Judge Approves Settlement in iPod Suit

BabbaBooie writes "According to AppleInsider, on Thursday a San Mateo County judge granted final approval of a settlement in the iPod class action suit that affects as many as 1.3 million iPod owners who may have been victim to poor or defective batteries. Under the settlement, owners of either a first- or second-generation model are entitled to $25 cash or $50 credit at the Apple store. Owners of third-generation iPod models are entitled to a free replacement battery if the battery fails. The deadline for submitting a claim is September 30, 2005. Lawyers say the settlement could cost Apple as much as $15m."

Comments

That's cool!

[Badflash]

Big corporations need to pay for THEIR mistakes. Not THEIR customers.

Re:That's cool!

[OmniVector]

I'm not necessarily trying to defend Apple here, but why are they at fault? Because they provided their customers "faulty" batteries? Apple provided the same lithium ion batteries as every other manufacturer. So because of the natural physical properties of the battery, it's going to diminish in charge capacity over time. There's no secret to this. Apple already remidied the situation: you can get your battery replaced for $50 by Apple. This lawsuit is stupid. I guess I should sue Sony and IBM for providing laptop batteries that fail after 2 years too?

Re:That's cool!

[Tmack]

I think the problem was that the batteries are built in, and sending your ipod back to apple to get them replaced costabout the same as a new ipod, and their life expectancy was about one year of average use. Most other devices have easily replaceable Lion batteries. They got in trouble by advertising that the ipod is rechargable, but failing to state that it will only be rechargable for about a year without new batteries, and that new batteries cost the same as a new unit and were not (easily) user-replacable.

tm

Re:That's cool!

[nolife]

Your post will be completely ignored and another 50 people that do not agree with the lawsuit just out of principle because it is against Apple, will continue to post over and over again, one of two lines

"It's a battery, it is supposed to do that get over it."

or

"My iPod lasts 10 hours as expected and has for years, everyone else is full of crap."

These two general statements make up over 80% of every reply so far and I have yet to see a reply to a post like your acknowledging that it actually happens. People either have blinders on or are using a defense mechanism like reaction formation coupled with denial to handle the situation in the best way they know how.

how much will it really cost them?

[Anonymous Coward]

it may cost them 15 million in coupons, but how much will it really cost them? after all, if everyone cashes in, it's that many more apple products out there in the hands of consumers.

Half?

[RangerRick98]

Meanwhile, owners who actually paid Apple to repair a battery in one of the players will be entitled to up to half of that cost back.

Between this and the "$50 credit," does this seem like it's not really that great a deal for the people that were impacted by these defective batteries? I mean, aren't they still losing money because of a defective product?

Re:Half?

[foreverdisillusioned]

Obviously you're new to the concept of class action lawsuits. The corporation may or may not lose big (witness the record labels that were "forced" to give their customers $5 off coupons as punishment for price-fixing. This laughable settlement may have actually made them more money), but the customer NEVER wins.

The only ones who invariably come out ahead are the lawyers.

Below the belt

[rob_squared]

I can understand replacements on 3rd or 4th generation units. But by now, who would be able to tell if a 1st or 2nd generation iPod really had a defective battery, or if its just old?

Good Settlement

[ThatDamnMurphyGuy]

That's actually a decent anf fair settlement. I was actually surprised by that. Class action settlements these days amount to a cheesy $7.93 cent check or something just as equally worthless compared to the repair costs or the hardware costs involved.

Costs Apple Money?

[AvitarX]

I would think giving iPod hungry people $25-$50 credit will actually make Apple money.

Once again, the lawyers win

[cpu_fusion]

Big surprise, the lawyers make a cool $2 million off this. That's right, they made $2m out of the $15m that "might" be collected by the deadline ONE MONTH FROM NOW.
Quit tech, folks, and go into Law.

Re:Probably wont hurt them much...

[Desert Raven]

vs that same guy now talking about how Apple "stands behind" its products.

Oh yeah, I always think favorably of companies that have to be forced to "stand behind" their products by a class-action suit. I mean, I positively glow when I talk about the generosity of the record labels back when the courts forced them to refund me a couple bucks after having overcharged me for years.

I would have been impressed if this had never reached any form of court proceeding. As it is, it's just typical corporate business as usual.

Who won this suit?

[jmichaelg]

So who won?

1. The people who got screwed by Apple get a $50 coupon that can be spent at an Apple store.
   
   
2. The first gen buyers who paid the original $255 battery replacement fee, are out of pocket $205.
   
   
3. Apple continues to sell iPods without replaceable batteries.
   
   
4. iPod customers still have to backup and exchange their iPod to get a new battery unless they're brave and use a third party battery.
   
   
5. The two attorneys get $2.7 million.
   

The actual fair settlement

[mdarksbane]

The actual fair settlement for this would be to Refund the few people who *did* pay $200-$300 to get their 1g or 2g battery replaced, maybe even give them a bit more. Apple keeps a customer database, they know who did it.

Anyone who hasn't, tough cookies. $50 for a replacement service is perfectly reasonable when compared to other manufacturers, and has been around almost as long as this whole debacle. Batteries die, and I don't remember Apple ever claiming that they run the ipod on magic fairy dust that doesn't.

But giving anyone who bought an early ipod (which includes many that didn't die before the cheaper fix was announced) $25
a) Doesn't actually refund anything close to what the few people who got screwed paid.
b) Gives money to a bunch of people who bought a perfectly working product.

This, like most class action suits, is just another example of the messed up nature of our litigation-happy over-lawyered legal system.