DANVILLE — Montour County District Attorney Robert Buehner Jr. has busted the American Automobile Association.
The prosecutor caught AAA charging some consumers an extra $2 when they renewed their memberships without telling them how the money was to be used. The extra money went to the AAA Foundation.
"I suspected this was a consumer protection law violation, and it was," Buehner said Tuesday.
Buehner, a longtime AAA member, filed a complaint in February 2008 with the Bureau of Consumer Protection in Harrisburg on behalf of his wife, Alice.
He suspected AAA Mid-Atlantic, with addresses of Wilmington, Del., and Philadelphia, was adding $2 to their renewal statement without any comment or information about what the $2 charge represented.
When he called AAA, he discovered the $2 was for the AAA Foundation.
"Had we not carefully reviewed our statement, this $2 contribution would have been charged to our credit card payment on April 1, 2008," he wrote.
There may have been hundreds of thousands of members in the Mid-Atlantic Region and Pennsylvania unknowingly charged the additional $2 on their credit cards, he said.
He wrote there was no information on the statement where one could opt-out by calling any number or taking any type of action.
On July 14, Buehner received a copy of an assurance of voluntary compliance, signed by AAA Mid-Atlantic Inc., and filed in Commonwealth Court on July 1 from Margie Anderson, a deputy attorney general in the Bureau of Consumer Protection in State College. Anderson couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.
State Attorney General Thomas Corbett Jr. found AAA had violated Consumer Protection Law by sending billing and renewal statements to members without including on statements a description of the charge for the $2.
AAA sent billing and renewal statements to members with inconsistent information, for example, the left side of the statement requested a $2 contribution for the foundation and the right side of the statement requested a $1 contribution, Corbett said.
He also found that AAA was adding a contribution of $2 to the foundation from automatic renewal members without obtaining their consent.
Beginning in June 2006, AAA increased the contribution amount from $1 to $2. The company sent billing and renewal statements to Pennsylvania consumers that included a contribution to the foundation but did not include an explanation of what this charge for $2 represented, according to Corbett.
In the settlement, AAA agreed to pay the commonwealth $10,000, of which $7,500 will be distributed to a charitable organization, $2,000 will go to the Treasury Department and $500 to the pay costs of investigation by the office of the attorney general.
AAA also agreed to identify on the renewal statement a line about the annual fee, a line with the charitable contribution being requested and a line representing the total of all amounts listed on the statement. The company will also obtain consent from members prior to automatically charging any amounts to their accounts, according to the agreement.
News
DA catches AAA adding $2 charge
- News
-
-
Getting caffeine fix as easy as taking deep breath
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Move over, coffee and Red Bull. A Harvard professor thinks the next big thing will be people inhaling their caffeine from a lipstick-sized tube. Critics say the novel product is not without its risks.
-
Jerry Sandusky argues for local jurors, suggests delay
HARRISBURG — Jerry Sandusky wants jurors in his child sex-abuse trial to be chosen from the community where he lives and is suggesting a trial delay may be the best way to address the intense publicity generated by the case.
-
State House enters second day of debate on gas drilling bill
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's House of Representatives is beginning its second day of debate on a bill to impose a fee on natural-gas drilling in Pennsylvania and toughen regulations over the booming industry.
-
Cases involving gas station drug sales advance to Montour County Court
DANVILLE – Three people charged with selling heroin and Oxycotin tablets during two separate transactions at a convenience store lot Jan. 2 will face court action.
-
Danville school options aired with borough council
DANVILLE — After borough officials pledged to work with school officials toward a decision on the flood-damaged middle school, council members voted not to give or sell any farmland it owns. The purpose of the unanimous action by the council Tuesday night was so the district knows that rumored option to move the school won’t happen. The borough owns a farm across from the Danville Primary School.
-
Five watershed projects receive $873,000 in state funding
NORTHUMBERLAND -- Five Valley watershed projects will get nearly $873,000 from the state Department of Environmental Protection, which announced funding for 73 projects to improve watersheds, stormwater runoff, acid mine drainage and educational programs, among other environmental efforts.
-
Dispute turns into gun threat, troopers say
After an argument in which his wife threatened divorce, William Warren Woolsey, 36, grabbed a .22-caliber rifle and told her to meet him in the bedroom, saying he would kill himself, state police at Milton said.
-
Mom allegedly beat toddlers with brush
MIFFLINBURG -- A 22-year-old Mifflinburg mother has been charged with beating her two toddlers with a hairbrush until they bled from abrasions all over their faces and bodies, state police at Milton said. The abuse came to light when Brittany Morgan Sullivan's parents came home and found the wounds on their grandchildren, according to police.
-
Commissioners give disabled Sunburian a chance
SUNBURY -- A 22-year-old disabled man asked the Northumberland County commissioners a life-changing question last week. "Can I have a job?" Giuseppe Bua, of Sunbury, was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a genetic disorder in which bones break easily. Sometimes the bones break for no known reason. The disorder also can cause weak muscles, brittle teeth, a curved spine and hearing loss.
-
Trucking firm to add 25 drivers
MILTON -- The president of Watsontown Trucking Co. said Tuesday that his firm will be hiring 25 truck drivers in addition to several diesel technician and management positions, all due to expansion. President Steve Patton said the company, which has been in the Milton Industrial Park since 2004, bought 14 additional acres in the park, adding 10,000 square feet of office space and maintenance facilities. Construction on the new space, he said, will begin shortly and is targeted to be completed by June.
-
Mayor wants trucks to help fund roads
SUNBURY -- Mayor David Persing is frustrated with truck traffic entering the former Celotex site on North Front Street, and he wants to do something about it. Charge an impact fee. Gas companies have paid millions to repair roads damaged by trucks in the Marcellus shale region, and Persing wants to levy a fee to compensate the city for damage to roads caused by trucks hauling drilling waste through the city. About $25 per truck per visit, he said.
-
18-year-old dies in truck crash on Routes 11-15
LIVERPOOL -- An 18-year old Selinsgrove man was killed when his pickup truck collided with a tractor-trailer on Routes 11-15 in Perry County.
- More News Headlines
-
