A disgruntled Apple customer is attempting to bring a new class-action suit against the company, claiming that replacement devices received under the AppleCare+ protection plan were not “like new,” despite being presented as such as part of the policy. Buyers involved claim that by providing refurbished devices as replacements, Apple breached the AppleCare contract…
The suit was launched by Joanne McRight, a Texas woman who was given an iPhone 5 in 2012. When she broke the screen on that handset, she received a replacement under the AppleCare+ warranty. A year or so later, that device also broke and was replaced as well. Both incidents cost $49 under the AppleCare terms.
After eventually upgrading to a newer iPhone last year, McRight once again broke her screen and was given another refurbished replacement device for $79. Now she alleges that all of the devices she was given did not meet the standards Apple advertised.
That standard, according to the AppleCare+ terms (emphasis added):
3.1 Hardware Service
If during the Coverage Period, you submit a valid claim by notifying Apple that (i) a defect in materials and workmanship has arisen in the Covered Equipment, or (ii) the capacity of a covered iPod battery to hold an electrical charge has depleted fifty (50%) percent or more from its original specifications, Apple will either (a) repair the defect at no charge, using new or refurbished parts that are equivalent to new in performance and reliability, or (b) exchange the Covered Equipment with a replacement product that is new or equivalent to new in performance and reliability, and is at least functionally equivalent to the original product. If Apple exchanges the Covered Equipment, the original product becomes Apple’s property and the replacement product is your property with coverage for the remaining period of the Plan.
“Equivalent to new” is somewhat vague term that doesn’t actually rule out the possibility of receiving a refurbished device or guarantee that replacement devices will be completely new. If anything, it seems clear that Apple is using language that specifically allows them to provide refurbished units for this purpose. In fact, the agreement states that Apple can use refurbished parts to repair covered devices.
That’s the basis of Joanne McRight’s case. She claims that the agreement does not allow Apple to use entire refurbished devices—only parts—and that the refurbished handsets she was provided were of inferior quality, apparently making them more likely to be damaged and thus lead to another replacement charge.
The obvious rebuttal from Apple will be an insistence that its refurbished models are specifically tested to ensure that they meet all of the same performance and reliability standards are brand-new devices, as outlined on the company’s refurbished product store.
From the company’s “Special Deals” store page:
Guaranteed Apple quality.
Before we put a refurbished Mac, iPod, iPad, or Apple TV up for sale in Special Deals, it undergoes a rigorous refurbishment process to make sure it’s up to Apple’s tough quality standards. We back it with our standard one-year limited warranty. And you have the option of purchasing an AppleCare Product for it.
McRight is proposing a class consisting of anyone who bought an AppleCare or AppleCare+ plan at any time on or after July 11, 2011, though her case seems like such a stretch that it’s hard to imagine the court will take it seriously.
My own thought? Perhaps instead of wasting her time chasing baseless lawsuits to recover money she paid due to her own apparent clumsiness, McRight should just invest in a decent iPhone case, but we’ll see how this unfolds.
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So she broke the original, 100% new device and is butthurt that the alleged subpar replacement devices broke…like the new one.
I can’t agree with her. I’ve bought $10k+ of both new and refurbished equipment from Apple.
I have never been able to distinguish the difference. And I’m an expert.
I imagine that she’ll unceremoniously lose this case. Because it is stupid. And Apple will certainly not settle.
You know I had never even considered that she had to have broken at least 100% new device before breaking all those refurbs. Actually, as it turns out, she broke TWO brand-new devices. But yeah, I bet the build quality on the refurbs was to blame hahahaha
Needs to find a better case if she is that clumsy…
Well not much of a lawsuit. Using refurbished parts as replacements has always been industry standard. HP, Dell, IBM, Apple, Cisco, etc… have always done this.
Bad luck to you Joanne McRight
So what exactly is wrong with a refurbished device? Apples refurbished products are actually very good and highly tested. Even more so than new devices.
I don’t know of a single company that’s going to always give you a brand new, unrefurbished product when it’s a warranty replacement. Sometimes they give you a brand new product and sometimes it’s a refurbished product. If the product that gets replaced isn’t up to your satisfaction, then ask for another one at the time you get a replacement. It’s not like they are giving you a scratched up demo product.
