An unhappy customer in Seattle has filed a federal class action lawsuit against online bookseller Amazon, over a cracking Kindle.
In February of this year Mathew Geise bought a Kindle 2 for $359, and the optional official Amazon Kindle covers for $30. However, after 3 months of use the Kindle started to crack in the areas where the cover attached to the Kindle. The cracks grew worse until one day the screen froze and the Kindle seemingly stopped working.
According to the complaint, on July 7, the Geises contacted Amazon to make warranty claim, and were told by a company representative that Amazon would cover the cost of the frozen screen, but not the cracks, as the warranty apparently doesn't cover damage made by the cover: the Amazon representative reportedly contended that the cracks were made by opening the cover backwards. Despite the Geise's claims that they had not opened the cover improperly, they were told that the repairs would cost $200.
Giese's attorney believes that hundreds of people who purchased Kindles may be experiencing the same issues, and she alleges that Amazon appears to have changed its policy from one of automatic replacement of cracked Kindles, to a customer charge of $200 for a replacement.
The class action reportedly states that the value of the "matter in controversy" exceeds $5 million, and that the class would include buyers of Kindle 2 and Kindle DX models "installed in a Kindle Cover designed by Amazon."
