Possible Class Action Lawsuit for Data Outages and Slower than advertised speeds
Let me start by apologizing if this is in an inappropriate section.
I am an attorney in Los Angeles and a former Virgin Mobile customer. I had the Optimus V/$25 plan from approximately March of 2011 until last week. Personally, I experienced at least three major data outages that lasted for multiple hours. In addition, I have never gotten 3g speeds, which are what they advertise. Because of this, and the threads that I see here that are dozens of pages long with information on even more data outages, I think something ought to be done. Companies shouldn't advertise something that they can't or won't deliver. They shouldn't oversell their network capacity. Imaging a farmer overselling his crops. He'd screw over a lot of people.
Here's my only problem. I was a naughty user. I may have possibly used such programs as tTorrent and Wireless Tether. What I need are people who (a) have gotten the terrible data speeds and outages and (b) haven't rooted, hacked, torrented, etc. and (c) are preferably in the Los Angeles area. Other users will hopefully have the opportunity to receive compensation as well, but we need a face to the lawsuit here in Southern California.
If you or a loved one fit the description, you should contact our lawyers immediately for a free confidential case evaluation. You may be entitled to compensation and perhaps we can at least get Virgin Mobile to credit existing customers for service outages and/or stop using their network management systems and Kansas-based proxy servers that make their data so much slower than that of their twin network, Boost, or of the postpaid network, Sprint.
My personal email address for this matter is peacockweb@gmail.com. I'm using this because I want to keep spam out of the company addresses. Or, if you'd prefer, you can text my Google Voice number at (608) 622-7833. For more information on me personally, you can find my firm at
Would this be your first case? It says on your website that you haven't received the results of your bar exam yet.
I don't see where a few hour long data outages and relatively low data speeds have damaged anybody. The claims made by VM have been on the whole quite valid. My speeds run about 3-500K download, I never have gotten the call that says I'm over using my data, and certainly the upper data limits are very generous for the money.
Anybody signing up will have all of their records pulled and examined. They will gone through with a fine tooth comb for any excessive data usage, signs of tethering, torrent downloading, and any breach of VM rules.
It's seriously not worth it to get a check for a few dollars and loss of the grandfathered plan.
Would this be your first case? It says on your website that you haven't received the results of your bar exam yet.
I don't see where a few hour long data outages and relatively low data speeds have damaged anybody. The claims made by VM have been on the whole quite valid. My speeds run about 3-500K download, I never have gotten the call that says I'm over using my data, and certainly the upper data limits are very generous for the money.
Anybody signing up will have all of their records pulled and examined. They will gone through with a fine tooth comb for any excessive data usage, signs of tethering, torrent downloading, and any breach of VM rules.
It's seriously not worth it to get a check for a few dollars and loss of the grandfathered plan.
I appreciate your input. This is not my first case, but yes, I am a new attorney. However, the firm has signed off on the case and they are far more experienced than my recently graduated self.
Might I inquire as to where you live? I've lived in rural Virginia and Los Angeles, as well as visited the midwest, Washington D.C. and Miami. My speeds were miserably slow in all of them. By comparison, my brother has a comparable android phone on Boost which has much, much, much higher speeds while running on the same network. Why? Likely due to their proxy servers/network management system.
They likely will check for tethering and torrent downloading. That's why I asked specifically for someone who doesn't do either. I'm attempting, at least for the main plaintiff, to control the variables of tethering, flashing ROMs, and anything of that sort.
And the named Plaintiff tends to get more than a few dollars. As for the grandfathered plan, they can't cut you off because you are suing them. That would be ridiculous, retaliatory, and quite possibly grounds for further recovery. But if you've had the data speeds I had, losing your grandfathered plan wouldn't mean much anyway.
Finally, to address the issue of damages, they contracted to provide a service. Data outages that could have been prevented (by not over-selling their network) or the terrible data speeds due to "network management" and proxy servers are both breaches of contract. People are not getting what they paid for. There was a recent T-Mobile settlement for a similar outage with their sidekicks' data outage. Existing customers got a credit on their service and the named plaintiffs got a much more significant award.
YOU are the reason Sprint's (and therefore VM's) 3G network is overloaded. YOU and others like you, who use torrent clients and tethering apps cause data outages and slow speeds by over-saturating the network.
Do you even know what "3G" means, technically? I am not a lawyer, but it was extremely easy to search "3G" on Google and click the first result, which was Wikipedia. To qualify as 3G by ITU standards, a network must provide peak data rates of at least 200 kbps. That means a network qualifies as 3G if it can manage to provide 25 kilobytes per second. (200 kilobits = 25 kilobytes). That is peak speed, not sustained speed. Also keep in mind that this is at the "data link layer", which includes any overhead such as authentication, handshakes, pings, and other protocol overhead. So even if a speed test reports 150kbps, the data link layer may still be performing at 200. Regardless, you most likely received "true" 200kbps at some point during your tenure with VM.
If you look at VM's terms of service you'll find in large block letters "WE DO NOT PROMISE ERROR-FREE OR UNINTERRUPTED SERVICE" (emphasis added).
I think you can safely write off any claim against them based on network speed or service outages.
Wow, all that information in 10 minutes, and I didn't even need to spend 6 years in school or hire a team of paralegals!
wow talk about abuse. you steal internet and tether your phone then talk about court case. its says on the Virgin Mobile website that tethering is not included. im sure VM will use this post as evidence in the court case because you admitted that you were naughty.
YOU are the reason Sprint's (and therefore VM's) 3G network is overloaded. YOU and others like you, who use torrent clients and tethering apps cause data outages and slow speeds by over-saturating the network.
