Recently by Laura Northrup
T-Mobile: Sorry You Lost Your Job And Had To Move, Here's Your $500 ETF Bill
By Laura Northrup on May 24, 2012 12:35 PM
86 Comments
Walter's wife was laid off from her position in Chicago, needed a job. She found one in a different Midwestern city: Omaha. She doesn't seem to have any complaints about Omaha, except for the thing where she has next to no cell phone service. This still isn't enough to get her out of her contract with T-Mobile, and she's on the hook for her entire early termination fee, plus her whole non-prorated last month of service. More »
At Carl's Jr., A Cheeseburger Made Of Ice Cream
By Laura Northrup on May 24, 2012 11:35 AM
32 Comments
Not to be outdone by the Choco Taco, the fast food geniuses at Carl's Jr. are testing a new product that busts right through the line between dinner and dessert: the Ice Cream Brrrger. It is exactly what it sounds like. A chocolate ice cream "patty" inside a sugar cookie bun, with red, yellow, and green icing meant to simulate cheese, ketchup, and lettuce. More »
Bought A Groupon, An iPhone 4, Or Coconut Water? These Class Actions Are For You
By Laura Northrup on May 24, 2012 10:36 AM
30 Comments
Have you bought coconut water, pinot noir, a Samsung TV, or an iPhone 4? If you purchased any of these products, plus a whole bunch more, you may be eligible to file a claim in one of these recently settled class action lawsuits. Proof of purchase isn't always required, but lying is bad consumer karma. More »
5 Ways To Save Money By Spending Money
By Laura Northrup on May 24, 2012 9:40 AM
40 Comments
It seems counter-intuitive, but frugality doesn't always necessarily mean clutching your wallet with a vise grip and refusing to spend on non-essentials. Sometimes spending a little more doesn't just make your life easier: it can save you money in the long run. More »
Law Dropout Debilitated By Asperger Syndrome Gets $339,361 In Student Loans Forgiven
By Laura Northrup on May 24, 2012 9:08 AM
91 Comments
College debt is one of the few debts that can't be discharged in bankruptcy, unless you have a really, really good reason. You pretty much have to be dead or have a debilitating disability that keeps you from working. So it caught the attention of the National Law Journal when a Maryland woman in her 60s had $339,361 in college debt discharged in bankruptcy court earlier this month. More »
Papa John's Really, Really Cares That They Gave Me Wrong Pizza Crust
By Laura Northrup on May 24, 2012 8:00 AM
68 Comments
The complaint behind this story was not, at its core, a serious consumer problem. Chris ordered a pizza that was missing a few toppings and on the wrong type of crust. What's notable is that the regional management of Papa John's treated it like it was. Well, eventually. After the local store manager insisted that the error was Chris's fault, he fired off a quick complaint on the website. And that's when corporate solicitousness and free pizzas rained down upon him. Not literally. That would be kind of scary. More »
FDA Still Not Sure Why Chinese Jerky Made 1,000 Dogs Sick
By Laura Northrup on May 23, 2012 12:36 PM
32 Comments
Pet owners think that we're doing our pets a favor by purchasing treats for them that are just pure dried meat: no flour, no soy, no additives, just meat. But these treats may not be as healthy as they seem. Many dog owners claim that these treats have made their pets ill with problems ranging from diarrhea to kidney failure, and many animals have died. The Food and Drug Administration continues to investigate, even sending inspectors to the production facilities in China, but can't determine what causes the illnesses. More »
These Men Died For Your 3G Signal (And A Paycheck)
By Laura Northrup on May 23, 2012 11:30 AM
59 Comments
In the last few years of the aughts, while many of us privileged jerks were whining about how our iPhones kept dropping calls, and the national mobile network couldn't handle the call volume generated by our data-slorping smartphones, a hidden army of workers were there for us, risking their lives so that we could download podcasts on the bus. These dudes (they're all dudes) scale towers to fix and upgrade equipment, working for subcontractors and receiving relatively low pay of $10-$11 per hour. And some of them fall and die. More »
The Case Of The Newegg Investigation, The Missing Refund, And The Vanishing Unlocked Phone
By Laura Northrup on May 23, 2012 10:37 AM
35 Comments
Brian was really excited to open up and play with his new toy, an unlocked phone that he ordered on sale from Newegg. But the box arrived on his doorstep and.... no phone. The bluetooth headset that he had ordered was there, but not the phone. He grew impatient with Newegg's investigation when the missing phone wasn't his fault, and managed to get their customer service to do the right thing and get the phone into his hand, at the sale price. Only neither of their promised refunds—of the original purchase price, and of the difference between the original price and what Brian paid for the replacement phone—have come through. More »
Target Feels Need To Brag About Selling Gift Cards At Face Value
By Laura Northrup on May 23, 2012 9:34 AM
29 Comments
Hey, who doesn't love gift cards? Target sells a few as impulse items at the checkout, and Reader Cheryl noticed something curious. The gift cards had the same "as advertised" tag that sale flyer items at Target get, but they weren't on sale. They were being sold at face value. As gift cards generally are. More »
DirecTV: You Can't Cancel $198 NFL Package Until Next Month
By Laura Northrup on May 23, 2012 9:02 AM
30 Comments
It was pretty thoughtful of DirecTV to automatically renew Pete's $198 NFL Sunday Ticket subscription. You know, in case he forgot. He didn't forget, actually, and he was planning to discontinue his subscription to the package. He can't. The auto-renew stands, and he won't be allowed to cancel the package until a month after the auto-renewal notice. You know, just in case he forgets. More »
My Dad's Neighbor Ate His Delicious Birthday Steaks, Omaha Steaks Fixes My Error
By Laura Northrup on May 23, 2012 8:05 AM
118 Comments
Kara is a totally great daughter, which is why she sent her dad a box of Omaha Steaks for his last birthday. She isn't as great at typing in his address, though, and the box had been delivered to a neighbor's house. This neighbor quietly signed for and ate $70 worth of gift meats. While the good news is that Omaha Steaks went above and beyond, correcting Kara's error and sending replacements, this still means that her dad has to live next to some jerk who ate his birthday present. Maybe this neighbor will invite him over for an incredibly awkward barbecue. More »
Zynga-Branded AmEx Prepaid Card Lets You Earn FarmVille Cash In The Real World
By Laura Northrup on May 22, 2012 12:34 PM
30 Comments
This site does not, in general, approve of Zynga's freemium addiction-based gaming model or fee-laden prepaid debit cards. So we are amused and slightly dismayed to bring you the news that AmEx and Zynga have teamed up to bring a Farmville points rewards card into the world. Fill up your card, spend the money, earn points to buy in-game stuff. How could this product possibly go wrong? More »
Changing My Last Name At Marriage Means I Can't Fly
By Laura Northrup on May 22, 2012 11:52 AM
99 Comments
Drawing conclusions from our mailbox here at Consumerist's virtual HQ, no one in the United States ever changes their last name when they get married. Or dies. Both events result in such confusion at some companies that it's clear they have never encountered them before. That's clear from Claire's experience booking a flight after her name change. She was already a Delta customer, so they used the name that was in their system and said they could change it later. This was not, strictly speaking, possible. More »
(akeg)
Even A Happy Ending To An Appliance Saga Doesn't Leave Customer Happy
By Laura Northrup on May 22, 2012 10:38 AM
78 Comments
Last year, George purchased an Electrolux refrigerator from HH Gregg. Just barely a year after the first anniversary of his purchase, the fridge broke down. After he contacted four separate repair shops trying to find someone to fix it, the search came up empty. No repair tech, no working fridge. But wait! Electrolux contacted him, offering to buy back the fridge for the same price he paid for it. Hooray! But he's still not satisfied, since the refund doesn't cover the full cost of getting a new appliance. More »
Olive Oil 'For Kids' Is Apparently A Thing
By Laura Northrup on May 22, 2012 9:35 AM
45 Comments
Marketing material for Zoe brand organic extra virgin olive oil targeted at kids brags that it is "at the forefront of the burgeoning children's health food market." While the news that there is food targeted at children that doesn't contain alarming shades of food dye, high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, or even "cheez," it's still Olive Oil For Kids, and we're still going to snicker at it. More »
Disneyland Hikes Ticket Prices As Much As 30%
By Laura Northrup on May 22, 2012 9:05 AM
109 Comments
Prepare to pay even more to stand in line waiting to enjoy rides. For the second time in less than a year, Disney is hiking prices at its California theme parks. The cost of tickets will increase 9% (from $80 to $87) for the humble one-day pass for guests over 10, and 30% (from $499 to $649) for annual passes that include the cost of parking. More »
(hep)
Sears Finds New And Exciting Ways To Not Deliver Me A Working Dishwasher
By Laura Northrup on May 22, 2012 8:03 AM
60 Comments
Years ago, in a time so foreign and distant that many of us can barely remember it, Sears was the place to go if you wanted to buy a quality appliance. That's not the case anymore. Evidently now it's the place to go if you want to buy a non-operational appliance and take a bunch of unnecessary days off work. Tomorrow morning, Jesse will be waiting for a technician to come by and (most likely) not get his new dishwasher to work. The second, replacement dishwasher that Sears brought after the first one didn't work either. More »
(Ninja M.)
Woman Returns Lost iPhone, Is Rewarded With Beating
By Laura Northrup on May 21, 2012 12:45 PM
57 Comments
The 53-year-old woman in Fredericksburg, Va. was trying to perform a good deed. She found an iPhone near a convenience store, and contacted the owner to give it back. They agreed to meet up outside of a restaurant, and the phone's owner promised a reward. Then things went horribly wrong: according to police, the phone's owner took the phone back, handed over the reward, then attacked her from behind while she was walking away. More »
FTD.com Vs. Reality: Enjoy Your Mother's Day Chargeback
By Laura Northrup on May 21, 2012 11:30 AM
64 Comments
It's not a major flower-giving holiday here at The Consumerist without an installment of the Garden of Discontent. Laura (not me, a different one) sent along this disappointing diptych of the lush bouquet that she ordered for her mom from FTD.com and the meager handful of plant matter that was actually delivered, a day late. More »
Pizza Hut Thinks We Should Eat Pasta With Our Fingers
By Laura Northrup on May 21, 2012 10:30 AM
87 Comments
Jeff and his wife were traveling, and had a hankering for one of Pizza Hut's pasta dishes. They ordered up some starch-laden caloriffic goodness from The Hut's website, then followed up with a phone call to say, "hey, we're staying in a motel, can you send along some plastic forks?" This was evidently too much for the local Pizza Hut to handle. Which is kind of odd, considering that they deliver food and all. More »
Fraudulent eBay Buyer Leaves You Minus $1000 And A MacBook Pro
By Laura Northrup on May 21, 2012 9:30 AM
119 Comments
Earlier this month, Jacob sold a MacBook Pro on eBay. His buyer appeared to be in Australia, but contacted him after payment and asked to have the computer shipped to Indonesia. Since he's both a Consumerist reader and a person with a functioning brain, Jacob was wary of this change, suspecting some kind of fraud. He called up eBay to see what he should do. The customer service representative told him that he needed to mail the laptop, or it would negatively affect his seller account. So he sent it along, then heard from eBay less than 24 hours later that the buyer's account had been compromised. You don't say! Now Jacob is out both a laptop and the $1,023.74 payment. More »
(qJake)
Want To Look At A Car? Dodge Dealership Needs All Of Your Info
By Laura Northrup on May 21, 2012 9:00 AM
95 Comments
Allen wanted to look at a new Dodge Charger. Not test-drive it. Just look at it, and maybe check out the interior or sit inside. But the dealership he visited wouldn't let him even look at the car without taking down his name, address, driver's license information, and phone number. Annoyed, he left the dealership and did a Google Images search or something instead. More »
Pay No Attention To The Flickering Excited Pixel On Your Plasma TV
By Laura Northrup on May 21, 2012 8:00 AM
40 Comments
Joshua has only had his Panasonic 3-D plasma TV for six months, so it's still well within the initial one-year warranty. It's developed a strange problem where one particular area of the screen glows bright green, flickers, and is hot to the touch. Once Panasonic was able to find someone on staff capable of viewing the YouTube video he sent in as evidence, they ultimately concluded that a hot flickering pixel is not covered by the warranty. Really? Somehow, he expected more after dropping $1,500 on a TV. More »
(PepOmint)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on May 18, 2012 12:30 PM
52 Comments
- 9 Examples Why You May Want To Avoid Homeowners Associations Like The Plague
- Can A Restaurant Meal Be So Bad You Shouldn't Pay The Bill?
- Apparently This Woman Doesn't Find Clothing Necessary For Running Errands
- There's A Used Condom In My Room. Does The Hotel Owe Me Anything?
(formatc1)
New Shoes Hurt, New Balance Replaces Them
By Laura Northrup on May 18, 2012 11:35 AM
42 Comments
Sean's new shoes hurt his feet. When he realized that this wasn't because he was out of shape or had bought the wrong size, he figured it had been too long since buying the shoes, and he wouldn't be able to return them. Not so when the shoes were from New Balance, purveyors of sneaker awesomeness. More »
This HSBC Customer Is Left Out Of The Changeover
By Laura Northrup on May 18, 2012 10:32 AM
38 Comments
Last year, HSBC unloaded it credit card division on Capital One, and most of its retail bank branches in the Northeast to upstate New York's First Niagara Bank. They've also been selling off their retail banking operations in other countries. Regular people just aren't as profitable as we used to be. The thing is, while those branches and all of their customers have been sold, not all of their customers are making the change. George, who lives near a branch but had opened his HSBC accounts online for the sake of convenience, didn't know this. He's not associated with a branch, so his account stays with HSBC. He just won't have a branch to go to. More »
(matneym)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on May 18, 2012 9:34 AM
18 Comments
Here are twelve of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
Why Did Toyota Sell Me A Van With An Obsolete Navigation System?
By Laura Northrup on May 18, 2012 9:02 AM
107 Comments
Ben bought a Toyota Sienna minivan last year, and one of the fancy options included was a built-in navigation system. That's neat. But what's strange is that his car has the wrong system. It has the one meant for the 2011 model, not the 2012 that he purchased. This doesn't seem like all that big a deal, but it hurts the resale value of his van and is just generally annoying. Wouldn't you want the technology that you paid for? More »
(SuziJane)
1800Flowers.com Doesn't Deliver Mom's Flowers, Conveniently Forgets To Tell You
By Laura Northrup on May 18, 2012 8:03 AM
48 Comments
Here's the thing with sending gifts, particularly gifts of flowers. You generally don't call up the recipient ahead of time and say, "hey, expect some flowers on Saturday." A big part of the gift is the delight and element of surprise. Aaron ordered some Mother's Day flowers for his mom from 1800Flowers.com, and only learned that his order hadn't showed up later in the week when he noticed she hadn't mentioned them. Okay, they hadn't delivered the flowers, but why didn't they notify him, and why did they keep the money? More »
Lenovo Has My Defective Computer, Isn't Returning My Calls
By Laura Northrup on May 17, 2012 12:30 PM
20 Comments
Bethany's Lenovo laptop computer is pretty nice. At least, it is when it's around. It keeps taking extended vacations at Lenovo's repair depot, to the point that she had to buy another computer in order to get through finals and computerless life in general. After they held on to her machine for three weeks, she finally asked for a refund instead of getting the evidently defective computer back. That's when they stopped returning her calls. More »
Flying While Fat: Research And Self-Awareness Mean Smooth Travel
By Laura Northrup on May 17, 2012 11:33 AM
109 Comments
Reader Mechpaul is a large man. He used to avoid flying, afraid of what would happen if he was too big for his seat, encroaching on his neighbors' space and potentially being humiliated and marched off the plane. Instead of approaching his flight with fear, he armed himself with two essential tools: a measuring tape and the Internet. He used these to find out whether he would fit in a United Airlines seat, and to plan accordingly. More »
No More Plastic Bags Anywhere In Hawaii
By Laura Northrup on May 17, 2012 10:36 AM
86 Comments
Quite a few municipalities have managed to ban the practice of giving out non-biodegradeable plastic bags at checkout, including three of Hawaii's four counties. Last month, the Honolulu County Council passed its own ban, making Hawaii the first state where single-use plastic bags in stores are verboten. More »
Can Verizon Hike My Cable Box Rent In The Middle Of A Contract?
By Laura Northrup on May 17, 2012 9:35 AM
52 Comments
Jeanne has had her Verizon FiOS settop boxes for three years now, and the rent for them has remained the same. Until now. The difference is only a dollar, but what vexes her is that she just signed a contract in order to get a discount on her service. They shouldn't be able to raise the rent when she's signed a contract. Should they? And why is the rent higher when she still has the same old boxes? More »
Morningstar Veggie Dogs Make Triumphant Return To Grocery Shelves
By Laura Northrup on May 17, 2012 9:03 AM
212 Comments
I have to be honest: the last two summers have been tough. Like other vegetarians, I've been forced to make it through grilling season without access to the superior veggie dogs made by Morningstar Farms. They disappeared from store shelves in 2009 due, the company told sad customers, to a problem with sourcing one of the ingredients. The popular corn dogs returned last year, but the plain old hot dogs didn't...until now. They're back on store shelves, but are they any good? I set out on a rigorous research project, also known as "dinner." More »
(smcgee)
Target's Price-Match Policy Not Suited To Paperless World
By Laura Northrup on May 17, 2012 8:30 AM
51 Comments
Brick-and-mortar stores that match competitors' prices generally don't match prices from online merchants. They also won't match the websites of their competitors down the street, or price-match their own websites. All of that is reasonable and well within their rights. But what happens in a paperless world, where the only evidence a customer has of that sale price is a circular delivered electronically? Reader Span_Wolf receives an electronic copy of the Best Buy circular every week. Getting a paper copy would require a trip to Best Buy or purchasing a Sunday newspaper. But this isn't sufficient proof of the lower price for Target. More »
AT&T Upgrades DSL Customer To U-Verse, Slower Internet, Static
By Laura Northrup on May 16, 2012 12:32 PM
22 Comments
Cameron moved recently, but not all that far away. Just to another apartment within the same building. Not so bad. He's been an AT&T DSL customer for six years, but the Death Star wants to wean customers off DSL and get them onto U-Verse. Cameron was told that he couldn't be reconnected to DSL down the hall, so he upgraded to U-Verse. Only the upgrade is more of a downgrade. To lower Internet speeds and static on the phone line. More »
Skechers To Pay $40 Million In Refunds Because Putting On Shoes Is Not A Workout
By Laura Northrup on May 16, 2012 11:15 AM
58 Comments
News flash: you can't work out by not working out. As we predicted in November, the Federal Trade Commission has settled with shoemaker Skechers over claims that their rounded-bottom Shape-Up shoes helped wearers to tone their lower-body muscles and lose weight. These claims were all over ads and promotional material for the shoes, including an ad that aired during the 2011 Super Bowl. More »
Didn't Notice Damage To IKEA Item Before Attaching Legs? Tough
By Laura Northrup on May 16, 2012 10:34 AM
53 Comments
If you want to get a refund for a damaged IKEA item, God help you if you take a few minutes to put it together first. Alan ordered a desk, which had a small dent in the side of the box. Figuring the item inside was fine, he put it together. This turned out to be a fatal mistake, since assembling an item means you're then unable to More »
Dell Offers 25% Off Deal To Troops, Then Cancels Orders
By Laura Northrup on May 16, 2012 9:33 AM
64 Comments
Matthew, an Air Force veteran, saw a great deal on Dell laptops on the website of the Army & Air Force Exchange Service, a network of stores just for servicemembers. 25% off in a Mother's Day special, an impressive deal. He ordered three, because who doesn't want new, discounted laptops for their whole family? Only Dell canceled Matthew's order and those of some other customers, with no explanation. More »
Alleged Customer Sues Over 2010 Racist Walmart PA Prank
By Laura Northrup on May 16, 2012 9:04 AM
117 Comments
Loyal Consumerist readers and retail-watchers may remember the 2010 incident in which a 16-year-old took over the PA system of a New Jersey Walmart and announced, "Attention Walmart customers: all black people must leave the store." The prankster had done the same thing a few months before, and was charged with harassment and bias intimidation for each incident. Now, more than two years later, someone has filed a lawsuit against the store over the incident. He claims to have been in the store at the time of the prank, and that the incident led to "depression, anxiety, anger, loss of sleep and appetite, paranoia, and antisocial tendencies." More »
Sears Offers Crappy Tools And Service, First-Rate Apologies
By Laura Northrup on May 16, 2012 8:02 AM
42 Comments
We're still not quite sure what Sears is. It pretends to be a retail operation, but in reality acts more like its existence is an elaborate anti-capitalist prank, aiming to keep consumers from exchanging their money for tangible goods. Take, for example, the case of Michael. He would like to order a Craftsman steel workbench frame from Sears, and Sears is doing its best to prevent him from owning one. More »
Amazon Has A Strange Definition Of 'Counterfeit'
By Laura Northrup on May 15, 2012 12:33 PM
75 Comments
Philip has a fun and profitable hobby: he looks for great deals on items online, then resells those items on the Amazon Marketplace. Recently, he found a great deal on headphones on Amazon itself, so he bought the item before the price expired, then listed it on Amazon as usual. This resulted in a nastygram from Amazon telling him that his account had been suspended for listing counterfeit Sennheiser headphones. You know, the same ones that he just bought from Amazon. More »
The Best Mattresses For That Other Thing You Use Mattresses For
By Laura Northrup on May 15, 2012 11:38 AM
59 Comments
Our lab-coated cousins down the hall at Consumer Reports may test all kinds of products extensively, including mattresses, but we're fairly certain they've never produced a ratings chart like this one. Hilariously-named sleep product review site Sleep Like the Dead polled their users to find out which type of mattress is best for the second most important thing that most people use their beds for: sex. More »
(bnilsen)
There's A Used Condom In My Room. Does The Hotel Owe Me Anything?
By Laura Northrup on May 15, 2012 10:36 AM
98 Comments
David and his wife were staying in a hotel over the weekend, and their lovely room came with a complimentary used condom on the floor. The staff on duty at the time swapped them into a different room, and promised that someone in charge would contact them in the morning. And that was the last they heard about it. He wonders: did they deserve a discount on their bill, a comped night, or anything at all for their trouble? More »
I Think Maybe I Used To Own An Asus Laptop
By Laura Northrup on May 15, 2012 9:35 AM
37 Comments
Dave owns an Asus laptop. Well, he kind of vaguely remembers owning an Asus laptop. He's had it for four months, but it's spent the last month at the repair center, not being repaired. The system claims that it's waiting for parts, but no one is able to explain what that means, or when he might expect to see his computer again. More »
Tales From The AT&T Landline Twilight Zone
By Laura Northrup on May 15, 2012 9:00 AM
17 Comments
Imagine an alternate dimension. One where you have phone service, but it isn't working. You call AT&T your service provider, and their automated response system tells you that you aren't an AT&T customer, and to call your actual provider. When you call up AT&T to wait for an actual human to sort this out, they call you back... to immediately put you on hold. More »
Rattlesnake Makes Terrible Walmart Greeter, Bites Customer
By Laura Northrup on May 15, 2012 8:30 AM
52 Comments
In a Walmart Garden Center, an outdoor area filled with plants, it's not surprising that you might encounter some critters. Maybe a large bug, a moth, a frog, or even a grass snake. While shopping for mulch for his medical marijuana plants on Friday morning, a 47-year-old Washington state man reached down to pick up what he thought was a stick, and ended up rushed to the emergency room with a rattlesnake bite. More »
Protection Plan Protects Radio Shack From Replacing Your Keyboard
By Laura Northrup on May 14, 2012 12:30 PM
46 Comments
Thomas got a good deal on a wireless keyboard and mouse at Radio Shack, and also went ahead and bought the warranty and replacement plan. The plan that lasts for one year. Six months later, the item wouldn't work. So just drop it in the mail or take it back to the store where it was purchased for a replacement, right? Not so fast. The Shack was determined that he wasn't going to bring home a replacement keyboard on their dime. More »
Safeway's New 'Easy Scoop' Ice Cream Easier To Scoop Because There's Less Of It
By Laura Northrup on May 14, 2012 11:30 AM
36 Comments
Safeway's Lucerne house brand ice creams have been repackaged, and now come in a round container branded the "Easy-Scoop Package." That's a nice redesign, and round containers are easier to scoop from. Only, as reader Ryan points out, maybe the ice cream is easier to scoop now because there's now a half-quart less of it. More »
$5K Customer Is Very Insignificant Person To Raymour & Flanigan
By Laura Northrup on May 14, 2012 10:30 AM
55 Comments
Maybe $5,000 isn't a lot to furniture retailer Raymour & Flanigan, but it is to Jeff and his fiancée. That's how much they dropped on furniture during a "VIP" sale at one of their stores. Most of the furniture has been delivered and is pretty great, but the two recliners they ordered were due to arrive weeks ago, and still haven't showed up. It's not that the furniture isn't there, Jeff explains. The real issue is that no one seems to care about keeping the couple updated. They would like to know when they'll finally be getting something to sit on. More »
Aspiring Nun Has Too Much Student Debt To Take Vow Of Poverty
By Laura Northrup on May 14, 2012 9:30 AM
86 Comments
In news stories about the student debt crisis, we hear about American young adults delaying the typical milestones of adulthood due to their student loans. They (well, we) postpone marriage, childbearing, and purchasing first homes. But what if you're interested in a holier, more altruistic path? Men and women who want to join Catholic religious life must be debt-free before they even think about making their vows, and that's a challenge for people who don't realize their calling until after they've taken on student debt in the mid-five figures. More »
Has Your Best Buy Account Been Hacked?
By Laura Northrup on May 14, 2012 9:00 AM
23 Comments
Have phantom orders been placed using your Best Buy website account that you had nothing to do with? Since the wee hours of this morning, we've heard from two separate readers who write that their accounts and credit cards were used to order downloadable content that was delivered to another person's email address. And if posts on the Best Buy user forums are any indication, they're far from alone. More »
Macy's Actually Has No Idea What Your Credit Card Number Is
By Laura Northrup on May 14, 2012 8:00 AM
43 Comments
From what we're hearing at Consumerist HQ, it's easy to picture what goes on at Macy's credit card headquarters. When a check arrives, someone throws it in the air, and then it's applied to whatever completely random bill it lands on. That might help explain what happened to Joe, or not. He doesn't even know what his account number is supposed to be in the first place, and no one in the credit card department does, either. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on May 11, 2012 12:30 PM
86 Comments
- American Airlines Regrets That Whole Lifetime First Class Pass Thing
- Woman Spends Night In Jail For Picking Up Prescription Refill
- Small Brewer Says Budweiser Is Bullying Him About Old Kegs
- Wells Fargo Fires Woman After Finding Out She Shoplifted 40 Years Ago
- Amazon Says It Will Never Compensate Us For Or Assist With Problems In Any Future Deliveries
Save Two Whole Cents With This 'Smoking Hot' Frozen Pizza Deal
By Laura Northrup on May 11, 2012 11:30 AM
22 Comments
These Roman frozen pizzas normally cost all of $1.68. Who can afford that in this economy? That's why Wisconsin chain Pick 'n Save has them marked down to only $1.66 each. If you buy six, as recommended, you save twelve cents. And have a freezer full of cheap frozen pizza. Is that really where you wanted your life to end up? More »
(blue_j)
Why You Shouldn't Use PayPal On Target.com At All
By Laura Northrup on May 11, 2012 10:30 AM
41 Comments
In past reader stories posted to this site, we've learned that if you you use PayPal to buy an item from Target online, then later return it, you're only going to get store credit back. That's cool if you shop at Target a lot, but not so cool if you don't. Now Bethany has discovered an exciting and infuriating variation on this concept. If you order something from Target using PayPal and it's never delivered, sure, you'll get a refund. In the form of an e-gift card to Target. More »
(ktorster)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on May 11, 2012 9:30 AM
28 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
(formatc1)
How My Ex-Wife Is Unintentionally Keeping Me Away From My Money
By Laura Northrup on May 11, 2012 9:00 AM
21 Comments
If you're going to be goofing off on the Internet anyway, you might as well make some money at it, right? That's how so many of us find ourselves doing tiny tasks using Amazon's Mechanical Turk in the wee hours of the morning. Reader Alex recently started using it, too. He's built up a nice balance, which he would like to withdraw using his Amazon payments account. Only he can't, because that account is a joint one with his ex-wife. Who he never added to his payments account, but might have had a wedding registry with long ago. Now Amazon has locked him out of his payments account entirely, and he can't fix the situation. Hey, $75 is $75. More »
Five Months Of Verizon Upgrade Runaround, Still No New Phone
By Laura Northrup on May 11, 2012 8:00 AM
37 Comments
Jeremy is eligible for an upgrade of his unreliable Droid X. Or maybe he isn't. No, but today he totally is! It seems like every time he talks to someone new at Verizon, he gets a different answer. More »
Recall Roundup - Banzai Inflatable Slides, Kolkraft Bassinets, And More
By Laura Northrup on May 10, 2012 12:33 PM
10 Comments
There are some particularly scary recalls this week, including a massive pet food recall for dog foods manufactured by Diamond, some bassinets that might collapse and hurtle babies, and those Banzai water slides are finally being recalled after allegedly killing one person and paralyzing another. More »
7 RMAs Later, Asus Still Won't Replace My Tablet
By Laura Northrup on May 10, 2012 11:30 AM
40 Comments
Richard just wants a working tablet. He's sent his Asus Transformer in for repair seven separate times. It's usually for variations of the same issue, but Asus's records disagree. Handy, because those different service records mean that as far as Asus is concerned, the tablet hasn't come in over and over for the same issue, and doesn't need to be replaced. More »
Invoking eBay Buyer Protection? Don't Use Multiple Accounts
By Laura Northrup on May 10, 2012 10:30 AM
44 Comments
Maybe it wasn't such a great idea for De to purchase a diamond ring over eBay. But the site does have protections for buyers, and is notorious for siding with buyers in the case of a dispute. Just not in his case. Even though he got to deal with one of the rarest of beasts: an actual eBay employee over the phone, asking questions about the item using one eBay account and then using another to make the purchase was too much for eBay to understand. More »
AT&T Can Unlock Your iPhone, But Only If You Leave AT&T
By Laura Northrup on May 10, 2012 9:35 AM
34 Comments
We often hear from readers who can't get their mobile phone carriers to provide unlock codes so they can use their phone on a different network, even just while traveling abroad. AT&T only recently started providing unlock codes to customers with iPhones, and Josh managed to get one for his iPhone 4S. There was one weird condition: he had to sever his ties with AT&T forever. They couldn't provide the code and keep him as a customer. Wha? More »
Dish Keeps Making Up New Reasons Why They Want My Boyfriend's Money
By Laura Northrup on May 10, 2012 9:03 AM
50 Comments
Why does Dish Network keep charging Amy's boyfriend for his old account? It could be because he made a few payments on a deadbeat roommate's account, and then that roommate never turned the equipment back in. But he did. It could be because the account was canceled before the contract was up, and it was his name on the contract. But it wasn't. Dish just keeps making up reasons, and are determined to get his money one way or another. More »
(jadavids)
Why Private Student Loans Are A Dangerous Game
By Laura Northrup on May 10, 2012 8:04 AM
118 Comments
Co-signing a younger relative's private student loans doesn't seem like such a reckless idea. After all, it's an investment in their education and careers, they'll certainly be able to pay it all back once they're educated, and they're going to outlive you, anyway. That's not always the case, and the risks can be substantial. Jessica's best friend had her grandfather, now 80 years old, co-sign her private loans with Citibank. After her sudden and shocking death, now he's on the hook for $70,000. More »
Linksys: Where A 1-Year Warranty Sort Of Isn't A 1-Year Warranty
By Laura Northrup on May 9, 2012 12:30 PM
73 Comments
Yes, Linksys products ostensibly have a one-year warranty, but there's a catch. When Cody tried to contact them to replace a router, he learned that in order to actually use that original warranty, you need to pay extra. Specifically, after the first 90 days, you need to pay for either phone or chat support to talk to a real person who can authorize the return of your defective router. More »
Oh Look, My Friend Is Reading About Vibrators. Thanks Facebook!
By Laura Northrup on May 9, 2012 11:30 AM
41 Comments
If you don't already block "social news apps" from illustrious organizations like the Washington Post, Yahoo, and The Guardian on Facebook, maybe this incident will change your mind. Facebook seems very keen for Jake to know that his female friend is reading about vibrators, but Jake would really rather not know. Really. He wouldn't. More »
Dozens Or Hundreds Of Apple Devices Burgled From Chicago Best Buy
By Laura Northrup on May 9, 2012 10:30 AM
45 Comments
How many Apple gadgets did thieves remove from a Chicago Best Buy this past weekend? Police gave the media a modest estimate of only $42,000 worth of iPads, MacBooks, and GPS devices. However, an unnamed source whispered to CBS Chicago that the figure could be closer to $200,000, with the haul including a few hundred iPads. More »
Nomadic And Crashing With Friends? No Computer Parts For You
By Laura Northrup on May 9, 2012 9:30 AM
66 Comments
Joshua is a functioning adult with plenty of money to spend at TigerDirect, but they don't want to sell computer parts to him. That's because he leads sort of a nomadic existence. The billing address for his cards doesn't match his address history in the various "public records" databases. He could fix all this by sending in his photo ID, a utility bill, anything that proves that he is where he says he lives. But he's crashing with friends, and that doesn't get your name on the power bill. More »
Where Do Smart People Sell Collectibles These Days?
By Laura Northrup on May 9, 2012 9:00 AM
102 Comments
When you have interesting collectibles in your house that you no longer have room for, what do you do with them? Reader pop top has acquired a collection of mint-condition Cabbage Patch Kids from the '80s. Okay, she won't be able to retire on them, but they must be worth at least a few bucks each. Years ago, the question of where to sell them was simple: eBay was the best and biggest marketplace for collectibles. But horror stories of frozen funds and scammy buyers now abound, and she wants to ask the Consumerist hive mind: where is the best place to unload some cuddly dolls? More »
Research And Determination Made Lowe's Fix My Carpets
By Laura Northrup on May 9, 2012 8:00 AM
26 Comments
A few years ago, Justin had workers from Lowe's come install carpet in his house. After the warranty on the work had expired, the carpet began to stretch out in high-traffic areas. Even though he's not a professional carpet installer, Justin does have extensive experience with walking on floors, and knows that's not how it's supposed to work. He researched possible causes, learned that it was due to an installation error, and tried to get Lowe's to admit their mistake and fix the problem. Here is the exciting plot twist: they did. More »
Travelocity's 'Confirmation' Doesn't Mean You Really Booked A Hotel Room, Silly
By Laura Northrup on May 8, 2012 12:33 PM
36 Comments
The idea behind booking a hotel room or other travel through a site like Travelocity is that they're supposed to, um, actually book the travel that you pay for. They didn't manage to do that for the hotel room Graham tried to book in Maine. He booked nine weeks ahead, then learned that the reservation was imaginary two weeks before the trip. More »
Check Fraud At Toys 'R' Us: Not Fun At All
By Laura Northrup on May 8, 2012 11:33 AM
36 Comments
Lee hasn't shopped at Toys R Us in years, but he bought something there. His bank account did, and didn't bring him along for the ride. He was the victim of check fraud, with his account number used to make a purchase there. After reporting the fraud and getting his money back, he got a debt collection notice from Toys 'R' Us. He straightened that out, and now wonders: what next? More »
(Cayusa)
Want Verizon FiOS To Price-Match Itself? You Need Imaginary Re-Installation
By Laura Northrup on May 8, 2012 10:34 AM
42 Comments
A week after Kyle got Verizon FiOS installed in his new apartment, he saw an ad for a new subscriber deal that was $15 cheaper per month than the two-year contract he had just signed. No problem, then: just call them up and see whether they could price match their own deal. Sure, they could: but only if he canceled his new service, returned all of the equipment, and had the installers come out again to turn the service back on. Well, that's efficient. More »
Toshiba Thrive Tablet Cracks While Being Held: Sorry, That's Your Fault
By Laura Northrup on May 8, 2012 9:35 AM
52 Comments
Alex writes that his five-month-old Toshiba Thrive tablet cracked, sort of under its own weight. Is that possible? Maybe. Stranger things have happened to electronics. But everyone he's talked to at Toshiba doesn't think so, and they're acting like it was accidental damage. More »
UPS And UPS Store Awaken Reader's Inner Groomzilla
By Laura Northrup on May 8, 2012 9:00 AM
45 Comments
Gus's fiancée shipped the invitations for their upcoming wedding to him in Ohio from her current home in California. Only they needed to arrive before Gus leaves for a long trip today. Sending them 2nd Day Air from a UPS store, the future Mrs. Gus didn't expect them to be held for a few days to a different city in California. It was finally on its way and... delivered to the wrong place yesterday. More »
Allied Van Rentals: We Didn't Deliver Wrong Mattress, You Just Forgot Wetting The Bed
By Laura Northrup on May 8, 2012 8:07 AM
59 Comments
Mike used a local Allied affiliate for his cross-country move, and everything seemed okay. Until he unwrapped his Serta mattress and found that he had received the wrong one. How did he know this? Well, the one at his house hadn't been covered with urine stains. Or so he says. Allied, for one, doesn't believe him. More »
At Least I Tried To Buy A Vacuum From Best Buy
By Laura Northrup on May 7, 2012 12:30 PM
55 Comments
Gregg ordered a new Dyson vacuum this past weekend, and used a Best Buy gift card toward the purchase. When he arrived at the store, his order wasn't ready, even though the exact item he had ordered wasn't on the sales floor. They couldn't rush the online order process, couldn't give him back the $30 from the gift card for his in-store purchase, and couldn't do much of anything useful. So he waited for a refund and bought the same item from Lowe's. The notification e-mail never did come through. More »
Round Saltines Disguise Stealth Shrink Ray
By Laura Northrup on May 7, 2012 11:31 AM
36 Comments
As we reported on Friday, in parts of the Northeast, Nabisco's traditional Premium brand saltine crackers have abruptly disappeared from the shelves. Unless they want to switch to one of the several other brands of saltines, their only choices are mini crackers or the new round ones. The change also disguises a stealth Grocery Shrink Ray that reduces the total mass of crackers in a box. More »
(БРАТСТВО)
I Paid $2000 For A Stupid TV That Lasted Two Years
By Laura Northrup on May 7, 2012 10:30 AM
147 Comments
I feel a certain kinship with Alan. Two years ago, both of us purchased HDTVs made by Vizio. Both of us bristled at the idea of buying an extended warranty for an electronic device that really shouldn't be disposable. Both sets are out of warranty, but mine still works (for now) and Alan's has black horizontal streaks running across the screen. A warranty's a warranty, but he wonders: did he really just pay $1,000 per year for the privilege of owning a TV? More »
At Sears Card, 24-Hour Customer Service Means 'Whenever We Feel Like It'
By Laura Northrup on May 7, 2012 9:30 AM
41 Comments
Citibank now administers the Sears Card, but in order to keep their branding consistent, Citi is sure to keep the experience of dealing with Sears Card just as confusing and customer-unfriendly as dealing directly with Sears. That's what Cat discovered while trying to contact their customer service, anyway. While the number on the card promises "24-hour customer service," in the evening, there's actually no way to get through. More »
Escaped Cow Visits McDonald's Drive-Thru, Ponders Circle Of Life
By Laura Northrup on May 7, 2012 9:00 AM
22 Comments
If you're an attentive reader of this site, you know that people are always bringing inappropriate things to fast-food drive-thrus, hoping to get served. Mobility scooters. Snakes. Even pedestrians have tried and failed to acquire food. But when Darcy wandered up to the drive-thru window at a Colorado McDonald's on foot, employees didn't just wearily tell her to go inside the restaurant to order like all of the other pedestrians. That's because Darcy is a dairy cow. More »
(Cea.)
