Pennsylvania Sues Taylor Gifts

Acting on more than 80 customer complaints, Pennsylvania attorney general Gerald Pappert on Feb. 6 filed a civil lawsuit against low-end gifts and novelties cataloger Taylor Gifts. According to Pappert, the complaints address “virtually ever aspect” of Taylor’s sales transactions.

The seven-count suit accuses Taylor Gifts of failing to deliver products sold to consumers, delivering incorrect items, and delivering the products well beyond the advertised delivery time or the time period allowed by law. “In many cases,” Pappert said in announcing the suit, “frustrated consumers only received satisfaction from the company after extended periods of time or when my office intervened,” adding that Taylor’s actions are “clearly a pattern and practice.”

The complaint asks the court to require the 52-year-old Paoli, PA-based catalog to:

* cease violating Pennsylvania’s Consumer Protection Law, Fictitious Names Act, and federal Mail Order Rule, which requires delivery or at least notification of delivery within 30 days;

* pay full restitution to consumers who were harmed by the alleged illegal business practices;

* forfeit all profits derived from the alleged illegal business practices, such as charging insurance fees;

* pay civil penalties of $1,000 per violation and $3,000 for each violation involving a consumer age 60 or older; and

* pay the state of Pennsylvania’s cost of investigation and prosecution.

Taylor Gifts attorney Peter Kelsen, from the Philadelphia-based law firm Blank Rome LLP, says that he’s in the process of reviewing the suit. Nonetheless, “we feel the allegations made by the attorney general’s office are without merit and will vigorously defend them,” he says. “When people issue a complaint, it’s reviewed promptly, and whatever has to be done to rectify the complaint is done. And that was done in these cases. I can’t comment as to whether all 80 cases were handled the same way, but my information is whenever a complaint comes in, it’s immediately dealt with and responded to, and I believe that was done in these situations.”