A guy’s phone catches fire and Samsung tries to silence him. Such assholes.
“Samsung, go fuck yourself”
A guy’s phone catches fire and Samsung tries to silence him. Such assholes.
Yep. Thats Scum$ung for you!
Sim-yu-lar.
So basically they hired lawyers to work their help desk.
You know I don’t approve of this but you’re deluding yourself if you believe Apple have never done anything similar to this.
Sure Apple are probably the most innovative tech company in the world but this attempt to elevate them as some sort of ethical authority in the world of tech is misguided.
Just a few years ago they attempted to silence someone over an exploding iPod. Don’t believe me? Just google it.
So I suppose Apple were as****** too?
My 2008 MacBook Pro caught fire (the famous nVidia capacitor issue), and while I didn’t put a youtube video up, I did tweet about it and tell friends. Apple escalated my issue to tier 1 support and they called the Apple store manager for me, made the appointment, and replaced my machine with a new one. I did not have to sign anything.
Perhaps the letter is a settlement offer. He is free to not agree to it, and demand a refund or replacement. Or sue them.
The difference is that Apple doesn’t silence you talking about the exploding device, they only want you to not share the terms under which they replaced it.
In a nutshell: This guy would not have been ordered to take his existing video down. He’d have been able to say Apple replaced it, but not that Apple replaced it for free.
Did you notice the part where he says he had a similar problem with Apple and Apple just replaced the phone?
Apple threatened litigation against a consumer for something they were not (consumer) culpable for.
You can spin it whatever way you wish, that’s not right.
I never said “they still do this” I said “they have done this”.
Friend had swollen battery, outside of Applecare – Apple only wanted the battery back for research purposes. They replaced her battery for free without making her sign anything.
Never heard of Apple ever threatening litigation over something that wasn’t the users’ fault. I’d like to see a link to this.
I’m not talking about the present.
It amazes me the people who lambaste Apple while believing that Samsung is an ethical company.
Apple would call it a Feature 😛
That’d surprise me greatly, and it’s inconsistent with my own experience.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10302038-37.html
“Apple agreed to give Stanborough a refund, but only if he signed a confidentiality agreement, agreeing not to disclose any information about the incident.”
So…. I guess we can say Samsung is just, once more, copying Apple and adding a bit of their own over-the-top spice.
Well, you can check this article (i already linked above) from Jim Dalrymple himself:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10302038-37.html
Who were you talking to in your original post? No one here made a claim that Apple hasn’t done anything similar. Quit trolling.
Not bad, a gag order to prevent bad publicity.
Have they ever heard of the Streisand Effect?
And you aren’t talking about the past either.
Vast difference between agreeing to something as part of a replacement vs. proactively being told not to talk about something at all for any reason.
They’ll ignore that. Not convenient.
Funny thing is, I’m one of Apple’s most fervent fans, but not a zealot.
Edit: Lol didn’t know Jim wrote it.
Proactive? This here was a response he got to his support request. The only real difference here is that he posted the video before contacting Samsung, and Samsung requested the video be taken down.
Apple likely would have not asked the video taken down as the info was already there, but Apple has been very well known to try to keep people quite too once they request support.
BTW, I read the pdf the guy posted, the “preemptive” bit there (if that is what you mean by the word) is not about any future incident with Samsung. It’s only with any future incident with Samsung “arising from, out of, or in connection with the matters and allegations arising out of the Matters.”
That is legalese for “this phone catching fire.” It means that if the deal is finalized, and an exchange is done, and some “molten battery lava” is found later to have damaged his nice wood floor or carpet, he can’t go back and demand compensation for that too.
Seriously: only difference is the request for the video takedown, and that is what I meant by “adding a bit of their own over-the-top spice.”
It’s still not ethical. Apple threatened litigation if they were to disseminate the information which is not right.
Raising an important issue is now considered trolling?
Sigh. Seems like any dissenting voices are now considered trolls on the internet.
That, is actually “honest” standard procedure. Lawyers insist such wording is in any contract of the kind. What is the point of telling you you cant talk about something if there is no repercusion from talking about said something?
Yea, I only noticed after I posted the link earlier, just to see if it was written by a common Apple troll. I giggled when I saw that.
