August 2008 Archives
—>A fluid leak forced Deepak's Southwest flight from Oakland to Seattle back to the airport. Southwest shifted passengers to a waiting plane, and everyone made it to Seattle about two hours late. Within a week, Southwest sent passengers an extraordinarily honest and informative letter detailing exactly what went wrong, and by way of apology, tossed in a $175 voucher. More »
"In order to ensure that all carriers remain focused on safety, aviation regulations do not require airlines to pay compensation for consequential expenses because of delayed or canceled flights." More »
—>Electronic Arts immediately forwards all pre-orders to a secretive processing facility, so if you happy to change your address after ordering a game eight months in advance, well, tough. At least that's what Electronic Arts told Micah when he asked to update his pre-order for the now sold-out limited-run collector's edition of Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. When Micah pointed out that it might not be the best idea to sell games eight months in advance without a way to update addresses, Electronic Arts canceled his order altogether and told him to find another copy somewhere else. More »
—>Listen Vonage, Garry isn't your customer anymore. You need to stop sending him bills and let him go. Sure, he liked you back in 2004, but he found a better company at a cheaper price and he's moved on. Billing his AmEx every single month for two years after he canceled? Not cute. Sending his account to collections when his AmEx finally expired? Seems desperate. Please Vonage, get over Garry and move on with your life. More »
—>The Bluebird Cafe in Culver City sold Seth a grasshopper home gussied up us a tuna melt. A waitress deftly handled the very-live and confused grasshopper by picking him up and tossing him on the ground. That's it. No apology, no replacement sandwich. More »
—>Freezer sales are heating up as thrifty consumers spend cash now so they can realize savings later by buying in bulk. More »
—>A two-year investigation has concluded that most Verizon FIOS installations fail to meet national safety standards, and could cause fires or electrocutions. FIOS is famous for house fires, but New York's Public Service Commission first started its investigation back in 2006 after several inspectors discovered improperly grounded installations. More »
—>Matt didn't order a broken 42" plasma TV, and he didn't ship one either, but that didn't stop UPS from plopping a big box with a broken TV on his porch, a service for which they charged $120.12. UPS explained that the TV Matt didn't ship was being returned to him by the recipient because it was damaged, and it was now his responsibility to arrange for re-delivery. “If I was the shipper," asked Matt, who lives in Ohio, "why would the package have come from Ontario, CA, not Medina, Ohio?" The TV sat in the rain overnight, and it wasn't until Matt reached the local depot, where his father worked for 27 years, that he convinced someone to take back the mystery box. Two weeks later, a bill arrived... More »
—>UPDATE: Mythbusters Host Retracts RFID Censorship Comments More »
—>Mike's friend gave Best Buy $200 to install anti-virus software and an HDMI input, but Best Buy somehow sent him home with the wrong power adapter. Mike works in IT and knows how to feed and bathe himself, but Best Buy insisted that he had the right adapter and that Mike had to be "doing something wrong." Guess how this ends... More »
—>Hotels and rental agencies like to carve out the full cost of their services on your credit or debit card before you pay in full. This credit blocking can catch anyone who sticks near their minimum or maximum balance off guard when they try to use their card. Inside, learn how to keep retailers from unexpectedly clogging your credit and debit cards with unwanted blocks. More »
—>Can your late-model GM vehicle melt snow and ice with a blast of heated windshield wiper fluid? It might be one of 944,000 vehicles with a faulty heating system that can cause odors, smoke, or even a surprise car fire. More »
Half-day of posts today. We're off Monday. Enjoy the long weekend! More »
—>In another step towards the impending demise of mandatory binding arbitration, a customer's right to file a class-action lawsuit against AT&T Wireless was upheld by Washington Supreme Court yesterday. More »
—>In a dime-a-dozen business like nail salons, you need to have a hook or a gimmick to be unique. At the The Bella Aqua Spa in Laurinburg, North Carolina, they seem to have settled on requiring a copious amount of personal and medical history from you before you get to have a manicure as their little way of standing out. More »
—>The CPSC has issued a consumer alert, urging you to stop using Simplicity Inc.'s "close-sleeper/bedside sleeper” bassinets after two infants died after being strangled by the product's metal bars. The company is refusing to cooperate with the CPSC and will not recall the product. More »
—>In yesterday's post on rude telemarketers and the people who hang up on them, reader/advice giver Amy Alkon said she just successfully sued a telemarketer in Santa Monica Small Claims Court—and won! If you're one of those unlucky people who can't get the calls to stop, here's how she did it. More »
—>New York's Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, is warning consumers after an undercover investigation found that 25% of gas stations are engaging in "deceptive practices, including wrongfully surcharging credit card customers." The AG says that under New York state law, retailers are not allowed to impose surcharges for using a credit card. More »
—>Here are five special photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, chosen because they're both neat and could possibly be used in a Consumerist post. Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers go and upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click "Join Group?" up on the top right, and start hitting "send to group" on your individual photos you want to add to the pool. More »
—> Reader David asks: More »
—>Last week the Wall Street Journal asked how far people would go to keep their dog (or really any pet for that matter) alive. As an example of the two ends of the spectrum, they suggested the following, starting with the "not much" line of thinking: More »
—>The word is that eBay is banning checks and money orders, and buyers will have to use PayPal or (if the seller has a credit card merchant account or an account with a service called ProPay), credit cards. More »
- Lenovo: Employee Pricing on ThinkPad and IdeaPad Notebooks, up to 42% off (login with passcode 536686)
- Woot: Sandisk Clip 2GB MP3 Player for $19.99
- Newegg: ESET NOD32 Antivirus Home Edition v3 for $14.99 (Best antivirus around, won't slow down your computer)
- Buy.com: Kingston 4GB USB 2.0 Portable Flash Drive $14 Shipped
- Hanes.com: Save 15% off Complete Order on All Clothing
- Vann's: Sony FX820 Portable 8-inch DVD Player $150 Shipped
- Amazon: Kitchen & Home Labor Day Sale: Save up to 65%
- Linens 'n Things: BOGO 50% off bath furniture, more + 20% off coupon
- American Eagle: 40% off purchases coupon
—>Obama just gave his acceptance speech to become the Democratic candidate for the next President of the United States of America. Here's what was in it for consumers, he promised to: More »
—>UPDATE: Orbitz Sent Reader To Collections For Ticket They Never Sold Him More »
—>Just how much lead was in that toy blood pressure cuff Mattel were so reluctant to recall back in February? The one they said "me federal regulations and international consumer product safety standards?" Well, a reader's scientist friend working in lab tested it on the equipment there. According to his results, the amount of lead in the paint was 4-5% lead by weight. "For reference," he writes, "U.S. EPA HUD guidelines set the action limit for paint at 0.5% lead by weight. Any level over 0.5% is considered to be contaminated...Lead paint used on houses 50 years ago had lead content of 2-15%." More »
—>Ah, New Zealand, the land of kiwis and hobbits. Daniel and his girlfriend went there to set up a studio and get paid to do recording sessions. They're musicians. They hired Morton Van Lines to ship their equipment from LA to NZ, but after over seven months of struggle, they got it, or their money back.Turns out the equipment was shipped to the wrong country and then returned to the USA. Maybe if Morton Van Lines ever returned a phone call or an email it could have been straightened out. But nay. Here's Daniel's story... More »
—>This telemarketer has had it up to here with all of you people at home hanging up on her every time she needs to sell you something! Randall Whited in Austin, Texas, received an earful recently, when he answered the phone shortly after hanging up on the unnamed telemarketer. More »
—>Can there be any sadder indication of our toilet-water economy than a dollar store that references its own happier, cheaper past? This New York City dollar store has pulled down its old sign, "Everything 99¢ Or Less," and rebranded. More »
—>Broadband Reports is saying that they've confirmed through several sources that Comcast is going to be instituting a 250GB cap on their high speed internet.
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—>Consumer Reports says that despite the fact that front-loading washers are more efficient than traditional top-loading washers, they do have one major drawback. Mold. And the problem is severe enough that there have been several class action lawsuits filed against LG, Whirlpool, and Sears, whose Kenmore front-loaders are made by Whirlpool. More »
—>Steve Warshak, founder of the company responsible for "Enzyte," has been sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $93,000, says the AP. U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel also ordered the company, along with other defendants, to forfeit more than $500 million that it bilked from consumers. More »
—>Using Your Health Savings Account as a "Super Roth" Investment Vehicle [Free Money Finance] "If you can afford to delay using your HSA funds and instead leave them invested, your payoff in retirement will be substantial." More »
—>Consumer Reports analyzed late-summer car deals and the results are none too surprising. The biggest incentives are on gas-gourgers and big vehicles, the cars no one wants right now. More »
—>The central bank of Iceland has increased overnight borrowing rates to 15.5%, meaning you can get some damn high yields investing in their currency. Those numbers piqued my interest. More »
—>Reader Colin says he just got charged for his first checked bag on Northwest Airlines: More »
—>Last week we wrote about a Circuit City customer who was charged $40 without warning for "repairs" to a brand new computer. We received several explanations from Circuit City insiders, both in the comments and through email, that the repair was mandatory—Acer and Circuit City had agreed that instead of pulling the PCs, the retailer's Firedog techs would flash the BIOS in-store upon purchase. What was unclear was how or why this would fall under the Firedog "Quickstart" service, which is optional and includes things like removing shortcuts from your desktop and setting up your background. (Seriously, check it out here.) Yesterday we received the following interesting email from Circuit City HQ. More »
—>Mike writes in with an update on what he's doing to get his Asus EEPC fixed. We think his number one way to solve the problem is to activate the extended warranty protection on his credit card. His reply to that is, "My credit card has an extended warranty but since it is still in warranty with Asus, that can't help." Not that we want to embarrass Mike, but since this can help other people, I need to point out that this isn't true. More »
—> Once upon a time, Peter Finch won an Oscar for telling us to go to our window, open it, and yell, "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore!" Now thousands and thousands of consumers are doing just that, but instead of yelling out their windows, they're yelling at the Federal Reserve in the form of a record breaking number of public comments about some proposed credit card reforms. Not as sexy as yelling like a madman, but far, far more effective. More »
From November to June, American driving dropped by 53.2 billion miles, according to the Department of Transportation. Billion. 53.2 billion fewer miles. That's insane, and kind of beautiful. [NYT] More »
- Newegg: Wii Fit with Balance Board, We Ski, and Hori Wii mat for $149.99
- Apple: Buy a Mac, get an iPod touch for free after rebate
- IKEA: Labor Day Sale, up to 50% off (in-store only)
- Eastern Mountain Sports: Labor Day Sale Save up to 70% off
- Amazon: Up to 50%+ off High Sierra Backpacks & Messenger Bags
- Geeks: Kodak EasyShare V1003 10MP Digital Camera $90
- Arbor Day Foundation: 10 trees for $10
- Arby's: BOGO free Super Roast Beef Sandwich, more coupons
- The Fruit Company: 25% off everything coupon
—>When reader Nick tried to sign up for ATT "naked DSL" or "dry loop" service (getting DSL without having paying for a landline), a curious thing happened. More »
—>It's always fun when you spot people you know in the paper. Like when one reader saw an article about his former Best Buy manager, charged with seventeen counts of third-degree identity thief. Mariusz Paliwoda of Conneticut was arrested recently for stealing over 100 pieces of mail from rural folks', then using the information to create credit card accounts. Only the cream of the crop, or former Domino's managers, make it to the top of Best Buy!
Milford man charged in ID theft operation [New Haven Register] (Photo: Getty) More »
—>Wamu's fraud department has a problem sending letters. Just like another reader, Kristin, we posted about, Rob is having trouble disputing fraudulent charges on his account. He followed their every instruction, except to respond to the second letter WaMu sent out. How could Rob do such a foolish thing? Because it never showed up in his mailbox, a point, WaMu seems to think, is owing to, not their incompetence, but Rob's general lassitude and weakness of character. Or something like that. Here's Rob's story... More »
—>Reader Jon tells us that he got a call from Charter Cable letting him know that they'd just inked a deal to offer the Big Ten Network and sure enough, the AP is reporting what may be considered "peace in our time."
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—>Reader Chris Schiffner pinged Newegg to see why and how they stopped collecting New York State tax. They sent him an answer, posted after the jump, but here's the short story: A new New York law would have required internet retailers using affiliate marketing to collect sales tax, so Newegg "restructured its affiliate marketing program." The new structure somehow avoids having to collect New York sales tax. Shrug. Whatever, New York geeks, rejoice! More »
—>Everyone knows that your money is safe in an FDIC insured bank because if the bank fails (Hello, IndyMac!) the FDIC will step in and repay your money (generally, up to $100,000.) But what if the FDIC runs out of money? It doesn't have an unlimited supply and enough bank failures could completely drain its fund, says ABCNews:
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—>Reader Darascon spotted this lovely example of summertime Christmas Creep at his local Costco. More »
—>To save money on heating costs this winter, consider joining or starting a fuel oil co-op. What's that? More »
—>Reader Jamie's Applebee's dinner came with an interesting ingredient: an expiration date sticker. Understandably grossed out, Jamie asked Applebee's for some new food. They agreed, fished out the sticker and brought the old food back. Ick.
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—>Reader Nancy says that Target rejected the 10% coupon she received for being a Target Visa card holder. When she asked why, the cashier told her it had probably been used, but had no more information.
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—>Midwest Airlines loyalists, prepare to be upset, the airline is adding 11 seats to its formerly roomy coach section. In addition to converting good seats to less good ones, they're adding a charge for the remaining quality seats. More »
—>Airline fees are a controversial topic these days, so we look a look at the fees that airlines were charging and picked the top 3 most and least "fee crazy" airlines. Avoiding fees is hard, so why not try to avoid the airlines that charge them instead?
