Update: My brother just started experiencing this issue again recently with his replacement iPhone. This time he says it’s never been exposed to water. He’s making a Genius appointment, let’s see what happens.
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Apple Hit With Two Class Action Lawsuits Over iPhone 7 Audio Issues
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As long as it’s within their 90 day warranty, he should be good. Otherwise, if he’s unable to get a replacement in the store, he should call support and lobby for an exception. Techs have limits in power, systematically.
I'm looking forward to see what comes from this lawsuit. It happened to me last week as well and my otherwise perfect iPhone 7 is completely dysfunctional as a phone. I don't think I should be forced to trade in my 2 year and 3 months old iPhone 7 for a new model or pay €280,- excluded tax to buy back the same phone. It's Apple's responsibility that their (supposedly) top class devices work for a longer time than the aforementioned.
I see the iPhone 7 on sale quite often, but I am reluctant to buy it if this is still an issue. Are new iPhone 7's affected? They still sell it in Apple's Store, so a silent fix (no pun intended) perhaps?
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[doublepost=1561056436][/doublepost]This happened to my iphone 7, and then my son's iphone 7, just 2 months later. This is not coincidence and never happened with any of the other iphone models we had. We have been an iphone/ipad family for years and are all very disappointed with Apple's disingenuous response on this issue.
Apple's reversal ("it's our fault, we'll fix it" to suddenly "it's a user problem") speaks volumes. Translation: "Wow, this is going to be expensive to fix, so we better blame the customers rather than fix our defective product and acknowledge our screw-up."
With declining demand for iphone products, Apple clearly made the decision not to stand by its product because it would negatively impact their bottom line.
This is antithetical to the type of company that Apple claims to be and repeatedly touts in their public statements.
Hypocrisy much?
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My wife’s iPhone 7 died in April, two months after Apple care expired. We took it to the Genius Bar and Apple offered to replace the phone for $299. We said forget it and bought an xr. Whether or not it was apple’s fault is irrelevant. As annoyed as I was it was after warranty.
Curious about this. My moms iPhone 7, which had Apple care plus, just ended up getting this. The kicker - Apple replaced her phone in June right as her Apple care expired
And her brand new replacement has loop disease. It’s basically useless now. Luckily I have a spare phone but it’s really sad.
Apple would only charge the full replacement fee which is about 500$ with tax in Canada.
Felt like a swift kick in the gut given this phone was just replaced
The issue isn’t that it’s out of warranty or not. It’s that it’s a known issue and Apple isn’t taking responsibility for repairs. At one point they did offer repairs for this issue on the down low. This is Touch disease all over again
And her brand new replacement has loop disease. It’s basically useless now. Luckily I have a spare phone but it’s really sad.
Apple would only charge the full replacement fee which is about 500$ with tax in Canada.
Felt like a swift kick in the gut given this phone was just replaced
The issue isn’t that it’s out of warranty or not. It’s that it’s a known issue and Apple isn’t taking responsibility for repairs. At one point they did offer repairs for this issue on the down low. This is Touch disease all over again
Keep the phone or replace it under warranty. Most likely this will become a full-blown recall some day (I had a 2006 iPod nano that would explode; Apple replaced it for free in 2011 and I got a brand new nano then).
I don’t agree with device neglect as a cause. My mom had a brand new replacement. In a case. She doesn’t drop her phone. Used it to the extent her phone was always in a charger. And, loop disease struck her device during the week of arranging for my dads funeral - which is when a person’s phone is probably it’s most active
Now that might mean the replacement she had was sitting on a shelf in apples back room for a while. She has the product red iPhone 7. Sure. But for a new phone to fail a few months after use is a hardware flaw or issue, to no fault of a user
What’s interesting to me is eventually Apple has owned up to these issues but for some reason they have not with this, despite offering repairs for this this issue out of warrant for a period of time in 2018
My guess is that her replacement phone had a reused logic board from an iPhone that was dropped dozens of times but hadn’t manifested the issue yet. Bummer for sure.
