Apple hit with class-action suit after girl drops, breaks iPhone 4's glass

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  • Reply 21 of 302
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bdkennedy1 View Post


    "20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic," and is "ultradurable" having been made from the same material as the "glass used in helicopters and high-speed trains." If Apple actually claims this, then they are in trouble.



    They do claim this and it's also true.



    Unfortunately, if you drop a helicopter on the pavement windscreen first, the windscreen will still break. Try it.
  • Reply 22 of 302
    swiftswift Posts: 436member
    His daughter dropped and broke her new iPhone 4. She brought it into the Apple Store, and even though they don't have to, they gave her a new one. I know it's necessary to phrase things this way to write a brief for a lawsuit, but this is truly stupid.
  • Reply 23 of 302
    blursdblursd Posts: 123member
    And where exactly on Apple's website does it encourage users to drop their iPhones as part of "normal usage?" I can understand this guy is upset his daughters iPhone broke, but Apple isnt responsible for any possible accidental damage half the idiots out their subject their phone to.



    It reminds me of years ago when I worked retail for Apple there was this lady who had bought her son two laptops and was there to purchase a third within a six month period, and she insisted the third one should be free. Turns out her son kept on losing his laptops because he was an idiot, but she felt that was Apples fault. I remember telling her when she said the laptops were defective and that is they were stolen that, " look ... We sold you a perfect, functional laptop ... We have no control over what you decide to do with it or how you choose to use it after that. If you keep on having your laptops stolen you might want to think about being more careful with them." of course she got pissed of and I said, "if I buy a new car from a dealer and a week later it gets stolen do I go back to the dealer and get a new car for free?". She looked confused and said "of course not!" and I said " it's the same thing with computers ..."





    Some people are so stupid they have to blame others for their own idiotic mistakes ...
  • Reply 24 of 302
    He doesn't deserve to own an apple product!
  • Reply 25 of 302
    Let me quote Lil' Lupe from Howard Stern: "Ohhhhh Goooooooooooooood!"
  • Reply 26 of 302
    docdoc Posts: 2member
    M

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  • Reply 27 of 302
    I hate idiotic lawsuits like this as much as the next person, however ...



    Apple is as bad as anyone at making these sort of claims about their products that turn out to be - at the very least - not entirely true. It's not against the US law in all its very forgiving glory but at some point they have to expect someone to get sufficiently annoyed about it to try and sue. What else are people supposed to do when the US has such ridiculously lax standards when it comes to advertising.



    The statistics in the article are quite compelling and, from my own point of view, the iPhone 4 feels less robust than previous models ... and, as someone said above, is a lot less easy to hold than previous models. As for "20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic" or "ultradurable" or "glass used in helicopters and high-speed trains." - well there's lots of ways of making that 'advertising true', while at the same time being a load of old bollocks from any practical point of view.



    Is suing Apple the right answer? Maybe not. But until someone in the US does something about silly advertising claims, what else can people do.
  • Reply 28 of 302
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jingo View Post


    Reminds me of the person who sued McDonalds because of coffee being hot and won



    The woman who sued McDonald's received 3rd degree burns from the scalding hot coffee. All she wanted from McDonald's was for them to cover her medical expenses.



    I do agree however that the case concerning the iPhone 4 is probably frivolous.
  • Reply 29 of 302
    oneof52oneof52 Posts: 113member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jingo View Post


    Only in America could someone sue another party for a mistake they made and get loads of dosh for it. Reminds me of the person who sued McDonalds because of coffee being hot and won - and countless other such stories. The guy should be ashamed of himself.



    That specific McDonalds intentionally made the coffee scalding hot to run the old people off from sitting around all day getting refills.



    The McDonalds executives that testifies were such pompous asses that they pissed the jury off. Thats why the big award.



    The court of appeals also dramatically reduced the damages awarded. Nobody ever hears the whole story.
  • Reply 30 of 302
    swiftswift Posts: 436member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cmf2 View Post


    After taking an engineering law course, I think the coffee one was rather legitimate.



    It wasn't a guy, it was an old lady traveling with her grandson. The car was parked and the lady tried to add cream to her coffee, but the cup slipped and and spilled on her. Her grandson immediately got out of the car and pulled her out and dropped her sweat pants to prevent any more burning, but by that time she already had 2nd and 3rd degree burns to her legs and crotch area.



    McDonald's instructed their franchises to serve coffee at a higher than industry standard temperature knowing that it could cause 3rd degree burns in under 10 seconds, while (going from memory here) a 3 degree drop in temperature (it might of been higher, but it was definitely less than 10 degrees) would increase the required exposure time to about a minute. The reason they served coffee at a higher temperature was to save money on coffee beans. They had basically determined that it was cheaper to pay for the occasional lawsuit than to lower the temperature the coffee was served at. The lady was only suing for her medical bills, but was awarded much more because of the deplorable practices McDonald's was engaged in as a corporation.



    There are a lot of frivolous lawsuits out there, like the iPhone one, but I'd have to say that the McDonald's coffee one wasn't one of them. Had McDonald's served coffee at the industry standard temperature, that lady would not have been burned nearly as severely. McDonald's knew the risks but corporate greed overruled the safety of its customers.



    Thank you for the restatement of the facts. The "it's crazy!" version, sans facts, was started, I believe, by Rush Limbaugh. It's a question of belief. Facts are not relevant in his case.



    In fact, I once spilled McDonald's coffee in my lap, before this case. I found out in an instant that it was very unusually hot. I rapidly stood up and held my pants away from my legs until it cooled, so I avoided the scalding I could feel starting during the first touch of the very hot coffee. It would be quite a different thing if I was a little old lady likely strapped into her seatbelt when the hot stuff hit her thighs and crotch.
  • Reply 31 of 302
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cmf2 View Post


    After taking an engineering law course, I think the coffee one was rather legitimate.



