Apple Delays iPhone 6 Plus Battery Replacements Until March-April Due to Limited Supply

[Baymowe335]

Look man, we're coming from two completely different places. So agree to disagree but here is my viewpoint.

I keep a powerbook G4 12" sitting on my desk next to my main work horses. I keep it there because its beautiful and sometimes I just find myself staring and playing with it; it is a testament to how amazing this company is. Sometimes I even take it to the coffee shop and people ask me what it is, and impressed when I tell them how old it is.

But even with this infatuation, I will not make excuses for them hiding something like throttling of batteries and not informing consumers that the battery was the culprit. The fact is, it was convenient for them to keep it secret and they did us no favors by doing so. I hope nothing comes of the lawsuits BUT I am glad they are there to put pressure on Apple to not pull this again. Until then I will have a wait and see attitude and hold off on updating future purchases. Yeah I'm just one group of purchases, but if enough of vote with our wallets they will pay attention.

I just don’t think Apple is stupid and purposely throttling phones to coerce upgrading is a stretch for me. I really think they tried to mitigate an even worse shutdown situation and miscalculated how much it would impact customer experience. I also think there is a small subset of bad batteries that are causing most of the problems.

Bottom line, there are too many unknowns for me to be so sure they hid anything or did anything wrong. I think they could have communicated better, but ultimately, the are trying to make it right.

 

[bmark]

I just don’t think Apple is stupid and purposely throttling phones to coerce upgrading is a stretch for me. I really think they tried to mitigate an even worse shutdown situation and miscalculated how much it would impact customer experience. I also think there is a small subset of bad batteries that are causing most of the problems.

Bottom line, there are too many unknowns for me to be so sure they hid anything or did anything wrong. I think they could have communicated better, but ultimately, the are trying to make it right.

Miscalculated affecting million of iPhone users and their iOS experience? Please this was a strategic gamble by Apple and it backfired right in their face. Whoever made this call is no longer with the company at this point since all the bad press has tarnished their image big time. Their low class response is we ****ed up but here is a $29 replacement battery and a toggle button. Lost a ton of respect for them after this scandal of epic proportions!

 

[Baymowe335]

Miscalculated affecting million of iPhone users and their iOS experience? Please this was a strategic gamble by Apple and it backfired right in their face. Whoever made this call is no longer with the company at this point since all the bad press has tarnished their image big time. Their low class response is we ****ed up but here is a $29 replacement battery and a toggle button. Lost a ton of respect for them after this scandal of epic proportions!

You’re speculating too. There was unlikely a strategy to screw their own customers because that doesn’t work long term.

We don’t know how many were affected.

 

[Baymowe335]

You are the ultimate apple fan boy who stands by them regardless of theiractions. If you don’t believe there was a strategy behind throttling then you are brain dead. They screwed their customer base and are trying to grasp at straws to save them now. Also Apple knows many devices are affected but will never admit the numbers.

Calling me names doesn’t make it true. Watch and see how little they end up paying because courts understand the law, unlike you.

You can’t speculate what they knew. Has to be proven or no damages will be paid. Apple may settle for small sums, but you people calling for massive class action payouts, Cook being fired, and this doing irreparable damage to Apple are hilarious. You guys are like the Occupy Wallstreet movement. A lot of screamers that really don’t know anything and will eventually tire out and lose.

 

[macleod199]

I'd love to hear how things run after the battery replacement. My wife's 6 has ~750 cycles but "health" is ~87% with "normal"/good GB4 scores and still executes a lot of tasks slowly. Apple is shipping phones with more RAM now but I'm wondering whether we'll see another bump up in 2018. RAM seems to be the best predictor of hardware service life for iOS devices.

I was told it'll be about 2 weeks to get the battery in, so we'll see. The battery came up in their tests as 'consumed.'

 

[newellj]

I was told it'll be about 2 weeks to get the battery in, so we'll see. The battery came up in their tests as 'consumed.'

Thanks. My wife's 6 shut down unexpectedly yesterday at 50%. Need to get her in for a replacement. At this point we think that trying to squeak along until September is the best idea, if possible. A new battery could make that a lot less painful (I hope).

