I would crack the cases open and swap over the batteries from the good to the not os good, but that is just me...

I would do the same :L

Make sure you make a schematic first though, to make sure you solder them in the right way and all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtqRvAu71Gw

Instead of buying new batteries, just hack apart both batteries

You have to be careful when considering a cell-swap in SOME laptop batteries. I have re-built a couple of battery packs for laptops that would refuse to work if the electronics were disconnected. The manufacturer did this as a means to prevent users from rebuilding their own packs, and to detect any "tampering". I had to "hot-swap" all the new cells into the old pack, keeping voltage applied to the microcontroller that controlled the battery. Not an easy task to do!

I have also re-built some batteries that were not this way, you could just swap out good for bad. It takes a few discharge/charge cycles for the microcontroller to "re-learn" the battery cells.

For what it's worth, the laptop that didn't allow a simple cell-swap was a Dell, and the ones that would were some older IBM Thinkpads. Good luck. Some Googling on your particular laptop brand/model might get you some more relevant information.

What if you were a disbarred lawyer with minimal soldering skills, still doable? I thought it was a battery friver issue, if there is a software patch--I cannot see how the connection would be bad to justify such an attempted swap. Bought the battery on credit card so its returnable but id still face the same problem.

Send it back and say it is not recognized get your money back and by a Dell battery.