Apple Sued (Again) For Decieving Customers:
Customers Forced To Pay For Iphone 4 Repair Due To Hardware Default
A lawsuit was filed against Apple for allegedly deceiving their customers and selling faulty products.
Apple was accused for knowing about a power button defect in their iPhone 4 products, and selling it regardless.
Many owners of the popular iPhone 4 found that a year after their purchase the power button on their iPhone stopped working.
With most of these customers, the fault arose after the one year limited warranty expired – causing them to pay out of pocket for their iPhone 4 repair.
Defect common and therefore Apple’s fault
Lawyer Debra Hilton says that customers should not be paying for the iPhone 4 repair, due to the defect being a widespread problem with iPhone 4 users. The high proportion of iPhone 4 users who experience this problem point to the product having a hardware default, meaning Apple should be financially responsible for the iPhone 4 repair, rather than the consumers.
In the lawsuit, Hilton accused Apple of knowing about the defect and failing to solve the problem. Hilton says Apple sold the iPhone 4 regardless of the hardware defect, thereby illegally deceiving their consumers.
Does Apple knowingly deceive its customers? Apple has been sued for concealing product defaults numerous times now.
Defect rendered phones unusable
The defect is described as being faulty power buttons, which were found by numerous iPhone 4 users to stop working 1 year after purchase. The problem was found to lie with a defective flex cable that controlled the power button.
The complaint stated that this defect rendered the iPhone 4 unusable, and that Apple knew about the defect when it manufactured, marketed and sold the device without disclosing it or fixing it.
How this hardware fault costs customers
The power button defect meant users were unable to restart their phone or toggle it on and off. As most users experienced this problem shortly after the end of the 1 year warranty, they had to pay around $150 for the iPhone 4 repair themselves.
The complaint claims that thousands of iPhone 4 users complained of this issue, specifically on Apple discussion forums.
The class action suit was filed under a federal racketeering law.
This is not the first time Apple has being sued by consumers for knowing about defects with their products. Apple has been sued numerous times for costing its users money, most recently for a WiFi fault with their iPhone 5 that caused customers to rack up huge data fees. Read more on that lawsuit here.