On Tuesday, Google was slapped with a breach of contract class action lawsuit alleging that its Nexus One smartphone failed to maintain 3G connectivity and that the Mountain View company not only made misleading claims about the product’s capabilities but also failed to adequately support customers in search of answers.
Plaintiff Nathan Nabors of Florida is seeking damages and class action interest on behalf of residents of his home state as well as California who have bought the Nexus One since its January debut.
The only defendant named in the suit is Google – in other words, manufacturer HTC and exclusive 3G carrier T-Mobile USA are not included in the suit. The potential size of the classes is not specified in the complaint.
The suit says Google basically failed to warn customers they would not receive faster 3G connectivity, even in areas where T-Mobile USA said such coverage was available. In addition, customer support from Google, to which T-Mobile referred customers with 3G connectivity issues, came up short.
Among other customer service failures, Google denied the problems with the phone were its problem, even as the named plaintiff was missing calls, according to the suit.
Breach of warranty claims aside, the suit also says Google violated the Communications Act by making false and misleading claims about the Nexus One.
For your reference: Google killed the Nexus One on July 16 after shutting down its ballsy but ill-fated Web store, which enabled people to purchase the Android smartphone directly, bypassing the carrier. As MG pointed out recently, it’s having a bit of a good afterlife, though.
A Google spokesperson was not immediately available for comment on the class action.
The Nexus One is the Google Phone launched on January 5th, 2010. The phone is sold at google.com/phone and it will be soon available at T-Mobile. The phone runs Android software on a Qualcomm 1 GHz Snapdragon chip, has a super high-resolution OLED touchscreen, is thinner than the iPhone, has no keyboard, and two mics. The mic on the back of the phone helps eliminate background noise, and it also has a “weirdly†large camera for a phone. And if...
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