I have a first gen MBP but I bought it in July after the battery recall was in effect so I thought I would not be effected. Well it turns out I was and Apple did the right thing in replacing my battery after 21 months of use and no Apple care protection. Not only did they replace my battery for free they also gave me a new power supply at my local Apple Store as well.
So, if you have a first gen 15 inch MBP that was purchased after the battery recall and have had battery issues you might want to call Apple. My issues was, my battery would not hold a charge and the percentage indicator never read 100% charge. My serial number on my MBP fit the recall but my battery serial number did not match. I was confused and called Apple care. They checked a few numbers in "System Profiler." Turns out my battery had only charged 106 cycles, which I guess is a low number. So, a phone call and a trip to the Apple store netted me $200 bucks worth of free stuff.
https://support.apple.com/macbookpro15/batteryexchange/
So, if you have a first gen 15 inch MBP that was purchased after the battery recall and have had battery issues you might want to call Apple. My issues was, my battery would not hold a charge and the percentage indicator never read 100% charge. My serial number on my MBP fit the recall but my battery serial number did not match. I was confused and called Apple care. They checked a few numbers in "System Profiler." Turns out my battery had only charged 106 cycles, which I guess is a low number. So, a phone call and a trip to the Apple store netted me $200 bucks worth of free stuff.
https://support.apple.com/macbookpro15/batteryexchange/