Mind you: you can see the preferential treatment. Apple does it: Standard procedure. Samsung does it? Go fuck yourself.
And I say this as a huge apple fan (why anyone would read this site if you are not an apple fan is beyond me.)
Apple asking NDA as part of the refund procedure is not very gracious but rather standard lawyer demand. Especially if there was extended terms, it is rather usual that they dont want anybody else to know.
Samsung demanding to pull out the video before doing SAV is another level on the scummy scale.
Glad to see a rational Apple fan. They’re not infallible.
Sure. Evidence?
Oh, how much easier would this be to comprehend if he had spent the time to employ the increasingly lost art of writing? Or even scripted his comments?
It’s an incoherent mess. The (perhaps, excellent) point he’s trying to make is lost in muddle.
Sure, Apple makes mistakes and some customers have a negative experience. But generally Apple is darn good at customer service and support. I think the problem many have with your comment is you’re kind of spinning it like Apple and Samsung are about the same on this issue, and that’s simply not true.
Evidence of what? Jim’ writing the article? The event happening? How about Jim’s’s sources in said article? Lots of questions can be answered if you click the link and read the article (that even mentions a history of apple doing this before that date.)
But should you not trust Jim’s word (or cant get through the paywall for the links), here is another link to that story:
http://www.dailytech.com/Apple+Unsuccesfully+Tries+to+Silence+Owner+of+Fiery+iPod/article15868.htm
You will even see how much damage said iPod did to the car.
Mind you, that 2009 case is the last time I heard apple doing such things, at least in a way that we ever got to hear about.
I’m sorry, but I can walk into a Walmart with almost any defective product and Walmart will give me my money back. Walmart.
Asking NDA is not just not gracious, its out right scumbag. Good thing it seems Apple either stopped doing it (have not seen it hit the press in 4 years) or gotten darn good at doing it in secret.
Apple are good at customer service because they understand the importance of that and how a brand is perceived.
However, they’ve made PR blunders in the past and very misguided decisions.
You know you’re missing the subtext of my comment, which is the hypocrisy from certain Apple bloggers, Gruber is the exception, he’s actually able to remain objective which is something I admire.
I mean evidence of how Apple handled it. The source links didn’t work for me.
I didn’t miss your subtext, it wasn’t very ‘subtle’ 🙂
Bias on either side isn’t good. Maybe you don’t mean to, but your comments do come off a bit as painting Apple and Samsung with the same brush, and that’s biased. Apple is much, much better at customer service than Samsung is. It’s not a small difference. We should not say things like ‘Meh, they both do it.’
Is it an important issue? Didn’t you just say it was from 2009?
No perhaps about it. He said the letter was a part of a settlement. For him to get a new device he had to agree to the same type of document Apple presented, from the other comments above. General practice stuff except they have a “stifle clause” to get him to remove the video.
I don’t like it but clearly Samsung isn’t alone in doing this.
Sidebar:
Lol @ Jim authoring the Apple article too. 🙂
I never intimated Apple were inferior or the ‘same’ as Samsung at PR.
In fact I think they’re one of the greatest companies in the world.
I simply pointed out the fact some Apple people within the media would turn a blind eye to this behaviour if it were Apple, as evidenced by the post above.
Looks like Nokia is stepping in to “provide support” to show Samsung how it’s done: http://www.wpcentral.com/galaxy-s4-catches-fire-nokia-steps-in.
LOL
It’s a standard move in law suits that terms agreed to are not disclosed. It’s totally legal. And everyone, not just Apple, does it.
Didn’t see a copy of the letter, so how do we know what exactly they said. Or whether the issue in any of the alleged incidents was the devices all on its own
Some of these could have been damaged, could have been using third party chargers, could have been who knows.
My guess is that, if we had the full details, we would find that the family refused a swap or Apple examining the device and Apple agreed to give them a refund anyway and merely asked that they not spread this around because it would encourage scams. Which is not an uncalled for move.
We have only the customers word about what the letter says. For all we know Apple requested he shut up because he was exaggerating the issue with no evidence of his claims. And THAT is specifically what they asked him to cease
It may be the lesser of two evils, but it’s still not ethical.