Kansas Resident Patrick Roach Successfully Sues Verizon For Refusing To Unlock His Phone (And Wins)

from the not-all-heroes-wear-capes dept

If you’ve been around a while, you might remember that Verizon used to be completely obnoxious when it came to forcing you to use their phones and their shitty apps. At one point, Verizon wouldn’t even let you use a competing GPS mapping app, locking you to Verizon’s substandard VCAST apps. The company also adored locking you into long-term contracts and expensive phone payment plans, making it expensive, annoying, or impossible to switch carriers.

Two things changed all that. One, back in 2008 when the company acquired spectrum that came with requirements that users be allowed to use the devices of their choice. And two, as part of merger conditions affixed to its 2021 acquisition of Tracfone. Thanks to those two events Verizon was dragged, kicking and screaming, into a new era of openness that was of huge benefit to the public.

Enter the Trump administration. With the second Trump term taking an absolute hatchet to all consumer protection, Verizon has been lobbying the Trump administration to also eliminate phone unlocking requirements, once again making it difficult, annoying, or impossible to switch.

Under current rules, Verizon is supposed to unlock handsets 60 days after they are activated on its network. This includes both Verizon’s main brand, and its sub-brands like Straight Talk. But (correctly) confident the Trump administration won’t hold them accountable, Verizon has been refusing to unlock its phones, as Kansas resident Patrick Roach recently found out.

Roach bought a discounted iPhone 16e from Verizon’s Straight Talk earlier this year as a gift to his wife. He planned to pay a month of service, cancel, and then switch the phone to the US Mobile service they normally use. Under the rules, that was supposed to be possible. But Verizon blocked the attempt. So he sued them in small claims court, and won. From the October ruling:

“Under the KCPA [Kansas Consumer Protection Act], a consumer is not required to prove intent to defraud. The fact that after plaintiff purchased the phone, the defendant changed the requirements for unlocking it so that plaintiff could go to a different network essentially altered the nature of the device purchased.”

Before winning in court, Roach turned down a Verizon settlement offer for $600 because it would have restricted him from talking about his case openly:

“It’s just kind of slimy of them, so I feel like it deserves a spotlight,” he said. “I’m not sure with the current state of the FCC that anything would happen, but the rule of law should be respected.”

Not all heroes wear capes. Again, Verizon is currently lobbying the Trump FCC to eliminate these unlocking guidelines entirely; and, like everything else the telecom industry asks of Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr, they’re very likely to get it, shifting the wireless industry back to the shittier days of old where switching carriers was annoying and expensive. You know, to make America great again.

Filed Under: cell phones, competition, consumer protection, fcc, hardware, patrick roach, telecom, unlocking, wireless

Companies: straight talk, verizon