After 3 years with the battery of my iPhone 13 Pro, and reaching the 79% healthit was time to replace it, because the iPhone 16, without 100% Apple Intelligence, and even less so in Europe, was an uninteresting expense, and I prefer to keep my current phone for another year, waiting for the next version.
However, when trying to make the change, I have only encountered problems, at least in the official SATwhich leads me to think that Apple does not take much care of these, and only wants us to do battery changes at the Apple Store, something that, if you do not live near them, becomes complicated.
Changing battery in official SAT, difficult?
Within the official Apple SATs, there are stores owned by individuals or companies, and others owned by large chains such as K-Tuin or MediaMarkt. In my case, and due to proximity, I decided on these, since I understood that I would have more stock and experience when it came to replacing this component, as well as ease of payment and so on.
My mistake in trusting both Apple and them. First, I made an appointment at a store. K-Tuinthrough the iPhone Support app, which lets you select your phone model, service, and nearest stores that have support to do it. The price of 99 euros told me that everything was correct (and expensive, but hey, I already knew that).
The request was for a Saturday, a day on which it appears that they have technical support, since in other K-Tuin stores there is only it from Monday to Friday. My surprise? No, they don’t work on Saturdays, and the only solution they gave me is to leave my iPhone there, and on Monday they did it for me. Something absurd, and it was also more than 1 hour from my city, so I only I lost time and money. The Support app allows you to select an appointment for this on a Saturday, but the worst of all is that on the company’s own website they also indicate that they do battery changes on a Saturday. Failure of both?
I no longer want to mention that they also allow you to select a Monday at 7:40 p.m. as an appointment, for example, closing 20 minutes later, which makes you think that when you arrive they are going to tell you that they cannot do it in such a short time, so that… we better not give an opinion.
Well, knowing this, I made an appointment again, this time for a MediaMarkt in the same city the following Monday. Another hour of travel, and when I arrive, oh, surprise, there is support and an appointment, but they don’t have that battery in stock, so I have to wait 2 or 3 days for them to order it and request an appointment again…
I return home, after several hours of lost travel, with the battery without changing and without a real solution. Will I make an appointment again and ask if they have stock, or are they forcing me to go to an Apple Store? The truth is that my experience with the SATs is very bad, I hope it went better for you.
