Apple No Longer Replacing Some MacBook Pros Needing Battery Service With Newer Models

[Sarlacc]

I agree with you in that I was never owned anything in the first place - however I do not agree nor do I appreciate being called selfish when its not my fault that I was being offered a free machine and because of websites publishing a good will gesture like as if it's some sort of free grab to encourage chancers - I'm not gonna get it any more - so it's very disappointing and makes me angry towards websites like MR for publishing it.

No, it makes you angry because you got in on the deal late, like many of us, and you're looking for someone to blame.

I'd take a pretty good guess you ended up taking your computer to the apple store because you heard about it either here or on reddit. I find it hard to believe someone actively on the MR forum just happened by chance to take their 2012/2013 computer to get a new battery in the last 2 days, and this all went down by coincidence.

You might be denied a newer machine (not free) which you were never really owed in the first place. Sure be disappointed...but don't immature about it.

I was told I would get a CRU yesterday...I assume I won't even get a phone call in the reported 48 hour window now because of their lines being flooded. And should they call and tell me they are reversing course...oh well. Thats just the way it happens.

 

[Theydonboi]

I'm a bit puzzled that people are dismissive of consumers who thought they would get a nice upgrade. I can only assume they've got later machines or wouldn't have been entitled to this.

At the end of the day, Apple have made a product that's incredibly difficult to swap out a battery; something that's child's-play for any owner of any other laptop.

Either way, I'm going to have to be without my computer for 10+ days, for what should be the simplest bit of maintenance you can do on a portable computer. If Apple were going to sweeten the deal by compensating this rather large inconvenience, by treating me to a new product, it would have left me feeling pretty happy about the company and been a nice reward for customer loyalty.

Obviously, this was going to be abused if it was publicised and they had no choice but to sort out their side of the issue. Hopefully, gong forward they'll sort out their battery replacement method and allow customers to do this themsel... what am I saying? That'll never happen.

 

[briloronmacrumo]

I wonder if this experience might cause Apple to reconsider its glued-in battery design.

 

[mbaturin]

I have essentially the same system and it still works fine, aside from the battery. Only thing we're missing from the newer systems is 802.11AC WiFi (we have 802.11N), but "N" is perfectly fast enough for most applications.

Luckily while I was there the genius told me he will order it anyways and I can just tell them I don't want it if I decide that I didn't want it when it came in. I was planning on doing that before, I may actually pony up now since I didn't realize EOL was coming up on it. 2012 DOES NOT seem like 5 years ago!

 

[Westside guy]

Hey, since this unofficial upgrade program has ended... I wonder if that means 2015 MacBook Pros will start showing up again on the Apple Refurbished store.

I'd love to pick up another one, but they only seem to have the 2016 models lately.

 

[CosmoCopus]

I wonder if this experience might cause Apple to reconsider its glued-in battery design.

I doubt it.

 

[djbuddha]

I actually feel burned a little by this. But my reason is different.

In October I replaced my battery and paid the cost. But my new battery (manufactured in August of 2016) with 118 cycles on it is now floating around 80% and my trackpad doesn't work on certain sides since the repair (possibly due to battery swelling or bad labor). I didn't notice the trackpad issue until I was on a plane a week later and was trying to use it while holding the MacBook off of a table. Because it always worked while I had it actually flat on a table, I completely forgot and then realized a few months ago this was an issue. Their battery replacement 'warranty' is 60 days.

I'd be happy with goodwill / a free battery replacement while some people got cheap MacBooks for way less hassle the I'm going through with this.

 

[TheShadowKnows!]

Interesting. I didn't realize that. You have a point. The machine I have was originally purchased as a work machine, but has since been retired as such and is now more or less a personal machine of mine. It was nearly top of the line when it came out. I should get this fixed while I still can. The machine still runs very smoothly.

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Your machine has plenty of breathing space with 16GB memory and almost 170GB of SATA/SSD storage free. (Watch those IOS files! LOL!). Unless you need 4K tethered displays at 60Hz, this laptop will continue to serve you well.

Mine has still outstanding battery because it is always powered-on (97.7% of full-design capacity law CoconutBattery; 83 cycles) and has been used as a "desktop replacement" since day one.

[I run VMs over Parallels as a duo-persona desktop (macOS/WIN10), upgraded now with the 1TB SATA/SSD Transcend blade, which has worked flawlessly.]

It has been worth every penny I paid for it almost five years ago. So, in my opinion, if I had a near-spent battery, i would not hesitate to upgrade it using Apple's battery replacement program; esp. given its five year life-cycle.

