Correcting the mistake was an interstate nightmare that took the full-time attention of Howe's daughter in California. She sent letters, faxes, notarized explanations, long distance phone calls, but for months, she kept running into the same brick wall.

Howe's daughter, Julie Kerr, says everyone knew Howe was alive, but the bank wouldn't budge without a credit report from Experian.

"(They said) 'We don't care, we have to get a credit score and without that credit score, we can't make the loan and we can't get a credit score because you're deceased. Now we know you're not deceased, but they think you are. So we're not going to do this loan,'" Kerr said.

This woman's story eventually had a happy ending, as she managed to convince Experian that she remains alive, but her story serves as a reminder to check your free annual credit report from all three major bureaus regularly—and to watch them closely after major life events such as marriage, divorce, or death of a relative or spouse.

Woman denied credit, told she's dead [KOMO]

RELATED:
How Credit Bureaus Correct, Or Fail To Correct, Errors On Your Report
Really, Credit Bureaus, I'm Not Dead

(Photo: DominusVobiscum)

I think of money market accounts as a hybrid between a savings account and a checking account. They give you a higher interest rate than a checking account with the ability to write three to six checks a month. They usually will have higher minimum balance requirements and restrict the number of withdrawals per month. They are like a lower interest rated savings account with checkwriting previlieges. They are FDIC insured, principal protected, and give you the best of both worlds.

Money market accounts were really popular before the rise of online savings accounts and electronic transfer of funds. In the past, if you had a savings and checking, you would have to visit a branch to transfer funds between the two. It was more convenient to use a money market account to write checks than go to a branch, transfer money from savings to checking, and then write a check.

Nowadays, I don't see much value in money market accounts but they sure were popular in the 80's.

Do you have a money market account? If so, can you name any other benefits or drawbacks to them over alternatives?

Jim writes about money matters at his personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Photo: armydre2008)

What's the alleged conspiracy? The firm thinks that the bannination was conveniently timed to occur shortly after several major game releases, in order to sell more Xbox Live memberships before banning consoles for life. Um.

This "convenient" timing may have resulted in more Xbox Live subscription revenues for Microsoft than it would have generated had these Xbox console bans taken place at some time before the release of Halo 3: ODST and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Additionally, sales of both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (published by Activision) and Halo 3: ODST (published by Microsoft Game Studios) would likely have been greatly diminished had the Xbox console ban occurred prior to the release of these games.

That's taking things a bit far. But if you believe that your console was unfairly banned, let the firm know.

Xbox Live Class Action Investigation [Abington IP]

PREVIOUSLY:
Microsoft Says There Is No Recourse For Gamers Whose Consoles Were Banned
If You Don't Care About Online Gaming: Banned XBOX 360s Available
Xbox Gamer Says He Was Banned Online For No Reason

She writes:

I purchased a Kodak camera model M863 which came with a beach mode built into the camera for taking pictures. After going on a beach and taking picture the next time I used my camera I found that sand had been blown into my camera. This caused the camera to only allow me to zoom in so far before shutting off for a while. Now the camera turns on and shuts back off immediately.

I called Kodak customer support on 2 separate occasions and received the same response from 2 different customer service representatives. "Just because we put a beach mode on your camera does not mean we expect you to take your camera on a beach exposing it to the elements." The first call was placed on 10/25/2009 and the second call placed 11/19/2009. Both representative also told me I would either have to pay $60 to send the camera in for repairs or would have to purchase a new camera with 25% off. I just purchased my current camera on 2/4/2008, I should have to purchase a new camera or pay half of the price I paid for the camera in repairs.

Unfortunately, just because a camera has a "beach" mode, that doesn't mean you shouldn't take extra-special care not to get sand in it while taking photographs at the beach. That's what the customer service reps should have said.

Brandy doesn't have much of a case to get Kodak to cover her repairs, but her story should serve as a cautionary tale to other would-be beach photographers.

(Photo: joxur223)

The Independent points out that human fat is readily available from liposuction, should anyone want it, and that it doesn't really do anything special for your skin. Police however, maintain that they've busted just one of several "international criminal network[s] trafficking human fat".

"We have broken up a criminal organisation dedicated to trafficking bodily fluids and human fat," said local police commander Angel Toledo, on Thursday. The large containers of illicit fat were latter decanted into bottles for export, he added.

"Without a doubt [the gang] have committed various crimes like kidnapping and conspiring to commit criminal acts. [They] have spoken about how they committed crimes with the purpose of extracting their fat in rudimentary laboratories to later sell for the price of $15,000 (£9,000) per litre."

Whether or not they were actually able to sell said fat to mysterious evil Europeans has not been established. It does seem however, that they were actually harvesting it.

Regardless of their commercial success, the gang seems, at the very least, to have perfected the art of fat-extraction. Two of Col Meija's suspects, Serapio Marcos Veramendi and Enedina Estela were arrested at a bus stop in Huanuco province carrying soft-drink bottles filled with an amber liquidised substance that lab tests later showed was liquidised human fat.

