Blackberry customers sue over system outage
CANADA (BDCi) – A lawsuit filed in Canada Wednesday came on behalf of all Blackberry owners in the country and accuses RIM, Research in Motion, of breach of contract.
According to BBC, a similar complaint was filed in the U.S.
The lawsuit is claiming that RIM should be held “responsible for Blackberry users’ loss of e-mail, BB and/or internet service for approximately one and a half days.”
The suit argues that RIM has not compensated users on a prorated basis for this kind of loss of use, but knowing very well that Blackberry users do pay a monthly fee to the wireless service providers for data services that they were thereof deprived.
A system failure caused the outage on October 10th, lasting four days.
Principal analyst with Informa Telecom & Media Malik Saadi believes action suits like such as these might only be the beginning. He says that if consumer forums were to get involved, mobilization could occur in seeking compensation and could cause a snowball effect.
Informa estimates RIM can expect a $25 million compensation bill if the suit goes through.
Saadi also added that two operators in the Middle East are considering compensation to customers but there are no details as to how that will work.
By: Diego Díaz Source: BBC Photo: Google 27 October 2011
11:42 a.m. P.D.T.