Good news: you can still sue AT&T
If the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling holds up, that is. Basically, the court found that a clause in AT&T's (Cingular's at the time, actually) customer contract forcing customers to arbitrate instead of sue via class action was uncool -- "unconscionable under California law" was their exact wording, but you get the idea. We guess AT&T was looking to avoid having to make pesky public statements about lawsuits filed against it, and hey, who can blame 'em? Nice try, guys! [Warning: PDF link][Via Wired]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
A. Nabi @ Aug 23rd 2007 5:22PM
Now let's hope folks can/will sue them in droves! I'm not a big fan of mindless lawsuits, however, AT&T needs a serious legal bi*chslapping... I've been with all the carriers and they are simply the worst... I now have a Go phone with them (prepaid plan 'cause I want to be able to bail whenever... though they make it impossible to cancel)... and sure enough I'm getting charged on calls that are supposed to be free... but can't get customer service (email or phone) to respond (phone folks say they can't handle Go phone)... so I'd love to sue them for the approx $4.00/month of calls that should be free and aren't... and throw in a $1M putative clause.
It's so bad that as much as I am LUSTING over an iPhone, I will not give AT&T more business (my tricky, hope-it-works game plan is to get one in my wife's country, Germany, via T-Mobile and if a US T-Mobile card will fly then get a T-Mobile phone here and use that card... I'd rather pay T-Mobile for two accounts - one German and one US than give those sleaze-balls at AT&T more money).
At some point there needs to be a consumer revolution... of course given the Corporate States of America saying that probably constitutes terrorism... look for me in Gitmo.
derX @ Aug 23rd 2007 6:27PM
There needs to be a consumer revolution...hrm, seems a little extreme, no?
I've had pretty good experiences with AT&T since 2003. They probably do slack with their prepaid segment, though. I must say, however, even if this is the case, their customer service truly does make up for it.
Also, if we sue AT&T, can we also sue VZW?
*waits for elgee02 to attack*
elgee02 @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:18PM
You can sue anyone you want for all I care. Go nuts :-)
nypress @ Sep 2nd 2007 1:29AM
Can someone please initiate a class action suite against AT&T for forcing iPhone buyers to subscribe to the horrible Cingular, now AT&T service. What AT&T is doing is criminal, unethical and not legal because an unlocked iPhone, as you can works work perfectly fine with any GSM carrier.
This would NOT be the case for example if the iPhone was based on the VERIZON system, because it use a specific signal and GSM will not work.
Can you imagine if a car manufacture started to build cars and forced people to use a specific type of gas by making the gas input opening only fit a specific gas company? Then also claiming that only the x-gas company can effectively give you the performance to make you care run correctly. What a JOKE.
I need unlocked iPhones that are fully warranted by Apple, not altered, and if they will not be available within the next 6 months, I will organize a class action case on behalf of every customer that has an iPhone and was forced, with no choice to get the overpriced AT&T service. And AT&T will ultimately lose and be liable for millions of dollars in refunds based on the savings lost by someone paying the higher AT&T prices.