The duo claim to have been en route to Lima, roughly 300 miles south, where the contents of the bottles were to be sold to intermediaries. A further six of their alleged accomplices, including two members of the Italian mafia, and the organisation's alleged leader, Hilario Cudena, 56, remain at large.

Peruvian gang 'killed peasant farmers for their fat' [Independent]

Hostile Takeovers [Marketplace]

(Photo: mararie)

by Orignaux Moose

by kevindean / www.betaart.com

by Amanda SG

by Orignaux Moose

by nixter

by carianoff

by Orignaux Moose

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.

Note that if you want them to have a shot at ending up on the Consumerist Friday post, you'll need to open up your sharing settings on your Flickr account so we can grab the HTML from the "Share This" tab. Sorry, but that's the only way to get Flickr and Consumerist to play with each other.

Add your shots to The Consumerist Flickr Pool, and perhaps they'll get featured in a future story, or even highlighted in a Friday Consumerist Flickr Pool Finds post. See previous winners of the Friday Consumerist Flickr Pool finds here.

ABC News learned that while flood damage was the real reason for the extended closing of the waffle factory, the plant was originally shut down due to listeria contamination. It was while the plant was already closed for cleanup that the fateful flooding occurred.

"Kellogg voluntarily ceased production at the plant, began an investigation to determine a possible cause of contamination and began a regimen of cleaning and sanitizing," the Georgia Department of Agriculture announced at the time. "Kellogg will execute its hygienic restoration plan under GDA before it resumes production at the plant."

Kellogg spokeswoman Kris Charles said the plant was closed for both cleaning and as a result of the flooding.

"Just as the Atlanta facility was ready to resume production, excessive rain in the region caused flooding at the facility, which delayed the startup," Charles wrote in an e-mail to ABC News today.

Stephen Colbert even called upon President Obama to open up the country's Strategic Waffle Reserve. Check out the great mashup of H1N1 vaccine story footage and the waffle story.

Eggo Waffle Shortage: Bacteria First Forced Plant Closure [ABC News]
November 18, 2009: Eggo Waffles Shortage Alert [The Colbert Report]

PREVIOUSLY:
Hey, Where Did All The Eggo Waffles Go?
Kellogg's Finally Explains Eggo Waffle Shortage

Now that average is back up to two stars and the number of reviews is down to 38, from a high of over 300 earlier today. That's because Yelp has removed most of the ones posted by non-customers who came just to complain about the tipping story. They've also removed most of the photos people added, which by and large were just photos of police cars or of people being beaten and/or arrested by police. I think a couple of shots were also of poop.

Some readers might cry foul at Yelp's deletion policy, and in fact a lot of reviewers are re-posting their original complaints but adding Yelp to the list of offenders. (There's already another police brutality photo in the mix.) But the site's ratings are supposed to be built around actual customer experiences, not second-hand reports; Yelp says this explicitly in their FAQ.

That means that Yelp isn't really a good source if you want to find out about a company's business practices, or if you want an overview of press—good or bad—that's been written about a place. Fortunately for future patrons, it's doubtful that there won't be any mention of the incident once local diners have had their say. They all know about the arrests, too.

In the meantime, it looks like Yelp will have to keep monitoring the page for second-hand reviews. Or maybe they could follow Wikipedia's model and just lock it down until everyone cools off.

"Lehigh Pub" [Yelp] (Thanks to Michael!)

RELATED
"College Students Arrested For Refusing To Pay Tip"
(Photo: serk1)

The family of Michael Bastardi, 81, and his son, Guy, 49, who were killed in the SUV, is suing the Schulers, saying Diane's morning bender caused the crash. But Thomas Ruskin, a private investigator hired by the Schulers, says she was sober all morning and it wasn't a drunken binge that led to the accident.

The proof is in McDonald's, Ruskin says. The investigator told the Daily News that Diane Schuler put in a complex order at the food chain – Chicken Selects, a food not normally served at breakfast – for her son, Bryan. She had to convince the cashier to put it through, reports the News, which required some conversational skills.

"Diane Schuler was very engaging," Ruskin told the paper. "She was so engaging she was able to convince the McDonald's employees to make Bryan Schuler Chicken Selects at 9:40 in the morning."

And she spoke with employees for some time, Ruskin added, so they would've been able to tell if there was something amiss.

"They say that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her," he told the News.

Do you have to be sober to pull this sort of fast food maneuver?

Taconic Mom Wasn't Drunk in McDonald's Before Crash: Investigator [NBC]
(Photo:yarnzombie)

CatPaint is only $0.99, giving it a much lower cost of entry than licensing photos through Getty or using Photoshop to manually add cats to pictures. Because it's an iPhone app, you can add cats on the fly, even when you're not in front of your computer.

Controls are pretty intuitive. You select which cat stamp you want, and what size, and then go to town, touching the picture to add cats. You can't resize or move the cat, so if you want to delete it, shake the phone. But be careful when shaking because you can easily erase multiple cats at once, which would be a travesty.

