Apple to pay $22.5M in suit over scratched iPod nanos

[AppleInsider]

Apple has agreed to a settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by customers who experienced quality issues with the easily-scratchable surface of first generation iPod nanos.

The suit alleged Apple knew the glossy front surface scratched easily but misled customers by failing to disclose that information.

As part of the settlement, Apple has agreed to pay $22.5 million without admitting any wrongdoing.* The agreement goes into effect pending an April approval hearing at California Superior Court in Los Angeles.

The announcement would bring to an end a three-and-a-half year legal battle between the iPod maker and unhappy customers. *It all began mere weeks after the nano's release in September 2005, as early adopters began to*express discontent*with the players' susceptibility to scratches and, in some cases, cracks in their LCD displays. *Apple acknowledged the cracking in a statement, but said it was a "real but minor issue involving a vendor quality problem" that only affected less than one-tenth of 1% of the total iPod nano units shipped.*

In a complaint filed the the following month, owners claimed the device "scratch[ed] excessively during normal usage, rendering the screen ... unreadable." *Nano owner Jason Tomczak said even the act of rubbing a paper towel on the face of the nano left "significant scratches."

The iPod nano*was introduced*in*September 2005, with chief executive Steve Jobs predicting it would "change the rules for the entire portable music market." *The 2GB model was priced at $199, while the 4GB sold for $249.

A first-gen iPod nano scuffed up from normal wear and tear | Photo: Chris.JP's Flickr album.

U.S. customers who purchased a first generation nano without an included slip case will receive $25, assuming they submit a claim form.* Customers who bought the digital media player a little later, after*Apple began to include a free slip case in the package, will receive $15.

Apple has also agreed to $4.5 million in attorney fees and an award of litigation expenses of up to $200,000.

A court-ordered*website*provides more information, including a*link*to a form where customers can enter their iPod nano's serial number to make sure they are eligible for the payment.

According to the site, customers can expect to wait as long as a year after the April hearing if the case is appealed before they receive their reimbursement.* All claim forms must be postmarked on or before June 10, 2009, in order to be eligible.**Full instructions*are available at the website.

The settlement applies only to the first-generation iPod nano.* Later versions and other iPod models are not included.

Full details, including a list of*frequently asked questions, are also available.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[teckstud]

Yet another example of form over function.

[l008com]

As a shareholder, I gotta say thats bullshit. $22.5M because a glossy plastic ipod gets scratched and that wasn't written on the box? Come on! Thats absurd.

[JeffDM]

I remember a lot of people claimed that the scuffing made the screen unreadable. The example in the photo clearly doesn't have that problem. Flash or careful lighting can make a good looking iPod look bad, or a bad iPod look good, your choice.

It would have been nice if Apple had put decent scratch resistant coatings on their products, but other than surface scuffing, my nanos have been among the most durable piece of pocket electronics I've ever used, and I used it 4-8 hours a day, 5 days a week. The hold switch went bad on one, but the Apple Store rep gave me a new one right away without any rigmarole.

[macxpress]

Yet another crappy way for people to get some of Apple's money. I guess I should find something dumb to sue Apple over and get paid.

[timmcdivitt]

this is the kind of thing that makes me feel sick.

[fuzzy]

I remember a company that included a disclaimer with its products that said "if you are the type of person who does not accept responsibility for your actions, please do not use our product".

[matthawaii]

1. Apple pays out $22,5000,000
2. Each user gets a max of $25
3. Lawyers get $4,500,000

Looks like 1&2 got screwed over by 3.

-Matt

[teckstud]

I've had an LG glossy Chocolate phone that has been in out of my pocket along with keys and coins for over a year yet looks barely scratched at all. Use a better grade of plastic or better technology Apple- problem solved. Shouldn't share holders be demanding that rather than blasting the consumers?

[NasserAE]

My 3G iPhone got scratches on the back in less than 2 days! who wanna join me in my lawsuit against Apple?

[8CoreWhore]

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...en_issues.html
-
"In the suit, lawyers for the plaintiffs charge that screens on the nano “scratch excessively during normal usage, rendering the screen on the Nanos unreadable, and violating state consumer protection statutes [...] and causing Plaintiff class members to incur loss of use and monetary damages.”

The suit goes on to allege that the player's screen "scratches so excessively that the items shown on the screen can no longer be viewed by the user. In fact, if users were to put their nanos in their pockets with common items such as coins, keys, a money clip, a credit card, or even the earphones that accompany the nano, the devices would likely scratch so badly that viewing the screens would be extremely difficult, if not impossible."
--
People understand the screen can get damaged and would thus be unusable. But there is a question of reasonableness. It's unreasonable to think that if you wiped the screen clean with your T-Shirt it would be so scratched that it would be difficult to read the menu. that's Apple's fault.

