Apple to pay $53M settlement in iPhone, iPod touch warranty class action suit

Example of water contact indicator tapes. | Source: 3M

Apple has reportedly agreed to settle a class action suit regarding allegedly suspect warranty practices, with the company planning to pay out some $53 million to iPhone and iPod touch owners who claim the company did not honor its one-year standard protection plan.

According to Wired, which acquired a leaked copy of the agreement, the settlement was signed by Apple counsel Noreen Krall on Wednesday and will be filed with a California federal court sometime in the next few weeks.

In the lawsuit, plaintiffs allege Apple wrongly refused to repair or replace broken iPhone and iPod touch units which were deemed to be damaged due to contact with water. Every device has a piece of liquid contact indicator tape placed at the bottom of its headphone jack, which turns from white to pink in the presence of water.

While Apple policy holds that water damage voids the standard product warranty, the liquid indicator's manufacturer, 3M, said humidity could be result in a false positive.

Under the settlement terms, Apple will pay out between $105 to $300 depending on the device and amount of on-board storage, with the amounts reflecting the average cost of repair. The document states class members can double the payout depending on how many times they sought warranty coverage.

List of affected devices:

Source: Wired

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26 Comments

hill60

said about 11 years ago

Speaking of warranty, there is a side effect to Android's "openness" that is not often mentioned:-

Quote:

Samsung VF Galaxy Tab 2 -
10.1 (P5100) Silver

3XXXXXXXXXXXXX0
RXXXXXXXXXA

UNIT HAS CUSTOM BINARY SOFTWARE INSTALLED THEREFORE VOIDING
MANUFACTURERS WARRANTY. UNAUTHORISED SOFTWARE TAMPERING. UNIT RETURNED BACK UNREPAIRED. TT

Be careful when installing "unauthorised" ROM's they can void warranties.

The geeky looking customer was pretty p*ssed off over it, just gave him Samsung's number, they can deal with it.

cash907

said about 11 years ago

GOOD! I normally side with the company on these sorts of disputes, but those first gen water intrusion stickers were garbage. The mic went out on my 3GS a few months after I bought it, and Apple refused to replace/repair it under warranty because the sticker in the headphone port showed pink. Now, I take better care of my electronics than most people do of their children, so I knew this was complete BS. After arguing back and forth for a week with different tech/customer service reps, I finally reached someone somewhat sympathetic, who offered up the revelation that exposure to humid climates or even being kept in a small bathroom with the shower running could be enough to give off a false positive reading. I was living in a small apartment back then, and since I was on call for work my phone went wherever I went. I thought it would be safe sitting on the counter next to the sink and nowhere near the shower, but evidently not. What killed me about the whole thing was the lack of common sense. If there was evidence of water damage once they'd opened the phone up, yeah I agree: charge for off warranty service. But there was absolutely no sign of that, other than the headphone port sticker, on the complete other end of the phone from where the bad part was located. The sticker inside the dock connector on the bottom of the phone was still white, but per Apple policy, even if just one sticker shows water, it's an open and shut case. Anyway, it took awhile but I finally got them to repair it on warranty, but the whole process was a lot more frustrating than it should have been, or I would have expected from Apple. It's a great company, but in this case they were flat out wrong, and they knew it as well which is why they moved to a redesigned sticker when they released the 4. That 3M, the sticker's manufacturer, even admitted to the defect in the original, is not surprising.

anonymouse

said about 11 years ago

I always thought they were overrating the reliability of these indicators. I also always wondered if they would turn white again by heating them, like lab desiccants that turn pink and you just heat them up to dry them out till they turn blue again, which indicates they are dry.