iPhone 6(S)/Plus Battery replacement: poor Apple customer service

[trigonometry]

I disagree and personally would call ahead myself as I did when I wanted to make sure they had enough stock for my X in case there was an unfortunate variable with my order.

Apple isn’t here to be someone’s nanny and hold their hand. From the mass paranoia that has been occurring is it a suprise that they are out of batteries?

Do you know how their concierge system works? When you go to the store your appointment is pulled up at that time which is why if you don’t cancel your appointment no on calls to to see why at a doctors office.

You’re totally wrong. This is unquestionably a case of poor customer service. A battery replacement was SCHEDULED BY THE STORE. Capitalized for emphasis because you seem to be missing that part. It’s not the customers responsibility to make sure they have batteries, it’s the responsibility of the store.

 

[LovingTeddy]

Please keep in mind that the "throttling problem" is NOT the root cause of the overall issue. Battery degradation is. And battery degradation with use is normal. Apple merely changed the way the phone manages power to mitigate the effects of a degraded battery. Prior to that, the phone could simply abruptly shut down if the battery was sufficiently degraded. If you want to blame Apple for anything, take issue with how many cycles the battery can withstand before degrading to the point where an un-throttled phone is in danger of shutting down. Or perhaps not informing the user that the battery has degraded.

Making genuine replacement batteries available for $29 installed regardless of the number of cycles or overall condition is a reasonably priced resolution in my book (and I'm the one who complains about non-replaceable batteries). Plus, it sounds like they will be adding some battery condition information to ios at some point.

Paul

Have you ever seen people report who has good battery health, then got throttled.

There was never a massive report perior iPhone 5 that abruptly shutdown.

This large scale abruptly shutdown only seems happened after iPhone 6.....

 

[JediZenMaster]

You’re totally wrong. This is unquestionably a case of poor customer service. A battery replacement was SCHEDULED BY THE STORE. Capitalized for emphasis because you seem to be missing that part. It’s not the customers responsibility to make sure they have batteries, it’s the responsibility of the store.

You can yell at someone else.

 

[Phone Junky]

Apple can have tens of millions of iPhones delivered on the same day, but they can’t check their inventory and tell a customer to not show up for their appointment because the battery is out of stock? Yeah, right. Somebody dropped the ball on this one.

 

[Mr.Blacky]

A retail store ****ed up, so what? It can happen! I had more than one instances, where something didn’t quite worked out as promised. Just should complain to the store manager or write an email to Apple. You act like, Tim Cook personally called the store and said:"Screw this guy, no battery for him!"
(My apologies for sounding rude)

 

[thadoggfather]

No matter the demand it does seem unacceptable as a regular
Thing to not have it in stock

Are battery supply constraints that large?

 

[trigonometry]

You can yell at someone else.

I’m not yelling. I said it in my post, it was capitalized because you seem to be disregarding who the onus was on in this situation.

Edit: I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful but facts are facts.

 

[C DM]

Have you ever seen people report who has good battery health, then got throttled.

There was never a massive report perior iPhone 5 that abruptly shutdown.

This large scale abruptly shutdown only seems happened after iPhone 6.....

Different chips and hardware design could have different power draws for different things with different devices.

 

[trigonometry]

Are battery supply constraints that large?

I think Apple rolled this battery replacement program out too fast. Either for PR or they underestimated demand.

 

[JediZenMaster]

A retail store ****ed up, so what? It can happen! I had more than one instances, where something didn’t quite worked out as promised. Just should complain to the store manager or write an email to Apple. You act like, Tim Cook personally called the store and said:"Screw this guy, no battery for him!"
(My apologies for sounding rude)

Exactly it was a mistake and everyone everyplace has made one. Yet it’s pitch forks in torchs in these overall battery threads. I’m going to stay out of them before I end up getting banned over something that gets said

 

[Bigg Macc]

Apple dropped the ball here. If you don't have stock, call to cancel the appointment and not waste customer's time.

Poor customer service.

 

[44267547]

At minimum, I would make sure to complete a survey to provide feedback based on the situation, which hopefully Apple will follow up with the OP for any further action And or hear what the OP has to say.

