Is there any law, in the United States, that would allow a subscriber
to an internet service to sue the service provider for providing the
service at an unreasonably poor level of quality and in a very
untimely manner?

Specifically, I pay for a MMORPG (Dark age of Camelot, developed by
Mythic Entertainment). Due to some bug in the program, which has been
verified multiple times by customer service representatives, my
"character" has been rendered largely unplayable. Three major patches
have gone by and two months have passed. Mythic's communication with
me has been extremely poor, and the problem has not been resolved, nor
does it appear anyone is trying to resolve it

I was just curious if Mythic was legally at fault in any way, but I am
also interested in Consumer Law with respect to Online services in
general.

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Request for Question Clarification by expertlaw-ga on 04 Dec 2002 15:32 PST

Dear toastercow,

As consumer law can vary significantly from state to state, the
researcher who answers your question will likely benefit from knowing
the state in which you resided when you entered into your agreement
with this company.

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Request for Question Clarification by darrel-ga on 04 Dec 2002 16:13 PST

Hello--

Different states have different consumer laws. I can look for federal
laws. But you may have better luck at the state level.

Can you tell me in which state you live? And, in which state is the
company located? Also, how did you find out about the company? Was it
online, did they solicit your business, etc.?

Thanks,

darrel-ga

toastercow...
You also need to go over their "Terms of Service"
and/or "user agreement" with a fine-tooth comb.
Chances are, they have included a clause which
limits or precludes their liability.

Ah - there it is, in the EUALA:
http://support.darkageofcamelot.com/cgi-bin/support.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_sid=Z52vqorg&p_lva=&p_refno=010926-000078&p_created=1001544682&p_li=

Sorry, I forgot to include my state in the original post. I live in CA
and was living here at the time I purchesed and subscribed to the
game. Mythic Entertainment is based in VA

Concerning the EUALA, in the first paragraph of section 10:

"...THE SOFTWARE, [IS] PROVIDED WITH ALL FAULTS, AND THE ENTIRE RISK
AND EFFORT IS WITH THE USER AS TO COMPATABILITY WITH YOUR COMPUTER
SYSTEMS, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, ACCURACY, MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. "

*does* severely limit their liability, however in the fifth paragraph:

"IN THE EVENT ANY OF THE FOREGOING DISCLAIMERS OR LIMITATIONS ON
LIABILITY ARE DECLARED TO BE VOID OR UNENFORCEABLE, THEN MYTHIC’S
LIABILITY SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMISSIBLE UNDER
APPLICABLE LAW."

So I suppose the question is A.) to what extent can the EUALA limit
consumer law, and visa versa, and B.) Despite the EUALA, if the
service contains a fault that renders it largely unusable, and mythic
does not solve the problem, offer a refund, or even communicate with
the subscriber in a reasonable amount of time, is there any law that
might construe that as a legal wrongdoing?

Not many laws have been made specifically for the internet, but
typically business law applies. You can sue in small claims court, but
I don't know how you can prove to the judge that perfomance was
significantly less than advertised. If you paid less than $100 dollars
for the service, interest in your plight is likely to be sparse. Some
people will reguard the activity as childs play rather than serious
business, so you are probably best off to forget your loss other than
asking the company politely for a partial or full refund.  Neil