As many toasted 2009 with a bit of bubbly, a Florida man celebrated by launching a class-action lawsuit against Apple. The lawsuit claims Cupertino remained mum about vertical lines appearing in iMac displays.
“Apple remained silent knowing its iMac display screens would malfunction while consumers purchased iMacs, made warranty claims arising from the vertical lines on display screens, and made out of warranty repairs related to vertical lines,” alleges the lawsuit filed New Year’s Eve by Aram Hovsepian, who bought an iMac in October, 2006 and began noticing the display problem March of 2008.
The lawsuit alleges Apple violated California’s Unfair Business Practices Act and the state’s Consumers Legal Remedy Act.
According to Ars Technica, the iMac display problem is the subject of talk on the Apple Discussion message boards.
The lawsuit comes amid speculation Apple may unveil an updated line of iMacs at the upcoming Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Calif.
55 responses to “Class-Action Lawsuit Over iMac Display Problems”
the guy is suing over a problem that appeared over a year later. that’s hardly the same as a problem that appeared a day or even a month later.
I’ve seen mention of the problem but nothing that supports the notion that it’s as large as he claims. and it shocks me if it was that it has taken this long for a major lawsuit to happen.
Apple is the same company that recalled hundreds of USB power adapters after like 5 reports of breakage if one twisted and turned them like a dummy pulling it out of the wall. I find it hard to believe they would be careful about something like that and flip the bird over a major issue that would happen in all machines because they used bad parts.
It’s “odd” that the vertical lines started appearing on my screen too, and Apple is not being very helpful in resolving this issue even though I purchased the extended warranty.
Same here I got one purple, and just today I gained an intermittent green line.
I have several lines on my iMac. Apple claims they have never heard of this happening!
How do I sign on to this class action lawsuit?
Currently holding for a specialist – screen already replaced twice in a three week period about a month ago. The lines are back. Something is wrong in the state of Cupertino.
Shortly after the warrantee expired, my iMac developed more than dozen vertical lines on the right-hand side of the screen.
I was told I needed a new screen. Almost $600 installed.
Shortly after that warrantee expired, new lines began appearing. There are now more than 30!!
What recourse do we have?
We have it on our iMac too in Norway.
We also have a friend with the same problem.
To Lucas at top:
I believe a faulty power adapter is a bit more serious than a faulty screen if it can cause a fire. It would also be bad for Apple if it did and they knew it could. Also, anyone with access to Google can find lots of reports about this. Even in a small country like Norway.
Maybe someone has put a knot on your internet cable.
Norway has 1-2 year guaranty on every product sold. We also have a 2-5 year right as consumers to complain on product that have a factory or design fault. PC’s comes in under the line of products expected to last at least 5 years before they break down.
To me this look like a factory or design fault.
Lets see what they say…
when you pay $1500 for a computer, it should not break down after a year.
I’d love to participate in this class action too — for those of you not in the know, the machines with the lines basically all come from the same manufacturing plant (in Shanghai), during the same time period (2005-06). You can see the plant code and the year/week of manufacture by looking at the first part of the serial number: W8605…, for example, was produced at plant W8, during 2006 in the 5th week. Something went wrong at that plant, and Apple is pretending that it’s an isolated issue for each user.
The deeper problem is that even if you consider it your own fault for not buying Applecare and concede the fact that sometimes durable consumer goods break down after just one year, you still run the risk of losing even your new screen, since Apple doesn’t fix the underlying problem for your $600; they just put a new screen in, and often that one gets the lines too. So basically the whole computer is unusable except for the parts other than the screen, which can presumably be salvaged.
I really want to see this class action succeed. I love OSX and was at the Apple Store immediately after the Intel switch happened — buying my first computer after getting my first job and living on my own, I couldn’t wait to finally get back into the world of Mac.
I waited for the rumored switch to Intel processors because I wanted my machine to be future-proof. Oh, how wrong I was.
I used to have a PC. In 2007, I decided to buy a Mac because of the “Equipment prestige and Mac excellent customer service”. Nowadays, I am totally disappointed with Mac and all its products. I am more than convinced that I will go back to PC’s. My iMac started to show several dead pixels just one day after the one year warranty expired. At that time, I contacted COMPUSA and they wanted to charge me over $900 + service to resolve the problem. A year after (Dec 2009) the right half of my monitor is completely dead…
My 17″ iMac also developed lines outside of the warranty. while the majority of defective computers seem to be in the W86-W85 range, a quick scan of an online petition also shows: QP7, QP6, YD5, W87, CK6, W80, W88, WH7, QP5, W84, W60, WB6, 3T6, CK5… and not just iMacs, but Macbooks and Macbook Pros (i just bought a MBP and am afraid my $4,000 plus computer will be faulty within 1-2 years).
screen replacement does not seem to fix the problem. i sincerely hope Apple does the right thing by its loyal customers and issues a recall. An innovative, respected company like Apple needs to act accordingly and with integrity.
Sign the petition at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/macline...
I have the same problem too. If you are trying to find out how many people have the same problem just google “Apple display defect” there are now literally 100’s of thousand complaints developing worldwide.
