If you or someone you know had a The Sharper Image Gift Card issued on or before February 19, 2008 you could be a class member of the Sharper Image Gift Card Class Action Lawsuit out of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware .  Sharper Image filed for bankruptcy but should the gift card holders still be entitled to redeem the dollar amounts left on the gift card from Sharper Image?  This is what the lawsuit was about.  According to the District Court of Delaware anyone who had a gift card is entitled to a settlement as long as a claim form is filed timely.  This is case number Case No. 08-10322. If possible please submit a photo copy of the gift card (front and back) with the claim form. 

If you do not have the Sharper Image gift card you can still submit a claim but you will not be guaranteed a cash settlement.  If any money remains, those who submitted claims without copies of their Gift Cards will receive a pro rated share of the remaining settlement funds, but will be limited to receiving no more than $100.  Those who do submit copies of the gift card will be entitled to receive the remaining balance on the card as long as it does not surpass $2,245.  This lawsuit will resolve a class action lawsuit filed in Bankruptcy Court after Sharper Image filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008.  Claim forms and other cour related documents can be found here: www.SharperImageGiftCards.com.

The World Saving Settlement is between Wachovia and certain borrowers who obtained Pick-a-Payment mortgage loans between 2003 and 2008 and revolves around claims that the World Savings Bank and Wachovia Mortgageviolated various state and federal laws in connection with the Pick-a-Payment mortgage loan product.  A $50 million dollar settlement fund has been issued in the lawsuit even though Wachovia denies any wrong doing in the case.  The settlement includes a total of three classes;  Class A, Class B, Class C and as follows:

Settlement Class A includes borrowers who no longer have a Pick-a-Payment mortgage because they sold the property securing the loan, refinanced the loan, personally paid off the loan, or have already obtained a loan modification that converted the loan to a regular mortgage.

 Settlement Class B includes borrowers who still have a Pick-a-Payment loan and their mortgage payments are not 60 or more days past due (as of December 16, 2010).

 Settlement Class C includes borrows who still have a Pick-a-Payment loan and who are 60 days or more past due (as of December 16, 2010).

The deadline for appeals was June 16, 2011, and three separate appeals have been filed.  More informatiopn can be obtain at the admin portal: https://pickapaysettlement.com/

IDT Energy Complaints:

“Several weeks ago we had an early evening door-to-door visit form 3rd party reps from IDT Energy wanting to explain and “help us” save money on our Con Edison and National Grid bills by allowing IDT Energy to be the supplier. They explained that they were already technically the supplier and that by “going direct” we’d shave $20+ dollars off each of our bills each month. The slick presentation by the trio sounded good…too good to be true.

 During the discussion, the main presenter asked to see a copy of our Con Ed bill to specifically point out (and circle, which he did) the charges that would disappear if IDT Energy was selected by us as the alternative provider. What we saw, but did not dawn on us until later, was that one of the “helpers” was copying down all of our Con Ed information. After seeing him do this, we inquired why they need our info? Since we “did not need to sign up today if we wished not to,” they had our info to mail us more information on IDT Energy. We concluded the conversation that we’d goto to IDT Energy’s website for more info, await something in the mail and make our own educated decision at a later date. We did finally receive more info in the mail from IDT Energy. Information that WE HAD ENROLLED WITH IDT ENERGY and our service would be transferred in November. Seems we’re not the only community.

Needless to say a very unhappy me just got off the phone with IDT Energy finding out that I had “signed up” to transfer my Con Ed supplier to IDT Energy. Not only did I not sign anything, the scumbag rep forged my signature. The rep I spoke to was not surprised in the least (troubling) and removed us from their service and filed a complaint against the rep (who’s # I got). While we feel very angry (and slightly gullible), we wanted to find out if others in the area have had the same problem, alert you if these gentlemen visited you and warn folks to not even give these guys the time of day if they hit your area. We remember the sub-contractor working for Midtown Promotions located in the Bronx. We’re doing research on-line and have already come across this scam and that company’s name (I wish we had kept their card!). But, IDT is subcontracting this out, thus they are the end culprit! Several weeks ago we had an early evening door-to-door visit form 3rd party reps from IDT Energy wanting to explain and “help us” save money on our Con Edison and National Grid bills by allowing IDT Energy to be the supplier. They explained that they were already technically the supplier and that by “going direct” we’d shave $20+ dollars off each of our bills each month. The slick presentation by the trio sounded good…too good to be true.  

