I've always been careless with my phones. I've broken phones with the sheer force of my butt by sitting on them, and I've lost them by having them fall out of my pants pockets (I realize now that I should just stop putting phones in my back pocket). I don't know what it says about me that the one essential item in my life that I can't live without is also the thing I treat the worst. Why do we hurt the ones we love the most?

It started off with a small crack. The first time I dropped my iPhone 6S Plus onto the concrete, the damage was only slight. "It's unsightly, but I can live with this," I thought, like a gosh dang fool. I then proceeded to drop my phone two more times over the next few days, and it was a goner. I'm not trying to displace blame here and I'm fully responsible for my own actions, but man, something about how large and weighty the 6S Plus is just makes it so easy to drop. Happy birthday to the ground!

I knew I had to take action when I realized I couldn't play the most perfect game ever made, Two Dots.

I was also self-conscious taking my phone out in public, under the scrutinizing eyes of the lord and whoever happened to be standing next to me on the subway. What kind of story does a cracked iPhone screen tell? Either that you are leading a life well-lived full of adventure or that you're a psychopath with sweaty hands. Or maybe both!

So here's where I went wrong: I had a flimsy phone case that was more aesthetic than functional (rookie mistake #1), a history of being terrible to my phone plus weak hand strength (rookie mistake #2) and I didn't have a warranty (rookie mistake #3). Luckily for me, Jordan and Taha from iCracked came to my rescue.

iCracked is kind of like Uber for broken screen repairs, in that technicians will come to your home, office, or anywhere you happen to be to fix your phone. They can fix your iPhones, iPads, and Samsung Galaxy phones in about 25–30 minutes, and are basically the modern-day heroes of our generation.

Jordan and Taha came to The Verge office in their iCracked smartcars (reminiscent of the GeekSquad cars of yesteryear) to show us the process of replacing an iPhone screen, and we streamed it all on Facebook Live. If you've ever been curious about what the inside of an iPhone looks like and how a repair technician works their wizarding magic, watch the video below!

After all was said and done, The Verge paid $199 for the entire repair experience. This is a good deal higher than having an iPhone 6S Plus repaired by Apple ($149 without AppleCare, $99 with). Still, I'd rather pay a little bit more for the time-saving convenience of having a technician come to me, versus having to go to the Genius bar, waiting in line and eventually having a meltdown like this lady.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you do choose to have your phone repaired by a third party, it voids your warranty with Apple, which means you can't trade it in or have them repair it anymore. This is fine for me, because I will probably burn my phone to a crisp at some point given my past transgressions. But until that happens, I'm going to try my best to be more careful and loving to my newly-fixed phone.