[Jimmy Stang]

My visit to the Genius Bar (Market Mall) for my battery issues went better than I could have imagined. They started out by doing a couple of diagnostic tests. The first showed that the battery was "healthy", although nearing the zone where it could be considered "exhausted" or "depleted" (I forget the exact term that they used). But that was based on charge cycles, and it has been two years as my primary phone, so this was not unexpected at all.

The next test was the one that zzibradleyizz mentioned. It showed my battery usage in a visual graph, with all of the ups and downs. And sure enough, there were a couple of notable days where I had sudden drops in power that appeared on the graph. I told her that I could understand if the battery life became shortened over time, because that's what batteries do, but the erratic nature of the battery has made it difficult to function (tiny violin).

She asked if I had a recent backup, and if I'd like to try and reset the firmware. Apparently the firmware rarely gets fully reinstalled when you do OS updates, but rather appended to. So there was a chance that there could be an issue there, which made a little bit of sense because my issues became more pronounced after the iOS 10 update (the iOS updates have updates to firmware, but rarely fully replace it unless manually forced to do so).

While the firmware was being reinstalled, she discussed my out-of-warranty options: a $99 battery replacement, or replacing the phone. If, of course, the firmware didn't fix it. I subtly and politely inserted my "guy from work just had his done for free, and it was over two years old as well, I was hoping to be as lucky, etc. etc." And my Genius politely deflected and said "let's see what the firmware does first."

As the firmware update completed, she was asking me to try it out like this for a while, and monitor the usage. And if the battery issues returned after I restored from my backup, come back and we'll look at a battery replacement. And then, right on queue as we were both looking at my phone, the battery tanked about 30% instantly. "OK - let me go and talk to someone about this."

So she went out of earshot, and talked to some master Genius guy. A few minutes later, she returned and said that they'd do a replacement for free on the phone. Mission accomplished! The only downside was that the repair window was about 2 hours, but that's no big deal. I picked my kid up from school and returned to the mall.

When a new, different genius sat down to tell me about my phone, she said "oh - this one. I remember this one." And continued to tell me that they were actually out of stock of the replacement batteries. I figured I'd have to come back in a few days to get the switch done, which would have been a little bit frustrating after all of the running around, but being free, I'd still take it.

She then unwrapped a new iPhone 6 and handed it to me and took my old one away. Sure, it is still a new copy of a 2-year-old phone, but I am perfectly happy with my 6, and I certainly didn't expect a new one. I asked if it was a refurb, and she assured me that it wasn't.

TLDR, I know, but I do hope that it helps others in the same boat. And thanks to Bradley (I'm not doing all of those zeds again!) and everyone else for the discussion!