Apple announced a year-long discounted battery replacement program to combat the negative news about it slowing down iPhones with degraded batteries. The program offers customers a reason to swap out their battery, especially if they are using an older device with more use on it, but in case you were thinking of taking advantage of the program more than once, Apple has shut those thoughts down.
In the fine print of the battery replacement page, Apple makes it clear that customers with an iPhone 6 or newer are eligible for the program even if it passes its diagnostic test meant to verify the condition of the battery. But if you return a second time to replace the battery, the only way to get the battery replaced at the discounted $29 price tag is for the device to fail the diagnostic test.
Apple touts its devices are meant to retain 80-percent of their charge at 500 complete charge cycles. If this is a metric Apple uses during its diagnostic test, it’s highly unlikely a casual customer will go through the 500 charge cycles within a year. This eliminates the opportunity to double down on Apple’s battery replacement program by the end of 2018.
All those astute people trying to pull one over Apple will have to find another way to do so.
The iPhone battery replacement program has already begun and will run through December 31, 2018. If you are experiencing performance or battery issues with an older iPhone, you may want book an appointment with the local Genius Bar to begin the process of getting a new battery.
