“A Los Angeles-based consumer watchdog group that filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc. in 2006 has called on the company to spell out the iPhone’s battery-replacement policy to prospective buyers,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld in an article headline and subtitled, “Consumer group questions iPhone battery replacement, iPhones must be mailed to Apple for battery swap; all data disappears.”
“In a letter sent Friday (PDF) to Apple CEO Steve Jobs and AT&T Inc. CEO Randall Stephenson, the Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights (FTCR) asked that iPhone battery issues be disclosed in all advertising, before retail sales close and during activation using iTunes ‘to ensure that no customers are misled concerning the performance and effective cost of the unit.’ The letter also urged Apple to provide replacement batteries free of charge throughout the life of the iPhone.”
“Under the iPhone’s standard one-year warranty, Apple will replace the battery free of charge if it drops below 50% of original capacity. This month, Apple will begin selling an $69 extended warranty that stretches the hardware repair coverage, battery included, for an additional year,” Keizer reports.
“To replace the iPhone battery, owners must pay $85.95, then ship the device to Apple,” Keizer reports. “The normal repair time, Apple said in a brief FAQ on iPhone battery replacement, will be three business days. Users, however, will receive a data-free iPhone in return. ‘The repair process will clear all data from your iPhone,’ Apple’s FAQ stated. ‘It is important to sync your iPhone with iTunes to back up your contacts, photos, e-mail account settings, text messages and more. Apple is not responsible for the loss of information while servicing your iPhone and does not offer any data transfer service.’ The program is similar to the one offered to iPod owners, which charges $65.95 to replace a battery and returns the unit sans music and video about a week after Apple receives the device.”
Full article here.
We’re going to issue a letter (we’ll even post it online in PDF format and send out press releases to places like Computerworld, to make it official) that calls on Apple to provide us with free Macs, iPhones, and whatever else we request for life. Somewhere in it, we’ll pretend we’re technologically-illiterate, too, and make a big stink about “all the data disappearing” and ignoring basic concepts like synced data between devices and lithium-based battery maintenance.
Man, oh, man, we hope it works!
Now, that said, we do hope that Apple works on the turnaround time. Three business days on average is long enough to go without an iPod, but it’s just way too long to be without your phone! Apple needs to figure out a way to do it faster (at all Apple and AT&T stores, on the spot, would be best) or get a loaner into users’ hands while they wait.
More info about Apple iPhone batteries: http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html
what are these people smoking?
MW: head “cases”
I’d like free tires for life on all my autos too
I’m sure there’s already an after market battery replacement in the works, just like there is for the iPod, with a handy do it yourself kit.
And if you don’t have the sense to sync your iPhone before you send it off for a battery replacement, maybe you shouldn’t own one.
One word: greedy.
This is probably some “organization” that works out of the home of the director’s Mom.
Free tires?! Man, I want a free car for life.
Lawsuit on their grubby little minds. Perhaps Apple should also detail the manufacturing process to assure customers that the metals used were not adulterated at the factory level? Heck, they should reveal all the coding – who knows what time-triggered little bomblets are hidden in the iPhone’s software code?
Wait another word: stupid.
how much does a replacement battery cost for a razr? sixty bucks?
i think apple’s out of warranty battery replacement program sounds pretty awesome.
and 69 bucks for applecare is pretty sweet.
If Apple is going to basically replace the unit, and keep the one you return, the bigger question is, will they zero out the data on your old phone to ensure that identity thieves cannot retrieve the data using off the shelf data recovery tools.
Groups like the aforementioned are clear evidence that the fittest are not the only ones that survive.
Can they send a letter to Microsoft and Motorola to have them replace my “Q” with one that doesn’t turn off on it’s own, nor stop responding to button presses, and that can hold a charge for more than 3 hours of talk-time? This is class-action fodder. Everyone I know that has a “Q” has the same issues. I’m on my second one.
Dicks.
First, the battery make last for years. Why bring this up when there are no indications it will be an issue.
Soecnd, the bloody phone can easily back up everything before you send it off. Who cares if your info is wiped.
Third, by the time anybody needs this sevice, Apple will have a 24 h or less return service.
Last word: idiots.
And free ice cream. It’s only fair.
