Apple starts blackmailing its own consumers, asks a family to remain silent over their burnt iPod
4 Aug2009
I myself could not believe the first time I read this news, but believe me this has infact happened. It seems Apple has started blackmailing people to hide their own faults and cover up their mistakes. In just a moment you would know why I am saying all these things. Very briefly, Apple blackmailed a family to remain silent if they wanted to refund their burnt iPod.
An 11 year old girl named Ellie Stanborough had to suffer a horrible experience in which she also ended up losing her iPod. Apparently the girls iPod went 10ft into the air after it overheated and exploded. Ellie’s father, Ken accidentally dropped the iPod, after which the music player started making a hissing noise and went up in a big plume of smoke. Here is how Ellie’s father describes the whole incdient:
I could feel it getting hotter and I thought I could see vapour. Within 30 seconds there was a pop, a big puff of smoke and it went 10ft in the air
The father contacted Apple to refund £162 for the iPod touch, and this is the point where the main event took place. There is an allegation that Apple agreed for the refund but only if the family agreed to remain quiet about the exploding incident. Stanborough even received letter from bosses which imposed a similar condition, but Mr Stanborough did the smart thing and refused to sign the letter. Regarding Mr Stanborough’s feeling about the letter he said:
I thought the letter was very disturbing.They are putting a life sentence on myself, my daughter and Ellie’s mum not to say anything to anyone.If we inadvertently did say anything, they would take litigation against us. I thought that was appalling. We didn’t ask for compensation, we just asked for our money back
The letter asked Ken to agree to keep the existence of this settlement agreement completely confidential and went on to add that the breach of this agreement would result in may result in Apple seeking damages and legal costs.
America’s Consumer Product Safety Commission is said to have 800 pages of documents on cases where iPods started to smoke or burst into flames.
So what next can we expect from Apple, after this incident pretty much any thing can be expected. Is the FCC’s inquiry orders for explaining the reasons for reject Google Voice taking its toll on Apple. Or is Apple doing this to shift people’s attention away from the Google Voice issue. Please do share your thoughts with us.
