“A man celebrated victory today after a judge ordered tech giant Apple to pay him £1,200 compensation for destroying his honeymoon photos,” Richard Smith reports for the Mirror. “Newly-wed Deric White was furious when snaps of him and bride Maria,50, in the Seychelles were wiped from his iPhone 5. The pictures were deleted by technical staff in the “genius bar” at Apple’s flagship London store while they were fixing a fault in the phone.”
“The judge ruled Apple were ‘negligent.’ Jubilant Deric, 68, said after the case: “They have dragged me through the mud for this. It’s a victory for the common man who sought to stand up against multi-national corporation,'” Smith reports. “Photos of African rhinos and elephants and a video of a giant tortoise biting Deric’s hand were wiped from the phone along with pictures from his £7,500 honeymoon and the details of contacts accumulated over 15 years.”
“Property manager Deric told the London County Court: ‘”I was absolutely livid and my wife had been in tears. We had beautiful pictures of the Seychelles and other pictures as well. All my contacts had gone and they had vandalised my phone. They knew they had done this and send me on my way. This is where my anger is – they sent me on my way like an imbecile,'” Smith reports. “Deric, from Pimlico, London, initially demanded £7,000 compensation from Apple but later offered to settle for a new computer screen and printer, worth around £1,000. But Apple refused to resolve the issue out of court.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: They only treated him like an imbecile because someone who is explicitly told by an Apple Store employee that their data is at risk if work is performed and who hasn’t ever backed up their iPhone, yet still hands it over, is an imbecile.
The claimant made the affirmative decision to take the phone into the Apple store in Regent Street to have the phone serviced or repaired. In doing that, he made the decision to hand the phone over to them knowing the iPhone was not backed up and the pictures and videos were therefore at risk. It’s the defendant’s case he did warn Mr. White in restoring the phone the data was in jeopardy, they couldn’t guarantee its integrity. It is something we inform all customers of before they carry out any action on phones or iPads. — Apple’s lawyer Victoria Nottage
Yet another bullet fired into the rotting carcass of personal responsibility. Once again “society” coddles the imbecile, protects him from blame, insulates him from fault, ignores his laziness, and even rewards him for his own irresponsible, mindless, bumptious stupidity.
Apple made a mistake by not settling. Apple needs to realize that, in 2015, common sense is dead. Idiots abound, even and especially on the bench. Therefore, Apple needs to stop trusting in institutions to do the proper thing.
Idiocracy wasn’t just a movie, it was a prophesy NSFW (Language):
SEE ALSO:
UK iPhone owner demands compensation claiming Apple ‘wiped away his life’ – November 30, 2015
What an idiot judge. The goofball user didn’t backup his data, didn’t bother to make sure heh has a backup on iCloud. He also authorized the work knowing his data can get wiped out. That JUDGE is another useless decision making idiot.
Wow. And you reached that amazing decision without even reading the judgment and informing yourself.
Did you?
Without reading it I know from first hand experience that ALL Apple genius bar employees without exception are forced by the sign in sequence for such service to not only verbally inform every customer getting such service that the data is at risk and that they should back it up before submitting the thing; verify the customer claims to understand that, and even asks very clearly if the person backed it up. Apple is not accused of destroying his backup, just what they warned him of before they took the job. If this guy lost his data and had no backup then Apple had no responsibility and I do hope the appeal the decision.
Sean: This was obviously a “he said – she said” case. For whatever reason, the judge believed the customer. Since you weren’t at the store at the time, you don’t actually know what happened, despite your claimed “first hand knowledge.” And since you weren’t at the trial, you don’t know what evidence was presented either.
Seems like you’re a typical barrack room lawyer who knows everything. Never in doubt; seldom right.
I guess Apple needs to have people sign waivers now, what a pain.
This is the ultimate outcome. It will end up hurting the consumer more in the long term.
It would shock me if there isn’t something in the user agreement on this circumstance. If not, then, there certainly will be now.
It seems like a bad precedent though. Hardware will fail and now I can sue if I don’t take the steps to back up my data? Surely this will be appealed?
You already do. Read the agreement next time you book a Genius Bar appointment.
How’s backing up YOUR data Apple’s responsibility? Brits are a bunch of effin morons.
Excuse me, I’m British and I like to think I’m not so moronic. I do agree this guy is a moron for not backing up his data, but please don’t tar me or the vast majority of people in the UK with your prejudice opinion, it just makes you look like a moron yourself. There are dim wits wherever you go in the world or online, and for every imbecile, there is a perfectly sensible person to balance things out.
Well stated! The broad brush treatment is almost never appropriate. I can affirm that we have at least our share of idiots in the U.S. It is entirely possible that we are over-represented if dave is a U.S. citizen…
“The broad brush treatment is almost never appropriate.”
KingMel has never seen MDN editorial.
There is an US presidential candidate that would disagree! He is leading the polls for the Republicant nomination.
Which just goes to prove that the US has more than its share of morons.
Um, TLW, I must take issue with only one thing in your post…
For every imbecile, it takes at least 20 sensible people to balance things out. People far underestimate the logic singularities generated by imbeciles, as well as the damage they do to society.
In Dave’s case, however, it may take more.
> Brits are a bunch of effin morons.
Coming from an American!
Well, you Yanks are fat and lazy. And THAT is a known fact.
The judge is just training stupid. Tech is tech and if you don’t back up your data, it can be lost. Apple provides several ways to back up an iPhone, just pick one and go. Stupid man, bad Judge.
Looks like Apple and all corporations will need to add an additional bureaucratic step of needing each and every customer to sign a disclaimer that they understood and accept responsibility to backup their own data.
