Consumer Reports bashed Apple’s plan to ditch its automatic free case program for iPhone 4 owners, saying the move was “not acceptable” because it put the burden on customers.
Late Friday, Apple quietly announced that it would stop offering free cases to all iPhone 4 buyers at the end of September, a program triggered by what CEO Steve Jobs called “Antennagate” two months ago.
After Sept. 30, new iPhone 4 owners must contact Apple support to request a free Bumper case.
That didn’t sit well with Consumer Reports.
“Putting the onus on any owners of a product to obtain a remedy to a design flaw is not acceptable to us,” Paul Reynolds, the magazine’s electronics editor, said in a post to the publication’s blog Monday. “We therefore continue not to recommend the iPhone 4, and to call on Apple to provide a permanent fix for the phone’s reception issues.”
Apple defended the decision to halt the case giveaway for the majority of its iPhone 4 customers.
The iPhone 4’s antenna problem is “even smaller than we originally thought,” Apple said in a statement posted on its site. “[Only] a small percentage of iPhone 4 users need a case.”
Consumer Reports attracted attention in July when it refused to recommend the iPhone 4 because of the antenna problem. That advice remains in effect, said Reynolds in an e-mail to Computerworld on Tuesday.
Calling the new deal “less consumer-friendly,” Reynolds criticized Apple for making users ring up the company to plead for a case, and for limiting the case selection to Apple’s own Bumper. The still-current case giveaway lets customers choose from several third-party cases as well as ask for an Apple-made Bumper case.
“Once there’s the need for a case, as there is here, it’s desirable, and more consumer-friendly, to offer a choice of styles,” said Reynolds.
Consumer complaints about the iPhone 4 dropping calls surfaced within hours of the smartphone’s late-June launch. Apple quickly acknowledged that touching the external antenna could reduce signal strength, but offered only generic advice, telling users to “avoid gripping it in the lower left corner” or “use one of the many available cases.”
The problem, users’ reactions and the resulting fallout prompted Apple to stage a press conference on short notice July 16, during which Jobs announced the free case campaign but argued that all phones suffered from the same issue, and said the issue was much ado about nothing.
“This has been so blown out of proportion that it’s incredible,” Jobs said then.
At the time, Apple promised free cases only until Sept. 30, and said it would reevaluate the program before then.