My last decent sized company had a "food@company" email. They opted into everyone deals and menu emails and when we wanted to order something we hit that email and searched for what we wanted. Worked out so well I set the same thing up for myself with gmail.

(Photo: jason.kaechler)

There are three types of sellers you should watch out for:

1. Sellers who never ship the merchandise. Look for at least 100 unique messages "attesting to the seller's reliability," and consider using either eBay's own escrow services or a third-party one that you know is legitimate (i.e., don't let a suspicious seller choose the escrow service).

2. Sellers who accept really low bids. It's likely the seller is trying to scam you and other bidders with a too-good-to-be-true offer.

3. Sellers who use multiple usernames. You can report sellers you suspect of this activity, but it's hard to prove, writes Wired. Regardless, you should drop out of the auction immediately if you suspect the seller may be bidding on his own item under another name.

You should also take the time to familiarize yourself with the security information on Craiglist and eBay, as well as check out OnGuard Online, a government-sponsored online security resource for consumers that covers pretty much every type of online activity.

"Spot a Fake Listing on Craiglist" [Wired]

RELATED
Craigslist Security Warnings
eBay Security Center
OnGuard Online
(Photo: Getty)

Categories covered include "How to Choose a Contractor" and "Appliance Recycling and Disposal Information." Or, you can select an "end-use" to see a list of useful tips for saving energy and money, from categories like Ventilation, Water Heating, Cooking, Lighting, and Consumer Electronics.

The guide offers mostly practical advice, with an eye on the consumer's finances:

"We take a balanced approach in recommending the best ways to save energy and money," said Katie Ackerly, ACEEE Research Staff and co-author of the new edition. "The tips you find in the book are designed to benefit the consumer economically, improving overall satisfaction while reducing environmental impact."

"Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings: Online Guide" [ACEEE]

RELATED
Press Release at ACEEE

Here's a tip about pharmacies; we all have a minimum price that we charge for prescription drugs. It doesn't matter how cheap the drug is. The drug could cost less than a penny, and we would still charge that minimum fee. At my pharmacy, that fee is $10.99. At most pharmacies, the fee is comparable as well.

We do this for two reasons. One, it's illegal for an insurance company to charge you more than the store price for a prescription drug. Most insurance companies have a $10 copay for generics. So, when you get your 30 hydrocholorthiazide or atenolols, the insurance company can charge you $10.00, even though the actual price of the drug is closer to $2.00. This is because the pharmacy would charge you $10.99, so the insurance company gets away with charging you "less" that what we would charge you.

Secondly, it's done to recoup losses in other areas, like theft, loss, damages, and non-reimbursement. Our friendly way of passing the charges on to you.

So this has two implications. One, most of those $4.00 generics are drugs that actually cost less than $4.00 for a thirty day supply. Two, there's a crafty way to get around the price increase.

First things first: make sure your drug is actually cheap. If you're getting ANYTHING that's a brand name, it's not cheap. Most anti-depressants aren't cheap. A few that are: Generic Xanax, Ativan, and Valium (alprazolam, lorazepam, diazepam). Generic Vicodin. Lower strength lisinopril (and anything that ends with -pril, for the most part.) Hydrochlorothiazide. Levothyroxine. Atenolol.

Then, tell your doctor to write your prescription for 90 or 100 pills at a time, rather than 30. Then, tell your pharmacy that you don't want to file the drug on your insurance. We'll give you the cash price of the drug, and because you're getting so many, you probably won't end up paying the minimum charge. 120 hydrochlorothiazide costs 12.04. 30 costs 10.99, which translates out to a 10.00 copay on mosts insurances.

The best part is, there's nothing illegal about this. You're not committing fraud or being even the slightest bit immoral. You're just beating the system.

1) Find a post you want to comment on.
2) Type in a comment.
3) Enter the username you want.
4) Enter the password you want.
5) Click Submit
6) Confirm your password.
7) Enter your email address.

... and then a Gawker intern strapped to her desk will let you in!

If you don't have a commenter account, sign up for one in this post by giving us suggestions about what you'd like us to discuss in the coming week.