My son's ip7 started this last week, now useless as a phone.
Might be that it's "out of warranty" but realistically you should expect that a device that cost £749 only 22 months ago, will be able to function as a phone for longer than 12 months. For devices that cost as much as apples goods, you should expect that the device functions as intended for a reasonable time. And by reasonable, I mean like any other device in the market, that doesn't crap its own pants after a year.
For the record tho, his ip7 is pristine and been in a hard case it's whole life, so immediately ruling out bend stress.
Might be that it's "out of warranty" but realistically you should expect that a device that cost £749 only 22 months ago, will be able to function as a phone for longer than 12 months. For devices that cost as much as apples goods, you should expect that the device functions as intended for a reasonable time. And by reasonable, I mean like any other device in the market, that doesn't crap its own pants after a year.
For the record tho, his ip7 is pristine and been in a hard case it's whole life, so immediately ruling out bend stress.
My spouse had this issue, three months after ac+ expired. I bought an xr instead of paying out of warranty.
Doesn’t matter what case your son has. If he drops his phone dozens of times, the issue with happen.
I have had three iPhone sevens over the last 15 months. Every one of them has had the same defect. At about 75 to 80% of my calls the person on the other end of the line cannot hear me unless I put the phone on speaker phone. I have spent over 30 hours on the phone with assorted technicians and in the store trying to get this resolved. The first resolution was to supply me with a new phone then they decided that they simply re-downloaded bad software. Then they gave me a third iPhone 7 starting off fresh and within a month I had the same problem again. The only resolution is they’ll sell me a new phone with no additional discount except to give me a free case and screen saver and I have to send my old phone into a third-party to get $200 if they find the phones OK. It’s not OK. The audio doesn’t work. Bob Berens
Apple potentially has a legal battle on its hands over iPhone 7 audio chip issues informally known as "Loop Disease."
Two class action lawsuits filed against Apple in California and Illinois over the last week accuse the company of knowingly selling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus with an audio chip defect that causes issues ranging from a grayed-out speaker button to customers not being heard during phone calls and FaceTime video chats.
The nearly identical complaints, viewed by MacRumors, allege that "the materials used in the iPhone's external casing are insufficient and inadequate to protect the internal parts," eventually resulting in the audio chip losing electrical contact with the logic board due to "flexion" of the device during regular use.
Apple is accused of actively concealing the defect and failing to provide free repairs to affected customers outside of a brief period last year, thereby breaching its warranties and violating multiple California and Illinois consumer protection laws.
The plaintiffs, including California residents Joseph Casillas and De'Jhontai Banks and Illinois residents Brianna Castelli, Karen Lyvers, and Matthew White, are seeking damages "likely in the millions of dollars" on behalf of all other affected iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus customers in the United States.
The plaintiffs are also seeking an order that requires Apple to repair, recall, and/or replace the affected iPhones and to extend the warranties of the devices for a reasonable period of time. A jury trial has been demanded.
In an internal document obtained by MacRumors in May 2018, Apple acknowledged a related microphone issue affecting some iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models. The document, provided to Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers, described the same audio issues mentioned in the class action lawsuits.
Apple's document said service providers could request a "warranty exception" for affected iPhones, which resulted in free repairs for at least some customers, but that abruptly ended in July 2018 after Apple deleted the document.
Since then, many Apple employees have failed to acknowledge the internal guidelines ever existed, resulting in many customers having to pay an out-of-warranty fee of over $300 in the United States for a fix. Of course, some customers have managed to argue their way to a free repair, but this is not common.
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus devices still within Apple's limited one-year warranty period or covered by AppleCare+ remain eligible for a free repair, but the audio chip issues usually take time to manifest, and warranty coverage has lapsed on many of the devices since they were released in September 2016.
MacRumors has repeatedly contacted Apple for comment regarding the audio chip issues, but we have never received a response.
The complaints are embedded below.
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Article Link: Apple Hit With Two Class Action Lawsuits Over iPhone 7 Audio Issues
