At A Crossroads. Refund strategy review needed.

[Jason R]

Hi All.

2002 is coming to a close and AnotherUniverse has had ample time to provide refunds to all overcharged and cancelled customers. By my estimation, based upon problems submissions and survey results, there are approximately 1,200 customers, some owed as much as $400.

I can only speak for the first 2,600 customers, as the last list I received was from June of 2002, so there can be more double bills unaccounted for.

It is one of those unfortunate lessons that email sometimes proves to be a less-than-effective way of communicating with a large number of people. It is inexpensive and (on paper, at least) efficient, but it is often difficult to reach many people due to full inboxes (yahoo and hotmail, etc.), cancelled accounts, etc.

In the first few days of 2003, I will be emailing everyone who ever submitted a problem to drygrass.com, anybody who ever wrote to me, and everyone on the AU.com customer list that I received in July. I will also ask MSCL.com to please mass mail all of the original petition signers.

This might mean that some people will receive duplicate emails, but it is the only way to ensure that the largest number of people receive the email. (And there will be an opt-out link so that you can remove yourself if the email does not apply to you).

I will be asking for some new data, such as the name of your bank and the type of card (visa,mastercard,amex), credit/debit/check. I will not be asking for your card number, obviously.

I will also ask for the amount of the overcharge, and to find out if you have pursued a refund through your card and been successful.

I will then break the list down into groups according to bank and credit card type.

After that, I am a bit unsure of how to proceed. I will obviously share the data with the Attorney General and IFCC, but I am also willing to share the data with any potential class action against AU. I understand that this last idea is perhaps a bit naive, especially since it is hard to collect damages from a company with no money.

However, once this data is collected, it would be very helpful if some of you could suggest some ideas of how to proceed. I will be working the press angle, ensuring that AU's name is equated with shady business practices and overcharges/failure to provide refunds, but there must be some further strategy and some way of attracting the attention of law enforcement.

Anyway, that was a long post. If you've read this far, and can donate some time to the cause (for example, with press contacts), please email me at dvd@drygrass.com.

Jason Rosenfeld