A True Case: More on Cell phones and the Wonders of Technology

Beware when offered a good deal from a cell phone company trying to persuade you to switch over to their company. What they offer could be very different from what you will actually be receiving. This was the case judged in the Small Claims Court (Tel Aviv Court Case #14288-01-10) before the Honorable Judge Michael Tamir, given on July 25, 2010 against Cellcom Israel Ltd.

The plaintiffs claim a representative of the Cellcom Israel Ltd Company visited them at their home, offering them to switch over from Pelephone Communications Ltd to Cellcom Israel Ltd. They were specifically promised during this meeting that they would not pay any penalty to Pelephone Communications Ltd for the switch-over.

Wonders of the new technology: the plaintiffs were still sitting with the Cellcom Israel Ltd representatives, who had already done the switch over in the system. The plaintiffs immediately received an SMS from Pelephone Communications Ltd. informing them they would be fined for switching over. The Cellcom Israel Ltd representative dismissed this claim, assuring the plaintiffs they would have nothing to worry about.

On the same day, the plaintiffs called Pelephone Communications Ltd. and were informed they would be fined 2000 shekels for switching over to Cellcom Israel Ltd. The plaintiffs immediately called Cellcom Israel Ltd and informed them they wanted to cancel the deal because of the high penalty they would have to pay to Pelephone Communications Ltd.

In addition, the plaintiffs discovered later that they were being charged 480 shekels instead of 413 shekels as promised for the purchase of two new cell phones.

Eventually, Cellcom Israel Ltd cancelled the deal, but in the meantime the plaintiffs had to pay four months for both the Pelephone Communications Ltd. and Cellcom Israel Ltd. phone bills. The defendants also claimed that the difference in the price of the mobile phones was due to the fact that at the last minute the plaintiffs chose a more expensive model.

During the hearing the defendants acknowledged that initially they refused to cancel the deal, which is against the law defending consumer rights, especially in this case when the time between signing and cancelling the deal was only 20 minutes!

The Honorable Judge decided in favor of the plaintiffs, based on the law giving the buyer in a deal such as these 14 working days to cancel, with no penalties.

The Judge also decided that the plaintiffs, as they themselves admitted, used the new phones and therefore were not entitled to full reimbursement for the purchase of the mobile phones.

Due to the testimony of the Cellcom Israel Ltd. representative (many of the questions were presented by the judge himself as no lawyers were present because it is small claims court), the plaintiffs were rewarded monetary compensation for the four months they were overcharged for the mobile phones, plus the double payment they made to both companies, which came to a total of 1330 shekels.

If only this amount had been decided, the case would be unimportant. But the Honorable Judge awarded the plaintiffs an additional 1500 shekels compensation for emotional distress caused by this deal.

Conclusion: the more accurate and “faster” you are the better chance you have to win your case and be awarded a fair compensation in addition to direct damages. In our case, the plaintiffs had everything organized and written down, so even without a recording they were found reliable.
 

Sincerely,
 

Tzvi Szajnbrum, Attorney at Law