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readers
readers
If You Give Sears Your Phone Number, They Might Harass You Like A Clingy Stalker
By Laura Northrup on February 9, 2012 9:30 AM
47 Comments
Sears, Sears. We know that you're desperate. But acting clingy and desperate is no way to win over customers, especially the ones who have just made a purchase in your store. While it seems like every retailer is pushing their service plans on customers, they don't usually resort to phone stalking, like what you did to your poor customer Mike. He had to resort to contacting the FTC and your corporate offices about the stalking.
It's over, Sears. You should have taken the hint one of the first few dozen times you called. Now Mike really never wants anything to do with you again. More »
No, You Don't Need To Drop $1000 On A Wifi TV To Use A Roku
By Laura Northrup on December 28, 2011 9:00 AM
94 Comments
Sure, you should research purchases ahead of time, but discovering new things while shopping out in the real world can be fun. Reader HogwartsProfessor was browsing the electronics section at Walmart and had some questions about a Roku. Two associates told her that no, the devices only work if you have a wifi-enabled TV. This isn't true, as she learned: the point of the Roku is that it is the device that streams Internet content to your TV. More »
(Cakefarm)
Reader Pays Off Strangers' Layaway Tabs, Becomes Santa Claus
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2011 10:30 AM
72 Comments
Reader Gail read our post last week about a mysterious benefactor who paid off $500 worth of layaway tabs for random strangers at a Michigan Kmart. She found it inspiring, but in a different way from most readers: the story actually inspired Gail and her husband to visit local discount stores and do the same exact thing for some families in her area. She shared how the experience works from the benefactor's end. "I can't remember the last time spending $100 made me feel so good!" she wrote. Here's the best part: she's not the only one doing this. More »
Couples Sues Airtran For $100,000, Alleging Cockroaches Infested Their Flight
By Ben Popken on November 14, 2011 1:00 PM
74 Comments
A couple is suing Airtran for $100,000 after they saw cockroaches on their flight, and they say they have to pictures to prove it. More »
Reader Gets AT&T To Admit It's Their Towers That Suck, Not The iPhone
By Ben Popken on November 11, 2011 5:00 PM
49 Comments
Melissa couldn't get any reception around her home on her iPhone, despite living only 25 miles from downtown Chicago. Zero bars. It wasn't just annoying to always miss calls, it was also damaging her rental business. But thanks to a detailed, and snarky, email to the CEO of AT&T, she was able to get the wireless provider to reset its towers and fix the service around her house. More »
(averrue)
BofA Reaps Fees From Unemployment Benefits Loaded On Debit Cards
By Ben Popken on November 10, 2011 3:00 PM
95 Comments
While Bank of America's now-abandoned plan to charge debit card users $5 a month has received a halogen spotlight recently, far less attention has been paid to how it collects fees off the unemployed. In some states, unemployment benefits are issued via Bank of America debit cards. States save money by not using paper checks, but the unemployed lose out from all the fees hiding in the cards. More »
This Walmart Holiday Pop-Up Store Sort Of Isn't A Walmart At All
By Laura Northrup on November 10, 2011 9:00 AM
36 Comments
Eight months ago, we sarcastically predicted that the Walmart mini-store format, Walmart Express, would catch on and cause ever-tinier Walmarts to branch out and take over global commerce, splintering like enchanted brooms out of Mickey Mouse's control. That hasn't happened yet, but reader Ashi spotted something weird in San Diego. It's a Walmart that isn't a Walmart: a Walmart.com storefront where customers can go and...order things from Walmart online. More »
Man Tries To Rob Burger King With A Sock
By Ben Popken on November 9, 2011 2:00 PM
31 Comments
You know the economy is bad when crooks can't even afford decent stick-up weapons. Police have arrested a man who tried to rob a Burger King, using a sock. More »
New Wave Of Mortgage Defaults On Horizon
By Ben Popken on November 9, 2011 11:00 AM
80 Comments
Some of the crappiest mortgages ever made were issued in 2006, and right now those 5-year introductory teaser periods are expiring. That's leading to a 300% increase in monthly payments for already strapped borrowers, and it's what's driving the first increase in delinquent mortgages since 2009, a banking expert tells Credit.com. More »
Artists Adds $0 Tags To Her Clothes, Reshelves Them
By Ben Popken on November 7, 2011 2:00 PM
141 Comments
Artist Jess Dobkin takes her clothes, attaches realistic-looking tags that say "free" on them, and puts them back on the shelves at the original stores she bought them from. She calls the project, "Restored," and made a cheery video about it. More »
JCPenney's Black Friday Ad Is Out
By Ben Popken on November 7, 2011 1:00 PM
31 Comments
If you want to see what kind of deals JCPenney is offering for the Black Friday sale this year, their entire 72-page ad just got uploaded. More »
(star5112)
Can My Job Only Pay Me For 8 Hours Instead Of 9 Because Of Daylight Saving Time?
