Three More Law Firms Join Class Action Lawsuit Against Apple Over iPhone 6 'Touch Disease'

[Radon87000]

apple should address this issue. They are not a "dumb company", they know there is an engineering issue and imo, did a cost benefit analysis and decided to wait for the lawsuits and handle everything in a consistent manner.

As to the outcome, we will see.

Cost benefit analysis is only a part of the motivation.They knew iPhone 6 would sell in huge numbers so to force people to upgrade to iPhone 7 they intentionally removed the underfill and added it back on the 6s.The underfill also existed on the 5s

I really hope the courts give a kick to Apple's rear.Time they learnt to respect the customer like Samsung learnt the hard way
[doublepost=1476081163][/doublepost]

Apple has known about touch disease for a long time. It's absolutely disgusting that they have refused to do ANYTHING about it. What stuns me is, Apple knows they made the mistake, yet they charge people ridiculous prices to fix it.

Apple likes to act like they are better than all the major phone makers...maybe that used to be true. But now they're just another greedy Fortune 500 with absolutely no imagination, run by a bunch of clueless bean counters like Tim Cook, getting ready to run Apple in to the ground

They dont care as the iPhone 6 is the most popular iPhone till date.Solving its issues makes upcoming updates less enticing.Hence forced upgrades ftw.Oh and with Sammy down for the count and iPhone 7 surpassing expectations Apple has lesser incentives than ever to listen to old customers

 

[Feenician]

Time they learnt to respect the customer like Samsung learnt the hard way

Is this the same respectful Samsung whose only position we know of on anything in the last two weeks of 8+ combusting phones that were replaced and said to be safe (following 100+ combusting incidents) is this?



Could you perhaps fill us on when where Samsung have learned something here? Seems to me the jury is still very much out on that one.

 

[Col4bin]

It's probably wrong but I'm curious why after two years these users aren't looking at upgrading? Maybe they are and they just want a higher resale value or discount? I know after that long my battery isn't that great anymore.

Maybe "these users" can't afford an upgrade. Are you for real?

 

[Radon87000]

Is this the same respectful Samsung whose only position we know of on anything in the last two weeks of 8+ combusting phones that were replaced and said to be safe (following 100+ combusting incidents) is this?

View attachment 664413

Could you perhaps fill us on when where Samsung have learned something here? Seems to me the jury is still very much out on that one.

I should have phrased it better.They are going to learn when the sales data and the earnings report are out

 

[Feenician]

I should have phrased it better.They are going to learn when the sales data and the earnings report are out

That I can agree with but let's not get to the "forgive and forget" part if or until they do. When (if) they do then, yes, let's get over it. Apple and Samsung are turning out incredibly sophisticated devices on a scale that has no precedence and (an s word that got word filtered and I don't particularly want mod attention for) will happen.

 

[PJL500]

Touch on my 6s has become unreliable. 3-D ok.

 

[VitalicBoi]

I really don't see how this issue is apples problem. The woman in the video even says it herself. The issues is most likely caused by people putting the phone in their back pockets, which causes the phones to bend over time. Why the hell are people still putting the phones in their back pockets when its already been proven that this is an issue? If the phone bends and causes this issue, it's the customers fault for causing that damage. The phone clearly worked perfectly when they bought it, so maybe instead of suing a major company these people should be taking better care of their products.

 

[Seoras]

At least now when this **** happens Apple can look over at Samsung and remember "it could be a lot worse".

 

[MH01]

Is this the same respectful Samsung whose only position we know of on anything in the last two weeks of 8+ combusting phones that were replaced and said to be safe (following 100+ combusting incidents) is this?

View attachment 664413

Could you perhaps fill us on when where Samsung have learned something here? Seems to me the jury is still very much out on that one.

You are still looking at the consequences and missing the big picture that was the note 7 rush to markert .

If the S7 or note 8 get recalled , no lesson learned.

If you know your history of Apple products, just look at the repair page, how has Apple learned its lesson, the way Apple repair programs work is that Apple will often ignore the blatant issue for years forcing individuals to take court action....and once the PR damage is finally on the horizon, it's plays the good guy and accepts liability , I have never seen Apple acknowledge an issue .... it's always the consumer that has to fight for Apple to accept it. If you have an example of where Apple has initiated a recall , please do tell, the responsibility is pushed on the consumer .

