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The People Vs Microsoft
Companies like Horizon, McDonald's, AT&T, Sprint, Ford, HP, 7-11 have lost class action law suits, sometimes multiple times. Thousands of companies have been forced to take more responsibility or otherwise review and change the way they deal with and relate to their clients/customers because of actions of an individual. In many cases the reasons class action suits are brought about might seem petty when applied to just the individual person(client/customer). Scolding hot coffee, unjustified tax, over charging of cents - $2 per billing cycle, unreasonable customer service or just neglance are a few. Even if you sign a contract and understand the terms perfectly(consider recent Yahoo/DSL) if the contract is unreasonable, the companies service 'poor' or the actions they take to provide customers with solutions are not timely, fall short of what one might consider normal expectations the contracts are meaningless. The courts have overlooked this, threw em out and ruled in the favor of the class.
Although I agreed that AT&T could not always provide me with speeds equal to the DSL service I was purchasing they now owe me a refund. I understand it is not always their fault but they should have done much more. This was not the deciding factor in the case it was more due to deception on their behalf. But, if you review the 30-40 pages this comes up multiple times, was an initial and chief complaint. I understand the case was more complex and in the end my reason provided here was not a deciding factor. I am not seeking scrutiny on my inability to describe this case nor do I want to hear your more proper description. This is a weak analogy to demonstrate a point. Now that I anticipated an objection..... More than likely AT&T will issue me a check in or around July for $2 per month for every month I had their service. I am expecting $36.
My point $2 to an individual is petty. If a thief stole $2 and only $2 from our car we would rightly be concerned we were robbed. However, spending 3-4 years in court to force them to pay back your $2 is foolish. But, 1 person can represent 'the class' in court for unfair treatment and request/demand some type of compensation. The primary in the case will never get rich nor will the class they represent - that almost is always the truth. Usually it is the attorney who makes a few million. But .25 cents per month to a few dollars times 1 million - "X" amount of class members(customers) usually means the company is responsible to pay tens of millions of dollars. That is the purpose of class action suits. 1 person fights for and represents your rights for fair, professional, reasonable treatment - whatever. A 20-million dollar judgment against you forces even the most ignorant to closer consider their actions or how harmful they may be.
Thousands of Microsoft errors have been reported tens of thousands of times. The errors are documented and have been known for months. In 5 min of research it seems the many of the problems have been happening for a decade and this is not an exaggeration. There are hundreds of forums similar to this one around with tens of thousands of members. This clearly demonstrates MS support and service is not working for one reason or another. Millions(hundreds of?) are spent on tech support much of which is overcharged and I bet frequently unnecessary. Check MS social forums 10? 10,000? 100,000 or more unanswered questions in the last 1, 2, 5 or 10 years? Remember NT? It took a year to fully address this. I can go on and on. MS is not all bad. I like Win 7 when it works. I know MS has hundreds of millions(billions?) of customers quite a few companies do this is not an excuse. In no other circumstance could a company put a product on the market and allow it to have the same defect(error) reported by thousands of people with the expection this was ok. Yet, with computers for some reason we tolerate. Yes, I know it is a unique market I do not think that ought to be excusable either.
SO WHY is it excusable and MS not accountable?
I do not know that this suit would be about. Poor customer service, untimely service, too costly, negelance, faulty products, buggy products, inability to investigate or repair products in a timely fashion, compensation for down time/lost man hours/or other expenses? I dunno. I googled a few hundred thousand reasons though in a few seconds though. Are any legit or are they all petty and frivilous claims unique to the individual. I am just after your thoughts why this has not happened with MS.
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