Apple Offering $50 Credit to Customers Who Paid for iPhone 6 and Later Battery Replacements From January to December 2017

[lkrupp]

So send a user notification to get the discount.

These repair programs probably only get seen by a fraction of those impacted.

Read the darn article. That’s exactly what Apple is doing, sending an email to all those eligible with instructions how to get the refund.
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I replaced the battery in my iPhone 6plus at the Apple Store in August 2016 that I paid for. Guess I’m screwed because my battery failed too early.

This kind of stuff erodes my loyalty to Apple.

Batteries weaken, batteries fail early. That’s what warrantees are for. This whole mess is about software throttling, not whether batteries were defective or not. So no, you are not screwed because your iPhone 6 was not throttled before you replaced the battery out of warranty. Apple’s customer loyalty is stronger than ever because of programs like this one.

 

[_Kiki_]

Apple started paying fine to European Union, why there is no news about this on main page?

 

[kytiger]

Read the darn article. That’s exactly what Apple is doing, sending an email to all those eligible with instructions how to get the refund.
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Batteries weaken, batteries fail early. That’s what warrantees are for. This whole mess is about software throttling, not whether batteries were defective or not. So no, you are not screwed because your iPhone 6 was not throttled before you replaced the battery out of warranty. . Apple’s customer loyalty is stronger than ever because of programs like this one.

LOL at your comment “that’s what warranties are for”. I had AppleCare but because the battery passed diagnostics it wasn’t covered and Apple wouldn’t do anything to fix it. Battery would go from 80% to 0% and phone would shut down. Once I paid for new battery everything worked perfectly.

So it’s not “what warranties are for”.

 

[wacky4alanis]

I had to get my wife's iPhone 6S+ battery fixed while on vacation in Montreal because the Apple store in New Hampshire refused to service my battery. They said it was fine... The Apple store in Montreal also said it passed their diagnostics, but were more than happy to replace the battery at my cost. Of course the problems went away immediately, and the phone has been fine ever since. I wonder if I will get a rebate, and if so, how much it will be. The battery cost me $99 Canadian plus tax (total of $113.83 Canadian).

 

[darngooddesign]

Apple started paying fine to European Union, why there is no news about this on main page?

You have to read the European MacRumors site, this is the American one. /s

 

[bigchief]

I had to replace my battery on my iPhone 6 in October of 2017. I forget which software caused the problem but within a week my battery wouldn't last but a couple of hours. I went ahead and replaced it because I was waiting on the iPhone x.

How do I get my $50?

 

[Black Tiger]

So send a user notification to get the discount.

These repair programs probably only get seen by a fraction of those impacted.

It says in the program at all eligible customers will receive an email. That is fair. Imagine someone sold their iPhone 6 after paying for a replacement. The person who now owns the phone is not the same as the person who paid the original battery fee. Makes more sense to email.

 

[mpolda]

Just got off the phone with Apple support. If you had a battery replaced then upgraded to a new phone and no longer have the old one, you're out of luck. They will not issue a credit for a phone you no longer possess, even if you paid to have the battery replaced at an Apple Store. Not cool, Apple.

 

[AaronM5670]

What if the phone affected is owned by a family member and you still have access to it?

 

[Black Tiger]

Just got off the phone with Apple support. If you had a battery replaced then upgraded to a new phone and no longer have the old one, you're out of luck. They will not issue a credit for a phone you no longer possess, even if you paid to have the battery replaced at an Apple Store. Not cool, Apple.

Makes sense to me. But how would they even verify whether you have the phone or not? Is it now registered to a new owner?

 

[darngooddesign]

Makes sense to me. But how would they even verify whether you have the phone or not? Is it now registered to a new owner?

That makes no sense to me; the current owner of the phone should be irrelevant. They should be refunding the person who paid for the service with a receipt as proof of purchase.

 

[AaronM5670]

Absolutely no reference to the specific device (serial number) or anything on the receipt - I’m just going to wait until I get the email because I don’t see how they could tell if I still personally use the device that was repaired.