By Ben Popken on November 7, 2011 12:00 PM
194 Comments
A man says that he worked on Sunday, and, because of daylight saving time, his boss only wants to pay him for 8 hours instead of the 9 he worked. Is this legal? More »
Michael Dell Replaces High-End Laptop Previously "Fixed" With Black Marker, Crumbs
By Ben Popken on November 4, 2011 11:00 AM
51 Comments
Jeremy's 3D Alienware gaming laptop from Dell didn't work right from its first bootup. It had blue screens of death and the video card needed swapping out. When he sent it in for repair, he got it back with crumbs in the keys, and a crack on the side someone tried to hide with black marker. When we posted his story on Consumerist, we gave him CEO Michael Dell's email address to go tell his story. Now Jeremy writes that after he emailed Mr. Dell, the CEO intervened and made sure Jeremy got a brand-new laptop, along with a free memory and CPU upgrade. More »
(Clemson)
Paypal Links Account Missing $2,000 To Yours, Demands You Pay
By Ben Popken on November 3, 2011 3:00 PM
65 Comments
Reader Ben awoke to a rude discovery. Somehow another account had been linked to his Paypal account, and the new account was $2,000 in the red. Paypal was knocking on Ben's door, telling him to pay up, or else. They locked up his account and froze his cash. When he protested, they treated him like a criminal. More »
Isn't It A Tad Early To Be Selling "Belated" Christmas Cards?
By Ben Popken on November 2, 2011 4:00 PM
24 Comments
Seems to be jumping the gun a bit to already be selling "Belated Christmas" cards, don't you think? More »
Returned iPhone Within 30 Days, Still Charged $350 ETF
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2011 1:30 PM
77 Comments
Justin's and his wife live in a major metropolitan area, and therefore their phone service with AT&T Wireless is crappy. His wife upgraded to an iPhone 4, found it even more unusable than her previous phone, and returned it within the 30-day return period. This means that they shouldn't have to pay an early termination fee on her contract. Yet she did, and now AT&T won't refund the fee. More »
(pmarkham)
TJ Maxx Subsidiary Kicks Out Girl With Service Dog, Apologizes, Then Kicks Her Out Again
By Ben Popken on October 28, 2011 11:00 AM
152 Comments
After an autistic girl and her service dog were wrongly kicked out of a discount clothing store owned by TJ Maxx, the district manager profusely apologized and gave them a $25 gift card to pick out anything she liked. When she returned and tried to use the gift card, store staff kicked her out for having a service dog again. Looks like someone didn't get the memo. More »
Man Accused Of Tossing Molotov Cocktail At Taco Bell For Not Giving Him Enough Meat
By Ben Popken on October 28, 2011 10:00 AM
74 Comments
There's better ways to lodge a complaint against Taco Bell than by lofting a Molotov cocktail at the drive-thru window, but filling out a suggestion card wasn't the one this incensed Georgia customer chose at 5am. More »
Unfortunate Caller ID Foreshortening For The Original Honeybaked Ham Company
By Ben Popken on October 27, 2011 3:00 PM
52 Comments
Probably should have thought that one through. More »
Copper Traded For Crack
By Ben Popken on October 26, 2011 4:00 PM
51 Comments
Some enterprising drug dealers are helping copper thieves cut out the middleman. They're accepting copper pipe as legal tender in exchange for crack cocaine. More »