 

[macfacts]

Common sense would indicate that these batteries will be in short or out of supply due to the demand. It has only been a week or two. I would have called the store to ask if they had a battery before driving to the store.

You can get as mad as you want but I can not see this being Apples fault. If you think Apple is still making money at $29 for materials and labor . . . .well that is sad.

Apple already knows when the appointments are and the number of batteries in stock. It should be Apple phoning the customer to reschedule.

And even if the customer did phone in to double check, they can confirm they have it in stock but won't hold it for you even if you have a prescheduled appointment. Another forum user had that problem -> https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ry-replacement-program.2098666/#post-25677277

 

[MN7119]

Interesting to read all comments here. As I said before, a call was made to the store on January 2nd to schedule a battery replacement. The person in charge told the first appointment available to replace the iPhone 6 battery was today (January 8) at noon. They confirmed my wife's Apple ID and email and sent out with an appointment confirmation. My wife showed up at the store and was informed they were out of batteries and she would get a call from them in around 10 days when they expected to have batteries in stock. Now the interesting part. Even not having a battery available the Genius guy opened a Work Authorization with a repair # (my wife got an email with a copy) saying he performed battery tests and could not find anything wrong as battery passed diagnostics. It then shows the repair estimate of $29. In December my wife was at the same store they performed the same diagnostics but never opens a Work Authorization order. Not sure what this is about as I never received anything like this mainly when the service requested was not performed.

 

[macfacts]

A retail store ****ed up, so what? It can happen! I had more than one instances, where something didn’t quite worked out as promised. Just should complain to the store manager or write an email to Apple. You act like, Tim Cook personally called the store and said:"Screw this guy, no battery for him!"
(My apologies for sounding rude)

The guy is sharing his experience and letting others know the rules of the game Apple plays by.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

Apple was definitely in the wrong in this situation. I had a similar experience where I reserved a phone, got skipped in the queue twice, and after waiting for over an hour was told that the phone I had reserved was out of stock. It was an extremely frustrating experience but the thing about Apple is that although they d**k the dog now and then, they're willing to make things right afterward.

I would suggest either requesting to speak with the manager when you go in for the actual replacement or sending an email to tcook@apple.com explaining the situation and the resulting frustration for you and your wife. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they comp'd the cost of the battery for you.

 

[Ash Pole]

My wife’s iPhone 6 has become useless. Battery goes from 100% to below 20% within minutes after taking it from the charger. She took it to the Apple store back in December and was told battery was OK and she should reinstall iOS. She did but battery issue remained.

Apple told me the exact thing back in November when I sent my 6 to the mothership. They shipped it back with the same 3 year old battery in it accompanied with a note saying it was fine...yeah right.
I complained and demanded that they replace the battery for which I paid $93 for them to do so.
Again, the phone goes back to California for the battery replacement...never to be seen again. Turns out there was a problem with the phone after all and they replaced it with a “refurb”, (with different ser. # and MEID) they offered no explanation as to why.
The icing on the cake was that they sent a refurb with a scratched screen.
I should note that my iPhone worked flawlessly except for the deminished battery capacity which is normal after 3 years and over 1500 charge cycles.

 

[canuckRus]

I disagree and personally would call ahead myself as I did when I wanted to make sure they had enough stock for my X in case there was an unfortunate variable with my order.

Apple isn’t here to be someone’s nanny and hold their hand. From the mass paranoia that has been occurring is it a suprise that they are out of batteries?

Do you know how their concierge system works? When you go to the store your appointment is pulled up at that time which is why if you don’t cancel your appointment no on calls to to see why at a doctors office.

Expect to be billed for your not showing up. Apple screwed up its end.

 

[ACST]

Bettery is dirt cheap.


4. Battery is dirt cheap. The battery for the iPhone cost lot less than 25 asking price. Apple is taking huge profit margin for battery replacement in the first place (before it ask asking 79 dollars). Apple correcting it's throttling problem by asking customer paying for Their mistake. This is not the best customer services.

And the labor replacing that battery is free in America.... Oh wait no it isn't.