[swisswuff]

i find it amazing that courts, people and apple computer / apple put emphasis on such product decay. the nano felt useless from early on - it was very quickly replaced with my mobile phone, currently a nokia n95 8gb. so mine didn't get to be used long enough to get scratched. besides, apple build nice prototypes - but the "real" products are built after their ideas elsewhere. at any rate, good luck!!!!

[fuzzy]

Originally Posted by 8CoreWhore

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...en_issues.html
-
"In the suit, lawyers for the plaintiffs charge that screens on the nano “scratch excessively during normal usage, rendering the screen on the Nanos unreadable, and violating state consumer protection statutes [...] and causing Plaintiff class members to incur loss of use and monetary damages.”

The suit goes on to allege that the player's screen "scratches so excessively that the items shown on the screen can no longer be viewed by the user. In fact, if users were to put their nanos in their pockets with common items such as coins, keys, a money clip, a credit card, or even the earphones that accompany the nano, the devices would likely scratch so badly that viewing the screens would be extremely difficult, if not impossible."
--
People understand the screen can get damaged and would thus be unusable. But there is a question of reasonableness. It's unreasonable to think that if you wiped the screen clean with your T-Shirt it would be so scratched that it would be difficult to read the menu. that's Apple's fault.

I understand what you are saying, and everyone deserves a good product. However, we all know that there is a good use of class action suits, and I'm afraid this is not one. An ipod is a luxury item and will be technology out of date in less than 3 years. Financially penalizing a company for this hurts everyone except the law firm handling the action. $25 does not fix the problem.

There are more important uses of this energy and money.

Think about it.

[MotherBrain]

From the picture provided:

"A first-gen iPod nano scuffed up from normal wear and tear"

You can't seriously tell me that is normal wear and tear. It looks like they took some kind of circular buffing device and scratched it up.

Is that supposed to be scratched just from your finger? If it is supposed to be from your nails whose nail goes all the way around the wheel. I just don't buy the pic. Sorry.

And I just saw the last part:

$4.5 million in attorney fees

[Jimzip]

"Nano owner Jason Tomczak said even the act of rubbing a paper towel on the face of the nano left "significant scratches.""

I see...

Jimzip

[camroidv27]

Hey, I've got one of those nanos, and indeed it is FILLED with scratches. But, I took some clear packing tape, cut it to the size of the screen, and not only did it protect from scratches, it even filled some in making the screen clearer! Personally, I don't care so much the case got scratched... things get used, things break down and show wear. Can't prevent that.

So, where can I get my money?

On another note, I'd like Apple to pay me back for my faulty MBP for a burnt out gfx card and overheating issues, even though the Apple techs say its my fault because I run the fans too high. Totally different story.

[parky]

Only in America!

Millions of people are starving around the world and the wealthy waste their time suing for $25.
SHame on all those people who raised this law suit, you should be focusing your effort in doing something good in the world.

[Cbswe]

Originally Posted by parky

Only in America!

Millions of people are starving around the world and the wealthy waste their time suing for $25.
SHame on all those people who raised this law suit, you should be focusing your effort in doing something good in the world.

word!

[parky]

I think we should all object to the settlement and as iPod nano owners says that no payment is required as there is no issue with the iPod, you can do so here :-

17. How do I tell the Court that I don’t like the settlement?
If you’re a Class Member, you can object to the settlement if you don’t like any part of it. You can give reasons why you think the Court should not approve it. The Court will consider your views. To object, you must send a letter saying that you object to In re iPod nano Cases, Case No. BC 342057, JCCP No. 4469. Be sure to include your name, address, telephone number, the Serial Number of your iPod nano, your signature, and the reasons you object to the settlement. The objection and any supporting papers must be mailed to and actually received by the following addressees no later than March 27, 2009:
COURT
CO-LEAD COUNSEL
DEFENSE COUNSEL
Clerk of the Court
Superior Court for the
County of Los Angeles
Central Civil West
600 South Commonwealth Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90005
Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
c/o Lee M. Gordon
700 South Flower Street, Suite 2940
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Pearson, Simon, Soter, Warshaw & Penny, LLP
c/o Bruce L. Simon
44 Montgomery St., Suite 1430
San Francisco, CA 94104
Penelope A. Preovolos
Morrison & Foerster LLP
425 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94105-2482

[GQB]

I got my 1st Gen Nano the day they became available.
When that got stolen 2 weeks later (they broke into my car to get it) I immediately replaced it.
Yup it scratched. (After a while I stopped the process with a simple film cover.)
Am I going to take advantage of this? No way. I have a conscience.
Probably the best device I ever owned. (Until my touch.)

