iPhone 4S battery dead.

ubern00b

ubern00b

ubern00b

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25 Nov 2004
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Hi All

Just wondering if anyone else has had the same experience as myself. My iPhone 4S 64GB refuses to charge as of yesterday. It hasn't been dropped, there is no water damage or anything but Saturday it charged fine and Sunday it was dead.

Anyway, went to the Apple store here in Watford at lunch to be told that I had to make an appointment online. There were no appointments available today apparently. True to their word there were none, earliest appointment is Saturday afternoon. Great. My phone was bought on a contract from Three 2 years and 1 month ago. The Three store in Watford is closed for refurbishment. Also great.

Phone Apple to be told they want £150 for a repair as it is out of warranty. Fair enough it is out of warranty but this is where I have an issue. Is it fair that a £700 (at time of launch that was the price outright. I purchased it for £200 on a £35 a month 2 year contract) phone should only be expected to last 2 years? Or even 1 year as I think that's the warranty period?

Just looking for advice from anyone who may have successfully had their phone repaired for free by quoting some SoGA act that I am unaware of or something, I am trying to clutch at straws basically. Thanks for your help!
 
My first reply never got posted thanks to safari crashing on my ipad 3. Thanks ios7 :(

The battery is classed as a consumable. It is known to wear out with use. I agree that the warranty period should be longer than 12 months. I believe that the EU has forced apple to adhere to a 24 month warranty period (I'm not sure if this applies in the UK).

If I was in your shoes I would have a go at replacing it myself (if you have no joy in getting a freebie replacement from Apple) using this ifixit guide:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+4S+Battery+Replacement/7111
 
icedbullet said:
My first reply never got posted thanks to safari crashing on my ipad 3. Thanks ios7 :(

The battery is classed as a consumable. It is known to wear out with use. I agree that the warranty period should be longer than 12 months. I believe that the EU has forced apple to adhere to a 24 month warranty period (I'm not sure if this applies in the UK).

If I was in your shoes I would have a go at replacing it myself (if you have no joy in getting a freebie replacement from Apple) using this ifixit guide:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+4S+Battery+Replacement/7111
Click to expand...

Thanks for taking the time to type out another reply, it is appreciated. This is another thing that irks me. If a part is classed as a consumable then surely it should be made user replaceable and not force the consumer to have to pay for it? Sure, pay for the part but £150 for parts and labour is far too steep considering the initial outlay.

As much as it pains me I have upgraded to a Nexus 5 as I just need a phone. If I don't get on with it I will probably be running back to Apple but I do have a considerable bitter taste in my mouth.
 
If it's only the battery it should only be £55 iirc and can be done in 30 minutes or so at a store. If you want to go down SoGA you have to go to the retailer, not the manufacturer. So 3 would have to sort something out for you. If it has failed then I'd expect it to be replaced free, if consumed it has simply been used up and I personally would pay for a replacement.
 
£55 I am happy to pay. I will just have to see what they say when I get my Genius appointment on Saturday. I was told £150 over the phone. Maybe they are more helpful in store.
 
The battery's on ebay are like £8 and it takes about 5 mins to change for a newbie, its only 4 screws.
 
Are you certain it's not charging, assuming your phone appears as if it is switched off and doesn't respond when you plug it into the mains?

I only ask because my old iPhone 4 did something similar a year or so ago, doing a hard reset (e.g. press and hold home and sleep button for 10 seconds) got it going again. The phone went from being perfectly fine to a black screen, and wouldn't respond to plugging it into my Mac or the mains, giving the impression it was bricked. Doing a hard reset fixed it. At the time I believe there was a bit of a bug where the OS wasn't handling its memory properly. IIRC an OS fix resolved the issue.

However, I believe Apple charge a fairly flat fee for all repairs outside of warranty regardless of the failed component, so £150 sounds about right, albeit fairly pricey.
 
Turbo-G said:
Are you certain it's not charging, assuming your phone appears as if it is switched off and doesn't respond when you plug it into the mains?

I only ask because my old iPhone 4 did something similar a year or so ago, doing a hard reset (e.g. press and hold home and sleep button for 10 seconds) got it going again. The phone went from being perfectly fine to a black screen, and wouldn't respond to plugging it into my Mac or the mains, giving the impression it was bricked. Doing a hard reset fixed it. At the time I believe there was a bit of a bug where the OS wasn't handling its memory properly. IIRC an OS fix resolved the issue.

However, I believe Apple charge a fairly flat fee for all repairs outside of warranty regardless of the failed component, so £150 sounds about right, albeit fairly pricey.
Click to expand...

I have tried a hard reset and it didn't help. I am not 100% sure it is the battery as it wasn't playing up at all beforehand, one day it just wouldn't charge. The only other thing it could be is the dock connector. I may pick one up as well as a battery and repair it myself and hope for the best.
 
Turbo-G said:
However, I believe Apple charge a fairly flat fee for all repairs outside of warranty regardless of the failed component, so £150 sounds about right, albeit fairly pricey.
Click to expand...

Not sure for shipping in to Apple, but in store you should only have to pay the cost of the part, £55, but make sure you have a backup of your data first. But yeah it could be a dock which would be £159 for a replacement handset
 
I decided to get a battery and dock connector and attempt the repair myself. Parts cost £27 including tools. I replaced the battery and it now turns on but still won't charge so it must be the dock connector. Replacing that is a little more involved and I don't have the most steady hands but if I can find a nice quiet spot away from my 2 cats who love to investigate whenever I am doing anything remotely intricate I will attempt the replacement and hopefully have a fully working iPhone again :)
 
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