Not sure how a software patch will resolve the problem, seems it is a hardware, or physical part of the phone, which reacts when 'touched', bit like touching an indoor aerial on your TV makes the picture go snowy.
It sound like a material problem, conductive.
Maybe the handset will have to be trashed and remade with alternative materials. The iPhone 4 is this year's puck mouse !
My wife and I have been waiting to finally get an iPhone until this release. Right now, that decision is on hold.
At the very least, I think Apple has exhibited terrible public relations. Telling consumers that they are holding the phone wrong is beyond laughable. Can any of you imagine the reaction of this board if those words came from a company like HTC or Microsoft?
I hope that Apple is able to improve this situation with a software patch. Until then, the reports of reception issues continue to grow, and Apple is digging a deeper hole through their responses to the seemingly repeatable problem. At this point, a lawsuit seems like an inevitability.
While my opinion is that a law suit is premature at this point - and regardless of the root cause or steps that resulted in this - the perception of a problem may be enough to significantly impact the future sales figures of the unit - and the Apple Board and or Stockholders - should be the ones calling a meeting with Steve and the iPhone design team to determine a solution to the problem - not a marketing campaign on why it is not a real problem.
this is not to understand for europeans, really you americans are real mad, you funny silly crazy people, is money all there is in your heads...? Just get a bumper for the iphone or, indeed, hold it in another way!
Let me preemptively say that I am a huge Apple fan, and I also dislike lawsuits of almost any kind as they are usually opportunist shady scum-sucking trash actions. But not in this case. People, stop 'apologizing' for Apple on this one. They screwed the pooch. Apple is lying this time, and they are in breach of several federal laws. They should be called on the carpet this time. I say bring it.
The party line of "don't hold it that way" or "there is no problem" is crap. There is a design defect, they know it, and they are in full overt denial/cover up mode. Stupid. There would be no issue (or cause for a lawsuit) if they would just suck it up, admit they found a 'potential flaw', and offer free bumper cases or a full refund to those who want it.
2 simple, easy, basic questions for you before I choose to ignore you completely -
1. Do you have an iPhone 4?
2. Are you able to reproduce this issue yourself?
If you answer no to either of these - just get the fuck off this new bandwagon.
I have an iPhone 4G
I can reproduce the signal loss from 5 bars down to "searching" then to "no service".
I did this in an Apple store for the store manager.
.
Apple could not help me. They ran all kinds of tests on the phone while I was in the store. We even restored it to factory defaults. Nothing worked.
The penalties i will pay when returning the phone are:
1) I can return the phone to the Apple store I purchased it from
2) I will have to pay a restocking fee? Not sure only had the phone a week.
3) Returning the phone leaves me without a phone.....
4) I just renewed a 2 year contract with AT&T to get this phone.
5) i cannot switch cell carriers because I just renewed my contract to get this phone and will have to pay ETF fees of about $400
6) This is a huge pain in the you know what to have to go through all this just to get a phone that works......thats all I want......
I am not an Apple basher....look up my posts. I am a Apple supporter!
I have 2 iMacs a Macbook, Macbook Pro, iPad and 2 iPhones in my house.....so I suport Apple both publicly and with my wallet.
I don't think expecting my phone to work as advertised as Steve did in his keynote presentation. He held the phone exactly as he is now telling people "your holding it wrong"
If Apple won't support their defective product then what other recourse do I have?
If I can I will return the phone and get out of my contract with AT&T. But i don't expect that to happen without have a large out of pocket expense. Tat's is just wrong......
But not all new iPhone 4Gs are having this issue.....so there is hope... BUT MINE DOES and Apple is not supporting me...instead they are putting the blame on me for holding the phone the wrong way!
Not sure how a software patch will resolve the problem, seems it is a hardware, or physical part of the phone, which reacts when 'touched', bit like touching an indoor aerial on your TV makes the picture go snowy.
It sound like a material problem, conductive.
Maybe the handset will have to be trashed and remade with alternative materials. The iPhone 4 is this year's puck mouse !
Please, as if every iPhone 4 has this problem
My brother, and brother-in-law both have the new phone, and neither of them have any problems whatsoever. They, however, do not post to forums on the internet. Since I do, I'll chime in for them.
This is more like a bad run of phones, similar to the horrible radios in the initial 3G launch, which I happened to receive one of those. I just brought it in to Apple, showed them the problem, and they handed me a new phone without issues. It's not as big of a deal as people are making it out to be.
