the shrewdness of apes

how very american of you. "i don't understand it...but gimmegimmegimme."

to quote Sally Brown: "All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share."

I tried to do it, but it said my paypal address was invalid. F-in' racketeers.

did you really feel taken advantage of by paypal? is this really something you feel you had coming to you? i have never heard anyone once bad mouth paypal or feel they were due some sort of settlement from them. what a load of crap.

I got one of those emails but I couldn't make heads nor tails of it. Thanks to TSOA for wielding the machete that allows me to traipse through the online jungle of the, man I have no idea where this metaphor is going.

i have no beef with PayPal. i rather like them actually and they maintain that they were innocent of whatever the charges were. but the point is that they settled for a certain amount and that money is being divvied up amongst PayPal account holders no matter what. the number of claims made has no bearing on how much they have to pay out, so my putting in a claim does not damage them one iota, it simply increases my chances of getting a couple of dollars.

if you want to argue the merits of a legal system where a company is better off settling rather than fighting a charge, regardless of guilt or innocence, i think we'll be on the same side of that argument.

we may be on the same side of the argument in regards to a fucked up legal system but the idea of asking for a handout in a case that you neither particpated in nor understand fully just seems a bit absurd to me. it's stupid enough that they have to pay a settlement while claiming innocence but to then take advantage of this situation compounds my unease.

Does the "t" in t.s.o.a. stand for "tort reform?"

I'm with Jeremy. As a PayPal account holder, I received the e-mail, but I will not be filing a claim. I'd like to think that if I were walking down the street and a crowd of people was running around clutching at money that was falling from the sky, I would not rush over and elbow other people out of the way to grab a dollar or two for myself.

I did file a claim with the recording industry lawsuit, because I did buy many CDs during the years in question and therefore was actually gouged.

Not that I'm Mr. Right All the Time or anything; I'm sure I do plenty of things in my daily life that could be construed by someone, somewhere, as hypocritical.

i don't think signing my name on a form and mailing it is the equivalent of "rush[ing] over and elbow[ing] other people out of the way". they contacted me, after all. using Jim's scenario of precipitating currency, it's more like a dollar bill came floating by my face and all i had to do was stick my arm out and grab it and put it in my pocket.

the "t" in t.s.o.a. is actually silent.

As genteel as you might want to make it sound, it's grubbing for money you don't deserve.

Maybe the Ethicist would say it's fine to take the money, since they contacted you first and your taking it won't affect the total payout, but there's basically no reason for you to get it. And signing your name on a form and sending it in does constitute going out of your way more than grabbing a floating dollar bill does.

I'm just sayin'...

P.S. In the end we're probably talking about what, something like $10 here, so it doesn't really affect the fate of the world or any one of us very much. Let's keep that in mind before the fists start flying.

who cares what he does? as long as everyone starts calling him "class-action pacquette", i'm happy.

and make sure to add the 'c' to pacquette for "class-action"

and drop the last s for savings.

A comment from Saturday Jim: How the hell did I get so moralistic-sounding? Knock yourself out, Jamie. Maybe you'll get enough money to buy a round of beer at happy hour.

I still won't be filing a settlement, as I, like you, "have no beef with PayPal." But I think it may have been too harsh to say "grubbing for money you don't deserve." I buy lottery tickets, after all, and that is certainly money I don't deserve (nor does anyone else, I guess).

I get myself into these arguments I don't really care about, then I'm so stubborn I can't back down. Maybe I should just impose a comments moratorium on myself.

Alex, see if you can come up with an "N" word to add to the end of Class Action Paquette, so we can call Jamie "Cap'n."

if i can actually get the site to load, i'll file a claim too! they've taken a fair share of my online transaction dollars through the years from the many tchotkes, doodads and wingdings purchased on ebay. i am also a proud clipper of coupons although the hubby will be the first to complain that i clip in vain since i never do actually use them. the next time you want that beer you can't have cause you don't have the extra money, think about me and jamie, cause we'll be drinking our paypal-funded suds.

Cap'n would be good, but how about taking the first two letters from Class? Then Jamie's nickname is Clap, or the Clapper.

Clap On....Clap Off....god I love that Clapper song!