Comments on: Apple sued over iPhone 3G reception issues

Alabama woman seeks class action status in lawsuit that charges Apple's iPhone 3G network is slower than advertised.

[Kreuzer33]

I've never been a fan of a "sue happy" culture and why I may be upset with issues with the iPhone, I, for one, would not file a lawsuit. To each his own though.

http://kreuzer33.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/apple-sued-over-iphone-issues/

[RompStar_420]

I like Apple, but they do sometimes sneak in crap and are unwilling to deal with it when people complain. Like the problem with the G5 PowerMacs with the fans reving up for no apparent reason when the computer goes to sleep (ever since the 10.5 update).

No company is perfect, and they need to be held responsible, good that they were sued.

Fix this and learn from your mistakes.

I still like Apple BTW.

[gorand80]

Well first off, it is the Network not the iPhone, and i think there is a lot of uneducated people like this one trying to get to some easy money.
When will they get it it is AT&T not Apple, 3G is 3G the technology is the same for every one.

I'm sorry but this lady need to get a life........

[msanto]

Except anyone who has watched class action suits (which this is bound to become) will know no one gets money. One need only look at the ipod battery suit as an example.

[Vegaman_Dan]

I think the industry would buy your argument if AT&T's other 3G phones were experiencing the same issues, but they are not. It's only the iPhone that is having the problems being reported. Now it could be AT&T's implementation of the service in regards to the iPhone in particular, but I wouldn't be suprised if AT&T wasn't involved in the lawsuit as well.

[fdunn3]

It's about time someone took some action. This is a beta product that was over-hyped and it is costing users a lot of money, frustration, and in some cases loss of revenue.

The only thing that surprises me is that it is limited to Alabama and not open to ALL American purchasers.

Apple has not shown due diligence in solving this problem. They just want to pretend it doesn't exist and/or blame AT&T. Since other telecoms in other countries are having the same issues the buck stops with Apple.

They wanted to cheapen up the manufacturing costs so they would sell millions and they did but at the cost of 3G receiver sensitivity.

see:
EETimes.com - Apple shuns leading chip makers in 3G iPhone:
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=A1WJWVXKZ4NS0QSNDLOSKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=209100058

[mikeburek]

Take it back if you don't like it. She did not have to keep it after the return time window. If she followed the rules to return the phone and they refused to accept a good condition return, then she has a case.

[Wheezerdr]

no you don't take it back because you still get charged a $30 restocking fee.

Apple needs to do better otherwise they will be viewed as the new microsoft.

[msanto]

Return time has nothing to do with whether or not false advertising occurred.

[bobsmith8dot11]

Smith, please sue ATT too!

[msanto]

It's not an ATT issue. It's occurring worldwide on different carriers. That points STRAIGHT to Apple as the culprit.

[Wheezerdr]

I basically told AT&T that this is a breach of the terms of service.
They are charging me for a service that this device can not properly access.
I have offered them new terms: charge me 2g prices, give me more minutes or free texting
I have told them that they have until Sunday to agree to these new terms. Failure to agree to these new terms will result in cancelation of the contract without me being charged an ETF?

Does anyone else think this is a breach of contract on AT&Ts part?

[heartattackman]

You certainly could argue it and would have a good change of winning in court. Problem is, they're going to wreck your credit when you don't pay. Then you have to sue them just to get it fixed!

[Ben Begg]

Yes I think she is correct to seek compensation from Apple. They have delivered a product that does not do what it says it would, it is substandard in quality for what is a high priced phone. I am an avid apple user but after using my iPod touch and being aware that the WiFi on the phone is VERY slow, I was not suprised that the 3G phone does not meet expectations. I think Apple should stick to what they know well. I can see Apple becoming another Virgin Empire which is run by Richard Branson. I wonder how long it will be till Apple sell of the iPhone to a 3rd party and wash their hands of what is a product disaster!!!

[veruslite]

Well in case a lot of you genius' that say her complaint is baseless hadnt noticed. This isnt as simple as buying a defective product from a store and returning it. Getting a new Iphone isnt the issue at hand, its the fact that Apple has promised a particular experience with their Iphone 3G thats its not delivering on, but with the added problem being that every single Iphone 3G customer is in a forced 2 year contract b4 they even finish purchasing the phone. You only have 30 days to return the thing and cancel your contract before your stuck for the next 2 years paying an inflated price from even the original iphone which comes out to some serious guap. So for people like myself (and the millions of others) who purchased the iphone on day one our time limit is up on cancelling our contracts, i can return the Iphone for a new one 100 times but if they all dont do what their supposed to do then what the hell am i supposed to do since i cant break my contract. One new iphone 300 bucks plus a 200 cancellation fee, thats 500 bucks that i dont care to just donate to apple or ATT because they couldnt get their stuff in gear. Class action suits are the only option a lot of us have because this is an issue that seems to be affecting people across the board, if one person sued apple and got them to fix the problem or get out of their contract then that leaves quite a few other people who have no recourse so we all have to join together and gang up on apple to get the problem fixed. Two heads or a couple thousand or more are better than one.

[etiahwhite]

It didn't take 30 days to figure out if you were having reception issues..it didn't take 30 days to feel disappointed...In my experience I can tell within a day if something works well or not and naturally if it doesn't then you should have returned it. I just don't buy into this gripe of people feeling locked into keeping this phone. 30 DAYS that's more than enough to time to assess if you're willing to tough it out or not. I see so many people complaining but not nearly as many that stated they'd be returning their phone.

[etiahwhite]

This surely seems like a waste of time and money. No one was forced into buying this phone and if your so disapointed return the thing...I personally have no issue with my iPhone I live in Northern VA and get great reception to be honest I actually turn the 3G off if I'm not browsing. But back on track with the fact that this is a completely frivolous lawsuit she should get it tossed out and then have to pay the courts back for wasting there time.

