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iPhone 6(S)/Plus Battery replacement refused

A

antonypg

macrumors member
Original poster
May 8, 2008
97
47
My iPhone is getting quite old now but still works fine, except the battery life appears to be getting worse. In general I charge over night but by about the middle of the day it drops to around 50%, this is just with light use, checking emails, reading the news etc. If I start to take photos it drops incredibly quick.

My current battery is over 2 years old, the original battery was replaced by Apple as it kept failing when the phone was cold.

I booked my battery to be replaced on the Apple web site and selected Stormfront, an Apple dealer in the UK. They refused to replace the battery as it had previously been replaced before!!!

Has anyone had this before? The iPhone is in mint condition. If I book for a battery replacement at an actual Apple Store I wonder if they will refuse?
 
antonypg said:
My iPhone is getting quite old now but still works fine, except the battery life appears to be getting worse. In general I charge over night but by about the middle of the day it drops to around 50%, this is just with light use, checking emails, reading the news etc. If I start to take photos it drops incredibly quick.

My current battery is over 2 years old, the original battery was replaced by Apple as it kept failing when the phone was cold.

I booked my battery to be replaced on the Apple web site and selected Stormfront, an Apple dealer in the UK. They refused to replace the battery as it had previously been replaced before!!!

Has anyone had this before? The iPhone is in mint condition. If I book for a battery replacement at an actual Apple Store I wonder if they will refuse?
Click to expand...

I don’t know why they would ever turn down free money.

If you’re willing to pay there’s no reason why they shouldn’t do it - so long as any prior replacement was done by an authorized service provider or Apple itself. I could understand a refusal for third party repairs, but if that isn’t the case then your story baffles me.
 
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antonypg said:
My iPhone is getting quite old now but still works fine, except the battery life appears to be getting worse. In general I charge over night but by about the middle of the day it drops to around 50%, this is just with light use, checking emails, reading the news etc. If I start to take photos it drops incredibly quick.

My current battery is over 2 years old, the original battery was replaced by Apple as it kept failing when the phone was cold.

I booked my battery to be replaced on the Apple web site and selected Stormfront, an Apple dealer in the UK. They refused to replace the battery as it had previously been replaced before!!!

Has anyone had this before? The iPhone is in mint condition. If I book for a battery replacement at an actual Apple Store I wonder if they will refuse?
Click to expand...
Did they run diagnostics on the phone to see what state the battery is in?
 
C DM said:
Did they run diagnostics on the phone to see what state the battery is in?
Click to expand...
They were going to run the diagnostics but I believe they didn’t after I said about the battery being replaced previously. My 1st battery had serious problems, it died when cold but recovered later. The 2nd battery is now well over two years old.
 
antonypg said:
They were going to run the diagnostics but I believe they didn’t after I said about the battery being replaced previously. My 1st battery had serious problems, it died when cold but recovered later. The 2nd battery is now well over two years old.
Click to expand...
They should still be able to at least run diagnostics and if that basically fails they should be able to offer an out of warranty battery replacement at whatever that costs these days.
 
Try an Apple store.

I have had my 6S battery replaced twice at two different Apple stores in two different countries. No issues.
 
antonypg said:
They were going to run the diagnostics but I believe they didn’t after I said about the battery being replaced previously. My 1st battery had serious problems, it died when cold but recovered later. The 2nd battery is now well over two years old.
Click to expand...

Was the first battery replacement done by Apple or was it done by a 3rd party? If 3rd party, that could have been the reason.
 
Newtons Apple said:
Was the first battery replacement done by Apple or was it done by a 3rd party? If 3rd party, that could have been the reason.
Click to expand...

The OP stated that Apple had already replaced the battery apparently when under warranty. But that should not be a reason for the service provider to refuse replacing it this time unless the OP wanted it replaced once more for free.
 
The 1st battery was replaced by Apple. It was replaced free of charge as it was one of the ones diagnosed as part of a batch of batteries with a fault, causing it to die when cold. The replacement battery has been perfect, it just doesn't last anywhere near as long as it used to. I was just surprised that an approved Apple dealer would refuse to change it when I agreed to pay for a replacement. I will arrange a repair with an actual Apple Store and see if they refuse as well.

