We have a 4 years old MacBook Pro. The battery was replaced over a year and half ago and then it shortly died on us and we noticed the back of the battery was swollen and it opened up from the side. Basically the laptop was useless without being connected to electricity. While dealing with the battery issue we tried to install iOS Lion 10.7.0 which is the latest operating system from Apple. However, the current OS was actually Leopard and not a Snow Leopard, this means we first needed to upgrade to Snow Leopard before even thinking of getting to Lion. We had purchased Lion for our iMac, so we tried installing it from a USB drive and we did not get anywhere as we kept getting installation errors.

The laptop was over 4 years old and we did not have any type of warranty or Apple Care on it. When we phoned Apple customer Service, we were told that we only had 10 minutes of phone support due to not having any warranty. They booked us an appointment at Apple Store at Metrotown for the next day.

We got to the Genius Bar at Apple  Store and explained the story. As soon as the Apple Genius saw the swollen battery, he told us that they will replace it for FREE even though the battery was almost two years old with no extra warranty. The laptop was actually purchased in Spain and we did not even have to show proof of ownership. Next thing we told them about the OSX Lion story and they agreed to install it from their server for FREE, nice. Next we are like, mmm by the way the fan also does not really work properly and the laptop heats up quickly. They recommended us using the spray but they also offered they could open it up, dust and clean it for us also for FREE, we only had to leave it there for the night. Next day morning they called us to come and pick up the laptop with brand new battery, new OSX Lion installed and dusted off from inside.

We could not believe it when we signed the paper with $0.00 on it next to “Product is out of warranty”.