'Wet' iPhones Spur Class-Action Suit Against Apple

• How do you know what "damaging amounts of water" is??  Methinks YOU're the dumbass.

• And thats the problem with dumb people.  You really think you should be using a $400 electronic device in the rain??

• They did it to me today.... I walked into the store and they told me the indicator was "bad" so I opted to buy a new one for 99 bucks. I made the smart ass open it in the store and check the sensor on the NEW one. Guess what - it was tripped - as were the 30+ display units that were on the floor. All in all this is a SCAM by a company I can now safely say "NO THANKS".

• I legal immigrants were causing an increase in crime, taking jobs that would once have gone to longtime residents, and changing the character of their quiet city.

• I have not been able to get the attorney to let me know how to join the class. Does anyone have any info? Also the thieves at Apple have a new scam. If you have a mobileme account and it expires and that is the account which is associated with Itunes, you lose your Itunes account and everything your paid for. And they of course do not care. APPLE SUCKS!!!!!!

• tremendous! Cheryl is a an amazing honey. I really adore her music and have been following here for years. The whole family loves watching X factor.

• Just seen this on twitter cheers for the info.

• Someone really needs to get around to making a water proof phone. Managed to avoid ever getting mind wet, but the number of people I know who have done so is massive

• Apple is laughing all the way to the bank!! They sell you an ipod or iphone and then if you have it in your pocket or hand or in humid weather, the moisture indicators turn red. Then when you take it in for ANY malfunction, they tell you that it got wet, warranty is VOID, including that expensive EXTENDED warranty you paid for. It is illegal to void an EXTENDED warranty unless they refund it. They don't offer to. You have to demand it. I think these Apple products are designed to be moisture sensitive. Like putting the earphone jack on top of ipods. Nice big hole that moisture can get into. Its time to get APPLE into court with 12 jurors.

• There are really two different problems here. Moisture itself has no short-term effect on most electronics. Drop that iPod in a puddle, dry it properly -- best is submersion in alcohol if the device doesn't contain alcohol sensitive materials, PC boards and components are fine. Packing in dry rice in a sealed container works, too. Your device, once dry, is probably fine. For now. Long term problems occur if its not fully dry, corrosion in particular. Actually operating a wet device can cause electronics damage -- first thing you do with a wet device is pull the battery. Well, of course, you're SOL with an Apple product. Of course, apple is fully in their right to know if a device has been submerged. But they may well be too sensitive. And they shouldn't reject it for failures totally unrelated -- water damage doesn't break your headphone jack. And some unexpected situations can cause water sensors to go off. Going from a cold outdoor to warm indoor can lead to condensation, even within supported range of operation. I have run into this with camcorders. Its easy to imagine that Apple's detectors build up a detection over time...no chance of damage, since it was tiny bits of moisture over months, but the sensor integrates. It should only report peaks to be reliable.

• A lesson learned? Don't buy an iPhone.. doooooh she must be stupid to buy it 3 times.

• I live in Lexington KY and i had to drive all the way to Louisville, KY just to get my iphone looked at because i was having a hard time with my ear speaker on the top of the phone. when i got there they said they couldnt do anything because the little water thing was tripped. and they tried to tell me i submerged it in water. But tell me how my phone would operate if the whole phone was put in water? its bullshit they dont sell some type of insurance on the phone besides the apple care which is a hundred dollars. but if you go to best buy you can get like extended warranties for like a year or so for half the cost. its a bunch of bs and i think that apple needs to re think their approach before people just give up on it.

