Class Doesn’t Want AT&T’s Debit Cards

ATLANTA (CN) - Instead of paying cash rebates as it promised, AT&T saddles customers with VISA debit cards, a class action claims. AT&T Mobility fka Cingular Wireless "paid" its advertised rebates "not by way of a check or cash but rather in the form of a VISA debit card, which in most, if not all, cases included an expiration date for usage," the class claims. It adds that this "dramatically increased the probability that card users will end up with partial and essentially unusable balances, which funds all revert to defendant."

Lead plaintiff Giovanni Respinto filed the class action in Fulton County Superior Court. He says he signed up with AT&T Mobility because of its ads that promised a cash rebate.

But he says AT&T and Cingular "failed to adequately disclose to those customers the fact that rebates would be provided not by way of a check or cash but rather in the form of a VISA debit card, which in most, if not all, cases included an expiration date for usage. In addition, the cards have proven difficult to use and often consumers are left with essentially useless small balances."

The complaint adds that "by creating a national policy whereby defendant issued VISA debit cards as rebates instead of a check or cash, defendant has dramatically increased the probability that card users will end up with partial and essentially unusable balances, in which funds all revert to defendant."

Respinto wants AT&T to disgorge all the money it got through the rebate promotions, restitution for class members and an injunction. He is represented by W. Todd Harvey with Burke Harvey & Frankowski.

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit