Class action lawyers and Apple have reached a deal to settle claims that early versions of the pocket-sized device have an exterior that scratches too easily. Apple will offer $25 each to some users and the lawyers will cart away more than $9 million. (Ars Technica; settlement site; earlier here and here).
7 Comments
Absent any specific warranty or advertised claim by Apple regarding the scratch resistance of the screen, I think the devices performed exactly as they were intended; and also exactly as a reasonable customer would have expected.
Somehow the one my teen daughter bought a few years ago has managed to remain in good condition. If it can take that abuse then it must not be unreasonably defective.
I printed the form and you have to specifically state that you were deprived enjoyment because of the scratches. Not sure how the scratches could affect the enjoyment of the music. The music wasn’t scratchy;-)
The last time I paid attention to a class action suit was when a friend of mine had purchased shares of a stock that went to nothing after the people who ran the company had extracted about six hundred million dollars through sales of stock. The class action was run and settled: five million dollars for the lawyers and my friend was given the option of mailing in a form letter to collect thirty cents for his losses. As the stamp he would have had to use would have cost him thirty six cents, he followed my advice and filed the application in a waste basket.
But I spoke with a friend of mine who is a litigator: I asked him if the class action settlement granted the officers who collected more than half a billion dollars from further litigation. His opinion was that it did. I then suggested to him that they had encouraged the lawyers to go for the class action suit and settle for that amount as an insurance policy. He told me he knew nothing about the case, but it would have been a very clever strategy.
Bob
Why limit this kind of suit to iPods? Lots and lots of stuff scratches. Why not CDs? They’re easily scratchable and when this happens, they clearly interfer with my enjoyment of the content which they contain.
These Ipods are so defective that even a fingernail will scratch it or a coat zipper. I bought one of these Ipods and the exterior is truely defective. I filed my claim with that site and think that this law suit is not frivilious like many others as I have witnessed this myself. It was not a matter of people not taking care of them as they are just very very very easily scratched and I mean that in the most literal sense.
O MY GOSH!!!!
Wake up people. You are going to sue a company over a scratch. I got a nano and I loved it. Yes it had some scratchies on it so what, I could hear the music that was coming out into my ears. I can not belive that apple settled on this or that some people in this world care so much about money. This is just like when the women sued McDonalds becouse the “HOT”coffee that she put between her legs burned her. People that sue over stupid things like this are in my book stupid. And it’s some snake in the grass lawyer that is making the money here telling people that they have been wronged. When are we going to start thinking for ourself. I got my letter in the mail yesterday about this and I could not belive what I was reading at first. I could see if the thing was giving people cancer and apple dennied that claim yes that is a law suit. Many things break get scratched they are stuff. If my kid got a sctach on them can I sue the hospital for not giving me bubble to put them in to protect them for that. NO that would be stupid!!!!! All I have to say is quit worring about such small things that don’t matter and enjoy life it’s to short. And to the lawyer that have come up with this Stupid lawsuit may you hug your children more than you didn’t get hugged when you where younger.
[…] here on more than one occasion, is one of the members of the class entitled to participate in the settlement of class action claims over scratched Apple iPod nano units. He sent the following […]