During the discussion, the main presenter asked to see a copy of our Con Ed bill to specifically point out (and circle, which he did) the charges that would disappear if IDT Energy was selected by us as the alternative provider. What we saw, but did not dawn on us until later, was that one of the “helpers” was copying down all of our Con Ed information. After seeing him do this, we inquired why they need our info? Since we “did not need to sign up today if we wished not to,” they had our info to mail us more information on IDT Energy. We concluded the conversation that we’d goto to IDT Energy’s website for more info, await something in the mail and make our own educated decision at a later date. We did finally receive more info in the mail from IDT Energy. Information that WE HAD ENROLLED WITH IDT ENERGY and our service would be transferred in November. Seems we’re not the only community.

Needless to say a very unhappy me just got off the phone with IDT Energy finding out that I had “signed up” to transfer my Con Ed supplier to IDT Energy. Not only did I not sign anything, the scumbag rep forged my signature. The rep I spoke to was not surprised in the least (troubling) and removed us from their service and filed a complaint against the rep (who’s # I got). While we feel very angry (and slightly gullible), we wanted to find out if others in the area have had the same problem, alert you if these gentlemen visited you and warn folks to not even give these guys the time of day if they hit your area. We remember the sub-contractor working for Midtown Promotions located in the Bronx. We’re doing research on-line and have already come across this scam and that company’s name (I wish we had kept their card!). But, IDT is subcontracting this out, thus they are the end culprit!”

MORE CAN BE READ HERE: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/7_on_your_side&id=6382916

Polaroid is in some trouble over claims that their LCD TV’s were prone to overheating.  The case is entitled Karen Hudson v. Polaroid Corporation and PLR IP Holdings, LLC and is in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.  The Polaroid LCD TV Televisions were sold at Wal-Mart, Best-Buy, Sam’s Club and Costco and on the Internet according to the lawsuit.

The Polaroid LCD TV Television class action lawsuit states “the TVs’ capacitors to excessive heat and/or excessive voltage, which in turn, can cause the capacitor to fail, the circuit board to shut down and the Polaroid LCD TVs to exhibit problems such as dark screens, smoking and even fire…”

There are two classes in this lawsuit and they are as follows:

The “Missouri Class”:  Includes all persons in the state of Missouri who purchased one or more Polaroid LCD TVs.

The “Multistate Class”:  Includes all persons in United States who have purchased one or more Polaroid LCD TVs.

Plaintiff, on behalf of herself and all others similarly situated, hereby demands a jury trial on all issues so triable. 

Jack of Greenville,SC
made the following complaint statement on Sept. 14, 2010 at consumeraffairs.com:

I bought a 32inch polaroid tv/dvd combo and six months after I had
it tried turning on the tv and nothing would come on. I called
polaroid and they said where your warranty expired about three days
ago and you will need to but the part. So I bought the part after I
could afford the part which was yesterday 09/10/2010 and powered
the tv on and now I have two lines in my screen one horizontal and
one diagnal [sp.]. This is really been a horrible experience and
would never by another polaroid anything ever again.

There are hundreds of similar complaints of consumeraffairs.com and other consumer websites across the Internet.  A copy of the Polaroid LCD TV Television Class Action Lawsuit complaint can be found here.

A lawsuit has been filed against Yahoo for claims that they violated the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934.  The lawsuit is entitled Vince Bonato v. Yahoo! Inc., Carol A. Bartz and Jerry Yang and is in theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of California.  The lawsuit revolves around accusations that Yahoo made false and misleading statements and that they failed to disclose that an important corporate asset in China had been transferred at less than market value to another company. Alibaba and Yahoo received only $46 million for an asset that the shareholder complaint asserts is worth as much as $5 billion, yet according to the complaint, Yahoo waited until May to disclose the loss of Alipay to its own shareholders. Yahoo’s share price fell by 15 percent when the report was made public.   If you held Yahoo common stock during the Class Period of April 19, 2011 to May 13, 2011, and who were damaged thereby you could be a class action member in the Yahoo Securities Fraud Class Action Lawsuit.  Please check back for more updates.

