Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max
by mehrdada on Saturday December 12, 2020 @10:36PM
(#25404098)
Try mail-in AppleCare. In my experience the retail "Genius Bar" and AppleCare policies and processes (or at least their implementation) have subtle differences. I had good luck with it with an old 1st gen iPad Pro. Just did it last week and expected to get a battery replacement but got a whole device replacement, which was interesting since I did not think they still make such devices in 2020--the serial number indicates they do and the device was made in the latter half of 2020. End-to-end it took probably 3-4 days.
If that doesn't work out, easiest thing is probably to sell on Craigslist with some disclosure and buying a new one.
I was told that the battery has to qualify for battery replacement on some devices. That's because they don't replace batteries on an iPad Pro - they always replace the entire device so unless you quality for the battery program, your only option is device replacement. Which they will do if I want but at a much greater cost. That's almost 1/2 the cost of what I originally paid for it.
I was told this directly by an Apple store employee this week. He said he literally can't select the battery replacement option unless he can prove that it is the battery and without the health report saying so, he doesn't know any way he could.