Fire hazard prompts Best Buy to recall thousands of third-party MacBook Pro batteries

[Shawn Knight]

Best Buy is recalling 5,100 replacement MacBook Pro batteries after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission revealed 13 separate incidents in which the batteries caught fire. At least one of the fires resulted in a serious burn to a customer’s leg, we’re told.

The ATG lithium-ion batteries in question were sold from September 2008 through June 2012 and include both black and white varieties. The recall affects batteries sold online as well as those shipped to customers through the company’s Geek Squad service.

The retailer is in the process of contacting customers to inform them of the recall and offer a replacement battery or a Best Buy gift card instead. Retail value for the batteries is pegged around $50.

In the event that you’d rather not wait to check the status of your replacement, you can do so on your own simply by looking at the model number. Faulty black batteries will read MC-MBOOK13B while white variants will have MC-BOOK13W in the model number. The ATG logo should be present on both variants.

That’s valuable information as Best Buy is just one of many retailers that may have sold the batteries although as of writing, none others have come forward with a recall to the best of our knowledge. As such, if you purchased a replacement battery for your MacBook Pro at any point during the above listed dates, it would be wise to check the model number of the battery you purchased.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/52965-fire-hazard-prompts-best-buy-to-recall-thousands-of-third-party-macbook-pro-batteries.html

 

[VitalyT]

Is there any Apple product that wouldn't be 100% made of third-party components?

Sounds like a cheap attempt to ward off the blame...

 

[Jad Chaar]

Why Best Buy not Apple?

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Why Best Buy not Apple?

Because it looks better for them if they can lay the blame elsewhere.

 

[Jos]

JC713 These are non-Apple sanctioned batteries sold by a third party (most likely as a cheaper alternative to buying a replacement battery from Apple itself).

Skidmarksdeluxe Seriously? How / why should Apple be blamed for someone else's product?

 

[dhughesDHS]

I work for apple and what we do in the event we need to replace a battery we take out the old one and send it is apple and get a official apple replacement from the back shipped from the factory we do not use 3rd party parts all are legit

 

[Jad Chaar]

JC713 These are non-Apple sanctioned batteries sold by a third party (most likely as a cheaper alternative to buying a replacement battery from Apple itself).

Skidmarksdeluxe Seriously? How / why should Apple be blamed for someone else's product?

Oh, thanks for clearing that up.

 

[trparky]

JC713 These are non-Apple sanctioned batteries sold by a third party (most likely as a cheaper alternative to buying a replacement battery from Apple itself).

It's because under the Service Plan, I mean... Idi0t Squad Black Tie Protection Plan, you get a replacement battery and AC Adapter as part of the plan in addition to repairs to the notebook in question.

What they don't tell you at Worst Buy is that the "Protection Plan" doesn't give you authentic replacement items. I used to work for these idi0ts so I know what goes on in that place.

For instance... the replacement AC Adapters that are provided are not, I repeat, NOT OEM replacement devices. More often than not they are underrated for what they are supposed to output and they burn up or they put out way too much power and burn out the motherboard. I can't tell you how many notebooks came in after having those "replacement AC Adapters" with burned AC adapter jacks or AC adapters that failed after a week of use.

Same goes for the replacement batteries as well. Cheap Chinese junk!

What do you expect from Worst Buy? Quality products? Quality customer service? Good luck getting that from that awful company! Whatever happens to that company, they completely deserve it!