Apple could avoid trouble with groups like this by making the battery user replaceable. I really can’t understand why they don’t.
MDN Magic word: coming, as in Maybe it’s coming in the next version.
WOW, Iike REALLY WOW. You think I can get free minutes too for life It only fair If I can get free battery replacement can they biggie size that too. From a 4g to 8g and for one dollar more can I all the songs from iTunes. These people must be working for microsoft or dell
@Irritated: I concur, I don’t care what screen you’re viewing MDN on, those goddamn Kontera green double-lines are a major PAIN IN THE ASS! Even when you turn them off, you have to do it again after a couple of days. THEY SUCK! GET RID OF ‘EM!
Someone needs to make a Cellebrite cable to copy the data on one iPhone to another. When I worked at a cell phone shop, we used it all the time to backup cell phonebooks.
These clowns are just laying the groundwork for a future class action lawsuit.
Initial tear-downs show that the battery is *soldered*, making it definitely NOT user-replaceable. Also, what they had to do to get into the unit was not pretty. I cringed just looking at the pictures. This is NOT like replacing batteries in your remote control.
@Botvinnik
How do you turn them off on the iPhone?
I honestly can not navigate MDN from my iPhone.
With my fingers scrolling, pinching and zooming there is NO WAY TO AVOID THOSE STUPID POP-UP BUBBLES.
“‘The repair process will clear all data from your iPhone,'”
OH NOES!!! im in ur fonez, stealing ur contaks!
This was written by someone who does not understand how iTunes data synchronization works. At all. Get a job, looter.
-c
I agree with Chris. I find it hard to understand why Apple didn’t make the battery user replaceable, especially on a phone, where it is unacceptable to have the battery run out during a long day of use (unlike with an iPod). This is one of only two bad iPhone decisions Apple made, in my opinion. The other was the failure to allow the keyboard to be rotated into landscape mode whenever it is used (instead of just in Safari). That would have solved most typing problems.
That doesn’t address the complaint of these bozos, however, since they are talking about replacing a worn out battery, not a discharged one. They must have spent the whole weekend finding something to whine about. Better to have waited to see how long the battery would last before complaining.
I have just bought an Apple keyboard, and I think I deserve a Mac Pro with ATi graphics and two 30″ displays. No need for Mighty Mouse.
Why? Do car manufacturers replace the car battery for the life of the car? Most car owners need to take their car into a shop and pay a lot of money to have the battery replaced (although they can do it themselves and save money).
Because of the black plastic piece at the bottom back of the iPhone, it seems to be relatively easy to open compared to iPods. There will be third party replacements available for iPhone for $20 on eBay. This will become a non-issue.
Just click the “?” that comes up in one of the content link bubbles, and then scroll down the page until is gives you a link to disable them. Don’t know if that will work on the iPhone, though.
I want free replacement batteries with my flashlights.
It’s unfair I have to stand and curse the darkness!
Screw off Consumer Groups who make stupid demands.
I’ve had to have my Telus LG phone repaired three times. Each time I’ve asked them to make sure they preserve the contact list and been assured they would. It took longer than three business days and it’s come back wiped each time. And there is no way to back up the data myself except pen and paper. Each time it’s also come back with something else broken. I’ve given up having it reparied. It’s easier to just make do. The only good thing is the loaner phone. I can’t image Apple won’t have a loaner option. People can’t be without their phones for a whole work week. Maybe mail your phone in from an Apple or AT&T store?
Oh…now I understand…
I just checked out their website. They are wacky left wing kooks.
Evil companies….blah, blah, blah…
Evil government….blah, blah, blah…
Sigh…
Apple produces revenue and value by producing products and services that people want. This sham org digs under rocks to make headlines so the unwitting and ignorant will send them money.
It’s all clear now.
@America’s Next Top Sheep
THANK YOU!
Those pop-ups are annoying enough on a computer, but at least they are avoidable..
On the iPhone, those pop-ups make this site un-usable..
Luckily, the disable feature works on iPhone..
MDN, needs to post this info somewhere if they expect iPhone users to read this site.
True story:
In the 70’s, I worked in customer relations in LA at the regional office of one of the European car manufacturers.
