Lawsuit accuses Apple's iOS 9 Wi-Fi Assist of burning through $5M+ in data

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  • Reply 41 of 166
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mretondo View Post



    "What a crock of absolute BS. How often are these people on wifi network so poor that it forces the phone onto cellular data instead? Honestly. I'd compare their bills and usage from before the new feature. Lastly, I have fully unlimited dada with T Mobile... It's not Apple's fault they don't."

    It happens all the time in my house depending on which room your in. I had to turn it off on all of our devices. My kids were going over there limit and I was being charged $20-$30 extra a month.

    Sorry, it's your responsibility to manage your kid's activities, which includes their phones. It's the same as having them buy movies on cable TV without your permission. The features are there for your benefit but as with everything else, you need to weigh the benefits over the cost and that's your responsibility.

  • Reply 42 of 166
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post

     

    That is ridiculous. Not everyone is a nerd. If an aspect of a product could have an adverse affect such as draining your wallet there should be a warning. That said, at least with AT&T, I receive a text warning my data is almost depleted and another text when I actually go over.


    Sorry, everyone doesn't have to be a nerd to use a phone. They just need to take responsibility to understand how one works. It's the same with anything. You buy it, you learn how to use it. You buy a car, refrigerator, washing machine, etc., and it comes with a manual. RTFM and learn how it works before using it. Phones and computers are no different.

  • Reply 43 of 166

    I really don't like these kinds of lawsuits but Apple should have had it off by default.

     

    Nobody reads the TOS or can even be bothered to read simple dialog boxes.

     

    That being said... hold on... I gotta sneeze... ahhh, ahhh, ahhh, achoo!

     

    And in the time it took anyone to read my sneeze, Apple just made $5 million.

     

    Just settle it, change the setting and be done with it.

     

    And also Apple please stop turning on blue tooth by default every time I upgrade iOS on my iPad. Grumble.

  • Reply 44 of 166
    larryalarrya Posts: 606member
    haggar wrote: »

    The other issue is that to find the setting, people have to scroll down a very long list, possibly hundreds of apps. (Don't get me started on the fact that the iPhone has been out for 8 years and we still don't have draggable scrollbars for scrolling through very long lists).  Would it have hurt Apple to put the setting at the *top* of the list so people would see it right away?  Now the question is whether the setting was put at the very bottom of the list because Apple engineers failed to consider how many apps people could install, or was it done on purpose to make the setting more difficult to find?  If this issue occurred on Android would people be as quick to defend Google/Samsung?

    You can search for settings in iOS 9. Pull down and the search box appears at the top.
  • Reply 45 of 166
    Here's a pickle from Apple:
    "Wi-Fi Assist only works when you have apps running in the foreground and doesn't activate with background downloading of content."

    If this is indeed true, then no problem. Wifi assist should work similar to leaving your home wifi and switching to LTE once you're out of range and vice versa.
  • Reply 46 of 166
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tommy0guns View Post



    Here's a pickle from Apple:

    "Wi-Fi Assist only works when you have apps running in the foreground and doesn't activate with background downloading of content."



    If this is indeed true, then no problem. Wifi assist should work similar to leaving your home wifi and switching to LTE once you're out of range and vice versa.



    I disagree- if you see the wifi symbol, you assume you are not using any of your plan data, so when you leave you can easily see the wifi symbol being replaced, and you know youre using plan data... what if your watching a video, and have set it to use with wifi only, is the iPhone now going to use a little LTE to help thigs along, if wifi is poor?

    I LOVE this feature tha Apple added - simply turning it off by default could have prevented these claims (maybe)

    As ha

  • Reply 47 of 166
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member

    I have to say that Apple should at least have opened an alert that WiFi signal is diminished and if you would like to turn on WiFi assist.  Add a "Learn more" option or turn it on/off.  Once on, leave it on.  At least you notified the user of the new change and if they blindly agreed, that's on the user.

     

    The trouble is that I use alerts like this and users are so conditioned to just pressing the button on the right that you could have a user agree to give you their first born and life's wages and they would still agree.  So they'd probably sue over that too.

  • Reply 48 of 166
    Scum sucking lawyers looking for a quick buck from the tit of Apple! douche bags!
  • Reply 49 of 166
    I get the point that Apple should have made it an opt in feature, but I still can't believe they are sueing. Only in the US
  • Reply 50 of 166
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Lawyers would get $4.9 million, any class action participant will get $.50.
  • Reply 51 of 166
    As others have stated, I want to see their bills and usage prior to iOS 9. Also, I want to know if they beta tested iOS 9, learned of the problem then fast tracked a class action lawsuit that says Apple's Web site update was too little too late. Did they contact Apple or their cellular provider before racing to a lawyer? iOS 9 has been out for little over a month and a class action lawsuit had been filed. This is ridiculous in my opinion! I want the judge to force this couple to pay all legal fees, give up their iPhones and purchase Android phones for 5 years.
  • Reply 52 of 166
    huge mistake by Apple having this on by default, they should have learned from the iOS 8 betas where this feature was added and removed for this exact reason that adding it back in iOS 9 was a lawsuit waiting to happen.
  • Reply 53 of 166
    dmdevdmdev Posts: 33member

    $5M is suspicious. I have unlimited LTE, but even then my usage has not been noticeably higher than before.

