I was part of a class action settlement involving the Park Mobile app. My portion of the payout: 25 cents.
Most of the work to provide my settlement was undoubtedly done electronically — import the users, pro-rate their expenditures vs. total fine, email me with the results, payout through a credit on the app and not cash — but multiply that by thousands of users and it still had cost and effort involved.
Whether it be from a refund, settlement, rebate, or return, it seems to be a waste of resources to process out these small amounts. Would anyone be upset if there was a policy that small amounts were paid to one charity or foundation instead of to the individual? It means nothing to me, yet 25 cents multiplied by thousands could have an impact.
Maybe there can’t be a universal standard or one beneficiary that would appease most, but if you deal in such transactions, perhaps you can create a practice that works for your organization. Any unclaimed found items are donated after X days. Any refunds under $X amount are not paid out. Any amounts due under $X are forgiven. Let’s put our energy into the big stuff instead.