Policy (and law) was that if an owner reported a needed repair before the warranty ran out that we would still honor the warranty. No problem with us on that.
But…..as long as I live I will never forget the letter that came from a guy who gave us a list of about 50 items that he was hereby putting us on notice that we would have to repair after warranty because he was stating that he was giving us prior notification.
Only one problem: The jerk had not even taken delivery on his new car yet!!!
SWEAR TO GOD! This actually happened. Would I have loved to give this guy a rude letter back? Yes, because he deserved it! But I did not, just sent back a very polite letter stating that if something actually happened to his car, we would cover it under the terms of the warranty.
Don’t know if he ever took delivery of the car or not. I hope not for everyone’s sake. Ride the bus, please!!!!!!!!!!
MDN, you CAN get a temporary replacement phone while your’s in in for repairs. Answers here: http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/service/faq/
Seems like the replacement policy is pretty well spelled out, too.
MW: ‘Consider’. People should consider reading the info Apple provides before getting all bent out of shape.
This is Apple, not welfare. Buy your own farking batteries.
MDN word: LAW, as in Lame Ass Whiners!
If consumers don’t like the non-user replaceable battery….then…you know what ?????
DON’T BUY THE iPHONE !!
Do we really need some wacko organization protecting us from the evils of corporate greed?
@Woody: Thanks. Reasonable loaner arrangements. As I suspected.
“I find it hard to understand why Apple didn’t make the battery user replaceable”
Because if they do that then they need to build in a door cover, and locate the battery in a convenient enough place to make it practical, and I can imagine there is a significant engineering tradeoff to be made. You can’t just make a car engine slide out without reengineering everything around it, with higher cost and probably more space consumed. I don’t know if that’s the case, but it certainly seems that way.
I have never replaced a battery in a mobile, but I have dropped one, exploding the battery cover and getting moisture all over the contacts, and causing me to crawl around looking for a tiny black battery. If it mean my phone won’t Yard Sale if I drop it I’ll take the sealed door, thanks.
Free batteries for life is a stupid request. Unfortunately, so is Apple’s request that I do whout my phone for five days (three for repair, two for shipping back and forth):
Apple’s first iPhone stumble.
“liberal” training
A battery replacement is likely to only happen one time during the life of the phone. Hardly a big deal.
If that is what APPLE states, it’s good enough for me.
Back-up your data… then ship the iPhone back for a replacement.
I don’t see the worm in the Apple.
And now you have me wondering if OS10.5 has some special back-up for iPhone in-store… nice going Apple. Cos other cell phones and there back-up procedure is really really crap.
>>Because if they do that then they need to build in a door cover, and locate the battery in a convenient enough place to make it practical, and I can imagine there is a significant engineering tradeoff to be made. You can’t just make a car engine slide out without reengineering everything around it, with higher cost and probably more space consumed. I don’t know if that’s the case, but it certainly seems that way.
Oh for fuck’s sake. Every other mobile phone manufacturer manages to make the battery user-replaceable. You’d think Apple could manage it with their “revolutionary” new device. A cynic would think they didn’t do this in order to extort a bit more money out of their consumers, a year after purchase. Surely not?
I think it’s great that the battery is not user replacable – just think of all those batteries that would end up in the landfill if it were. Then someone would sue Apple for making the Earth a crappier place.
Oh, how ridiculous! How about free food, housing and transport while they’re at it?
Someone questioned about Apples choice of battery replacement.
Why not like other cellphones, where you can just buy another and change it yourself.
It’s a good question… but the iPod was like that too. Once before.
Bestbuy, and other tech-stores soon where able to do the replacements rather then Apple. And I think eventually, one can do it themselves. We’ll have to wait on this for iPhone.
But generally, ya know, it’s generating work in the tech sector – no. This choice from Apple. Let’s not knock it.
After years of accepting crap from M$ et tal, what makes these people think the way they do? Are they financed by M$? They should declare any third party/ies involved in this so called class action.
Apple have for years been designing and delivering goods of immense quality, sure they source the hardware from hardware makers to cut down on costs, (why remake the wheel?) but in the main their products always work and are of cutting edge.
M$ on the other hand delivers faulty goods time after time…you don’t read of these bastards going after them, do you?!
