We’re not sure at which den of fun reader Jake spotted this claw game, but he did notice that there’s kind of a big discrepancy between the variety of toys that it offers, and the variety of toys that players actually get. “I’d hate to see what [their] “Small Choice” has to offer,” Jake writes. Or maybe we’re just bigoted and think that all minions look alike. [More]
IKEA’s Website Hates Me And I Don’t Know Why
By May 22, 2013
Rob really likes IKEA. IKEA doesn’t seem to have any strong feelings about Rob, but the store’s web site hates him. They don’t want to do business with him. It’s nothing personal, surely, but the web site believes that he doesn’t exist, and not even anyone at IKEA has ben able to figure out why this is or what to do about it. [More]
Amy’s Baking Company Reopens, Offers Disappointingly Little Drama
By May 22, 2013
The Internet was ready for the re-opening of bakery, bistro, and Internet drama factory Amy’s Baking Company. One woman who couldn’t get a reservation literally sat outside of the place munching on popcorn, waiting for…explosions? People with Yelp accounts being ejected from the building with a cannon? Whatever spectators were waiting for, they didn’t get it. The massive security presence at the grand re-opening saw to that. [More]
Ann Taylor Scrambles My Data With My Friend’s, Shrugs
By May 22, 2013
Patty set out to make a purchase from Ann Taylor Loft. Her friend who lives in a different state did not. And yet, their data is somehow tangled. Patty’s friend’s credit card info is part of Patty’s Ann Taylor account record, and no one has any idea why. [More]
Big Lots Finds Kids’ Safety Unbelievably Important
By May 21, 2013
It’s nice that Big Lots takes toy recalls seriously: we agree that alerting people to dangerous products so they can get pulled off shelves as soon as possible is a noble undertaking. It’s also very well and good that they promote their low prices as “Unbelievable!” However, when you combine the two, that’s when things get a little confusing. [More]
My KitchenAid Oven’s Self-Cleaning Cycle Is A Self-Destruct Sequence
By May 21, 2013
Harry bought a KitchenAid oven back in 2006, but he doesn’t use his oven very much. He was deployed in the military, and hasn’t even been home for much of the time that he’s owned the appliance. Cleaning his house in preparation for his upcoming wedding, he tried out the oven’s self-cleaning feature for the first time. This turned out to be a bad idea. [More]
Colorado Dad Goes Out For Ice Cream, Thwarts Robbery
By May 21, 2013
Staying with her dad for the weekend, a Colorado girl wondered why it took so long for her dad to run to Safeway for some ice cream. When he got back, she asked him what the delay was all about. “I had to break up a robbery,” he said. Yeah, right. But unlike when your dad kids about being a superhero, it was true! [More]
Don’t Pay $100 Or More For A Certified Copy Of Your Deed: That’s Not A Thing
By May 21, 2013
Are you a property owner? If someone sends you a solicitation or a bill asking for money in exchange for a copy of your deed, throw it away. That isn’t a thing. [More]
Scammers Pretend To Buy Gas Station, Hold Amazing Sale, Run Away
By May 21, 2013
A strange gas station scam in Minnesota didn’t hurt customers, exactly: it benefited customers. The scam victim was the owner of the gas station, who thought that they had sold the place to credible new owners. Instead, after a glorious one-day sale with everything in the convenience store half off and gas about forty cents per gallon below the local market price, the sale collapsed. The owner says that the down payment check bounced, the buyers disappeared, and $50,000 in cash was missing…along with the gas and merchandise that local customers pounced on during that too-good-to-be-true sale. [More]
Amy’s Baking Company Cancels Press Conference Under Lawsuit Threat From Gordon Ramsay’s Production Company
By May 21, 2013
Operating on the sound principle of “if you can’t say anything nice, shut your trap,” the couple who own Amy’s Baking Company, the famed self-immolating bistro in Arizona, have canceled this afternoon’s press conference. Why is that? Did they decide to dedicate the afternoon to training their new staff and revamping the menu instead? Have too many Yelpers threatened to show up? Well, no–the production company behind Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares” sent them a letter reminding them that if they “disparage the show, the host, or its producers,” they’ll owe “liquidated damages of $100,000.” Keeping this in mind, they just went ahead and canceled the press conference. [More]
Silly Me, Expecting My Mail-Order Pharmacy To Pay Attention To My Meds
By May 20, 2013
Don’t expect your mail-order pharmacy to look out for you or for your health. That’s what reader Kathleen learned when her auto-refill prescription got auto-refilled, in spite of her new and exciting prescription for the same medication in a higher dose. Isn’t the point to having everything run by benevolent computers that they’re smarter than we are, and don’t make silly human errors? [More]
Team Of ‘Robin Hoods’ Feeds Parking Meters, Gets Sued
By May 20, 2013
The city of Keene, New Hampshire claims that the problem isn’t the “Robin Hood” brigade of people who feed parking meters in the city in order to save drivers from tickets. No, they can fill meters with coins all day long and the city government claims that it won’t mind. The problem, claims the city, is that the merry band of meter-feeders are harassing and stressing out all three parking enforcement officers and being nuisances while they save residents from tickets. So the city has sued them. [More]
Before House Fire Flames Are Out, Contractors And Adjusters Drum Up Business
By May 20, 2013
When a house catches fire, there can be more than one type of first responder. There are the life-saving fire department and emergency medical services…and then there are the businesspeople selling repair and cleanup services, who sometimes arrive at the scene at the same time as the official first responders. Instead of hoses, axes, and ladders, these crews carry clipboards, contracts, and business cards. [More]
Macy’s Includes Free Mug In My Box Of Air Pillows
By May 20, 2013
The over-packaging Stupid Shipping Gangsters don’t just work for Amazon. They’re everywhere. Reader Matt encountered the Gang when he made a purchase from Macy’s. He bought a pair of shoes and added a mug to make the free shipping limit. He received a box large enough to hold everything that he had purchased, and assumed that it did. It did not. It held only a mug and a great wealth of air pillows. [More]
Yahoo To Pay $1.1 Billion Cash For Blogging Platform Tumblr, Maybe Not Ruin It
By May 20, 2013
Yesterday, Yahoo and Tumblr announced that they’re getting hitched. Why? Yahoo needs content that uses design principles from the last decade, and Tumblr needs some grown-ups to supervise the place and figure out how to actually earn money. Is everyone involved in this transaction making a huge mistake? [More]
Amy’s Baking Company Needs To Hire 30 People, Held Weekend Job Fair
By May 20, 2013
The unemployment rate in the Phoenix metropolitan area is lower than the national rate, at only 6.4%. So it’s interesting that the next step in the comeback plan of the restaurant-cafe-Internet trainwreck was a massive job fair yesterday afternoon, in order to get staff in place for tomorrow’s grand re-opening. [More]
Zombie Amazon Returns More Common Than You Might Think
By May 17, 2013
Earlier this week, we asked whether our readers had any experience with zombie refunds: items that you sent back to a retailer, only to have your refund later reversed for no clear reason. We heard from a surprising number of people whose transactions have risen from the archives and devoured their bank accounts. [More]
Where’s The Best Place To Get Drugs For Your Pet? The Human Pharmacy
By May 17, 2013
Generally, when you go to the doctor for a checkup, you don’t fill your prescriptions right there in the office at the same time that you hand over your co-pay. That generally is what pet owners do at the vet, though. As it turns out, the cheapest place to get your pets’ drugs may not be mail-order pharmacies or your vet’s office, but the chain or independent pharmacy where you get drugs for the human members of your family. [More]
