Have you bought coconut water, pinot noir, a Samsung TV, or an iPhone 4? If you purchased any of these products, plus a whole bunch more, you may be eligible to file a claim in one of these recently settled class action lawsuits. Proof of purchase isn’t always required, but lying is bad consumer karma.
- Groupon customers whose vouchers expired and had to be used all in one transaction, allegedly in violation of state and federal laws governing gift certificates. Anyone who bought a Groupon between November 1, 2008 and December 1, 2011 may be eligible. You may be allowed to redeem expired Groupon vouchers, or get a refund for those that expired. Deadline not yet set.
- Wells Fargo mortgage customers whose home equity lines of credit were allegedly suspended between January 1, 2008 and June 30, 2011. $150 cash per customer; claim must be postmarked by June 25, 2012.
- Discover Card customers enrolled in or billed for payment protection plans or a credit score tracker (with or without their consent) can receive up to $60. Deadline June 6, 2012.
- Bottles of Farallon, Red Bicyclette, Redwood Creek, Rex Goliath, Talus, Turning Leaf, and Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi French wines may have been sold as pinot noir, but that’s not what they contained. The French suppliers who mislabeled cheaper red wines have been convicted, because that’s serious business in France. If you bought any of the named wines, bottled from 2005 to 2008, you can receive $3.50 per bottle. If you can produce proof of purchase, you can get a full refund. The deadline is today, so get a move on.
- iPhone 4 buyers can get $15 or a free bumper case as part of the ongoing fallout from that phone’s antenna design flaw.
- Vita Coco coconut water: apparently “mega-hydration” is not a thing, and the makers of Vita Coco have been accused of misrepresenting the health benefits of their product. Customers can receive $25 cash or $36 in product vouchers.
- JP Morgan Chase mortgage customers whose mobile phones were robocalled without their consent are eligible for up to $500 cash, depending on how many times they were called June 16, 2006 and June 15, 2011.
- Blue Sky Sodas were marketed as being made in Santa Fe, but weren’t even made in New Mexico. Gasp! Purchasers can get up to $6 without proof of purchase, and $100 with it.
- Owners of certain Samsung TVs can receive $450-$650 due to allegedly defective capacitors in the sets.
Thanks to our friends at Top Class Actions for sorting through and compiling all of this information. You can also check out suits still in the investigation phase and get in touch with an attorney if you were affected.
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I believe the Samsung settlement is found here: http://www.samsung.com/us/capacitorsettlement/
It wasn’t in the article when I posted this.
I thought you could only get paid if your TV had already failed and you had thrown it out or had it repaired.
I have one of these that works fine and my read of the settlement was that I just got an extended warranty for the particular problem.
“apparently “mega-hydration” is not a thing”
Neither is micro-moisture, micro-beads, micro-comb, micro-molecules, and other slang advertising flavor of the month terms. Seriously, did advertisers somewhow change the laws of physics by making water molecules smaller than they already are?
Same goes for “anti-aging”. You can reduce wrinkles and improve elasticity in skin, you can improve muscle strength and flexibility, you can have more energy, but you cannot reduce the amount of time that has passed since you were born.
The last Coconut Water ad I saw, they said it was great for hangovers.
Professor Wikipedia would disagree with you on microbeads.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbeads
Also, the dictionary would disagree with you on micromolecules.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/micromolecule
We need StarKillerX and TheMansfieldMauler to let us know how each of these issues are the fault of the customers.
The only one that might apply to me is Blue Rhino. But…
“The deadline to file a Claim Form was May 23, 2012.” … “If you did nothing, you will be considered a participant in the Settlement but you will not receive money. However, you will be bound by the terms of the Settlement and lose your right to sue regarding the settled claims.”
Oh well.
I got one in the mail the other day that had being going on for years but just decided to send to me giving me 5 days to dig through 5 years of old financial records to maybe have enough transactions to get some money.
That seems to suggest if you do nothing, if you don’t opt out, you’ll be part of the settlement.
You have to actually submit a claim if you want a refund.
