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If Apple says battery is good, can I still pay them to put a new one?

S

snarestud940

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 3, 2012
517
28
Hey everyone,

Little pissed because my iphone 5 battery has been draining quickly under 50 percent. Usually ok until 50 but after that I notice it drops from 54 to 38 in 2 or 3 seconds. Then down to 3. Shuts off. They turns on at 24. Weird.

Anyway I did an iBackupbot and saw it had a full charge capacity of 1200 with only 182 cycles. That seemed low to me?

I made an appointment for the Genius Bar at 1020 tomorrow morning. What I'm asking is, does apple replace the battery in the store? Or do they just give u a new phone? It is still under warranty and I also have AppleCare plus.

Also, if they hook up the battery and say that it is fine and I can't get it for free under warranty, can I still pay them $79 to put a new one in? Or will they not do that unless the battery needs replacing?

Sorry for all the questions. Really angry about this. Phone was purchased on April 10th.
 
snarestud940 said:
Hey everyone,

Little pissed because my iphone 5 battery has been draining quickly under 50 percent. Usually ok until 50 but after that I notice it drops from 54 to 38 in 2 or 3 seconds. Then down to 3. Shuts off. They turns on at 24. Weird.

Anyway I did an iBackupbot and saw it had a full charge capacity of 1200 with only 182 cycles. That seemed low to me?

I made an appointment for the Genius Bar at 1020 tomorrow morning. What I'm asking is, does apple replace the battery in the store? Or do they just give u a new phone? It is still under warranty and I also have AppleCare plus.

Also, if they hook up the battery and say that it is fine and I can't get it for free under warranty, can I still pay them $79 to put a new one in? Or will they not do that unless the battery needs replacing?

Sorry for all the questions. Really angry about this. Phone was purchased on April 10th.
Click to expand...

They just give you a new phone.
 
1200ma/h after *only* 182 cycles seems low indeed. Apple will decide whether that warrants a replacement. But of course if you insist to change battery anyway, it's YOUR money, they shouldn't care.

I assume u already gone through all the troubleshooting.
 
You mentioned you have applecare+...if your willing to spend $79(just for a new battery) then you can just get a new phone, no?
 
paul.p said:
You mentioned you have applecare+...if your willing to spend $79(just for a new battery) then you can just get a new phone, no?
Click to expand...

Is this accidental damage? Nope.

If Apples agrees there is a battery/hardware problem then they will do whatever free.
 
I went to the Apple Store this morning, and pretty much fought with the girl after she said that my battery was near 100%. She said that it may be because some of my notifications are constantly going off.

I went to see the manager, and he replaced my phone under the warranty. He said that it will be a new phone, not a refurbished phone!

I'm restarting my phone from back up right now. It says I have zero cycle counts, and a full charge capacity of 1385. I assume that will go up once I use the phone?
 
If Apple says battery is good, can I still pay them to put a new one?

snarestud940 said:
I went to the Apple Store this morning, and pretty much fought with the girl after she said that my battery was near 100%. She said that it may be because some of my notifications are constantly going off.



I went to see the manager, and he replaced my phone under the warranty. He said that it will be a new phone, not a refurbished phone!



I'm restarting my phone from back up right now. It says I have zero cycle counts, and a full charge capacity of 1385. I assume that will go up once I use the phone?
Click to expand...


Don't think the full charge capacity will increase by much, good that they replaced the phone for you. It will be a refurb/white box phone rather than a new sealed box I'm sure.
 
Mrbobb said:
1200ma/h after *only* 182 cycles seems low indeed. Apple will decide whether that warrants a replacement. But of course if you insist to change battery anyway, it's YOUR money, they shouldn't care.

I assume u already gone through all the troubleshooting.
Click to expand...
1200 mAh is above 84-85 %, so the battery is in a good shape and they aren't going to replace it for free.
But of course he can wastes his money with a new battery.

----------
snarestud940 said:
I went to the Apple Store this morning, and pretty much fought with the girl after she said that my battery was near 100%. She said that it may be because some of my notifications are constantly going off.

I went to see the manager, and he replaced my phone under the warranty. He said that it will be a new phone, not a refurbished phone!

