Courts Reject Tech Corporation Bans on Class Action Suits

Frosty Piss writes "Class action waivers included in cell phone companies' contracts with customers are invalid in Washington State because they violate the state's Consumer Protection Act, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Five plaintiffs accused Cingular of overcharging customers between $1 and $40 per month in roaming and hidden charges. Cingular had an arbitration clause that required individual arbitration and prohibited class action litigation or class action arbitration. From the article: 'In another class action-related ruling issued Thursday, the high court unanimously ruled in favor of a couple that filed a class action suit against America Online, Inc., claiming the Internet provider created and charged them for secondary membership accounts that they didn't want.'"

Re:Do class action suits ever benefit the consumer

[Waffle Iron]

I'm fine with vouchers for everyone, as long as the vouchers are manufactured by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

(The same goes for holiday gift certificates.)

Re:Here in the UK

[armanox]

Of course not. UK citizens don't have rights to sign away *ducks and covers*

Re:Anyone who gets overcharged for anything

[Evilest Doer]

What are you, a 13 year old girl?

No, he's an FBI agent. Don't you know anything about the internet?

Re:Anyone who gets overcharged for anything

[raftpeople]

3000 minutes a month? WTF? You need to find more efficient ways to communicate

My grandpa uses 0 minutes per month, man that guy is really efficient!

Introduce your friends/coworkers to email, forums, wikis, SMS, etc

My daughter uses SMS and is much more efficient than me because I use voice, here is an example of a speed comparison:

Me speaking on cell phone to daughter: "I will pick you up in 10 minutes for soccer practice"
Daughter texting: OK

As you can see texting is clearly faster, now let's try a wiki example:

Me speaking on cell phone to co-worker: "To boot the server, just flip the big red switch"
Co-worker using wiki: {1 mouse click on hyperlink to "Booting the Server"}

Again, no comparison. Let's make sure a forum is more efficient also:

Me speaking on cell phone to friend: "Man I wish I knew if Sony had cut the price of the PS3, I really think I would buy one if they did, unfortunately I don't know and neither do you because we're both having this conversation on this dang cell phone!"
Friend reading slashdot: "Sony Drops PS3 Price"

It's pretty clear, the cell phone is probably one of the less efficient tools in our arsenal.

Tune in next week for another in depth efficiency article titled "The Wheel - What Went Wrong?"

Re:Anyone who gets overcharged for anything

[raftpeople]

Why are you making plans to pick her up for soccer practice 10 minutes ahead of time instead of a day or a week? When I had after school or weekend activities as a child I knew which parent would be taking me, and when, at least a few days in advance.

Lets check and see how that would work:

As I pick up daughter for soccer, she asks: "You're late, why didn't you call?"

Me: "Traffic was bad but Sparr0 didn't want me to use my cell to make a voice call, so I used my cell and text'd my status to the Soccer Parents forum, I hoped you might have seen it there."

Daughter: "I don't go to that forum"

Me: "Dang"

Daughter: "Who's Sparr0?"

Me: "He's a poster on slashdot, seems to know all situations in which a cell phone might be used, turns out they just aren't efficient. Anyway, instead of me just telling you, why don't you check the the wiki I setup, it should explain everything."