[PLUG-TALK] Bitching.

[gepr at tempusdictum.com]

Brent Rieck writes:
 > gepr at tempusdictum.com wrote:
 > > If Verizon rips me off, then it's my fault for allowing them to rip
 > > me off.  
 > 
 > Not always.. it's hardly uncommon for companies to lie and purposely 
 > deceive potential and existing customers, often those potential/existing 
 > customers have no way of determining if the company is lying or being 
 > deceptive until it is too late (eg: the after the check has been 
 > cashed).  It seems to me that a class action suit is the only way for a 
 > small customer to have any recourse in such a situation.

I understand this logic and would never want to outlaw class-action
suits.  But, at bottom, this viewpoint propogates the customer as
a victim.  And that's just not the case.  The customer _could_ be 
in control, if they made their purchasing decisions on the larger
context, rather than on price alone.  Examine the companies you 
purchase from.  If they screw other people, they're likely to screw
you.  If they have a clean record (so far) and the end up screwing
you, keep track of their management and don't buy from them or the
companies that management moves to.

Or, worst case, just admit that sometimes we get screwed and that's
just the way it is.  Class-action suits punish the company and that
company's investors.  And a company is a _legal_ entity... which means
that you can't really punish it.  Punishing it is a useless effort
because it's a company, not really a corporeal entity, despite the
word corporation.  (You don't get any significant money out of most
class-actions; so, punishment is the only excuse for them.)  If it's
an individual, negative reinforcement works... but for large
organizations, it doesn't seem to... which is why our legal system
works so hard to pierce the corporate veil and go after the officers
when companies do bad things.

So, the only good that's being done when a class-action goes through
is that the customer sends a message, indirectly, to the investors
that says "the company you've invested in is corrupt."  And, if that
message got through, I would say it's worthwhile.  But, I have many
doubts about whether that message gets through.

-- 
glen e. p. ropella              =><=                           Hail Eris!
H: 503.630.4505                              http://www.ropella.net/~gepr
M: 971.219.3846                               http://www.tempusdictum.com