MacBook Pro battery failure - what next?

Life someone going to Alcoholic Anonymous (from my massive experience of watching folk doing this in the movies!), it's very good to know that 'we are not alone when suffering'... It was VERY helpful to discover that the battery warranty should be TWO years now (because my local Apple dealer certainly did not know that).

All I have to do now is find the best way of contacting AppleCare!

I will post back a result as soon as I get it, and look forward to writing 'solved' instead of just 'helpful' (do you then get a free holiday in Bermuda?!).

Just to keep you fine people up to date, I went back to the Apple store in my local town (Farpoint in Bath), gave them all the gen that Frank had supplied (such as the fact that there could well be a 2-year guarantee on these batteries instead of the usual 1), and the boss-boy there said 'Aha - we will look into this for you and get back to you'. A week has gone by, and I've heard nothing as yet, but I would like to believe they are trying as best they can. As soon as I get 'a result', one way or the other, I shall leave another note. What does this all prove thus far? That a forum like this can prove more helpful than Apple themselves, at least initially, but then I guess I might be expecting too much when computer 'issues' can be so very very diverse. At the very least, I would hope that Apple would wish to take back my 'old' battery, and investigate its problem closely (it seems frustrating to press that little button on the back of the battery, which tells me it's fully charged and, when it's plugged into my laptop, it still shows fully charged and yet within seconds of disconnecting the external power supply, everything switches off).

Frank - by the way, what number do you call Apple on?

SUCCESS!

Today, I have finally received a credit-card refund for £98.99 from my local Apple store. I gave them back the 'old' battery and have been able to keep the new one I originally had to buy from them.

None of this would have been possible without your advice in these Discussion pages. And the need to be persistent. Staff who I had been dealing with 'went on holiday' (delays), then Apple apparently lost all sight of the order and denied all knowledge of the reference numbers my local store had with them (more delays, and no love lost between the store and its supplier at Apple I can tell you!), but we got there in the end. In fact, the guy I had been dealing with was even on his day off, but accessing his account remotely from wherever he was as one does, and we got there in the end.

What a saga. What a victory for 'the little guy', made 'big' thanks to good advice from people like Frank. *THANK YOU.* From what you have been saying about your own experiences with batteries, it probably won't be long before I will have to replace even the new one I have now got but, for the moment, I am smiling on this glorious sunny day in England!