Already got an account? You're welcome to fill this post's comments too.

Any companies worthy of our scrutiny? What about suggestions for how-to or useful items to be added to the Consumerist Kit? Criticisms or complaints about how the bozos in charge run things? All can go here.

Most people don't realize that nearly all of the phones that carriers sell today have MULTIPLE liquid damage indicators, and only one is generally visible (under the battery, natch). It's generally true that if the one under the battery is triggered, then odds are very high that the ones inside are triggered as well.

By taping over the thing, or by outright lying, this only results in a delay of the customer being charged a voided-warranty fee, and then tends to result in said customer returning and bitching about a 'mystery charge' they forgot they agreed to accept as a condition of a warranty exchange. Most sales reps aren't going to try to intentionally fuck you by lying about the damage indicator, its just generally easier to break it to you then, and they tend to know when a customer will be charged for something and when you can sneak a 'warranty issue' by the techs (user damages mostly..).

Sometimes, it's just better to accept the hand that fate has dealt you, learn your lesson, and fess to the damage and buy a new phone (extend your contract or don't, you've got a choice, its up to you to accept the discount a contract provides) versus trying to scam the carriers.

Yes, honesty is the best policy. Just because companies lie to us doesn't mean we should start lying to them. Plus, they're sneaky bastards... they usually know.

Luckily, Get Rich Slowly has put together an excellent resource to figure out just how much to tip everyone: from waiters to bellhops to maitre d's to manicurists. Apparently, you really should be opening your wallet every time you do pretty much anything.

My general rule of thumb is to tip generously to people likely to make most of their living off of tips: waiters, delivery people, cabbies. Still, I'm a stinking Euro... we don't tip anyone.

Basic Tips on Tipping: How Much and To Whom? [Get Rich Slowly]

And there you go: that's how easy it is to completely brick your newly bought PC. Luckily, it's just as easy to prevent that from happening. So here's one for the Consumerist Kit: how to protect your computer from viral scumbags without paying a dime. This is only valid for Windows users, the suckers.

1) Get all the security updates from Windows Update. If you've never updated before, there will be a million of them.

2) Ditch Internet Explorer. Do your browsing through Firefox or Opera. Not only are both browsers much more pleasant to use, but they are not nearly as vulnerable to exploit as IE6.

3) Download some anti-virus software. There's no reason to shell out for McAffee or Norton: those programs are system hogs. Try Avast instead, which is completely free. Or, even better, go with AVG, which is actually my preferred XP free antivirus of choice.

4) Of course, scumware and malware can always slip through. So download Ad-Aware and Spybot and run them once a month.

Or, you know, buy a Mac.

Old news to many of our readers, but this is really a bare minimum for protecting your Windows PC in this day and age.

Reader Mike wrote us in with some excellent advice on what to do when any so called representative comes a-knockin', claiming to be from your electricity company.

Ask for an ID with Picture. Never let anyone cover the ID. Ask them and Fight to see an ID. NEVER TRUST ANY REPRESENTATIVE! IDT Energy Representatives are supposed to have 2 ID's. One with the Picture and another sayin "We Are NOT the Utility company, We're from IDT Energy, a supply company" If The rep says he/she is from conEdison or other utility company, Ask for the ID. Otherwise, do NOT let them in, OR.... Just call the Police or any force.

Or, more hilariously, grab them by their lapels and propel them down a flight of steps with a coccyx-shattering kick to the buttocks.

But I guess our six bullet points weren't enough for him. Manic completionist that he is, he's updated his own site with no less than 8 addendums tips, tricks and points. For example, the downside of the 331 Day Rule:

Let's say you call 11 months before your desired departure day, and you snag seats for the outbound. Unless you're coming back the same day, your return ticket won't be available for booking yet. Again, this is where the hold function is useful.

If you combine our How-To with Mark's footnotes, the only free ticket you won't be able to attain will be one from Xanadu to Zembla.

