Tonight, while minding my own business, a friend came on IM. Had I gotten the email he had sent me? No.
He had been reading along in my dispute with Adventure Balloons of Las Vegas. He is an attorney, and some of what he saw got him to thinking. He began to read the Nevada law.
As it turns out, the money for the certificates never reverts to Adventure. At some point, prescribed by law, it gets turned over to the state and they send it to me! Hello!
Not only that, this applies to anyone else in a similar situation.
God bless the Internet.
I’ve attached it to the link below
I just received a note from a friend, an attorney. He had been silently reading along. Then, he realized there’s a part of the story that hasn’t been publicized. Like all states, Nevada has an unclaimed property program under which this transaction falls.
I think it’s a good reason for Adventure to change their refund policy. You judge for yourself.
To summarize what follows, the definition section shows gift certificates are included in the definition of intangible property. If these certificates expire, after a period of time (3 years) Adventure Balloons has to return the money to the State of Nevada. If they hold any other expired certificates, they must return that money to the state as well.
Oh – when they send it to the state, by law the state must inform me so I may reclaim it (see Recovery of property by owner). How do they know it’s mine? “The name, if known, and last known address, if any, of each person appearing from the records of the holder to be the owner of any property of the value of $50 or more presumed abandoned under this chapter.”
So, it seems like the State of Nevada has already anticipated this scenario… and sides with me.
Here’s the text of the email, with citations:
————————————————————————–
I read the whole thread and did some research. These “pre-paid flight certificates” are essentially the same as gift certificates. Some states have barred expirations dates on gift certificates, but Nevada has not.
Under the Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act, (which Nevada has adopted) if a gift certificate expires before the state
This “experience” from my point of view and since reading 17 pages of the thread seems to make me more confused and not having a clue about what’s going on. hehe like reading EULAs for software
😉
I’ll just to say that in someway (since the shadow of the internet people can act a bit different then in public) It’s a interesting view of human nature.
How or in what way I’m not really sure :-\