Stuck In Mexico Without Any Bags Thanks To Gate-Checked Carryon
By Laura Northrup on May 7, 2012 8:00 AM
42 Comments
Edwin's wife flew to Mexico last week, toting only her carry-on luggage. United Airlines personnel made her gate-check the suitcase, telling her that it was too big and that she would definitely get it back when she landed. She hasn't seen her suitcase since, and suspects it might have been stolen. United, as of yesterday, refused to give Edwin or Mrs. Edwin any answers. More »
(sussmanb)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on May 4, 2012 12:30 PM
75 Comments
- Man Sues BMW For His Constant Erection, Blaming Seat Design
- Man Arrested For Passing Not-Counterfeit $50 Bill
- Georgia Woman Arrested For Removing Illegal Roadside Sign
- Straight Man Says Best Buy Employee Outed Him On Facebook During Phone Servicing
- New Jersey Goes After Woman For $73 Debt From 1977
You Will Never Stop These Shipments Of Kenmore Filters
By Laura Northrup on May 4, 2012 11:30 AM
30 Comments
Automatic re-ordering of items you use a lot of can be a wonderful and convenient thing. But if you don't want the thing anymore, ending that perpetual re-order can be a colossal pain in the butt. Dave had the water filters for his Kenmore fridge set for annual re-orders from Sears PartsDirect, but discovered a cheaper source. He tried to cancel the re-order, but wasn't able to, so he removed all credit cards from his Sears account. They sent the filters anyway. More »
If You Enjoy $200 Disposable Coffeemakers, Buy A Keurig
By Laura Northrup on May 4, 2012 10:30 AM
112 Comments
I've often heard, both from readers of this site and in real life, about the generous replacement policy that coffee-pod maker Keurig has when something goes wrong with one of their products. But if you happen to buy a model that's defective, reader Synimatik tells us, Keurig will only replace it so many times before you're on your own and have to just buy yourself a new one. He didn't expect to spend more than $200 on what he calls a "disposable coffee maker." More »
(Muffet)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on May 4, 2012 9:30 AM
10 Comments
Here are thirteen of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
Home Depot Delivers $2500 Worth Of Appliances, Won't Accept Money For Them
By Laura Northrup on May 4, 2012 9:00 AM
60 Comments
Consumer thought experiment: if Home Depot delivers some appliances to you, but never bills you for them, are they free? If that were true, a California grandmother got one heck of a Cyber Monday deal on more than $2,500 worth of kitchen appliances from Home Depot. That's not what she wanted. She'd rather just pay the hardware mega-chain already, but they won't accept her money. A computer glitch makes it look like she already paid for the appliances, and Home Depot won't accept her money. More »
Rogue Garbage Truck Kidnaps My Trash, Demands Ransom
By Laura Northrup on May 4, 2012 8:00 AM
94 Comments
Reader Fubish lives in a rural area, where he pays for his own trash pickup. That's pretty normal. What isn't normal is that one day last month, an unfamiliar truck stopped in front of his house and took his trash. His regular hauler came by later and found the empty cans. Now, it would be one thing if the rogue hauler admitted that they stopped at the wrong house and just said, "oops, our bad." But they've sent him a bill for the pickup that he didn't want and never asked for. More »
10 Signs Your Used Car Is Really A Rebuilt Wreck
By Laura Northrup on May 3, 2012 12:30 PM
46 Comments
We often hear from readers horrified to discover that their perfectly lovely used car was once another owner's total loss. They only find out much later, once something goes horribly wrong due to the previous damage. But once the vehicle is all fixed up and shiny, how is the average car buyer to know the difference? It turns out that there are distinctive signs that a car was previously in a crash or flood. Some you might notice yourself, and others require a mechanic's eye. More »
(20 buckz)
11-Year-Old Destroys $36,000 Worth Of MacBooks By Peeing On Them
By Laura Northrup on May 3, 2012 11:30 AM
140 Comments
If smoking near your computer turns it into a biohazard, what does urinating on it do? According to local police, a Pennsylvania elementary school found out when an 11-year-old student emptied his bladder on a cart full of MacBooks. This hilarious prank destroyed more than $36,000 worth of computers. More »
High School Drama Class Produces Entire Musical About Wegmans
By Laura Northrup on May 3, 2012 10:30 AM
51 Comments
Northeastern grocery chain Wegmans inspires the same kind of fanatical devotion in consumers as iPhone releases or "Twilight" movie premieres. So when a Wegmans store opened in Northboro, Mass., people camped out overnight awaiting their opportunity to storm the bulk candy aisle and buy $6 prepared meals, or something. Students in a local high school's advanced drama class tapped into the zeitgeist, and have created an entire musical about the chain. It may be the world's longest grocery store commercial. More »
(diaper)
I Think Waste Management Actually Hates Me
By Laura Northrup on May 3, 2012 9:00 AM
126 Comments
A month ago, Richard signed up for trash pickup service from ubiquitous chain Waste Management. They have not, to date, delivered the WM-branded trash can that he's supposed to get, or removed any of the trash he already has at the curb. Instead, the drivers pick up the can and place it in the middle of his driveway, so he hits it with his car when he tries to leave the house. Nice. If they did this once, it would be annoying, but they've now done it twice while also ignoring all of his complaint calls and e-mails. More »
MasterCuts Gives You Bald Spot, Doesn't Tell You
By Laura Northrup on May 3, 2012 8:00 AM
79 Comments
Here's the thing about the back of your head: you can't see it. When Patrick stopped by his local Mastercuts to freshen up his 'do, they stylist let him leave without mentioning the fresh new bald spot on the back of his head. And it was only his girlfriend who was bold enough to mention the problem, finally snapping the picture at left with a cell phone camera to prove it. Mastercuts employees insisted that he must have a medical condition that caused the spot. Nope. More »
(37prime)
Keep On Rocking: EA Not Shutting Down Rock Band For iPhone
By Laura Northrup on May 3, 2012 2:01 AM
36 Comments
Good news, rockers! We heard back from our friends at EA, and yesterday's panic over the kill switch on Rock Band for iPhone was premature. They tell us that the in-app message was an error, and you can buy the game with confidence if you feel so inclined. More »
Judge: Return $1 Million Lottery Ticket Found In Trash To Original Owner
By Laura Northrup on May 2, 2012 12:30 PM
92 Comments
If you found a million dollars sitting in a convenience store trash can, would you take it? In that case, it's probably better to call the police. But when an Arkansas woman scanned her lottery ticket and learned it was a loser, she tossed it in the garbage. Another customer who likes to check discarded tickets for small winnings found the ticket and learned that it was worth one million dollars. More »
Another Seller Swears Off eBay Forever
By Laura Northrup on May 2, 2012 11:30 AM
100 Comments
There was a time, around approximately 2001, when eBay was a global marketplace where you could easily and efficiently unload items with any market value that you wanted to get rid of. Now, it's more of a global flea market full of scams and villainy. eBay and its old accomplice, the U.S. Postal Service, worked together to make Keith's old iPhone disappear into the ether. More »
(Updated) EA's Rock Band Game For iPhone Will NOT Self-Destruct In 29 Days
By Laura Northrup on May 2, 2012 10:30 AM
72 Comments
UPDATE: We heard back from EA this evening. They tell us that the message to players was an error, and Rock band is NOT being turned off after May 31. More »
Ordering Appliance At Lowe's Results In Cascade Of Incompetence
By Laura Northrup on May 2, 2012 9:30 AM
23 Comments
The employees at his local Lowe's store were pretty great, reader Tony tells us, but ordering his stove online with multiple store gift cards wasn't such a good idea. When he hit "Submit," the order didn't go through, and the Lowe's customer service buffoons weren't able to tell him what had happened. A visit to the local store resolved the situation, resulting in the actual delivery of the stove. Which was damaged. More »
J.C. Penney Employee: 'I Fear We're Turning Into Sears'
By Laura Northrup on May 2, 2012 9:00 AM
109 Comments
H. is just an ordinary employee of one city's flagship J.C. Penney store somewhere in America, but tells us that since the company's "fair and square" rebranding effort began, things are looking grim. According to H, without coupons to lure them in, the customers just aren't coming, and quiet layoffs have begun. More »
The Fax Of Shame: How It Really Feels To Lose Your Home
By Laura Northrup on May 2, 2012 8:00 AM
121 Comments
C. and her husband are a young couple who moved into their first house just a few years ago. Unable to manage their mortgage payments, they asked their lender, PNC Mortgage, for help. The bank offered them a monthly payment $500 higher than the mortgage they couldn't pay in the first place. Their house has sat empty and on the real estate market since January, waiting for a buyer to come along for a short sale. One did, and the nightmare is almost over. Or it would be, if PNC would just stop calling the couple and any relative whose phone number they can find, almost every day. More »
Taylor Rewrites Time, Crams 85 Minutes In An Hour
By Laura Northrup on May 1, 2012 12:30 PM
23 Comments
Sure, you might wish that there were more hours in the day to get things done. But what if there were more minutes in every hour? That's what Taylor Precision Products, maker of measuring devices, from thermometers to scales, has apparently accomplished with one of their timers. It puts at least 85 minutes in every hour, for maximum productivity. It's either that, or a hilarious typo. More »
Fight Discriminatory TSA Profiling With Your Smartphone
By Laura Northrup on May 1, 2012 11:30 AM
52 Comments
It's hard to find any travelers with nice things to say about the Transportation Safety Administration, but members of the Sikh faith really have a grievance. They claim that they're singled out for secondary screening at airport security to an extent that's discriminatory, and frequently ordered to allow inspections or removal of their turbans. So they're fighting back in 21st century fashion: with a smartphone app. More »
(.:AR:.)
EECB Strikes Lenovo, Gets Customer New Laptop
By Laura Northrup on May 1, 2012 10:30 AM
6 Comments
Patricia's refurbished laptop from Lenovo could have used more refurbishment. It had a scratched webcam and an unbearably rattly disc drive, and she didn't find this acceptable for a device that she had just purchased. So she tackled the issue using a time-honored consumer technique: the executive e-mail carpet bomb. Lenovo's Executive Relations team heard her plea, and sent her a new computer to replace her refurbished one. More »
Can I Use A Chargeback On A No-Show Electrician?
By Laura Northrup on May 1, 2012 9:30 AM
123 Comments
Penelope and her husband hired a licensed electrician/handyman she had worked with before to replace the breaker in her house. Miscommunication and what looks like laziness on the electrician's part meant that he missed several scheduled appointments-stopping by but not calling, then just not showing up at all. Now he's charged their credit card, but is ducking their calls and won't come out without being paid for another service visit. So Penelope and Mr. Penelope did what any sensible person would do: installed the breaker themselves, and requested a chargeback. More »
Microsoft: The Person Using Your Stolen Xbox Totally Didn't Commit Any Fraud
By Laura Northrup on May 1, 2012 9:00 AM
63 Comments
Ashlee's house was robbed last Thanksgiving, and the culprits were never caught. They replaced the stolen items, and life went on. Until her Xbox Live account signed on using another console. The same console that had been stolen, whereabouts now unknown. Maybe the identity or location of the person now using Ashlee's Xbox could provide valuable insights into who robbed their house five months ago. Microsoft wasn't interested in helping, and determined that the new owner's use of her account and attempt to use it to buy points weren't fraudulent. Well, that's good to hear! More »
(WKTV)
Police: Man Tried To Rob Banks While Brandishing Toilet Plunger
By Laura Northrup on May 1, 2012 8:00 AM
29 Comments
A toilet plunger isn't a terrifying weapon to anyone but germaphobes, or maybe a child with nightmares of being chased by Daleks. Yet a man in Utica, NY thought that it made a terrifying enough weapon that he attempted to rob three different banks while threatening tellers with the plunger. None of the robberies were successful. More »
The Perfect Mother's Day Gift: Condoms And Lube
By Laura Northrup on April 30, 2012 12:30 PM
20 Comments
We'd like to think that this display is the work of a Big Lots employee with a wicked sense of humor. "Celebrate the woman who gave you life," it seems to say, "by making sure she doesn't create any more of it." More »
Sam's Club Absolutely Must See Your ID For One-Day Pass; Can't Say Why
By Laura Northrup on April 30, 2012 11:30 AM
93 Comments
Claudia is a Costco member, but when Sam's Club advertised a one-day shopping pass in her local paper, she went to see what Sam's had to offer. What the ad didn't mention was that a photo ID would be needed to get the pass from the store's customer service desk. Which is interesting, since you can actually print a pass from the Sam's Club web site, presumably without holding your driver's license up to the screen. More »
(FlySi)
How Gamestop Lost My Business Over Twenty Bucks
By Laura Northrup on April 30, 2012 10:30 AM
86 Comments
The game Brett wanted for his computer is compatible with both Windows and MacOS, in theory. He went to GameStop to buy a physical copy, and learned that he had to buy it as a download instead. They sold him a download code and he went home to get his new game. That's when he learned that GameStop's Impulse download platform might sell Mac-compatible games, but the program itself is Windows-only. Brett wants to warn other gamers...and to vent. More »
Roller Skating Is Definitely Better Than Using Crack
By Laura Northrup on April 30, 2012 9:30 AM
30 Comments
More than three years ago, comedy duo and self-proclaimed "internetainers" Rhett & Link set out to find great local businesses all over the country, and make great local commercials for them. "That's nice, Consumerist," you say. "But they can't possibly still be doing this three years later and producing new ads." That's where you would be wrong, imaginary hypothetical reader! More »
(tedd4u)
Will My Deadbeat Roommate Trash My Credit?
By Laura Northrup on April 30, 2012 9:00 AM
30 Comments
A terrible roommate can make your life unhappy in a lot of ways. But let's say you have a financially irresponsible roommate who never pays their bills. Do their bad habits affect you ... other than constantly having to chase down the rent? More »
Dell Will Sell You A 5-Year Warranty, Not Actually Honor It
By Laura Northrup on April 30, 2012 8:00 AM
81 Comments
M. bought a five-year Complete Care Warranty from Dell, and this somehow led him to believe that he would receive five years of warranty coverage. Crazy, right? Consumers can be so foolish. But just because the site will sell you a warranty, and documentation on the Dell site says that you have almost a year left on that warranty, that doesn't mean that you actually have that warranty, because the Complete Care warranty that includes things like accidental damage is only an add-on to the regular warranty that has already run out. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on April 27, 2012 12:30 PM
116 Comments
- 4-Year-Old Gets TSA Pat-Down Following Hug From Grandma
- Paying $60 For A Light Bulb That Lasts 20 Years Is Kind Of A No-Brainer
- Report: Debt Collectors Work In Emergency Rooms, Demand Payment Before Patients Receive Care
- Etsy Features Seller Who May Be Blatantly Violating Etsy Policy
- There's Actually A Settlement In Nutella 'Health Food' Class Action Lawsuit
A Few More Recalls: Bunny Sippy Cups, Plastic Rattles, And Instant Knives
By Laura Northrup on April 27, 2012 11:30 AM
13 Comments
The Consumer Products Safety Commission announced these three recalls were announced too late to make yesterday's Recall Roundup, but we wanted to share them as soon as possible since two of them could affect small children. We don't want to see anyone get hurt, ever, but a little kid getting poked in the eye by an Easter-themed sippy cup shaped like a smiling bunny? That's particularly undignified. More »
How Hard Should I Try To Give Back Someone Else's Tablet?
By Laura Northrup on April 27, 2012 10:30 AM
108 Comments
Last week, Brian received a package from the ASUS repair center. It was a freshly repaired tablet, the same model that he owns. Except he hadn't sent his in for repair lately. Someone else's address appeared on the return merchandise authorization (RMA) form inside the box, but the label on the outside had Brian's information. He wonders: how much time and money should he invest in getting this package home when Asus doesn't particularly seem to care? More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
By Laura Northrup on April 27, 2012 9:30 AM
7 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
Fixing Your Own Electronics Is Fun And Almost Easy
By Laura Northrup on April 27, 2012 9:00 AM
61 Comments
Last year, I bought a used iPhone 3Gs that is now well out of warranty. Not a big deal. Only the battery didn't stay charged all day anymore, and I wondered whether it was time for a new phone, even though mine is otherwise in great shape. Too bad I couldn't just order a new battery online and snap it in like with previous phones. Except...I could. I just needed a tiny screwdriver, a few other tools, step-by-step instructions, and a lot of patience. More »
Key Finally Decides Not To Make Family Pay Dead Student's College Loans
By Laura Northrup on April 27, 2012 8:00 AM
79 Comments
When a person dies and their estate is settled, any remaining debt dies with them, including student loans. But there's an exception: if a parent or other responsible grown-up co-signs a loan and the borrower dies a tragic young death, that co-signer is on the hook for the entire amount of the loan. That's how co-signing works, after all. But after a Rutgers student died in 2006 after two years in a coma, most of his lenders (credit cards and student loans) deferred, then forgave his debts. Key Bank was the holdout, since the student's father had co-signed his college loans at Key. Since 2006, the family has paid $20,000 of the $50,000 balance. It took an awful lot of negative publicity, but Key says that they will forgive the debt, and might not even put future families in the same terrible situation. More »
April Recall Roundup: Flaming Monster Truck Edition
By Laura Northrup on April 26, 2012 12:33 PM
18 Comments
The boys' t-shirts at Kohl's feature a monster truck jumping over a row of vintage convertibles and tall orange flames, and come with a free toy monster truck to match. This design turned out to be oddly prescient when customers inserted batteries in the trucks and they smoldered or caught fire. Yes, it's time for the Consumerist Recall Roundup, with a diverse assortment of products lurking in your home, waiting to kill or maim you and your children. More »
Citibank Doesn't Want Your Gross Punctuation Marks
By Laura Northrup on April 26, 2012 11:34 AM
65 Comments
Sandra wanted to contact Citibank about a fee, and figured that contacting them using secure account e-mail from within their site was a good way to do it. When she tried to send the message, the system rejected it, telling her to remove any special characters. "What special characters?" she asked. Turns out the e-mail form didn't like quotation marks. At least it wasn't apostrophes? More »
(Scoboco)
Does 'No Outside Food' Discriminate Against People With Food Allergies?
By Laura Northrup on April 26, 2012 10:32 AM
245 Comments
Domenica is gluten intolerant, and there are a number of other foods she can't eat as well. During a recent visit to the movies, she was caught bringing in outside food and argued with the manager. There isn't anything available at the concession stand that she can eat without becoming ill. Sure, a private business can set their own rules. But is it discriminatory? In spite of what theater owners might tell you, buying snacks at the cinema isn't mandatory, and no one's going to go hungry after a few hours. More »
Have You Found An ATM With Minimum Deposits?
By Laura Northrup on April 26, 2012 9:30 AM
62 Comments
When Paul's wife brought a small check to deposit at a Chase bank ATM, she didn't expect to have the machine spit it back out. Deposits, you see, have a $15 minimum. Wait, isn't that the point of using an ATM to deposit checks - not having to waste a teller's time on an $8 transaction? More »
Asus: No, Your Tablet Is Totally Supposed To Draw Jagged Lines
By Laura Northrup on April 26, 2012 9:00 AM
35 Comments
Sita's Asus tablet cost about $1,400, and the purpose of it was so she could work on her art wherever she happens to be. She has this crazy idea in her head that to serve that purpose, the tablet should let her draw smooth lines. Or at least lines that don't look like a seismograph during an extremely minor earthquake. Asus doesn't agree, and they insist that there's nothing wrong with the tablet. More »
There's Actually A Settlement In Nutella 'Health Food' Class Action Lawsuit
By Laura Northrup on April 26, 2012 8:00 AM
102 Comments
Remember last year, when various media outlets reported that the mother of a four-year-old child was suing the makers of Nutella for advertising it as a health food? Everyone thought that this was hilarious, because hey, lady, fat-laden choco-paste ain't a health food. It's time for us all to stop laughing now, because the class-action lawsuit has been settled for about $3 million, $2.5 million of which is going to consumers willing to admit that they can't read a nutrition label. More »
Verizon Charges You Extra $700 For Returning A Phone
By Laura Northrup on April 25, 2012 12:30 PM
28 Comments
Ron is a longtime, loyal Verizon Wireless customer. Things were going quite well until he returned a new phone recently. This phone was somehow never logged in at the warehouse, and Verizon keeps piling equipment fees on Ron's account. Now his service has been shut off, which is bad news for him and for his patients: he's a doctor and on call. He has FedEx tracking info indicating that he sent the phone back, but Verizon didn't record it on their end. More »
How Switching To Cheaper Smartphone Plan For Deaf Customers Can Cost More
By Laura Northrup on April 25, 2012 11:35 AM
30 Comments
Mobile phone carriers aren't about to let the majority of smartphone customers give up their voice plans any time soon, no matter how few minutes you use every month. Jack's girlfriend doesn't have much use for voice minutes, though. She's deaf. She actually talks on the phone rarely, and more often uses the data connection to type to people and make phone calls using a relay service. After a few months, she managed to find someone at Sprint willing to put her on a special plan for deaf customers that has no voice minutes, and even gave her that plan's price going back two months. What she didn't realize was that she would be billed twenty cents for every minute of voice calls she had made during those two months. More »
UPS MyChoice Feels More Like A Protection Racket
By Laura Northrup on April 25, 2012 10:37 AM
49 Comments
The UPS MyChoice program is supposed to be a good thing - it lets customers tell the company in advance whether to deliver packages without a signature or deliver them right ot a UPS store. But Holly ends up clicking in circles trying to find out how to sign up for the (free) program. The useful options, like redirecting packages to a UPS store or getting a delivery window, cost extra money. More »
EA Trying Hard To Lose Customer Over A Few Bucks
By Laura Northrup on April 25, 2012 9:30 AM
69 Comments
If you're not really a fan of electronic games, it might not be clear to you why EA took the top poo in this year's Worst Company in America Tournament. Maybe Alex's experience can serve as an illustration. There was no huge amount of money involved, and his problem with EA didn't affect his day-to-day life. But the utter lack of response from EA to a real and easily solved problem makes even a loyal customer like Alex feel that they don't matter. More »
(hey-gem)
Visa Shuts Down Your Credit Card, Figures You'll Find Out Eventually
By Laura Northrup on April 25, 2012 9:00 AM
51 Comments
If you try to use your credit or debit card and find that it's been abruptly shut down, thank your bank. They've proactively shut down your compromised card, theoretically saving you from a cascade of fraudulent charges. So that's nice. But what bothered Scott when this happened to him is that no one called him to give him a heads up. More »
PayPal Check Depositing App Efficiently Turns Checks Into Thin Air
By Laura Northrup on April 25, 2012 8:00 AM
42 Comments
Instead of schlepping small checks she receives all the way to a local bank branch, Robin likes to use PayPal's smartphone check-capturing service and deposit the funds in her PayPal account. That's a pretty neat trick...at least until two checks went missing entirely in PayPal's system, and no one can tell Robin where they went because the check-cashing services are handled by a third-party vendor, not PayPal itself. More »
You'll Take The Cable Box Comcast Gives You And You'll Like It
By Laura Northrup on April 24, 2012 12:30 PM
96 Comments
Nancy wants to put a small TV in her kitchen, but there isn't room for a full ginormous cable box. That's okay, though: her cable provider, Comcast, makes a special mini box for tiny televisions in tight spaces. The problem is that if you want one, you have to just cross your fingers and hope that the installer happens to have one in their truck that day. You can't order it, and you can't even show up at a local Kabletown outpost to pick one up: there's no guarantee they'll have one. No, you have to use what your installer shows up with. And you'll have to like it. More »
How It Takes $100 In UPS Labels To Swap Out A $100 Corsair Headset
By Laura Northrup on April 24, 2012 12:15 PM
17 Comments
Reader Chris may have found the answer to the U.S. Postal Service's woes: they just need to convince gadget maker Corsair to bring all of their warranty return business over there. A recent return had Chris sending enough incorrect items back and forth via UPS to Corsair that the shipping bills now exceed the original cost of the headset. At this rate, they could single-handedly bail out the Postal Service. More »
When To Toss Your Old Ketchup And Mayo
By Laura Northrup on April 24, 2012 10:30 AM
71 Comments
I recently got a new refrigerator, and everyone knows what that means: the biennial excavating of the ancient condiments. How old is this salsa? How did I end up with three bottles of ketchup? And so on. Today, though, I learned that my standards have been woefully lax when deciding which condiments to keep around and which to toss. More »
Whatever This CVS Has Planned Tonight, Count Us Out
By Laura Northrup on April 24, 2012 9:30 AM
41 Comments
It makes sense for a store to place small impulse-buy items on the shelf next to related merchandise. Say, cereal and bananas. Beer and Ping-Pong balls. Cold medicine and tissues. Tampons and chocolate. Those choices all make sense, but this impulse buy found at a New England CVS left us, and tipster Jena, scratching our heads. More »
No Photography Please, This Is A BJ's Wholesale Club
By Laura Northrup on April 24, 2012 9:00 AM
89 Comments
N. got in trouble while standing in the receipt check line at his local BJ's warehouse club, but it wasn't for attempting to leave the store without having his cart checked. No, it was for something far more insidious than that: snapping a quick picture of a board advertising club member prices for cruises so he could comparison shop later. What a hardened criminal! The receipt checker set off the door alarm, catching the attention of a nearby police officer, and insisted to N. that there is no photography allowed anywhere inside a BJ's club, ever. Cool story bro, but that's not actually true. More »
Oops, That Breast Pump We Sent You Isn't Really Covered By Insurance
By Laura Northrup on April 24, 2012 8:00 AM
81 Comments
David and his wife had a baby last year, and one item that their health insurance covers is an electric breast pump for putting away milk for later. Their mistake was not calling up Blue Cross/Blue Shield to find out whether this was a covered item with a prescription. Not that their customer service representatives are infallible, but it might have prevented what happened next. Instead, David called up the medical supply company, asked them whether it would be covered, and made the purchase. Months later, they received a bill in the month for the pump, and learned that the item wasn't covered after all, and they were on the hook for $300. Oh. More »
Best Buy Will Never Tempt Me With 'Delivery' Siren Song Again
By Laura Northrup on April 23, 2012 12:30 PM
26 Comments
Brian could have brought his new washer right home from Best Buy after purchasing it, but let the salesman talk him into delivery. Old appliances don't just haul themselves away, you know. Only after he took a day off work, Best Buy didn't even manage to get his appliance on the truck for delivery. This hasn't reached Sears proportions yet, but Brian is annoyed. More »
Reader Thinks Her iPod Is Lost Forever, But Virgin America Has A Surprise
By Laura Northrup on April 23, 2012 11:30 AM
21 Comments
There are many things I've learned in three years of reading the Consumerist tipline, and this is one of the most important. Never put any of your electronic devices in the seat-back pouch on an airplane, because you'll most likely never see it again. iPads are especially vulnerable to this problem. But reader Gladys had the opposite experience from most people who write in. She never expected to see her iPod again, so she was delighted when someone at Virgin America did some detective work to find the device's owner, and called her up. More »
NewEgg Sends Package To Wrong Address, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on April 23, 2012 10:30 AM
84 Comments
When Jessica placed her NewEgg order, she provided them with a shipping address. This turned out to be a waste of her time, since NewEgg just went ahead and picked an address to send the package to out of her PayPal account. Not the one associated with her credit card, or her primary address on the account. Certainly not the address where she actually lives. Their customer service representative's solution? Wish really, really hard that the person who ultimately received the package would return it so she can get a refund. She hung up and called back until she got someone competent. More »
(teksmith)
Rescheduling A LivingSocial Adventure Is The Real Adventure
By Laura Northrup on April 23, 2012 9:30 AM
30 Comments
One of the key rules of using group buying sites (and, indeed, any coupons or discounts) is to pay attention to the fine print. Alex and his wife thought they did. The LivingSocial adventure he purchased for her birthday, a kayak tour, required 24 hours' notice for a refund. What that fine print didn't mention was that if you were too sick for an adventure on the day of the event, you wouldn't be able to reschedule to a different date. That's how Alex learned that employees of the group deal site weren't quite accurate in explaining how payments to the adventure hosts work. According to the local paddling center owners, they would only get a couple of bucks if the couple canceled...but LivingSocial would still keep the entire fee. More »
With Sidekick G4, T-Mobile Casts Me Into Smartphone Replacement Purgatory
By Laura Northrup on April 23, 2012 9:00 AM
25 Comments
Sara really loved her HTC G1 from T-Mobile, and bought the similar-ish Samsung Sidekick 4G as a replacement when its years of loyal service ended. The new phone has not been so loyal. It locks up, won't respond to the touchscreen, and periodically wipes its memory card for no clear reason. Sure, she could back up the memory card content elsewhere, but the non-operational phone is a real problem. Now she's on her third replacement. T-Mobile is happy to send her a replacement, but she doesn't want a fifth phone that will inevitably have the same problems. Sara, welcome to smartphone replacement purgatory! More »
Dollar Coins Save The Government Money Because You'll Just Throw Them In A Jar
By Laura Northrup on April 23, 2012 8:00 AM
88 Comments
Here at The Consumerist, we have a long-standing anti-penny stance, but we're somewhat in favor of the gold-colored dollar coins. They're shiny! The Sacagawea ones have a woman on them! They save the government money! Except a new Government Accountability Office report mentions something interesting that we haven't discussed here before. Just replacing more fragile dollar bills with durable coins doesn't save any money at all. Minting and distributing all of those coins costs a lot. Instead, all of the cost savings would come from Americans throwing dollar coins in jars instead of circulating them. More »
One Man's Campaign To End Six Months Without A Working Haier TV
By Laura Northrup on April 20, 2012 11:30 AM
64 Comments
Andrew took advantage of a great Black Friday deal from Newegg to buy a nice large TV. At least, he assumes that it's nice. The first set he received never worked, and the second worked for only 48 hours. Stuck dealing with Haier, he still hasn't managed to extract a working TV out of them. More »
Proration Battle With T-Mobile: For Once, It Pays To Be A Pack Rat
By Laura Northrup on April 20, 2012 10:30 AM
33 Comments
Lured by the iPhone and the potential of less crappy reception, Chris and his wife walked away from T-Mobile and ported their numbers to Verizon. T-Mobile tried to bill them for an entire month's service when they had only used a few days' worth. Chris couldn't accept this, and called up customer service. They told him that the no prorated bills rule was part of the terms of service he signed when he joined T-Mo. Boo. Funny thing, though. He had saved that original decade-old sheet with the terms of service when he signed up, and they said no such thing. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on April 20, 2012 9:30 AM
13 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
What Is The 'Original Price' After Kohl's Marks An Item Up?
More »
By Laura Northrup on April 20, 2012 9:00 AM
55 Comments
When Scott found socks on "buy one, get one half off" sale at Kohl's, he picked up a few packages. The sale signage stipulated that the discount was off the original price...but was that the original price, or the original original price? Scott noticed that a sticker had been placed over the original tag, raising the price from $12 to $14. So what's the original price? More »
How My Stupid Cat Has Cost Me $5,500 Over Three Years
By Laura Northrup on April 20, 2012 8:00 AM
141 Comments
Pets provide us with much-needed companionship, cuddles, and photos to illustrate Consumerist posts with. But they're not cheap to have around. Food, toys, litter, collars, leashes, routine vet care...those are all of the things you consider and budget for when you start cruising Petfinder to look for a new buddy. Only there are larger expenses that are large, sudden, and impossible to plan for. After one illness, having a pet could cost as much as a decent used car. That's what happened to Carolyn Kylstra, whose cat Hooligan (great name) has cost her $5,550 over three years. That's an average of $150/month...money that could go far in an otherwise frugal lifestyle. More »
How To Lose A Customer Forever With Just One Faulty Router
By Laura Northrup on April 19, 2012 12:45 PM
90 Comments
Jessica is a network engineer, so she has some idea of when a piece of networking equipment isn't working properly. Her Netgear router isn't working properly, so she called up their tech support. She patiently sat through all of the normal troubleshooting procedures that are used for people who can barely tell a router from a toaster. Then she learned that they weren't going to accept the router for repair or replacement after only eight months. So she did the only sensible thing: went out and bought a router made by a different company after being loyal to Netgear for more than a decade. More »
Branded Vrooming Noises Are Way Better Than An Internal Combustion Engine
By Laura Northrup on April 19, 2012 11:30 AM
33 Comments
I can't be the only one around here who read The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary as a child and was disappointed that toy vehicles that move if you make vrooming sounds don't exist in the real world. Domino's in the Netherlands, on the other hand, has taken this concept and made it a reality. Except backwards. Which is why your pizza can now be delivered on a scooter that makes human-recorded vrooming sounds and advertises Domino's as it rolls down the street. More »
I Accidentally Receive Millionaire Stranger's Financial Documents, Not His Cash
By Laura Northrup on April 19, 2012 10:30 AM
37 Comments
If Avi had ever considered using Morgan Stanley to handle his imaginary millions, he's probably reconsidering now. A UPS envelope showed up at his house with detailed financial statements from a complete stranger. It wasn't a mixup, since Avi has no relationship with the firm. Why did this show up on his doorstep? More »
HSBC's Credit Card Policies Feel Like 1994 All Over Again
By Laura Northrup on April 19, 2012 9:30 AM
61 Comments
Victor knows that shopping at Best Buy isn't a popular choice around here, but he really likes getting 4% back in Reward Zone points to spend on even more stuff at Best Buy. That does sound pretty sweet. In this situation, his actual beef is with HSBC, the bank that runs Best Buy's credit cards. He made some big purchases, then made an electronic payment from his bank account to pay off the balance. Now there's a mysterious hold on the account, and he can't use the card. Turns out that large electronic payments are "held" for eleven days to make sure everything clears. Longer than it would take with a paper check. Unable to make any more purchases with his card, Victor just went and bought his iPad 3 somewhere else. Darn. More »
Groupon One-Ups Young Earth Creationism, Claims Earth Is 400 Years Old
By Laura Northrup on April 19, 2012 9:00 AM
53 Comments
"Groupon is bad at math!" the subject line of Amber's e-mail to Consumerist proclaimed. I expected to see a poorly-calculated coupon discount or something else related to actual deals. But the error is even weirder than that. Groupon's Earth Day deals page trumpets that the company is celebrating the planet's 400th birthday. They offer no explanation for where this number came from, or why it's missing approximately seven zeroes. More »
Starbucks Can't Serve Me Coffee Unless They Misspell My Name First
By Laura Northrup on April 19, 2012 8:00 AM
311 Comments
Some people would say that Carrie is making a big deal out of nothing. That she is being unnecessarily difficult on principle regarding something that isn't all that important. Well, of course. This is The Consumerist. That's our thing! Carrie's battle was against Starbucks, and she fought against employees' insistence that she give them her name with her order so they can misspell it on her cup. She declined, which threw the employees' entire worldview into chaos. More »
Woot Changes T-Shirt Sizing Without Warning, Is Still Totally Awesome
By Laura Northrup on April 18, 2012 12:30 PM
43 Comments
Wendy is a fan of deal-a-day site Woot's shirt-a-day site, and owns quite a few of their shirts. She wrote in with two purposes: first, to warn other people who love the company's shirts that the sizing has changed, and also to praise the site for sending her out a shirt in the correct size with no fuss. More »
(STL Okie)
Facebook Is Not Interested In Your So-Called 'Privacy' Preferences
By Laura Northrup on April 18, 2012 11:30 AM
47 Comments
If there's anything we should have learned about Facebook by now, it's that "privacy" is an essentially meaningless word to the company, and any privacy settings that you have now will be undone in the next update. Jeff, who is a writer, uses Facebook but keeps his profile pretty locked down in order to keep his personal life separate from his public persona. (We empathize.) He set up his account so that his list of friends wouldn't be visible to his other friends in order to prevent people he knows from adding virtual strangers who happen to be on Jeff's friends list. More »
eBay Says Selling Download Codes Is Copyright Infringement
By Laura Northrup on April 18, 2012 10:30 AM
127 Comments
Stephen buys Blu-rays, but has no use for the free Ultraviolet download codes that come with the discs. So he turns around and sells them on eBay, because, hey, money! Only eBay shut down his last auction, claiming copyright infringement. Copyright infringement? In our brave new world, just because you purchased something and are holding it in your hand, that doesn't mean you can sell it. Apparently. More »
How Being Too Competent Can Get You Fired
By Laura Northrup on April 18, 2012 9:34 AM
110 Comments
Being the weakest performer in the company or performing a service that's utterly dispensable is dangerous to your continued employment, especially in a weak job market. But working hard and being good at what you do is potentially dangerous as well, especially if your bosses are insecure, paranoid, and just not a good as you are. To people who think this way, having a bright future within the company makes you a threat. Your future endangers theirs. More »
J. Crew Divides Rewards Points Between Me And Evil Twin
By Laura Northrup on April 18, 2012 9:02 AM
9 Comments
Julie has a secret evil twin with the same name. That's the only possible explanation for why her favorite store, J. Crew, has decided to split her reward points between two different accounts, neither of which receives enough points to get actual rewards. She wrote to Consumerist not only to complain, but to find out whether there are other customers experiencing the same problem. More »
(psd)
Canceling Super 8 Reservation Somehow Leads To More Reserved Rooms
By Laura Northrup on April 18, 2012 8:05 AM
15 Comments
Reserve on the Web, cancel on the Web. Wouldn't that make sense? Mike thought so, and he didn't see anything indicating otherwise when he made his Super 8 reservation. But somehow, his reservation for one night turned into a two-night reservation after he canceled it because he was supposed to call the motel directly to cancel. Who knew that canceling a reservation could have the opposite effect? More »
I Would Rather Gnaw My Arm Off Than Continue Dealing With Comcast
By Laura Northrup on April 17, 2012 12:30 PM
34 Comments
M. has had it with Comcast. In fact, she's not even a customer of theirs anymore. But the good people of Kabletown owe her a $143 refund after she canceled service in February, and she can't get her money out of their clutches. Even the customer service heroes of the Twitter team promise her that a check is on its way...but it never shows. At this point, it isn't even about the money anymore. More »
Can I Game Verizon's System To Get An Awesome New Phone?
By Laura Northrup on April 17, 2012 11:30 AM
41 Comments
Robert has his eye on a shiny new smartphone, and he's eligible for an upgrade. He's on a family plan, and has devised a scheme to take advantage of some promotions. These promotions are intended for new Verizon customers, so his plan is to discontinue one of the lines on his account, and start a new one in order to get the discounts and perks that come with a "new" line. He wonders: has anyone else out there tried this and succeeded? More »
USPS Turns Box Into Accordion, Hopes You Won't Notice
By Laura Northrup on April 17, 2012 10:30 AM
69 Comments
When Chris received this package in the mail, he assumed that his mail carrier had crammed it in his mailbox with overwhelming force. That wasn't the case, though. The truth is more mysterious and much weirder. More »
Do Amazon And Netflix Inflate Their Streaming Libraries?
By Laura Northrup on April 17, 2012 9:30 AM
56 Comments
When you read that Amazon offers 17,000 "movies and TV programs" in its streaming library, and that Netflix has 60,000, what do you assume that figure means? Sure, a movie's a movie, but what constitutes a TV program? Using Amazon's math, a "program" is a single episode of a series, meaning that the entire run of "24" counts as 192 programs. Is this a reasonable way to count videos, or is it misleading? Fast Company's stance is clear: they think that both companies are using this trick to inflate their total program count and make their services look more impressive than they are. More »
(afagen)
United Takes Your Miles To Upgrade Stranger's Reservation
By Laura Northrup on April 17, 2012 9:00 AM
14 Comments
It was incredibly generous of Wes to use his own frequent flyer miles to upgrade a random stranger's reservation to Business Class. At least, it would have been if that's what he had meant to do. He had called up to upgrade his wife's reservation, and it seems that a typo in the confirmation number meant that someone else got the upgrade, and no one knows how Wes can get his miles back. More »
Redbox Might Be Able To Stop Misdirected Receipts
By Laura Northrup on April 17, 2012 8:00 AM
19 Comments
Being an early adopter of something has its privileges and its disadvantages. Chris joined Gmail early enough that he gets to have an address that consists of his first two initials and his very common last name. That's pretty neat for him, but has led to a really annoying case of mistaken identity. He keeps getting someone else's Redbox receipts. A person who has a similar name, but lives in a different state and rents from Redbox an awful lot. The good news? Redbox has a solution for this. Kinda. More »
How A Few Minutes With A Screwdriver Saved Me $139
By Laura Northrup on April 16, 2012 11:30 AM
54 Comments
We don't begrudge Sears Repair—or, indeed, any business—a healthy markup on items that they sell. That's how capitalism works, and capitalism is awesome. But Matthew must have felt insulted when the part his dishwasher needed showed up on his doorstep ahead of a return visit from the repairman. The part needed only a few screws to install...and, making things worse, was available $50 cheaper, for only $121, on Sears' own website. It's even cheaper elsewhere. More »
Coldwater Creek Goes To Amazing Lengths To Get Discount For Tall Customer
By Laura Northrup on April 16, 2012 10:30 AM
14 Comments
Women's clothing retailer Coldwater Creek didn't have to do anything for Peri. She found a pair of pants that she liked in a retail store had the clerk order them in "tall" length for her. She couldn't use the 40% off coupon she had brought for the special order, since it wasn't considered an in-store purchase. Officially. She bought the pants anyway. Normally that would be the end of it, but then something really great happened. he sent a quick e-mail to the company, and received a response from corprorate...then a phone call from the manager of her local store, offering that 40% off retroactively. And a gift card. More »
Does Netflix Even Have Any Playable DVDs?
By Laura Northrup on April 16, 2012 9:30 AM
99 Comments
Reader Somedaysomehow is annoyed with Netflix. She's been a loyal customer on the one DVD at a time plan, but lately most of those DVDs have been unplayable. What's the point of continuing to pay for movies in the mail? All complaining to Netflix gets her are bonus DVDs from her queue....which are unplayable, too. More »
Apple Solves iTunes Account Problem By Locking You Out Of Account
By Laura Northrup on April 16, 2012 9:00 AM
23 Comments
Michael was having a pretty minor problem with playing television programs in iTunes. Sure, it doesn't even rank as the a serious first world problem, but he contacted Apple to get it resolved, because that's what Apple is supposed to do. A senior representative tried to resolve the problem by resetting his iTunes password. Nice idea if it had worked. It didn't. Now this cord-cutter, who uses his Apple TV to catch up with favorite shows, can't watch those shows at all. Being locked out of his iTunes account and all. More »
Archos Sends 'Refurbished' Tablet Full Of Scratches, Fingerprints, Porn
By Laura Northrup on April 16, 2012 8:00 AM
21 Comments
Marsha and her fiancé have a long-distance relationship right now. Normally, that wouldn't be relevant, but that it means that by the time he bought an Archos Android tablet for her, configured it, and sent it to her on the other end of the country, she was past the ten-day return window Staples allows. When her tablet wouldn't connect to the Internet, she had to turn to Archos for a warranty replacement. But instead of grabbing a tablet for her from the "refurbished and restored" pile, they grabbed one for her from the "scratched, dirty, and full of porn" pile. More »
Best Buy To Close 42 Stores, Hold Crappy Clearance Sales
By Laura Northrup on April 15, 2012 11:36 AM
103 Comments
Customers stopping by some Best Buy stores around the United States on Saturday got a surprise: the stores had abruptly closed down for the day. When the electronics mega-chain announced a few weeks ago that they planned to close about fifty of their biggest boxes, they meant it. Forty-two Best Buy stores in twenty states (and one in Puerto Rico) will close by May 12. Or whenever they run out of stock: whichever happens first. More »
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Find More Ancient Gadgets
By Laura Northrup on April 13, 2012 2:35 PM
60 Comments
Consumerist readers are a determined bunch. Against all odds, you keep going: exploring Walmart stores across the country in search of the oldest and most obsolete items that Wally World has to offer. More »
Own GE Appliances? Get To Work On Your Upper Body Strength
By Laura Northrup on April 13, 2012 1:31 PM
54 Comments
With the approval of your physician, there's no time like the present to start a rigorous exercise program. Doubly so if you own any General Electric appliances. See, Jack owns a stackable General Electric washer and dryer. GE was happy to sell him a 5-year extended service plan, but balked at actually sending a repair person to his house. Once he finally talked them into sending someone to fix his washer, he learned that he and his wife would have to move the dryer from on top of the washer themselves. What's the problem? It only weighs 150 pounds. More »
(chuubop)
Why Pre-Rinsing Dishes Is For Wasteful Suckers
By Laura Northrup on April 13, 2012 12:35 PM
97 Comments
Maybe out of long-standing habit, you pre-rinse dishes before sticking them in the dishwasher. Stop it. You're most likely wasting time and water by splashing water on there when your dishwasher is perfectly capable of removing crusted-on food itself. If it's in working order. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on April 13, 2012 11:30 AM
101 Comments
- Is This The Worst Piece Of Mortgage Advice Ever Given?