Using your frequent flyer miles: A followup to the Consumerist [Upgrade Travel]

We've gotten a flood of emails over the past few days: it seems like everyone who saw Ben shmooze it up on Nightline wrote in to vent about a bad consumer experience or two. This is truly awesome — a cursory glance at this site shows that most of its news comes from a consumerist grapevine sprouted from the loam of bad experiences. We love you guys; this site wouldn't exist without you.

Nevertheless, we'd like to try to guide you in getting something published on the Consumerist. We've got a few guidelines after the jump.

1. We get a lot of one sentence emails that say, "Such and such a company reamed me. Interested in details?" Yes, we are, so just take it as read and send the details when you initially email us.

2. We want thoughtful, intelligent emails from responsible consumers, not temper-tantrums from spoiled brats with a sense of entitlement. We understand that sometimes you get frustrated and just want to get it all out, but these emails are rarely something we can use. Sit down for a few minutes, think it through. If it doesn't seem that important after a few deep breaths, it's probably not something we'll post anyway.

3. We realize not everyone is Jacques Barzun. Nevertheless, please try to write your emails with the view of getting them published. What we would like to see are clear, concise emails no longer than they have to be: emails that state the company, circumstances and problem, then explain the service you expected and why you feel cheated. We get an awful lot of meandering, rambling ten page emails... even when these are good, they are hard to post. If a story is much longer than a page or two, it's probably too long to post.

4. Proof is always better than baseless accusation. Proof's sometimes hard to come by, and isn't a requirement, but if you can back something up, please do. It makes it more interesting all around.

Ultimately, this site is at its best when we're posting the legitimate gripes of intelligent, well-spoken consumers who have been burned even after they've bent over backwards trying to be reasonable and rational. It's at its worst when we are posting someone's rant about a 2 dollar plate of eggs or a copy of a phone bill being disputed over a 10 cent call to Nigeria.

We'd like to get this site to the point that as soon as a corporate executive sees his name on this site, he knows his organization has a legitimate customer service problem. And we'd like you to help us do that.

But the mere mention of the event should explain my mistrust of the quarter-ton behemoths vomiting frost from their tremulous perches upon upper story window sills. That more people are not crushed to death by air conditioners is an absolute marvel.

Luckily, lovely Gina over at Lifehacker has clued us in to a cheap, DIY alternative to the windowsill air conditioner, just in time for what will no doubt be a sweltering summer. A cheap fan, a styrofoam cooler full of ice and a coil of pipe is all you need to make yourself a $30 air conditioner! And you don't need to worry about wasps establish a hive between your window panes! A very neat little project.

Make Your Own Air Conditioner [Lifehacker]

Via This Is Broken, this is apparently what it takes to send an email to HP's email support system:

1. Fill out the HP support web form. This won't work, but it's the unnecessary first step that gives all resulting unnecessary steps their unnecessary necessity.

2. We told you: your submission will not be an accepted. But the email rejection you get will tell you to write them back!

3. Unfortunately, you can't just reply back to the address you just received an email from. Scour the email trying to find the place where they mention the correct email address to reply to.

4. You're not done yet! Now similarly change the subject.

5. Finally, delete all the lines in the email rejection you got except the two lines with your case ID and subject on it. Make these the first two lines of your reply.

6. Press send!

If you're lucky, your email will now rocket through cyberspace and fulfill all the arbitrary requirements necessary for HP to help you fix the crummy broken computer they sold you. But the smallest typo, an extra carriage return will send your email hurtling back out of the system, like a space shuttle overestimating the angle of approach and bouncing off the ozone at a thousand miles per hour.

Meanwhile, the rest of us wonder why, if the form doesn't work, why HP doesn't just send you exactly the form you need to send back to get some help.

Software support process at HP [This is Broken]

This is one of those gems we get from you guys every once and a while that could really only be sullied by adding additional commentary. Guys! Don't be bashful in sending us stuff like this: you're four times as clever and resourceful as us, by far.

Trix's step-by-step tip guide after the jump.

