Plaintiff Has Had His Fill of Unwanted Fingerhut Telephone Calls

Eden Prairie, MNThe right for a company to market its products and services through advertising and other legitimate means is far removed from the practices undertaken by some companies to take unfair advantage of information and other data at their disposal. To that end, a Fingerhut Robocalling Class Action Lawsuit has been launched by disgruntled plaintiffs unhappy with alleged automated and unwelcome calls placed to their homes.

For the uninitiated, Fingerhut Direct Marketing began as a small retailer in 1948 and grew to a $1.7 billion dollar company by the end of the 20th century. That’s how much Federated Department Stores Inc. - now Macy’s - paid for Fingerhut when they purchased what had become an online retailer in 1999. At the time of the bursting of the so-called dot-com bubble, Fingerhut boasted 10,000 employees and an annual revenue stream of $2 billion. When Federated liquidated Fingerhut and eliminated 6,000 jobs, Tom Petters and Ted Deikel stepped in to save the enterprise.

Fingerhut now operates as a retailer within Bluestern Brands.

James, one of the many who have grown unhappy with unwelcome Fingerhut telephone calls is a Banning, California resident who bought two items from Fingerhut over a year ago, using Fingerhgut’s credit service in order to make payments. It should be noted that Bluestern, of which Fingerhut is a part, also includes Gettington.com and PayCheck Direct. The Star Tribune (12/14/13) identifies the three divisions as part of an online retail business that provides installment paying options to low- and middle-income clients.

James continued to make payments on his items until they were paid in full, at which time he closed out his two accounts completely. James reports he heard nothing further from the company until about two or three months ago when sporadic e-mails began appearing. These sporadic, spam e-mails soon ramped up to about three per day directed at two e-mail accounts James operates. He has made frequent attempts to unsubscribe to the e-mails, without success.

Then, last month, the Fingerhut robocalls began. The calls, according to James, would originate from an 877 number and would disconnect before James’ voicemail system had the chance to engage.

James suspects that the automated telephone calls are in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA); together with other violations given that unwelcome e-mails have continued to flow into his inbox in spite of repeated attempts to unsubscribe.

Consumers targeted with such activity are considering a Bluestern Brands lawsuit. A partner in Bluestern and Fingerhut, Tom Petters, has been battling corporate bankruptcy since 2008, when a Ponzi scheme that he is reported to have engineered imploded. The Star Tribune reports the scheme was worth $3.65 billion, at the time it failed.