Sorry to hear you got a bad one, perhaps an exchange for a properly working phone are in order?
Hey, everyone who bought an iPhone 4, you still have 24 days to return it for a FULL REFUND! There is no need to sue Apple. Just get your money back and get a life.
I second your emotion or "DITTO" to what you said!!
"Defendants have failed to provide customer support to assist iPhone 4 customers regarding this defect. Consumers are left with three options: hold their phones in an awkward or unnatural manner, return their phones and pay 10% 'restocking fee,' or purchase Apple's own 'bumper' cases for their phones, costing $29.99 in addition to the premium they have already paid for the phones themselves, which may somewhat ameliorate the iPhone 4's defects."
If there were no restocking fee, if you could return the phone for a full refund, would this case even be file-able? What is the status of returns and restocking fees by the way, I've read some people saying they'd have to pay one, I've read others saying they returned it for full refund. The best way to deal with this surely is to say no restocking fee, you don't like the phone, send it back within 30 days. Barring some shipping costs, which you always pay if you purchase something and then send it back, nobody is out anything.
For the record I do not have an iPhone 4 because it's not been released where I live yet, but I'm still intending on joining what's going to be another 6+ hour line to buy one when it is.
"don't hold it that way" was a line in a private email to one person. He posted it and it exploded over the internet. There was nothing official about it.
Exactly, it is like buying the latest sports car, only to find when you hold the steering wheel the engine stalls !!!!!
The fact is Apple made a big mistake on this new product and their response is of denial. I mean, come on - a phone that loses it's signal when you HOLD IT.
My girlfriend is unable to use this iPhone 4 for calls as it loses the signal when handled. she refused to pay £30 for a rubber band to go round it and is taking it back for a refund and cancelling her contract with Orange.
Like the poster said, Apple's paranoria has screwed them this time, maybe wrapping the iPhone 4 in an iPhone 3Gs case was not such a great covert idea.
BS! Why do I not have a problem with the iP. 4? The product works great for me. I can't be the only purchaser who got the "good" one.
Stop being silly. Unless you know for sure that Motorola or HTC or Nokia tests theirs without cases/bumpers. (And for sure that Apple did not, throughout the testing process).
I can tell you HTC doesn't test their FOTA updates which bricked about half the Evo out there this week including mine. I was able to get a new one in a day only because I knew the right people to call but everyone else on the sprint website is going nuts because they have all be sent to the back of the line and there are huge waitings list for all the new smartphones.
Early adoption can be fun but it can also be a major pain in the ass.
What a bunch of moaning pricks. If it aint working for you then take it back. Better that than looking for a handout. Scamming bastards the lot of them.
In the UK there is a 14 day return period where you can cancel the contract and return the handset. You will only be charged for any usage.
In the USA on AT&T you can cancel the contract within 3 days with no extra fees or within 30 days and you only have to pay the activation fee plus any usage. No excuses to stay with the phone if it does not work for you. No reason to go suing anyone for profit. They should change the law to make these solicitor firms put up a bond to cover court fees if they are unsuccessful. A 10 million dollar bond should keep the shysters out of the courts.
This is not to understand for Europeans, really you Americans are real mad, you funny silly crazy people, is money all there is in your heads...? Just get a bumper for the iPhone or, indeed, hold it in another way!
Geez, Americans and their lawsuits!
While there's some truth about our vision on americans only thinking about money, in this case, european consumers would actually demand a refund or full return of the money for a defective or bad working device on normal use, and a phone should and must work well while being hold on hands! That's why it's called mobile phone! So Apple if it only do the right thing, that's recognize the problem, solve it and keep a good consumer image, unfortunately for Apple they are becoming too much capitalist, and get blind of all that money they can get with a 190$ phone being sold by the price of 700$!!!
You know there is reality and sometimes in public relations perception is reality. In this case Apple is screwing up not just because of reality but because people, justified or not, can do something to make their phone stop operating appropriately. We live in a country in which you have to label coffee as hot. I've got a picture, I kid you not, that I took of a sticker on a vending machine noting that if you try to bang it back and forth it might tip over on you.
As a country, we've declared ourselves a bunch of idiots that need protection from ourselves and that bunch of idiots is going to point a finger at Apple rather than at themselves. Apple in this instance should feed the idiots what they need and give them a cheap bumper just to shut up their useless bleating before it becomes reality.