 

[charlituna]

It's happened because of recent MacRumors article on this topic. Everybody with their 2012 MacBook Pros ran out for a cheap laptop replacement

nope. the article was like 2 days ago. they would have known about the turn around times well before that and been in progress for a system update to pull the alerts etc.
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The issue is that a lot of us are waiting for replacements that we were offered and it is likely that they'll stop them because of articles like these getting out. So yes we were in the window and only found out through the forums, but we won't be getting new machines.

if you were already told you were getting the replacement you'll get it. no way would Apple be stupid enough to recant and risk a huge lawsuit and a shitshower of bad PR
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Not really. It's been going on since march. It didn't blow up until macrumors wrote the article.

or it didn't blow up until someone working at Apple leaked it a few days ago knowing that it was about to be shut down anyway thus it probably wouldn't cause such a hassle that anyone would try to track the leak to fire said party. but said someone did get 15 minutes of fame from MacRumors

 

[1234macrumors]

The hilarious part that nobody is seeing to all of this is that while MacRumors did broadcast this news for everyone to see, the deadline for the replacement program was set way before the article was released.

I have access to GSX, one of Apple's internal repair/resource sites, and the deadline was set on July 21st, while the MacRumors article was published on July 24th.

Proof:

21 Jul 2017: Revised Topic section and Internal Comments for Apple Retail Stores indicating delayed repairs and CRUs will no longer be required or approved for repairs created after July 25."

Now can we all stop complaining?

 

[rickilustoza]

I just contacted apple about this, I got an early2013 macbookpro retina with the Battery Service issue, and they say they don't have any program to replace batteries on macbookretina. What can I do? The problem is that my battery won't last an hour, with 412 cicles :/ It's basically a desktop. Can anyone tell me how to proceed?

 

[Sarlacc]

if you were already told you were getting the replacement you'll get it. no way would Apple be stupid enough to recant and risk a huge lawsuit and a shitshower of bad PR

Not sure I agree with this at all. I highly doubt there would be any kind of civil suit, complete waste of time, effort, and money. And I doubt it would be any sort of PR nightmare. Its such a finite issue, and not one Apple ever had any obligation to perform or fulfill.

I mean, as someone who was set up for a replacement, I hope it goes through. But since it was yesterday, if they came back and said parts are readily available we can no longer off you the replacement, I wouldn't get bent out of shape over it. Thats the way the cookie crumbles.

 

[Cloudkicker]

But I was promised one!!!!

Are you one of those lightning bolt speed eBay grifters?

 

[576316]

Are you one of those lightning bolt speed eBay grifters?

I'm pretty sure none of that is real.

 

[kerrikins]

The coverage on this both here and on Reddit was getting pretty ridiculous so I'm not surprised that Apple put a stop to it.

 

[expiredyogurt]

This doesn't in any way mean they read these articles. The original article likely caused tons of 2012 MBP owners to go in and try to get a new machine. Apple tracks such returns/exchanges and notices this huge increase. There's zero need to read this site to see the outcome on their end.

more than likely this is the scenario. There could also be lots of people calling in and asking about the validity of said deal and probably referenced MR when apple care advisors said they were not aware of it. They would then have to bring it up to a senior advisor if they spotted a trend where a bunch of people calling asking about the same thing and they also probably asked about it in their internal forum which is often moderated by another department looking for irregularities.

all in all, I'm kind of glad to see that Apple is doing something about this as it does seem pretty scammy for people to do it. There are lots of threads in Reddit where people are buying off 2012 MBP from ebay or craiglist and try to turn it to profit. It really does put a damper on those who legit need to get their battery replaced but as usual, there are a group of greedy people ruining it for everyone.

I can't imagine the attitudes of people calling in and was told that they can't get it exchanged for a newer model and somehow raging at the phone advisors. glad I left that place a while ago

 

[mbaturin]

Not sure I agree with this at all. I highly doubt there would be any kind of civil suit, complete waste of time, effort, and money. And I doubt it would be any sort of PR nightmare. Its such a finite issue, and not one Apple ever had any obligation to perform or fulfill.

I mean, as someone who was set up for a replacement, I hope it goes through. But since it was yesterday, if they came back and said parts are readily available we can no longer off you the replacement, I wouldn't get bent out of shape over it. Thats the way the cookie crumbles.

Not sure about anyone else, but I signed an agreement when I ordered my replacement parts. For those who got the upgraded laptop/free battery before today, did you sign something? Reminds me of....

