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The Courts Businesses Government Media Media (Apple) The Almighty Buck Apple News

Judge Approves Settlement in iPod Suit 293

Posted by Zonk from the shiny-white-money dept.
BabbaBooie writes "According to AppleInsider, on Thursday a San Mateo County judge granted final approval of a settlement in the iPod class action suit that affects as many as 1.3 million iPod owners who may have been victim to poor or defective batteries. Under the settlement, owners of either a first- or second-generation model are entitled to $25 cash or $50 credit at the Apple store. Owners of third-generation iPod models are entitled to a free replacement battery if the battery fails. The deadline for submitting a claim is September 30, 2005. Lawyers say the settlement could cost Apple as much as $15m."
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Judge Approves Settlement in iPod Suit More

Judge Approves Settlement in iPod Suit

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  • That's cool! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Badflash ( 812406 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:40PM (#13408754) Homepage
    Big corporations need to pay for THEIR mistakes. Not THEIR customers.

    • Re:That's cool! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by OmniVector ( 569062 ) <see my homepage> on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:45PM (#13408818) Homepage
      I'm not necessarily trying to defend Apple here, but why are they at fault? Because they provided their customers "faulty" batteries? Apple provided the same lithium ion batteries as every other manufacturer. So because of the natural physical properties of the battery, it's going to diminish in charge capacity over time. There's no secret to this. Apple already remidied the situation: you can get your battery replaced for $50 by Apple. This lawsuit is stupid. I guess I should sue Sony and IBM for providing laptop batteries that fail after 2 years too?

      • Re:That's cool! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Tmack ( 593755 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:59PM (#13408963) Homepage Journal
        I think the problem was that the batteries are built in, and sending your ipod back to apple to get them replaced costabout the same as a new ipod, and their life expectancy was about one year of average use. Most other devices have easily replaceable Lion batteries. They got in trouble by advertising that the ipod is rechargable, but failing to state that it will only be rechargable for about a year without new batteries, and that new batteries cost the same as a new unit and were not (easily) user-replacable.

        tm

      • Re:That's cool! (Score:5, Interesting)

        by hawkbug ( 94280 ) <psxNO@SPAMfimble.com> on Friday August 26, 2005 @01:01PM (#13408979) Homepage
        I think the problem here is that you can't change the battery yourself. Try to name a product in the last 15 years that you can't change it yourself - I'm having a hard time coming up with one. Here's a short list of the products in which you can, it just makes sense:
        1. Laptops
        2. Cellphones
        3. Cars
        4. Walkmans & Discmans from the 80's and 90's
        5. Walkie Talkie's
        6. Flashlights
        7. Cordless phones
        And I could go on.... and it's no big deal that Apple uses batteries that recharge, I love that they do - but the fact that you can't change them just plain sucks. To this day, I can't figure out why they did that. I still bought one, but I'm dreading the day the battery fails on me. I know there are web pages that describe how to do it myself, but I'm leary about prying apart a $300 device.

        • Re:That's cool! (Score:2, Informative)

          by paskal ( 150433 )

          but the fact that you can't change them just plain sucks. To this day, I can't figure out why they did that.

          They're not replacable because it was a design decision made by Ive (and I'm sure supported by Steve). If you have a self-contained battery with a user-proof connection method and a door to cover it all you are not going to be able to achieve the form factor that the iPod has.

          Found a few articles that touch on this briefly:
          http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,69 03,1148182,00.html [guardian.co.uk]
          http://ww [designmuseum.org]

          • Re:That's cool! (Score:2, Interesting)

            by MrTaz65 ( 113158 )
            "not going to be able to achieve the form factor that the iPod has"

            Have you looked at your cell phone lately? It could easily be done, and has, by other manufacturers.

        • Re:That's cool! (Score:5, Informative)

          by FreeBSDbigot ( 162899 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @01:10PM (#13409055)
          Some Palm PDAs, like my IIIc, don't have user-replaceable batteries, though I've seen third-party batteries (complete with screwdriver!) on Ebay. So far, it still holds a charge. I've got my fingers crossed.

        • Re:That's cool! (Score:4, Informative)

          by cosmic_0x526179 ( 209008 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @02:16PM (#13409649)
          Try to name a product in the last 15 years that you can't change it yourself - I'm having a hard time coming up with one.

          DustBuster... the batts (NiCad I believe) in mine are just about shot. I called a nearby B&D parts store and asked about replacements. They said to just toss it and go buy a new one. But I like this one !