 

[diipii]

Three additional law firms have joined a class action lawsuit against Apple over an alleged defect that causes iPhone 6 Plus touchscreens to become unresponsive and fail.

Back in August, reports began appearing from iPhone 6 owners describing an apparently latent manufacturing issue that causes a flickering bar to appear at the top of the screen and the display to become unresponsive or less responsive to touch.

A week later, three iPhone 6 owners filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court of Northern California after their devices presented symptoms of the problem - dubbed "touch disease" by repair website iFixit - which Apple has yet to publicly acknowledge.

Yesterday, Motherboard reported that lawyers who filed the class action complaint earlier this fall have now signed on three additional law firms to support their case, while an additional class action lawsuit related to the issue has been filed against Apple in Utah.

Richard McCune, an attorney in the California case, said he has been contacted by 10,000 people asking to join the suit, which accuses Apple of violating the state's consumer fraud statutes, negligent misrepresentation, breach of implied warranty, unjust enrichment, and other consumer act violations.

The "touch disease" flaw is thought to be caused by the touchscreen controller chips soldered to the iPhone's logic board losing contact after a period of normal usage, because of Apple's failure to incorporate a metal shield. So far, Apple has refused to repair the out-of-warranty iPhones without charge when the defect manifests. Worse, replacement refurbished handsets costing owners $329 have reportedly shown symptoms of the same problem within days or weeks of being issued.

Motherboard claims five separate current and former Apple Geniuses have confirmed that Apple is aware of the problem but will not tell customers about it.

However, Apple's filed response to the most recent Utah complaint appears at least to signal a legal acknowledgement of the issue and the company's lawyers have requested an "extension of time to respond to the Complaint" and asked that the Utah and California cases be combined into one.
On Friday, McCune filed an updated lawsuit against Apple that includes several new plaintiffs and formally adds the three separate law firms to the legal battle. "Each of the firms (who had their own clients) brings strength to the case, including Stephen Larson of Larson O'Brien, who is a former Federal Judge," McCune told Motherboard. "With these firms working with us, we believe it gives us the best chance of obtaining a positive result in the case for the owners of the phones."

Article Link: Three More Law Firms Join Class Action Lawsuit Against Apple Over iPhone 6 'Touch Disease'

Stop buying smartphones. You know it makes sense.

 

[Cloudane]

One of the reasons I stopped buying Apple (still here because I'm still curious what they get up to). You pay a premium price, one justification for which is "better customer service" and yet you have to take legal action to get a design defect resolved while the geniuses are told to basically lie about it. If I want that kind of service I'll go to one of the many other manufacturers who do the same thing but don't charge an arm and a leg for it.

Or there's the Chinese sweatshop thing. Yes they all use them. But where's all the extra money Apple charge going? Certainly not into ethical manufacturing or customer service so... what's the Apple tax for exactly?

No more.

Interestingly, Google now have their own overpriced smartphones that look exactly like iPhones and cost just as much, making me wonder how their customer service is going to hold up and where their manufacturing is done etc.

 

[Rocketman]

An unusual number of people have commented on a post I made in this thread. They seem to have taken my comment out of context so let me clearly state this.

The Samsung DISASTER is far worse than the iPhone issue which applies to SOME iPhones. I was personally effected when I was on an airplane flight which had an announcement that if anyone had one of these POS it had to be turned off and NOT charged. A system wide announcement about a single commercial product!

The issue with the iPhone does DISABLE key features of the device on the units effected. To me this is a manufacturing defect justifying a full device replacement by the manufacturer. We will see. It is understandable on a commercial layer why Apple does not talk about this very much and has policies at stores to really lean against it. However once an issue is identified as valid they certainly should stop the posturing. To the extent they fail to do that it will give the lawyers traction and no good can come from that. Lawyers are pure bloodsuckers under our system, especially in class action suits!

cite:
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2016/10/10/33/0502000000AEN20161010004100320F.html

 

[newellj]

They knew iPhone 6 would sell in huge numbers so to force people to upgrade to iPhone 7 they intentionally removed the underfill and added it back on the 6s.

You don't really believe this, do you?

