Ouch!!
The family of a 14-year-old boy has just filed a lawsuit against Apple after they claim his hearing was permanently damaged when an Amber Alert went off while he was using AirPod Pros.
Parents Carlos Gordoa and Ariani Reyes from San Antonio, Texas filed legal documents suing the company for negligence and fraud on Monday. According to the docs obtained by NBC News, the then-12-year-old identified as B.G. was watching Netflix on a “low volume” on his phone back in May 2020. But when an emergency alert went off on his cell phone, the volume drastically amped up.
Describing the incident which has left him with “permanent hearing loss,” they wrote:
“ went off suddenly, and without warning, at a volume that tore apart B.G.’s ear drum, damaged his cochlea, and caused significant injuries to B.G.’s hearing.”
Oh, no! Because of this, B.G. will now have to wear a hearing aid for the rest of his life. He also suffers from dizziness, vertigo, nausea, and tinnitus following the incident, according to the suit. So awful! The family is now blaming Apple for not reducing the volume during alerts and not warning users that the volume could increase to a dangerous level, they added:
“The AirPods do not automatically reduce, control, limit, or increment notification or alert volumes to a safe level that causes them to emit.”
The lawsuit also alleges that Apple was aware — or could have easily been aware — of the problem since many other users have complained about similar issues online, dating all the way back to 2019. There are hundreds of complaints on Apple’s support website alone. One person complained:
“Please fix this. I literally threw my AirPod across the room when I got a shrill text alert while listening to peaceful music. Not cool.”
Another person pointed out:
“You are correct it is a design flaw and what is really disappointing is that they chose to carry this design flaw into the Airpod Pro even with so much user feedback on how bad that design is. Apple stands for excellence in thinking through the user experience and this is a clear example of total failure on that score.”
And there are SO many comments in the same vein all over social media! So, it seems like this has been a problem for a long time. Apple representatives have yet to comment on the lawsuit. Thoughts? Have you struggled with this issue?
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