I would be willing to bet that if you ask her how many lawyers she went through before finding one that would take the case, it may be staggering. Unless she got the last one first of course.
I worked at an Apple Store on the Genius Bar for years. Based on what I saw though my hundreds (if not thousands) of interactions during my time there, I would ABSOLUTELY trust an Apple refurbished device. The failure rate of refurbished devices didn’t seem any higher than that of brand new devices.
That being said, there is a BIG difference between the refurbished devices that Apple provides and what you get from Asurion (the insurance typically used by Verizon, AT&T, etc). I wouldn’t trust one of those with ANYTHING. I’ve opened up many devices that came from Asurion and almost denied customers service (due to missing parts and clear evidence of tampering) before realizing that they were authorized repairs by Asurion.
In summary, take care of your phone. But, if you have to get it replaced… The Apple refurbished phones are just as good as new ones. In fact, I’ve bought refurbished iPads from Apple’s website instead of a new one because I trust the quality.
I’m against suing just to make money (which seems to be the american way)…but I just broke my iPhone 6 Plus, and under Applecare+ they were at first only going to replace the screen, even though the casing was all messed up. Then, they gave me a replacement, but the screen didn’t sit flush with the aluminum casing. It took me a second trip to the Apple store (the next day) to finally get a replacement that looked new. However, it had someone else log in information. I just erased it, but it seemed like more of a hassle than Applecare+ should have been…
That’s odd. The only way a device could have had someone else’s login information would be if it had an activation lock on it. And in that case, you couldn’t have erased it (that’s the point of the activation lock). I’m not calling you a liar, I am more curious as to how this happened exactly?
Yeah, it was odd to me too! Basically what happened was that when I activated the phone (in the Apple Store), it prompted me to login in to some email I had never seen or heard of for the App Store. Of course, I put in my own information, and everything worked, but it did it twice. I haven’t seen it since, and everything has been fine. The Genius Bar employee said that it had to do with my iTunes music…but again, it was not an email I was familiar with at all. I’m just wondering if it’s some random information left over from a total wipe that didn’t quite get everything. Either way, so far this replacement has been working great.
MattR, you probably had a friend or someone close to you login into your device with their Apple ID to download an app or media from iTune onto your device. I see it happen all the time and people freak out when they restore from an iCloud backup and see someone else’s Apple ID after they put in the password for their own. Which brings me to the question, when you got the replacement phone, did you restore your data from an iCloud Backup?
2is1toomany:
I did restore from a backup, so you could be right. However, I’ve never had anyone else login to my stuff before. Is it possible that some of my old music (added to my iTunes back before I ever owned an iPhone) could be the culprit? I’m thinking that’s the only way…but it’s weird because I’ve restored from a backup many times on this or my previous phone (before I broke it), and I’ve never run into that email. Nor have I ever run into that email on my iTunes. I did a restore on both my previous phone and this one after installing iOS 9 beta. I would have thought that weird email would have showed up on my old phone too. Either way, again, it doesn’t matter, since I haven’t seen it again. Just seems awfully weird that the first time I saw that email was after getting a refurbished or replacement unit.
It will ask for another login info when you do a restore because there was content from that restore downloaded using the alternate Apple ID. For example, if I lent my phone to a friend of mine for a few hours and he downloaded a game or a song using his Apple ID, anytime I restore the phone using a backup with the game/song on ut, I would be asked to enter his Apple ID. By that time I might’ve forgotten all about lending my phone to him.
I see what you’re saying, but I know I don’t have content from anyone else who would have that strange email. It’s moot, since it’s not popping up anymore…but I just thought it was weird.
I have a iPhone 5s referb from an AppleCare trade in. My original, brand new phone’s TouchID had about a 80-90% success rate. My referb is about 50/50. I’ve redone my fingerprints at least 10 times and it still sucks.