    It wasn't a guy, it was an old lady traveling with her grandson. The car was parked and the lady tried to add cream to her coffee, but the cup slipped and and spilled on her. Her grandson immediately got out of the car and pulled her out and dropped her sweat pants to prevent any more burning, but by that time she already had 2nd and 3rd degree burns to her legs and crotch area.



    McDonald's instructed their franchises to serve coffee at a higher than industry standard temperature knowing that it could cause 3rd degree burns in under 10 seconds, while (going from memory here) a 3 degree drop in temperature (it might of been higher, but it was definitely less than 10 degrees) would increase the required exposure time to about a minute. The reason they served coffee at a higher temperature was to save money on coffee beans. They had basically determined that it was cheaper to pay for the occasional lawsuit than to lower the temperature the coffee was served at. The lady was only suing for her medical bills, but was awarded much more because of the deplorable practices McDonald's was engaged in as a corporation.



    There are a lot of frivolous lawsuits out there, like the iPhone one, but I'd have to say that the McDonald's coffee one wasn't one of them. Had McDonald's served coffee at the industry standard temperature, that lady would not have been burned nearly as severely. McDonald's knew the risks but corporate greed overruled the safety of its customers.



    WTH is industrial standard temperature for coffee? I like my coffee colder, my wife warmer. When one is lazy and won't put the cup into the cupholder in the car when adding the cream and is holding it between the legs, then that person deserves being burned. Another candidate for a "moron of the century".



    And btw I would never buy the coffee at fastfood place - it's disgusting garbage.
  • Reply 32 of 302
    Another reason why accepting "personal responsibility" for one's actions is a novel idea for many these days.
  • Reply 33 of 302
    macrrmacrr Posts: 488member
    I hope his temper tantrum wasn't directed at his girl initially
  • Reply 34 of 302
    jkgmjkgm Posts: 22member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jingo View Post


    Only in America could someone sue another party for a mistake they made and get loads of dosh for it. Reminds me of the person who sued McDonalds because of coffee being hot and won - and countless other such stories. The guy should be ashamed of himself.



    The McDonald's suit is often mis-quoted for representing litigation-happy Americans. However, in that one case, the coffee really was scalding hot and the woman suffered third-degree burns on six percent of her skin and lesser burns over sixteen percent. She remained in the hospital for eight days followed by two years of medical treatment. After all this, she initially only asked for $20,000 to cover her actual medical expenses, but McDonald's refused and forced it before a judge and jury.



    Sources: Wikipedia (of course) and The Lectric Law Library



    Edit: too late, but I'll leave mine up for posterity.
  • Reply 35 of 302
    Quote:

    "20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic,"



    <SIGH> this is all probably very accurate...the problem is stiffness and hardness are NOT properties you want in something that isnt supposed to break...you want TOUGHNESS.



    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toughness



    Often as a material because harder it is MORE likely to shatter not less.



    If he actually wrote this into his suit, he completely invalidated his case.
  • Reply 36 of 302
    mac_dogmac_dog Posts: 1,069member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bill P. View Post


    Another reason why accepting "personal responsibility" for one's actions is a novel idea for many these days.



    why should americans take personal responsibility? our leaders don't. they lie, cheat and steal.
  • Reply 37 of 302
    All I have to say is that I have been an iPhone owner since the price drop of the original model in 2007 and I own the iPhone 4. In 3 and a half years I have NEVER DROPPED MY IPHONE NO MATTER THE MODEL!!!! What a moron!!!!
  • Reply 38 of 302
    rainrain Posts: 538member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jingo View Post


    Only in America could someone sue another party for a mistake they made and get loads of dosh for it. Reminds me of the person who sued McDonalds because of coffee being hot and won - and countless other such stories. The guy should be ashamed of himself.



    Because we all know people love their coffee at 190 degrees...

    People also love having their lives burn to the ground from faulty power adapters too right?



    You know, there just might be an industrial design deficiency with the iphone4 that could be improved on. Or is there a consensus that the iphone4 is perfect in every way and will never change?



    That said - a class action lawsuit for dropping your phone is stupid and I expect this will be thrown out.

    I expect the judge to rule something like "maybe next time put down the greasy fried chicken and clean your pudgy fingers before texting on highly sophisticated technology." Then I hope he rules that the plaintiff only be allowed to use products from Fisher Price for 1 year.



    If there is a big problem with the iPhone4... I hope Apple has addressed this. I'm not in the practice of dropping my fragile technology - but it would be nice to know if I did by accident, it wasn't going to be rendered useless and not covered by any warranty.
  • Reply 39 of 302
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by gabberattack View Post


    WTH is industrial standard temperature for coffee? I like my coffee colder, my wife warmer. When one is lazy and won't put the cup into the cupholder in the car when adding the cream and is holding it between the legs, then that person deserves being burned. Another candidate for a "moron of the century".



    And btw I would never buy the coffee at fastfood place - it's disgusting garbage.



    Quote:

    According to the National Coffee Association of USA, coffee should brewed at a temperature of 195-205 degrees F and served at 180-185 degrees.



    --http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_industry_standard_temperature_for_hot_ coffee



    Some people do prefer it cooler, but the McDonald's coffee was kept at a significantly higher temperature than 180-185F, which is also one of the reasons it tastes like crap since the flavor of brewed coffee degrades at a rate directly proportional to the temp it is kept at.
  • Reply 40 of 302
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Phizz View Post


    He should sue whoever was responsible for surfacing the hard ground that his daughter dropped it on too.



    And he should sue his daughter for carelessness.



    And he should sue his wife for the bad genes which gave his daughter such weak grip.



    And he should sue the government for providing an inadequate education system which allowed him to grow up to be such a moron.



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