Someone in the legal proffession should seriously undertake a study into these sorts of suits or threatend suits in order to inject some common sense inot what is expected of manufacturers & consumers in the case of newly launched products that are the cutting the mould and thereby pushing the envelope.
If this does not happen, innovation will be curtailed pretty quickly just as Mathematics and sciences were setback by leberal bleeding hearts who were failures in those subjects.
Nuff said!
Here’s a novel concept — learn patience! No wonder everyone is going nuts; everyone’s in too big a hurry about everything! Sheesh.
I looked up this organization and quickly realized who is behind it. The Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights is a bunch of socialist twits based in the Democratic Socialist Communist People’s Republic of Santa Monica, a part of Los Angeles where the law of gravity or sanity does not apply. The organization is led by socialist consumer gadfly Harvey Rosenfeld, and their credo is that all for-profit businesses are inherently evil.
While some of what they espouse might be for the good, assuming that the intent of companies like Apple is to enslave us is a crock. It would be nice to have a user-replaceable battery on an iPhone, but I have a hunch that Apple has reasons of their own about this. In my experience of owning a number of mobile phones, I have NEVER replaced a single battery. Ever. Your experience might differ, but I have typically replaced my phone before I sought to exchange the battery.
I recommend that you visit the Web site of these leeches. You will quickly find their political agenda is very pro-Michael Moore, pro-socialism. If we were to follow their directive lock-step, the Grand Canyon would be filled with colored plastic balls to assure that no one would ever be hurt, and that all business owners would be arrested and sent to re-education camps. Below are two links you might want to check out if you feel the same way I do.
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/contact/
Are there any other examples of a situation in which a consumer group made these kinds of demands within days of a product’s release?
I want free condoms for life.
I also want free sex for life.
How about free beer for life?
MW: “Straight” as in straight stupid!!
I want a free wife for life. And she’s gotta be rich, look like Nicole Kidman and be able to discuss technology, cars, Star Trek and satisfy my every base need.
And she has to be able to paint the house.
***MDN Magic Word*** Free
I think they’re more interested in free publicity than free batteries.
MDN: While you’re at it, please insist that all cell phone makers provide free lifetime battery replacement (all cell phone batteries die eventuall if you keep the phone long enough). In fact, all battery-operated devices should come with free lifetime battery replacement. Actually, the devices themselves should be free.
Fuck free batteries. I want a pony!
You’ve got to admit that it’s pretty ridiculous that the data is formatted. I mean, there’s no way to back up playlists from your iPod in their exact form, so that’s inexcusable.
@Chrissy One
We know from the tear downs that the iPhone battery is right under the back cover. I am quite confident Apple could have made an attractive cover over the battery compartment that could have opened. It would have taken a tiny bit more space but very little. All other phones have replaceable batteries and the batteries don’t fall out all the time. The point isn’t to make it easy to replace the battery when it fails, that’s a rare occurrence, but to make it easy to carry a spare battery so you won’t have a dead phone half way through a long day. An iPhone isn’t like an iPod. It has to work ALL the time.
To Chrissy One
We know from the tear downs that the iPhone battery is right under the back cover. I am quite confident Apple could have made an attractive cover over the battery compartment that could have opened. It would have taken a tiny bit more space but very little. All other phones have replaceable batteries and the batteries don’t fall out all the time. The point isn’t to make it easy to replace the battery when it fails, that’s a rare occurrence, but to make it easy to carry a spare battery so you won’t have a dead phone half way through a long day. An iPhone isn’t like an iPod. It has to work ALL the time.
Re ChrissyOne
We know from the tear downs that the iPhone battery is right under the back cover. I am quite confident Apple could have made an attractive cover over the battery compartment that could have opened. It would have taken a tiny bit more space but very little. All other phones have replaceable batteries and the batteries don’t fall out all the time. The point isn’t to make it easy to replace the battery when it fails, that’s a rare occurrence, but to make it easy to carry a spare battery so you won’t have a dead phone half way through a long day. An iPhone isn’t like an iPod. It has to work ALL the time.
I need free money for life. Mine keeps running out. And after all it’s my money. GWB told me so.
Apple will be offering a Loaner (actually a rental) for $25 at the GB for the 3 day repair time….
