DC Sues AT&T For Unclaimed Phone Minutes

Suki I submits news that Washington, D.C.'s attorney general has filed suit (District of Columbia vs. AT&T Corp, Superior Court of the District of Columbia), claiming the city has the right, through laws applying to unclaimed property, to unused calling-card balances held in the name of D.C. residents. "The suit claims that AT&T should turn over unused balances on the calling cards of consumers whose last known address was in Washington, D.C. and have not used the calling card for three years. 'AT&T's prepaid calling cards must be treated as unclaimed property under district law,' the attorney general's office said in a statement. ... [That sum] represents some 5 to 20 percent of the total balances purchased by consumers who use the calling cards. States and municipalities have often similarly used unclaimed property laws, known as escheat laws, to claim ownership of unused retail gift card balances." Suki I links also to Reason Magazine's coverage.

Comments

Re:Yes!!!

[ftobin]

As consumers, we might hate it, but you have to think of it this way... a gift card is an outstanding debt. A business doesn't want to have thousands or tens of thousands of tiny outstanding debts floating around FOREVER. That is the main reason there are "fees" to reduce the value of the card to zero when it isn't used.

I agree. I can't imagine that there would be an organization (let's call it a "knab") that if you deposited money with them, got something in return, they could manage these outstanding liabilities that you could redeem for the product at any time in the future, near or distant. In the meantime, this fictitious knabs would be free to invest your deposit safely until you withdrew it. Knabs would have a terrible time trying to keep track of all these accounts on their books, and couldn't possibly make money, so much so that I can't imagine a world with a knab.

Also, what's so hard about keeping track of all these inactive accounts? It's not like they have many businesses have a hand-written ledger that they have to re-copy all account values around. Since all the accounts are likely similar, automated processing should be able to handle the number, whether it's processing 100 or 10,000.

Re:Big internet access bonus for the DC area

[BlueParrot]

So anything that's unclaimed like this defaults back to the city? I wonder what they're going to do with the remainder of everyone's unclaimed, unlimited internet access each month. Did they pool the unused hours off of old AOL CDs? What about all-you-can-eat buffets? Solved DC's hunger problems right there.

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The government is evil

[Anonymous Coward]

The government is an evil entity, created by satan's liberals to hurt and destroy all the good little libertarian children who don't share their toys. It is said that in the far far future, there will one day be a savior who will come down and destroy the evil government and in its place establish a perfect society that will favor commerce over taxation and liberty over tyranny. In this we believe. Lord Rand hear our prayer.

Re:Yes!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

STFU statist. This is slashdot, and all problems are PROVEN to be caused by governments, not private corporations. No "citations" are needed. Who is John Galt?

Re:All your value belong to us? Nope.

[misexistentialist]

Abandoned property would end up in the general fund used to serve taxpayers. Well-salaried and -benefited bureaucrats, however, have a personal stake in the process of tracking down and returning money to the owners. Especially when it takes 6 years.