Replacement cell phone batteries: look on eBay

First published on September 12, 2010

Cell phone batteries rarely outlast cell phones. Sometimes you don’t properly charge the phone at the very beginning, sometimes it just loses its top charge after years (or less, in some unfortunate cases) of use, or sometimes you’ll purchase a refurbished phone with a mostly dead battery in it. If you can resist the urge to buy a new phone, it’s cheap and easy to get a replacement battery. And the replacement battery might even be better than the original battery was in the very beginning.

Unfortunately, unless you have a fairly popular phone, the usual places — wireless carriers like Rogers, Telus, Bell, etc., London Drugs, Future Shop, Best Buy — might not be of much help. They might simply turn you away or charge you an exorbitant amount with a long wait. Plus, it’s in their best interests to encourage you to buy a new phone.

You don’t have to waste a perfectly good phone because of a non-working battery! Depending on where you are, there are probably some local stores that specialize in replacement batteries. Or, search on eBay. I’ve had several good experiences in buying a replacement cell phone battery on eBay — it was quite cheap (less than $10, including shipping) and lasted longer than the original battery.

Remember to recycle your battery and/or cell phone if you are truly done with them. Or, especially if your phone still works well and takes a SIM card, give away the phone or sell it on Craigslist or this site — it will likely be snapped up in short order.

This entry is filed under Telephony and written by Peter Keung. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

2 Responses to “Replacement cell phone batteries: look on eBay”

September 13th, 2010 at 11:56 am
tim says:

I’ve always purchased my cheaper (ie. phone, camera) batteries online. Its a bit of a gamble, as the camera batteries are hit and miss (half of the batteries I bought will charge only about 10%). It’s the more expensive ones (ie. laptop) that I’d rather purchase from a local store–refunds are typically less of a hassle if it doesn’t work.

Also, some camera manufacturers (Panasonic Lumix) now use updated firmwares to detect whether its a Panasonic branded battery, and will not work with knock-offs, so do your research, as it wouldn’t be surprising if the same thing happens with phones.
September 14th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Mike says:

Good tip. I recently got my mother a replacement battery for her cordless phone as well. It cost about $3 with shipping, vs. paying about $30-40 at futureshop.