California woman sues Target over coupon glitch

California woman sues Target over coupon glitch

Jackie Crosby
Minneapolis Star Tribune
November 11, 2010

Target Corp. has been sued in Los Angeles County Superior Court for fraud, false advertising and a number of other charges by a consumer who claims she was shortchanged on coupons.

Karina Olivarria , a resident of Los Angeles county, seeks class-action status to include consumers in California and the nation.

Target said Tuesday it had fixed a glitch it had known about for months that was causing certain manufacturer’s coupons to ring up inaccurately.

Spokeswoman Amy Reilly said Thursday that the company couldn’t discuss pending litigation.

In the complaint Olivarria said she ran into problems when she visited a Target in Gardena, Calif., on Oct. 14. She bought approximately $36 worth of Huggies baby products, and presented three coupons totaling $9. Olivarria received a discount of $7.48, which is $1.52 short of the coupon amount, according to court documents.

“It’s a serious problem, especially in these difficult economic times where people are relying on coupons to make ends meet,” said Olivarria’s attorney, Paul Alvarez, of Ringler Kearney Alvarez, LLP.

The suit also charges the Minneapolis-based retailer with negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract, breach of “good faith and fair dealing” and unfair competition.

Target has “been unjustly enriched as a result of this wrongful conduct,” according to the complaint. It also said Target’s receipts are “difficult to read and understand, thereby making it difficult for consumers to discover they have been deceived.”

Unbelievable. This is why we need tort reform at all levels. I hope this broad loses and has to pay court costs.

Why do you have a problem with this Tex? If a company gives out discount vouchers as a promotion, and a certain shop fails to honour it then they are in breach of retail laws, no?

Not sure on how retail laws go here. I'm sure there's a slippery slope to it. I just think it's a damn waste of time here in this case. It's not like she bought something and it hurt her. I label this as a frivolous lawsuit.

I am no big fan of suing at the drop of a hat, but I can understand this suit having read the article. It would appear that Target knew of this glitch for some time before fixing it. If this was a system wide glitch affecting all of their stores, Target stood to benefit big time at the expense of their customers, which really isn't fair. It is this kind of thing that gives big businesses a bad name.

Now I'm saying that Target is automatically guilty of something nefarious here, but a lawsuit would at least bring the complete story out and if there was wrongdoing, then Target should be made to compensate those who were short changed, and be appropriately penalized for any unlawful behavior.

If there were ameliorating circumstances explaining Targets actions, these should be given a fair hearing as well. But all of this would seem to be the well within the court's purview.

Here people wouldn't be allowed to take the company to court over this issue, because we have retail and industry regulators who would investigate the case and make a judgement about how Target ought to proceed (refund the affected customers, sort the problem out or that they were not in breach of the code of conduct).