[Benf]

Why is everyone worked up about another lawsuit, we are the most litigation prone countyy in the world, sueing people is what we do, we wrote the book on lawsuits, a suit over Apples bad phone should come as no supprise to anyone.

[kbak28]

I say good for her and I wish more people would demand that companies make and back a good, well designed and thought out product like they say they are selling you. Stop making excuses for companies, by saying things like "just except there crappy products cause all products are crappy and misleading. What are you stupid just live with it like the rest of us". This is not a beta phone from Apple and At&t this is the Apple iPhone which is sold for a good amount of money with a nice big 2 year contract and it should work as advertised. There is no excuse to make people pay well you test and try to fix your sub par product, that should be done before you launch it. I understand there will always be unforeseen problems but then you as a company need to take it in the rear and admit there is a issue and fix it immediately or issue a recall and refund people's money. We as consumer's should always demand that a product lives up to it's claims.

[hal1999]

If the person suing Apple is so unhappy with her iphone why doesn't she just RETURN it to the store? In fact with all of the complaining about the reception issue with the phone why aren't boatloads of phones returned? I had the original iphone and now have the iphone 3G. I have not had any reception issues at all. My iphone 3G did crash frequently and had some stability problems with the apps. However, with 2.02 it seems perfectly stable. If I were unhappy with the phone I would have returned it to the Apple store. I actually think that the iphone is one of the coolest gadget I have ever bought and I have had hours of entertainment playing the games and using it as an ipod. The blogs would look much different if the millions of people who are happy with their iphone made their opinions known!

[heartattackman]

Take a look at the blogs....they're filled with people who are unhappy. Boatloads of phones might have been returned already, we have no idea...it's not the type of info Apple or AT&T give out to the public.

Glad to hear your phone works great...but apparently a significant % of people do not have similar experiences.

As for this woman, maybe she's passed the 30 days in which she can return it and doesn't want to pay restocking and early termination fees. Given that the reason she wants to return it is because the product DOES NOT work as advertised, why should she be penalized for Apple and AT&T's failure?

This is a nightmare for Apple. They know it. That's why they won't formally acknowledge the issue.

[Dragon_Myr]

I'm happy to see someone suing over this debacle. This should be done much more often with incomplete or broken products. When did it become acceptable for products to be released and fixed later all the time? It's acceptable every once in a while, but it seems like everything you buy these days that's electronic has a firmware update or patch come out shortly after release. I miss the days where products were finished and polished before being sold instead of some arbitrary amount of time afterwards via some some sort of update (in some cases months or years).

[bubblebathgirl]

Lemme guess ... someone from the mid-west or South United States .... big surprise ... aren't these the same Einsteins that voted for Bush?

[rolandk10]

That's productive.

[shawndh]

This argument can go both ways. Yea, it's apples fault for releasing the phone with a bunch of bugs but it's also unrealistic for a device to be perfect on it's first firmware release. I'm not an iphone fan, but I think they should have time to fix the issues. (Us WM users are just used to it) But at the same time, they need to own up to the issues and actually work to satisfy all the customers they've hyped up with their big marketing. Most techies prob wouldn't sue because we know not to expect perfection, but can you really blame this woman if the phones just not working the way it's supposed to and it's not just her iphone?

[rolandk10]

Well, unfortunately, Apple fans belive that their products just work. They may not realize that Apple is not infallable. SInce this is one of the biggest bugs in an Apple product in recent memory, maybe some fanatics feel not just slighted by the product but by their beloved 'perfect' company. Us tech's try not to get emotioanal about circuits and binary code and really don't care what the name on the outside says. At the same time, we expect problems with product now and then. A beta test of 1000 units may not always catch a problem that a run of 1 or 2 million will bring up. The beta batch and production batch may not even use the same hardware and prototypes always have more quality control then production runs.

I agree with you Shawn but too many others can't see the reality of tech.

[arieslover360]

this lawsuit is great for all you apple suckers who enjoyed being raped by ridiculous high prices and abused by the perfectly insane relationship they have with At&t mobility. look here are reasons for my comments 1)apple has a fanbase of nerds and squares that think anything apple/mac is superior to the competition, 2)at&t which i've been with forever til this day have no mercy on consumers wallets and will charge you for anything the competition will probably provide for free or lower fee, 3) apple has always been placed above the bar by the media and all this pathetic iphone frenzy! personally i bought an iphone 1st generation not because of the publicity but its design and interface so this woman can sue whoever she wants if she felt deceived by apple or maybe she's pointing the wrong finger at those who are really responsible for dissatisfaction and steer towards at&t just break out of her contract if she's truly unhappy !

[benjb53]

IPhone 3G is basically nothing but trouble for me.....I have no 3g service and ATT tells me I am expected to have the best service where I am right now. Apple's "higher authority" is now handling this matter because they are well aware of this issue.
Waiting to see what happens.....

[dunkinmike1]

did this case get thrown out yet?

[GothardJ]

Why are people so dumb? If they ever looked at anything that advertised the iPhone 3G, they would notice it says "Twice as fast, Half the Price*" Notice the little asterik after the word price? It means check small print at the bottom of said media device. i.e television screen, newspaper/magazine ad. and if you look at the fine print it states "* Comparisons between iPhone 3G (8GB) and first-generation iPhone (8GB) running on EDGE. Actual speeds vary by site conditions. Requires new two-year AT&T rate plan, sold separately to qualified customers." the main part of that is ACTUAL SPEEDS VARY BY SITE CONDITIONS! This is a no win lawsuit.