"It's $5..."

I was commenting more on the idea to buy a dualshock and return the deadish sixaxis for a refund to the shop.

However, eBay has the batteries for under $4 incl shipping to Finland. Of course that's not for the "soccer moms" or whoever isn't prepared to do that, those deal with Sony service or buy a new controller, and deal with it.

It isn't much harder or much more expensive though, but to each their own. It's a minor hassle to me to both swap and recharge batteries, and to order on ebay and unscrew a controller. Never been an issue enough to actually prefer one controller to the other based on this criteria though, so that's not really the point I was aiming to make.

eh, I actually work at a retail store, Best Buy, and we don't actually sell controllers that have been returned.  We actually send them back to Sony, so no worries about it ending up in somebody elses hands.  Especially if the controller is known to be defective.  I haven't done it yet, I usually don't do things like that.  I'm generally a pretty honest guy.  It is just an option I'm considering. :)

men you must use your controller a lot... i have mine from 2007 and up to today it olds for several hours of continuous gameplay... if you use it that much its normal to drain out at some point...

@the smart pants talking about rechargeable batteries... if by any chance, you forget to put the spares in charge, when the ones you are using, run out, what do you do? that will never happen with built in rechargeable... each one with their disadvantages...