iPhone: class-action battery lawsuit, mass AC adapter failures

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
A suit against Apple charges the iPhone maker with forcing owners to depend on the company for frequent battery replacements. Also, new reports reveal problems with the cellphone's AC power brick.



Lawsuit grills Apple over built-in iPhone battery



A class-action group is accusing Apple of unfairly steering its customers towards buying frequent and expensive battery replacements from the company to continue using the iPhone, according to official papers discovered by Gizmodo.



Represented by lead plaintiff Jose Trujillo, the Illinois-based suit alleges that the handset's lithium-ion battery will exhaust itself in just 300 charges, which Trujillo claims will last only a year -- guaranteeing that customers will need to swap the battery on a yearly basis. Omitting an easily accessible compartment only worsens the situation, he says.



"Unknown to the Plaintiff, and undisclosed to the public prior to purchase, the iPhone is a sealed unit with it's [sic] battery soldered on the inside of the device so that it cannot be changed by the owner," the suit notes.



The replacement locks customers into purchasing an $86 replacement from Apple alone and brings a $29 surcharge for customers who want a temporary unit, which could be avoided through an easy-access, removable battery pack. AT&T is also named in the suit and is jointly accused of hiding battery replacement terms until after the iPhone had been listed for sale.



A victory in the complaint would have both Apple and AT&T pay actual losses as well as punitive damages to customers who weren't properly warned in advance of the long-term costs of maintaining a working battery in the phone.



Apple has not commented on the suit but states that the battery lasts for far longer, delivering up to 400 charges at peak efficiency and only then gradually losing power capacity rather than dying altogether.



AC adapter glitches plaguing Apple



Complaints are steadily growing in number that the iPhone's AC adapter has proven unreliable for early buyers.



A discussion thread on Apple's support website contains a large number of reports of the stand-alone power unit permanently losing its ability to recharge the phone. Plugging the iPhone directly into a USB port charges the device without problems, according to the anecdotes. Other testers have tried replacing the dock-to-USB cable and different wall outlets, ruling out other factors that could prevent a steady power supply.



Apple has yet to formally recognize any widespread issues but can replace the adapter for free as part of the iPhone's hardware warranty.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 109
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Craptastic! Just kill us all at once why don'tcha?
  • Reply 2 of 109
    There is already a company offering to do iPhone battery replacements at a lower cost than Apple and of course this twit hasn't factored in battery life and battery weight and size to keep the iPhone in its current physical configurations. These ar$eholes see Apple as a bank and can't wait to rob it. All it does is make a law firm rich (or not) and perhaps the public will get a useless 47c cheque someday. Doncha LOVE lawyers???



    This is ultimately what screws free enterprise.
  • Reply 3 of 109
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rjwill246 View Post


    There is already a company offering to do iPhone battery replacements at a lower cost than Apple and of course this twit hasn't factored in battery life and battery weight and size to keep the iPhone in its current physical configurations. These ar$eholes see Apple as a bank and can't wait to rob it. All it does is make a law firm rich (or not) and perhaps the public will get a useless 47c cheque someday. Doncha LOVE lawyers???



    This is ultimately what screws free enterprise.



    All things considered, you'd think that Apple would be a little more forthcoming about disclosures of this kind? These class-action lawsuits are very expensive. Apple's legal team should be as involved in the product development cycle as their engineers, so they can get involved in making sure that marketing provides consumers with the sticky disclosures and information up front.



    I'm not saying that this lawsuit will amount to anything, but I kinda think it will result in a win for the offending law firm.
  • Reply 4 of 109
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,403member
    My take: absolutely moronic lawsuit that the plaintiffs will lose.



    On the topic of iPhone batteries, here's one of the better articles I have come across:



    http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macw...iphonebattery/
  • Reply 5 of 109
    ciparisciparis Posts: 87member
    My AC adaptor stopped working in the first couple of days. They swapped it out for me early last week; I didn't even have to see a genius -- it took about 3 minutes of waiting while he went and fetched one.



    I didn't realize others had talked about similar problems.
  • Reply 6 of 109
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    [Anyone who bought the iPhone has NO reason to sue about the battery, it was known widely before launch...





    Anyone stupid enough to buy a phone that has a seald battery bay -- or a consumer that doesnt return it when they see the lack of battery access are STUPID LEMMINGS who deserve what they got.



    "Oh how quickly a fool and his money are parted"





    the masses are the asses.



    while consumers complain about battery lock while still gobbbling them up, Jobs and Ive are laughing all the wat o the bank.



    that is just my $0.02...which is the amount of Jobs' paycheck for the week!
  • Reply 7 of 109
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by a_greer View Post


    [Anyone who bought the iPhone has NO reason to sue about the battery, it was known widely before launch...





    Anyone stupid enough to buy a phone that has a seald battery bay -- or a consumer that doesnt return it when they see the lack of battery access are STUPID LEMMINGS who deserve what they got.