HSBC has made a settlement to some victims of the Ponzi scheme set up by Bernard Madoff.  Bernard L. Madoff was a  former stock broker investment advisor who screwed over thousands of investors for billions of dollars.  This guy is one of the worse people in the history of the world.  A proposed $62.5 million class action settlement has been reached in a lawsuit against European bank HSBC Holdings. 

The lawsuit claims that HSBC knew or should of knew about the Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme.  The lawsuit also states that HSBC breached its duties to the funds and investors.  The HSBC Class Action Lawsuit Settlement of Investor Lawsuit Over Bernard Madoff is under the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  Check back for more updates.

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Google Android in the state of Florida claiming that the smartphones stored private customer information and then sold that information to advertising companies.  The private information being collected was cited as income, sexual orientation, and sexual preference.  Consumers claim they would of never bought the Google Android Smartphone if they knew that the phone would be collecting this type of personal data.  internet radio provider and Android app maker Pandora also are named in the Google Android and Pandora Class Action Lawsuit.  Pandora is also accused of not just providing music, but of also collecting location data and other information from phones and giving it directly to third parties.  This is not the first privacy class action lawsuit and we guarantee it will not be the last.  Privacy lawsuits are the lawsuit of the future.

If you or someone you know purchased a Whirlpool KitchenAid brand self-cleaning oven you could be a class member in the Whirlpool KitchenAid Self-Cleaning Oven Class Action Lawsuit.  This lawsuit is entitled Richard Wolfson v. Whirlpool Corporation and is under the jurisdiction of the  United States District Court for theEastern District of New York.

The lawsuit revolves around claims that the Whirlpool KitchenAid Self-Cleaning Oven was sold with know defects.  The lawsuit states ““The Ovens feature a self-cleaning capability that, upon the first or second use, damages the control panel as a result of excessive heat, requiring costly repairs in order to begin reusing the Oven. After the fifth or sixth use of the self-cleaning cycle, the heat from the self-cleaning cycle damages the control panel beyond repair.”

The KitchenAid class action lawsuit claims that Whirlpool knew about the claimed defects but sold the product anyways.   Whirlpool knew that these selling these defected self cleaning ovens would result in costly repairs and ultimately result in the destruction of the oven, yet continued to sell the ovens?  Wow that is pretty bad if true.  A complete copy of the Whirlpool KitchenAid Self-Cleaning Oven lawsuit can be read here.

Google & Slide Disco.com are facing a potential class action lawsuit over claims that they allowed customers to spam to send massive amounts of SMS text messages to large groups of people en masse using one cellular telephone number provided by Defendants and that Defendants allegedly sent text messages to consumers who did not want them.  The amount of spam text some cell phones to jam up and not function properly.  There are reports of over 100 text messages being received in a single day.

The case is entitled Bret L. Lusskin, Jr. v. Google, Inc. and Slide, Inc., Class Action Case No. 11-2585 and is in the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

The following is a example of a type of spam text in question on this lawsuit:

Hi [gloup member], it’s [group creator]. Welcome to Disco!
I just added you to “[group name].
Reply to join our chat or text *who for roster.
Disco is a group texting service.
Standard SMS rates may apply
or chat for FREE w/ our app -http://disco.com/d
More info? Text *help To quit? Text *leave

Anyone could be considered a potential class member in the Google and Slide Disco SMS Text Message Class Action Lawsuit Complaint if the following conditions exist: (1) received a text message directly from the Disco group texting service that was not sent by a Disco group leader or another member of a Disco group, and (2) all persons who opted-out of a Disco texting group within 24-hours of receipt of an initiating text message or who was a member of a Disco texting group that was closed within 24-hours of its creation.  A copy of the lawsuit can be found and read here.

Freddie Mac is under fire and is looking at a class action lawsuit being filed against the company.  The potential lawsuit revolves around claims that  the Freddie Mac of promising foreclosure sales that it will pay for the buyer’s title insurance if the buyer agrees to use the title insurance company utilized by Freddie Mac’s agent, but then “universally” refuses to do it.  The case is enttiled Rebecca Urban, et al. v. Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.  A trial by Jury is being requested on all issues stated in the Freddie Mac Class Action Lawsuit here.

“This is a case of Freddie Mac making promises it has no intention of keeping,” says the class action lawsuit. “Freddie Mac universally and wrongfully refuses to honor this promise, yet continues to make the promise over and over again knowing full well that it will not honor it….and will likely continue to do so unless enjoined by this Court.”