Roger Fingas
In the wake of Apple dropping the price of out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacements to $29, demand has become so high that the company is stretching its retail resources to cope — possibly even hiring outside contractors.
"Additional Apple employees are sometimes sent to high-volume stores, or allotted labor hours per-store are increased, to help with a surge of battery replacements," Apple sources not authorized to speak on behalf of the company told AppleInsider regarding reports that Apple needed help to deal with the volume of battery replacements.
Stores local to AppleInsider staffers aren't using any third-party contractors to perform the replacements.
In December, Apple was forced to admit that it changed iOS to throttle iPhones with weak batteries, officially for the sake of preventing sudden shutdowns. This generated significant backlash, including a barrage of lawsuits and investigations by the governments of Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, South Korea, and the U.S..
Simultaneously, Apple has reduced the cost of battery replacements through the end of 2018, and released iOS 11.3. The operating system upgrade includes battery monitoring functions — among them the ability to disable throttling except in extreme circumstances.
AppleInsider's sources may conflict with ones for 9to5Mac, who claim that Apple is using a mix of its own workers plus third-party contractors to handle the overflow of replacement requests. The latter are reportedly receiving training, but still causing "growing pains" in some shops.
By late February wait times were averaging 3 to 4.5 weeks. The average wait for devices that need to be checked in is still over a week according to queries made by AppleInsider, with owners of the iPhone 6 Plus having to bear the longest waits.
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Andrew Orr
23 Comments
I have read a couple of articles now about people freaking out over their batteries and replacing them needlessly. After the discount period is over it is predicted that the new battery health monitoring software will prompt even more unnecessary battery replacements to Apple’s ultimate profit. I see the obsessive personality types all the time in the Apple discussion forums going bonkers over minor scratches on their screens. There will be large numbers who start checking their battery health every day and if the capacity level drops below 100% will absolutely freak out and quite possibly imagine a slowdown in their device. How many of these personalty types are out there? Millions upon millions is my guesstimate. Humans are weird.
I had set up an appointment to have my battery changed in my iPhone 7 but decided I didn't want to drive 280 miles to get it replaced because I only get 10 miles to the gallon so I traded it in locally to my Verizon because they are giving 50% off a new iPhone X, 8 or 8 Plus with trade in, I got an 8 and the payments are only $14.29 a month and I like this phone much better.