Replacement battery scam?

[Srynx]

I recently decided to replace the battery in my 3GS. Here is my tale of woe. I bought a battery and tool kit from Amazon and figured after watching a couple of videos on YouTube that I could manage it. Well when it all got here it took me a few seconds to break the flimsy plastic tools trying to remove the screen.

So I thought I'd get a local shop to do it for me instead. Gave them the new battery and paid £15 for them to fit it. When I got the phone back, it rebooted every 3 minutes. I guessed that my guaranteed genuine OEM replacement battery from Amazon was garbage. So I took the phone back and paid another £25 for them to fit one of their replacement batteries for the 3GS.

Now my phone no longer reboots every 3 minutes. However I have other issues. The first thing I noticed is they seem to have broken the camera, presumably the connector hasn't been replaced properly or has been damaged. So I'll be back on Monday asking for that to be fixed.

Now to the part I need your help with. I used BatteryInfo Lite and BattSaver to check the battery information after the new battery was installed and was amazed to see that both reported that my "new" battery had a cycle count of 238 and a current maximum capacity of 1115 mAh down from the design capacity of 1200 mAh. Which suggests to me that my "new" battery has previously been used in another phone for a year or two.

Can I trust what the chip on this "new" battery is telling me? I braced the guy who did the replacement about it and he swore that it was a new, was he lying? Now the apps report I'm up to 240 charge cycles and capacity is down to 1109 mAh. I'm going back to complain about the broken camera on Monday. Should I also demand they put in a new replacement battery?

 

[Napoleon PhoneApart]

To me it sounds like the "technician" is a bozo.

 

[Srynx]

Yes, I'm coming around to your thinking. Big question is can I trust what the apps are telling me regarding cycle count and capacity?

 

[Docd]

Most apps that I have see are not that reliable. I would put it a best guess category. I think the repair guy is an idiot but I think the batteries he gets are to the best of his knowledge are new. He would not stay in businesss long selling used stuff as new. I am assuming he does have a storefront or a real businesss not just a guy off Craigslist or something. If so then all bets are off.

 

[Srynx]

I don't know what to think, I would expect a new battery to come with a charge cycle count of zero or close to it. Similarly the actual battery capacity should be close to or the same as the design capacity. I'm inclined to trust the information from BatteryInfo Lite and BattSaver and ask them to change it when I go back.

 

[Docd]

Never hurts to ask as my wife says.

 

[Srynx]

New battery, cycle count zero. I'm guessing they accomplished this by destroying the pesky electronics on the battery because BatteryInfo Lite & BattSaver no longer report any information at all about the battery. Also with the chip on the battery disabled the phone is now rebooting every 3 minutes again and won't charge properly.

I'm afraid that my patience has run out with them, back tomorrow for the fourth time, ask for a refund I think and go elsewhere.

 

[Watcher]

Why didn't you just take it to an Apple Store and let them look at it? It never hurts to bring it in and ask them what they think. Don't expect anything, though, and you just might be pleasantly surprised. I told this to a coworker of mine who brought in her son's 2+ year old iPod Touch to an Apple Store with a screen was previously replaced by an online vendor and it currently had a headphone jack problem. She recounted everything she had done to the phone to an Apple Genius as well as some "I love Apple stuff" (that never hurts, either! ). And they ended up giving her a newly refurbished iPod Touch! Not saying that this will happen to you. Just take it in and, if anything, see if they have any recommendations as to how to get it fixed affordably and reliably.

 

[Srynx]

Figured Apple wouldn't touch it as it's jailbreak and I wanted to avoid having to upgrade it to an unmodified IOS 6.(whatever it is now) just to get the battery changed and then have to wind it back to IOS 5.1.1 for the untethered jailbreak. On top of all that (if it isn't enough) there's the day spent copying my apps and music collection back to the phone after changing the IOS and then reinstalling all my Cydia tweaks, apps and utilities. Figured it was a 20 minute job for someone with the right tools and experience.