Class action suit accuses Vintage Stock of text message harassment

A class action lawsuit filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri claims Joplin-based Vintage Stock bombarded an Oklahoma City man and others with unsolicited robotext advertisements.

Chad Stapleton says he never gave permission for Vintage Stock to contact him and the robotexts violate the Oklahoma Telephone Solicitation Act of 2022.

The petition features a class action certification with the class consisting of all Oklahoma residents who received unsolicited calls from Vintage Stock.

The lawsuit was filed by attorneys Andrew Shamis of Shamis & Gentile, Miami, Florida, and Scott Edelsberg of Edelsberg Law, Aventura, Florida.

From the petition:

Defendant is a Missouri-based “entertainment superstore” who touts itself as a retailer of “. . . the newest hit movies, music, and video games to the rarest comics, toys, and memorabilia . . .”

To promote its goods and services, Defendant engages in aggressive telephonic sales calls to consumers without having secured prior express written consent as required under the OTSA. 

Defendant’s telephonic sales calls have caused Plaintiff and the Class members harm, including violations of their statutory rights, statutory damages, annoyance, nuisance, and invasion of their privacy. 

Defendant’s text messages also occupied storage space on Plaintiff’s and the Class members’ cellular telephones. Through this action, Plaintiff seeks an injunction and statutory damages on behalf of himself and the Class members, as defined below, and any other available legal or equitable remedies resulting from the unlawful actions of Defendant.

The petition included a screenshot of the message, which was labeled as "spam" by Stapleton's phone, and said, "Our MEMORIAL DAY SALE starts tomorrow!"

Vintage Stock used a messaging platform to send the advertisements "which permitted Defendant to transmit blasts of text messages automatically and without any human involvement. The Platform automatically made a series of calls to Plaintiff’s and the Class members’ stored telephone numbers with no human involvement after the series of calls were initiated utilizing the Platform."

The petition calls for certification of the class action, damages and an injunction preventing Vintage Stock from making telephone sales calls unless the company follows the Oklahoma Telephone Solicitation Act.

Stapleton is asking for a jury trial.