Apple settles suit over iPod batteries

Apple has settled a lawsuit brought against it by eight customers in 2003, which claimed the iPod failed to live to advertising claims about the battery life. The claims stated that the iPod could play music up to 10 hours straight. However, thousands of customers complained that the batteries began to run out after 4 hours or less after about 18 months. The batteries cost $99 to replace. Now customers whose iPods had bad battery life will get $50 coupons.

However the $50 coupon cannot be spent on downloads from iTunes or gift certificates. To get a coupon customers just have to fill out a claim form. "This settlement helps me have confidence again that if I'm going to sink a bunch of money into their stuff, they'll do the right thing," said one of the people who took action against Apple, Andrew Westley. The settlement could affect as many as two million iPod owners who bought theirs on or before 31 May 2004.

Customers who had battery troubles can also get the battery or iPod device replaced. The settlement also extends Apple's current one year warranty, to two years.

Sources:
Wired
BBC News

Written by: James Delahunty @ 3 Jun 2005 21:23

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17 comments

punx777

"Now customers whose iPods had bad battery life will get $50 coupons."

what exactly does that mean

imagine that, there goes apple once again, wasting peoples time, lying to them. FUCK APPLE. apple can suck my iDick.

has anyone noticed how when apple finds one thing that they may think is cool, the suck and suck the life out of it until theres nothing left (or until their stocks drop ;)) i.e, IS ANYONE ELSE SICK OF THE FUCKING SHADOWS OTHER THEN ME? , hmm, hear i am sitting on my imac, reading across the stupid HUGE toolbar at the bottom(which they copied from windows and totally blew) what do i see, ichat, iphoto, itunes.

is 'i' suppose to represent 'the internet?' oh yes, because apple invented the internet!!!! i fergot?

4.6.2005 10:06 #1

punx777

i was the first to post, ill hear from you in a second scoop!

4.6.2005 10:07 #2

Mr_Del

Ha Ha Ha and HA. Stupid apple. Glad to see them makeing blockbuster video mistakes. I wonder if they are related. We all know the only reason Apple is even around today is because of Mr Gates. He gives apple millions every year to keep them alive. If Apple died then Microsoft would have a true Monopoly.

I have not or ever will own anything with Apple on it. The creator of MAC was the first greedy SOB in the corprate wars. He is the grandfather of all the trouble in the tech world. He probaly is dead by now but still it is his product. Now if I could find a alternative to Quicktime I would be even more happy.

Die apple Die. A PC can do anything a MAC can do and with some OS even better.

-Del

4.6.2005 10:47 #3

punx777

thanks, i was begenning to think me and scoop were the only ones!!!! those monopoly thriving bastards will pay.

isnt it funny how apple always has to advertise. 'pc sucks, mac is superior' apple always had to try and keep us away from pcs. but microsoft keeps users away from apple naturally.

4.6.2005 11:31 #4

djscoop

LOL yay another mac hater! Our numbers are steadily growing!!

a $50 coupon. please. like anyone would WANT to buy another mac product? the new creative players blow ipods out of the water.

4.6.2005 16:19 #5

Mr_Del

OOOoooo thanks apple for this $50 cupon. What a savings. What do i do after I buy $50 worth in batteries? The problem will still be there. Stupid company does not even offer to fix the problem just put a very weak band-aid on it. Now you know who does not care about you. (Not reffering to myself)

-Del

4.6.2005 16:31 #6

Mr_Del

Forgot something. (why cant we edit in these?) Anyway, I have a sugestion. Offer atrade program for the bad Ipods (they all are anyway) So the people can get a (what they call) a good Ipod. How freaking hard is that. Almost all other companies in many trades do this when a similar problem comes up.

