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My wife bought me an iPad Mini at Christmas from AF Smith Bermuda and knowing how rough I am on technology, bought me a hard-sided case to help protect the $419 investment.

Good luck with that. In early March, while the iPad Mini was charging, one of our cats bumped into it and it clanged to the floor damaging the lightening connector for the charger.

No one on the island could fix it and it would have been a crap shoot trying to get Apple to fix it as well as, it would have to undo the back of the Mini to even attempt to fix my problem.

iRepair on Court Street was the only place in Bermuda to offer to attempt to fix it — but with no guarantee. Instead, they bought the damaged one off of me for spare parts and I trudged down to AF Smith for Mini #2.

That one managed to last a full month before it was damaged and wouldn’t turn on again. I tried ricing it (putting the whole iPad Mini into a bag of rice to suck the moisture out of what was spilled on it), but to no avail.

Mini #3
So it was back to AF Smith for Mini #3, this time with cellular. John, who had sold me Mini #1, was there to take me through setting up the sim card and send me on my merry way with an iPad I can use on the go.

He did a great job in making sure I was informed and knew what I was doing as I upgraded to more capable iPad. He answered my never-ending stream of questions patiently and professionally.

As good as John was, the price of the regular iPad Mini was comparable to the US price. I went into an Apple Store and the same Mini was $319 — once duty was added onto it, the price difference was barely distinguishable from AF Smith’s. In both price and service, AF Smith gets a five-star rating.

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