Apple Faces New Lawsuit After Allegedly Refusing to Fix an iPhone Under Warranty

Theodore A. Kim, an iPhone user from San Francisco, has sued Apple because the company reportedly refused to fix their iPhone and allegedly broke the SIM tray. According to a Business Insider report, Theodore is suing Apple for $1,383.13, which is the original cost of the iPhone 12 Theodore bought. The suit was filed in a small claims court, which set the trial date for November 23, 2021, at 1:30 p.m.

How Did This Happen?

Theodore explains that he originally bought the iPhone 12 from an authorized Apple seller in Vietnam back in October 2020. Shortly after Theodore returned to the U.S., he explains, the iPhone 12 had trouble reading a U.S. SIM card, so he decided to call Apple since, according to him, the iPhone 12 was still under warranty until October 2022. 

“And so I brought it into the store and they sent it to the repair depot — then they came back and said, ‘Yeah, we’re not going to fix this because it’s been tampered with,'” Kim said. “And I said: ‘Tampered with in what way?'”

Theodore A. Kim

The Apple Store’s staff didn’t give Theodore a straight answer as to how his iPhone was tampered with. They just gave the iPhone back. However, as Theodore claims, the iPhone’s SIM tray was broken. 

After a few weeks, Theodore filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to sort the problem out. Apple responded to the complaint, saying that the “iPhone would have been repaired if it had been broken while the company had it.”

Moreover, the company stated that “Apple considers this matter closed,” according to the BBB website.

Theodore didn’t stop there. Afterward, he offered to pay for the iPhone repair as a final offer, but Apple refused again, as he explained it. He even went as far as trying to contact Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, via email, but he didn’t get a response from Cook nor Apple. 

“A David and Goliath Kind of Situation”

After going through all this trouble, Theodore found a 2012 article online about a person in Seattle who sued Apple and won, not once, but twice, in the span of five years. 

Although the situations weren’t exactly the same, it was similar enough to push Theodore into filing a lawsuit against Apple. 

“So I said, ‘Well, OK, why don’t I try the same avenue.’ I kind of jokingly said, ‘Well, this is like a David and Goliath kind of situation.’ We’ll see what happens.”

Theodore A. Kim

As of right now, Apple hasn’t made any statements about the lawsuit. 

This Isn’t the Only Lawsuit for Apple

Apple’s legal team has been busy these past few days. Curiously enough, this wasn’t the only recent lawsuit the company has been hit with. 

According to an AppleInsider report, a couple of tech companies filed two different lawsuits against Apple last Friday. Both lawsuits are accusing Apple of using their technology without authorization on the iPhone and the Apple Watch. 

The first lawsuit was filed by a company named ImmerVision in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, whereas the second suit was filed by a company called Aide Technology Limited in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.