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Out of Warranty Battery Replacement

LogicalApex

LogicalApex

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 13, 2015
1,562
2,708
PA, USA
Has anyone done an out of warranty battery replacement on their Apple Watch. I have a Series 0 SS Apple Watch and I'm amazed at the pushback I received in the Apple Store attempting to just get a simple battery replacement done. Is this what I can normally expect from Apple Stores in regards to service?

My Series 0 Apple Watch is over 3 years old so Apple Care has expired and it is out of warranty. I expected to pay the Out of Warranty battery price to replace the battery as the battery life isn't holding up as well as it used to for me. Apple lists this price as $79.

https://support.apple.com/watch/repair/service/pricing

What I thought would be a simple in and out deal turned into over an hour of diagnostics and the Apple Store employee constantly telling me that the battery tests fine and that they likely won't replace the battery because it passes diagnostics, but I can send it to the depot anyway and "hope" they replace it. He also noted on the work order that Apple may decide to charge me more to replace the battery if they replace it anyway and the battery tests fine.

Screen Shot 2018-10-21 at 1.03.02 PM.png

Why would I have to "hope" that my battery is replaced when I'm paying explicitly for a battery replacement out of warranty? Also, does Apple routinely jack up the price on battery replacements when they arbitrarily determine it is a "good" battery? I can understand Apple pushing back on Apple Care or warrantied battery replacements, but I can't understand them pushing back here.
 
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LogicalApex said:
Has anyone done an out of warranty battery replacement on their Apple Watch. I have a Series 0 SS Apple Watch and I'm amazed at the pushback I received in the Apple Store attempting to just get a simple battery replacement done. Is this what I can normally expect from Apple Stores in regards to service?

My Series 0 Apple Watch is over 3 years old so Apple Care has expired and it is out of warranty. I expected to pay the Out of Warranty battery price to replace the battery as the battery life isn't holding up as well as it used to for me. Apple lists this price as $79.

https://support.apple.com/watch/repair/service/pricing

What I thought would be a simple in and out deal turned into over an hour of diagnostics and the Apple Store employee constantly telling me that the battery tests fine and that they likely won't replace the battery because it passes diagnostics, but I can send it to the depot anyway and "hope" they replace it. He also noted on the work order that Apple may decide to charge me more to replace the battery if they replace it anyway and the battery tests fine.

View attachment 797144

Why would I have to "hope" that my battery is replaced when I'm paying explicitly for a battery replacement out of warranty? Also, does Apple routinely jack up the price on battery replacements when they arbitrarily determine it is a "good" battery? I can understand Apple pushing back on Apple Care or warrantied battery replacements, but I can't understand them pushing back here.
Click to expand...
The diagnostics they are running are telling them your battery is fine. Maybe try setting up the watch as new and see how it performs.
I know it makes sense that your battery may be old enough to need replacing, but my experience with Apple's diagnostics tells me that they are usually pretty accurate.
It's possible your battery is fine and doesn't need to be replaced.

If you still have reduced battery life after setting up your watch as new, I would escalate the issue.
 
What?

if you want to replace the battery (doesnt matter if it is a good or bad - old is old), it is not $79 as listed but something else?
 
tromboneaholic said:
I know it makes sense that your battery may be old enough to need replacing, but my experience with Apple's diagnostics tells me that they are usually pretty accurate.
Click to expand...

I don't fault Apple for running the diagnostics and letting me know from their tests the battery appears fine. I think that has value for consumers coming in to help them be sure they are making the right decision.

In my case I've done these things and the battery is performing less optimally. Keep in mind that Apple's limit is 80% of charge capacity which for them even a 20% loss in battery life is still considered OK. I'm not asking them for a free replacement here so I should be allowed to say a 10% loss isn't OK...

mrex said:
What?

if you want to replace the battery (doesnt matter if it is a good or bad - old is old), it is not $79 as listed but something else?
Click to expand...

This is what confuses me the most. That the posted battery replacement price appears to be inaccurate somehow and that they can arbitrarily decide when a replacement is "warranted" even though I'm paying explicitly for this.
 
This is just a guess, but maybe the fact that your battery passes the diagnostic means their could conceivably be another reason for reduced battery life which is why they caution it could cost more.

I'm not saying it's not the battery, but it makes sense for Apple to warn customers that request a battery replacement after it passes the diagnostic that the repair may be more if there is another issue that is draining the battery.
 
I would be pretty upset in that situation myself. What did the store manager have to say?