- Culinary Bill Shock: Beware The Secret $275 Truffle Pasta Special!
- $1.00/Gallon Gas Causes Rush On Texas Filling Station
- Best Buy CEO Resigned Under 'Personal Conduct' Cloud
- Best Buy Scans Customer's ID, Tells Him He's Returned Too Many Items
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on April 13, 2012 10:30 AM
9 Comments
Here are fourteen of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
Not Everyone At Costco Understands Secret Membership Avoidance Strategy
By Laura Northrup on April 13, 2012 9:30 AM
105 Comments
A few years ago, we ran a post about the secret and kind of awesome way to do some shopping at Costco without purchasing a membership. Just give a member you know some cash and have them pick up a gift card (Costco Cash Card) for you. Great system if your nearest Costco is far away, or you just don't go often enough to justify joining. In theory, anyway. Justin took the advice in our post, but was turned away at the door by an employee who wasn't aware that a cash card entitled him to enter the store. More »
How I Was Overcharged $23.42 For Gas At The Circle K
By Laura Northrup on April 12, 2012 2:32 PM
97 Comments
The problem seemed easy enough to solve. SMM asked a Circle K cashier to pre-pay $20 on a gas pump using his credit card. Only the pump didn't stop at $20 like it should have: it kept going until it reached $23.42. No big deal: SMM headed back in the store to pay the extra three and a half bucks. That's when he learned that somehow, the first $20 he paid didn't count. More »
Want To Spy On Your Friends' Bank Accounts? Lend Them Your iPhone!
By Laura Northrup on April 12, 2012 1:47 PM
23 Comments
Letting someone borrow your iPhone to log in to their bank's app quickly, then log back out is no big deal, right? Like letting a friend borrow your computer to check their web-based e-mail. They log in, they log out, they leave no trace. Unless it's Chase's iPhone app. Then you get all of their account alerts, no matter what you do. (Short of deleting the app, we assume.) More »
How A Shirt With 'Made In The U.S.A.' On The Front Can Be Made In India
By Laura Northrup on April 12, 2012 12:37 PM
31 Comments
The design on a T-shirt can have very little to do with where the garment itself was made. Today, for example, I'm wearing a Cute Overload shirt that was made by American Apparel and is made of cotton, not from winged hamsters. But Jeremy thought it was strange that a shirt his girlfriend bought at Kohl's has "Made in the USA" in fairly large print on the front, but was made in India. More »
How Amazon Was Amazing To Kindle Customer
By Laura Northrup on April 12, 2012 11:45 AM
48 Comments
Mike wasn't looking for a freebie. He just had a few cosmetic scratches on the touchscreen of his Kindle Fire and wanted to know if there was a way he could minimize them or buff them out. He called up Amazon to ask, and their solution wasn't a healing screen cover or a special polish. They shipped out a new device to him the very next day. More »
Change Your Mind About NetZero Mobile Interwebs? Tough.
By Laura Northrup on April 12, 2012 10:30 AM
28 Comments
Yes, NetZero is back, offering cheap mobile broadband Internet access instead of ad-supported or cheap dial-up Internet. That's pretty cool, and the idea appealed to Rusty. The problem is that once he did some research and realized the deal wasn't all that appealing, he couldn't back out. Buying a NetZero hotspot is a sacred covenant, and you can't return it after placing your order unless it's actually defective. More »
At Least Netflix Streaming Doesn't Take 6 Weeks To Reach My House
By Laura Northrup on April 12, 2012 9:30 AM
26 Comments
Like many other Netflix customers last year, Chris was frustrated with the service's price hikes, loss of content, and wacky re-branding efforts. He canceled and took advantage of a free trial offer from competitor Blockbuster. His happiness about switching didn't last long, especially when it took Blockbuster six weeks to get his first DVD to him. Sure, he lives in Alaska, but it's not like they were delivering it on horseback. More »
United/Continental Systems Merger Makes Flight Reservations Magically Disappear
By Laura Northrup on April 11, 2012 9:30 AM
45 Comments
To be honest, I have to start this post by blaming Ryan and his wife. I don't know what they were thinking. They assumed that just because they booked their round-trip tickets to and from Cancun two months ahead of their vacation and had an itinerary and confirmation numbers, they had an actual reservation. Maybe they did at one point. But between February and April, Continental and United combined their computer systems as part of their Air Voltron merger. Reservations mysteriously disappeared from the system, including theirs. And that's how Ryan and the pregnant Mrs. Ryan ended flying coach from Cancun and stuck in Houston instead of flying first-class all the way home to Detroit. More »
(missrivs)
Sirius XM: Two Companies With Single Mission To Confuse Customers
By Laura Northrup on April 11, 2012 9:00 AM
62 Comments
When satellite radio providers Sirius and XM merged almost half a decade ago, consumers and regulators feared that the combined company would begin to act like a fearsome monopoly with a stranglehold on the entire satellite radio market. Not quite. They're still acting as separate companies working together to confuse the hell out of their customers. Emily's family are longtime XM subscribers who bought a car with a Sirius receiver, assuming that since it's all the same company, the services are interchangeable. No, not even close. More »
Why Is TurboTax Asking Me For A Donation?
By Laura Northrup on April 11, 2012 8:00 AM
71 Comments
Well, that headline is a little disingenuous. We know exactly why. K. filed his federal return using the free e-file service through Intuit's TurboTax. It nagged him to upgrade to the paid service here and there during the process, which you expect when using any free service. What he didn't expect was a pop-up with Lisa the Friendly Accountant acting like a public radio host during pledge drive week. "Intuit is a multi-billion dollar corporation," he pointed out in his e-mail to Consumerist. "I just found this a bit greedy." More »
Discover Accidentally Steals From Foundation To Pay My Credit Card
By Laura Northrup on April 6, 2012 2:30 PM
37 Comments
Phil (no, not the one who works here) had to make a payment to an art foundation, and learned that he could use his Discover card to do so. Neat! So he put the payment through, and all was well...until he learned that somehow the transaction went through backwards, transferring the money from the foundation's bank account to pay his Discover bill. Oops. This seems like it would be easy enough to reverse, but Discover won't do anything unless the foundation calls them up and nicely asks for their money back. More »
(benh57)
American Airlines Voucher Disappears In The Mail, Airline Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on April 6, 2012 1:30 PM
24 Comments
The original copy of an air travel voucher has mystical powers, and flights can only be scheduled using the original copy. At least, that's the impression we get from Ashley's experience. When she went to redeem her voucher, she mailed it in, as required. Only the tracking number hasn't been scanned in the USPS system, and there's no sign of the voucher. More »
Verizon: The Phone Company That Doesn't Know My Phone Number
By Laura Northrup on April 6, 2012 12:03 PM
31 Comments
Verizon keeps canceling Jeremy's FiOS installation because they aren't able to reach him when the appointed time comes. Shouldn't he just make sure his phone is on? That wouldn't really help, because someone mistyped his phone number in Verizon's systems. Somehow, inexplicably, no one has the power to change this. More »
(kakissel)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on April 6, 2012 11:30 AM
79 Comments
- The Voters Have Spoken: EA Is Your Worst Company In America For 2012!
- EA Responds To Worst Company Win By Name-Dropping Past Worst Company Winners
- 10 Ways Blu-ray Is Letting Movie Lovers Down
- Soldier Says Bank Of America Won't Help Him Get His Stolen $25K Back
- Belvedere Vodka: Why Use Paid Actors For Controversial Ad? Just Steal A Picture Of A Woman!
Here Is A Slip Of Paper Explaining How Green Not Giving You A Receipt Is
By Laura Northrup on April 6, 2012 10:30 AM
26 Comments
It was very environmentally conscious for Poster Revolution to ship Mark's purchase without a receipt. But he couldn't help but find it amusing that they included a paper slip in his order bragging about how green not sending a receipt is. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on April 6, 2012 9:30 AM
5 Comments
Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
Should I Be Warned About A Deaf Cashier?
By Laura Northrup on April 5, 2012 12:15 PM
132 Comments
During Jon's last trip to Target, he noticed something unusual: a sign in his checkout lane advising customers, "Cashier Is Hearing Impaired." He found the sign unnecessary and potentially embarrassing for the employee. What do you think? More »
(elle_emm)
Do Not Confuse The Chase Bank ATM With Your Weird And Scary 'Checks'
By Laura Northrup on April 5, 2012 11:30 AM
68 Comments
Tom and his wife got married last year (congratulations!) but still have separate checking accounts. Tom never had a problem depositing checks also made out to his wife in his Chase checking account, so he didn't foresee any problems with depositing their joint $2,000 tax refund check in that same account. But this is The Consumerist, not Satisfied Chase Customers Weekly, so you can guess how that turned out. Now Tom and Mrs. Tom get to wait patiently and hope that the check doesn't get lost in the mail on its way back to them. More »
(torode)
Gevalia Decides 23 Years Is Long Enough, Cuts Off Customer's Caffeine
By Laura Northrup on April 5, 2012 10:30 AM
76 Comments
Ken loves coffee from Gevalia, He has been an auto-ship customer of Gevalia since 1989. That means that they send him two pounds of coffee every month, and he sends them money. If it were possible to bottle that kind of customer loyalty, it would sell even better than the finest coffees. But Gevalia's new corporate overlords, Kraft, don't want to bottle his loyalty. They don't even want him as a customer anymore. His account has been put on hold. No coffee for Ken. And no one knows why. More »
You Probably Shouldn't Trust Document Forgers With Your Personal Information
By Laura Northrup on April 5, 2012 9:30 AM
45 Comments
Sophisticated new ID-authentication systems mean that determined teens need sophisticated new fake IDs in order to get into clubs and buy booze. Enter ID Chief, a now-defunct site based in China. Provided with your photo, name, and Social Security number, ID Chief could provide you with a license from any state you choose, good enough to fool the scanners at even the finest liquor stores. The price? A money order for $75. Oh, and they sell your personal information to the highest bidder. More »
(formatc1)
Why I Won't Buy Any More Electronics From Woot ...Or Philips
By Laura Northrup on April 5, 2012 9:00 AM
123 Comments
Consumers love Woot.com because they're able to get neat and occasionally even useful items at good prices. The great deals are great for a reason, though. Items from Woot can be surplus, older models, or refurbished. (Sometimes all three.) This is disclosed at the time of purchase and part of the deal. But Erica was under the impression that when you pay $550 for a television set, it should obey its own power button and not stop working entirely after a little more than a year of service. She's learned her lesson, and won't be buying any more electronics from Philips. Or from Woot, for that matter. More »
Sprint Insists I Owe Them $800 For Nonexistent Account
By Laura Northrup on April 5, 2012 8:00 AM
45 Comments
Samit isn't a Sprint customer. He doesn't have a Sprint phone or service. He doesn't have a customer number. But somehow he owes Sprint $800 for service that he neither signed up for nor received. See, he had tried to become a customer. After starting the process of setting up Sprint service, someone took down his social security and credit card numbers, then wandered off. Samit received an iPhone that he never asked for, sent it back, and somehow has racked up $800 in phantom phone bills. More »
Comcast Is Very Concerned About Your Cocker Spaniels
By Laura Northrup on April 4, 2012 9:30 AM
47 Comments
David is a little confused. First, because received a Comcast bill for two months of service, even though he already submitted a payment. Second, because some denizen of Kabletown has started turning ordinary customer service e-mails in to Mad Libs. Or spell check has gone horribly awry. Or...actually, we're not quite sure what's going on here. More »
(Blue387)
Giving A Ford Dealership Bad Survey Grades Is Basically Tossing Their Employees Out On The Street
By Laura Northrup on April 4, 2012 9:00 AM
118 Comments
Customer service surveys at car dealerships must be serious, serious business. That's the only conclusion I can draw from Bob's story about being bullied by the Ford dealership where he bought his Fiesta. They called him up to say that if he planned to rate his (unsatisfactory) service experience as anything but satisfactory, he would be hurting the dealership and practically stealing money out of employees' pockets and yanking food out of their kids' mouths. If he didn't say nice things, the service manager insinuated, the dealership might decide not to service his car at all. More »
Dell Tech Support Manager: 'Sell Your Computer, Buy Something Not Made By Dell'
By Laura Northrup on April 4, 2012 8:00 AM
89 Comments
Andrew had a beautiful and relatively modest dream as a teen. He wanted to own an Alienware gaming computer. When he became an adult, he was able to achieve that dream by purchasing a M14x laptop. There was no happy ending for the man and his computer, though. It has needed to be sent back to Dell five times already. He bought it in August. Of 2011. He hasn't even owned it for a whole year yet. More »
Lenovo Replaces Lemon Laptop... In Theory
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2012 1:30 PM
26 Comments
The Lenovo laptop that Aaron bought at Best Buy just a few months ago was clearly defective. The company admitted it, and granted him a new computer. In theory. While he was told that a computer was on its way two weeks ago, there's been no sign of it, and no indication of when it will ship. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2012 12:30 PM
53 Comments
- The 8 Remaining Worst Company In America Contenders Sure Are An Elite Bunch!
- Atheist Symbol Rejected By Capital One, But Jesus Is Preapproved
- Don't Worry, That's Just Bread Mold On Your Tampon
- P&G Apologizes, Has An Actual Reason For Old Spice Deodorant Shrinkage
- Ways Restaurants Try To Squeeze More Money Out Of You
PayPal Leaves Small Business Out $500 And A Snake
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2012 11:30 AM
76 Comments
Shawn runs a small reptile business, selling habitats, supplies, and animals. A customer's purchase of a $500 snake went smoothly, with payment via PayPal and a critter off to a happy new home. Then the buyer reported the transaction to PayPal as fraudulent. They ruled in the buyer's favor after an "investigation" that didn't include talking to Shawn, and took back the $500. Voilà - free snake. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2012 9:30 AM
9 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
HD Contact Lenses Will Increase The Resolution Of Your Eyeballs
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2012 9:00 AM
50 Comments
I just got back from a long-overdue visit to the local vision-correction emporium, where I learned that for all these years, I've been fumbling through life only able to see 480 lines of resolution through my contact lenses. But now there are HD contact lenses. Bausch & Lomb's PureVision2 HD lenses have been out for some time now, and I'm just learning about this upgrade to reality now. More »
No, You Didn't Rent A Pirated DVD From Redbox
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2012 8:00 AM
73 Comments
Nathan didn't know who it was replacing Redbox DVDs with ripped and burned copies in his city, but he approved. Kinda. He like pirated copies better, without all of the un-skippable trailers and other nonsense that studios cram on DVDs. "I don't know who this vigilante is, but I'm thankful for him," he wrote. Only there was no vigilante stealing discs from Redbox en masse. This Sony DVD-R with the movie title written in felt-tip pen is an official, legal copy of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." More »
Puppy Vs. Airline Personnel: How Misinformation Messed Up Our Vacation Plans
By Laura Northrup on March 29, 2012 12:45 PM
100 Comments
On its surface, the facts of David's story are the very definition of a "first world problem." His family missed part of their tropical vacation because misinformed American Airlines personnel wouldn't let their puppy on the plane. They incorrectly believed that St. Maartens, their destination, requires incoming animals to be microchipped. It's true that no one has to vacation with their pet, but sometimes transporting an animal by air internationally is necessary due to a move or a family emergency. And when that happens, hope that you don't encounter the American Airlines employees who cost David's family a lot of money by keeping them off their flight. More »
This Cosi Restaurant Is The Best Stalker Ever
By Laura Northrup on March 29, 2012 11:30 AM
56 Comments
Nick orders the same lunch every Wednesday from the Cosi nearest his office: turkey and corn chili. That sounds really tasty, but Nick was unhappy because he wasn't getting all of the soup he paid for. When his soup cup wasn't full a few weeks in a row, he sent a complaint through the chain's website. The area manager sent a nice letter back offering a free meal at any location. Then things got weird. And awesome. The manager tracked him down using LinkedIn and had more soup delivered to his office. More »
The One Junk Mailer That Won't Remove Me From Their List
By Laura Northrup on March 29, 2012 10:30 AM
73 Comments
Christopher has a mission. That mission is to eliminate junk mail from his life. Maybe to save his time and sanity, maybe to save the planet, maybe both. Most companies he's called have been happy to oblige: they save money and earn goodwill by leaving him alone, after all. But one junk mail purveyor won't stop. That company is Mailsouth. More »
Car Dealership And VA Team Up To Damage Wounded Veteran's Credit
By Laura Northrup on March 29, 2012 9:30 AM
41 Comments
When Kat and her husband traded in their old Ford Focus, the dealership told them that they would be able to pay off the loan faster than the couple could. This was true, if by "faster" they meant "not at all." See, Kat's husband was wounded while serving in Afghanistan, and is due a $19,000 grant from the Veterans Administration to buy a vehicle. This grant is a check cut directly to the dealership. Two months later, the VA, acting with all of the swiftness and efficiency that government agencies are known for, hasn't sent the check yet. Naturally, instead of actually contacting the couple about the issue, the dealership just went ahead and didn't pay off the loan as promised. They won't until the check from the VA shows up. This is affecting Kat's husband's credit, and is just generally rude. More »
UPS And My Dog Turn Cupcake Boxes Into Expensive Chew Toy
By Laura Northrup on March 29, 2012 9:00 AM
100 Comments
Crystal's delivery from a third-party Amazon vendor was already more than a week late, and she lives in Hawaii. When UPS finally showed up with the box, the driver simply pitched it over the five-foot fence and into her yard. The good news is that there was nothing breakable in the box, so the act of hurling the package didn't damage her purchase. The bad news is that her dog was chilling in the yard at the time, and thought that the box of boxes was for him. To chew. More »
Help Donald Duck File His 1941 Federal Tax Return
By Laura Northrup on March 29, 2012 8:00 AM
40 Comments
Filing a federal tax return is an ingrained habit now, but most middle-class Americans didn't have to before World War II. The Revenue Act of 1942 made 15 million more people eligible to pay taxes. How could the government explain this to the masses? Cartoons! The U.S. Treasury department commissioned Disney to make a short animated film that explained how to fill out a simple tax return, and why paying income taxes was so important. (Spoiler alert: Defeating the Axis powers.) More »
We Just Want To Use AT&T Mobile Data In Our Neighborhood
By Laura Northrup on March 28, 2012 9:30 AM
53 Comments
Dave and his wife don't have any problems with data on their iPhones when they're in their home, since they have wi-fi. It's when they leave home but stay in the neighborhood that they can't connect to the Internet. While it's not a life-altering problem, they were able to get online from the pool only last year. What's going on? AT&T isn't terribly concerned. More »
Don't Worry, That's Just Bread Mold On Your Tampon
By Laura Northrup on March 28, 2012 9:00 AM
105 Comments
Normally, Danielle wouldn't have pulled her Kotex tampon out of the applicator for inspection before using it. I mean, who does that? One happened to fall out of the applicator, though, and that's when she saw them. The splotches of blackish mold. "Makes you wonder how many times things like this happen to tampons and we don't have a clue," she wrote. Um, yes. More »
Silly Customer Thinks Reserving A Vehicle From Enterprise Means Anything
By Laura Northrup on March 28, 2012 8:00 AM
66 Comments
Dan chose Enterprise to rent a van for his spring break vacation because the company offered the lowest price. What they couldn't offer him was a van. Somewhat naively, he thought that using Enterprise's online reservation system to reserve a vehicle would result in an actual vehicle being rented to him. No such luck. Now he's left scrambling for a vehicle large enough to accommodate everyone on his trip. More »
Best Buy Customer Service Has No Idea How Actual Best Buy Stores Work
By Laura Northrup on March 23, 2012 3:15 PM
68 Comments
That headline is not what one might call "surprising." But when Noelle's mom found an old, unopened charger bought at Best Buy and still had the receipt, the nice representative on the phone advised her to visit a brick-and-mortar store where they could "buy back" the item instead of accepting it as a return. Except there isn't any such program, so the duo wasted their time and had to, you know, go to Best Buy. Poor things. More »
I Just Want To Give Redbox $1.50
By Laura Northrup on March 23, 2012 1:15 PM
70 Comments
Lindsay rented a DVD from Redbox, and kept it longer than planned. Except her card on file was closed, and they couldn't charge the extra rental fees to it. Can they take her payment over the phone? No. They aren't set up to handle this situation, and don't particularly want her money. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on March 23, 2012 12:45 PM
86 Comments
- Scammers Tampering With Pumps To Score Cheap Gas
- Who Knew Wearing Orange Shirts To Work Is A Fireable Offense?
- Potential Employers Now Have The Nerve To Ask For Applicants' Facebook Passwords
- Theater Owner: I Charge So Much For Popcorn Because You Spill It All Over The Place
- Worst Company In America Sweet 16: Best Buy Vs. EA
Verizon Math At T-Mobile: 1¢ Is The Same As Free
Verizon T-Mobile phone purchase page through Costco so amusing. "Even though the difference between .01 and .00 is quite small," he writes, "it's still not infinitesimal enough to be considered 'free,' right?" No, not yet. More »
By Laura Northrup on March 23, 2012 10:30 AM
41 Comments
I don't really want to sit here writing painfully obvious sentences, but here's the thing. A penny isn't very much money. It is, however, more than zero, so an item that costs one cent is not free. In practical terms, it might as well be free, but it still isn't. Which is why Mark found this bit of math confusion on a 
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on March 23, 2012 10:15 AM
20 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
Strawberry Frappuccinos No Longer Vegan, Contain Ground-Up Bugs
By Laura Northrup on March 23, 2012 9:00 AM
107 Comments
A few years ago, we happily passed on the news that a change in Starbucks Frappuccino flavors meant that you could get some flavors in a vegan formulation. But now, if you're a Frappuccino lover who eschews eating animals, you'll have to stay away from the strawberry variety from here out. The good news is that the newest base doesn't contain artificial red food dye. The bad news is that's because it's been replaced with cochineal extract, a dye made from dried, ground-up insects. More »
Sears Employees Not Entirely Sure How Manufacturer's Warranties Work
By Laura Northrup on March 22, 2012 12:31 PM
42 Comments
Russell was browsing at his local Sears, seriously considering a purchase of fitness equipment. He grossly miscalculated, though: he got the idea in his head that he could ask an employee about the products for sale in the store and receive a factually correct answer. Instead, the salesperson emphasized the uselessness of the warranty, losing the sale and annoying the customer. More »
QVC Bundles Some Accessories With iPad 2, Doubles The Price
By Laura Northrup on March 22, 2012 11:32 AM
28 Comments
If you want an iPad and the latest cutting-edge technology isn't important to you, you could save some money by purchasing the now obsolete but still pretty awesome iPad 2. The 16 GB, wi-fi model is $399 at Best Buy, and you can get the same model direct from Apple, refurbished, for $349. Or you can tune in to QVC, the channel where your grandmother gets all of her jewelry, and buy that very same iPad bundled with some accessories for only $799. More »
How Do I Tell My Relatives I Won't Give Them Money?
By Laura Northrup on March 22, 2012 10:37 AM
197 Comments
R. really would have preferred it if his lawyer had kept his trap shut. See, R. has a five-figure settlement coming from a lawsuit, and the lawyer somehow just happened to mention this to one of R.'s relatives. (That's kind of, um, wrong, and could get the lawyer in trouble if he reported it.) His question for the Consumerist Hive Mind is this: now that they know he's getting some money, how can he stop his relatives from approaching him with their hands out? More »
How Can I Protect The Public From Potentially Spoiled Cheesecakes?
By Laura Northrup on March 22, 2012 9:30 AM
90 Comments
Somewhere in New York City, there is a rebellious grocery store that doesn't follow the rules. Except the rules this store ignores don't make it hip and interesting. They might make people sick. Every time Angela goes to the store, she notices a shelf of baked goods—cheesecakes and pies—that are supposed to be refrigerated, but aren't. Store employees don't seem to care, and the city health department has more important things to worry about. It's only Angela left, standing up for perishable food and for justice, and she doesn't know what to do next. More »
Wheaties Are Totally Boring, But Not Healthy Enough For Boring People
By Laura Northrup on March 22, 2012 9:00 AM
38 Comments
One would think, considering Americans' sudden love of all things whole-grain, that the classic General Mills cereal Wheaties would be doing well. Instead, sales of the cereal have been falling for years, and no one seems interested in other cereals under the Wheaties brand. It's all because the cereal is simultaneously boring and not boring enough. More »
Dell Thinks That Second Hard Drive Bay Is Just A Big Hole
By Laura Northrup on March 22, 2012 8:00 AM
62 Comments
Spencer's Dell laptop has two hard drive bays. That's pretty cool, and he decided to take advantage of this by using it to install a hard drive. But no one at Dell has ever heard of such a crazy thing, and you can't order any of the parts needed to actually hold or connect the drive from Dell's site. Because that would be simple and easy. More »
Verizon: You Totally Need This Unnecessary FiOS Upgrade
By Laura Northrup on March 21, 2012 9:30 AM
44 Comments
Verizon really wants Sean to sign up for FiOS. Really, really wants him to sign up. He's happy kicking it old-school with a regular old copper landline, and dumping the barrage of FiOS ads in the trash. So it was interesting when he got a letter apologizing for nonexistent "service issues" in his area and urging him to upgrade to the newer, shinier fiber optic network. The letter assures him that he can totally keep his current phone plan at its current price - even though the equivalent plan under FiOS is cheaper. More »
Where 'Delivery Date' Doesn't Mean 'Date When We Will Deliver Your Dishwasher To Your House'
By Laura Northrup on March 21, 2012 9:00 AM
61 Comments
In Paula's letter to Consumerist, she said something unusual that caught our eye. She sincerely wished that she had ordered her new dishwasher from Sears rather than Lowe's. What makes a person express such crazy desires? She had assumed that the "delivery date" displayed for shoppers on the Lowe's site stood for the date that the appliance would be delivered to and installed in her home. Not quite. More »
(imtfi)
T-Mobile Customer Demands Refund For Two Years Of Too-Slow Data... And Gets It
By Laura Northrup on March 21, 2012 8:00 AM
18 Comments
When Sam was having problems with his T-Mobile smartphone, he did what he thought he was supposed to do: call up support. The agent on the phone couldn't restore his phone's Internet connectivity, but they did try to upsell him on some new services. He'd rather have the services he was already paying for working, thanks. When he took the phone to a retail store for help, he learned the real cause of his problems: he'd been wandering around for two years with an old 2G SIM in his 4G phone. He thought that he should have the extra cost of a 4G data plan refunded to him, and T-Mobile acquiesced... but only after he launched an executive e-mail carpet bomb. More »
Maybe Your New TV Is Watching You
By Laura Northrup on March 20, 2012 9:00 AM
65 Comments
It's the entire point, really. New smart TVs from Samsung boast video cameras with facial-recognition software and microphones with speech-recognition software. They can tell who's in the room, understand spoken commands, and be controlled with gestures. That's great news for those of us who can never find the remote, but made our friends over at HD Guru wonder: is there anyone behind that camera watching us back? More »
(Razor512)
Why Does My Internet Connection Take A Daily Afternoon Siesta?
By Laura Northrup on March 20, 2012 8:30 AM
86 Comments
Three hours. That's how long Nate's Internet connection goes out for, every day except Saturday. He has no idea why. His Internet service provider, Charter, has no idea why. All Charter is able to do is send technician after technician to check out the problem, replace hardware, and ultimately not solve the problem. More »
(jpmarth)
Paying For Gas With A Credit Card? $1 Extra Per Gallon, Please
By Laura Northrup on March 16, 2012 1:30 PM
141 Comments
It's not legal for a store to charge an extra fee or percentage when customers pay by credit card, but it is legal to offer a discount to customers who pay in cash. Great. The flaw in this plan is that, at least in New York state, there aren't any laws regulating how big that discount can be. Which is why some Long Island gas station operators recently hiked the price per gallon of gas a dollar, then offered a one-dollar discount to customers who pay cash. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on March 16, 2012 11:45 AM
73 Comments
- Here It Is, Your Lineup For Worst Company In America 2012!
- Worst Company In America Round One: Target Vs. Best Buy
- My Condo Association Is Demanding DNA Sample From My Dog
- How Does A 14-Year-Old Girl Buy A House?
- Worst Company In America Round One: EA Vs. Sony
Why Are NBA League Pass Games On A 1-Hour Delay For Roku Users?
By Laura Northrup on March 16, 2012 10:30 AM
22 Comments
Darren is an NBA League Pass subscriber: a very useful subscription to have if you enjoy watching live basketball. The problem is that beginning this past Sunday, the games aren't live anymore. Roku viewers—and only Roku viewers—are getting them on an hour delay. And nobody knows why. More »
(БРАТСТВО)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on March 16, 2012 10:15 AM
28 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
When Laptop Screen Cracks, Office Depot Comes Through
By Laura Northrup on March 16, 2012 9:00 AM
17 Comments
Usually, when a message arrives in our mailbox containing the name of a big-box office supply store and the word "saga," it means that a sad tale of incompetence and woe is in store. But that's not the case this time. "I've never had a corporation help me this much in my entire life," Curtis noted in his e-mail. When something went wrong with the screen of his Gateway laptop that be purchased from Office Depot, Gateway offered to fix the screen for $200. He wrote to Office Depot about the problem, not expecting much, but ended up stunned at the help he received from corporate. More »
(yksin)
Ask For Your Deposit Back, Capital One Hangs Up On You
By Laura Northrup on March 16, 2012 8:00 AM
52 Comments
Seeking to build his credit and be all responsible and stuff, Matt got a secured credit card from Capital One. If you're not familiar with the concept, that's a type of credit card where the creditor is... well, you. You deposit, say, $500 with the credit card issuer, and that gives you a spending limit of $500 or a little more. A good repayment history with this card will help build or rebuild your credit when you're not able to get another card. And when you have good enough credit to move on and shut down the card, you get that deposit back. In theory, anyway. More »
4-Minute Phone Call Saves ADT Customer $100 Per Year
By Laura Northrup on March 9, 2012 3:30 PM
29 Comments
Aishel is an ADT home security system customer. When he received a letter in the mail that the company was increasing his monthly bill slightly, he decided that this change made him feel quite insecure in the wallet. He called up ADT to see whether they could waive the increase for him. Of course they could: and how would he like a $6 decrease in his monthly bill while he was at it? More »
(~dgies)
Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: You're Using Them Wrong
By Laura Northrup on March 9, 2012 2:30 PM
127 Comments
Compact fluorescent light bulbs are great for energy savings, but their other stated benefit—lasting longer than incandescent bulbs—often doesn't live up to the half-decade advertised on the package. Sometimes that's the user's own fault, for using bulbs in a way that diminishes their lifespans. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on March 9, 2012 12:30 PM
72 Comments
- How To Wash Pants? Give Them To Your Woman, It's Her Job
- Man Without Cellphone Ticketed For Talking On Cellphone While Driving
- Couple Spends Five Years In $1.2 Mansion Without Ever Making Mortgage Payment
- Man Sues Movie Theater Over Price Of Snacks
- Here Are A Few Important Things E-Book Sellers Aren't Bragging About
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on March 9, 2012 9:30 AM
9 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
How A $20 Oil Change Coupon Turned Into A $54 Oil Change
By Laura Northrup on March 9, 2012 9:00 AM
115 Comments
It seems that whenever a tipster writes in complaining of a "bait-and-switch," the issue they're writing about is a genuine problem, but it's not actually a bait-and-switch scheme. True bait-and-switch is when a company advertises something really great but nonexistent to get you in the door, and then will only sell you something else. That's what Adam encountered when he printed out a coupon for a $19.99 oil change and tire rotation at a local Meineke shop somewhere in New York State. They refused to take his coupon, and charged him a total of $54 because the posted price conveniently didn't include the cost of the oil filter. More »
Verizon Upgrades My Smartphone, Downgrades My Data Plan
By Laura Northrup on March 9, 2012 8:00 AM
52 Comments
At the end of last year, Christopher and his girlfriend upgraded their Verizon phones to a pair of lovely matching Samsung Galaxy Nexuses. They've both had Verizon data plans long enough that they're grandfathered in to unlimited data, and Christopher has unlimited international data as well. Or.... he did. After the upgrade, his unlimited plan is gone, the employee who turned it off has (apparently) fled the country, and no one at corporate or the local Verizon store knows how to get it back. More »
Recall Roundup: Beware Of The Dancing Teapot
By Laura Northrup on March 8, 2012 12:30 PM
15 Comments
In this edition of the Recall Roundup, a scary number of bicycle parts are recalled, grass cutters might cut humans, and we learn that a "dancing teapot" (pictured) is a lot less fun than the name makes it sound. Especially when it burns you. More »
White House/Black Market Return Policy Sticks Me With A Pile Of Bridesmaid Dresses
By Laura Northrup on March 8, 2012 11:33 AM
110 Comments
Buying bridesmaids' dresses from a place that isn't a bridal store can save you money and expand your style options, but their return policies aren't designed with weddings in mind. Lyndsay bought her attendants' dresses from the chain White House/Black Market, but needed to return them when a pregnant matron of honor meant changing all of the dresses. While the chain advertises "no hassle" returns, there's plenty of hassle if more than 60 days have passed since the purchase. Since that's how return policies work. More »
Huggies: Diapers So Good, Even Dads Can't Use Them Wrong?
By Laura Northrup on March 8, 2012 10:35 AM
103 Comments
For about one-third of babies and young children, their primary caregiver is their father. And most dads today pitch in with child care and have some working knowledge of how a diaper works. So it's not hard to see why some parents are annoyed at the new "Dad Test" campaign for Huggies diapers. The concept: leaving babies alone with their dads for five days is somehow the "ultimate test" of the quality of diapers and wipes. More »
(Zachary)
Who Should Pay This Sick Rescue Dog's Vet Bills?
By Laura Northrup on March 8, 2012 9:30 AM
160 Comments
Last month, Zachary and his girlfriend adopted an adorable dog, Sophie, from a rescue organization. She had been transported across several states from a shelter to her new home, but arrived extremely ill. Her new family rushed her to the veterinarian, where she got badly needed but expensive treatment. The vet claims that Sophie should never have traveled in her condition, and would have showed symptoms long before the transport left. The rescue claims that she wasn't sick before departure. So who should pay this vet bill? More »
([RAWRZ!])
Kay Jewelers Doesn't Know How To Separate A Pendant And A Chain
By Laura Northrup on March 8, 2012 9:00 AM
65 Comments
It seems that the only way Brian's girlfriend could keep the necklace he bought her at Kay Jewelers from breaking is to not wear it, which isn't really the intended use of a necklace. It has now broken three times in the same spot. He bought an extended warranty, which would have been a good idea if the store would replace the chain instead of repairing it over and over. Instead, he has to turn in the chain and pendant for store credit and buy something else. Why can't they replace the defective chain and leave Brian the pendant? Because they just can't. More »
Sorry You Can't Vote: You're Dead
By Laura Northrup on March 8, 2012 8:00 AM
28 Comments
A bureaucratic mixup led to a very confusing Super Tuesday for one Boston-area woman. The 84-year-old showed up to vote in Tuesday's primary election, only to be told that she couldn't vote: she was dead. More »
Green Dot Mixes Up Prepaid Card Addresses, Ties Up My Money
By Laura Northrup on March 7, 2012 9:30 AM
11 Comments
Sarah bought a Green Dot Visa card at Walmart so she could do some shopping online. Her experience is a great illustration of why this site isn't a huge fan of prepaid debit cards: she put down cash for a card that had erroneous address information even though she had carefully followed all directions and registered the card. She ended up with most of the card's balance tied up in transactions she couldn't complete. More »
(nffcnnr)
Change Payment Card On Amazon Pre-Order, Lose Your Shipping Date
By Laura Northrup on March 7, 2012 9:00 AM
54 Comments
It's too late for Jared, who won't get his copy of Mass Effect 3 until Friday, the poor thing. (Other people who placed pre-orders got theirs yesterday.) But he wants everyone else to learn from his mistake. If you pre-order an item from Amazon, but change your method of payment for the order before it ships, you'll lose your spot in line and your release-day shipping. Sure, this usually doesn't matter all that much, but we're talking about a game here. More »
Cosigning Someone's Comcast Account Doesn't Mean Paying Their Bills Instead Of My Own
By Laura Northrup on March 7, 2012 8:00 AM
71 Comments
Helpful and supportive person that she is, Isis is a co-signer on her goddaughter's Comcast account so her goddaughter wouldn't have to pay a deposit. Normally this wouldn't be a problem unless the youngster defaulted on her payments or ran off with a half-dozen cable boxes. The problem is that the act somehow tied together her account and Isis's, and a $435 payment was applied to the goddaughter's account by mistake. This has led to biweekly disconnections, fruitless promises by Comcast employees to take care of the situation, and an existential question: does Isis have two accounts, or only one? More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on March 2, 2012 12:30 PM
66 Comments
- [UPDATED] Banker Leaves 1% Tip, Suggests Server Should "Get A Real Job"
- Restaurant Says 1% Tip Receipt Is A Fake
- Room-Borrowing Landlord Is Mentally Ill, Running A Scam, Or Both
- Reminder: Turn Off Your Google Web History Today
- 3 Things Not To Buy Online
- Landlord Tries To Use Leap Day To Screw Tenants Out Of Deposit
(ginat3)
Kohl's Wants You To Pick A Side: Paper Statements Or Online Account Access
By Laura Northrup on March 2, 2012 11:30 AM
36 Comments
If you have a Kohl's charge card and like to have a paper statement but also check your account online...well, tough. As part of what looks like a push to get customers to opt out of receiving bills in the mail, the good times of having two different ways to access one's account are over. If you want paper bills, you'll have to surrender your access to the site. More »
Dell Sends Technician To Your Office To Break Your Laptop
By Laura Northrup on March 2, 2012 10:30 AM
50 Comments
Experienced customer service wranglers will tell you that if you're going to buy products from Dell, buy them as a small business owner, since they get better customer support. I'd hate to see what kind of support reader Benjamin would be getting for his Vostro notebook computer if he weren't a small business owner, then. More »
(berlyjen)
Package Vanishes Into Thin Air Inside The Post Office
By Laura Northrup on March 2, 2012 9:31 AM
50 Comments
Anthony's faith in the U.S. Postal service was clearly misplaced. He dropped off a package with a prepaid label at a local post office, with the misguided belief that it would enter the shipping system, and that the delivery confirmation barcode on the label would show the package's path through the mails. That's not what happened. What happened was that the prepaid label, with no package attached, was returned to Anthony's house. Where's the package? No one knows. But it's not the post office's problem, since there's no proof that he even mailed it in the first place. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on March 2, 2012 9:00 AM
13 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
Cat Naps On Router, ISP Provides Decoy Router In Exchange For Cat Pictures
By Laura Northrup on March 2, 2012 8:00 AM
60 Comments
Liam lives in England and has a cat. As all people owned by cats know, warm, feline-posterior-sized electronic devices are irresistible to cats worldwide, and the DSL modem/router thingy provided by his Internet service provider, Be, is no exception. The problem is that this particular router doesn't work very well with a cat on top of it. He made a joking forum post that featured a photo of his cat communing with the router and pleaded for a decoy router so he could keep his cat happy but also have functional Internet. Astonishingly.... the company complied. But only if he sent them more pictures of his cat. More »
When You Pay Google For A Service, Don't Expect Any Actual Help
By Laura Northrup on March 1, 2012 12:30 PM
20 Comments
What Justin wanted to do is pretty simple. He wanted to take his Google Voice number and port it to his new Sprint phone. This is a thing that you can do with Google Voice, if you pay. But as early purchasers of the Nexus One and other people who have issues with Google have learned, Google will happily accept your money, but doesn't like to deal with actual icky customers. Their default customer support option—posting on a forum and hoping someone with power notices—isn't cutting it for Justin anymore, since he's having problems with text messages on his ported number. More »
Automated Cupcake Machine Now Available 24 Hours For Sugar Emergencies
By Laura Northrup on March 1, 2012 11:32 AM
25 Comments
Have you ever said to yourself at one in the morning, "I could really use some cupcakes," but didn't want to bake them yourself? Well, if you have the ability to get to Beverly Hills, cupcakery Sprinkles now has a pink cupcake kiosk installed outside of their store where you can buy fresh cupcakes, mixes, and even cupcakes for your dog. Of course there are cupcakes for your dog. More »
(acordova)
E-Commerce Warehouse Wage Slaves Race Against The Clock To Send Your Crap
By Laura Northrup on March 1, 2012 10:35 AM
154 Comments
Consumerist readers, and Americans in general, love having things shipped to us online, but resist paying for the actual shipping. But those aren't robots pulling your stuff off the shelves shortly after you hit "submit order." They're real people, pushed to work at an impossible pace for middling pay, with mandatory overtime. Mother Jones writer Mac Mclelland briefly worked in one such warehouse this past holiday season, pulling books, dildos, and cases of baby food off the shelves. She wrote about the experience. It might make you think twice before placing your next massive online order. Or not. More »
(Plaszloc)
Scammers Hit Grocery Store Gift Card Kiosk, Swap Out Empty Cards For New Ones
By Laura Northrup on March 1, 2012 9:30 AM
68 Comments
Jeff is a really generous boss. This past holiday season, he gave out $100 gift cards to various stores as gifts to his staff. He picked them up at one of those gift card malls that you see in grocery and drug stores: in this case, at grocery chain Ralph's. When his employee went to actually use the card this week, it wouldn't work. Normal gift card snafu? No. The grocery store blames card-switching thieves. More »
People Tweet Stupid Things To Companies
By Laura Northrup on March 1, 2012 9:00 AM
31 Comments
Sometimes Twitter can be an effective customer service tool; more often it's not. But most of the time, tweets to brands are inane drivel like most of the rest of Twitter. Or they come full circle and are so stupid that they're almost interesting. More »
Room-Borrowing Landlord Is Mentally Ill, Running A Scam, Or Both
By Laura Northrup on March 1, 2012 8:00 AM
68 Comments
Yesterday, we shared with you the story of Z, the room he rented in a small city in central California, and the landlord who thought it was totally okay to stay in his bedroom while he was out of town. We didn't expect to get an update this soon, or for the story to get even stranger. It turns out that while the owner of the house may be mentally ill, according to local police, she has definitely been running a scam for at least the last few months that consists of collecting rent and deposits, then terrorizing renters so they move out. Whether the "terrorizing" part is intentional or not isn't clear. More »
Our Records Indicate That You Don't Want A Phone Book... Here Is Your Phone Book
By Laura Northrup on February 29, 2012 9:30 AM
56 Comments
"Our records indicate that you have elected not to receive the AT&T directory currently being delivered," said the tag left on Chris's doorknob. This is correct. He has requested to not receive any phone books whatsoever, from any phone company, for the last three years. AT&T doesn't believe him, though, so they left him some phone books just in case. More »
SquareTrade Learns 'Defective' iPhone Is Really Damaged, Replaces It For Free Anyway
By Laura Northrup on February 29, 2012 9:00 AM
15 Comments
Dan decided to buy a SquareTrade warranty for his iPhone because, unlike AppleCare, SquareTrade also covers damage to the phone at a good price. This warranty turned out to be a wise investment, since he dropped the phone and cracked the screen. When the replacement phone stopped working, he called them up for another replacement before noticing that the glass was cracked. No more free replacement. How sad. More »
(telaine)
I Go Out Of Town, Landlord Crashes In My Bedroom
By Laura Northrup on February 29, 2012 8:00 AM
78 Comments
Z picked up and moved to a new city for work, and rented a room in a three-bedroom house with an out-of-town landlord. He found the rental on Craigslist. Not his dream home, but not so bad either. Until he came home from a conference and found that the landlord came to visit, and stayed in the house. With all three bedrooms rented out, where did she crash? Z's room, of course, which she also rummaged through and rearranged the furniture. More »
(dooley)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2012 12:30 PM
120 Comments
- How Apple Lost A Dedicated Customer Over A Stupid Pink Dot
- Waiter Knows You & Your High Friends Weren't Able To Just Say No
- How Walmart Is Making Americans Even Stupider
- A Trick To Tell You When And How To Flip Your Mattress
- Screaming Child On Plane Prompts Man To Trigger Emergency Slide
(БРАТСТВО)
Yes, Televisions Are Pretty Much Disposable Now
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2012 11:30 AM
114 Comments
It seems like an ancient, lost world now, but there was once a time when people bought electronics or appliances, and when they broke down, they hired someone to repair the item and kept using it. This may not sound weird and obsolete to you or to me or to reader Donna. Toshiba, on the other hand, certainly thinks that it's not worthwhile to repair the television that she paid $1,800 for in 2007. She doesn't want anything for free, and is willing to pay for parts and repair. Only the needed part isn't available from Toshiba, or from anyone. More »
Your Annual New T-Mobile Phones Were Just A Beautiful, Forbidden Dream
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2012 10:30 AM
60 Comments
Every year since 2007, Jim and his wife have celebrated the arrival of their federal income tax refund by going to the T-Mobile store, renewing their contract, and picking out shiny new phones at the new-contract discount. Year after year, they've done this, even though they're renewing the 2-year contract every year. This was just part of what made being T-Mobile customers so awesome. Until, suddenly, the carrier stopped being as awesome, and insisted that the last five years and all of those discounted phones were all a dream. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2012 9:30 AM
14 Comments
Here are thirteen of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
Stephen Colbert Mocks Marketingspeak By Cramming Face With 17 Wheat Thins
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2012 9:00 AM
60 Comments
Have you ever wondered about the specific brand rules that regulate product placement and on-air sponsorships of products on TV? Yeah, us either. Until Stephen Colbert spent the entire second act of his show last night dissecting and mocking a memo from Nabisco spelling out precisely how Wheat Thins can be consumed and presented on the program. More »
Anxious To Get Your Tax Refund? IRS Says 'Go Get Another Job'
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2012 8:00 AM
106 Comments
Emily is a law student, and she spent last summer doing lawyer-type work and earning lawyer-type money. She mistakenly set up her withholding as if she were earning that much money year-round, though, so the government owes her a pretty sweet refund now that she's returned to the poor, ascetic life of a student. She even filed her taxes super early so she can get that money back. Only the IRS has flagged her for extra-special review, delaying her refund, and no one she can get in touch with seems to care. "You should just get another job," one helpful representative told her. More »
1-800-COLLECT Shames The Memory Of Phil Hartman
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2012 12:35 PM
68 Comments
Like everyone who was conscious and watching television during the '90s, Casey and his wife have the brand of 1-800-COLLECT seared into their brains. Vacationing at a ski resort where cell coverage was spotty to nonexistent, they made a few collect calls, and that was the service that came to mind. They made a few brief calls, totaling... about as much as their monthly mobile phone bill. More »
(B Rosen)
Australian Steals $30,000 From Nigerian Fraudsters
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2012 11:30 AM
35 Comments
We all know the sad story: scam artists based in Nigeria dupe an innocent foreigner into forwarding fraudulent payments on to an accomplice, and end up out thousands of their own dollars and in legal trouble. A 23-year old Australian woman flipped the scenario around when she kept all of the ill-gotten cash she was meant to launder and spent it on herself. The best (worst?) part? She didn't even know that her "employers" were out to scam her. More »
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Uncover More Retail Antiquities
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2012 10:35 AM
58 Comments
They are always searching. The Raiders of the Lost Walmart never stop their quest for the most ridiculous, most outdated items still on the shelves of their local Walmart stores. Here are their latest discoveries: a game that you can download for free, and a decade-old digital camera. More »
Have You Ever Sat Through A Timeshare Pitch For Cash?
