The battery in my old iPhone (out of warranty) has just decided to explode, pop the screen off and bend the main board. Is Apple doing anything to correct this issue? I wasn't using it for a phone, rather an ipod around the house, but still it shouldn't just fall apart like that!
iPhone 3GS, iOS 5.0.1
I got my old 3GS replaced at an Apple Store yesterday for $80 - it was out of warranty but they said they would replace it as a battery problem. This was the second Apple Store I went to - the first tried to sell me a new battery for $150. I found an authorized Apple repair shop and they told me to go ASAP to Apple (and go to a store that wasn't as busy as the one I went to) and they should offer to replace for $50 - $100, confirming that the battery was swelling and it could explode or at least leak and damage the board. The second Apple Store was great - I did not have to throw a hissy-fit to get them to replace, just dropped a few key words like product defect; the Genius at the first store just wanted to get rid of me.
I noticed the problem when I was finally getting ready to sell the phone. I got a new iphone 5 in Nov. and had sold the phone after taking photographs of the phone in mid Jan. No bulging back and screen was clear and bright. I did notice that the phone was not holding a charge very well. Sold the phone about 10 days later and while getting it ready I noticed a dark spot on the screen, below the glass. when I pressed on the area, the spot moved. got an appt at Apple that afternoon and the Genius told me that the battery was swelling and pushing upwards and that's what caused the darkening. he opened the phone and apparently relieved some of the pressure but there was still a spot. obviously I could not sell with a known change so I checked around and found the place to replace the battery. in the 5 days between noticing the dark area and then going to get a new battery, the case started bulging. this was shocking as I was not charging or using the phone.
Took a while to find any info on battery swelling on Apple website (only here). Google 3GS battery swelling and the photos are grim - this is NOT unique problem. If your phone gets warm and the battery does not hold a charge, run, do not walk, to get the battery replaced.
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?
I don't care about your 'personal sample'. A sample of four units is an abysmally small sampling. If you asked 4 people on the street if they think that ghosts are real, and two said yes, does that mean half of Americans think ghosts are real?
You quoted 'thousands' of units may have this issue. While you have no evidence to support this claim, let's use it for argument's sake.
Thousands out of millions is rare. That's 0.1%.
Contact Apple for your options. Contact a lawyer if that's what you want to do. No one here cares if you do that or not.
I have worked with hundreds of iPhone 3GS units in the past. None of them ever had this issue. However, I wouldn't say that the failure rate is 0.0%, even though that is my personal experience.
If I'm not going to use my experience with (and I just checked my records to verify) 200+ iPhone 3GS units to state that the issue is a non-occurance (and that's the rate of incidence in my sample: 0.0%), then you have no justification to use your 4 units to present it as a common occurrence.
That's how math and statistics works; larger sample increase the odds of accuracy. If we add yours to mine, then it's around 0.8%. Still rare, even with our combined samples.
By the way: to everyone on this list...
If you mention anything like a class action suit your post will be deleted or edited by Apple. Happened to me twice.
Agreed, Toyota can recall 7 million cars and survive. Apple can compensate for their faulty IPhone 3Gs's and survive I presume...
Yeah he was at tech support over the phone. My original 3GS (one I gave the store for the new 3GS) was bought 38 months ago (3 year, 2 months) in April of 2010.
Shows how rare it is. But consider that Boeing had to ground its entire fleet of 787's because it happened to 2 of them. And see: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=samsung+battery+explosions
Hey my 3gs battery expanded but the entire mother/logic board is split in half and it keeps expanding I'm going to the apple store to complain
iPhone 3gs exploding expanding battery
