Diagnosed, not guessed
Every device is tested before we quote, so you are not paying for a part that was never the problem.
Parts
What part is actually going in
Genuine, OEM, aftermarket, copy. Four words the trade uses loosely, what each one really means, and why we quote a grade rather than a brand.
Mon to Sat 10 to 6
360-day warranty
Most phone repairs in 15 to 45 minutes
No fix, no fee
Data-safe repairs
You are choosing a grade, not a supplier
Every shop in Dublin buys from broadly the same distributors. There is no secret supplier and there is no shop with access to parts nobody else can get. What actually differs between two quotes for the same repair on the same phone is the grade of part in them, and whether anybody told you which one you were getting.
That is the whole thing. A cheap quote is not a shop being generous, it is a lower grade. A dear quote is not a shop being greedy, it is usually a higher one. Neither is dishonest. What is dishonest is not saying which.
The four words, and what they mean
We fit the top two. We will tell you which of them your repair uses, in those words, before you agree to it.
| Grade | What it is | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Genuine service part | Made by the manufacturer, sold through their service channel | Available for some components on some models and not others. It is the only part that can honestly be called original. |
| OEM | Made in the same factory that supplies the manufacturer | The most abused word in the trade. Used honestly it means a pull from the same production line. Used loosely it means nothing at all, and it is used loosely far more often. |
| Premium aftermarket | Made by a third party to a high specification | For screens this is where the good soft OLED panels sit. On many models it is the best part actually obtainable, because the manufacturer does not sell the component separately. |
| Copy or standard | Made by a third party to a price | Works on day one. It is where the colour shift, the dim backlight and the touch that lags six months later come from. |
Why the word OEM should make you ask a second question
OEM stands for original equipment manufacturer, and used precisely it means a part from the same factory that makes the ones the phone shipped with. That part exists and it is good.
The problem is that nothing stops anybody printing OEM on a box. There is no certification behind the word, no register you can check it against, and in phone parts it has drifted until it means little more than not obviously terrible. If a quote says OEM, the useful follow-up is: is it a genuine service part, or is it aftermarket? There are only two answers and neither of them is OEM.
Where the manufacturer does not sell the part at all
For a lot of components on a lot of models, there is no genuine option to choose. Apple, Samsung and Google do not sell every part of every phone through a service channel, and for older models they stop selling anything at all.
When that is the situation, premium aftermarket is not a compromise, it is the entire available market, and a shop claiming to fit genuine parts on a nine year old phone is telling you something that cannot be true. We would rather say the honest version: this is aftermarket, it is the good tier of aftermarket, and here is the warranty.
What a grade costs you later
A cheap screen is not worse the day it goes in. It is worse in month four, and that is exactly why the market for them exists.
The failures are predictable: colour that drifts warm or green against the original, brightness that never reaches the same peak, touch that lags by a fraction you feel but cannot quite name, and adhesive that lets go at one corner. A cheap battery fails differently, holding its charge well for a few months and then falling off a cliff, because the cell was rated optimistically to begin with.
None of this shows up in a same-day comparison of two quotes, which is the reason a shop can sell it.
What to ask any shop, including this one
- Which grade is this, in one word: genuine service part, or aftermarket? Anything longer than that is an answer avoiding the question.
- Is this an OLED panel or an LCD one, and what did the phone ship with? Fitting an LCD to a phone that came with OLED is legal, cheap and a real downgrade.
- What is the warranty, and does it cover the part and the labour or only one of them? Ours is 360 days on both.
- If I pay more, what specifically do I get? A shop that cannot answer that in one sentence is quoting a price rather than offering a choice.
What we do
Genuine service parts where the manufacturer sells them for the component. Premium aftermarket where they do not. You are told which one before you agree to the repair, in plain words, at the counter.
We will not describe a part as genuine, original or certified unless that is what is going in. If the honest answer is aftermarket, that is the word you will hear. The 360-day warranty covers the part and the workmanship either way.
Asked all the time
Common questions.
No. A counterfeit is a part pretending to be something it is not, usually with a manufacturer logo on it. Premium aftermarket is a part sold openly as what it is, made to a specification, and on many models it is the best part obtainable because the manufacturer does not sell that component separately.
Almost always the grade of the part, occasionally the warranty behind it. Both shops usually buy from the same distributors. If a quote is much lower and nobody has said which grade it is, that is the question to ask.
On several models, yes, and it does it for genuine parts fitted outside the manufacturer's own service channel too. It is a parts-pairing notice rather than a fault, everything works, and we tell you in advance if your model does it.
It does not affect your statutory rights, and our own 360-day warranty covers the part and the work regardless of grade. A manufacturer can decline to cover damage caused by a bad repair, which is a different thing from voiding a warranty outright.
You can ask, and on some repairs there is a genuine choice to make. What we will not do is fit something we would not put in our own phone and call it a repair. Where the only honest answer is that the cheap option is not worth your money, we will say so.
iMEND is an independent repair service. Brand and model names are used only to describe the devices we repair. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or an authorised service provider for any manufacturer.
Why bring it here
An independent workshop, not a kiosk.
We are a dedicated repair bench in Dublin 3. That means we take on work authorised channels turn away, and we tell you honestly when something is not worth fixing.
Parts that last
Genuine or OEM-grade components chosen for your model. We tell you which is going in before we start.
Your data stays yours
Hardware-only repairs. We never read, copy or move anything on your device.
No fix, no fee
If we cannot repair it, there is nothing to pay. No diagnostic fee, no handling charge.
Trusted in Dublin
4,017+ five-star reviews.
Over a decade in Drumcondra. 10,000+ repairs.
Something actually broken? Tell us.
Walk in to Drumcondra without an appointment, or search your device and repair online.
Book a repair 24/7 · No fix, no fee · 360-day warranty · Free diagnostic