Apple refuses to fix an iPhone that the owner claims the company destroyed

According to Business Insider, an iPhone owner named Theodore A. Kim has sued Apple for $1,383.13. That is the exact cost of Kim's iPhone 12 model which Apple refused to repair despite the fact that the device was still under warranty. Kim had purchased his handset in Vietnam in October 2020 and the warranty is in effect until October 2022 according to the device owner.

Mr. Kim had taken the phone with him when he returned to the U.S. during the pandemic and his iPhone was having difficulties reading a U.S. SIM card. He called Apple and the company suggested that he bring the phone to an Apple Store, which he did.

Kim explained what happened next. "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,'" he said. "And I said: 'Tampered with in what way?'"

Apple didn't come back with an answer, but when Theodore got his iPhone 12 series phone back, it now had a busted SIM tray. Kim lodged a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) claiming that the SIM tray had been damaged when the phone was in Apple's possession. Apple responded by saying that had the SIM tray been busted under its care, it would have fixed the device, and it now considers the matter closed.

With the warranty voided by Apple, Kim offered to pay for the repair of his iPhone, but Apple also turned that down as well. So he decided to send an email to Apple CEO Tim Cook in late June but never heard back from the executive or the company. So he checked in with Google Search and found a blog written in 2012 by someone who had sued Apple in Small Claims Court in Seattle (the title of the blog post says it all, "Suing Apple.").

Kim thought to himself that this might be a good idea and compared his situation to David when he took on Goliath (Apple being the latter, of course). Most likely, the outcome of the suit will depend on whether Kim can convince the court that his phone was in Apple's possession when the SIM tray was broken. His BBB complaint states "The SIM tray was damaged while in the possession of Apple repair. This was admitted to by one of the Apple Store managers (Liz) at the San Francisco Union Square location."

Speaking of lawsuits and Apple, AppleInsider reports that the company also is being accused of patent infringement in not one, but two separate cases. Both of the filings accuse the tech giant of using other companies' technologies without permission for the iPhone. The first suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware by a company called ImmerVision, and the suit claims that Apple violated a patent it received back in 2005.

The filing states that the devices covered by the suit include, but are not limited to, the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. ImmerVision, which refers to itself as the worldwide leader in wide-angle imaging, states that it is seeking "monetary damages adequate to compensate it for infringement by Defendant of claim 21 of the '990 patent, together with interest, costs, and attorneys' fees."

With the technology, the iPhone wide-angle camera can capture images without distortion.

The second patent infringement suit was filed on Friday with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas by Aire Technology Limited. The suit alleges that Apple illegally used technology covered by a trio of patents awarded to Aire related to NFC and digital wallet technologies. The devices mentioned in the suit are the iPhone and Apple Watch while the apps involved include Apple Pay and Wallet.

Apple, of course, will have its in-house legal experts deal with the patent infringement case. As for Mr. Kim's Small Claims action, if Apple was responsible for damaging the Sim tray, it should give Mr. Kim a new iPhone.