iPhone 6(S)/Plus iPhone 6 Apple Store battery replacement garbage

[RudySnow]

I went to the Apple Store Polaris in Columbus, OH, today, to replace my battery for the $29 charge. You can see from the attached picture that at one point, I dropped my phone, and the metal around the headphone jack cracked. I was afraid of what was next after reading Genius Bar horror stories over battery swaps.

An Apple support member, “J.T.,” stated that he conferred with “three techs” who all said they wouldn’t touch the phone—whether I needed anything done on it or not as my 2014 phone is out of warranty. I could either leave or replace the entire phone for $299. The issue they saw was that it would be “impossible” to replace the battery without the front popping off permanently, and the phone “probably suffered internal damage.”

I don’t even use the jack (I use the lightning dongle), but in any event, I can STILL put a jack in the hole and the jack works fine. “J.T.” wouldn’t hear any of it, just repeating that Apple “doesn’t repair damaged iPhone 6 phones.” NOTHING is wrong with this phone but this crack, and I was told no one will replace the battery. This guy’s smug attitude didn’t make me any happier, but, then again, welcome to the Apple Store.

I left, went upstairs at the mall, and paid $40 to a third-party kiosk to swap with an Apple-branded battery. I got the phone back, and it works like a new phone again. Took ten minutes.

“J.T.” told me that Apple wouldn’t even replace the “shell” of the phone, equating it to “replacing the entire chassis of your car.” That’s rich—if my car has a dent, I can still get a battery replaced without swapping out my car’s shell. It was clear that Apple was looking to force me to either upgrade or pay $300+tax for a simple fix. I’m disgusted with this level of “customer service.”

 

[JPack]

Your phone's condition is a perfect candidate for Touch Disease. Once it gets dropped like that, there's a good chance it will be affected later.

On the iPhone 6, the chips on the logic board are not glued with underfill. As a result, bent or dropped phones are likely to experience TD down the road. Apple doesn't want to be responsible for it.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

I went to the Apple Store Polaris in Columbus, OH, today, to replace my battery for the $29 charge. You can see from the attached picture that at one point, I dropped my phone, and the metal around the headphone jack cracked. I was afraid of what was next after reading Genius Bar horror stories over battery swaps.

An Apple support member, “J.T.,” stated that he conferred with “three techs” who all said they wouldn’t touch the phone—whether I needed anything done on it or not as my 2014 phone is out of warranty. I could either leave or replace the entire phone for $299. The issue they saw was that it would be “impossible” to replace the battery without the front popping off permanently, and the phone “probably suffered internal damage.”

I don’t even use the jack (I use the lightning dongle), but in any event, I can STILL put a jack in the hole and the jack works fine. “J.T.” wouldn’t hear any of it, just repeating that Apple “doesn’t repair damaged iPhone 6 phones.” NOTHING is wrong with this phone but this crack, and I was told no one will replace the battery. This guy’s smug attitude didn’t make me any happier, but, then again, welcome to the Apple Store.

I left, went upstairs at the mall, and paid $40 to a third-party kiosk to swap with an Apple-branded battery. I got the phone back, and it works like a new phone again. Took ten minutes.

“J.T.” told me that Apple wouldn’t even replace the “shell” of the phone, equating it to “replacing the entire chassis of your car.” That’s rich—if my car has a dent, I can still get a battery replaced without swapping out my car’s shell. It was clear that Apple was looking to force me to either upgrade or pay $300+tax for a simple fix. I’m disgusted with this level of “customer service.”

If you consider that minor damage I’d hate to see what you consider major damage looks like...

 

[RudySnow]

Your phone's condition is a perfect candidate for Touch Disease. Once it gets dropped like that, there's a good chance it will be affected later.

On the iPhone 6, the chips on the logic board are not glued with underfill. As a result, bent or dropped phones are likely to experience TD down the road. Apple doesn't want to be responsible for it.

Sure, but that would be a separate issue (repair) vs. battery swap. Since I dropped the phone over 30 months ago and I haven’t had any such issues, this isn’t a problem with my phone. (Apple isn’t responsible for damage from accidents anyway.)
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If you consider that minor damage I’d hate to see what you consider major damage looks like...

Screen shatter, water spill, damaged internals, etc., which strongly impedes the use of the phone, vs. a cosmetic dent that doesn’t affect phone performance at all.

