Apple Initiates iPhone 5 Battery Replacement Program

[tuc]

I went to my local Apple store last night, but they were too busy to handle us. Some employees had heard of this program, but they knew no details. I made an appointment for 11:40 today.

When I arrived today they knew more about it. They offered to replace the bad battery for free, while I waited, in an hour or two. However they were unwilling to do so unless I first paid $150 to repair the single hairline crack in the screen. (Strangely, they would have allowed me to pay $79 to have the battery replaced outside of this program, leaving the screen as is. This seems inconsistent.)

I left the store without having any work done. I'll think over my options. Evidently I have until two years from the original purchase date, which gives me 3-4 weeks.

 

[Veinticinco]

Eligible on my (UK) launch day 5.

Hated the awful battery life, constant charging and unreliability

23.5 months later.....launch 6 a few weeks away from my grasp.

Too little, too late Apple

 

[Coffee Minutes]

Battery Died at 30%

I bought the iPhone 5 in this time frame and I noticed odd battery behavior. I purchased it shortly after it was released. BIG MISTAKE!!!

NEVER BUY APPLE PRODUCTS WHEN THEY ARE FIRST RELEASED!!!!

(my MBA 13" failed after less than 2 months of ownership!!! - and couldn't be fixed Apple said - I bought this IMMEDIATELY after it was released in July 2012)

After about 10-11 months of owning it, the phone would shut off at 30% and not turn back on. It would show the "dead battery" icon. The phone would shut of at the worst times it seems. Sometimes it would turn back on after 2 hours. Usually I had to plug it in and it would begin to charge, then instantly show 30% charge when it should be "0%-5%" The phone shutting off at 30% happened ALL TIME TIME! Ughhhh....

This dying at 30% happened a lot and I thought the phones battery drained quick - but I wasn't sure if it was my imagination. The charge seemed like it was short, but i figured it was because it was a new model and had more power usage or something. I even tried to reset the battery calibration. I reset lots of things. nothing worked.

I lived with this lousy battery life since it was out of warranty and couldn't afford to replace it for a while and just lived with it. Reading this angers me because my usage suffered. I had to be careful when I used toe phone and constantly had to charge it up so it wouldn't go to 30%.

Eventually, I bought the 5S to replace it because my home button would never lock the phone either. I think this iPhone5 was lousy. Broken home button and battery draining too quickly, along with the 30% shut off. Lots of problems with it.

Very shocked to hear that the battery was faulty. Makes me angry as they should have told consumers and made a recall. I would even speak with other iPhone 5 owners who said they had the same problem of the phone just shutting of at 30%. Some said it was the cold weather since it was winter.

Anyway, glad Apple did something ,but they did it too late, IMO. They probably knew, but hoped users wold buy a new iPhone 5S like I did.

Moral of the story.... I WONT buy the iPhone 6 because I fear the same problems. ALWAYS buy the "S" model or the 2nd version. The first ones are always problematic!!!!

 

[Libi]

I've made my appointment for Saturday. Got my iP5 on launch day and the battery has been decidely flaky for a while now. Will help it last a lot longer when I upgrade to the iP6 and give this one to my son.

 

[Aaplipad]

Done!

Went to apple store yesterday and had battery replaced. Took them 90 minutes. No charge!

 

[MrGuder]

Helpful Advise

If you are having problems with your battery shutting down around 20% and you bought your iphone 5 from September of 2012 to January of 2013. Do not go into the Apple store with a full charge on your battery because it's possible it will not throw any codes and they will say your battery is fine when you know it's been shutting down. When I went in, I let my phone go down to 35 to 40% battery....the closer you can get it down to when it actually shuts down the better it will register on their PC and show it defective.

 

[Bigsargewaymo7]

Mutha Trucker!!!!

I have an iPhone 5 and i had that issue. I replaced my battery but in doing so i must've done something to the display cause it is a little dim with some light bleed at the top. After trouble shooting found out that the display was permanently harmed so now i have a great battery life and not so great display so i just ordered a new display and now they are starting this **** with the replacement battery! Dammit a week earlier and i wouldn't have this problem.

 

[MrGuder]

Some people here are saying too little too late Apple.

This is NOT the case for everyone. There are a lot of people who do not buy new phones every year. My iPhone 5 will be 2 years old this Nov 2014 and now that Apple has acknowledged the defective battery and offered replacement/refund, now I have a brand new phone with a great working battery that will last me at least another 2 years. This is a Win/Win for the customer's who want to keep their current phones. Some people don't always need the latest and greatest, especially when the iPhone 5 works for me.

 

[dec.]

We'll never know the true number of recalls, will we. Yet another case of a sycophant blindly defending the Apple can do no wrong mantra.

Hello? I did not blindly defend Apple. Your personal issues really have become pretty obvious here. You are blabbering about the iPhone 5 battery being inferior in general based on the issue of a limited range being faulty. Calling others a "sycophant" based on your delusional approach to this really is quite hilarious.

