4 ms·
It’s surprising to me how large businesses can basically steal from people like this with impunity, under the guise of some “fee.” Of course 10 years later the
by dinobones 2y ago
It’s surprising to me how large businesses can basically steal from people like this with impunity, under the guise of some “fee.”
Of course 10 years later there’s a class action lawsuit where everyone gets a check for $23 in the mail, but, at that point what’s the point?
- zdragnar 2y agoWhy wait for the class action, especially when the claim is plenty small enough to fit into a small claims court? They exist for a reason. If enough people use them, it'll end up costing the company far more than a class action, and you'll get more back too because Lawyers won't suck up 50% of the payment.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y agoI think you have to go to forced arbitration instead of small claims. That process usually starts with paying a roughly $1000 fee to open the arbitration.
- vkou 2y agoBecause overcharging someone isn't actually theft, and rarely rises to the level of fraud.
- jen20 2y agoWhy is it not theft?
- vkou 2y agoTheft is physically taking your money against your will. Unless they are grabbing cash out of your wallet, or physically grabbing and swiping your card, it's not theft. Fraud is you giving them your money under false pretenses. They falsely claim a service has been provided to you, and are charging you for it, per the agreement that you've entered. Theft is trivial to prove and cops take you straight to jail for it. Fraud is a lot harder, because by the time it gets to the courts, they need to dig through the weeds and determine if it is deception, or just a disagreement about a contract. (It's, uh, also called theft of services when you do it against a service provider. You may want to get in touch with your local legislative body about the unfair nature of this sort of asymmetry, but you'll be wasting your breath.)