 

[Jimmy James]

And then there are people like me who bought a new phone because their 6 turned into a dog.

At the time I thought it was planned obsolescence via software. It did turn out to be software with a hardware-defined trigger.

Had I known the cause of my woes I may have just purchased a new battery. Ironically, I'd now be getting more money back. Apple's silent approach worked for them. If only in the short term.

 

[google]

It's nice they are offering the partial refund which leads to

1. The owner of that phone is probably due for another battery by now, so this refund would again go towards that battery replacement.

2. What about those who like myself ended up buying a new iPhone because I thought the 6 goes going downhill and not working properly?

I think Apple still needs to provide some better compensation.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Now this is cool. I had to pay for a replacement for my wife's 6s+ because of this. Looking forward to it.

 

[clauzzz203]

The cheapening-out at apple is still going strong!
It should be obvious from the beginning, that the only thing they regret, is getting caught with the throttle. These are such obvious deterance tactics to make you go ‘screw it I’ll just pay for the X’.
Do they not have enough dollars?

 

[Veinticinco]

To be fair, charging even at the reduced price of 29 was 29 too much given the cause and cover-up.

Imagine this credit is only for those who paid the 79 earlier in the year.

 

[manu chao]

This whole mess is about software throttling, not whether batteries were defective or not.

That is only half of it. The throttling made the biggest splash publicly but it was only a response to sudden shutdowns. iPhone 6 units were shutting down while still indicating being about 20 to 50% charged well before 10.2.1 was released. That should not happen with two-year old batteries and less than 500 charge cycles. And some people thus payed for a new battery out-of-pocket 18 to 24 months into their ownership already during the second half of 2016.

I'd guess that battery exchanges actually slowed after 10.2.1 was released.
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2. What about those who like myself ended up buying a new iPhone because I thought the 6 goes going downhill and not working properly?

I'd have more sympathy for this group of people if I had come across any reports after 11.3 was released of people who thought their iPhone felt slow because of throttling and they got their speed back by disabling throttling in settings. Throttling is/was real and some people felt it, but I am still pretty sure that 90% of all reports of slow iPhones were due to other reasons than the battery-related throttling.

 

[towdow3]

That it took this long to come up with such a program is rather embarrassing.

Should have been announced on day the reduced battery prices were announced.

Is rather amazing it took a couple of months to get to an announcement after dropping the hint this might happen.

Apple is an amazing company but is also amazingly lame at managing simple (and trivially cheap) things like this.

Too often it seems in the end they manage all the positive PR out of an issue by the time they decide to do right in order to avoid increasing negative PR or legal liability.

stages thats why. you couldn't imagine all the dummies walking into an apple store to get a battery replaced that doesn't need to be replaced because its fine, AND those that are going to whine about having had paid to get a battery replaced and are getting a credit back, and will want their battery replaced AGAIN. there's levels to this thing lol
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Because the battery still died much sooner than its expected life span even if it lasted long enough to make a replacement an out of warranty repair?

what is the actual expected "life span" of an iPhone 5s, 6, 6s, 7, 8, and 10? If you decide to answer post your source and not what you believe it is, but show us from where apple on their website states how long an iPhone 5s, 6, 6s, 7, 8, and 10 is supposed to last before its dead?
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Makes sense to me. But how would they even verify whether you have the phone or not? Is it now registered to a new owner?

you want a credit for a battery replacement on a phone you don't even own? LMAOOO fall back son

 

[darngooddesign]

Ironically the things the throttling fixed, crashes and unexpected shutdowns, were being used as examples of Apple obsoleting devices.
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you want a credit for a battery replacement on a phone you don't even own? LMAOOO fall back son

The refund is for a possibly unnecessary service you paid for. The fact that you no longer have that device, maybe it broke or was upgraded or given to a family member, doesn’t factor in it.

In a similar example, lets say you buy someone a present from a store which offers price-matching; and within the allowed time period another store has the item priced lower. Should you not be refunded the price difference just because the item is no longer in your possession?

Solid work on the ‘son’ comment tho, makes you look super tough.

