Mike Wuerthele
The man who smashed at least 17 demo stations at the Dijon, France Apple store on Sept. 29 had his day in court, and in addition to a six-month suspended jail sentence, he must pay Apple 17,548 euros for the damage — far short of the company's own estimate.
At his sentencing hearing, Le Figaro reports that the assailant claimed to be in "in a monster state of anger" over Apple's refusal to refund him for what he called a defective iPhone. Specifics of the man's service claims beyond his declaration that the phone was not damaged by him are still not known.
The judge sentenced the man to a six-month suspended jail sentence, a two-year probationary period where he is barred from the mall, and must repay Apple €17,548 ($19,186) while on probation.
Apple estimated the damage to the store and equipment was closer to €60,000 ($65,600). The judge declined to award that amount, as the equipment was judged to be for display and not resale, and the police had claimed to not have had sufficient time to inspect the destroyed gear prior to the display's replacement by Apple.
Wearing Apple earbuds the whole time, on Sept. 29 an unnamed customer took a steel ball used in French game Petanque (similar to Bocce), and destroyed 12 iPhones, four iMac displays, and a MacBook Air on video — but the rampage had started before the video capture had begun.
Andrew O'Hara
Malcolm Owen
Wesley Hilliard
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
27 Comments
Damnit judge. We all know the expectations if we go in and destroy stuff -- you broke it, you bought it. Judge should have hit him with full MSRP and demanded Apple hand over the destroyed product to him once the bill is payed.
Well the insurance will cover the rest. In the mean time that is a lot to pay for his defect iPhone.
also the funny part is according to French media that the phone was purchased at a French service provider store such as ATT. So as per law the seller is responsible for the coverage and has to then de with apple for the details, not Apple straight with the customer...
French Socialists and Commies.
Let's do some math here -- 12 iPhones, 4 iMacs, and 1 MBA were damaged. Going by Apple's estimate of $65600 that works out to $3859 per unit. Granted, there might be some damage to the three tables that might have been dented (video does not show any damage nor is it 100% inclusive of the rampage), but it sounds like the $65600 is quite inflated. I doubt even in France those items are priced that high.
Something is wrong here, Apple should have been able to show evidence of those damages, either as repair/replacement/labor invoices, insurance claims, etc. Perhaps Apple's insurance company will go after this guy separately for what ever damages they cover.