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RIM Faces Class Actions For Global Outage
Accuses Company of 'Unjust Enrichment' for Not Giving Refunds
According to Reuters, Research in Motion has been hit with class action lawsuits in both the U.S. and Canada for an outage earlier this month that impacted tens-of-millions of Blackberry customers across numerous continents. One lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in Quebec on behalf of all Canadian BlackBerry owners with an active service agreement, accuses RIM of breach of contract, negligence and "unjust enrichment." RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis apologized for the outage, but the company did not issue consumer refunds -- instead opting to give users free access to online applications and games "with a face value of up to $100." Some carriers have considered compensating users directly, and none so far have asked RIM for compensation....for their planned compensation.
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wings10
I Am Legend
Premium Member
join:2004-06-09
South Elgin, IL

wings10

Premium Member

Not going to happen.

What's next? Go after ComEd for your power outage?

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 recommendation

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: Not going to happen.

said by wings10:

What's next? Go after ComEd for your power outage?

This is just the usual scummy law firms wanting to make a buck to go away with a settlement. It is called greenmail and isn't much more moral than blackmail. There are just too many law school graduates that need to pay back their student loans and will do anything to make a buck.

pl
@rogers.com

pl to wings10

Anon

to wings10
lol

N3OGH
Yo Soy Col. "Bat" Guano
Premium Member
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs

N3OGH to wings10

Premium Member

to wings10
Only people RIM is "unjustly enriching" is Google & Apple....
Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL

Joe12345678 to wings10

Member

to wings10
utilitys have there own laws that cover and force the utility's to have working systems and can fine them if they don't do there part. Cell phones do not.

vpoko
Premium Member
join:2003-07-03
Boston, MA

vpoko to wings10

Premium Member

to wings10
No, but ComEd doesn't bill me for power during the time that it's out. They're entitled to a pro-rated refund for the days that the service was not working, but being paid for.

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues

Premium Member

Re: Not going to happen.

said by vpoko:

No, but ComEd doesn't bill me for power during the time that it's out. They're entitled to a pro-rated refund for the days that the service was not working, but being paid for.

Your power goes out for **DAYS** ?
Your avatar shows Boston, unless you there is a BF nowhere Boston in Massachusetts, how the hell does power go out for days in a big city like that?

visio
join:2001-08-29
Austin, TX

visio

Member

Re: Not going to happen.

what's your argument? regardless of where you live, utility providers generally do not bill you when (for whatever reason) they arent providing a service.

vpoko
Premium Member
join:2003-07-03
Boston, MA

vpoko to elwoodblues

Premium Member

to elwoodblues
said by elwoodblues:

Your power goes out for **DAYS** ?
Your avatar shows Boston, unless you there is a BF nowhere Boston in Massachusetts, how the hell does power go out for days in a big city like that?

No, I didn't say that at all. But whatever period that my power is out for - be it minutes, hours, or days - I'm not being billed for it.

A company is not entitled to payment for a service that they didn't actually provide.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop to elwoodblues

Member

to elwoodblues
I've gone 14 days so far here in the city. Too bad their focus is on Fiber and running private business out of business instead maintaining their power infrastructure.
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd to wings10

Premium Member

to wings10
power company is a terrible example. if the power goes out the meter is not spinning and I am not racking up charges.
hoolahoous
join:2004-08-25
Red Valley, AZ

hoolahoous

Member

enrichment ??

this lawsuit make it seem as if RIM made/save money because of outage. Most probably RIM actually would have spent tons of money fixing this issue (with all the overtime and probably expediting hardware replacement etc.)

vpoko
Premium Member
join:2003-07-03
Boston, MA

vpoko

Premium Member

Re: enrichment ??

That's not the customers' problem. If someone pays for 30 days of service (in a billing cycle) and only gets 27, they should get a refund for the 3 days they didn't get service but were paying for it.
tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT

tired_runner

Premium Member

Re: enrichment ??

That's actually the cell phone provider's problem. Cell phones didn't stop working as a result of the outage, only messaging stopped.

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues

Premium Member

Re: enrichment ??

said by tired_runner:

That's actually the cell phone provider's problem. Cell phones didn't stop working as a result of the outage, only messaging stopped.

