Consumer complaints about certain companies/products

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the California Public Records Act (California Government Code §§ 6250), I hereby request the following records:

The full text and metadata (i.e. filing date and unique requester line, though not necessarily personal consumer information) of any and all complaints to your office about the following companies or products between January 1, 2016 to April 12, 2017. Companies:

FleetCor, Fuelman, Universal Premium Fleet Card, BP Business Solutions Fuel Card, BP Business Solutions MasterCard, Chevron Texaco Business Mastercard, Chevron Texaco Universal Card, Chevron and Texaco Diesel Advantage Card, NexTraq, and Comdata.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes. The requester is a journalist working for a periodical accredited by the U.S. Congress.

If you intend to acknowledge receipt of this request, please do so via the same means used to communicate this request to you. (For instance, a reply to the original email.) We would prefer that any questions about the request be asked via the same communication method. However, if you need to explain or ask something complicated, you may call us at 202-813-1032, extension 120. I will memorialize phone conversations via email afterward.

In the event that there are fees, please inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically--by e-mail attachment, or if the response is too large, direct download link or mailed CD-ROM.

If mailing a CD, please alert us of this fact via reply email (so we know to wait on the post), and send the CD to:

c/o Brandon Smith
The Capitol Forum
1233 20th St NW #301
Washington, DC 20036

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I would request your response within ten calendar days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Brandon Smith
Correspondent
The Capitol Forum

Pardon my mistake -- if you could fulfill the request with the following date range, I would prefer it: January 1, 2015 to April 12, 2017.

Thank you,
Brandon Smith

This correspondence is in response to your e-mail, which was received by the California Department of Justice/Office of the Attorney General (DOJ) on April 12, 2017, in which you sought records pursuant to the Public Records Act as set forth in Government Code section 6250 et seq.

Specifically, your request is stated as follows: “The full text and metadata (i.e. filing date and unique requester line, though not necessarily personal consumer information) of any and all complaints to your office about the following companies or products between January 1, 2016 to April 12, 2017. Companies: FleetCor, Fuelman, Universal Premium Fleet Card, BP Business Solutions Fuel Card, BP Business Solutions MasterCard, Chevron Texaco Business Mastercard, Chevron Texaco Universal Card, Chevron and Texaco Diesel Advantage Card, NexTraq, and Comdata.” On the same date, you amended the timeframe to include documents within the date range of January 1, 2015 to April 12, 2017.

We have conducted a search of the DOJ’s legal indexes and logical places and have been unable to locate records responsive to your request.

To the extent your request seeks consumer complaint records or investigative files, we must decline your request. Complaints and investigative records are confidential law enforcement records of the Attorney General. Government Code section 6254, subdivision (f) expressly exempts from disclosure investigatory and security files of the Attorney General including complaints about unlawful practices. (See Dick Williams v. Superior Court (1993) 5 Cal.4th 337, 354.) Investigative records do not lose their exempt status due to a failure to prosecute, or the close of an investigation. (Id. at p. 355 [“While there may be reasons of policy that would support a time limitation on the exemption for investigatory files, such a limitation is virtually impossible to reconcile with the language and history of subdivision (f).”].)

Erin Nickless

Public Records Coordinator
California Department of Justice
Office of the Attorney General
916.445.4069