Class Action Suits

I received via e-mail this past week one of those notifications of a class action lawsuit.  The only that actually wins is these things is the lawyers.  Most of the time, I throw them away.  These things are sent seemingly to help us as consumers but in reality, they are a gross waste of time and money and most companies just cave and settle. If I posted this whole thing, you would never read the blog because it is hopelessly long and convoluted. 

The suit was against Classmates.com, a web site that helps to unite high school and college classmates.  I subscribed to it for maybe a year before coming to the conclusion that it was a waste of money and we could communicate more on Facebook for free anyway.  The claim of the suit was that somehow my privacy was violated.  Do I feel violated?  I am sure Classmates did something horrible.  My restitution for such a crime is that I can either get a $3 cash credit or a $2 credit off my membership (don't ask me why the credit is less than the cash payment).  To do this, I have to go online and fill out a form and submit it.  By the time I actually read the thing and fill it out, I probably would have made more at a minimum wage job.  But in the chance that many people actually do this, the suit further mentions there would be a pro-rata reduction of benefit paid.  In other words, my $3 cash in the bank or $2 credit could be even less. 

We wonder why it costs so much more to operate and why these costs are passed along to us.  I really feel vindicated by this law firm looking out for my best interests.