Comments
It sound like a material problem, conductive.
Maybe the handset will have to be trashed and remade with alternative materials. The iPhone 4 is this year's puck mouse !
My wife and I have been waiting to finally get an iPhone until this release. Right now, that decision is on hold.
At the very least, I think Apple has exhibited terrible public relations. Telling consumers that they are holding the phone wrong is beyond laughable. Can any of you imagine the reaction of this board if those words came from a company like HTC or Microsoft?
I hope that Apple is able to improve this situation with a software patch. Until then, the reports of reception issues continue to grow, and Apple is digging a deeper hole through their responses to the seemingly repeatable problem. At this point, a lawsuit seems like an inevitability.
While my opinion is that a law suit is premature at this point - and regardless of the root cause or steps that resulted in this - the perception of a problem may be enough to significantly impact the future sales figures of the unit - and the Apple Board and or Stockholders - should be the ones calling a meeting with Steve and the iPhone design team to determine a solution to the problem - not a marketing campaign on why it is not a real problem.
this is not to understand for europeans, really you americans are real mad, you funny silly crazy people, is money all there is in your heads...? Just get a bumper for the iphone or, indeed, hold it in another way!
Geez, americans and their lawsuits!
usa!! Usa!! Usa!!
The party line of "don't hold it that way" or "there is no problem" is crap. There is a design defect, they know it, and they are in full overt denial/cover up mode. Stupid. There would be no issue (or cause for a lawsuit) if they would just suck it up, admit they found a 'potential flaw', and offer free bumper cases or a full refund to those who want it.
2 simple, easy, basic questions for you before I choose to ignore you completely -
1. Do you have an iPhone 4?
2. Are you able to reproduce this issue yourself?
If you answer no to either of these - just get the fuck off this new bandwagon.
I have an iPhone 4G
I can reproduce the signal loss from 5 bars down to "searching" then to "no service".
I did this in an Apple store for the store manager.
.
Apple could not help me. They ran all kinds of tests on the phone while I was in the store. We even restored it to factory defaults. Nothing worked.
The penalties i will pay when returning the phone are:
1) I can return the phone to the Apple store I purchased it from
2) I will have to pay a restocking fee? Not sure only had the phone a week.
3) Returning the phone leaves me without a phone.....
4) I just renewed a 2 year contract with AT&T to get this phone.
5) i cannot switch cell carriers because I just renewed my contract to get this phone and will have to pay ETF fees of about $400
6) This is a huge pain in the you know what to have to go through all this just to get a phone that works......thats all I want......
I am not an Apple basher....look up my posts. I am a Apple supporter!
I have 2 iMacs a Macbook, Macbook Pro, iPad and 2 iPhones in my house.....so I suport Apple both publicly and with my wallet.
I don't think expecting my phone to work as advertised as Steve did in his keynote presentation. He held the phone exactly as he is now telling people "your holding it wrong"
If Apple won't support their defective product then what other recourse do I have?
If I can I will return the phone and get out of my contract with AT&T. But i don't expect that to happen without have a large out of pocket expense. Tat's is just wrong......
But not all new iPhone 4Gs are having this issue.....so there is hope... BUT MINE DOES and Apple is not supporting me...instead they are putting the blame on me for holding the phone the wrong way!
Not sure how a software patch will resolve the problem, seems it is a hardware, or physical part of the phone, which reacts when 'touched', bit like touching an indoor aerial on your TV makes the picture go snowy.
It sound like a material problem, conductive.
Maybe the handset will have to be trashed and remade with alternative materials. The iPhone 4 is this year's puck mouse !
Please, as if every iPhone 4 has this problem
My brother, and brother-in-law both have the new phone, and neither of them have any problems whatsoever. They, however, do not post to forums on the internet. Since I do, I'll chime in for them.
This is more like a bad run of phones, similar to the horrible radios in the initial 3G launch, which I happened to receive one of those. I just brought it in to Apple, showed them the problem, and they handed me a new phone without issues. It's not as big of a deal as people are making it out to be.
Sorry to hear you got a bad one, perhaps an exchange for a properly working phone are in order?
Hey, everyone who bought an iPhone 4, you still have 24 days to return it for a FULL REFUND! There is no need to sue Apple. Just get your money back and get a life.
