LAWSUIT KICKS AS TAE BO VIDEO TELEMARKETERS

The CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER: June 10, 2002

By Karin Scholz
Plain Dealer Reporter

Thousands of people bought into Hollywood martial artist Billy Blanks' blend of exercise and inspiration. And some of them, a Cleveland lawyer contends, still are paying for it.

Three Northeast Ohio women have filed a lawsuit in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court against Blanks and two of his business associates, alleging that they conspired to defraud customers who bought his Tae Bo videos from infomercial hot line.

The women say that in addition to taking out the cost of the tapes, the Tae Bo sellers charged their credit cards up to $248 without permission. The payments supposedly covered a "self-renewing" membership fee in a club they say they never joined.

"This so-called membership is merely a label to conceal…theft," their lawyer, Jack Landskroner, said in court documents.

Landskroner is seeking national class-action status, which means that any Tae Bo customer with a similar claim could join in. "Tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands" of people could be affected, he said in court records.

In the lawsuit, filed in November and set for trial before Judge Joseph D. Russo in February, the companies associated with the Tae Bo tapes seem to be blaming each other.

Tae Bo mania was so widespread that the tapes became the second-best-selling videos in 1999, according to Billboard magazine. Blanks and his backers made millions on sales from a 30 minute informercial that featured celebrities touting his kick-boxing routines.

Brandy L. Ritt of Lakewood sat the informercial in December 1998. She called the toll-free number to buy the tapes as a Christmas gift for her sister and paid $59.85 with her credit card.

"This so-called membership is merely a label to conceal…theft." Jack Landskroner, lawyer for the plaintiffs

LAWSUIT TAKES AIM AT TELEMARKETERS

But six weeks later, her credit card statement also showed a $72 charge by a company called MWI Essentials. Ritt didn't notice it because it was buried among her other Christmas expenses.

Ten months later, MWI Essentials billed her again for $84. This time Ritt caught it and called a number listed beside the charge. "It was a couple weeks until I found the right person to talk to," Ritt said.

Court records show that MWI Essentials is a wholesale club run by a Connecticut company called Member Works. The company offers discounts to members for various products, including designer clothes, home goods and beauty supplies.

Tae Bo promoters linked with Member Works to offer the club to customers who called the number on Blanks' infomercial. Telemarketers call this an "upsell" - offering more products of services to customers who originally called to buy something else.

Ritt said MWI employees told her that when she bought the Tae Bo tapes, she accepted the call-taker's offer to enroll in MWI's club. But Ritt says the call-taker never mentioned the club, and she never authorized any other charges to her credit card.

"I never received any information about the club, either," she said.

Using the Internet, Ritt and her sister found other people who claim to have been ripped off after buying the Tae Bo tapes. Two other women are listed on the lawsuit: one, from Berea, she said she was charged an extra $168; the other, from Brunswick, said she lost $248.

Landskroner said he received a few e-mail messages a day from other customers who claim to have been scammed. He said the credit card statements of other customers show the charge was made by Member Works companies with other names, including MWI Home and Leisure, MWI Advantage and MWI Traveler.

"They use different names to confuse the consumer," Landskroner said.

Some customers had trouble disputing the charges because it was billed as a renewal membership, Landskroner said.

Member Works denies any wrongdoing and blames the other defendant, NCP Marketing of Canton, the company that created and marketed the tapes. NCP was suppose to make sure that Tae Bo call-takers read from a script about the club, Member Works claims in court documents.

Member Works says it has been in business for 13 years and has sold "millions of membership programs in cooperation with dozens of well-known vendors."

NCP claims it is being blamed only for "guilt by association" with Member Works. "NCP simply creates the Tae Bo videotapes that the plaintiffs admit having received," NCP lawyers wrote in court documents.

Blanks' publicist did not return a phone message seeking comment.

Ritt said her biggest supporter in the lawsuit is her sister, "who wanted nothing else for Christmas but those tapes."

The funny thing is, Ritt said, that she used them for only about three weeks.

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