[mschuster91]

> They tried to argue that their employees can lie to your face to get you to buy a ticket under false pretense and then refuse to honor the promised terms. That's fucked.

Pretty standard behavior for big companies. Airlines and telcos are the utter worst... you have agent A on the phone on Monday, who promises X to be done by Wednesday. Thursday, you call again, get agent B, who says he doesn't see anything, not even a call log, from you, but of course he apologizes and it will be done by Friday. (Experienced customers of telcos will know that the drama will unfold that way for months... until you're fed up and involve lawyers)

[BugsJustFindMe]

I had a problem with Verizon FIOS that went on for more than half a year, where they'd charge me for a service I wasn't signed up for, then I'd call in to complain and demand a refund, then they'd refund me and apologize profusely and swear up and down that they had fixed the problem for sure and that it would definitely not happen again, then it would of course happen again the next month, rinse&repeat.

Finally I filed an FCC consumer complaint which then forces a written response from the company within 30 days. I got a call a few days later from someone at Verizon's "Executive Relations" who fixed it immediately. It was such a frustrating dance, but the real trick is that when this happens don't mess around with a hostile company. Just go directly to the regulator agency they're required to answer to.

[morkalork]

I had this happen with Rogers! Another loved and treasured bigcorp in Canada! Called to tell them I was moving in 2 months and to cancel my service and the agent says, oh well if you want to still have internet in the mean time, you'll have to call back in two months when you move. Ok. Great. I do that. Agent number 2: Well you didn't cancel with X many days of notice so there's a cancellation fee now on your acoount. Pay up!

I suppose agent 1 was jerking my chain so he wouldn't take the hit on his retention metrics so I don't blame him 100%. I blame Rogers bullshit system of incentives for their employees and their bullshit contracts they force on consumers who have little to no choice in the market here.

[ToucanLoucan]

I bet if we removed the requirement to get a lawyer and file a lawsuit that those behaviors would vanish real quick, if all you had to do as the wronged consumer was report to an authority that Company X is doing business dishonestly.

[somat]

You are probably not wrong, however take note that this is exactly the line of thinking that led to the DMCA. Beware the law of unintended consequences.

To misquote you.

"I bet if we removed the requirement to get a lawyer and file a lawsuit that those behaviors would vanish real quick, if all you had to do as the wronged copyright holder was report to an authority(the hosting service) that Company X is infringing on your copyright."

[izacus]

It also led to things like easy small claims court, consumer protection agencies and DPOs which protect consumers against corporations here in Europe without them having to shell out thousands of euros for lawyers and court cases.

[MichaelZuo]

Do all the upsides outweigh all the downsides, such as DMCA?

[ToucanLoucan]

Point to you there, but also I would never in a thousand years trust a company, especially a publicly traded one, with that kind of power.

[mcny]

> I bet if we removed the requirement to get a lawyer and file a lawsuit that those behaviors would vanish real quick, if all you had to do as the wronged consumer was report to an authority that Company X is doing business dishonestly.

They can still appeal the decisions of the authority in the courts of law. They will just get the authority disbanded altogether. Previously, on hn `Amazon argues that national labor board is unconstitutional (apnews.com)` https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39411829

[mschuster91]

In Germany, we have the Verbraucherschutz as a low-level institution to handle such claims. They can and do consolidate such reports and can file lawsuits if there is evidence of systemic misbehavior.

[throwboatyface]

You can file in small claims without a lawyer.

[renewiltord]

I think I could price for a few tens of thousands of dollars a service that creates a bunch of such wronged consumers. There are a bunch of homeless people in San Francisco we will represent. To make it easy for someone on the streets to be able to complain, we actually operate as a non-profit that advocates on their behalf for having wronged the company. You could use my service to attack another company on demand, but I advise that you do it at critical moments. Ideally, two weeks before a big launch or so should do it so that we have enough time to stagger out sufficient number of complaints.

[dmurray]

This isn't a new business idea. There are law firms that specialize in consumer class action suits, and part of their skillset is finding lots of wronged consumers to represent.

Signing up homeless people by the hundred isn't exactly the gold standard of what these firms do, but it's not a million miles removed.