Hundreds of thousands of Canadian consumers are receiving a $20 Interac Transfer Notice these days, as part of a lithium-ion battery class action settlement launched in 2012. But many of them aren’t arriving. not collect their due or are suspicious, even though it’s relatively easy to get your $20, as verified The Press.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
“How can you be sure it’s not a fraud?” “This whole process is ridiculous and the process is in my opinion a scam for not refunding customers. “I have to provide, as a secret code, the eight-digit claim number which I cannot find anywhere. »
Judging by the many reactions of consumers who wrote to The Press, the procedure used by the administrator of this settlement totaling 21.3 million, RicePoint, is puzzling to say the least. It is by sending an email almost entirely in capital letters, with the heading “CLASS ACTION BATTERIES”, that we are informed of the transfer by Interac of $20 “IN CONNECTION WITH THE CANADIAN CLASS ACTION RELATIVE TO LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES”.
SCREENSHOT
An example of the email notifying our reporter of a $20 Interac transfer
Usage checks
This class action was brought by Option consommateurs in 2012 against seven global electronics giants accused of conspiring to raise the price of rechargeable batteries. According to the regulation approved on August 17, 2021, any Canadian who purchased between 2000 and 2012 a device containing a rechargeable lithium-ion battery could claim $20 without proof of purchase, until December 17. Note that the period to register for this class action has ended.
This compensation began to be paid in early May, by Interac transfer announced by email. First precaution: it is relatively simple to ensure that the email is legitimate. The sender address is [email protected] and the reply address is [email protected]. Care must be taken to ensure that these are the correct addresses, as fraudsters usually change a few letters or replace the letter “o”, for example, with the number “0”.
If you overcome your mistrust, you are directed to the site of your financial institution. Here again, you have to check in your browser that you are on the right site, and not the one created by a fraudster. To confirm the transfer, a security question must be answered. These are the first eight digits of the confirmation number obtained when the claim was made, between August 17 and December 17, 2021.
Many consumers obviously did not keep the email sent by RicePoint nine months ago, in some cases.
SCREENSHOT
Consumers who registered between August and December for the class action received an email specifying the answer to the security question that would be asked. A lot of people didn’t keep it.
Fast service
readers of The Press complained about RicePoint’s customer service not being able to help them or offering a lengthy administrative process to retrieve those eight digits.
The recoursbatteries.ca site has an email address for consumer questions and requests, [email protected]. The Press used it earlier this week and got no response three days later.
The toll-free number 1 866 726-4080, on the other hand, was very efficient. In less than ten minutes, we spoke as a simple consumer to an agent, in French, who gave us back our eight-digit confirmation number after a few checks.
This agent, who is not authorized to speak to the media, assured that RicePoint had sent to all consumers concerned an email on March 31 with the famous eight-digit code, as well as a second reminder on April 29. We found them both in our spam folder.
SCREENSHOT
The class action administrator, RicePoint, sent reminder emails in March and April, restating the security response. We found them among our spam emails.
“We sent thousands and thousands of emails, asking people to check their junk mail,” he said. People can contact us if they need help. »
As for the email address [email protected], he specifies that the response time is approximately five working days.