 

[HallStevenson]

It is unfathomable that people can defend Apple in cases where a customer books an appointment for a battery replacement, Apple confirms the appointment for a battery replacement, and the customer arrives at the store for their battery replacement only to be told "we don't have a battery".

Stop allowing appointments for this until a) they have batteries in stock and b) their system will HOLD a battery for that appointment !!

 

[JediZenMaster]

It is unfathomable that people can defend Apple in cases where a customer books an appointment for a battery replacement, Apple confirms the appointment for a battery replacement, and the customer arrives at the store for their battery replacement only to be told "we don't have a battery".

Stop allowing appointments for this until a) they have batteries in stock and b) their system will HOLD a battery for that appointment !!

Stop trying to tell people who to think. You don’t have that right. It’s one thing to voice and opinion but some folks are going way to far.

I think otherwise and I’m not going argue nor constantly discuss it. This will be my last post in this thread.

 

[HallStevenson]

And the labor replacing that battery is free in America.... Oh wait no it isn't.

That employee is in almost all cases scheduled to work. Unless Apple has to hire add'l workers or pay these techs overtime, it's not costing Apple "extra".

Stop trying to tell people who to think

Oh, the hypocrisy !!

"Pot, meet kettle".

 

[apolloa]

My wife’s iPhone 6 has become useless. Battery goes from 100% to below 20% within minutes after taking it from the charger. She took it to the Apple store back in December and was told battery was OK and she should reinstall iOS. She did but battery issue remained. When Apple announced they would replace batteries for $29 she immediately tried to book an appointment but the first one available was today. Today she left her work and drove 35 minutes to the Apple store for her appointment only to be informed that no stores in our area have batteries available and she will get a call from them in about 10 days when they expect to get more batteries in. The Apple guy at the store told her “everyone is replacing their batteries”.

So here are my issues:
- You make a customer waste over an hour of its working day driving to an appointment that you knew would not happen. Why call in 10 days when the battery arrives and not call in advance to cancel the appointment today?
- if “everyone” is replacing their batteries I think Apple has a much bigger problem in their hands. Are they doing a good job in informing when one should replace the battery? Or is this becoming a new way of Apple to make another revenue stream over existing customers (I am pretty sure that even at $29 Apple is still making a lot of money on this)? Or will this reflect in customers that would potentially buy a new phone to hold on their old ones with new batteries for much longer?

My wife was mad. I am really mad of all this BS.

It’s the new legendary Apple customer service and communication at work....

It’s the way forward! What I think they are doing if this goes on for say 3 or 4 months, is they will deliberately have low battery stock to reduce those getting the cheaper replacement in the year and then next year all of a suddent they’ll have loads, oh but then your phone will pass the diagnostics so you can’t replace the battery anyway..

Yes I’m cynical but with the way Apple are behaving over this.....

 

[Mlrollin91]

It is unfathomable that people can defend Apple in cases where a customer books an appointment for a battery replacement, Apple confirms the appointment for a battery replacement, and the customer arrives at the store for their battery replacement only to be told "we don't have a battery".

Stop allowing appointments for this until a) they have batteries in stock and b) their system will HOLD a battery for that appointment !!

You are mistaking. You don't make an appointment for a battery replacement, you make an appointment for a battery issue. There is no selection for battery replacement, but "battery service request".

Additionally, if people would take the time to read, it clearly states there is low supply online and to CALL ahead to reserve one.

"Call Apple Support today to reserve a battery before visiting an Apple Store. Supplies of replacement batteries are currently limited for iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and iPhone 6s Plus."



Maybe people can learn to take responsibility and stop blaming everyone else.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

You are mistaking. You don't make an appointment for a battery replacement, you make an appointment for a battery issue. There is no selection for battery replacement, but "battery service request".

Additionally, if people would take the time to read, it clearly states there is low supply online and to CALL ahead to reserve one.

"Call Apple Support today to reserve a battery before visiting an Apple Store. Supplies of replacement batteries are currently limited for iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and iPhone 6s Plus."

View attachment 746069

Maybe people can learn to take responsibility and stop blaming everyone else.

/thread