• I work in the service department of a rural cell phone service provider so I've seen everything that can happen to a phone. I've also heard every kind of excuse and denial there is for the damage people cause to their phones. I've had quite a few phones and none have ever had a "tripped" moisture indicator. I also admit that I've used the phones in light rain (I'm usually very careful not to do that, though), and have definitely had the phones in high humidity environments. I was at the pool one day when my son sprayed me with a water gun, getting me and the phone a little wet. The indicator wasn't tripped. That is why I'm highly dubious when people tell me their phone has never been near water. BTW, a phone's moisture indicator need not be exposed for the electronics to have been exposed to water. A parent may not have submerged their phone in water to trip the indicator, however I often see parents give their phone to a restless child or infant as a plaything. Young children chew things. I recently witnessed a girl (possibly 6th grade) actually licking a phone. She did this for a while, until all surfaces were wet. When I advise a parent that their child's phone has been damaged (in any way), amazingly, the parent will believe the child when the child denies damaging the phone. One parent actually told us her daughter wouldn't lie because she was just baptized! It also grates my nerves when customers tell me their phone or a certain brand is junk, or it's cheaply constructed or we don't stand behind our product because of a problem they have caused. It's amazing how some of my customers come in repeatedly for phone issues and they never question whether or not they (themselves) could be the cause of the problem. I have owned the same brands and models as many of these customers and rarely, if ever, experience these problems. In closing, if Apple really wanted to rip people off, why wouldn't they just put a red sticker in the phone instead of a white one that turns red when exposed to moisture?

• Well I've had every model of iPhone so far, and this has happened to every single one of them. Within a few weeks of purchasing the phone, the sensor inside the dock connector turns red. I am very careful. I do not use the phone in the bathroom. I do not use the phone in the rain. I do not put the phone in cupholders. It's never just laying out on a desk, it's always in my pocket or in my hand. None of my iPhones have ever been submersed. But yet it happens, always within a few weeks of purchase. So basically I know that when I purchase my iPhone each year, I just have less than a month of warranty. I have never gone in to complain or try to exchange the phone, but it does bother me knowing that because of these little sensors on the outside that I have no warranty, and I think that should be corrected. The only thing I can think of that could be triggering it is the humidity and changing temperatures here in Florida. But I think they should still honor the warranty. Other electronics don't get ruined just because they reside in Florida. And if they can't provide a warranty in Florida, then they shouldn't be selling them here.

• Water damages electronics. 100% of cell phone users live on a planet that is covered in about 70% water. It even floats in the air and falls from the sky. Warranty is for the product going bad on its own. Insurance is for outside damage (water, etc). If you want your phone replaced get insurance - if your manufacturer doesn't allow your phone to be insured (Apple) then don't use that product.

• If you have been a victim of this fraud by apple, please contact the attorney handling this class action suit. I already have jumped on board since this happened to me just earlier this month.

• This happened to my wife's phone - but it actually was dropped in a puddle for a quick second. Then when the camera stopped working 6 months later she was told she was out of luck!! As a result, I came up with a style of case to protect the phone's ports - specifically the water damage indicators in the dock connector and headphone jack! They are up for preorder right now at <a href=http://phoneponcho.com>PhonePoncho.com</a>. Help support a locally owned small business from WI!

• She got her phone wet and she doesn't want to admit it. I've had two iPhones since Oct. 2007 (an original followed by a 3GS). I live in Houston, one of the most humid cities in the U.S. And none of the liquid indicators have been set off. You know why? Because I don't take my phone with me into the shower. I don't let kids play with it out of my sight. I don't stick it in in car cup holders. I don't leave my phone out on restaurant tables, office desks, or any place where a spill is likely. Basically, I'm not careless with my iPhone, something I can't say about a whole lot of people. I'm always amazed at how blatantly people lie about this kind of stuff. I was in the Apple Store last week buying some software and I overheard an argument at the Genius Bar over this issue: The customer swore they had never had their phone near liquid, but the Genius calmly told her that not only were all the internal and external sensors set off, there was moisture in her camera lens. She still stuck to her story!

• The woman is probably some 300 pound fatty that sweats profusely and had it in her back pocket while jogging to catch the ice cream truck. That would be be a "significant" amount of water in my opinion too.

• RTFA: Those devices can easily be triggered without the phone being submerged in water. It's a well known problem that's been reported all over the intertubes. Sweaty pockets and high humidity have been known to set them off, amongst other things.

• However sometime these things appear to fade just because of being in a high humidity environment. Which is the substance of the lawsuit IIRC.

• Apple isn't the only phone producer that offers phones that feature these moisture detectors...I say sue the manufacturer of those things.

• Ever since the first electronics, there have been various coatings that can be applied to electronics to protect them. If you're cheap, even varnish will do a decent job. Why dont manufacturers simply follow these two simple rules? 1) All connectors are gold plated. 2) All circuitry has coating applied. If this was done, odds are you could leave a phone in the ocean for a month, pull it out, rinse it, charge it and it would work.

