CHARLESTON – A Kanawha Valley car dealer says Facebook lost $20,000 in donations he made to a local charity.
Joey Holland filed his complaint August 17 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Facebook Payments Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. dba Facebook Inc.
A former University of Kentucky basketball star, Holland owns several car dealerships in Kanawha County, primarily in his hometown of South Charleston.
diTrapano
According to the complaint, Holland decided to donate $10,000 to Bridge Ministries, a faith-based charity organization and community outreach group in South Charleston. After speaking with the leader of Bridge Ministries, Holland decided to provide the donation through Facebook because it would be matched dollar for dollar on December 1, 2020, which was designated as Giving Tuesday.
That day, Holland went to Bridge Ministries’ Facebook page and made his $10,000 donation with his credit card via Facebook Pay. But, he says his donation did not arrive from Facebook or Facebook Pay to Bridge Ministries or its bank account.
Bridge Ministries contacted Holland to inform him of the delay, but it was assumed the delay was to allow Facebook to determine which organizations would receive matching donations from Facebook or Facebook Pay.
By January 2021, the donation still hadn’t been received by Bridge Ministries. Holland decided to cancel his previous credit card payment and authorize another $10,000 donation to replace it.
Holland went to his credit card account online and canceled the December 1 donation and made another using the same card. However, Bridge Ministries never receive the second donation either.
When he learned the second one never was received, he also tried to cancel that transaction. He then learned neither of the transactions were canceled. He says his credit card company sent charge dispute notifications to Facebook Pay, which did not agree to the chargeback.
Holland says Bridge Ministries tried to search for answers from its end, including submitting an inquiry to Facebook. He says Bridge Ministries still hasn’t received a response from Facebook.
On June 13, Holland says he sent correspondence to the defendants offering the opportunity to investigate the status of his payments and resolve the issue. An attorney said the company would investigate, but Holland says he still hasn’t received any information from Facebook.
Holland accuses the defendants of violating the West Virginia consumer protection statute, including unfair or deceptive acts or practices. He also accuses them of breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation, negligence and unjust enrichment.
He seeks compensatory damages, including the refund of his payments, as well as equitable relief, pre- and post-judgment interests, consequential damages, incidental damages, punitive damages and other relief.
Holland is being represented by L. Dante diTrapano and D. Christopher Hedges of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 22-C-684