If a battery passes diagnostics do Apple always refuse to change the battery? Even if I really want it changed and agree to pay.
 
antonypg said:
The 1st battery was replaced by Apple. It was replaced free of charge as it was one of the ones diagnosed as part of a batch of batteries with a fault, causing it to die when cold..
Click to expand...
What phone was that? I wonder if my old iPhone was part of that batch.....
 
a-m-k said:
What phone was that? I wonder if my old iPhone was part of that batch.....
Click to expand...

https://www.apple.com/support/iphone6s-unexpectedshutdown/

It was a fault that affected the iPhone 6s batteries.
[doublepost=1554059799][/doublepost]
a-m-k said:
What phone was that? I wonder if my old iPhone was part of that batch.....
Click to expand...

My 1st battery was pretty much useless, and was one of the faulty batch, but funnily enough when the Apple genius run the diagnostics in the store it passed!! After that I didn't put much faith in their battery diagnostics.
 
Newtons Apple said:
I had a friend who took his iPhone to the Apple store to have the screen replaced and they returned to phone to him minutes later when they discovered a non OEM battery.

Sorry but they CAN refuse service if the device has non OEM parts in it.
Click to expand...
Which shouldn't be the case in this instance since the original battery replacement was done by Apple.
pika2000 said:
Try an Apple store.

I have had my 6S battery replaced twice at two different Apple stores in two different countries. No issues.
Click to expand...
An Apple store, or contacting Apple directly, would probably be the better way to go at this point, if possible.
 
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antonypg said:
If a battery passes diagnostics do Apple always refuse to change the battery? Even if I really want it changed and agree to pay.
Click to expand...

They will indeed change the battery if that's what you want - regardless of what the diagnostics report. You'll pay the $49, but they'll do it.
 
In the past, I have had Apple stores refuse to replace my battery, even when the iPhone was out of warranty and I was willing to pay. But since the whole battery/throttling debacle, they have been much more accommodating with battery replacements.
 
I went to the Apple Store and asked them to change the battery. At first they tried to talk me out of it as my phone was showing 90% battery life. However, I asked them to change it anyway. The battery was showing around 800 charge cycles over 2 years 3 months according to their diagnostics.

Now it is like a new phone! Before the battery would generally last me till about the middle of the day, I always had to use my charger at work. Taking a few photos or using the maps app would get through the battery really quickly, not any more. For the last few days the battery has lasted me almost 24 hours. I have actually found myself playing games on the phone just trying to run down the battery before putting it back on charge in the evening.
 
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antonypg said:
I went to the Apple Store and asked them to change the battery. At first they tried to talk me out of it as my phone was showing 90% battery life. However, I asked them to change it anyway. The battery was showing around 800 charge cycles over 2 years 3 months according to their diagnostics.
Click to expand...

This is good evidence that the capacity reported by iOS is only a partial indicator of battery health. With 800 cycles, the battery is well overdue for a replacement.

Many people seem to be under the incorrect impression that the battery capacity percentage reported by iOS translates directly to battery health. In reality, battery capacity is only one of three or more factors related to battery health.
[doublepost=1557384526][/doublepost]
antonypg said:
I have actually found myself playing games on the phone just trying to run down the battery before putting it back on charge in the evening.
Click to expand...

If you're deliberately trying to run the battery down before charging, that's a bad idea for battery health.
 
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squizzler said:
No need to drain before charging. In fact, batteries don’t like that and won’t age as well.
Click to expand...

I don't normally try to drain the batteries down every night, I was just seeing how the new battery was performing. The old battery would only every get me through half a day, whereas the new battery is much better and I can actually play games for a while and still get it to last all day.

My first battery kept giving up on me when the phone was cold, with the phone again only lasting half a day, sometimes shutting down when the battery indicator still read 50%. That battery was replaced after a year, Apple paid for the replacement due to a known fault with a batch of iPhone 6S batteries. The 2nd battery was replaced over 2 years later as it was getting very problematic. The interesting things is that in both cases the Apple diagnostics said there were no real problems and the batteries didn't really need replacing, in both cases the replacement batteries made a world of difference.
 
antonypg said:
I went to the Apple Store and asked them to change the battery. At first they tried to talk me out of it as my phone was showing 90% battery life. However, I asked them to change it anyway. The battery was showing around 800 charge cycles over 2 years 3 months according to their diagnostics.

Now it is like a new phone! Before the battery would generally last me till about the middle of the day, I always had to use my charger at work. Taking a few photos or using the maps app would get through the battery really quickly, not any more. For the last few days the battery has lasted me almost 24 hours. I have actually found myself playing games on the phone just trying to run down the battery before putting it back on charge in the evening.
Click to expand...

Glad it worked out!
 
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