Apple sued over iPhone 3G reception issues
A newly filed lawsuit claims the iPhone 3G's network is slower than promised.
(Credit: Apple)An Alabama woman has filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming the iPhone 3G's network is slower than advertised.
In a 10-page complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for Northern Alabama, Birmingham resident Jessica Alena Smith charged Apple with breach of express and implied warranty and with unjust enrichment. Smith, who refers to the phone she purchased throughout the complaint as "Defective iPhone 3G," is seeking class action status.
The lawsuit claims that Apple's iPhone 3G advertising campaign is misleading.
"Defendant intended for customers to believe its statements and representations about the Defective iPhone 3Gs, and to trust that the device was 'twice as fast at half the price'," the lawsuit states.
The charges in the lawsuit mirror widespread complaints about the iPhone 3G's reception that have crisscrossed the Internet since Apple and AT&T released the successor to the original iPhone on July 11. Affected owners have said the iPhone 3G will switch between 3G networks and EDGE networks even when the device is sitting still and that they will lose reception in the middle of a call while in a 3G-rich environment.
"Immediately after purchase, plaintiff soon noticed that her Internet connection, receipt and sending of e-mail, text messages and other data transfers were slower than expected and advertised," the lawsuit states.
After weeks of silence regarding the complaints, Apple finally acknowledged earlier this week that reception issues existed. An Apple representative told the Associated Press that the iPhone OS 2.0.2 software update, released Monday, is designed to provide "improved communication with 3G networks."
But Monday's update was labeled with the briefest of descriptions--"bug fixes"--making it difficult to know exactly what was addressed with the update.
The suit asks that Apple be ordered to repair or replace all defective devices and pay unspecified damages, interest, and attorney fees.
Apple representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. Before joining CNET News in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers. E-mail Steven. 
Yes, quite probably she would. :-)
I refer you to case number AL-26459, Smith vs God.
Smith feels that she didnt "get a life" as advertised by God, so she is sueing him for damages.
She claims that she has been forced to instigate expensive & frivolous law suits in order to "get a life" & is seeking compensation from God for the undisclosed costs.
"Would she sue Sony?"
Of course she would. So would any person with half a brain.
If I bought a Sony HDTV and paid extra for HD cable service, then found that the TV was incapable of displaying an HD picture and that Sony refused to even discuss the problem... yes, I would most definitely sue Sony.
@riquez: That lawsuit's been over for a long time. God got tired of dealing with the American legal justice system, so he made it so that none of them ever existed. Wait what am I talking about. There were never any people with those names! I must be imagining things.
I might sue Sony if I bought a TV that was advertised as being HD and with a great picture, and the picture was crap.
We have a screwed up legal justice system here in America. I think anyone who sues for a ridiculous lawsuit (Like Coffee Woman or Cigar Man) should be deported to either Cuba or Nigeria (their choice) for the rest of their lives.
Plus tell me how she has a case? Shes basing her whole lawsuit on a headline in a commercial. Its only half the price if you qualify and only look at what your upfront cost is, not the subsidizing. And it says twice as fast, then it has an asterisk that says it depends on 3G coverage, meaning it is dependent on the provider. Can you say loop hole?
So what if they admitted the update was to fix reception issues. Is she going to sue Apple because of the keyboard lag too? Gimme a break. They are a 2 year old phone company.
It's standard practice for lower prices to be advertised for non-customers. If you really are denying that then you're an idiot.
Heres some links for you
http://www.macworld.com/article/133872/2008/06/fasternotcheaper.html
http://theappleblog.com/2008/06/12/the-cheaper-iphone-3g-will-cost-users-more-att-raises-monthly-fee/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/mobile-gadgeteer/?p=1176
http://www.betanews.com/article/Doing_the_math_3G_iPhone_not_really_cheaper_in_the_long_run/1213286816
http://gizmodo.com/5015540/iphone-3gs-true-price-compared
The fact is that these phones do not work anywhere NEAR as they were advertised to work, and 3 months now is more than enough time to iron out an 'issues'..... unless the issue is that the wireless antennas or chipsets in the phones are defective. To me, it seems like they are, considering some people have switched off 3G and BAM! All their problems with the iPhone 3G vanishes because they are now using the older Edge network.
Additionally, it's not an ATT issue since this is happening worldwide.
of phones do it well. i do not want to buy a product and then have to wait for the company to fix it after i have purchased it. if it didn't work then they should not have launched it so soon and fixed everything.
the bottom line is that apple has done many tests on th phone before it came out and i am very positive that they were aware of it before but chose to ignore the problem because its not like it went wrong all of a sudden right after they started selling the phone. they were not built properly from the beginning.
And yes, work it out. Products constantly come out and need further revisions. If they were all perfect, every hardware and software ever made would stop at version 1.0. The reason I think many people don't like that this product is flawed is becaouse Apple products are supposed to 'just work'. Well, this one doesn't. I know alot of people would like to crucify Apple and that day may or may not come but this issue seems too small too soon for a law suit.
Perhaps this is one of the first products you've been an early adopter on. I don't personally own one of these phones nor do I ever intend to but the few products I've early adopted had issues and I accepted them and the problems eventually got fixed. It's just the way it works. Unless your willing to wait a year for every new product to be tested, bugs will be released to the public.
Eh? how is this going to fix your reception issues? Are you saying you are taking advantage of a situation that you know will soon be fixed anyway?
and becuse they are a bigger company they are pressured to perform better then smaller companies on account of having lots of money and resources at their disposal.
Step 2: Find willing dupe (or unwilling one - see Jason Tomczak).
