Apple announced that it plans to give iPhone users a partial refund for any battery replacements they bought at full price last year. The company will offer a $50 refund to any iPhone user who replaced their batteries in 2017, as part of the Battery-gate scandal.
According to Apple, only owners of the iPhone 6 and more recent models will get refunded. Also, only people that replaced their handsets’ batteries from Jan. 1 to Dec. 28 will be eligible for the refund.
After the refunds, an iPhone battery replacement will cost $29, which is the price Apple established in late December in the aftermath of the battery scandal.
Customers eligible for a refund will be notified by e-mail in the next couple of months. They will also receive instructions on how to get the money back. Apple will reportedly give the money electronically or issue credit or debit cards.
Apple Inc. Caught in Scandal
The iPhone maker first promised to refund affected customers more than two months ago when it penned a letter to Congressman John Thune of the Senate Commerce Committee. Sen. Thune got the promise that customers that had bought a battery replacement before Apple’s December decision would be refunded.
In December, Apple admitted that it had purportedly slowed down some iPhones performance through software updates but not for the purpose of boosting its sales. The practice was supposed to prevent older devices’ weak batteries from damaging the hardware when running too-demanding apps.
Apple’s statement came days after researchers at Geekbench demonstrated in tests that older iPhones were moving slower than new ones.
The scandal, known as the Battery-gate, led to a dozen of lawsuits, with plaintiffs accusing Apple of slowing down the phones to force them to spend money on a newer, more expensive iPhone. The company has denied the allegations ever since.
Image Source: Wikimedia