Our mission is to give people more access to this consumer arbitration process. And our business model is that when they win we will receive a commission.
Most of our business to-date has been helping people take on telcos over issues they've experienced as individuals (like when a company promises to buy out your old contract if you sign up, and then after you've signed up tells you "sorry, no")
Yes, it's a plug. Radvocate is a product; we make money if you use us... But only if you get money out of it. If we file documents for you and guide you through the process we ask for a commission on any compensation you get out of it.
Can you provide information about terms of service before taking my information? It's nowhere to be found. How much do I get? How much do you get? What happens next?
> In return for doing the paperwork to process your Claim and providing other services to help you through the dispute resolution process, you are assigning Radvocate a 20% stake in any monetary relief resulting from your Claim against the Counterparty (the “Stake”).
> In addition to its Stake, you agree to pay Radvocate 10% of any amount payable that’s removed from or written off of your bill or debt (the “Debt Relief Fee”).
> If you accept a settlement offer but the Stake and the Debt Relief Fee are less than $20 when added together, then you agree to pay Radvocate $20, instead of and not in addition to the Stake and the Debt Relief Fee, to partially offset the costs that Radvocate incurred pursuing your Claim.
> If you fail to respond to multiple requests for information about the status or outcome of your Claim from Radvocate (“Ghosting”), you authorize Radvocate to charge any payment card connected to your account for $30 - the approximate cost of preparing, delivering and managing your Claim.
However:
> 100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEE: Radvocate’s fees are subject to a 100% satisfaction guarantee - if you aren’t completely satisfied with our service, then you don’t have to pay Radvocate anything.
So if I'm reading this right, anybody can say they're dissatisfied for any reason (even, ostensibly, if they're dissatisfied with the terms of service) and that gets them out of any fees to Radvocate.
It's linked from the last page of the form above the submit button: "By submitting your claim you agree to our terms and conditions[link], which we encourage you to read."
(The second to last page of the form provides a simpler overview of the process too.)
I don't have direct access to the fulfillment of this particular initiative, but in general we can take advantage of the efficiency of sending multiple legal notices in the same packet. So the cost per individual letter can be much less than one would assume.
Radvocate here:
We do have a vested interest. Over time, we want to be the place you come when you have a dispute against a big company because we'll fight hard for you.
We're excited to partner on this project partly because it is very "on brand" for us from that perspective — we can help people, get our name out there, and shine light on an issue that matters to us. We're a business, but we're also all in this business (instead of some other business) because we want to make the system fairer for consumers.
ETA: Also, to correct one misapprehension: we are not in the class action business. We actually help consumers pursue individual arbitrations. We think more people should know that even if their contract doesn't let them sue, they actually do have a way to assert their power through arbitration. If anything, we'll have more customers for our current business if no one opts out of their Chase clause.
Bravo. In my view, this connection and upside was made appropriately-clear in the "Who are you and why did you build this?" section, and the context from the logo attached to the site.
Very clever marketing, good on you for managing this, and I hope you see a great return for your efforts.
And an interesting business concept - to help consumers pursue individual arbitrations. That could be really cool especially against large corporations when they are abusive. What do you charge as people go through their individual arbitration process/ how does the profit model work?
I really have mixed feelings about the legal system - on
Also, Radvocate, wondering if you can address the PII concerns other's have raised, as that is a very big deal.
On the business model – we charge a commission currently set at 15% of whatever compensation you recover. Hopefully that's from a negotiated settlement with the company before a full arbitration process is necessary. (More details at bottom). We currently process against 20+ cable / ISP / wireless companies.
Re: PII, first I want to make clear that I can't speak with legal standing about the terms & conditions as written. That said, if someone checks the (optional) box giving us permission to do so, all we plan to store is an e-mail address (plus an anonymized token?). We at Radvocate don't have current plans to use that e-mail address, but it is true that it likely would be most useful for the purpose of putting together a future class action against Chase. We'd only partner on that with firms we trust and who will make respectful use of the information.
We think this could be of interest and beneficial to someone opting out of arbitration. To repeat a point on this thread, it's another way to take action against Chase. Additionally, while we all have experience with a class action of being mailed a gift card three years later, if someone does make direct contact with a lawyer on the lawsuit, that may put them in a different position (though I'm not a lawyer).
More on our process: The way arbitration works is you usually have to send the company a notice letter (which we automate) 30-60 days before filing. When you do that a lot of companies suddenly want to negotiate, instead of ignoring your dispute, and we provide data and process guidance to help you negotiate most effectively. If negotiation fails then we automate escalating your claim to arbitration by filing with the American Arbitration Association, and we continue to provide guidance as the case moves through their system, including preparation for the hearing (which will typically happen by phone).
I don't think you've come close to adequately addressing the PII issue here.
The information you're collecting, if it ends up in the wrong hands, could lead to some nightmarish identity theft.
Surely you're aware of massive and prevalent data breaches[1]. You're collecting sensitive information to help people, but not providing any convincing bonafides on information security, let alone an actual plan for how sensitive information goes in your web form, then (many technical/logistical steps later) ends up in Chase's P.O. box, without leaking out to some unintended party.
I don't think anyone should feel comfortable with "all we plan to store is an e-mail address"
That seems awesome that you're going after big cable/ISP/wireless companies. Do you think consumers that are harmed by Comcast/Xfinity's abusive practices of bundling and zero-rating their own video services, but charging you for data overages if you use Netflix or other 3rd party video services have a strong position?
Would you help us go after them? I'd sign up in a heartbeat for that. When I moved from Connecticut where we have a relatively benign ISP (Cablevision) who doesn't have data caps, to California where we only have Comcast/Xfinity, my monthly price for Internet doubled and I have less than half the bandwidth available to me.
I am not sure why I want to sue Chase. I bank with them and they have provided the agreed services. What exactly has Chase done to harm someone like me? If I don’t like something they do, I simply bank elsewhere.
Interesting point. Here from Radvocate (partner on this product). We currently help consumers take action under their contracts with 20+ wireless / cable / ISP brands. We are up and running fine.
Corporations do have a stake in contractual and legal systems continuing to function, as well as in not calling down negative news coverage on themselves.
Fact: If millions of people were to take us up on this, we (Radvocate and our friends at HM Bradley) would get tangible value from the publicity around it.
There are actually no more class action suits against most big companies that you've signed a contract with:
Thanks to Supreme Court decisions over the last decade your only option is typically to go through an opaque individual arbitration process – https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/12/decade-class-act...
And very few people actually do this – https://myradvocate.com/press/2019-q3-consumer-arbitration-c...
Our mission is to give people more access to this consumer arbitration process. And our business model is that when they win we will receive a commission.
Most of our business to-date has been helping people take on telcos over issues they've experienced as individuals (like when a company promises to buy out your old contract if you sign up, and then after you've signed up tells you "sorry, no")