Criticism
On November 7, 2005, officials in Massachusetts filed suit against Young America demanding that they submit an audit for $43 million in uncashed rebate checks. Young America answered back saying that they keep the money in return for charging lower fees to their clients, stating that it is easier for Young America to keep the money and charge lower fees than sending the money back to the clients and in return having it returned to them as part of the fees. In response to questions from Business Week, the CEO stated "Young America receives the same fees whether a submission is valid or invalid." Massachusetts officials characterized the check retention as a conflict of interest nonetheless.
A similar suit was filed in Iowa in 2006, with officials again demanding an audit for money the corporation is supposedly withholding from the uncashed rebate checks.
Strict guidelines for rebate submissions are intended in part to combat fraudulent submissions. As of 2005, the corporation supposedly had over 10,000 addresses that they monitor for bogus submissions.
As of February 12, 2010, the lawsuit against Young America Corporation was dropped, as the retailers in question were held liable under Iowa state law.
Read more about this topic: Young America Corporation
Famous quotes containing the word criticism:
“I, with other Americans, have perhaps unduly resented the stream of criticism of American life ... more particularly have I resented the sneers at Main Street. For I have known that in the cottages that lay behind the street rested the strength of our national character.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“A bad short story or novel or poem leaves one comparatively calm because it does not exist, unless it gets a fake prestige through being mistaken for good work. It is essentially negative, it is something that has not come through. But over bad criticism one has a sense of real calamity.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“Nothing would improve newspaper criticism so much as the knowledge that it was to be read by men too hardy to acquiesce in the authoritative statement of the reviewer.”
—Richard Holt Hutton (1826–1897)