Do you even know what "3G" means, technically? I am not a lawyer, but it was extremely easy to search "3G" on Google and click the first result, which was Wikipedia. To qualify as 3G by ITU standards, a network must provide peak data rates of at least 200 kbps. That means a network qualifies as 3G if it can manage to provide 25 kilobytes per second. (200 kilobits = 25 kilobytes). That is peak speed, not sustained speed. Also keep in mind that this is at the "data link layer", which includes any overhead such as authentication, handshakes, pings, and other protocol overhead. So even if a speed test reports 150kbps, the data link layer may still be performing at 200. Regardless, you most likely received "true" 200kbps at some point during your tenure with VM.
If you look at VM's terms of service you'll find in large block letters "WE DO NOT PROMISE ERROR-FREE OR UNINTERRUPTED SERVICE" (emphasis added).
I think you can safely write off any claim against them based on network speed or service outages.
Wow, all that information in 10 minutes, and I didn't even need to spend 6 years in school or hire a team of paralegals!
My friend, there is no need to be hostile. The torrent thing was truly a one time thing, mainly just to see how it worked. Were I to bootleg regularly, I'd certainly do it on a real internet connection... not an absurdly slow cellular connection. As for tethering, well, that really hasn't worked due to the slow data speeds.
Also my angry friend, the phones are EVDO Rev A phones, which are 3.1 Mbit/s capable. The specs are advertised on their site, their boxes, etc. The 15 or 20kbs that I and many others get are not 3G, EVDO, or even Edge.
Hmmm, to think, my seven years in school weren't even required for that.
And although they TYPE IN BOLD AND CAPSLOCK TO COVER THEIR REARS mass data outages that covered the entire atlantic coast for an entire weekend and sporadic but regular data outages are beyond what would be reasonable from a cellular company. They can type disclaimers, but they are held to have to perform as a reasonable cellular company would. They have failed in that regard repeatedly. (This part is from my seven years of school).
wow talk about abuse. you steal internet and tether your phone then talk about court case. its says on the Virgin Mobile website that tethering is not included. im sure VM will use this post as evidence in the court case because you admitted that you were naughty.
Thank you, but I'm not the Plaintiff, so this really wouldn't help them in any theoretical court case.
ok.just to let you know VM checks these forums.i would never put my name and website on these forums along with talking about lawsuit and talking about stealing. i also wouldn't want to be represented by a lawyer that talks like that. its my personal opinion nothing personal since i don't know you.
ok.just to let you know VM checks these forums.i would never put my name and website on these forums along with talking about lawsuit and talking about stealing. i also wouldn't want to be represented by a lawyer that talks like that. its my personal opinion nothing personal since i don't know you.
I appreciate your advice. And I might take you up on it. That being said, I'm not the plaintiff on the case, specifically because I don't exactly have clean hands. I tend to tweak my phones and try things just to say that I can do them. I've probably tethered for a total of fifteen minutes while having Virgin (it was too damn slow) and downloaded one song via torrent (Look at Me Now... Busta killed it.). My name is irrelevant to the actual case, as my firm, not me, would be the ones on the case (I'm new, as one of the other poster's posts highlighted). But thank you once again. I will remove my website from the initial post and leave the firm's site for you all to reference.
It sounds like you understand the data server issue that so many here are in denial about.
While I admit its been a while since I took any law classes when I earned my degree does "fitness for a particular purpose" come into play?
What documentation do you need ?
Thanks for addressing this issue.
Sent from my EVO3D
You make an excellent point about "fitness for a particular purpose." Speaking strictly from memory, that would refer to the implied warranty of all products to perform for whatever purpose they are intended for. In this case, the data outages prevented the products from performing as they should have (inability to use GPS due to data outages REALLY was a PITA for me personally). It would be an excellent additional theory of the case in addition to the existing breach of contract/false advertising claims.
What we'd need would basically be your story. How long did you have the phone, did you do anything like flashing or tethering, were your speeds subpar, do you still have the phone lying around (not necessary, but would REALLY help), etc. We'd establish, through your affadavit and possible deposition (unlikely, but possible) that you had the phone, didn't do anything to break it yourself, and never got what you paid for. You'd represent the million or more subscribers that they had during that time period.
If I recall correctly, the major outages were in March to start with, and have happened periodically since.
I should also mention that in addition to whatever testimony we get from the Class Action plaintiffs, if we proceeded with the case, we'd most likely be able to get documentation from Virgin on what their server practices are, what their data throttling policies are, when the outages occurred, etc. We'd also theoretically have an expert do speed tests and analyze Virgin's network setup to see what effect their proxy servers might have on data speeds and whether customers are in fact getting what they paid for.
i don't think you realize how much prepaid rates were a couple years ago.im on the $25 plan and its cheap.even at $35 a month for 300 data and text is good.the things your talking about is for someone paying post paid prices. i think people complaining about data speeds are dreaming. its prepaid if you have a problem get a new service. going to court is for contract customers if you ask me
i don't think you realize how much prepaid rates were a couple years ago.im on the $25 plan and its cheap.even at $35 a month for 300 data and text is good.the things your talking about is for someone paying post paid prices. i think people complaining about data speeds are dreaming. its prepaid if you have a problem get a new service. going to court is for contract customers if you ask me
I hear ya, but the price of the plan is absolutely irrelevant. They promise something, they delivered something else. Meanwhile, their customers have gone out and purchased Optimus Vs, Optimus Sliders, Triumphs, etc., thinking that they are going to get acceptable 3g data speeds. Their phones, if they want to "get a new service" all are worthless unless you can find someone else to buy your phone second hand, which usually means losing a good amount of money on it.
The "if they don't like it, they can go somewhere else" argument is bull. You have to make a substantial investment ($100+ originally for the OpV) just to get the service and then the data service is nearly unusable.
Possible Class Action Lawsuit for Data Outages and Slower than advertised speeds
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Ablinkin
Bookmarks