        • Re:That's cool! (Score:3, Informative)

          by o-hayo ( 700478 )
          I'll name one:

          Palm's Treo 600. Thankfully, it was fixed with the Treo 650.

          I'm sure there are countless more examples, like every bluetooth headset I've ever used.

          Besides, if your $300 device wont hold a charge to the point its unusable, what's the harm in prying it open?

        • I can think of a few, and they're a goddamned hassle on the battlefield:

          1. Plasma rifles
          2. Plasma pistols
          3. Energy swords

          Thankfully there have been some improvements with Needlers, but they're not exactly my weapon of choice.

          Sincerely,
          Ado Mortumee, Elite Honor Guard

        • Re:That's cool! (Score:5, Informative)

          by nvrrobx ( 71970 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @02:34PM (#13409832) Homepage
          So much for using my mod points.

          I have a Braun 7000-series Synchro razor. It looks pretty damned sealed to me. I'm not going to go suing Braun when the battery dies.

          My laptop's battery *is* user replaceable (Dell Inspiron 4150), for $120. I think the $50 iPod battery replacement isn't THAT bad, in the long run.

        • Re:That's cool! (Score:3, Informative)

          by Zathrus ( 232140 )
          Try to name a product in the last 15 years that you can't change it yourself

          Cordless shaver. Electric toothbrush. Some small vacuums.

          I had to replace my shaver (Norelco) because it eventually stopped working at all after two years -- even with the cord plugged in it simply wouldn't run (it would if the blade wasn't attached, so power flowed, but not enough of it). My cordless toothbrush (Sonicare), after about 3 years, is experiencing drastically reduced cycle times -- I can brush 2, maybe 3 times now befor

        • Re:That's cool! (Score:5, Funny)

          by holden caufield ( 111364 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @03:46PM (#13410368)
          Pacemakers.

          Try to replace the batteries on one of those yourself. And yet, still no lawsuit.

      • Re:That's cool! (Score:5, Informative)

        by learn fast ( 824724 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @01:01PM (#13408981)
        Every manufacturer may use the same batteries, but they don't advertise them the same way. Apple promised a specific quality of battery life, which the product did not live up to.
      • " Apple provided the same lithium ion batteries as every other manufacturer. So because of the natural physical properties of the battery, it's going to diminish in charge capacity over time. There's no secret to this."

        It may not be a 'secret', but the iPod is a mass-market device and as such it cannot be safely assumed that the general public really understands this.

        "I guess I should sue Sony and IBM for providing laptop batteries that fail after 2 years too?"

        You'd feel that way if Sony and IBM made laptop

  • how much will it really cost them? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:40PM (#13408758)
    it may cost them 15 million in coupons, but how much will it really cost them? after all, if everyone cashes in, it's that many more apple products out there in the hands of consumers.
    • espescially if they intend for people to use the credits in the iTunes store. If people just use the $50 to download music, Apple is out virtually nothing.

      • Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @01:23PM (#13409162)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • So, the customer has to use their full credit all at once, which means that they have to spend $50 or more, or else miss out on some of their settlement money. As I find it highly unlikely that there are a lot of products priced at exactly $50, I suspect that most will go for the "or more" option, in which case Apple stands to actually make money off this deal.
        • So it sounds less like its money out of Apple's pocket and more like its just a (potential) reduction of profits. The real out of pocket is sending out the letter. Those owners who never registered with Apple will never get a mailing. If you can only use it to buy stuff direct from Apple, its almost like getting a discount (say like a higher-ed discount). I'm not seeing a whole lot of loss on this deal (and maybe some encouragement of more sales for Apple).

  • Probably wont hurt them much... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Iscariot_ ( 166362 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:41PM (#13408765)
    As most people will never hear about this, or simply forget to get their cash in time.
    • Most people my ass. We get people comming into the stores all the time talking about this, long before the suit was even settled.
      • I got a letter about this back in June, and they offered the same deal to everybody in the letter. There was also an option to opt-out of the suit entirely, but the deadline was pretty soon after I got the letter itself.
    • I received a letter which I assume is because I did something to register my iPod. At least this is my assumption.

      Oh course I no longer have that iPod, it died, so I cannot act on it.
    • ...owners ... are entitled to $25...or $50 credit [or] a free replacement battery... could cost Apple as much as $15m.