Also, it meows when you add cats. You're like, touch, and it's like, MEOW.

Here are some pictures from the Consumerist meetup, with cats. Much improved.

It even improves existing cat pics. Check this out.


(I tried to write "Open Thread" in cats.)
Pros:

• Cats
• Price
• It meows

Cons:

• No dogs
• Controls are a little awkward
• Needs business license for multiple users so Ben and Chris can use it

As I was writing that last part, Chris emailed me, in true Consumerist fashion, to say, "I make my own. No, seriously, I use Juxtaposer and keep a library of 'stamps' that I can apply to any photo." Chris is a pro user though; Catpaint should suffice for most recreational cat photo augmentation.

Here are some of the ugly facts about doorbusters in CNN's article:

1. There are usually very few—maybe just a couple—of items per store, so catching one is more like winning a drawing than going shopping.

2. Cheap electronics aren't necessarily of the same build quality as regular priced models from the same company. Both our readers and our parent publication, Consumer Reports, have noted this practice of selling "derivative" items at steep discounts to unsuspecting consumers.

3. Rainchecks are rare, but don't always matter even when they're offered. Sometimes a store never gets enough additional inventory in to fulfill the demand they create by promoting such steep discounts. The same thing can happen to online orders—you may end up waiting months for some answer from the retailer on when you'll get your appliance (or just as likely an alternative).

"It's a sleazy practice," said Craig Johnson, retailing expert and president of retail consulting group Customer Growth Partners.

"I am old school," said Johnson. "If a retailer is advertising a juicy deal and they are not prepared to have in sufficient quantity, don't advertise it. Or give consumers a raincheck."

Johnson said it's not enough for retailers to mention that they'll have such limited quantities of a product on one of the most-hyped shopping days of the year.

"Retailers aren't winning any customers. They are just pissing off people," he said. "It's poor retailing practice."

"Dirty secrets of Black Friday 'doorbusters'" [CNN Money] (Thanks to David!)
(Photo: Helder da Rocha, bungledb)

Kelly writes, "It's molded plastic that cost me less than $20 and they wanted another $5.99 to protect it. I think you can see from the picture why this was so silly."

Here's the info for the United States:
Lot # 9239028831 Vicks Sinex Vapospray 12-Hour Decongestant Ultra Fine Mist, 15 ml., Nasal Spray

This lot number is listed on both the outer carton and the bottle. Consumers should simply discard the affected product as they would any OTC medicine.

More info at FDA.gov.

P&G Voluntarily Recalls Specific Lots of Vicks Sinex Nasal Spray in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom [FDA]

Here's how it works:

1. Pick out your dress designed by folks like Diane Von Furstenberg, Hervé Léger and Proenza Schouler
2. Pay $50-$200 for a 4-night loan
3. Dress gets shipped to your door
4. Wear it and have fun
5. Put it in the pre-paid envelope and drop it in the mailbox

The site appears to be in some sort of beta mode where you have to request to be added to a wait list, but it seems like a good idea.

Commenter pecan 3.14159265 got on a chat with their customer service and reports back with their current list of designers whose dresses they carry:

ADAM
Alice + Olivia
Badgley Mischka
Brian Reyes
Catherine Malandrino
Christian Cota
Christian Siriano
Diane von Furstenberg
Doo Ri
Foley + Corinna
Giambattista Valli
Gryphon
Haute Hippie
Helmut Lang
Hervé Léger
Just Cavalli
Lela Rose
Matthew Williamson
Moschino Cheap And Chic
Pencey
Peter Soronen
Philosophy Di Alberta Ferretti
Proenza Schouler
Rebecca Taylor
Richard Chai
Robert Rodriguez Black Label
Robert Rodriguez Collection
Tibi
Tracy Reese
Tuleh
Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent
Yigal Azrouël

A Netflix Model for Haute Couture [NYT] (Thanks to c-side!)

(Photo: aboemonster)

Campbell found out about it months later and confronted Sprint, but all he got in response was some standard customer service language about how the issue had been addressed.

On March 24th, I had my phone number changed from a San Antonio phone number to a Chicagoland number. The San Antonio number was immediately re-issued and I was given a Chicago number.

Clean, right? Nope! Come to find out MONTHS later, that whoever in the Tech department didn't remove access to my personal account. The only reason I found out about this is because I had to ask who so and so was on my personal webpage!

They admitted to giving complete personal access to a total stranger! To make matters worse, I was a member of the military and had military personnel phone numbers on my account!

I've heard very little back from Sprint but am including a chat log where they admit 2 more times (in addition to the many times they admitted over the phone) that this was their mistake. [click image to view full size]

Their solution? $150 off a new phone. Seeing that I've been with the company for 5 years and have had only one upgrade, 3 years ago, I'm entitled to that anyway.

I already reported to the FTC, BBB and the Illinois State's Attorney General.