It's also a consumer product, no SLA's involved.

vpoko
Premium Member
join:2003-07-03
Boston, MA

vpoko

Premium Member

Re: enrichment ??

said by elwoodblues:

It's also a consumer product, no SLA's involved.

So if I walk into a store, pay for a product, and then the store doesn't give me my product, I'm not entitled to a refund because I didn't have an SLA?

Or if I hire someone to shovel snow, and they don't show up, I still need to pay them because I don't have an SLA?

sk1939
Premium Member
join:2010-10-23
Frederick, MD

sk1939 to elwoodblues

Premium Member

to elwoodblues
Actually, a lot of major corporations still use Blackberry for it's security features like encrypted messaging. Those companies all have SLA's I'm sure.

michieru
Premium Member
join:2009-07-25
Denver, CO

michieru to tired_runner

Premium Member

to tired_runner
The cellphone provider was providing access to the internet at the time the outage happened. This was a problem with RIM and not the cellphone provider. RIM had a faulty system with no redundancy and it collapsed, yet the customers need to pay for 3 days of service they never got?

Their customers are leaving because of this, and as a blackberry customer I am considering my next upgrade to be a android and not a blackberry.
drone009
join:2011-09-21
Las Vegas, NV

drone009

Member

Enrichment.

He he... "enriched."
sharksfan3
Premium Member
join:2004-02-16
North Hollywood, CA

sharksfan3

Premium Member

RIM

people still use blackberry devices? can't recall the last time i saw one...
Ricanlegend
join:2011-05-18
Bronx, NY

Ricanlegend

Member

Re: RIM

Heck i dont even remember the last must have RIM phone

workablob
join:2004-06-09
Houston, TX

workablob to sharksfan3

Member

to sharksfan3
said by sharksfan3:

people still use blackberry devices? can't recall the last time i saw one...

Surely you jest. A Sh*t load of people use them including myself.

But, for how much longer Hee Hee.

I just demo'd a Windows 7 phone and I want one!!

Dave
buggerit
join:2011-02-14
canada

buggerit

Member

lawyers

of course this is a stupid ambulance chaser looking to get in on the action. Thing is RIM pays out to the carriers SLA penalties for such things (seven figures per carrier). You think carriers wouldn't cover their ass for such eventualities?
djhexer
join:2002-10-07
Reno, NV

djhexer

Member

Does RIM collect any $$$??

Google is free even apples iCloud is free (e-mail and contact storage etc.)

But does RIM charge? if so Yes they should issue refunds but if they are anything like google and apple then what refund is available? Heck they are giving free paid apps, isn't that enough?

I would think you should still be able to text and call because it was not a provider outage it was a BBM outage. Seeing most people have a corporate e-mail address you "could" always check your e-mail from your computer. From what I understand you could not connect to BBM services.

Bill Neilson
Premium Member
join:2009-07-08
Alexandria, VA

Bill Neilson

Premium Member

I have no issue with it

I use my phone just about every minute for work.

I pay an amount per month that I think is criminal.

If my phone's network went off for a day or more...I would want a refund for that day even if it is a few bucks.

Someone brought up power...yes, if my power went off, the power company would not charge me for that day. When my DirecTV goes out (not often), I call DirecTV and they give me either some credits or something financially.

Ben B
@xo.net

Ben B

Anon

Rip off

From a systems administrator standpoint, I completely loath the blackberrys.
For the BB to fully communicate (email, contacts, calendar) with an exchange server, I have to purchase/setup/maintain a blackberry exchange server and also pay a monthly access fee to connect to that server.
Guess what? Android/iPhones can fully connect directly to exchange without any additional hardware/software/fees.

Eagles1221
join:2009-04-29
Vincentown, NJ

Eagles1221

Member

Re: Rip off

You are misinformed. BESX is free for up to 75 users. I have 12 active synch devices that hammer my server harder than my 72 BB users.

And BB with OS 4.2 or higher can connect to OWA - which did seem to work for some during the outage.

And with BB you get a shedload more administrative features.

Ben B
@xo.net

Ben B

Anon

Re: Rip off

I stand corrected. BES was already in place when I took over. Good to know it’s free up to 75 users. However, Sprint does charge me $30 a month to connect that server (I still don’t understand why). If I can sync email/contacts/calendar via OWA, then I'm going to move my 1 user off BES and get rid of it.