Does anyone here know any Executive contact info for launching an EECB toward Radio Shack? My sister had her hard drive erased by the service center and is getting the brush-off. Any ideas?

@ngallion: napalm

So, I know that Ben and Techies are working hard to resolve the issues with the site, and I appreciate that.
Is anyone else getting signed out randomly?

Also, here is something fun... we read and reply to comments by a number of people everyday, a lot of them regulars, faves, hates, and frenemies. How do you imagine particular commenters in your head?

@MostlyHarmless: Lemme kick things off:

Trai_Dep: A smartassy but nice kid - influenced mainly by his profile pic.

GitEmSteveDave: Well, we've all seen his pic.

floraposte: For some reason, I always imagine her posts as if they were read by Leela from Futurama.

HogwartsAlum: I used to imagine a guy in an argyle vest with the Hogwarts insignia. Upon realization that its a girl, she now appears as a guy wearing a Veronica Mars mask.

EyebrowsMcGee and Pecan Pi: Surprisingly blank.

@MostlyHarmless: I see you as a penguin.

If you use Google Reader head over to reader.google.com and logout. Click on the "Popular" tab and prepare for a very slightly NSFW (for language) surprise.

I assume they've got a filter in place but it's not prepared for pictures.

That's been there all day today so I'm assuming they're still unawares.

It's been a so-so week for personal consumer endeavors. An email to the new(-ish) CEO of Best Buy regarding repeated, willful violations of the DoNotCall regs resulted is a swift reply (not from the CEO, of course), and the promise of a $25 "Shut Up" Gift Card. My two FCC complaints regarding said violations remain open.

My Credit Union insists on sharing my name and address with insurance companies, which is disheartening, especially 'cause I asked them not to.

Borders forced me into their "Borders Rewards Perks" program, and visiting the website to try to stop the emails revealed an annoying feature called UserRank -- "UserRank is a proprietary algorithm that measures your value as a shopper of Borders Rewards Perks." Yay, I really want a bookstore to rate my value as a shopper.

On the other hand, Newegg continues to provide good prices and quick shipping, and the giant new Kroger on the other side of town is worth driving past the closer store because the manager actually has a customer-first attitude, and he makes sure ALL of his staff does as well. He seems to rate my value as a shopper without needing a proprietary algorithm.

Looks like best buy is trying out a new promo to sell more video games. Just illustrates how ridiculously overpriced used games are at gamestop/gamecrazy.

[www.cheapassgamer.com]

@MostlyHarmless: you have a strange and slightly wonderful [but also slightly creepy] imagination

thinking of renting out a short term occasional room through AirBnB to help with bills - has anyone tried it? from either side of the transaction?

IS Bennigans back from the dead? I am getting emails from them for free apps and whatnot again.

@catastrophegirl: Well, thats a side effect of spending too much time online.

And you obviously show up as a she devil... with a pet cat, for some reason.

Have any of the posters on Consumerist decided to take an initiative and meet?

@MostlyHarmless: two of them. and a dog. and foster kittens. just think of me as a crqazy cat lady if it helps

@catastrophegirl: [who apparently can't type] *wants edit button*

Anyone else gotten rejected by Chase lately?

In mid-July, a few days before I left for vacation, I suddenly couldn't use my card to book a hotel. I had a bad feeling about it and decided to just assume I was canceled rather than get frustrated by a CSR.

It took until Wednesday for the letter, which is dated July 21, to arrive. The reasons are "too short time since last past due." Which I don't get, because I've never been late on a credit card. Ever. Another they were saying I had too little credit available. Well, I only have two credit cards, and while I was using less than half of my $1,500 Chase card, still not good enough. The other reason was some jibberish about "failure to pay other accounts as agreed" or something. I didn't understand half of it and suspect most of it was bullshit. I have a lot of student loans and am just three years out of college, so what can you do? The rules are so nebulous, you aren't supposed to be able to win. You can barely break even. Should have seen this coming when Chase took over WaMu.

@chipslave: The news page on their website sort of indicates that they were never completely gone.

On the other hand, a news search via Google turns up the headline "Bennigan's Closes ... Again" in at least two different cities.