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—>Nancy Kates's large underwire bra set off the metal detector in the Oakland, California airport. A TSA agent pulled her aside and patted her down, which set off Kates' personal privacy alarm. "I said, 'You can't do that.' She said, 'We have to pat you down.' I said, 'You can't treat me as a criminal for wearing a bra.'" Kates was given the option to "submit to a pat-down in a private room" or not fly. Instead, she took off her bra and passed through security just fine. Hooray for personal freedom! More »
—>Adam's mom recently received an AARP invitation, which is not surprising since she's nearing fifty. But we think AARP may want to pass a better filter over the address lists they're buying, because a few days later Adam received the same invitation. Maybe AARP is trying to expand to seniors and their admirers—sort of like a backwards NAMBLA. More »
—>The LA Times says that FBI agents told reporters that low interest rates and "soaring home values, [were] starting to attract shady operators and billions in losses were possible." According to the report, Chris Swecker, the FBI official in charge of criminal investigations, told reporters that the FBI thought it was going to prevent a crisis similar to the S&L debacle.
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—>The New York Sun says that salad and prepared food bars (at Whole Foods, for example) are making you fat. Why? Supposedly, the containers they give you are huge and lead you to unwittingly buy "supersized" portions of food for lunch.
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—>According to reader Caleb, Wells Fargo seems to have recently crippled their loan repayment system in a way that makes it impossible for borrowers to pay off loans the way they want to. That is, unless you prefer to let your highest-interest loans ride for as long as possible while you pay off your lower-interest loans... More »
—>In the battle for customer satisfaction, if Mike's letter is any indication, it appears that ASUS is (still) under siege attack by General Incompetence. More »
—>Reader I. ordered some shoes from Target.com, only to find out that they were so big that they fell off her feet when she tried them on. No worries, she would just print her receipt and bring them back to her local Target. Right? Wrong.
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—>I've always found Enterprise to have stellar service, but if for some reason you should have an issue not resolvable at the branch or through regular customer service, here's the contact info for their CEO Andy Taylor. More »
—>Dial-A-Human.com is just like Gethuman.com, offering a cheat sheet of secret codes to bypass annoying phone-trees and get right to a live operator. More »
—>Time Warner Cable has reached a deal to offer the Big Ten Network on expanded basic cable in Big Ten states, says the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
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—>Last year, Gpotato.com fraudulently took $50 from reader Adam's Paypal account. He disputed the charge, Paypal agreed it was fraud and returned the funds, and Adam closed the account. Now all of a sudden Paypal's internal collections agency is calling up Adam and making rude and insistent demands that he pay this $50 immediately. More »
—>Reader Brandon goes to Wendy's about once a week and usually orders the double stack "plain" as in "without toppings, just meat and cheese." This fairly straightforward request has never caused a problem... until now. Brandon says that he and some friends stopped in to Wendy's to grab some food, but when he ordered his usual order, they refused to give it to him. Nothing Brandon could say convinced Wendy's to give him a double stack with no toppings, so he and his friends eventually gave up and left empty handed. More »
—>Reader Gibson ordered 8 plates from Amazon, and they arrived in 13 boxes. We're sure the operations research management scientists at Amazon shipping have an answer as to why, in the context of the entire shipping infrastructure, this was the most cost-effective solution, but it escapes us mere mortals. Full pic inside. More »
—>Is this Verizon promotional email being over-enthusiastic with its subject line, or is it actually misleading? A phrase like "you've earned a new ___" doesn't usually get followed up with, "Just pay us anywhere between $100-$200 for it," unless it comes from a scam vacation offer. Or Verizon. As Bryan notes in his email to us, "The subject line must mean something like when you tell Verizon, 'You've earned my suspicion and contempt.'" More »
—>Before commenting on The Consumerist, don't forget to read The Consumerist Comments Code to make sure you're abiding by the guidelines we've instituted for making the comments section a happy, on-topic, place where readers share tips and insights for navigating the treacherous waters of the modern marketplace. More »
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—>Don't blog about how a shady production company tried to rip you off for $25,000 or they'll sue you for $20 million. Vision Media Television is one of several different alleged ripoff artists who frequently target non-profit and socially-aware groups, promising a big TV special aired on PBS and/or other major networks showcasing the group. The show is supposedly anchored by ex-20/20 anchor Hugh Downs and will reach millions upon millions of people. The catch? The organization has to pay for the production costs up-front, which run into the tens of thousands of dollars...and the show never goes on TV. More »
—>It took a little negotiating but reader Noah was able to get United Airlines to honor the agreement that their CSR made, despite the fact that it was a violation of some kind of deeply sacred policy. More »
—>Reader Sandra thinks Feeny Dodge in Elgin, IL should rethink this advertisement, which is disguised as a traffic ticket. More »
—>Do you have so many credit cards that you could sew a pair of pants from them? Confused as how to get rid of them? Try this handy Excel spreadsheet to generate a custom strategy for becoming debt-free. More »
- Threadless: All shirts $12
- Amazon: Tonka Sand Force Dump Truck & Loader $4-$5 each, squirting trucks $6 & up
- Steep And Cheap:
Black Diamond Momentum AL Climbing Harness for $22Sold out, but they have other deals on outdoor gear.
- Tiger Direct: Refurb NEC VT590 XGA LCD Projector $400
- Brooks Brothers: Summer Clearance: Save up to 60% off Men's & Women's Fashion
- Buy.com: Fantom GreenDrive 1TB Low Power USB Drive $150 & Free Shipping
—>Hybrids are all the rage right now but fuel costs aren't the only thing you should be thinking about. After taking into account repairs, maintenance, and financing, these 10 cars offer great deals. More »
—>I like to keep it pretty apolitical here at The Consumerist, but when Obama uttered the very same PR-double-speak phrase, "taking it seriously," that we've been skewering for eight months, I had to post it. More »
—>We want to commend hhole for electing himself or herself guinea pig on this morning's coffee grounds post. Apparently, hhole immediately started rubbing coffee grounds all over his or her body in order to see if it really would work as a facial scrub/hair shiner. (Of course, this only makes us want to come up with some imaginary "use" for, say, kitty litter or corn meal to see whether hhole takes the bait.) Read this intrepid commenter's first person report below. More »
—>What should you do when your airline calls to let you know that they've decided to randomly cancel your flight? Travel guru Christopher Elliott gives us the following nightmare scenario: More »
—>Who isn't suing Countrywide lately? Phuong Cat Le from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer says that a group of homeowners are now suing Countrywide, alleging that the lender steered them toward high-risk loans without disclosing the inherent risks. More »
—>OpenCarPrice.com is a site dedicated to bringing you previously secret information, the actual price people are paying for their cars. Just select the make and model and the site spits out the info. The database gets filled by reader-submitted reports. There's no guarantee that everything is 100% accurate, but it can at least give you a better picture of what you you can reasonably expect to pay...and negotiate for. Another site that does this RealCarTips. More »
—>WaMu's crack fraud department is at it again, according to reader Kristin. Someone broke into her iTunes account and bought a couple hundred dollars worth of iTunes gift cards with her debit card information. She disputed the charge and WaMu told her not to worry — they'd take care of it. Two months later, while on a trip to Chicago, WaMu reversed the credits, causing Kristin to become severely overdrawn. No amount of protesting will convince WaMu that she wasn't lying about the iTunes break-in. Why? Because she never responded to some mail they sent to her old address.
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—>Last week we reported that some types of unwanted robocall telemarketing will soon be banned. If you're on the receiving end of Leverage Connections' prerecorded harassment—they frequently operate under the generic names "Consumer Services" or "Credit Card Services"—you'll finally have a way to formally complain to the FTC about them. Why would you want to complain? Because they're the scammiest, most obnoxious robocall telemarketing company we've seen so far—even though what they do is apparently legal. More »
—> Reader James says he spotted this Christmas-themed wrapping paper lurking on the top shelf at Walgreens, waiting to strike... More »
—>Home Depot and Lowe's are starting to realize that the surging housing market — which had fueled their own sales for the last few years — is really and truly over and it may not be coming back for a good long while. What does this mean for their customers? An emphasis on lower prices every day — and fewer promotions.
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—>Only use this contact info if you can't get help from the store and the regular customer service line isn't doing it for ya. More »
—>Conventional thinking says that you should buy based on better unit price, but Target knows this and has figured out a way to trick you. On the left is a name brand joint-strengthener, on the right, Target's generic. Going just by unit price, Target looks like the better deal. But let's see what's going on on the back label... More »
—>Airlines are cutting things like entertainment units, snacks and beverages in order to raise revenue and cut fuel costs, but what about those inflatable life vests? Do we need those? Air Canada's regional airline "Jazz" doesn't think so. More »
—>Forget about those dowdy old-school Olympics. What we need is an international competition to see which airline can suck the most, since everyone is getting so good at it. In the category of Random Rudeness, this AirTran agent and her equally hostile supervisor would have a good shot at the gold—especially since they aimed their hostility at a honeymooning couple. More »
Used coffee grounds can absorb fridge odors, make your hair shiny, and exfoliate your skin. Here's a list of 11 ways you can put old coffee grounds to use. [Life Hackery] More »
This Best Buy coupon for free Apple software for students isn't a very good deal after all—you can get educational discounts at the Apple store, and through September 15th you can get a free iPod Touch or Nano with your computer purchase. Our advice: skip Best Buy and go directly through Apple. (Thanks to Matt and yasth!) More »
- REI: Labor Day Clearance: Save up to 30% off Clothing & Gear
- Meritline: PQI 8GB SDHC Card now $25 Shipped & Other Discount
- Buy.com: Dynex DX-LCD32 32-inch LCD HDTV $480 Shipped
- Kmart: Jeans, all apparel BOGO 50% off
- Hoover: Summer Canister Sale: Save up to 56%
- JC Whitney: Up to $40 off purchases coupon
—>HSBC's core banking system has been hosed for almost a week, preventing thousands of customers from knowing how much money is stashed in their accounts. The widespread problem is limiting access to HSBCDirect accounts, and at least 8,000 Catholic Health System employees up in Buffalo are still waiting for their direct deposit payments to materialize. More »
—>If you stayed at one of Best Western's 1,312 European hotels since 2007, the Russian mafia now has your credit information! In a nightmarish globalization fairy tale come true, an Indian hacker successfully planted a virus in Best Western's European computer systems that fed addresses, phone numbers, and credit card details to mobsters in Russia. More »
—>Each year banks give states $4.7 billion belonging to people who failed to "initiate a transaction or communicate with the financial institution" in the past three years. The money isn't lost forever, but getting it back can be a bureaucratic hassle full of forms and headaches. More »
—>Mark had an impossible request for DirecTV: a one-line DVR and a SWM (Single Wire Multiline) Dish. Sure, it might seem like a normal work order, but the subcontracted installer, Bluegrass Satellite, couldn't secure permission to install the necessary components even after several three-way calls with DirectTV. One exasperated installer explained that Mark wasn't eligible to receive the equipment and gently told him: "[You] cannot have DirecTV and should stop trying." More »
—>We've all received IKEA furniture missing screws, but Marc received a couch missing an entire seat cushion. He figured IKEA would quickly hand over a replacement once he pointed out their obvious mistake. Nope! Several employees helpfully explained that the cushion "comes with the couch," and that finding a replacement was "impossible." A resourcefully inept manager finally resolved the situation by insisting that they replace the entire couch. More »
—>We thought Hobby Lobby's August Christmas trees might be the height of this season's Christmas Creep, but wow were we wrong. Garden Ridge is striving to be a one-stop panacea for all your summer Christmas needs. They're already stocking Christmas trees, ornaments, lights, snowy yard inflatables, and what looks like a snow toboggan complete with Tigger, Winnie The Pooh, and everybody's favorite Christmas downer, Eeyore! More »
—>A Texas cannery has been using shredded checks from the local bank as packing materials for the past twenty years. The WHH Ranch Company claims that Michelle McBride of Kansas is the only customer to ever complain about the checks, which plainly displayed routing and account numbers for hospitals, medicare, schools, businesses, and personal accounts. More »
—>Over a quarter-million passengers were bumped from flights in the past eight months, a number that is set to grow as airlines try to boost anemic profits by slashing fleets. The Department of Transportation requires airlines to compensate bumped passengers with cash or vouchers, but savvy passengers can leverage their situation to negotiate heftier payments... More »
—>Enterprise wouldn't replace Melissa's rental car even after a mechanic declared the tire on her current car "unrepairable," and warned that it would be unsafe to drive 400+ miles back to New York from Rochester on a donut spare. Enterprise told Melissa to spend the day repairing the car at a garage at her own expense. Melissa, who was recovering from surgery, asked to swap her broken car for one that worked, a request Enterprise repeatedly denied. More »
He just laughed when I went through my story of frustration with the Sears service personnel and told me he had had 75 similar calls in the last 2 days. His bottom line: Sears is not sending him product and he has nothing to deliver. More »
—>The summer travel season might be winding down, but that won't stop thieves from trying to paw your precious valuables. Keep them at bay with the following eight tips... More »
—>Macy's marketing department doesn't seem to understand either third-grade math or what it means to walk and chew gum. More »
—>A Customer Associate for a Best Buy in Las Cruces, New Mexico, was indicted on Thursday for credit card fraud—three counts of making fraudulent purchases over $2500, three counts of making fraudulent purchases over $500, over 20 counts of falsely signing credit card slips, and 1 count of disposing of stolen property. More »
The recall is for 54-ounce, 12-pack cartons of Hot Pockets Pepperoni Pizza with the following printed on the sides of each carton: “8157544614D,” “EST 7721A” and “BEST BEFORE JAN2010.” More »
—>Update: Circuit City says the repair should have been free. Here's their response. Travis writes that a friend of his just bought a new computer from Circuit City, and after turning down all of the Firedog's "it won't work unless you also buy this" offers, he noticed a $40 fee on his receipt. Turns out the associate claims he had to flash the computer's BIOS or Vista wouldn't work. Travis writes, "Regardless of the fact that Vista booted up just fine with out the update, he was more disturbed with the fact that Circuit City would sell him a computer that they knew didn't work, or so they say." So does Circuit City sell computers that don't work without a preliminary repair, or do they lie in order to generate extra fees? More »
—>Airlines and surfers must be involved in some secret war, because how else can you explain why airlines are targeting them so savagely right now? Sure, snacks cost us $9, bags are $50 each, and seat belts will probably soon be auctioned off during the preflight check—but if you're a surfer, you can expect to pay up to $200 each way to bring along your board, pretty much blowing out the budget of any surfer who isn't Patrick Swayze. More »
