battery status not showing in menu bar

Melanie Kühnlein wrote:

The repair service is a trusted member of a german mac community, I'd be surrised if the battery has something to do with it. As far as I know they are using original hardware. And this would be dissappointing, the new battery is just a few weeks old.

The information shown in your screenshots shows you are not using an original Apple battery. The only way to get an original Apple battery is by getting the battery replaced by Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider, or by installing a used Top Case Assembly which includes a glued in Battery along with a Keyboard & Trackpad. If the repair shop is unaffiliated with Apple, then they are installing used parts or they are misleading people. The third party battery is the most likely part to be defective as it can be the reason their is no battery icon on the menubar because the battery is not being fully recognized. Since this is a recent repair you should definitely take the laptop back to them to make it right.

FYI, personally I will always avoid third party Lithium-ion batteries as long as there is an OEM battery available. If an OEM battery is not available, then I'm not sure I would even consider a third party battery (it would require lots of research to confirm a relatively good battery). This is how bad the quality of these third party Lithium-ion batteries are. There may indeed be some good batteries out there, but finding them is the hard part since the market is flooded with junk and knock-offs.

It sounds like you may have multiple issues going on here. If the Battery icon is not displayed on the menubar, then make sure it is enabled in the Dock & Menubar System Preferences where you will also find an option to display the battery charge percentage indicator. Otherwise I don't know what kind of software issues you may have going on here.

As for the charging issue, that is most likely a hardware issue. Does the Magsafe LED light up and if so what color is it? Is it a solid bright color, or is it flickering or dim? The laptop not indicating the battery is charging can be due to the DC-In Board, Logic Board, the Battery, or even the charger itself. Since you indicated previous issues, then it makes it impossible to say. If you installed a third party battery, then that would be the first thing I would suspect since the quality of third party Lithium-ion Batteries is extremely poor even when purchased from a respected vendor such as OWC. Yes, the quality of third party Lithium-ion Batteries are that bad.

Unless the repair shop is an Apple Authorized Service Provider, then they did not acquire the battery from Apple since Apple does not sell individual stand alone batteries as the battery is included with the entire Top Case/Keyboard Assembly. If they are not an AASP, then at best the part you received was used. This is just the way the Apple repair world operates at the moment.

In the screenshots, there is no manufacturer or battery serial number listed, or Design Capacity and other information. Perhaps this is due to the fact the battery is bad (or perhaps your Logic Board is bad and not properly communicating with the battery), or it is due to it being a third party battery.

Was the entire Top Case/Keyboard Assembly replaced? Or did they just replace the battery? If they only replaced the battery, then it is definitely not an official Apple battery unless they removed it from another laptop (which means the battery is used).

I'm not saying the repair shop may not be talented or good since a lot of independent repair shops have great talent, but they may not be representing themselves properly. Keep in mind only Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider are the only ones currently able to provide brand new genuine Apple parts. The only possible way an independent repair shop unaffiliated with Apple could provide a "new" part is by disassembling a brand new laptop.