Legal Question in Telecomm Law in California

Do I have a case?

Purchased a refurbished cell phone from a major carrier. Phone worked fine for a few weeks. Suddenly, phone stopped working completely for 4 weeks. Phone would not boot up. Screen would be black. When plugged in to charge, screen would display a battery picture, but not take charge. Phone would not power up. The phone was completely useless for 4 weeks. The usage report show lack of usage. Suddenly phone worked perfect all by itself without having to do anything. It has been working fine ever since. The battery takes charge, phone boots up..everything works perfectly.

I believe they planted a virus in the phone to make it appear broken for a specific amount of time to make us purchase a new phone. Since we didn't, I believe that the phone resets itself to work normally after a certain time. We purchased the phone from one of the carriers main locations that actually provide complete technical support for their phones. They provide software support, can upgrade operating system and rebuild phones at this location if deemed possible. I truely believe that this was a planted software program that was timed to appear broken.


Asked on 11/10/07, 8:19 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Stone Law Offices of Michael B. Stone Toll Free 1-855-USE-MIKE

Re: Do I have a case?

The cost of having an expert witness take apart (disassemble) the unit's firmware would be far in excess of your damages. More to the point, and I was a programmer and electronics technician before law school, 1) Devices that run embedded software sometimes have strange unexplainable failures; and 2) stuff that is sold as "refurbished" is usually crap. Somebody returned the unit because it didn't work, so a "refurbished" label was slapped on and the unit resold. If you believe that "refurbished" means anything other than somebody scrubbed the unit with a Brillo pad, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn, cheap.

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Answered on 11/10/07, 9:38 pm


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