Apple Tried To Silence Owners of Exploding iPod

You would think that Apple would give you a refund if your iPod exploded and gave you burn scars. Well, that’s not really what Ken Stanborough (in Liverpool) and his daughter, Ellie (pictured above with the deceiving iPod) got. Instead, what they got was a gagging order.

What does that exactly mean? This means that Apple tried to give them their money back ONLY if they were to stay hush-hush about the incident. Gagging orders can be seen as another form of blackmail if you think about it and there are sure a lot of companies that try to get away with it in order to save their good name. However, when people are getting scars from one of their devices which burst into flames and burn their skin, people will just not stay silent.

According to Times Online, Stanborough dropped his daughter’s iPod last month only to hear a hissing sound. After picking it up, he could feel it getting hotter and believed to see vapor. Just 30 seconds after he threw the iPod out his backdoor, “There was a pop, a big puff of smoke and it went 10ft in the air.”

For a device which he piad £162 for, he immediately contacted Apple and finally – after being passed around numerous departments – he got the chance to talk to an Apple Executive. Apple then sent him a letter offering a refund but denied any liability. The letter stated that if he were to accept the money, Stanborough was to “agree that you will keep the terms and existence of this settlement agreement completely confidential,” and if he were to break these terms, it “may result in Apple seeking injunctive relief, damages and legal costs against the defaulting persons or parties.”

Stanborough was more than perturbed with the letter. He was frightened:

“They’re putting a life sentence on myself, my daughter and Ellie’s mum, not to say anything to anyone. If we inadvertently did say anything, no matter what, they would take litigation against us. I thought that was absolutely appalling. We didn’t ask for compensation, we just asked for our money back.”

The fact that Apple had tried to keep owners of exploding iPods silent had only become news last week. However, it turns out that this has been going on for a while.

Last year the Japanese Government had reported that there had been 14 cases in the country where the iPod Nanos had caught on fire, with two people suffering minor burns. In March, a mother in Ohio went to court with Apple after her son’s iPod Touch exploded in his pant pocket.

Researchers are possibly coming to a conclusion that the overheating of these devices was caused by lithium batteries. Laptops had also caught on fire or smoked because of these batteries and the iPods seemed to be using the same source of energy. Remember that huge recall for electronic devices in 2006? This may be why. However, Times Online reports that over 173,000,000 iPods have been sold worldwide since September last year.

Sure, there may have been some electronic and casual bloggers who have written about their dangerous iPods after a traumatic explosion, but now… now the secret is out. Apple spokespeople and Argos would not comment. The Trading Standards Institute cannot side with anyone but they feel that they understand why Apple would want to keep these incidents and their settlements confidential.

Well, this isn’t so confidential anymore. Stanborough’s voice has reached people all over the world. Apple shouldn’t be depending on those gagging orders for long. What if it were your daughter’s hand who had scars from a burning iPod? What else could have happened to that boy’s leg when the iPod in his pocket exploded? Safety warnings should be shared with the world, no matter how bad it makes the business look. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be that way most of the time.