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2012 9:36 AM
91 Comments
Charlie wrote to us from his vacation, where he got a hundred bucks for ninety minutes of his time. Yes, he sat through a timeshare pitch. And he wonders, have others in the Consumerist community sat through pitches in exchange for cash or free trips? More »
Target Sells You A Vacuum Full Of Crud, Won't Take It Back
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2012 9:00 AM
56 Comments
Isabelle's $300 Dyson vacuum from Target arrived on her doorstep without some of the parts, and filled with dirt from someone else's house. Wanting to receive the item she actually had ordered, she dragged it to the nearest Target in a taxi and was told that she was obviously trying to pull one over on Target by returning this vacuum when she so clearly had used it and kept the handle. Clearly. More »
(БРАТСТВО)
No, Of Course This Car We're Selling Has Never Been In A Severe Accident
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2012 8:00 AM
59 Comments
Last year, Brandon's car was destroyed in an accident, and he went shopping for a new-to-him vehicle. He found a nice 2008 Honda Civic at a good price with a clean Carfax report. Sweet deal! Now Brandon's in the market for a new car. At another dealership, he learned that the Civic isn't worth as much as he had thought as a trade-in, because the vehicle had sustained severe body damage in an accident, then was rebuilt. How did they know this? The now-updated Carfax report, of course. More »
How Walmart Is Making Americans Even Stupider
By Laura Northrup on February 22, 2012 9:35 AM
194 Comments
Reader "Nick" manages a store that sells DVDs. And while store managers have many, many legitimate gripes that they could share with the Consumerist Nation, Nick has a very specific complaint about Walmart. It's his belief that Walmart is making Americans stupid. Well, stupider. Hear him out. More »
The United Arab Emirates Will Not Stand For The Grocery Shrink Ray
By Laura Northrup on February 22, 2012 9:02 AM
53 Comments
When Coke and Pepsi cans sold in the United Arab Emirates were shrink rayed from 355 milliliters (about 12 ounces) to 300 mL (about 10 ounces) while the price remained the same, it wasn't just customers who complained. The government noticed, too, and is removing the offending cans from store shelves. Those wacky foreigners! More »
Papa John's Heart-Shaped Pizza Looks More Like Anatomical Heart
By Laura Northrup on February 22, 2012 8:02 AM
34 Comments
Everyone knows that "heart-shaped" items don't look anything like the big lump of muscle in mammals' chests that pumps blood around. But heart-shaped things are cute. Every year, Papa John's tries to produce a heart-shaped pizza. And every year, it's a heart-clogger shaped more like an actual anatomical heart. Mozzarella cheese is a cruel medium. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2012 12:30 PM
120 Comments
- PETA Ad Warns That Going Vegan May Cause You To Be So Good In Bed You'll Hurt Your Girlfriend
- 6 Updated Confessions From A Current Sprint Sales Rep
- Florist Drains Bank Account To Ship Valentine's Day Orders After Amazon Holds Up Her Payments
- Judge Really Thought No One Would Catch Her Dismissing Her Own Parking Tickets
- Sony Responds To Bummed Out Fans By Raising The Price On Whitney Houston's Album
Wells Fargo: Good For All Of Your Banking And Personal Printing Needs
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2012 11:30 AM
37 Comments
Nick was giving a presentation at a conference in Albuquerque, and needed to print out a revised version of his notes. He didn't count on the printers in the business center of his hotel being out of order, and the downtown devoid of life, retail, and even Kinko's outlets. Lacking transportation away from the hotel, he tried to think of alternate ways to meet his printing needs. That was when he saw the shimmering green Wells Fargo office tower... and formulated a wacky plan to put his bank to work for him. More »
(iPablosu)
Change Xbox Live Gamertag, Lose EA Gun Club Privileges
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2012 10:30 AM
25 Comments
Jason is a longtime member of Electronics Arts' Gun Club, a rewards program that gives special perks and previews to fans of EA games. A few months ago, he had to change his Xbox Live gamertag because of a complaint about it. We won't print the tag, but it wasn't anything offensive or vulgar, and he got to keep the same tag by adding "The" to the beginning of it. Simple enough. The problem is that changing your gamertag severs the tie between your Live account and your Gun Club account forever. Oddly, no one at EA knows how to deal with this situation. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2012 9:30 AM
14 Comments
Here are twelve of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
Four More Sad Florist Tales From The Garden Of Discontent
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2012 9:00 AM
70 Comments
Closed lilies, not-so-fresh blooms, and two flower arrangements that never showed up, leaving disappointed girlfriends in their wake. Delivering the flowers a day late is better than not at all...but not when you paid extra to make sure your significant other knows that you didn't forget to wow her on the 14th. Welcome to the third and final installment of this year's Valentine's Day Garden of Discontent. More »
35 Pets Died On Airplanes Last Year, Over Half On Delta
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2012 8:00 AM
39 Comments
Animal lovers were justifiably critical of Delta Airlines after sixteen pets died in 2010 during or after flights in the cargo hold. But even after banning frequently-overheating short-muzzled breeds like bulldogs from the skies, nineteen pets passed away during or shortly after Delta flights in 2011. That's out of a total of 35 pets that died on U.S. carriers last year. In addition, nine pets sustained major or minor injuries, and two were lost. More »
Crest Pro-Health Mouthwash Still Taking Out Tastebuds
By Laura Northrup on February 16, 2012 12:30 PM
84 Comments
Four years after we first published stories about Crest Pro-Health mouthwash doing scary things to people's mouths, the product is still on the market. And it's doing scary things to customers' mouths to this day, 48 hours per day. One of those customers is reader Maria's mom, who lost her sense of taste after using the product. A week later, she still wasn't interested in eating. More »
Maglite Manufacturer Is Quite Magnanimous
More »
By Laura Northrup on February 16, 2012 11:30 AM
55 Comments
Jason really likes his mini Maglite, but the part that holds the bulb is corroded. Instead of buying a new one, he wanted to fix and keep the light he loves. He wrote to the company, Mag Instrument, asking whether he could buy a replacement part. Terrible news: that wasn't possible. But they could send him one for free. More »
Helpful Stranger Delivers Your Mail, Curses Out Your Bank
By Laura Northrup on February 16, 2012 10:30 AM
35 Comments
It's just plain heart-warming when a stranger does something nice for you. When Efrem's box of new checks from Citibank went astray, the person who did receive them brought them by, with a helpful note about Efrem's choice of financial institutions. "Citibank sucks," the Good Samaritan wrote. "I would not trust [these] MFers with my money." More »
That Free Pizza Will Be $1.49 Plus Tax, Tip, And Delivery, Please
By Laura Northrup on February 16, 2012 9:30 AM
128 Comments
There is no such thing as a free pizza. Alisha knows this, and she's bright enough to know that the courtesy coupon for a "free" pizza from Papa John's would not, in fact, result in a pizza showing up on her doorstep without any money changing hands. She just didn't expect to be charged $1.49 for the free item. "Silly Alisha, that's the delivery fee!" you might say. No. It's not. She had to pay sales tax and the delivery fee as well. More »
(Shop24)
Tiny Robotic Kroger Invades College Campus
By Laura Northrup on February 16, 2012 9:00 AM
36 Comments
Ah, progress. Thanks to advances in vending-machine technology, tiny robotic convenience stores have opened up shop in apartment complexes and on college campuses nationwide. Sure, consumers in Europe and Japan had similar stuff a decade or more ago. But they don't have the world's tiniest Kroger, which is about the size of a bus shelter and opened last month on the campus of private Ohio Northern University. More »
Florist Gives Refund For Botched Valentine's Delivery, Then Repos Flowers
By Laura Northrup on February 16, 2012 8:00 AM
81 Comments
Maybe the flowers that Seth ordered for his girlfriend from a locally-owned florist in Texas were fresh, beautiful, and exactly what he asked for. Or maybe they weren't. He has no idea. The blooms were delivered to the apartment complex office during the afternoon on the 14th, but without a name or apartment number to indicate who they might belong to. After lying about why there were no flowers a few times, they gave Seth the refund he asked for. Then sent a driver back to the apartment office to take back the flowers before his girlfriend could fetch them. More »
The 2012 Valentine's Day Garden Of Discontent
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2012 9:30 AM
92 Comments
On Valentine's Day, we are expected to show loved ones how much they mean to us by giving them dead plants. For extra style points, we pay strangers to bring these dead plants to the recipient for us. However, florists are unfathomably busy on Valentine's Day. So busy that we almost feel bad criticizing when things go wrong. Almost. The Consumerist's annual Valentine's Day Garden of Discontent is a collection of flower or gift deliveries that aren't what the recipient had in mind. Such as calling your fiancée a whore. More »
Yahoo Shuts Down Decade-Old E-Mail Account, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2012 9:00 AM
73 Comments
David is a paying customer of Yahoo, for web hosting services. It's also been his e-mail account for the last decade. So why can't he get an answer out of anyone there as to why they abruptly shut down his account a few weeks ago? He's been locked out of his digital house on the Internet, and no one can tell him what he did wrong. Yahoo is an impenetrable fortress with no phones, designed to keep customers from talking to anyone with an idea what's going on. More »
Westminster Dog Show Ditches Sponsor Because Ads Make Everyone Cry
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2012 8:00 AM
115 Comments
Anyone who sat down to watch the Westminster Kennel Club dog show this week probably likes dogs, and might even have one. That's why Pedigree brand dog food has been the event's major sponsor for the last 24 years, even though it's unlikely that the dogs in the ring eat such pedestrian fare. This year, Purina has replaced Pedigree as sponsor. Why? Was their contract up? Slashed ad budget? No. It was because Pedigree's commercials about the plight of shelter dogs were bumming everyone out. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2012 12:30 PM
105 Comments
- Target's Unlimited Item Policy Allows Miami Duo To Gobble Up Most Of Jason Wu Line At One Location
- Buying Generic Doesn't Save Shoppers As Much As It Used To
- Lawsuit: You Can't Charge Me With Downloading Porn Because You Can't Copyright Obscenity
- Judge Says Bank Of America Can Boot The $16 House Guy From McMansion
Naked Man Smears Self And Grocery Store With Peanut Butter, Chocolate, And Nyquil
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2012 11:35 AM
46 Comments
A 22-year-old Kentucky man has been charged with burglary after breaking into an IGA overnight and making a huge mess. According to court records, the man smashed a glass door to enter the store, discharged fire extinguishers, smeared his nude body and the manager's office with peanut butter and chocolate, and used liquid cold remedies to scrawl the word "Sorry" on the floor. More »
Target Will Not Price-Match Other Targets
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2012 10:33 AM
100 Comments
Two Target locations, only a short drive apart. One line of dinnerware on clearance. Jordan and his fiancé registered for dishes that were on clearance at the time. As stock began to disappear from local stores, they decided to just go ahead and buy all of the pieces they could before they disappeared from stores altogether. Oddly, the place settings were cheaper at one store than the other. The ways of retail pricing are mysterious, but what Jordan learned is that buying the same item at the same chain a few miles away doesn't mean that price-matching is going to happen. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2012 9:31 AM
9 Comments
Here are twelve of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
(.:AR:.)
Intermittent Computer Issues? Lenovo's Repair Center Will Break Them All The Way
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2012 9:03 AM
36 Comments
P.'s Lenovo netbook had a wonky USB port that would stop working when the item plugged into it was jostled a little bit. Fortunately, Lenovo's repair center is capable of fixing problems like that. He sent the computer in, but didn't want to pay $700 for repairs on a computer he had purchased for $400. More »
(penner42)
A Midnight Sale Where Midnight Never Comes
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2012 8:02 AM
48 Comments
Sloan thought that it might be worth it to stay up and online to check out an advertised midnight sale on BestBuy.com. "Midnight," in the case of this sale, meant the stroke of 12 AM on the East Coast, or 11:00 in the Central time zone where Sloane lives. When 11:00 came and went with no sale, he called up Best Buy to see where the sale had gone. They assured him that it would start up at midnight in his time zone. That didn't happen, either. More »
Packaging Vs. Reality: Kraft Macaroni And Cheese Cups
By Laura Northrup on February 9, 2012 12:30 PM
76 Comments
Jay is smart, and knows that packaged food never quite turns out the way it looks on the box. It's not physically possible. But he was surprised, when cooking a pre-packaged cup of Kraft macaroni and cheese from Costco, that the quantity of food-like substance in the cup didn't really measure up to what was shown on the box. Is he overreacting, or is this really an unrealistic portrayal of the food product within? More »
Adventures In Honesty: Chase Credit Card Rewards
By Laura Northrup on February 9, 2012 11:30 AM
14 Comments
Zach's parents used their Chase rewards points to send him a nice gift. He was thrilled to find three $25 gift cards to Amazon! Except, um, they had only sent him one. It was obviously a mailing error, and Zach reached out to Chase to straighten it out. Having a customer call in to complain that he received too many gift cards was apparently an unprecedented event at this Chase call center. But for raising an honest son, Chase will reward his parents with extra points. More »
Sick Customer Throws Up In Kroger, Employees Still Treat Her Like A Human Being
By Laura Northrup on February 9, 2012 10:30 AM
68 Comments
Reader Bugpaste is not feeling well. She's been hit with a vicious stomach bug. While picking up some medicine and supplies at Kroger yesterday, the worst happened: she threw up in the dairy aisle, a situation that could have been a lot worse if employees and fellow customers had been rude. But they weren't at all. They cleaned up after her, and were genuinely concerned for her well-being. She was so impressed with the kindness she encountered that she took some time out from her recovery to write to the general manager. More »
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
54 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 »
Fry's Matches Online Retailer Prices! With A Great Big Catch.
By Laura Northrup on February 9, 2012 9:00 AM
52 Comments
The good news: Fry's Electronics will match just about any valid price that you bring in, even if it's from an online source. Cool! The bad news is that when calculating that price match, they include shipping. Even for Amazon Prime customers like reader Sean, who tried to get Fry's to price-match a Blu-Ray. So, y'know, just go ahead and order that gadget online like you were going to in the first place. More »
How I Lost $470 To A Vindictive, Abusive, Extortionist eBay Buyer
By Laura Northrup on February 9, 2012 8:00 AM
213 Comments
Justin used to sell on eBay until policy changes made it a more favorable marketplace for buyers than for sellers. But he still has his account and a good feedback rating, so he's helping a friend sell off some gold coins worth a few hundred bucks each. They're shipped UPS with signature confirmation and full insurance. The coin itself goes inside a plain envelope, placed inside a sealed cardboard UPS document mailer. This plan worked for 25 shipments, until the buyer from hell wandered into Justin's life. More »
(nvaine)
If You Want To Work Out To A Video, Just Stay Home
By Laura Northrup on February 8, 2012 9:30 AM
95 Comments
Vikram has been pretty happy with his gym, Life Time Fitness. Until an employee caught him working out to a P90X video on his laptop. He was asked to stop. Vikram says that the first employee explained claimed that electronic devices were banned because they might have cameras—a weak argument when smartphones and camera-toting iPods rule the gym. A manager explained that it's about "competing services." Presumably the choices are: take a class or hire a trainer at the gym, or follow your workout video at home. More »
Sears Might Repair Your Fridge, Isn't Really Sure
By Laura Northrup on February 8, 2012 9:00 AM
40 Comments
For generations of Americans, Sears has simply been where you go when it's time to outfit your new home. (At one point, you could even order your house itself out of the Sears, Roebuck catalog.) They, and their Kenmore appliances, were trustworthy, reliable, and quintessentially American. Now? Is Sears any of those things?
Waiting for the second repair on her two-year-old fridge, Joyce was surprised to learn that her Kenmore is just an LG with a badge slapped on it. Oh, and no one knows when the new compressor is coming, or whether it's actually been ordered at all. More »
Spin The Wheel, Get A Different Story About Why Wells Fargo Flagged Your Card
By Laura Northrup on February 8, 2012 8:00 AM
16 Comments
Craig's Wells Fargo debit card was flagged for fraud because he was trying to buy a speaker at a high-traffic Apple Store. A merchant he made a recent purchase from has been hacked, and he will receive a new debit card soon. He's finally receiving an "upgraded" Wells Fargo card for his former Wachovia account, even though the account changed over more than a year ago.
Each of these stories has been told to Craig on separate interactions with Wells Fargo. The problem is, he doesn't know which one is true. And neither does anyone at Wells Fargo, apparently. More »
(pea g.)
Maybe Super Bowl Ads Are Too Cheap
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2012 4:30 PM
24 Comments
The price of a 30-second ad slot during the Super Bowl goes up every year. In 2012, ad time is going for $3,500,000 per spot, or $116,666.67 per second. But maybe everyone involved is looking at this wrong. Maybe the eyeballs of the nation and the free publicity that comes along with buying a slot during the game are worth more than that, and networks should truly let the market decide. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2012 12:30 PM
148 Comments
- So Do Those Headlight Restoration Kits Actually Work?
- Legislators Totally Cool With Required Drug Testing Unless It Applies To Them
- Who Put This Stupid Light Pole In The Way Of My Southwest Flight?
- Ripoffs Encountered At The Grocery Store
- This Seems Like A Perfectly Reasonable Policy To Us
Star Wars: The Old Republic Crashes Computers Even When It's Not Running
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2012 11:31 AM
125 Comments
If you've been thinking about buying a copy of Star Wars: The Old Republic and joining the online multiplayer Jedi awesomeness, it might be a good idea to hold off for a little bit. At least until Bioware works out the current problems. Michael writes that on his wife's computer-a $4,000 Alienware gaming rig, no puny nettop-the game keeps crashing. Checking online, she found that this is happening to a lot of other people. It's even happening when the game isn't running. People having this problem have different video cards and different computers, but what they do have in common is SW:TOR. More »
(RLHyde)
At Lids, Clearance Hats That Aren't On Clearance
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2012 10:32 AM
28 Comments
Patrick bought three hats from online hattery Lids, but they didn't fit. No problem-that's what return policies are for! He contacted the company about returning the hats, and learned that he wouldn't be allowed to because they were on clearance. Which is interesting, because Patrick saw no indication on the site that these hats were on clearance. More »
(J-J-W)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2012 9:30 AM
15 Comments
Here are twelve of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or just plain neatness. More »
Alamo/Enterprise Won't Stop Calling About Phantom Rental Car
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2012 9:04 AM
38 Comments
Andrew is plagued by robocalls.The thing is, they're not for a political candidate or a shady credit card scam. The calls are coming from Alamo/National Rent-A-Car, and Andrew has no idea why. He's never rented a car from them, but that hasn't stopped them from robocalling. A lot. More »
Peek Abruptly Shuts Down All Devices To Focus On Software For Actual Smartphones
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2012 8:00 AM
32 Comments
The Peek9 is a very simple device: sort of a smartphone for people who don't want a smartphone. It does text-based e-mail, Facebook status updates, and Twitter, and text messages for a price that's a lot cheaper than mobile data plans. Reader KellyAnne bought a Peek Pronto with lifetime service, which was then transferred to a Peek9 in 2010 when all Peek Prontos mysteriously stopped working. Now that lifetime is up. It appears that all Peek hardware has stopped working, and KellyAnne can't get her e-mail and has no idea what's going on. More »
(iPablosu)
Xbox Live Bans User For Getting Hacked
By Laura Northrup on February 2, 2012 4:31 PM
54 Comments
After his Xbox Live account was stolen, Josh had to file a Better Business Bureau complaint in order to make MIcrosoft pay attention to him and restore his account access. After three months, he was delighted to log back in to his account, but surprised to learn that he had been banned for a "code of conduct violation." What did his account do to get banned? It was trying to steal other accounts. Imagine that. More »
When Disaster Strikes, Send Cash, Not Sex Toys
By Laura Northrup on February 2, 2012 3:15 PM
52 Comments
When we hear that fellow humans in faraway places are suffering, we want to help. Some of us write a check, sign in to PayPal, or make a donation using our phones. But there's nothing quite as satisfying as sending tangible goods to people in need. The problem is that well-meaning people can waste resources and time on the ground in the disaster area by sending inappropriate items that will ultimately end up in the dump. More »
Movers Break IKEA Bookshelf, Shrug
By Laura Northrup on February 2, 2012 9:30 AM
114 Comments
For their recent move, Derek and his wife selected a local operator of North American Van Lines. Things went pretty smoothly, except for one IKEA Expedit bookcase that was somehow cracked while leaving the couple's previous home, and subsequently fell apart when it was brought into the new house. Someone gave Mrs. Derek what she assumed was a claim form to sign, but ended up being a "Particle Board Furniture form" absolving the movers of any responsibility for cheap furnishings. More »
HQ Notices Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Discovery, Fixes Problem
By Laura Northrup on February 2, 2012 9:00 AM
28 Comments
Hey, remember the Raiders of the Lost Walmart? Reader Joe sent us a picture of a comically obsolete thumb drive still on the shelves at his local Walmart, a stunning discovery in the field of retail archaeology. "We thought Walmart had the best inventory control systems in the world," I wrote. "Perhaps not." Then we heard from Walmart's Arkansas headquarters. I was wrong—the inventory people are now on it. More »
Elizabeth Arden Sends Out Cheaper Item, Hopes No One Notices
By Laura Northrup on February 2, 2012 8:00 AM
30 Comments
Lauren doesn't normally spend a lot of money on makeup, and was excited to spot a seemingly-great promotion in our Morning Deals last month. Spend $65 on Elizabeth Arden cosmetics, and get a fabulous case stuffed full of eyeshadows, lipsticks, and brushes, with a stated total value of $350. (Makeup deal connoisseurs know that this isn't quite true since the items in the kit were never for retail sale in the first place, but it's still some fine face paint.) She placed the order, but when it arrived learned that the deal had been so popular that Elizabeth Arden had run out of the original gift cases. Did they contact her, cancel the order, or substitute something else of equal value? Nope. They subbed in a lower-value gift case, apparently hoping that customers wouldn't notice. More »
UPS Plays Blame Game After $5,000 Package Gets Damaged
By Laura Northrup on February 1, 2012 9:30 AM
90 Comments
Mike owns a small business, and he ships a lot. He mostly used UPS, and says that he probably spends $12,000 on shipping annually. Of all of the company's items to get damaged in transit, it had to be the one worth more than $5,000 that was insured, but not for the full value of the package. That's just how the world works. UPS claims that the item was damaged due to improper packaging, which is interesting because the item had been packaged at a local UPS Store. But loyal Consumerist readers know that UPS Stores are franchises, not owned by UPS. This means that UPS can blame the damage on Mike, since he's the one who paid someone else to package the item. More »
Discover's Purchase Protection Doesn't Extend To Purchases With Cash-Back Rewards
By Laura Northrup on February 1, 2012 9:00 AM
35 Comments
One of the benefits of using a credit card for all of your purchases (and paying it off every moth, naturally) is the extension and sometimes expansion of a product's original warranty. That's what Cindy does, making purchases with her Discover card for protection and cash back. What she learned not long ago is that you can have the warranty extension, or use the balance in your cash back account, but you can't do both. More »
Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield Thinks Smoking And Depression Are Basically The Same Thing
By Laura Northrup on February 1, 2012 8:00 AM
73 Comments
Wellbutrin is an atypical antidepressant used to treat patients with depression, but it's also effective when used short-term to help people quit smoking. As far as Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield is concerned, then, if you're using Wellbutrin, you're a smoker. For people whose health insurance comes from their employers, this isn't as much of a problem. But the individual health insurance market is a cruel, unforgiving place where smokers pay higher premiums. And so reader Elizabeth's husband, who quit smoking more than four years ago, is slapped with the smoker's rate because he has a prescription for Wellbutrin, which they consider an "atypical tobacco product." More »
(bnilsen)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2012 12:30 PM
155 Comments
- Game Company Apologizes For Failure To Upgrade Purchases Without Being Publicly Shamed First
- Online Vendors, Meet The 1099-K
- Has Olive Garden Lost Its Way In A Forest Of Breadsticks & Cheap Gimmicks?
- Government Prevents 101-Year-Old Evictee From Moving Back Home
- Target Asks Vendors To Help Combat Store-As-Showroom Problem
(lymang)
Time Warner Cable Is Really Anxious To See You Go
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2012 11:34 AM
30 Comments
Jack has been a customer of Time Warner Cable for a long time, what with the virtual monopoly in his town and all. He never really had any complaints until he was getting ready for his upcoming move. He dutifully called in a week and a half before the move, so his TV/Internet/phone package would be turned off at his current home, and installation set up at the new place. So, naturally, they turned off all three services at his current place the very next day. He complained, and they turned them back on. Then a Time Warner rep called up to "fix" the problem, flipping a switch to turn off all of the services. Again. More »
My New Kindle Went Astray...Pre-Loaded With My Credit Card Info
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2012 10:30 AM
71 Comments
The cloud of invisible information that surrounds is is a wonderful thing, but there are dangers as well. Brandon ordered a Kindle as a gift for his girlfriend, and upgraded to one-day shipping, but the package went astray. Amazon overnighted a new Kindle and things were glorious...until Brandon started receiving purchase confirmations of Kindle apps and content using his credit card and e-mail address. His girlfriend wasn't making the purchases. So who was? More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2012 9:30 AM
20 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Here Are The Tattered Remains Of An Attempt To Mail Some Textbooks
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2012 9:00 AM
102 Comments
Victoria mailed some textbooks worth $275 in what seemed like secure packaging. The postal service returned the packaging to her, but the textbooks were never seen again. She opted not to insure the package, figuring that no one could do that much damage to heavy hardcover textbooks. She was overly optimistic. More »
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Discover Cache Of Ancient Flash Drives
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2012 8:00 AM
99 Comments
In the electronics department of his local Walmart in New York state, Joseph made an amazing discovery in the field of retail archaeology. No one was interested in these ten 256 MB flash drives, so they've languished. No markdowns, no clearance: they'll remain on the shelf, with a price tag of $28.83. A cashier told Joseph, "You'll be bringing your kids in here some day, and these will still be here." Something to look forward to. More »
Why Women's Clothing Sizes Will Never Make Any Damn Sense
By Laura Northrup on January 26, 2012 12:35 PM
78 Comments
Women's clothing sizes vary over time, by manufacturer, and sometimes from one clothing design to another in the same store. Why is that? Was it ever different? Has anyone ever tried to impose order? Back in 1958, the National Bureau of Standards tried to apply standardized sizing to the pattern-making industry, and optionally to ready-to-wear clothing vendors as well, but the standards didn't take. The very sizing system we grumble at today is based on these 1958 numbers. Loosely. More »
Void Your Mobile Phone Warranty: Move Somewhere Humid
By Laura Northrup on January 26, 2012 11:33 AM
53 Comments
Until recently, Israel was a happy and loyal T-Mobile customer of almost a decade. He's also that person left who's still using a BlackBerry. He sent his phone in for a warranty exchange, dutifully checking the liquid damage sensor first to make sure his phone hadn't been dunked. But TMo charged him a fee for water damage anyway, because the real moisture sensor is buried inside the phone, and told a different story. Because Israel had dared.... to live in Miami. More »
Comcast Might Get Your Last $70 Back To You In 4 To 8 Weeks
By Laura Northrup on January 26, 2012 10:31 AM
51 Comments
Reader D. is having a rough time financially right now. Technically, he's homeless, but he's staying with a friend while he gets his life back together. As you can imagine, he doesn't have a lot of money to spare. Which is why he now is without grocery money after Comcast kept on auto-debiting his account even after he left his apartment and turned off his service. More »
You'll Need A Working Credit Or Debit Card To Use That Hulu Gift Subscription
By Laura Northrup on January 26, 2012 9:31 AM
34 Comments
G. wanted to buy his daughters a six-month subscription to Hulu Plus to watch some shows, but didn't want to give Hulu the ability to keep billing his credit card into perpetuity. Hulu offers prepaid gift subscriptions, though, so he could simply purchase a code, and the streaming-video party would stop when the subscription ran out. Right? Not so fast. More »
How I Sent A Stranger A Free PS3, Thanks To Amazon
By Laura Northrup on January 26, 2012 9:00 AM
58 Comments
Peter didn't set out to send a stranger in a different state the gift of a 100% free PlayStation 3 this holiday season, but thanks to the policies of the Amazon Marketplace, that's what he did. His customer had a problem with the console, and filed an A-Z Guarantee claim with Amazon, since it didn't work. Except after Peter helped her with the problem and it was working again, she stopped communicating with him, didn't close the claim, and promptly received a refund for the full purchase price without having to return the item. More »
Buying An Extended Warranty From Lowe's? Keep The Paperwork Very, Very Safe
More »
By Laura Northrup on January 26, 2012 8:01 AM
87 Comments
When the dishwasher that Greg bought at Lowe's broke down after a failed repair, he called up the store. A manager instructed him to bring the appliance, which was covered under an extended warranty, in to the store and they would exchange it for one that actually worked. Only when he brought it in, the employees on duty treated him "like a criminal" because he had lost the receipt in a recent move. Wait, don't appliances have serial numbers that they can use to look up warranty information? Nope.More »
GE Doesn't See The Problem With An Oven That Won't Cook Anything
By Laura Northrup on January 25, 2012 9:30 AM
40 Comments
For some reason, Terry expects the GE range with double ovens that he bought just a few months ago to do unreasonable things, like heat up to a consistent temperature, or perhaps cook some food. But his roasts remain un-roasted, and his cakes won't bake. What's wrong? None of the technicians GE has sent see a problem with the oven. More »
Secret Slaughterhouse Pipeline Fills Texas Creek With Pig Blood
By Laura Northrup on January 25, 2012 9:05 AM
110 Comments
An amateur drone pilot in Texas was flying a simple rig with a point-and-shoot camera attached for fun, and noticed something strange in a creek. There was an awful lot of dark red in the water. He notified the county, and a Department of Health and Human Services investigation showed that the substance discoloring the water was blood. Raw pig blood from a nearby meatpacking plant. More »
(XISMZERO)
Toys 'R' Us Rewards Program: Where A $5 Certificate Isn't Quite $5
By Laura Northrup on January 25, 2012 8:05 AM
70 Comments
Toys 'R' Us should want to reward Dustin handsomely. He has five kids, and his family buys an awful lot of toys there. It's not the store itself but its rewards program that's giving him problems. He used rewards certificates and $34.88 in cash to buy a toy, but when he went to return that toy, he learned that the rewards program is less straightforward than it seems when you need to return something. More »
(Paguma)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2012 12:30 PM
102 Comments
- MPAA Calls Anti-SOPA Blackouts A "Gimmick" To Punish Politicians & Turn Us All Into "Corporate Pawns"
- It's OK To Salvage Moldy Cheese, Except When It Isn't
- 3 Ways To Keep The Heating Bill Down
- How To Create A Strong Password And Remember It
- The Dos And Don'ts Of Dealing With Grieving Coworkers
I Don't Want Ads In My Online Bank Statement!
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2012 11:30 AM
50 Comments
Dave normally likes his bank, PNC, but they recently made a change that annoys him. There are little ad snippets underneath some of the transactions on his online statement. Do we really need more ads in our daily lives? "I get enough advertising smashed into my skull on a daily basis; I don't need it from my bank," writes Dave. That's true. But at least these ads aren't hard to banish. More »
Locate The Nearest Girl Scout Cookies With Your Smartphone
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2012 10:32 AM
30 Comments
As you sit at your desk, are you wondering if it is possible for you to somehow acquire Girl Scout cookies right now? Maybe you can. The Girl Scouts' cookie-sales locator website or their Android or iPhone apps can help you to find the nearest boxes of fundraisey goodness available: or at least tell you how long you have to wait. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2012 9:30 AM
8 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
No Last-Minute Diaper Orders For You, Amazon Mom Members
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2012 9:02 AM
68 Comments
Many of our readers with kids are fans of Amazon Mom, a program that provides some Amazon Prime free-shipping benefits and an additional 15% savings on subscriptions to products that babies consume a lot of, like diapers and wipes. That's all ending next week, and you have to subscribe to Prime to continue with the program. Is that worth it? That's up to you and your family, and depends on how much you spend at Amazon every year. Reader Krystal was surprised when she visited Amazon to get in one last diaper order before the program changes...and saw that the site wouldn't let her. More »
Target Doesn't Need To See Your Identification; Tries Anyway
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2012 8:00 AM
128 Comments
Phil (not the one who works here) brought a game/controller bundle to the register at his local Target store. The cashier asked for his driver's license to complete the sale, because the game was age-restricted. After a manager intervened, Phil got to buy his game with only a typed-in birthdate, but here's the thing: the game was rated "Teen," and Target's own policies state that they don't require birthdates for games with that rating. And besides: Phil is in his late thirties. More »
(XISMZERO)
Macy's Consumer Protection Department Protects Me By Canceling My Orders
By Laura Northrup on January 19, 2012 12:32 PM
24 Comments
Macy's is very concerned about Susan. Apparently. She's not sure why, but their "consumer protection" department has intervened and canceled four of her last six orders, making her lose out on eBates.com rebates and items that subsequently went out of stock. The reasons for the cancellations make sense on the surface...except that they aren't actually true. Her phone number matches her credit card. Nothing else should raise a red flag for fraud. Who is Macy's protecting her from? More »
This 'Got Milk?' Ad's Message: Almond Milk Will Traumatize Your Children
By Laura Northrup on January 19, 2012 11:35 AM
154 Comments
There are a lot of non-dairy milks out there: soy, rice, almond. While the National Milk Processor Board's "got milk?" ads have never been factually accurate reflections of reality, their latest ad is more ridiculous than usual, implying that shaking almond milk is an arduous task, requiring about as much shaking as a can of paint. More »
Need Comically Oversized Boxes? Don't Worry, The Stupid Shipping Gang Is Here
More »
By Laura Northrup on January 19, 2012 10:35 AM
44 Comments
It wastes resources, money, and shipping companies' resources. It generates extra trash and annoys customers. What is it? Companies' insistence on employing members of the Stupid Shipping Gang to send packages!More »
Why The 'Check Engine' Light Is Stupid And Should Be Banned
By Laura Northrup on January 19, 2012 9:34 AM
185 Comments
In my seven years of car ownership, the only time I've ever seen the "check engine" light was when I neglected to screw in the gas cap tightly enough on my Accord. That wasn't very useful. But our ex-sibling site, Jalopnik, made the case earlier this week that there's no good reason why car makers can't just do away with the "check engine" light altogether, and have our cars actually tell us what's wrong with them. More »
Should Companies Advertise To Kids At The Library?
By Laura Northrup on January 19, 2012 9:00 AM
55 Comments
Who doesn't like stuffed animals? Free stuffed animals, even! E. isn't happy, though. At storytime at her local public library, people representing Wells Fargo brought stuffed ponies with the Wells Fargo logo to distribute to the children, and donated a large pony to decorate the children's section. More »
Tassimo Offers Free Coffee To Registered Customers, Then Won't Register Anyone
By Laura Northrup on January 19, 2012 8:00 AM
53 Comments
Tassimo, a Kraft brand, is probably best known as the "those single-serve coffee brewers that aren't Keurig." Anita has one, and she received an e-mail from Kraft offering two free packages of coffee if she registered her brewer. Yay, free coffee! So she did just that, only to hit a brick wall of customer disservice. Not what you expect after buying a coffeemaker that retails for $140. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2012 12:30 PM
122 Comments
- Here's A Credit Card That Looks To Trap ID Thieves By Making Them Think They're Clever
- Businesses That Rip Off Poor People
- An Important Lesson In Bathroom Etiquette
- Penis Tattoo Gives Man A Permanent Erection
- If You Think Suze Orman's Prepaid Debit Card Is A Bad Idea, You're An 'Idiot'
How Going To HR Made A Health Insurance Co-Pay Hike Less Huge
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2012 11:33 AM
65 Comments
The beginning of a new year often brings an unhappy change: rate and co-pay hikes for your health insurance. E's insurer made a change to ER visit copays that, given that his daughter is being treated for cancer and makes more frequent emergency visits than most children, would have cost the family a lot more money. So he turned to his company's HR department for help...and actually received it. More »
Radioactive Tissue Boxes Removed From Bed, Bath & Beyond Shelves - No, Really
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2012 10:32 AM
51 Comments
When shipments bound for California Bed, Bath and Beyond stores set off radiation sensors at a truck scale, Bed, Bath and Beyond discovered that it had been stocking tissue-box covers mysteriously contaminated with low levels of cobalt-60. The radiation level isn't enough to cause real harm to humans—the equivalent of a few chest x-rays over the course of a year if you happened to keep them in your bathroom. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2012 9:30 AM
25 Comments
Here are twelve of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Don't Bother Getting A Kindle Fire Unless You Have A Credit Card
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2012 9:00 AM
194 Comments
Heather really likes her new Kindle Fire, once she got it working, but she's sending it back. Why would she do that? Because the Fire isn't a very fun device without Amazon Prime, and you need to have a credit card to sign up for Prime. She doesn't have any credit cards, and she doesn't want any. So back the Kindle goes. More »
(DQD)
What You Buy From The Apple Store, You Must Return To An Apple Store
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2012 8:00 AM
51 Comments
Apple recently introduced in-store pickup at all of its retail stores. They call it "Personal Pickup." order an item online, and you can go fetch it in person at your local Apple retail store, assuming that you have one. But you can't perform this trick in reverse. At least, that's what Randolph was told when he tried to return a sealed AirPort Extreme without taking it to a retail store. More »
Report: Hundreds Of Xbox Makers At Foxconn Plant Threatened Suicide
By Laura Northrup on January 12, 2012 1:31 PM
61 Comments
Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn has factories just about everywhere in the world, and they make stuff for just about every gadget company that you can think of. This makes any news coming out of the company, from 2010's suicide cluster to last year's explosion, fascinating to us. But it's hard to look at your Xbox quite the same way after learning that hundreds of Foxconn workers reportedly took to the roof and threatened suicide over severance payments. More »
(Marike79)
When Is Dinner Time Not Dinner Time?
