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Apple Tries To Gag Owner of Exploding iPod
David Gerard writes "The Times in London reports that Apple attempted to silence a father and daughter with a gagging order after the child's iPod music player exploded and the family sought a refund from the company. Well, at least they're not Microsoft. Or something."
Really. Li-poly batteries in these applications have no housing except the housing of the device; they're a metallized plastic bag full of gelled chemistry goodness, basically. Crunch it the wrong way and you get an internal short and a runaway reaction, which produces a lot of gas - and the whole battery acts like one of those "popping bags" you can get at 7-11 and toystores.
I've had the opposite experience, personally...
I bought a 24" white iMac (2006). It worked perfect up until it was 2.5 years old, when I started having video issues with it. It was under Applecare, so I brought it into the local Apple store, and they fixed it on-site (took a couple days, unfortunately).
Similar issues re-occured a few days after getting it back, then after a second repair it happened a third time. The computer DID work each time when I got it back, and the symptoms were different each time... so I can't really blame them. They replace all the major componants in the process too.
However, after 2 repairs and 3 similar faults, they replaced the machine with a brand-new 2009 aluminum iMac - with bigger/better/faster everything. Even the lowest-end machine would have beaten my old one, but they gave me the mid-line one anyways. They even offered this without me pushing. On top, they even gave me a free mini-DVI converter for my second monitor because my old cable was a different plug on the old iMac.
So - although I agree this incdent looks horrid, I would argue that they're certainly not as bad as the majority of corporations these days. I'm certainly a lot more brand-loyal than I was 6 months ago.
MadCow.
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
I don't think Apple can brush this one under the carpet. What if this were to have happend inside an airoplane at 30,000ft. No so much the explosion but the toxic, carcinogenic fumes would inevitably be curculated around the aircraft explosing 100+ passengers and those in direct contact with the ipod could suffer serious burns, eye damage, etc. To place a gag order on those effected as a messure to cover up the defect is pure negligence and would leave them open to possibly pay huge settlements for future incidents. Seems smarter to issue a warning / disclaimer than to leave yourself open. I doubt it would seriously effect sales, people would still buy them anyway.
Those who can, do. Those who cannot, sue.
I had a similar situation with the ill-fated (and downright cursed) 800 MHz G3 iBook. The problem did not occur until a year after I had made the purchase and my initial warranty had expired. It was a known issue, so they repaired it free of charge. Four times, about once a year.
The last time it happened they advised me the repair program was coming to an end after several years and encouraged me to get an Applecare program for it. I was out of work at the time so I couldn't afford it. Turns out, if I had, they would've provided me a newer iBook should I experience the problem again (which I did) as they'd exhausted their supplies for the replacement logic boards.
I got a little pissy with them when I called them up after the last instance, but they always remained understanding and professional.
In the end, I found out what the problem actually was. I fixed it with a wedge of cardboard.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
I've had similar experiences. I actually bought the 12" PowerBook quite a while ago. I never had any trouble with that laptop and I found it to be incredibly rugged. The hard drive went bad after a few years of abuse and I replaced it and it still works today, despite the copious amounts of dings, dents, and scratches I've inflicted on it. I'm sorry to hear you didn't have the same experience I did with the PowerBook.
However, a while back I bought a 13" MacBook. I really don't like large laptops and at the time the 13" MacBook Pro wasn't on the market. A few months after I got it the hard drive basically died on me. After quite a lot of work searching error codes and doing general research I determined that this was the cause. I don't remember exactly, but I believe you get 3 months of AppleCare Protection or whatever when you buy Mac from them. I believe four or five months had passed since I bought it, so I wasn't covered under that, but I still had a 1 year warranty. So I called Apple to tell them that the hard drive died and I need a replacement. I told them exactly how I determined it was the hard drive and that I really just need it replaced (user replaceable on the MacBook). After about ten minutes they explained that I can't call them for this sort of thing unless I wanted to buy a 1 year AppleCare Protection Plan. I told them that I wasn't going to spend money on something like that since it's covered in my warranty. They told me I could go into an Apple store to get the problem fixed.
So I was kind of miffed at this point and a while later I went to an Apple store which was about an hour drive from me. I spoke with their pretentiously named Geniuses who told me that since I didn't have an AppleCare Protection Plan they wouldn't fix it unless I made an appointment in advance. However, if I bought the 1 year plan I could drop it off that day (see a pattern?). I politely told them that I live nowhere near the Apple store and this was a special trip and that I wasn't going to buy a plan just to have them honor the warranty. So they told me to call Apple again.
So again I called Apple. This time the customer service rep said they would replace the hard drive. So they sent me an empty box to return my entire laptop in. After a while, not sure how long, they sent it back and everything was okay. The only really good thing to come out of this was they replaced the top plastic face where the keyboard is since the plastic had chipped away quite severely*.
All in all I think Apple makes some good products. My PowerBook was an amazing laptop, at least for me, but the MacBook is apparently made without durability in mind. The real problem I have with Apple is their customer service which seems more interested in selling you the AppleCare Protection Plan than actually helping you. When I need a new laptop I'll almost definitely not get another Mac laptop simply because of the nonsense I went through.
As always, your mileage may vary.
*I'm not sure who thought it was a good idea to put relatively brittle plastic where the magnetic latches close, but a couple years later the plastic has chipped away on a large portion of that piece. When I got it back I made sure to close my laptop ludicrously carefully so it wouldn't chip, and it still did.
I had an iBook G4 that broke down during its 1 year warranty period. It wouldn't boot at all. I took it to the local Apple Authorised Service Provider and got it repaired. It came back, and worked for a few days, and then the same thing happened again. It went back for repair again, and this time it stayed for weeks. I'm told by the AASP that it went through a couple of motherboards during this time.
Three weeks after the initial fault, I phoned Apple and asked for a replacement, but was told that there was no way that could happen and I would just have to wait for it to be repaired. I gave the guy an earful before I hung up.
Four weeks after the initial fault, I phoned again. This time the Apple rep described my situation as 'clearly unacceptable' and immediately offered me the choice of a refund or replacement. (I took the refund and bought the latest higher-spec, lower price iBook, and pocketed the change. It's still going strong today.)
Sometimes it really does depend on who you get to talk to at the call centre (and this goes for all companies).