 

[Pbrutto]

I can understand your frustration to some extent, but I won't apologize for sharing information that I believe is valuable to our readers. Apple sending out a new memo a few days later is beyond my control. I think something along the lines of "don't shoot the messenger" applies here.

Edit:

Affected users will still be able to get their battery serviced in 15 business days though. That's not much longer than it is taking customers to be sent entirely new MacBook Pro models due to the part constraint. It's simply unfortunate that people aren't getting an essentially free MacBook Pro anymore, but that was merely a bonus, and Apple will still be helping customers that truly need their battery replaced for the exact same cost.

In fact, this puts an end to people who are buying eligible models off eBay or Craigslist just to take advantage of the chance to essentially trade up for cheap, and ensures that users who truly need battery service will receive that repair earlier than September 15, 2017, the original date that Apple quoted the part constraint ending on. Nevertheless, if you want to blame me, I understand.

I stand by my commitment to sharing valuable information with Apple readers, as is my job as a MacRumors contributor. I don't control Apple's subsequent actions.

Appreciate your statement, thanks

 

[Sarlacc]

Not sure about anyone else, but I signed an agreement when I ordered my replacement parts. For those who got the upgraded laptop/free battery before today, did you sign something? Reminds me of....

I signed their standard authorization to perform the work. Not sure that it was any kind of promissory for a replacement computer.

 

[Tech198]

It's happened because of recent MacRumors article on this topic. Everybody with their 2012 MacBook Pros ran out for a cheap laptop replacement

lol.. dam... We had fun while *that* lasted..

 

[netwalker]

You post your article and what happened? A big flock of people running to Apple Stores all claiming with battery problems, which obviously caused Apple to back down. Way to go!!!

You can't just 'claim' it. They run their tests and either your battery actually needs replacement or not. Most people that responded to the post where people that had actual real battery problems with these machines and deserved to know about the possible solution. It is Apple that manufactured laptops where the batteries fail too early (based on cycle count) and it is Apple that did not produce enough top cases since March to help their customers getting a fully useful machine back. So don't shoot the messenger. I was told too wait until mid September when I took my machine in just 1 1/2 weeks ago. No mention then of a possible replacement or free battery exchange. A newer replacement machine would have been nice, but I am also glad that I might not have to wait until September now.

 

[yanki01]

The hilarious part that nobody is seeing to all of this is that while MacRumors did broadcast this news for everyone to see, the deadline for the replacement program was set way before the article was released.

I have access to GSX, one of Apple's internal repair/resource sites, and the deadline was set on July 21st, while the MacRumors article was published on July 24th.

Proof:

Now can we all stop complaining?

weren't there some that posted that they had gotten it replaced by apple just a couple of days ago? after the 21st?

 

[pm_cu]

Here's my update as of July 26. Took my Mid-2012 MBP in on the 24th in California, which did need a battery replacement but I been lazy and putting it off until now.

Was initially told the top case was backordered until October, then after some checking it was changed to September. They also offered a replacement under RS220 (? I'm not actually sure what it is but it shows up on the work order). Was told it would be replaced by a 2015 MBP of equivalent specs.

Got a call today from the Apple Store today, picked it up right away after seeing this post and worried they'd rescind their offer. They did not and It turned out to be a model A1707 which is a 2016 touch bar model. It does come in a new sealed box but unfortunately they asked for my charging cable back (power brick and extension), but there is no replacement extension cord in the new case, only the power brick...

 

[bkends35]

Here's my update as of July 26. Took my Mid-2012 MBP in on the 24th in California, which did need a battery replacement but I been lazy and putting it off until now.

Was initially told the top case was backordered until October, then after some checking it was changed to September. They also offered a replacement under RS220 (? I'm not actually sure what it is but it shows up on the work order). Was told it would be replaced by a 2015 MBP of equivalent specs.

Got a call today from the Apple Store today, picked it up right away after seeing this post and worried they'd rescind their offer. They did not and It turned out to be a model A1707 which is a 2016 touch bar model. It does come in a new sealed box but unfortunately they asked for my charging cable back (power brick and extension), but there is no replacement extension cord in the new case, only the power brick...

I'd say getting a huge upgrade and new computer is worth sacrificing a charging extension...

 

[Derived]

No, you broke a goodfaith program that helped people in real need. This is the tragedy of the commons, plain and simple. You don't have to apologize but you're certainly at fault.

I can't believe this is an actual response from a real, adult (I assume?) human being. You're acting as if people had a right to have Apple give them a whole new laptop for 199 due to a dead battery. That's ridiculous. Anyone against the spreading of information better take a long, hard look at how they arrived at that sort of insane mindset....