Spreading Funkyness

I was going to write an angry post after some recent experience with Apple customer care service. Now I am writing a happy ending tale with a strong suggestion as final moral: unplug the cable only when necessary or when you need to calibrate the battery. Here is why.

After eleven months of usage my Macbook Pro notifies a “service battery” message like in the picture. Before contacting the customer service I started investigating on the internet. Many people on Apple’s forum had a similar issue, which has been reported after the upgrade to Snow Leopard. Since I upgraded as well I thought my machine was falling into the same category, so I adopted the same solutions proposed in the forum: recalibrate, reset pram, SCM reset, etc. I didn’t solve. Then I installed coconut battery, which reported 363 cycles. Finally I decided to contact Apple’s customer service. Since my mac is less than one year old the warranty is still valid. I went to the shop confident that they’d just change my battery with a new one. There I got the first shock.
The live by a rule: battery is a consumable.
“Agree, I am not denying the evidence, but my warranty is still valid and I expect you give me a new battery at no charge” I replied ingenuously.
“Let’s see the number of cycles, if lesser than 300 we can change the battery at no charge”. They plugged in a usb key while I was figuring out 120 bucks flying from my pockets to theirs. The key confirmed the previous verdict: 363 cycles.
I thought “DAMN” but I said: “Ok, I am not discussing your rules, just wondering where I can check them out. You know, when you buy a tool with a warranty you want to know its conditions.”
They replied: “This is what I am told whenever I open a procedure about a battery, no free substitution if cycles are greater than 300, EVEN IF you have bought the Apple care. There should be something about that on the Apple’s web site.”
Very said, I left my used battery at the shop an got home. During the trip I was mumbling: “This is not transparent, when I buy something I HAVE to know its policy about substitution.” I called the european office and they pointed me to this page, which mentions the famous 300 cycles, but no details about substitution policies. Again, I am not happy, cause I think it should be written explicitly: “We do not change the battery, even if under warranty, if cycles are greater than 300.” Write in on the booklet, on the internet, somewhere in a public place.
The angryness faded away during the weekend and got happiness when on monday I went to the shop and they told me that I did not need to pay, because “the procedure” did not require a payment for now. They will send back the old battery and, IF there is no argument, I will not pay.
I also happily collected some hints from the guy at the shop. Here is a quick recap.

• This type of batteries has no memory effect.
• Completely discharge and recharge only when you need to calibrate the battery.
• When full, if you unplug and replug immediately, you will use battery power until it is 95% (even if the cable is plugged in). This counts as 1/20 of a cycle.

The last tips is the most interesting to me. So here is a quiz. Let’s say I move my laptop from the office to the bedroom to watch a movie. Let’s assume that’s the only case I unplug and replug the battery charger. Considering each move is 1/20 of a cycle, how many movies can I watch before getting to the 300 cycles limit? (Hint: remember to take into account that the morning after I have to bring back the laptop to the office).

A related post from Marco Arment (with a more serious ending :).

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