MIAMI -- On Tuesday, MyGallons LLC—marketer of a gasoline discount card program that came under fire for allegedly misleading consumers about its acceptance by U.S. Bank's Voyager fleet network—announced that it would give full refunds to more than 6,000 customers nationwide who signed up to use the program since it launched June 30 but never got a chance to use it, company spokesperson Greg Salsburg told The South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
"We are a consumer-friendly program, and we are sorry for the inability to provide this wonderful program to consumers," he said. He added [image-nocss] that the company will notify all customers about the refunds and return the money directly.
When the MyGallons program was launched, the Web site claimed that its card would be accepted at more than 95% of gas stations nationwide. But the company's site lists no cooperating gas stations. Instead, a note indicates that a "new location finder will be available as soon as we announce our new payment network." Salsburg said MyGallons is still negotiating with a bank to administer the program and hopes to offer the discount program in the future.
And once the program is in place, MyGallons officials are planning to waive the first-year membership fee of $29.95 or $39.95 to those who signed up for the program recently, said the report.
Company officials have told Better Business Bureau officials that Miami-based MyGallons was going to use the Voyager fleet network, a bank-card processing service owned by U.S. Bank, to administer the program. But negotiations broke off recently, bureau officials said. "The problem was that MyGallons was promoting a product in the website that didn't exist," Mike Galvin, a spokesperson for the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida told the newspaper. "And the company couldn't provide a viable vendor to provide the services."
The bureau gave MyGallons an "F" rating recently because of concerns that the company's advertising was misleading. The company was claiming that its card would be accepted at more than 200,000 participating gas stations nationwide.
Galvin said MyGallons has modified some of its claims since bureau officials challenged the company's advertising offer and bureau officials changed the rating to "NR"—for "no rating"—after meeting with company's officials. This rating means that bureau officials are still reviewing the company, the report said.
PowerPay, the merchant services provider for MyGallons, has assured bureau officials that membership fees processed on behalf of customers have been placed in a non-interest bearing escrow account, said the report.
MyGallons promised consumers a way to save money on gasoline. The site said price per gallon is based upon the average gas price in the ZIP code of the consumer's account billing address at the time of enrollment.
Consumer advocates have warned about the risks of such programs, noting members are stuck paying higher prices for gasoline if they drop and stay low.Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.