 

[bmark]

You can’t speculate what they knew. Has to be proven or no damages will be paid. Apple may settle for small sums, but you people calling for massive class action payouts, Cook being fired, and this doing irreparable damage to Apple are hilarious. You guys are like the Occupy Wallstreet movement. A lot of screamers that really don’t know anything and will eventually tire out and lose.

Tim Cook admitted throttling took place. Are you in denial or something? They will pay up big time in other countries for the power management debacle.

 

[Askolan]

Miscalculated affecting million of iPhone users and their iOS experience? Please this was a strategic gamble by Apple and it backfired right in their face. Whoever made this call is no longer with the company at this point since all the bad press has tarnished their image big time. Their low class response is we ****ed up but here is a $29 replacement battery and a toggle button. Lost a ton of respect for them after this scandal of epic proportions!

Exactly. The store employees have a guideline they have to follow that is specifically made by Apple. And the guideline for a little while was now "Hey my phone is running slow" "Thats just because your phone is old with too little ram/blah/any excuse, come let me show you the new models." These decisions came from the very top and its clear this is not the company it was even 5 years ago.

This obsession with thinness is the 2nd part of the issue. They are trying to appease the Kardashian Consumer that they've come to rely on for their stockpile of billions of dollars and they are screwing the long time loyal customers while doing it.

 

[Baymowe335]

Tim Cook admitted throttling took place. Are you in denial or something? They will pay up big time in other countries for the power management debacle.

Pay attention. No one is questioning if the software manages power by decreasing performance in phones with unhealthy batteries. People are taking that information an conclude that:

1) Apple purposely slowed down phones to coerce upgrading
2) Every iPhone older than 1 year is affected (MAYBE EVEN MORE!!)
3) Apple had malicious intent
4) Apple is evil
5) Every user is upset with Apple and notices slowdown
6) Benchmarks are indicative of real world usage

Can I get you a jump to conclusions mat? All of those things are speculation/opinions.

There are not going to pay up "big time" for anything. Wait and see. Under $1b will be a rounding error for Apple.

 

[bmark]

Pay attention. No one is questioning if the software manages power by decreasing performance in phones with unhealthy batteries. People are taking that information an conclude that:

1) Apple purposely slowed down phones to coerce upgrading
2) Every iPhone older than 1 year is affected (MAYBE EVEN MORE!!)
3) Apple had malicious intent
4) Apple is evil
5) Every user is upset with Apple and notices slowdown
6) Benchmarks are indicative of real world usage

Can I get you a jump to conclusions mat? All of those things are speculation/opinions.

There are not going to pay up "big time" for anything. Wait and see. Under $1b will be a rounding error for Apple.

Wrong, they are already paying up big time already. Apple is now replacing iPhone 6 Plus models with iPhone 6 Plus when their internal components are failing big time. All this could have been avoided with not throttling devices. I had my wife's iPhone 6S Plus battery replaced and the Touch ID became unresponsive and they replaced her phone with a new one. So keep speculating this won't cost Apple much when their image is badly tarnished over this and Apple stores are overrun with unhappy customers requesting battery replacements right and left.

 

[C DM]

All this could have been avoided with not throttling devices.

Interesting assumption. And if a bunch of phones were suddenly shutting down at random times, what would have been happening then?

 

[bmark]

Interesting assumption. And if a bunch of phones were suddenly shutting down at random times, what would have been happening then?

That's the iPhone users problem then to manage. Apple magnified the battery issue by throttling devices and that created a nightmare scenario for them at this point.

 

[Baymowe335]

Wrong, they are already paying up big time already. Apple is now replacing iPhone 6 Plus models with iPhone 6 Plus when their internal components are failing big time. All this could have been avoided with not throttling devices. I had my wife's iPhone 6S Plus battery replaced and the Touch ID became unresponsive and they replaced her phone with a new one. So keep speculating this won't cost Apple much when their image is badly tarnished over this and Apple stores are overrun with unhappy customers requesting battery replacements right and left.

How much is that costing Apple? You have no idea because you don't know how many phones they've replaced. I've read the news too...

