News - Apple to owner of exploding iPod: don't tell, or no refund

[HEXUS]

The owner of an iPod that exploded threatened with legal action if he discloses the terms on his settlement.

Read more.

[DeludedGuy]

I just wonder how many other customers have been paid off?

[aidanjt]

Business as usual for Apple.

Apparently the US government's Federal Communication Comittee is investigating into complaints for the withdrawal of Google Voice apps. Apple needs more government pressure both in the US, and in Europe.

[kingpotnoodle]

If your device explodes, then under warranty you are presumably entitled to a new one... that's a fair settlement!

Silence on the subject should cost Apple LOT more... fair enough they can ask him to keep quiet, but they need to make it worth his while, as as the occurrence of this story has shown, they rather spectacularly failed - whoever at Apple tried this was a total idiot for thinking it would stay out of the press when the bribe was actually zero, given that Ken should be entitled to a new iPod anyway!

[Hicks12]

Failure as usual, i bet they dont get any pressure from the EU or US but Microsoft do . I always fail to see the point of the ipod, it cost more than double that of a sandisk equivilant and the audio quality is just OK nothing great unlike cowon and sandisk along with others! And they always break! Most of my friends have an ipod (shuffle/touch/classic etc) and they have all broken, some in a space of 2 months and some in 13 where they got no help from apple, yet other companies offer 2+ warranty and they dont break!. So really, is there a good point for ipods?

Oh wait there is, apple branding so people can "boast" they have an "apple" thing to show they have some money, and the itunes which is said to be amazing but i dont see the fuss, albeit iam anti apple so wouldnt of tried it!.

[Singh400]

God, I can't wait for someone to take Apple down a peg or two.

[lodore]

I think the EU should do something about apple.
It appalling behaviour IMO.
Apple are a bunch of assholes.
how do they get away with it?

I have an ipod but only because i won it and only used it a few times. the audio quality is rubbish. surely you buy a audio player for listening to music and not for looking at?

[HSK]

lol? What the hell are they playing at. Defo need a kick up the back side.

[OilSheikh]

Instead of trying to keep things quiet, why doesn;t Apple just fix things?

[aidanjt]

Instead of trying to keep things quiet, why doesn;t Apple just fix things?

Because that would imply that there's something inherently wrong with Apple products, and welding in batteries into a product turns out to be an idiotic idea. Apple are omnipotent and perfect, remember?

[nightkhaos]

I think the EU should do something about apple.
It appalling behaviour IMO.
Apple are a bunch of assholes.
how do they get away with it?

I have an ipod but only because i won it and only used it a few times. the audio quality is rubbish. surely you buy a audio player for listening to music and not for looking at?

Correction, the headphones that ship by default with the iPods are rubbish. Replace them with a half decent pair and it is on par if not better than most players on the market. They are a profit making company, and want to make money, hence:

They will attempt to avoid any publicity that will reduce sales, hence why they asked this person to keep quiet about it, and why they quietly worked on a fix for the iPhone SMS vaurability and released an untested, and potentionally more vaurnable, patch the day after the media storm, a concept called damage control.

And they are only arseholes because most of their customers are stuck up snobs that don't know the different between an ethernet and a USB port. I have dealt with their support reps on numous ocassions and I always get the feeling they have spent the rest of the day talking to idoits. I guess it comes with their target market.

[lodore]

Correction, the headphones that ship by default with the iPods are rubbish. Replace them with a half decent pair and it is on par if not better than most players on the market. They are a profit making company, and want to make money, hence:

They will attempt to avoid any publicity that will reduce sales, hence why they asked this person to keep quiet about it, and why they quietly worked on a fix for the iPhone SMS vaurability and released an untested, and potentionally more vaurnable, patch the day after the media storm, a concept called damage control.

And they are only arseholes because most of their customers are stuck up snobs that don't know the different between an ethernet and a USB port. I have dealt with their support reps on numous ocassions and I always get the feeling they have spent the rest of the day talking to idoits. I guess it comes with their target market.

Hello,
I use decent headphones and my sony mp3 player definatly sounds better using the same headphones and playing the same music.
its still not a good business practice threating the customer when their product exploded...

[Noxvayl]

Correction, the headphones that ship by default with the iPods are rubbish. Replace them with a half decent pair and it is on par if not better than most players on the market. They are a profit making company, and want to make money, hence:

They will attempt to avoid any publicity that will reduce sales, hence why they asked this person to keep quiet about it, and why they quietly worked on a fix for the iPhone SMS vaurability and released an untested, and potentionally more vaurnable, patch the day after the media storm, a concept called damage control.