I now have over 40 lines on my screen and personally believe Apple knew about this problem. As an Apple stockholder, I am very concerned about Apple’s reputation to stand behind their products. I spoke with an executive from investor relations and warned him a lawsuit was likely. I was not impressed with his lack of response.
I switched to Apple after my old PC died twice of power supply failure. Bought my 17″ intel Imac brand new in 2006. Two years later lines started appearing on the screen. A new line appears every month. I called Apple, explained the problem, told them a lot of people had the same issue and was told they would do nothing about it. I’d rather buy a new monitor than pay twice as much to get my Imac fixed at the risk of having lines re-appear later. Apple’s OSX is great but their hardware, not so much.
Five months after buying an iMac, lines began appearing. When there were 20 of them, I took it in and was told I needed a new screen.
Almost $600! Four months later lines again appeared. Now there are over 30 of them.
And Apple is not responsible? Gimme a break!
Same timing as the the guy with the law suite, bought an i mac in october 2006 problems started happening middle of last year getting worse all the time lines everywhere. it smacks of built in obsolescence, out of the warranty and the item fails. What happened to quality being important?
My IMac purchased end of Oct, 2006 started getting these lines several months ago. Started with one line and now there are 5 or 6. I am a strong believer in Apple and would like to see that they stand behind their product as they have for all the years I have owned a mac. If they do not I would like to see the class action move forward. I am taking this mac in for service in the morning. We will see what they say.
It also happened to me about 2 months after the warranty expired. When I called they claimed they hadn’t heard about the problem from anyone else. I’m not a big fan of suing, but I think it’s appropriate in this case.
Same issue here. Purchased an iMac in Oct 06. First line appeared in Nov 07. There are now 4 lines.
I purchased my iMac 24″ Intel Core 2 Duo back in May of 2008 fully loaded with 4GB of ram and 3.06 GHz processor speed.
Just today, I noticed what I thought was dirt on the left hand side of my screen. When I tried to wipe it off, I noticed it wasn’t dirt but a pattern of veins running up and down the left side of the display. I also noticed that the image that’s been on my desktop for about three months now doesn’t appear to be as crisp… almost washed out. Anyway, I did a hardware test and everything appears to have checked out OK. I’m also seeing a gridlike pattern of squares on the left hand side. There is obviously something going on here.
Model Name:iMac
Model Identifier:iMac8,1
Processor Name:Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors:1
Total Number Of Cores:2
L2 Cache:6 MB
Memory:4 GB
Bus Speed:1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version:IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version:1.30f1
Serial Number:
I took my Imac in to be repaired and they replace the monitor. I brought it back to my office and plugged it in and it wasn’t two days and the lines were back. They gave me some line that the power in my office needed to be conditioned and that was the cause. Since I have three other macs in my office using the same power supply I doubt that could be the cause. I am going to take it back again. I am lucky I got the extended warrantee, but what a pain in the ass.
I also have an iMac from that plant with the same Serial Number and the screen is full of lines this started to happen just out of warrenty and I was told that it would cost around 400€ to repair. I want this Class Action to succeed as this is a dreadful state of affairs and Apple should sort it out full stop.
I purchased my iMac in Jul 2006. My first line appeared in Dec 09. I’ve now got too many to count. Talk about trying to read between the lines! I spoke to a Mac specialist and they advised it would cost NZ$1,500 to replace the screen. For this price I’ve since been considering an upgrade to an iBook. However, after having read the comments above; I’d now like to see Apple take some ‘manufacturing’ responsibility before purchasing any further Apple products, especially as my iPod is starting to malfunction too!
Two iMacs bought ath the same time. Early 2007. Both developed severe “lining” shortly after the warranty expired. Apple not being very helpful. Anyone knows how to join the class-action?
My 17″ iMac began to display the lines, then 1/3rd of the screen is now black, then white, then many colored lines and changing colors.
I cannot access anything on a third of the right side of the screen.
i have horizontal lines that come and go…longer mac on, worse it gets…often the screen then freezes…i would say that this is a video card problem and as it is attached to the motherboard the entire board will need to be replaced. i need the quality of the screen for my work so i am stuck the apple and i am not confident that the next product will be any better…from my point of view it would be nice if apple said my old imac had a problem and the new ones did not have these issues so that i would have confidence in my next apple purchase
Same problem here. I’ve had multiple problems with my 24″ intel imac. Calibrating the machine is a joke and requires expensive 3rd party software. The cd/dvd drive is crap and there are forums full of people with malfunctioning drives (me included). Not to mention the faulty graphics card and uneven monitor light display (one side is brighter than other).
Yep same old same old…all of a sudden out of the blue my imac screen displayed about 50 red verticle lines running top to bottom on the left hand side. This happened…wait for it….EXACTLY 1 DAY AFTER WARRANTY EXPIRY DATE! Pure coinsidence? I don’t think so! Took it to a Mac outlet who said i’d need a new monitor for $1000 bucks…I told them where to go, headed home, on the way bought a new acer 21″ monitor. When i got home i popped the glass screen off the mac, disconnected the monitor cable, reapplied the mac glass screen into position, plugged my brand new acer monitor into USB outlet and….WOOHOO it works much much better than the imac monitor did and it only cost me…..wait for it….$300 bucks.