Here are some ideas Sprint may want to consider the next time this happens. Or even this time, before they turn off a customer for life:

• Have someone remotely related to fraud prevention or security talk to the customer; a standard-issue CSR isn't going to have the training, or auto-script, to deal with this.
• Offer a real financial apology to the customer, not the equivalent of a standard-issue customer loyalty credit that really just locks the customer into another contract. For instance, offer Campbell a refund on a couple of months of service as a way to compensate him for any time or money he loses addressing this issue.
• Offer Campbell a year of credit monitoring service from the three major credit bureaus. Yes, this is largely symbolic, but that's sort of the point—your customers want to know that you take their data security seriously, and that you're committed to an all-encompassing damage control strategy whenever a leak occurs.
• Find out why your system lets two different customers share the same account, especially if the newer customer has a separate account (which I assume was the case or else billing issues would have alerted Sprint almost immediately.)

(Photo: macrofarm)

The pro-consumer change comes the same day that a partial settlement was reached in a case accusing Chase and other credit card companies companies of unlawfully conspiring to insert industry-wide arbitration clauses into their contracts. Chase said they won't be replacing the clause with any other similar language, like a class-action waiver.

Mandatory binding arbitration is a clause inserted into many consumer contracts that forces consumers to revoke their right to lawsuit in the event of a dispute. Instead the case gets sent to an arbitration firm, which the company itself pays. The Christian Science Monitor found that the top 10 most used arbitration firms only found in favor of consumer 1.6% of the time. It's about time these kangaroo courts got shut down.

JPMorgan Pulls Arbitration Clause From Card Contracts [Bloomberg]
Case Accusing Chase, Others of Conspiring on Arbitration Clauses is Partially Settled [PR Newswire]
(Photo: Pascal Vuylsteker)

CBC reports:

A Quebec woman on long-term sick leave is fighting to have her benefits reinstated after her employer's insurance company cut them, she says, because of photos posted on Facebook...She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on the popular social networking site, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday - evidence that she is no longer depressed, Manulife said.

While Canada has a magical health care system where a unicorn wearing a blue pocketed shirt shows up at your door and your benefits stream out its mouth in a Care Bear rainbow, the fairy dust apparently does not extend to their private insurance market.

In any event, depression is an illness diagnosed by doctors, not by desk jerks conducting amateur "photographic analysis."

From the Sun-Times:

"What would happen is the victims would email or call Craigslist, and at that point, a prearranged location was decided upon. The person would say meet me at ‘X' location and bring $500 bucks with you," the sergeant said. "They would go to that location and the person robbed them."

The items advertised were often electronics, including televisions, the sergeant said.

There was apparently something of a Craigslist crimewave going on in Chicago. Two of the three men were allegedly working together, while the third was operating on his own in a different neighborhood.

The officers posing as customers arrived at the meeting location and the suspect, who fit the description of the lone suspect who robbed the other victims, was arrested. Police also recovered a .32 caliber revolver used during the robberies, the sergeant said.

Whoopsies!

Cops posing as 'customers' nab three in Craigslist crime wave [Sun-Times] (Thanks, Kent!)

Eric's Mini was a lemon. In less than a year of owning the car, Eric experienced all sorts of problems, from the shaking, to the power steering going out, to several problems with his VANOS solenoid going out. So Eric decided to get BMW to take the car back and give him a full refund, as is allowed under "lemon law." He's not a lawyer, just a consumer who wanted a fair deal and used online research to figure out what to do, and how to win. For example, here's the letter that got BMW to give him his money back and take the car off his hands:

He documented his whole experience over at erichadalemon.wordpress.com. Check it out and learn how to protect yourself under lemon law.

Back in April, Derek copied us on his e-mail to Jobs:

I took my mid 2007 apple macbook (black) into the Jordan Creek Apple Store in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, April 25th, because I had been experiencing some issues with it overheating, and figured the fan was bad. After some initial testing, they took the computer in for work under my Applecare plan, which has over a year remaining on it.

Today, April, 28, 2008, the Apple store called and informed me that due to the computer having been used in a house where there was smoking, that has voided the warranty and they refuse to work on the machine, due to "health risks of second hand smoke".

Not only is this faulty science, attributing non smoking residue to second hand smoke, on Chad's part, no where in your applecare terms of service can I find anything mentioning being used in a smoking environment as voiding the warranty.

Jobs' office did not help Derek, but he resolved some of the problems himself by disassembling his Macbook and cleaning it out with a can of compressed air.

A few months later, reader Ruth wrote to us with an identical complaint after trying to have her son's iMac repaired at a local authorized repair center

I bought an iMac for my son (for school) along with the extended Applecare warranty. A month ago, it quit working. My son took it to the authorized Mac service center. The "tech" informed him it would be ready in 48-72 hours. Five days go by and he's heard nothing, so I called. They informed me that his computer can't be worked on because it's contaminated.

