It's raining money at last on some iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus owners
In January of last year, Apple settled a class action lawsuit with iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users whose devices suffered various problems the most prominent being a "Speaker button" that was "grayed out" and not functional during phone calls. Other issues included the refusal of Siri to respond to voice commands, the loss of microphone fidelity, and the inability of the Voice Memos app to work.
Other problems that the two models faced pertained to audio issues on the phones. A leaked memo that Apple distributed to authorized repair centers in 2018 blamed iOS 11.3 for the aforementioned problems which prevented iPhone users from using speaker function during a phone call. It also stopped those on a regular phone call or FaceTime video call from hearing the other party.
A class action lawsuit brought by iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users affected by these issues was settled last year for $35 million. Each person who filed a claim accepted by the court will supposedly receive a $200 payment which is a decent payout in the world of class action suits. After all, the attorneys working on these complex cases usually squirrel away a third of the amount of each settlement for themselves.
Apple iPhone 7 owners who were members of the class action lawsuit are starting to receive their money. | Image credit-PhoneArena
While Apple did agree to settle the case, as is typically the reaction by most defendants in such suits, Apple did not take responsibility for the issues that affected the iPhone units involved in the class action and denied the allegations.
The largest payouts are going to iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus owners who paid to have the issue his or her phone was experiencing repaired. Those whose phone had some of the symptoms we mentioned at the top of this article but did not pay for a repair will receive less. Thus far, the largest payout is expected to be $350.
Members of the class had to have a documented complaint that they made to Apple regarding the issues with the speakers not working during phone calls. Others had to have proof that they paid Apple to repair or replace their devices. And now the payments are just making their way to these former iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users. Some are still rocking an iPhone, and some have decided to switch and now own an Android handset.
Regardless of what kind of smartphone members of the class now use for mobile communications, we can pretty much assure you that the payment they received from Apple for their share of the settlement doesn't come close to the amount they spent on a brand-new phone to replace the messed-up handset they paid Apple for as far back as 2016.
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