You might want to return your battery

A few weeks ago I posted a discussion thread about my MacBook Pro's battery dying prematurely. I was only getting about 20 minutes out of it. This annoyance grew to a full blown problem when I flew to Portland, Oregon. The first 20 minutes of the flight were fine. It was the remaining 4hrs. 40min. with a dead MacBook Pro that drove me to the breaking point.

While in Oregon, I was telling my brother-in-law about the $130 battery purchase I was about to make. With a smirk he said, "Oh, I had that problem with my MacBook Pro. I took it into the Apple store and they replaced the battery for me." What?

I quickly made an appointment with the "genius bar," and the next day I walked into the Apple Store at Bridgeport. It was by far my best Apple Genius Bar Experience. I got there 4 minutes early, was helped early, and walked out of the store in 10 minutes with a new battery, but with a new power brick (my 1 year old one had some wires exposed at the base) all covered under the warranty.

I share this story, for few reasons. Here they are...
1) My Genius Experience up to that point had been tolerable, not helpful. At Keystone, my appointments run about 20 minutes late.
2) Never Assume you'll need to purchase a replacement. Take it into the Apple Store first, and let them assure you it's not a manufacturer problem.
3) Tell a Friend (or us in this Apple group) about your problem. If their mac people they might have had the same problem and have already done the hard work of troubleshooting.

(typed on my MacBook Pro 15" with the battery :)