When I asked for an explanation, she said he's a smoker and it's contaminated with cigarette smoke which they consider a bio-hazard! I checked my Applecare warranty and it says nothing about not honoring warranties if the owner is a smoker. The Applecare representative said they defer to the technician and my son's computer cannot be fixed at any Apple Service Center due to being listed a bio-hazard.

This computer cost approx. $3,000, with the extended warranty. I'm all for destroying cigarettes and putting big tobacco out of business (yes, I'm a reformed smoker), but to label a computer a biohazard because one is a smoker is going a bit too far in regulating who can have the warranty they purchased honored. Shouldn't there be some disclaimer stating that they won't honor warranties from smokers?

Ruth appealed her case to Steve Jobs's office, which also declined to repair the iMac. In another letter, she wrote:

Dena [from Jobs' office] did advise me that nicotine is on OSHA's list of hazardous substances and Apple would not require an employee to repair anything deemed hazardous to their health. However, OSHA also lists calcium carbonate (found in calcium tablets), isopropyl alcohol (used to clean wounds), chlorine (used in swimming pools), hydrogen peroxide (also used to clean wounds), sucrose (a sugar), talc (as in powder), etc... as hazardous substances.

...

Dena set up an appointment at the same Apple store. They told me that they would take pictures of the computer - both inside and out before determining whether to proceed and that if the only problem was the optical drive, they'd probably just replace it. Dena called me earlier this week to deliver the "bad news." She said that the computer is beyond economical repair due to tar from cigarette smoke! She said the hard drive is about to fail, the optical drive has failed and it isn't feasible to repair the computer under the warranty. This computer is less than 2 years old! Only one person in my household smokes - one 21 year old college student. She said that I can get it repaired elsewhere at my expense. I asked why my warranty didn't cover the repair and was told it's an OSHA violation.

Consumerist has tried repeatedly to obtain some kind of answer about these two cases from Apple's media relations department, and we have received nothing on the record after months of waiting. Mostly, we're curious what the threshold is for smoke damage to a computer, and why this is not mentioned in the Applecare contract.

(Photo: Sutanto Saputro 闖永明)

The cups are extremely, inexplicably popular. The holiday edition, featuring a candy cane-striped straw, has already sold out online, can barely stay on the shelves in Starbucks stores, and sells for a significant markup on eBay.

(Of course, if you're looking for a way to reuse your disposable coffee cups, you could always attach them to your car roof.)

Grande To Go Holiday Cold Cup [Starbucks] (Thanks, Naomi!)

I have had a continuing problem with Tivo since I canceled my account in September 2008. I wasn't on contract; and had not been on contract for some years.

When I called to cancel, the rep pulled out all stops to convince me not to. I insisted, and it was done. Supposedly.

Tivo kept charging me every month for service, though. I called Tivo twice more in the first few months, and both times I was told my account was indeed canceled. However, they continued to charge me into 2009. I did chargebacks/disputes every month. My credit card bank always refunded my money, so that kept me happy. A little bothersome, but I already called Tivo three times about this and they weren't doing anything. Eventually, I was issued a new credit card when the old one expired, and figured I wouldn't need to do the chargebacks anymore (because Tivo had an old card, how could they keep chargin me?). Somehow, though, they were.

Finally, I wrote a letter to my credit card company to ask whether the $12.95 they were absorbing (often credit card banks will not file an actual dispute for a low charge) every month for over a year was worth it. I also asked how Tivo could continue to charge me if they aren't using my renewed card expiration date and CVC code.

The charges stopped. Great!

Two months later, though, I got a letter in the mail saying my account with Tivo was behind, and that my service was discontinued. The letter also said I was being sent into collections. I called Tivo. They claim that I owed $12.95, and that they have no phone calls on record from me since February, 2008 (which I think was a tech support call, but don't really remember). The representative said they could cancel, but would not cancel service until I paid the $12.95. They also told me that unless I paid immediately, I would be sent into collections and that the amount I owed would continue to grow (by $12.95 per month) unless I paid the $12.95 owed so I could cancel service.

Then they told me I could not access updates and scheduling for Tivo at this point. My account was on hold. I pointed out that not only did I cancel before, but that I haven't even used my Tivo since September 2008!

We went around and around for a few minutes until I just hung up.

So, according to Tivo, they will continue to charge me $12.95 per month, and send the accruing amounts to collections until I pay so that they can cancel my account. On any account that was (attempted to be) canceled three times. That hasn't been under contract for years (I think my original contract expired in 2006).

Look, TiVo, Michael's a great guy and all, but sometimes you just have to let go.

Try sending TiVo a letter by certified mail canceling your account. Bonus points if you have a lawyer friend who can write a quick letter on your behalf instead. You'll have proof that your letter existed, and certified mail might be just the thing to make TiVo sit up and take notice.