I second your emotion or "DITTO" to what you said!!
"Defendants have failed to provide customer support to assist iPhone 4 customers regarding this defect. Consumers are left with three options: hold their phones in an awkward or unnatural manner, return their phones and pay 10% 'restocking fee,' or purchase Apple's own 'bumper' cases for their phones, costing $29.99 in addition to the premium they have already paid for the phones themselves, which may somewhat ameliorate the iPhone 4's defects."
If there were no restocking fee, if you could return the phone for a full refund, would this case even be file-able? What is the status of returns and restocking fees by the way, I've read some people saying they'd have to pay one, I've read others saying they returned it for full refund. The best way to deal with this surely is to say no restocking fee, you don't like the phone, send it back within 30 days. Barring some shipping costs, which you always pay if you purchase something and then send it back, nobody is out anything.
For the record I do not have an iPhone 4 because it's not been released where I live yet, but I'm still intending on joining what's going to be another 6+ hour line to buy one when it is.
I second your emotion or "DITTO" to what you said!!
Its not that easy...If I return my phone. What will I use then? i will have to buy another phone now......
I just renewed my contract for another 2 years with AT&T to get this phone......no I am stuck....
Exactly, it is like buying the latest sports car, only to find when you hold the steering wheel the engine stalls !!!!!
The fact is Apple made a big mistake on this new product and their response is of denial. I mean, come on - a phone that loses it's signal when you HOLD IT.
My girlfriend is unable to use this iPhone 4 for calls as it loses the signal when handled. she refused to pay £30 for a rubber band to go round it and is taking it back for a refund and cancelling her contract with Orange.
Like the poster said, Apple's paranoria has screwed them this time, maybe wrapping the iPhone 4 in an iPhone 3Gs case was not such a great covert idea.
BS! Why do I not have a problem with the iP. 4? The product works great for me. I can't be the only purchaser who got the "good" one.
But thats not the American way!
Sue baby sue!
ranReloaded Likes this
Stop being silly. Unless you know for sure that Motorola or HTC or Nokia tests theirs without cases/bumpers. (And for sure that Apple did not, throughout the testing process).
I can tell you HTC doesn't test their FOTA updates which bricked about half the Evo out there this week including mine. I was able to get a new one in a day only because I knew the right people to call but everyone else on the sprint website is going nuts because they have all be sent to the back of the line and there are huge waitings list for all the new smartphones.
Early adoption can be fun but it can also be a major pain in the ass.
But this issue is special.
Apple..
Stop denying there is a problem.
Stop saying all phones display this behavior.
And last but not least. TALK to the customer. Inform them of the problems and tell them if and when a fix is coming. This silence is helping no one.
I own a lot of Apple products, but this form over function in my opinion, is getting out of hand.
The iPhone has always had pretty bad reception in my experience. A backpanel in metal might not have been the best way to go on a cellphone.
The iPhone 4 was supposed to fix that i believe. Ouch.
________________________
Don't throw a glass phone in a stone house.
In the UK there is a 14 day return period where you can cancel the contract and return the handset. You will only be charged for any usage.
In the USA on AT&T you can cancel the contract within 3 days with no extra fees or within 30 days and you only have to pay the activation fee plus any usage. No excuses to stay with the phone if it does not work for you. No reason to go suing anyone for profit. They should change the law to make these solicitor firms put up a bond to cover court fees if they are unsuccessful. A 10 million dollar bond should keep the shysters out of the courts.
This is not to understand for Europeans, really you Americans are real mad, you funny silly crazy people, is money all there is in your heads...? Just get a bumper for the iPhone or, indeed, hold it in another way!
Geez, Americans and their lawsuits!
While there's some truth about our vision on americans only thinking about money, in this case, european consumers would actually demand a refund or full return of the money for a defective or bad working device on normal use, and a phone should and must work well while being hold on hands! That's why it's called mobile phone! So Apple if it only do the right thing, that's recognize the problem, solve it and keep a good consumer image, unfortunately for Apple they are becoming too much capitalist, and get blind of all that money they can get with a 190$ phone being sold by the price of 700$!!!
As a country, we've declared ourselves a bunch of idiots that need protection from ourselves and that bunch of idiots is going to point a finger at Apple rather than at themselves. Apple in this instance should feed the idiots what they need and give them a cheap bumper just to shut up their useless bleating before it becomes reality.