Xperia Owners Could Fetch Up To $300 For Sony's False Waterproofing Claims
Sony made a number of smartphones and tablets that it claimed were water resistant and could survive rain and spills without damage. There was only one problem though; Sony didn't do ta great job making the devices water resistant. When customers initiated warranty claims citing water damage, Sony didn't do much to help them, which resulted in a class action lawsuit against the electronics maker.
That class action suit is now wrapping up and owners of certain affected devices can get up to 50 percent refund on the purchase price of the smartphone. There are 24 Sony smartphone models in the suit, all advertised with having water resistant IP ratings. These are the devices included in the suit:
- Xperia M2 Aqua
- Xperia Z3 Dual
- Xperia M2 Aqua
- Xperia Z3 Dual
- Xperia M4 Aqua
- Xperia Z3+ Dual
- Xperia ZR
- Xperia Z3+
- Xperia Z Ultra
- Xperia Z5
- Xperia Z1
- Xperia Z5 Compact
- Xperia Z1 Compact
- Xperia Z2 Tablet (WiFi)
- Xperia Z1s (T-Mobile)
- Xperia Z2 Tablet (LTE)
- Xperia Z2 Xperia Z2 Tablet (Verizon LTE)
- Xperia Z3 Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact (WiFi)
- Xperia Z3 Compact
- Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact (LTE)
- Xperia Z3 (T-Mobile)
- Xperia Z4 Tablet (WiFi)
- Xperia Z3v (Verizon)
- Xperia Z4 Tablet (LTE)
Owners of these devices could have been notified about the lawsuit already, but those who own the phone and weren't notified can register to be part of the class action manually at Xperiawaterproofsettlement.com. The settlement from Sony includes a 12-month warranty extension for all devices that are still under warranty and if your device isn't under warranty any longer, you get another 6-months of warranty. The partial refund could see owners get 50% of the MSRP back in a refund. We say "could" because the settlement has yet to be approved by the courts.
Owners have until Tuesday, January 30, 2018 to submit a claim along with the paper claim form and proof required by the court to show you own one of the devices. It's not clear how many people may be eligible for this suit, as some of the phones listed weren't that popular here in the United States. For instance, the Xperia X3 was booted from the T-Mobile lineup back in 2015.