• As human beings, we tend to systematically follow patters whether we realize it or not. If a person doesn't realize that the conditions they have put an electronic device through has caused liquid damage and are surprised by the warranty being voided...why on earth would they expect anything to be different if they treated the second phone identically to the first one?! Has anyone else actually seen what these liquid contact indicators are made of? They are a 3M product that reacts to liquids to turn pink/red. One might assume that too much humidity could trip the indicator, but the truth of the matter is that the indicator is coated in a plastic film. You can actually use an eye dropper and place a drop of water on top of the indicator and not trip it. The liquid has to physically get onto the sides and wick through (under the layer of plastic) to trigger the indicator. The notion that humidity can cause the indicator to trip is far from plausible. The specifications for the product indicate that there is a humidity range that the device is allowed to operate in (which is identical to the desktop and portable computers). If humidity triggered the indicator, I'd put a sizable amount of money that the humidity levels far exceeded that which Apple recommended for the product. To address the whole "hasn't Apple ever heard of someone needing to make a call in a light drizzle?" issue: why would you ever knowingly use your laptop in the rain? Since when was it ever a good idea to use electronic equipment in the rain? I'm not suggesting that the indicators being tripped guarantees that the individual deliberately abused their products and should have to pay $200 to atone for their sins. Statistically it is possible to trip an indicator and not actually mess up a device. What seems most likely to me is that most people are used to having phones that don't cost much or that they don't care too much about and don't change their behaviors much when handling a $600+ phone If you had a soda in the cup holder of your car that condensed and dripped down inside the cupholder, then put your phone in the cup holder. You wouldn't even have thought about the condensation and wouldn't even notice that something happened until months later when the corrosion actually started causing problems. The oxidation reaction that starts from liquid damage actually fuels itself, causing more corrosion which acts like a very slow burning fuse. The problem may even take months to become apparent, giving you plenty of time to forget how the phone actually came in contact with water.

• I was told by an Apple iPhone rep on the phone that the water sensor is sensitive enough that high humidity or even a rain drop can cause it to turn pink or even red. He went on to say that if the sensor is even the tiniest bit pink, the iPhone is out of warranty. And he was right....they did not warranty the phone even though the sensor had a VERY light pink tint.

• There's another point here--hinted at by some user experiences. Is the warranty reasonable? Does the introduction of moisture necessarily hurt the product? IANAL but I believe warranties cannot be based on arbitrary criteria... like using non-OEM ink in your printer or having your car's maintenance performed outside a dealership.

• I used to work the genius bar and I always wanted to say this but never could. Now that I no longer work for apple I'm going to say it now, you are a bunch of fucking babies who can't take responsibility for your own actions. It's a hand held computer, do you think it will hold up in the rain? Or when you leave it in a steamy bathroom, or sweat all over it. Grow up.

• one thing to think of A you can only see 1 of the sensors i believe and B i remember reading how they wouldnt show you they were activated. So how do you know when you bought the phone they werent already activated because i know when i bought a new blackberry the first one opened the stickers were already activated on the battery and cell while the box was just unsealed.

• My son's IPod quit working at about 11 months and we sent it in and got the standard answer (been wet). My dad took it apart and found that the battery was bad and had leaked and ruined the phone. $200 down the drain...........

• That is crazy... she needs to learn to take care of her phone. Put her on a lie detector. She won't pass. These phones are tested and retested. They should counter sue for lying

• I used to sell Apple products as well as other electronics for a living. These submersion indicators are imprecise at best. There is a video on YouTube from some Polish guys that tested the indicator and showed how it could be set off even when the phone was within it's stated temp. range. Even if the indicator is 99% accurate, then that would mean there were at least 500,000 units that gave false positives. What is unique about Apple though is that when you point out a problem, Apple fans have this tendency to defend Apple and accuse the customer of lying. Being an IT guy I have spent a lot of time in Apple forums and it never ceases to amaze me how defensive people get over Mac products. I just don't see the same in Windows forums, Linux forums, or any other hardware manufacturer forums.

