Apple Offers Another Battery Replacement

Apple Watch warranty now extended to cover battery replacement – on some models, at least.

No matter how great a product is, nothing is completely infallible; that’s when a great warranty and great customer service come in to smooth the hurt that a defective, expensive gadget causes. Apple came under fire last year when they essentially admitted to self-destructing the power capability to preserve battery life on their iPhone 6 models. The new feature was well-intentioned, the company claimed at the time, as it was meant to prevent a sudden shutdown as the battery began to age and not charge as efficiently.

Apple will repair select Apple Watch Series 2 models that do not power on or have a swollen battery free of charge.

Poor communications

According to some sources, Apple is merely guilty of a lack of communication rather than an intentional effort to nudge customers into purchasing a newer phone. As a show of legal good faith, Apple offered steeply discounted battery replacements on specific models, an offer that was originally good through last year.

Now, not only is the iPhone 6 battery replacement offer good through June 30, 2018, but Apple is also offering a battery replacement special on its Apple Watch. The difference this time is that it’s a warranty matter, not just an all-out product defect.

Not the first time

More precisely, Apple is extending the warranty on many of its Watches to cover the battery replacement. This is not the first time that the company has extended the warranty on its own smartwatch product, though. Certain models of the Watch experienced issues like battery swelling and loss of function, which Apple covered once before.

Dropped ball

Unfortunately, Apple is dropping the ball on announcing the warranty update… again. Rather than share the news with customers (who’ve got to be getting pretty frustrated by now), the company sent it out to Apple Stores and authorized locations instead, instructing them to cover the defect regardless of timeline.

Specific models

Several sources, including MacRumors and Gizmodo, have announced the quiet directive. MacRumors specified which models were included in this extended offer, namely “42mm-sized Apple Watch Series 2 models, including Sport, Edition, Hermès, and Nike+ variants”.