Radio Shack Surrenders Uncashed Rebates Worth $140,000

SPRINGFIELD – Radio Shack will surrender $140,000 in uncashed rebates owed to more than 5,000 Illinois residents, state Treasurer Michael Frerichs said in a released statement.

Frerichs pursued Radio Shack because rebates checks are unclaimed property if not paid out within five years. Returning unclaimed property is a role of the Treasurer’s Office.

“Big Corporations should not use rebate promotions as a bait-and-switch scheme,” Frerichs said. “This settlement allows us to actively locate the people who were wronged and return their money to them.”

Radio Shack agreed to the settlement after the Treasurer’s auditors determined that the electronics store chain and its rebate fulfillment provider, Global Fulfillment Services, a subsidiary of Minnesota’s Young America Corp., failed to report unclaimed rebate checks. Radio Shack had a contract with Global Fulfillment Services to process the rebate checks. In the event that an individual did not receive the rebate check or did not cash the check, Global Fulfillment Services kept the proceeds as revenue. That “leakage” was considered part of Global Fulfillment Services payment for processing the rebates on behalf of Radio Shack. Therefore, Radio Shack and Global Fulfillment Services retained the value of unclaimed rebates owed to Illinois residents. Doing so violates the Illinois Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act (765 ILCS 1025 et seq.)

The amount of these Radio Shack unclaimed property rebates typically range from $20-$100. However, it could take weeks for the information to be properly recorded and entered into the unclaimed property records database. The database can be found at www. illinoistreasurer.gov under the I-Cash program.

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