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V9 Claim Quality Guidelines

What Makes a Good Claim?

Help your claim get settled quickly and fairly by including these items when submitting

1. What the Company Did Wrong

Big companies often mistreat their customers in many different ways. A good claim will be specific about how the company mistreated you.


Some common things companies do wrong include
breach of contract, breach of warranty, negligence, or an intentional bad acton the part of the company.


If your complaint falls into one (or more) of these categories, it will be easier to resolve your claim more quickly.


Breach of contract


Breach of contract
means that the company made a you a promise (either verbally, through a contract, or implied in their actions), and then did not live up to that promise. For example, the company promised a certain service level (25mbps) but delivered a lower one (5mbps), or a company promised that a charge would be removed from a bill but didn’t remove the charge.


Breach of contract can also include making it hard for you to receive some benefit of a deal or promotion with the company. For example, a company allows you to cancel a subscription whenever you want, but makes it
really hard to do so. Breach of contract can even cover situations where the company tries to charge fees, or impose requirements, that were hidden in the fine print so you wouldn’t know they were there.


Example
: Customer claims Altice Mobile applies an “activation fee” on top of agreed upon price.


Breach of warranty


Breach of warranty
means that a product or service did not live up to the quality that you would expect of that product or service. For instance, a phone’s battery cannot hold a charge, or a landline connection is constantly crackling and hard to hear. Think of it as a claim for a defective product or service.


Example
: Customer claims Cox internet speeds are not as fast as promised.


Negligence


Negligence
means that the company did not live up to an ordinary standard of care in a way that caused you damage. Every company is obligated to act in a reasonable way to protect their customers from harm. If a company fails to take normal precautions to prevent harm, then it’s responsible for the harm it caused you.


Example
: Customer claims Venmo locked an account instead of handling an account breach.


An intentional bad act

An intentional bad act is when the company – or a company representative – knowingly does something wrong for some personal gain. This usually involves lying for financial gain (which is called “fraud” or “false advertising”), but can also include things like theft of personal property, identity theft, physical harm, verbal abuse or discrimination.


Example
: Customer claims Chase charged higher interest rates and fees for Black customer.

2. The Harm or Damages You Experienced

Explaining what the company did wrong is only the first step in submitting a quality claim. It is important that you also include how what the company did wrong caused you harm or damage.


In most cases, there needs to be at least a small amount of financial harm – the company’s actions must have cost you money, or resulted in some sort of debt. Even if this financial harm is very small, it’s important to include it in your claim.


Example
: A company’s website is down, preventing you from paying your bill online. In order to make sure your bill is paid on time, you have to drive to a physical branch of the company. This causes you to spend 3 hours of your day trying to pay your bill, and costs you gas money.


Example
: You were told that your subscription would never be more than $120, but with hidden fees, your bill is consistently over $150 a month. The extra $30 a month you were not planning on paying is damages you could claim from the company.

3. What You Want the Company to Do

Your claim should also include a detailed request for what you’d like the company to do to make up for the harm they’ve caused you. Be clear about what the company can do to resolve your issue. You should refer to specific amounts of compensation and any actions the company needs to do for you to consider your complaint resolved.


Example
: You want the company to reduce your bill to the price you were promised, $120 per month, and you want the company to reimburse you for what you paid over that amount for the last year, totaling $360.


When big companies mistreat you, it is completely understandable that you’d want them to pay for it. Make sure that what you are asking for is truly based on the harm the company caused you, and not an attempt at punishing the company for their wrong doings (as tempting as that might be). In general, if you are asking for more than 3x the cost of the harm done to you, your claim will not be considered a reasonable request for relief.


Example
: If the company cost you $360 in damages, but you ask for $2000 in relief, your claim is likely unreasonable because you are requesting more than 3x the actual financial harm done to you.

4. Details and Identifiable Information

Including as much information as you can about your account and service will help the company quickly find your account details and resolve your claim.

 

1. For account information, include the name, phone number and address that was provided to the company when starting the account, even if that name or other information is different than the person filing the claim. If possible, also include an account or confirmation number.

 

2. If your claim references an event, include the approximate date of that event.

 

3. If your claim references a physical store location, give the address of the store or at least the city and state.

 

4. If your claim references a specific person, include that person’s role (customer service representative, sales representative, installer etc.) and where (over the phone, in home, in store etc.) and when you encountered that person.

 

5. If your claim references a device or service, give details about the name and type of the device or service (e.g. “HTC550x wireless phone” or “High Speed 100 internet service”)

 

6. If your claim references a specific offer or promise made to you, give as much detail about how that promise or offer was made. For example:

 

— Was the promise written or verbal?

— Where did you read the offer, or who told you about the offer?

— Approximately when did you get the offer or promise?

— What were the elements of the offer (buy one get one deal, certain monthly price promise, etc.)

Examples of successful claims

Example claim #1: On July 07, 2021 I walked into the XYZ Wireless store at 1234 Main Street, Oakland, CA after hearing about their BOGO deal for the Samsung Galaxy S21. I was told by the store clerk Sam that I was eligible for the promotion if I added an extra line. I agreed and walked out with two phones after agreeing to a new line at $60/month + device charges of $22/month.

 

However, when I got my next bill, I noticed that I was charged the full price of the second device and they added two lines to my account, instead of one – in addition to my existing line. I am now paying for 3 lines and am being charged for both phones. I went back to the store and the store clerk said that I was not eligible for the promotion and that there was nothing they could do because I had already activated both phones.

 

I want the deal I was promised: a BOGO deal with only one extra line. If that isn’t possible, I want a refund of the $900 I was charged for the second phone and $82 I was charged for the first phone and new line.

 

Example claim #2: I ordered a pair of Jordans from a website that accepted PlatformPay as payment. Weeks went by and the seller never provided a tracking number.

 

I filed a claim with PlatformPay (#123-456789) about the undelivered item, and immediately after filing the claim the seller provided a tracking number for an item that was placed in the mail that day. However, when the parcel said it had arrived, nothing was there. I contacted USPS and learned that the tracking code was for an item sent to a different address.

 

I did some research and found that this is a common scam where a seller will mail a low-value item to another address in order to show that they sent the item. I sent this evidence to PlatformPay and they still denied my claim.

 

I am now seeking a refund for the $125.38 I spent on the shoes that I never received.

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