 

[JPack]

Sure, but that would be a separate issue (repair) vs. battery swap. Since I dropped the phone over 30 months ago and I haven’t had any such issues, this isn’t a problem with my phone. (Apple isn’t responsible for damage from accidents anyway.)

Touch Disease doesn't happen overnight. It happens after drops and bends. After that, normal vibrations (such as putting your phone on a table or hard surface) accelerates the process. The solder points on the chips slowly lose connection with the logic board.

Replacing the battery requires physically prying 4 connectors from the logic board: display, front camera, finger print sensor, and power.

The entire process places bending stresses on the logic board, which has already experienced stress from an obvious hard drop.

Apple is responsible for warrantying your device for 90 days after the battery replacement. TD is much more likely to happen after a battery repair due to the above mentioned stress. Apple simply doesn't want to be responsible for this.

You're thinking this is only a cosmetic issue. From an engineering perspective, your phone is not in a serviceable condition in terms of reliability.

 

[RudySnow]

Touch Disease doesn't happen overnight. It happens after drops and bends. After that, normal vibrations (such as putting your phone on a table or hard surface) accelerates the process. The solder points on the chips slowly lose connection with the logic board.

Replacing the battery requires physically prying 4 connectors from the logic board: display, front camera, finger print sensor, and power.

The entire process places bending stresses on the logic board, which has already experienced stress from an obvious hard drop.

Apple is responsible for warrantying your device for 90 days after the battery replacement. TD is much more likely to happen after a battery repair due to the above mentioned stress. Apple simply doesn't want to be responsible for this.

You're thinking this is only a cosmetic issue. From an engineering perspective, your phone is not in a serviceable condition in terms of reliability.

From my understanding, this issue was an engineering flaw that only affected the iPhone 6S, which Apple acknowledged with a replacement program instituted in 2016. Again, I would strongly assume that “Touch Disease” would’ve developed in my iPhone 6 by now if this was a real concern.

 

[JPack]

From my understanding, this issue was an engineering flaw that only affected the iPhone 6S, which Apple acknowledged with a replacement program instituted in 2016. Again, I would strongly assume that “Touch Disease” would’ve developed in my iPhone 6 by now if this was a real concern.

You can use Google to determine that Touch Disease is an iPhone 6 series problem. The iPhone 6s uses much stronger 7000 series aluminum and bend tests support this.

Touch Disease is often slow to show up. Phones are engineered to handle a certain amount of everyday, cumulative vibration over the lifetime of the device. A drop significantly decreases that lifetime, particularly with iPhone 6 due to Apple choosing not to secure chips with underfill. Every day vibrations from the vibration motor or handling will continue to decrease the lifetime of those soldered connections.

Is Touch Disease guaranteed to happen after a drop? No, but the chances are much higher. As I mentioned, prying the connectors on the logic board makes this even more likely.

 

[RudySnow]

You can use Google to determine that Touch Disease is an iPhone 6 series problem. The iPhone 6s uses much stronger 7000 series aluminum and bend tests support this.

Touch Disease is often slow to show up. Phones are engineered to handle a certain amount of everyday, cumulative vibration over the lifetime of the device. A drop significantly decreases that lifetime, particularly with iPhone 6 due to Apple choosing not to secure chips with underfill. Every day vibrations from the vibration motor or handling will continue to decrease the lifetime of those soldered connections.

Is Touch Disease guaranteed to happen after a drop? No, but the chances are much higher. As I mentioned, prying the connectors on the logic board makes this even more likely.

I appreciate your knowledge. If the Apple rep would've explained the issue with me in this manner, rather than treat me like a three-year-old, I would've been more understanding. I guess my biggest concern was simply being told, "we're not fixing this or anything else on your phone" and just given the option of a refurbished replacement was frustrating. I don't have a good history with polite support from this particular store in general, so I should've expected what I heard, I suppose.

BTW... I won't "Google" the source, but I will "DuckDuckGo" it!

 

[macsrcool1234]

If they open the phone and replace the battery and find themselves unable to close it back up properly because of the damage, then they lose out.

I wouldn't have touched this phone either. You damaged the phone and they rightfully rejected a repair. Tough luck. Put a case on the next one.

And I say this has a huge Apple criticizer (see my post history).

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Sure, but that would be a separate issue (repair) vs. battery swap. Since I dropped the phone over 30 months ago and I haven’t had any such issues, this isn’t a problem with my phone. (Apple isn’t responsible for damage from accidents anyway.)
[doublepost=1526682609][/doublepost]

Screen shatter, water spill, damaged internals, etc., which strongly impedes the use of the phone, vs. a cosmetic dent that doesn’t affect phone performance at all.

