stanley@phoenix.com (John Stanley) (12/21/90)
news@accuvax.nwu.edu (USENET News System) writes: Fascinating. A News System is WRITING news. > stanley@phoenix.com (I) write: > > Who do you owe, and how much? [...] > > The service was provided. > The "service" [i.e. the fridge] was *offered*, and you > rejected it (as you were entitled to do because it wasn't what you > asked for). The fridge is sitting on your front porch. Why? The delivery people left it there. Were you aware that UPS leaves packages at rural destinations without obtaining signatures? (The fridge was a small, dorm sized one.) How about this -- the box says refridgerator on it, but not K-Mart, and you know you ordered one, and you have no way of knowing it is K-Mart until you opened the box. > Or suppose, in a restaurant, the waitress delivers the wrong > meal, which you consume without complaint. You can no longer reject > something as not being what you wanted *after* you've consumed it. She will set the plate in front of you. (The box arrives on your porch.) If you do not complain (you just open the box and use the fridge) you owe the bill. If you complain as soon as you know the error, you do not. When you get slammed, you do not know the error until several months later. If the food is not cooked properly, you will probably not know it until you start to eat it. If the middle is still raw, you will have to eat at least half to find that out. Do you think you owe half the bill? And actually, there is a good argument that you do, indeed, owe nothing even after eating the food. You are allergic to specific foods, or are prevented from eating them by religious fiat. You specify this to the waitress. The food arrives. You believe it to be free of allergen, or prohibited contents. It is a soup, or exists in some state that it is impossible from looking at it to tell exactly what it contains. She leaves the check, and you see that what she charged you for was exactly what told her you could not consume. You are either bound for the hospital or (insert unhappy afterlife of your choice). There is a very good chance that not only do you not owe them for the food, but that they may be open to a hefty lawsuit. (I.e. they owe YOU money.) > > You owe K-Mart the chance to come pick its refridgerator up. [...] > >You owe the unchosen carrier the chance to > >retrieve its service. > You owe the restaurant the opportunity to pump your stomach? You owe the restaurant the chance to pick up the wrong order when you notify them of the mistake. Do you expect them to ask to pump your stomach when you complain of uncooked food? > You asked for something, you got what appeared to be what you wanted, > you consumed it without complaint, You have consumed nothing in the fridge example. It is sitting happily, still in most of the box (you cut a corner to look at it), waiting for pick up. If K-Mart declines the chance to pick it up, it belongs to you, you may use it as you wish, and you owe K-Mart nothing. And, since telecom is a renewable resource, you consume nothing there, either. The slammer is perfectly able to sell the same service you used to someone else. > If you were unable to detect that the service wasn't AT&T when > you consumed it, what reason do you have to complain now? The service was provided from a source from which it was not ordered. The payment will go to enrich the source, whom you will be involuntarilly enriching. You have made a choice of product, based on price or other consideration (e.g. political activity), and have received a product which you consider inferior, without any way of telling. > If you had inadvertedly been served Folger's Crystals when you > thought you were getting fresh-brew, how were you injured? If you caught a restaurant advertising "fresh-brewed coffee" and serving Folger's Instant, that is certainly a case of false advertising and fraud. You were injured in that you were paying for one product and receiving another. Did you notice, when some of the major restaurants changed brands of cola, how they bent over backwards to make sure you knew what you were going to get? "Give me a large Coke." "Will Pepsi be ok?" Of course, I don't expect a computer to understand the differences.
peter@ficc.ferranti.com (peter da silva) (12/24/90)
In article <15597@accuvax.nwu.edu> portal!cup.portal.com!mingo writes: > >Like hell they don't! They have a contract with you, via your local phone > >company. > The contract you have with AT&T governs *how* you will pay for > service *if* you place LD calls using AT&T. You never agree to place > *all* your calls with AT&T. But I already *have* placed many many calls with AT&T, before I got slammed, right? By the time I've been slammed I've already consummated the marriage. I also have the right to dial 10333 and call via Sprint, or terminate my agreement with AT&T by telling the phone company to switch carriers, but no damn third party has that right. Peter da Silva +1 713 274 5180 peter@ferranti.com