TekSavvy → Re: Incompetent technician cut off my Internet!

I'm not saying the OP here is right or wrong, but TOS's are not the final word in the legal world. TOS's can't take away your legal rights, even if the wording says it does. That won't stand up in court. A judge can always decide to ignore a TOS if the situation warrants or if he feels it's unfair/too restrictive.

Whether or not his claim would have any success or not I'm not sure, especially on the Teksavvy end as they are also a victim of Bell here.

The problem here is that both companies can deny responsibility. Bell denies responsibility because I'm not a Bell customer, and TekSavvy denies responsibility because the incident was caused by a Bell technician.

By going after both of them at once, this makes it easier for a judge to work out who's responsible for the incident, and how much I should be awarded in compensation if I win.

Of course, that's if it comes to that. They can get out of paying anything at all if my Internet connection is restored on Monday.

Bell's track record in court is pitiful to say the least even with all their overpaid lawyers.

Heading home now. I'll try to use a tether on my phone, but it might not work, or it'll be too slow. That means I'll have to stay at the office a lot longer just to have enough resources to complete my daily tasks.

Who said anything about legal rights? TSI would definitely not be negligent on their part. They are doing the best that they can on a best effort service.

You're right, I'm not the judge, but I'm pretty sure that its just about iron clad, based on the amount of times I heard in calls "I'm losing hundreds of dollars a day because my internet is down and its all your fault and I'm going to sue you".....

To my knowledge I was never asked to testify in a court and never heard about a court proceeding regarding an internet service outage.

Unless you can prove gross negligence on TSI's part, and unless you have the name of the Bell Technician in question....it could have been ANYONE in that room, what if someone went in there and goofed around with the wires?

I'm not sure why you even indicate Bell since as we know your services are not with them so they have no "duty to perform"...and in reality don't know you from a hole in the ground from a customer standpoint.

I know you want to be on your soapbox and it sucks that its happenned on a long weekend. Long story short, I'm sure your internet service will not be restored on Monday.

....Also going after both of them doesn't make it easier for a judge to work out who's responsible for the incident....it makes it easier for both parties to claim judgment against you when you lose.

Just to remind you of a little history:

»news.nationalpost.com/20 ··· -ticket/

If you want to be liable for both TSI's and Bell's lawyers fees as a result, be my guest....I wish you luck.

You're comparing the possibility of my future small claims court case with a failed class action lawsuit over a $30 parking ticket? Heh!

Also, for small claims court, you don't need a lawyer, and the fees are low. That was done intentionally so that people could demand fair compensation over issues in which the amounts involved don't justify a full court case.

Granted, the case against TekSavvy (if it ever escalades to that level) could be tricky as they're located in Chatham, Ontario. If the Quebec court doesn't recognize jurisdiction, I'd have to plead my case in Ontario.

And look at the implications if I lose completely and have no recourse whatsoever because I went with a third-party ISP. That would mean YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHTS as a customer if your third-party Internet connection fails due to neglect by the last-mile provider. Knowing this, why would ANYONE ever take a chance purchasing any kind of service from a third-party provider?

That could kill off the whole industry.

on a side note, I couldn't get my phone tether to work. I'm missing the appropriate software. Gotta pick that up at work today, the only place I still have proper Internet access.

IANAL. My suggestion is...
•talk to a real lawyer.
•ask him what charges could be filed against a 19-year old vandal who broke into the telecom room and maliciously cut someone's line
•ask about filing similar charges against Bell, with the added clause "through malice or negligence".
•as you pointed out, you are not Bell's customer, so they do not have a TOS that gives them immunity, anymore than the fictitious 19-year old vandal
•what Bell needs to straighten them out is having employees face jail time and/or criminal records for stuff like this. A $7K out-of-court-settlement is loose-change-in-the-sofa for a multi-billion dollar corporation

Let's hope the tether doesn't work.