I'm restarting my phone from back up right now. It says I have zero cycle counts, and a full charge capacity of 1385. I assume that will go up once I use the phone?
Click to expand...

You were lucky ....

Your new battery could improve slightly after 10-20 cycles, and could not improve.
 
snarestud940 said:
I'm restarting my phone from back up right now. It says I have zero cycle counts, and a full charge capacity of 1385. I assume that will go up once I use the phone?
Click to expand...

Well I hope it makes a difference, else you will have to play tech analyst.
 
snarestud940 said:
Hey everyone,

Little pissed because my iphone 5 battery has been draining quickly under 50 percent. Usually ok until 50 but after that I notice it drops from 54 to 38 in 2 or 3 seconds. Then down to 3. Shuts off. They turns on at 24. Weird.

Anyway I did an iBackupbot and saw it had a full charge capacity of 1200 with only 182 cycles. That seemed low to me?

I made an appointment for the Genius Bar at 1020 tomorrow morning. What I'm asking is, does apple replace the battery in the store? Or do they just give u a new phone? It is still under warranty and I also have AppleCare plus.

Also, if they hook up the battery and say that it is fine and I can't get it for free under warranty, can I still pay them $79 to put a new one in? Or will they not do that unless the battery needs replacing?

Sorry for all the questions. Really angry about this. Phone was purchased on April 10th.
Click to expand...
they give you a new phone (possibly refurbished).and they will do it if you ask (even if they say the battery is fine)- most likely if the battery were fine (even though it sounds like it isn't) they would recommend you do something such as charge it overnight then completely drain it and recharge it completely. Just tell them the story and they will understand and your problem isn't that uncommon similar sure u can work it out...
 
oVerboost said:
Don't think the full charge capacity will increase by much, good that they replaced the phone for you. It will be a refurb/white box phone rather than a new sealed box I'm sure.
Click to expand...

I asked the girl. I said it was a refurb correct? She said no. That in the state of Connecticut, it is a law that they mark refurbs. This was not marked.
 
snarestud940 said:
I asked the girl. I said it was a refurb correct? She said no. That in the state of Connecticut, it is a law that they mark refurbs. This was not marked.
Click to expand...


Maybe, but if it's not a sealed box it's more than likely a white box/refurb regardless what they said. In reality, you'd never know either way. How's it performing so far?
 
oVerboost said:
Maybe, but if it's not a sealed box it's more than likely a white box/refurb regardless what they said. In reality, you'd never know either way. How's it performing so far?
Click to expand...

Haha it's true u will never know.

It's great so far. Just used it yesterday from 98 % to about 31%.

Didn't have the problem my old phone did. So it my opinion, it was clearly the battery. Full charge capacity in this phone is 1341. I assume that is standard when the cycle count is 1?
 
snarestud940 said:
Didn't have the problem my old phone did. So it my opinion, it was clearly the battery. Full charge capacity in this phone is 1341. I assume that is standard when the cycle count is 1?
Click to expand...

The mAh rating is highly variable and there are many factors that can cause it to change. Honestly, if your battery life is good, don't worry about it.
 
snarestud940 said:
Very. We're lucky if it hit 20 the past week.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is more likely the problem. Yes, your old phone battery was slightly degraded. But when exposed to the same cold conditions, your repalcement phone will still get shorter battery life.
 
I think your old iPhone just needed proper battery calibration.

If they said it was near 100% in health then the problem is going to be calibration, apps or environment like cold ;)
 
snarestud940 said:
Haha it's true u will never know.

It's great so far. Just used it yesterday from 98 % to about 31%.

Didn't have the problem my old phone did. So it my opinion, it was clearly the battery. Full charge capacity in this phone is 1341. I assume that is standard when the cycle count is 1?
Click to expand...

On a iPhone 5 ? The designed maximum capacity is 1440 ... Btw not all the brand new batteries can reach that value, so 1341 could be an acceptable value (considering that iBackupBot reading isn't that accurate itself).
 
T5BRICK said:
The mAh rating is highly variable and there are many factors that can cause it to change. Honestly, if your battery life is good, don't worry about it.
Click to expand...

Just had 8 cycles. Now went up to a full charge capacity of 1416.
 
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