I myself was reminded by the Genius staff and I rescheduled an appointment the next day after backing up my iPhone before taking it in for a repair. So I know for sure that they do issue these reminders.
If I were running Apple, I think I might even have the device remember when it was last backed up, and forbid the Genius Bar to work on the device if the last backup time was older than 8 hours.
I’ve stopped telling people that their data could be lost. I tell them that their data will be lost.
I have a friend who bought my old 2009 17″, enhanced MBP. He’s also the most computer illiterate person I’ve ever met. Not stupid, just not remotely tech savvy. I supplied him with a recent Mac For Dummies book, but it didn’t get much use. (English isn’t his first language and while he speaks it well, his reading skills are in need of improvement.)
He bought an iPhone 6 last year and when we were talking on the phone one day I asked him how often he backs up his phone.
Silence.
I told him to come over with the phone and the laptop and walked him through the backup procedure, making sure that *everything* was backed up and set things up so all his favorite photos would be restored. He would have fallen asleep if I hadn’t made him do all the work himself.
Two days later his phone was stolen. He got a replacement and brought it over with his laptop. He was panicking because his phone contained pictures, videos and other data he was using in an attempt to get full custody of his two kids. We did a restore on his new phone and everything was back. He was so happy he wanted to pay me! Now not only does he back up his phone every day, he bought an external HD along with SuperDuper and backs up his computer every night.
The moral of the story is that backups seem unimportant and a hassle until you suffer a significant data loss. Only then do they become important.
“details of contacts accumulated over 15 years”
On a 3 year old phone….
It’s entirely possible. User had previous cell phone(s), transfers contacts to iPhone, deletes from or gets rid of older phones, doesn’t think to backup or use iCloud.
Doesn’t justify his lack of backup, but it *is* possible.
No. If he had backed them up to transfer them, which is the only. Way to transfer from one iPhone to another, he shod have it all backed up. Probably lying about the 15 years or about not having stuff backed up.
Actually many phone dealers offer to transfer your contacts from your old phone to your new one. Someone without too much computer experience would probably take advantage of this service. (Well, they used to. I haven’t bought a phone from a dealer since 2007 when I bought my first iPhone from Apple, so I’m not sure what goes on these days.)
If he had the savvy to transfer years of data across multiple phones with different operating systems or to have someone do so, he would have had a backup. I think this is a huge scam. All of that data and the tortoise biting his hand is what he remembers and relates to the reporters. He went to the media! Scam artist!
Build products for morons, and you get morons buying your products. On the other hand, Apple, I would think you would know to get it in writing. A single sheet on paper with a big ‘YES-the data has been backed up’ and ‘NO-the data has not been backed up’ check boxes on it and a signature. I can’t believe nothing was signed before work was done in the first place…oh wait…paperless store.
Yes it’s on there. When I had mine checked for an issue you state yes or no on a backup. Then you sign the work authorization. So that moron lied and the judge is stupid PERIOD.
Hey Deric, now that you collected your money, you can recover the data from your phone now. Undeleting data, even when it is wiped, isn’t that hard.
You’re not really familiar with how iPhones work, are you?
To sum up: yes, it is. It’s virtually impossible.
It’s a flash drive. Just don’t try it with iTunes.
Unless it can be shown that he wasn’t reminded that his data was at risk and that he should back up I can’t see how Apple won’t appeal this. Otherwise it basically leaves any company unable to service any devices for fear that there is something on it that the customer might be putting at risk. As was mentioned yesterday, you know your data is at risk at all times through loss of a device, theft, damage, whatever.
All that said, you would think Apple would have something that the customer has to accept saying it’s their responsibility to backup even if you just walk in off the street.
Apparently, it CAN be shown that he wasn’t asked about the backup before. In fact, they only asked him after it was all over. I’m sure their standard procedure is to ask people if they have backed up. It is quite likely that the ‘genius’ who took this phone simply didn’t bother asking, since every time he asked before, the answer was usually ‘yes’ (it being so exceptionally simple and automatic to back up).
One careless ‘Genius’ has cost apple ￡1,200, plus massive amount of future headache due to this publicity.
It’s on the repair document that the customers sign, Apple is not responsible for data loss.
It doesn’t Matter if he was not reminded. The repair paperwork clearly states Apple is not responsible for data loss.
Only in Europe could a case like this be won. Apple states clearly in all of its repair documents Apple is not responsible for your data. I don’t know how this judge could give this guy a win when Apple clearly states in its legal paperwork they are not responsible for data. And if the employee also warned of data loss it just makes me more confused how Apple is negligent. Especially since the man stated he had no backup. It may come down to Apple refusing service to all customers who don’t back up.
For someone who’s supposedly such an idiot and moron he sure was able to get a lot of publicity and free money and stuff from Apple. Come on guys, this is a con artist, he lied and fooled everyone.
So it pays to be stupid, ignorant, and like an apish animal? Sickening.
Sent from my iPhone
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The thing is his photo is all over the place now, so he will forever be know as a jackass,
Maybe they will use his name to describe the ignorance of a human using modern technology?
Only time will tell but he is clearly the loser no matter what anyone says to the contrary.
So what happens when they block all access to your apple id through a stupid update so even when you have backed everything up, because it is through I Cloud you still cannot access it. And to top t off the apple support team call you consistently over a week to confirm there is still nothing they can do even though the fault is theirs (which they have admitted) and stated that I am not the only customer affected!!!!! Why promote upgrades when all they do is cause problems that apple then cannot fix???????????? Fuming and yet this chap get that money when he was ‘supposedly’ warned he may loose data