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Last week (before any of these news) I sent a perfectly working (except the battery wich needed replacement as confirmed by the remote diagnostic performed mid-phonecall) 3yrs old iPhone 6 128GB to apple for a 80-something € repair, when the phone reached the repair center they sent me a generic “repair refused” email, the day after a rep called me and told me that they found “other problems” (he said something about the mic maybe) and sent me a link to another transaction of...351€!!!
I refused the transaction, he called me again and I told him to just ship it back as is.
Basically they wanted to upsell me to a full phone replacement with a refurbished unit.
The phone will come back to me on 2 or 3 January I think. How do I know they didn’t accidentally damage my phone during repair?

Anyway, all of this story is to say: there’s always a small (?) chance of something going wrong in these battery swaps with Apple. If they find other problems, you can’t tell them “just replace the battery, thanks”. You pay the full out-of-warranty repair price or you have it shipped it back.

I’m considering the iFixit kit with tools + battery.

Class actions? I say we push legislation to force phone manufacturers to build in an easy to open (as in: screws + gasket for water resistance) battery compartment. Devices from A9 onward are beasts when the battery is at peak, it’s a shame and a waste to see them rot.

Maybe swapping batteries will become a fact of life and I will learn to do it myself even when glue is involved but with later models I’m afraid to ruin water resistance...
 
Because the $29 are a special discounted price for this specific case. Apple will still happily change your battery for the normal $79 even if the health is still 99%.

No they won't. Apple Genius Bar won't replace a battery until it fails their diagnostic test, even you are willing to pay the full $79. Which is why this is as big a deal as it is.

Its also important to note that the genius bar diagnostic is different than the condition the iOS code uses to determine when to throttle. ie. the genius bar diagnostic will return a healthy battery but iOS could be performing a throttle due to an unhealthy battery. Thats Kafkaesque!

Many of these batteries or phones should have been replaced under warranty or apple care, but weren't. They shouldn't be paying $29 for it now, it should have been done when a customer came in with a phone that was turning off at 30 or 40% remaining. Batteries age, sure, but it was a design defect to so thinly overprovision the battery given the bursty nature of their processor and its peak draw when running at 100%.
 
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None that I can disclose. My friend works at Apple and told me there is a new prompt in Mobile Genius alerting techs of the change in policy. If you doubt me, call Apple Care or go book an appointment and see for yourself.

Sorry, that is not proof.

I'll wait for apple to update the official communication channels to the public. Until such time the current procedure stands .
 
No they won't. Apple Genius Bar won't replace a battery until it fails their diagnostic test, even you are willing to pay the full $79. Which is why this is as big a deal as it is.

Its also important to note that the genius bar diagnostic is different than the condition the iOS code uses to determine when to throttle. ie. the genius bar diagnostic will return a healthy battery but iOS could be performing a throttle due to an unhealthy battery. Thats Kafkaesque!

Many of these batteries or phones should have been replaced under warranty or apple care, but weren't. They shouldn't be paying $29 for it now, it should have been done when a customer came in with a phone that was turning off at 30 or 40% remaining. Batteries age, sure, but it was a design defect to so thinly overprovision the battery given the bursty nature of their processor and its peak draw when running at 100%.

That’s no longer true, just test it for yourself if you doubt me. Call them saying your battery performance sucks and you want to pay to have it replaced regardless of what their tests say and see what happens. What was true last week is no longer the case.
 
Would you a source that confirms this?

Provide source ....

Please provide the source of this change.

that is not proof.

Irony indeed. Yet you request sources for material for something you vehemently make claims you blatantly don't understand about the policy yourself for Over 12 posts in this thread. How many different ways does this need to be iterated regarding the replacement policy to you aside from deflecting and asking for 'sources.'
 
Class actions? I say we push legislation to force phone manufacturers to build in an easy to open (as in: screws + gasket for water resistance) battery compartment.

And by the way with the iPhone X going back to a sandwich design (like the 4/4S), Apple is in the best position ever to make this a reality in the next phones. Just use the cutest smallest hidden screws ever to secure the back glass.
Unfortunately 2018 phones are likely finalized. But by 2019 they could..
 
This is getting tiring...
Apple is guilt-tripping us to give up the outrage with these staggered 'gifts'.

Nothing has changed:
- the iPhones were under-designed at the battery, unable to power the CPU
- they are still expecting us to pay for their coverup and mass recall
- newer iPhones will still throttle after about a year
- iPhones with replaced battery will again throttle after a year
- iPhones with low battery charge (not health) will still throttle
- iPhones above 80% battery health will still throttle and we will be denied any service to the battery since it's above 80%
- the throttling will still be permanent regardles of moment-to-moment conditions
- absolutely no goodwill to those tricked into upgrading to a newer iPhone
- we will still not get an option in iOS for wether to throttle or not
- the scam and coverup is not acknowledged at all

I'll edit the post if more comes to mind.


Don't normally post much... Got my iPhone 6 new when it came out. Years before I always upgraded to the newer phone, but the 6 was the last time... didn't see the need to get the newer one.

Now... all this slow down and the news has really pissed me off, Wish I didn't upgrade the OS.

Anyway I'm going to try something new, ordered a Pixel2 tonight. (Excited to try something new)

Change is good.
 
Thanks, “experts.” Apple says YOU were ALL wrong. They admitted doing something that resulted in slower iPhones.

