Possible Class Action Lawsuit for Data Outages and Slower than advertised speeds

[bendee]

As others have said, 3G speeds are not guaranteed. There are enough people who report receiving 3G speeds that your claim will likely not be considered. If you want to try a class action suit, look at SIMple Mobile's new 3G plan - they intentionally cap the speed at 119 kbps, well below what is considered 3G.

[tcross8361]

Back when I had the Rumor Touch, I lost data a lot. Every time I called customer support, they were willing to credit something back to my account to compensate for the lose of service. I have experienced slow speeds with android phones, but I've also had speeds well over 1 MB. So it all averages out in my opinion.

[finfan238]

Having experienced how piss-poor VMUSA coverage has been, I'm surprised to see the OP encountering so much animosity and defensive rhetoric.

I'm in northern California, alas, but fully support any attempts at righting this wrong.

He's only receiving animosity from one member, the same one that always causes argumentation. If I didn't root then I would be more interested but you'll have a tough case with this as all vm phones are easily rooted and most members here tend to accept this low quality of service

Sent from my Triumph using HowardForums

[Leslieann]

The ONLY ones who make out in class action lawsuits is the lawyers.

Anyone helping who is here is likely still a customer and will be shooting themselves in the foot because VM will have to raise their rates to pay YOU, the one who abused them to begin with. Why? So they might get a $5 gift certificate while you get millions?

You abuse the service, then rally others to do your dirty work and make you money on the deal, while we get the shaft. I would wish you good luck as a lawyer, but with your morals, you don't need it.

[billm261]

The ONLY ones who make out in class action lawsuits is the lawyers.

While I don't totally disagree with you, VM needs to be put on some type of notice. Even if the firm made the money but the consumers got the benefit of a better product so what? Virgin needs to beef up it's server capacity to put it on par with Boost.

Would you rather keep your 25.00 a month plan and tolerate the data issues?

[georget99]

might get a $5 gift certificate while you get millions?

I just got a check for 3 cents in an eBay settlement!

[Badrsj]

i find the whole attempt dispicable - under the guise of "fairness" a service which actually is value for money is going to get killed while mr. lawyer goes on cause he can afford better.

If you can afford better service "buy it" - else pay less and also understand you are not the top tier customer primarily on who is paying more basis - this does not have to do with your social economic status but primarily upon payments vs level of service.

I am sorry this is what we have become. I am not on VM USA payroll but appreciate that I do not have to pay out the aaass to get reasonable service. Not great service. Just Reasonable service.

Let us not make it more expensive for them to resort to data caps and speed caps and higher rates by suing thier aaass.

[ONE80ONEDAY]

I'll be leaving VM when my balance is empty due to poor data speeds. I litterally live across the street from a Sprint cell tower and can barely stream pandora, forget about youtube. There are at least 20 towers in my area alone and data is simply slow and unreliable. I have had every VM Android device to date and a few non-smartphones and the experience is the same. I have never tethered but do root all my devices so I can backup. I do use a lot of data during off peak hours to download podcasts to my phone. I might use 10-20 mins a month calling. Although BT might be a good plan for some people but it does not fit my needs. Hope something is done to clearly define what data speeds will be provided for all carriers.

[GTwannabe]

The ONLY ones who make out in class action lawsuits is the lawyers.

Anyone helping who is here is likely still a customer and will be shooting themselves in the foot because VM will have to raise their rates to pay YOU, the one who abused them to begin with. Why? So they might get a $5 gift certificate while you get millions?

You abuse the service, then rally others to do your dirty work and make you money on the deal, while we get the shaft. I would wish you good luck as a lawyer, but with your morals, you don't need it.

This. The lawyers make 20 million and the settlement for the consumers is something token like a $5 top-up card or 3 free ringtone/MP3 downloads.

[soylentgreen77]

If you want to create a true class action lawsuit, you will need more than people saying, “My data is slow.”

You will need to create an app that monitors months of normal day to day usage, at various times of the and night. You will need several users using several different kinds of phones in various parts of the nation that can all use a bandwidth monitoring program.

You will need to gather all the data (and most likely the phones to prevent VM from saying the data is irrelevant, if they are unable to test and make sure the phones work properly).

What you need is 6 months worth of data, on a phone that a user will be assigned to use on a temporary basis (so they can turn the phone end at the end of the data gathering period).

You will not be able to build a case by going to a court and saying, “I have 500 people that say their data is slow.”
I am not trying to knock the case, or the argument that the data speeds are slow/non-existent (which they are sometimes), but if you are going to build a case against VM/Sprint, you will need factual, long term, provable information, with the devices used for testing.

[brachiopoid]

I'm not sure that VM ever actually promised anything specific as regards to coverage or outages or the data speeds that you would get, other than to say that they were "3G" whatever that means. And you do use 3G, as promised. It just happens to be inferior to the other carrier's offerings speedwise for several reasons, the single server farm in Kansas for one thing, as well as having lower priority on the network.

[pandora]

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

http://www.theliulawfirm.com/

I preserved the unedited first post you put in this thread. Hopefully if you do sue Virgin Mobile they will use google to research your firm and find your post (or at least my reply to your post directly quoted and unedited).

You are admitting to violating Virgin Mobile TOS by tethering. Installing torrents further complicates the issues of rooting and installing alien software which may contain malware.

