Text Bucks amends lawsuit

Chris Wampler of Wampler Books Inc. first filed suit against the school in July for what he calls an unwillingness on the part of the school to hand over student information crucial to his ability to compete against OTC's campus bookstore. Wampler Books Inc. does business as Text Bucks, with locations at 614 N. National Ave. and 607 E. Madison St.

Wampler and his attorney, Joe Passanise, Jan. 17 filed an amendment of their complaint. The new version, according to Wampler, includes a new lack of cooperation on the part of the school. The suit requests a $5,000 fine per offense, plus court costs and attorney fees.

Wampler said the student information he needed for the spring semester, which he requested from the school Dec. 19, was not provided until Jan. 6 - just six business days before classes began.

“They gave the information to their campus bookstore, but we've had people come in and say, 'We never heard about you,' or 'If we'd have known about you, we'd have come here,'” Wampler said. “The inability to order the correct number of books has an impact on everyone because there'll be a shortage of used books (later).”

There is a limited window of time in which the information can be requested, Wampler said, because a list received too early would be incomplete and inaccurate while information received too late would not give enough time to adjust inventory to meet demand.

There is more to the issue than just the fact that information was received late, according to Wampler. He claims in the amendment that the school had burned the information to compact disc and had it readily available several days before the date he received it.

Wampler requested the information from the school Dec. 19, and a CD containing the information was available for pickup Dec. 30 from the office of OTC Registrar Delvan Mitchell.

The information on the CD, however, contained a time stamp of Dec. 21, which according to the petition indicates that the information was compiled well before it was made available to Wampler.

Cindy Hinds, OTC spokesperson, declined to comment on the ongoing case, referring questions to the school's attorney, Ransom Ellis III. Ellis was out of his office due to illness and could not be reached for comment.

The original suit, filed July 8 in Greene County Circuit Court, alleges that the school violated Missouri Sunshine Laws by refusing to hand over the information in a timely manner. The law states that responses to requests for information must be presented within three days of the request.

Hinds previously said that the school has had a written policy since it opened in 1991 stating that student information is not given out to companies for the purpose of solicitation.

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