into a total write-off.
So before you do anything else, read this. It could save you a solid chunk of money.
5 Costly Mistakes to Avoid After Dropping Your Phone Smartphone Repair Grande Prairie Guide
Mistake 1: Turning It Back On Immediately
This is the big one. Your phone just took a hard hit. Maybe it landed on the corner, maybe the screen is showing a black void where your wallpaper used to be. And the first instinct for almost everyone? Press the power button to “check if it still works.” Don’t do it.
When a phone drops, especially on a hard surface, internal components can shift or crack slightly. The display ribbon cable might be partially torn. The battery could have taken a small puncture. Turning the phone back on while any of these issues exist can cause a short circuit, and a short circuit can fry the motherboard.
A cracked screen alone might cost you $100–$200 to fix. A fried motherboard on something like a Samsung Galaxy S23? You’re looking at $300–$400+, or the phone is done entirely.
If there are any signs of bending, impact marks near the battery area, or the screen isn’t responding keep it off and bring it in.
Mistake 2: Trying to Dry a Water-Damaged Phone With Rice
Your phone fell in a puddle, a sink, or the toilet (no judgment it happens to everyone). Someone at work tells you to stick it in a bag of rice overnight. It’s one of those pieces of advice that’s been passed around for years and it genuinely does not work well.
Rice does absorb moisture, yes. But here’s what it doesn’t do: it doesn’t pull moisture out of tight internal spaces fast enough. And while your phone is sitting in that bag, corrosion is actively happening inside. Mineral deposits from tap water or any liquid start bonding to components within the first few hours.
A study by iFixit and various repair communities has shown that uncooked rice has roughly the same drying capability as leaving your phone in open air. Neither is good enough.
What actually helps: silica gel packets (the kind you find in shoe boxes) work significantly better. Even better: turn the phone off immediately, don’t charge it, don’t press buttons, and get it to a repair shop within 24 hours. Professional technicians use ultrasonic cleaners and proper drying equipment that rice simply can’t replicate.
The longer water damage sits untreated, the worse it gets. A same-day water damage repair might cost $60–$100. Leave it for two days? Some components may be unsalvageable.
Mistake 3: Slapping a Screen Protector on a Cracked Screen and Ignoring It
A lot of people crack their screen, notice it’s “still working fine,” and decide to just cover it with a screen protector and carry on. Out of sight, out of mind.
Here’s the problem with that. A cracked screen is a structural failure. Small hairline cracks spread. Dust and moisture start entering through those cracks. The LCD or OLED layer underneath which is separate from the glass starts to get damaged over time. What starts as a $120 glass repair quietly becomes a $250 full display replacement because the underlying display has now deteriorated.
There’s also a safety angle here. Cracked glass on phones like iPhones and Samsung flagships can have sharp micro-edges that aren’t visible but can cause small cuts. More importantly, a cracked screen is now less protected against the next drop.
Get the screen fixed properly. Even phone shops that fix phones at the mid-range price point can handle a glass-only repair much more affordably than a full display unit swap.
Mistake 4: Going to the Cheapest Option Without Checking Parts Quality
After a drop, most people just Google “mobile phone fix repair near me” and go with whoever is cheapest. And look, price matters, nobody wants to overpay. But there’s a difference between affordable and cheap, and with phone repairs that difference shows up fast.
Some repair shops use aftermarket or “A-grade copy” parts especially for screens. These parts are cheaper to source but they often have noticeably worse colour accuracy, brightness, and touch sensitivity. On iPhones, third-party screens can also trigger Face ID issues or cause the True Tone feature to stop working.
A real-world example: Apple introduced software-level part pairing on the iPhone 13 series, which means non-genuine display replacements can cause warning messages and reduced Face ID functionality. Samsung has similar issues with non-certified AMOLED replacements affecting the in-display fingerprint scanner.
Ask the shop directly: are you using OEM parts or genuine-equivalent parts? What warranty do you offer on the repair? Any reputable repair shop will answer that question clearly. If they dodge it, that tells you something.