    "Oh how quickly a fool and his money are parted"





    the masses are the asses.



    If an idiot can sue McDonald's and win for not telling her that her coffee was hot, there's a 50/50 chance Apple will lose this case.
  • Reply 8 of 109
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    The battery STARTS to lose charge (aks has 80% of its 9 hour talk time) after 300 cycles (EDIT: 400). It's not dead. That's clear to all concerned except bloggers, so surely the lawyers know it.
  • Reply 9 of 109
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nagromme View Post


    The battery STARTS to lose charge (aks has 80% of its 9 hour talk time) after 300 cycles. It's not dead. That's clear to all concerned except bloggers, so surely the lawyers know it.







    That's a mighty big vote of confidence for lawyers.
  • Reply 10 of 109
    abit early isn't it? Wait one year and when batteries actually start dyeing then the wolves can start in on their pray.
  • Reply 11 of 109
    heyjpheyjp Posts: 39member
    This is too much. It was pretty well known that the battery was not replaceable even before June 29. No iPod has a replaceable battery. What else would any of us expect?



    You would think they would wait until 2 or 3 phones failed before starting a class action suit. Just don't buy the darn phone.



    Maybe I'll go by a VW Bug this weekend and sue VW for not having a 250 HP engine in it.



    Now if someone wants to start a petition to keep cell phone companies from forcing us all to have 2 year contracts... now that sounds more interesting.



    Jim
  • Reply 12 of 109
    <30 people on the Apple site (out of 200,000+ units sold) = mass AC adapter failures?
  • Reply 13 of 109
    wallywally Posts: 211member
    I wish that lawyers like these would get their heads cut off.



    I am so SICK TO DEATH of these GD lawsuits about how people didn't know.... anyone who knew the iPhone existed knew about the battery issue - because EVERY website, news segment and blog went overboard in listing the "many iPhone shortcomings".



    I'm not saying that companies (Apple included) shouldn't be forthright in supplying information about their products, but this is ridiculous. I hate lawyers so damn much!
  • Reply 14 of 109
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    It's just another stupid group of people who think that because Apple are doing things a certain way they don't like that they can hit them financially and it'll teach them a lesson.



    I'm thinking of taking an action suit out because Apple don't make the computers I want. They coerce me to buy an iMac and then the display fails in a couple of years and I have to spend $600 for a new one from Apple. Damn them.



    ...or I could just not buy one. Maybe they should take that approach. Y'know instead of paying for iphones and then complaining, how about boycotting it.



    I bet it's the same group of people who go around making law suits against every major company.
  • Reply 15 of 109
    citycity Posts: 522member
    Where does it say on the box that the battery or any part can be replaced by the phone's owner. The lawyer were probably concerned that another lawyer would jump them to a lawsuit. Was the suit filed on iDay?
  • Reply 16 of 109
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Besides costing Apple money this also affects the stock negatively. Now I have to hear BS stories tomorrow from people say things like "Did you hear Apple has to recall all their iPhones?"
  • Reply 17 of 109
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by city View Post


    Where does it say on the box that the battery or any part can be replaced by the phone's owner.



    Ignorance is a God given right in this country.



    I always laugh when I see those phamacy ads on tv.

    Side affects are usually mild but may include nausea, heart attack, diarrhea, blindness, or death.

    Viagra does not prevent sexually transmitted diseases.\
  • Reply 18 of 109
    patsfan83patsfan83 Posts: 156member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by heyjp View Post


    This is too much. It was pretty well known that the battery was not replaceable even before June 29. No iPod has a replaceable battery. What else would any of us expect?



    You would think they would wait until 2 or 3 phones failed before starting a class action suit. Just don't buy the darn phone.



    Maybe I'll go by a VW Bug this weekend and sue VW for not having a 250 HP engine in it.



    Now if someone wants to start a petition to keep cell phone companies from forcing us all to have 2 year contracts... now that sounds more interesting.



    Jim



    No iPod has a replaceable battery? I'm pretty sure I bought a $30 replacement battery and put it in myself on a 3G iPod.



    Batteries fail, they don't last forever. If someone could design a battery that never died, they would be rich!



    By the way, my 10GB iPod lasted me 5 years, and never completely died. I used it all the time, so no problems over here. It was lasting about 1.5 hours before I decided to get a new one. 400 cycles ain't bad for the iphone, and if you paid $600 for the iphone, you can afford $90 for a battery in a couple years, if you haven't already upgraded to the next iphone.
  • Reply 19 of 109
    mactelmactel Posts: 1,275member
    Maybe someone will sue for the limit of using AT&T as your service provider. \
  • Reply 20 of 109
    Hmmm. iphone battery life only gets 4,870,000 hits on google. if they were trying to keep it quiet, can i sue them for incompetence?
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