And they are only arseholes because most of their customers are stuck up snobs that don't know the different between an ethernet and a USB port. I have dealt with their support reps on numous ocassions and I always get the feeling they have spent the rest of the day talking to idoits. I guess it comes with their target market.

Just because 80% of people in this world are ignorant asses doesn't mean companies have the right to then be complete and utter asses themselves in return. Its not acceptable regardless of their customer base or profit fulfilling ways.

I believe the main problem with apple is that their product is by far inferior to similar priced products on the market and thus if rumour gets around that there is an inherent flaw in the design they will end up with a dead product that they spend billions building a brand for.

I have a Cowon D2, spent £130 on it, my cousin has the iPod touch costing £165. Mine has MUCH better sound quality using the same earphones, has 52 hours playback time compared to 36 from the iPod, has a touch screen 18 months before the iPod touch was released and the screen still has better quality ratio to the touch, plays more audio/video codecs allowing a much larger range of file support, has a SD card slot so you can have endless amounts of storage depending on how many cards you can carry on your person and last but not least my machine can play movies staored on it on a TV, yes it has TV out. The only thing the touch has as an advantage is apps and games, who buys an mp3 player to play games on? Playing games/using apps means 4-8 hours of battery life so kind of makes it useless for its primary purpose.

Current pricing; Cowon D2 16Gb - £155
iPod Touch 16Gb - £214

£59 for games and apps with much worse sound quality. Bigger screen negated by TV out for the Cowon and no option for added memory capacity. For me its a fail product selling only on looks/branding, almost all other music players are better value, most others are better quality.

[nightkhaos]

Hello,
I use decent headphones and my sony mp3 player definatly sounds better using the same headphones and playing the same music.
its still not a good business practice threating the customer when their product exploded...

Okay, I'll give you that one. I guess my problem is that prior to my iPod Classic G5.5 I had some no name brand that was well, a piece of crap not worth the metal and silcon it was made from. And I also had a series of MP3 players that ALL broke within 3 months, one of them sad to say, was a CREATIVE one. The Apple one sounded much better, and was a much better built quality. I have since moved onto an iPhone 16GB which is slightly better again that G5.5.

So it is possible, given these experiences with some brands, that I have placed Apple in higher regard than I should. Sony I have not had the privlage of listening through, I might consider getting them if it wasn't for my iPhone.

Just because 80% of people in this world are ignorant asses doesn't mean companies have the right to then be complete and utter asses themselves in return. Its not acceptable regardless of their customer base or profit fulfilling ways.

I agree with you, I know from my stance of defending Apple that it may appear that I forgive them for this particular shortcoming, but I do not. I avoid their support where possible, and only go to see their "Geniuses" as a last resort.

I believe the main problem with apple is that their product is by far inferior to similar priced products on the market and thus if rumour gets around that there is an inherent flaw in the design they will end up with a dead product that they spend billions building a brand for.

No, it is not by far inferior than similar priced products, you, just like every other geek who regulars these forums, knows how to shop around, and if you pick any other product you are likely to pick one that has had postive reviews, good build quality, etc. For a general consumer, like my dad, who was the one who bought me every MP3 player up until I got myself an iPod, this is not something they would consider doing, and are more likely to pick up an inferior product to Apple's.

Yes, they overcharge, yes there are better products, yes they need to be more transprant. I am not of the opionion that they are some unfaultable god, I am not that nieve, I am just sick and tired of people using little mistakes to bash them. Battery explosions in the MacBooks and iPods are the fault of Sony anyway and a bad batch of Li-Ion batches, we would be wise to remember this. Are you aware that the medium you have chosen for this is unlikely to attact any of the people who will actually benefit from your wisdom?

I know that this is likely to be falling of death ears and this is likely to discolour your opionion of me, but it has to be said.

[jim]

I know that this is likely to be falling of death ears and this is likely to discolour your opionion of me, but it has to be said.

Arrgghhh, it's the evil Apple death ears! Run for your lives!

[Arthran]

Battery explosions in the MacBooks and iPods are the fault of Sony anyway and a bad batch of Li-Ion batches, we would be wise to remember this.

Actually its entirely Apple's fault. Faulty batch of battery's or not, making your devices in such a way that the battery cannot be removed/replaced entirely puts the blame on you for poor design. Should they have designed the devices better they could have sent replacement battery's out and they could be swapped easily.