Apple Service Rep: Swollen MacBook Battery “Normal”

    MacBook Pro owner Tommy reports that his 1.5-year-old replacement battery is swelling and that an Apple service rep told him that this is “normal.”

First, nobody seemed to know what to do with me or who I should talk to. Second, while they Apple Customer Representative could look up the age of my computer by the serial number, they had no way of tracking (and “proving the age”) of my battery by its unique serial number. Third, while nearly everybody I talked to seemed to show much concern over this safety issue, the “Senior Customer Representative” who finally spoke to me was quite apathetic about my battery problem. According to him, this issue is normal and the result of wear-and-tear on the battery and, more importantly, this was Apple’s official position.

    Since the battery is too old to be covered by Apple’s one-year warranty, the rep refused to replace it. That is, unless it might cause bodily injury or fire.

He did reassure me that, had the battery caused any damage to my computer or personal injury, he’d be willing to discuss that. So, basically, I would have been better off leaving the defective battery in my computer instead of being smart and removing it.

   This sounds like a good reason to head to an Apple store with the laptop in tow in the hopes that someone might agree to replace it…