By Laura Northrup on January 12, 2012 11:30 AM
202 Comments
When is "dinner?" Josh had a Subway coupon with the words "Dinner Time" on it, but no time restrictions in the fine print. He went to use the coupon around 1:00 PM at a local Subway franchise, and their cash register wouldn't accept it. He feels that Subway owes him a dollar, and now refuses to go back. Is he overreacting, or does Subway need to define when "dinner" starts? More »
I Signed Up For Verizon DSL Back In September. They Forgot That I Exist.
By Laura Northrup on January 12, 2012 10:35 AM
42 Comments
Heather signed up for Verizon DSL service at her new place last September. So she's been enjoying several months of cost-effective Internet service by now, right? Not exactly. Her story is a perfect illustration of why it is that monopolies can make customers miserable. The scheduled installation technician never showed up, troubleshooting of her service didn't work, and when she tried to set up service again months later, they misplaced her account and kept hanging up on her. More »
Finally, You Can Get A Multi-Subscription Discount If You Have Both Sirius And XM
By Laura Northrup on January 12, 2012 9:30 AM
30 Comments
Satellite radio wonder-twins Sirius and XM have been together for three years now. Customers often whine to us: why can't we get multi-subscription discounts when they subscribe to both Sirius and XM. It's all the same company, isn't it? Offering discounts would have made too much sense, and was therefore impossible. Until now! More »
How Not Having Home Internet Access Makes Xbox Live Problematic
By Laura Northrup on January 12, 2012 9:00 AM
68 Comments
It's difficult to imagine such a rustic, primitive existence, but Dustin doesn't have broadband Internet access at home. He seems to manage, though. Except when it comes to his Xbox 360. When he downloaded a game expansion, a Microsoft representative gave him bad advice, instructing him to put his hard drive in the console of a friend who does have broadband at home. The representative left out a step, and the game expansion license now belongs to Dustin's friend's account. No one at Microsoft is able to help him get the content back under his own gamertag so he can use the content he paid for. More »
NBA And Roku Wrecked My Dad's Great Christmas Present
By Laura Northrup on January 12, 2012 8:00 AM
37 Comments
John bought a really thoughtful Christmas present for his dad, a basketball fan: an NBA League Pass subscription, and a Roku so he could watch games on his TV instead of huddling in front of the computer. At least, this gift seemed like a really great idea until the League Pass app just stopped working. John and his dad aren't the only ones who have this problem, but no one at Roku or at the NBA seems to care about the poor, game-less customers. They've already got fans' money, after all. More »
If You Think Suze Orman's Prepaid Debit Card Is A Bad Idea, You're An 'Idiot'
By Laura Northrup on January 11, 2012 8:40 PM
112 Comments
Poor Suze Orman. All she was trying to do was launch a prepaid debit card that charges slightly fewer exorbitant fees than the competition, and sort of reports your spending habits to credit bureaus but not really. Then a whole bunch of "idiot" personal finance bloggers began ganging up on her on Twitter, and she had no choice but to lash out and remind them that they're not real journalists. More »
Star Wars Baking Accessories On Sale At Williams-Sonoma
By Laura Northrup on January 11, 2012 11:30 AM
30 Comments
Knowing our readership, this information is much too important to hold for tomorrow's Morning Deals. First: Williams-Sonoma has Star Wars kitchen accessories, ranging from Boba Fett cookie cutters to Stormtrooper silicone spatulas. More importantly: these items are on sale for as much as 66% off, making them significantly less overpriced than usual. More »
(ashi)
Chipotle Understands When Your Dog Eats Your Gift Card
By Laura Northrup on January 11, 2012 9:31 AM
34 Comments
John's greyhound has no patience. If the dog had waited just a little while, the Chipotle gift card in a paper sleeve that his fiancée left on the kitchen table would have been magically transformed into food. But dogs don't think that way, and this dog really, really likes to chew up paper. And so the $50 gift card was destroyed. More »
When A Mac Cultist Traveled To The Apple Factory
By Laura Northrup on January 11, 2012 9:00 AM
86 Comments
You may have idly wondered where it is that your favorite gadgets come from...for a few seconds, and then gone right back to your game of Fruit Ninja. But writer and performer Mike Daisey took that curiosity to a whole other level. He traveled to the "special economic zone" of Shenzhen, China, to see where it is that all of our crap comes from. UPDATE, 3/16/12: This American Life has issued a retraction of this story after reporters tracked down Daisey's interpreter and learned that much of the material presented in the show was made up. More »
Best Buy Upgrade & Save Promo: Upgrade, Don't Really Save All That Much
By Laura Northrup on January 11, 2012 8:00 AM
59 Comments
It seemed like a pretty solid promotion: bring in one of your old DVDs to Best Buy. Trade it in at the customer service desk. Receive a coupon for any $5 off Blu-Ray with a price of $9.99 and up. Step 4: Savings! Except, according to the employees on the floor while Carl was shopping, the deal changed while he ran out to his car to grab another DVD. More »
Papa John's Receipt Identifies Asian Customer Using Racial Slur
By Laura Northrup on January 9, 2012 12:30 PM
80 Comments
In a busy food-service establishment, it's understandable to refer to customers by nicknames or a shorthand. However, problems arise when these nicknames actually appear on the customer's receipt. Just ask a New York Papa John's that's been plagued with prank calls since a receipt identifying a customer of Asian descent as "Lady Chinky Eyes" hit Twitter. More »
At IKEA, 'In Stock' Doesn't Mean 'We'll Actually Get It Down For You'
By Laura Northrup on January 9, 2012 11:33 AM
88 Comments
Michael wanted to drop $600 on a pair of wardrobes from IKEA, and even called ahead before driving out to the store to make sure the items were there. When he arrived, though, he learned that "in stock" doesn't actually mean "you can purchase it today," because someone would have to get a new pallet of wardrobes down from an upper level of the warehouse. That wasn't going to happen: a warehouse manager told Michael that they'd rather lose Michael's business rather than risk the safety of employees. While this emphasis on worker safety is refreshing, Michael thinks it's unfair. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2012 12:30 PM
115 Comments
- Pepsi: Mountain Dew Can Dissolve A Mouse
- PayPal Tells Buyer To Destroy Purchased Violin Instead Of Return For Refund
- You Can't Score A Free Plane Seat For Your Baby By Putting Him On Your 3-Year-Old's Lap
- Apple Gives Thief A Replacement iPhone When The One He Took From Me Wouldn't Work
- Verizon Catches On To Unlimited Data Loophole, Returns Account To Tiered Pricing
Dell Outlet Sent Me A Barf-Covered, Gum-Filled Refurb Laptop
More »
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2012 11:30 AM
71 Comments
Frank ordered a refurbished laptop from Dell Outlet last week, and got a great deal. He hadn't anticipated that the machine would come with extras: some gum in the CD drive and an unidentified substance that we can only hope is soup, but looks more like vomit.More »
Solving A Problem With StraightTalk Is Not All That Straightforward
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2012 10:32 AM
33 Comments
Like most of the StraightTalk customers we've heard from, Barb was happy with Walmart's mobile phone venture...until something went wrong and she had to deal with their customer service. In her case, the problem was that she ordered a smartphone that didn't work. Simple enough to solve, right? Well...not quite. More »
If CVS Sells You Something Expired, It's Your Own Damn Fault
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2012 9:30 AM
113 Comments
Reader Andy noticed this sign in near the breakfast foods in a local CVS. It instructs customers to check the expiration dates of the items they choose before taking them up to the cash register. It's an innovative idea: maybe they're aiming to crowdsource stock rotation. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2012 9:00 AM
16 Comments
Here are nineteen of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
This 19" Portable TV Was 'The Supreme Achievement Of The Television Age' In 1959
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2012 8:00 AM
35 Comments
Imagine a portable TV with a 19" screen that has a fuel cell that recharges from your wall outlet, and can be disguised as a weirdly heavy briefcase. Not impressed? Maybe you would have been if it were still 1959, when Motorola introduced this amazing television with its futuristic rechargeable "energy cell" (sold separately.) More »
Canadian Scientists: Actually, Mountain Dew Can't Dissolve A Mouse
soda pop-buying public: PepsiCo's claim that Mountain Dew can't dissolve a whole mouse into a "jelly-like substance" seems unlikely to them. A rodent in a small container of soft drink is going to decompose, not dissolve. Doesn't that make you feel better? More »
By Laura Northrup on January 5, 2012 12:30 PM
38 Comments
The Canadian Broadcasting Company has an important message for the 
You Can't Fix A Washing Machine With A Microwave Door
By Laura Northrup on January 5, 2012 11:30 AM
47 Comments
Lori's front-loading Whirlpool washing machine is broken, and has been since the end of November. This would be less infuriating if Lowe's hadn't sent six large boxes of the wrong parts to her house, as well as two repairmen who can't do anything because the correct parts still haven't shown up. She wrote to Consumerist in what is clearly a laundry-induced rage. More »
UPS: Pay Up And We Might Not Make The Same Delivery Error Twice In A Row
By Laura Northrup on January 5, 2012 10:30 AM
51 Comments
Keith's brother gave him an old desktop computer as a Christmas gift, but this gift came with a catch. He had to ship it to himself, a few thousand miles away. Since packages can't be delivered to his door at his apartment building, he sent the package to a nearby UPS store, flagged as "hold for pickup." Naturally the UPS store refused the package and sent it back. Now UPS wants Keith to pay the shipping fee again. For that, they might actually deliver it to his house this time. Or they might send it back. Isn't the suspense exciting? More »
CVS Sells Customer Expired Prepaid Debit Card, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on January 5, 2012 9:30 AM
63 Comments
Last year, Mike bought a Vanilla Visa prepaid debit card at CVS as a gift for a friend, who promptly forgot that the card existed until about a year later. The card doesn't work, but not because it's been dormant for the last year and had its balance eaten up in fees. No, the problem is that this card expired in July 2010, before it was even purchased. CVS never should have sold him this card. Now neither CVS nor Vanilla Visa will take responsibility for the problem, and are even accusing Mike of being a scammer. More »
Priscilla Of Boston Spray-Paints Unsold Wedding Gowns To Keep Them From Grubby Poor People
By Laura Northrup on January 5, 2012 9:00 AM
226 Comments
Priscilla of Boston, a high-end bridal chain best known for making Grace Kelly's wedding gown, came to an undignified end last week when current parent company David's Bridal shut it down. This news wouldn't have made national headlines if an alert shopper in a Minneapolis suburb hadn't noticed unsold dresses by the rackful being wrecked with red spray paint and tossed in a dumpster. More »
Is It Time To Start A Best Buy Death Watch?
By Laura Northrup on January 5, 2012 8:00 AM
193 Comments
Is much-hated electronics chain Best Buy spiraling out of business and into irrelevance before our eyes? Maybe. But not for a while yet. Writing for Forbes, business expert Larry Downes laid out why the company could be gradually going out of business, one Black Tie Protection Plan at a time. More »
How Facebook's Message Spam Filter Lost Me Some Fabulous Prizes
By Laura Northrup on January 4, 2012 9:30 AM
73 Comments
Think that Facebook's de facto spam filter couldn't possibly be keeping anything of consequence out of your inbox? Think again. When James happened to click that unobtrusive "Other" tab on his Facebook inbox, he learned that he had won a new TV, Blu-Ray player, and a copy of the movie the contest was promoting. But Facebook had filed this message away on his behalf....in August 2010. More »
Sears Has Your Toaster In Maine. You Live In Alaska.
By Laura Northrup on January 4, 2012 9:00 AM
35 Comments
In hindsight, Marla would have been better off ordering a toaster and a toaster oven from anywhere except Sears. But she didn't know that the company has entered the next phase of its existence as a massive anti-capitalist prank, and has now added an absurdist theater aspect to the project. At least, that's the only explanation for some of the conversations Marla had when her toaster didn't show up. First, they refused to understand that the toaster wasn't in the box at all. Then, she received a call to come pick up her floor-model toaster at a store in Maine. Marla lives in Alaska. More »
Bank Of America Thinks I'm My Own Dad, Turns Me Away During Emergency
By Laura Northrup on January 4, 2012 8:00 AM
46 Comments
When Bank of America issued Jorge's credit card in 1998, for some reason that remains unclear, the card was issued in the name of "Jorge [Lastname] Sr." Jorge doesn't have a son named Jorge Junior, and there's no reason why the account should be set up that way, but Bank of America assured him that this wouldn't be a problem. And it wasn't. Until he needed an emergency cash advance, and couldn't prove to the unfamiliar branch's satisfaction that he hadn't, say, stolen his dad's credit card. More »
Best Buy Screws Up Gift Return, Causes Family Awkwardness
By Laura Northrup on January 3, 2012 9:30 AM
177 Comments
Whenever we post a Best Buy story, commenters scold the tipster: don't they read the site? They should have known better than to shop at Best Buy in the first place! It's impossible (I hope) to blame Todd, though—his mother-in-law bought him a gadget gift there. A car dock for the wrong type of smartphone, along with a gift receipt. This should have been a smooth and simple transaction, right? Of course not. More »
Gifting An E-Book From Kobo: No Book, No Help
By Laura Northrup on January 3, 2012 9:00 AM
15 Comments
Kris purchased the new biography of Steve Jobs through the Kobo e-bookstore as a gift for his dad, but here's the trouble with buying an e-book: no one knows where it went, and no one at Kobo is capable of helping him. The Kindle version cost $3 more, but actually worked. More »
Macy's Can't Keep Track Of Who Made Which Payments On Whose Credit Account
By Laura Northrup on January 3, 2012 8:00 AM
28 Comments
Call center representatives who handle Macy's credit card inquiries are starting to wonder what's wrong with reader Melannie. She keeps making $150 payments on her account, but she doesn't owe anything. She hasn't even used the card since 2009. They can refund her the overpayment, but that's not the problem. Because she never made the payment in the first place. More »
EECB Scores Hit On T-Mobile, Saves Customer $400 Charge For Phone UPS Lost
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2011 11:30 AM
12 Comments
When Jeffrey received his replacement smartphone from T-Mobile, he packed up his old one, used the enclosed prepaid UPS label, and dispatched it using a UPS drop box. From there, the phone disappeared. One customer service rep after another assured him that the lost phone situation would be resolved...and then a $300 charge for the phone appeared on his bill. It was time to escalate. It was time to use a powerful tool he learned about from this very site: the executive e-mail carpet bomb. More »
Why I'll Never Shop At Kay Jewelers Again
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2011 10:30 AM
90 Comments
David bought a charm bracelet from Kay Jewelers last Christmas, and allowed an employee to upsell him to a different type of clasp for an extra $20. After the second time it broke, they tried to exchange the bracelet for one with a sturdier lobster claw clasp, but were denied—Kay would have to refund the difference in price, which they weren't about to do. A few months later, assuming the bracelet issue was a fluke, David bought his girlfriend a ring at the same Kay store. He presented it to her this Christmas, and one of the diamonds fell out within days. And the charm bracelet broke again. He made another trip to the store to get these two items replaced. Likely his last trip to a Kay store ever. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2011 9:30 AM
11 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, and two pictures of scary clowns. More »
Staples Recycles Laptop By Cracking Its Screen
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2011 9:00 AM
34 Comments
When you trade in your old electronic device for "recycling" while buying a new one, does that device have to work? Staples offered a $100 rebate this holiday season to customers who sent in their old computers after purchasing a new one. "Recycling" is in quotes because computers traded in had to be running, and include the charger, so they were bound for re-use rather than recycling. That was no problem for George, though — he traded in a working computer. Only the screen was cracked when it reached the center, and he didn't get the full rebate. More »
First Sears And Kmart Closings Of 2012 Concentrated In Midwest And South
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2011 8:00 AM
39 Comments
Sears Holdings, owner of the perpetually troubled retailer power couple Sears and Kmart, has released the locations of 80 out of the 100 to 120 "under-performing" stores that will close in the coming months. Most of the stores on this first list are in the southern and midwestern U.S. More »
Read The Fine Print Before Taking A Great Gadget Deal
By Laura Northrup on December 29, 2011 12:30 PM
90 Comments
Carolyn bought a Sony Blu-ray player for her husband for Christmas. The player's box boasted of its streaming capabilities, but to use them, she would need to purchase a separate wireless adapter. No problem - she picked up an inexpensive one at the store and gave that to her husband as well. She missed one detail: the only compatible adapter must be ordered directly from Sony, and costs $75. Sometimes, great holiday season electronics deals aren't what they seem at first glance. More »
Arizona Clinic Won't Take Credit Cards Over The Phone, Euthanizes Cat Instead
By Laura Northrup on December 29, 2011 11:30 AM
208 Comments
An Arizona man didn't have the $400 for his injured cat's vet care, and the Humane Society clinic he visited wouldn't take his mother's credit card information over the phone or wait for . So he did what he thought was the best thing for 9-month-old Scruffy: surrender ownership to the organization so she would receive treatment. He was told that he could adopt her back later on. A lack of resources meant that Scruffy, whose injuries were not life-threatening, was euthanized instead. More »
Millions Of Women Are Joining Shoe-Of-The-Month Clubs
By Laura Northrup on December 29, 2011 10:30 AM
53 Comments
Would you like to have a new pair of shoes in your favorite styles sent to you every month, at a discount, without having to visit stores to try them on, or slog through online catalog pages trying to find just the right pair? Millions of women think that this is a great idea, and have joined online shoe-of-the-month clubs like JustFabulous, ShoeDazzle, and ShoeMint. More »
The Tasty Lies Behind Your Favorite Convenience Foods
By Laura Northrup on December 29, 2011 9:30 AM
45 Comments
There are a number of criticisms you can make about frozen meals and chain takeout: poor nutrition, factory farming, and wasteful packaging. Most Americans don't care about that, though. What they want to know is: does this meal look anything like the photo on the package? Does it taste like beef-flavored cardboard? Is the portion big enough to keep me from running to the break room vending machine by 3:00? For them, the convenience food blog Tasty Lies exists. More »
(oamg823)
Was I Wrong To Profit From Returning An Online Purchase To Walmart?
By Laura Northrup on December 29, 2011 9:00 AM
142 Comments
A frequent reader who we'll call M. wrote in to offer his post-holiday moral dilemma. Well, it's not so much a dilemma, since he he's already done it. He bought a Microsoft Kinect controller online, but wanted to return it after the holidays were over. Too lazy to package the controller and mail it back, he instead took it to his local Walmart and returned it for store credit. $50 more than he originally paid for the device. More »
Jeep Mind Trick: There Is No Navigation System/Stereo In Your Car
By Laura Northrup on December 29, 2011 8:00 AM
60 Comments
It doesn't matter that Steven is looking right at the sophisticated navigation system/stereo that came with his 2010 Jeep. It doesn't matter that the technicians at the Jeep dealership can see the system with their very own eyes. It's not there. Chrysler's records, based on his VIN, say that he doesn't have it, and they won't give him the upgrade disc needed to make it sync with his iPhone. You can't upgrade something that isn't there. More »
(genebob)
Walmart Greeter Asks For Receipt, Customer Punches Her In The Face
By Laura Northrup on December 28, 2011 9:30 AM
152 Comments
On Christmas Eve in Batavia, N.Y., an elderly Walmart greeter asked a 26-year-old customer for the receipt for her electronics purchases. Instead, the customer allegedly punched her in the face and tried to flee. A mob of customers chased her and prevented her car from leaving the parking lot, and she's now in jail, charged with two counts of assault. Here's the unusual part: the customer had receipts for all of her purchases. 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 »
Days Inn Books Five Extra Rooms, Empties Your Mom's Checking Account
By Laura Northrup on December 28, 2011 8:00 AM
84 Comments
Heather's mom reserved one room at a Days Inn, and received confirmation for three rooms. She canceled the two extra reservations, then had to call and cancel the original one as well, early enough that there was no penalty. But after the date of her scheduled stay, the company billed her for three rooms, draining her checking account. Wait, what? Days Inn had her down for six rooms, and charged her as a no-show for the three she didn't know about. Now she's broke, and no one can refund her for the three phantom reservations. More »
Yes, There Is Such A Thing As Bad Publicity
By Laura Northrup on December 27, 2011 11:30 PM
110 Comments
This week, a massive customer service clusterfracas swept the gaming world, then the rest of the Internet. It involved a game console controller that was late in shipping, a a marketing firm in over its head, a popular webcomic, the unholy wrath of the Internet hate machine, and one humble customer who just wanted to know whether he was going to get his gadget by Christmas or not. What did we learn here? That there is such a thing as bad publicity, and that sometimes people on the Internet actually are who they claim to be. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2011 12:30 PM
69 Comments
- FedEx Thinks This Is An Appropriate Place To Leave A Package
- Is This Normal? Cracker Barrel Gives Me A Free Meal To Make Up For A Short Wait
- Perhaps This FedEx Delivery Man Is Preparing For A Monitor-Throwing Contest
- Parking Attendant Thinks $2 Bills Aren't Real, Returns My Perfectly Good Money
- How An Attempt To Return TV To Best Buy Left Man With No TV And No Refund
Guaranteed Christmas Delivery At Zales Leads To Panicked Boyfriend
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2011 11:30 AM
63 Comments
Maybe Derek shouldn't have waited until last week to order a bracelet for his girlfriend as a Christmas gift, or maybe he should have gone to a brick-and-mortar Zales store to buy it. But he didn't, and their site guaranteed delivery by Christmas if he ordered at that point. It turns out that "guaranteed Christmas delivery" actually means "we might get around to shipping it by the 22nd." More »
At This Quizno's, Meat Is Mandatory
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2011 10:30 AM
196 Comments
Brenda is a vegetarian, and finds that Quizno's is one chain that she can depend on to make her a tasty and meat-free sandwich. Until, for once, she visited a restaurant near her home and tried to order a sub without meat. This was not possible. Even if she ordered one of the subs listed on the sign, but requested that the meat be left off. No. Not allowed. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2011 9:30 AM
11 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
HTC: We Can't Make Better Phones If We're Always Fixing Yours
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2011 9:00 AM
67 Comments
William has tried everything to get a working HTC smartphone: he's e-mailed executives and he's visited his local Sprint store for help. The company replaced his broken Evo Shift with a Design. Yay! ...except that on the new phone, no one can hear him. HTC won't send a replacement phone. Not because he's not entitled to one, but because William tried had swapped in a battery from his old phone when the replacement had shipped with a bad one. More »
The Point Of A Monogrammed Bathrobe Is That Someone Has To Monogram It
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2011 8:00 AM
69 Comments
The point of ordering a monogrammed bathrobe for someone as a gift is that you want to give a monogrammed bathrobe as a gift. Jennifer planned to give such a gift this Christmas, and ordered the robe from Brookstone at the beginning of the month. It arrived without the monogram, and thus without the point. The best Brookstone has been able to offer her is a $20 gift card. She is not pleased. More »
Only The CEO At Cuisinart Has The Power To Send You A Shipping Label
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2011 12:30 PM
57 Comments
Jennifer bought the Cuisinart coffeemaker at right about a month ago. It lists for $145.00, and you can get it from Amazon for, as of this writing, $75.45. Unfortunately for Jennifer, her appliance just plain stopped working, and nothing she did at home would fix it. Cuisinart agreed to send her a new one, and even waived the shipping fee, but they want her old coffeemaker back. This wouldn't be a problem, but the cost to ship the large and heavy machine is $47.62. That amount would put Jennifer more than halfway to just buying a new machine. More »
T-Mobile Waives $1000 In Roaming Charges, Then Un-Waives Them
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2011 11:33 AM
63 Comments
While visiting the Philippines with her grandson, Esther had a family emergency and needed to use her T-Mobile phone. She expected a larger than usual bill when she got home, but didn't expect it to be more than $1,200, including data roaming when Esther doesn't have data service on her phone in the first place. A friendly customer service representative told her that she would only have to pay $296.14 due to a billing error. Then T-Mobile turned around and told her that yeah, they needed the entire $1,200. More »
PayPal And Wells Fargo Promise To Get Your $400 Back, Don't Know How
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2011 10:30 AM
30 Comments
Shannon made an error when transferring money out of her PayPal account, giving them an incorrect Wells Fargo account number that belonged to an actual person. PayPal assures her that the money will come back to her if she's patient, but $400 is a lot of money to her, and she's losing patience. She's caught in a loop between PayPal and Wells Fargo, and neither company knows how to get her money back. More »
Lego Plays Star Wars Secret Santa
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2011 9:32 AM
26 Comments
K's kid has a Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, most likely because K. is awesome. One of the pieces went missing, and she sent a quick "hey, how much would it cost to replace this thingy?" query on their website. She expected to hear back perhaps after the holiday toy rush. She didn't expect to get a free replacement piece in the mail within a few weeks. More »
Sears In-Store Pickup: Not Fast, Not In Stock, Not Helpful
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2011 9:00 AM
60 Comments
Sears is trying to coax actual customers into its stores with great sales, but don't be fooled. They're still Sears. Donald ordered some tools for in-store pickup in order to save on shipping, but the store didn't actually have the items they promised. Not "didn't have them waiting for him," but "didn't have them at all." While he waited for forty-five minutes, he couldn't help but feel insulted when he saw a sign touting in-store pickup as "fast, in stock, and helpful." Zero for three, really. More »
Actually Read Your New Gadgets' Manuals: Leave Them In The Bathroom
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2011 8:05 AM
46 Comments
Whether you're receiving them as gifts or picking them up at a discount in the fabulous end-of-year sales, a lot of you will be acquiring shiny new gadgets in the next few weeks. A lot of gadget problems can be solved if you actually read the manual in the first place, but who has time for that when there are packages to unseal and exciting new buttons to push? A Redditor has a novel suggestion that solves this problem: you'll have time while sitting on the toilet, so leave the manuals to your new devices in there. More »
(CPSC)
Pampered Chef Ice Cream Scoops Recalled, Could Fly Off Their Own Handles
By Laura Northrup on December 21, 2011 9:30 AM
40 Comments
Consumer Product Safety Commission recall notices are hilarious in their understatement. Take this current recall of Pampered Chef ice cream scoops: the problem is described in the press release headline as an "Impact Injury Hazard." Translation: if you put this scoop in warm water, the cap at the end may pop off and hit you. Or your kitchen appliances. More »
Someone Needs To Tell Mediacom The Definition Of 'Paperless'
By Laura Northrup on December 21, 2011 9:00 AM
23 Comments
It's all very green and forward-thinking of Mediacom to offer a $1 credit for customers who use paperless billing, but Tim wonders why they had to mail him a paper statement informing him that he is getting this discount. More »
Online Florist Garden Of Discontent: The Christmas Shrub
By Laura Northrup on December 21, 2011 8:00 AM
63 Comments
Erica's boyfriend is the type of exceptionally thoughtful person who sends his girlfriend's mom flowers for Christmas. It's a nice 1800Flowers.com arrangement, with the greenery arranged in the shape of a Christmas tree and decorated with candy canes. Or, in the case of the arrangement actually sent, a roundish shrub. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2011 12:30 PM
116 Comments
- Target Doesn't Want Your Group Of Students To Spend Thousands Of Dollars At Its Store
- I Didn't Get Married And Now I'm Out $2,500 On Honeymoon Plane Tickets
- Gifts That Will End Up Costing The Recipient More Money
- Should Employers Be Able To Dock Your Pay For Not Following The Rules?
- Senator Calls For Apple To Pull App That Lets Users Create Their Own Driver's Licenses
Why Does This Candy Bar Have Three Different Prices?
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2011 11:30 AM
54 Comments
It's time for yet another exciting installment of "No, seriously, how much does this item cost?" 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 »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2011 9:30 AM
10 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Mandatory Xbox 360 Update Breaks Some Consoles, Microsoft Claims 'Coincidence'
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2011 9:00 AM
70 Comments
Last week's exciting Kinect Dashboard update for Xbox 360 consoles didn't just ask users to waive their right to sue and make customers pay to be advertised to. It also appears to have caused problems with a number of consoles. Nothing major: it just keeps them from reading any discs...no, wait, that is major. Microsoft representatives say that this is a coincidence, and that customers with freshly broken consoles need to send them in for repair for $100 or so. More »
You Can Buy Blockbuster Gift Cards Again, But Your Old One's Still Worthless
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2011 8:00 AM
29 Comments
We're going to go out on a limb here and guess that there is absolutely no one out there who can't wait to buy a Blockbuster gift card. It's not exciting consumer news. The curious thing is that while you can buy a Blockbuster gift card today at any of their retail stores, a card for the same brand that you might still have in your desk drawer from only nine months ago is just a worthless piece of plastic. Blame the bankruptcy and sale of Blockbuster. More »
(XISMZERO)
Sears Actually Has No Idea When Your Item Showed Up At The Store
By Laura Northrup on December 15, 2011 5:00 PM
41 Comments
This holiday season, Sears continues its mission as an elaborate anti-capitalist prank, mocking the feeble attempts that shoppers make to obtain useful information from customer service representatives, and preventing consumers from exchanging money for merchandise. LouAnn, a longtime Sears customer, was left so frustrated after a recent encounter with the retailer that the vented to Consumerist, "I am tired of giving MY money to companies who CLEARLY don't understand that I have a choice of where and how to spend my money." That could be a mission statement for this site. More »
AT&T Dealer Makes Error That No One Has The Power To Fix, Ever
By Laura Northrup on December 15, 2011 4:30 PM
90 Comments
When Zach bought iPhones for his parents and added them to his AT&T plan, someone made a mistake. One of the new phones became the primary line on the account, Zach's phone became one of the secondary lines, and this messed up his ability to upgrade to a shiny new iPhone of his own so he could FaceTime video conference just like his super-cool parents. Only that's not how things work at AT&T Wireless. Zach was told that no one in the entire company has the power to fix this error. Not the customer service reps. Not the managers. Not the CEO. Not even the combined forces of Seal Team Six and the ghost of Steve Jobs could undo this error committed by a single authorized AT&T dealer employee somewhere in the Western United States. More »
(misterjt)
Consumerist Post About Broken Laptop Gets Reader Full Refund Within 3 Hours
By Laura Northrup on December 15, 2011 4:00 PM
28 Comments
Once again, Costco saves the day. Last week, we posted the story of Tom, who bought a Sony Vaio laptop from Costco only to have it malfunction a little more than a year after purchase. Sony didn't seem to want to fix the problem at all, and Costco employees were very kind but couldn't intervene. Only a few hours after that post went up, Costco contacted Tom, and gave him a full refund for the computer's purchase price. More »
Would You Use A Netflix For Toys? It Exists.
By Laura Northrup on December 15, 2011 3:00 PM
36 Comments
Sure, there are Netflix-style rental services where you can rent designer dresses and accessories by mail, but would you swap toys with strangers by post? A few recent startups are betting that you will, at least to try out new and pricey toys before buying them, or to reduce clutter. More »
No, Really, How Much Does Yogurt Cost At This Kroger?
By Laura Northrup on December 15, 2011 2:30 PM
43 Comments
An anonymous and slightly confused tipster sent in this photo of a cooler filled with ambiguously priced yogurt at a Kroger store. The sign on the left says that yogurt cups are five for $10. The one on the right says that they're 10 for $5. The latter is the more likely price for little six-ounce store brand yogurts, but we don't want to rule anything out. More »
Microsoft Thinks You Stole $67.50 From Your Own Xbox Account
By Laura Northrup on December 15, 2011 12:30 PM
45 Comments
In recent weeks, we've heard from quite a few Xbox Gold customers who report that points have been stolen from their accounts, but Microsoft doesn't seem terribly concerned about it, or about stopping the account breaches. Today's example: reader Jesse, who loaded several cards on his account before a move, for some reason assuming that the points would be safer in his account (in the cloud!) than packed for his move. Not so. Someone spent those points on content that Jesse never downloaded, and Microsoft isn't giving him those points back. More »
(Toolguyd)
Knife Printed With 'USA Quality Guarantee' Is, Of Course, Made In China
By Laura Northrup on December 14, 2011 1:30 PM
72 Comments
Think quickly: if you saw the "USA Quality Guarantee" seal on a product you found in a store, where would you assume that it had been manufactured? If you guessed "China," you're an awfully cynical person. You are, however, correct.
Reader Stuart, who writes a blog about tools, noticed this little badge of dishonor on a knife for sale at Home Depot. If it's not meant to make customers think that the knife was made in the USA, then are the words just for decoration? More »
Who Should Pay If A Bird Poops In Your Food?
By Laura Northrup on December 14, 2011 9:30 AM
145 Comments
This isn't the most seasonally appropriate question to ask, at least here in the Northeastern U.S. And in the Northern Hemisphere. Perhaps it's important (yet disgusting) enough that we can argue about it until springtime.
Simply put: if a bird relieves itself in your food while you're dining outside, should the restaurant comp your meal? More »
This Frigidaire Mini Fridge Has A Mini Lifespan
By Laura Northrup on December 14, 2011 8:00 AM
64 Comments
Living far from home in a dorm, Damian took advantage of a Black Friday sale at Best Buy to purchase a tiny refrigerator that could hold the necessities of life. (Insert joke about what you thought the "necessities of life" were when you were in college here.) The Frigidaire appliance didn't last long, though. It's already dead after less than a month. And while Best Buy would be happy to take the fridge back, he doesn't have a truck and can't take it back to the store it came from. What can he do? More »
Can Owning A Cat Void Your HP Warranty?
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2011 2:30 PM
136 Comments
Chris sent his HP Elitebook in for repair, only to learn that he had done something to void the warranty, and it wouldn't be repaired. What was his heinous offense against technology? He owns a cat, and there's fur inside the computer, causing HP to declare his computer a "biological hazard" and send it back un-repaired. He sent along photos that HP took of his disassembled computer and used to make the case that his computer wasn't repairable. More »
Wedding Caterers Served My Muslim In-Laws Not-So-Stealth Pork
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2011 12:30 PM
320 Comments
Reader S. wrote in with a complaint about the food at the country club where she held her wedding. It would be easy to write her off as a hysterical Bridezilla, but the problem goes deeper than just "crappy food." Both S. and her husband told the venue during the ten-month planning process that his husband's family are Muslims who don't eat pork. The caterers served up rice with pork sausage, potatoes with ham, salad with bacon, and ham sandwiches for the cocktail hour. When called on their error, their response was to take some of the offending dishes away and not replace them. Management has offered S. a $3,000 refund on her $17,000 tab for the event. Is that enough compensation for a mishap that makes S. look this bad to her new in-laws? More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2011 11:30 AM
145 Comments
- PayPal Rains On Regretsy's Secret Santa Campaign Over Use Of Wrong Button
- Firefighters Watch Another House Burn To The Ground Because Of Unpaid $75 Fee
- PayPal Continues War Against Regretsy, Freezes All Accounts & Halts Gift Exchange
- PayPal Bows To Internet Scorn, Agrees To Release Regretsy's Funds
- Baggage Handler: I Was Fired For Helping Sick Dog
Ambush Locally-Owned Businesses With Support Via Cash Mob
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2011 10:31 AM
56 Comments
Are you looking for a way to support locally-owned businesses that also includes the element of surprise, meeting new people, and alcohol? If so, consider putting together a cash mob for your city. No, not a flash mob: a cash mob. They're groups of people, organized online, who pledge to spend at least $20 at a locally-owned business that gives back to the community. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2011 9:30 AM
5 Comments
Here are seven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Claiming Priceline's Invisible Best-Price Guarantee
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2011 9:00 AM
19 Comments
Is Priceline's low-fare guarantee hard to claim, or is Ace just bad at navigating websites? When the airfare for his Christmas travel flight fell, he hadn't anticipated it. Well, okay, they have that guarantee thingy - he could just claim that and get the $41 difference between the lower fare and what he had paid. Right? Right, but only if he could figure out exactly how to do that within 24 hours. The clock was ticking, and he missed the deadline. More »
Use Local Stores As Amazon Showrooms, Get Amazon Discount
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2011 8:00 AM
93 Comments
Consumerist readers and editors alike often joke that electronics retail stores are real-life showrooms for Amazon and Newegg, but tomorrow (December 10) Amazon is offering up to $15 in discounts to customers who do just that. And help them spy on local brick-and-mortar retailers while they're at it. More »
How To Gift-Wrap A Cat
By Laura Northrup on December 8, 2011 10:37 AM
53 Comments
Giving pets as a gift is rarely a good idea unless it's been cleared with the recipient ahead of time. But that doesn't mean you can't amuse yourself by swaddling your existing pets in wrapping paper and bows. More »
Buying Laptop From Costco Extends Your Warranty And Your Aggravation
By Laura Northrup on December 8, 2011 9:33 AM
47 Comments
Last year, Tom bought a Sony laptop from Costco. Part of the reason why he chose Costco to purchase a computer was the warehouse club's famed extension of manufacturers' warranties: more warranty protection on a portable computer can't be a bad thing. Except when it is. In Tom's case, having another company involved just means that he can always get a very nice person on the phone at Costco who isn't able to help him at all. More »
EECB Gets Dell's Attention, Better Computer Shipped Overnight
By Laura Northrup on December 8, 2011 9:00 AM
8 Comments
The Dell Inspiron 2305 is a slick-looking all-in-one touchscreen desktop computer. The one Mike received wasn't as fun to live with as it was to look at, though. He had his computer replaced once, but the replacement had video card problems that led it to freeze. Frustrated, he lobbed an executive e-mail carpet bomb at Dell higher-ups, and it was effective. Very effective. Soon, Dell overnighted a similar but more expensive computer to Mike's house. More »
World's Biggest iPod Dock Is 8 Feet Wide, Costs $30,000
By Laura Northrup on December 8, 2011 8:00 AM
42 Comments
Friends and family keep asking me what I want for Christmas, and I was at a loss until yesterday afternoon. That was when I learned of the existence of the Behringer iNuke Boom, which appears to be the world's biggest iPod dock. It's eight feet wide, four feet tall, weighs 700 pounds, and would serve as my ultimate weapon in the 4 AM noise war against my college student neighbors. More »
Priceline Upgrades You To Reportedly Bedbug-Infested Hotel
By Laura Northrup on December 7, 2011 12:15 PM
41 Comments
Ordinarily, it would be a good thing if Priceline upgraded your bid for a 3.5-star hotel to a 4-star bid. This sometimes happens when a classier hotel accepts your bid. It wasn't much of a bonus for Lissa, though. She wanted to avoid a certain 4-star hotel because user reviews in various places complained of bedbug infestations, so she bid only on 3.5-star establishments. Of course, this bid landed her at the allegedly infested hotel. It took her several hours of customer service hell to get out of the situation, which is still better than being chomped on by bedbugs. More »
(pdxmac)
Target Demands Extra $189 To Exchange Camera No Longer On Sale
By Laura Northrup on December 7, 2011 11:15 AM
221 Comments
Coco took advantage of a great deal at Target, buying a digital camera on sale for $189 below list price, with a $75 Target gift card on the side. Neat! Trouble was, he didn't open or test out the camera until a week later, once the sale was over and the gift card had been spent. Photos taken with the camera didn't come out, so he took the camera back to Target to exchange it for a working one. The trouble was, they couldn't exchange it for him unless he paid an extra $189 and return the $75 gift card. More »
Yep, The Easter Candy Is Out Already At Safeway And Kroger
By Laura Northrup on December 7, 2011 9:30 AM
51 Comments
In 2008, we published the first reports of Easter candy in stores on December 31. In 2009, they were spotted on shelves on December 23. Last year, the first appearance crept back to December 16. This year, our first reports came from Safeway and Kroger stores as early as December 2. More »
Garmin Won't Sell PO Box Holders Electronic Downloads
By Laura Northrup on December 2, 2011 1:30 PM
57 Comments
Brian is stationed in Saudi Arabia, and doesn't have a street address where mail and packages can be delivered. That's okay, though: the purchase he wanted to make from Garmin is a digital download. No need to worry about where to deliver it. Right? Well, not really. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on December 2, 2011 12:30 PM
177 Comments
- Avoid These Frugal Living Mistakes
- Reader Wants To Know If He's A Bad Consumer
- 16 Tips On How To Be A Better Hotel Guest
- Congress Lifts Ban On Funding Horse Meat Inspections, Slaughterhouses Could Open Soon
- Reenacting '12 Days Of Christmas' Will Now Cost You More Than $100K
Hillshire Farms Compensates For Your Forgetfulness With Free Sausages
By Laura Northrup on December 2, 2011 10:30 AM
53 Comments
Admit it, you've done what Matthew did at some point in your life. You've left perishable food in your car for an extended period after coming home from the store. He left a few packages of Hillshire Farms sausages out overnight. He wondered whether the sausages, being precooked and smoked and all, might be able to survive a night in his vehicle. So he called to ask. He expected advice...not coupons for free sausages. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
By Laura Northrup on December 2, 2011 9:30 AM
12 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
(Eva_Deht)
An Important Message From Chase: We Would Like To Sell You Stuff
By Laura Northrup on December 2, 2011 9:00 AM
60 Comments
Doug has a Chase credit card, but doesn't bank with them. His local Chase branch left him a message asking him to call back by the end of the business day about something that was "important" but "not an emergency." Fearing a credit card breach, he called them back right away. Turns out what was so "important" was the branch employee trying to sell Doug on opening a checking or savings account at that local branch. More »
(jayRaz)
How Can I Make A Scammy Contractor Refund Me Or Replace My Roof?
