Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has shown its concern towards customers, who use 5W European iPhone USB adapters and through a statement released on Friday it said that they ‘may pose a safety risk’. The iPhone maker will provide a free replacement to the chargers sold between October 2009 and September 2012.
A statement on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s webpage says, ‘Apple has determined that, in rare cases, the Apple 5W European USB power adapter may overheat and pose a safety risk. This adapter came with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S models shipped from October 2009 to September 2012. It was also sold as a standalone accessory.’
Countries offered with replacement scheme
The countries that have been listed are: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and Vietnam.
A list of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Authorized Service Providers has been compiled, who can be approached by the users for getting the faulty 5W European adapters replaced in the above mentioned countries. It’s not very much clear how many customers will need to get their adapters exchanges for the new one, but the sales volume in Western Europe has been quite huge in 2010 totaling approximately 16 million, which indicates that it could also be huge.
Corrective action
India is included in the list of 36 countries issued by Apple, where it had sold this adapter. The model number of affected adapters is A1300 and these will be replaced by Apple with the A1400 model. While the old adapters had the letters CE on them in solid dark grey the new ones will have these letters outlined in light grey.
For replacement, the users of old affected adapter will have to bring it to an authorized Apple Retail Store or reseller. The technical support team at Apple will also help the users get their affected adapters exchanged for new ones over the phone as well. The customers, who have paid the replacement chargers because of the issue will also get a refund from Apple. The affected power adapters will be disposed off in an environment friendly way by the company.
A similar problem was faced by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) with the third party chargers not sanctioned by it last year as well in the month of August, when a similar trade-in program was run by them.