Step 3: Profit.*
* Note that actual class participants DO NOT profit.
Apple is a fine company that makes fine products, but that doesn't mean they are above making mistakes. Personally i would be SUPER PISSED if i payed 200 for the phone and went to at&t for a phone that worked better as an mp3 player then a phone.
Perhaps instead of offering a lower price, they should have charged the same price as the first gen iphone and used better hardware?
If you advertise you have to have the competences to back it up if not people have the right to get annoyed.
Third, This is more a reply to the second or third comment (the one who said "shutup and return it, blah blah blh). That is kind of hard to do when you have to SIGN A CONTRACT. In order to return it she would be hit up with early termination fees out the a.... I'm pretty sure they don't charge those when you a buy a TV and try to return it
work like they are advertised, how is that too much to ask for? Hey lets just let Apple
make gobs of money and not deliver on the what they are advertising because
I dont have anything better to do with my cash then to let them have it.
The "half the price" claim is about the base price of the phone which IS half the price and where are you getting this $40 more from? I paid $36 extra (basically $40) when I got my phone but that was for the activation fee...which is normal cell phone provider operating procedure. ALL cell phone companies in the US (as fat as I know) charge a activation fee when you sign a new contract.
Your are the one who doesn't get it. Take the higher data plan price, multiply that by the required contract and you come up with, drum roll please, a higher TCO than the previous version.
Crappy reception, slow internet, frustrating interface, waste of time camera & I don't go for the low end models. Nokia are the worst offender - never, ever again.
Most networks are a bunch of cowboys too. Just look at how they try to trick you with upgrade plans & message packages, 2 year contacts, ringtones etc etc. Then once they have you signed up you can go screw yourself if you have a problem. The whole industry needs steam rolling & start again.
I don't have an iPhone, but my wife has an iPod touch & it is nice to use.
The reception issues are not unique.
My current phone has great reception, but unfortunately the battery lasts 24 hours if im lucky & the camera may as well not be there.
Buying a mobile phone is like picking rotten fruit out of a basket, the Apples arent the only bad ones.
And let me tell you, in my biz, I've seen a lot of crappy phones. Among 3G phones, this is the worst I've seen in comparison to other 3G phones sitting in the same area.
when did any US carrier have decent reception?
when did 3G networks really ever mean much (particularly in the US)?
3G is not about voice telephony reception. It is a about data network bandwidth.
And let me tell you, in my biz, I've seen a lot of crappy phones. Among 3G phones, this is the worst I've seen in comparison to other 3G phones sitting in the same area.
It has nothing to do with ATT or network coverage, as I can demonstrate with real data. And note: users around the WORLD are complaining.
I can't understand these comments by people who really know nothing about the technology.
plus, early adopters always have problems, thats why you never buy a new operating system the day its released, or buy a car without checking its crash test ratings, etc. etc.
deal with it...
and to add to the comment, someone has to do something about it sooner or later and better sonner then later, people are being fooled into buying the i-phone and apple dosent seem to care
- by MaggieRed August 21, 2008 6:15 AM PDT
- This is exactly why the U.S. needs a "loser pays" law. You take someone to court in a law suit, you lose, you pay all cost of both attorney's and the court. That will stop these frivolous law suits.
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- by Wheezerdr August 21, 2008 6:31 AM PDT
- This is not a frivolous case. The device is called the iPhone 3g. Something it does not do well. I have this device and the iPod touch. This lawsuit is NOT surprising and in all honesty NEEDS to be done. Sure the lawyers usually make out like bandits but forcing apple to fix this phone should be good for the consumer since this is a defective device. The 2% of devices having issues is based on what? Apple is making up more lies to keep wall street happy. Hopefully this will send a message to apple to stop selling half baked products.
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- by Lerianis August 21, 2008 10:28 PM PDT
- Anyone else beginning to think that the people who are posting that this woman is a 'loser' are the same person, under many different screen names? I hate to say that is the case, but that is really the impression that I am getting here.
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- by heartattackman August 22, 2008 8:42 AM PDT
- You lie about what your product does, you get sued. Easy as that.
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Showing 1 of 4 pages (133 Comments)People joke about this, but think about it when stuff like this happens to any company someone is going to eventually pay for the cost of all this. Any idea of how price structures of the products you buy are concocted? It is just exactly the same as congress saying its going punish corporations with winfall taxes. You don't really believe they will pay that out of their own coffers do you, I hope people are not that totally stupid. The price of the products increases to cover these costs. Therefore, you and I pay for all this.
So use your brains people. This woman is a major loser in life. And her and her attorney group are both in the same boat. Sad, pathetically sad.
Now for the person who said to return the phone if she is not happy with it. Basically she will get charged $30 restocking fee because the doesn't work as advertised. How is that fair.
Buying a 3g phone and being forced to pay more for 3g (you can't opt for the 2g plan - I asked 4 times) and then being told to turn off the 3g function is quite frustrating. This is a defective product that should no longer be sold until it is fixed.
I agree, this seems to be the same poster using different usernames. There can't be this many dumb people out there who think it should be ok for Apple and AT&T to sell millions of defective products and then face no consequences and not even acknoweldge there's a serious problem.
I don't see Apple or AT&T saying anyone who bought an iPhone more than 30 days ago and is unhappy can return it today for some small fee and no early termination fee. Don't get made at this woman and her lawyer b/c their doing something about this situation while Apple and AT&T pretend nothing is wrong.
Good for this woman and her lawyers. They're the real reason Apple and AT&T are going to fix this problem.