Taking your Apple device to an authorized repair center hasn"t always been the easiest, because Apple"s service network isn"t available everywhere. Today though, the Cupertino company is making things a little easier thanks to a new partnership with Best Buy. Now, every Best Buy location in the United States - which adds up to almost 1,000 - is part of the service network and can perform authorized repairs backed by Apple itself.
With this expansion, Apple"s servicing network now includes 1,800 third-party authorized service centers, meaning that the Best Buy partnership could have nearly doubled the number of repair centers available to customers. In some cities, such as Yuma, Arizona; Sioux City, Iowa; Twin Falls, Idaho; Casper, Wyoming; and Bismarck, North Dakota, this expansion makes it significantly easier for customers to get support for their products. For eight out of 10 Apple customers in the U.S., repair centers are now just 20 minutes away.
In order to enable this partnership, Best Buy"s Geek Squad now has over 7,600 employees certified to make same-day repairs on iPhones, as well as service other Apple products. The company"s president of Service, Trish Walker, said:
“We love being there for our customers no matter what their Apple need is, from helping them choose the right device, to offering AppleCare protection and now helping fix their devices(...). We’ve always enjoyed a great partnership with Apple and we’re thrilled that, together, we can better serve our customers.”
In the past three years, Apple says it"s nearly tripled the number of service centers in the U.S., which should be pretty good news for its customers, especially because trying to perform repairs outside of Apple"s servicing network may no longer be possible with new devices.