What is the truth behind the iPod battery scam?

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LordJezo

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 18, 2003
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Family members came up to me at a funeral last night and told me that my iPod's battery would run out in a few years and I would need to spend $100s getting it replaced.

I remember hearing something about this a while back.. what is the truth behind the story?
 
Odd thing to talk about at a funeral!
But I think its true- however if you search on the net you can find kits to do it yourself around $50.
 
originally you had to replace your whole ipod, only recently did apple start to over the $100 battery replacement charge.

There are several conflicing websites with different information about just how big of a problem this is.
 
Yeah there is a whole lot of information on the net about this...Some sites are strictly dedicated to this topic!
 
Not at all.

Consider this.

Get one at Best Buy and buy the Replacement plan on it. It is generally around $50, but definetely less for $100. Your battery will die before then, which is covered under the PRP, and you'll get a new one for less than just the replacement of the battery.

Also, if the higher end model costs the same as it did when you got it aka the 10gig one costs $xxx, you can get the 20 gig if it costs the same or less when it comes time to replace the battery in it. This isn't cheating or fraudulant, this is how the plan works.

As far the plan goes now, when your battery goes bad, or is getting bad, you call the replacement hotline on the cardboard card they give you and they send you a voucher for replacement within a week. Bring your old iPod with the package and junk, and you get a new one.

Its a lot cheaper than Apple's crap, and the Replacement Plan is for 2 years, possibly 4, on the model. Note that this is a one shot replacement, so 2 will probably do you good as the current batteries aren't lasting 2 years right now.
 
I did the performance plan at Best Buy for a PDA, battery was dying and they didn't have any more. I got a "free" Tungsten C.

The iPod battery has a limited life, lithium-ion isn't the best battery for this application but it's cheap and ubiquitous compared with lithium-polymer which is a better choice. There really isn't a scam, the battery lasts as long as the warranty so that's about all you can say Apple would hope for. Yeah it's a silly predicament to be in.

To me the scam with Apples battery is the actual runtime on a charge, it's too short! (and only gets shorter with time obviously) But that falls under the good ol' IMHO.
 
Its not a scam... Its just that its a cheap battery that doesn't last a lifetime...

It be like buying a 40,000 pickup and being pissed that you had to replace tires at 12k miles because the oems were cheap.

I got a 3yr replacement warranty though for christmas with my ipod so I have no worries
 
Well look at it this way, Apple could've gave everyone a big "Kiss My Ass" and changed the thing over to AA's and let every iPod owner personally keep Duracel and Energizer in business.
 
Why does everyone and their brother think the battery is only going to last a year or so? Out of the six gazillion iPods sold certainly some will have premature battery failure, but most should last around 3 years with only some degradation in capacity. I also wonder how accurate the battery level software is on the iPod.
 
The battery will fail over time. This differs on usage. Heavy usage seems to be about 18 to 24 months. The problem is that it's not really a user replaceable part. The replacement battery cost about 40 to 50 bucks, if you DIY it. The 99 dollar offer is not a bad deal. But you still would need to send it in. I can replace them myself both old and new models. I charge 79 bucks to do it... I would say this is not a scam, more so that they did not have a policy in place when this started to happen, and was telling people to buy a new one witch made people upset...

I think they should have made the battery replacement more like a cell phone to where anyone can do it, but now I get to service iPODs and make money on it :p
 
Originally posted by Zardoz
I think they should have made the battery replacement more like a cell phone to where anyone can do it, but now I get to service iPODs and make money on it :p
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Sounds like good money, hook a brotha up!

I know several people who's batteries have begun to get "funky."
 
$100 would make me angry if I had to pay it.

How about all of the other hard drive based MP3 units like the Creative ones and such? What is their story when it comes to batteries and replacements?
 
Originally posted by LordJezo
$100 would make me angry if I had to pay it.

How about all of the other hard drive based MP3 units like the Creative ones and such? What is their story when it comes to batteries and replacements?
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They sell replacements for the same price. This is a industry standard thing, just Apple was first.
 
I do not own an iPod because I am too poor to purchase one. But if I was to spend over 300+ for an iPod and the battery will just die out on me like that, I would be super pissed. Especially if this is a well known problem.

I know that the device looks very good and everything, but seriously...
 
Originally posted by LordJezo
$100 would make me angry if I had to pay it.

How about all of the other hard drive based MP3 units like the Creative ones and such? What is their story when it comes to batteries and replacements?
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the latch on the bottom causes the face plate of the zen to pop off and access to the battery

DSCN0073.JPG
 
Wewt, i got my ipod at the wiz about a day before it closed... Registered with apple with the stupid thing plugged in. About 10 months after i have it battery starts dying... I bring it to apple store and they tell me they cant do anything because i didnt register. I say i did and they do an extensive search just to find that i was out of my warrenty period by about 2 weeks... So my options were, 2 hours of life, or shell out 300 for a replacement. Well, i've still got the 5 gigger.

