Any hints at Class Action Lawsuits over 90 day coupons?

We were promised that the coupon could be used towards the purchase of a converter. No promise was made as to how many we could pick from though.

In this area, at least, four different models have been in plentiful supply since March--at Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Radio Shack...and a fifth model from General Electric was spotted last week at a local Target.

That having been said, I do sincerely believe that 90 days wasn't enough time. These coupons should have been good for at least 6 months.

Five out of 86 currently on the approved list.

I question why any time limit was placed on the coupons. It's not likely that an expired, unused coupon is going to have it's value placed back into the $ pool for additional coupon applications. (they could, but do you think they will?)

That money will most likely be earmarked for another bridge to nowhere or some corporate welfare fund. Don't forget that it's YOUR airwaves that are going to be auctioned off. If they were not sold and were allowed to still be used for television. Just imagine the hurt it could put on cable and sat. So what if it would be reruns and infomercials. At least it would be free and we wouldn't have to pay for it.

If a list has been started to notify people when a case starts, PUT ME ON IT!

I'll gladly hold my local representitives and the NTIA responsible for this gun-to-the-head purchase Strategy.

Forcing me to follow the "Choose To Loose" mentallity and loose my local college's and church's low power broadcasts are a point I think the NBA woukd gladly join in the crusade about too.

Edit: I thought I should add that I have (Very politely) requested an answer as to what can be done about the pass-through (Funai-****up). If what they (Funai) advised the commitee originally was true there wouldn't be pass-through on any of the zillions of VCR's, STB's, and various other equipment. Most tuners in these rigs HAVE ACTIVE SPLITTERS in them going to waste. Look it up.

My point. Not one person replied. They neeed a fire under their ass!

Absolutely they will.

I know this thread is a little out of date but I just discovered it because I received my coupons in the mail today and I'm looking for a box which my Replay 5040 can control.

Anyway, from a legal prospective, unless one of your constitutional rights have been violated or there is a specific statute authorizing a suit of this type, you can't sue the Federal Government. I know, it doesn't sound fair, but that is the way it is.

So as much fun as a class action suit would be, it would be barred by the doctrine of Sovereign Immunity.

Besides, the only ones who get anything in a class action suit are the lawyers.

-SeeSpotRun

True. End of story.

Seriously?
So many people want to be a victim -- even over a $40 box. Pretty ridiculous.

Its the principal. Where I live - no boxes - at Walmart, at Radio Shack and one other TV place. Accessibility should be an issue. I would need to drive 1 hour - or purchase a box with known defects online. So far I have tried Maxmedia, Microprose, Provantage and Radio Shack. There should be a lawsuit issue in here somewhere. This is ridiculus. I am very frustrated at how my tax dollars are being spent and the potential for losing simple TV.

If your feeling litigious, focus on the retailers who took -- and expired -- coupons and then failed to deliver product. So maybe $80 worth of coupons per customer times the number of disappointed customers. IMHO they have defrauded us and should make good.

I hope everyone remembers this kind of stuff the next time the topic of cutting taxes comes up, even if it's not your particular taxes that might be cut. The only way to stop government mismanagement and wasteful spending is to give it less to spend.

Absolutely, dead on!

TV sales were flat, as were studio equipment sales. The underlying reason for the switch to DTV and the HDTV is to force everyone to toss out perfectly good equipment, and buy new.

If I was the new chair of the FCC (under Pres Obama ), the first thing I would do is order a halt to the forced conversion. Let the conversion happen at is own place. When the last analog TV dies (in what 2063?), stations will stop transmitting on their own (no ad revenue when there is no one left watching).

The balance from all the unused cards will certainly be recycled back into the next batch of cards.

I was obviously wrong on the return to the fund of unused coupons, although they aren't yet allowing reapplication for expired coupons due to lack of postage. I'll be surprised if all the $s available actually get distributed.

That seems to be what a lot of people think but there have been many bits of info regarding them having "no infrastructure set up to recycle the expired cards" or however it was put. So it might end up being free money saved by the government, not recycled. Remember too, the initial fees to send out all these cards (have them printed, encoded, put into envelopes, postage) are not recoupable.

I think they should recycle but currently it looks like that may not actually happen?

Unfortunately, such a lawsuit would probably be tossed out of court quickly. NTIA didn't write the CECB legislation - the 90 day expiry period is contained within the legislation passed by Congress. Class action lawsuits can be undertaken against business entities, not against government agencies or against Congress.

It's extremely unlikely that any Federal or State courts will certify such a claim against a U.S. Government agency carrying out "the will of the people" as enacted into law by Congress.

Personally, I wish Congress would feel the heat to address this problem, but it's unlikely. There is no known "lemon law" by which consumers can force Congress to re-write poorly-drafted legislation.

I feel very frustrated by all this hdtv issue being forced upon us like it is. Someone earlier pointed out that we are throwing away an enormous amount of perfectly good equipment which could be used for a long time by those who are poor and unable to afford new stuff. The vulnerable and poor are the ones who will suffer the most with this conversion and to add insult to injury they put a time limit on use of the coupons so that most of us who figured to be able to get the limited number of them (what happened to the promise to provide at least one per houshold?) available will now find the converters which we can buy will not have an analog passthru. How shamefull of our leaders to allow such a thing.
I am sure that since greed is now the main objective of our leaders in office, it is time to have someone like Polpot(sp?) take over and clean house.

Gosh I used to be such a good citizen. In the Vietnam era I was supporting the idea of the war in Vietnam and looking at the protestors as being almost unAmerican. In those days I might have stood in line to oppose an assualt on our government. A few years later I would have not opposed it and now I would ask those doing it (going to burn down Washington) "Do you have enough matches? Do you have enough gasoline? Do you need a ride?

I will not stand in the way if anyone wants to overthrow this crap we have for a government. This coupon thing is just another of the things they do to us in the name of greed and profit.

And don't even get me started on the HDCP thing!!!

Just for the record, I am going to be 69 in July so I am no young kid!
I still have my guns too!!

IMHO everything you've said has already happened. The only (subtle) point is to what degree existing TV/Film provides virtual reality. TV/Film already does a pretty good job of immersion and TV has a large percentage of the population glued to their couches.

This conversion to digital was "cooked up" in the 90's by the Clinton folks.
The Feds are now pushing for a quick change over so that they can reclaim the spectrum currently used by channels 52-69. They have already auctioned some of i off for something like 20 BILLION dollars.