By Laura Northrup on December 2, 2011 8:00 AM
80 Comments
Austin thought he was being sensible and avoiding scammy contractors when storms hit his area and his roof needed replacing. He turned down one contractor who just didn't look professional, but the contractor he ultimately chose screwed him over while looking nice and professional. He paid for a roof replacement back in September, but the company stil hasn't showed up at his house. He's run through all of his legal options and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and now doesn't know where else to turn. More »
DirectBuy Solicitation Disguised As Important Letter From Microsoft
By Laura Northrup on December 1, 2011 1:15 PM
50 Comments
Yuriy received an exciting letter in the mail: the return address had the Microsoft logo, and the letter informed him that he had won either a netbook or an Android tablet — all he had to do was call a toll-free number to claim his prize. But if you look at the fine print, a few things stick out: first, he'd have to pay a small fee to claim his prize. And the giveaway wasn't sponsored by Microsoft at all: his local DirectBuy warehouse had sent out the letters. More »
Illness In Dogs Traced To Chinese Chicken Jerky
By Laura Northrup on December 1, 2011 11:30 AM
79 Comments
The first thing that I do when looking at a bag of pet treats is turn it over and look for the country of origin. I'm not alone—and not paranoid, as it turns out. A few weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration reminded American pet owners about unexplained and sometimes fatal illnesses related to chicken jerky treats imported from China. The FDA and its counterparts around the world have been warning consumers to be alert about jerky-related illnesses since 2007. More »
80-Year-Old Man Accidentally Donates Life Savings To Goodwill
By Laura Northrup on December 1, 2011 10:30 AM
52 Comments
Check your pockets before sending clothing and household goods to Goodwill, especially if you're in the habit of storing your life savings in the pocket of a favorite suit. An 80-year-old man in Illinois with a Depression-era mistrust of banks stashed his savings around the house. That cash was in the pocket of a suit jacket that the main claims he donated to a Goodwill thrift store. He didn't realize what had happened until a week later. More »
Panasonic Has No Idea Why Your 3D TV Keeps Adding Phantom Channels
By Laura Northrup on December 1, 2011 9:30 AM
38 Comments
Josh really enjoys having a 3D television in his home, and spent a lot of money for the privilege. About six months after purchase, the set began adding phantom channels to his lineup. Not a catastrophic problem, but not a problem that's easy to ignore when you dropped more than two grand on the TV set less than a year ago. But Josh is apparently the only one on the planet with this problem, and while Panasonic can't figure out the cause, they're not about to send Josh a new TV or even send someone out to his home to fix it, even though his service agreement states that's sort of what they have to do. More »
Manhattan Twentysomething Uses Match.com To Feed Herself
By Laura Northrup on December 1, 2011 9:00 AM
278 Comments
There are a number of ways to deal with the problem of being young and broke in a large, expensive city. A 24-year-old woman who has trouble paying her bills could move to a cheaper apartment. She could eat rice, lentils, and ramen instead of takeout. She could take on a second part-time job. Or she could join Match.com and find men to go on a few dates with her, paying for her meals at nice restaurants. That's one way to save money on food. More »
Breaking The IKEA Catalog's Fourth Wall
By Laura Northrup on December 1, 2011 8:00 AM
24 Comments
What happens inside the pages of an IKEA catalog when no one's looking? Don't be silly. A catalog is just photographs, not a real-time portal into a secret world where real people are always standing very, very still to create a façade of domestic perfection on a budget. Or that's what they want you to think. More »
Your Epson All-In-One Will Arbitrarily Self-Destruct Once It Prints Enough Pages
By Laura Northrup on November 30, 2011 9:30 AM
155 Comments
When the Epson all-in-one device that Steve bought for his mother failed, the error message indicated that the ink pads were worn out. Simple enough: Just replace the ink pads, right? Wrong. When the printer decides, somewhat arbitrarily, that the pads are worn out, that puts the whole device out of commission. It could still be used as a scanner, or to send outbound faxes. But not when the ink pads are worn out. When that happens, you have to throw the whole thing out and buy a new one. More »
Give Your Loved Ones The Holiday Gift Of Not Having To Buy You Crap
By Laura Northrup on November 30, 2011 9:00 AM
68 Comments
Do you want to kick your anti-consumerism crusade up a notch this holiday season? Two years ago, we introduced the Consumerist Anti-Gift Card, a handy card that explains why gift cards are stupid. Pair it with cash for a thoughtful and educational gift. This year, blogger Miss Minimalist takes the idea further, and offers readers a printable anti-gift certificate. As in, a certificate that instructs the recipient not to give you any gifts this year, and explains why. More »
If ASUS Installs Your Hard Drive Backwards, Your Computer Can't Overheat
By Laura Northrup on November 30, 2011 8:00 AM
37 Comments
Perhaps it was naive of reader A. to think that sending his overheating computer back to ASUS would end with him receiving a functional computer back. He did expect them to at least put the hard drive back facing in the right direction, though. Or maybe that was the outsourced repair depot's idea of a fix for his problem. A computer that can't boot can't overheat. More »
'Top Chef-Inspired' Frozen Meals Sort Of Means Something
By Laura Northrup on November 29, 2011 10:30 AM
55 Comments
As a single person with a small appetite and an odd schedule, I eat a lot of frozen meals. I'm fond of the Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers line with the built-in colander basket thingies. A few weeks ago, I noticed that some of these meals had been branded as "Top Chef-inspired" and some hadn't, even though the dishes were the same exact ones I remembered from before. Or were they? More »
(nosha)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on November 25, 2011 12:30 PM
68 Comments
- This $10 Tip Is Not The Best Way To Show Your Gratitude To Your Server
- Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs
- Rebecca Black Friday Kohl's Ad Annoys Pretty Much Everyone
- Bakery: We Lost At Least $19,500 In Groupon Deal
- Who Knew U.S. Airways Had Standing Room Only Tickets?
Here Are Some Cheap Coffee Machines You Can't Buy
By Laura Northrup on November 23, 2011 9:30 AM
78 Comments
Here's a strange phenomenon that reader Jay came across at his local Walmart: Black Friday creep. No, not the race among retailers to see who can open the earliest. Yesterday (Tuesday) Jay picked up a $4 cofeemaker from a shelf full of them, but wasn't allowed to purchase it. He was told that the item wasn't for sale. Not that he couldn't get it at the posted price: he couldn't buy it at all. More »
Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on November 23, 2011 9:00 AM
100 Comments
One day in October, Kindle owner Ryan couldn't log in to his Amazon account. He reset his password: no luck. According to Amazon representatives, the account is now "on hold," but no one can tell him what that means. He was told that someone at Amazon would call him back within 24 hours. That was almost a month ago. More »
Rebecca Black Friday Kohl's Ad Annoys Pretty Much Everyone
By Laura Northrup on November 23, 2011 8:00 AM
63 Comments
Congratulations to Kohl's on their early entry in the 2012 Worst Ad in America contest. Their parody version of Rebecca Black's "Friday" is just as grating as the original song, only with worse lyrics. Yes, it turns out that was possible. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2011 12:30 PM
158 Comments
- 4 Bad Cooking Habits People Need To Break
- Reader Gets AT&T To Admit It's Their Towers That Suck, Not The iPhone
- 5 Things Not To Buy This Season
- 4 Signs Someone Is Lying To You
- The "Do You Have This In Stock" Email Scam
How Removing Your Late Spouse From A Car Insurance Policy Raises Your Premiums
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2011 11:30 AM
98 Comments
Statistically, married people are safer drivers than unmarried people, and car insurance premiums vary accordingly One of the things that Dan had to take care of after his wife died was taking her off the car insurance policy. While the GEICO employee he spoke to was very kind and helpful, his new premium caught him by surprise. Removing his wife from the policy didn't cut it in half: it raised it by ten percent. More »
This One E-Mail Address Puts Fear In The Hearts Of Corporations
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2011 10:30 AM
39 Comments
Perkstreet is an online bank that offers a 2-5% cash back debit card. This sounded pretty great to Carolyn, and she applied for an account. Only they wouldn't issue her one, and refused to tell her why, even though they're required to do so. What got their attention, and got Carolyn her shiny new debit card? Copying The Consumerist on an e-mail to them. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2011 9:30 AM
20 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
(dooley)
Name Change On A Car Loan Completely Confuses Chase
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2011 9:00 AM
105 Comments
Every day, people in America get married. Some of them change their last names. Evidently, though, no one in the history of Chase Bank has ever done this while they were in the middle of paying off their car loan. See, until the loan is paid, the bank has a lien on your car's title. If you want to change the name on your car title and the loan hasn't been paid off yet, Chase won't let that happen. This isn't a problem unless you have to move and register your car in a different state after your name change but before the car is paid off. That's what happened to Michael's wife, and how she ended up in a loop of bureaucracy sending them back and forth from Chase to the Maryland Vehicle Administration. More »
Sears Lost $421 Million Last Quarter, Didn't Spend It Fixing Up Stores
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2011 8:00 AM
66 Comments
Last year, I formulated a theory that the continued existence of Sears is a massive anti-capitalist prank. The stories that readers send us indicate that the chain isn't very good at key parts of retailing: attracting customers, selling merchandise to them, and not actively driving the customers you already have away. It's not just Consumerist readers avoiding Sears these days: the power couple of Sears and Kmart lost $421 million in the quarter that ended on October 29. More »
The Six Million Dollar Man Is Hawking $300 Hearing Aids
bionic ears over-the-counter hearing aids. More »
By Laura Northrup on November 17, 2011 12:33 PM
50 Comments
We have evidently not been paying close enough attention to the world of as-seen-on-TV products. Because if we had, we would have reported that Lee Majors, star of the '70s series "The Six Million Dollar Man" was hawking 
Crate & Barrel Will E-Stalk You To Close A Sale
By Laura Northrup on November 17, 2011 11:33 AM
80 Comments
David was poking around the Crate & Barrel website, without actually signing in. Or so he thought. He had put something in his cart, then closed his browser and wandered off. He was a little surprised when the site emailed him to remind him that he had forgotten a few things in his cart. More »
Would You Like Some Gold-Infused Cheese?
By Laura Northrup on November 17, 2011 10:31 AM
74 Comments
Fancy artisanal cheeses are all very well and good, but what if you want your dairy products to sparkle? If you enjoy sparkly foods and flaunting your wealth, perhaps Clawson Stilton Gold is for you. The cheese costs £60 per 100-gram slice, or around $95 for about 3.5 ounces. It's a white Stilton cheese with generous helpings of gold-cinnamon schnapps and edible gold leaf. More »
Now Available At Target: The Cordless Tea Kettle
By Laura Northrup on November 17, 2011 9:30 AM
117 Comments
Would it technically be possible to have a cordless electric tea kettle? It doesn't exist yet (Dyson is probably working on it as we speak) but in the reality-free zone that is Target, anything is possible. And cordless tea kettles come with a generous amount of cord storage. More »
Wells Fargo Tries To Predict The Future, Sucks At It
By Laura Northrup on November 17, 2011 9:15 AM
34 Comments
A few months before her wedding, Megan bought her bridesmaids' dresses at J. Crew, and opened a store credit card account to get 20% off. She scheduled a payment through her bank, Wells Fargo, to pay off the balance, then panicked weeks later when she saw a large chunk of money leaving her bank account that she didn't remember authorizing. She called to cancel, remembered what the payment was for, then canceled the cancellation. This led Wells Fargo's fraud-flagging systems to believe that the next time Megan opened a store credit card and paid the bill, they should just go ahead and cancel the payment. More »
(Enokson)
Amazon Marketplace Seller Bombards Me With Free Textbooks
By Laura Northrup on November 17, 2011 8:00 AM
46 Comments
Earlier this month, Tom ordered a microbiology textbook from the Amazon Marketplace. It arrived in the mail later that week, and everything was fine. Then he received another copy of the book the next day. Then a third, and a fourth. All of the books were identical, and his credit card was only charged for the first one. What was going on here? More importantly, what was he supposed to do with the extra textbooks? More »
(prayitno)
Wells Fargo Does CD Paperwork For Wrong State; It's Your Problem
By Laura Northrup on November 16, 2011 9:30 AM
47 Comments
Earlier this year, Ken's father passed away. He had been investing in certificates of deposit for decades, and had set up each CD with one of his sons as beneficiary, so that accessing or re-investing the money would be simple...or as simple as any transaction with a megabank ever is. Out of all of the CDs, the only problem was one at Wells Fargo. Since the beneficiary information was missing from their computer systems, they needed the original receipt from when the account was opened. Ken's dad was originally issued the wrong type of receipt for the state he lived in, so there was no proof that Ken was the beneficiary for the account. Now he needs a court order to get to the account. More »
Call T-Mobile Customer Service And Reality Will Shift Beneath Your Feet
By Laura Northrup on November 16, 2011 9:00 AM
70 Comments
At what point is a company responsible for the things that its customer service reps tell customers? Gus got a new T-Mobile smartphone on an unlimited plan, then took a job in the oil industry that requires him to travel out of the country frequently. While he could have a company phone, he's still under contract. He chose to keep his T-Mobile plan with a company subsidy, and not pay an early termination fee. When he called T-Mobile to find out how much roaming in Colombia would cost with his plan, the startling answer was that he wouldn't have to pay any roaming fees at all. He quadruple-checked this with the customer service rep, who confirmed it. But he should have just hung up and broken through the walls of reality to reach another rep, who would have told him something entirely different. More »
Learn Thanksgiving Turkey Fryer Safety With William Shatner
More »
By Laura Northrup on November 16, 2011 8:00 AM
74 Comments
It's still a little early to start talking about turkey fryer safety. There's still a week before most families' birds even come out of the freezer. But this is no ordinary video: most frying guides don't feature William Shatner being consumed by a massive computer-generated fireball. More »
Compressed Pork Piglet Company Also Makes Turkey-Shaped Turkey Breasts
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2011 12:30 PM
59 Comments
Yesterday, we enthralled and horrified the Internet with a reader's photo of a pork roast molded in the form of a piglet. If you're looking for a more traditional meta-meat for your Thanksgiving feast, we've learned that the same company also produces a turkey breast molded in the shape of a whole turkey. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2011 11:30 AM
141 Comments
- Can My Job Only Pay Me For 8 Hours Instead Of 9 Because Of Daylight Saving Time?
- Signs You'll Hate That Job You're Trying To Get
- BofA Charges Man $39.23 On A $0 Balance
- Wells Fargo Tries To Hitch Its Wagon To 1 Percenters
- Theft Victim Catches Guy Returning Her Stuff To Macy's
(Ninja M.)
Do Not Call 911 Five Times About Your Broken iPhone
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2011 10:34 AM
42 Comments
911 emergency services are a very helpful community resource, but they have their limits. They cannot, for example, deliver you a pizza. Or transfer you to AppleCare when your iPhone doesn't work. That didn't stop a man in Illinois from doing the latter...and then getting arrested for it. More »
Apparently, Any Transaction Can Be 'Foreign'
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2011 9:31 AM
55 Comments
The Internet brings a global marketplace to us as we sit on the couch eating Pop-Tarts while wearing pajama pants. But a world of options brings a world of fees, thanks to our banks. Beth would expect her credit card issuer, Citibank, to assess foreign transaction fees if she were using her card abroad. Not if she were buying a domain name through Yahoo. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2011 9:00 AM
14 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
TomTom Sends Mangled Warranty Replacement, Plenty Of Excuses
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2011 8:04 AM
31 Comments
After about six months of use and while it was still under warranty, the TomTom iPhone Car Kit Mark purchased failed. The onboard GPS booster and Bluetooth that are the entire point of the device stopped working. Some highlights of Mark's struggle with the company: TomTom initially wouldn't replace it, claiming that the warranty was void since they no longer make the product. Then they sent Mark what was clearly another customer's return—a scratched-up unit without power cords. They claimed that they couldn't send a power cord because Apple makes the cable. Because Apple manufactures black car-to-mini-USB cables. More »
Sears Is Determined To Not Send Us Any Sheds
By Laura Northrup on November 10, 2011 12:30 PM
60 Comments
In the early part of this century, you could buy kits to build an entire house from Sears. It's probably just as well that they don't do that anymore—at least, based on the experience Joe's wife has had trying to get Sears to ever deliver the shed that she paid for. At least she gets the excitement and inconvenience of receiving delivery notices, then not having anyone show up with her shed. More »
Behold The Pork Roast Molded In The Shape Of A Tiny Pig
By Laura Northrup on November 10, 2011 11:30 AM
105 Comments
Lee found this pig-shaped pork roast at Costco, but doesn't find it particularly appealing. "I just can't grill a roast that looks like 'Babe'," he writes. It's like roasting a suckling pig, but without the youth or the internal organs. More »
Why Is There A Dog Sitting At The Table At Outback Steakhouse?
By Laura Northrup on November 10, 2011 10:30 AM
349 Comments
If they knew what an Outback Steakhouse was, most dogs would want to visit there as often as possible. But non-service dogs aren't allowed inside. Reader Erik and his wife recently attempted to dine at Outback, but the presence of another customer's large, poorly behaved ostensible service dog drove them out of the restaurant. More »
ATM Gobbles Up Customer's Deposit, Bank Employees Shrug
By Laura Northrup on November 10, 2011 9:30 AM
71 Comments
$376 isn't a lot of money compared to the amounts that flow through banks on a daily basis. But it is a lot of money to reader Craig, who deposited that amount of cash on Monday at a BBVA Compass ATM. The machine gobbled up his money during the deposit, and no one is quite sure where the cash went. It's not in his account, he knows that much. 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 »
CVS Makes Mistake, Robocalls Me Incessantly For Their 3 Bucks
By Laura Northrup on November 10, 2011 8:00 AM
89 Comments
Sarah noticed after a visit to the pharmacy that the technician had failed to charge her for one of her prescriptions. It's difficult for her to get into town from her college campus, so she figured because it's the store's error, she'd let it go. Karma does not agree, and has sent swift and annoying punishment down for Sarah. She must pay for the prescription, or the CVS system will robocall her several times per day reminding her to pick up the prescription. More »
Sears Delivers Non-Functioning Treadmill, Won't Come Back For It
By Laura Northrup on November 9, 2011 9:30 AM
37 Comments
When Sears.com delivered Leah's treadmill six weeks ago, the delivery service brought it into her house and a professional contractor assembled it. It wouldn't start, and hasn't worked since. Sears has made some attempts at repairing the treadmill, but it now requires a part that's on indefinite backorder. So why doesn't Leah just send it back? Because Sears will only take it back if she disassembles it herself, packs it in the original box, and ships it to them. More »
Thank You For [Not] Being A Chase Customer, Here Is Your Junk Mail
By Laura Northrup on November 9, 2011 9:00 AM
40 Comments
Jonathan received a letter from Chase thanking him for being a customers, and asking him to send it back in order to opt out of receiving promotional mailings. Which is interesting, because Jonathan not only isn't a Chase customer, he doesn't live at that particular address full-time or normally receive mail there. Concerned about identity theft, he learned that he wasn't the only non-customer being thanked for patronizing Chase. But they won't let him get off their mailing list, either. More »
(matneym)
ASUS Blames You When BIOS Update Bricks Your Computer
By Laura Northrup on November 9, 2011 8:00 AM
125 Comments
In order to start up your PC, you need a BIOS: firmware that tells your computer what devices are attached to it and where it can find the operating system(s). Most people don't ever need to fuss with the BIOS, but Tim did for his ASUS computer. What he didn't know was that the update he downloaded from the company's site would turn his computer into a large, flat plastic brick if he installed it from a USB drive in the default file format. ASUS says that Tim has to pay for the repair, which he thinks is unfair. More »
Why Doesn't T-Mobile's Phone Blocking Feature Make Any Sense?
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2011 12:32 PM
132 Comments
Michael's daughter has a phone on the family plan, and he'd like to do something to it that seems simple enough. He wants to block her phone from all use during school hours, except for the numbers she would need in an emergency. Except the system doesn't work that way. For some reason that no one understands, phones can only be disabled in certain blocks, and during certain times the main account holder can't limit the phone's use at all. Some of these times happen to conveniently fall during the hours when Michael's daughter is at school. He's not the only one with this problem. More »
(Laura Northrup)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2011 11:30 AM
232 Comments
- Who's More To Blame For My Horrible Walmart Experience: Store Staff Or The Extreme Couponer?
- What's A McRib Made Of?
- Woman Who Stayed At Hotel For A Decade Finally Checks Out
- No Car Will Escape This "Future Now" Speed Cam
- How Many Slaves Work For You?
(US Army)
Uno's Military Discount Available To All Veterans, Not Just Retirees
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2011 10:31 AM
58 Comments
Uno Chicago Grill, the chain that has brought the deliciousness of deep-dish pizza to suburban wastelands everywhere, is honoring veterans next week. That's excellent. But their publicity for the event gets some terminology wrong. Despite what a current press release says, the 19.43% discount doesn't just apply to active-duty personnel and those who spent decades in the military and retired with a pension. It's for everyone who has served. More »
Sony Rewards Item Not Such A Great Deal Once You Actually Want To Buy It
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2011 9:30 AM
57 Comments
Jonathan has a Sony Rewards credit card with Capital One, and tried to use his accumulated points to buy an AV receiver, Sony's "deal of the week," from the rewards site. There's a special price this week for members, only 24,000 points. Great! Jonathan has that many points! Only the site won't let him (or anyone) buy the item for the advertised sale price. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2011 9:00 AM
43 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Cox Ends Free Web Pages For Internet Service Customers
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2011 8:00 AM
32 Comments
It's understandable for a company to end a free service for customers when it's little-used. But even if that was the case when Cox Communications decided to stop offering free personal Web hosting for its Internet service customers next month, it might have been helpful for them to give a heads up to their technical support employees. Or maybe that was just the person reader John happened to reach when he called about the transition. More »
Why Was My McRib Served On A Round Hamburger Bun?
By Laura Northrup on November 3, 2011 1:15 PM
147 Comments
McRib fever is sweeping the nation. In the area in upstate New York where Harold lives, this situation has become desperate. His local McDonald's is clearly so overwhelmed that they've run out of the proper-sized buns for the McRib and slapped his delicious meat log in a hamburger-sized bun. More »
Wine Products: The Booze Equivalent Of Velveeta
By Laura Northrup on November 3, 2011 12:15 PM
77 Comments
In American stores, you can find food-like substances that call themselves "cheese food products" or "meat products" that contain some meat or dairy, processed beyond all recognition. Think Slim Jims or Velveeta. But diluted "wine products" lurk on shelves in those uncivilized places where people can't buy food and booze in the same store. They look like bottles of wine and have wine-like labels...until you read the fine print and learn that they're wine cut with sugar water and grape juice, and bottled in the idyllic wine country of Bayonne, N.J. More »
Hurry To Best Buy For Free Nonexistent Shipping
By Laura Northrup on November 3, 2011 10:30 AM
22 Comments
The game Tony Hawk: Shred is marked down to $9.99 from $29.99 at Best Buy, with free shipping. Fantastic deal, and Yero went to check it out. Then he noticed something odd: shipping is free, but this item cannot be shipped. Is something that doesn't exist inherently free, or does not existing at all mean that it can have no cost? More »
I Want A Smartphone That Doesn't Sneak Off To Slorp Data In The Wee Hours
By Laura Northrup on November 3, 2011 9:30 AM
80 Comments
The point of having a smartphone that can use wi-fi networks is so the device uses less data, right? Especially at night, when you're at home snoozing, enveloped in the comforting waves of your home Internet connection. Yet Anthony's phone and his father's phone sneak off, accessing the mobile data network in the wee hours of the morning and pushing them over the limits of their T-Mobile data plan. They could just turn the phones off at night, but this is far from their only problem with these phones. Far. But T-Mobile won't let them have different, functional phones or cut them loose. More »
Movie Studios Create Special Blu-Ray Slipcovers For Target, This Target Tosses Them In Trash
By Laura Northrup on November 3, 2011 9:00 AM
217 Comments
Michael has a cool hobby that I had never heard of until today: collecting new Blu-Ray disc releases, especially limited editions and interesting slipcovers. Studios issue exclusive slipcovers to certain retailers: a great marketing opportunity and plenty of fun for collectors, right? Sure. If the employees at Michael's local Target hadn't been ordered to slip off those neat slipcovers and toss 'em before putting new movies in plastic security cases before they go on the shelves. More »
Is My Gutter Contractor Ever Going To Repair The Damage To My House?
By Laura Northrup on November 3, 2011 8:00 AM
50 Comments
The workers who came to Matt's house and installed new gutters did a great job, but they damaged the siding. He doesn't want to pay their bill until the (very minor) damage to his house has been fixed. But he also doesn't want the company to sic a collection agency on him. What would the consumerists do? More »
(jillrdu)
Returning Wedding Gifts To Walmart: Not All That Easy
By Laura Northrup on November 2, 2011 9:30 AM
153 Comments
The greeters aren't the only ones at Walmart who demand your receipt. If you've registered for your wedding or other gift-lavishing occasion at there, know this: Wally World treats registry returns without a gift receipt as returns without a receipt. Even though they've got your registry right there, showing that someone else bought the item for you and precisely who bought it. Nope, being a registry item isn't good enough. Reader Chris shared his sad tale, which ends with him being stuck with an air compressor and an awful lot of Walmart gift cards. More »
Best Buy Sells You Appliances, Then Sells Them To Someone Else
By Laura Northrup on November 2, 2011 9:00 AM
97 Comments
John got a great deal on a floor-model washer and dryer unit at Best Buy. But he wasn't the only one. After he completed the purchase, Best Buy sold the units out to another customer, delivering them to the other purchaser before reaching John. That's a simple enough error that could have been easily fixed by, say, offering a significant discount on another set of the same model. But that's not possible at this Best Buy. More »
Banana Republic Clerk Misled Me Into Opening Another Credit Card
By Laura Northrup on November 2, 2011 8:00 AM
72 Comments
When Jessica went shopping at Banana Republic last month, she forgot her store credit card. That was OK, the sales clerk assured her: she just needed Jessica's Social Security number and for her to sign off on the transaction in order to access her existing card data in the system. Most people are so used to having our forgotten store loyalty cards looked up using our phone numbers that this seems natural enough. Only it wasn't - by providing her SSN and signature, Jessica was actually applying for a Banana Republic Visa card. 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 »
Someone At This Dave & Buster's Needs To Learn How To Count
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2011 12:30 PM
165 Comments
Steve has no problem with the mandatory 18% tip included in the bill for parties of eight or larger at Dave & Buster's. He does, however, have a problem with getting charged 18% for mediocre service for a dinner party of seven, not eight. Maybe most diners are having too much fun to notice that there isn't an invisible eighth guest at their tables. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2011 11:36 AM
223 Comments
- Burger King Billboard Gets Diabetes Graffiti
- Heinz To Sell Upmarket Version Of Ketchup
- Car Receives $44,500 Ticket For 1,800 Years Of Illegal Parking
- Car Racks Up $896.80 Vegas Parking Ticket While Sitting In New York
- Man Drives Honda 1 Million Miles
(Coyoty)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2011 10:30 AM
23 Comments
Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
UPS Knows Where Misrouted Package Is, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2011 9:30 AM
51 Comments
Claire, the manager of an apartment building, went above and beyond the scope of her job duties to attempt to re-route a package destined for a former tenant. UPS didn't really do anything wrong in this case: the wrong address was the shipper's fault, or maybe the former tenant's. But since too many days have passed since the box showed up on the wrong person's doorstep, it's no longer UPS's problem. The package, we assume, will just be written off as "lost." More »
My Breakup With Wells Fargo Was Weird And Awkward
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2011 9:00 AM
124 Comments
Matthew has spent 23 years as a customer of a bank that was eventually gobbled up by Wells Fargo. Finally tired of the bank's shenanigans, he moved his personal checking account to a local credit union. What he didn't count on was that Wells Fargo didn't want to let him go, and would stop at nothing to get his attention. Even overdrafting his account instead of declining transactions. More »
Ditch Your Big Bank, Miss Out On Groupon Refund
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2011 8:01 AM
38 Comments
Like many other Americans, Casey broke up with his big bank, Chase, and joined a local credit union. The Consumerist commentariat should be very proud of him. Except that since changing banks, he received a refund for a Groupon he had purchased, which Groupon is powerless to give him because the debit card he used to purchase it has been canceled. More »
Car Receives $44,500 Ticket For 1,800 Years Of Illegal Parking
By Laura Northrup on October 27, 2011 12:30 PM
44 Comments
Accurate data entry is important. Need proof? Just ask the woman in Italy who was taken to the hospital for a dizzy spell after receiving a €32,000 ($44,500) parking ticket. How long does a car have to be parked to receive that kind of fine? About 1,800 years. Wait, what? More »
The 4th Replacement Laptop HP Sent Me Doesn't Work, Either
By Laura Northrup on October 27, 2011 11:30 AM
61 Comments
John bought a rather nice HP laptop for his business, and it would be nice if it would work. Ever. Every time they boot up one of the replacement machines HP has sent, it crashes. They're now on laptop #5. More »
(Richrecruiter)
Large Bottles Of Aussie Shampoo Now Somewhat Less Large
By Laura Northrup on October 27, 2011 10:30 AM
35 Comments
Richrecruiter picked up one of those large bottles of Aussie Moist shampoo from Target recently, and noticed that it was smaller than the previous bottle he had purchased. Why, about 20% smaller, but at the same price. The Grocery Shrink Ray is on the attack! More »
(Bill)
How's Your iPhone 4S Battery?
By Laura Northrup on October 27, 2011 9:30 AM
90 Comments
Our lab-coated colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports are still testing various features of the iPhone 4S, so we don't have their verdict on its battery life yet. But many customers online, including reader Bill, are already complaining that the battery drains much too quickly, and never fully charges to 100%. More »
(penner42)
How 'Convenient' In-Store Pickup Became Four Inconvenient Trips To Best Buy
By Laura Northrup on October 27, 2011 9:00 AM
73 Comments
Oliver thought that ordering online from Best Buy and then picking his purchase up from his local store would be the fastest and most convenient way to get his purchase from the retailer. Normally it would be, except for one key detail: he had Best Buy gift cards to use up, but had forgotten to use them when he placed the order online. Best Buy's computers couldn't cop with this mistake, and he was punished by having to make four 80-mile round trips to the nearest Best Buy store to get his purchase. More »
Good Night, Sony Dream Machine
By Laura Northrup on October 27, 2011 8:00 AM
62 Comments
The Sony Dream Machine isn't an iconic, distinctive product like the iMac or the Dyson bladeless fan. It is, however, ubiquitous: if you've never owned at least one, you've surely stayed in a hotel or guest room equipped with one. They've been on the market for 30 years or so, and have come equipped with FM dials, tape decks, CD players, and iPod docks. Now Sony is discontinuing the long-lived, diverse brand with the evocative and ironic name. More »
TSA Finds Your Vibrator In Checked Suitcase, Leaves Creepy Note
By Laura Northrup on October 26, 2011 9:30 AM
116 Comments
Bad: Having the TSA pawing through your checked luggage. Worse: The suitcase they chose to open includes a sex toy. Worse still: the person who went through your bags leaves a leering note. Specifically, they scrawl "GET YOUR FREAK ON GIRL" on the notice of inspection. More »
Why Is FedEx Afraid Of My Neighborhood?
By Laura Northrup on October 26, 2011 9:00 AM
47 Comments
Are the people who work at Kevin's local FedEx office in the Midwest classist, racist, or just lazy? He doesn't understand why it is that their drivers have a strange inability to find his apartment building, mostly because the local station manager believes that Kevin's neighborhood is unsafe. More »
Jack The Cat Found After Two Months In JFK Airport
By Laura Northrup on October 26, 2011 8:00 AM
71 Comments
Before the flight to his new home in California, Jack the cat escaped from his travel carrier and disappeared into John F. Kennedy Airport. The airline organized searches and put out food, and animal lovers all over the world helped in any way they could, from performing their own searches of the airport and nearby neighborhoods to getting word out to employees of nearby businesses and other airlines. We're happy to report that Jack has been found. In two months, he apparently never left the airport. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2011 12:30 PM
202 Comments
- Apple Manager Breaks Rule, Makes 10-Year-Old Girl's Dreams Come True
- The Styrofoam Cube In This Letter Serves A Bureaucratic Purpose
- Poop, There It Is! Luvs' Scatological Showdown Voted Worst Ad In America For 2011
- T-Mobile Customer Runs Up $201,000 Phone Bill
- 4 Things Debt Collectors Won't Tell You
Best Buy's Game Replacement Plan Is Not A Free Upgrade Plan
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2011 11:30 AM
102 Comments
Blah, blah, when something seems to be good to true, it probably is. Kevin knows that, but was still tricked into buying an extended warranty for last year's copy of Madden '11 by a misinformed or unscrupulous Best Buy employee. Customers who buy sports games where a new edition comes out every year, the cashier told him, could get the next year's game for free by purchasing a $5 replacement warranty for the game and returning it to the store the following year when the new edition comes out. Nice plan if it were true. It's not. More »
Buy Cat Food By The Case At Walmart, Pay More
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2011 10:30 AM
57 Comments
Comparing prices between different brands of canned cat food, Gabe made a discovery at Walmart: it's cheaper to buy individual cans of Friskies cat food than to buy a case of 24 cans. Buying in bulk is supposed to be cheaper for the consumer, but maybe Walmart has imposed a convenience charge for encasing all of those cat food cans in cardboard. More »
(c-g-b)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2011 9:30 AM
15 Comments
Here are seventeen of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
iPhone Preorder Customers Find Long Wait Unfair
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2011 9:00 AM
108 Comments
Customers like Stacey thought they were doing the responsible thing by pre-ordering the iPhone 4S and having it delivered to their doorsteps, instead of queuing up on release day. But now some customers won't get their preordered phones for weeks while brick-and-mortar stores have stacks of them, and they can't even cancel the preorders to go buy one from a local store. More »
Hey, My Star Wars Blu-Ray Set Isn't Your Clipboard
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2011 8:00 AM
258 Comments
Mark bought the new Star Wars trilogy Blu-Ray set from Best Buy on release day, but wasn't aware that it came with some secret double features. Like doubling as a clipboard. A clipboard that Best Buy employees can commandeer at any time after purchase. More »
It Should Not Take Six Attempts To Deliver A Dishwasher
By Laura Northrup on October 20, 2011 12:32 PM
51 Comments
Ariel has read Consumerist for long enough that, given a choice, she probably wouldn't order a dishwasher from Sears. But she rents, and her landlord is not so wise. Here is their sad but familiar tale: lots of delivery appointments, missed days of work, and no dishwasher. More »
Don't Yap Or Tap On Your Phone While Teaching Your Kid To Drive
By Laura Northrup on October 20, 2011 11:30 AM
45 Comments
Teaching your teenage child to drive is an emotionally fraught yet important time. You can instill good driving habits that will see them through the couple of decades we have left before robotic flying cars dominate the market, then eventually enslave us. Or you can set a bad example by whipping out your phone while teaching the finer points of highway merging. Guess which one most American parents choose? More »
Family With Crappy-Sounding Casio Piano Saved By... Best Buy?
By Laura Northrup on October 20, 2011 10:33 AM
25 Comments
Last Christmas, Jennifer bought her daughter a digital piano, and it hasn't sounded very good since June or so. What sounds even worse is that manufacturer Casio and the local piano repair shop were dragging their feet on getting it working again before the one-year warranty was up. We shared this story a few weeks agoand things looked bleak...until Jennifer's husband thought to call the retailer they had ordered the piano from: Best Buy. More »
Toys 'R' Us Must Pay $20.6 Million In 2006 Pool Slide Death
By Laura Northrup on October 20, 2011 9:30 AM
98 Comments
We enjoy mocking Banzai and their tendency to put wildly inaccurate photographs of their products on the boxes. But another wild inaccuracy led to tragedy in Massachusetts in 2006, when a 29-year-old mother went headfirst down an inflatable waterslide that collapsed. She broke her neck and later died as a result of the injuries. The jury deliberated for less than an hour before awarding her survivors $20.6 million—and they weren't even allowed to hear about the other person allegedly paralyzed by a similar injury while using the same product. More »
(srd515)
Hotel Books Guest Too Young To Check In: Now What?
By Laura Northrup on October 20, 2011 9:00 AM
76 Comments
Alex booked a flight/hotel package on the Allegiant Air that included a stay at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel. The problem? He's only 19, and you have to be 21 or older to check in there. So just call and cancel the reservation, right? It's not that simple, because he's afraid that the flight reservation will be canceled too if he nixes the hotel part of the package. More »
Bank Of America Can't Help With Warning Of Possible Future Fraud
By Laura Northrup on October 20, 2011 8:00 AM
54 Comments
Ralph knows that mysterious deposits in your bank account from unknown entities are probably not a good thing. They're much more likely to be harbingers of fraud than tiny, mysterious gifts. So he alerted his bank, Bank of America, that someone might be trying to steal from his account. The bank proceeded to do... not all that much, since no fraud had been committed yet. More »
Cheap AT&T Text Message Plan IS Compatible With iPhone 4s
As reader Hillary discovered, AT&T's cheapest text plan ($5 for 200 messages) isn't compatible with the new phone, so people with that combination just don't get their messages. Update: We heard from an AT&T rep, who told us that there's no reason why the 4S shouldn't work with a 200-message texting plan, and isn't sure why this happened to Hillary. More »
By Laura Northrup on October 19, 2011 9:30 AM
94 Comments
Have you fired up your new iPhone 4S, only to feel lonely because no one is texting you? Don't be sad. You might still have some friends after all.
