The iPhone 5 was released to the usual Apple fanfare and the cries of superior and innovation from the rabid fans. But the release hasn’t been without its negativities, the most of which surround iOS Maps, with Apple admitting it’s been a failure thus far.
It had been reported that iOS 6 on the iPhone 5 was using more data than normal for Verizon users, even if the they had connected the handset to a Wi-Fi network, but Apple have since fixed the issue for those affected. But the question remains, who is going to pick up the cheque?
With Australian iPhone users still affected (not just iPhone 5 users either), many of them are looking to Apple’s support pages, their providers own forums and broadband forum Whirlpool for any help in stopping the charges against them. One user said they used 5GB in a week and received a bill from Telstra for AU$1,300. A Vodafone user reported 20GB of usage and a bill of AU$6,000.
Telstra, Optus and Vodafone are all aware of the issues and are monitoring the situation, doing their own in house investigations into the issues. Turning off the mobile data while connected to a Wi-Fi network is and easy workaround, but that’s not something that anyone should have to do every time. Updates are expected, from the carriers, to fix the issue.
So, again, who is going to pick up the cheque? The customer shouldn’t as they were under the impression they were doing the right thing; utilising a Wi-Fi network to keep data usage on the mobile network low. It’s also not the services providers fault, they just provide the data to the handset, and not how the handset handles the data coming in. So that leaves Apple.
To put it simply, Apple are at fault here. But does anyone think they will accept responsibility for the issue and offer compensation to the affected users? Of course not and they will argue that they shouldn’t have to, but who knows what their line will be in explaining this one away!
At the moment, it looks like the service providers are working with their customers to work out any data usage billing problems, with one Optus user saying that their data charges have been waived as a result of the issue.
Your move Apple.
Source: ZDNet | Image courtesy of AppAdvice
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