Blogger Wins Against Apple to Cover Nvidia GPU Failures
Apple has lost a court case relating to an alleged defective Nvidia GPU.
Blogger Seattle Rex did not take no for an answer and instead took Apple to small claims court when the company denied fulfilling its promise to cover the cost of repair of a notebook that was part of a GPU replacement program that covered several defective Nvidia GPUs - in this case, Nvidia's 8600M GT chip.
Apple's reasoning why it would not pay for Seattle Rex' unbootable MacBook Pro was that since it was unbootable, no one would know what the reason for this circumstance really was, even if it was common sense to conclude that the GPU was at fault. The blogger took the disagreement to small claims court where he found a judge siding with him and awarding him about $4,000 to replace the MacBook Pro.
Seattle Rex said that he received "scores of emails" from people who received the same rejection from Apple and simply gave in. Since we know that Nvidia shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars to pay to cover repairs for defective GPUs, could it be that Apple simply pocketed the money and weaseled its way out of actually delivering the service? We don't know, but this one surely sounds fishy.
Seattle Rex says that he is now "exploring the possibilities of bringing a second suit against the company for fraud, misrepresentation, etc."
[Ed. note: a MacBook Pro belonging to one of our staff refused to display video when turned on and was replaced free of charge at an Apple retail store.]
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Douglas Perry was a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering semiconductors, storage technology, quantum computing, and processor power delivery. He has authored several books and is currently an editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive.
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xelliz Good for him. It doesn't matter if its Apple, Microsoft or Toys R Us. ANY company that tries to jerk around consumers like that deserves to get slapped like this in court.Reply -
warezme brett1042002(╯°O°）╯FUS RO DAH! ==== ☆。・:*>┼○ <-- Apple^ Seattle RexIt was more of FAAS RU MAAR..., I don't think they were expecting that.Reply -
shin0bi272 So wait he claims that because it didnt boot they couldnt determine that it was the video card? If they are replacing the gpu in them and it boots after that and comes right back to life like it never shut down then yes, you can determine that the gpu dying (since it was found to be defective in the first place) was the cause of the boot issue. Now if they replaced his gpu and it still didnt boot then he'd have a case... Did they baffle the judge with BS or something?Reply -
Intel_Hydralisk Wait, what? Apple was trying to dodge the guy... but since when was it common sense that the GPU is at fault when a computer/laptop doesn't boot? I guess Apple put the onus on the consumer to prove that it was a defective GPU rather than inspect it themselves? And $4000 for a 8600M GT Macbook Pro? Whenever did... oh nvm, it's Apple.Reply -
vxd128 Normally I'm not one to criticize articles, but I do feel that a lot of the articles on Tomshardware are more pro Apple. The comment that "This one sounds fishy" made me scratch my head. After everything I've read and seen over the past few years regarding Apple and their buisness pratices and lawsuits, this just seems par for the course about their customer service. I remember when the iPhone had the problem with the antenna they blamed the users for "holding it wrong" instead of accepting responsibility for a design flaw.This is just further proof of poor customer service.Reply -
nikorr Reply..... could it be that Apple simply pocketed the money and weaseled its way out of actually delivering the service? We don't know, but this one surely sounds fishy.
Wouldn't be surprising at all. Lots of companies would do the same.