Bronx man sues NBC Universal over ‘unlimited’ soda refills at theme park

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Source: https://nypost.com/2019/10/17/bronx...al-over-unlimited-soda-refills-at-theme-park/

He’s thirsty for justice.

A Bronx man is suing NBC Universal after he paid for an “unlimited refill” soda machine deal at one of the company’s theme parks — only to discover he had to wait a whole 10 minutes between each pour.

Luis Arnaud is bubbling with anger over the “false advertising” — saying he learned while trying to “quench his thirst” that the refills were in fact “limited” to a measly “total of only six per hour,” according to the class-action lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court Thursday.

Arnaud says he visited Universal’s Island of Adventure in Orlando, Fla., on July 30 and bought a 16-ounce “Coca-Cola Freestyle” cup — which purported to come with “unlimited” refills all day — for $16.99.

The next day, he reactivated the cup at Universal’s sister theme park Volcano Bay for $8.99, the suit says.

The cups come with a computer chip to show you’ve paid for the bottomless deal — but Arnaud learned they were also tracking how often users top up, and are “programmed” to limit refills to every 10 minutes.

When he tried to “quench his thirst and refill his cup again” before that period was up, the machine flashed a message rejecting his request, the suit says.

“Hi. You are not quite ready to fill up,” it proclaimed — along with the number of minutes he had to wait — according to photos of the failed attempt in his suit.

His suit also includes ads for the “freestyle” deal at the park, which promotes “unlimited” refills with “100+ drink choices” — but doesn’t appear to mention the limits.

The move is a “deceptive” and “unconscionable trade and business practice,” the suit charges.

“He would not have been willing to pay the sum he paid had he known that the Products did not provide unlimited refills and were mislabeled and falsely advertised,” the suit reads.

“Defendant delivered Products with significantly less value than was affirmed by their representations, thereby depriving him of the benefit of his bargain and injuring him in an amount up to the purchase price.”
Arnaud is seeking unspecified damages.

NBC Universal didn’t return a request for comment Thursday.

Arnaud could not be reached for comment.
 
This is what it says on the Universal Orlando website.

Coca-Cola freestyle® souvenir cup is a separate purchase. Separate theme park admission ticket required. Valid Coca-Cola freestyle® Souvenir Cup required to dispense Coca-Cola freestyle®. Refills are limited to no more than one (1) pour from the Coca-Cola freestyle® machine per 10 minutes and valid day of purchase only at participating Coca-Cola freestyle locations. Sharing is not permitted. Available for purchase at any participating theme park Coca-Cola freestyle® locations or reservation carts. If you purchased and received a Coca-Cola freestyle® souvenir cup ticket exchange the ticket in-park for a Coca-Cola freestyle® souvenir cup at any participating Coca-Cola freestyle® location or reservation cart. Tickets are non-refundable. No additional discounts apply.
 


Too funny.

that the refills were in fact “limited” to a measly “total of only six per hour,”

He does have a point. They are in fact “limited.”

I get why they do it because then multiple people would share one cup. But they should remove the term “unlimited.” (I checked their website and it does state “unlimited Freestyle” in the title.)

Seriously though, no one should be drinking that much soda, or soft drinks, anyway.
 
I know people often disagree about what can be called a frivolous lawsuit, but man alive, I sure hope this is one case in which we can agree that this is ridiculous.

Except here is the thing he SHOULD win this case. Is it a overboard? Yes

My issue is do not call it unlimited then. That would imply no limits would it not? I am personally sick of needing to read 40 pages of fine print, search and search for the terms, all to find out how a company is going to try and screw me in comparison to their marketing. (Disney is terrible at this as well)

They even call out that ONLY the Dining Plan which includes the cup actually has the limit on refilling. You will notice that "††" is marked for that plan but is not marked for the Soda Only Plan.

Pulled directly from the site: https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/tickets-packages/universal-orlando-dining-plan
"1-Day Unlimited Coca-Cola freestyle® Beverage (at participating locations)"

In the terms:
"††Coca-Cola freestyle® souvenir cup is a separate purchase. Separate theme park admission ticket required. Valid Coca-Cola freestyle® Souvenir Cup required to dispense Coca-Cola freestyle®. Refills are limited to no more than one (1) pour from the Coca-Cola freestyle® machine per 10 minutes and valid day of purchase only at participating Coca-Cola freestyle locations. Sharing is not permitted. Available for purchase at any participating theme park Coca-Cola freestyle® locations or reservation carts. If you purchased and received a Coca-Cola freestyle® souvenir cup ticket exchange the ticket in-park for a Coca-Cola freestyle® souvenir cup at any participating Coca-Cola freestyle® location or reservation cart. Tickets are non-refundable. No additional discounts apply."
 
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Seriously though, no one should be drinking that much soda, or soft drinks, anyway.

Have you never been in a fast food location and refilled your drink twice? That likely could be quicker than the 10 min gap. Likely the idea is to get food, get a soda, eat food/drink soda, then refill/top off soda prior to going on with your day. It could be that he was only trying to top off prior to going back to the park day and it would not allow him to.
 