The L.A. Times cites a Center for Science in the Public Interest report that analyzes the waistline-expanding abilities of buttered-up, movie theater pocorn at the largest movie chains: Regal, AMC and Cinemark. Just how bad for you is it? Reporter Mary MacVean writes:

A medium-sized popcorn and medium soda at the nation's largest movie chain pack the nutritional equivalent of three Quarter Pounders topped with 12 pats of butter, according to a report released today by the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The group's second look at movie theater concessions — the last was 15 years ago — found little had changed in a decade and a half, despite theaters' attempts to reformulate.

You wouldn't wolf down three quarter pounders and 12 pats of butter in one sitting at a movie, so it's probably a good idea to think twice about inhaling that medium popcorn.

Movie popcorn still a nutritional horror, study finds [L.A. Times via Movie City News]
(Photo: Great Beyond)

Granted, the PS3 could technically could always access Facebook since — like the Wii and unlike the 360 — it always boasted a web browser, but now it's got a streamlined, easy-access app just like the one the 360 has.

What else would you like to see come to video game consoles via firmware updates?

Things apparently got the craziest at UCLA, the Chronicle writes:

Students, furious at the increase that will bring their yearly fees above $10,000 for the first time, rushed the UCLA building where the regents were meeting, throwing food, sticks and vinegar-soaked red bandannas meant to look like blood.

UC police arrested 14 people for disrupting the meeting and resisting arrest.

Although the protests probably won't have any effect, it's nice to see the students stand up for themselves. Unlike the UCLA football and basketball teams, which have both started their seasons awfully.

Rage at UC fee hike in L.A., Berkeley protests [San Francisco Chronicle]
(Photo: Paul Chinn, San Francisco Chronicle)

Universal American Action Network, a subsidiary of Universal American Insurance, mailed out 80,000 such postcards to Medicare recipients around the country, WGAL of Pennsylvania reports.

The story gives the insurance company's response to the epic failure:

UAM Action Network recently sent a mailer to approximately 80,000 Medicare Advantage plan members which mistakenly listed the member's Medicare number on the postcard. The Medicare number was listed as part of the member's mailing address and no indication was given as to its reference. We at the UAM Action Network sincerely apologize for this error, which was made by our mailing vendor without our knowledge. We have taken immediate steps to address the situation. The vendor has been fired. In addition, UAM Action Network will send a letter to those members who received the original mailer. The letter will notify them of the error and offer to provide the member with one year of free credit monitoring. Any member who received the mailer and has questions or concerns can contact us by calling 1-877-697-6228.

It's nice that UAM is standing up and attempting to rectify the mistake, but frightening that something like this could ever happen in the first place.

80,000 Mailers Sent Out With Recipients' Social Security Numbers In Plain View [WGAL (Pennsylvania)]
(Photo: frankieleon)
(Thanks, NORMLgirl!)

Daily Free Shipping Report [Istobe]
(Photo: Jami Dwyer)

Clothing
• Old Navy: [Apparel] Save an Extra 15% or 25% off All Orders of $75+
• New York & Company: [Clothing] Take $25 OFF $75, $60 OFF $150 or $90 OFF $200 w/ coupon 2819 and 2820 and 2821 + Printable
• Overstock: [Indoor Apparel] Unisex Egyptian Cotton Terry Bathrobe $36.99 + $1 Shipping


• Nike: [Clothing & Accessories] NikeStore clearance sale: Up to 70% off + free shipping
• Banana Republic: [Clothing & Accessories] Banana Republic Sale: 30% off outerwear
• H&M: [Clothing] 20% off all outerwear, Nov 19-25th (Thanks to PecanPi!)

Computers and Electronics
• Amazon: [Cell Phone] Palm Pre Phone (with new service plan from Sprint) for $79.99 w/ Free shipping
• Walmart: [Cell Phone] Virgin Mobile Slash Prepaid Camera Cell Phone with Bluetooth, VMM310SMKIT190 for $20 + $0.97 Shipping
• BestBuy: [TV] Dynex - 32" Class / 720p / 60Hz / LCD w/ Built-in HDTV tuner for $299.99 + $44.23 Shipping


• Microsoft: [MP3 Player] Zune HD 16 GB for $197.99 w/ coupon MSSTORE10%OFF w/ Free shipping
• B&H Photo: [HDTV] Samsung PN42B430 42-inch 720p Plasma HDTV $649 + free shipping
• onSale: [HDTV] Toshiba REGZA 37CV510U 37-inch 720p LCD HDTV $500 + free shipping


• Amazon: [Headphones] Skullcandy Proletariat Noise Canceling Headphones $25 + free shipping

Entertainment
• Redbox: [Movies] FREE Redbox Rental Every Month when you sign-up to SMS notifications (standard text charges apply)
• Amazon: [Gaming] Free $50 Gift Card with Wii Console & Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board
• Pogo.com: [Online Gaming] 14 Days free plus 50.000 tokens, no credit card required (Thanks to John!)