Get those free apps while you can.

@lalaland13: And apparently, I have improperly spelled "gibberish." Just thought I'd admit that before people assume I am stupid and thereby don't deserve any credit at all.

@SuparnaBabalas: Maybe in NY LA or DC. I heard Gizmodo people do that a bit.

@lalaland13:I don't get how cancelling your card helps the "too little credit available" portion of all that. The "failure to pay other accounts" is probably the dreaded Universal Default, which is being made illegal next year. Any late payments to anybody, anywhere?

What I got from Chase was a mysterious letter about a computer tape gone missing and the offer of a one year enrollment in "Chase Identity Protection". It's mysterious because I have no idea what account I might have had at Chase, and there's no indication on this letter to help me figure that out. But hey, free credit monitoring for a year? What can possibly go wrong?

@chipslave: I went to a Bennigan's in Anne Arbor in mid-May of this year, but I'd never been to one before. I have no idea. Some seem to be alive and kicking!

@katstermonster:

I'd just hate to show up expecting my free app and desert only to find out they ain't gonna honor them.

@MostlyHarmless:Wheeeee I love open thread!!!

I have a hard time picturing you as anything but a penguin. You're one of the many posters whose gender I have guessed wrong over time, sorry...just the picture, I think.

Trai_Dep: About the same. But I was picturing older...maybe early 30's? Trai, how old are you???

GitEmSteveDave: I picture him as a crazy but harmless and amusing computer geek. Er...but I guess we're all computer geeks? Ish? Oops.

EyebrowsMcGee: Her personality reminds me of one of my closest female friends. So I sort of get...tall, fun. And now with baby!

Pecan Pi: Um, same as Eyebrows? But without baby? Maybe because I'm tall, I always picture other women being tall. And fun. I'm fun. I think.

floraposte: I get kind of a badass girl in her late 20's. You're totally right about Leela...I'm going to imagine that every time now, and laugh.

End of story: I'm terrible at figuring out the age and gender of posters.

@MostlyHarmless: Thinking about that makes me feel like we'd be breaking the fourth wall. Like the time I told you to google my username...so weird!

So is the picture of the cat sitting in a "Fridge Pak" soda box Coke's answer to this:[consumerist.com]

@Rachacha: More of a reference to it. But seriously, they could have used this pic there.

@ngallion: This page has postal addresses, and if you follow the Investor Relations link, you can then click on Corporate Governance on the left, then Management, which will get you a list of names.

The names might be enough to help ferret out an email address.

@Bill2me: This?

And now, a motivational message from our kitteh life coach.

Slightly funny.

@chipslave: Didn't some of the major francisees buy up the name? Supposedly there were stores that never closed.

Somewhat apropos to the picture, am I crazy for driving an hour each way, plus ferry time (and $18 for the ferry) to purchase 15 12-packs of Pepsi Throwback? Not sold in my state anymore :(

@jacques: The Bandit and Cledus did even more for Big and Little Enos in order to bring a trailer load of Coors from Texas to Georgia around 1977...

Call the regional Pepsi bottler and find out to what outlets the Throwback is distributed. If that regional bottler doesn't carry it or are idiots then bust out with the next regions bottler etc. At the very least you might score some free 12 packs. At the very most you might be able to have the bottler drop an entire pallet of Throwback in your hallway or gargage.

@MostlyHarmless: @katstermonster: When we had the Gizmodo meet-up, it was the first time many of us had met. I, of course, wore my cowboy hat and my LED nametag. As for my picture, it's amazing how many people assume my avatar is either a hamburger or cheeseburger, due to it being tall and not wide. But I do post A LOT of pictures of myself online, and I'm not afraid to. I have 4 webcams running in my house 24/7, so people seeing me isn't something I think about much. And just to keep up the trend:
that's me from a post earlier this year on Amazon listing a phone line splitter as a "bluetooth earpiece" [consumerist.com]

But yes, I'm crazy and MOSTLY harmless. As for amusing, I am a very good joke killer.

