Now that the nearest Apple Store is 1.5 hours away, round trip, I decided to try Best Buy’s authorized service to do an in-warranty replacement of my iPhone X battery. The Best Buy is about 5 minutes away so it would save a ton of drive time.
It took the guy that waited on me 45 minutes from the time he started until he finished checking in my phone for the repair. This doesn’t include any time in line. Other staff seemed more competent.
The good news is they completed the repair in the estimated time window of 3 hours. The bad news is that I noticed after getting home the case and screen aren’t fitted together properly. The bottom left corner of the screen is elevated above the case. I imagine this means the water resistance is non-existent now.
I really don’t want to give up my phone for another half day but I don’t think I have any choice but to return and hope they can get it right on the second try. If so I will still probably have saved on drive time but at the cost of heightened annoyance. I don’t think I’d trust them with a phone again.
Update: I returned to the store today and of course the same guy that faced so much trouble checking me in was at the counter. But by luck and much more competent woman became available. She got me checked in immediately, walked the phone to the back, and returned to tell me they would have it fixed in about 15 minutes. True to their word they did and the phone is back to normal. I had been afarid I’d have to leave it again so I was quite relieved to be in and out in under 30 minutes.