Repeating my comments posted on other sites.
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As everyone knows by now, NETeller has e-mailed U.S. customers, saying that the company would now accept withdrawal requests. Now, an interesting twist is that when you go to the withdrawal screen, you will be presented with a form of release, asking you to give up any claims against NETeller. This would most obviously apply to interest NETeller owes you for the delay in payment, and any other damages you might claim because of the delay. As we're all used to seeing when installing software and so forth, you're presented with two radio button choices, "I agree," and, "I don't agree." You would predict that NETeller might simply refuse to pay you if you didn't agree to the release. But it turns out that if you click, "I don't agree," the Web site will go ahead and process your withdrawal. A very recent addition to the information on the Web site, if you look for it, informs you that you do not need to agree to the release in order to receive payment.
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To the company's credit, NETeller has been making speedy payments by EFT to customers' bank accounts.
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Nevertheless, I was offended by this one last sleazy trick by a company that, at crunch time, many of us felt did not give the interests of its customers the highest priority. They weren't going to be as brazen as to refuse to pay people unless they knuckled under to a gratuitous release of claims. But they try to fool you into thinking that they won't send you money unless you agree to the release. I bet that they get off the hook with a few million customers this way. But don't you fall for it!
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(Probably won't work, actually, because it's too misleading. Customers don't get any benefit from the "mutual" releases. I'm not aware that NETeller have some theory under which it thinks thousands or millions of their customers might owe them money.)
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Which brings me to another point. NETeller sat on our money for about seven months and counting. The laws of probably every state and every nation that respects private property give a creditor the right to recover interest on a debt that is not paid on time. NETeller posted a statement on its Web site several months ago saying, "In accordance with NETELLER's Terms of Use, no interest on account balances will be paid." Of course, this ignores the fact that NETeller breached its own Terms of Use by refusing to pay its customers their funds promptly! I don't care that the U.S. government strongarmed NETeller into not paying people. That's not a legal excuse. If some other terrorist state had held NETeller's friends hostage, we wouldn't consider that an adequate reason for the company failing to honor its obligations to millions of customers. Add to that the fact that NETeller has been collecting interest on our funds while they've been sitting in the company's bank accounts.
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What I am hoping is that someone will step up to the plate and take combined legal action on behalf of all U.S. customers to collect the interest we're owed. It's a big sum, in the aggregate. Maybe it's to the point that U.S. courts can no longer function independently, and at the government's bidding will refuse to enforce this obligation. So maybe a domestic class action would not be effective. But I hope that some large law firm may take an interest in this matter, and if need be bring suit in a more civilized country. NETeller is based in the United Kingdom, and does substantial business in much of the European Union, so it could be vulnerable in a number of jurisdictions.
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Now it's true that a lot of big law firms aren't tempted to take a case unless they think they can make tens of millions in fees. But there are still lawyers who are trying to make a more modest living, and would happily take on an apparently easy case with likely damages of a few million dollars. There is definitely a syndrome of lawyers handling class actions looking out for no one but themselves, and that's a problem. So many times the courts approve settlements that pay millions in fees to the plaintiffs' attorneys, and that give the class members worthless coupons and the like. But this is a case of real, tangible, quantifiable losses, and the mechanics of NETeller making additional payments to its customers would be very simple.
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Any takers?
