A few months ago, a New York man by the name of Frank M. Fazio filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple over its voice assistant, claiming that the company’s Siri TV ads were misleading of its capabilities. A similar suit popped up a few weeks later.
Apple, obviously, doesn’t agree. And it feels that if a customer isn’t happy with Siri — which is still labeled as Beta, mind you — or the iPhone 4S itself, then he or she is more than welcome to return the handset within 30 days for a refund…
The Wall Street Journal shares an excerpt from the company’s recently-filed motion to dismiss the Siri lawsuits:
“They offer only general descriptions of Apple’s advertisements, incomplete summaries of Apple’s website materials, and vage descriptions of their alleged—and highly individualized— disappointment with Siri. Tellingly, although Plaintiffs claim they became dissatisfied with Siri’s performance “soon after” purchasing their iPhones, they made no attempt to avail themselves of Apple’s 30-day return policy or one-year warranty—which remains in effect. Instead, they seek to take an alleged personal grievance about the purported performance of a popular product and turn it into a nationwide class action under California’s consumer protection statutes. The Complaint does not come close to meeting the heavy burden necessary to sustain such claims.”
Admittedly, I have seen Siri act goofy on occasion. But for the most part it’s been very accurate and helpful. And while I understand that it can be frustrating when a product doesn’t perform as advertised, I don’t think these suits hold much water.
Apple makes an excellent point, asking that if the Plaintiffs weren’t happy with Siri, or the iPhone itself, why didn’t they just return the handset? Oh, it wasn’t a big enough deal to return it, but it was a big enough deal to sue? Sure, that makes sense.
What are your thoughts on the Siri lawsuits?