Walmart Sends Me Cheaper Bed Frame Than I Ordered, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on October 19, 2011 9:00 AM
77 Comments
Cassandra had a confusing problem with Walmart. She ordered a bed frame to be delivered to her local store. She happened to order a black frame, which was more expensive than the similar (but out of stock) bronze-colored frame. When she got the box home, though, she noticed that new labels had been put over the areas on the box identifying the frame's color. The labels identified the frame as black. The box itsef identified it as bronze. The frame inside was bronze. So who altered the box, and why? More »
Class-Action Lawsuit Claims Fruit Roll-Ups Are Unhealthy, Contain Little Fruit
By Laura Northrup on October 19, 2011 8:00 AM
89 Comments
Do phrases like "low fat," "gluten-free," "made with real fruit" and "good source of vitamin C" on the package of a processed fruit snack product make you think that the product is a healthy food? These phrases have all been on the packaging of fruit-like snack substances from General Mills: Froot by the Foot, Fruit Roll-Ups, and Gushers. Marketing copy on the front of a box is no substitute for taking a moment to read nutrition information and ingredients. But that hasn't stopped the Center for Science in the Public Interest from filing a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company tried to make consumers believe that their products were wholesome and fruit-based, not full of trans fats, preservatives, and food coloring. More »
(Softlad)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on October 14, 2011 12:30 PM
110 Comments
- Mother Somehow Runs Up $1500 Verizon Bill
- How Bank Of America Picked $5 As The Debit Card Monthly Fee
- Don't Mistake Luxuries For Necessities
- The Right Way To Get A Bartender's Attention
- Those Anti-Skimming Gas Pump Stickers Don't Work If You Do It Like This
Behold The Amazing Disappearing Prepaid Debit Card
By Laura Northrup on October 14, 2011 11:31 AM
58 Comments
It seemed like a good idea at the time. When Jim's wife received a bonus at her job in the form of a prepaid debit card from the First National Bank of Omaha, they chose to put it away for an emergency. What they didn't realize is that prepaid debit cards combine all of the arbitrary fees of banks with all of the general crappiness of a gift card, only worse. Much worse. By the time the couple went to use the card, the entire balance had been gobbled up by fees. Fees levied for not using the card. More »
Refer A Friend To DirecTV? Make Sure You Got Your Referral Bonus
By Laura Northrup on October 14, 2011 10:34 AM
22 Comments
Have you referred your friends, family, or neighbors to DirecTV recently, unable to resist the lure of the $100 referral bonus for both you and the new customer? It's a great deal: when the referral fee actually shows up on your account. Robin warns that he still hasn't received his fee from referring a neighbor, and he's not alone. More »
(.sanden.)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on October 14, 2011 9:30 AM
20 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
When Buying A Mattress From Sears, Maybe Also Invest In A Truck
By Laura Northrup on October 14, 2011 9:00 AM
28 Comments
This probably isn't news to you, Sears, but you've lost another customer for good. This time, it's reader Jeff, who had a nice experience buying a mattress at his local Sears store, but a terrible experience trying to get the mattress delivered to his house. People do not enjoy taking a vacation day from work and then not having the delivery person show up. Four times. More »
How Cancer, A Tornado, And American Airlines Took Away Our Honeymoon
By Laura Northrup on October 14, 2011 8:00 AM
37 Comments
Roxanne and her husband got married last year, and had to delay their honeymoon until April due to her illness. They spent the night before their rescheduled trip huddled in a hotel bathtub near the airport. It was clear that the universe did not want them to vacation in Cabo San Lucas. An American Airlines rep put their rescheduled tickets on hold, and they had until February 2012 to use them for another trip. Or so they thought. More »
Best Buy Loyalty Rewarded With Deeply Annoying Retail Experience
By Laura Northrup on October 13, 2011 12:30 PM
119 Comments
E. received a reward certificate from Best Buy, and went to cash it in. Sounds like that should be a simple and fun experience. Except there was one problem: the item he picked out cost only $19.99, but the certificate was for $20. From there, only stupidity ensued. More »
US Postal Service Adds To Your Mom's College Care Package
By Laura Northrup on October 13, 2011 11:30 AM
81 Comments
Robert received a Priority Mail package at college from his mother. The box contained a variety of canned foods: Vienna sausages, sardines, beans, liverwurst, spam, and corn. Which is awfully nice of Robert's mother, except that the box she sent him only contained fifteen cans of Goya brand beans. Where did all of this other stuff come from? More »
(Cayusa)
Verizon Loses FiOS Equipment, Sends You To Collections
By Laura Northrup on October 13, 2011 10:30 AM
34 Comments
Leon liked Verizon's FiOS service when he had it. It wasn't until he moved and sent his equipment back that he had any problems with them. He sent his router and CableCard back via UPS, and the card was taped to the side of the router. Verizon received the router, but the CableCard is still missing. "I have visions of the router at some new customer's house with the cablecard still taped to it," he writes. More »
Attempted Bank Robbery Fails Due To Poor Handwriting
By Laura Northrup on October 13, 2011 9:30 AM
44 Comments
Good penmanship is not important in the modern world. I often go days on end without writing anything on paper. When the elementary school teachers of the world corrected our penmanship, though, they probably didn't have what happened during a recent attempted bank robbery in Delaware in mind. Police say that the teller was unable to read the note chicken-scratched on a blank deposit slip, and gave it back to the man to rewrite. He left, threw the note in the trash, and was apprehended by state troopers. More »
Apple Makes Me Stalk The UPS Guy At My Old House
By Laura Northrup on October 13, 2011 9:00 AM
62 Comments
Samantha has moved since registering for an account on Apple.com. That's not unusual. Her problem is that Apple is somehow unable to deal with this reality, and she isn't able to change her address in their system. This means that they can't ship her freshly ordered iPhone 4S anywhere but her old address. "Maybe I will show up at the house and ask them to please not steal my new iPhone," she muses. More »
Krups Botches Coffeemaker Repair, Replaces Shorted-Out Appliance
By Laura Northrup on October 13, 2011 8:00 AM
36 Comments
The Krups XP2070 is not a cheap coffee maker. Trevor received his as a gift two years ago. It sold for around $300 then, and it would be reasonable to expect the appliance to work for more than a year. While Krups accepted the machine for repairs, fixed it, and then graciously extended the warranty when it failed again. Trevor determined that the root problem with his XP2070 hadn't been fixed during either repair, and it had been returned to him to break again. Was he stuck shopping for a new coffeemaker? More »
(dooley)
Verizon Promises Deal To Get You To Stay, Then Pretends It Didn't
By Laura Northrup on October 12, 2011 9:30 AM
46 Comments
To keep Andrew from jumping ship to Sprint for cheaper service, the retentions team at Verizon Wireless did its job: they offered him an amazing deal. He could get a $20 data credit per month on each of his smartphone lines as part of an unpublicized promotion. Who wouldn't take that deal? Unfortunately, it turns out that "unpublicized" now means "Verizon pretends that it doesn't exist." Andrew's not the only one who was promised this deal, and he's going to fight for it. More »
Middle-Class Canadians Terrified Of Thrift Store Customer Horde
By Laura Northrup on October 12, 2011 9:00 AM
118 Comments
If a thrift store opened up down the street from you, what would you do? Would you say, "How convenient!" and stop by daily? Or would you lament, "There goes the neighborhood," dreading all of the poor people sure to traipse by, looking all poor and stuff and committing crimes? That's what the residents of an upper-middle-class neighborhood in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan think is going to happen once a Value Village store opens there. But only when they get to share their thoughts anonymously. More »
Look Out Before Walmart Staples You In Its Pricing Trap
By Laura Northrup on October 12, 2011 8:00 AM
40 Comments
If you need staples, you can go to Marty's local Walmart. There, confusing economic forces have come together to make staples cost twice as much if you buy them in a larger box. No, really: when you buy three boxes containing five thousand staples each, the total cost is half as much as one box with fifteen thousand staples. And it's not like the box is anything special. More »
(Horazio)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on October 7, 2011 12:30 PM
235 Comments
- We're Sorry You Ever Came To Our Store & Wasted Our Precious Time
- Friendly's Files For Bankruptcy Protection, Closes 63 Restaurants
- Don't Rob A Convenience Store With A Cop Standing Right Behind You
- Medical Marijuana User: Papa John's Driver Ratted Me Out To The Cops
- Hooters Sues Twin Peaks Restaurant In Breastacular Battle
Casio Tries To Wait Out The Warranty On Crappy-Sounding Piano
By Laura Northrup on October 7, 2011 11:34 AM
21 Comments
The piano that Jennifer bought her daughter last Christmas sounds terrible. She's been trying to get Casio to fix it under warranty since June, but Casio corporate and her local repair shop have excuse after excuse for why they aren't able to come out and fix it—or just replace the piano already. More »
AT&T Promises To Let Me Keep Unlimited Data Plan With New Phone, Doesn't
By Laura Northrup on October 7, 2011 10:30 AM
69 Comments
When he upgraded his AT&T phone to a Samsung Galaxy S II, Matthew was under the impression that he would get to keep his old unlimited data plan from his iPhone. That would be a good reason to upgrade to a newer, snappier phone. The problem is that it was not, strictly speaking, true. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on October 7, 2011 9:31 AM
14 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Business's DSL Still Out 1 Month After Account Breach
By Laura Northrup on October 7, 2011 9:00 AM
21 Comments
Derek tells Consumerist that someone contacted AT&T and canceled his business's DSL account. Which is interesting, because that person had no affiliation with Derek's business, didn't have any of the account information, and really shouldn't have been allowed to edit the account at all. Did that stop AT&T from letting the person end the business's Internet access, resulting in early termination fees? Guess. More »
Flying Relatives Home On United For The Holidays? Better Just Send Them A Check
By Laura Northrup on October 7, 2011 8:00 AM
64 Comments
When Cindy purchased her adult daughter's plane tickets to visit for the holidays, she didn't realize that United would rather have her just send her daughter the cash. At least, that's the only logical explanation for the rule she learned about only after the purchase was complete: the credit card used to buy the tickets must be available at check-in. How is Cindy's daughter supposed to present her credit card? More »
How Large Should A Large Pizza Be?
By Laura Northrup on October 6, 2011 12:30 PM
214 Comments
There is no national or international governing body that keeps track of how big a pizza is supposed to be. This is probably just as well, but Todd was still disappointed when he ordered a "Large" pizza from Pizza Hut and received a 13" diameter pie that left his party of three hungry. More »
A Precise Timeline Of How Sears Screwed Up Selling A Car Battery
By Laura Northrup on October 6, 2011 11:30 AM
55 Comments
Dennis found a $5 off code to purchase a new car battery from Sears, but assumed that ordering his item online and then picking it up at the store would not be a two-day odyssey involving a half-dozen employees and an order that somehow only materialized once it was canceled. He did things the old-fashioned way and just bought a battery at the physical Sears store. Now he has to wait seven to ten business days for his refund for the original order. More »
Microsoft Zombie-Bills Expired Credit Card For Xbox Live
By Laura Northrup on October 6, 2011 10:30 AM
32 Comments
Earlier this year, we posted a handy tip to avoid zombie billing: for a service that you plan to stop using after your contract is up, use a credit or debit card with an expiration date shortly after the end of the contract. The idea behind this plan is that an expired card can't be billed. This didn't work so well for Rob, whose expired credit card was zombie-billed by Microsoft for his Xbox Live subscription. More »
Watch Out For Petco's Fuzzy Kitty Litter Math
By Laura Northrup on October 6, 2011 9:30 AM
24 Comments
Just because something is on sale, even a sale only available to holders of a store's discount card, that doesn't mean it's a good deal. Want a real-life example? Here, the sale price of a container of cat litter is higher than the sale price of a container that's actually larger. Fuzzy math, or subtle bias against customers who aren't able to carry a 31-pound box? More »
Adderall Maker Responds To Shortages With Price Hike
By Laura Northrup on October 6, 2011 9:00 AM
64 Comments
There's less off the attention-deficit disorder drug Adderall available to the public than there used to be: some even call it a shortage. The company blames the FDA, which has limited the total amount of the drug manufactured: it is, after all, an amphetamine and a controlled substance. Manufacturer Shire has responded to these limits by... hiking the price and making fewer discounts available to consumers. More »
NewEgg Drops The Ball, Gamestop Saves The Day. Wait: Gamestop?
By Laura Northrup on October 6, 2011 8:00 AM
67 Comments
Two months ago, Nathan took advantage of a Newegg promotion for $10 off his pre-order of the collector's edition of the game Dark Souls, which was released on Tuesday. Ordering ahead and getting a discount: points for planning and for shopping prowess. The day before the game was to be released, Newegg (and other retailers, Nathan later learned) had to cancel their pre-orders because they just didn't have enough product. This left him without a collector's edition on release day...unless he could find one in his city, in person. Was such a feat possible? Yes, as it turns out, with some luck and the help of a heroic Gamestop employee. More »
USPS Holds Our Mail During Vacation, Keeps Holding It
By Laura Northrup on October 5, 2011 11:30 AM
55 Comments
While less and less of our crucial information comes by post now, that doesn't mean that it's okay if a few weeks' worth of it just disappears into nowhere. Especially when you're expecting presents in the mail. That's what happened to Dave's mail after he and his wife left town for their honeymoon. Expecting cards and gifts after the wedding, they requested a two-week hold on their mail. Evidently, the postal service held their mail, all right, but isn't too keen to give it back. More »
This UPS Driver Needs A Review Of The ABCs
By Laura Northrup on October 5, 2011 11:15 AM
31 Comments
It's not that the UPS delivery driver who brought George's wife's Avon order to their apartment is stupid. He just has a very poor understanding of how the alphabet works. That's the only explanation for why he brought the package to vacant apartment A instead of George's apartment C, and how the package later ended up re-routed to another woman in a different town. Clearly letters are just symbols without meaning. More »
Watch A Dancing Patrick Swayze Shill For Pabst Blue Ribbon in 1979
By Laura Northrup on October 5, 2011 10:15 AM
53 Comments
It may be difficult to believe now, but there was once a time when people appreciated Pabst Blue Ribbon beer in a non-ironic fashion. That was around 1979, evidently, when this ad featuring a catchy faux-Bee Gees tune and a fresh-faced young Patrick Swayze hit the airwaves. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on September 30, 2011 12:30 PM
183 Comments
- Why Panera's Pay-What-You-Can Restaurant Didn't Work In Portland
- The Magic Of Doubling Down On Mortgage Payments
- 5 Scams To Watch Out For When Buying A Car
- Starbucks Customer: Excuse Me, But My Name Is Not "Bit*h"
- Did FTC Spoil Its Own Surprise Announcement?
Target's Nightmare Before Christmas
By Laura Northrup on September 30, 2011 11:30 AM
41 Comments
Are you interested in mixing up your Christmas and Halloween traditions this year, but aren't a character in the classic claymation movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas?" Maybe place a bubbling cauldron on the Yule log, or dress up like a chicken while you serve the Christmas goose? Target can help you with that. All in one aisle. More »
(dooley)
Verizon Keeps Sending Me Replacement Phones I Didn't Order
By Laura Northrup on September 30, 2011 10:30 AM
41 Comments
If you've ordered a replacement phone from Verizon recently and it arrived late or not at all, there may be a perfectly confusing explanation. Michael has it. When he ordered a replacement, the transaction went smoothly. Then another phone showed up in his mailbox. And another. He didn't sell them on eBay, though: he went to some trouble to go to the post office and send them back. He'd appreciate a small token of Verizon's gratitude for his honesty and his trouble in the form of a small credit on his bill, but they're not all that grateful. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on September 30, 2011 9:30 AM
10 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Check Your Best Buy Receipt Carefully Before Signing For In-Store Pickup Purchases
By Laura Northrup on September 30, 2011 9:00 AM
62 Comments
Best Buy's in-store pickup for online purchases is a handy option, but beware. You could be the victim of a sudden price increase. After Kevin's wallet fell victim to a price adjustment after the fact, he wrote in to warn other consumers. More »
Hundreds Of Hours On The Phone With AT&T Still Haven't Solved My Problem
By Laura Northrup on September 30, 2011 8:00 AM
45 Comments
Gerald would like something very simple: he would like to connect to an FTP server. He knows that it's not completely blacklisted: he can get to it using an AT&T business-class connection. He's even narrowed down precisely what the problem is. He just can't find anyone at the company capable of helping him, and he's found the online help groups to be an utter waste of time. More »
T-Mobile Charges $5 For Every Failed Call From Cruise Ship
By Laura Northrup on September 29, 2011 12:30 PM
44 Comments
Kayla left her phone off and safely stowed away during her Caribbean cruise, where it couldn't run up roaming charges high enough to ruin any vacation. When she learned that there had been a minor earthquake and a hurricane back home, she decided to eat the roaming charges and pay the high per-minute prices to check in with her loved ones. Everyone else on the ship evidently had the same idea, and it was difficult to get a call through. When her bill came, Kayla learned the hard way that T-Mobile, at least, imposes that $4.99 per minute roaming charge on calls that don't complete. More »
This Texas Instruments Calculator Can't Calculate Correctly
By Laura Northrup on September 29, 2011 11:30 AM
102 Comments
There's a basic assumption that consumers have about calculators: that you put numbers in, and the calculator spits answers out. Correct answers. Accurate answers. In the case of the Texas Instruments scientific calculator that John bought recently, he tells Consumerist that this is a false assumption. As false as the answers it gave him for the area of a circle. More »
Jared Sells You Ring Engraved With Someone Else's Wedding Date And Initials
By Laura Northrup on September 29, 2011 10:30 AM
80 Comments
When Eric got married a few weeks ago, his wife put a wedding band on his finger engraved with initials and a wedding date. Only they weren't the initials or wedding date of Eric and his wife. The ring was engraved for another couple who got married the week before, and evidently got their rings from the same Jared store. Er, Galleria of Jewelry. More »
DirecTV DVR Makes Me Watch Ads... But Only For DirecTV
By Laura Northrup on September 29, 2011 9:30 AM
42 Comments
We always knew that the cable companies that rent us our DVRs would eventually find a way to let customers time-shift, but still us all to watch commercials. DirecTV subscriber Dan wonders whether he's alone in being unable to use his 30-second skip button only on his satellite provider's in-house ads. More »
Why Panera's Pay-What-You-Can Restaurant Didn't Work As Well In Portland
losing money. not taking in as much as Panera's similar eateries. More »
By Laura Northrup on September 29, 2011 9:00 AM
170 Comments
Panera Bread's noble experiment in pay-what-you-want retail has been successful at its first two restaurants in St. Louis and Detroit, taking in about 80% of the retail price of the food they serve. They serve as shining reminders of the fundamental goodness of people. In the Midwest, anyway. Until recently, the third free-will restaurant in Portland, Oregon was faltering, not attracting enough paying customers and
Photographers Find Nikon's Facebook Status A Little Insulting
By Laura Northrup on September 29, 2011 8:00 AM
74 Comments
Like all art, photography requires the acquisition of some skills: not just an understanding of what makes a great photograph and a good eye, but also a solid understanding of how equipment works and what it's capable of. Not according to camera maker Nikon, though. The person in charge of the company's Facebook page managed to annoy an awful lot of photographers by implying that better lenses, not skill, is all that you need to take a great photo. More »
Cold Stone Treats Only 'Free' If You Make A Mandatory Donation
By Laura Northrup on September 28, 2011 9:30 AM
130 Comments
There's an annual event at Cold Stone Creamery outlets called the World's Largest Ice Cream Social. Part of the chain's September fund-raising drive for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, it's billed as an event offering free ice cream during a three-hour period on a certain day. Melissa had put this on her calendar weeks in advance, because she's on a budget, and hey: free ice cream! But she arrived at the mall to find employees posted at the Cold Stone door, not allowing anyone in unless they made a donation first. That's not free, that's a cover charge. Isn't it? More »
Ticketmaster Promises To Restore Lost Radiohead Tickets, But Doesn't
By Laura Northrup on September 28, 2011 8:45 AM
44 Comments
Tonight and tomorrow night, Radiohead, a band from England that you may have heard of, is playing two shows at the Roseland Ballroom in New York. The show was announced only a few weeks ago, and tickets went on sale Monday. Through Ticketmaster. Yes, this ends about as well for reader Kelsey as you would expect. More »
(kakissel)
Pay Target.com With PayPal And Return Stuff, Only Get Store Credit
By Laura Northrup on September 28, 2011 7:45 AM
48 Comments
Cora has a warning for the Consumerist community: while you can pay on Target.com using your PayPal account and then return it, it's not necessarily a good idea. You'll get your money back, but it won't be automatically credited back to your PayPal account. Instead, you'll receive the balance on a Target gift card. This can be either frustrating or convenient, depending on the amount of the order and how often you shop at Target. More »
Vizio Claims Repairing Their TVs Isn't Cost-Effective
By Laura Northrup on September 23, 2011 5:00 PM
122 Comments
I love photos of urban decay and reminders of the former functions of old buildings. TV repair shop signs, for some reason, can outlast the businesses they advertise by decades. It's hard to pack a 60" plasma screen in your SUV and take it to the shop. Repairs still happen, especially when they're cheaper than the cost of a replacement TV. But our friends over at HDGuru tell us that the nation's second-largest brand, Vizio, is quick to declare televisions "unrepairable," even when a customer is willing to pay. Even for problems that other manufacturers are able to repair themselves. More »
(lymang)
Three Weeks Without Internet Access: No Hurry From Time Warner, And No Credits
By Laura Northrup on September 23, 2011 4:00 PM
53 Comments
In the six years she's lived in her current apartment, Kate hasn't had any major problems with Time Warner. Now Her Internet access has been out since the beginning of September, despite a modem replacement. They're sort of giving her a whole decade's worth of major problems all in one go. When Kate mentioned that she needs Internet access to look for jobs, one rep helpfully suggested that she change providers. More »
Gold's Closes Your Gym, Traps You In Contract Anyway
By Laura Northrup on September 23, 2011 3:00 PM
74 Comments
There happens to be a Gold's Gym right inside the building where Cynthia works. How convenient! She took her employer up on an offer to subsidize part of her membership, and was happy with the arrangement. Three months later, the building Gold's announced that it was closing. Not to worry, though: Memberships limited to only that location would change so members could visit any local corporate-owned Gold's club. That's pretty standard when a branch of a chain gyms closes, but Cynthia is annoyed that she joined so close to the change and has to pay for a membership she's unlikely to use. Someone must have known that branch was doomed, but would the front-line and sales employees have known? More »
(Scoboco)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on September 23, 2011 2:00 PM
32 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
DirecTV Promises No Extra Fees, Then Charges $10 Monthly Fee
By Laura Northrup on September 23, 2011 1:00 PM
23 Comments
After a recent move, Vincent signed up with DirecTV for his television-beaming needs. A sales representative quoted him a price, then assured him that no, there would be no extra fees on top of that. No one will be surprised at what happened next: a $10 per month HD fee appeared on his monthly bill. The person who originally signed him up refunded the fee and called it an "error." But it didn't go away with his next bill. Or ever. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on September 23, 2011 12:00 PM
209 Comments
- McDonald's Manager Interrupts Attempting Coneing
- A Best Buy Flyer From '96
- Best Buy Employees Test Out Your Phone, Flip You The Bird, Before You Even Enter Store
- Copy "Wedding Crashers" Prank, Get Charged With A Felony
- College Students Are Wasting Money All Over The Place
- Should We Be Concerned That Federal Agents Are Raiding IHOP Restaurants?
Now Proflowers Thinks I Have Two Wives: The Margaret Saga Continues
By Laura Northrup on September 23, 2011 11:04 AM
97 Comments
Last week's post about a baffling and possibly incriminating e-mail solicitation from ProFlowers produced a hilarious comments section and a lot of speculation as to the identity of Margaret, the woman (not his wife) that reader Chris was being encouraged to send more flowers to. We have an update. The good news: Both the offending ProFlowers account and Margaret have been found. The bad news: The couple has no idea who Margaret is, but they have her full name and home address. They still have no idea how Margaret's info ended up in the account in the first place. More »
Cablevision Delivers New, Unfathomably Slow DVR To New Customer
By Laura Northrup on September 23, 2011 10:00 AM
34 Comments
Cloud storage is the way of the future, it seems. But right now, there are some bugs to work out and devices that don't quite work as planned. Todd just had Cablevision installed last week, and he has a new kind of DVR, called DVR+, that has no hard drive and stores his recorded programs remotely. Pro: No large hard drive that will inevitably fail inside the set-top box. Con: This new type of DVR is slow and crappy. More »
Picking Your Own Apples Can Take A Cider Press To Your Wallet
By Laura Northrup on September 22, 2011 5:00 PM
132 Comments
The fall harvest season is here. For some reason, that makes people want to pay large sums of money to go out and pick their own fruit. Delicious. Reader Jennifer wrote in to share her apple-picking experience this past weekend at two different orchards in the Midwest as a cautionary tale. Sometimes the businesses out to mislead you and rip you off aren't monolithic global corporations. They're a farm in the next town over. More »
Consumerist Techniques Pay Off, Even With Dell
By Laura Northrup on September 22, 2011 4:00 PM
54 Comments
When the cooling block of Jeremy's Alienware computer began to leak, the answer was obvious: call Dell to see whether they would fix what was an obvious and pretty terrible flaw. Dell's answer was obvious in turn: tell him that the machine was out of warranty and he should go away. But Jeremy thought that a $2,500 computer shouldn't destroy itself within two years. More »
How To Scam A Free Kindle From An Amazon Seller, In Four Easy Steps
By Laura Northrup on September 22, 2011 3:15 PM
76 Comments
Want a free Kindle? Eric shared this story of how an unscrupulous Amazon Marketplace buyer scored one from his friend through the use of lies and some attempted mail fraud. Here's how the buyer did it. (Disclaimer: Do not actually do this.) More »
NPR's Pet Toxic Asset, 'Toxie,' Could Become A $75,000 Zombie
By Laura Northrup on September 22, 2011 2:00 PM
39 Comments
Back in January 2010, seeking o learn more about the mortgage-backed securities that helped destroy the global economy, the staff of National Public Radio's Planet Money podcast pooled their money and bought part of a mortgage-backed bond. "Toxie" lasted only a few more months, earning $449 for her owners before so few mortgage payments were coming in that she "died." Or at least stopped earning money. More »
My USPS Package Took A California Vacation, Didn't Invite Me Along
By Laura Northrup on September 22, 2011 1:00 PM
50 Comments
Using the U.S. Postal Service's Priority Mail, Justin mailed a gift from his home in New York City to a friend in Georgia. Package tracking meant that he was able to follow the gift's journey and make sure it arrived safely. He was baffled, though, when the tracking information stated that it first traveled out to California for no reason, then made its way back to Georgia, eleven days later than anticipated. Where it was then delivered to the wrong person. In a different town. No one knows where the package actually ended up. More »
Facebook Thinks You Should Stop Making Friends
By Laura Northrup on September 22, 2011 12:00 PM
69 Comments
Kevin has had his Facebook account for quite a few years, but decided to poke around and go on a friending spree to make it easier to make contacts and find a new job. That's how he learned the hard way that while Facebook wants you to connect with people, they don't really want you to connect with so many of them that you look like a spambot. More »
Sprint Changes Contract, Still Won't Let Me Out
By Laura Northrup on September 22, 2011 11:00 AM
62 Comments
Mobile phone companies have to let you out of your contract if they make a materially adverse charge to your contract. That is, if they raise a fee, impose a charge, or change a rule that applies to the contract you are under right now, they have to let you out of your contract without an early termination fee. (Changing the contracts for new customers going forward doesn't count.) If you want out, this is traditionally your chance, even if companies try to put up a fight.. Unless you're reader Mark, a Sprint customer, who Sprint won't set free. But Mark is no ordinary, naive Sprint customer. He not only reads Consumerist, but he worked for Sprint just a few short years ago. He knows how this is supposed to work. More »
Cat Lost In JFK Airport On August 24 Still Missing, Internet Swarms In To Help
By Laura Northrup on September 22, 2011 10:00 AM
47 Comments
Have you seen Jack the cat? According to his Facebook page, he's been on his own in Queens for more than four weeks now. He allegedly disappeared from his carrier in the baggage area of New York's JFK airport on August 24th, as he, his feline brother, and their human were flying to their new home in California. Employees searched for him. Then Hurricane Irene happened. More »
(nrivera)
SiriusXM 'Everything' Plan Does Not, In Fact, Include Everything
By Laura Northrup on September 21, 2011 9:30 AM
61 Comments
If you were signing up for a plan called the "Sirius Everything Plan," don't you think that it would include...well, everything? At least, all of the programming that new car owners get to sample with their trial subscription. When Chris renewed his SiriusXM subscription for his new car, nothing on the paperwork led him to believe that he wasn't selecting a different subscription from what he already had. Yet he did. Because at Sirius, "everything" isn't everything. More »
(sfxeric)
Verizon Takes Away Unlimited Picture And Video Messaging, Point Of $20 Unlimited Prepaid Plan
By Laura Northrup on September 21, 2011 9:00 AM
60 Comments
Sam uses a prepaid Verizon plan that includes unlimited messaging and more expensive voice minutes. But that's okay: "messaging" even includes picture and video messages. What more could the modern mobile phone user ask for? At least, until Verizon changed how the plan works and began charging per recipient of your text messages. More »
(blue_j)
All I Want To Know Is Where HBO Is On My Stupid TV, Cox
By Laura Northrup on September 21, 2011 8:00 AM
83 Comments
Andy is a Cox Cable customer, and an HBO subscriber. When the channel lineup shifted recently, he couldn't find HBO in high definition. The information wasn't online, and the channel wasn't in a logical place. Figuring that someone at Cox must know the answer, he hopped on customer service chat to ask a helpful customer service representative. The rep had him check to see whether the standard definition HBO channels had magically switched to high definition in the five minutes since he had last checked, then demanded Andy's account number, name, address, account PIN, and the last four digits of his Social Security number. To obtain information that used to be on the company's public website. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on September 16, 2011 12:30 PM
302 Comments
- Store Attempts To Dissuade Customers From Trying On Condoms Before Buying
- More College Grads Defaulting On Student Loans
- I Made The Mistake Of Trying To Give Burger King Staff Some Polite Feedback
- Diabetic Walgreens Staffer: I Was Fired For Eating A $1.39 Bag Of Chips Before I Paid For Them
- Macy's Policy Against Breaking Bills Results In Loss of Sale
When Should My Appliance Service Agreement Actually Begin?
By Laura Northrup on September 16, 2011 11:30 AM
50 Comments
When should a new warranty begin? Reader ournextcontestant wonders this after purchasing a service agreement from Sears for a broken dishwasher. The new warranty begins on the day it was purchased, and not on the day that the appliance is put back in working order. Ournextcontestant doesn't like this, believing that Sears is robbing him of valuable days of the warranty. Maybe weeks or months of the warranty, considering how long it takes Sears to actually fix things. More »
I Miss Sunday Ticket Football Games, Get Refund In Sony Online Store Credit
By Laura Northrup on September 16, 2011 10:30 AM
60 Comments
DirecTV's Sunday Ticket To Go is a service for football fans who can't have or don't want a satellite dish bolted to the side of their house. It streams Sunday afternoon out-of-market football games to computers, mobile devices, and as of this week, to the Sony Playstation 3. At $340 for the season, it's not cheap, but football fans love it anyway. The service's Playstation debut on Sunday didn't work all that well for most customers, and didn't work for Edward at all. He called for a refund, which was issued, then canceled. Instead of a refund to his credit card, he and other users will receive a store credit. For $25. To the Playstation Network store. "As if that is somehow comparable!" he fumed to Consumerist. More »
(Sh4rp_i)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on September 16, 2011 9:30 AM
12 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
How Our AT&T U-Verse Outage Lasted 5 Days Longer Than It Should Have
By Laura Northrup on September 16, 2011 9:00 AM
53 Comments
Ron has his AT&T U-Verse cable TV, Internet access, and phone lines working now, but only after spending most of the past week fighting with AT&T. He could have had access back on Saturday, the very first day of the outage, but an AT&T rep told him that sending a tech out to him on a Saturday was impossible. It's not. They shipped a replacement for his malfunctioning gateway out via UPS. It got lost. Ron is frustrated, because he likes U-Verse. When it works. More »
Only Samsung Has The Power To Reinstall Windows On Your Laptop
By Laura Northrup on September 16, 2011 8:30 AM
165 Comments
When the hard drive of Joseph's Samsung laptop began to make clicking noises, he thought it would be simple enough to make a backup image of his hard drive, install a shiny new solid-state drive, and put the backed-up image on his new drive. This didn't work, and he's stuck without Windows on his drive. Now he yearns for those long-ago days when computer manufacturers actually shipped copies of the software installed on computers with those computers. More »
(teksmith)
Which Generation Has The Recession Hurt The Most?
By Laura Northrup on September 15, 2011 5:00 PM
127 Comments
The Great Recession has done terrible things to people of all ages and walks of life, but which generation of Americans have had their futures the more irreparably damaged? The Atlantic lays out the evidence. More »
When You Hard Sell Customers Too Much, They Sort Of Leave
By Laura Northrup on September 15, 2011 4:00 PM
219 Comments
Aggressive sales pitches are a delicate balance between selling customers on what you have to offer and pissing them off so much that they never return. When AMC theaters recently changed their loyalty program from free to paid, employees began to sell memberships too aggressively for AgentG2's taste. He found the experience off-putting enough that he doesn't plan to return to AMC. He wonders: did he overreact? More »
US Postal Service Swaps Box Of Love Letters For Strangers' Mail
By Laura Northrup on September 15, 2011 3:00 PM
72 Comments
David has saved every piece of paper correspondence that he's received from his wife during their entire life together. When shipping most of their possessions during a cross-country move, the box containing all of these cards and letters was damaged, and the contents lost. They were replaced with an awful lot of random items that don't belong to David at all. So where are David's letters? And who are the random people whose mail was stuffed in the box? More »
(Ian.H)
How I Stopped A Jeep Dealership From Ripping Me Off
By Laura Northrup on September 15, 2011 2:00 PM
146 Comments
We can't name the specific Jeep dealership where Andy recently brought his car, but can offer his story as a cautionary tale. His experience confirms what we all secretly fear while speaking to service representatives: anyone who doesn't source their own parts and have their own copy of the service manual is pretty much screwed. More »
Canon Takes Your Working Camera Apart, Won't Send It Back
By Laura Northrup on September 15, 2011 1:00 PM
42 Comments
John had read here on Consumerist dazzling "Above and Beyond" stories about out-of-warranty Canon cameras that the company had fixed for free because of a mechanical defect. He had a camera that was mostly functional, but didn't work in extreme temperatures. He sent the camera in for warranty repair, and learned that it wasn't eligible for a free repair, but they could fix it or send him a refurbished newer model for $170. Too bad. John already has a second camera, though: could they send it back to him? No. Could they apply that same "customer loyalty program" discount to a more expensive model so John could stay with Canon, but upgrade? No. More »
This Craft Store Really Doesn't Trust Its Customers
By Laura Northrup on September 15, 2011 12:00 PM
187 Comments
When A. saw that a local craft store had a "no bags" policy, she assumed that meant that the store didn't allow shopping bags from other stores. No, it refers to purses and other personal bags. It's not a huge hardship to lock one's purse up and carry one's wallet around in order to browse a store, but it is awfully annoying. More »
Blind Taste Test Shows That You Don't Really Prefer Mexican Coke
By Laura Northrup on September 15, 2011 11:00 AM
144 Comments
"What, Consumerist?! Nooo!" I hear you yelling at the screen after reading the title of this post. "I find Mexican Coca-Cola vastly superior. My sweet tooth is too sensitive! My palate is too refined!" That's probably what the participants in a blind taste test for Serious Eats said, too. But tasters didn't prefer the fine, refrescotaste of Mexican Coke. They liked one of two things: American coke poured from a glass bottle (even if they never saw the bottle), or American Coke that they were led to believe was Mexican Coke. More »
Why Does ProFlowers Think I'm Cheating On My Wife?
By Laura Northrup on September 15, 2011 10:00 AM
192 Comments
You can't blame Chris's wife for being confused. She happened to receive a promotional e-mail from Proflowers, addressed to Chris, thanking him for buying a gift for Margaret. Her name is not Margaret. Chris writes that he hasn't sent flowers to anyone named Margaret. Either Chris wrote to Consumerist as part of an incredibly roundabout cover-up of an extramarital affair, or something strange is going on here. More »
New Dilemma For Some Wells Fargo Customers: Keep $7500 In The Bank Or Pay $15 Fee
By Laura Northrup on September 14, 2011 5:07 PM
150 Comments
As banks look for new and exciting sources of revenue, free checking is slowly fading away at the nation's large financial institutions. This week, we heard from several Wells Fargo customers who are annoyed that they'll have to pay $15 per month to keep their current account type if they don't have an average of $7,500 in the bank, across all of their accounts. Is this impossible? No, but it's a drastic change from the old requirements. More »
(matneym)
Ensenda Still Not Doing So Well With The 'Send' Part
By Laura Northrup on September 14, 2011 9:30 AM
40 Comments
Chad just signed up for Amazon Prime, and the only choice for shipping in his area was regional delivery service Ensenda. He happened to be home when the package was expected, and received a text message notification that his package had been delivered. Perhaps it had, but not to Chad's house. More »
Six Flags Saves Dog Left In Car, Then Loses Dog
By Laura Northrup on September 14, 2011 9:00 AM
134 Comments
If you visit California's Six Flags Magic Mountain while vacationing with your dog, it's probably not a good idea to bring your dog with you. Dogs aren't fans of roller coasters... well, that, and and non-service animals aren't allowed inside the park. For this reason, Six Flags provides a free kennel for the pets of guests. One recent visitor to the park was upset after her service dog escaped from the kennel. After all, she had never put the dog there in the first place. She had left her in the car. More »
(andy_57)
AT&T Upgrades Mean No Wireless Service At Home For 6 Months
By Laura Northrup on September 14, 2011 8:00 AM
53 Comments
Colleen is a longtime AT&T Wireless customer. If her account were a person, it would be old enough to drive. She's had no problems until this year, but the problem is a big one: she no longer has service in or anywhere near her home. She didn't move to the side of a remote mountain: she lives in the Atlanta metropolitan area. While AT&T has given her a refund of two months' service for her trouble, they can't tell her when she'll be able to make phone calls from her own house. More »
Charles Schwab Bank Helps You Avoid Overdrafts And Pay Your Bills
By Laura Northrup on September 9, 2011 12:37 PM
25 Comments
When Art received an unexpected e-mail about his account at Schwab Bank, he assumed it was some kind of phishing attempt. Aren't all messages that say "Time Sensitive Information about Your [Bank Name] Bank Account?" But it wasn't. Schwab wanted to let him know that he didn't have the funds to cover an impending auto-debit, and he needed to transfer some cash over. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on September 9, 2011 11:30 AM
103 Comments
- Netflix: Restricting Streams To One Per Account Was A Glitch
- Shell Gas Station Uses Stickers To Prevent Credit Card Skimming
- How Your $19.95 U-Haul Rental Could End Up Costing You $1200
- Dave And Buster's Adds Mystery Service Charge To My Bill
- Guy From Green Day Kicked Off Southwest Because Of Saggy Pants
It Would Be Nice If My Lane Bryant Jeans Lasted Longer Than 2 Months
By Laura Northrup on September 9, 2011 10:30 AM
246 Comments
Andrea is very fond of Right Fit jeans from Lane Bryant. She likes them so much that she wears them until they literally wear out,then goes and buys another pair. Only that's a more expensive plan than it was a few years ago, because Andrea has noticed the quality of the pants that she buys deteriorating over time. She reached a breaking point recently when her jeans, too, reached a breaking point—wearing out this week after being purchased in July. $50 is a lot to pay for pants that only last two months. More »
(BentonJ)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on September 9, 2011 9:30 AM
9 Comments
Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
(Ninja M.)
Sprint Shuts Down Your Phones, Demands $500 Deposit 2 Days After Activation
By Laura Northrup on September 9, 2011 9:00 AM
72 Comments
Peter is a longtime, but not particularly happy Sprint customer. Still, his nephew could get more from Big Yellow than with his previous provider, so the two went to the Sprint store to move his service over. It wasn't unexpected that a young man without much of a credit history would have a limits on his account, but Peter was surprised when Sprint disconnected his nephew's phones and demanded a $500 deposit that they had been assured at the Sprint store wasn't required. More »
Target Won't Take Sealed, Unused Blood Glucose Meter Back
By Laura Northrup on September 9, 2011 8:00 AM
78 Comments
There are two important lessons that we can take away from M's e-mail about trying to return an unopened, unused blood glucose meter to Target. First: never, ever, ever purchase a gift for someone at Target without also giving them the receipt. Consider laminating it, then stapling it to the recipient's forehead. Second: when you receive a marketing call, think critically about who could have sold your name, or whether the entire call might be a scam. More »
(pbm.)
Whatever You Do, Don't Lose Your Saab Key
By Laura Northrup on September 8, 2011 2:15 PM
152 Comments
In 2009, America's General Motors unloaded Swedish-founded Saab on Netherlands-based specialty car maker Spyker Motors. We haven't heard many complaints about the new ownership until now, when Russ wrote in to complain that his car is now undriveable because his Saab dealer is out of key blanks. Worse: Saab is also out of key blanks. More »
Man Arrested At Winn-Dixie With Lobster, Shrimp, And Pork Down His Pants
By Laura Northrup on September 8, 2011 12:45 PM
22 Comments
If you're going to shoplift two lobster tails, two bags of shrimp, and a pork loin from a grocery store, what's the least obvious way to do so? Shove them in your shorts, of course. A MIssissippi man is accused of shoplifting after allegedly doing just that. More »
5 Appointments To Deliver Sears Dishwasher, Still No Dishwasher
By Laura Northrup on September 8, 2011 12:15 PM
42 Comments
When Wesley's dishwasher died, he found himself in a sad and typical modern predicament: it was easier and more cost effective to go and buy a new dishwasher when his broke. So he ordered one from the Sears Outlet. This turned out to be a bad idea, at least if he wanted a dishwasher actually delivered to his house. If you enjoy waiting around for installers to never show up, perhaps Sears is your store. More »
(БРАТСТВО)
Why Does Comcast Keep Telling People My Sister In Oregon Is A TV Repair Business In New England?
By Laura Northrup on September 7, 2011 9:35 AM
40 Comments
Jack's sister was recently assigned a new phone number after moving to a different area. That's not unusual. What is unusual is that she keeps receiving phone calls from people in New England looking for a nonexistent TV repair service. More »
Can You Pass Papa John's Math Test?
By Laura Northrup on September 7, 2011 9:06 AM
89 Comments
When David went to the Papa John's website to order up a pizza, three deals greeted him. This wasn't a pizza-purchasing experience; it was a math test. Can you spot the best deal? More »
(Ben.d.s)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on September 2, 2011 12:30 PM
120 Comments
- Particle Physicist Discovers Fastest Way For Airlines To Board Passengers
- Chicago Sausage Sellers Bicker Over Who's More Original
- Woman Finds She Now Has $180 iWood Instead Of iPad
- North Korean Airline Tells Facebook Users To Like It
- Consumer Reports: Are New LED Lightbulbs As Good As The Inefficient Incandescents?
Government's Customer Service Ratings Improve, Still Not Great
By Laura Northrup on September 2, 2011 11:40 AM
19 Comments
Did you know that President Barack Obama signed an executive order in April that requires federal agencies to improve their customer service? Yeah, me either. But maybe fewer people will want to nominate the federal government as the Worst Company in America in 2012, because a recent survey by federal IT network MeriTalk indicates that the quality of customer service from the government is going up. A little. 31% of respondents said that they were satisfied with government services, up from 24% last year. The highest-rated agencies? The Social Security Administration and the IRS. More »
Best Buy Robocalls You To Upgrade Phone You Didn't Get At Best Buy
By Laura Northrup on September 2, 2011 10:35 AM
57 Comments
Best Buy is a "valued business partner" of Verizon. That's why they handed over their customer list to Best Buy so Big Blue could call up Verizon customers eligible for new phones and encourage them to upgrade. At Best Buy, naturally. This happened to Mary, and she wonders whether anyone out there might have assumed that they had to upgrade at Best Buy. More »
I Decline Credit Card, Brooks Brothers Signs Me Up Anyway
By Laura Northrup on September 2, 2011 9:30 AM
46 Comments
You might think that Brooks Brothers would be a classy establishment. Maybe it is fashion-wise, but Not when it comes to meeting quotas for signing customers up for credit cards, apparently. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on September 2, 2011 9:00 AM
17 Comments
Here are thirteen of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Sears Repair Stands Customer Up 4 Times, Delays Repair 7 Weeks
By Laura Northrup on September 2, 2011 8:05 AM
63 Comments
It seemed to a California woman that spending a few hundred extra bucks on an extended warranty for her Sears washing machine was a good investment. And with a newborn in the house, the ability to summon a repairman with a phone call for no out-of-pocket cost. That's true: assuming they show up and actually repair the appliance. Local Sears employees instead dismantled the machine, ordered parts, and then proceeded to stand her up four times, leaving the family without a working washer for seven weeks. More »
Why Did This Deal Voucher Company Abruptly Shut Down?
By Laura Northrup on September 1, 2011 9:00 AM
30 Comments
Startups like Groupon and LivingSocial get all of the attention these days in the deal-certificate market, but Utah-based CityDeal predated deal-a-day sites and sold discount vouchers for all sorts of businesses in the western US. Until the company abruptly shut down yesterday, leaving merchants and customers alike confused and possibly screwed over. More »
Is This Flower Arrangement Worth $200?
