I am based in Hong Kong. I would like to share my experience of a dormant battery on an Apple watch Series 6. A little history first.... watch was purchased from an apple authorised retailer chain in factory sealed condition on 31Dec2020 by my wife's employer. The items was bought in readiness for a company prize draw. Due to Covid lockdowns, live prize draw was delayed for a long time after several event cancellations. Finally my wife drew the prize in December 2022 in virtual draw as difficult to get everyone together for a gathering. Final lockdown lifted in March 2023 and my wife finally went in to collect prize in early June. Did not open the box until 27th June 2023 and watch would not charge at all. Watchd display remains blank, even if left on charger, even after a hard reset. Long story short but effectively the watch has been sat idle in sealed condition for around 2.5 years. Have reported to apple and I told them I am willing to pay for an out of warranty battery replacement. Took to local apple store and was told that the watch is not eligible for a battery replacement at HK$629 (since can not power on at all). They can only offer me a full watch "repair" for HK$2349. This is higher than the retail price of a brand new current apple watch. This is despite the fact that it could be seen that watch and packaging were in pristine condition and the watch according to the geniuses ipad, was never activated for usage. Which it never was, as it is brand new from my perspective. I insisted that they take the watch in for a better inspection. It was shipped to the regional service centre in Singapore. The reply was that it is a motherboard AND battery issue. I am still being asked to pay for HK$2349 in order to get a repair done. I am convinced that a battery only replacement will revive the watch, but my only option now is to take back the watch and go to a third party repair outlet for a battery replacement or just put the watch in the bin. I have searched but do not see any other person similar issue on this forum. I have found thread in official apple forum with 86 other people in same situation, but no solution. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8124336. Does anyone have a better solution?
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