A woman unable to use a $59 discount coupon for a local fitness club before it expired has filed a class-action lawsuit against locally based Rue La La on charges the expiration dates on its coupons violate federal and state consumer-protection laws.
In a lawsuit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Boston, Leah Mirabella seeks to become lead plaintiff in a case in which she seeks more than $5 million in damages on behalf of "tens of thousands" of consumers allegedly defrauded by the company and one of its partners.
To arouse consumer interest and create the urgency to buy gift certificates, Defendant Rue La La offers deals for a limited amount of time—usually a 24-48 hour period. This creates a "shopping frenzy" among consumers who feel pressured to purchase gift certificates as quickly as possible.
In her complaint, Mirabella says that on July 5 of last year, she bought a coupon for Fitness Together in Boston, but "was unable to redeem the gift certificate" before it expired on Oct. 31.
Mirabella points to the Massachusetts gift-certificate law, which begins:
A gift certificate, as defined in section 1 of chapter 255D, sold or offered to be sold shall be valid for not less than 7 years after its date of issuance.
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 Mirabella's complaint | 0 bytes |
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Comments
How does this differ from Groupon?
By Ron Newman
Tue, 06/11/2013 - 8:00am
Everyone who buys a Groupon knows, or should know, the expiration date of what they buy. When I have not been able to use a Groupon in time, I've been able to sell it online for the same price I paid.
The defendant does not explain why she "was unable to redeem the gift certificate before the termination of ... expiration period." Was the Fitness Together location closed during some or all of the time when she would have had to redeem it? If so, why isn't Fitness Together an additional defendant in this suit?
It shouldn't differ. The way
By anon
Tue, 06/11/2013 - 9:03am
It shouldn't differ. The way these deals work is that the promotional value is just that - a promotion. It can have an end date. So when you pay $20 for $40 worth of food somewhere, it's a promotion. However, the amount you paid for the promotion is considered the same as a gift certificate and that amount is good for 7 years.
So in this case, if she paid $59 but a membership is actually $79, she would still have the $59 value to use toward the membership.
I called the AG's Public Inquiry and Assistance Center with a question like this a couple weeks ago and that's what they told me. http://www.mass.gov/ago/bureaus/executive/the-publ...
But what expired?
By Quantum Mechanic
Tue, 06/11/2013 - 9:07am
What actually expired in this case?
With Groupons, all that expires is the promotion. So if you pay $60 for $100 of goods & services, the $40 promotion will expire (usually within a year) but the $60 you paid will be good as a $60 gift certificate for the full seven years (at a minimum).
Similarly, when Not Your Average Joe's runs one of their gift card promos the $50 gift card you pay for is good for seven years, but the $10 "appreciation" card you get for buying the $50 card is only good for 90 days.
Is that the kind of behavior the plaintiff is suing over, or did plaintiff lose all the money she paid when her certificates expired?
According to Rue La La's
By Dick Winthrop
Tue, 06/11/2013 - 9:17am
According to Rue La La's website, only the promotional value expires. The amount paid is still good for the full seven years in Massachusetts.
So it would appear that the plaintiff is only suiing over the lost promotional value.
Might come down to the wording on the cert
By Nonymouse
Tue, 06/11/2013 - 12:35pm
I just looked at a current Rue La La deal for a discounted night in a hotel and it says very clearly that you'll receive a certificate for a night in the hotel and you must book on certain nights, blah blah blah. That seems more thorny to me than the typical Groupon model which (if I remember correctly) says something like $20 worth of cupcakes for $10.
That said, if the gym honors the face value after the deal is expired, this lawsuit is ridiculous. From reading the complaint, it appears she's more upset about being "tricked" into buying because it's a limited time offer. The same could be said for any discount or sale - if you can't control yourself, cut up your credit card and unsubscribe from the emails, lady.
Gift Certificate is not a discount coupon
By anon
Tue, 06/11/2013 - 10:39am
A gift certificate is different from a promotional coupon or a groupon-type coupon. A gift certificate is a negotiable instrument, redeemable more or less as though it were cash. A promotional coupon is inherently targeted, typically for a specific product offer or a specific time period (e.g., "2 for 1 Dinner any Wednesday," "Free wax with car wash," etc.")
Not for MA law
By Kaz
Tue, 06/11/2013 - 12:57pm
If you give a company money in return for a slip of paper letting you come in and spend that money (like a gift certificate or the original cost of the Groupon), then that money can't just disappear on you because some randomly chosen amount of time has elapsed.
A coupon isn't something you put your money into. So, if they hand you a slip of paper and say, when you bring this in, we'll give you a discount/free money, then they can determine when it expires on their own. Again, the remainder of a Groupon's value above what you paid into it is like the coupon here and CAN expire after whatever time they want to designate.
Think of it as a numberline of invested value. Gift certificates are all your money and protected by state law. Groupons are 50/50 with both your money and a coupon included in its initial value. Coupons are just an expirable offer that has none of your money in it so you have no claim to its value after it expires.
Based on this, why are 10
By anon
Tue, 06/11/2013 - 1:08pm
Based on this, why are 10 ride commuter rail passes only good for 6 months?
Because they're tickets, not
By anon
Tue, 06/11/2013 - 1:23pm
Because they're tickets, not gift certificates or promotional deals, or discounts. Tickets can- and do- have expiration dates. I brought that up last year when they changed the dates...they're good for 90 days now, not 180 anymore...
If I had to guess
By Kaz
Tue, 06/11/2013 - 2:44pm
My guess is that you are buying a ticket and that's what you've been given. That ticket itself is the goods. You're not placing stored value into the ticket like you would with a gift certificate which will be redeemed later for actual goods. Then again, you do essentially redeem the ticket for services (train ride). So, I could see it either way.
It's only been a year since the expiration date was added to commuter rail tickets, so maybe nobody has considered challenging the expiration date in court yet.
They've always had expiration
By anon
Tue, 06/11/2013 - 4:42pm
They've always had expiration dates, the shortened time frame is all that's new. When I used to buy the little ones they had, the employees stamped the expiration date on the back of the ticket.
Not according to the MA state
By anon
Fri, 01/31/2014 - 10:32am
Not according to the MA state gift cert laws
http://consumerworld.org
By theszak
Tue, 06/11/2013 - 9:46am
http://consumerworld.org
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