Mistake 5: Waiting Too Long Because You're Weighing Up Refurbished Phones
This one is understandable. You drop your phone, look up the repair cost, and then start wondering should I just buy a refurbished phone instead? You start browsing for refurbished phones near me, comparing prices, reading reviews. Days go by. Meanwhile, your cracked phone is accumulating more damage with every use.
Here’s the thing: a cracked screen lets dust into the display assembly. A compromised housing lets moisture in when it rains. Small software issues that follow a hard drop (corrupted storage sectors, for example) get worse with continued use, not better.
And in most cases, a repair is significantly cheaper than even a refurbished replacement, especially for phones that are 1–3 years old. A mid-range phone repair for repairs mobile phones typically runs $80–$200 depending on the model and damage. A comparable refurbished phone of the same model often costs $300–$500.
Make the decision quickly. If you’re going to repair, don’t delay it. If you genuinely want to replace, stop using the damaged phone immediately so you can at least trade it in or sell it for parts while it still has value.
Frequently Asked Questions
My phone looks fine after dropping, do I still need to get it checked?
Honestly, yes and this is where a lot of people get caught off guard. Phones can take internal damage that isn’t visible at all from the outside. The battery connection might be slightly loose, or a tiny crack in the display layer is spreading under the glass without you seeing it yet. Give it a day of normal use and something that “looked fine” can turn into a black screen out of nowhere. A quick check at a repair shop takes maybe 10 minutes and costs nothing. Worth doing just for the peace of mind.
My phone screen cracked but it's still working perfectly. Why bother fixing it?
Because “working perfectly” usually doesn’t last. Once the glass is cracked, the seal around your display is compromised. Tiny dust particles get in. If it rains or you’re near any moisture, that gets in too. A few weeks of this and the display underneath starts showing pressure spots or colour bleeding. What was a $120 glass repair quietly becomes a $280 full display replacement. The screen working fine right now doesn’t mean it’ll still be fine next month.
I dropped my phone in water. Is it completely dead?
Not necessarily, and don’t assume the worst yet. The main thing is don’t plug it in and don’t keep pressing the power button. Power is what causes corrosion to really take hold. Get it to someone who does mobile phone fix repair with proper cleaning equipment ultrasonic cleaners can pull out mineral deposits from water that no home method can touch. Phones brought in the same day genuinely have a good recovery rate. It’s the ones left sitting for two or three days that are harder to save.
How do I know if a repair shop is actually using good parts?
Just ask them directly what brand of screen are you putting in, and does it come with a warranty? Any shop worth going to will answer that without hesitating. If they get vague or say “premium quality” without any specifics, that’s your answer. For iPhones especially, ask if the repair will affect Face ID, because low-quality third-party screens on iPhone 13 and newer models can trigger system warnings and mess with biometrics. A good shop will tell you this upfront without you having to dig for it.
Should I just buy a refurbished phone instead of paying for repairs?
Run the numbers first before deciding. Search refurbished phones near me and compare what the same model is actually selling for not the listed price, the actual selling price. Then get a repair quote. For phones that are 1–3 years old, the repair is almost always cheaper, and you keep your existing data, apps, and settings without any migration headache. Where it makes sense to switch is if the repair cost is high and the phone is already 4–5 years old with other issues. But a lot of people jump to replacing before they’ve actually compared the costs side by side.
The repair shop near me quoted way less than another. Should I just go with the cheaper one?
Not automatically. A big price gap usually means one of two things they’re using lower quality parts, or they’re cutting corners somewhere in the repair process. For something like a screen replacement, a $60 difference in price can mean the difference between an OEM-quality display and a dim, washed-out aftermarket one that starts peeling at the edges in three months. Get two quotes, ask both shops what parts they’re using, and go with whoever gives you a straight answer and backs the repair with an actual warranty. That’s the one worth paying a bit more for.
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