TedWahler.com

I  would like to report one of the best customer service experiences ever.

The battery (removable style back then) on my 28 month old (out of Apple Care warranty) MacBook spontaneously puffed-up about five days ago. It grew noticeably puffier each day. This was alarming as it really was bulging out of its cavity.

I did my research and found that this was an occasional problem and that if the battery charge cycles were below 300 cycles people on the forums were reporting a no-hassle attitude from the Apple store Genius Bar. There were reports of the swelling battery interfering with the trackpad operation and some concern of it pressing on the logic board. I think it was affecting my airport card on my machine as my connectivity was nearly non-existent today via WiFi from exactly the same position on my desk as usual.

I walked into the Apple store this evening, got an appointment time that was only a 15 minute wait, in ten minutes I was waited on, I handed my puffy battery to the Apple Genius and all he said was, "hang on, I will get you a new battery". Fabulous!

I asked if there may be something wrong with my charger and he replied not that he had ever heard of and continued to explain that manufacturing those batteries is tricky and sometimes they get it wrong. That was all I had. He asked if there was anything else he could do for me today. I said no and thank you.

In and out in way under twenty minutes with the confidence that I have a solid working machine again. Good job all around Apple, and the employees of the Apple Store. Thank you.

WiFi is strong again as I type this, maybe the puffy battery was the cause as I suspected.