My iphone 3gs batttery expanded and destroyed the phone!

Question

After charging my iphone 3gs, the battery expanded to the poinbt it detroyed the phone.  The battery actually bent and deformed the circuit board, it put so much pressure on the back of the screen that the screen popped off and cannot be replaced.
I went to the Apple Store where I was very nicely told that the useful life of the device is two or three years and that is why the warranty period is one year, that batteries are tricky, and that they could really not do anything for me.  They suggested I got the phone wet, that I charged the phone in extreme conditions of temperature... both a big negative!
I asked point blank... "so all my apple products (which i have a lot!) could self destruct after the warranty period?"
Response: "yes"
what can I do?
no other device, except old flashlights, have self destructed!
Fodder for discussion!

Answer 1

sandman1962 wrote:
Fodder for discussion!
This is not a blog site; it is a technical support site.
I'm sorry to hear that your battery failed in a destructive manner; Lithium batteries sometimes do that (witness the Li Ion batteries in the Boeing 787). If your phone got wet the moisture indicators would have turned red. Did they? If they are red the phone MUST have gotten wet; the indicators don't lie. But most likely the battery reached its end of life in a dramatic way. At least it didn't explode or catch fire; there have been no reports of iPhone batteries doing that (but there are many reports of batteries in other cell phones doing just that).
The Apple store representative was correct in saying that iPhones (and all other consumer devices) have a limited life expectation. That's why cell phone providers offer discounted upgrades every 18-24 months (and now every year for AT&T), regardless of the model phone you have.
Some Apple store managers have offered to replace phones that have this failure mode for the cost of a battery replacement ($79), but that is up to the individual store manager. You might want to try for that scenario.