[jamisen.sc]

I gotta admit, I used to get real pissed about my iPod bein' scratched all the time, but it's a little late now. Not many people use a first gen nano anymore.

[bigmike]

Originally Posted by parky

Only in America!

Millions of people are starving around the world and the wealthy waste their time suing for $25.
SHame on all those people who raised this law suit, you should be focusing your effort in doing something good in the world.

Exactly! The lawyers win in the end - NOT Apple or customers. We have way too many issues to fix on this planet and people have unfortunately come to worrying about some scratches on plastic. It doesn't even affect the music!! We should have a "you-can't-sue-over-stupid-shit" law. Those millions of dollars could help a lot of people who need it.

[gushenry1]

Okay, so I went online just to try it to see if my iPod would be eligible (not that I would actually send it in to get the money) but I typed in my serial number, and it said my iPod was not a 1st generation... I know its a 1st gen, so I'm kinda confused... heres a pic of it to prove its a 1st gen.

[aresee]

For those of you who think that this scratching problem is bullshit - PULL YOUR HEADS OUT YOUR ASS.
15 minutes in my shirt pocket - by itself - was enough to put a scratch on mine that I couldn't see through. Fortunately I found it very quickly and got a case for my nano before I had more than the one scratch. If I hadn't reacted so quickly I would have had several scratches that could have prevented me from reading the screen. As it was that one scratch was big enough to cover a significant portion of the lettering but small enough that I could see "around" the scratch and read the letters.

[drp_V3]

Wow, the back of my iphone scratched in 10 mins after taking off the plastic. The thing that really really p****s me off about this whole case is the $4.5M in legal fees. That is what drives these drivel court cases, its the money that flows in torrents to the lawyers. There is no defense or excuse here, is it so mercenary, I could not give a frack about getting $25 for my scratched ipod, it wont make it unscratched, but hey the lawyers got $4.5 MILLLION.....I Wonder what it cost them to run this case, I'd bet not anywhere near that amount.

[hillstones]

Originally Posted by aresee

For those of you who think that this scratching problem is bullshit - PULL YOUR HEADS OUT YOUR ASS.
15 minutes in my shirt pocket - by itself - was enough to put a scratch on mine that I couldn't see through. Fortunately I found it very quickly and got a case for my nano before I had more than the one scratch. If I hadn't reacted so quickly I would have had several scratches that could have prevented me from reading the screen. As it was that one scratch was big enough to cover a significant portion of the lettering but small enough that I could see "around" the scratch and read the letters.

Stop wearing a wool shirt! I think your claim is full of BS. What else was in your shirt to scratch it? Take better care of your iPod!

[hillstones]

"Nano owner Jason Tomczak said even the act of rubbing a paper towel on the face of the nano left "significant scratches."

What a fucking retard! Hey dumbass, why don't you use the same paper towel to clean a pair of eyeglasses with plastic lenses? That's right, you wouldn't think to do that because you should already know that a paper towel will scratch plastic, rather easily! The photo shown above was obviously abuse with the select button damaged and the circular scratches all over the iPod.

At least all these losers get is either a $25 or $15 award. Take better care of your purchased items! I have owned multiple iPods and none of them are scratched.

[drow]

Originally Posted by aresee

15 minutes in my shirt pocket - by itself - was enough to put a scratch on mine that I couldn't see through.

i've worn shirts that put scratches in me in 15 minutes. who do i sue? god?

[Dunks]

I figure a well scratched iPod is one that has been well loved.

Upon unwrapping, one should take pause to savour the pristine design then move on and worry about other things. It's the difference between enjoying a particularly good fuck or ruining it for everyone by stopping every 2 minutes to make sure no-one is creasing the handwoven, milato, 1000-count percale bedlinen.

[MuncyWeb]

A perfect example of a lack of personal responsibility in this country. People fail to protect the product they purchase, and so they blame the manufacturer for faulty materials. Furthermore, owners everywhere get only $15-$25 out of it? Hardly worth the waste of time it took to get this accomplished. It seems Americans want to be handed everything on a silver platter. The government takes care of us from cradle to grave and we have the "right" to sue anyone over anything. Perhaps it will end when Obamunism fully takes over and we're all equally broke. Perhaps then our worthless paper money won't even be able to afford nice little nanos in the first place.

http://www.carolinaliberty.com

[aresee]

Originally Posted by hillstones

Stop wearing a wool shirt! I think your claim is full of BS. What else was in your shirt to scratch it? Take better care of your iPod!

