New battery fiasco about to start for Apple

Jan 13, 2018 08:11 GMT  ·  By

As if the iPhone battery fiasco wasn’t enough trouble for Apple, the company is now about to be thrown into another similar scandal, this time due to misinforming about the actual battery life of MacBooks.

A number of customers are accusing Apple of overstating the standby time a MacBook can offer per charge, with VentureBeat pointing to one particular example according to which Apple not only that played down such a possibility, but also refused to test or repair impacted laptops.

Specifically, Apple promises up to 30 days standby time for the MacBook, but complaints posted online indicate that the battery drain is significantly higher and users are only getting between 10 and 15 days of standby time per charge.

While it’s hard to prove that Apple exaggerates when pointing to the 30-day battery life since the company might have tested this in the perfect conditions with the smallest possible battery consumption, there are users saying that even with the laptop fully shut down they lose some 15 percent every day.

The particular case mentioned above was brought forward by a MacBook owner who claims his device lost 7 percent of battery every day when shut down, leading to a nearly 0% charge 10 days later. This is when he decided to get the MacBook to the Apple Store and use his AppleCare extended warranty for a battery repair, only to discover that the engineers didn’t run a test of standby time and refused to service his device.

“Sue us if you want”

His next step was reaching out to Apple CEO Tim Cook to report the bug, and he was then contacted by Apple spokesperson Shane Barton who emphasized there was nothing wrong with his MacBook’s laptop. “[They] even blocked the local Apple store from letting me pay for a new battery,” he was quoted as saying by the cited source.

Eventually, he was told by the Apple spokesperson that “if you want to take a legal route, feel free to do that.” In other words, you can sue if you want because otherwise we won’t replace your battery.

While this aggressive approach from Apple can really hurt its image, especially after the iPhone battery fiasco and the update blunder that impacted iOS 11 and macOS, it also raises questions as to why the Cupertino-based tech giant refuses to talk the MacBook battery controversy in detail.

There are users who posted on Apple’s support forums (1, 2, 3, 4) who reveal they’ve been told by Apple technicians that such a battery drain is normal. This means Apple overstated the 30-day battery life in standby mode, though that’s something the company will have to clarify in this new saga sooner or later.