I honestly don’t even know what I would say, that sounds like a terrible customer experience to me.
 
Not a watch, but I wanted my iPhone 6 battery replacing since they are doing them for £25 or so at Apple stores. They tested it as fine but they replaced it anyway. I was really pleased with the service.
 
Yeah, something smells very fishy here. If they charge you anything over and above the advertised price of the service that's called bait and switch, and it's illegal. If they want to come up with a bunch of reasons why they can't do it for the advertised price, then they should just refuse to replace it.
 
Another reason I would replace the battery, even if it tests fine, is that it won't be too long before Apple stops supporting a s0 watch (which is why I got my iphone 6 battery replaced).
 
srshaw said:
Not a watch, but I wanted my iPhone 6 battery replacing since they are doing them for £25 or so at Apple stores. They tested it as fine but they replaced it anyway. I was really pleased with the service.
Click to expand...

why would they test the battery if you go to a store and say ”replace it because it is old and worn”? i dont care if the past the test or not, 3yo battery is old and lost its full potential. mine is already 82% from max and i want to get it replaced.

does this mean that you are stuck with the old, worm battery in your phone/watch if they refuse to replace it because it passed the test? or they might charge wth some arbitrary number?
 
mrex said:
does this mean that you are stuck with the old, worm battery in your phone/watch if they refuse to replace it because it passed the test? or they might charge wth some arbitrary number?
Click to expand...
No.
It means if there is something else wrong with your device besides the battery, they won't repair it for the same price as replacing the battery.
 
tromboneaholic said:
This is just a guess, but maybe the fact that your battery passes the diagnostic means their could conceivably be another reason for reduced battery life which is why they caution it could cost more.

I'm not saying it's not the battery, but it makes sense for Apple to warn customers that request a battery replacement after it passes the diagnostic that the repair may be more if there is another issue that is draining the battery.
Click to expand...

That doesn’t make a lot of sense. If this other issue wasn’t present at the in-Store diagnostic session then they should replace the battery as paid for. If I were to return with the issue persisteing and the replacement battery tests fine then it makes sense to pursue other avenues.

I will report back how this ends up. But it has left a pretty sour taste in my mouth. Apple is saying they may not honor their own battery replacement pricing.

Apple diagnostics is OK with a 20% capacity loss. This makes sense from a warranty perspective but I am not seeking a warranty replacement.

Additionally, as srshaw noted earlier. I may not have this option soon so getting the battery replaced now isn’t a bad idea anyway.
 
"what's the criteria battery test to fail?
have anyone come across same situation ?
 
tromboneaholic said:
No.
It means if there is something else wrong with your device besides the battery, they won't repair it for the same price as replacing the battery.
Click to expand...
I mean, if there's anything else wrong with the watch the first culprit would probably be watchOS 4. I noticed a big decline in battery life as soon as I installed it, and it continued beyond the initial 1-2 day indexing period.
 
mrex said:
why would they test the battery if you go to a store and say ”replace it because it is old and worn”? i dont care if the past the test or not, 3yo battery is old and lost its full potential. mine is already 82% from max and i want to get it replaced.

does this mean that you are stuck with the old, worm battery in your phone/watch if they refuse to replace it because it passed the test? or they might charge wth some arbitrary number?
Click to expand...

I assumed to avoid the unnecessary expense of replacing a battery that works, but as you say, my iPhone 6 is 4 years old, so I don't care if it passes test, it won't last for ever and at the reduced prices, it was a no brainer.

I find it odd that Apple refuse to replace batteries if the customer is happy to pay. At the regular price, they must make money.
 
The watch was able to get a battery replacement via a refurbish swap for the S0 SS as I expected. There was no surprise charges either. So the pickup experience was a lot smoother than the first half of this.
 
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LogicalApex said:
The watch was able to get a battery replacement via a refurbish swap for the S0 SS as I expected. There was no surprise charges either. So the pickup experience was a lot smoother than the first half of this.
Click to expand...
Sounds like it went well in the end, but the communication from Apple could have been better.

Did they give you another first-generation watch?
 
tromboneaholic said:
Sounds like it went well in the end, but the communication from Apple could have been better.

Did they give you another first-generation watch?
Click to expand...

The communication from Apple could have been a lot better. The whole ordeal dropping it off for repair took far too long and was far too unpleasant. Still has a sour taste in my mouth. I understand the arguments being made that they are pressuring you to upgrade as the pressure and fear pushed of dumping up to $250 may encourage a user to upgrade.

Yep, they gave me another first generation watch.
 
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