Stop & Shop is getting a makeover. The new logo features "a yellow bowl with three colorful halves that can be interpreted as bowls of fruit, bread or ingredients, the company's spokesperson said." She also said that the new logo "shows customers that we’re making changes and committed to providing great food and meal solutions at low prices everyday.” Meal solutions! Alright! That sounds delicious! [Boston Globe] More »
—>Does anyone remember Bunnicula? We think there's a similar beast in the Banquet pot pie plant, only instead of sucking vegetables dry he's draining the pies before they ship. That's the only thing that can explain how the real pot pie this Consumerist reader cooked looks nothing like the bountiful pot pie harvest shown on the box. Oh wait: it could also be that Banquet is a cheap-assed company that can't be bothered to sell decent frozen food. More »
—>Two high school students decided to see if New Yorkers were really getting what they paid for when they ordered expensive fish. Guess what? Sometimes, they weren't. More »
—>United Airlines is obviously not to familiar with the dollar menu at McDonald's because they're convinced that you'll pay up to $9 for their "Buy-On-Board" snack offerings, says the Wall Street Journal. More »
—>For the first time ever, the FDA is going to allow manufacturers to irradiate produce at levels that can kill bacteria that causes food-borne illness, says the New York Times. The produce in question, spinach and iceberg lettuce, have, in recent years, been linked to widespread outbreaks of serious illnesses. More »
—>Reader Duke has forwarded us an email he got from Newegg explaining that as of yesterday they are no longer collecting New York state taxes. Hooray! Of course, you still have to pay your sales tax... but now it's your responsibility. More »
- Lowe's: New lower prices on 100's of items
- Walgreen's: $5 off $20 purchase coupon
- Eukanuba: Free Puppy Training DVD Kit + $5 Eukanuba coupon
- Overstock.com: 10% off jewelry & watches + extra 7.5% off purchases
- American Eagle: 15% off all purchases coupon
—>Although stores often claim they employ receipt checkers to make sure you got everything you paid for, you still might get ripped off. This past weekend, three stores tried to sell us items that did not match their price tag or description. Each time, we politely pointed out the difference to a manager, and each time, we were rewarded for doing so, either with a reduced price or a better item than the original one we wanted. Let us tell you about our exciting weekend, inside. More »
—>We'd hoped that Activision's blunder would be the last one, but it turns out the HR department at Aflac can't find the BCC field either. Reader Corey writes in to let us know he just received an email addressed to him and 623 other people who were interested in jobs with the insurance company. Our guess is some of the recipients won't be so interested in a career with a company that doesn't care about the privacy of its employees. After the jump, a quick guide to obscuring other recipients' email addresses so this doesn't happen again. More »
—>Here's a heartbreaking story: A dog owner is asking the public to demand the recall of a chew toy after it caused an injury to their dog that required amputation of its tongue. More »
—>MSNBC's Ads of the Weird blog is a little creeped out by Duracell's new kidnapping commercial, and so are we. Making people feel bad about something is advertising's job, we get that, but trying to scare parents into thinking their kid will be stolen from the playground by the classic man-in-a-van is going a little overboard. (Watch the commercial below.) More »
—>We'd never stopped to think about it before, but we were not surprised to learn that our government had a polite term for rodent feces. It's "rodent excreta pellet," and apparently a warehouse belonging to Capitol Cake, a Baltimore bakery specializing in fruitcake and pound cake, is full of them. More »
Gmail recently rolled out a change to its settings, where now you can permanently turn on SSL encryption. Do it now—your personal data will thank you for it. Besides, it's going to get a lot easier to hack Gmail sessions very soon, because some guy is planning on releasing a hacking tool to the public in order to force Google to implement better security. [monkey_bites] More »
Some poor soul is trying to live her life strictly according to Oprah's advice. "Clearly, I need to work on deepening my relationship with footwear," she says in her latest post. Painful, but interesting -- particularly because she's also tracking what it costs to live by Oprah's rules. [Living Oprah] More »
—>Consumerist reader Chris decided to take advantage of GM's please-buy-a-car Employee Discount sale that we wrote about yesterday, so he headed off to two different dealerships in the NY/NJ area. What he found were deserted showrooms with salesmen who ignored him or argued with him over the existence of specific models he'd looked at online. He adds, "tonight I’m off to Toyota for some hard numbers on a Corolla and Camry." More »
—>The Wall Street Journal says that Dunkin' Donuts is experimenting with video screens that use facial recognition technology to figure out your age and gender. The screens then display ads targeted specifically to you. More »
—>Here's one more thing to worry about when a fire destroys your home — Comcast. More »
—>A TSA employee used sensitive avionics equipment as a ladder while attempting to break into 9 American Airlines planes to test how well they were secured. The TSA agent was able to break into 7 of the planes, raising questions about the security of the aircraft, but also managed to ground the aircraft — causing at least 40 flights to be delayed at O'Hare. More »
—>Reader Misha would like to know what can be done about a mail carrier who seems to enjoy throwing packages up several flights of stairs, and supervisors at the post office who don't mind that she does this. More »
—>ABCNews says that the West Virginia Attorney General is warning people about fake debt collectors who will call you repeatedly at home and at work, threatening you with arrest for not paying a debt... that doesn't even exist. More »
—>When SoundExchange, the organization that represents many labels and artists, proposed steep new royalty rates for radio webcasters last year, they shortsightedly killed off their own revenue stream. Instead of their proposed rates being cut back as part of a standard negotiation, they were surprised to see the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board reject opposing arguments and adopt SoundExchange's rates fully. Now Pandora, the popular streaming music site, says it's paying over 70% of its revenue in royalties, and unless Washington changes the rates soon—which looks unlikely— they will have to shut down. More »
—>A new campaign arguing that the 21-year-old drinking age is not working, and that it "has created a culture of dangerous binge drinking" on college campuses has been signed by an eclectic group of over 100 college presidents, including those of Duke, Dartmouth, The Ohio State University, and Johns Hopkins. More »
—>BusinessWeek has put together one of those accursed slideshows of 25 ways to save money, and while a lot of them are things you've heard before (use credit cards wisely! buy generic or used!), there are a few less common tips that you might not have considered. Here are four that caught our attention. More »
—>Earlier this week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an arbitration decision in a dispute between Coffee Beanery and a franchisee. The court found that the arbitrator, hired by the American Arbitration Association, "showed a manifest disregard of the law" by siding with Coffee Beanery. More »
—>Pictured above are members of Argentina's olympic soccer team, celebrating their trip to the Olympics in Beijing. Although they're not the first Olympic team to strike this tasteless pose, they are the first to do so while wearing their corporate sponsor's name on their jerseys. More »
NBC and General Mills are planning on launching a "Biggest Loser" line of food this fall. The idea of someone sitting at home watching that show while munching a "Biggest Loser" energy bar is deeply depressing. [Entertainment Marketing Letter] More »
—>GM is desperate to boost its sales this month, so the company is offering some steep discounts under its "Employee Pricing" sale. The car blog KickingTires is covering the discounts and points out that "almost all of the prices are around 10% off, which is big in terms of car sales." For example, you can save $9,000 on a Hummer H3. Of course, you'll spend that much on gas for it in the first week, but there are other options as well, like Saturns, Chevys, and even the 2008 Corvette Z06 (which we mention separately because KickingTires says powerful sports cars are usually exempt from this sort of sale, but not this time). More »
...the five FCC Commissioners and other Commission staff will fan out to [selected] markets to raise awareness and educate consumers. More »
—>After reviewing the more than 14,000 comments left by living human beings, the FTC yesterday amended its Telemarketing Sales Rule to ban most types of robotic telemarketing calls. By this December, any recorded calls will have to lead off with an automated opt-out option; by September 2009, telemarketers will need prior written permission to contact someone—simply being a recent customer won't cut it. More »
—>Hey, did you know that with Microsoft Word, $250 and maybe a foreign language dictionary — your lemonade stand can get a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence? That's what one enterprising fellow set out to prove. More »
—>There's something odd going on at reader Brian's local Friendly's. Brian and his wife ordered and paid for two sundaes, but when Friendly's discovered they were out of the flavor they'd requested, things got complicated. First, the employees refused to give Brian and his wife their money back because the manager doesn't allow refunds, then, when they asked to speak to the manager, not only would she not speak to them, but she also wouldn't allow the employees to say her name. More »
—>The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that United Airlines will no longer offer free snacks in coach starting September 2nd. They are also dropping complimentary meals in business class except for "premium transcontinental flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to New York." Shockingly, this move coincides with the airlines' expansion of their "buy-on-board" food offerings, says the Chronicle. More »
—>Gas thieves have stolen over 5,000 gallons of fuel from the Open Pantry Citgo in Wauwatosa, WI according to WauwatosaNow.com. More »
—>TSA, can you at least train your agents to do their jobs properly? We'd appreciate it even more if you'd discipline (read: fire) those who go all stupidly power-mad and think they have to "win" every encounter, even when it means making up new rules on the spot. Here's a story of a soldier who lost a day of leave because one of your agents caused so much trouble. In the end, the soldier says he's happy with the outcome—"Using standard Consumerist customer service doctrine (polite, patient, proper channels and then EECB), I won"—but we're still floored by how difficult you made his trip home. Oh, and NWA, you were no help either. More »
American Airlines has launched broadband internet service on nonstop flights from New York to San Francisco, New York to Los Angeles and New York to Miami for a fee of $12.95 [Bizjournals] More »
—>An alleged Best Buy employee tells us that the company has stopped including inlet water hoses in some Inglis, Whirlpool and Maytag top-loading washers it sells. According to the blurry photos he sent us, employees are now supposed to push this $27 accessory hose product on customers who buy the washers. Update: we don't know if the decision originated with the manufacturers or Best Buy. More »
—>Why is Hobby Lobby selling Christmas Trees in August? WHY?! We can understand the tinsel and countdowns, maybe, but !@$% Christmas trees? This picture comes from Hutchinson, Kansas where it will be 92 degrees on Friday. We called Hobby Lobby for an explanation... More »
—>Hank went on a cruise with his family to celebrate his grandmother's 75th birthday. Because of a change in his work schedule, Hank had to leave early to return home to California. But when you're a guest of Celebrity Cruises, YOU ARE A GUEST OF CELEBRITY CRUISES. There is no "return home" for you! Be quiet! Eat waffles! More »
—>Banks need your money. They're not doing too well on their own, and you're not screwing up enough to generate the fees they need to make their shareholders happy. That's why they've set up sneaky ways to maximize your every mistake—or in some cases, ways to change the rules so that you make new mistakes where you didn't before—in order to penalize you. Here are five things SmartMoney says to watch out for. More »
New York magazine has a good write-up of Function Drinks, an "enhanced water" company that has the marketing advantage of being founded by a doctor. Although their nutritional claims appear to be a little more scientifically researched than, say, Vitamin Water, the sugar content is the same, and, as the article points out, there's still no real consensus on whether antioxidants do any good. More »
—>Customers at Zuni Cafe in San Francisco were surprised to find that their $8 dessert was nothing more than a nectarine rolling around on a plate. More »
—>In what should have been a no-brainer, Apple today agreed to replace any iPod Nanos that unexpectedly explode. The announcement came as a response to the Japanese government, which yesterday asked the computer-maker to "take some measures" to warn consumers of the potential danger of their little pocket rockets. Apple blames a single bad battery supplier for the spontaneous fireworks. More »
The sales rep did his song and dance and insisted that I test out the phone service for 2 weeks. I said no a few times but he wouldn’t hear it. Well, he gave me 2 phones and 2 phone numbers. No credit check, no money whatsoever. I walked out of the store with 2 free phones and some paper work. More »
—>XBOX Live member ForceTrainer writes in with an update about his issue with Microsoft. In our last episode, ForceTrainer has been charged $50 for 2 months of a XBOX Live gold membership— the price of a year of service. More »
—>Widge at Needcoffee.com wrote a similar post about Arm & Hammer's new "30 day" baking soda and got a response from Arm & Hammer PR. We're being kind when we say that reason consumers are being told to buy 3 times as much baking soda is nonsense. We're sure there are more colorful words that would be just as accurate. More »
—>The American Consumer Satisfaction Index released it's Q2 results today and the news isn't good for domestic car manufacturers. The folks at the ASCI say that customer satisfaction for the entire industry is at an all time high — but no American car companies are represented in the top four — and the bottom three in the industry are all American brands. More »
—>A Chicago man is suing Shaw's Crab House after passing a 9-foot tapeworm he contends came from consuming undercooked fish. Anthony Franz claims he became violently ill after eating the salmon salad at Shaw's, and is suing the restaurant and its parent company, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, for $100,000. More »
Good news: Apple is extending MobileMe subscriptions by an additional 60 days to make up for the recent problems with the service. The extension applies to all subscribers with an active account as of August 19th. Apple granted a 30 day extension a few weeks ago.[InformationWeek] More »
—>An alleged insider for AT&T sent us the following tip on how to avoid a connection fee if you plan on getting both a regular phone line and DSL through AT&T. We don't know if it works, but you may be able to avoid a $40 charge for what amounts to "flipping a switch" at AT&T HQ. More »
—>Consumer Reports has some tips for keeping your refrigerator happy and your utility bills low. Keeping the door shut as much as possible is apparently very important. As mom always said, "We're not trying to refrigerate the entire State of Illinois, are we?" More »
—>Tightwad, Missouri, population 63, doesn't have much, but it does have a bank. A bank where the most common question people ask isn't "Do you have free checking?" It's: "Is this actually a real bank?" Well, the answer is "yes." More »
—>Ready for some tough love about how to improve your financial situation? Jeffrey Strain, the man behind SavingAdvice.com, has put together a list of six "awful truths" about personal finance for TheStreet.com. The reason they're "awful," he writes, is that "these truths mean that the each person must take more responsibility and make hard decisions that they would rather leave to others." More »
—>Ok, at this point, we're starting to suspect that Dell wants to be on our blog. Why else would they hire a freight truck to deliver a gigantic box on a pallet that contained an 8 lb shelf? More »
—>Reader Jeff writes in to let us know that Comcast Frank and the Twitter team swooped in and rescued him from Comcast tech hell. More »
Reporter Sarah Varney bought some Kinoki foot pads and wore them to bed. She also subjected her husband to the (alleged) detox treatment. In the morning, they both awoke to the stinky brown mess that the advertisement had promised. Not convinced that the brown stuff had actually come from their bodies, our hero took the foot pads to a lab and had them analyzed and compared with unused pads.
