On January 8, the holders of a Google Pixel 4A were invited to update their smartphone to Android 13 pour “Improve battery stability”. So far, nothing alarming for devices more than four years old, the telephone has been marketed since August 2020. Except that this update has considerably impacted battery performancereduces the autonomy of several hours According to some users and cannot be refused indefinitely. Customers have noticed a loss of two hours and a Difficulty loading their phone.
For the past few days, anger has been scoring among consumers. Many subjects have been opened on Reddit as reported by our colleagues from Digital. Pixel 4A owners deplore an update that may well sign the death stop of their smartphone. This wave of report pushed Google to publish a press release To explain the situation. You can read there: “We want our customers to benefit from the best possible experience for their products. Users of the apparatus concerned are therefore eligible for an appeasement measure on the part of Google ”.
Free repair … but not in France
To appease the situation, Google offers a compensation program including Battery replacement for free on several territories. In Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and India, customers can present themselves in stores to replace at no cost and without appointment. France is however not concernedand the procedure can only be done within the limits of available stocks.
Google does not specify how many devices are concerned, the company also offers a compensatory envelope of $ 50 or $ 100 reduction code for purchase a new phoneconverted into local currency. The Mountain View firm also invites its customers to choose their compensation with care, since it will not be possible to cancel after the fact. Finally, the users concerned have a year to issue a complaint to customer service.
Not enough according to hop
HOP, Stop in planned obsolescencesounds the alarm and announces that it has received reports from unhappy customers and customers. The association has published a press release to denounce this practice and the measures set up to compensate customers.
“These options prove to be unsatisfactory in view of the damage caused to consumers and the environment for this model put on the market since mid 2020. The extent of the damage remains unknown but not for Google which offers to check if” your device is eligible ”to this compensation by indicating the IMEI number of the phone and would therefore be in figure capacity these repercussions. The vagueness also settles on the irreversible character of this update ”.
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The association invites customers concerned to demonstrate via a dedicated form. Hop reminds that The testimonies are essential as part of a Suspicion of planned obsolescence. As a reminder, the practice is defined by all the techniques by which a director on the market aims to deliberately reduce the life of a product to increase the replacement rate. She is punished with Two years’ imprisonment and 300,000 euros fine.
As the planned obsolescence halte note, 79% of the carbon footprint of a smartphone comes from its manufacture. At a time when tech giants are invited to energy sobriety, ease of access to repairs should be a priority.
*** The writing of the Geek Journal contacted Google, this article will be updated to include their answer ***
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