There warranty proceedure, has always been sent in the battery for testing, in which they will test it themselves and make a determination. Some times, there are bad batteries, however other times and more often then not that batts aren't bad at all and need to be recovered properly from a deeply discharged state. Swelling usually occurs from engine heat or over charging. I personally have had a 1 or 2 batteries fail during warranty out of several hundred I have sold. Both were replaced. I did have one come up this week that went bad, cause there was a hairline crack appear in the case from who knows where. I called and looked it up by serial number. At which point I was told it was just out of the warranty period. But to get me a replacement the offered to discount a new joe to help me out. I know it's frustrating, but the have a system in place for a reason. If they took everyone's work that the batteries where bad when the called and just shipped a replacement, they would be losing money. And no business it out to give stuff away. Almost 80% of batts sent in are recovered and work properly out of all warranty claims. Just think of the potential loss there.