Thomas Buchanan had no idea how much his phone rang during the day until he had to stay home on a medical disability.
“My phone would ring constantly,” Buchanan said. “I would get up to 25 phone calls a day.”
He was on all 'Do Not Call' lists so he didn’t understand why this was happening.
“I’m entitled to lay my head down in my home and rest without my phone ringing by some company trying to sell me a product,” Buchanan said.
He got calls from all kinds of companies and he documented them all.
But calls from SiriusXM stood out the most because he never had an account with them.
He said he tried to get them to stop by all means necessary.
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“Contacted the local police department and they laughed and said we get those calls even here all the time there’s nothing you can do about it,” Buchanan said.
But he didn’t take no for an answer. Buchanan took it upon himself to find several law firms across the country to build a team of attorneys. Together they filed a class action lawsuit against SiriusXM.
He won a $32 million settlement. He’ll only got $10,000. The rest goes to attorney fees and paying some of the more than 400 other participants in the lawsuit $42 dollars each. The others will get three months of free radio service.
Buchanan said he could have received more money if he sued SiriusXM alone. But he said it’s not about getting rich. It’s about sending a message.
“I want to hit your pocket books as hard as I can hit them and share the wealth among the people who joined with me in these class action lawsuits,” Buchanan said.
NBC 5 reached out to SiriusXM for comment but the company did not respond.
Buchanan said he hopes his victory will inspire other to fight back like he did.
