Apple offers $29 battery replacements for a year
Recently, Apple published a letter to its users, apologizing for intentionally slowing down older iPhones as their batteries aged as well as promised to reduce the price of batteries of the affected phones to $29 starting next month. However, the company has now stated that the price change is effective immediately. Usually Apple charges $79 for out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacements.
Apple in its letter of apology says, “We’ve been hearing feedback from our customers about the way we handle performance for iPhones with older batteries and how we have communicated that process. We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize. There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes we’re making.”
The company’s statement goes on to reject the ‘forced upgrades’ theory.
“First and foremost, we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.”
Apple users will now be able to see this message if you visit the official apology page:
“Apple is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $50 – from $79 to $29 – for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced, available worldwide through December 2018. Details will be provided soon on apple.com.”
A spokesperson for Apple confirmed that the deal will be available immediately & added:
“We expected to need more time to be ready, but we are happy to offer our customers the lower pricing right away. Initial supplies of some replacement batteries may be limited.”
Apple’s reduced pricing for out-of-warranty battery replacements will be available worldwide through December 2018. However, it is still unclear what the company is thinking to do after that point – whether they will continue to offer the reduced price or will move back to the original price, or find some happy middle ground for users suffering from older battery woes.
Apple also promised that they will issue an iOS update in early 2018 with new features in order to give users “more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance.”
The apology letter ends saying, “At Apple, our customers’ trust means everything to us. We will never stop working to earn and maintain it. We are able to do the work we love only because of your faith and support — and we will never forget that or take it for granted.”
