Palm Settling Class Action Lawsuit Alleging Flaws in Early Treos

Palm, Inc. has sent many of its customers a notice that they may benefit from a class action lawsuit that this company is attempting to settle.

The lawsuit claims that the Treo 600 and 650 smartphones had defects, and failed at unacceptable rates. Palm denies these allegations, but instead of this lawsuit going to court, both sides have agreed to a proposed settlement.

Under this proposal, Palm will provide a cash rebate on the purchase of a new Palm smartphone to owners of these Treos who live in the U.S. and  experienced two or more repairs or replacements in lieu of repair. The amount of the rebate depends on which device was purchased: for the Treo 600 it's $75, and for the Treo 650 it's $50.

Those who haven't had one of these devices repaired or replaced two or more times still qualify  to get problems with their device repaired in the future, even beyond the expiration of the warranty on the Treo 600 or Treo 650. However, this only covers defects in the device, not damage as a result of accidents.

At this point, this settlement still must be approved by a U.S. District Court judge. If it is approved, in order to get any of these benefits, people will need to file claim forms.

More details can be found at palzasettlement.com.