Everyone has heard about the exploding Samsung Note 7 smartphones by now. Cars have caught fire when the battery in the phone ignited. People have been burned. Airlines banned the phone. And finally Samsung recalled them at a cost of over $5-billion.
But what about people who bought the phone and suffered personal injury or property damage? It seems like Samsung is trying to burn them twice.
*MOUSE PRINT:
20-second CBS Video
What? Deep in the product box they tucked a mandatory arbitration clause on page 16 of the instructions preventing people from suing them. What foresight (and sleaze).
*MOUSE PRINT:
Watch the full CBS News story here.
The arbitration clauses are everywhere. I understand why they are there, basically to prevent frivolous lawsuits. But, there are cases where the consumer needs his/her day in court. Arbitration is found in >90% of the cases in favor of the company, who pays for the arbitration services. (Any connection there?)
This case may be big enough, with enough media attention, to put limits on what rights are being given (taken) away by simply not being aware of the existence of such a clause buried on page 16 (?) of a densely words legalese booklet buried at the bottom of the packaging. It may not (probably not) happen during this administration but it will come about.
People who had actual physical harm (burns, etc) and physical damage to belongings are being denied a right to which they should be entitled.
Yes, Samsung gave credit for the returned phones, but didn’t make whole the ones who suffered.
My 2 cents…
Well they have to do something sleazy to not have to pay out extra millions.
“Now that you’ve purchased our product, here is a description of the ways that we will make it difficult for consumers to hold us accountable for it’s quality.”
It’s time to only buy phones and tablets with removable batteries, vote with your money.
The arbitration clauses are there to prevent class action lawsuits. That’s the only time big companies feel pain. They don’t care if a small percentage opt out. They’ve already squashed the threat of a class action.
Blocking the little guy’s access to the courts is a major mission for big business.
The abritration system is such that the abitrators know from hard experiance a ruling against the big boys will serve to keep them out of the pay cycle and off the gravey boat.