RIM, BlackBerry Outage Prompts Lawsuits

A couple weeks ago embattled BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM) suffered a massive service outage that affected an estimated 10 million users around the world. The service remained down for up to 5 days. (Source: theinquirer.net)

At first, the problem seemed to spare North American users, with only Europeans, South Americans, Africans, and residents of the Middle East reporting problems, but soon after Canadian and American BlackBerry owners were complaining that calls were being dropped and text messaging a complete and total mess.

Now, frustrated and angry BlackBerry users are launching a class action lawsuit against the firm in the United States and Canada.

RIM Blames "Core Switch" Problem

In the days that followed, RIM blamed the problem on a "core switch" problem at a European facility. The explanation mattered little to BlackBerry users, however, who reported being frustrated with yet another outage. (Source: reuters.com)

RIM attempted to win back customer approval by offering about $100 in free applications. Unfortunately, the offering seems to be too little.

App Payoff Not Enough for Customers

According to reports, customers feel they should have their accounts compensated in accordance with the duration of the service interruption, meaning they're not satisfied with $100 in games and applications.

"The petitioner expected to be compensated for the loss of services to which he was paying a monthly fee for," read one filing in Quebec, Canada. The customer in question was "disappointed to learn that RIM was only offering some free App downloads that he does not want or need." (Source: google.com)

Federal courts in California have also received suits against RIM, with customers accusing the company of negligence and breach of contract.