Stephen King Settlement Nets more than AG Edwards…Huh?

April 1st, 2010. By AbiK

Not often that you see your boss’ name connected to a lawsuit. Then again, when you have a boss whose name—Stephen King—is the same as one the world’s most well-known and prolific writers, you’re bound to see the name in all sorts of places. The fact that this one was for a lawsuit settlement caught my eye—hell, wouldn’t it catch yours?

But, alas, wrong Stephen King. Nothing to forward over to John (also my boss), Jaime, Jason, Jonathan, Jane, Heidi, Gord, Lucy, Brenda, Hana, Michelle and Deb with the requisite “Holy Sh-t have you seen this?!?” subject line. Maybe next time.

But still worth a post.

Why?

Well, first the details. Yes—the lawsuit settlement does have to do with Stephen King, the writer.

Seems when his book, “Cell”, launched back in 2006, some folks got unsolicited text messages to their cell phones that advertised the book and  the Stephen King VIP Mobile Club.

And that was in violation of a federal statute.

Here’s what caught my eye though—straight from the settlement agreement notice:

YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO A $175.00 CASH PAYMENT

Yes, $175.00.

Keep in mind, I read this on the heels of writing about the roughly $20-per-person AG Edwards settlement.

Just try to grapple with the juxtaposition here—you’ve got a text message snafu that’s worth (potentially) $175 per claimant and a loss of life savings (alleged by numerous AG Edwards claimants) that’s worth a McDonald’s family meal.

I’m not going to argue that receiving unsolicited text messages is right—but whenever I receive a spammy text message (unless of course it’s from that other Stephen King I work for) I don’t even read it and I hit “Delete” and when it asks me if I really want to delete the message, I hit “Damn right I do”.

However, had I lost my life savings, there’s a bit more than a 3-second keypad annoyance at stake.

So I’m hoping that the folks who were AG Edwards account holders during the AG Edwards class action class period (try to say that fast) of 2000-2005 were also those who were receiving unsolicited text messages from Stephen King in 2006. That way maybe they can afford a family meal somewhere that comes with printed menus and real flatware.

PS—if you haven’t submitted your Stephen King text settlement claim yet, you can do so at satterfieldtextsettlement.com.

Tags: AG Edwards, Stephen King

This was posted on Thursday, April 1st, 2010 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Emerging Issues . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.