Dropped my HTC Desire and smashed the screen

It's covered under home insurance but excess is £100 I haven't got.

Can the screen be replaced?

have you broken the touch screen or lcd screen?

it still works, but the surface glass is smashed. I could still use it but there's little slivers of glass coming out of the cracks. I don't think there's any damage to the "intelligent" part of the screen.

New screen is about £100.

It's why dedicated tech insurance is always best.

New screen is about £100.

It's why dedicated tech insurance is always best.

Which would cost you how much over the life of the contract?

My house insurance excess is 50 so would have to cost £2 a month with no excess to make it worth my while.

Best bet is buy a desire off ebay for 100ish and sell the smashed one.

Contact HTC and ask them how much. They did one of the chaps at work HTC Wildfire screen for £70 including a 3 day turnaround.

Sounds like a good reason for buying an iPhone... just replaced Dad's iPhone 3gs screen-outer (not the LCD) complete with the Digitizer, Speaker, button and internal frame for £12 inc post from eBay. - Took less than 10 mins to fit. (adding the complete unit with an LCD screen adds only around £20 to the price!)

Al.

Currently looking at buying a non-smashed but non-working one and doing a DIY screen swap.

Sounds like a good reason for buying an iPhone... just replaced Dad's iPhone 3gs screen-outer (not the LCD) complete with the Digitizer, Speaker, button and internal frame for £12 inc post from eBay. - Took less than 10 mins to fit. (adding the complete unit with an LCD screen adds only around £20 to the price!)

Al.

At that price I would suspect the parts were from stripped down, stolen phones

Dropped my HTC Desire and smashed the screen

It's covered under home insurance but excess is £100 I haven't got.

Can the screen be replaced?

Yes, the screen can be replaced. If you need a hand - Please do give me a shout if you are local and I will be happy to do this for you.

Happy to root it for you also.

Hi Rob,

You're in Swindon aren't you? Used to live there nearly 20 years ago.

I've seen a guide, so I reckon I'd be able to swap them over. It's just getting my hands on a non- broken screen that's proving difficult at the moment. Was watching a busted Desire on eBay this afternoon. I was hoping it'd go cheaply but went for £37 in the end.

Looks like I'm screwed till mid-Jan.

cheers

Martin

Hey at least the 3g problems you've been having won't bother you lol

Hey at least the 3g problems you've been having won't bother you lol

You can go off people you know :p

You can go off people you know :p

And here i was trying to make you fel better by thinking about the positives

At that price I would suspect the parts were from stripped down, stolen phones

Nope, Brand new. Unused. Retail packaging. etc etc.

Al.

I replaced the screen for a mate. The part cost £30ish and I followed these instructions

http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/53084/How+to+replace+the+HTC+Desire+HD+glass

Which would cost you how much over the life of the contract?

My house insurance excess is 50 so would have to cost £2 a month with no excess to make it worth my while.

Best bet is buy a desire off ebay for 100ish and sell the smashed one.

And how much would it add to your home insurance at renewal?

Due to the numbers of claims for iphones, some insurers only cover them for theft and require them to be declared separately. All my tech is itemised with the insurer for this. They will cover my phone for damage, but only one claim in any 18 month period.

And how much would it add to your home insurance at renewal?

Due to the numbers of claims for iphones, some insurers only cover them for theft and require them to be declared separately. All my tech is itemised with the insurer for this. They will cover my phone for damage, but only one claim in any 18 month period.

Well looking around it is an average of £60 a year to include, damage, theft and loss so £120 for the length of the contract which also attracts £50-75 excess per claim.

Having already have this cover on my home policy a claim would cost me £50 instead of theoretically £195. This gives me 'change' of £145 to cover rise in policy. I don't think my renewal would increase this much considering i made a £1k claim a couple of years ago and my policy has actually gone down every years since..

If there was no excess payable on the specific policies i might be tempted to say that it is worth it if you have an expensive to replace phone but for most people i simply don't think it is worth it. At the end of the day, if you really needed to you can get a PAYG phone for less than £10 nowadays to tide you over

Well looking around it is an average of £60 a year to include, damage, theft and loss so £120 for the length of the contract which also attracts £50-75 excess per claim.