      Wonder what cascading cost Apple would've sustained from each disgruntled customer holding forth at the water-cooler... vs that same guy now talking about how Apple "stands behind" its products. Seems that, properly handled, this judgement might not be such a loss.

      • vs that same guy now talking about how Apple "stands behind" its products.

        Oh yeah, I always think favorably of companies that have to be forced to "stand behind" their products by a class-action suit. I mean, I positively glow when I talk about the generosity of the record labels back when the courts forced them to refund me a couple bucks after having overcharged me for years.

        I would have been impressed if this had never reached any form of court proceeding. As it is, it's just typical corporate business a

    • Is this in the United States only? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Drakonian ( 518722 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @03:47PM (#13410369) Homepage
      Does this apply to international iPod owners as well?

  • Half? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by RangerRick98 ( 817838 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:41PM (#13408770) Journal
    Meanwhile, owners who actually paid Apple to repair a battery in one of the players will be entitled to up to half of that cost back.

    Between this and the "$50 credit," does this seem like it's not really that great a deal for the people that were impacted by these defective batteries? I mean, aren't they still losing money because of a defective product?

    • Re:Half? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by foreverdisillusioned ( 763799 )
      Obviously you're new to the concept of class action lawsuits. The corporation may or may not lose big (witness the record labels that were "forced" to give their customers $5 off coupons as punishment for price-fixing. This laughable settlement may have actually made them more money), but the customer NEVER wins.

      The only ones who invariably come out ahead are the lawyers.
      • Are you talking about the CD MAP settlement? If so, it wasn't a $5 coupon. I got a check in the mail for $13.86. Hmm, that sounds like just enough to go buy an indy album and doubly fuck the record companies. However, the check was the same for everyone, so if you bought a ton of CDs during that time, you didn't nearly make up for your cost.
    • Future customers will benefit from the disincentive to advertise product components as being better than they are.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Between this and the "$50 credit," does this seem like it's not really that great a deal for the people that were impacted by these defective batteries? I mean, aren't they still losing money because of a defective product?

      Lawyers are the only ones who make out in suits like this.

      I recently recieved a settlement in a class action lawsuit against Pioneer because of the patently false claims they made about their extremely expensive Tivo DVD recorder units.

      My settlement was a coupon for $150 off on my

    • Between this and the "$50 credit," does this seem like it's not really that great a deal for the people that were impacted by these defective batteries? I mean, aren't they still losing money because of a defective product?

      The product was not really defective. The cause for the suit was that Apple failed to advertise the term "rechargable" properly. The batteries are actually failing as specificed by the manufactures of the battery.

      This is not really about defective products at all, but deceptive adve

    • Re:Half? (Score:3, Informative)

      by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF ( 813746 )

      I mean, aren't they still losing money because of a defective product?

      How are they losing money? They spent money on an ipod, which did not last as long as they thought it would and Apple did not make enough effort to inform users that the batteries would only last 1-3 years. Basically they did the same thing all the other digital music player manufacturers did, except they charged more for new batteries and they were wildly successful, which makes them a great target. No one lost any money on this.

    • I mean, aren't they still losing money because of a defective product?

      Let's at least be clear that it wasn't a defective product. It may have been defective marketing but it is not a defective product. I have 1G iPod that is still going strong. Originally I had intended to opt out of the lawsuit, which required writing a letter, but I didn't get it sent out in time. So, I'll probably just shred anything that I get in the mail out of this.

  • *Ahem* (Score:5, Funny)

    by jwinter1 ( 147688 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:41PM (#13408776) Homepage
    Why the judge was wearing an iPod suit is yet to be determined.

  • Below the belt (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rob_squared ( 821479 ) <rob@rob-squared . c om> on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:42PM (#13408782)
    I can understand replacements on 3rd or 4th generation units. But by now, who would be able to tell if a 1st or 2nd generation iPod really had a defective battery, or if its just old?
    • Indeed, I have a 1st gen iPod bought at the very end of 2001 (or possibly January 2002, I'm not exactly sure, but it's right at that time). So it is now three-and-a-half years old, soon to be four. Still going. No problems at all.

      Frankly if the battery on this thing ever dies, there's no way I'm thinking it's defective. Just old.

      • You too?

        I have a 2nd Gen iPod (10gig with the touchpad scrollwheel, or is that a 1st gen?) bought Dec 2002. My parents got it as a Christmas present for me.

