Sour Apple Repair, LLC replaced my iPhone ccreen with subpar parts College Station TX

“Our plan as Longhorns is to come to Aggieland and rip-off a locally owned and operated Aggie tradition by stealing their branding and confusing their customers,” is a false quote invented by the creator of the above graphic. It is sarcastically attributed to Sour Apple Repair's newest (Aggie-owned) competitor.

Howdy! Gig ’em! The Aggie Ring! Aggie traditions. Those who love maroon and white hold tradition dear. Faced with a new competitor, local phone repair shop Sour Apple Repair attempted to tap into Texas A&M’s well-known love for tradition by declaring itself a “locally owned and operated Aggie tradition.” The same messaging also cast the new College Station phone repair shop across from Texas A&M University, as “Longhorn” usurpers of that tradition. One post even called on locals to boycott the new shop.

I reached out to the new shop. Turns out the accusation that they root for the Longhorns, a serious one indeed in Aggieland, is totally false. One of the partners who wishes not to be named in this article responded to our inquiry regarding their Aggie bonafides. While he did not claim to be an “Aggie tradition,” he set the record straight that he and his business partner bleed maroon. They are Aggies (’96, ’97) and Aggie parents (’13, ’18).

Background: Sour Apple Repair calls new competitor “Longhorns,” but there are “Four Aggie Rings” in the 1up Repairs family

Soon after the 1up Repairs chain opened a College Station phone repair shop across from Texas A&M University, Zachary Morgan of Sour Apple Repair tagged KBTX reporter Rusty Surette in a public facebook post: “Want a good story? Call me!”

While Surette never reported on anything related to it, Morgan and one of Sour Apple‘s vendors were simultaneously posting elsewhere on social media about the “good story” they wished to propagate. It concerned the the shop’s newest competitor who were called “Longhorns” intent on “stealing [Sour Apple’s] branding and confusing their customers” in one post.

The vendor created a graphic and posted it to facebook, sarcastically articulating the new competitor’s plan: “Our plan as Longhorns is to come to Aggieland and rip-off a locally owned and operated Aggie tradition by stealing their branding and confusing their customers” the graphic read. A prominent, red #BOYCOTT1UP stamp was also included. Sour Apple Repair’s Morgan added a comment: They are changing all of their Facebook pages to look like ours…”

Tweets from Zachary Morgan @machzorgan the proprietor of Sour Apple Repair in Bryan – College Station, Texas:

“You’re gonna have to be that heartless a**hole.”

“Every person who crossed me is a bit*ch and cried before they did it”

“Keep going to church, it gives me more time to outwork you.”

Do these words inspire and motivate you? One local “entrepreneur,” who also purports to be a “motivational mentor,” seems to believe them to be solid business advice.

Zachary Morgan, owner of Sour Apple Repair in College Station, also promotes services as a “business and marketing consultant that,” according to his website, “can help you take your lifestyle to the next level.”

Left out of the “Z-MOtivation” page on the site are the ongoing tweets from the Sour Apple Repair founder that seem to reveal more mean-spirited motivations.

Perusing the Sour Apple Repair founder’s tweets shown below before deciding to become a mentee of Morgan’s might be a prudent exercise in due diligence.

According to a statement from local deal company 365 Deals for U "from 2013-2015, Sour Apple Repair sold Otter Box certificates to us that we resold on our daily deal websites. We later learned that some end-consumers redeeming them may have been given a counterfeit product."

"We became aware of the issue potentially impacting our 365 Deals for U customers after a further investigation initiated when we were asked by Sour Apple owner Zachary Morgan to scrub Sour Apple's Otter Box deals from the internet a year after the last one had run," the statement continued. "We were also informed by Morgan of a civil settlement relating to the counterfeit products between Sour Apple and Otter Box wherein he had to share accessory sales data and remit profits from the counterfeit Otter Box sales."

"Unfortunately, Sour Apple has made no effort to make things right with the people who might have received a phony phone case," 365 Deals for U informed customers. "Many otter boxes were real and they were an authorized reseller, as we were told. Sour Apple Repair mixed in much less expensive inventory with genuine product, as it was communicated to us by Mr. Morgan. Good counterfeits can look authentic right down to the packaging."

"Thus, it's hard for a customer to tell right away if they chose a fake or a genuine Otter Box when they redeemed their Sour Apple vouchers from 365 Deals for U good for $50 toward any Otter Box," the deal company's statement explained. "They have made several efforts to get 365 Deals for U to remove references to their Otter Box deals from the internet. They have however made absolutely no effort to make things right for the people who he handed a fake otter box instead of a real one."