Or to keep it on the most simple level so you can comprehend it as well: I did not say - or even imply - that Apple can do no wrong, prove me otherwise please with a quote, if not just refer from posting BS like that, thanks.

 

[daviddth]

It is an iPhone. They're all affected by horrible battery life.

Actually mine has been pretty good until about 5 months ago when I started noticing a loss of standby time. 2-3 days was easily achieveable with some use, but now it's charge once a day, with some topups in the car or at work needed too

 

[bobenhaus]

You mean iPhone replacement. I didn't know iPhone's have replaceable batteries.

 

[Nicholas197]

Had to replace my battery in January for $80 out of pocket and I received my refund yesterday!

 

[page3]

My 5 must be the exception. Serial number says I'm eligible but the battery works fine.

(My iPod generation 1, iPhone 1 and iPad 1 all work fine too...)

 

[RedOrchestra]

...iPhone 5 battery being inferior in general based on the issue of a limited range being faulty.

Limited range - really - that's why Apple went through all the hassle of setting up a battery replacement program - for a limited range of phones. Both a sycophant and from the Big Smoke - doesn't get any worse than that.

 

[NoNothing]

If you are having problems with your battery shutting down around 20% and you bought your iphone 5 from September of 2012 to January of 2013. Do not go into the Apple store with a full charge on your battery because it's possible it will not throw any codes and they will say your battery is fine when you know it's been shutting down. When I went in, I let my phone go down to 35 to 40% battery....the closer you can get it down to when it actually shuts down the better it will register on their PC and show it defective.

I will try that. Mine shuts down at 30-35% but the diagnostics tool showed a battery at 95% capacity. I will try it that way again.

 

[mscann]

Only appointment I could get for today was at a store about 30 minutes from me. Went there, checked in, waited and then overheard a genius tell another customer they have no batteries in stock. Luckily another store 15 minutes away did and took me within a half hour. The first store claimed they have no way of checking the comments on the appointments. So hopefully your store has batteries in stock or it is a wasted trip

 

[Viking705]

Arg. Phone is eligible, but after arriving at store for replacement, I learn no stores in the Twin Cities have batteries. Guess I stick with the routine I've developed - battery packs and charging cables in house, car, office, pocket.

 

[silroc]

Didn't real all pages so might be a dupe but to answer an early question-

It is just new battery not a phone swap

Had mine done today- (due to volume according to them) it took 1 hour.

Good luck

 

[ksuyen]

I don't have the issue but I know a few people have. Their battery was charged fully 100% and the next hours, suddenly drop to 10%. The question is why the problem only appears after almost 2 years of using the phone? It wasn't a problem back then, as it seems only happened after iOS 7 which may or maynot trigger it. Hence, Apple only acknowledge it now. Weird.

 

[dec.]

Limited range - really - that's why Apple went through all the hassle of setting up a battery replacement program - for a limited range of phones. Both a sycophant and from the Big Smoke - doesn't get any worse than that.

You """forgot""" to quote me saying "Apple cannot do any wrong" and basically just confirmed the impression I already had of you. Thanks.

 

[aPple nErd]

My iPhone 5 is eligible for both the battery replacement & the sleep/wake button issue. I had to suffer for almost 2 years with both of these problems...


...but a new free iPhone 6 would make up for the troubles.

Theres a possibilty that will happen if you complain to apple and give them a hard enough time. I was having imac issues and kept complining and finally, to shut me up they said "would you like an iPod touch 5th gen, or a 3tb time capsule?" (No joke) and this was right after the ipod 5 came out. It's sitting next to me on a table right now actually

 

[finbred]

Good news

This is great for my eligible fiver. I bought it as a company phone 12/2012 which means the EU 2 year consumer warranty wouldn't cover it. However, I haven't read any posts that relate the battery issue with temperature which is obvious with mine. The colder it is the faster it dies. 5 minutes at freezing temps kills it even when freshly charged but after warming it up again I can restart and the battery is up to 95 %. Just last night I went out to take a video of a hummingbird hawk-moth - a rare visitor around here, never seen one before - and after 5 minutes I had 17 %. It was 15° C. Five minutes back inside > back to 51 %. So to me this seems a sensory problem. I hope the sensor is in the battery...

 

[ron7624]

Does anyone know if the repair is actually a battery replacement, or if it's a replacement? I mean, will the replacement lose the screen protector, for example, or get a new serial number?

It depends on the Apple store. Most now are able to replace the battery and hand you back your same device within 30 minutes. They did that to my wife's phone. We paid our money and left, but had to go back for a replacement phone immediately cause the battery replacement didn't go well and the phone was going nuts.
Call your store and ask if they replace batteries in house. But back up your phone before taking it anywhere. If you do an encrypted backup, the new phone will be set up like your old one with passwords still remembered after you restore.

 

[MacSince1990]

If you were to bother to read the whole conversation you would realize that I was talking about the 5s which isn't part of this program because it doesn't have the same problem.

Bit hard to when you seem to have deleted the post that preceded it...

 

[koruki]

my iphone 5 is not eligible but has been turning off with nearly 40% battery