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Lesson learned: don't buy a MacBook Pro battery off eBay
- Thread starter yousifabdullah
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I'd love to hear what everyone thinks of buying a MBP battery by Anker. They seem to generally get good reviews on Amazon.
But given how much of everything is made in China these days, I wouldn't be surprised if a battery by Anker is simply outsourced from China and repackaged.
But given how much of everything is made in China these days, I wouldn't be surprised if a battery by Anker is simply outsourced from China and repackaged.
I purchased a replacement battery for my old aluminum MacBook from Ebay. It was extremely inexpensive, I think around $25. The listing never claimed it was an "original" Apple battery so it wasn't a knock off. It arrived in about 10 days from China.
It worked well for about 1.5 years then it started to swell up slightly and cause anomalies to the keyboard. The fact that it began to swell up may very well be due to how often I leave it plugged in. I had the same thing happen to two original Apple batteries that were purchased from Apple directly for an old white MacBook.
I just went ahead and purchased another from Ebay. $25 for a battery that lasts 1.5 years seems fair.
It worked well for about 1.5 years then it started to swell up slightly and cause anomalies to the keyboard. The fact that it began to swell up may very well be due to how often I leave it plugged in. I had the same thing happen to two original Apple batteries that were purchased from Apple directly for an old white MacBook.
I just went ahead and purchased another from Ebay. $25 for a battery that lasts 1.5 years seems fair.
Never buy battery off eBay. Buy off Amazon, and check reviews, and even then it's a gamble.
I've brought several iPhone chargers & cables off both eBay and Amazon, and it's always 50/50 as to if they work or not.
After seeing that webpage showing the safety shortcuts taken in making a cheap iPhone charger knock-off, I now avoid non-Apple chargers, end of story.
I've brought several iPhone chargers & cables off both eBay and Amazon, and it's always 50/50 as to if they work or not.
After seeing that webpage showing the safety shortcuts taken in making a cheap iPhone charger knock-off, I now avoid non-Apple chargers, end of story.
I'm afraid I already made the mistake. I bought a Nupower from OWC and it didn't fit correctly. I sent back and purchased the same OEM on eBay for half the price. Should have known. As soon as I received I could immediately tell it was not Apple product. The plastic housing was made cheap and rough and the bottom was scratched up and did not look new, not even refurbished. Even the stickers were crooked and cheap. I know Apple and that have high tolerances on their quality. It had the same black tape over the"Designed by Apple..." I didn't not know why this was in there. Now I do. It was covering up the name Apple. I have not checked the spelling of California but I will. I will be sending this back as it was shipped out of NY, but the company is out of China. I'm not risking putting this in my $2,600 MBP and have it burn something up as Lion batteries are extremely dangerous and no corners can be cut on them. Bootleg is a multi-billion dollar industry and so eBay is flooded with this crap. Very disappointed in what eBay has become a market for. Amazon is starting to get just as bad. They should vet these companies more, but they don't want to turn down the business. Which is sad.
Well, for me, it's either a bootleg or no battery at all since Apple stopped selling batteries for my old laptop years ago. For what it's worth, the bootleg I have in my MacBook right now has been in use for almost 2 years now and cost me only $25.
Well I went to to Apple discussion thread where someone who was a Tier 2 Apple service agent posted a linked to a website www.powerbookmedic.com where he said they would get parts, which is weird considering that if they were Apple agents why they were getting from a third party. Any way they sell new and used OEM. They have one left for my MBP at $199 and 7 used for $24.95. The used are said to be at 80% or above capacity. Well mine is a 83% and won't last more than an hour so I guess the used are for ppl who want just a little life, but I think it's pointless if you have a laptop. I could install this bootleg and have no problems or I could install and it overheat and burn up my motherboard, cause glitchy system functionality or the thermal protection could be faulty and worst case blow up or burn something down. It's really is a gamble. Even Apple gets faulty batteries. So if they get them what do you think the tolerance is when it's a known bootleg. Not sure I'm willing to roll the dice. This computer is my work, my life. If something happens to it I'm out a job and over a decade of work. I'm still debating.
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Computers should be fungible. If my MacBook suddenly exploded, I can grab any other computer, even a windows PC and continue uninterrupted. All my work files are on Dropbox, my various personal files and archives are backed up on Time Machine, the contents of my iPhone are all backed up on iCloud.
If you have a decade of work on a single computer, man you're crazy. Sort out a backup system please. Preferably something that keeps running continuously in the background, without needing you to remember to plug in something on a regular basis.
