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Apple Sued Over iPhone Non-Replaceable Batteries
UnknowingFool writes "A customer named Jose Trujillo has filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple over the iPhone batteries. According to the suit, Apple did not disclose that the batteries of the iPhone were not user-replaceable. Also the plaintiff alleges that the battery will need to replaced every year. When a battery needs to be replaced, the customer will be without a phone for several days unless the customer pays $29.95 for a loaner phone service. Lastly, the plaintiff alleges that the battery information was difficult to find on Apple's website."
How many times have you witnessed a company actually fighting back against one of these class-action suits? I'm sure they have, but I can't recall ever reading about it?
It seems like no matter how lame the lawsuit, companies always settle these (usually in such a way that gives relatively little to the plaintiffs, like a 20% off coupon on a future purchase or something).
Given the potential for bad publicity that could be generated by the media reporting "Company A, today, fought back against consumers who filed suit over their defective product", it's a good bet they'll cough up some sort of "freebie" for the product owners.
So yeah, it's an incredibly dumb lawsuit, but there's a GREAT chance it will just mean Apple makes the lawyer involved a lot richer, and throws some small "bone" to everyone who owns the iPhone. Maybe a credit at the Apple store equivalent to the cost of 1 battery replacement or something?
I'm beginning to wonder if the class-action lawsuit isn't a worse abuse of the commons than spam is. All they have to do is find one company with a lot of cash and one customer dumb enough to sue them in exchange for the trivial takings the customers always get from these lawsuits. The lawyers always get their fees in cash, and the customers always get coupons.
I get notified that I'm a party to these about every month of so. Sometimes I even get notified that I've "won" something, like one dollar off my monthly service of Verizon every three months until they've given me $12 (really). Or once, all I got was an apology, along with the satisfaction of knowing that the lawyers got several hundred thousand in fees.
We need the class action lawsuit; it's an important legal tool. But if you've got a better suggestion, I'd love to hear it.
How about this: if you're party to a class action lawsuit, and you choose to opt out and give up your right to sue individually, you get to punch the lawyers once. Not real hard, just a little bit. So an intelligent lawsuit gives you a mild bruising. And this lawsuit ends up with brains splattered all over walls.
Uh, IANAL, but I don't see how this guy has standing. He is citing future problems he might have with his iPhone that are not imminent, rather, they are conjectural and hypothetical. Buyer's remorse does not make a legal case! (except maybe in America)
Every Engineering Department I've worked with would have designed a user-replaceable battery and called it a "common sense" feature. Which it is.
In exchange for whatever coolness that's been bestowed upon you for parting ways with $500+ for the device, you assume the hidden costs of cool.
This brings us to the magic of the Steve Jobs RDF: You and your brethren feel good paying more for less.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Apple say, on their battery page, that the battery will hold 80% of its original charge after 400 full charge cycles.
Now, in absolute fairness, you'd be doing bloody well to use more than one full charge cycle per day for a year, and even if you did the battery still wouldn't need replacing.
The only people this will affect are people buying second-hand iPhones, which isn't this guy.
> Just as an FYI, the Samsung Upstage does not have a user-replaceable battery...
I've never heard of a "Samsung Upstage" but I imagine that you must have looked pretty hard (or been unlucky) to have discovered another phone with a soldered-in battery. I've never heard of it in over 12 years of owning and reading about mobile phones.
> The only way you know it's not replaceable is to read the FAQ in the manual (at the back of the manual).. unless you know someone who has one, or
> you ask the clerk "is it user-replaceable?" 5 milliseconds of work.
Why would someone think to ask, though? It's like asking your PC retailer if your mouse is physically connected to the motherboard of your PC or something. "Ah - you didn't ask!"
Caveat Emptor. If the user did not do any research before buying a $500+ phone, that is his problem. Although Apple did not inscribe "battery not user-replaceable" on the box and the phone, the user could have found out the information before purchasing rather easily. Websites, Apple employees--hell, all the user had to do was to pick one up and see that it was not replaceable as there is no way to open it up. This lawsuit is why all lawn mowers have warnings on them that you should not lift them up when they are operating.
So the user ASSUMED that the iPhone was like every other cell phone in that the battery could be replaced by the user. I don't know about you but from the commercials, it was apparent to me that the iPhone was not like any other cell phone.
I didn't read it in the Constitution that I had a right to replace my batteries myself. So what if Apple departed from the "standard?" Why does Apple have to justify its design choices to a judge or to anybody? People whine about not having choice, but what they are whining about is that they can't customize everything that they want to customize. If you don't like how Apple has designed the iPhone, don't buy one.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Additionally, asking any Apple retail store, customer service representative, dealer, authorized service provider, etc., will yield a direct and immediate answer about battery replacement.
You have to know enough to ask. Any reasonable person will assume that a portable electronic device will have replaceable batteries. I've never bought one that didn't. If I did by accident, I'd return it as defective. If they didn't take it, then yeah a lawsuit is pretty reasonable. Apple may have had a good technical reason for doing this, but they're still negligent for not warning people that these devices are crippled.
What the hell is a person supposed to do when they're in the bush for a few days and they can't swap out their old battery with a charged one?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
New punctuation update "~" (no quotes) at the end of a line to indicate sarcasm. ~
If you do not do your research on a product i.e. reading reviews, product literature then I have little sympathy for you.
Are you implying that there is a defined standard or law out there? If so please provide a link. I think the only reason that most do have them is convince. From what I have read apple went with the non-user replaceable batteries because they saved some space and Jobs liked the look better(not extra parts that come off the iPod for iPhone).
It was not a design flaw like the screens that scratched to easily it was a design choice.
There are 3rd parties that can replace the battery. There is no vendor lock-in.
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
Caveat Emptor? Or the Nanny State you propose?
Sorry, but I've got to go with Caveat Emptor.
Yes, idiots will lose money doing stupid things, but, y'know, they're idiots - they're going to die young doing something stupid anyway. The more time we spend covering every hard object with bubblewrap to protect them from themselves, the more bland & mind-numbing the world will become for everyone else.
The rest of us (the ones with two brain cells to rub together) will, yes that's right, RESEARCH a $600 purchase ahead of time. And if we can't find the answer to our questions, we'll write them down and bring them to a store, at which point a representative will answer them. If they lie, then you have a basis for a lawsuit. If they simply don't know, don't just accept their ignorance and plunk down $600 - go elsewhere and find someone who DOES know.
This blameless society crap has to stop. Sometimes you do something stupid, and it's not someone else's fault, you need to admit your stupidity to yourself and move on. DO NOT STOP AND BACK UP ON THE FREEWAY TO GET TO THE OFFRAMP YOU JUST MISSED. You did something stupid, just admit it. Go the next offramp and work your way back. Problem solved. You should find yourself a little more humble, and best of all you didn't put everyone else's lives in danger by trying to "correct" your mistake.
Does this mean the iPhone will soon be illegal in Europe?
AIUI, there's an EU law coming in in 2008 meaning that all batteries have to be at least user-removeable (so they can be disposed of separately) even if not user-replaceable.