"Compared to the blank that's almost identical," said the scientists. "It looks like three of the same sample, basically."
A doctor from UC Berkeley confirms the scam diagnoses. Your body already eliminates "metabolic waste" and "toxins" through, um, other means...
"For many hundreds of thousands of years we've been successfully eliminating them through the usual means, which is urine and feces, and there has been no demonstrated need to accelerate that."
So what is all that gunk in the pad? We're not really sure, but it shows up if you hold the pad over a pot of boiling water. Who knew steam had "metabolic waste"?
Japanese Foot Pad Is Latest Health Fad [NPR]
More »
—>Blogger Kelby Carr says that her local Walmart has totally fake but official looking back to school supply lists posted in their stores. The lists not only contain some extra supplies that are banned from the schools, but are actually missing some supplies. Here's how she describes the lists: More »
—>Reader Sam writes in to let us know he found some Christmas Creep at a Michaels craft store. He sent along some pictures he took in early August, 142 days before Christmas. More »
—>Reader Rom is angry with AT&T because they won't sell him an iPhone 3G for the price listed in their press release. AT&T says the promotional pricing ($199 for an 8GB, $299 for a 16GB) is only available to, among others, existing iPhone customers. Rom is an existing iPhone customer. More »
Is [it] a biologically driven disease of the brain, a learned habit run amok, an addiction in its own right or a symptom of the other dysfunctions—most notably depression—that so often accompany it? More »
—>There's not a lot of contact info on the web for Greyhound or its executives, but one determined customer has put a lot of effort into documenting what there is. Here are mailing addresses and a few unpublished phone numbers for people in the Greyhound executive offices. More »
—>Gee, someone wasn't thinking too clearly when they were designing High School Musical 2 themed panties for Disney. Sold in the UK, one pair of panties in a package of 5 read "Dive In" — a reference to a scene from the popular musical. More »
—>Is this Greyhound CSR trying to start a revolution among its customers, or simply telling the wife of a passenger that Greyhound doesn't care about lost luggage? She claims he told her to "'get together with everyone else' who lost luggage 'and do something about it.'" Like what—start a support group? Meet him behind the bleachers for a fist fight? Open a detective agency in Tupelo? More »
—>Before asking customer service representatives to tackle thorny issues, win them over by first offering to praise them at the end of the call. According to Psychology Today, the offer establishes a reciprocal relationship that CSRs will try to honor, even if solving your problem takes, ugh, work. More »
—>A hybrid vehicle might be more fuel efficient than the non-hybrid version of the same car, but some hybrid vehicles can get as few as 19mpg. Check out this list of the least fuel efficient hybrid vehicles before you head out to the dealership. More »
If you want to buy that new AC/DC (and maybe Guns N' Roses) album, you're going to have to shop at Walmart. [BusinessWeek & Wired] More »
—>Using Your Health Savings Account as a "Super Roth" Investment Vehicle [Free Money Finance] "If you can afford to delay using your HSA funds and instead leave them invested, your payoff in retirement will be substantial." More »
—>XBOX Live member ForceTrainer says that after he forgot to update his credit card information, Microsoft shut down his XBOX Live account. He was fine with this, but when he tried to update his info, pay his balance, and convert his account to silver, Microsoft demanded he pay an entire year's fee to settle the two months he was delinquent. More »
The FAA says the Southwest Airlines isn't going to be able to weasel its way out of paying that $10.2 million fine for missing aircraft inspections. [Bizjournals] More »
—>Here's an odd situation: Reader Stephen says that Comcast (his old cable company) disconnected his new Verizon cable. He's not sure what exactly he should do about it and would like your advice. More »
—>Reader Kirin says he's suspicious of Arm & Hammer's assertion that the same 1lb of baking soda will only deodorize for 30 days when it used to work for 3 months. More »
—>We can't really mock the self-mocking William Shatner for his miraculous ability to keep earning money as a celebrity, sometimes even by acting, so instead we'll roll our eyes at the dorks who are paying $150 and up for videotaped footage of Shatner reciting a personalized greeting into a video camera as he autographs a photo. And we'll be secretly jealous of the entrepreneur who came up with the idea. More »
—>Douglas writes, "Coinstar wants you to 'recycle' your coins in their machines, and save the environment! Minus their 8.9% fee of course." They even have a little wizard on their website that estimates how many parts of the environment—water, energy consumption, and geological waste—you save by putting those coins back into circulation, instead of hoarding them like the polar bear murderer you are. They don't provide any source for these estimates, though, and we're not convinced you're doing anything "green" other than lining Coinstar's pockets. More »
—>Reader Sara wants to share the experience she had with Petsmart's dog grooming service. She says that after they accidentally cut her dog's toenail too close they tried to sell her a product to stop the bleeding. More »
—>Adam is writing in to say that in the year that Virgin America has been operating, he feels that they've forgotten how to run their airline. The first time he flew with them, his flight was delayed and his laptop adapter melted. He got a free flight. The second time he flew, about a year later, his flight was delayed, the airline ran out of food, his luggage was ripped open and his valuables disappeared, and the baggage claim rep laughed at his misfortune. More »
—>Reader Dan thought we'd be interested in this sign he spotted in his local Home Depot. It reads: "Why pay cash even if you could?" More »
—>Well, we've been saying it would be more honest to just raise prices instead of shrinking the product, and Hershey has taken us up on that. On Friday, only months after a 13% hike back in February, Hershey announced a price increase of 10-11% across the product line, citing higher costs for ingredients. More »
—>Do you like free makeup? How about free cologne? Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Filene's, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and Saks Fifth Avenue have all settled a class action by agreeing to give away $175 million worth of cosmetics starting early next year. No proof of purchase is necessary, but the freebies will be handed out on a first-come-first-served circus basis. Details inside... More »
—>Reader D's first-gen iPod Nano was chugging power from his PC's USB port when suddenly he saw it "explode open and start shooting sparks and spewing smoke." Pictures inside, along with Apple's response. More »
—>A Megabus driver claimed that Chris' prepaid reservation was actually a standby ticket, and refused to let him board unless he met the bus at the next stop halfway across Philadelphia. The driver was apparently worried that the bus would be full after the second stop, but he wouldn't let Chris ride along to find out. More »
—>Dell told Arthur to replace his broken DVD drive himself, even after he shipped his laptop to Dell expressly so they could perform the replacement. Arthur tried unsuccessfully to remove the broken drive with the help of Dell phone jockey before returning his unit to the mothership. After weeks of waiting, Dell returned the still-broken laptop with a note explaining that they were out of DVD drives, but that when they arrived in "two or three days," they'd send one to Arthur so he could install it himself. More »
—>As the value of frequent-flier miles continue to free-fall, it's worth asking whether you should ditch your frequent-flier credit card. The Times posed five questions to help you decide if it's time to switch to a different rewards program. More »
—>Planes can be disgusting flying petri dishes. Those blankets Jetblue thinks are worth $7? Stay away from them. When not sold as collectibles, they're cleaned only when "they are visibly dirty, or only when they appear to have been used." Inside, how to breathe fresh air and avoid drinking storage tank water. Mmmm! More »
—>The Washington Post reports that consumers are starting to judge real estate agents by their blogs. Almost 10% of real estate brokers are apparently blogging, a number that is likely to rise faster than that sketchy "up and coming" neighborhood you've heard about for years. More »
—>Pizza Hut apologized for sending an unsolicited marketing email by sending an unsolicited apology email. We've all accidentally hit send without ending the world, but the pizza-maker's flub is all the more egregious because they force customer who place orders online to opt-in to spam marketing. According to Pizza Hut, the error occurred while "testing new functionality." More »
—>Sprint signed David up for a two-year contract without permission after he transferred his service between a Motorola RAZR 2 and a Sanyo 8400. David owned both phones when he made the transfer last month, long after his contract had expired. Sprint recently decided to send him a letter, charmingly called "keeping you in the know," which showed that he was the proud new owner of a surprise contract extension. More »
—>Armed guards ordered 274 stranded passengers out of the Punta Cana airport with no place to go after bad weather forced U.S. Airways to cancel its flight from the Dominican Republic to Philadelphia. Several passengers ended up sleeping in a bus after the airline responded to Tropical Storm Fay by asking passengers to pick up their luggage and get lost. More »
—>Ohio payday lenders, still smarting from their punch in the face, are turning to lies and deceit to qualify a ballot initiative that would overturn the state's recently approved usury limits. The industry's petition gatherers are telling people that the initiative would "lower interest rates," even though it would raise the maximum allowable APR from 28% to an astounding 391%. They're also giving dollars to illiterate homeless people who sign the petition. More »
"There is no indication of any change in the near future regarding the current state of competition. Market forces have not yet met the challenge of controlling price increases." More »
—>Mrs. Fields, the sweet old woman with the cookies, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today because flour and milk have become too expensive. Besides, you people aren't splurging on luxuries likes sweets or meals out anyway thanks to the ongoing non-recession inflation thing that also killed off Bennigan's. More »
—>Bisphenol A, or BPA, is the chemical used in various plastic bottles and can linings that Canada recently banned, consumers in Arkansas, California, and Ohio have filed lawsuits over, and Playtex and Nalgene have stopped using. The fear is that it's toxic—studies on animals in Canada have shown that it's damaging, and some tests in the U.S. suggest it's harmful to humans as well. Critics of the anti-BPA movement point out that the human studies rely on super high dosages that never occur in real life, and that making safety decisions based on the general public's fears isn't exactly scientific. More »
As of August 5th, Alaska Airlines no longer accepts cash on its flights. In their words, welcome to "the convenience of a cashless cabin. Passengers will no longer need to hunt for cash to pay for on board purchases." Finally! All that cash flitting around the cabin hurting people is a thing of the past. [Personal Finance Weblog] More »
This week, personal finance website The Simple Dollar ran a series of "Big Debates" that discussed some common either/or finance choices, including the merits of using or eschewing credit cards, whether to pay off debt or save for retirement, and the advantages of 401(k)s versus Roth IRAs. More »
—>Maybe Burger King in Germany isn't the same sort of "kid centric" destination that it is over here? Idea Sandbox has made some um, interesting observations about their "Veg City" tray liners. This one is employs the "airport screening" metaphor to suggest that BK doesn't let any shady veggies into their food. More »
—>Gregg saw this cheerful environmentally-friendly message on the side of his Sam's Club soda cup. Wait, what? We guess it saves Sam's Club fuel costs to ship the cups, but that sounds more like a profit-friendly quality. Gregg notes another benefit of the cup: "[it] may never biodegrade but at least it's easy on my drinkin' elbow." More »
—>We've had no less than 20 people email us to congratulate Netflix for apologizing after their shipping system experienced some delays. Here's the email and some comments from Netflix's customers: More »
—>The FAA is not pleased with American Airlines. They say the airline should pay $7.1 million in fines for deferring maintainence and not complying with employee drug testing requirements. AA says the fines are too severe and will appeal. More »
—>Donald Trump doesn't know Ed McMahon, but he "grew up watching him on tv," so he'd like to be his new landlord. McMahon is currently facing foreclosure from Countrywide, and had 2 weeks to sell his house before the bank repossessed it. Mr. Trump has agreed to buy the house and lease it to McMahon, says the LA Times. More »
—>Ah, children. We know you're trying your best not to mess yours up, but teaching kids about money is hard. If it wasn't, this credit card would not even exist. So what do you do? More »
—>A Consumerist reader was surprised to find that Citibank had applied a finance charge on a zero balance account. She did what every good Consumerist should do: prepared her evidence, jumped quickly ahead to a live person on the Customer Service side, and resolved the issue. Here's what happened: More »
Highlights From Dealhack:
- Dell Home: Save 20% or $250 off Inspiron Core 2 Duo Desktop PCs
- Wall Street Journal: 75% off plus 4 Free Weeks on Wall Street Journal Subscriptions
- Expedia: Save 50% off Hotel Bookings + up to Free $75 Gas Card
- Amazon: Save to 45% off Single Serve & Drip Coffee Makers
- Dell Home: Save 20% or 30% off Inspiron Notebook PCs
—>FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell (R-Obviously) recently warned conservative bloggers that the Commission's decision to repudiate Comcast for crippling Bit Torrent could lead the government to start "dictating content policy" by requiring blogs to give equal time to opposing views. Ha! Of course, this can be avoided if we vote for the *ahem* "right" candidate in November. More »
—> Reader Scott says he spotted some nasty summertime Christmas Creep in the free NYC area paper "Metro". Apparently the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular is under the impression that "Christmas is right around the corner." In August. More »
—>There's nothing we dislike more than people who scam a system put in place to protect vulnerable consumers from abuse, but the sad fact is that they do exist. SF Weekly has an article that tracks the exploits of a serial evictee, a "renter" who leases apartments with no intention of paying rent, and then games the system in order to stay rent free for as long as possible. More »
—>Reader Zack is frustrated with General Electric because they offered to inspect and repair his washing machine as a courtesy, then after they came by they stuck him with the bill. Now they're threatening to send him to a collection agency. More »