• the funny thing is for all of you who are defending apple in this one. I being a technician and having seen this alot on phones, laptops and sometimes even tvs, any technician would know that water leaves residue on the circuts so its easy to find out. also, i have had my phone for almost 3 years now and guess what I have used it in HEAVY rain without any issues. i have dropped my phone many times without any issues, except once when the sim card poped out and i had to just pop it back in. the fact is the iphone truly isnt a highly quality product that everyone thinks and those of you who think that are just ignorant. ps my phone is Sony Ericsson K850, I have also had nokia's and samething no issue with thim during usage for long periods might i add in heavy rain. and after droppage.

• &#64;DumbassLarry - you wrote, "people shouldn't have to buy a terrible product 3 times". Perhaps you should edit that to say: "people shouldn't buy a terrible product 3 times" Just saying. If it's a terrible product, why keep buying it???

• &#64;kharris: Not fishy at all. I had the same experience, with 6 months of use, my phone went dead. Had the same issue with internal sensors. I live in a rainy environment, but I can tell you the phone was never immersed (no stupidity) and it was never exposed to direct rain or wet. I only used it to make calls in a city that gets rain. This is a valid complaint.

• Justin - Nope. Wrong. They do trigger quite easily in just the right circumstances. I work with them all day every day and failure is higher than 2% Nick - The issue here is with placement. Having the sensor where it is - even you should see that a light shower can easily trigger this. That is why they moved it I suspect. "Reverse burden of proof" look it up.

• This goes completely counter to what my experience with Apple has been over water damage. 4 months ago my phone was water damaged (the how is not important... not sharing my stupidity) and I was told at the apple store that only 1 of the 4 indicators had been tripped. There are 2 outside and 2 inside. If any of the inside indicators are tripped then the phone will not be replaced, as that indicates "submersion". In my case the phone was not tripped inside, and I got a new phone for free. Seems logical. This woman's story seems fishy to me.

• Yes but the they can be fooled! When my wife washed my iPod nano, I looked down the headphone jack and the sensor clearly showed it had been immersed. After I took a blow dryer to it and dried it best I could that way I stuck it in a ziploc baggie full of uncooked rice for 2 weeks... after that I took it out the LSI was back to white and it powered up briefly (dead battery). After a charge it stayed on, the screen was ghostly but it worked! Sent it back to Apple for replacement under warranty. Booya.

• Well, I just jumped in the hot tub with my 3Gs in my pocket. Absolutely brilliant. So it didn't work of course when I discovered my mistake. I left it for a couple of days before I got back home, and then I placed it on a folded up towel on a heat radiator, so that the iphone got warm to the touch, but not so hot that it would hurt it. I then blasted it with air from an air compressor for about 30 minutes, through the power adapter slot. Hit the power and it still didn't come on. Plugged it in to my laptop, and on it came. The screen had an interesting background mural (from condensation), but that disappeared one day later, and the iphone was as good as new.

• should have gone with the driod!

• Lots of people here are misinformed. A couple months ago I had problems with my iPhone so I brought it to the Apple Store. Apparently one of these liquid triggers was activated, but the Genius took it in the back to open the phone and do a more thorough inspection. He told me that there are also indicators inside the phone, and that they rely mostly on those rather than the outside ones which just give them a general idea. So light rain probably won't do anything to hurt your warranty. So I doubt that Apple is taking advantage of people here. Larry is right, people need to take responsibility.

• And I am sure there was no shortage of bottom feeding, blood sucking attorneys lined up to climb aboard that gravy train! Lou

• Almost all cellphones have water damage indicators, not just the iphone. I work in a cell phone retailer and see people come in with "water damaged" phones all the time. Some phones you can see that the phone was submerged while other phones may have had some type of accidental contact with liquid. Keep your phone out of extreme heat and cold, but most of all KEEP IT OUT OF YOUR BATHROOM. Most water damage cases I see in my store, have resulted from people using the phone on speaker while they are in the shower. Water vapor and electronics don't mix.

• Ya know, I used to repair two-way radios for police and fire departments many years ago. The radios were water-proof to like 20m. And it wasn't even for water, either. It was a safety issue. When the fireman walks into a natural gas filled room the last thing he wants to do is blow up the building when he reports to command that the building is full of gas. Why is the iPhone not completely waterproof? It would really not affect the price at all. They already have proprietary connectors on them. Do what Motorola does and use hermetically sealed connectors and switches.

