D’s two-year old iPhone 6 starting misbehaving today. (It’s out of warranty, and she doesn’t have the extended warranty.) The battery life indicator was fluctuating all over the place. She is heading out of town on vacation in two days, and didn’t want to be stuck with a malfunctioning phone, so she braved the Columbus Circle (NYC) Apple store–which of course was a zoo this week. After a one-hour wait, the technician tried a bunch of things but failed to fix it, finally saying that the link between the battery and phone wasn’t functioning properly, so the phone didn’t “know” the actual status of the battery, and it could appear that the battery was fully charged when it was really down to nothing. And it was unfixable. (Just to be clear, the phone had never been dropped or otherwise damaged–she treats it better than she treats me…) They offered her a “swap”–a new iPhone 6 for $300.
She was keeping me apprised of her progress as all this went on, so I started Googling, and sure enough found that as far back as February this was reported as happening to lots of iPhone 6’s and Apple said it was looking into a solution. (Found this info on iPhone user websites, not on Apple’s.) I told her this, but the Apple store denied it was a known defect and wouldn’t budge on their offer no matter how hard she pushed. Then she realized she might be eligible for an upgrade through our Verizon plan and could get a new phone for “only” $250, so tomorrow she’ll head there. This certainly cuts down on her vacation budget!
I guess the lesson to be learned is to buy the extended warranty, though I am generally skeptical of them. But I also feel Apple isn’t standing behind its products–or maybe they just think it’s so normal for iPhone fans to constantly replace their phones with the latest model that an expensive phone dying after two years is perfectly fine. I’ll sure be trying a Pixel for my next phone.
@MommaJ - she might try calling Apple and ask to speak to a supervisor and tell them what you have found out. My S had a problem with his Mac desktop computer. He took it to the Apple Store and they told him it wasn’t covered and would be X amount of dollars. The tech told him to call Apple and tell them that he had read that that model and year had a problem with this specific issue. The supervisor gave him a code to get it covered for free.
The battery problem is tied to the 6s, not the 6 (or “6’s”), so technically what the store told you wasn’t out of line.
Unless I’m missing something, I don’t think you have a legitimate case here… the phone is well past the warranty period (1 year), and there is no known defect with the battery on the 6.
I do agree though that the batteries in these phones should last longer than 1-2 years.
@gosmom, Thank you for that link! My D’s iPhone6S developed this problem - she just told me about it yesterday. Her serial number comes up eligible for a battery replacement.
Unless the battery has been subjected to temperature extremes, being allowed to run down to absolute zero charge too many times, or being left in a low/zero charge state for too long early on, lithium ion batteries should last for ~3 years at 100% charge capacity.
If there’s a wide pattern of batteries failing after 1-2 years, then something’s seriously wrong with the way the batteries were manufactured at the plant and/or stored by Apple/apple’s contractors.
I still don’t think the warranty is worth it. My understanding is that they have the option of repairing or replacing. If it can be repaired, you have to wait while they fix it (no loaner). If it can’t be fixed, you get a refurbished replacement, but they still charge $99 per claim/incident.
So if you’re lucky enough to get a replacement, you’ve basically bought a 2 year old used phone for $200 once you include the $99 you paid for the warranty. If you’re not lucky, you’ve paid $200 to wait to get your old phone back. And what do you do for a phone while you’re waiting? No thanks. I’d rather put that money toward an upgrade if/when I have to.
I also have an iPhone 6 and see no reason to upgrade yet, but it’s started to act funny lately. Then yesterday it stopped charging in the car. I thought maybe it was the car charger, but nope. I did some research on line that suggested trying a hard reset and fortunately it started charging again. If it hadn’t, I was ready to break down get a new phone with no regrets for not buying the warranty. I would not be happy if my phone went bad in 2 years through no fault of my own, though.
So far, have never regretted not buying insurance on our 4 phones for the 15 years or more we’ve had them. We used to get “free phones” and gradually have switched to buying them unlocked and getting the lowest cost plan we can. So far, no regrets. I had an iPhone 5 that had a bulging battery but was a bit over 2 years old. Apple sold me a brand new iPhone 5 in trade for $80. S resold it for over $200 and bought me a new iPhone 6s.