 

[thespacekid]

Cost benefit analysis is only a part of the motivation.They knew iPhone 6 would sell in huge numbers so to force people to upgrade to iPhone 7 they intentionally removed the underfill and added it back on the 6s.The underfill also existed on the 5s

I doubt that they removed underfill to force people to upgrade to the iPhone 7. By that logic, why was underfill used on the iPhone6s?

More likely they thought the part(s) didn't need underfill. If underfill was added in later iPhones on the same parts, if anything that shows they recognized there was a problem and fixed it, not that they were trying to force upgrades.

 

[Lspice]

This actually makes me laugh a little. My iPhone 6 Plus was doing this in the month leading up to the release of the 6s. I was irritated by it daily, but then I upgraded and didn't think about it again. Hearing now that people are having the same issue helps me see that it wasn't something I did to the phone. I figured I dropped it or something. I have moved on to the iphone 7 now, but I hope people that have this issue get some help.

 

[Jayson A]

Would the iPhone 6s Plus or 7 Plus suffer from this eventually?

 

[magicsoft]

Three additional law firms have joined a class action lawsuit against Apple over an alleged defect that causes iPhone 6 Plus touchscreens to become unresponsive and fail.

Back in August, reports began appearing from iPhone 6 owners describing an apparently latent manufacturing issue that causes a flickering bar to appear at the top of the screen and the display to become unresponsive or less responsive to touch.

A week later, three iPhone 6 owners filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court of Northern California after their devices presented symptoms of the problem - dubbed "touch disease" by repair website iFixit - which Apple has yet to publicly acknowledge.

Yesterday, Motherboard reported that lawyers who filed the class action complaint earlier this fall have now signed on three additional law firms to support their case, while an additional class action lawsuit related to the issue has been filed against Apple in Utah.

Richard McCune, an attorney in the California case, said he has been contacted by 10,000 people asking to join the suit, which accuses Apple of violating the state's consumer fraud statutes, negligent misrepresentation, breach of implied warranty, unjust enrichment, and other consumer act violations.

The "touch disease" flaw is thought to be caused by the touchscreen controller chips soldered to the iPhone's logic board losing contact after a period of normal usage, because of Apple's failure to incorporate a metal shield. So far, Apple has refused to repair the out-of-warranty iPhones without charge when the defect manifests. Worse, replacement refurbished handsets costing owners $329 have reportedly shown symptoms of the same problem within days or weeks of being issued.

Motherboard claims five separate current and former Apple Geniuses have confirmed that Apple is aware of the problem but will not tell customers about it.

However, Apple's filed response to the most recent Utah complaint appears at least to signal a legal acknowledgement of the issue and the company's lawyers have requested an "extension of time to respond to the Complaint" and asked that the Utah and California cases be combined into one.
On Friday, McCune filed an updated lawsuit against Apple that includes several new plaintiffs and formally adds the three separate law firms to the legal battle. "Each of the firms (who had their own clients) brings strength to the case, including Stephen Larson of Larson O'Brien, who is a former Federal Judge," McCune told Motherboard. "With these firms working with us, we believe it gives us the best chance of obtaining a positive result in the case for the owners of the phones."

Article Link: Three More Law Firms Join Class Action Lawsuit Against Apple Over iPhone 6 'Touch Disease'

 

[Feenician]

You are still looking at the consequences and missing the big picture that was the note 7 rush to markert .

If the S7 or note 8 get recalled , no lesson learned.

If you know your history of Apple products, just look at the repair page, how has Apple learned its lesson, the way Apple repair programs work is that Apple will often ignore the blatant issue for years forcing individuals to take court action....and once the PR damage is finally on the horizon, it's plays the good guy and accepts liability , I have never seen Apple acknowledge an issue .... it's always the consumer that has to fight for Apple to accept it. If you have an example of where Apple has initiated a recall , please do tell, the responsibility is pushed on the consumer .

But, once again, and for the millionth time in this thread and it's predecessors the scale and seriousness of the issues bear no comparison. If a small amount of S7 Edges start to become unresponsive in 2 years time do you actually think Samsung are going to fall on their sword over it? If you do, I have a bridge to sell you. Samsung issued a recall here for no other than reason than the Note being extremely dangerous. If they find themselves in that position again for the S8 then you're certainly right about one thing, they won't have learned their lesson.