 

[EdT]

Apple doesn’t give actual numbers in their battery explanation: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208387

Most tech sites that do give numbers state lithium ion batteries have a lifetime of 350 to 500 cycles. If you completely discharge and charge your phone every day that would mean slightly less that a year to about a year and a half. But even then if you don’t completely cycle your phone you can get much more than 500 cycles:

http://www.businessinsider.com/smartphone-batteries-are-only-meant-to-last-a-year-2015-10


https://www.pcmag.com/news/357987/charging-your-phone-overnight-battery-myths-debunked

It’s not unusual for batteries to last 2 years, unless you are a power user. Since Apple -and I am assuming most Android phones- are warranted for one year it is safe to assume that is a minimum expected life. Average life span isn’t published by Apple but no phone manufacturer wants to be on the hook for millions of replacements so they all go for the minimum and not average life cycle. Apple made a huge PR gaffe with their power management software and has had to eat some of the cost with iPhone 6 thru 7s phones, but I don’t believe it was malicious, I think it was stupid. Apple’s secrecy and unwillingness to explain combined with a real attempt to prolong the life of weak batteries made it look like they were trying to cheat customers. As I said at the time, all that they had to do to be off the hook would have been to NOT modify the battery management to throttle CPU performance. Phones would have shut down but most of them only after the warranty had run out. By trying to prevent phones from shutting down but not explaining why AND how, Apple gets to eat part of the cost of replacing those batteries.

 

[yanki01]

I had to replace my battery on my iPhone 6 in October of 2017. I forget which software caused the problem but within a week my battery wouldn't last but a couple of hours. I went ahead and replaced it because I was waiting on the iPhone x.

How do I get my $50?

it was probably 10.2.1 - that's the one that did it for my iP6. it was not the same after that update and the battery noticeably drained a ton faster. ended up needed a battery case and that still didn't help until i replaced it myself via iFixit a month before i got the X on release day. it was a brand new phone after that for the month i used it.

I think they said they'll be contacting people soon enough about the $50 credit.

 

[PosauneGuy]

And then there are people like me who bought a new phone because their 6 turned into a dog.

At the time I thought it was planned obsolescence via software. It did turn out to be software with a hardware-defined trigger.

Had I known the cause of my woes I may have just purchased a new battery. Ironically, I'd now be getting more money back. Apple's silent approach worked for them. If only in the short term.

Couldn't agree more! I upgraded because my 6 was so slow...little did I know it was a software issue. I suppose Apple would never be able to tell the difference between those who upgraded to upgrade and those who upgraded because of performance degradation. But it does irk me a bit that all I needed was a battery replacement.

 

[kdarling]

I had to get my wife's iPhone 6S+ battery fixed while on vacation in Montreal because the Apple store in New Hampshire refused to service my battery. They said it was fine... The Apple store in Montreal also said it passed their diagnostics, but were more than happy to replace the battery at my cost. Of course the problems went away immediately, and the phone has been fine ever since.

To me, your situation illustrates the biggest problem Apple had:

Their store battery test parameters did not match the throttling parameters.

So, even though people's iPhones internally determined that the battery was old enough to require throttling, the Apple Store test would come back and say the battery is fine.

Thus the misled owner either paid for a new battery themselves, or they bought a new phone. This belated $50 rebate is an inexpensive way of trying to avoid lawsuit penalties over the battery replacements. But it doesn't help those who bought a new phone to get their speed back.

 

[pezworld]

I remember my iPhone 6 battery dying the morning after a full charge during the LA Womens' March in January 2017. Not a good time as I was trying to hook up with my friends surrounded by 750,000 people. Apple Store told me my model was ineligible for any kind of battery replacement, out of warranty or otherwise. So I got one at the neighborhood repair shop (twice).

Now, once again, I'm not eligible for any kind of help from Apple despite this clearly being their fault. Yes, I know own an iPhone 8 plus because I wasn't ready to make the switch. But since I replaced my MacBook with a Dell XPS13, and my Apple Watch's battery is degrading, I am absolutely planning on going with Android for my next phone replacement. Apple doesn't care about its loyal customers anymore.