Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Hit With Class Action Lawsuit for New Wi-Fi Assist Feature
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
OMG I got overage because I didn't watch my usage..., I should sue!!!
First world problems.
First world problems.
Who uses safari in landscape more than a few seconds?
Jeeezzz am I only one that looks things over, reads forums, goes over settings on new iOS? Talk about handholding. Does anyone take any responsibility for anything any more. If you don't have unlimited data, first off you should be checking your data usage daily. If you can be on Twitter and Facebook and streaming music and videos for hours on end. You can take a minute to see your data usage.
Can't wait to see the lawsuit disaster self driving cars will cause. First accident and the whole thing will be done with.
Can't wait to see the lawsuit disaster self driving cars will cause. First accident and the whole thing will be done with.
People. (If such were an illegitimate orientation, wouldn't have included it.)
Exactly true. Sue the carriers, they should turn off data when you reach your limit. Force people to say yes or no to further data use.
Nice blame shifting.
Yes, because none of us had to pay for overages due to this lousy feature being auto enabled.
Yes, because none of us had to pay for overages due to this lousy feature being auto enabled.
Last edited by a moderator:
Uh yes we have...and because my wife is the saver of the family she constantly monitors our data use. 1 week after installing iOS 9 we burned thru 15 gigs of data. Because she's a stay at home mom who teaches home-school she uses her phone constantly to AirPlay videos to the TV in our homeschool room. We also live on a farm with a broadband connection that frequently chokes. Until now we've just worked around it. She had no idea the feature was turned on we've now been charged twice for additional data. It's cost us an extra $30 in just one month. Because we were not notified of this feature and that it would be turned on without our consent Apple is responsible for the extra $30. Simple as that. Love Apple, but they should have seen this coming.
You are mistaken. It's an optional feature AFTER you figure out its on. My wife homeschools our children and never once noticed her phone switching from wifi to cellular. We now have a huge overage bill. Explain how she would have known? She's owned every iPhone since the 3G and never once had to watch the signal indicator like a hawk. Apple turns this on without telling her.
I would. In my opinion Antennagate, bendgazi, etc we all pretty much complete ********, but this, this is stupid on Apple's part. They created a feature that doesn't work properly, can cost people actual money, and enabled it by default.
I have an Airport Extreme and I have excellent coverage in my house. Hell, I have excellent coverage across the street. I routinely watch HD video on my iPad and stream to a Roku box, etc. Yet my iPhone 5s with iOS 9 contrived to upload a large number of new photos to iCloud using LTE, because it didn't think the WiFi signal was strong enough, even though I was about 20 ft from the WAP at the time, showing full WiFi "bars" on the phone. This put me over my data limit for the month and cost me $25. In the past 7 years I have only gone over my plan once and that was on an extended vacation.
I contacted AT&T and they knew about the issue, said they were getting lots of calls since iOS 9 dropped. I called Apple. The rep I spoke with acknowledged the issue in a roundabout way but offered no help. Just in the US there have to be many thousands of people who went over their data plan because of this feature.
The feature doesn't work properly, and it was enabled by default. Apple knows about the issue but has done nothing to address it in the 2 recent updates, nor have they notified people that this is a possible result in a meaningful way. In this case Apple is negligent and they should be compensating people for their mistake. I would have been happy if they said, have an $20 iTunes card, we're sorry. Apple should have got out in front of this but failed to do so.
As a side note, the blind Apple support here is sometimes cloying. I am very much an Apple guy, but Apple isn't perfect and they should be held accountable when they screw up.
And yes, I got a text message. I checked my setting to make sure WiFi was on. I wasn't aware of the WiFi assist feature until after the fact. Next I suppose I will be told I'm stupid for not knowing that.
Internet should be free. Like radio! I mean we already get ads up the ass everywhere.
Imagine a world where Internet was free? Or our taxes paid for Internet?
Imagine a world where Internet was free? Or our taxes paid for Internet?
Even though ads can be annoying, either way we pay. Also, believe it or not, there are apparently countries where people pay radio/tv taxes.
Last edited:
If you're streaming a movie or playing a game the user is not aware of the signal usage change.i have an ample amount of data to consume monthly, people with 2gig a month can find themselves chewing through data quickly.Not exactly true. As stated in the Apples document the cellular data signal appears when it makes the switch. Not seeing how its really all that different for folks other than "assisting" during any moment. Currently (before iOS9) you are somewhere doing something and the wifi sux so you disconnect it (or it gets so bad it does it for you) and you keep doing whatever it was you were doing. Lets be realistic here, I am sure most folks with a smart phone didnt get it to make phone calls. Just some BS law suit for the lawyers and the today's society of entitlement wanting some of Apples cash.
So before iOS9 (and this feature) what would you do if you were on crappy wifi and it disconnected? I recall there were numerous threads of wifi issues and disconnects in previous iOS versions and getting disconnected from wifi was very common. Just curious.
I'm no defender of Apple but this is dumb. You can see if you are on WiFi while using the phone, ignorance is not excuse. I'm sure my cell provider would credit me for any overage if this happened to me once, just give them a call and get a credit. There is nothing more annoying than walking near a McDonald's and my phone stops working, I have to disable WiFi and then remember to turn it back on. This feature is great, if it's to confusing it my be best to not have a data plan.
Your wireless carrier didn't text you when you were near your plan limit??
Mine doesn't - Or the text comes after it happens.
Anyway why should it be the users or carriers fault?
Its Apple's fault for making a very poor decision to leave this feature on automatically.
Its not like people are asking Apple to remove the feature- they're asking for the user to be made aware of it or to have it off by standard.
I was thinking more along the lines of what T-Mobile does- throttling you to 3G speeds instead of charging you for overages. You still get relatively useful speeds for most purposes, and for no extra cost.
I wish people would take a step back, look at the big picture, and realize that they're complaining about a feature that makes use of the data they've already paid for. Carrier CEOs are probably grinning ear to ear due to people blaming Apple for this.
A lawyer, or someone with a lawyer, that wants to extort money from a big company with deep pockets.
Individual complainants in a class action suit like this will get peanuts: a buck or two, at most.
But, the lawyers will get 40% of the total settlement.