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Apple Store Policy on Returns re: Battery

Rat-Boy

Rat-Boy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 28, 2008
1,184
15
Georgia
Can anyone advise on if the Apple store will do a return on an iPhone 3G for Battery issues, and if so, how do I prepare to try and return it?

The reason for returning it is simple:

Me and my wife both have a new iPhone 3G.

Right now, I am looking at both of our usage screens:

Mine: 1:35 usage, 11:44 Standby, Battery Meter shows less than half battery.

Hers: 1:26 usage, 18:57 Standby, Battery Meter still appears full.

Note: Neither phone has the "iPhone has been plugged in since last full charge" message on them, so that is not the issue.

Note 2: One BIG difference between the two of us is, I turn mine off every night and she never powers hers off. Should I be leaving mine on all the time too? Does that actually help?

Should I just take both to the store and see if they will exchange mine? Is this enough evidence or will they want more?
 
Rat-Boy said:
Hers: 1:26 usage, 18:57 Standby, Battery Meter still appears full.
Click to expand...

Well, here's your problem. Your wife's meter isn't measuring correctly. I refuse to believe that these numbers can go along with "still full." Give your phones another few days to let them get used to themselves and start reporting accurately. Try and let them run as low as they can before charging during this time.

Then, at that point, measure time from "fully charged" to "totally dead."

All this "appears full" and "appears half empty" doesn't mean much. Get some real numbers on a weekend when it's not so critical. Things like "My wife and I charged over Friday night. Mine died Saturday afternoon at 4 PM and hers died Sunday morning at 10 AM. We had similar usage."

Stuff like THAT is going to convince them. What the battery meter appears to be isn't really hard evidence of anything. What you're saying could be battery issues OR meter issues. Time them until they die (and note the usage type) and you eliminate any other possibilities.
 
Are there any other differences between the two?

One or both using push email?
Same # of email accounts?
Same fetch interval?
Wifi on?
Location services on?
Brightness the same?
 
It sounds like the problem is with your wifes phone, not yours. There is no way her battery indicator should be close to full. Restore her phone and see if it starts tracking normally. If not, then take HER phone back, not yours.
 
Well, honestly, the differences are that I have done all the power saving tricks and she hasn't.

Push: Both on.

Brightness: Mine is set to 1/4th and hers is set to half.

Location Services: Mine is off, hers is on.

Wifi: Mine was on, hers was off. Just turned mine off since I was rarely using it.

Time out: Mine 1 minute, hers 2 minutes.

Email: Mine: Push, Fetch every 30. Hers: Push, Manually

And, as I type this, her green battery meter still appears full. So yes, I think HER phone might be actually having the issue.
 
OH, and does anyone know if it is better to:

1) Leave the phone on all the time, even at night.

OR..

2) Turn off the phone at night...

Thanks everyone for the answers as I am sure you guys have answered these before. I did try to do a search but I probably didn't do that right.
 
Rat-Boy said:
Well, honestly, the differences are that I have done all the power saving tricks and she hasn't.
Click to expand...

Even more a reason to think that her battery meter isn't calibrated right.

Have her use hers till it powers down (I have a feeling the gauge will drop FAST in the last few minutes, or the battery may run out without warning), and then give it a full recahrge to see if that calibrates the meter. If not, your wife's phone needs to be exchanged, not yours.

As for leaving the phone on or off at night, leaving the phone on without being plugged into a sync cable or charger will obviously put some drain on the battery.

Actually, the best course of action is to plug the phone in at night and leave it on. Let the battery top off and then unplug it when you're ready to go in the morning.
 
If there is no other problems like uneven case, light leak, dust under the screen, etc, then I would strongly suggest NOT to get it replaced.
11 hrs + 2hrs usage and still have a little less than half is pretty decent.
 
Thanks for the phone numbers.

And just as an update this morning.

My wife's phone now says well over 2 hours of usage and over a day of stand by.

Still a full green battery icon.

Faulty charge indicator, or freak of nature battery?

I have instructed her to NOT charge it until it goes dead so she can re-calibrate it AND see how long it lasts.

But right now, she already has more usage than I normally get.
 
I had an issue with the battery on mine getting down to the 20% warning after under 2 hours of usage. You can tell them that, but they hook up the phone and run diagnostics on it. If the diagnostics show below average battery life, they'll replace it. This occured with my last one.

However, as mentioned above, it sounds like she has the faulty battery indicator and/or battery.
 
Why don't you swap phones?
Take your wife's, restore it with your last backup.

Do the same with hers; restore it with your last backup.
Then use each other's iphone for a couple of days and see if it is because of your usage difference or if it in fact a matter of faulty batteries.
 
Rat-Boy said:
Thanks for the phone numbers.

And just as an update this morning.

My wife's phone now says well over 2 hours of usage and over a day of stand by.

Still a full green battery icon.

Faulty charge indicator, or freak of nature battery?

I have instructed her to NOT charge it until it goes dead so she can re-calibrate it AND see how long it lasts.

But right now, she already has more usage than I normally get.
Click to expand...

Yea her phone has serious issues. Instead of mucking around like this, go to Apple and get HER phone replaced, TODAY. Problem solved.
 
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