What pissed me off was that i asked if i could trade it in and maybe get like 100 bucks off a new one, and they said that they have never done that and never will. But theres this 14 year old kid there, and he starts talking about how his dad did that and im like WTF...

I got my revenge, i downloaded the ut2k3 demo on every powermac and said i was "Testing the graphics card" i could have said anything, the dude they assigned to watch over me had the IQ of a staple.
 
I am not sure if it is only Apple and their batteries, but every freaking hardware they make always have some sort of a battery problem. My 12" Powerbook is another very good example.
 
Batteries die, it's a fact of life. If any of you have a laptop, whether it be Apple or not, I can guarantee you that the battery is going to die on that as well.
 
Originally posted by WakeboardrB
Batteries die, it's a fact of life. If any of you have a laptop, whether it be Apple or not, I can guarantee you that the battery is going to die on that as well.
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NO DON'T SAY THAT...IT CAN'T BE TRUE...BATTERIES LAST FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER...why is it that people think this? under "normal" usage I would expect the iPod battery to last 2-3 years before it got real bad...if you use it EVERY day and drain it each time you use it maybe a year and that would be pushing it..until the technology for fuel cells get small enough to fit in something like this batteries will have to be used
 
This is another case of people not understanding the principles of battery technology and then BITCHING CONSTANTLY when something goes wrong...

It's not uncommon for manufacturers to make a battery difficult to change, especially in a compact device. If you integrate the battery, you get a more solid device that won't be as vulnerable to someone dropping it.

I don't hear anyone bitching about Compaq iPaqs, which did not have a removable battery when they were the BEST SELLING PocketPC on the market. It's the same situation. You buy the smallest device offered, expect sacrifices while you do it. One of them being the ease of battery exchange.

If people would stop being so damned dumb, they wouldn't be shocked when situations like this arise.

BTW, I bought a 5GB iPod at launch and I still get at least 5 hours of battery life out of it. This problem is a rarity, not the standard.
 
personaly i will never buy some thing like this i will always make sure any device has user replaceable batteries
 
Originally posted by Lunas
personaly i will never buy some thing like this i will always make sure any device has user replaceable batteries
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It IS user replaceable :rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by lopoetve
It IS user replaceable :rolleyes:
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for 59 bucks+shipping you can replace your own battery with one identical to the one that just lasted you 18-24 months or alternately you could get the belkin battery pack to put on the ipod and you can run your pod off AA batteries and you could spend 11 bucks and get 4 NiMH batterys that last longer than the ipod battery how ever this ruins the astetics of the ipod
 
Originally posted by Lunas
for 59 bucks+shipping you can replace your own battery with one identical to the one that just lasted you 18-24 months or alternately you could get the belkin battery pack to put on the ipod and you can run your pod off AA batteries and you could spend 11 bucks and get 4 NiMH batterys that last longer than the ipod battery how ever this ruins the astetics of the ipod
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Which is basically, in further wording, what I said.

Every player out there has batteries that die in 18-24 months, on average. They all cost the same too.
 
I remember reading somewhere that the older 1st and 2nd generation iPods had a certain type of battery in it that just didn't last long.. and that apple found that out and fixed it by putting a different type of battery in the 3rd and 4th generation iPods.

I could be wrong ya know. Thats just what I remember hearing from a while ago since this topic is sooo last year (j/p)! :D
 
Originally posted by spencers
I remember reading somewhere that the older 1st and 2nd generation iPods had a certain type of battery in it that just didn't last long.. and that apple found that out and fixed it by putting a different type of battery in the 3rd and 4th generation iPods.

I could be wrong ya know. Thats just what I remember hearing from a while ago since this topic is sooo last year (j/p)! :D
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You are wrong, cause there are no 4th generation iPod's.
 
Originally posted by lopoetve
Which is basically, in further wording, what I said.

Every player out there has batteries that die in 18-24 months, on average. They all cost the same too.
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this is however incorrect as the creative muvo's batteries are only 10 bucks how ever this is not the same as the ipod as it holds vastly more than the muvo
 
The life span of the battery is about the same as most other Lithium-Ion based units. Some of Lithium-polymer units may last twice as long. We shall see when that time has passed.

The thing that really sucks about the iPod battery is the actual usage time on a charge. Boo hiss I say.
 
Originally posted by Lunas
this is however incorrect as the creative muvo's batteries are only 10 bucks how ever this is not the same as the ipod as it holds vastly more than the muvo
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I was talking about comparable players. Muvo is no where near the iPod. The appropriate comarison would be Zen / iPod, or Nomad eXtra / iPod, so I AM correct.
 
The iRiver does not have user replaceable batteries either, but they might last longer being lithium polymer.
 
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