Classmates.com to pay $2 to consumers

Consumers love Class Action settlements: It means a check in the mail, with little to no effort on our part.

But one new proposed settlement is generating a lot of complaints, because some people receiving it say the check is its hardly worth the paper its printed on.

Back in the pre-facebook days, Classmates.com was about the only way to find your old mullet-wearing, mascara painted, and permed-out high school friends.

But now the company has agreed to settle a Class Action suit that claimed it deceived the mullet and mascara crowd into paying for monthly services they didn't want.

"I'm Going to Get Some Money!"

People who signed up -- like Sandra Poland of Cincinnati's Western Hills neighborhood -- are getting good news and bad news in the mail.

"I was like oh, a settlement, I'm going to get some money,"  she said.

But the thrill was soon gone, she says. "It said I would get $2 off a Classmates.com gold membership."

What the Settlement Gives You

That's right: people who listed their names on Classmates.com free service will get a $2 discount if they now decide to pay for its premium service.

If you did end up buying a the premium Gold membership, you get a little bit more. She said "if I was actually a member, I'd get a $3 check."

So no matter what you did, you're lucky if you get enough for a cup of coffee. Unless, of course, you are one of the attorneys on the case, who Sandra says, "according to the legal documents get $1.3 million!"

Classmates.com could end up making a chunk of money too, if enough people like Sandra take the $2 discount, and decide to sign up and start paying, when they had not been paying previously.

Sandra says she's not taking the settlement, saying says she finds old high school friends all the time now on Facebook, and says it turns out she's not missing much, except all the permed hair.

As always, don't waste your money.

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Click here for more info on the Classmates.com settlement

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