With all of the hype surrounding the iPad in the past couple of days, here’s something you might have missed. A page on Apple’s Web site dealing with Battery Replacement. According to the FAQs if your iPad dies “due to the battery’s diminished ability to hold an electrical charge,” Apple will replace it for you for a fee. $99 plus shipping, which comes out to $105.95 per unit.
That’s right. For a $99 service fee, they’ll send you a replacement iPad. Of course it won’t have your data, but if you sync it with your computer you already have it all. It’s a surprisingly generous solution from Apple.
One that users will really appreciate.
[Loop Insight]
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$99, Apple, battery, dead, dies, replace iPad
You got to be kidding $99 for a battery and $6.95 for shipping.
If my battery dies in my non-apple cellphone, I can buy one for under 30usd and replace it myself. In the iPhone, iPod touch, and now the iPad, it will cost over 100 usd and I have to send it to a service center. Can’t they make a device that can be serviced by the owner?
ok ko
It’s not anything they have’t done before. They have a similar battery replacement plan with the iPod. If an iPod was ordered from Apple with custom laser engraving, the replacement unit would be similarly engraved.
It takes along time to die like that and the warranty covers that.
Send you a new one for $99? Why don’t they just let you send it in and have them replace the 99 cent battery. Sounds like a problem they knew about and want to make more money.
lol how is that generous, they obviously know there is a problem with the batterys they are using, what a joke of a company to charge you 100 bucks for something they should send out for free
This is great news. What this tells me is that, if I wait a few months I can probably buy a “refurbished” iPad from Apple for $300. What else can they do with all the returned iPads whose batteries go bad?
“For a $99 service fee, they’ll send you a replacement iPad. Of course it won’t have your data, but if you sync it with your computer you already have it all. It’s a surprisingly generous solution from Apple.
One that users will really appreciate.”
What this article doesn’t tell you is that the replacement will be a “re-furb.” Yep, that electronic device that you have babied, avoided dropping, kept away from moisture, etc, isn’t going to be replaced with a new one for a hundred bucks. What you are going to get instead is some unknown quotient. Apple will haul out of a bin one of their returned iPads that has been “repaired.” Also, this only applies to iPads (from my understanding) that lose 50% or more battery life in the first year. So, if your battery fails in the first year, for only one hundred dollars… 20-25% of the cost of a new device, you will get something that normally ships off to discount stores where it’s properly labeled to alert the customer “refurbished.”
How is this generous? It sounds like a typical warranty policy to me… and not a great one at that. Why should I be happy to have to pay out a hundred bucks for something that really should be covered for the first year anyway? I spend half of a thousand to thousand dollars on an electronic device, I kind of expect at least a one year warranty. And I want the device that I purchased returned to me (if possible) or a new one, not some problem device that has been “worked on.”
No this solution is neither generous nor likely to make me happy. This is a reason I avoid Apple products. They are overpriced and the things I should be getting for that high pricing they want to charge me more for. All of this could be avoided in the case of the iPad (and many of Apple’s other devices) if they simply made an easy user removable battery and sold retail replacements. But, this “generous” company has done one thing well: it has managed to sell the innocent public on “image” and packed in as much hidden profiteering for them as possible.
WOW! seems Americans are used to being robbed if the robber happens to be Apple.
$100 for a battery thats gone bad under warranty. Should it not be a free replacement with a nominal handling charge?
lol
So the day after you pay $499 for an Ipad, the battery dies and buy agreement you have to pay another $99 to get it fixed. Sounds like incentive for Apple to put in weak batteries.
So the day after you pay $499 for an Ipad, the battery dies and buy agreement you have to pay another $99 to get it fixed. Sounds like incentive for Apple to put in weak batteries.
That is ridiculous! They should replace it for free! Do they not believe in warranties.
Breaking “News” huh? This reads like Apple-spin dressed up as ‘look at how customer concerned we are”.
The earlier posts have it exactly right – this is a ham handed attempt by Apple to flip a negative (sealing the battery inside the pad and making end-user replacement impossible), to a positive.
I think they’ve overreached on this one.The non-support of flash, the inability to tether to iPhone – this is just a naked attempt to keep slate-type pc users chained to the Apple store. The PC alternatives are gonna kick its a**.