        I charge it, on average, once a week. Use it in the gym, for about 6-7 hours between weekly charges. In the summer, I might use it at the beach for an extra hour or two, still only charge it once a week.

        It's still doing fine.

        Which is just what I'd expect, really. It has a Lithium Ion recharagable battery. As such, it's good for about 300 charge cycles (f

  • 4G iPods out of luck? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by IO ERROR ( 128968 ) * <errorNO@SPAMioerror.us> on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:43PM (#13408794) Homepage Journal
    What about my 4G iPod which has poor battery life? Am I stuck with it?

  • Swappable & Death (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Kynmore ( 861364 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:44PM (#13408810)
    This is why built in batteries are bad! Not only does it screw the customer, it screws the manuf. in the end. Not that $15m is alot Apple, but still, it's a big damn drop of water in that bucket. They should use cellphone-style batteries. Keep an extra charged, jus tincase you stuck in the desert and need a soundtrack to your death-martch to the next gas station. Oh no, your batteries died, but wait, you have an extra one. pop. more music to die by.

    • Re:Swappable & Death (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Fox_1 ( 128616 )
      You are so right. My sweet baby, a diamond rio 500 purchased over 5 years ago, may only have as much 128mb mem, but the 1 AA battery that it takes lasts a very long time, and rather then worry about using some kinda adaptor to recharge it when I'm outside north america travelling, I just buy a pack of 4 AA batteries and move on. It's always astounded me that manufacturers are moving to the rechargeable battery. What do people do when their rechargeable iPod battery goes dead on a 13 hour flight to Asia?
      • User an adaptor that works on an airline, or get a battery pack for it.
    • But it looks so pretty without a battery cover!
    • It isn't that hard to get inside an iPod. No, there aren't any external screws but it shouldn't be a problem for a geek worth the geek label.

      I don't have a problem with a built-in battery, so long as it can be replaced. Even if the owner isn't confident about their abilities, there are a few services to do the task.

      The problem I have with AA and similar batteries is that they don't discourage the use of one-use batteries, which is wasteful and destructive. At least there are plenty Lithium battery recycl

  • Does Apple deserve the fan following ? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by amodm ( 876842 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:45PM (#13408824)
    Not to hurt any fans here on /. but I wonder if the customers have to go to court for something as trivial as a battery, does Apple really deserve the kind of following it actually does.

    I first came to know of this battery thing here http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com/message.html [ipodsdirtysecret.com]

    Its good to have good products, and I believe Apple makes really good products, but I guess they need to be a li'l more flexible with something as trivial as a battery.
    • While Apple does do things even I resent, the commercially viable alternatives are much less appealing. Without the Macintosh, what are your other options... the virus-ridden Windows or one of the many open source OSes that most of the major software industry seem to ignore as being a profitable market?

    • Mine works (Score:3, Informative)

      by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) *
      Well the battery on the original 5GB iPod I own still holds around 9 or more hours of play in it (according to the test).

      So as far as I'm concerned the rep is good.

      If enough people have experiences similar to mine, then they will maintain a good rep. So while it looks like a lot of people have issues, the real question is what percetage of the userbase are we talking about? I would imagine that it's smaller than at other companies, as people still seem very happy with Apple and iPod sales are still brisk.

  • Good Settlement (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ThatDamnMurphyGuy ( 109869 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:46PM (#13408838) Homepage
    That's actually a decent anf fair settlement. I was actually surprised by that. Class action settlements these days amount to a cheesy $7.93 cent check or something just as equally worthless compared to the repair costs or the hardware costs involved.

    •   That's actually a decent anf fair settlement


      Yup, so it was. It's only unfair if Microsoft settles using coupons for Microsoft products.
      That generates a huge amount of hue & cry at slashdot.
  • That's news?!?!?!

    Real news would be:

    Judge Approves Settlement in bathing suit.

  • Fair Test? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:52PM (#13408892)
    I ran the test on my 3G iPod and the battery lasted >8 hours, so I'm not getting anything from the suit (except that my iPod is fully functional), but I was wondering about the test - you have to run it on all defaults after a reset, so shuffle is off, which I assume means that the HD is not being exercised very much (and I assume that the HD is the big player in the power budget). Does anyone have stats on how representative the test is, or how the run parameters were decided on?

