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...reported check sightings to date:  |
Check's In The Mail IBM Makes Good (finally)! |
| 4/9/2003 UPDATE news from north o' the border |
| Over the past few days I've received some long awaited and welcome news from several Canadian Aptiva owners. Although only Aptiva owners in the US were eligible to submit claims under the terms of the Mwave class action settlement IBM had agreed to compensate Canadian owners of Aptivas with Mwave under similar terms as those agreed to here in the US...however last summer while claimants here in the US were receiving their checks and discount coupons together in a single mailing Canadian owners found only 10% discount coupons in their mailboxes. IBM has long been promising that the checks for Canadian claimants would be forthcoming separately however they've been dragging their feet making good on that promise. I was pleased to hear that this month IBM has finally started mailing out checks to Mwave sufferers north of the border. I understand that a substantial batch of checks were mailed out on 4/4 (the 6th anniversary of this website being established, although that timing may just be a coincidence ;-) so hopefully those Canadian owners who have been waiting so patiently for literally years will find a nice surprise in their mailboxes soon, if they haven't already. |
| 8/12/2002 UPDATE | |
| The years of waiting finally paid off this week for many of the IBM Aptiva owners who have been patiently (or not) awaiting compensation as a result of the Mwave class action suit settlement.
The class action was brought by dissatisfied owners of older 2144, 2168, 2134, 2176 and 2159 Aptivas (as well as select Thinkpad models) which included the IBM Mwave combination modem and sound card and was based on the fact that the problematic Mwave cards, which have a long list of flaws, shortcomings and kommon known koncerns, was unworthly of inclusion in what IBM advertized as "cutting edge multimedia systems". Litigation against IBM on the subject of the Mwave's failings began way back in January of 1998 after IBM, who for a brief period of time in 1997 was compensating individual Aptiva owners (including your's truly) on a case-by-case basis providing replacement hardware and/or cash to replace the Mwave card, quickly realized how widespread the concerns were and discontinued that policy after a flood of requests for compensation. In November of 2000 a settlement was reached in a case brought in the Circuit Court of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama under which eligible class members could submit claims for up to $100 spent in purging their systems of the defective hardware. IBM succeeded in dragging out the processing of claims for close to two years, however every dog has his day...and mine happened to be Saturday (ca-ching, tally up another $100 in my column Mr. Scorekeeper! ;-). If you are a member of the class who submitted a valid claim hopefully your day has also come...or will come any day now. IBM begain mailing out checks and discount coupons on August 7th and expects the mailing to be completed within two weeks. From the feedback I've gotten (thanks to all who took the time to report check sightings) quite a few of you have already had a visit from your mailman (enjoy!), if you haven't hang in there...while "the check's in the mail" may be the *world's second oldest lie* every once in awhile it's true! Any of you who have submitted claims who do not see a check by then should contact the Claims Administrator (Karen Levine) at 1-800-475-4699 on or after August 27, 2002. Note: For those who may still be inclined to do business with IBM the settlement also includes a coupon for a 10% discount (up to $120) on purchases at ibm.com. While I personally wont be taking advantage of that provision of the settlement I wish those who do the best of luck with their purchases (hey, at least you know that any IBM NyetVista or Thinkpad you may buy *wont* include an Mwave card! ;-) |
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