SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20160714-C5162-2147416859. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Matched catalog product: Apple iPhone. Source model text: iPhone 5C. Incident: The Apple iPhone 5 series cell phones are using a lithium ion battery that are starting to fail. The batteries swell to sizes large enough to actually separate the glass cover from it's case. When I raised the concern to Apple they offered to replace the phone for the cost of the battery. This seem to bring my awareness level as they know there's an issue, but not willing to accept the responsibility for the design and parts used during fabrication. The Apple employee also stated that they would not just simply change the battery due to possible " thermal event". This even raised my concern level even higher. With all the problems with batteries and fires during recent months, I believe if they are willing to replace the cell phone for a third of the cost, either their profit margin is extremely high on their products or they are fully aware of this issue and are not willing to replace these batteries until something tragic happens.