"All this" might have been unavoidable if there are some phones with defective batteries. Random shutdowns caused their own issues, so power management solved that and caused another issue (perhaps more so than Apple wanted or realized).

Again, these things are complex and without any data, it's difficult to say it's "already costing Apple" because you saw a headline that said they've replaced some phones. Big deal.

"Overrun with unhappy customers" is conjecture and flowery language to describe something we don't know the scale. You don't know how many unhappy customers exist. You just know people here are complaining. You're speculating and completely biased on your own personal experience, which is meaningless.

Replacing an iPhone 6 Plus with a 6s Plus probably costs Apple in the neighborhood of nothing. I'm speculating, but don't hold you breath on it being a big deal if they have to do that even a few million times. When they were new, build cost was around $200 for the 6s Plus. With recycling the 6 and the lowered cost, probably a good investment to make a customer happy again.

 

[C DM]

That's the iPhone users problem then to manage. Apple magnified the battery issue by throttling devices and that created a nightmare scenario for them at this point.

Not sure if that would really be any different (and has the potential of being somewhat worse even).

 

[bmark]

Not sure if that would really be any different (and has the potential of being somewhat worse even).

You think there wasn't batteries issues before the iPhone 6? Apple knew there were issues but ignored them. They thought throttling would slide the issue under the rug and no one would notice. Well that blew up in their face and now they are scrambling to adjust. Apple Store revenue per customer took a significant dive once the battery replacement program was launched. No wonder why all Apple store employees are no longer very friendly at all.

 

[C DM]

You think there wasn't batteries issues before the iPhone 6? Apple knew there were issues but ignored them. They thought throttling would slide the issue under the rug and no one would notice. Well that blew up in their face and now they are scrambling to adjust. Apple Store revenue per customer took a significant dive once the battery replacement program was launched. No wonder why all Apple store employees are no longer very friendly at all.

So basically if people's phones were shutting down randomly and that issue was becoming more and more widespread Apple wouldn't be any better off, if not even worse in some ways.

 

[Evereddie60]

After I wasted a 1/2 day vacation and drove 3 hours round trip to a confirmed appointment and verbal "Yes we can change out your iphone 6 Plus battery in the store I arrived to be told, gee sorry. That unit is obsolete, check back in March to see if they may have a battery for you, and in the same breath, you can upgrade your phone to an 8 or X if you like. Just laughed at him and went on a very long and loud rant in the store, that Apple lied and deceived everyone and I will never buy another Apple product again. I went online to ifixit and ordered a battery kit, with tools and instructions for 24 dollars. Took me 20 minutes and works great now. (I'm 62 and need reading glasses, if I can do it anyone can) No more new Apple products for me. When my current ones can't be repaired or are no longer supported, im moving on from Apple. No innovation any longer and terrible sales practices.

 

[mi7chy]

Don't do the bite test if it's a genuine Apple battery unless you're Putin.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/18...cs-store-by-biting-replacement-iphone-battery

 

[mekulmeshkenova]

I sent my iPhone 6 in on Jan 11th to get the battery replaced with a promised 5-9 business day turn around. Now 12 business days later Apple Support says it will take another 2 weeks for them to even get the batteries in. On top of that, they are unable to cancel my order and won't even send the phone back to me without being repaired. On top of that the customer service representative I was working with agreed to call me back at 4 when I got off work after I had already been on the phone with them for 40 minutes. She called me back at 2:20 while I was in a meeting and unable to answer my phone and now I have not been able to reach her. I'm so incredibly frustrated right now. DO NOT mail in your phone.

 

[bmark]

I sent my iPhone 6 in on Jan 11th to get the battery replaced with a promised 5-9 business day turn around. Now 12 business days later Apple Support says it will take another 2 weeks for them to even get the batteries in. On top of that, they are unable to cancel my order and won't even send the phone back to me without being repaired. On top of that the customer service representative I was working with agreed to call me back at 4 when I got off work after I had already been on the phone with them for 40 minutes. She called me back at 2:20 while I was in a meeting and unable to answer my phone and now I have not been able to reach her. I'm so incredibly frustrated right now. DO NOT mail in your phone.