I think her particular case is a bad example. I had two better cases: Apple replaced my iMac motherboard with faulty capacitors under recall with another motherboard that had the exact same faulty capacitors, which later failed exactly the same way the original motherboard did. Then Apple replaced my faulty hard drive under recall with the exact same model of faulty hard drive, which later failed exactly the same way.
Sounds like back in the day on my iBook G3, one of the ones with the crappy video chipset from ATI, and they kept replacing the board with the same faulty parts. They could have used a generation newer board or replaced the entire machine with a newer model and spent less money.
I’ve been wary of notebook machines ever since.
Once I took my MacBook Pro in to have the screen replaced (it cracked somehow). A few days later when I picked up the computer, I went straight to my car, got on the road, and drove out of the state for a vacation. When I got to my destination I learned that the computer would no longer automatically sleep when I closed it.
After a week out of state with it acting screwy, I got back to South Carolina and took it back to the store, where they discovered they had installed a defective display that was missing the magnet used to tell the computer to sleep. They ended up having to keep it for several more days to replace the display again.
Other than that one time, though, I’ve had pretty good experiences with the service at the Apple Store.
Am I correct that they rarely swap MacBooks ? I’d hate to have a completely refurbished Mac instead of my own.
Macs are usually repaired rather than swapped, yes. With mobile devices it’s much easier to just swap the whole thing though.
She’s complaining about her screen cracking? I’ve only seen a screen crack because it was dropped on concrete, etc. I think her problem wasn’t the product, but how she kept on dropping it on concrete. She should have gotten a screen protector and a decent case.
Some parts, like the outer casing that you see and touch, are almost always new. If they weren’t, any small flaw would be noticeable immediately. I was a Genius and swapped who knows how many devices, and had my personal devices replaced. Personally, I had better luck with my replaced device than I did with the “new” one.
So….
I broke my iPhone’s screen about 2 months ago. I had applecare so I paid for the replacement and they gave me a refurbished. Which was totally fine. Until about 2 weeks later the home button stopped working. I took it back and they gave me another one. After about 1 month later, this current one, has screen issues. Brightness changes randomly. from %100 to %50 then back to %100. Even though I have the auto brightness is set to OFF. It also reboots about every 4-5 day or so. I’m going to take this one back too. Blame is mine for breaking the screen in the first place but Apple needs to provide better replacement phones.
I agree. I have no problem with refurbs…but they need to perform as well as the original.
Actually, it was not a “refurbished” unit. It is a unit that was made for warranty service (that may or may not include refurbished parts). I know it may sound trivial, but it’s a significant difference.
you are missing the point.
Maybe her name should be “Joanne McWrong” or “Joanne McClumsy”
Well – she is filing in Texas . . . which has become the home of the “Patent Trolls” lawsuit filings. ;)
One does simply not hold iPhone good enough..
This lady broke her phone not once, not twice, but THREE times. I don’t think AppleCare is the issue, here.
Sounds like Joanne has been trying to take advantage of Apple for years and further, can’t read to save her life.
“at least functionally equivalent to the original product”
Refurbished replacements are standard in every industry at all price points. Apple would never give out a refurbished product however that does not look, feel or smell new.
This is beyond frivolous and needs to be squashed.
Apple’s products suck! I keep buying them over and over! But, they keep breaking! It’s clearly not me if the phones keep breaking! It’s OBVIOUSLY the phones! Apple should stop beating around the bush! Just give me a new freakin phone! It’s clearly in their best financial interest to keep giving me phone after phone after phone instead of just giving me one! That’s why they’re doing this! They don’t stand behind their products! That’s why they keep replacing them for me when I break them!
^ That’s how dumb this lady sounds…
Bottom line – Apple does not have or use refurbished iPhones. Simple as that.
Maybe clumsy, maybe drunk, maybe threw it, maybe lets kids play with it, so I’d forget her, she maybe crazy, but here’s her number, so call her maybe!
I feel we need a suit about how easy these screens break and what they cost. They make the device so slim that there is zero chance that the screen is protected. Apple gives no advise at all or recommends a case which fully protects the screen. The design is made for making money on screen replacements. My 6S device was laid a little harder on a table and the screen broke immediately after having the device for 2 month. Repaid $140