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Wal-Mart “Sam’s Club” members have filed a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., claiming the company defrauds customers by selling annual Sam’s Club memberships that aren’t really valid for 12 months.
According to the class action lawsuit, the deception occurs when members renew an expired Sam’s Club membership. Instead of starting the 12-month membership on the date it’s actually renewed, Wal-Mart Stores backdates the start date of the membership to an earlier date — the day immediately following the expiration of the old membership. As a result, even though members are paying for a full annual membership, they are actually receiving less than the 12-month membership privileges they’re purchasing.
Valid memberships are required to shop at Sam’s Club, and annual membership prices range from $35 to $100, depending on their type. The lawsuit estimates Sam’s Club received close to $1 billion from sales of membership fees in 2006 — fees that members paid for services they didn’t receive in full. “A portion of these membership fees were obtained using a deceptive, fraudulent and improper scheme” to deprive members of their full 12-month membership privileges, the lawsuit says.
“[Wal-Mart] knowingly and intentionally engages in backdating, despite the fact that it understands that [class members] receive no membership benefits and are not allowed to access [it’s] Sam’s Clubs during the period of time between the expiration of their original membership and the purchase of another annual membership,” the lawsuit states.
The class action lawsuit is brought on behalf of all California residents who purchased a Sam’s Club annual membership (Advantage, Advantage Plus, Business and Business Plus) after the expiration of their previous annual membership from August 19, 2006 through the present. A copy of the Wal-Mart Sam’s Club Annual Membership Class Action Lawsuit can be found here.
Updated August 24th, 2010
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21 thoughts onSam’s Club Class Action Lawsuit
the app has a feature called scan and go, you need your credit card to use the feature and it has an automatic renewal feature. even when you turn it off, every time sams updates the app it will add the on feature to auto renewal.
count me in. Sams Club withdrew $50.00 from my account without my authorization. I requested they cancel this membership as I don’t shop aSams club. I waited over 2 weeks for my refund when I did not get it I called again and was told they have no record of my phone call requesting them to cancel this membersip.
Add me. Sam’s Club withdrew $100 from my account without my authorization. They refused to put it back until 10-15 business days. They then told me to go to the Club I go to, and they will refund my money. That Club is over 100 miles round trip.
Add me they took money out of my bank account with out my permission, I didn’t authorize them into my bank account
Add me
I had sams in 2018.
Add me.
add me