When you take your iPhone in for a repair at the Apple Store, you don’t expect staff to delete your precious files.
That is exactly what happened to one 68-year-old British man, who found that staff at Apple’s Regent Street store had deleted his honeymoon photos during routine repairs. He then took the tech giant to court and won, reports Evening Standard.
Man devastated by loss of honeymoon photos sues Apple and wins
Deric White took his iPhone 5 to the Regent Street Apple Store last December after receiving an error notification. After the team carried out repairs he collected his smartphone only to find to his dismay that it had been completely wiped of its data, including photos and videos of his recent honeymoon along with 15 years of contacts.
“It was only after staff fiddled around they asked if I’d backed my things up,” White says. “My life was saved on that phone. I lost my favorite video of a giant tortoise biting my hand on honeymoon in the Seychelles.”
After the devastating loss White filed a lawsuit against Apple for around $7,500, accusing Apple staff of being “negligent” with his data. This Tuesday a court ruled in White’s favor and awarded him $1,800 in compensation.
Judge awards damages due to staff negligence
“The defendant’s employees were negligent in the treatment of the claimant’s telephone,” Judge Ruth Fine told the hearing, “causing the claimant loss of photographs of particular sentimental value and the loss of all his contacts. Just because damages are difficult to assess does not disentitle a claimant to compensation.”
Lawyers for Apple said that White knowingly handed over his phone without backing up his photos. It is company policy to inform customers that data may be lost during repair work, but the claims were not enough to change the ruling.
“They have dragged me through the mud for this,” said White after the hearing. “It’s a victory for the common man who sought to stand up against multi-national corporations. They should be brought to boot when they do wrong, but they are usually too big for anybody to take on.”
