Irreplaceable honeymoon photos!
15 years worth of contacts!
A favorite honeymoon video taken in the Seychelles, showing a giant tortoise biting him on the hand!
All this, gone in the blink of an eye when a bungling Apple store employee deleted the contents of a man’s iPhone, faster than you can say “You backed up your phone, right?”
Actually, it would have helped if the employee at Apple’s flagship store, on Regent Street in London, had in fact asked that question before trying to fix the phone of 68-year-old London pensioner Deric White.
Unfortunately, the Apple employee did not ask that question.
White had gone to the store in December 2014 to complain to Apple when he kept receiving text messages, twice daily, during his honeymoon, telling him to reset his password.
The employee wiped the phone without warning, White said.
People told him to let it go. “You can’t take on Apple,” they said.
But White had other ideas.
He took the tech giant to court, battling for nearly 12 months until at last, on Monday, he scored what he called a “monumental” victory for the “common man.”
That victory includes being rewarded nearly £2,000 (about $2,800) for his loss: £1,200 as compensation and £773 in court costs, according to the Telegraph.
A judge in Central London County Court ruled that Apple had been “negligent.”
According to the Daily Mail, White had this to say during his hearing:
My life was saved on that phone. I lost my favorite video of a giant tortoise biting my hand on honeymoon in the Seychelles.
I was absolutely livid and my wife had been in tears.
We had beautiful pictures of the Seychelles and other pictures as well, of African rhinos.
All my contacts had gone and they had vandalized my phone. They knew they had done this and sent me on my way. This is where my anger is, they sent me on my way like an imbecile.
David and Goliath stories are nice, but that £2K isn’t going to get back any tortoise video.
Of course, there would have been no story at all if Mr. White had backed his information up, as many have noted.
Any day is good for that – not just World Backup Day! – particularly if you’re taking your phone, or any device, to the shop.
But the fact that an employee at Apple’s so-called Genius bar didn’t ask White if his data was backed up?
Well. Even geniuses make sub-genius mistakes, and I agree with the judge: it’s not fair to pin this one on an unsuspecting Apple store visitor like Mr. White.
May he and his wife use the award to make more beautiful memories on more lovely trips – memories that I’m sure nobody has to remind him to back up!
Image of Apple Genius Bar courtesy of pio3 / Shutterstock.com