Baby Bells Open to Antitrust Lawsuits

jobugeek writes "A New York appeals court has opened up the abililty for consumers to sue the Baby Bells for antitrust violations. The question now is, will anyone try to."

I would still like to see telephone companies

[gwayne]

held liable for lying to customers about how much their services really cost. Phone companies disgust me, and every single one I have dealt with over the past 8 years as lied through their teeth. Ever wonder why basic phone service costs you $40/month when they advertise $15? Or when they promise you 10 cents/min for a low $5 monthly fee, but when you get the bill you see that 10 cents only applies to interstate calls. So not only did you get screwed out of $5, you also get charged 25 cents a minute to call your mother...

Re:Triple Damages

[alexmogil]

Is this one of those cases where we get a form letter that says we are part of the multi-party class action lawsuit... JUST SIGN HERE!

I've been involved in only one of those, and I got a nice, shiny five dollar check for my efforts. The class action suit I was involved in invloved a company hiking finance charges. I was overcharged financing on an item to the tune of $150. $5 is less than $150.

So, are these lawsuits meant as compensation to the consumer, a conduit for a lawyer's SUV fund, or as punishment to the defendant?

Considering.....

[friedmud]

That it took 3 weeks for SBC to install a simple "run-of-the-mill" phoneline in my apartment (hell - it was already installed - all they had to do was turn it on!) - I could see suing them.

We went 3 weeks without any way to contact emergency services whatsoever! That is piss poor.

And the only reason they can get away with it is that they have a monopoly in our area - so what the fuck are we supposed to do about it?

$0.02

Derek

Helpful information for dealing with phone company

[Squeezer]

If you have problem with your phone carrier (such as a baby bell) giving you poor service, taking a month to install a phone line, etc...There are laws you prolly don't know about that are set by your state's government about how soon the phone company must give you service after you make the request for the service (such as adding a new phone line).

When you have problems with the phone company, look up in your phone book under the state government listings for the Public Service Commission or the Public Utilities Commission. Call them and then ask for the phone number to their complaints line. Then call the complaints line. You will speak to someone that has and will contact people higher up in the phone company's service and management departments that will get your service requests done PROMPTLY. If you make a request for service and the phone company doesn't provide it within a reasonable amount of time, the PSC or PUC WILL fine the phone company for violating state laws by not providing you service within a reasonable amount of time according to the laws in your state.

For example, my mom bought a new house. She called the phone company routinely for a month straight. Bellsouth kept saying there were no more available lines in her area and they would have to engineer a solution and get back with her. After putting up with this for a month she finally called the PSC and told them what was going on. The next day she had a working phone line.