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Apple Hit By Class Action Lawsuit Over Broken iPhone 4 Glass

January 28th, 2011 01:52 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

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LA Weekly is reporting that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Apple by a California resident. Donald LeBufn is angry that the glass casing of his new iPhone 4 broke after his daughter accidentally dropped it from a height of roughly 3 feet while sending a text message.

LeBufn claims that Apple is aware that iPhone 4’s design is defective but has failed to warn users that normal use could result in a broken phone.

LA Weekly reports:

Apparently fed up and pissed off, California resident Donald LeBuhn filed a class action lawsuit earlier this week in L.A. County against Apple, claiming the company knows about the design flaw and refuses to warn consumers that “normal” use leads essentially to a broken phone. According to his lawsuit, first reported by Courthouse News Service, LeBuhn threw down $252 in September for a new iPhone 4, but three weeks later the glass broke when his daughter accidentally dropped it approximately three feet to the ground while sending a text message. He previously owned a 3GS version of the iPhone and claims the glass did not break when accidentally dropped from similar heights.

Apple claims that the glass used in iPhone 4 is the same type of glass used in the windshields of helicopters and high-speed trains, which has been chemically strengthened to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic that makes it ultradurable and more scratch resistant than ever.

According to LeBufn these claims are misleading and wants Apple to refund the purchase price of the iPhone 4 to all customers in the class action lawsuit and also reimburse repair fees that they’ve paid.

In October 2010, SquareTrade, a leading third-party warranty provider had revealed that iPhone 4 was more accident prone than iPhone 3GS and then followed up with a far broader study of over 50,000 smartphones, which revealed that iPhone 4 was the most accident prone device compared to other smartphones but when it comes to non-accidental malfunctions, the iPhone 4 was the most reliable smartphone.

Do you think this lawsuit is justified or as usual opportunistic?

[via LA Weekly]

Source: Apple Hit By Class Action Lawsuit Over Broken iPhone 4 Glass

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  • Bizibill

    I agree with the law suit and will add NY to the list – my 14 year old daughter did exactly the same thing but a few days later the phone died entirely.

    Glass hardness is rated in terms of “H” – 2H being less hard than 9H which is almost impossible to break. Apple speaks in terms general terms but fails to specify hardness as it is ALWAYS rated to give consumers the ability to select the best quality available.

    It is clearly a flawed design and needs to be recalled. Such failures put children in danger when they rely on the phone for personal safety and contact with their parents or police in an emergency, but the iPhone 4 fails to meet minimum expectations without warning or notice from Apple that it is prone to failure so easily. This is a serious case of child endangerment and high risk to children and adults but also a high source of profit for Apple.
    Bill

    [Reply]

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