Plumbing company facing lawsuit over spam text messages
SEATTLE -- A local plumbing company is facing a class action lawsuit over thousands of spam text messages.
The lawsuit claims Beacon Plumbing sent more than 43,000 illegal texts in an advertising campaign. The company could be forced to pay millions in penalties.
One alleged victim said he hopes the suit keeps unwanted ads off cell phones.
"Especially when you're paying for a service like cell phone service with text messaging, I think it'd be wonderful if they asked you first," said Jacob Barr.
In a Monday news release, Beacon Plumbing said the text messages were sent to existing customers by an out-of-state company that didn't have permission to send them.
Company officials say the lawsuit has no merit and the plaintiffs are trying to "manipulate the media."
"The actual damages to the plaintiffs, if any, are minimal. The amount of damages claimed by the plaintiffs defies common sense," the release reads.
The lawsuit claims Beacon Plumbing sent more than 43,000 illegal texts in an advertising campaign. The company could be forced to pay millions in penalties.
One alleged victim said he hopes the suit keeps unwanted ads off cell phones.
"Especially when you're paying for a service like cell phone service with text messaging, I think it'd be wonderful if they asked you first," said Jacob Barr.
In a Monday news release, Beacon Plumbing said the text messages were sent to existing customers by an out-of-state company that didn't have permission to send them.
Company officials say the lawsuit has no merit and the plaintiffs are trying to "manipulate the media."
"The actual damages to the plaintiffs, if any, are minimal. The amount of damages claimed by the plaintiffs defies common sense," the release reads.
Now who's freakin'? Â LOL
It's amazing how people hire contractors based on the size of their yellow pages ad.
Good, beacon plumbing is a ripoff as is southwest plumbing. Steer clear. I never understand people calling either one. You see their ads and billboards on buses, by the side of the road, etc. And you wonder why they're overpriced? That form of advertising is super expensive. Who do you think pays for those ads? And if you think that their (or anyone else's) advertised $99 sewer or $49 furnace inspection is only going to be $49 or $99 when they're done I have some oceanfront property to sell you in Arizona. They'll find something wrong or sell you something. I never hire the largest or the companies that advertise the most.
 @69GT Yep, lot's of people get scammed by this sort of stuff.  They basically end up paying for a salesman to come to their home and high pressure them into more expensive and unneeded stuff.  I was at my elderly parents home (in another room) when a duct-cleaning guy started using high pressure tactics on my Mom.  I went out there quick and gave him a piece of my mind. Â
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 @69GT Bingo!  Biggest advertising = biggest prices.  I do chuckle at their bus ads though.  What does a girl with her boobs pushed up to her chin have to do with a clogged toilet?
 @Doxie  @69GT Maybe it happened while she was praying to the porcelain gods.
I ask that same question. maybe its to make people think she will show up. She is actually the sister or wife of the owner.
 @Nathan Boi Funny!  From the comments here, it sounds like she is about as qualified as the people who DO show up.
The messages are advertising Beacon Plumbing so I find it hard to believe that some company randomly decided to send them without charging Beacon. Even if that is true, I still think they need to be held accountable. Since the text messages are being sent to Beacon's existing customers then clearly they provided this 'out-of-state' company with the information in the first place.
@queenofthenight I agree but I don't think they need millions in compensation. I admit, unwanted texts are annoying but come on, that is about it. Even if the person was charged overages, it wasn't millions of dollars.
 @Anarchy  @queenofthenight Punitive charges are needed to convince the company from ever entertaining that sort of ad program ever again.
 @Anarchy  @queenofthenight I agree. It does seem a little strange that a court would allow such a high reimbursement for text messages but then again I'm unfamiliar with what the phone companies charge per text message.I have to admit that when I first read this article it was before my morning coffee. I mistook the 'millions in penalties' as meaning they would have to pay fines. I didn't realize they would have to pay millions to the consumer.
It's pretty easy to find out exactly where the texts originated from. If Beacon sent all of those texts itself then they should be fined. Â
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Stop Freakin ..........Just don't call Beacon !! Â Â Sound familiar??
People who have illegally downloaded music have been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for a few hundred songs. The rationale is that by making the damages punitive enough, others will be dissuaded from doing the same thing.
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If this can be applied to college kids and housewives, I see no reason it couldn't or shouldn't be applied to corporations.
I do agree, cell phone text ads should be illegal..
Beacon came out to our house a week ago and charged us 278 bucks to fiddle with the shower handles to stop the dripping then went down stairs and fiddled with hot water tank, they were here less than 30 min.
@Half-Baked Where I live, 98% of the plumbing companies charge $95 for the first half hour and $90 and hour after that. So your first hour that they are there actually costs you $185 and then $90 and hour......plus parts of course......AND they charge by the quarter hour. So if they were there 1 hour and 15 minutes, it would be $207.50 but if they were only there for 20 minutes, you'd be charged for the full half hour......RIDICULOUS!! I only know this because I worked many years for a plumbing company as the main office person.Â
Maybe you should fix your own plumbing then... (I don't call any service people out, because their rates are outrageous..) I repair or replace my own hot water heaters, my own electrical, oh, and my own plumbing. It isn't rocket science.. The problem I have run into is obtaining parts for my furnace, which the igniter has gone bad.. I did find some one who would sell me one though..
Keep in mind, that they have to pay for the vehicles, the maintenance, the fuel, the inventory, and then, they get around to paying the plumbers.. It all adds up, and service callse by any company whether it is to fix a washing machine or sink, is over priced..
That is why I learned to do this stuff myself.. (just yesterday, I replaced the power switch in my Kirby vacuum cleaner... Had to tear it down and pull the motor out of it so I could replace the switch..
I would never do business with Beacon Plumbing. They are the worst! Their employees are dimwits, they over charge for everything, and I can't believe they are still pulling the same dirty tricks after filing Chapter 11 Bankruptcy just a few years ago. They wrote off $3 million in debt, mostly to Verzion and Kiro! And now they are gong to owe millions more! The bankruptcy court should pull their protection, and just let them die before anyone else gets ripped off.Â
If the emplyees are dimwits, then you must be a plumber yourself... otherwise, how do you assess their knowledge? (actually, it may be the 3rd party company that will be paying for their error..)
The owner of Beacon is a foul mouthed big time debtor. I would not do business with him if my life depended on it.
Oh, the cost of conducting business.
"The actual damages to the plaintiffs, if any, are minimal." BS
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These decisions must be made by teenagers these companies hire for marketing. Until texting is a commodity with all cell phone carriers, it should never be used for unsolicited messages by companies.
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It's like making a collect call, $0.20 per message. Companies have started doing this OFTEN, two different doctors offices recently and my stupid bank, I complained directly to both and one I won't be going back to (same excuse, "it's only $0.20").
Came Here To Make fun of Span and 2 people already beat me to it...
 @BradRBarber Don't worry. You'll find new mistakes to make fun of every day on this site!
 @BradRBarber If you would have registered BEFOREHAND instead of waiting until the last moment, this would not have happened.
FYI, the KOMO Kommenter Klub is a fairly quick witted bunch and a headline like that will be mocked in a nano second.Â
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And welcome to KOMO.
Haha! Span
"Plumbing company facing lawsuit over span text messages"
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"No, your honor, they were SPAN texts. Those aren't illegal."
Stop Freaking!!
@Grumpa Get Jesse!