iPhone 3gs exploding expanding battery

Just an update from me. Called support.. They said $195 fee because out of warranty. I said thats too much.. Its not my fault etc. They said safety feature.. but understood. She passed me on to someone else... That guy said would talk to his manager and call me back. Got no calls. I called.. but he was busy so he'd call me.. Never happened. Started fresh with someone else.. He was excellent.. Anyway said $95 for battery replacement fee (Sydney, Aust).. Had to take it in a store.. But all good.. I did replace phone.. Got shiny new one.. Now I just need a simcard to activate the **** thing...

Perhaps your $5 battery is the type that has caused a number of Samsung phones to catch fire causing severe injuries, and one to burn out an apartment.

Battery ? I was talking about a 30pin to lightning cable, my 3GS battery is fine. Also I have used the cheapeast batteries on eBay on my Galaxy S2 for the last years, and not even caught fire yet

Sorry I misinterpreted your post. Probably because the subject of this thread is batteries, not cables or adapters.

I'm glad you have been lucky, unlike these people: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=samsung+battery+fires

yes, same with mine... used it a few days ago for ipod purposes and then it exploded.... unfortunatly i had photos on there ... dont know if theres someway to get them back? 😟

Just an update from me.. made an appointment with a Genius last week who was suprised when he saw the expanded battery. I got the impression of a fake reaction tbh. Anyway he was saying I'd have to pay just over £100 for a reconditioned 3GS and then I mentioned that I'd spoken to you guys and that the general thing was to replace with a reconditioned phone for the price of battery replacement, the battery destroyed the phone etc etc. So he said "Yes, good point" and arranged a replacement. I felt he was trying to get the extra pennies out of me. So today I picked up the replacement 3GS which looks brand new with 90 day warranty for £55 not a bad result really.

Thanks all for your help.

Jason

Didn't know about this exploding issue until now. I bought my unlocked 3GS while I was in Hong Kong and it's worked great as a music player for my car until the car had some problems and had to sit for 3 weeks and the car battery died...as well as the battery on my 3GS totally drained. Then when I started driving the car again, I noticed the 3GS wasn't charging up, so I popped out of the cradle and noticed this. I've only used this as a music player since my car has a cradle for this phone even though I use an iPhone 5 now.

Add another 3GS phone. I bought mine in '09, used it as phone until last year then used it less n less as music, kid app or in other words as itouch. The apps stopped working a few months ago so it went into a drawer until I had time to deal with it (had I known about the battery replacement issue this would've been the time I could've done that). Pulled it out this week to reset phone. Put it on dresser to set up with iTunes this weekend only to find this morning expanded! Apple store is skirting around my questions/concerns seeing is how my other 3GS is used by a toddler and 2 other children. They keep referring me to replace the phone. If us consumers do not address/complain about this issue on a global level that we were completely unaware of, then Apple has no reason to be accountable or even proactive to other consumers. The money I spent in my devices is the least of my worries right now but absolutely feel bamboozled or even worse scammed in a sense that they withheld highly important info from us at the time of purchase and by not issuing a recall or warning?

I'm in US and have appt this eve with genius to see what they tell me. For the amount of $$ Apple has made off these devices the least they can do is replace with a working 3GS iPhone.

I have 2 iPhone 3GS and firends that have 4s and 5's that have done this after replacing the battery myself there's no imei when I press the info button after restoring the iPhone through iTunes seems its expanded the motherboard and loosened some IC chips maybe? Anyone have this problem? I bought them for 20 bucks as I hate apple and tell everyone who comes to me about apple products I tell them stay away from it they buy better products like Sony, Nokia and Samsung. I have a Sony that's lasted 7 years! No battery no malfunction. Apple should step up their game about this issue. Seems all apple products do this after so many years even if you never drop it and look after it so well

In the spirit of collecting data on this issue, my 3gs has suffered the same fate. My 5 year old said to me, "look at my phone daddy." When AppleCare told me i would have to pay $150 for an out of warranty replacement, I indicated I would try to continue using it to which the AppleCare reps said, "I am concerned. We do't think you should use the iphone anymore." I said, "why should i stop using it?" he said, "it is a safety issue." I wanted to document this phone call, so that if any of you get injured you can point to this being as a known safety issue in which Apple advised customers not to use the device, but neither recalls the device, replaces it, or offers any other reparation. Nor does Apple make effort to reach out to customers proactively.

If anyone is ever injured as a result of this, then it would become a product liability issue and you may contact me for names of the rep and supervisor to which I spoke.

Drew W wrote:

In the spirit of collecting data on this issue, my 3gs has suffered the same fate. My 5 year old said to me, "look at my phone daddy." When AppleCare told me i would have to pay $150 for an out of warranty replacement, I indicated I would try to continue using it to which the AppleCare reps said, "I am concerned. We do't think you should use the iphone anymore." I said, "why should i stop using it?" he said, "it is a safety issue." I wanted to document this phone call, so that if any of you get injured you can point to this being as a known safety issue in which Apple advised customers not to use the device, but neither recalls the device, replaces it, or offers any other reparation. Nor does Apple make effort to reach out to customers proactively.

