I look forward to the era of enlightened business, when it doesn’t require legal action to stop large companies from overcharging customers, running over customers’ rights, and hiding behind unjust laws designed to protect abusive or deceptive practices. Unfortunately, we’re not there.
And who has the energy or resources to put up a fight?
Micro-suits, that’s who. “The David to the corporate Goliath.” Micro-suits is a startup designed to pursue the consumer claims that others either ignore or choose to not tackle. Whereas individuals stand little chance of defeating the army of lawyers waiting to frustrate them – in an arena that has been rigged to deprive them of their ability to file class action suits – Micro-suits is up for the challenge.
Here’s what they’re all about, in their own words:
“When large corporations systematically deceive their customers in small amounts, very few individual consumers realize it. Those who do don’t have the time or patience to pursue their rights. Micro-suits pursues claims for consumers who can no longer participate in class actions as a result of large companies using “class action” waivers. America was founded on people standing on their principles and revolting when their voices were no longer heard. With the aid of cloud computing and Moore’s law, Micro-suits is poised to revolutionize consumer claims as you know them. No matter how little the amount is, micro-suits allows people to stand on their principles and not let corporations profit from their fractionalization of their deceptive income streams by cheating their consumers.”
Full disclosure: it gives me great pleasure to see Micro-suits first going after AT&T, a company that in my personal experience that has proven near impossible to work with and anything but forthright (read: overpriced, shifty bastards).
In this instance, Micro-suits is attacking AT&T’s throttling of unlimited data users, their practice of slowing down data speeds. The Federal Communications Commission has already fined AT&T $100 million for their handling of network data management, but that didn’t help AT&T customers. No credits on their bill, no relief. Anyone think the FCC’s tap on the wrist will change behavior at AT&T?
Micro-suits looks to give AT&T the smackdown it deserves – to see that customers receive compensation and that bogus “administrative fees” are exposed for the sham that they are.
Here’s how it works if you feel you’ve been cheated by the cellular provider. You assign your claim (fill out a very brief questionnaire, providing basic information), and receive updates via email. If Micro-suits wins, you receive a check. If not, it’s at no cost to you. It’s that simple.
The empire has hijacked the universe long enough. Time for Jedi consumers to return. Let’s make this work, shall we?
If you want to join the fight against AT&T (without having to actually join the fight), or if you have an idea for another micro-suit, then let your grievance be heard at micro-suits.com. And tell everyone else about the startup!
