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Apple Faces Lawsuit For Retina MacBook Pro 'Ghosting' Issue
redletterdave writes "Apple is facing a potential class action suit in San Francisco's California Northern District Court after an owner of its MacBook Pro with Retina display accused the computer company on Wednesday of 'tricking' consumers into paying for a poor-quality screen, citing an increasingly common problem that causes images to be burned into the display, also known as 'image persistence' or 'ghosting.' The lawsuit claims only LG-made screens are affected by this problem, but 'none of Apple's advertisements or representations disclose that it produces display screens that exhibit different levels of performance and quality.' Even though only one man filed the lawsuit, it can become a class action suit if others decide to join him in his claim, which might not be an issue: An Apple.com support thread for this particular problem, entitled 'MacBook Pro Retina display burn-in,' currently has more than 7,200 replies and 367,000 views across more than 500 pages."
LG was the manufacturer of the defective screen
They should sue LG instead of Apple
I am no apple fanbois, it's just that if the defective part came from LG, why not home in to the manufacturer, instead of the seller?
Not to take sides, but I think the answer is, because it's not the buyer's job to solve problems in the seller's supply chain.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Even more specifically, the plaintiff has no purchase relationship with LG, and therefore no standing to file suit. He purchased the Macbook from Apple, so he does have standing to sue Apple. Apple can then pass the costs of the lawsuit, by suing LG.
“Oh snap-- Looks like our alternate panel supplier is a bust! Now what?!”
“Let’s submit another lawsuit against the guys who build the good panels!”
“Good idea!”
"You're not looking at it right."
- steve
Price, Quality, Time. Pick none. What, you thought you had a choice?
What really cuts down on legal costs is having millions of potential plaintiffs who each, for the ~$50 of damage done to them, are not willing to go through the bother of even small-claims court (except for a tiny number, who can be paid off a couple hundred bucks on an individual basis). Can you cite any examples of companies being swamped by "thousands" of individual lawsuits over small-cash issues? --- because in the real world, that never actually happens. On the other hand, class actions frequently allow a too-small-for-individuals-to-bother case to get serious, top-notch legal representation, and take a big chunk of cash from the company (as they deserve for mass-screwing-over their customers). This is why all the big pro-corporate-interests media/political loudmouths (aside from the small fraction of them working for law firms) shout so much about "tort reform!" and try to push through legislation *weakening* class action abilities --- megacorporations overwhelmingly prefer to keep their I'm-bigger-than-you legal advantage over private individuals.
As soon as I received my MBPr I started testing to see if it had ghosting issues and if it was an LG screen. Sure enough, both were true. I returned it, and referenced the specific part number 661-7171 (that was the samsung screen) to replace it with. My local apple rep obliged and I had a nice new Samsung screen. Re-ran the stress test and it cleared.
That was 6 months ago, haven't seen a ghosting issue since.
I have one as well, and the original screen was an LG (purchased a week after they launched the computer, but not delivered for another month). I heard about this defect in the above-mentioned thread about two weeks after launch, but didn't notice anything for about 6 weeks after receiving it. Then the trouble started.
Exchanged for another screen - except it was another LG. Which promptly developed image retention after two weeks. This time, Apple Store 'geniuses' made out with a bullshit test that it was 'normal' and 'expected' - to which I pointed out that the Samsung equivalents had no such 'normal' ghosting at all.
Fought with the fuckers for 3 weeks. Finally, I had to threaten to return it for a full refund off my credit card when they finally gave in. I kept pointing out that a laptop costing over $3k Cdn has no business exhibiting such behaviour, and that otherwise I actually was very happy with the computer besides this one issue. They finally replaced it with a Samsung-manufactured screen - and this was back in September; totally flawless screen since the final replacement.
The clincher? You just have to ask them if they would be happy with an expensive machine that showed this shitty display themselves.
The computer itself is really a dream to use now. And yes, it's the best purchase I've ever made as well. Despite all the bullshit to get there.
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Death will come, and will have your eyes
-- Pavese