RSSApple to Pay Up for Faulty iPod Batteries
By David Worthington | Published June 2, 2005, 3:04 PM
Thousands of customers complained about problems with the iPod's battery life; eight filed a class-action lawsuit. The group of eight have tentatively won $50 vouchers and extended service warranties for up to 2 million customers in the United States that purchased first, second and third generation iPods from Apple.
The class-action, filed in fall of 2003, stems from Apple's boasting that iPod would play music nonstop for 10 hours straight and that the rechargeable battery would last throughout the product's lifetime. In reality, many customers enjoyed only four hours of continuous playback and ended up with a dead battery within a period of 18 months.
The cost of a replacement battery is $99 USD and the repair must be performed by Apple honor the warranty. Initially, Apple did not offer a battery replacement program.
Under the remedy, Apple must extend its AppleCare protection plan one year to a full two years and replace or repair defective units. Customers that apply to participate in the action must fill out a form that will make them eligible for a $50 voucher to purchase any Apple product or service sans iTunes tracks.
Alternatively, customers can opt to receive a check for $25 USD.
The settlement was approved by a judge in California's San Mateo County and is waiting final approval in late August. Attorneys for the plaintiff are confident that the ruling will be upheld.
Apple representatives were not available for comment by press time.
Guys,
If you read the settlement notice on http://www.appleipodsettlement.com/notice.html, it refers to an eligible class as those that purchased an iPod on or before May 31, 2004. So does that mean even though recent buyers are still suffering from the same battery problems, Apple will not honor their claims??? I'm a bit confused, as this article is dated June 2005, yet the settlement notice is about iPods bought last year or earlier. By the way, what generation are the 20GB iPods currently being sold on the Apple website? Thanks.
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i sold my ipod after i had so much trouble getting the battery relaced a few years ago worst mp3 player i purchased.. now i use a Achos Gemini 20GB HDD player works great :) its about time apple sorted out this problem 4 of my mates had ipods when they come out 3 of us had battery problems
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If you read the article, it says you would be "eligible" for 50 dollars. Or you can opt to get a 25dollar check, (immediately).
They are only guarenteeing the 25 dollars at this time.
That skill is called : Reading between the lines
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Wait. What?
You can get "$50 from Mac" or "a $25 check"????
How the HELL does that crap work? That's BS right there. Total literal BS.
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If you read the article, it says you would be "eligible" for 50 dollars. Or you can opt to get a 25dollar check, (immediately).
They are only guarenteeing the 25 dollars at this time.
That skill is called : Reading between the lines
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I have Third Generation iPod. I can listen to about 6 hours of continuous music. One thing about charging the battery that I think most people don't know is that after a couple hours or so, it will say that the battery is fully charghed, but it is not. You have to unplug it and plug it in again, and it will keep charging. This may have to be done quite a few times, before it is fully charged. You will know when it is charched fully because when you plug it it, the battery icon will not show charging anymore. I have found that this drasticly improves the amount of time that I can listen to music on it.
-Britney
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LOL that's BS...you think I'm going to sit there, and unplug the ipod from the charger every few hours and plug it back in just so I could listen to it a little longer?? You should be able to plug it in, go to bed, and have it ready in the morning for a full day's worth of battery...don't give some bs excuse for apple...
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That's good stuff. I had the very first iPod that ever came out (5GB) and the battery on that one sucked. I just bought a 4th Gen. 20GB and the battery on that one isn't much better, strangely enough though, it wasn't included in this lawsuit.
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Personally, only my 3G iPod has ever had problems. It died about 4 months about purchase. Meanwhile, the 1G iPod has worked flawlessly for years - go figure. I guess it's just hit or miss depending on what battery you get.
There are some after-market options that are much better than Apple's $99 offering, however. For $29 I changed the battery in my 3G iPod, and it lasts a good 14-15 hours now.
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My iPod Shuffle (1G) has no problem with the battery, though the buggy iTunes always shows me unknown errors!
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At least you're not getting "File corrupt in *system folder on iPod*" every time you plug it in.
Great. It's going to die you say? Well at least I know it's going to happen sometime soon... thanks for the warning
/sarcasm
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Sucks to be you...sorry to hear that. I purchased my 4G 20GB iPod and haven't had any problems. Battery life is between 12~13 hours consistently (I've been using it steadily for about 3 months now when I go jogging). I originally hesitated because of the short battery life of the older ones, but I must say, I'm very satisfied with my iPod...even if I normally dislike Apple for all of it's proprietary crap. EphPod instead of iTunes, in case you haven't already heard. Those stuck with iTunes, I feel sorry for ya'. www.EphPod.com.
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Apple SUCKS Period.
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