Class-action suit charges Microsoft with fraud

In a lawsuit filed by Philadelphia-area lawyer Samuel Lassoff, Microsoft is being sued for allegedly taking money from consumers for Microsoft Points that were erroneously used during "incomplete and/or partial downloads of digital goods and services and refused refund of same." The Horsham, Pa. resident claims that "an invoice he received early this month from Microsoft included charges for purchases he couldn't complete due to a balky download system," according to an InformationWeek.com report. Furthermore, he contends that this was no accident on Microsoft's part.

When we called Mr. Lassoff's law office for comment, we were met with a disconnected number message. However, the lawsuit's Facebook page (it's a brave new world, folks) calls the suit a "class action on behalf of several million US customers exposed to Microsoft Point fraud." Citing "fraud, breach of contract, negligence, unjust enrichment, and unfair business practices," Lassoff seeks a "full refund to all US consumers of all Microsoft Points fraudulently charged to consumers for incomplete or partial downloads of purchased digital goods and services."

Aside from his current lawsuit, Mr. Lassoff previously sued Google, Yahoo, and IAC Interactive in 2006 -- all three suits were eventually dropped.

[Thanks, Zo]

Reader Comments (69)

Enjoy your up vote.

What the heck? I've never had a download mess up with my 360, and when I changed hard drives I was able to re-download everything I had had on my 20 GB. Exactly how is Microsoft creating fraud? Did the guy even try to re-download his all ready purchased content? Stupid people make me mad. Especially when educated lawyers who went to school rally to their side and create obviously hollow cases. I'd think it'd take about five minutes with a 360 rep showing the plaintiff how to re-download his purchased content for any sane judge to throw the whole mess out. D:

Exactly. When I bought a 360 for the living room I was able to download everything I've ever purchased (free stuff too) off of XBL. Hell, I even downloaded the Yaris game again on Saturday... stupid alcohol...

The MS points system isn't great, but it's not exactly rocket science either. Some people can actually divide by 80 in their head. If you really want to pay an exact dollar amount, get your shit from Amazon... you won't find any add-ons or sales but at least you can spend that extra 50 cents on something special.

More to the point, how's this jackoff still allowed to practice law after his first 3 BS lawsuits?!?

Just because a lawsuit is dropped, does not mean that it is un-warranted. They most likely settled out of court, as most big companies like to do as to not get all too much media attention and get your investors all angry. Plus all of you are assuming that he could complete his download, if his internet connection is not fast enough or reliable he may NEVER be able to complete the download. So it does not matter how many times you can download it or attempt to download it if it just won't download.

I find it funny how many of you are calling these people stupid, because you know NOTHING about this exact circumstance. Especially the ones that are saying the lawyer has done NO research, when the extent you know about this man's lawsuit is a paragraph on Joystiq. Have you seen the facebook page with other people's experience? Do you not think that someone has posted on that wall "try to redownload it"? Get real, do some research of your own you dummies!

"Plus all of you are assuming that he could complete his download, if his internet connection is not fast enough or reliable he may NEVER be able to complete the download. So it does not matter how many times you can download it or attempt to download it if it just won't download."

"Do you not think that someone has posted on that wall "try to redownload it"? Get real, do some research of your own you dummies!"

So, if his internet speed is shitty, its microsoft's fault?
And even if he's internet speed sucks, he still can download his contents, but it will take some hours or days, but hey, if you stop in a middle of a download, you can aways resume from where you left of.

As your screename shows me, you are a PS3 owner, and judging by your reply, you never used Live before.

I say you must do some research.

@YinzJagz (PSN: YinzJagz)

2 Things

1, Get off your soapbox and look at the Facebook page yourself. It has less than this article, with no discussion and the only relevant data being the case filing number and where it was filed.

2. Do you sue your mechanic if the crappy roads you drive on have potholes? Then why sue MS because your internet sucks. If that is really your argument for why this is an acceptable case than I hope and pray you don't have a job in our justice system. MS clearly labels everything you buy on Marketplace as not being refunded, in a huge warning as you go to buy it. You can redownload everything you buy. So your argument is well his internet might suck. And that's MS's fault how exactly? Man should get better ISP or a better plan, not file a lawsuit against MS.

I was trying to add some points that I got free with Fable 2 a while ago...and it wasn't working. I kept trying and trying, double checking the code. Everyone in my flat checked it and entered it aswell. The 360 just wasn't having it.

Then I tried it again two weeks later and hey, it worked. Shifty huh?

wow, this might apply to me. I did purchase fable 1 off the marketplace for $15 and then realized they they took it down less than 3 months later---bastards. Heh. If this is a class action suit im taking part. Call me greedy I dont care, look how greedy microsoft execs are.

I believe this was actually talking about downloads that may be started in an accidental manner. Meaning someone clicked something and because the points were there they were subtracted and you are essentially left with content you didn't want or wished to have. No refund is granted. This has happened to me. It's frustrating. They have multiple screens for approval of a download but that unfortunately doesn't always work, I can attest.

Should Amazon give you a refund if you accidentally put something in your Cart, forget it's there, and buy it later on without realizing? Hell no - you bought it.

Actually they would allow you to return it. Go check out their return policy

Think about it this way... at some point we're all going to stop using Xbox Live (whether it becomes obsolete, we move on, or we die, etc.). If there's a few of excess MS points left in all of our accounts think of the millions of dollars of free money MS has made for doing absolutely nothing. I like that with the PS3 setup where I can buy my DLC for it's list price and be done with it.

Wow, sounds more like user-error, doesn't it? I mean, I bought wolfenstein 3D by accident, and I didnt go on a rampage - I dealt with it. =/

MS's point system is stupid, but you can just buy MS points from the Zune store in exact amounts (500 points). I probably would actually buy more games from the PSN store if I couldn't do that, despite how much I hate Sony.

Whoops, I meant buy 400 points for $5 from the Zune store.

Lawyers think they found a loophole. You go to download history and your downloads are there. Redownload for free, whether partial or incomplete download.

RE: The whole points thing,

Given just how many "little issues" pile up with the 360, I continually wonder why anyone puts up with it. It's like self-abuse or something.

I do agree in a sense because they do their damn best to avoid refunds whenever possible. How much did they make off of those old themes - especially during the couple years when they were working on NXE and knew well that they would become obsolete with the addition of "premium" themes. I'm sure if they told people of that well in advance they would've made **** off them. There are also premium things like gamerpics that people paid for but ended up taken offline with no way downloading them again and disappear from your purchase history, not to mention there is no real way of previewing themes.

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Class-action suit charges Microsoft with fraud

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