Practice Management

What if "bad customer service" were actionable?

By Dan Hull

This AP article made the rounds last week: "Los Angeles Time Sues Warner Cable, Claims Shoddy Service". The suit, of course, really interested WAC? What if falling short of promises made in routine selling and puffing became, in effect, a business tort, or a breach of an implied contract? An action sounding in "shoddy customer service?" Much of the California Time Warner action is grounded on violations of California law governing unfair business and deceptive advertising practices. There are obvious "floodgate" problems with dressing up bad service as violations of California's business and profession codes--but we like the City Attorney's pluck, and lots of ideas with legal legs start in flaky California:

LOS ANGELES (AP, June 5): Time Warner Cable Inc. was accused Thursday of lying to Los Angeles subscribers and providing shoddy customer service in a lawsuit that seeks potentially tens of millions of dollars in fines against the city's main provider of cable television.

"The company has broken multiple laws, and harmed countless Los Angeles consumers," City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said in a statement. The suit was filed as a civil law enforcement action and names the people of California as plaintiffs. [more]

Full post as published by What About Clients? on June 11, 2008 (boomark / email).