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It's ridiculous that this is necessary but I salute people for using the legal system instead of just feeling helpless.

by wmf 2y ago

Arrath 2y ago
My parents had to resort to this to break out of their contract with AT&T when mobile service went to absolute shit following the 4g rollout. Repeated trips to the local store were met with them waving vaguely at the service map and refusing to do a site survey, calls to corporate were stonewalled. After 6 months of this, they called the AG. It was resolved within a week and AT&T let them out of the contract without penalties. It is a damn shame that people have to go nuclear like this, but sometimes it is the only option.
- mathewsanders 2y ago
  I had a problem with my carrier as well with porting my number over. Attempting to interact with their customer service was a painful loop where nothing was resolved. After a week I submitted an FCC complaint online (it was very straightforward) and issue was resolved in 24 hours. During the start of covid I was considering buying a pulse oximeter and it annoyed me that some listings on Amazon were using “FDA approved” in listing and logo and I found it was easy to report them to FDA and their listing was taken down. One time I was frustrated that a large and popular NYC-based physical store was charging sales tax for clothing under $110 (in NYC clothing and shoes under $110 have 0% sales tax) and I tired reporting to a state authority but I never even got an acknowledgment that complaint was received :/
photonthug 2y ago
Just to actually say what is probably obvious.. this means that corporations have found a way to outsource the costs of providing customer support to the tax paying general public, including those who are not even using their services and never heard of the company. Ag’s should not be requesting that this is fixed, but requiring it in no uncertain terms, and giving out massive penalties for every single time it’s allowed to happen. If the legal system takes “only” a few years to get wise to the fact that this is just indirect theft, I would say the damages in terms of wasted time are easily in the millions, and plus the opportunity cost of whatever work they did not get to while handling frivolous stuff like this.
- nradov 2y ago
  AGs aren't dictators. They have no direct power to levy penalties. Which specific law do you think Meta is breaking here? Please to provide an exact citation.
  - ceejayoz 2y ago
    > AGs aren't dictators. They have no direct power to levy penalties. They can make life fairly miserable for you, though. (I'm sure there's various consumer protection laws they can leverage in these sorts of cases that vary from state to state.) If the people they represent continue to feel unheard, you get things like the GDPR. "Everything we're doing is legal!" as a response to shitty behavior is a good way to get new law written.
  - banana_feather 2y ago
    Public nuisance. Don't bother trying to explain why some statutory language you googled and skimmed doesn't apply.
    - nradov 2y ago
      Please provide a case law citation to show how state public nuisance laws would apply here. Or are you just making things up?
      - photonthug 2y ago
        Sealioning is tedious bro. Why not try to actually contribute something yourself, spend your own time and effort to show us how it doesn’t apply.
        nradov 2y ago
        Low effort comments without addressing the issue at hand are tedious "bro". Why not try to show us how an existing law does apply instead of making up nonsense. The level of legal illiteracy on HN is disappointing.

It's ridiculous that this is necessary but I salute people for using the legal system instead of just feeling helpless.

by wmf 2y ago

It's ridiculous that this is necessary but I salute people for using the legal system instead of just feeling helpless.

My parents had to resort to this to break out of their contract with AT&T when mobile service went to absolute shit following the 4g rollout. Repeated trips to the local store were met with them waving vaguely at the service map and refusing to do a site survey, calls to corporate were stonewalled. After 6 months of this, they called the AG. It was resolved within a week and AT&T let them out of the contract without penalties. It is a damn shame that people have to go nuclear like this, but sometimes it is the only option.

mathewsanders 2y ago
I had a problem with my carrier as well with porting my number over. Attempting to interact with their customer service was a painful loop where nothing was resolved. After a week I submitted an FCC complaint online (it was very straightforward) and issue was resolved in 24 hours. During the start of covid I was considering buying a pulse oximeter and it annoyed me that some listings on Amazon were using “FDA approved” in listing and logo and I found it was easy to report them to FDA and their listing was taken down. One time I was frustrated that a large and popular NYC-based physical store was charging sales tax for clothing under $110 (in NYC clothing and shoes under $110 have 0% sales tax) and I tired reporting to a state authority but I never even got an acknowledgment that complaint was received :/

photonthug 2y ago

Just to actually say what is probably obvious.. this means that corporations have found a way to outsource the costs of providing customer support to the tax paying general public, including those who are not even using their services and never heard of the company. Ag’s should not be requesting that this is fixed, but requiring it in no uncertain terms, and giving out massive penalties for every single time it’s allowed to happen. If the legal system takes “only” a few years to get wise to the fact that this is just indirect theft, I would say the damages in terms of wasted time are easily in the millions, and plus the opportunity cost of whatever work they did not get to while handling frivolous stuff like this.

nradov 2y ago
AGs aren't dictators. They have no direct power to levy penalties. Which specific law do you think Meta is breaking here? Please to provide an exact citation.
- ceejayoz 2y ago
  > AGs aren't dictators. They have no direct power to levy penalties. They can make life fairly miserable for you, though. (I'm sure there's various consumer protection laws they can leverage in these sorts of cases that vary from state to state.) If the people they represent continue to feel unheard, you get things like the GDPR. "Everything we're doing is legal!" as a response to shitty behavior is a good way to get new law written.
- banana_feather 2y ago
  Public nuisance. Don't bother trying to explain why some statutory language you googled and skimmed doesn't apply.
  - nradov 2y ago
    Please provide a case law citation to show how state public nuisance laws would apply here. Or are you just making things up?
    - photonthug 2y ago
      Sealioning is tedious bro. Why not try to actually contribute something yourself, spend your own time and effort to show us how it doesn’t apply.
      - nradov 2y ago
        Low effort comments without addressing the issue at hand are tedious "bro". Why not try to show us how an existing law does apply instead of making up nonsense. The level of legal illiteracy on HN is disappointing.