Have you never been in a fast food location and refilled your drink twice? That likely could be quicker than the 10 min gap. Likely the idea is to get food, get a soda, eat food/drink soda, then refill/top off soda prior to going on with your day. It could be that he was only trying to top off prior to going back to the park day and it would not allow him to.
Yup, this happened to me this summer at our WDW pool. We were lounging for a while, went to fill our mugs- I don’t drink soda, so filled up with the Powerade type drink with ice and guzzled it down because I was hot and thirsty!! The fluid ounces consumed after considering the ice % was not ridiculous for a hot day. So, I wanted to fill up my mug to bring back with me to the pool area, but nope- it wouldn’t let me because it was too soon. I was a bit peeved about that, especially since I only fill my mug maybe twice on a typical day.
 
10 minutes is a long time to expect people to wait before refilling on an unlimited plan and seems intentionally designed to prevent refills at that point. What is it, 2 minutes, for the Disney cups? Imagine being thirsty, filling your cup, drinking half of it, and then knowing you're not going to pass a refill stations for awhile so you want to refill for the road before leaving, then finding you still have 8.5 minutes to wait. That's far from unlimited at that point. Ideally an employee would be around, see you're not sharing, and override the system.
 
It's like anything nowadays -there are some people who are looking for any excuse to get free money. A 10 minute wait between refills may not be a long gap to some, but for others it goes against the T&C they took the deal up on and they want compensation.

Personally I think it's completely frivolous.
 
Have you never been in a fast food location and refilled your drink twice? That likely could be quicker than the 10 min gap. Likely the idea is to get food, get a soda, eat food/drink soda, then refill/top off soda prior to going on with your day. It could be that he was only trying to top off prior to going back to the park day and it would not allow him to.
Actually I was referring to six refills every hour, not a refill after ten minutes.

I definitely understand that. Although I don’t think I could drink a whole soda and eat a quick meal all in ten minutes. But don’t have a problem if someone else can. :)
 
Except here is the thing he SHOULD win this case. Is it a overboard? Yes

My issue is do not call it unlimited then. That would imply no limits would it not? I am personally sick of needing to read 40 pages of fine print, search and search for the terms, all to find out how a company is going to try and screw me in comparison to their marketing. (Disney is terrible at this as well)

I do agree that technically they are wrong and he is right. The word "unlimited" has a meaning in the English language and they aren't adhering to that meaning. I was thinking, even while posting my earlier response, that I would still expect to see them change the name of it to simply "Refillable" or "The Multi-Fill" or something like that.

However, despite agreeing that they are technically wrong, I still think the lawsuit is beyond what one would need to do to address this issue. I mean, hey, I thought we used Twitter for everything we feel the need to say these days? ;) I also expect that Universal will quickly deal with this out of court, so at least no actual court time will be wasted on how fast one can gulp down a cup of soda and then refill it. :)
 
Let me do the math...you can get a refill every 10 minutes on a 16 oz. Freestyle cup. That means if you are at the park for 8 hours, you can get 48 refills. At 16 oz. each time, you can get 768 oz. of soda or 48 pounds of soda!

Personally, after drinking that much soda, I'd be going to the hospital! Besides, who walks around all day just drinking soda?
 
It's all about truth in advertising and the advertising is wrong therefore he's going to win. They are going to either have to change the wording or remove the time limit. And although they may want to settle out of court, he may not, especially if he wants to prove a point. ETA: And if he does take it to court they could end up losing big time because then anyone who bought a cup since they used the term unlimited would be entitled to compensation for not being able to get unlimited refills - class action law suit type stuff. Fun times.
 
An article I read stated he is insisting on a jury trial. I don’t think he plans to settle.
 
That is someone with a lot of time on their hands, or who was REALLY thirsty!
Or he just sees deep pockets and has a beef with Universal. I think it will all boil down to how the fine print is displayed with the disclaimer. Universal may win if they can prove the information was readily available and displayed prominently at the point of purchase, but the customer didn’t bother to read it. I process credit card disputes where I work and I am always having to provide proof that our cancellation policy is basically in the customer’s face and they didn’t read it. We actually require customers to sign off on the cancellation policy before taking payment, and they still don’t read it.
 
Or he just sees deep pockets and has a beef with Universal. I think it will all boil down to how the fine print is displayed with the disclaimer. Universal may win if they can prove the information was readily available and displayed prominently at the point of purchase, but the customer didn’t bother to read it. I process credit card disputes where I work and I am always having to provide proof that our cancellation policy is basically in the customer’s face and they didn’t read it. We actually require customers to sign off on the cancellation policy before taking payment, and they still don’t read it.

Read what I previously wrote and go to their website. While the meal plan w/ soda does have a disclaimer on the same page the drink only option (which it sounds like was purchased) specifically does not have the limitation noted.

Let me do the math...you can get a refill every 10 minutes on a 16 oz. Freestyle cup. That means if you are at the park for 8 hours, you can get 48 refills. At 16 oz. each time, you can get 768 oz. of soda or 48 pounds of soda!

Its not about drinking 768oz of soda, its about the limited window usage where you possibly drink a portion of the drink when getting food and then trying to top off before leaving the drink station. Have you ever drank a 20oz soda or sports drink? Well you would be over the limit in that circumstance unless you wait 10 mins to refill even after having a couple sips.

I still think the lawsuit is beyond what one would need to do to address this issue.

Because these things don't happen all the time? You need to get "dumb" lawsuits like this and class action ones to actually make changes unfortunately. Its similar to my recent issues with a Samsung Gear Fit. My wife didn't even swim with it but supposedly it stopped working because of "water damage" which is not covered by their warranty even though Samsung states you can swim laps with it. I am not going to take them to court but I am more than happy if someone else does or others like them that falsely market their products.
 

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