8 ms·
AT&T Threatens Plaintiff With Termination Of Service Unless He Shuts Up
- zitterbewegung 15y agoIsn't this article ignoring the fact that a whole bunch of other customers could do the same thing and get a similar settlement?
- JimEngland 15y agoWe have a guide explaining how other customers can take AT&T to small claims court on our blog: http://blog.publikdemand.com/how-to-fight-att-in-small-claims-court http://blog.publikdemand.com/how-to-fight-att-in-small-claim...
- wilfra 15y agoYou're thinking small. Organize a class-action with him as the lead defendant.
- mattdeboard 15y agoClass-action lawsuit so the lawyers can get all the money? Also, class-action lawsuits are far more of a collective pain in the ass than just going to small claims by yourself.
- wilfra 15y agoA huge judgement against a company makes big news and makes a loud statement that the company did something bad. That is how you get them to change. Not by winning $850. However perhaps if publikdemand is successful in driving media exposure though means such as this, it could have the same impact (or greater?). Chipping away at them silently in small claims court isn't going to change their practices though.
- delinka 15y agoIf every potential class member shows up to small claims court instead of joining the class, it'll cause much more headache for T and send a much larger message. By bringing a class action, you let them hire lawyers and keep their entire defense in a single place and the plaintiffs get a pittance while the lawyers on both sides win the lottery.
- wilfra 15y ago"If every potential class member shows up to small claims court" They wont though. Nowhere near every potential member. That is why class actions for small amounts exist. Most people either wont know they can sue, wont know how to sue or wont bother to sue. I applaud this gentleman for his efforts but he is the very small minority with the free time, know-how and balls to pull this off.
- dakotasmith 15y agoActually, class action lawsuits can be more easily dealt with, since the lawyers on both side negotiate the terms of the settlement. A litany of small claims court settlements would put more money in the hands of plaintiffs, not lawyers, and would be available in the news cycle for much longer than a class action lawsuit/settlement.
- wilfra 15y ago'One random guy wins $850 in small claims court from AT&T' - you think that is newsworthy? I disagree. We wouldn't have been hearing about this had AT&T not tried to shut him up. They will learn from this mistake. They just ran into http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect The way to handle this if you are AT&T is to pay the $850 and then ignore anything else he does and wait for it to go away.
- Jimmie 15y agoRight, but 10 different people winning $850 in small claims court from AT&T would be newsworthy. It might convince more people to follow in their footsteps.
- dakotasmith 15y agoYou see my point exactly, if you could find 10 people in March, I'm sure April has 10 more. Or 100 more.
- uxp 15y ago> We wouldn't have been hearing about this had AT&T not tried to shut him up. We did year about it on the day the guy won his case. Yes, they are making more news out of a story they could have easily squashed, but it wasn't an unknown event that the guy won the initial case. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-01/at-and-t-loses-data-throttling-case-in-small-claims-court http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-01/at-and-t-los... http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/24/2822384/att-loses-data-throttling-case http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/24/2822384/att-loses-data-thr... http://paidcontent.org/article/419-850-for-everyone-what-happens-next-in-the-att-throttling-case/ http://paidcontent.org/article/419-850-for-everyone-what-hap... http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/att-throttling-customer/ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/att-throttling-cust... http://www.forbes.com/sites/mickeymeece/2012/02/25/throttle-this-two-big-consumer-small-claims-victories/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/mickeymeece/2012/02/25/throttle-...
- JimEngland 15y agoWe totally would, but a class-action isn't possible under US law. The Supreme Court ruled for AT&T in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion: "Under the Federal Arbitration Act, California must enforce arbitration agreements even if the agreement requires that consumer complaints be arbitrated individually (instead of on a class-action basis)." - http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/att-mobility-v-concepcion/ http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/att-mobility-v-co...
- a_a_r_o_n 15y agoThe recent Honda hybrid battery debacle, and the woman who decided to opt out of the class action, chose small claims instead and kept more small claims winnings than she would have received from the class action, shows that small claims can be the more effective route. Notwithstanding appeals.
- atourgates 15y agoThe title is sensationalist and inaccurate. What AT&T is doing is trying to get out of their judgement, through negotiation, with the side-benefit that if he enters into said negotiation, it would happen under a NDA. They're threatening to terminate his service because he tethered, and violated the TOS. I think the clamant would be crazy to take them up on it, but that's another point entirely.
- direllama 15y ago"Your data usage demonstrates that you have tethered your wireless device..." How does data usage provide proof of tethering?
- koenigdavidmj 15y agoHe also admitted to tethering according to the article.
- gcb 15y agoHow att even get away with this? Case 1: judge recognizes att can control the content (tether vs non tether) then why can't i sue them if someone offends me on an email? Case 2: they are a connection provider, so they have to allow you to use the connection in any way you can. Analogy: could they legally have a phone plan like 20/mo unlimited calls 30/mo unlimited calls + 50 faxes
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- woodall 15y agoDeep packet inspection.
- mindslight 15y agoWhen they cancel his service, he should take them back to court for unjust discrimination on customer equipment, citing the Carterphone precedent. Sorry Ma Bell, the demarc is in the air, and anything past the baseband can't possibly harm the network.
- gm 15y agoI think there's no story there. If the platiff won the small claims case and the HE initiated further contact with AT&T on the matter then all bets are off and AT&T is entitled to respond as it pleases, even if it's a "we won't talk to you about this matter we just settled in court unless you sign an NDA"
- mathattack 15y agoHow about this title, "Man complaining because Time Warner won't let him steal neighbors cable"? Seems just as inaccurate but at least captures the spirit.