-Del

4.6.2005 16:34 #7

djscoop

because apple is such an evil greedy corporation with their noses up so high that they couldn't bare giving existing customers free new products, why not rather give them a discount instead? LOL

I must say (a little off topic) I am also dissapointed with Creative, as they have done the same thing. A lawsuit has just been settled over their Audigy card (which I happen to own THREE of!) because it cannot record true 24bit/96Khz like it advertized, so now creative will give like $25 off towards the next creative product, which can only be purchased from their online store. Luckily I use Pro Tools for my audio recordings so I really don't care that much, but I just think its pretty lame.

4.6.2005 16:41 #8

Mr_Del

What is the world comming to. Giving money off does not fix the problem. Im not much in the Audio buisness. I play mostly with Video. Im just using the sound card that is built in my Motherbords. See my list in the sig if it even shows. My main system has 7.1 surrond or something like that. It may be a 24 bit but I dont know.

Bottom line is you find a solution to the problem. Then you offer the customer to send the product in for a fix or replacement. Dont give money off thinking it will shut them up. Dumb asses. Does this mean I have to add Creative to my list?

Iomega, Nvidia, Apple, INTEL (DRM sellouts), and maybe creative are on my boycot list. Greedy people that buy out compatition and shut them down. Why cant they play fair and admit there just might be something better than what they have to offer. Maybee they could learn from the others to improve on thier products. Those kind of days are long gone. Just imagine the technologies we could have now if this crying would stop.

-Del

4.6.2005 17:37 #9

spooky2k

woah, calm down girls ;) only kidding.

You have to say kudos to apple for doign this. Its NOT JSUT FOR PPL WITH DEAD IPODS. i love the $50 coupon. i woudl much rather money back, or free exchange of an ipod, but its better than nothing.
Many companies wouldnt even bother with a coupon.
anyways, i feel out of place. there you are with ur mac computer, loving windows, hating apple, and here i am with my windows computer, loving apple hating mickeysoft.
Dan

5.6.2005 05:50 #10

punx777

we should request a forum for mac-haters

5.6.2005 11:48 #11

djscoop

hell yeah

5.6.2005 12:00 #12

jpp01uk

Quote:What do i do after I buy $50 worth in batteriesyou dont it has a fixed rechargable battery in there..just telling you

comeon then enlighten me what do you have against apple? or shouldnt i ask?

5.6.2005 12:09 #13

djscoop

lets see...

-their operating system "OS X" is for grannys who don't know how to use real computers

-they charge rediculous amounts of money for their crappy computers, which are pretty much outdated by the time they're releeased. We have a room full of dual processor G5 computers at the school I teach at....they're useless! So slow its ridiculous. Can't even run final cut pro...they crash numerous times throughout the day. I have a server at home running win2000 pro...its been running for FOUR YEARS straight, not a single problem. A three year old PC could smoke a G5 anyday in processor speed, ram capabilities/speed, video graphics, and rendering speed.

-have you noticed how 95% of the software out there is for PC? I couldn't stand having a mac...I wouldn't have anything to use it for. iTunes? Uh, no. iTunes is a joke. okay, Photoshop, yes. and there's Office for mac too...thats pretty much it. You mac users must have a pretty lonely desktop.

F[_]CK B[_]SH!!!
"I have no particular talent. I am merely inquisitive" - Albert Einstein
2200+ Athlon XP / 1.5 GB DDR333 / MSI KT3-2 / WinXP Pro / 500 GB RAID / DVR-105 / Pro Tools

5.6.2005 12:17 #14

Mr_Del

@ jpp01uk.

What is that sig? Kind of neat. Does it only show the person viewing it thier IP Stuff? To add to Djscoop. You forgot to mention that MAc even makes the M/B. You dont have a variety of what motherbards to choose from. Talk about propietary.