I don't know what you mean by "not responsible for damage from accidents anyway." True, their warranty does not cover accidents, but as a repair shop, if they agree to repair something that has physical damage, they need to be reasonably sure they can perform a satisfactory repair, at the quoted price, despite the damage.

It doesn't matter whether you tell them, "It's been working fine for 30 months." If they pry open the unit and find pre-existing damage, or if something that was nearly broken before the repair becomes completely broken because of opening/repairing, who will be held responsible?

Maybe they could have said, "We'll try to do the battery for $29, but if anything goes wrong or we find additional problems that prevent a successful repair, we'll have to charge you $299 for a replacement." Would you have agreed to those terms in advance?

Even then, since the repair is covered by a 90-day warranty... can they be sure, if they only replaced the battery, that they wouldn't see the iPhone back in the shop, at Apple's expense, a month or two later?

Apple, being a very large organization, has polices and procedures for everything (including the kinds of damage that rule-out a simple battery replacement). However, as in most very large organizations, the detailed, complex reasoning behind command decisions is not relayed to the troops in the trenches. So when a customer disagrees with the company's policy, it's not necessarily reasonable to expect a foot soldier to provide a complete, satisfying explanation of that policy.

 

[apolloa]

I went to the Apple Store Polaris in Columbus, OH, today, to replace my battery for the $29 charge. You can see from the attached picture that at one point, I dropped my phone, and the metal around the headphone jack cracked. I was afraid of what was next after reading Genius Bar horror stories over battery swaps.

An Apple support member, “J.T.,” stated that he conferred with “three techs” who all said they wouldn’t touch the phone—whether I needed anything done on it or not as my 2014 phone is out of warranty. I could either leave or replace the entire phone for $299. The issue they saw was that it would be “impossible” to replace the battery without the front popping off permanently, and the phone “probably suffered internal damage.”

I don’t even use the jack (I use the lightning dongle), but in any event, I can STILL put a jack in the hole and the jack works fine. “J.T.” wouldn’t hear any of it, just repeating that Apple “doesn’t repair damaged iPhone 6 phones.” NOTHING is wrong with this phone but this crack, and I was told no one will replace the battery. This guy’s smug attitude didn’t make me any happier, but, then again, welcome to the Apple Store.

I left, went upstairs at the mall, and paid $40 to a third-party kiosk to swap with an Apple-branded battery. I got the phone back, and it works like a new phone again. Took ten minutes.

“J.T.” told me that Apple wouldn’t even replace the “shell” of the phone, equating it to “replacing the entire chassis of your car.” That’s rich—if my car has a dent, I can still get a battery replaced without swapping out my car’s shell. It was clear that Apple was looking to force me to either upgrade or pay $300+tax for a simple fix. I’m disgusted with this level of “customer service.”

Whilst your damage is bad, I bet your screen didn’t crack? This is a tactic being used by Apple to not replace batteries, look at the phone in this news report, the photo at the top, a tiny little dent and Apple refused to replace the battery:

http://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/technology-43960267

Apple is a disgrace with this whole issue.

 

[qadirk]

Whilst your damage is bad, I bet your screen didn’t crack? This is a tacti beingnused by Apple to not replace batteries, look at the phone in this news report, the photo at the top, a tiny little dent and Apple refused to replace the battery:

http://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/technology-43960267

Apple is a disgrace with this whole issue.

This post rounds up all the “drama” behind replacement of batteries.

Thanks!

 

[C DM]

Whilst your damage is bad, I bet your screen didn’t crack? This is a tactic being used by Apple to not replace batteries, look at the phone in this news report, the photo at the top, a tiny little dent and Apple refused to replace the battery:

http://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/technology-43960267

Apple is a disgrace with this whole issue.

Seems like it's being applied fairly rationally here. That doesn't mean that's the case in all cases though.

 

[qadirk]

Seems like it's being applied fairly rationally here. That doesn't mean that's the case in all cases though.

Agreed. Not to malign Apple’s policy making but it clearly shows its same across the board. The dent in the post was pea sized btw....

 

[apolloa]

Seems like it's being applied fairly rationally here. That doesn't mean that's the case in all cases though.

If Apple didn’t deliberately throttle phones in the first place I’d agree but as they did.....
They have been using it as en excuse, and here in the UK it’s not actually a policy. It’s not in their warranty etc information.

