Apple Tries To Gag Owner of Exploding iPod 475
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."
Re:It turned me into a newt! (Score:2, Interesting)
Surprises me this doesn't happen more often (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It turned me into a newt! (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
What if this happend on an airoplane? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Apple vs. Microsof (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:iDiots... (Score:2, Interesting)
The article states that they dropped it first, at that. It wasn't a spontaneous battery eruption of the kind we got used to when that batch of bad cells went out 5 years ago. That Apple could appear in the wrong in that sort of scenario tells you how much of a PR fail that NDA was.
screw they customer (Score:2, Interesting)
why doesn't anyone understand apple (Score:2, Interesting)
Apple does not build high quality hardware (by def, anyone with freq battery problems is not a high qual hardware company; can you imagine the outcry on /. if MS or Sony or anyone else pulled stunts like apple often does with hardware)
Apple does not build high quality software (come on guys - apple OS, for 99% of users 99% of the time is no better then MS, itunes ain't that great, etc etc)
Apple does do something really well
They figure out one thing a customer really wants and deliver it - and since it is the thing the customer really wants, the customer will put up with bad hardware and software
with the ipod, what people wanted is simplicty go to the store, give the guy some money, download the songs i want.
the ipod delivered that for the 90% of users who couldn't figure out bit torrent
when you understand all this, you understand apple
Re:Is this uncommon? (Score:2, Interesting)
having settlements and their terms made public only increases the risk of people running 250V through their years-old iPods in hopes of getting a shiny new one.
There'll be even more people doing that, now that it's on the national news :)
Re:iDiots... (Score:2, Interesting)
Are you kidding me? Publically announce that your product exploded and acknowledge that there's a likelihood that all of your products may explode? Yes that would be a complete non-issue all right. Don't give up your day job. Apple did the right thing (for them, in the evil corporation sense) in trying to keep it secret, but did it in a way that treated the customers poorly. If they had treated the girl like a queen, like bringing her down to a store, presenting her with a new top of the line ipod, some Apple swag, free itunes download vouchers and other trinkets I bet they would have signed on the spot.
I find it amusing how there's this presumption that Apple's shit doesn't stink and that they're some paragon of virtue simply because they're Apple. Then Slashdotters find out that it's just another sleazy corporation doing all the evil corporate things that every other company is doing. I can guarantee you that the person whose job it is to dispense the legal boilerplate is not up on the Streisand effect or any other Slashdot memes. It's not like this issue went up into this Jedi council of engineering PhD's for top level strategy planning.
Re:It turned me into a newt! (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:It turned me into a newt! (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:It turned me into a newt! (Score:2, Interesting)
"The most irritating thing was that all of my complaints were met by being told that Apple is consistently ranked top for customer support in independent surveys. "
The thing is, most of the time only happy customers get the opportunity to answer those surveys and disgruntled customers are shunned away.
Re:Surprises me this doesn't happen more often (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh, chinese-designed devices. The really scary part about those is the charging electronics, if they even deserve to be called "electronics". Last one I tore apart had a diode and a resistor as the "charging circuit". For a li-ion battery. For the non-initiated: li-ion batteries require a smart charger for any kind of safe, reliable charging.
The only reason that thing didn't blow up on every charge was because of the protection chip built into the battery. They were relying on it consistently tripping on every charge to avoid disaster.
Re:It turned me into a newt! (Score:5, Interesting)
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).
Re:Is this uncommon? (Score:3, Interesting)
Wish I had mod points to bump you up. Monetary settlements generally have NDAs associated with them so the company doesn't go bankrupt as people compare what others received. In the case of an exploding iPod, having only delivered a simple refund, Apple should have left off the NDA so the next time this happens, they can say, "Standard settlement is the price of the iPod. Anything more than that and you'll have to go up against our lawyers for the next 10 years."
Re:It turned me into a newt! (Score:3, Interesting)
Apple's business model seems to be to produce things that people really want, but then screw them as much as possible for every penny they can get once they own one. A lot of companies look for ways to make more money once you own the product, but it seems that Apple is a lot more evil than most.
All the people I work with have iPhones, and at first I though I'd quite like to own one. Actually, I still would, if they worked as well as they should. Problem is, all of them now have very poor battery life and would either have to rely on some cheap replacement battery kit off eBay and pry the thing open, or pay Apple a silly amount to get a new one fitted.
Then there are the software updates, which seem to have changed the way basic stuff works and has them cursing it constantly. Most phone manufacturers only do bug fix and security updates, so the phone you buy has the features it has and works the way it works, and never changes. Apple treat the iPhone more like a PC, where you get constant updates and things change in annoying ways but there is little you can do about it (the transparent menu bar in Leopard or WGA in Windows, for example).
Having to install iTunes on Windows is a big turn off too. The default install gives you iTunes, Quicktime, Apple Software Update and it's associated service, Bonjour (network media sharing), the Apple Mobile Device service, the iPod service, the DNS Resolver Service (wtf, Windows can resolve DNS), the iTunes Helper task and the iPod helper task. iTunes also refuses to play anything other than AAC or MP3, despite the codecs being available, and instead converts every file to AAC. I can understand it doing that when transferring to the iPod, but why do it when you just want it on your PC? Even asshats like Adobe and Real are not as evil as Apple when it comes to bloat.
There are lots of other issues I could harp on about, but the bottom line is none of them will get a new 3GS at the end of their contracts. Windows Mobile may not be as flashy, but it is more open and the phones better spec'ed. I'm the same, after the experience I had with my 3rd gen iPod I'd never buy another one.