Should a company be held responsible for the consequences if they deactivate an Iridium emergency phone, especially if they charged the customer for the time to use that phone?
The Kaufman family — parents Charlotte and Eric, and their daughters Lyra, 1, and Cora, 3 — were 1,000 miles into the Pacific aboard their San Diego-based Hans Christian 33 Rebel Heart in April when such a deactivation occurred. They contend that sat phone service providers must be held responsible. So on Monday they filed suit against Whenever LLC, the time provider for their Iridium phone.
The Kaufman’s contend that their options became severely limited when they lost the use of their satellite phone.
In the Kaufmans’ view, the consequence of the loss of the use of their Iridium phone was that they were unable to speak with a Coast Guard doctor for medical advice about their youngest daughter, who had been sick for a considerable amount of time. This, they claim, resulted in their having to call for help, which came from many resources at great expense. In addition, they claim the loss of the use of their phone resulted in their having to scuttle Rebel Heart when they were taken off her by rescuers.
Defendant Whenever LLC apparently doesn’t dispute the fact the Kaufmans’ service was deactivated the same day Whenever made charges against their credit card. On Monday night they told a San Diego news service that the problem was the result of a billing issue.
While it doesn’t seem to us that there is a 100% cause and effect between the Kaufmans’ loss of the use of their phone and the scuttling of their boat — Rebel Heart was taking on 60 gallons of water a day at the time and had other problems — we can see how it would have been a factor. It’s going to be interesting to see how this case plays out.
The broader issue, to our mind, is the responsibility of emergency phone-time providers to give customers adequate warning if the customer is about to lose the use of his or her phone. As we understand it, deactivation can be the result of three things:
First, if the customer no longer has any time on the phone: Before each call goes through on Iridium, the caller gets a voice message saying how much time is left. This is good, but perhaps inadequate, because sometimes the time is no longer good because it wasn’t used by a certain cutoff date. That happened to us a year ago while doing the Baja Bash, because we’d forgotten what day our time ran out. Previously our time provider had always called us in advance to warn us we needed to renew our time. But the person responsible for our account had left the provider, and the new employee failed to provide a similar reminder. While we’re willing to accept most responsibility, we think the providers can do a better job.
Second, time providers buy time in bulk from wholesalers, and when they change wholesalers, sometimes the SIM card in the phone has to be replaced. This may sound simple in theory, but it’s caused boats doing the Pacific Puddle Jump to lose the use of their phones while in mid-ocean. What happens is that these on-the-move cruisers no longer get postal mail forwarded regularly from their old stateside addresses, so they don’t know a new SIM card is coming, nor do they get it before setting off across the Pacific. So halfway to the Marquesas their Iridium phone no longer works because their SIM card is no longer good.
Third, apparently sometimes time providers fall behind in payments to time wholesalers, and the wholesalers cut them — and their customers — off. We haven’t been able to confirm this, but it’s a claim that was made by our time provider.
We’re not sure what the solution is, but we do know that in the case of emergency phones, where the lack of service could easily result in the loss of lives, there needs to be adequate warning before service is cut off. We’ve been told that you are supposed to be able to use Iridium phones in emergency situations even if you don’t have any more time or your time period for using your time has run out. For whatever reason — perhaps they needed a new SIM card — the Kaufmans were not able to do this.
With less than 340 miles to go to the finish line of the Singlehanded TransPac, Stuart Paine’s Capri 25 Jack is farthest back of the three boats that have yet to finish.
We were a bit shocked to learn that Coast Guard resources had to come to the rescue of 25 windsurfers and kiteboarders off San Francisco’s Crissy Field Sunday evening, as we know that many boardsailors and kiters pride themselves on being able to ‘self-rescue’.
