IPhone 4 Class Action Lawsuits Begin | Hacker News Reader

IPhone 4 Class Action Lawsuits Begin

pcworld.com

19 pointsvital10141 comments

It's only been out a week or so... If you are unhappy with your iPhone then bring it back to the store and get a full refund. Simple.

This culture of lawsuits baffles me.

I agree. This is idiotic. Take it back or wait for Apple to fix it and they will fix it.

I don't think Apple is planning on fixing it, as that would require a massive recall. Take it back and wait for iPhone 5.

They could make changes to future production runs however (assuming it really is a widespread issue which I'm still not really convinced of)

I've heard enough "cannot reproduce" reports to suspect it's a minority of devices, still that's a lot of people affected. My suspicion is that there is a coating process that is failing in some cases, which would mean it could probably be resolved for future production runs.

I've only been able to reproduce it in areas where the signal was awful to begin with. In areas where my 3gs drops calls weekly, using other people's 4's I can reproduce a dropped call with some regularity. My guess is that it's so hard to reproduce because even by attenuating the signal by holding it wrong, a lot of users are in an area where the signal is strong enough that it doesn't matter.

Anandtech had an interesting article where they showed both the 3GS and 4g having problems based on how you hold it. With the 4g's worst case being better than the 3GS's worst case, however the loss was more dramatic so the perception is worse even though the device is significantly improved.

Edit2: here it is: http://buzz.amaltas.org/story/anandtech-iphone4-gets-better-...

If Apple has to they will give everyone who complains a free "bumper" case. Those things will probably cost Apple less than a dollar.

I'm thinking of just buying bumpers preemptively, since they will also solve the vital "which of these otherwise identical iPhones is my wife's phone and which is mine?" problem.

Unlikely, according to this (posted to HN eariler today)

http://mashable.com/2010/06/29/leaked-iphone-4-docs/

They seem reluctant to give cases away, which is a bizarre move, imho. A few thousand or tens of thousands of cases would sweep this ongoing PR bleed under the rug, simple-dimple. That is, until the lawyers get into it. Then it gets legs of its own, can go on for eons, and there is the very real possibility of a document subpoena revealing some mention of the possibility of the problem by an engineer which can be spun up into punitive fines.

I don't know what's more sad -- the people who dream up these lawsuits or the lawyers who take the cases.

The world is full of opportunistic parasites. Having a legal system that encourages it is the real travesty.

Encourages seems a little strong. I'd say the legal system doesn't encourage this behavior, but rather allows it.

Definitely the people who dream them up. The lawyers know that they'll make piles of money either way.

And the 'plaintiffs' will get a coupon for $2 at the Apple Store, or some similar negligible benefit.

The lawyers taking the cases and the people dreaming up the suits are most likely one and the same. They then go and recruit clients.

Why take it back to the store for a refund when you can get a lawyer a million dollars instead?

This culture of benevolence baffles me.

Ok, I know tone doesn't translate in text, but did the three downvoters really think I was serious here? Really?

The issue isn't about being unhappy with it. The issue is that the plaintiffs think Apple knew about the problem before hand and did nothing. The discovery period for this case will hopefully clear this up, one way or the other, instead of just having speculation.

Another article claimed that AT&T charges a 10% restocking fee, so you couldn't get a full refund.

I returned 6 opened, activated iPhone 4s to the Apple Store the day after buying them and Apple did not charge a restocking fee.

I also called AT&T to ensure the service was cancelled and to find out whether there would be any fees and they said there would not be. We'll see what happens if/when they send me a billing statement.

What full return? See here: http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/salespolicies.html

There is a 10% restocking fee.

I'm an iPhone 4 owner and I don't think I've experienced this problem, am I in a minority here? The phone is an incredible piece of tech. Don't punish people for innovation or we will all be walking around with worse devices.

You're lucky. I exchanged my first one 2 days after getting it. I had the antenna issue when holding it, had it on the new phone, and I still have wifi issues with my Apple router at home. The employee at the genius bar actually gave me scotch tape to bridge the antenna. It didn't work. When I got home and used some electrical tape and finally fixed the problem.

I think the problem is that there's a suspicion Apple knew about the antenna problem before launch, but launched it anyway.

Still, if it hasn't been a problem for you, keep it and enjoy it. If it has, return it. No need for frivolous lawsuits.

From what I've seen, you're not the minority. I don't know of anyone that actually is experiencing this problem other than the people complaining online. Also, all reviews I've read have not had this issue, but do mention that a good number of people are experiencing it.

I don't think you're the minority. All of my friends that have gotten the phone haven't had any problems with the antenna and when I actually ask others, they report no antenna issues either. People that are displeased with something will (almost) always be louder than those that aren't.

In my mind this sort of lawsuit highlights almost everything that is wrong, counterproductive or idiotic about our society/modern mentality.

So, when Rome was just a shell of its former self, where was the best place to be? One could use the answer to that as an analogy to answer the question of where we should go if our society is failing. (Western industrialized society.)

When Rome was falling, no place in the Western World was particularly good. The best you could do was bail for a small, out of the way place, such as Iberia, or travel East and live in China, too far away to be affected.

But a few idiots do not make a failing civilization. If it did, no one would be safe.

It's widespread idiocy that worries me.

The answer to my question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassanid_Empire

Perhaps there would be a haven someplace deep within the sphere of influence of the next dominant power to arise. The trick is to find someplace that will roll-over and submit without armed resistance.

Too many JD factories producing too many lawyers chasing too few cases. Desperation + creativity + inability to actually create anything = bad combination.

The Xbox also had class action lawsuits filed regarding "red ring of death" issue, but at least you can still use your iPhone with this issue.

This is what irks me about the description of the iPhone's antenna as a "fatal design flaw". If there's a line between defective design as opposed to just a minor issue, it looks like the iPhone4's antenna suffers from the latter. Do we get class action lawsuits against Microsoft for Windows crashes? Or Android over its lousy music player? Do those flaws get this much attention? Why not just sue AT&T for dropped calls? It's essentially the same result as the iPhone antenna problem.

Will the Apple store readily exchange your iPhone 4 if it demonstrates this problem?

Anyone else notice that the law firm is using Wordpress for their blog, and also using the Wordpress "W" in Dante font for their own logo?

Is it so much to ask to just hold it different? There is no way they will win this case.

Yes, that is too much to ask for, but a lawsuit is also completely overkill. If the thing doesn't work, take it back for a refund. Done.

Surely, no way they can win this. They know, where the flaws lie and to what length they have to go to fix it. So, they are using the hush-hush policy.

That is another blow to Apple and it just got even more serious. the iPhone 4 has brought bad chi to Appleworld.

I'm convinced all this noise being made over the iPhone 4 "defects" is a very sophisticated PR push by Apple's competitors. My iPhone 4 hasn't dropped any more calls than my 3GS did. Maybe it's just me.

If they were actually that sophisticated, they'd be making better products.

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