I got a white iPhone 4 a while after they came out, and experienced the same antenna issues so many others did. Called Apple support, but was told that on my iPhone 4, I couldn’t possibly be having a problem, that it was no longer an issue by the time my phone was manufactured.
All I wanted was a cheap bumper, and they wouldn’t give me one.
From the same people who gave you “you’re holding the phone wrong”.
It’s not a question of where he grips it…
A 5 oz swallow cannot carry a 1lb coconut (ive always wondered why they use the imperial measurement system in that scene)
“Blue Sky Sodas were marketed as being made in Santa Fe, but weren’t even made in New Mexico. Gasp! Purchasers can get up to $6 without proof of purchase, and $100 with it.” how do you get $100 off of that wow
You bought a LOT of soda.
Thanks Consumerist! Looks like Wells Fargo owes me $150.
You can send our 10% finder’s fee right here.
I kid. That’s awesome. I love publicizing these because they can’t always track people down who bought Nutella or coconut water or whatever, and people deserve refunds when things were deceptive or just plain wrong.
This seems like a good time to remind people to periodically check http://www.unclaimed.org/ for unclaimed funds held by the State. Don’t forget to check states you lived in years ago.
I’d do the one for the iPhone 4, but i got a case out of the program already, plus they want you to fill out another form in a .pdf then send it back to them again. A little too complex for me to worry about.
http://grouponvouchersettlement.com/ is down. I think I might qualify for that one.
Of course, not only did it start responding again minutes later, but I just got an e-mail about the class action.
I did too, but the url was blocked, so I was suspicious of it.
Looks like the Groupon settlement class is restricted to certain states:
You may submit a Claim, if and when the Settlement is approved, for a Settlement Voucher for any Groupon Voucher that meets the following criteria: (1) the Groupon Voucher was issued for redemption at a Merchant Partner located in the United States and was never redeemed or refunded; and (2) the Voucher was purchased on or after August 22, 2010 or was issued before August 22, 2010 to a resident of, or for redemption in, any of the following states: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington.
If anyone reads this differently, please jump in!
From the claims form:
“(1) who purchased Groupon vouchers in the United States between August 22, 2010 and December 1, 2011; or (2) who purchased Groupon vouchers between November 1, 2008 and December 1, 2011 and are or were residents of, or purchased Groupon vouchers for redemption in, the following states: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington”
Looks like 2010-2011 for all states, 2008-2011 for the listed states … maybe?
Didn’t Red Bicyclette also get dinged because they claimed to be importing wine that was really from California? I got a bottle once in a restaurant on the advice of a naive waitress.
Thanks for the heads up on the Samsung tvs … I have one of the models, no problems yet (bought in 2008), but will keep an eye out as appears to also cover future problems through August 2013.
I had the Samsung issue… twice. The first time they replaced the power supply board under warranty. The second time I fixed it myself by replacing all the defective capacitors. However my cost for the parts was something like $4 and I doubt I can get reimbursed for my own labor.
Drat.
Ah, looks like sticking to three-buck Chuck has done right by me! I knew I was buying cheap table wine at the time, and got exactly what I paid for.
I’m confused about the groupon one; when I go to the groupon site and look at all my groupons, it tells me that I can already use an expired groupon from 2010 as a voucher for the amount I paid. Why should I go through the settlement to get what I believe I can get just through Groupon?
I bought a Groupon last week that both has an expiration date and has to be used all at once. Should I assume this litigation has apparently changed nothing?
My friend had participated in the DeBeer’s Diamond class action suit and 4 years later still hasn’t received a thing.
Hubby & I signed up for that one, too. I visit the site every now and then to see if there are any updates. Sounded like they were getting close to a settlement, but I’m sure as with all stuff like this the people who actually spent money on the product will be short-changed while the suit attorneys and scammers will fare much better.
and just how would you prove that you bought some coconut water 2 years ago? I have been a winner in these class action suits: maybe a $10 million settlement…the attorneys get $9.5M, and the victims get the rest. I got $2.45 from a MerrillLynch stock fixing scam, lost much more than that.
most of them settle without admitting guilt, then go on doing what they did and should not have been doing.