Having already have this cover on my home policy a claim would cost me £50 instead of theoretically £195. This gives me 'change' of £145 to cover rise in policy. I don't think my renewal would increase this much considering i made a £1k claim a couple of years ago and my policy has actually gone down every years since..

If there was no excess payable on the specific policies i might be tempted to say that it is worth it if you have an expensive to replace phone but for most people i simply don't think it is worth it. At the end of the day, if you really needed to you can get a PAYG phone for less than £10 nowadays to tide you over

£50 excess?

Mine cost £6/month for the desire with £0 excess for 1st claim - £25 if it was a piephone. Stopped it now out of contract. That's for next day swap out/replacement. Some banks offer this with their credit and debit cards for free.

For faults your home insurance wont cover, so you'd have to send back to the manufacturer who may take weeks to fix. Smash it or drop in water you'll be covered, but jack up your home insurance renewal for years to come.

It will also likely impact your car insurance as well, as they simply look at claims per postcode rather than what they were actually for.

For me it's not worth it.

£50 excess?

Mine cost £6/month for the desire with £0 excess for 1st claim - £25 if it was a piephone. Stopped it now out of contract. That's for next day swap out/replacement. Some banks offer this with their credit and debit cards for free.

For faults your home insurance wont cover, so you'd have to send back to the manufacturer who may take weeks to fix. Smash it or drop in water you'll be covered, but jack up your home insurance renewal for years to come.

It will also likely impact your car insurance as well, as they simply look at claims per postcode rather than what they were actually for.

For me it's not worth it.

Just had a quick look on compare site and they all have at least £50 excess.

Can't see how it would affect your car insurance anymore than it would going to a specialist insurance, they are all likely underwritten by a large company which deals in all types of insurance anyway.

As i said i made a £1k claim and my insurance didn't rise. House insurance is much more forgiving than car insurance.

Even at £6 a month for the Desire, i would bank it (£144 over a 24month contract) and then if i did break my phone i could get one for about £100-120 off the bay or classifieds. Same with my Galaxy S - these can be picked up for less than £150 now, even new....

Not saying either way is better than the other, just stating a different view....sometimes insurance simply isn't worth it...

Never go above 18 months, and next phone will be sim free so no contract at all

Trouble is, if you have the latest phone the insurance will be less. A desire S is £260 and an SG2 is £380 new. Cant see bay prices being that much cheaper.

NOW the desire can be replaced cheaply, but 18 months ago I couldnt afford it's £450 pricetag (launch price).

Never go above 18 months, and next phone will be sim free so no contract at all

Trouble is, if you have the latest phone the insurance will be less. A desire S is £260 and an SG2 is £380 new. Cant see bay prices being that much cheaper.

NOW the desire can be replaced cheaply, but 18 months ago I couldnt afford it's £450 pricetag (launch price).

Yeah, i am stuck on a 24 monther......Its the risk you take in the first 6 months really on how quickly the prices come down, especially if a new handset comes out (you could just have insurance for the first 6 months i suppose or until the replacement model is out). Like if i was to take out a SG2 on a contract now the SG3 is likely to come out within the next 6 months meaning the SG2 prices will plummet.

I am also careful and have never lost or damaged a phone (try as i might with my works blackberry it still works after throwing it across a room ), i have been on contract now for 11 years so have saved around £700 in insurance costs

Aye, my Nokia seems to be indestructible. Several buckets of liquid and dropping almost hourly and the thing still ticks.

Cant see many smart phones surviving that.

Aye, my Nokia seems to be indestructible. Several buckets of liquid and dropping almost hourly and the thing still ticks.

Cant see many smart phones surviving that.

The business nokias of old i am sure are indestructible! Nokia 6310 for example...I know someone who still has one and its still going strong!

The screen on my BB is peeling away now (dropped one too many times in my job i reckon!) so i think i will log a claim in the new year.

My SGS still looks like new though, as that is owned by me so gets looked after

Something to consider if you are replacing the whole screen is that some of the earlier Desires have an AMOLED screen and the later ones have a S-LCD... Don't think they are interchangeable.

Phil