The rent-to-own business is an extremely profitable one: who wouldn’t want to collect more than three times the list price of, say, a computer? So it’s interesting but not surprising that troubled retailer Sears is now entering the lease-to-own market in a partnership with the existing rent-to-own company WhyNotLeaseIt. [More]
Sears Heard That Rent-To-Own Is Ridiculously Profitable, Decides To Try It Out
By May 10, 2013
U.S. Government: You Can’t Kick Someone Out Of Your Restaurant Because They’re Scabby
By May 9, 2013
If someone looks sort of icky, do you have the right to ask them to leave your restaurant? According to the United States Government, the answer is “no, not if they look icky because of a protected disability.” A Golden Corral restaurant in Michigan has learned that lesson the hard way, and throwing out a child with a genetic skin condition will cost them $60,000. [More]
Without An Address, FedEx Still Tracks Me Down In Tokyo
By May 9, 2013
Jeff is an American who currently lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo is a dense and baffling city, and his bank, USAA, created a huge problem when they sent him a check using FedEx but sort of forgot to include his street address. In a city of millions and in neighborhood of 300,000, FedEx’s challenge was to find one foreign dude. They could have just sent the envelope back to USAA. Instead, they accepted the challenge and got the package to Jeff before the original delivery estimate was up. [More]
No, A Dietary Supplement Probably Doesn’t Prevent Gray Hair
By May 9, 2013
One of the fun things about working in the media is definitely reading the odd press releases and story pitches that cross my inbox every day. Our colleagues over at Consumer Reports received a pitch in their mailbox about a dietary supplement that’s supposed to “prevent and reverse” gray hair. Wait, that’s a thing? Not only is it a thing, but someone was pushing it as a great Mother’s Day gift. [More]
Amazon Packs Your Snacks Extra Safely In A Box Ten Times Too Big
By May 9, 2013
Alex says that when a giant box from Amazon arrived on his doorstep, he was puzzled. There was a huge, huge box, but all he had ordered were some Munchies brand peanuts that were on sale. (Having Prime makes you do that kind of thing.) That couldn’t possibly be all that was in the box: there was enough space in there for hundreds of packets of peanuts. He had only ordered 32. So what was in the box? [More]
Irish Snack Fans Can’t Get Enough Cheese And Onion Potato Chip-Flavored Chocolate Bars
By May 9, 2013
Even though this is America, we are not the top country as far as wacky and amazing snack foods go. No, that would probably be Japan. But Ireland is making a serious run at the title, since their citizens are currently going mad for chocolate bars flavored with bits of cheese and onion potato chips. [More]
What Is The Gray Market, And Why Should I Care?
By May 9, 2013
Back in February, we posted the story of a reader who got a great deal from an online discount vendor on a Samsung MP3 player, but learned that there was a reason why the deal was so fab. It had been manufactured for the Chinese market, not the United States market, and made its way to her pocket through gray market channels. That meant that it didn’t have a warranty through Samsung USA: if she wanted to fix it, she had to send it for repair in Hong Kong. Okay, but what’s the “gray market?” [More]
Adobe’s Creative Suite: Now Only For Rent, Not For Sale
By May 8, 2013
“Ahhh…the joys of having a monopoly running your professional life,” writes reader Brian. Like many people who depend on Adobe’s Creative Suite to perform their creative work, he’s upset at the news that Adobe is abandoning the stuffy, old-fashioned software business model where you buy a program once and get to keep it. Instead, they’re going to release new versions solely through their Creative Cloud service, charging a monthly subscription price. [More]
UPS Not Experimenting With Exciting New Teleportation Service
By May 8, 2013
Did you know that UPS is now able to teleport packages hundreds of miles in only a few minutes? It’s true. Well, that, or something went slightly wrong with the timestamps on reader Kain’s package. [More]
Student Loan Company Implies That If I Don’t Friend Them On Facebook, I Will Default
By May 8, 2013
Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation is a large student loan servicer/guarantor, and a not-for-profit company. Their goal is a worthy one: they want to keep their customers engaged and get them to pay their student loans back. This is for the good of their customers, the good of the company, and really for the good of our entire economy. A recent e-mail they sent to their customers bothered a few readers, though, because it seemed to imply that if they didn’t follow the company on Twitter, they will default on their student loans. [More]
Macy’s Doesn’t Want You Stockpiling Lip Gloss, Cuts You Off At Six
By May 8, 2013
“Your activity on our site indicates that you are trying to circumvent our restrictions by submitting multiple orders,” said the letter that Macy’s sent to reader Janet. What was she doing? Buying up loss leaders to resell? Taking advantage of a pricing error for her own profit? No…her crime was placing two separate orders for lip gloss from their website. [More]
theftIf you put a laptop computer in your Walmart cart, then put a giant bag of cat food on top of it, it’s possible that no one will notice the computer. However, if you walk out of the store without paying for either item, you’d think someone might notice. Police say that one Florida man walked out with four laptops and a lot of cat food on four separate trips before he was caught. [WTSP]
Time Warner Technicians Rescue Kitten Snuggled Up Against Cable Lines
By May 8, 2013
Late on Saturday night, a San Antonio apartment complex needed an urgent visit from Time Warner Cable. Was it a building-wide Internet outage? Disrupted movie-viewing? No… a tiny kitten was stuck in one of the plastic pipes that contain Time Warner’s lines below the building, and wouldn’t come out. [More]
Starbucks Sort Of Implements Suspended Coffee, Donates Food And Drink To Nonprofit
By May 8, 2013
Back in March, we simultaneously spread the and scorned the “suspended coffee” meme: a concept originating in the Italian city of Naples where customers can order an extra coffee or food item for a stranger in need that they can request at any time. We dismissed the entire concept as something that a global chain like Starbucks would never implement because it is too complicated to administer and prone to fraud. We were wrong. [More]
When An International eBay Seller Says ‘Just Keep Waiting,’ Don’t Listen
By May 7, 2013
I. calls the eBay scam that he encountered recently a “new” scam, but it’s actually an ancient and time-honored one. How it works is simple: an international seller claims to have sent your item, then stalls until after the period during which you can file a complaint against the seller has expired. THis leaves you with no ability to leave bad feedback and no recourse, and eBay knows it. [More]
Office Max Shuts Down Due To Power Outage That’s Already Over
By May 7, 2013
Kaleb has the bad fortune (maybe) to live in a part of the Midwest where it snowed at the beginning of May this year. The storm was so bad that it led to a power outage, and the power outage led to some businesses closing. While the power was out. In the case of one Office Max, every business around them was bustling with activity while they remained closed.
It was the sign on the door of the fully lit store saying that the closure was due too [sic] the power outage that really got to Kaleb. [More]
Haggling For People Who Are Terrified To Haggle
By May 7, 2013
Unless they’re flea market regulars, modern Americans are not great at haggling. It’s why we hate car shopping so much. Most of us want our prices posted on the wall or on a little sticker, and that’s all. But simple haggling can save a lot of money, and it can be relatively painless. You just have to say seven words. [More]
Man Who Lost $2600 In Carnival Game Claims He’s Not As Stupid As You Think He Is
By May 7, 2013
The man who invested $2600 in winning an Xbox Kinect at a New Hampshire carnival is not as stupid as you think he is, okay? In a recent interview, he elaborated on the news reports on him, explaining that the nefarious carny who took his money had assured him that he would receive all of his money back in exchange for attracting a huge crowd around the game. It was only after he returned to the booth and only got $600 back that he realized something was wrong. [More]