@fractalmster, there are quite a few complaints online, even on Apple’s own discussion board, about the 6 also having this problem. Apple did put out a statement about the problem in the 6s, but said it only related to changing time zones and claimed to be working on a real solution (never mentioned again). But others have alleged in numerous postings that it is a broader problem than the time zone thing and also affects other models. So the store’s stance that it had no knowledge of the issue was rather disingenuous. This is a flagship store, and I’d bet they’ve seen every battery issue under the sun and know exactly what’s been reported.
Here’s an article on the subject which I sent to D tonite, in hopes maybe the fix recommended in it might work:
I realize D doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on, but various battery problems are so rampant in the iPhone line, it would be nice to see Apple do the right thing for a loyal customer when her expensive phone becomes useless after 2 years due to a hardware failure. But it’s just a very arrogant company in so many ways.
@1Dreamer, thanks–I feel better about advising D not to get the Applecare extended warranty for her phone.
I’m frustrated with Apple now also. Itunes randomly quit opening on my Windows 10 computer, and not right after an update. I’ve had four calls and a helpful tech who took a lot of file log information, but has not called me back for weeks. I am unable to change music on my phone or take photos off of it to save on my computer. I don’t want to use the cloud for photo storage.
@cap, you can transfer photos off of your phone by plugging it into your computer when it’s unlocked. (Unlocked as in NOT on the lock screen – you don’t need to have an unlocked phone to use on other carriers.) When you plug it in, you should get a pop-up message on your phone that asks if you want the device to be able to access photos. Press allow. Your computer should also get a pop-up with a choices to either open the folders on the phone or import pictures. Either one will work.
Your phone also shows up on your computer as an external drive, so if you don’t get the pop-up for some reason, just go to “computer,” look for drive labeled Apple, open it there and all your photos should be there. (Works the same as choosing to open folders on the phone from the Apple pop-up menu.) Then just cut and paste or drag and drop whatever photos you want to transfer.
Note - If you don’t unlock it first, you’ll get a message that “no new photos can be found” when you try to import, and the Apple drive will show no folders at all as if the phone is empty, so be sure to unlock it BEFORE plugging it in.
I can’t remember if I tried it after unlocking, but I think so. I’ll try it again. Thanks.
But I still can’t add music without itunes since a lot of it is old cds put into itunes. I’m not rebuying all that stuff. This is why I haven’t tossed the actual cd’s.
When my out of warrenty Samsung TV started turning itself off I went on line and saw hundreds of posts about the same thing. Samsung, at first, denied it was a known problem and after several, “let me speak to your supervisor,” transfers, I started reading them the online posts. That was what finally got them to agree to no charge for service and replacing the faulty parts. I basically got all new components. TV is still going strong.
@gosmom , thank you for the link!!! I have been having this issue and thought I had to live with it. My phone is eligible and I made an appointment for service. This is the best Christmas present!! Love CC!
I had determined that my iPhone 6s shutdown at 50% or less battery power when I opened Snapchat. I was going to avoid opening Snapchat when I was away from any option to plug in my phone charger.
I’m going to disagree but maybe I just got lucky. I purchased an iPhone 6 two years ago and paid for the $99 extended two-year warranty. I dropped my phone in our swimming pool two weeks before the warranty expired. I went to the Apple store hoping someone could help. No such luck - as in “can’t repair” so they gave me a brand-new iPhone 6 - $79 repair fee. I couldn’t have been more surprised. The new phone had to be the same as the one I damaged (iPhone 6 - gold). My warranty remained intact for its final two weeks and then I also had the 90-day if-something-goes-wrong warranty on the new phone. The whole thing took over an hour but most of the time spent involved connected the new phone back to Sprint (free of charge), transferring all data onto the new phone, making sure all my connections are in place. I couldn’t be more impressed - or pleased I had the warranty.