If anyone is ever injured as a result of this, then it would become a product liability issue and you may contact me for names of the rep and supervisor to which I spoke.

Wrong. They advised you not to use the iPhone in that condition, and did so on a recorded phone call. If you choose to ignore that recommendation, they are not liable for your injuries, and they have the evidence and the lawyers to back it up.

Also, if you had a cracked screen on the iPhone because of accidental damage, and Apple recommended not to use a device that had sharp, broken glass, and you continued to do so and injured yourself, they aren't liable.

If you have a car that has damage (say a front-end collision that caused frame damage), and the dealership recommends not driving it since it's unsafe, but you do so anyways, they aren't liable if you end up getting hurt. By the very tone of your comments, you're trying to loophole the system. And you're going to fail.

And how is Apple supposed to 'reach out proactively' to customer's that have a device that is now in an unsafe condition? Are they psychic?

Perhaps,TJBUSMC1973 in responding to my post, you've reacted to my tone rather than the content of my post. I didn't say Apple is liable to me. They aren't. We can both agree that Apple explicitly said not to use the device. So, I won't. But in doing so, they acknowledged a safety issue to me that they are aware of, but not to the public. I posted my experience so that, in the event someone else is injured, they can point to this as documentation of a known issue.

As to your other point, my screen isn't cracked, though that comment appears to stem from your assertion that I'm trying to "loophole the system", by which I reckon you mean that I'm threatening the risk personal damage for personal gain, which I'm not. I haven't gained anything.

As for notifying owners, there's the App Store or direct push route (as they do with software notifications). There the carrier as a channel for those on one. At minimum, they could list this in this Quality Program page so it's findable. But really, this is Apple's responsibility to find a way to reach people if there's a safety issue with some phones. But it all starts with Apple taking responsibility for a potential product libability. I don't want to make too much of this. It's not at the same level as the car analogy where the consequences of frequently death, but my 5 yr old girl was using the phone and I'm a little ****** because she could have been hurt. And to find out is a known issue that the've done nothing about when I call Apple? C'mon.

Drew W wrote:

Perhaps,TJBUSMC1973 in responding to my post, you've reacted to my tone rather than the content of my post. I didn't say Apple is liable to me. They aren't. We can both agree that Apple explicitly said not to use the device. So, I won't. But in doing so, they acknowledged a safety issue to me that they are aware of, but not to the public. I posted my experience so that, in the event someone else is injured, they can point to this as documentation of a known issue.

As to your other point, my screen isn't cracked, though that comment appears to stem from your assertion that I'm trying to "loophole the system", by which I reckon you mean that I'm threatening the risk personal damage for personal gain, which I'm not. I haven't gained anything.

As for notifying owners, there's the App Store or direct push route (as they do with software notifications). There the carrier as a channel for those on one. At minimum, they could list this in this Quality Program page so it's findable. But really, this is Apple's responsibility to find a way to reach people if there's a safety issue with some phones. But it all starts with Apple taking responsibility for a potential product libability. I don't want to make too much of this. It's not at the same level as the car analogy where the consequences of frequently death, but my 5 yr old girl was using the phone and I'm a little ****** because she could have been hurt. And to find out is a known issue that the've done nothing about when I call Apple? C'mon.

They are aware of the safety issue that you have on your particular device because you reported it to them. This is an extremely rare occurrence. This thread is almost three years old.

There is no generalized safety issue to the public, except in the very rare instances that the battery swells up, and that can occur from a lot of different causes, many of them user-initiated.

And have you read the iPhone user manual? How about the Safety appendix in that manual? The one that's available for review even before you buy an iPhone in the first place? Seems to me that Apple has given plenty of safety information, as well as a support site, as well as physical stores, as well as phone support.

There's a potential 'safety issue' with every electronic or mechanical device in the entire world.

It's not a 'known issue', not to the point that you should legitimately expect a generalized response. There's also common sense; if an electronic device is physically damaged, has exposed wiring, sharp edges, broken glass, excessive temperature, etc., etc., then only a fool keeps using it in that condition.

Additionally, you state that you will provide the names of the reps you spoke to if anyone from this site contacts you? Good luck. The rules of this site prohibit providing personal information, either yours or anyone else's. Therefore, you can't share an email address or a phone number, nor can you post anyone else's name or personal information.

Your iPhone has damage or a defect. No one has been hurt. Apple has advised you to stop using the device. Everything else is you trying to stir up a problem.

This issue has not gone away. Two years ago my iPhone 3GS started swelling, slightly cracking the screen. Last month the expanding battery cracked the back of the case. At the very least, Apple should replace the battery for the usual charge, and replace the iPhone at the same time at no additional cost. This is a safety issue and should be handled. I am a rather large investor in Apple and would expect my company to do this.