Holy frivolous lawsuit, Batman!

[srellim234]

This is exactly the type of junk we talk about eliminating to hold down medical insurance costs. It obviously affects businesses in other industries, too.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2011/02/18/ ... 298017800/

[dusred]

bawhahahahah!

It is NJ. . . . so I guess I'm not too surprised.

[bigbadberry3]

Frivilous but people for some reason win these things every now and then ....

[stebo0728]

Wait wait, I read this 3 times, am I missing something? She used the coupon right, saved the monies, but so when she returns the one item, she was expecting a full value refund? Am I reading that wrong? Before I call this woman everything but a child of God, let me make sure I understand this right. And to boot, it was a $5 off coupon, not a % discount coupon, so she saved the $5 on the original purchase, theres no way to specifically attribute any portion of that coupon value to the single item she returned.

[IBCoupe]

Imagine she wanted to use the cash to buy another one, but it's not on sale anymore. Having shopped regularly at Century 21 stores in NY, I can't feel terribly bad for her.

Look, maybe she's wrong, but let's not freak out about class action lawsuits. She's the lead plaintiff, but if you look at the amount they're seeking, the company allegedly made a good bit of money by ripping people off a little at a time.

[stebo0728]

But she didnt ask for an exchange, she asked for a refund. I would be interested to see her original receipt, to see if she was charged full price for the item, then given a rebate of $5 at the end.

This is nothing unusual, I am in sales, and we get some real "left-brained" people sometimes. And I didnt seek to put all the blame on her for the lawsuit, she was merely the catalyst.

[IBCoupe]

But she didn't ask for an exchange, she asked for a refund.

Says this article that's obviously trying to belittle her, Stebo.

It's from "UPI.com," but it refers to "the Post," and I wouldn't be surprised if we're talking about "The New York Post," given the geographic location and the filing of the article as "Odd News." The title of the article says that the suit has been filed over 80 cents, but really, it's been filed over $5 million. Journalistic excellence my patoot.

[audtatious]

Come on IB, there's no proof that they (UPI) are making anything up concerning the case and you are making large assumptions. You are better than that.

[IBCoupe]

I'm not making many assumptions about the case, Aud. It's a lawsuit in federal court, it's against a chain retailer, it's for a very small injury, and it seeks a huge payout. That reeks of "class action." She's seeking $5 million in damages, and the newspaper says it's over $0.80. If it is a class-action, then the article's misleading.

I'm not making any assumptions that a reasonable person couldn't make, Aud, and that's my point. I'm not about to condemn a person because of a half-page internet article filed under "odd news."

[audtatious]

It is over .80 that was not reimbursed with the return of a single item of a multi-item purchase (The coupon was $5 off a purchase of $50 or more, she purchased over $106 in items). The wording says "The suit, which is seeking at least $5 million, claims "hundreds of thousands" of customers may have been affected by the "fraudulent ... (and) misleading" promotion."", thus it does not sound like a class action suit to me. Thus, my prior reply still stands, IMO.

Now...further looking reveals this:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/201 ... cents.html

She has dropped the suit after the story broke. She also had filed a similar suit going against the Modell's sporting goods chain in December 2008.

Per this:
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/18/new-j ... 0-cent-co/

"The suit wasn't the first time that Gerson's family has taken on big retailers in court over coupons. Her lawyer father, Harry Katz, has sued retailers including d!ck's Sporting Goods, Casual Male and The Children's Place, The New York Post said."

Of course, it's the New York Post which you seem to have issues with so you may not want to believe it

The above also shows that none of these were class action's.

[wawazat8402]

I have a question regarding the reason they would not offer a cash refund for the "value" of the coupon. When I managed a FYE right after college we were told the justification of not including value seen from using a coupon in a cash refund that the statement on every coupon, "No Cash Value", means just that. If they refunded cash, regardless of how minuscule the amount, it would be instating a cash value on the coupon.

Is that an incorrect way to look at this?

[stebo0728]

I have a question regarding the reason they would not offer a cash refund for the "value" of the coupon. When I managed a FYE right after college we were told the justification of not including value seen from using a coupon in a cash refund that the statement on every coupon, "No Cash Value", means just that. If they refunded cash, regardless of how minuscule the amount, it would be instating a cash value on the coupon.

Is that an incorrect way to look at this?

Thats pretty much the way I was looking at it. But to make it simple, whatever line amount on the reciept was there for that item, is what her refund should be, along with whatever sales tax component there may have been. This is important because where I work, we had a person processing credits for returned goods, and they were just giving credit for items based on the current pricing that came up for the item (cutting corners) instead of looking up the actual purchase price for the original transaction, and in many cases he was giving more credit than the original purchase, as price increases had occured for alot of products.

[audtatious]

I have a question regarding the reason they would not offer a cash refund for the "value" of the coupon. When I managed a FYE right after college we were told the justification of not including value seen from using a coupon in a cash refund that the statement on every coupon, "No Cash Value", means just that. If they refunded cash, regardless of how minuscule the amount, it would be instating a cash value on the coupon.

Is that an incorrect way to look at this?

Good point, and you are correct.

[IBCoupe]

Alleging that hundreds of thousands of people may have been injured in exactly the same manner is exactly the way a class-action suit sounds.

And, your second link says:

Tova Gerson, 32, had alleged that the department store "unjustly enriched" itself with the coupon, according to the New York Post, and filed a $5 million class-action lawsuit in Manhattan.

There's a lot of money to be made in class-action suits, and one of the requirements for filing one is that the lawyer representing the lead plaintiff have experience enough with class action suits to run one. Of course the lawyer here has filed them before; they're a profitable endeavor, and he's of a relatively small pool of lawyers qualified to do so. Doesn't mean they're unjustified.

Being reported in the Post doesn't mean it's false. Being an expose-style piece in the Post means it's blown out of proportion.

[audtatious]

Hmmm. I missed that class-action statement. If it was indeed a class-action then how can she simply drop it if others may have joined her?

It would be interesting to see what happened in the other cases that she and her father were involved with. Seems they found a niche to make bux.

[IBCoupe]

If I recall, the other cases filed were all dismissed or settled, and I don't know how many were of which resolution.