• Walmart: [Movie] Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines Movie (Blu-Ray) $9.36 Free Shipping
• JR: [Black Friday] JR.com Black Friday DVD Blowout: DVDs from $4, Blu-ray Discs from $10
• Music123: [Music] Save an Extra 10% off Rogue Guitars & Other Stringed Instruments

Food
• Country Bob's: [Sauce] Free bottle of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce (Thanks to John!)

Home
• Newegg: [Food] Breville Arcosteel Mandoline Slicer only $13 Shipped
• Lowe's: [Drill Bits] 55-Piece SpeedFit Hex Shank Drill and Drive Set for $9.98 + Shipping
• Home Depot: [Decor] Home Depot: 20% off area rugs & kids' rugs + free shipping, extra $5 off $50

Morning Deals are purely an informational service for the readers. Consumerist receives nothing in exchange for their posting.
If you have a tip for Morning Deals, send it to tips@consumerist.com, and be sure to put "morning deals" in the subject line.

Let's hope that they'll left behind that famous eBay customer service, as well.

(Photo: Ryan Fanshaw)

From the Tennessean:

After the federal search, Juszkiewicz called the alliance and offered to take a leave of absence "to avoid conflict or distraction," said President Tensie Whelan. "It's very difficult to know what's happening at this point," Whelan added. "Our hope indeed is there will be no violations of the Lacey Act."

Juszkiewicz has been on the group's board for more than 15 years and has taken a lead role in urging the music instrument industry to use sustainable wood products, the group said.

NPR notes that the Rainforest Alliance was supposed to review the company's records on Monday in order to renew Gibson's certification. In light of the investigation, they've postponed that review, reports NPR:

That audit is now on hold as the US Fish and Wildlife Service looks for evidence that the another kind of wood used at Gibson came illegally from Madagascar. Company officials have said they're cooperating with the investigation, and that they only use law-abiding suppliers.

"Gibson Guitar CEO leaves rainforest group after Nashville raid" [Tennessean] (Thanks to Smashville!)
"Rainforest Alliance Postpones Gibson Audit" [WPLN]

RELATED
"Feds Raid Gibson Guitars"

"You can't give us terrible, terrible service and expect a tip," said Pope, a 22-year-old Moravian College senior who's a Pottsville native, according to the Lehigh Valley Express-Times.

They had to find their own napkins and cutlery while their waitress caught a smoke, had to ask the bar for soda refills, and had to wait over an hour for salad and wings, they told NBC10.

The pub, which was very busy that night, took the $73, but then called the cops, who treated the matter as a theft.

"College students arrested for not paying tip" [Philly.com] (Thanks to WinShape!)
(Photo: BLW Photography)

David writes:

A little bit of background before I dive into my recent best buy experience. I am 22 years old and have recently got a new job, so in celebration of my first pay check I went out this last weekend and bought a LCD tv from Best Buy. I did my research for weeks before and had my tv narrowed down and all that was left was to go and get it, which was this last Friday. After standing in front of the home theater department and confirming my selection I waited for a salesman. Eventually one came over and our conversation went as followed:

Him: Hows it going, can I help you?
Me: Yeah, I would like one of those right there. (Pointing at the TV)
Him: Don't we all.
Me: No seriously, I want one of those TV's (Again pointing at the TV).
Him: Alright, can I ask why?
Me: Well, (Not that it mattered why I wanted the TV - I had made up my mind and just wanted to bring it home. No warranty, just give it to me) I had it between these two and I finally picked this one because I think that the picture looks better.
Him: (Looking at the difference between the two TV's) Oh yeah, that picture is pretty horrible.

I went through the motions and asked him a couple of questions some friends had mentioned to ask. I asked him to put it on the default settings, to which he replied "All of the TV's are on default settings, we don't have enough time to change the settings around for all them on the wall. They go right out of the box and on the wall."

I asked him to put it on the cable instead of whatever looped DVD was playing, and he said "The live feed is a much lesser quality picture, they would look the same there." I asked him other things about the TV's like number of inputs and outputs, and every request or question I never got a strait answer or what I was looking to see.

There were even a few times that he mentioned he would go check his specs sheet and could tell me, but never did. However my mind was still made up and I stuck to my original choice.

He then spent the majority of our time together trying to sell me the service plan and a calibration of the TV (two services which combined was about half the price of the TV). I refused them both and he asked if there was anything else that I needed.

I knew that there was a deal going, buy the TV and a Blu-ray player is on sale. After I told him that I wanted to get the Blu-ray player he told me that he wasn't aware of the deal, so we walked back to the wall display where I showed him the bright yellow card that said the offer.

I went over and picked up the Blu-ray player and I asked if I needed any specific cables to go with it. He tried selling me on a Monster cable for $125 and told me that I would regret it if I did anything less. So once I made up my mind on a cable that was about half the price he continued to tell me how I made a bad choice.

I then mentioned how I wanted to make sure I had the right cables for my Wii, to which he said they were in the gaming department. With no assistance I went over and found what I needed and came back to the home theater department to see my TV at the register.