     

    That being said though, shouldn't we also sue Facebook for draining our batteries so much? I'm sure $5M in electrical costs have occurred too! ;)

  • Reply 54 of 166
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post

     

    That is ridiculous. Not everyone is a nerd. If an aspect of a product could have an adverse affect such as draining your wallet there should be a warning. That said, at least with AT&T, I receive a text warning my data is almost depleted and another text when I actually go over.


    That's not ridiculous. You don't have to be a "nerd" to actually read the documentation Apple provides on the features of its products. How is it the manufacturers responsibility if someone doesn't take the time to learn how to use the features of the products they buy? Wi-Fi Assist has been well documented since day one. If someone is going to stream a video for example, it's their responsibility to make sure they aren't using cellular data. 

  • Reply 55 of 166
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rob53 View Post

     

    You buy a car, refrigerator, washing machine, etc., and it comes with a manual. RTFM and learn how it works before using it. Phones and computers are no different.


    Yeah well I think that some things should have a warning. Not everyone is as knowledgeable as you. For example when I got my first car my dad taught me to always check the tire pressure to avoid excessive tire wear. Did I do it? Well sure if the tire looked low. But by then the damage was already done. Now-days my BMW pops up a warning if it is even 1 psi high or low. With technology today this would be so simple for Apple to have given a warning, especially if you didn't know about every little new subtlety of the OS. Perhaps you are roaming internationally and it is costing you a fortune. And by the way iPhone doesn't come with a manual. It is suppose to just work.

     

    It could have been like asking if you want to use Location services during set up.

  • Reply 56 of 166



    No. In this case Apple should be sued to remind them that they're supposed to be "the good guys". Opting-in rather than -out for something that can monetarily affect customers with data caps (is that 90% these days?) is the right thing to do.

     

    And it's not a matter of $5M being way over what these people probably had to pay for overages - they shouldn't have to pay anything extra without knowing about it beforehand. 

  • Reply 57 of 166
    robbyxrobbyx Posts: 479member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by icoco3 View Post

     

    They opted-in when they installed iOS9.  Shouldn't install a new OS unless you know the implications.




    Give me a break.  These are consumer devices you are talking about.  The (vast majority of) customers aren't techies.  They hardly understand a fraction of this stuff on a good day.  There's nothing wrong with the feature, but as part of the install/upgrade process, Apple should have explained the feature and asked the user to opt in or out.  I hate stupid lawsuits and I can't say that a class action lawsuit is really necessary here, but Apple should have done a better job of explaining this feature during the upgrade process.

  • Reply 58 of 166
    robbyxrobbyx Posts: 479member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Boltsfan17 View Post

     

    That's not ridiculous. You don't have to be a "nerd" to actually read the documentation Apple provides on the features of its products. How is it the manufacturers responsibility if someone doesn't take the time to learn how to use the features of the products they buy? Wi-Fi Assist has been well documented since day one. If someone is going to stream a video for example, it's their responsibility to make sure they aren't using cellular data. 




    Well documented doesn't mean anything to my mom.  She clicks the update button.  You're ridiculously out of touch.  People like you and me who actually understand this stuff and bother to read "well documented" documentation about new OS features are a tiny fraction of the customer base.  Your post and others like it just reek of tech elitism.  This feature has the potential to drive up the customer's cost of monthly service.  The onus should be on Apple to explain the feature, which could have been very easily accomplished during the upgrade process.

  • Reply 59 of 166
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mretondo View Post



    It happens all the time in my house depending on which room your in. I had to turn it off on all of our devices. My kids were going over there limit and I was being charged $20-$30 extra a month.

     

    I can understand going over by $20-$30 And maybe this is something that Apple should address but how do you go over by $5M?

  • Reply 60 of 166
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by robbyx View Post

     



    Well documented doesn't mean anything to my mom.  She clicks the update button.  You're ridiculously out of touch.  People like you and me who actually understand this stuff and bother to read "well documented" documentation about new OS features are a tiny fraction of the customer base.  Your post and others like it just reek of tech elitism.  This feature has the potential to drive up the customer's cost of monthly service.  The onus should be on Apple to explain the feature, which could have been very easily accomplished during the upgrade process.


    I'm not out of touch. If someone doesn't know the difference between wifi and cellular data, they shouldn't be using a smartphone. There isn't much to explain. If you're not on wifi, you will obviously be using cellular data. How will it drive up the cost? When you start using up data, you get warnings from the phone companies. It's your responsibility to make sure you don't go over your monthly data allowance. Apple does explain the feature. It's well documented on Apple's website. 

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