
Trouble with Tesla: Couple sold damaged car but told they can’t sue - tortilla
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/9/27/20887609/tesla-arbitration-car-damage-repair-consumer-legal-chicago-kansas
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Scipio_Afri
Good article. Mandatory binding arbitration is something that has been long
past due for being made illegal. It also shows very clearly the falicy of "if
you don't like it go somewhere else". When nearly every company is doing this,
their power to shape the market is evident.

While market forces are in place and proactive consumers could help shape
this, their influence is asymmetric. They have limited time, do not have
resources to dedicate to learning about these issues and pushing for changes
or switching to only buying from companies without these clauses. This is
where collective resources, taxes, should be spent in looking out for the
greater good of the economy and citizens through regulations. Regulations
being laws and enforcement of those laws that ensure fairness and minimize
fraud.

Making money selling cars that are "new * " ( * now maybe with cosmetic or
mechanical damage) is an erosion of quality of goods that benefit companies
and not consumers. Over time and in net effects it hurts the economy as you
also have less transparency - people now hesitate to buy goods or take longer
to buy goods because they're not sure of quality that they might receive. In
this example it's a car, but it could also very well be food, drugs or any
other more essential item. Their time is spent further evaluating the items
they need to buy rather than reading to their kids at night, spending mental
energy on taking night classes to gain more skills, or simply contributing to
the economy through their work.

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navigatesol
If you're willing to spend half an hour digging into problems, you'll easily
discover that Tesla is inundated with quality issues and people bickering with
the company to get warranty work or have the company honour their returns.

Of course, some people are convinced it's all a giant conspiracy against
Tesla. Ironic, really.

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matthewmacleod
In my view, there is no situation in which binding arbitration should be an
enforceable term in any kind of consumer agreement. In fact, I’m struggling to
think of any situation where it would be applicable for any other agreement
either, outside of international treaties. What’s the legitimate case for
these terms?

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gbil
Exactly, arbitration can be the starting point but making it the only possible
action is just crazy and MUST be illegal

Furthermore, it is bad business to hide behind any clause, period. They could
just call them, tell them that there was a minor accident and that they can
have the car with 5% discount. I'm pretty sure if they didn't agree there
would be plenty more people buying the car with such a discount and a fixed
fender bender damage

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Nextgrid
Why is arbitration even a thing? What’s the point of laws and regulations if
you can opt-out of them by requiring arbitration?