—>USAToday says that the TSA was placing fliers who forgot their ID in a database along with people who have been questioned for "suspicious behavior" or who "violated security laws." In an interview, TSA chief Kip Hawley told the paper that the "the information helps track potential terrorists who may be "probing the system" by trying to get though checkpoints at various airports." More »
—>When should you spend to save? [MSN Money] "Are warehouse store memberships a good deal? How about extended warranties? It all depends on the products — and on you, the shopper." More »
—>It's survey time again, folks. This time around the prize is a $300 gift card. As a wise man once said, "Pimpin' ain't easy but it's necessary." More »
—>Marilyn Parver is taking her story to the media after JetBlue had her arrested and walked off the plane in handcuffs for refusing to delete a video recording she made of an altercation between passengers. She told Christopher Elliott that JetBlue accused her of interfering with a flight crew (a federal crime) and threatened to blacklist her by adding her name to the dreaded "no-fly list." More »
—>Reader Ed says: More »
—>79-year-old Christina Brown had a sales receipt and bank records showing that Target had taken cash from her bank account, but the retailer refused to give her a cash refund — offering a gift certificate instead. Christina refused. She wanted her money, and said she'd stay at the Target all day if she had to, but she wasn't leaving without $30. Target told her she was trespassing and that they would call the police. Christina said that was fine with her and called 9-1-1 herself. When the police arrived, Target had Ms. Brown hauled out of the store on a stretcher and taken via ambulance to a hospital for a mental evaluation. Does wanting a cash refund mean you're potentially mentally ill? More »
Highlights From Dealhack:
- Newegg: Corsair 4GB Flash Survivor Ultra Rugged USB 2.0 Drive $15 & Free Shipping
- Gap: Save 25% or More off Women's & Men's Jeans
- Mac Connection: Apple MacBooks $120 or More off plus Free VMware Fusion Software
- Amazon: Buy Three Books, DVDs, Music & More and Get Fourth Free
—>Things are looking pretty bleak in parts of Detroit these days. In fact, you can get a house for $1. Yes, that's right. A house. More »
—>We've been getting a lot of emails lately from people who are fed up with telemarketers ignoring the Do Not Call list and want to take the bastards to court. Now, to be fair, sometimes the people who email don't fully understand what is and what is not allowed under the law. More »
—>Tired of taking heat for refusing to waive extra baggage fees for soldiers, American Airlines has finally caved. More »
- Holding $5,000 in tickets from a family for six months, then telling them the day before that the flight has been canceled;
- When confronted with the fact that the flight hasn't been canceled, telling the family that the reservation has been lost;
- Finally admitting that they've bumped the family from the flight and were lying about the cancelation and the lost reservation;
- Offering replacement seats on multiple planes and days, splitting the family up on different flights and depositing them at different islands;
- Offering to get them there 5 days into a 7 day vacation, part of which was scheduled to spend time with a family member who was dying in a hospice in Hawaii;
- Refusing to write a letter on the family's behalf so that they can collect their insurance payment on the house they rented but never used.
—>On his Cool Tools blog, Kevin Kelly describes his love for Brown Paper Tickets, a teensy ticketing David to the Ticketmaster Goliath. They don't gouge customers with outrageous fees, and they're fair to venues as well, he writes, providing great service and paying promptly. More »
—>Jeff Simmermon, the Digital Communications Director for Time Warner Cable, has responded to the charges that TWC is responsible for the lags and disconnections plaguing East Coast World of Warcraft players. He took a look at the traceroutes posted on Blizzard's user forums and sent the response. More »
—>At the risk of inviting another pointless "this pizza is better than that pizza" debate in the comments, we feel it is necessary to inform you that Uno has run into some nasty looking debt problems and some people are speculating that they may be the next restaurant chain to go under. More »
—> At least Verizon is being honest about the fact that they're not going to read your emails, right? More »
—>A Bank of America customer got a nasty surprise after withdrawing cash to pay her employees — a dye pack exploded in her car. When she went back to the bank to complain she says she didn't even get an apology. More »
—>Matthew Meeds of Fairway, Kansas, doesn't want to pay Time Warner Cable a monthly rental fee for his cable box—he'd rather own one outright. He's filed suit against the cable provider and its parent company, Time Warner, Inc., accusing them of establishing an illegal tying arrangement by making the box rental a condition of the subscription agreement. He's seeking class-action status for all TWC premium customers in Kansas. More »
—>About a month ago, we wrote about Walmart's new logo, and its resemblance to one of Kurt Vonnegut's favorite drawings. It's happened again, although we might be, um, stretching it. While browsing Ikea the other day, we came across their Visen bathroom set, and, well, judge for yourself. More »
—>It's been suggested that your career is your biggest financial asset because it fuels all of your financial progress — it grows your net worth, pays for your living expenses, sends your kids to college,funds your retirement, and the like. That's why we protect our careers with products like disability, medical, and life insurance, because without the ability to work — even for a limited amount of time — most of us would experience severe financial hardship. More »
—>We've never really stopped to wonder what sort of compensation we would require if we found small rocks in our raisin bread, but we're pretty sure that it's more than $5. Maybe we're being unrealistic, because when Michael Snyder found rocks in the raisin bread he bought from a bakery in Somerville, Massachusetts, he asked for 5 loaves of bread in compensation and settled for $5 instead. More »
—>Reader Alex bought an Acer laptop with a 3 year extended warranty, and honestly, we lost count of how many times he's sent it in to Acer for repairs — but every time Acer sends it back it seems to get a little bit less functional. Now he's finally had enough and is demanding a replacement. This has lead to a 5 month stand-off in which Acer is refusing to send him a replacement because it would be a "downgrade" from his current broken laptop. Alex has already replaced the laptop and was going to give up. We're his last hope... More »
—> Reader Kyle would like to share his thoughts on the redesigned "SunnyD" logo: More »
Best Buy will start selling the iPhone on September 7th, making it the only retailer other than Apple and AT&T to offer the device. [Associated Press] More »
—>The New York Times has a study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest on the health effects of caffeine. The study analyzes various claims made about caffeine, and it also offers a useful chart listing the caffeine content in typical drinks and foods. For instance, at 320 milligrams per 16 ounces, a Starbucks grande coffee has over four times the 80 milligrams of caffeine of a Red Bull. More »
We don't play World of Warcraft, but if we did, it looks like we'd have to cancel Time Warner Cable and install FIOS in order to guarantee a connection to Blizzard's servers. That's what some East Coast WoW players are saying—they've been suffering disconnections and game-killing lags for months now, and Time Warner Cable seems unable to solve the problem. They swear they're not doing anything to disrupt or throttle gamers, and say that "customers who are having problems on the local level should contact customer service." Based on the 24-page thread on Blizzard's forums, TWC's customer service has yet to resolve the issue. More »
—>Is it possible? Can this country's insatiable appetite for consumer goods be slowing down? No! Surely not! US News & World Report's Alpha Consumer, Kimberly Palmer took a look at consumer demand and its relationship to cheap credit. More »
—>A Burger King employee who took a bath in the burger chain's sink is probably regretting that someone filmed it and posted the video to MySpace, because the local Health Department was among those viewers who were not amused. More »
—>Reader Brian says he saw the above pictured infomercial on CNBC this Sunday, and is wondering how they get away with such a "blatant attempt to take advantage of those same mortgage consumers who where hoodwinked in the first place." More »
—>If you combine a mindless and petty tyrant with Walmart's draconian photo rights policies, you get a story like the one Boingboing reported today, where a woman in Florida was told she couldn't scan an 80-year-old portrait of her dead grandmother, because its copyright is surely held by the studio that took it—and copyrights last forever. More »
—>United Airlines' pilots have had enough of Glenn Tilton, the CEO of United, and have started a website that calls for his resignation. In addition to listing Mr. Tilton's various faults, the website asks you, the consumer, to help them by submitting your United Airlines horror stories. (CC: The Consumerist, naturally...) More »
—>A new survey says that 73% of Americans think Starbucks is overpriced, 21% said they were unsure, and only 6% came to Starbucks' defense. (We were kidding about that sarcastic thing. Teehee.) The survey also found that the vast majority of American's don't go Starbucks for their daily coffee fix: More »
—>Consumer Reports wants you to know that it's OK to sleep in, because you're not going to save money by pumping gas in the early morning. Why not? More »
—>This is now our third, (yes, our third) post about "buy two and save" or "special value" deodorant two packs at Walmart and Target. This lovely example comes from Tucson, AZ. More »
Here's a "fun" summer project: make your own homemade Oreo cookies! Will you save money? Who can say! Will they be healthier? Probably not! Will your friends think you have too much time on your hands? Yes, but they'll appreciate the free baked goods. [Post Tribune] More »
—>Reader Andrew says he's certain that Jiffy Lube purposefully filed down his oil plug so that he couldn't change his oil himself. Conspiracy? Or incompetance? You decide. More »
—>Citibank's website isn't reliable, at least according to them. Matt assumed that a website from a bank could be trustworthy, and that if there was no scheduled payment showing up, then he must have forgotten to arrange it. He scheduled a second payment, but then both payments went through one day apart. Now Citibank refuses to give him a refund: he should have called or emailed before rescheduling, they've told him, and not trusted what the website was telling him. More »
—>Go shopping for cheese at the Ballard Fred Myer in Seattle, and you'll learn an interesting new fact about your food: More »
—>If you're from Chicago and have ever parked an automobile, this has probably already happened to you 6 times and you'll be wondering why this story is even newsworthy. Feel free to go get a sandwich. For the rest of the country... The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that hundreds of people who drove to the 79th annual Bud Billiken Parade got a nasty surprise when they found that a towing company had posted a notice after the parade started and towed all of their cars. More »
—>You're sick of your SUV and thinking of getting a car that's new to you, but which ones get the best gas mileage for the price? Consumer Reports has the answer — a list of the 7 most fuel efficient used cars for under $10,000. More »
—>Gramps could go any minute, but banks only fail on Fridays, giving the FDIC carcass crew plenty of time to line up potential buyers, scrap outdated letterhead, and hire hypnotists to help bank employees remember vault codes... More »
—>If what this alleged Restoration Hardware employee says is true, the home furnishings chain may have just sacrificed its last remaining claim to distinction—high quality, American-made furniture—in an effort to increase profits. Supposedly, shoppers will see the effect of outsourced furniture through lower prices. RH furniture was always known to be fairly good stuff, if not cheap—can we now expect cheap but not good? More »
—> Reader Greg had his first run in with the notorious "no ice" fee, something we've been hearing about more and more lately. This time the culprit was McDonald's and they got around the "Ok, fine. I'll just have one cube of ice" tactic with a sign that specified a "FULL" cup of ice. Clever, McDonald's. Very. Clever. More »
—>Last week, a developer discovered that the iPhone has the capability to quietly connect to Apple's servers to check an application blacklist, and then disable any installed apps that are on the list. The story was quickly defused by blogs, but today the Wall Street Journal says Steve Jobs has confirmed that there really is an application "kill switch." More »
—>Freecreditreport.com is NOT actually free, nor is it related to Annualcreditreport.com, the free credit report that you are entitled to under federal law. So why are people still being tricked into signing up for a credit monitoring service in order to get something that they are entitled to under federal-freaking-law? Because the credit bureaus are linking them to the website and most consumers don't believe that a major credit bureau would try to trick them. Always read the fine print! More »
—>Our inbox is overflowing with links to the above photograph from the Daily WTF. More »
—>As the economy sours, premium stores like Whole Foods are struggling to keep customers, reports the New York Times. To remain competitive, the pricey natural grocery store is offering guided tours to customers who want to cut costs but can't stand to set foot in Winn Dixie. More »
—>There's some backlash brewing against Etsy.com for a fashion article about recreating "Bonnie Parker's look" in which they describe Bonnie & Clyde as, "rather infamous characters in U.S. history, and for good reason: honestly, what's sexier than a nefarious duo driving cross country on a crime spree of such massive and public proportion?" The author of the article is being taken to task in the comments and the Etsy Bitch blog has picked up the story as well. More »
—>Reader Mike says that he contacted a rebate company after not receiving his check, only to find out that the company had issued a check to someone else — and then suggested he contact that person and "discuss the matter of your rebate being deposited in his account." Um... what? More »
—>A reader wants to know why Lowes advertises and sells gallons of house paint that aren't full gallons. Their website says the cans are "1-Gallon." Their receipts describe them as 1 gallon cans of paint. Even the stickers they print out and place on the lids say "One Gallon." But Brian notes that when he brought the paint home and really looked at the cans, "One of the labels read '116 Fluid Ounces; 3.43 liters', the second label read '126 Fluid Ounces; 3.725 Liters.'" More »
—>Reader Paul sends in this photo of a sign he saw at a gas station in Texas. First people were upset that gas stations were putting "outrageously high" holds of $100 on their cards when they paid at the pump. Now $100 is just the most you can buy at the pump without going inside and having them swipe your card. Sad. More »
