We’ve been crying about the FuelRod price increase since we reported that it was coming to Disney World and Disneyland.
Swapping Fee Sticker
Well, it seems like we’re not the only ones. A Los Angeles law firm has filed as class action lawsuit against FuelRod for the price increase, so it looks like FuelRod customers aren’t happy EN MASSE.
According to the OC Register, he lawsuit was filed against the parent companies of FuelRod: Tricopian Inc. and SaveMeBatteries North America. The suit alleges that FuelRod has used false advertising in light of the introduction of the swapping fee. Essentially, FuelRod used to include free swapping to a full charger as a service; and now, as of November, swapping will be $3 each time.
FuelRod Station
Essentially, the suit argues that the initial cost of FuelRod ($30) is much too expensive for the charger received and that the cost includes use of the swapping service. The firm is seeking $5 million in damages (oof). The lawsuit argues that FuelRod fundamentally changed the primary benefits of the product, especially since cheaper and better chargers are available in the market.
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FuelRod Station
As the lawsuit continues, FuelRod will only have more pressure to respond meaningfully. After all, everyone who’s ever used FuelRod would be a potential plaintiff.
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What do you think of the lawsuit against FuelRod? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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I just bring my own, better, more powerful charger.
I have one of the fuel rods, and am not happy. Sign me up as plaintiff.
I’m glad I never got one of these. I would be super angry with the price increase. Especially since I can buy a better one for the same price and it will keep its charge all day with multiple chances to recharge my device.
Yeah, I’m with Sean. You can jump on Amazon and usually find a reliable-brand portable charger that will get you at least 2-3 full charges and pay less than $20. Heck, Black Friday/Cyber Monday is coming up, so you can probably get a top-line charger for $30 then!
How in today’s society, darn near everyone doesn’t have some sort of portable charger is beyond me.
Then just use the cheaper better chargers. Why bother suing? Other locations for these chargers have been charging for replacement for a long time now. Was anyone ever promised that it would be free forever? Just use the other options, they will either make it more affordable or go out of business, no sense in wasting money on litigation.
I love the fuel rod when I am at Disney. They don’t have them here in jersey so disney is the only place I use it so I was upset to see the price increase! I hope they cgsnge tgeir minds!
I agree 💯 with the lawsuit as it is FALSE advertising, not to mention I’ve gotten a bad swapped fuel rod so many times, what’s to say I pay $3 and get a bad one.. do I have to pay $3 again to replace their mistake? To many grey areas.
Nooooo! I have a fuel rod and am not OK with this! Sign me up as plaintiff!
FuelRod added swapping fees at airports a while ago. I contacted their customer service and was told to charge their battery via USB if I don’t want to pay the fee. I hope they get taken for everything they have. They don’t deserve to exist.
So where do we Sign up for this lawsuit that was the main reason I always carried my fuel rod since all the airports I hit had a machine to swap out my charger. but I also don’t remember paying 30 bucks for it when I first got mine.
Vote with your wallet! Chargers are relatively inexpensive and easy to tote around. Suing over this is dumb, so I guess now we can have a class action lawsuit over Disney price increases?
I’m definitely mad about them nickel and diming their customers. I’ve already spent $30 for my fuel rod I expect free swapping. If you can’t swap it for free what’s even the point of getting it.
Eric because people already bought them with the understanding they can switch them out when they need to for free. Now all of a sudden they are adding a fee to it. So basically they are changing the terms for everyone that has one now which isn’t what they agreed to when they spent the $30 to begin with.
Tony, perhaps you can contact the lawyers who are overseeing the lawsuit.
As others have said before, go to Amazon (or anywhere else) and buy a “candy bar” sized charger that holds 25000+ mAh charge. That will likely hold at least 3 full charges. I used my charger once during a 3 day trip. Yes, I had Location and MDE running the whole time. I also have a power-rod sized back-up in case I use up my whole larger charger.
If you rely on the in-park Power Rods, you are punching yourself in the face.
It’s an advertised price increase, not like they just changed prices overnight. They probably realized it was costing them too much money. This is absolutely not a sue worthy case, I hope it gets smacked down by lawyers, stupid crap like this is why we need tort reform.
Our society is going down hill. Seriously people are suing because they are mad about a convenience service that no one is forcing on them. If you don’t like the price or product- DON’T USE THE SERVICE! It’s that simple.
I am usually against silly lawsuits but this is breach of contract you bought a product for 30 dollars and were promised free refills period. personally I just assumed this was Disney being a typically greedy lowlife company as usual I would love to find out if the mouse has an interest in this company
As a Brit we don’t have fuel rod stations in the UK but was contemplating getting one on my next trip, whilst yes I have a mega 26800 mah battery and a 5000 mah one too I don’t need one but travelling and charging every device is a pain so this would have helped as there’s a fuel rod station in the hotel for refresh there, then several in the parks for quick top up charges/swaps. Yes the $30 is expensive but when you take the free instant swap out option boy it’s worth it. But a $3 a refresh, pfft look like my 26800 and 5000 are in my park bag then!
@Amy: Let’s stop with the pearl clutching hysterics. People are suing because when they purchased the Fuel Rods they were advertised with free unlimited swapping. They feel it is a bait and switch. Will it win? Is it worth suing over? Who knows, but if people are unhappy then they should be allowed to sue.
I just saw one of these machines at Boston Logan airport and it also listed $30 initial fee with $3 swap fee. Which seems to be bait and switch as another person commented. You buy these for convenience – sometimes you forget your power bar or it runs out.
I can understand if they increase their pricing as needed for new purchases, but people that already have them basically signed up for an ongoing service. Free swap outs was part of the “purchase agreement “. I will pitch mine.
