A follow up.

Just after the announcement of the replacement program and discovering I needed a new battery, I happened to be in an Apple Store for another technical support issue and heard a technician cheerfully telling someone, in substance, "Thanks for coming in, we don't have any replacement batteries in stock, we're taking names and numbers .... we'll get in touch when it's your turn." I turned back to my business and didn't hear anything else about it.

So, since then, my battery - which is eligible for replacement - has seemingly acted a bit more wonky or at least I noticed it acting more wonky.

Today, I decided to get it replaced. Knowing about the potential in stock issue, I started calling a few Apple stores in my area (yep, first world problem, I know) to see if they had them in stock. At at least two stores, the people who answered said they aren't able to tell me if the batteries are in stock or not (and nobody in the store would tell me). Why. "Because we have to run diagnostics first to see if your replacement eligible battery actually needs to be replaced."

Now, I wasn't asking for them to hold a battery for me nor was I asking them to guarantee me that I would get a battery or that they had enough stock for people coming in that day. I was just asking, hey, if I come in there, do you have replacements. OK, so maybe you have to run some diagnostics to see if it's the battery that needs replacement, I'm cool with that. And, maybe if I get there late in the day or tomorrow, stock will be out. But why can't you tell me whether you have batteries in stock so that, if I decide to come in, sit there through the diagnostics and it's the battery, I know it'll likely get done today (assuming the day's "stock" of batteries is not depleted). What's the big secret?

"It's just our policy."

For the life of me, I can't see why a marginally "green" company wouldn't at least let me make an informed decision about whether the trip was worth it or not. "Yep, we have some in stock and they're going fast, so get you're patoot in here so we can run diagnostics to see if you need one. No guarantees and we can't "hold" a battery for you, but, if you get in here and diagnostics show you need a new battery, you'll be able to get one assuming our stock hasn't run out." Why would I want to risk two trips?

FWIW - I just chanced it by going to another store than the two above (why waste my time calling). Again, first world problem, I know. They freely told me they had batteries in stock. They ran my phone's ID through a what looked like a database on their own iPad and then said, OK, we'll replace the battery. Never did run any diagnostics on the phone. Didn't connect it to anything or do anything with it (other than have me temporarily take off the passcode protection - so that when they powered it back on they could get into the phone to do ... whatever).