There is a Reason I’m an Apple Fan
Over the course of the last few weeks, I've noticed that my Late 2016 15" MacBook Pro was "rocking" a little on my desk. As if the bottom of the case was "bowed", and so pressing on the space next to the trackpad made the back-end lift up. Now I've heard about the damaged Li-Ion batteries, and even replaced one in a battery pack on my Mom's old 13" MacBook Pro several years ago, but I was in a bit of denial about this one, as I was hoping it was "something else". 🙂
Finally, yesterday I called Apple to see if the local Naperville Apple Store could replace the battery without having to ship it to the Service Center. They were vague - saying it was possible, but that would depend on a lot of things. In the end, I really had to just take it to them, and see. So I made a Genius Bar appointment.
When they saw it, they agreed - damaged Li-Ion battery, but that it'd have to go out for service. I'd be without it for 3 - 5 days. That's too long for me, as it's the only place I get my email, and notifications, and some of those are very important. So I knew it was time to get a new machine, migrate over, and then send the old one back for repair, and keep it as a spare.
Luckily, the Apple Store has a "Secret Supply" of high-end configurations that don't show up on the web site, and they had exactly the machine I would have ordered, so I could migrate things over last night. But the real surprise is that Apple would do this for free. Wow... a $300 battery replacement for free. 🙂
Sure... they probably do this because of the fire hazard, but to me - it's just free. Now I'll take it to the Apple Store today, they will ship it off to get fixed, and when it returns in a week or so, it'll be a great back-up machine.