    • Re:Fair Test? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by MoneyT ( 548795 )
      The paramaters were decided based on the factory settings for the iPod which is how the original battery ratings and claims were developed. The simple reason that most people don't see the full claims of battery life from their iPod is because they use more power. They turn on the EQ, they turn on Sound check, they turn on the back lighting and they skips songs... a lot. Each and every single one of these things consumes more battery power.

    • Re:Fair Test? (Score:5, Informative)

      by sprouty76 ( 523155 ) <stephen_douglas@ ... inus threevowels> on Friday August 26, 2005 @01:09PM (#13409051) Homepage
      Shuffle won't make any difference to the HD usage - the order of the tracks is decided when the user hits play. Either way, the iPod knows well in advance which tracks it's going to play and can cache them accordingly.

      Skipping is the real killer for battery life in my experience. People who just play everything and skip through stuff they don't want probably get much worse battery life than people who create sensible playlists.

    • Re:Fair Test? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by TheRaven64 ( 641858 )
      Interestingly, the settlement didn't specify the bitrate of the music that it must be able to play for. It does specify that you must only play one album. Now, the Apple marketing material is all written on the assumption that you are going to be playing tracks encoded at 128Kb/s. For an album originally distributed on CD, this gives a maximum of 69.375MB (74 minutes, 16 kB/s). Since the iPod has 32 MB of RAM for caching the disk accesses, this means that the disk must spin up just under 2 times every h

  • Hope you kept your Receipt! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Flamesplash ( 469287 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:52PM (#13408894) Homepage Journal
    You need to show proof of purchase for some of these, like the 3rd gen battery replacement option. I replaced my ipod battery myself about 1.5 years after buying my ipod. chances of still having proof of purchase? 5% :/

  • Costs Apple Money? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AvitarX ( 172628 ) <me&brandywinehundred,org> on Friday August 26, 2005 @12:53PM (#13408903) Journal
    I would think giving iPod hungry people $25-$50 credit will actually make Apple money.
    • Not really. Only the $50 mark is credit, the $25 is cold cash. Furthermore, this money is going to come out of Apple's profits, that is, the money beyond the cost of the product they sold. Even if it's used at the Apple store, almost nothing apple makes is $50 or less so it would be used on a third party product, and in that case, the profits are going to be much lower. Apple will be losing money overall from this. Not as much as the total number of $50 credits handed out, but more than if they had won the

  • Once again, the lawyers win (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cpu_fusion ( 705735 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @01:11PM (#13409066)
    Big surprise, the lawyers make a cool $2 million off this. That's right, they made $2m out of the $15m that "might" be collected by the deadline ONE MONTH FROM NOW.
    Quit tech, folks, and go into Law.
    • If you have a qualifying iPod don't participate in the settlement.

      I just replaced the battery in my iPod (no G, nuthin') after having it for over 3 years. The 800mAh came out, a 2100mAh went in ($30 shipped) and it's better than new.

      I was never expecting a magic battery that would last forever. The iPod opens up the same way as my iBook opens up. The battery is removable, not soldered on the mobo. Apple didn't do anything unreasonable here.

      If you're going to try to get a $25 gift certificate to the Stor
      • Nice try, but that probably won't work... I haven't read the fine print on this particular suit, but in the past, most of them I've seen (such as the Toshiba class action suit over the defective floppy drives in a number of their laptops) included a clause that said all money not paid out to consumers up to the X million dollar limit would be paid to a specific charity instead. So while not filing a claim might mean your $25 or $50 would instead go to a charitable cause - it *won't* really discourage la
  • I wish there was a settlement for the TI book hinges on the display. Every one I know that owns one has had them break. Both my right and left hinge have broken on my 2002 Ti book.

    I held off getting the original Ipods because I was skeptical about the internal batteries. Batteries go bad after use every one knows that. The hinges on the TI book are another story. Who expects the display of their laptop to just snap off?
    • Amen. My family's TiBook just had its left hinge snap this week. Fortunately that side doesn't contain the video cable. I've seen other people with this problem. It happened to us with not much wear and tear. We are going to take it to the Apple Store today to get it fixed. If they don't fix it, there will be hell.

  • Who won this suit? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jmichaelg ( 148257 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @01:43PM (#13409319) Journal
    So who won?
    1. The people who got screwed by Apple get a $50 coupon that can be spent at an Apple store.

    2. The first gen buyers who paid the original $255 battery replacement fee, are out of pocket $205.

    3. Apple continues to sell iPods without replaceable batteries.

    4. iPod customers still have to backup and exchange their iPod to get a new battery unless they're brave and use a third party battery.

