Death, taxes, and broken iPhones. These are grim realities of life we must face every day. If you’ve dropped or damaged your iPhone you understand the seriousness of dealing with a broken device that you depend on for pretty much everything.

Having to get an iPhone repair is enough of a hassle when it comes to your time and money, but there are 7 things you really don’t want to hear when your iPhone is broken:

Your iPhone is no longer covered

Hearing that your iPhone is no longer covered by AppleCare+ is a real drag. Even if your iPhone is covered by an AppleCare+ plan and you accidentally damaged it, you’ll have to shell out a fee to fix your phone.

But if your iPhone breaks, and you no longer have coverage, the price you’ll have to pay at the Apple Store skyrockets. For example, take the iPhone XS Max - one repair that would cost $99 with AppleCare+ costs a whopping $599 out of warranty.

There’s no Apple Store Around

If you want to get your iPhone fixed by Apple, you’ll need to ship it to the Apple Store if there isn’t a brick and mortar shop around. Apple charges you a fee for shipping and the process of sending your phone to the nearest store can add considerable time to your repair, say 7-9 days!

Your Repair is Going to Take a Few Weeks

Although Apple says on its website it can perform some same-day repairs, like for cracked screens, more complicated repairs can take a week...at best. You might find yourself waiting for weeks to get your iPhone back in working order if you take it to the Apple Store for repair.

You’re Going to Need a Full Backup

Ugh! As if breaking your iPhone wasn’t annoying enough, the Apple Store requires that you have a full device backup before they will start cracking on your repairs. Better bust out iTunes and get started.

You’re Going to Need to Make an Appointment

Yes, you’re going to need to make an appointment to get service at the Apple Store and you will probably wait in line too. You might have to take off of work just to get your iPhone repaired, and making the phone call to book an appointment might even be annoying too as you wait on hold.

Oh, We Don’t Touch Liquid Damage

If you have spilled water on your iPhone, you’re out of luck when it comes to your One-Year warranty. Liquid damage will not be repaired. And if you were thinking about sneaking in a water-damaged iPhone, think twice - iPhones built after 2006 have something called a “Liquid Contact Indicator” which will alert the Apple Store Geniuses who will refuse to touch your phone.

Your LCD Screen is Broken, Too

If you dropped your iPhone and thought you had just cracked the glass display, you might be disappointed to hear that your LCD screen is broken too. The reason why you wouldn’t want to hear this is because these types of repairs cost more. The LCD and glass display are fused together on an iPhone, so both will have to come off to repair your screen. But if the glass is damaged only, repair shops can repurpose the LCD, which will save you a few bucks on the screen repair.

Now that we’ve broken you down with seven things you definitely don’t want to hear about iPhone repair, we’re going to build you up with some good news - the Apple Store isn’t your only option.

Third-party, local repair shops are probably minutes away from your house. These shops will repair your iPhone for much, much less than you would have to pay at the Apple Store out of warranty.

You won’t have to make an appointment or wait in line at your local iPhone repair shop. Walk-ins are probably welcome, and you can use third-party repair websites to arrange device drop-offs on your terms.

While Apple can repair a screen during the same day - maybe - these local shops can often repair your iPhone screen while you wait within an hour. But regardless of the type of repair, turnaround time is far faster when you work with the little guy to get your phone fixed.

The Apple Store has a multitude of phones to fix, while your local repair shop will make you a priority. The techs at these stores are often knowledgeable, and reputable shops will use only the best quality parts in your repair.

What’s more, these shops will typically offer a warranty for their service - this is basically a contractual promise that the repair will be done well because if it isn’t, you can bring your iPhone right back in and get it fixed again for free.

We know having a broken iPhone is a real downer, but we also know you’ll probably deal with this problem at least once in your life too. If you don’t have AppleCare+, do the math, and you’ll probably realize that a third-party local iPhone repair shop is your best bet - and we’re willing to bet you’re happy to hear about that.