Class Action Claims AT&T Reward Cards Hampered by Undisclosed Restrictions

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AT&T, Inc. faces a proposed class action that claims the telecom giant has failed to disclose myriad limitations and restrictions on promotional reward cards promised to new customers, and thereby robbed the consumers of the cards’ values.

The 22-page case alleges that although AT&T entices consumers to sign up for its telephone, landline, internet and television services with a promise that they’ll receive a promotional reward card typically worth $100 to $400 in value, the restrictions that come along with the card, not to mention how long it reportedly takes for a card to be sent out, essentially eliminate the ability to use its full value. 

According to the suit, AT&T customers were never informed at the time they signed their contracts of the requirement that they first must redeem their right to receive the reward card. Thereafter, AT&T customers have faced excessive delays in receiving the cards, which come with an expiration date, through the mail before running up against restrictions on how the cards can be used, the case says. Overall, the lawsuit claims AT&T customers have been deceived as to the benefit of the reward card they expected to receive upon signing up with the company.

“AT&T’s actions and restrictions relating to the Reward Card, which are not adequately disclosed to new customers prior their contracting with AT&T, renders illusory the benefit that AT&T promised,” the complaint attests.

The lawsuit explains that AT&T represents in advertisements that customers will receive a promotional reward card when they sign up for its bundled telecommunications services. Though each reward card has a 150-day expiration period, AT&T often delays sending the cards to customers such that they do not receive them until near or after a card’s expiration date, the case alleges. Moreover, it is AT&T’s policy not to honor or replace expired reward cards even when they were sent near or after the expiration date, according to the suit.

Per the complaint, new customers encounter numerous obstacles before receiving and then being able to use their promised reward cards. After a customer contracts with AT&T, they are initially required to redeem their right to receive the promotional reward card through an email or mail notification sent by AT&T. The lawsuit alleges, however, that AT&T often waits a month or more after a new customer signs up for its services before sending the reward card notification email, which the case points out is “not readily distinguishable . . . from a host of other emails AT&T sends to customers and may be missed or sent to a junk email folder.”

Once a customer receives the reward card notification email, they are then subject to an unnecessarily cumbersome redemption process that “includes a variety of restrictions” and requires them to re-send information to AT&T that the company “already has,” the case scathes. According to the lawsuit, the primary purpose of the redemption process is to “create hurdles for new customers to actually receive the promised Reward Cards,” which are sent only after the redemption process has been completed. Even after the customer completes the redemption process, AT&T still delays sending the cards, such that, “[i]n many instances, the card is never delivered or is delivered near or after the 150-day use period has elapsed,” the suit asserts.

If and when the customer finally receives the reward card, the card must first be “activated” before it can be used, the suit goes on to allege. The 150-day expiry period, however, begins not when the card is activated but when it is “issued” by AT&T, the lawsuit points out.

Moreover, AT&T prevents the full usage of the reward cards’ funds by subjecting the cards to even more restrictions and conditions, according to the case. If a customer, for example, spends a threshold amount on the reward card, the card is then frozen and the customer is blocked from using the rest of the funds “for an extended period of time,” the case alleges.

All told, the suit claims AT&T’s processes, limitations and restrictions regarding its reward cards unfairly reduce their actual monetary value and are not adequately disclosed to customers at the time they sign up for the defendant’s services.

The plaintiff says he signed an agreement with AT&T for an offer of bundled television and telecommunications services that were advertised as coming with a $200 gift card reward. Despite signing up for the services on May 16, 2020 and being told the card would be sent “in a few days,” the plaintiff did not receive his reward card until January 7, 2021, after the 150-day expiry period, the case relays. When the plaintiff asked AT&T to replace his expired reward card, the defendant “refused to do so,” according to the complaint.

The lawsuit looks to represent the following class, as well as a state-specific subclass of Florida residents:

The full complaint can be read below.

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