 

[C DM]

If Apple didn’t deliberately throttle phones in the first place I’d agree but as they did.....
They have been using it as en excuse, and here in the UK it’s not actually a policy. It’s not in their warranty etc information.

The throttling can be disabled which makes that part it fairly moot in relation to this.

 

[apolloa]

The throttling can be disabled which makes that part it fairly moot in relation to this.

You mean the throttling that can be disabled only after iOS 11.3 which was a direct result only of Apple being caught doing it, red handed. And you don’t think they still after throttling millions of phones and not telling anyone until caught and forced to, are trustworthy with battery replacement policy?

 

[RudySnow]

You mean the throttling that can be disabled only after iOS 11.3 which was a direct result only of Apple being caught doing it, red handed. And you don’t think they still after throttling millions of phones and not telling anyone until caught and forced to, are trustworthy with battery replacement policy?

Exactly.

The funny thing is, after a battery replacement, my iPhone runs like a brand new phone with absolutely zero throttling (I’m on 11.4b6). I don’t understand why battery capacity has to affect application speed. Disabling the intentionally obvious throttling in Settings > Battery didn’t really matter with my old battery, depleted to 80% max capacity.

 

[s15119]

You smashed your phone. It's not Apple's fault. Full stop.

 

[RudySnow]

You smashed your phone. It's not Apple's fault. Full stop.

No kidding, the damage I caused to the phone is not Apple’s fault. What the hell is your point??

 

[C DM]

You mean the throttling that can be disabled only after iOS 11.3 which was a direct result only of Apple being caught doing it, red handed. And you don’t think they still after throttling millions of phones and not telling anyone until caught and forced to, are trustworthy with battery replacement policy?

Seems like the context of my post to which you replied is being lost with additions of things that weren't part of it:

Seems like it's being applied fairly rationally here. That doesn't mean that's the case in all cases though.

 

[Matthew.H]

No kidding, the damage I caused to the phone is not Apple’s fault. What the hell is your point??

His point is that Apple would have to warranty the repair for 90 days. If for example the headphone jack failed after the repair which wouldn't be surprising given the state that's it's in, Apple would be liable to fix your phone because a part of the phone failed after they had worked on it.

I would consider the damage to you phone rather more than minor, more like major structural damage.
Ultimately Apple probably doesn't want to fix phones that are damaged to the point of something likely braking during or after the battery replacement.

 

[darngooddesign]

Not sure why you're upset. Apple has the right to refuse repair and a damaged phone, which they did, and you took it to a kiosk and have a new battery. How is this a problem?

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Exactly.

The funny thing is, after a battery replacement, my iPhone runs like a brand new phone with absolutely zero throttling (I’m on 11.4b6). I don’t understand why battery capacity has to affect application speed. Disabling the intentionally obvious throttling in Settings > Battery didn’t really matter with my old battery, depleted to 80% max capacity.

There are two different aspects of battery capacity/condition. One is the long-term capacity (displayed as a percentage on your iPhone), the other is the ability to deliver short-term bursts at higher power (actually, higher current). Some applications perform tasks that demand short-term bursts of high CPU power. If the battery can't deliver the higher current (amperage) the CPU needs, the CPU may have to shut down. That's the "unexpected shutdowns" people were encountering in 2016 and 2017, before Apple started automatically throttling CPUs with aging batteries.

Older batteries have a harder time delivering bursts of power than newer batteries, just like you and I are less likely to run at sprint speeds as we get older. It's called "chemical aging." It's similar to "cold-cranking power" in a lead-acid car battery. Older car batteries have a tougher time starting an engine in cold weather - they can still deliver 12 volts, but they can't deliver the peak amperage they once could. This is the primary reason people replace their car batteries.

What I don't understand is why people expect battery-powered smartphones to be fundamentally different than all the other battery-powered stuff we've been using for well over a century (1884 - first practical production-model battery-powered car, 1899 first dry cell flashlight). Fresh batteries work far better than old batteries. It's physics and chemistry. The perpetual motion machine has yet to be invented.

 

[Mrbobb]

See Rossman youtube videos if you want to join the Apple rant. It is what it is. The elephant dictates the rules. If it makes u feel better, according to Rossman, iPhone parts are easier and cheaper to obtain than Androids. But ya, if you want Apple hands to touch your phone and nobody else, u pay, or even refused service.