Oh, yes, I had some funny experiences like this as well. Wanted to have the battery of my 17" MacBook (5.5 years old) replaced, as it started to inflate. (I have to admit, the battery had performed much better and longer than I had expected!) Made an appointment with the AppleStore; was told, that there are no replacement batteries for any MacBooks older than 5 years. As Apple doesn't officially recommend third-party batteries, this means in consequence, that you would be obliged to throw away the machine.

I told one of my customers, who has a lot of MacBooks in his company, about this. So he started to bring all MacBooks older than 4.5 years to Apple to get the batteries replaced. And every single time Apple made some suspicous battery-quality-tests and declared that the batteries were still good and didn't need to get replaced. (The batteries generally had a runtime of less than 30 minutes after 4.5 years).

"No, battery needs no replacement.", the Genius would reply. "I do not ask for a free replacement, you know, I am aware I have to pay 140,- Euro for it. The battery runs only for 20 minutes, I do not think it is good." "Yeah, maybe you have to calibrate it. But the test says, the battery is good." "So, in 6 months I will get no new battery, as the model is legacy?" "Ah, yes, this is true." "So, would you please replace the battery, for 140,- Euro, please, please?" "OK".

This dialog repeated for every single MacBook.

I switched to ThinkPad/Linux shortly after. Battery-wise doesn't seem to be much of a difference ;-)

Following that new "Error 53" debacle, it does seem that Apple's policy regarding repairs is "If it breaks after a year, throw it away".

I think my Macbook was the last model that even had an easily replaceable battery. I think they glue 'em in now.

I had the battery swelling in my 2007 Macbook Pro in 2013, and they happily replaced the battery for me. So in 2013 I had a 2007 Macbook Pro with a brand new battery =)

Also, at the time it had some ridiculously low cycle count due to a bug in the batteries firmware.

Guess I'm lucky. I found a replacement battery on ebay that's been fine. Looked exactly like the genuine Apple batter (aluminum jacket). I'm posting on it right now.