Consumerist
explanations
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eBay
All-Day eBay Search Outage Frustrates Shoppers, Angers Sellers
eBay shoppers and particularly eBay buyers are annoyed after a back-end outage has kept shoppers from searching and from viewing sellers' stores for most of the day. While the site posted a workaround that makes it possible for users to search, it's unlikely that most casual shoppers will find and use the workaround. More » -
Food
Ground Beef Gains Time-Travel Ability
Nick didn't notice the label on this package of ground beef until after he brought it home. Seeing how he bought it on November 20, 2009, and the label claims that it was packaged on August 8, 2004, he's a little confused. More » -
Prison
At Least The Prison Economy Is Flourishing
We might be dealing with low inflation and even a falling cost of living, but not everyone in the United States is dealing with the same economic woes. Americans who are in prison have their own economy—one with rampant inflation, alleged price-fixing, and a fish packet-based economy. More » -
Checks
Fewer Consumers Write Personal Checks, Fewer Retailers Accept Them
Reader broncobiker sent us the photo at left, wondering whether check acceptance policies might be getting a little out of hand. But checks have so much potential for fraud, and so few shoppers use them, that many merchants have just stopped accepting them entirely. More » -
Credit Reports
Sorry, No Mortgage: Experian Says That You're Dead
Shortly after surviving the death of her husband and a life-threatening medical crisis, Ann Howe of Seattle decided to refinance her home mortgage. Everything went smoothly until the bank informed her that the refinance couldn't be completed because the credit bureau Experian was convinced that she was dead. More » -
Banking
What Is A Money Market Account?
If you visit your local bank, you might advertisements for money market accounts. You might be familiar with CDs, checking and savings accounts, but money market probably sounds fancy and exotic. Fortunately, they're not. More » -
Xbox
Possible Class-Action Suit Alleges Xbox Bans Result Of Vast Redmond Conspiracy
Microsoft has declared that the owners of banned Xbox consoles have no recourse and no choice but to buy new consoles. Some users see this as unfair and a vast Redmond conspiracy, and law firm AbingtonIP is fighting back with a class-action lawsuit. God bless America. More » -
Digital Cameras
Kodak: Your Camera Has A Beach Mode, So Don't Take It To The Beach
Brandy's Kodak digital camera comes with several pre-set modes, one of which is "beach." However, when her camera stopped working after a trip to the beach, she reports that Kodak's mystifying response to her service request was that just because a digital camera has a setting for taking photos at the beach, that doesn't mean that you should actually take it to the beach. More » -
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dubious
Police: Gang Was Killing People For Fat, Attempting To Sell It To Cosmetic Companies
Police in Peru say that they've caught a group that was allegedly killing people and harvesting their fat to sell to Europeans who wanted it for cosmetics. More » -
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Flickr
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
Here are six wonderful photos readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Check 'em out! More »
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No eggo to leggo
Eggo Shortage Story Sweeps Mainstream Media, Panic Spreads
After Consumerist first alerted the nation to the debilitating waffle shortage, the story has been making the rounds of nearly every media outlet in the country. Thanks to their hard work, we've learned some interesting new things about the shortage. More » -
Reviews
Should Yelp Remove Reviews By Non Customers?
Lehigh Pub, the restaurant in Pennsylvania that had two patrons arrested for not tipping, was blasted on Yelp in the past 24 hours or so by angry readers. Many of them weren't customers, but heard about the arrests in the news and came to vote down the pub. As of this morning, it had an average of one star out of five. More » -
grim
Does Convincing McDonald's To Make Chicken Selects For Breakfast Prove You Were Sober?
This summer a woman in an SUV drove almost two miles down the wrong way of an expressway before killing eight people in a horrible crash. The autopsy suggests she was drunk and high at the time, but her family says that isn't possible and to prove it, they say she was sober enough to convince McDonald's to make her son an order of Chicken Selects in the morning, right before the accident. More » -
Catpaint
Consumerist And Its Readers Will Never Want For Cat Pics Again
When Consumerist left Gawker to join Consumers Union, we lost access to the Getty image library, which had been the source for pictures like this and this. The new CatPaint iPhone app has already wowed some, but is it good enough for Consumerist? Let's find out. More » -
Black Friday
Black Friday Doorbusters Are A Sleazy Way To Lure Customers
Pay no attention to those ridiculously cheap TV sets and game systems—also called doorbusters—that retailers use to lure in hordes of holiday shoppers, notes CNN. They're the equivalent of that little dangly thing anglerfish use to catch food. More » -
Service Plans
Does This Potty Seat Need An Extended Warranty?
Kelly just bought a plastic Baby Bjorn potty seat at Babies R Us. When the cashier rang it up, the system told her to ask Kelly if she'd like to pay another 30% of the purchase price for a service plan. More » -
Recalls
Vick's Sinex Nasal Spray Recalled Due To Bacterial Contamination
The FDA says P&G is voluntarily recalling three lots of its Vicks Sinex nasal spray in three countries: the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom after finding the bacteria B. cepacia in a small amount of product. There have been no reports of illness. However, the bacteria could cause serious infections for individuals with a compromised immune system, or those with chronic lung conditions, such as cystic fibrosis. B. cepacia poses little medical risk to healthy individuals. More »