I was the victim of Identity theft 5 years ago. In my case they got cell phones, bought furniture and TV's from "Rent to Own" got power and lights and a land line telephone all using my name and SSN. I had no idea until I had a bad mark show up on my credit report. This was four years ago. It took 100+ hours to clear up the mess and to this day it keeps coming back every once in awhile. In my case, I suspect that my ID theft was a result of some kind of employee abuse or neglect at the headquarters of my health insurance company - either the employees were stealing my information, or someone didn't shred important documents. They are located in Inglewood, California and that's where all of the ID theft happened. Coincidence boys and girls?

Trixare4kids' hard-earned personal tips and tricks for dealing with identify theft. (I don't pretend to be a writer and I'm just trying to help, so easy on the snarky comments, my fellow consumerists.)

1) Read everything here. http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/ Five years ago, this site consisted of 3-4 pages that looked like something made in 1993, so it's come a long way, baby. There are links to information, forms, and information about exactly what steps to go though, including how to contact the credit reporting agencies.

2) Get your credit reports and look carefully. Even if everything looks okay, be suspicious of "credit inquires" that don't look normal to you. A bad mark was the first indication that something was wrong. But looking at the inquiries was how I found out they had cell phones in my name. Why would Verizon be looking at my credit? I've never been near them.

3) Breathe. You CAN get through this. It feels totally violating and nasty and it is. You will care a lot and other people will not care so much and no one seems to understand the enormity of what you feel. This too shall pass. Breathe. It really is one of those "no big deal" things until it actually happens to you but until then people just don't really care about the injustice of it all.

4) Be prepared for judgment and advice about how you got to be a victim. Lung cancer patients always get asked, "Did you smoke?" Along those lines you will get questions like, "Well, did you give out you social security number?" Your helpful aunt Betsy will say, "See? I told you shouldn't do your banking online. That's what happens!"

5) Be prepared to spend at least -1 hour per day (or more) each and every day until the mess is cleared up

6) Be disciplined. You need to work on this each and every day. This is NOT the time to let the folder slip to the side. It's not the time to bury your head in the sand and hope it will go away (yes, I'm talking to the procrastinators out there), it's not the time to let weeks or months slip by without having taken action or done any follow up work.

7) When I found out where they lived, I called the gas/power company in their area to see if they had an account. I also called all the other cell phone providers I could find to verify if there were accounts using my SSN.

8) Fill out a police report and get a notarized copy of your affidavit of identify theft. Keep copies as you are going to have to send a copy out to each and every creditor, possibly numerous times.

9) Oh yeah, don't really expect the police to DO anything about it. Even if you know the name and address of the person who did it (as in my case), they don't do jack. You have to file with your own local police department who has way better things to do. If they live outside your city, oh well. Try not to be offended that they don't actually care, spend the energy on getting it cleaned up. See Tip #3

10) Be organized. Keep a separate file for each creditor. Keep a running diary of each and every contact, letter, response, phone call. Keep a calendar of reminders and follow up tasks, like when you are supposed to receive xyz document or when to follow up after someone has agreed to take something off your report, finally.

11) I cannot stress this enough. When calling each creditor: Write down the number you called, the exact name, extension number, employee number and department of each and every person you talk to, even if they just want to transfer you to another department. Take down the time and date you called and brief synopsis of the conversation. Trust me this comes in handy later when you are able to say, "Sandy Smithers from the Credit department verified that she received the fax yesterday at 3PM and was going to doodledingle the snozit so I can get this removed from my credit report."

12) Be prepared that all of these creditors are going to be suspicious of you. It doesn't matter that you've been living at the same address 500 miles away for upteen years, have had a cell phone with the same company for upteen years (and never even once paid late), have otherwise perfect credit with zero late payments. To them, you are low-life scum sucking scamster who is trying to get out of a debt. Get used to it. To be fair, this is mostly true of the collection agencies and not the actual companies themselves, but there are some bad apples in there. Breathe. (See tip #3)

13) Contact the Credit Reporting Agencies and dispute each charge in writing and send them the police report and notarized affidavit.