The one who is bullshitting is you. It was not a wool shirt. There was nothing else in the pocket. And I immediately put it in a case. If the scratch was on the back or near the click wheel I would not have made a point of it. But it was on the screen making it hard to read. That interrupted the functionality of the unit.

That first batch of Nanos was bad. It's like they forgot the hardener in the epoxy or otherwise messed up the cure. The surface is very soft. By contrast, I got the latest nano when it first came out and I have nary a scratch. In spite of having no case and down right abused it compared to the way I treated my first nano.

[AlconR]

From a lot of the comments, it seems that the majority of the users here are teens, maybe even tweens!

I am not a fan of people talking about things they clearly have no idea about. By all means, before you post another comment about this, READ THE WEBSITE.

Once you have done that, you will realize regardless if you think the lawsuit was a bad idea or not, that 1/2 of the comments related to this post are ignorant.

[wilco]

Originally Posted by macxpress

Yet another crappy way for people to get some of Apple's money. I guess I should find something dumb to sue Apple over and get paid.

I believe that you'd be able to find something dumb, but if it were unjustified, why did Apple "agree" to pay the settlement?

By the way, your site sucks.

[wilco]

Originally Posted by MuncyWeb

A perfect example of a lack of personal responsibility in this country. People fail to protect the product they purchase, and so they blame the manufacturer for faulty materials. Furthermore, owners everywhere get only $15-$25 out of it? Hardly worth the waste of time it took to get this accomplished. It seems Americans want to be handed everything on a silver platter. The government takes care of us from cradle to grave and we have the "right" to sue anyone over anything. Perhaps it will end when Obamunism fully takes over and we're all equally broke. Perhaps then our worthless paper money won't even be able to afford nice little nanos in the first place.

http://www.carolinaliberty.com

Tell us more about your Christian reactionary views.

By the way, your site sucks.

[wilco]

Originally Posted by parky

Only in America!

Millions of people are starving around the world and the wealthy waste their time suing for $25.
SHame on all those people who raised this law suit, you should be focusing your effort in doing something good in the world.

It's called punitive damages, Einstein.

The purpose is to punish Apple, and hopefully make them think twice before releasing another sub-par gadget.

By the way, if you had a site, it would suck.

[MsNly]

I had one of those Nanos but not long after I got it I stopped using it.

Now I am I happy owner of the 4G Nano, its almost unscratchable.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by wilco

By the way, if you had a site, it would suck.

If you have one, it too must suck, so would you let it go? You're only making things worse.

[Mazda 3s]

The problem with AppleInsider's forums from reading this thread (and from reading most threads here in general) is that this place is filled with a bunch of Apple shareholders who bitch about anything that puts Apple in a negative light b/c it hurts their stock value.

On the other hand, with most of the other product-related forums I visit, it's all about the product and the consumer. If Apple screws up and makes a subpar product, what's wrong with calling them on it (as in this lawsuit)?

[Kestral]

Wow, lots of blind Apple Apologists and Fanboys here.

The picture is exactly what my 1st gen black iPod nano looked like, after about a month of light use.

And you think I was rough on it? My next generation iPod nano red I still own to this day and it's scratch free, and I treated them both exactly the same.

I wonder for the people who call BS, how many of them actually owned one of these iPod nanos in question. Unless you have actual experience with the specific product, your opinion is just that, an opinion, and an uninformed opinion in a paper bag is worth the paper bag.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by Kestral

Wow, lots of blind Apple Apologists and Fanboys here.

The picture is exactly what my 1st gen black iPod nano looked like, after about a month of light use.

And you think I was rough on it? My next generation iPod nano red I still own to this day and it's scratch free, and I treated them both exactly the same.

I wonder for the people who call BS, how many of them actually owned one of these iPod nanos in question. Unless you have actual experience with the specific product, your opinion is just that, an opinion, and an uninformed opinion in a paper bag is worth the paper bag.

I have two of the first generation nanos, 4GB and 1GB.

I have no problem going along with the idea that they're easy to scratch, I've seen this myself, my nanos look a lot like the picture shown when photographed under similar circumstances.

What I'm not going along with is that they are easy to scratch to the point that the screen is harder to read, much less obscured by the scuffing. If you look at the example photo, the nano's screen is perfectly easy to read, the scratches don't noticeably reduce the image quality.