I pulled out of the lot, turned left, and I wasn't more than 200 yards away when a cop comes up behind me, lights flashing. I knew I couldn't have been speeding so I was genuinely confused. He said the woman at the United Dairy Farmers said I drove off without paying for gas. More »
—>Here's a bizarre story from Flickr user F1.4. After finishing his breakfast at a "classy" joint in the D.C. area, the server came by and topped off his coffee. When he took another sip...it was hot soy sauce. Bleeccch! More »
—>Ron Burley, the man behind "Unscrewed: The Consumers� Guide to Getting What You Paid For," has published two articles on how to effectively deal with customer service reps. On the Do Not Want side, you shouldn't threaten legal action, because it will likely shut down any further communication as the company goes into automatic CYA mode. (You don't want to tip your hand about any legal action anyway.) What you should say is "Thank you," because being nice might help you stand out among the parade of complainers. More »
—>Ah, Consumer Behavior. Forbes took a look at the CDC's 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey (BRFSS) and ranked 33 cities based on their resident's answers to three survey questions: More »
—>America's painfully slow economic decline is partly fueled by almost $1 trillion of revolving credit card debt, an albatross our imperial credit card companies are all too happy to export. Most of the world's 3.76 billion credit cards already circulate abroad, "handed out to unsophisticated consumers — as they often are in shopping malls, factories and university campuses in middle-income developing countries." More »
—>Applebee's served a four-inch dead lizard as part of a salad last week. The McLean County Health Department investigated the surprise garnish and found that while "management confirmed it did happen," "it’s just one of those extraordinary circumstances," and that the restaurant was not at fault. More »
—>Phone book publishers spit out over 600 million phone books for just over 300 million Americans. Now the $17 billion a year industry is defending itself from state legislatures that want to restrict phone book circulations so consumers don't wreck their snowblowers when they hit snow-covered phone books. True story. More »
—>Just because an angry bear market is mauling your portfolio doesn't necessarily mean that it's time to fire your financial planner. But you may want to break out the axe at the sight of the following five warning signs... More »
—>Thomas Hawk was "forcibly thrown out" of San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art for taking photos in an area where photography is expressly allowed. Hawk had recently purchased a family membership to MOMA in no small part because of a policy change that permitted photography. When he arrived and started snapping away, he was approached by the director of visitor relations, Simon Blint... More »
—>Quick, what's 2 x 2? Did you get 4.32? No? Then you should be able resist Walmart's "Buy 2 And Save" Old Spice "special." More »
—>Apple couldn't repair Adrienne's 30GB iPod before she planned to leave for a cross-country trip, so they decided to give her a brand new 80GB iPod. And since it was a new iPod, they also waived the $70 repair fee. More »
—>Ugh, those selfish pilots can't be bothered to help their airlines return to profitability. No, instead they're whining to NASA that they're being forced to fly "uncomfortably low on fuel" and that "safety for passengers and crews could be compromised." More »
—>Cox apparently doesn't understand that they need permission before billing for extras like sports and movie tiers. The cable provider surprised reader Adrienne with a $130 bill for a triple-play package that was supposed to cost $100 per month, including all taxes and fees. When Adrienne called to complain, Cox straightened out the situation by tacking on yet another unrequested charge, this time for Starz. More »
—>Becoming a committed coupon wielder is one of the best ways to reverse the damage of rising costs and shrinking portions. Nancy Rivera Brooks has slashed $250 from her family's grocery bill this year by using a handful of tricks to get the most from her coupons... More »
—>Whole Foods apparently never got that June memo to chuck Nebraska Beef contaminated with E. coli. The posh-man's bodega announced yesterday that they are recalling the previously-recalled beef, which Whole Foods sold between June 2 and August 6. The contaminated beef has popped up in 24 states and sickened 49 people. Noted food safety litigator Bill Marler shows us that being a lawyer can be fun by posing six amusingly litigious questions for Whole Foods... More »
[It is] definitely on the table. That is something we’re looking at . . . in the future for us. We’re looking at doing some experiments. Obviously one way [is that] you can start selling things for $1.05, $1.09, $1.15 and other ways. You could have more of a break between your 99 cents price point and the next price point." More »
—>A mom in West Virginia says her 3-year-old's Diego walkie-talkie, which is supposed to have a range of 20 feet, picked up some blue talk from truckers who may have been 275 miles away. "They said we should go smoke some weed, and were talking about being in a strip bar, some really explicit things," the mother told the Asssociated Press. More »
—>
- Banzai Wild Waves Water Park Box Picture Vs Reality
- Circuit City Orders All Stores To Destroy Issue Of Mad Magazine Parodying "Sucker City"
- Convicted Pedophile Sues AmEx For $4 Million, Says Creditor Violated His Privacy
- Comcast Offers You A $500 Credit After Digging Up Your Lawn
- Circuit City Sorry For Commanding Employees To Destroy Mad Mag's "Sucker City" Parody
I'm heading off for some vacation. See you in two weeks. — Ben More »
Good Housekeeping has an extensive article detailing the 5 most common money mistakes that people make, from spending too much on "bargains" to letting their children blow their budget by not standing up to whining and teaching their children the value of things. [Good Housekeeping via Digg] More »
—>Would-be coffee spillers take note: If you're ever suing and get offered a settlement, take the deal. A new study shows that plaintiffs who turn down settlements and go to trial end up getting less than if they had settled. More »
—>Fannie Mae is the nation's largest mortgage finance company and it's just not doing too well, says the AP. Increasing losses from foreclosures are wiping out Fannie's revenue. More »
—>The price of oil dropped $2.19 today, to $117.91, spurring a stock market and dollar rally. Sounds like good news. Except that it's dropping because the market thinks more people won't be able to afford to drive their cars as much. Who's up for a "staycation?" More »
—>Reader Kevin wanted to sign up for Verizon's One Bill service, so he called to see if he qualified. The CSR told him that he did, so he signed up for it. Turns out, the CSR secretly signed him up for a more expensive DSL plan because his current one did not qualify. Now Verizon wants an early termination fee for the new, faster DSL and an activation fee to put Kevin back on the plan he used to have. Yuck. More »
—>The Candy Blog noticed that Hershey's "Kissables" have been reformulated, and can no longer be legally labeled "milk chocolate" because of FDA regulations. The new package looks the same, except for the ingredients and the label which now says "Chocolate Candy" instead "Candy Coated Milk Chocolate." More »
—>American Airlines is revamping its frequent flier program to include a fee to upgrade economy class tickets to business and first class. In addition to 15k frequent flier miles, AAdvantage members will, starting Oct. 1, have to pay between $50 and $350 for an upgrade. More »
—>Someone hacked into super-famous blogger Chris Pirillo's PayPal account and bought $450 worth of iTunes cards. On his birthday, no less. After a review Paypal declared to him,"We have completed our investigation of your claim and have determined that this is not an instance of unauthorized account activity." More »
—>If something goes wrong with the projection while you're watching Iron Man, (or any other movie, actually) and the ticket agent will not give you a refund, do not grab the monitor and throw it through a glass door. More »
—>Man, remember those mortgages made in 2006? That was some bad juju. Whooee. But if you thought those were bad, wait till you get a load of the mortgages made in 2007. As the graph shows, people are defaulting on them at an even higher rate than the '06 ones. How could this be? By 2007 the bubble was popping and lenders could all see that they needed to stop giving making loans to underqualified borrowers, right? That was exactly the problem: "Mortgage originators who profited handsomely from the housing boom "realized the game was completely over" and pushed mortgages out the door," reports WSJ. More »
—>By all accounts, Sprint has hit an iceberg and is leaking customers like the Titanic, but new CEO Dan Hesse says that they lost some of those customers on purpose because they were just crappy customers. As strange as this sounds, it does match up with what we've been hearing from (former) Sprint customers. More »
—>DirecTV customers are complaining that a software upgrade is shoving pay-per-view movies onto their DVR hard-drives, eating up disc-space and causing headaches. Tipster Buzwardo says, "I find it pretty darn annoying that DirecTV is sending me PPV content that I now have to make sure my kids don't play." More complaints can be found in the DirecTV Forums. More »
Eight people bought the $999.99 "I Am Rich" iPhone app before Apple pulled it from their store this week, reports the Los Angeles Times. "Six people from the U.S., one from Germany and one from France dropped a grand for the gem in the first 24 hours it was available." The developer, Armin Heinrich, made $5,600 from those sales, while Apple made $2,400. I am currently developing an "I Am Now Richer" app to try to sell to Heinrich, since he's got some extra spending money. [Los Angeles Times] More »
- Woot: Reebok Precision Trainer XT Heart Rate Monitor with Chest Strap for $19.99
- Circuit City: California Only - all items tax-free Aug 9-10
- Commerce Bank: Kids can earn $10 by reading ten books
- Buy.com: Seagate 500GB USB 2.0 Drive $89 Shipped
- B&H Photo: Sharp 1024x768 DLP Multimedia Projector $519 Shipped
- Shop Adidas: Back to School Sale: Save 20% off Apparel & Shoes
- Levi's Store: 30% off purchases coupon
- Banana Republic: 15% off $150 purchase coupon
- Barnes & Noble: 15% off any purchase coupon
—>Someone ring a bell because Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has just sued Countrywide (and, of course, Bank of America) for deceptive lending practices. They're seeking damages of $100,000 for each violation, as well as "up to $5,000 per violation of state consumer protection laws, disgorgement of all ill-gotten gains and an order compelling the company to cease its illegal practices." More »
—>According to a new survey from Zillow.com, Americans are totally out of touch with reality when it comes to their homes. 62% of homeowners surveyed said they thought their homes had appreciated in value over the past year. In fact, only 19% of homes in the US increased in value, and 77% actually decreased in value. (5% stayed the same.) More »
—>Assurant Solutions, the company that's supposed to be honoring any outstanding TAP agreements with former CompUSA customers, likes to refuse service for arbitrary reasons. Luckily for TAP-holders, CompUSA has said it will honor any TAP agreements if Assurant doesn't. The guy with the broken laptop wrote back to let us know that CompUSA indeed came through for him after every attempt he made with Assurant ended in rejection. More »
—>40% of Indiana's mortgage brokers have lost their licenses because they did not comply with a new law aimed at "raising the standards" of the mortgage lending industry. The law requires mortgage brokerages to "name a principal broker with at least three years experience who has passed a state exam and will oversee his company's business affairs," says BusinessWeek. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? More »
—>Back in June we mentioned how TicketsMyWay has a reputation for not actually providing tickets—"MyWay" apparently refers to the company and not the customer, and it translates into "no tickets or refunds for you." A customer who learned the hard way about TicketsMyWay sent us an alert that the company is operating under a new banner, OnTheGoTickets.com. More »
—>One of the tricks that seasoned travelers know is to always deny the insurance when renting a car. Why? Because the credit card that they are using already comes with insurance that they are familiar with, and because you are required to deny coverage from the rental car company in order to take advantage of your credit card's insurance. But how do you pick a credit card that has good rental insurance? More »
We launched a few tweaks to the site design today. The hatman big logo has shrunk and there's now several "skyboxes" at the top with our top stories. The logo is smaller. Hatman is not totally gone, he will appear is the sidebar every so often and maybe a smaller logo version of him will reappear in the title bar as well. There's also a new comments tool for admins: disemvoweling. If you see a comment with all its vowels removed, you'll know it raised our hackles for some reason, and the poster could be in line for a ban. Cheers. More »
—>Having trouble with your Starwood hotels experience and regular customer service not helping? This guy might. After all, he founded the place. More »
—>Marc's girlfriend found some lumps in her breasts, the mammogram and ultrasound came back ok, but BCBS is denying coverage for the biopsy, saying it's a "pre-existing condition." The out-of-pocket cost is over $2,000. We're confused, BCBS. What pre-existing condition? That she has breasts? That she might not have cancer? More »
—>Reader Adam has written in to share his maddeningly typical experience with Comcast. As he says, "They didn't kill my first born child, but they were a big pain in the ass." More »
—>"Maybe I should call the E*Trade Baby. He might give me better customer service." Matt's mother died last year and he has been trying since last year to liquidate her E*Trade CD and put it in the family trust. Every other financial institution has been able to liquidate the assets with no problem, but it seems after blowing their wad on funny Superbowl ads, E*Trade has nothing left over for customer service. Here's Matt's story, and our advice on how can get his problem fixed: More »
—>The Promotion That Got Away: 5 Ways to Bounce Back [Yahoo HotJobs] "Nearly everyone has been passed over for a job they 'deserved.' If and when that happens there are five important steps to take." More »
—>Texas Roadhouse says that it will accept now-defunct Bennigan's gift cards, even though the chain's parent company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. We're not sure if this offer applies to all Texas Roadhouse locations, so you'll want to call first and confirm. The offer ends August 30th. More »
—>J. Crew has a problem with their website. Whatever the problem is, it isn't small. Meet Per, a J. Crew customer who tried to order some polo shirts and not only did he get the wrong shirts, the bill came with a shipping charge of $9,208.50. Per would like to return these shirts and not pay $9,208.50 in shipping, but he can't manage to log on to J. Crew's website. More »