 

[calzon65]

Not this design defect (if proven) does not rise to the same level as the Samsung Note 7 debacle, but it shows that Apple is also not immune to poor engineering. I skipped the iPhone 6 and waited for the iPhone 6s because of the alleged bending problem (bend gate) inherent in the iPhone 6. I'm glad I waited for the iPhone 6s because it looks like bend gate and the ancillary effects were real.

 

[Radon87000]

Would the iPhone 6s Plus or 7 Plus suffer from this eventually?

No they won't as the underfill and metal bracket are present

I doubt that they removed underfill to force people to upgrade to the iPhone 7. By that logic, why was underfill used on the iPhone6s?

Because 6s is a year old phone and most users on the 6s were on a contract and not gonna upgrade to 7 anyway.Besides what does the 7 offer in comparison to a 6s.A lacklustre upgrade.On the other hand 6 users do get a lot of features.Think of this as an extra insurance in case they don't upgrade

More likely they thought the part(s) didn't need underfill. If underfill was added in later iPhones on the same parts, if anything that shows they recognized there was a problem and fixed it, not that they were trying to force upgrades.

It still proves they tried to take customers for a ride .The fact that they removed it from the 6 despite 5s having it and later readding it shows they thought they could get away with it unnoticed

 

[matthew856]

People who saw the videos of the 6 flexing should had all the information they needed to skip that product. The failure modes of the devices were obvious then- some solder somewhere was going to crack from flexing. Did anyone else see those videos and think "nope, not going to buy it"? The 6s stiffness change was confirmation that a serious flaw existed in the 6.

However, first adopters take on that risk. It's like people downloading an ios update within minutes of it being released and then complaining it crashed their device. My sympathy is with those people all the same. Have some patience people, Think about all the macbook pro users waiting for an update... will they have the patience to wait out a year of testing and maybe longer until a refresh that address issues? Will apple be able to make it perfect the first time?

 

[blackcrayon]

4 out of 1.5 million phones. WOW.

I also take exception to the term "explode". Do they explode? Is there shrapnel launched for feet around the phone? Windows blow out? Large "bang" noise? Bystanders injured? Or, do they simply catch fire from overheating?

You don't think 4 iPhones have ever caught fire from overheating or some electrical malfunction?

4 iPhones in a few days after release (talking in this case about the replacements, not to mention the dozens happening soon after the initial release)? No, i don't. If they did, we'd hear about it. You can assume any similar problem with an Apple product would get 10 times the attention that Samsung is getting.

And I like how you're dismissing the problem by stating they don't actually "explode", when they can still ignite while you're asleep and literally kill you and others. Or are unexpected fires nothing to worry about?

 

[BootsWalking]

You're kidding right?

My Old Man still has the Macintosh 128k and dot matrix printer from 1984. Guess what? They still work, and we got ribbons still with ink and you can print out stuff. Do the math--32 years and still working.

I have a 7 year old MacBook Pro, still working. A 6 year old Mac Mini--perfect, fast, no problems. I'm still using for Kindle, surfing, emailing my IPAD v1.

When I bought my 5S I expected, and I expect years of service. If I spent 800 bucks for 6, and it failed after one year...my sympathies to everyone with Touch Disease.

Reliability, durability beyond all the competition is the reason people buy Mac. Or, used to be...

I was kidding. I was trolling an obvious troller who said people shouldn't complain if their phones don't work after their 1-year warranty expires.

 

[just.in.time]

Apple vs Samsung...Choose your poison.
Both companies are stubborn...refusing to accept design flaws in their product...come what may. Such a shame!

They both may be stubborn, but I'll take a broken touch screen over a potential fire that could occur anywhere at any time, even with the phone powered off... The fact that this is even a discussion is pretty impressive. You realize that you are putting the loss of additional property (including a home, airplane, etc), or burns on your hands and legs on the same playing field as a touch screen that has stopped responding. Not even in the same ballpark.

 

[I7guy]

They both may be stubborn, but I'll take a broken touch screen over a potential fire that could occur anywhere at any time, even with the phone powered off... The fact that this is even a discussion is pretty impressive. You realize that you are putting the loss of additional property (including a home, airplane, etc), or burns on your hands and legs on the same playing field as a touch screen that has stopped responding. Not even in the same ballpark.

It's called deflections, false equivalence and shift of blame. The use of shift of blame is impressive.