That may work for you but I'm a graphic designer and have years of client files that still need accessing. So maybe not quite a decade, but 7-8 years. I have a NAS that runs incremental backups on a schedule and Time Machine. I DO NOT use PC's period. Having duplicated software on two platforms is expensive. Plus PC's suck and Time Machine backups don't work on PC. Cloud services are ridiculous when you got files 500mb -
1GB or video files and assets over 50GB. Clouds services are not there yet. I work from multiple locations and having a file syncing non-stop or needing Internet constantly isn't feasible. And I have 4 cloud accounts (Dropbox, Box, Google Drive and Adobe CC) so I'm pretty sure I know how they work or lack there of. I only use them for specific files or transferring them between clients. I have over $2,500 invested in the last 17" MBP that was produced. So given they don't produce them anymore, I have to do what it takes to keep it running. So I've already processed my refund to eBay. Unfortunately, there are no OEM parts available even if they are overpriced. They still are not Apple OEM. Guess I'm stuck.
I just looked at www.powerbookmedic.com. They have what appears to be new OEM batteries for my model of MacBook for $150 and they also have one manufactured by a "3rd party" (I read that as bootleg) for $90. Considering how my MacBook is probably worth about $200 or less, I'm not going to invest $150 in to a battery. If I'm going to go 3rd party, why pay $90 when I can go to Amazon or Ebay and find one for about $25?
In your case, your MacBook Pro is still valued at $800+, so I can see why spending a bit more on it might be justifiable. Everyone's situation is different and we just have to weigh the options ourselves.
Also, I have had OEM Apple batteries swell up and cause damage to older polycarbonate MacBooks, so I don't view them as any better than bootlegs. I think that was the breaking point for me and was the point where I decided that if I ever needed a replacement, I would just get whatever is cheap. After having to spend time and money to repair the damage because Apple wouldn't take responsibility for, I wasn't about to pay $150 for an OEM battery.
As I've said before, the $25 bootleg (or "3rd party", if you prefer) battery that I'm using has been functioning very well for about 2 years. I've never experienced any thermal issues or any issues at all, for that matter. By the time this one goes, it's probably time to pick up a new laptop anyway.
In your case, your MacBook Pro is still valued at $800+, so I can see why spending a bit more on it might be justifiable. Everyone's situation is different and we just have to weigh the options ourselves.
Also, I have had OEM Apple batteries swell up and cause damage to older polycarbonate MacBooks, so I don't view them as any better than bootlegs. I think that was the breaking point for me and was the point where I decided that if I ever needed a replacement, I would just get whatever is cheap. After having to spend time and money to repair the damage because Apple wouldn't take responsibility for, I wasn't about to pay $150 for an OEM battery.
As I've said before, the $25 bootleg (or "3rd party", if you prefer) battery that I'm using has been functioning very well for about 2 years. I've never experienced any thermal issues or any issues at all, for that matter. By the time this one goes, it's probably time to pick up a new laptop anyway.
I emailed Powebook Medic about the one they are selling for my model fir $199. I thought it was OEM l, but it says OEM replacement, not official Apple. The brand is theirs. No way I'm gonna for $200 on a 3rd party. I've already started the cancelation process with eBay. I told the seller that their 100% OEM Apple battery was counterfeit and I was going to report to eBay if they didn't refund 100% plus shipping back. It was 8pm and they respond within minutes and a shipping label.
I don't have $2,600 for a new MBP. Plus a 15" for what I got my 17" for, no thanks. Apple has really gone down hill. Now they've pretty much made them non upgradable. Memory and HDDs soldered in and batteries are non replaceable all just for a thinner computer. If there was hackintosh laptop I would be on it. As for now I don't know if I will give the OWC Nutech another shot or not. The one case screw that is needed to hold down the side of the cover where the battery is is stripped thanks to Apple repair. So even if I wanted to batter my to fit flush there is no way to make is cause the screw won't tighten. No way that I know to fix this. Being a unibody with the stripped tab built into the while bottem shell make replacing unfeasible. I've too have had an older MBP battery swell. It was out of warranty and because there was no way to test how many cycles it had, Apple replaced for free. But it was around 3years old when it happened. Yes official Apple doesn't mean it will be perfect, but at least the tolerance will try to be met. With bootlegs they just want it to work long enough to get their money. But risking damage to my logic board or other components is worth it in my cases. Even if my computer is only worth $50. It's the value and necessity I place on it that matters. Thx!