Are you a fan of Burger King’s breakfast Croissan’wich? If you are, and if you purchased one between October 2015 and May 2017, the chain may owe you some money. That’s because of a class-action lawsuit the chain recently settled over its “buy one, get one free” coupons.
You know how BOGO is supposed to work. You bring the coupon to a store, buy an item at its usual price, and then get another one of that item without paying for it. Burger King allegedly tried to alter the system by specially raising prices for BOGO customers, until one of them, Koleta Anderson from Maryland, decided to sue.
Anderson says she bought two Croissan’wiches on the BOGO deal and was charged $3.19 before taxes. When she later bought just one sandwich with no coupon, she was charged $2.16. That didn’t seem right, so she repeated the experiment at several other Burger King stores, and got similar results.
So did her attorneys, and so did reporters from the Miami Herald when they bought Croissan’wiches just four minutes apart, once with a coupon and once without. Importantly, the overpriced Croissan’wich was a special order (no cheese).
In its settlement agreement, Burger King explains it this way:
“Pursuant to its investigation, BKC determined that Plaintiff’s allegations were, in certain respects, correct, in that some consumers in multiple states who special-ordered two Croissan’wiches without egg, cheese, and/or a meat and used a BOGO coupon at certain Burger King® restaurant locations that used a particular electronic Point of Sale (“POS”) system may have been inadvertently charged the full price for a single meat, egg, and cheese Croissan’wich, as opposed to the full price for a single Croissan’wich with only the ingredients the consumer ordered.”
The Burger King agreement goes on to say that according to its calculations, only about 10 percent of customers were affected, with the overcharges “typically ranging from a few cents up to $1.00.”
The fast food chain denies any wrongdoing, asserting that the error was inadvertently caused by its point-of-sale system. Nevertheless, it has agreed to issue payments as follows: Anyone who bought modified sandwiches using a BOGO coupon, was charged more than they should have been, and still has the receipt will get a $5 refund for every such purchase. Anyone who doesn’t have a receipt but attests that they made such a purchase and were overcharged will receive one $2 gift card. In addition, assuming the settlement is approved, Anderson will get a “service award” of $500, and Burger King will also pay her legal fees of $185,000.
If you’d like to make a claim, you must fill out this form and mail it to Burger King by January 19.