Vintage Machines - Is this for real?

We have an original MacBook Air from 6 years ago and have taken it into the Apple Store in London for a replacement battery and have been told its vintage and apple do not carry the parts so will do nothing.

The machine is suffering from the expanding battery problem as we did not know about this issue and had carried on using it on the power cable. So we have a machine with an ever expanding metal case possibly the best option is to destroy it and start again...will wait to see what the other company who may be able to fix it say.

Very annoyed that Apple will do nothing apart from recommending someone else who might take a look at it.

Even more annoyed that we had to wait a week to get an appointment with a genius to tell us this.

It does not take a genius to say if its more than 6 years old no point in bringing it back to us!

This information should be available on the Apple website!