Being online so much, I find I don't see people online as anything until I see a picture. I will identify their icon/avatar, but don't judge/preview them until I see picts, unless their avatar is a pict. I do associate with user names, I.E., when I see Con Seannery's above, I always mumble to myself "But it began with a bloody S" so I would assume he speaks with a Scottish accent. OK, enough of my inane rambling and posting of picts.

@chipslave: Bennigans? Is that the restaurant I like with all the goofy stuff on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?

@MostlyHarmless: We do.

@SuparnaBabalas: I showed up to the panel, and met some posters/editors from here.

Here's a question. If there is a meet up, what is the best way to "display" who you are, i.e. if you "real" name and online name(s) are different. I will answer to SteveDave and also GitEm, even though my name is really John. I go with a LED name tag displaying "GitEmSteveDave". I suggested that next Gizmodo meet up we should wear badges with our avatars and our screen names, with our real name underneath, almost like a comment box.

@econobiker: I could have sworn I saw some recently on a trip to the midwest. Did a double-take - and right next to it was a Little Ceasar's. Friends in the area said that non-locals were always surprised to see them.

A personal consumer victory: I got a rebate check ($20) after 10.5 months of waiting/calling/writing/calling more. I know, I shouldn't have bought something with a rebate, etc etc. It was a good price even without it. But out of principle I sent it in and chased it down.

Rebate processor went out of business, and I probably had to spend $3 in postage resubmitting forms, but sometime 6 months ago it became just about the principle.

You think you can offer rebates to lure people in and then make money when people don't redeem them? When they get too disheartened to follow-through? Well - not this time! I got my $20! Ha!

I'm going to buy some ice cream and pump my fist in the air a few time.

It's a shame I'm not a big scary bitch (or someone with a penchant for acting like one), because if I was I'd totally apply to be a Bridezilla and have WETV sponsor our wedding.

@GitEmSteveDave_HasAList: Your picture fits my mental image of you quite well.

Just because I can, here's a picture of me from late 2005:
(My last foray into html on Consumerist didn't work, let's hope this did...)

I'm at school right now, so that's all I've got. It's already on the internet anyway, and if you can figure out my full name, it's the first google result. :)

@katstermonster: Damn, it didn't work! Here's the picture: [media.collegepublisher.com]

@katstermonster: With the assist, and I must say I like the necklace:

GitEmSteveDave; Helping people post images since 2007 *ting*

@GitEmSteveDave_HasAList: Bah, humbug...the sad part is that I know how to use basic html tags, I can't get it to work on Consumerist for the life of me.

I wonder what happened to that necklace...hmm. Ah, freshman year of college...

@econobiker: Yeah the one in the Fargo/Moorhead area never closed. Its a decent place to go.

Somewhat consumer-related: Billy Mays' autopsy report came back, and apparently there was a not-so-legal contributor to the heart disease that caused his death.

[www.msnbc.msn.com]

Yikes!

Earlier this week, I bought the Fallout 3 expansion Mothership Zeta. I was sorely disappointed by it, especially considering how they were on an expansion upswing with Broken Steel and Point Lookout.

I'm also eagerly anticipating Brutal Legend, cannot wait for Dr. Horrible 2, and am getting increasingly excited for the release of Beatles: Rock Band.

Oh, and I still haven't heard anything from Warner Bros. regarding my e-mail over the audio issues with my Watchmen Blu-Ray.

@katstermonster: I'll let you in on a secret. <IMG SRC="img.url.com"> The caps seem to make ALLLL the difference.

@junip: I saw that story on kotaku, and was initially excited. Then I remembered that the new games I get on Amazon are always discounted by at least three bucks, and then quickly dismissed it. The Release-Date delivery is great if you haven't tried it yet. (Only available for big releases)

@lalaland13: I had a Chase card cancelled because I hadn't used it in years. Probably should have seen it coming. I have two other Chase cards that are still active, though. One is used for all of my purchases, and the other I keep alive with a transaction every few months.

@jesspark:

Billy the coke head. Anybody surprised? I'm not. Reminds me of hush limpballs. Lot's of loud obnoxious talk.

@Keavy_Rain: New Fallout 3, you say? And Dr. Horrible 2? I am interested in your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter!