Posted on 08/26/2005 6:48:18 PM PDT by martin_fierro
Judge approves iPod battery settlement
Friday, August 26, 2005 @ 9:30am
Apple should have made customers aware of battery limitations on first three iPod models, a San Mateo County judge ruled Thursday.
Because the company failed to do so, it must replace as many as 1.3 million iPod batteries belonging to owners of first, second, and third generation iPods.
Under the settlement, which has now received final approval, those users who already paid Apple to replace their iPod's failing battery are entitled to up to half of that cost back.
Steve Williams, lead counsel for the suit that people who bought iPod's first two models are entitled to either $25 cash or a $50 credit at the Apple Store. Owner of iPod's third model are entitled to free replacement battery if the battery fails.
Consumers have up to May 2006 to file a claim to be entitled to the settlement. Based on the number of people continuing to make claims, the settlement has a minimum value of approximately $15 million.
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The disposable iPod, $300/yr.
How cool is that.
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My wife received a Mini iPod from the children Christmas 2004. The battery has never lasted over an hour before needing to be recharged. Apparently it is not covered as it was purchased after May 2004.
every time apple is poised to make gains, they seem to shoot themselves in the foot due to their own stupidity.
I think that the iPod Mini has a 1 year warranty. You may want to check with apple and see if they will do something, just try to avoid the Apple/Jobs RDF :)
There seems to be a LOT of crap being posted on this thread.
As for Apple's (alleged) stupidity, last time I checked the iPod was tearing up the market. And, let's be honest, is there anybody over the age of eight that thinks that batteries last forever? The iPod batteries are normally good for far longer than 18 months, and when they finally do give out, they can be replaced, and for far less than the idiotic $300 number tossed out by one poster.
A lot of this could have been avoided if Apple hadn't taken such a stupid position when the problem first came to light. I mean they wanted 100-150 for a replacement battery at first, that isn't a good thing to put your customers thru.
I have a first generation (got it the Christmas they came out) 5gb iPod that gets used every day. It's still humming along just fine. My battery life is down by about an hour, but I still get 9-10 hours on a charge.
Well probably not, BUT why can't the consumer easily replace the battery? The complaint is that the battery HAD to be replaced by Apple.
It never had to be replaced by Apple, any more than the battery in your Seiko or Casio watch has to be replaced by the maker - or the battery in a Palm Pilot has to be replaced by Palm.
My son purchased an ipod mini in Sept 04 and the battery lasts about 12 minutes. I am not exaggerating because I charged it overnight and tried to use it while on the treadmill; I know exactly how long it was good for. I called Apple and it was under 12 months since purchase so they would honor the warranty for the battery for a shipping and handling charge of 29.95. So I opted to purchase an extended warranty for $47.00 (the student price--as he is a student) and got the new battery and one more year of warranty. I sent the ipod in last Saturday in the postage paid box Apple sent me and I received a new, replacement ipod on Wednesday. They told me his new ipod battery should last about 10-12 hours each charging, but reminded me that it has about a 400 charge cycle limitation; that is, the ipod, regardless of battery discharge has a cycling usage of about 400 uses on the charger. So he is going to fully discharge the battery before recharging due to this news from Apple.
What did I learn from this? Always buy the dam*ed extended warranty on ALL electronics.
But the point is it's not designed to let the end-user replace the battery.
If you want to do it yourself you have to pry the thing open, not an easy process in itself, and then disconnect the hard drive, etc. Not quite like replacing a watch battery.
I have the same 1st generation iPod, bought it for myself just before Christmas. Initially, the battery was good for 8-10 hours, but it's down to 3- 4 hours now. 3 hours still works for me, that's why the good lord made battery chargers.
You've never tried to replace a battery in a high end watch, obviously. Some of them take special tools and aren't easy to open. Sound familiar?
Also, just about all Palm Pilots have the same problem, and I don't hear of mass owner complaints.
I have an original 2001 iPod and still get 11+ hours out of the battery.
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