Her is a quick history leason. Screw the dates and names. When computers where first out there was a group of people called hackers. These guys would buy tons of computer stuff and firgure out ways to make them better. Then this group would get togeather and share all their knowledge and discuss between themselfs way to improve on what they learned. Nobody went for patents or cried when thier idea was improved on. One day an amazing discovery was made. Somebody discovered how to make a color pixle. This guys sgowed his group but refused to reveal how he did it. Instead he kept it a secrete, left the hacker group and got a patent. Later this jerk talked with a company called apple. From that day on the closed source wars began. Corprate companies say what this ass hole did ane they followed suit. The epidemic went wide spread and soon all companies gave into the greed. Even the MPAA is a result of that jerk becoming greedy. PC tech has always remained open. This is proven by the nubers of computer part makers. They still share knowledge. But if it was not for HACKERS then computers would not be what they are today.

So you see he is the grand Ol grandaddy of corprate greed and the screw the public mentality the MPAA has. It is that very reason I will not ever support APPLE company. Thier greed lives on and thrives more than back then. That is why you don't see much MAC anything in the stores. They are to greedy to let people program for them. Most programming companies gave up on mac and refuse to write software for them. The only reason apple is still arround is because of Bill Gates. He gives that company millions every year to stay alive. If apple died then Microsoft would have to be split up. I bet you anything when gates decides to retire or he dies you will soon see apples delayed death. Im sure Microsoft will split up on its own when that happens. Funny to think about it. The very greed that jerk had is the very greed that is killing Apple.

And apple is stupid in one thing. They release a processor. They wait until the INTELS, and AMDs get 300 times better before they upgrade the MAC chip if at all. Didn't G5 come out shortly before the release of XP? Where is G6 or is it out now? I don't even keep up with Crapintosh stuff.

So there you have it. My long answear to what I have against MAC. Greedy people whose computers are just as easy to set up as a PC. Although Mac would like to brainwash you into thinking thier system are 50 times eaiser to set up. They even try to tell you you don't need drivers for hardware. I laughed when they got busted for thier benchmark fraud. They somehow put a pentium 3 on a 486 mother board. Of course it is going to run slower that way dumb asses. This was done in thier G4 campaing. A PC can do everything a MAC can do and from what I have seen faster than a MAC. Why is it when you see these behind the scense clips on DVDs that they are using a PC? Think about it.

Lets throw a party when Maac is dead. Not if but when.

-Del

5.6.2005 13:36 #15

WhatUp

I remember when the PC was the first one to offer the network, well let see it took a long time for aple to come up with same thing because they wanted you to buy a stand alone and another printer per "Apple".

I remember the ah it is so much easier to use a mac but hey it cost 4 time to 5 time more at that time if I remember correctly all I know is that it wasn't the mister everyone that could afford a Mac at that time.

They did not want other then their hardware in their precious mac and I think they sued some that were trying to sold hardware for the Mac but I can't sware that.

Anyway they made all they can't to stop the PC to ever existed and most of their idea they got it from Xerox and the first working mouse that I remember for free and some other neet stuff in their OS too from Xerox.

Well Well do I have a proprietary corporation oh yes do I hate someone that make something that when it break need a degree in enginering to fix it because of the beautiful design.

I am and was and will always be against Apple.

Can't stand the smell of Ellitisme that stand behind that brand, we are the best because we say so yeah right!.

I have my clone asus mb based computer and do everything that a mac do and no it don't crash all the time and yes I can replace any component without asking permission to Apple and BTW me it is a AMD based system so much I belived in competition and because Apple represent everything that IBM once tryed to do itself when they were close minded about OS as Apple are about a square box "most efficient use of space to assemble hardware for the cheapest price" should I add, of course curve the border make it not sharp and that is enough for me and my lightning speed computer and game and broadband hehe.

You want a toaster go buy a toaster you want to pay x time the price go ahead I much prefer my alternative and it mean the freedom of expression when it come to assemble my "PC" my personal computer not my stranger computer hehe.

:)))

8.6.2005 13:42 #16

GreenApp

i just bought a replacement iPod battery from http://www.laptopsforless.com/mp3playerbattery/apple-ipod-Battery and it works great. but could i still get the coupon back from Apple?

24.8.2006 14:45 #17

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