Help Needed-Anyone in CA thats an Attorney?

[Gary Kadrmas]

This is the deal.

My father-in-law died in Oct 2001. Cell phone company out of Thousand Oaks CA has been billing my mother-in-law for service since. She paid about $750 so far, and has never used the phone/service. (Remember, old people) I have tried calling/writing directly to the company, but no satisfaction. I even tried the Oregon Department Of Justice with filing a consumer complaint. The cell company has not responded to my request for a refund of $$$ unduely paid them.

Is it worth hiring an attorney in CA to pursue this? The $750 is for estimated services she has paid THEM, and my mother in law is not on the contract......only him.

I'd love to be able to beat them up for the grief they have caused my mother-in-law. Any inexpensive attornies out there?

 

[JohnC]

Gary, care to mention the cell phone company's name and customer service email address? Perhaps if a couple thousand GT40s members wrote their customer service about the way they prey on innocent older people, they might sit up and take notice.

John

 

[Scott Calabro]

Excellent idea John!

Gary, post the info. and we'll have at it.

Cheers,
S

 

[dean]

you need to file your complaint with the FCC, anything else will not work since it's not their department. last time i file a complaint against Sprint, they refunded me over $1000.

 

[Gary Kadrmas]

Well,

I am giving the DOJ another try first. Appears Discount Cellular out of Thousand Oaks CA has quite a few complaints filed against them.

 

[BenL]

How old is she? In California, there's an office for "Elder Abuse" (preventing, not encouraging). They might be able to help with this sort of thing.

http://safestate.org/index.cfm?navID=11

(They helped my father-in-law's uncle retrieve a 50s Thunderbird that a garage owner claimed was a gift.)

Or you could try California Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/static/index.htm

 

[BenL]

[Sorry my previous message got duplicated]

 

[Gary Kadrmas]

BenL,

Thanks for the heads up. My mother-in-law is 79.

I'll get on it first thing tomarrow.

 

[JohnC]

The only relevant hits that came up while Googling "Discount Cellular, Thousand Oaks, CA" were 1-2 subscription services which provide D&B type credit reports on other companies. I used two other search engines with similar results.

You'd think a company that provides cellular phone service in such a competitive environment might have a website, with some contact information on it, but perhaps they don't care to be contacted. Hmmm.

Gary, if you're interested in providing any additional contact info for them, I'm sure more than a few of us have itchy keyboard fingers