Yes...they admitted two things:

A. If the CPU requires a peak voltage that is too high for the battery to supply, then the auto shutdown kicks in to prevent damage to the phone.

B. Users complained about the auto shutdown, so they added a feature that limits the CPU to the peak voltage range that can still be supplied by the battery, thus preventing auto shutdowns.
 
My phone's over two years old, so I'm not sure it's still under warranty anyway.

It doesn't have to do only with warranty. They will refuse even paid service on your phone. It also won't be eligible for exchange. For example, if the phone dies out of warranty, for a smaller cost than buying a new one, they will replace the device. However, if the device has been opened by anyone other than Apple, they will refuse this option.
 
Irony indeed. Yet you request sources for material for something you vehemently make claims you blatantly don't understand about the policy yourself for Over 12 posts in this thread. How many different ways does this need to be iterated regarding the replacement policy to you aside from deflecting and asking for 'sources.'

How many more people have to explain to you the current process ?

When someone says the policy has changed , you take that as fact but ignore all the poeple who have said apple has refused a paid replacemennt under the current procedure.

Let's stop this pointless bickering , you are making no attempt to understand the issue and resorting to personal jibes. You only want to see on side of this, fine, waste someone else's time, I'm not interested .

Have a good weekend . Let's not waste each other's Time in the new year.
 
Have you ever had Apple conduct their own battery test on the iPhone 6 to determine what it's rated at?

No. I probably will now, though.
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This is a company that's running scared. They should be! They're hoping people will replace their batteries and not ask critical questions like: Why did iPhones shut down in the first place? Why is Apple really slowing down the speed of iPhones with somewhat degraded batteries?

And the simple answer is that battery tech today is unable to properly deal with the 0-250mph requirements of mobile SoCs.
 
How many more people have to explain to you the current process ?

When someone says the policy has changed , you take that as fact but ignore all the poeple who have said apple has refused a paid replacemennt under the current procedure.

Let's stop this pointless bickering , you are making no attempt to understand the issue and resorting to personal jibes. You only want to see on side of this, fine, waste someone else's time, I'm not interested .

Have a good weekend . Let's not waste each other's Time in the new year.

That’s a good point actually. Right now none of us really know what is going on. The story still seems to be developing and changing day by day. Yesterday Apple said January before the program kicked in, today it is already in effect. My friend at Apple could be confused as well. Until we start seeing more reports trickle in we won’t really know what is up and what to trust. For now I stand by my advice to just try to get your own battery replaced and see what happens. If they refuse, fine you only lost a little time. If it works great. If they later change the policies again, well it was good for those who took advantage of the confusion while it lasted. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking whatever applied before might still apply going forward.

Apple is getting hammered in the news. They are probably more flexible than usual to avoid confrontations.
 
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I'm similar on Geekbench on my same vintage 6S Plus at full charge. I also ran it at 37% charge and it showed throttling, no doubt in part to the tests themselves. Coconut shows 79.5% design capacity.

I'm not experiencing any noticeable difference (perceived anyway) of doing my normal things - browsing, videos, air play to Apple TV, calls, email, texts, etc regardless of the charge level.

That's what you'd expect. The whole point was to smooth spikes. GB4 is a continuous spike, in effect.
 
If I were you, I would send an email escalating this to Angela, CC'ing the local Market Leader and the Store Leader. Not only is that absurd - it's even disclosed as:

"Battery Replacement at the cost of 99$"

not "Battery Replacement at the cost of 99$*"
"*Does not include cost of labor or any extra charges that we need necessary"

I'd love to do just that. Only, I'm not sure who Angela is, nor my local Market Leader and Store Leader. Not asking you to research that for me, but if you can give me a few pointers on search terms so I can contact Angela (I don't know who she is, BTW), I'd really appreciate it. And thanks for the heads up, too.
 
Sorry, that is not proof.

I'll wait for apple to update the official communication channels to the public. Until such time the current procedure stands .

Of course you will. Common sense dictates Apple will modify their procedure. If customers went in and were denied it would be very bad PR to add to the existing bad PR. I’d bet $$$ that they don't argue with customers who want batteries and just go ahead and change them.

BTW, I had a battery replaced for my daughter that the diagnostic said was OK. Please explain how this is possible when it’s not listed in any “official” documentation.
 
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That’s no longer true, just test it for yourself if you doubt me. Call them saying your battery performance sucks and you want to pay to have it replaced regardless of what their tests say and see what happens. What was true last week is no longer the case.

I'll take your word for it that it is now changed, but it *was* policy to not change it if it was deemed healthy using the genius bar diagnostic (which basically looked at wear only (500 cycles/80% of capacity) not the iOS throttling condition, which is max voltage supplied (which is actually a function of capacity and cell size - which is why sometimes the battery only throttles when the battery is down around 30-40% (and prior to the fix the phone would just shut off).
 
No they won't. Apple Genius Bar won't replace a battery until it fails their diagnostic test, even you are willing to pay the full $79. Which is why this is as big a deal as it is.

On December 22nd I had an iPhone 6S Plus battery replaced at the NYC Chelsea Apple Store for $79 when Apple’s diagnostic showed the battery passed at 84% battery health. You are wrong.
 
The fact that Apple is charging $29 to fix an issue THEY created is BS. It's not like they're dying for cash ($260B+ in bank). They should be giving these people FREE batteries at the LEAST. Maybe even offer them a year of AppleCare?

Im no Apple hater and will buy their products till the end but this is ridiculous and wrong.
 
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