The modifications you made to your phone, while violating Virgin Mobile TOS may have introduced software that interfered with your network speed and reliability.

As to speed, and outages. The speed is always up to, never guaranteed, this is the nature of wireless. Outages happen for many reasons. Nobody can prevent outages. A tower can go down for dozens of reasons, including maintenance. A fiber cable accidentally can be cut denying internet service to customers. Many things can happen which bring service down for a short period of time.

Anyone can sue Virgin Mobile, maybe you will win, it's up to the courts and the lawyers representing the various parties to figure these things out.

I like my $25 per month plan. Anything Virgin Mobile has to pay in court or settlement costs, gets added to their cost of doing business and may eventually result in a rate increase.

How is this helping us as Virgin Mobile customers??

[cymbalmonkey]

I preserved the unedited first post you put in this thread. Hopefully if you do sue Virgin Mobile they will use google to research your firm and find your post (or at least my reply to your post directly quoted and unedited).

You are admitting to violating Virgin Mobile TOS by tethering. Installing torrents further complicates the issues of rooting and installing alien software which may contain malware.

The modifications you made to your phone, while violating Virgin Mobile TOS may have introduced software that interfered with your network speed and reliability.

As to speed, and outages. The speed is always up to, never guaranteed, this is the nature of wireless. Outages happen for many reasons. Nobody can prevent outages. A tower can go down for dozens of reasons, including maintenance. A fiber cable accidentally can be cut denying internet service to customers. Many things can happen which bring service down for a short period of time.

Anyone can sue Virgin Mobile, maybe you will win, it's up to the courts and the lawyers representing the various parties to figure these things out.

I like my $25 per month plan. Anything Virgin Mobile has to pay in court or settlement costs, gets added to their cost of doing business and may eventually result in a rate increase.

How is this helping us as Virgin Mobile customers??

I appreciate you defending the oppressed corporate subsidiary that is Virgin Mobile. As for my personal violation of the TOS, that is a contractual violation between me and VMUSA on an account that no longer exists and is absolutely irrelevant to the case. I'm not the Plaintiff. I explained all of this previously. But thank you for preserving the original post for the annals of internet history.

The problem with Virgin isn't the "occasional data outage caused by a snapped fiber optic cable." It's their fraudulent business practices and broken promises to customers. It is the pattern of data outages and slowdowns caused by poor network management and overselling their capacity. They promise 3g speeds on the Sprint Network. They advertise specs on phones such as EVDO-Rev.A. that in total create a picture in customers' minds that they will in fact receive reliable and fast speeds. They don't. Virgin Mobile's servers are woefully inadequate and with the proper research into their network management practices, one might find that they are doing even more to slow down data speeds. They know that because people love their $25 a month plan, they will either continue to tolerate terrible service or in the alternative, abandon Virgin. Unfortunately, Virgin has already gotten the cost of the phone and ___ months of service before that person jumps ship and the next person signs up.

[cymbalmonkey]

If you want to create a true class action lawsuit, you will need more than people saying, “My data is slow.”

You will need to create an app that monitors months of normal day to day usage, at various times of the and night. You will need several users using several different kinds of phones in various parts of the nation that can all use a bandwidth monitoring program.

You will need to gather all the data (and most likely the phones to prevent VM from saying the data is irrelevant, if they are unable to test and make sure the phones work properly).

What you need is 6 months worth of data, on a phone that a user will be assigned to use on a temporary basis (so they can turn the phone end at the end of the data gathering period).

You will not be able to build a case by going to a court and saying, “I have 500 people that say their data is slow.”
I am not trying to knock the case, or the argument that the data speeds are slow/non-existent (which they are sometimes), but if you are going to build a case against VM/Sprint, you will need factual, long term, provable information, with the devices used for testing.

I understand this. And not to sound like a complete pompous ***, but, I did go to law school. You have to start with a client. Then you make a presumptive case that can withstand summary judgment. If you do, then you can get discovery into VMUSA's network practices and infrastructure. Then, if needed, you hire experts to go around doing network speed tests for however long you might need. Most cases settle long before this point.

[cymbalmonkey]

I'll be leaving VM when my balance is empty due to poor data speeds. I litterally live across the street from a Sprint cell tower and can barely stream pandora, forget about youtube. There are at least 20 towers in my area alone and data is simply slow and unreliable. I have had every VM Android device to date and a few non-smartphones and the experience is the same. I have never tethered but do root all my devices so I can backup. I do use a lot of data during off peak hours to download podcasts to my phone. I might use 10-20 mins a month calling. Although BT might be a good plan for some people but it does not fit my needs. Hope something is done to clearly define what data speeds will be provided for all carriers.

EXACTLY! People seem to think that I seek to destroy the world and pick on the poor teenager that is Virgin Mobile. I live in a ghetto town outside of Los Angeles. There is a tower less than a mile from my house and about five or six towers within a mile. I still got ridiculously terrible speeds. Prior to Los Angeles, I lived in rural Virginia, also near a tower. I had Boost Mobile and the data speeds were incredible. Then I switched to Virgin and they were absolute crap. Trips to Miami and D.C. resulted in data outages.

I want transparency. I want honesty. If a company is going to offer "Beyond Talk" which focuses on unlimited data and texting, then the unlimited data better work. Outages and speeds so slow that Pandora can't function are unacceptable.