—>Joe may have uncovered a deceptive policy at United Airlines that's screwing over customers. Here's how it works. If you've got an economy ticket and the only seats available are in Economy Plus, but you didn't spring for the extra Economy Plus fee, you're asked if you would like to pay the upgrade fee for economy plus seating. If you decline to upgrade, they seat you there anyway. Sounds pretty sketchy to me. Here's Joe's story: More »
—>Umar bought a DLP in 2005 with a $400 Best Buy Performance Service Plan. The TV keeps blowing through expensive bulbs (Umar has replaced 7 $275 bulbs in 3 years,) and rather than wait 2 weeks for a technician every time this happens, Best Buy provided a telephone number and told him to order and replace the bulbs himself. Now, because he followed their directions, Best Buy is refusing to cover the TV under the "lemon" provision of the service agreement. More »
- Woot: Compaq 6820s 2GHz 17” Widescreen Notebook for $529.99
- Great Day Of Play: Free one-day paintball pass (supposedly good for any field, the site is sponsored by paintball equipment manufacturers)
- Amazon: Logitech diNovo Edge for $84.99 after rebate
- Apple Store: Save $400 off Refurb 20-inch 2.4GHz iMac
- B&H Photo: Dane-Elec Meizu M6 4GB Portable Media Player $50
- Newegg: BlueAnt Supertooth 3 Bluetooth Speakerphone $85
- Saks off 5th: 25% off any 1 item, more coupons
- Express / Express Men: 20% off coupon + earn $25 GC w/$50 purchase
- Pearle Vision: Free eyeglasses w/complete pair purchase
Are you a Daily Candy subscriber? Surprise, Comcast now owns it. [AppScout] More »
Does your iPhone-for-the-masses make you feel poor and ordinary? You need the I Am Rich app, which was available for sale on Apple's app store for about a day (they removed it late yesterday afternoon, unfortunately). Priced at $999.99, it will place a big red jewel on your screen. Imagine how awesome you'll look if you put this on a Swarovski-encrusted 3G model—$$$!!! [Technologizer via AppScout] More »
Hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties submitted phony Medicare and Medi-Cal bills for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of homeless patients—including drug addicts and the mentally ill—recruited from downtown's Skid Row, state and federal authorities allege. More »
—>Here's some unfortunate news from our neighbor to the north. In case you haven't heard, there was a violent and unprovoked attack on a Greyhound bus in Canada recently in which on passenger stabbed, beheaded, and cannibalized another passenger. In the wake of this horrific incident, Greyhound is pulling their latest ad campaign. More »
—>Over at the US News & World Report Alpha Consumer blog there's an interview with Tim Kasser, author of The High Price of Materialism, about why and how materialism will not make you happy. In fact, it very well might make you sad. More »
—>Travel expert to the stars Christopher Elliott has a new column that explains 4 new or grotesquely inflated airline fees and some ways to get around them... More »
—>You know those Verizon ads where someone is trying to make a call and like 100 Verizon people show up to help them do it? Arelene's story is sort of like that. Except they all showed up to help her change her address. And they were one at a time. And it was over the phone. And it took several days. Here's her tale, and how she eventually won... More »
KFC International wants to warn you that that "KFC" in Fallujah is a knock off. More »
—>Here's a fun little mystery for you guys. How can taking away 4 oz of coffee produce more cups of coffee? We've been thinking about it ever since Blueprint for Financial Prosperity sent us this photo the other day, and we just can't figure it out. Could it be magic? Some strange new property of the Grocery Shrink Ray? More »
"We at MAD were shocked and confused by this entire incident — mainly because we had no idea that Circuit City even sells magazines. Nonetheless, we accept their apology but hold out hope that their gesture of a $20 gift card is only an opening offer." More »
—>You're entitled to a small refund if you bought tickets for a long haul flight on British Airways or Virgin Atlantic between August 11, 2004 and March 23, 2006. The amount is $7-$34 per flight taken. This is the settlement in a class action lawsuit contending the two airlines colluded to fix the price of fuel surcharges. More info at airpassengerrefund.com. [via RickSeaney] More »
—>Reader Corey checked the 3G coverage map before buying a new iPhone, only to find out that the map was wrong. The story has something of a happy ending, however, because Corey says he's pleased with the $250 service credit AT&T offered. More »
—>Though the average cost of a wedding is up for debate — "experts" report different numbers, though most agree it's between $25,000 to $30,000 — the fact is that an average wedding in America can be pretty darned expensive. And while you can take steps to save a bit here and there, there is one area that you'll need to focus on if you want to save big bucks: the reception. More »
—>Call 1-800-483-7988 and press 3 to reach the Verizon Customer Advocates for landlines and DSL. Other valid executive customer service contact information: More »
—>Reader Michael wants to know what exactly he is expected to buy with this Circuit City coupon? It's for 8% off purchases over $199, but it excludes, um, lots of stuff. More »
—>More wedding/baby registry pain from Target, a reader calling herself Consumer in MD, has started a blog called "Target is the Devil," with the aim of convincing other consumers not to register their weddings and baby showers with Target after they ripped her off to the tune of $75.01. She tried to return a gift from the registry (with a gift receipt), and Target told her that according to their records the current clearance price is what the person actually paid for the gift. It turned out that this wasn't the case, and when she brought the actual customer receipt back to Target they refused to refund her the additional money. More »
"Don't be too alarmed even when [studies] come out and seem hopeless," said Dawn Jackson Blatner, an American Dietetic Ass>ociation spokeswoman. "With a few swaps and switches, people really can make healthier choices at these fast-food joints, especially when the decisions are made before going in. More »
—>Claudia's father couldn't get a loan because Sears reported to the credit bureaus that he was dead. In fact, it was her mother who had died. After complaints, Sears credit cards, run by Citibank said they fixed the problem. Then Claudia's dad tried to get a loan but couldn't. His credit score was zero. More »
—>Sick of prostitutes and their customers infesting their communities, Oklahomans are videobusting them and posting the results on YouTube. This one catches a Lowe's delivery driver picking up a hooker in a residential neighborhood and retiring to the back of his truck for a playdate. It's the work of a one man citizen journalism campaign by Brian Bates, who's been at it in OK since 1996. It seems in the 12 year he's been at it, he hasn't run out of material. Full vid inside. More »
- Starbucks: $2 Grande iced drinks after 2pm with morning purchase
- Tanga: Wireless Infrared Presenter with Laser Pointer for $9.99
- Amazon: Men's Dress Shirts from $9 + free shipping - Izod, Geoffrey Beene, Arrow, Van Heusen, Calvin Klein (selling out fast)
- Target.com: 15% off & Free Shipping on Lawn & Garden and Outdoor Furniture
- Best Buy: Westinghouse 19-inch WS Dual Input LCD $140
- eToys: Summer Clearance: Save up to 50% off Hundreds of Toys & Games
- Walgreens: Free film roll developing coupon
- Levi's: Up to 50% off summer favorites
- Zales: $50 off $200 purchase coupon + extra 20% off clearance
—>Credit card companies are raising interest rates and canceling cards left and right. Bankrate has seven ways to avoid getting caught up in the "risk repricing" spree. It all comes down to keeping everything looking normal. More »
—>What do those little letters, CD, ER, SR, etc, after a brand name drug's name mean? The exact terminology varies, but they usually translate to the same thing: unnecessary ripoffs. More »
For all six of you Americans out there who use a Symbian phone, SymbianGear is offering one free app per day for 10 days. You've already missed days 1 & 2, but they've got 7 more to go if you're interested. (Today is Texas Holdem). [SymbianGear via Symbian-Guru.com] More »
—>Would you buy DSL service from a company that either doesn't care about Do Not Call lists or doesn't know how they work? A man in Missouri was harassed to the point where he considered calling the police, because no matter what he did, AT&T wouldn't stop calling. Every time he tried contacting AT&T to get it to stop, he ended up in automated phone systems with recorded messages, busy signals, and disconnections—but never a live person. Only after he wrote to a local consumer advocacy columnist did AT&T pay attention and turn off the telemarketing fire hose. AT&T didn't, however, explain why they were targeting this person, or whether anyone else is facing the same barrage of calls. More »
—>If you have a problem with DISH and regular customer service isn't working, try these folks: More »
—>The world's greatest bank thief is in custody. For ripping off over 45.7 million consumer's credit cards from TJ Maxx, and other retailers, authorities pressed charges on Miami mastermind Albert Gonzalez and 11 others. The stolen numbers were sold to other scammers who manufactured fake debit cards and drained their victims' accounts. The breach stemmed mainly from TJ Maxx stores using an unsecured wireless router. More »
—>Sister site Lifehacker has a great guide with everything you need to know about using our comments system. Whether you're a beginners who can't figure out how to start commenting, or an advanced users who want to add formatting to and embed pictures in their comments, it's full of good nuggets of knowledge. Don't forget to read The Consumerist Comments Code before you start commenting so you know the rules we use around here to at least try and keep our comments section a grade above YouTube's. More »
—>WaMu, despite all their big talk about helping homeowners avoid foreclosure, is apparently too overwhelmed with a tsunami of defaulted loans to call their customers back, let alone help them stay in their homes. Meet Lori and Mark Pestana. They have a $275,000 fixed rate mortgage with WaMu as their servicer. In August 2007, the Pestanas could not make a payment on their loan. They considered dipping into their retirement savings, but WaMu's website offered an alternative: More »
—>With all the focus on the girl rocketing across the desert in a supersonic purple dildo, Washington Mutual forgot to mention one thing. When you sign up for a new account with them online instead of in person, be prepared to be treated like a criminal at every turn. Here's Brett's story of why he and his partner don't bank with WaMu, and never will again... More »
—>Between the TSA ban on liquids and US Airways $2 fee for bottled water, if you want a drink, you're probably going to pay for it. It may be annoying, but is it also wrong? More »
—>Reader Nohreen says she bought an apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and it turned out to be rotten inside. When she called the store to complain, they told her it wasn't rotten, just brown from having been cut awhile ago. Nohreen said she'd bring the apple back to show them that it was actually rotten, but they told her not to waste her gas because there was nothing they could do about it. When she got to the store, rather than help her, she says the employees called security. More »
—>After driving all over Chicagoland with his 7 month old son looking for a DirecTV receiver, reader Bobby was called an asshole for not stopping and showing his receipt to a Best Buy employee. He's a little ticked off, and he CC'd us on his letter to Best Buy. Let's listen in: More »
- Iams: Free Iams Premium Protection Dog or Cat Food if you give them your address
- Iomega: 3.5" External USB 2.0 Hard Drive shipped for $55.66(250 GB) Or $64.16 (320 GB)
- Newegg: Sennheiser CX300B 3.5mm Connector Canal Headphone (Black) $10 after rebates
- Sierra Trading Post: Extra 10% off Clothing, Footwear, & Gear
- Amazon: Summer Sale: 25% or More off Kitchen Small Appliances
- Dell Home: Save 20% to 30% off Inspiron Notebook PCs
- Torrid: $10 off select Birkenstock
- Toys "R" Us: BOGO $20 off all Wii games
- PayPal: Back to school savings @ Foot Locker, Guess, Tiger Direct, more
While shopping at Safeway today I noticed something odd about the "O" Organics Milk. After I listened to a mom tell her daughter she buys "whatever is on sale" I went to purchase my own milk and realized that's not such a good plan. A half gallon was on sale for 2 for $7. Or if your a savvy shopper you could buy a gallon for $6.59. The Safeway website confirms it. More »
—>Reader Kyle says that his dispute with Comcast has resulting in something of a happy ending, though they're still working out that pesky easement issue. Comcast is under the impression that it has an easement on Kyle's property, while Kyle's records show that they do not. According to Kyle, Comcast has agreed to mail him some paperwork about the easement and has offered him a credit of $500. More »
—>Some of the winners of ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition (EMHE) got a boobie prize. The Free Money Finance blog has found a few examples of EMHE recipients now in foreclosure, because after the workmen, camera crews, and glitz left, they were left with more house than they can afford. In one case, the town is hosting dinner raffles to help keep the family afloat. Here's an extreme makeover for you: how about giving the people a house that fits their budget? I guess that doesn't sell as many Twinkies. More »
—>We've told you plenty about door-to-door salesmen who trick consumers into switching energy service companies. Now, in direct response to the deceptive marketing tactics of these ESCOS, New York Assemblyman Micahel Gianaris wants to pass an Energy Consumer Bill of Rights. More »
—>Now you never have to wonder if the mechanic is scamming you on repairs. RepairPal.com lets you punch in your make, model, year zip, and repair and then they'll tell you the normal range of prices for it are. A graph shows the range of costs, broken down to whether you are going to an independent shop or a dealer. The source data, which the site has never been publicly available before now, goes back to 1990. A good resource for getting general numbers for what you can expect to pay for basic auto repairs. More »
—>It's no secret that prescription drugs are expensive, but it is a bit of one that they don't have to be. Dr. Edward Jardini's book, How To Save On Prescription Drugs, has 20 methods that anyone can use to drastically cut the costs of long-term medications, without sacrificing quality. Here's 14 of them: More »
—>James Dimon, the chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, is not optimistic about the mortgage market. He told investors that he expects the losses mortgages given to people with good or excellent credit to be “terrible.” According to the New York Times, "The first wave of Americans to default on their home mortgages appears to be cresting, but a second, far larger one is quickly building." How can this be? More »
—>John at Needcoffee.com writes that he's come to expect the occasional "damaged in transit" theft of items from packages he ships or receives, at least through the U.S Postal Service. With private carriers, however, he notes that he's always had better luck. But last week he opened a box of DVDs shipped to him via FedEx to discover a rusty can of $5 house paint. More »