• This is nonsense. She's going to lose. The reason apple geniuses have such confidence in the submersion indicators is that when they are trained in Cupertino, they play with them. It really does take quite a bit of water to trigger them. Humidity and cold temperatures within the devices acceptable range will not trigger the sensors. And any humidity or rain that gets into the phone enough to trigger the sensors, will almost definitely have become damaged permanently due to it, even if not immediately. Any sort of water can cause components to corrode and degrade.

• Now, I really do know that the iphone is superior to my motorola cliq in many ways, but I may have found one way in which the cliq is superior: I dropped mine in a (just cleaned) toilet yesterday - it was completely submerged, and I'll be dammed if it's not working fine right now, not even 24 hrs after dropping it in... Hello Moto :)

• You're out of your element Larry.

• Anyone who thinks it's logical to be using your phone in a wet environment needs lessons in computers. Period. I'm looking at you StreetView. Policies like this exist to protect the company from fraud. You claim it was a light shower? How do they know? Because you're "just being your honest self"? Really? And how many people who actually, seriously post "oh I didn't do anything!" are lying through their teeth? Do you think criminals admit to crimes? You're all human. You make mistakes. That doesn't mean you get special treatment just because you didn't learn from it.

• &#64;Larry If you do not know the details how can you comment? I don't know the details either, but if Apple is knowingly (or even unknowningly) using a defective sensor that is preventing warranty claims then how can "People take responsibility" for this? If the problem is Apple's then they're the ones who should be taking responsibility. If someone knowingly dunks their iPhone in the pool, then that's their problem. If the sensor goes off through normal wear-n-tear, then that's a defective sensor and that's Apple's problem.

• Larry, you're a dumbass, this is Apple's response to 90% of people who have a malfunctioning phone that came nowhere near any damaging amounts of water, people shouldn't have to buy a terrible product 3 times because Apple won't honor their warranty.

• While I do not know the details this issue should not become a class action suit. People need to take responsibility

• I've have a friend who was told the same thing. Apparently Apple never heard of this thing called rain. God forbid if you need to make a call with a light shower going on outside, it'll trigger the sensor! I agree with the class action except for the fact that lawyers get most of the settlement.

• Apple gladly replaced my ipod touch within warranty when the headphone jack stopped working and their tests indicated that the "liquid submersion indicator" showed submersion. The fact was that nothing of the kind had happened but the moisture had possibly gotten into the jack from headphones kept in my gym bag. They returned the item to me first, rejecting the warranty claim but one phone call to a supervisor turned it around and they were very cooperative.

• I would jump on board this. My headphone jack started outputting to only one channel (you could see the spring inside was physically fatigued or stuck) so I took it to the Apple store. I was told that the water damage indicator was tripped and they would do nothing about it. I work for an electronics manufacturer and know a thing or two about how to handle electronics and keep them away from moisture. Finally I had to buy the headphone assembly online and spend three hours replacing it myself. Now after just over a year my WiFi went out on my iPhone and I am SOL because Apple will do nothing. I am honestly hoping that Apple does not become the next Microsoft, where it is totally disinterested in addressing customer complaints. The iPhone was my first Apple branded product and, while I will upgrade to the next version, it will remain my ONLY Apple branded product until they show interest in treating their customers as anything but ingrates and cheats.

• I hope this class action suit wins. Frankly, the exact same thing happened to me. My iPhone malfunctioned and because the "water indicator" was activated I was forced to buy a new phone despite my phone still being under warranty. I wrote a horrendous survey about my experience with my genius bar 'genius' that told me "compounded water damage over the year can cause the malfunction" as well he had asked me if " I had been walking in the rain" and spoke to me extremely condescendingly. I had never been more upset and disappointed with a company policy or their technicians. Regardless, the store manager called me to apologize; still a completely unsatisfying experience.

• "and there's even a guy explaining how to con Apple and get a cheap upgrade by intentionally throwing your phone in water." Did you read the article? LOL He didn't con Apple at all, he bought a new one.

• Very interesting, I'm curious to see how far this goes in court.

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