If you own a defective Google Pixel or Pixel XL phone, then you may get back some part of your purchase cost as Google is settling class action suit claimants for defective phones.
The Weeks v. Google LLC (Pixel) Settlement is now open and if you had owned a Pixel or Pixel XL (the first-generation phones in the Google Pixel series) at that juncture you should head to the appropriate site to stake your claim. You must first check if you are eligible for any compensation, that starts from just $20 and goes up to $500.
A Complicated Set of Claim Settlement Conditions
The District Court in California has decreed in the class actions suit brought against Google that those who had owned the devices with the defect in them will be paid the compensation. However, the way the amounts are to be divided among the claimants can leave any person quite confused.
The operative date is January 7, 2017. If you had owned or bought a Google Pixel or Pixel XL phone before this date and can establish this through documentation, you will be eligible to receive at least $20. In the next category, if you owned a device and faced issues with the microphone on it and can submit the documentation for this, the amount you may receive under this settlement will be $350. The last category where you had multiple devices and all had the microphone issue, then the amount payable becomes $500.
You must read the details to know the exclusions. The obvious one is if you are or were a reseller of the phones and not the direct user, you can’t press any claim. The other ones not eligible to submit a demand for compensation include Google employees and the legal officers, whether judges and their families or the lawyers in the case.
Numbers Not Final
What makes the disbursement of the claims a little complicated is the company and the court do not know how many such claimants are out there and how many will be able to supply the documentation to establish the claim. Google has paid $7.25 million. Of this amount, you need to take out the payments to be made to the attorneys and the administrative expenses. The remaining amount is available. Again, from the remaining amount, 25% will go towards the $20 each settlement.
Based on a rough estimate, if 145,000 people made this claim, each can get $20. If more than this number log in, then what each will carry home could be less than this figure.
It does not stop there. Since the remaining 75% is left for those with claims of $350 or $500, if the numbers there are not substantial, the excess money from there will go to the $20 slot. The excess left after everyone has been paid off will then be sent to the $350 segment.
If you do fall into any of these categories, just head to the class action settlement site here http://www.pixelsettlement.com/ and register your claim.