The complaint has been lodged by Gomelsky on behalf of himself as well as ten-of-thousands of other complainants which purchased defective PowerBooks manufactured between January 1, 2003 to present. The suit specifically alleges that earlier generation Mac notebooks had an issue with memory upgrades. When owners tried to upgrade their memory by adding additional modules to the first or the second slot available in most PowerBooks, the system would not recognize the memory correctly or at all.
Quoting the complaint lodged by Gomelsky:
"Typically, when the additional memory is added, the PowerBook does not recognize the memory, resulting in slower processing speeds, decreased computer function and other computing problems, Unfortunately for consumers, because both memory slots are hardwired to the PowerBook’s motherboard, consumers who choose to repair the defect can incur costs of more than $500 in parts and labor."
When Apple was slammed with all the complaints over the original memory upgrade issue they (Apple) launched a Memory Slot Repair Extension Program covering 15-inch 1.67 GHz and 1.5 GHz PowerBook G4s which were manufactured between January of 2005 and April of 2005. The extension program expired on July 24, 2008.
Gomelsky’s suit alleges that the original scope of the issue goes far beyond the range of PowerBooks that Apple agreed to initially cover in the repair program. Gomelsky was one of those customers which purchased PowerBooks with the defective memory slot problem – and his serial number fell outside of the range that Apple covered within the program – leaving Gomelsky and thousands of other customers to pay for their own repairs out-of-pocket.
Attorneys handling Gomelsky’s case are seeking reimbursement of expenses for their client and other class members whom have had to pay for their own repairs on defective notebooks which should have been covered under the initial repair program. Also, another part of the claim against Apple alleges other offenses committed by Apple such as violations to the California business code, breach of warranty, negligence, and unjust enrichment.
Further, the complaint also alleges that Apple failed to give proper notice of the Extended Warranty and did not contact PowerBook G4 owners to inform them that their notebooks may be covered under the warranty program before it had expired on July 24, 2008. Since the defect can sometimes take months or even years before it manifests itself to the user, a lot of customers have just begun to notice that they have been affected and they are now stuck with paying for repairs out of pocket.
Apple was unavailable for comment.