This is pretty much a defacto statement that they know their product is faulty. Speaking as someone that has worked on Apple equipment since the G3 processor line.
And it does not take a long time for the battery to die – put any lithium-ion over a heat source and watch it die rapidly.
No, Beth, it doesn’t. Batteries are a CONSUMABLE product. They all have a finite charge/discharge cycle life.
apple=crooks
I’m a PC so I’m slow. Let me get this straight..
If I buy an iPad with a deffective battery, I have been granted the privilge by the Lord Over$eer of getting a new one for just $99 plus tax? I fee so honored and humbled, I could cry
When I bought my floor model HP ZD7010 laptop from Fry’s six years ago and it ran hot all the time, it was replaced for free.
Generous? The truth is “Apple will replace your iPad with an OLD one for $99 if your battery dies” This is as crazy as swapping out the entire car when the tires need to be replaced.
Another compelling reason to avoid apple products. I own an iriver mp3 player that I purchased circa 2004. It functions as an external HD, plays many different file formats and records in stereo. When the battery was going out I was able to buy a replacement for > $20 and install it myself. Apple has a bad habit of releasing products that are not fully fleshed out and relies on their fans to accept serious limitations as they pay to be beat testers. No thanks
This is talking about an out-of-warranty iPad that can’t hold a charge because its battery has been consumed. Warranty still covers the battery against defects. Sheesh, I guess you PCs really are slow.
looks like I’m going to have to figure out how to make a battery pack just like I did for my ipod
I’d be willing to bet that they already know that they’ll have battery problems and they’re just setting us up to accept it before the fact. I will not buy one of them.
All of you guys keep talking about how apple is stealing American’s money, and how they are crooked. This idea is idiotic.
Apple is a business. Just like every other business, their goal is to get $$, not to give you a hand job.
You are by no means forced to buy this product. A tablet (crap imo) is not a necessary product, and there is no monopoly on it either.
Furthermore, apple is TELLING YOU what their battery policy is in advance (as they should) so that you can make an opinion on it.
The opposite of crooked.
“generous” ??! did you mean to say “one more way apple can rape you in the buttocks” ?
Conner Flynn with your comment: “It’s a surprisingly generous solution from Apple.”
Are you F’ing nuts. I would expect Apple to replace the iPad for FREE if it was still under warranty or AppleCare which by the way is only 2 years and NOT 3 years as it is for Apple Computers. I can live with the 2 year applecare deal with the iphone as i plan on getting a new one near the time my 2 year commitment is up.
ALSO FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT ARE INTERESTED, word has it from the HQ of Apple that Verizon will be selling the iphone very soon.
Why is it that us iphone users have to pay for another data plan if we buy the ipad? what a joke. why can’t we use the sim card or like Verizon have an app that allows us to create a mobile network on the spot. ATT wants 65. dollars a month for tethering an iphone. have you noticed Verizon offers that for free now to all of its data plan users.
I was just in the apple store yesterday and someone came in and said fought back with an apple genius bar person who had the apple “script” on how not to give into customers who say their phones battery that is still under warranty is failing to hold a charge. The customer won, but i think it could be that she was in the store with a SCREAM toddler and another one that was manhandling the other computer equipment within reach of the young child.
You people are ridiculous…Were you shocked with disbelief to learn you had to pay for the tires on your cars….How about the brakes, bet that blew your mind!
Batteries are a wearable item…last time I checked not a single product manufacturer gives them away for free indefinitely…I personally think it would be great to get a new Ipad in a few years for just $99.00…As for the comment about Apple supplying you with a refurb unit, big deal! My guess is that refurb will be in a hell of a lot better condition than your few year old beater Ipad will be in…I always buy Apple refurbs anyway when available, they are ALWAYS like brand spanking new and the discount makes them the smart buy since they come with the same exact warranty…Complain on, whiners!
As long as the battery lifetime isn’t something ridiculously short this seems reasonable to me. However does it say how long this cover is given for, for instance will it just be if it fails within the first year, or will arguments ensue when it fails after a few years of use and they don’t want to replace the battery.
Or you could buy a non-Apple product and change the battery yourself – without losing all your installed apps – for $15.
Remember, that $99 fee doesn’t cover getting all your apps reloaded – and when Apple has pulled an app from the store, you can’t EVER get it back.