So, now that its check-out time he had one more shot to sell me on a service plan. The salesman that had no clue about the specs of this TV somehow knew that "40% of these TV's come back to the store for repairs", and that if I "dont get the service plan I might as well hook a car battery up to it." I was aware of my "risks" and politely said no again. He wheeled it to the front and that was the last time I saw him, no thanks - no have a nice day - nothing - he didn't even come outside, instead someone else put it into the trunk of my car.

Consumerist - I know its not the most horrifying Best Buy story out there, but is it worth my time to send a letter to Best Buy. I understand that I am only 22 years old and they probably get a lot of people wasting their time, but considering that I walked out of there with a receipt for close to $1,300 the customer service could have been a little bit better.

We're pretty sure that from Best Buy's perspective, the salesperson did everything right except get you to buy that service plan and calibration.

Still, we're sure they don't want you to be unhappy, and would probably not like to hear that the salesperson didn't know very much about the TV or was unfamiliar with the DVD player promotion. We suggest you do let them know that you were disappointed in your experience.

As far as the calibration service goes, here's some stuff our sister-publication, Consumer Reports, put together. It looks like you can pretty much do this yourself — either using a DVD or just by following these tips.

CR says:

For the ultimate fine-tuning, consider a professional calibration—but be prepared to pay hundreds of dollars for the expert touch. In most cases, we don't think it's worth it.

Good job sticking to your guns.

How to fine-tune your HDTV [Consumer Reports]
(Photo:Timothy J Silverman)

The product, Jean Straps, even has a cute creation story.

Like many practical fashionistas, the Jean Straps founders struggled with a common problem: getting their boots and jeans to play well together. They had both invested in expensive pairs of boots and premium denim, but when it came to wearing those boots over the denim, it was a less than elegant process. Pulling the boots on presented a major challenge, with way too much tugging, yanking and tucking pant legs into socks. Even when they got the boots on, the jeans rode up throughout the day, leaving them with baggy knees.

Maybe I'm just bigoted against anything that resembles stirrup pants. I rarely wear jeans and don't own any boots, so tell me, fashionable consumerists: is this a problem worth solving? Is it a problem worth creating something that resembles that abomination known as stirrup pants to solve?

Jean Straps [Official Site]

The United States Postal Service has been running the current version of Operation Santa since the 1940s, when the public was invited to help out by adopting and responding to individual letters. In 1954, the Alaskan town of North Pole got in on the scam in a big way by becoming the official destination for any letters that were addressed to "Santa, North Pole."

But then our modern legal system gummed up the works, when someone discovered a registered sex offender volunteering for the program in Maryland in 2008. (I can't find any mention of what offense led to his registration, which seems like info you would need before determining whether he posed a threat. It's a lot easier to say "Omg sex offender coming after your children!" though.) In a panic, the USPS closed the entire program for a few days while they addressed security issues.

Now they've addressed it: the last names and addresses of kids who write in are encrypted, and it's up to each participating post office to decide whether or not they can handle the new complexity. Alaska can't.

Anchorage-based agency spokeswoman Pamela Moody said dealing with the tighter restrictions is not feasible in Alaska.

"It's always been a good program, but we're in different times and concerned for the privacy of the information," she said.

If that news didn't shatter your holiday illusions about the postal service, here's one more thing: Anchorage is now handling all the North Pole postal cancellation marks. To be fair, North Pole was never equipped to handle the thousands of requests each year, so Fairbanks did it until this year. Fairbanks, however, is only about 10 miles northeast of North Pole, while Anchorage is about 260 miles south.

"Popular Santa letter program ends in Alaska" [Associated Press]
"Postal Service Tells Gift-Givers Not to Help Santa" [New York Times]

RELATED
"Microsoft Releases Dirty Santa Chatbot On Unsuspecting Children!"
"Dirty Elf Shuts Down Canada's "Write to Santa" Program"
(Photo: fyunkie)

The delinquency rate does NOT include loans that somewhere in the process of foreclosure. If you combine the current foreclosures with the delinquents, you get a whopping 14.41 percent.

The MBA didn't pull any punches when assessing the situation (emphasis ours):

"The outlook is that delinquency rates and foreclosure rates will continue to worsen before they improve. First, it is unlikely the employment picture will get better until sometime next year and even then jobs will increase at a very slow pace.

Perhaps more importantly, there is no reason to expect that when the economy begins to add more jobs, those jobs will be in areas with the biggest excess housing inventory and the highest delinquency rates.

Second, the number of loans 90 days or more past due or in foreclosure is now a little over 4 million as compared with 3.9 million new and previously occupied homes currently for sale, although there is likely some overlap between the two numbers. The ultimate resolution of these seriously delinquent loans will put added pressure on the hardest hit sections of the country."

Delinquencies Continue to Climb in Latest MBA National Delinquency Survey (Press Release) [MBA]
(Photo:Nick Bastian Tempe, AZ)

"The H1N1 Destroying UV Wand" [Hammacher Schlemmer] (Thanks to Andy!)