Completely agree with the lawsuit. If FuelRod is smart they will change the policy for this before it even goes to court. Stupid move on their part.
Did anyone REALLY think that you would be able to pay $30 once in your lifetime and continue to get a charged rod? I do think it would be more advantageous for FuelRod to have you pay a rate, $30, and have a limited amount of refills for free. Basically, they still make money and even more money from the people who don’t use up all of their refills. A lawsuit seems a bit much to me especially when the majority of users have gotten much more than $30 worth of use out of their rods. I think once they weren’t getting purchased, they would be forced to change their pricing.
Having invested in one under now a false pretense, shoot, I’d just like my $30 back. No need to get into hysterics, if something was marketed as “free to swap” and they, FuelRod, violated that market agreement with customers, customers should be offered a way to back out of the agreement.
Unfortunately, suing is one of the only way consumers can protect themselves. I have used the Fuel Rod chargers for several years, before I even knew about other chargers. I was happy to pay the one time fee to keep recharging at no further cost.
I would gladly sign up to be a plaintiff as well, because the product I paid for comes with free swapping. That was the deal!
I bought one in and the store worker said free exchange. Went to another park and bam $3 fee!
I had never purchased the fuel rod but was looking forward to maybe trying it on my next wdw trip. Not now. Oh well, back to my old standby of bringing 2 chargers with me.
I think people are missing the point. They sold the unit with “free unlimited” swaps. To charge a fee now breaches the agreement that was made upon purchase. The unlimited wording is what is going to get them, changing the price now sets a limit.
I also doubt many have gotten their money’s worth, they have some overhead for their machines and probably fees to place them in Disney, but what they are selling you is a small charger and the service of effectively charging it for you. At their small size it costs ~1/4 of a cent to charge.
So with the low cost of the initial Charger which is worth about $1 you would have to swap it 720 times to break even on the initial $30 charge.
The suit is warranted and will likely win, it would behoove them to reverse this or just pull their services from Disney parks all together.
Katrina, I couldn’t have said it any better. I have larger, better chargers. But I love the small size of the FuelRod, and the security of knowing that my phone can always be charged. So I accepted to pay $30 – three times what a small charger would cost – for the free swap. I did my homework before purchasing it and knew about the swap fees at airports. But I bought it only for Disney. And I told so many people that it was the best $30 I spent. Now this. I went to Guest Services to complain. The way it is now, they can remove all the machines and FuelRod can lose a lot of money. I will NEVER pay the swap fee.
I thought drink mugs purchased 20 years ago at WDW were good for every visit. Said with tongue in cheek.
@kevin h
There’s no contract, you’re not promised anything in perpetuity . If you hate Disney so much why are you on a Disney Blog site even commenting?!
@Lisa
“I would gladly sign up to be a plaintiff as well, because the product I paid for comes with free swapping. That was the deal!”
There was no contract. No different than a cell phone company changing their rate plans and telling you “Hey this plan is no longer available, you have to pick a new one.” Unless you have a contract stating X company is giving you Y, for Z dollars.
Man the clowns are out in full force. The only pearl clutching i see is from people claiming “false advertisement”, “breach of contract”, and “they don’t deserve to exist”. “Disney being a typically greedy lowlife company as usual”???? What are some of y’all even doing here?
Yes you bought a fuel rod with a promise of free exchanges, but it never said for life. I got Netflix when it was $6, I’m not going to sue just because I pay $14 a month now. The batteries are rechargeable so they’re not useless, if they’re not strong enough for you needs now then invest in a stronger battery, I have an old battery pack which was great when I got it, now its useless and I upgraded to a better one. There is no contract, no promises, no real case here.
I want to sue Disney for selling me a $18 Cocktail with one oz of alcohol in it! False Advertising, I would Say So !
You guys are comparing apples and oranges. Yes when a cell phone company stops offering things like unlimited data they grandfather in contracts already under it because it would be a breach of contract.
The sign in and of itself is a contract.
I also don’t see why you can’t understand that the word “unlimited” by definition means for life.
I own 2 of them. I love them. VERY easy. I would recharge my phone, & go get a fully charged one. Awesome. But $3 for a recharged one is wrong. It does say recharged one for FREE!
@Nick
A sign on a vending machine DOES NOT equal a contract. That doesn’t even meet the basic standards of contract law.
We just went to Disneyland and realized we Forgot our rechargeable battery….so we paid the $30 for the Fuel Rod BECAUSE we could swap it out Free during our day!!! It is NOT OK to now charge $3 for a swap when the signage at the time of purchase said FREE SWAP!!! I am interested in this Lawsuit!!! Not Fair to the consumer!!!
What’s all the hub, Bub? I own two chargers that can be charged by USB or can hang from almost anything by a small carabiner and charge by solar power. $10 each. When I’m away from home almost anywhere other than simple shopping and errand trips, I carry a charging cable. Plus the one I keep in the car. It’s so much easier (and smarter) than having to hunt down a charger kiosk, whether or not I have to pay to swap out a dead charger. Our society is WAY too litigious.
@Steve P.
The existence of a contract requires finding the following factual elements: a) an offer; b) an acceptance of that offer which results in a meeting of the minds; c) a promise to perform; d) a valuable consideration (which can be a promise or payment in some form); e) a time or event when performance must be made (meet commitments); f) terms and conditions for performance, including fulfilling promises; g) performance.
Contracts do not actually require anything to be signed as they can be oral. The sign is an offer, the purchase is acceptance of the terms.
It clearly meets the requirements for a contract under contract law.
Clearly lawyers disagree with you as they were willing to go through with the suit and Disney lawyers saw it as a good possibility to lose, hence the retraction off the swap price increase.