14) Put a statement of identify theft on all three of your credit reports. After that, no new credit can be issued in your name unless the creditor calls the number on the credit report (the number you give them). It lasts for something like 7 years, if I recall. Right after I had this done I got a call from car dealership! Those SOBs were trying to buy a car with my SSN! As for me, I applied for a new credit card about 6 months ago and someone from the CC Company called to verify that I actually wanted to open the line of credit. Worked perfectly.

15) Be persistent. Follow through, follow through, and follow through. I can't say that enough. When the collection agency says they need you to fill out their form and send it back, call and make sure they have received it. If they need to send the form to you first in the mail, cajole them in to faxing it to you. If they won't fax it to you, call after 5 business days if you haven't received it. I had to call one collection agency every day for a month before they would send me their "fraud packet" which they insisted I needed before they could proceed. What did the fraud packet consist of!? A letter with some boxes to check off stating that they needed the very documents I was telling them I already had.

16) Be completely relentless and follow through some more. When the collection agency, creditor or credit reporting agency has agreed to remove the offending bit of data from your record get it in writing and get it faxed to you immediately. If they are not going to fax it, follow through if it doesn't come in the mail within a 5 business days. Then get a fresh copy of your report (all three of them) to verify that it has actually been removed. If it has not been removed, send your written proof to each agency. Follow up again with a copy of your report, ad nauseam.

17) Never, ever, under any circumstances throw away your file(s). I had a collection agency sell the account to another collection agency 4 years after it had been verified as fraud and supposedly cleared. Had I not had all of the correspondence from the last company, I would have had to go around and around with them again.

18) When it's finally all clear (and not until then), take yourself on a much needed vacation.

I'm sure there are some I'm forgetting and some of these are redden to the Government's site, but this is my personal take.

Thanks, Trix! You're our new favorite reader.

All these factors tend to get in the way of the first key element of a functional apology, which is that it is timely. A delayed apology may lead to the accusation that it "took you long enough" or "it had to be beaten out of you".

After promptitude, the next key factor in a good apology is acknowledgement — a clear public acceptance of the damage done, the wound inflicted and the outrageousness of the verbal assault. The tenet is: if the offender doesn't articulate it, the offence festers.

For example, saying "sorry about that" when you have stood someone up cuts to the chase rather too quickly. The person stood up needs to hear you talk about how mortified they must have been, sitting on their own in the restaurant, how humiliating it was to have all the waiters sniggering, and how awkward the following day's questions from co-workers were.

Mollification requires offenders to move from their own point of view to that of the other person and to make explicit their understanding of how the other person felt...

Even an acknowledgement doesn't prevent the conditionality reflex kicking in. That's where the offender says something such as "I'm sorry if you felt insulted by my comment", which carries the implication that "what I said was okay, it's just you got touchy about it". Conditional apologies are lethal, complicating the original blow without any gain to the person making the apology...

Amen. There's also a fascinating quote from Wodehouse we weren't familiar with: "The right sort of people do not want apologies and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them." To be honest, this is the way we feel — apologies are only worth anything in situations where a company has made a mistake that is one-off and completely unresolvable. Otherwise, we don't want the maudlin melodrama of an apology: we want resolution and assurances it won't happen again.

Via Media Orchard, who are also having a contest to win a date with one of their writers in exchange for the most incoming links. In a shocking display of homophobia, however, they are only opening the contest up to girls. Considering the fact that Joel and Brownlee are both guys, and Popken will be one in a few months, we guess that leaves us shit out of luck.

Comment: Why sorry seems to be the hardest word [Sunday Business Post]

So we're very secure in admitting that we have no idea what "Drinking Mate (Amargo)" is, while Ben would probably know it instantly. But the other half of this Step-By-Step Guide — the half detailing How to Plan A Viral Marketing Campaign — is something we can definitely understand. In it, they detail step-by-step how an intrepid corporation can appropriate a popular graffiti cartoon, modify it to espouse their product, then break numerous vandalism laws by paying street artists to paint it on private property. Just like countless scummy corporations like Sony and McDonald's have done before! Excelsior!

Link: How To Plan A Viral Campaign [via Screenhead]