Peace
You’re all stupid.
No, not the ones who wrote the article.
You. The ones who wrote about the article. Moronic.
“A cynic would think they didn’t do this in order to extort a bit more money out of their consumers, a year after purchase. Surely not?”
More likely it saves weight and makes the device sleeker compared to one which has an externally accessible battery and SIM slot.
And Apple customers are sheep how don’t mind being unable to pop in a spare charged battery and swap their sim to another phone. They also don’t mind giving Apple $85 and being without their phone 3 days a year plus shipping time.
@ MacDoc
There are a number of external dock-connector batteries alredy on the market for the iPod. Wouldn’t that be just as good a solution? I haven’t used one but I hear they work well. If I made acessories, I’d create a docking battery case that stacked on the back. Think of the hard drives for staking with Mac Minis. I bet LaCie makes one before long.
-c
@Tom
Apple always includes shipping in it’s repair estimate time frame.
That’s not to say that they guarantee that all repairs can be made in that time, but the vast majority are.
“I want a free wife for life. And she’s gotta be rich, look like Nicole Kidman and be able to discuss technology, cars, Star Trek and satisfy my every base need.
And she has to be able to paint the house.”
And come with a Ferrari.
IMHO that request for lifetime batteries is ridiculous. All batteries wear out even the ones in cell phones with a door. I had a Motorola T720 4 years ago had a door I went through the original and an extra capacity battery. My RAZR same deal and every time I dropped it the battery door would pop off. Personally I am glad Apple decided to not only not provide a battery door but to solder the sucker to the main PCB. They obviously learned something from producing 6 generations of Ipods. In the past I’ve always traded in my Ipods before they needed new batteries. So all you cry babies back up your F%^%*ing data so that when you need a new battery you can just send it to Apple to swap it out.
Why is it that these twits never seem to go after other companies that actually create garbage? Why haven’t they filed a class action suit against MS on behalf of every Zune user?
Oh..wait, never mind.
A preemptive strike? That should be illegal!
Never mind….
“Oh for fuck’s sake. Every other mobile phone manufacturer manages to make the battery user-replaceable. You’d think Apple could manage it with their “revolutionary” new device. A cynic would think they didn’t do this in order to extort a bit more money out of their consumers, a year after purchase. Surely not?’
Umm, yeah, instead of hitting them up IMMEDIATELY to buy a second shitty battery – so both of them will crap out in a year- so they can buy two more! You’d rather pay the sixty bucks up front? Cause that’s what most replaceable batteries cost.
Personally, I don’t WANT to carry around a second crappy battery, because the first crappy battery holds such a poor charge… kinda defeats the purpose of the sleek phone. I’d much rather have the well-engineered phone with the well-engineered, long lasting battery.
schmluss
Can they send a letter to Microsoft and Motorola to have them replace my “Q” with one that doesn’t turn off on it’s own, nor stop responding to button presses, and that can hold a charge for more than 3 hours of talk-time?
Makes one wonder. Like the ridiculous drop and smash tests that Apple products are subjected to, there is a class of dimwit that holds Apple not only to higher standards than other competitors, but to standards than no competitor has ever achieved.
And I firmly believe that these invented standards are purely to power FUD campaigns when an Apple product fails to achieve unrealistic expectations even when it has clearly bested all other products on the market.
There are analysts and nobodies who have predicted the death of Apple every year for 25 years. Do they give up after being forever wrong? Apparently not. They just look for new and imaginative ways to criticize everything Apple does.
Are there any other cell phone manufacturers who offer a free new battery if your capacity falls to less than 50% in the first year???
I DON’T THINK SO!!!
You mean there are cellphones that let me change the battery myself?
Lol… chill out, don’t take it all to heart, the next verison will hopefully be better and even let us change the battery ourselves. For now it seems fine to be able to backup the data and go for a few days without a phone… but bummer it won’t back up everything… maybe iTunes will be updated???
Apple’s battery replacement is really expensive and it should be a little more clearly disclosed when you buy the iphone. I don’t see free batteries coming though.
There is another option though, I found a site called ipodjuice.com that offer a longer life iPhone battery and a service to replace it that will cost you less and get your phone back to you faster than Apple.
– Laura