Ever since recieving my new 4S on Launch Day, I have been suffering from the now infamous battery drain woes. I have gone from days of having horrid battery life, to going days between requiring a recharge, to mediocre battery life- some of which in the span of just 4 days. I'm a regular follower of Apple tech and rumor sites and have read pages of testimony and arguments over the mythical batterygate issue. I was prepared to have a lengthy conversation with Apple Care this morning. This is what I found out.
Before calling Apple Care, I troubleshooted the issue myself with all the tips that have been mentioned here and elsewhere. They seemed to help with battery life for a while, but over this past weekend, my battery took another nose dive. For those keeping score here is what I had done:
Deleted and then re-enabled iCloud;
Did hard resets to my heart's content;
Disabled various location based services;
Complete battery reconditioning;
Dimmed screen brightness; and
Kept a visual record of my battery usage as found in the settings menu.
Nothing. Nada. Cero.
So I called Apple Care. Richard, as polite as ever, took my information, listened to me rattle off my issues and troubleshooting steps that I had already taken, took my usage stats, and kept me on hold while he spoke with a senior tech adviser. Their official conclusion:
Since few people have called to complain, I was a minority user with such crappy battery life. This to me was absurd simply b/c of the sheer number of people on the Apple Support Forums bouncing ideas off each others' heads. Surely, I can't be one of a few people calling about this as they claimed. Anyway, they indicated that it sounds like hardware issues (which I also find hard to believe based on the volume of users with this issue) and that they wanted to fix or replace my 4S- whichever was cheaper for them I suppose. All I would need to do was to send them my phone and receive it or another in the mail within a week or so. Or take it to the nearest Apple store which is 4 hours away from me. I politely thanked him for his time and asked to maul over my options and phone them back with my decision. He agreed and we ended our conversation of 30 minutes.
I've decided not to send my phone in for repair b/c I don't believe this is a hardware issue. I think it's a software issue and I'm not keen on going phoneless for a week with no guarantee of batterygate coming to a close upon receiving my new phone.
Further, I knew before I called was that their best solution for me was to replace my phone. I did not expect to come away with an end all solution. I called simply to document my issue with Apple in the hopes that if enough people call, they will see a more viable solution needs to happen. Also, to document that I spoke with Apple about this issue just in case my battery gets even worse or if Apple offers a solution in the future, I can at least say "Hey, I called 3 months ago about this- fix it for me, please."
Regardless, the 4S is a solid phone and recommend it to anyone who wants the most out of their mobile phone.
Here's to hoping Apple releases an iOS patch so that we may live happily ever after.
d
Before calling Apple Care, I troubleshooted the issue myself with all the tips that have been mentioned here and elsewhere. They seemed to help with battery life for a while, but over this past weekend, my battery took another nose dive. For those keeping score here is what I had done:
Deleted and then re-enabled iCloud;
Did hard resets to my heart's content;
Disabled various location based services;
Complete battery reconditioning;
Dimmed screen brightness; and
Kept a visual record of my battery usage as found in the settings menu.
Nothing. Nada. Cero.
So I called Apple Care. Richard, as polite as ever, took my information, listened to me rattle off my issues and troubleshooting steps that I had already taken, took my usage stats, and kept me on hold while he spoke with a senior tech adviser. Their official conclusion:
Since few people have called to complain, I was a minority user with such crappy battery life. This to me was absurd simply b/c of the sheer number of people on the Apple Support Forums bouncing ideas off each others' heads. Surely, I can't be one of a few people calling about this as they claimed. Anyway, they indicated that it sounds like hardware issues (which I also find hard to believe based on the volume of users with this issue) and that they wanted to fix or replace my 4S- whichever was cheaper for them I suppose. All I would need to do was to send them my phone and receive it or another in the mail within a week or so. Or take it to the nearest Apple store which is 4 hours away from me. I politely thanked him for his time and asked to maul over my options and phone them back with my decision. He agreed and we ended our conversation of 30 minutes.
I've decided not to send my phone in for repair b/c I don't believe this is a hardware issue. I think it's a software issue and I'm not keen on going phoneless for a week with no guarantee of batterygate coming to a close upon receiving my new phone.
Further, I knew before I called was that their best solution for me was to replace my phone. I did not expect to come away with an end all solution. I called simply to document my issue with Apple in the hopes that if enough people call, they will see a more viable solution needs to happen. Also, to document that I spoke with Apple about this issue just in case my battery gets even worse or if Apple offers a solution in the future, I can at least say "Hey, I called 3 months ago about this- fix it for me, please."
Regardless, the 4S is a solid phone and recommend it to anyone who wants the most out of their mobile phone.
Here's to hoping Apple releases an iOS patch so that we may live happily ever after.
d