Apple is so incompetent in handling the battery replacement fiasco. Still waiting until April for the Apple store to actually get batteries in stock. Why can’t they just release iOS 11.3 with power management button already? Making everyone wait until Spring is a slap in the face to all loyal Apple customers who are throttled to death!

 

[Corgirat]

Interesting assumption. And if a bunch of phones were suddenly shutting down at random times, what would have been happening then?

Recalls???

 

[mikzn]

You think there wasn't batteries issues before the iPhone 6? Apple knew there were issues but ignored them. They thought throttling would slide the issue under the rug and no one would notice. Well that blew up in their face and now they are scrambling to adjust. Apple Store revenue per customer took a significant dive once the battery replacement program was launched. No wonder why all Apple store employees are no longer very friendly at all.

So basically if people's phones were shutting down randomly and that issue was becoming more and more widespread Apple wouldn't be any better off, if not even worse in some ways.

I have an iPhone 6 that randomly shuts down, it might even be one that could qualify for a free battery or at the least the $29 replacement, that said, the phone is great and it works great other than having to restart it once in a while.

The thought of making an appointment with an "Apple Genius" and then reschedule another visit for the actual replacement "once approved" for a new battery sometime in the distant future is well "kind of discouraging"

I will just use an independent repair center and buy a new battery and pay the $80 to avoid the aggravation of "Apple Customer Service"

Apple is in a difficult spot - personally I don't expect batteries to last forever - but Apples obsession with thin phones has a price - iPhone 5 had terrible battery life - iPhone 6 was actually an improvement - not everyone will agree. That said they did try the throttling solution in an underhanded way and really lost my trust.

This has been going on for a while - it started with iWorks (Apps) when iCloud was introduced - suddenly the apps were totally re-written and not much was communicated about the fact that they were totally different software, along the way much the same is happening to iTunes with each new version features dropped with no notice or communication, and of course One Way iOS upgrades that leave no path to go back to prior versions.

I think apple is just - betting on the churn of gaining more new customers than the loss of old legacy customers.

 

[PPopMatt]

I sent my iPhone 6 in on Jan 11th to get the battery replaced with a promised 5-9 business day turn around. Now 12 business days later Apple Support says it will take another 2 weeks for them to even get the batteries in. On top of that, they are unable to cancel my order and won't even send the phone back to me without being repaired. On top of that the customer service representative I was working with agreed to call me back at 4 when I got off work after I had already been on the phone with them for 40 minutes. She called me back at 2:20 while I was in a meeting and unable to answer my phone and now I have not been able to reach her. I'm so incredibly frustrated right now. DO NOT mail in your phone.

Yeah.... I have been waiting for almost 3 Weeks now since taking in the Iphone6 for the appointment. I WAITED about a week before that for the App't... I thought Ide let this play out and then waltz in for a new battery replacement, but IT SEEMS LIKE APPLE HAS MORE THAN A HANDFUL OF %@% BATTERIES!

When I took it in, the battery read "FAILED"!!! I was faced with either a $1000 expense for a new phone(!!), or having them install a New Screen and a New Battery for $158 total... The choice was simple... But alas still NO Batteries and NO ETA!!!

I called about my work authorization, and they said There are NO BATTERIES, and NO PRIORITY for FAILED batteries, over "normal" people who just want a new $29 battery, so I am still WAITING with a majorly flawed and inferior device! #@$%$%^#

My Phone won't last 30 minutes of use. I've missed tons of Instagram posts for business, and I'm pretty afraid to use it as it crashes when it is used after the initial 10 minutes.

Again I say @%$#@^. Long Term Frustration is the phrase of the year!

Not happy! That Samsung commercial after watching Star Trek Discovery (on the Apple TV) is starting to look good! %^!$^%@ =(

 

[mi7chy]

Instead of dragging their feet they've should've rolled this out worldwide from day one.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/18...rvation-program-through-support-app-in-canada

 

[bmark]

Instead of dragging their feet they've should've rolled this out worldwide from day one.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/18...rvation-program-through-support-app-in-canada

Apple is too inept to do that. Their management didn’t think a battery replacement program would impact upgrades. Their stock is dropping like crazy right now as well.