365 Deals for U made its customers who purchased the Otter Box deal aware of the possibility that their Otter Box may not have been genuine and providing more details on how to tell if their Otter Box is genuine. 365 Deals for U offered any customer who feels their Otter Box was not genuine a full refund. However, 365 Deals for U's refund offer was a "courtesy" and, according to the deal company, "does not negate Sour Apple's legal responsibility to refund to the customer the amount paid for the voucher (or apply it in credit toward another purchase) any additional monies paid over the $50 maximum value of the voucher."

A 365 Deals for U spokesperson says, "365 Deals for U does want to emphasize that the full refund offer for any impacted 365 Deals for U customers is out of care for their customers, and not to signal any knowledge of or participation in Sour Apple Repair's activities. Our deal with Sour Apple Repair, in writing, was that the vouchers we purchased from them and resold via our deal sites be fulfilled with 'Otter Boxes.' This is a very unfortunate situation, and we are doing our best to do right by our customers. We often go above and beyond what we legally 'have to do' when it comes to refunds and credits for 365 Deals for U members who are dissatisfied or feel wronged for any reason by us or one of our merchant vendors."

In addition advertising credit in the Student Discount Handbook and 365 Deals for U, Sour Apple Repair was paid cash to honor 365 Deals for U Vouchers for products and services. Total cash and ad credit paid to the firm exceeded $12,000. Cash payments issued by the deal company’s escrow / payables accounts (InstaGift, Tippr, and Campus Deal Media) exceeded $4,000.

"BrazosVIP.com was recently informed by our customer service team that Sour Apple Repair is not accepting vouchers for iPhone Screen repair purchased from our site. We respect and value our customers' time and trust. Brazos VIP had compensated Sour Apple as agreed, in full, months in advance for iPhone Screen repair vouchers which were recently dishonored.

We never sell our customers vouchers which we do not fully expect to be honored as printed. However, if that ever happens for any reason, refunds are easy," says a spokesperson for Brazos VIP, a popular local website that serves as a platform for local businesses to sell and get paid in advance for discounted products or services.

"Our company paid in advance for the vouchers," the spokesperson for the daily deal site continued. "Brazos VIP sold the vouchers to our members in good faith that they would be honored. Refunds were issued immediately to customers complaining Sour Apple would not honor the vouchers they purchased."

Brazos VIP customers with Sour Apple vouchers have reported the following scenario: Sour Apple representatives tell the customer that Brazos VIP sold them the voucher erroneously that they had not agreed to honor. Then, they instruct the Brazos VIP customer to request a refund online from Brazos VIP customer service for the voucher. Sour Apple employees then accept payment directly from our Brazos VIP member at the same price the repair was offered for on their voucher.

"Having our customers be told their voucher was improperly issued hurts our business and hurts the customer. Fact is, we paid in good faith, in advance for Sour Apple to honor every voucher we have issued," states the Brazos VIP spokesperson. "Brazos VIP has paid Sour Apple Repair over $10,000 in both cash and credits and we have the paper-trail and checks cashed by Sour Apple to prove it."

Brazos VIP does not want customers to experience any inconvenience. "The company maintains a very liberal refund policy," the deal company's spokesperson says. "The customer service team that helps people login to their accounts or deal with other technical issues is empowered to issue customer refunds immediately in most cases. Sour Apple is aware of this because we sometimes a phone was un-repairable and several of the hundreds of customers we sent them who couldn't use their voucher for that reason were given a quick, no-hassle refund. Now, they are using that knowledge of our easy refunds, telling customers with valid vouchers whose phones they can and should fix with the voucher as payment to instead request a refund from Brazos VIP and pay them directly."

When the company learned of the issues Brazos VIP customers were having, they immediately ceased sales of Sour Apple iPhone Repair vouchers on BrazosVIP.com

The site encourages any members still holding an un-redeemed Sour Apple Repair, LLC vouchers to visit BrazosVIP.com and click the "Questions" link in the upper right-hand corner of the page to contact service and request a full refund. "Refunds will be processed quickly and courteously," a statement from the company concludes.

Image: Brazos VIP issued over 13,000 vouchers, only 11 of which were refunded for the reason: "Merchant is open and refuses to honor." 3 of those 11 refunds were issued to customers who purchased legally valid, prepaid Sour Apple Repair vouchers. In effect, Sour Apple Repair collected payment from Brazos VIP, but told the customer they had no dealings with Brazos VIP and that their voucher was not valid. They would then instruct the customer to seek a refund from Brazos VIP and charge the customer directly for the repair for which they had already been paid in advance by Brazos VIP. The net effect was a customer who felt deceived by Brazos VIP and Sour Apple Repair getting compensated twice for repairs the deal site sent them.

Headline, "Sour Apple Repair, LLC replaced my iPhone ccreen with subpar parts College Station TX" has a typo. It should read "Sour Apple Repair, LLC replaced my iPhone screen with subpar parts College Station TX"

Admin, please correct if possible. No need to publish this comment.