    5. The two attorneys get $2.7 million.

    • So who won?

      These statements are not entirely true ...

      The people who got screwed by Apple get a $50 coupon that can be spent at an Apple store.
      Not everyone had an iPod with a defective battery - or even one that wore out prior to their battery life expectations. The $50 coupon is one option with the settlement.

      The first gen buyers who paid the original $255 battery replacement fee, are out of pocket $205.
      This might be the case if their battery failed a second time. Same thing has happened to

  • Lots of other companies send out 50 bucks off coupons by mail even when aren't involved in lawsuits. My neighbourhood grocery sends out 10/20 bucks off coupons once in a while.

  • Missing Link(s) (Score:3, Funny)

    by Frankie70 ( 803801 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @01:58PM (#13409478)
    1. Sell products with defective batteries 2.a. Sell replacement batteries at a huge markup b. Lose lawsuit & send coupons which help sell more stuff. 3. Profit twice.

  • The actual fair settlement (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mdarksbane ( 587589 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @02:09PM (#13409585)
    The actual fair settlement for this would be to Refund the few people who *did* pay $200-$300 to get their 1g or 2g battery replaced, maybe even give them a bit more. Apple keeps a customer database, they know who did it.

    Anyone who hasn't, tough cookies. $50 for a replacement service is perfectly reasonable when compared to other manufacturers, and has been around almost as long as this whole debacle. Batteries die, and I don't remember Apple ever claiming that they run the ipod on magic fairy dust that doesn't.

    But giving anyone who bought an early ipod (which includes many that didn't die before the cheaper fix was announced) $25
    a) Doesn't actually refund anything close to what the few people who got screwed paid.
    b) Gives money to a bunch of people who bought a perfectly working product.

    This, like most class action suits, is just another example of the messed up nature of our litigation-happy over-lawyered legal system.
  • How is it that Apple is beaten up over this, yet norelco shavers get out of this whole mess without a nick? (hehe, sorry, couldn't resist)

    Seriously, though, norelco's been pulling the battery scam for a long time. Can I start a class action suit?

  • 3rd Gen. also has options in the settlement (Score:3, Informative)

    by mcewen98 ( 683829 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @02:39PM (#13409870)
    The article summary looks incorrect. I have a 3rd gen ipod and qualified for the settlement. The options for 3rd gen owners really are:

    1)
    replacement of the iPod's battery or (at Apple's discretion) a replacement iPod. [DO NOT SEND IN YOUR IPOD. Unless your claim is rejected by the Claims Administrator, you will be contacted with instructions on how to return your iPod and where to remit the applicable shipping and handling charges.]

    OR

    2)
    a $50 Store Credit redeemable toward the purchase of any Apple-branded products or services (except iTunes downloads, iTunes Music Store Cards, iTunes Gift Certificates, or any other product redeemable for iTunes downloads or cash) at The Apple Store (Online) or at a kiosk (a computer linked to The Apple Store (Online)) located in a "bricks and mortar" Apple retail store. Store Credits may be transferred once but may not be aggregated with other Store Credits or redeemed for cash. Store Credits may be used to purchase multiple products but, in all instances, the full $50 credit must be used up or exhausted in a single transaction. Store Credit does not apply to any shipping, handling or sale tax charges applicable. Store Credit will expire within eighteen (18) months after the date of issuance.

  • Things break, batteries degrade... deal with it. (Score:3, Funny)

    by eltonito ( 910528 ) on Friday August 26, 2005 @05:02PM (#13411174)
    Dear Plextor, My DVD-R drive motor died after only 30000 hours of constant DVD piracy. Your published specifications clearly state that the MTBF for my unit is 60000 hours. I researched changing the motor out myself, however it is not customer replacable, which I find totally unacceptable for such a complex and expensive electronic device. Although I've burned over 3000 DVD's since I purchased the unit, you should refund me the full purchase cost of my drive. The drive ran out of warranty last year and I chose not to purchase an extended warranty some years ago, which is entirely your fault. Anything less than a refund will cause me to whine incessantly on /. about how horribly unreliable your top selling, top rated drives really are. See you in court, Phil Ken Sebben

  • So... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Vicsun ( 812730 ) on Saturday August 27, 2005 @09:01AM (#13414821)
    Is this for USA-ians only, or do the rest of us also benefit from the class-action lawsuit?

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