I think you’re missing my point, I am saying you cannot buy a replacement Apple Li-Poly battery from Apple to replace it yourself, as they specifically state the Macbook will need to be brought to an Apple Store and have your laptop being held up all day at an Apple Store for them to replace. What if you don’t have time to schedule an appointment which it says you need to do? This is not the most convenient of situations, can we at least agree on this?
Strange. I had an issue with a battery for my MacBook Pro 15.4, brought it in to the Genius bar, and within five minutes had a new one, free and installed.
That is not the point you've been making so don't try to pretend it is. Actual turn around time is about three hours. Not bad for five years. But let's assume it is "all day?" Let's see... what is that in percentage of the time you've owned the computer. Assuming "all day" means twelve hours, and that the lifetime is exactly 5 years (including one leap year ;^)>) which is 43,824 hours, then the time you might be without your MacBook Pro is .02738% of the time you've owned it. How onerous. What a burden.
What about if you ship it off (Apple claims three day turn around). So let's allow 2nd day air as reasonable... so make it one seven day week. There are 260 weeks in five years. So you'd be without your beloved notebook computer for .385% of the time you own it. That is just too much to bear... so get your panties in a wad, drop to the ground and have a tantrum.
Frankly, if I need to replace the battery, I probably will do it after the five years so I can hand the notebook down to a grandchild and buy a new one that has far better specs for the NEXT five years of happy, productive computing. If I had bought the 13" I would have amortized just $20 a month for my computer. Add the cost of a new battery after five years, that cost would be $2 more. Not a worry to me.