—>The fate of the $1 double cheeseburger seems sealed. McDonald's has already announced that it will be looking for ways to cut costs or increase revenue from the popular dollar menu item — even if it means taking the double cheeseburger off the menu completely. Now the Wall Street Journal says that McDonald's is testing different versions of the burger, and that it may lose some or all of its cheese. More »
—>"Jurgis" writes, More »
—>After a thin-skinned Circuit City exec ordered stores carrying Mad Magazine to search and destroy all copies of a recent issue featuring a 4-page parody of "Sucker City," someone with a brain stopped the madness. Here's the surprisingly classy message we just got from corporate: More »
—>Frontier Communications, a Rochester, NY based DSL provider, has recently added language in their acceptable use policy that caps "reasonable" high speed internet usage at 5GB per month, after which they may "suspend, terminate or apply additional charges to the Service." Metered-internet-hating blog "Stop the Cap" calculated that at Frontier's most expensive price (for those who do not accept a multi-year contract) the ISP is charging a whopping $10.80 per gigabyte. More »
—>Consumer Reports has an interview with the mother of a young man who couldn't get any insurance because, after his brother committed suicide when he was younger, he saw a psychiatrist for a few sessions. He went uninsured after he aged out of his father's coverage and taking jobs with no health benefits. Then, while he was cleaning it, his pickup truck burst into flames. More »
—>When US Airways announced that they would no longer be offering complimentary beverages in coach, we wondered how long it would take before other airlines ditched the free stuff. So far, none have, and the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), has denounced the move, calling US Airways planes "flying vending machines." More »
—>JetBlue is launching a new fee, $7 for a pillow and an allergen-rebuffing blanket. It comes with a $5 coupon to Bed Bath and Beyond. It's all part of what JetBlue describes as a "basket of fee changes" which they project will rake in an additional $50 million this year. I guess that's someone's idea of targeted marketing. "Guys, we need to figure out a way to hone in on this lucrative "buys blankets" crowd..." More »
—>This NSFW recording is an expletive-drenched masterpiece. It's a series of messages a customer left on a cable company's answering machine after his cable went out and every number they had listed in the phonebook was busy... More »
—>Much like that nasty little gas station problem we talked about awhile back, hotels just love to slap holds on your debit or credit card accounts for "incidental charges." There's nothing wrong or uncommon about the practice, but its difficult or impossible to tell exactly how much the hold might be — and for some consumers who aren't expecting it, the holds can cause big problems. Reader Eric recently got slapped with a $253.13 hold from the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Kansas City, and he's a little irked because they didn't disclose the hold when he was checking in, and they only refunded $160 of it when he checked out. More »
—>When the sign says, "employees must wash hands after using bathroom," Brent takes it very seriously. He says he was using the toilet at a Wendy's, and spotted a worker use the bathroom and head right back to fondling the fries without scrubbing his hands. That's when Brent decided to call out the guy in front of the entire restaurant. Here's his story and what happened next... More »
—>Reader F.'s air conditioner was broken, so he called the company that installed it when the house was built. They came out, charged him $100, and told him that he could repair the unit for $3,000 or replace it for $5,000. It's a good thing he got a second opinion, because the second repair guy fixed the problem for $250. More »
—>Tip for the savvy traveler visiting New York: all the McDonald's in New York have ATMs with only 99-cent fees. However you will probably have to put up with a freelance "doorman" bumming for change on your way out. More »
—>The FBI has announced that a former Countrywide employee and his accomplice were arrested on charges related to "illegal access of computers containing personal information," and "illegal sale of the data." A criminal complaint filed last Friday alleges that one of the men, Rene L. Rebollo Jr., a senior financial analyst for Countrywide Home Loan's subprime mortgage division (who was let go in July), had been harvesting data from Countrywide's computers for the past two years — downloading and storing the information on personal flash drives. More »
- Amazon: 3 months of Amazon Prime free with $100 worth of textbooks in cart (No actual purchase necessary)
- Froobi: Refurbished SanDisk Sansa e270 6GB MP3 Media Player w/ FM/Voice Recorder for $55.95
- Amazon: "Narrow Stairs" by Death Cab For Cutie, $5 DRM-free MP3 album
- REI: Summer Sale: Up to 40% or More off Apparel, Footwear, & Gear
- Staples: Envision 22-inch Widescreen Dual Input LCD $200 Shipped
- Design Within Reach: Save 15% off Upholstered Furniture & Free Shipping
- Headsets.com: Free Bluetooth headset if you get cited driving while on phone (a promotion that incentivizes breaking the law, um ok)
- Yves Rocher: 50% off select beauty products
- Busted Tees: After Christmas in July Sale: Select shirts $10
—>Circuit City headquarters has ordered their stores to "destroy all copies" of the latest issue of Mad Magazine, according to an anonymous tipster. The retailer apparently isn't amused by the 4-page spoof of "Sucker City." Inside, Mad's 1-page preview and headquarters' response. More »
—>The government is fed up with airlines whose crappy service and delayed flights incite passenger revolts. According to officials, "we will severely punish airlines which experience aircraft occupations and other incidents as a result of service reasons which originate with the airline." Sounds great, right? More »
—>School supplies in eight states are tax-free this weekend thanks to sales tax holidays. Hurry though, because the savings expire at the end of the day, unless you live in Washington D.C., where the savings last through August 10. The full list, inside... More »
—>SUVs are worth so little that it could take 15 years for a more fuel efficient vehicle to pay for itself in gas savings. Before rushing to trade-in your gas-guzzler, do the math and make sure it isn't economical to hold onto your unfashionable behemoth. Here are three questions to consider... More »
—>Label-conscious consumers are skipping over high-fructose corn syrup in favor of products sweetened with natural alternatives like cane sugar, honey, and fruit juice. Finding HFCS-free items takes work, but the Corn Refiners Association worries that consumers are increasingly up to the challenge. They recently launched a "major marketing campaign" to defend their chemical concoction. Are you paying any attention to the sweet brouhaha? More »
—>Have you seen them? The Europeans? They're everywhere! In our fancy bistros, on line at the Apple store, spending their fancy-pantzy valuable Euros while we suffer through this intolerable non-recession. The patriots at the New York Times finally sounded the warning call over this European "invasion" that's transforming New York into the "Walmart of hip." More »
—>Steven was enjoying his drive down the California coast in his Enterprise rental car when he noticed a few ants marching across his dashboard. Before long, he "saw a large ant colony coming out of the inside of the car door." More »
—>Four major potato chip makers have agreed to use less of the carcinogen Acrylamide under a settlement with the California Attorney General's office. Frito-Lay, Heinz, Kettle Foods, and Lance Inc. also agreed to pay a $3 million fine for flouting state laws that require companies to place warning labels on products with carcinogens. More »
—>Meet James Colliton, a disbarred corporate lawyer who served 19 months in jail after bribing a mother so he could sleep with her 13 and 15 year-old daughters. Colliton recently sued American Express for $4 million, claiming that he was captured because the credit card company told authorities that the fugitive gutter-cretin was signing for hotel rooms in Ontario. More »
—>A bug in the popular metrics-tracking platform Sitemeter has boxed Internet Explorer users into a quiet little corner of the internet since late yesterday afternoon. Any site using Sitemeter now displays the following cryptic message to IE users: "Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site - Operation aborted." The bug affects IE 5.5, 6, and 7, but we have three ways—including use another browser!—to restore access to the full internet in all its horrible glory, inside. (Note: we've put in a fix so IE users can continue to read Consumerist without changing their settings.) More »
—>As quietly as it came, the $10 "web convenience fee" Spirit levied for the favor they were doing you by letting you book online, has gone. The fee no longer appears in Spirit Airlines' contract of carriage. A small victory for common sense, though they'll probably just figure out a way to make it up somewhere else. How about $5 fee for takeoffs and landings? More »
—>The Orwellian Department of Homeland Security claims that it can indefinitely confiscate laptops and iPods from law abiding citizens without any provocation or justification. The Department "clarified" their policies after several business travelers started asking the press why Homeland Security was fiddling with their laptops and PDAs for months on end. More »
—>Hey kids, want to spend the summer with five of your friends in your very own backyard pool? Then stay the hell away from Banzai's Wild Waves Water Park! David Ng juxtaposed Banzai's box art with a picture of his disappointed kids standing next to the fully assembled "water park." He wasn't the only one deceived, according to the reviews on Amazon... More »
—>Police have arrested Anton Dunn, a 42-year-old New Yorker who uploaded videos to YouTube and other sites in which he wears a black mask and calls himself "Trashman." In the videos, Mr. Trashman announces that he's managed to poison "millions of bottles of baby food" with cyanide. Gerber, the company he names in his threats, says it's found no evidence that any food has been tampered with. More »
—>Here are five special photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, chosen because they're both neat and could possibly be used in a Consumerist post. Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers go and upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click "Join Group?" up on the top right, and start hitting "send to group" on your individual photos you want to add to the pool. More »
—>The Grocery Shrink Ray continues its miniature spree across the supermarket aisles of America. Here's 14 more victims that have surfaced in the past week, as spotted by our watchful bands of deputized Consumerist reader-investigators... More »
—>Whoever or whatever they've got working the phones at Verizon doesn't seem to understand the concept of "fire." As in, "my house burned down and everything inside it is melted and charred." It's not a difficult concept, but James's father in-law was unable to explain it to Verizon. More »
—>
- Subway Says Get Off Your Phone Or Go To The Back Of The Line
- Top 10 Norton/Symantec Secrets You Shouldn't Know
- Disagree With Walmart's Bike Policy? Take Off Your Clothes In Protest!
- Delta Makes Woman With Muscular Dystrophy Crawl Off Plane
- How Do You Get Out Of An EBay Auction? Say Killer Bees Attacked The Vehicle
—>If arguing for completely getting out of your AT&T early-termination-fee isn't your thing, you can try doing what Felix did and get 75% off it. More »
—> Here's a graph from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis that shows, historically, how much money banks have borrowed from the Federal Reserve. More »
—>New legislation banning lead and (pending further study) six types of phthalates (chemicals suspected of causing heath problems) from children's products has passed the Senate and now moves on to President Bush. In addition to banning lead and other chemicals, the bill will require independent testing of children's products before they can enter the marketplace — a practice many consumers assumed was standard until they found out that Thomas the Tank Engine was covered in lead. More »
—>Are you a coupon clipper? No? Lots of people like saving money, but don't really buy the sort of products that have coupons, or don't have time to waste searching and clipping. These tips are for you. More »
—>If you think you can sign up with Comcast just to get a Wii and then cancel or downgrade service, think again. Downgrade service or cancel in the first year, $250 in fees, second year, $125. Other restrictions apply. The insider says the new Wii promotion is a bunch of crap and they and other Comcast CSRs won't be offering it to customers unless customers beg for it because of all the caveats. Frankly, they're in the right for protecting their asses on this one. However, it's not too hard to imagine scenarios where Comcast gets the account details wrong and customers wrongly get assessed fees... The internal document, inside... More »
Today's my last day at Consumerist. I've accepted a job at Consumers Union, and I expect it will demand more of my time than I've devoted to law school or bumming around New Orleans for the summer. Hopefully I'll be back to guest post once in a while. I'll also be blogging occasionally at my personal site. Thanks for everything; I've enjoyed reading your emails, posting your stories, and having one of the few jobs that lets me wear a robe to work (I'd be a terrible boxer). More »
—>Reader Rachael wants to know if there's any way she can get a harassing debt collector to stop calling her 3 times a day — looking for someone else who used to have her number. More »
—>The light in the American economy grew murkier in July. Real wages remain stuck in a fetid mire, up only 2.8% from a year ago, while methanous pockets of inflation bubble floated above to 5%. Rubbing up against declining consumer spending, the economy shed 51,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate slinked up to 5.7%, a four-year high. However, that was 24,000 fewer jobs slithering away than economists, licking their lips and blinking their eyes, expected. More »
—>Over at MSN Money there's an interesting article about the tyranny of cheap crap that we, as a people, are accustomed to living under. Why do we buy a coat every year instead of one high quality coat that will last many years? Why do we buy crappy kitchen knives that go dull and become dangerous? Do we enjoy shopping so much that we're content to keep rebuying the same stuff? More »
- Fandango: Free movie ticket just by entering an AmEx customer service phone number (signs you up for email newsletter, so use a throwaway email address, it will say the promotion has ended but they're sending you a free movie ticket via email)
- DELL: Xbox 360 Elite bundle with Forza Motorsport 2, Marvel Ultimate Alliance Gold Edition, and faceplate for $399
- Staples: 400GB HDD for $45 after rebate
- Vann's: Canon Digital Rebel XT SLR & 28-90mm $430 Shipped
- Buy.com: Sharp Aquos 37-inch 1080p LCD HDTV $800 Shipped
- TiVo.com: TiVo DVRs: Series2 Dual Tuner $50 Shipped & TiVo HD $180 Shipped
- WizKidsGames.com: Free Star Wars Pocketmodel
- Swell: Summer Sale: Up to 75% off + extra 20% off coupon
- Frederick's of Hollywood: Last Chance Sale: Up to 70% off
