Windows Phone Thoughts: Cingular and Verizon Wireless Face Class-Action Lawsuits

"A class action lawsuit was filed against Cingular today in federal court in Seattle. The suit alleges Cingular degraded the service of AT&T customers in the process integrating the two networks, and forced them to pay unfair fees to switch to Cingular service. The suit also takes Cingular to task for charging AT&T customers an early termination fee if they wanted to leave after the level of service was degraded... Verizon too has been hit with a class action lawsuit, as charges against the company for adding roadside assistance to customers' bills without their knowledge have now reached a federal court."



In our extremely litigious society, many of these lawsuits are frivilous or without merit. At the same time, there are countless moments where corporations outright take advantage of the very customers they are supposed to serve, and class-action lawsuits like these seem to be the only way to get the proper attention to make them realize we've caught on to their behavior. If this determined to be true (and with settlements, we may never know), it may just turn into a vicious circle with "repercussions" of higher rates and fees, or worse. Your thoughts?