Macbook Pro Battery replacement - Apple Authorised Service Centre - Great experience

Since a few months I have been facing the popular issue of "Service Battery" Error and my battery backup had dropped significantly from over 5 hours on a full charge to hardly 30 minutes on a 100% battery charge.

Fortunately, when I purchased this Mac, I went for AppleCare Protection Plan that covered my Mac for 3 years, however the issue was, battery wasn't covered under the AppleCare protection Plan unless it was a manufacturing defect. So I called up Apple Technical Support and they asked me to do some things like resetting hardware ...... (Don't know what exactly) after I did that and restarted my laptop it still showed "Service Battery" near the battery charge indicator in top right side.

The Defective Battery..

So I took my laptop to Apple authorised service centre, the first service centre I visited "Unicorn Infosolutions Pvt Ltd Ahmedabad" the person there was too reckless on understanding my query and didn't at all give any care to my issues, and forcefully tried to explain me the protocols and procedures they need to follow and so on..

I wasn't satisfied and I simply took my laptop and walked away from there and decided to go on to next (and the only left) authorised service centre called "Neoteric Infomatique Ltd", Had a quick Hardware diagnostics test done on my Mac and the result was that the battery was under a manufacturing defect and so I would get the new battery without any charge from Apple under my AppleCare Protection Plan. The person there "Mr. Ashok" informed me that he will claim a battery from Apple Bangalore and let me know once the battery has arrived (it could take as long as a week) and meanwhile I can take my laptop back and use it on power (rather than battery).

A week later:
On the day of Battery Replacement, I visited Neoteric Infomatique, with full excitement as I had prepared to record the video of battery replacement procedure. Mr. Ashok is a really friendly person, not trying to force protocols on me or explain me the procedures and instead even allowed me to see the procedure how he did the diagnostics test and everything from start to beginning.

This man did really make me feel as if I am at Apple Store in UK, in fact even they don't care for customer's queries as much as Mr. Ashok did.

Now comes another issue, my laptop was a customised one that I had got from UK, its a Early 2011 model 15" 2.2 GHz with Anti-Glare Screen and Mr. Ashok didn't have suitable screwdrivers that he could use for the new set up to replace the battery.

Normally at this situation you would expect the service centre person to simply tell you to leave the laptop and come next day as due to some reason they are unable to do the entire battery replacement procedure (they would not even bother telling you the actual reason), well it wasn't same with Mr. Ashok, he actually told me where all he had been in search of new type screw drivers and that he had already ordered one from Apple Bangalore but it could take over a couple of days (given weekend was coming). And then went on asking if I knew anyone here in Ahmedabad who sells such screwdrivers.

I started making some calls, and thankfully I made up a call to a person whom I had met just once in life about 3 years earlier when I had to get my HP Pavilion laptop serviced, I wasn't sure if he would even recognise me, but hey! he answered the call and instantly recognised me as I told him my name, I explained him the situation, he said, bring in the Apple Service Guy and the Macbook Pro to his place along with the new battery, he would let us use his screw drivers and he was sure he had the screw drivers that we needed for replacing the battery.

I was surprised with his response. We quickly drove there, he offered us tea (in hospitality) and gave us a few screwdrivers and told Mr. Ashok to check if anything works out. Fortunately, after testing some screwdrivers, one worked and finally my battery replacement was done.

At the end of the procedure, I offered him (Mr. Sachin of Data Solutions, Ahmedabad) money and he said, all he wanted was to maintain good relations and develop new contacts and he took contact details of Mr. Ashok just in case if he ever needs his help in future. So no money exchanged!

I was super surprised with the response I got back to back, first from Mr. Ashok as he really wanted to get my battery replaced on the same day rather than me having to wait for another few days (that too just because of a screwdriver) and then Mr. Sachin of Data Solutions, Ahmedabad (I am still surprised how he recognised me instantly and offered us free help and refused to accept any money too!)

A screen shot of my Mac's battery status after battery replacement

Here's a video of battery replacement, you will notice the video is actually two different videos combined, first at Apple Service Centre, next at Data Solutions where finally the battery was replaced.