By Laura Northrup on September 1, 2011 8:00 AM
116 Comments
After a coworker's mother passed away, J's officemates chipped in to buy a very large, very pretty flower arrangement for the viewing. It cost around $200. While delivery and overhead are substantial in the flower industry, they didn't expect to find that this pitiful thing had been sent in place of the massive arrangement they ordered. More »
(TLFagan)
AT&T Robocalls You, Has No Idea Why
By Laura Northrup on August 31, 2011 9:30 AM
17 Comments
When you get robocalls from your wireless carrier telling you to call customer service regarding your account, and the calls aren't a scam, someone at customer service should know what the hell the robocalls were about. Not necessarily. This week, some mysterious force within the AT&T customer service system was desperate to get in touch with Rohit, but no one could tell him why. More »
(erikg)
eBay Asks New Seller To Shell Out For Shipping
By Laura Northrup on August 31, 2011 9:00 AM
81 Comments
Jamali is a longtime eBay seller, but his wife isn't. So he was shocked when his wife went to sell something on her account, and was asked to pay for the shipping ($21) out of pocket while PayPal held on to the money until the transaction was over. Normal auction practice has the buyer send money to the seller, and then the seller ships the item. The buyer can file a chargeback if the item is not as described, never arrives, or if the buyer is a jerk. More »
T-Mobile Keeps Replacing Defective Phone With More Defective Phones
By Laura Northrup on August 31, 2011 8:00 AM
26 Comments
Some months ago, Elliot upgraded the phone on his T-Mobile plan. He chose the Motorola Defy, which turned out to be a poor choice. At least, it was for Elliot, who enjoys having a phone that actually works. T-Mobile has cast him into smartphone replacement purgatory, where he will be stuck until he gives up and changes carriers, or his warranty expires and he pays for a new phone. More »
(Kimaroo)
If You Don't 'Look' Disabled, Expect Shoddy Treatment From Delta
By Laura Northrup on August 30, 2011 10:45 AM
256 Comments
Alauna is disabled, unable to walk or stand for long periods of time. But she's in her 20s and there is nothing obviously physically wrong with her at first glance. This meant that her requests for assistance during her recent Delta flight delay nightmare were met with resistance or eye-rolling. More »
Verizon Takes Away FTP Access, Charges For It
By Laura Northrup on August 26, 2011 5:00 PM
101 Comments
Star commenter GitEmSteveDave contacted me this morning with a relatively minor but still irritating problem: he didn't have FTP access to his webspace anymore. While all customers with Verizon as their Internet service provider have a small amount of storage space to put an entire web page or just a few files online, they can now only access that space through a web-based site-builder tool. The change is supposedly for "security" reasons, but somehow security is no longer a concern if you pay Verizon an extra six bucks per month. More »
14 Borders Stores To Be Reborn As Books-A-Million
By Laura Northrup on August 26, 2011 4:00 PM
64 Comments
Loyal customers of some Borders stores in the Northeast and Midwest, rejoice: you may not have to go long without a book superstore once Borders closes. According to bankruptcy court documents filed yesterday, Alabama-based chain Books-A-Million has agreed to take over the leases for 14 Borders outlets, mostly in the Northeast. A previous proposal for BAM (best store acronym ever) to take over 30 Borders leases fell through. More »
PayPal: You Owe Us $38.41 From 2004 Because We Say So
By Laura Northrup on August 26, 2011 3:01 PM
77 Comments
Did you know that there's a seven-year time limit on PayPal chargebacks? Yeah, neither did we, and neither did Dan. He still had to fork over $38.41 owed to PayPal from an an unknown account belonging to him, even though he didn't recognize it. What? More »
OpenTable Rewards Loyalty, Refunds Loyalty Points After Coupon Expires
By Laura Northrup on August 26, 2011 2:15 PM
16 Comments
As a frequent user of online reservation service OpenTable, Ben's girlfriend had earned a fair number of loyalty points. She turned these in for a $50 voucher, which she promptly forgot to use. Oh, well, her loss, right? Not exactly. More »
(amanjo)
Attempt Credit Card Balance Transfer, Wells Fargo Cancels Your Account
By Laura Northrup on August 26, 2011 1:01 PM
40 Comments
Howie had a Wachovia credit card, which is now a Wells Fargo card. After a barrage of balance transfer solicitations, he called them up to move some debt from another card over to Wells Fargo. The bank's response? They promptly canceled his credit card. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on August 26, 2011 12:00 PM
126 Comments
- Walmart Is Dying Because Its Business Model Is Strangling Itself
- Passenger: United Cabin Crew Thinks Books About Old Airplanes Signify A Security Threat
- Mother Of 10: Kroger Manager Refused To Take My Mountain Of Coupons
- Report Your iPhone Stolen, Get A Visit From The FedEx Thugs
- I Fought A Sleazy Towing Company And Won
(stirwise)
New ADT Sales Tactic: Cold-Call People, Frighten Them
By Laura Northrup on August 26, 2011 11:00 AM
92 Comments
An ADT salesman had devised (or was at least using) a brilliant tactic: cold-call people and ask them how their ADT systems were working. If they said, "I don't have ADT," try to sell them one. What a great idea! How could it possibly go wrong? I mean, other than making people believe that they've just been cold-called by a burglar looking for alarm-less homes. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on August 26, 2011 10:00 AM
10 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
(andy_57)
How It Took 2.5 Hours To Stay With AT&T After My Move
By Laura Northrup on August 25, 2011 5:00 PM
17 Comments
What Y. wanted was simple enough: to remain an AT&T U-Verse customer while moving from one apartment to another within the same complex. Somehow, this process took two and a half hours of navigating the customer service maze after someone typed the wrong apartment number on his service order. The individual customer service representatives weren't the problem. AT&T's system was. More »
Flashback To 1985: Consumer Reports Reviews The Original Macintosh
By Laura Northrup on August 25, 2011 4:00 PM
80 Comments
Reflecting on Steve Jobs' abrupt departure from the CEO position at Apple yesterday, our elder siblings at Consumer Reports reminisced about iconic products of the Jobs era. They reached back into the archives and found the January 1985 review of the original Macintosh: "Is this the computer you already know how to use?" asked the headline. Maybe. While the operating system then seemed like "a dazzling display of technical wizardry," they deemed the Atari 800XL a better choice for writing long(ish) documents. More »
Don't Send Your Third Party Checks To Schwab Bank
By Laura Northrup on August 25, 2011 3:00 PM
49 Comments
Overall, customers seem pretty happy with checking accounts from Charles Schwab Bank: especially the part where you can deposit checks by mobile phone and have your ATM fees refunded. Dan came across a situation where online-only banking is not superior, though: when you need to deposit a third-party check. That is, a check made out to someone else, but endorsed over to the account holder. More »
Kaplan University Demands $3,310.56 After Graduation, Can't Explain What For
By Laura Northrup on August 25, 2011 2:15 PM
86 Comments
Melinda has an MBA from Kaplan University, and has enough business sense to know that she shouldn't have to pay debts that aren't hers in the first place. The for-profit college, part of the Washington Post Company, has decided that she owes them more than $3,000 even though her tuition was long ago paid with federal financial aid. No one can show her a detailed breakdown of the bill, or explain why no one noticed that she owed the money until months after graduation. Update: Kaplan has since resolved Melinda's problem. More »
Verizon Tech Support: Make Your Smartphone Stupider So It'll Work
By Laura Northrup on August 25, 2011 1:05 PM
68 Comments
Last fall, David upgraded his Verizon Wireless phone to the Samsung Fascinate, That's a decently powerful Android smartphone with a decent processor and the ability to run all sorts of online apps. You wouldn't know that if you were David, though. Even his warranty replacement phone is appears to be having software problems that make it unusable unless he uses it just for phone calls and texts, disabling everything else. That's what Verizon support has advised him to do. Because that's what people buy Android smartphones for. More »
Locked In A Greyhound Bathroom For More Than An Hour
By Laura Northrup on August 25, 2011 12:09 PM
46 Comments
What's worse than using the bathroom on a bus? Getting locked in there for an hour and a half. Barbara's mother decided to use facilities half an hour before her bus was due at its destination, but miscommunication meant that a mechanic was never summoned, and she remained trapped for an hour and fifteen minutes. More »
Wells Fargo And Visa Take A Month To Refund $400 Gift Card Error
By Laura Northrup on August 25, 2011 11:05 AM
50 Comments
It's a pretty simple error; easy enough to make. When Todd asked for a $100 Visa gift card at Wells Fargo, the teller misheard "for a hundred" as "four hundred." $400 was promptly taken out of his bank account and placed on the card, and Todd was never asked to authorize the amount in writing. It was only when he checked the receipt after leaving the bank that he found the error. He set off to get his money put back into his account, but it wasn't so simple even just minutes after the transaction. Adding a credit card company into the mix adds a new and exciting level of bureaucracy when dealing with a large bank. More »
Toshiba Considers Using Your Laptop Mouse 'Abuse'
By Laura Northrup on August 24, 2011 5:03 PM
73 Comments
Even though his Toshiba laptop is less than a year old, Toshiba won't repair the touchpad of Justin's computer. He doesn't think that he's done anything out of the ordinary with the machine, but Toshiba insists that the button won't work because of "accident, misuse, abuse, neglect, improper installation, or improper maintenance." They're happy to sell him an extended warranty that will cover the repair, though. More »
I Fought A Sleazy Towing Company And Won
By Laura Northrup on August 24, 2011 4:03 PM
160 Comments
The bad news was that Anne's car was illegally towed from the parking lot of her friend's apartment complex while she was visiting him. The good news: this friend is a lawyer, who researched the situation and determined precisely why the tow was illegal. More »
Lost Bull Semen Spill Shuts Down Interstate Ramp
By Laura Northrup on August 24, 2011 3:05 PM
53 Comments
Greyhound doesn't just transport people across the continent: it transports cargo, too. Yesterday morning, strange canisters that smelled bad and gave off steam fell off a bus in Nashville, confusing emergency services. Were they bombs? Alien probes? No, containers of liquid nitrogen filled with bull semen bound for a cattle breeding facility in Texas. More »
For USPS, 'Do Not Bend' Means 'Fold Law School Diploma In Half'
By Laura Northrup on August 24, 2011 2:05 PM
150 Comments
Even on days when the only thing in my mailbox is a renewal notice for a magazine I never subscribed to in the first place, the United States Postal service is a fantastic value for the money. But then, I didn't have the same experience as Tony, where his forwarding order was ignored, and a very, very expensive piece of paper smushed into a small mailbox. More »
My iPad Has An Evil Twin
By Laura Northrup on August 24, 2011 1:00 PM
22 Comments
Kimberly and her Verizon Pad 2 didn't know it, but her tablet has an evil twin lurking somewhere in the country. It lurked, waiting to steal her iPad's identity and rob it of its network connectivity. Who created this horrible monster? Er... Verizon Wireless. More »
Silly Reader Thinks Appliances Should Last Longer Than A Year And A Half
By Laura Northrup on August 24, 2011 12:00 PM
69 Comments
Maura has figured out what the "cares" in "Sears cares" actually stands for: "customers are reliable suckers." That was the subject line of the e-mail she sent us about the experience she's had trying to get her Kenmore washing machine fixed. Her washing machine that is what we once would have called "new," is broken at only a year and a half old. More »
AT&T Employees Claim: Idle Company Truck To Run A/C, Get Fired
By Laura Northrup on August 24, 2011 11:15 AM
82 Comments
Maybe they're just more concerned about pollution than about workers' comfort. TV station KPRC investigated claims from AT&T installation technicians that they've been told that they can't sit in their idling trucks and run the air conditioning to cool off for amounts of time that the company deems "excessive," even when they've been crawling around in attics in the Houston summer heat. More »
I Would Like To Use My Year-Old Electrolux Stove To Cook Some Meals
By Laura Northrup on August 24, 2011 10:00 AM
52 Comments
Electrolux seems to think that Bridgette wants something completely unreasonable. What she would like is for her sleek stainless steel Electrolux range, an induction stove and oven that she paid more than $3,300 for less than a year ago, to heat up and cook food on a regular basis. It doesn't. The burners stop working, for weeks on end, seemingly at random. She didn't drop more than three grand on a stove so she could end up using a hot plate in her own home. More »
Groupon Refunds Me Extra $20, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on August 23, 2011 5:00 PM
36 Comments
Kairho probably shouldn't complain. After a local business that had run a Groupon promotion went out of business, he had one of three $10 vouchers remaining. When he contacted Groupon about the closed business, he received the entire $30 back as a refund. Was it a mistake? No, Groupon explained: they don't keep track of which vouchers you've actually used, so refunds are on the honor system. More »
Verizon FiOS Won't Stop Billing Me For Phantom Cable Boxes
By Laura Northrup on August 23, 2011 4:00 PM
34 Comments
Heath exchanged his two Verizon FiOS set-top boxes for two shiny new ones, but Verizon was unable to let go. They just couldn't get the idea through their billing system that Heath has two boxes now, not four. So they kept billing Heath for all four, until he gave up and got rid of FiOS entirely. Now they're trying to get him to pay $900 for the boxes that he already returned in January, even though he's provided them with the equipment return paperwork. More »
Con Ed Piles On Late Fees, Won't Accept My Bill Payment
By Laura Northrup on August 23, 2011 3:05 PM
103 Comments
Shay's last Con Edison bill keeps going up due to late fees. "So pay the bill!" you might say. Well, he'd really like to, but the company won't let him pay online, as he always has. More »
Touchpad Seekers Flood Barnes & Noble Phone Lines During Textbook Season
By Laura Northrup on August 23, 2011 2:06 PM
35 Comments
James ordered his law school books for the semester from Barnes & Noble, and an issue that would only be a tiny hiccup under normal circumstances is now holding the whole darn thing up. That's because customer service lines are so flooded with customers calling about their HP Touchpad orders that he can't even get through. More »
Vizio Takes Advertising Broken Amazon Streaming Very Seriously
By Laura Northrup on August 23, 2011 1:04 PM
47 Comments
Perhaps it was naive of Josh to assume that his Vizio Blu-Ray player came with free Amazon.com video streaming. It's listed as a feature of the player, Amazon is one of Vizio's "Internet apps," and the Amazon logo is featured on the product box and on Vizio's site for the product. All that doesn't mean that Amazon streaming actually works, though. More »
After $700 Spent And 2 Months Waiting, I Kind Of Expected To Have My Glasses By Now
By Laura Northrup on August 23, 2011 12:00 PM
70 Comments
Where are Joseph's glasses? He's been waiting for more than two months for the high-index specs he ordered to show up. Normally, this process takes less than a week. When he contacts Lenscrafters, he's shuffled around, given excuses, or actually hung up on: not appropriate treatment for someone who has just dropped $700 in your store. More »
(SA_Steve)
Getting The Hotel Bed You Ask For Is Only For The Elite At Hyatt
By Laura Northrup on August 23, 2011 11:00 AM
86 Comments
When Rosalie and her husband reserved a room at a Hyatt Place hotel, they thought that by requesting two queen-size beds, they were reserving two queen-size beds. This is not so: they were requesting two queen-size beds, and the couple learned this the hard way. This wasn't just a case of travel preferences and first world problems: Rosalie suffers from severe back problems, and needs a nice, immobile bed to herself in order to prevent Even More Pain. More »
(capsun)
Adventures In Ordering A Clearanced HP TouchPad
By Laura Northrup on August 23, 2011 10:00 AM
107 Comments
RIP, HP TouchPad. A long time ago—well, about three months ago—HP claimed that their WebOS-based tablet would be the greatest on the market. Now, our tipline is buzzing with customers clamoring to get their hands on a TouchPad tablet: not because it's a hot tech toy, but because the product's being discontinued, and retailers dumping them for $100 or $150 depending on storage capacity. More »
DirecTV Sees Your Father's Death As Sales Opportunity
By Laura Northrup on August 22, 2011 5:04 PM
45 Comments
Carl's father had DirecTV service at the time that he passed away, and Carl called them up to cancel the account while settling the estate. The satellite provider chose to see his father's death as a retention opportunity, using emotional appeals to try to get Carl to take over his father's service at his own home. Carl was not pleased. More »
SiriusXM Drops BBC Radio 1, Picks Up Customer Ire
By Laura Northrup on August 22, 2011 4:00 PM
53 Comments
Sometimes, a group of organized and determined customers working together can affect change and make a company see things from their point of view. For North American customers annoyed that SiriusXM abruptly dropped BBC Radio 1, that tactic isn't working. But hey, at least the outcry got SiriusXM to put BBC Radio 1 back on the PC streaming lineup. Which would be meaningful if the BBC didn't already provide free streaming access to the station. More »
Philips Recalls 1.86 Million Potentially Plummeting Compact Fluorescent Flood Lamps
By Laura Northrup on August 22, 2011 3:04 PM
49 Comments
Philips and the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a few weeks ago the recall of about 1.86 million compact fluorescent floodlamps sold under the EnergySaver and Marathon brands between 2007 and 2010. The reflector around the lamp can come unglued, shattering on the ground or floor. This actually happened to a Consumerist reader, who sent in photos of the glass-shard carnage. More »
How It Took 15 Hours To Use My $309 Virgin America Credit Through Expedia
By Laura Northrup on August 22, 2011 2:03 PM
20 Comments
It's wonderfully easy to book a flight using travel mega-sites like Expedia, but even easier for the buck to be passed and companies to refuse to communicate when things go wrong. That's what happened to Sara when she had to cancel and rebook a flight reservation originally made on Virgin America via Expedia. More »
Radio Shack's Hassle-Free Replacement Plan Full Of Hassles, Doesn't Replace Item
By Laura Northrup on August 22, 2011 1:02 PM
57 Comments
While buying headsets at Radio Shack,Orlando let himself be talked into buying the Shack's replacement plan for the item. There's no hassle to using the plan, the salesperson assured him, but he probably should have realized that there is no such thing as "no hassle" at Radio Shack. While the plan replaced a broken headset, there was plenty of hassle, and the plan didn't fully replace the item. More »
Line Your Samsung Oven With Aluminum Foil, Void Your Warranty
By Laura Northrup on August 22, 2011 12:00 PM
290 Comments
Do you line your oven with foil? Rae does. She always has, and her parents always have. It's such a normal thing to do with an oven, it didn't occur to Rae not to do it. She lined her oven with foil, then popped a frozen pizza in there on the first night after it was delivered. The foil melted the interior oven surface, and now Samsung tells Rae and her husband that they've voided the warranty. More »
Verizon Wireless Employee Closes Sale By Forging My Signature
By Laura Northrup on August 22, 2011 11:00 AM
110 Comments
Brandon probably should have known better, but the purchase of a wireless plan upgrade and some smartphones is pretty straightforward. So he thought. He tells Consumerist that when the point-of-sale system said that he should be receiving a paper copy of the contract he was signing, but the salesperson wouldn't hand it over until he signed. Then the salesperson reached over and "signed" for Brandon. Problem...not exactly solved. More »
Oscar Mayer Wienermobile Crashes Wedding
By Laura Northrup on August 22, 2011 10:00 AM
35 Comments
Rolling advertisement that it is, the driver of an Oscar Mayer Wienermoble couldn't resist stopping by an upstate New York wedding this past weekend, delighting the wedding party and guests and providing a delightful photo opportunity. More »
Subway Ad Serves Up Birdbaths Of Hamburger Grease And Hypocrisy
By Laura Northrup on August 19, 2011 5:00 PM
121 Comments
Subway's "Eat Fresh" campaign is all very well and good, but fast food is fast food. Sure, you can order a six-inch turkey sub loaded with vegetables and no cheese or mayo with a side of apple slices. Or you can get a footlong tuna salad sub that has more fat than a Big Mac and fries. Which do most customers choose? Yet Subway's latest ad slams burger chains for the unhealthiness of their food, showing kiddie pools full of burger grease. More »
Report Your iPhone Stolen, Get A Visit From The FedEx Thugs
By Laura Northrup on August 19, 2011 4:00 PM
160 Comments
Apple shipped Dianna's iPhone via FedEx to her apartment, but an unknown neighbor signed for it, and the phone never reached Dianna. She filed a police report on the missing phone, which earned her an early-morning visit from three men she calls FedEx's "thugs." More »
Sometimes, It's Cheaper To Pay Shipping Than To Drive To The Store
By Laura Northrup on August 19, 2011 3:05 PM
77 Comments
It may seem like you're saving money when you climb in your car to pick something up at the store, or use free site-to-store shipping. But when you take into account the total cost of owning and driving a car, sometimes ordering the item at home without leaving the couch is more economical, even if you do have to pay shipping. How does that work? More »
How Should Banks Notify Paperless Statement Customers Of Changes?
By Laura Northrup on August 19, 2011 2:05 PM
82 Comments
When a growing number of bank customers go paperless and statement-free, is notifying them of new fees or policy changes only on their statements enough? Becky doesn't think so. She's annoyed that Key Bank instituted a $9 per month fee on some accounts recently, but only announced it on the statements that, thanks to online banking, she has no reason to pay attention to. More »
(anieto2k)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on August 19, 2011 1:00 PM
11 Comments
Here are thirteen of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on August 19, 2011 12:00 PM
124 Comments
- Starbucks Shuts Down Jonathan's Card Over Fraud Concerns
- Farmers Insurance 'Totals' Dog After Car Accident
- Pizza Place Learns To Not Call Customer "Dumbass" On Twitter
- Insulting Restaurant Staff On Twitter While You're Still In The Restaurant Might Get You Kicked Out Of Restaurant
- Government Wants Organic Small-Batch Ice Cream Maker To Stop Making Organic Small-Batch Ice Cream Man Finds Camera Hidden In Starbucks Bathroom, Doesn't Even Get A Free Coffee For It
This Is What Happens When You Put Ivory Soap In The Microwave
By Laura Northrup on August 19, 2011 11:00 AM
62 Comments
We're not sure who first thought it would be fun to zap Ivory soap in the microwave, but it looks really fun. The famed air pockets fill with steam, forming a massive soapsplosion. Frequent photo contributor Ecstatic Mark snapped this picture of the result when he nuked a small chunk of soap, about the size of the one on the left. If you don't have both Ivory and a microwave handy, you may be wondering what that looks like while it's microwaving. Wonder no more. More »
Updated Post: Netflix's Post-Price Hike Messages For Gift Subscription Customers Are Confusing
Nope. From Netflix's point of view, the gift giver didn't pay for a fixed number of months for the couple—he prepaid a certain amount of money, and the length of their subscription was readjusted once the price went up. Amanda got some clarification from Netflix on this issue. Her prepaid subscription is being left just as it is. More »
By Laura Northrup on August 19, 2011 10:00 AM
126 Comments
Amanda and her husband found the news that Netflix was un-bundling DVD and streaming video packages and raising prices disappointing, as did most other customers. They figured that they didn't have to worry about canceling or changing their subscription until early 2012, though, because they had received a one-year subscription as a gift. Twelve prepaid months is twelve prepaid months, right? 
(iPablosu)
Get Your Free Xbox 360 From Dell For Only $100
By Laura Northrup on August 18, 2011 12:30 PM
39 Comments
It was probably a glitch and not a nefarious plot on Dell's part, but Chris found it odd when he tried to take advantage of Microsoft's back-to-school promo where a free Xbox comes with certain Windows laptops. Dell's site kept showing that adding on the free Xbox promo made his total $100 higher than with just the computer. Huh? More »
(zegolf)
Amazon Super Saver Shipping No Longer Available In US Territories
By Laura Northrup on August 18, 2011 11:30 AM
72 Comments
Bad news for regular Amazon.com shoppers who live in United States territories: the online retail behemoth now limits their free Super Saver shipping to only residents of the fifty states. Reader Barbara in Puerto Rico wonders why this is. "They ship all their stuff through USPS anyway," she points out, "so the postage difference is zero!" More »
Grocery Shrink Ray Zaps Nate's Meatless Balls
By Laura Northrup on August 18, 2011 10:35 AM
37 Comments
I always found Nate's brand of meatless meatballs (or: balls) to be the best-tasting vegetarian substitute around, and better than most frozen meatballs on the market. Michael is a fan, too. At Whole Foods recently, he noticed that the package had changed, and the amount inside. But not the price. More »
Caught In A Never-Ending Torrent Of Political Spam
By Laura Northrup on August 18, 2011 9:30 AM
124 Comments
Somehow, a political group Jeff happens to disagree with got hold of his e-mail address, and started sending him junk mail. Then another got his address. And another. He's not sure how he got on the lists, but he wants right-wing groups to stop sending him stuff and sharing his e-mail address with each other. How? More »
Hey, Where Are The Chocolate Chips In My Klondike Bar?
By Laura Northrup on August 18, 2011 9:00 AM
64 Comments
There's a new flavor of Klondike Bar on the block: mint chocolate chip. That's wonderful news for fans of mint chocolate chip ice cream, but also slightly confusing. Because there aren't actually any chocolate chips in the bars, even though they're pictured on the package and their ingredients listed on the product's ingredients list. Where did they go? More »
Carnival Cruise Becomes Vacation Nightmare
By Laura Northrup on August 18, 2011 8:00 AM
187 Comments
Jennifer and her husband went on a cruise for their vacation last month, but it wasn't all that relaxing. They ended up less healthy and more stressed at the end of the vacation than at the beginning. It began with an asthma attack-inducing smoke-filled stateroom, and somehow actually got worse from there. Worse how? There was the food poisoning, accidentally being double charged for everything, and a ship employee who was almost comically insensitive to the fact that Jennifer uses a wheelchair. More »
Farmers Insurance 'Totals' Dog After Car Accident
By Laura Northrup on August 17, 2011 9:00 AM
129 Comments
Sasha, a 9-year-old Lab mix in Colorado, was hit by a minivan while walking her human last week. She survived the accident with damage to her liver, lungs, and diaphragm that may require surgery. While her person clearly considers her a family member, the law and the driver's insurance company see things differently. Injuries to dogs are property damage, and the company "totaled" out the dog. They did not haul her off to a dog junkyard to be used for parts. More »
Starbucks Shuts Down Jonathan's Card Over Fraud Concerns
By Laura Northrup on August 15, 2011 3:06 PM
62 Comments
The Jonathan's Card social experiment is over. The experiment proved that someone will always come along and ruin anything that's fun. Since July, the entire world has shared one Starbucks stored-value payment and rewards card, which originally belonged to a guy named Jonathan. People from all over bought coffees using the card, sneaked part of its balance over to their own cards, refilled the card, and followed the card's fortunes on Twitter. It's all over now: Starbucks deactivated the card on Friday evening over fraud concerns. Specifically, an automated script that steals from the card. More »
Government Wants Organic Small-Batch Ice Cream Maker To Stop Making Organic Small-Batch Ice Cream
By Laura Northrup on August 15, 2011 2:01 PM
175 Comments
Nice Cream is a small ice cream company in Chicago that does something strange and daring in the modern food landscape: they make and sell ice cream using only ingredients with names that ordinary people can pronounce. Ingredients such as "cream," "eggs," and "pie." The tiny company was a classic recession success story: a laid-off teacher experiments at home with her Cuisinart ice cream maker, and with hard work and creativity creates a delicious product that's eventually sold at Whole Foods. But the state of Illinois doesn't really see it that way, and Nice Cream will have to shut down or make drastic changes to its products and process in order to stay legal. They're first, and other small-batch ice cream makers could be next. More »
This Is Why You Should Save Your Electronics Receipts
By Laura Northrup on August 15, 2011 1:05 PM
60 Comments
This might be confusing, but yes, we are posting about Monster Cable, but not about them suing someone with the audacity to call their unrelated product "Monster." Instead, a Monster Cable product is involved in a cautionary tale about buying electronics from a third party with no receipt. Will bought a sealed set of Beats by Dr. Dre Touring Headphones from someone on Craigslist, who claimed to have received them as a gift and didn't have the receipt. (The item retails for about $180.) The amazing deal turned out to be slightly less amazing when the earbuds turned out to be defective, and Monster replaced them with...another defective set. Sometimes, you're better off paying retail. More »
(Dan_DC)
Jos. A. Bank Puts Item On 'Clearance' By Raising Price
By Laura Northrup on August 15, 2011 12:07 PM
33 Comments
Sharon followed a link from our daily "Morning Deals" post to clothing retailer Jos. A. Bank to check out the "clearance" section. There was a coupon code for an additional 25% off clearance items, but apparently not all clearance sales are created equal. More »
Get Your Christmas Creep Gift Cards At Sam's Club
By Laura Northrup on August 15, 2011 10:00 AM
20 Comments
If you're planning to give a Sam's Club gift card to someone you care about (or someone to whom you're obligated to give a gift) this winter gift-giving season, Sam's Club has you covered. Now. In mid-August. "It's going to be over 100 degrees outside ALL WEEK..and has been the past 2-3 weeks," writes Joel, the blogger who noticed these cards at his local Sam's. "100 degree heat, drought, and Christmas Gift cards. Go Texas?" More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on August 12, 2011 12:30 PM
111 Comments
- Man With Breast Cancer Can't Get Medicaid Coverage Because He's A Man
- Want A Starbucks? Use Jonathan's Card
- Signs You're About To Be Laid Off
- The Daily Show: Couple "Forecloses" On Bank Of America
- Macy's Admits It's Totally Peeping On You In The Fitting Room
- Stupid Things People Do With Credit Cards
(uconnn)
Price Chopper's Ice Cream Is Always A Full Half-Gallon, Except When It Isn't
By Laura Northrup on August 12, 2011 11:30 AM
47 Comments
Northeastern grocery chain Price Chopper is one of the few companies around that still sells a full half-gallon of ice cream. None of this 1.75 or 1.5 quart shrink-rayed nonsense that you find at their competition, but a proper half gallon. You can't blame them for bragging about this in stores and in their advertising materials. But Scott discovered where all of this bragging falls apart: Extreme Moose Tracks, which has a slightly smaller container than other flavors. Harbinger of shrinkage to come? Not quite. When he contacted Price Chopper, they explained that there's a little less ice cream in that flavor's container because of the amount of candy included. Guess it's too extreme. More »
(mbeldyk)
Wendy's: Where $1.39 Is 99 Cents
By Laura Northrup on August 12, 2011 10:50 AM
81 Comments
Adam doesn't ask for much. He just wants to be able to walk into his local Wendy's and buy Value Menu items for the 99 cents that the chain advertises nationwide. This dream eludes him, though, because all of the restaurants in his area charge $1.39 for the 99-cent menu items. Sure, it's still cheap, but that doesn't mean it doesn't bother him. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on August 12, 2011 9:30 AM
4 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
For Some Reason, The 'Bacon-Egger' Egg Salad Sandwich Never Caught On
By Laura Northrup on August 12, 2011 9:00 AM
49 Comments
One dish conspicuously missing from our modern bacon-crazed menus is the "Bacon-Egger." What's that, you say? Not a breakfast item, as it is at some establishments, but a sandwich. An open-faced egg salad sandwich with strips of bacon, olives, and celery. Featured in a 1965 7-Up ad, it apparently goes well with a bottle of 7-Up. Or, to translate that into ad copy, the soda's "frisky taste and lively sparkle give every bite 'first bite' excitement!" More »
UPS Won't Leave Packages At My Apartment - What Can I Do?
By Laura Northrup on August 12, 2011 8:00 AM
139 Comments
Emmy and her partner shop online a lot, and they're also not home much during the day. Historically this hasn't been a problem: UPS leaves an InfoNotice on the door of their four-unit apartment building, then returns the next day and leaves the package. After a management change, the delivery policy to Emmy's neighborhood changed, too: they would have to fetch their packages from the depot ten miles away or have all packages delivered to Emmy's work. They don't like either option, but what else can they do? More »
Costco's Lifetime Return Policy Only Applies To Actual Members
By Laura Northrup on August 11, 2011 4:35 PM
121 Comments
When one of the suitcases from Jon's decade-old Kirkland (Costco house brand) luggage set broke, he didn't fret. Why, Costco has one of the greatest return policies in the world! Maybe in the universe! When he attempted to bring the item back, though, he learned the hard way that the famed warranty only applies to the original member who bought the item. Which can be a little awkward when the item was a gift. More »
Drunken JetBlue Passenger Urinates On 11-Year-Old Girl
By Laura Northrup on August 11, 2011 3:33 PM
135 Comments
If you don't like air travel, one way to prepare for a five-and-a-half hour flight is to consume an alcoholic beverage or two. Or eight. But plan ahead, and make sure to use the bathroom before the situation becomes dire and you have to relieve yourself in the cabin without noticing that a child's leg is in your jetstream. More »
CitiFinancial Finally Lets Loan Die, Then Sues You
By Laura Northrup on August 11, 2011 2:35 PM
49 Comments
When we last heard from reader Jeff, he was doing battle with CitiFinancial over a loan that refused to die, stuck with a $1 balance that he had been told not to bother paying because the loan was paid in full. Citi then turned around and reported him to credit bureaus as delinquent for not paying the dollar that he had been instructed not to pay. He disputed the ding on his credit report, and heard back from Citi that the debt has been resolved. Then he learned that Citi has filed a judgment against him in Baltimore. For $1. More »
Warning: Cell Phone Coverage Map May Not Reflect Reality
By Laura Northrup on August 11, 2011 1:34 PM
25 Comments
Like many of its fellow regional wireless carriers, Cricket has a relatively small coverage area, and then roaming agreements with other carriers so their customers can make calls more or less nationwide. If you don't live within that native coverage area, you can't sign up for service with that particular company. Thom's dad thought that he lived in Cricket's coverage area, what with the area where he lives being shaded on one of their maps. But it isn't so. More »
Woman Banned From Abercrombie & Fitch For Excessive Purchases
By Laura Northrup on August 11, 2011 12:35 PM
148 Comments
What happens when you're a huge fan of Abercrombie & Fitch, spending at least a thousand dollars there per year, but don't have a retail store nearby? Why, you shop online, then get banned from making any more purchases from them. Of course. Wait, what? More »
Ken's Steak House Increases Salad Dressing Bottle Size, Doesn't Charge More Or Brag
By Laura Northrup on August 11, 2011 11:34 AM
67 Comments
Sometimes, companies reverse the famed Grocery Shrink Ray, and actually increase the quantity of their product without also hiking the price. Ken's Steak House recently increased the amount in a bottle from eight ounces to nine. Even more astonishingly, they didn't feel the need to brag about this on the bottle. More »
North American Van Lines Won't Move My Stuff, Won't Tell Me Why
By Laura Northrup on August 11, 2011 10:30 AM
96 Comments
John hired North American Van Lines last month for his move from Massachusetts to California. He and his family have made it safely to California, but all of their stuff is still on the wrong coast. And no one can tell them why. More »
Sears Customer Service Just As Broken As My Garage Door Opener
By Laura Northrup on August 11, 2011 9:30 AM
28 Comments
Kristi's garage door opener is from Sears' venerable Craftsman brand. When the chain assembly broke, logically she contacted Sears to come fix it for her. The repair-scheduling website was slick and easy to use, perhaps lulling her into a false sense that she was in for a professional and logical commercial transaction. Then, it was time for the garage door repair person to actually show up. More »
If You Need A Cingular Wireless Prepaid Card, Check Out This Walgreens
More »
By Laura Northrup on August 10, 2011 10:45 AM
27 Comments
Are you a time-traveler from 2007 in need of minutes for your prepaid Cingular cell phone? You're in luck! Tipster Peter found this card on the AT&T Wireless rack at his local Walgreens, noting that all of the $50 cards on the rack were antiques from Cingular. More »
(Cayusa)
Verizon Keeps You Up Until Midnight, Still Can't Provide Internet Access
By Laura Northrup on August 10, 2011 9:30 AM
36 Comments
Brian has a very simple problem. He has Verizon FiOS service. He moved within the same apartment complex, and checked with Verizon to see what he could do about moving his service. Only now the move is done, Verizon's instructions didn't work, they can't get a tech out until this weekend. Brian works from home, and this isn't acceptable when all that needs to happen is having a switch or two flipped in the basement. More »
(afagen)
Dad's Stuck With Me On His Sovereign Bank Account Unless I Die
By Laura Northrup on August 10, 2011 9:03 AM
55 Comments
Chris's dad gave him access to his personal and business accounts at Sovereign Bank a few years ago. Now that he's remarried, the dad wants to take Chris off and replace him with his new wife. This seems like it would be simple enough, but Sovereign says, not so fast. They can't remove Chris's access to the accounts unless he dies. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on August 5, 2011 12:30 PM
103 Comments
- The Flavor Of Your OJ Is A Chemically-Induced Mirage
- Mayor Crushes Car Parked In Bike Lane With Armored Vehicle
- Man Gets $8k Bill For A Million Gallons Of Water That Never Reached His House
- The Hidden Costs Of Being Single
- The 8 Largest U.S. Retailers With The Worst Sales
(blue_j)
Toyota Cashes Lease Payment Check, Repos Van Anyway
By Laura Northrup on August 5, 2011 11:35 AM
64 Comments
Mendel works for a not-for-profit organization that leases a few Toyotas, including the van that he drives. Somehow, there was a mixup where Toyota somehow failed to notice that the organization had made its monthly payments (if a bit late) and just went ahead and repossessed the van. So, just pay Toyota, pay the impound lot, and get the car back, right? If only it were that simple. More »
Beware Of The Vanishing 12-Month Financing Dell Deal
By Laura Northrup on August 5, 2011 10:36 AM
23 Comments
Catastrophegirl bought a computer from Dell during a promotion for 12 months of interest-free financing. Like a good little consumer, she had every intention of paying off the balance long before twelve months were up. Which is good, because when she checked her statement, she happened to notice that the deal suddenly became six months of no-interest financing. What happened to catastrophegirl's deal, for which she still had the original receipt? Dell basically shrugged and extended the deal to 12 months. Even if this is an error, will it trap other consumers? More »
Pretend To Be A Dinosaur, Get A Free House?
By Laura Northrup on August 5, 2011 9:30 AM
62 Comments
Housing in a major city like Vancouver is expensive. In order to achieve the dream of homeownership, you can work hard for years in order to save up for a down payment on a house. Or you can be like one enterprising resident, and offer your services as a pet pretend dinosaur on Craigslist in exchange for a house. It's just crazy enough that it might... nah, it's still not going to work. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on August 5, 2011 9:00 AM
14 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
(Muffet)
Study: Spend Less On Food, Get Crappier Nutrition
By Laura Northrup on August 4, 2011 12:40 PM
142 Comments
While healthy eating may save you money in the long run on health care costs and extra-large sweatpants expenses, meeting the federal government's new nutritional guidelines would require the average American family to spend more on food. In theory, it's possible to eat nutritiously for cheap, but that's not how things are playing out in real Americans' diets. Studying adults in Washington state, researchers found that consuming the government's recommended amount of just one nutrient—potassium—cost consumers an extra $380 per person, or $1520 per year for a family of four. More »
Dell: Prove To Us That Your New Monitor Isn't 10 Years Old
By Laura Northrup on August 4, 2011 11:35 AM
63 Comments
Did you know that Dell has been making one particular model of 24" flat panel HD monitors for a decade now? G. didn't. That's why he was surprised when he contacted Dell to find out the warranty expiration date for his monitor (manufactured in March of 2011) and they couldn't provide him with that information. Worse, the confused customer service rep was convinced that the monitor was, somehow, ten years old. More »
You Can't Write A Check To Target Until You Successfully Write A Check To Target
By Laura Northrup on August 4, 2011 10:45 AM
115 Comments
J.'s debit card has a limit on how many transactions he can use it for in a day, so he often kicks it like it's 1993 and writes checks for things. This isn't normally a problem, but it is at Target, where their third-party check verification service, Certegy, is incorrectly convinced that he's been writing bad checks. Fine, he dealt with Certegy, but still can't write checks. Why? Target's internal check verification department says so. He won't be able to pay that way until he has a history of successful check writing at Target. What's wrong with this picture? More »
Fisher-Price Replaces Broken Bouncer, Shocks Customer
By Laura Northrup on August 4, 2011 9:35 AM
14 Comments
When the Fisher-Price Bouncer that Allison had received as a gift for her son stopped vibrating, Allison contacted Fisher-Price to see whether she could have the item repaired or replaced. Instead, the company turned around and just sent her a new one, no questions asked! More »
Why Does It Take 50 Hours To Change Verizon Internet Service, Then Lose Your Phone Number?
By Laura Northrup on August 4, 2011 9:08 AM
25 Comments
The good news is that Alex's dad was able to cancel the high-speed Internet line going to his house and replace it with a DSL line. That's what he was after. The bad news is that this task somehow required fifty hours of working with Verizon customer service, and the loss of the family's home phone number of more than thirty years. Just one of these issues would be frustrating enough, don't you think? More »
You Can't Return This Phone To Walgreens, So Take It To Another Walgreens
By Laura Northrup on August 4, 2011 8:35 AM
119 Comments
Robert bought a prepaid AT&T Wireless cell phone at Walgreens in order to try out the company's service. He never ended up using the phone, so had the crazy idea that he might try returning the unopened phone to a different Walgreens for store credit. The store wouldn't hear of any such madness. More »
UPS Drives To Your House Specifically To Not Deliver Packages
By Laura Northrup on August 3, 2011 1:15 PM
145 Comments
The UPS driver servicing Valerie's neighborhood has a very shaky understanding of what his or her job actually entails. Every time that a package is Valerie-bound, on the very first delivery attempt the driver slaps a final notice on the door and returns the packages to the sender. (She didn't mention whether they even bother to ring the doorbell.) Local management doesn't seem to care, UPS corporate doesn't seem to care, and Valerie can't even avoid ordering things through UPS, since her baby registry is with a company that only uses them to ship. More »
(KCRG)
Police Continue Battle Against Kiddie Lemonade Stand Menace
By Laura Northrup on August 3, 2011 9:30 AM
108 Comments
Every year, the Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) pedals through towns across Iowa. Some children in Coralville, one of the ride's host towns, wanted to participate in the event by selling lemonade in front of their houses for a quarter per cup. Police celebrated their entrepreneurial spirit by promptly shutting down at least three lemonade stands for not obtaining $400 vendors' licenses and a health inspection. More »
Reader's EECB Persuades HTC To Actually Open Phone And Check Moisture Sensor
By Laura Northrup on August 3, 2011 9:00 AM
42 Comments
Katherine's HTC Hero smartphone was only four months old and still under warranty, but the company wouldn't repair it, claiming that a moisture sensor had been tripped. She knew that she had never dunked the phone, and was determined to fight HTC's decision. But how? She turned to the Consumerist archives for answers. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on July 29, 2011 12:30 PM
90 Comments
- Lawsuit: Walmart Had Me Arrested, Made Me Lose Job, Had Husband Deported... Over $2.90 Worth Of Chicken Necks
- Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User's Digital Life, Shrugs
- Cool Your Car Down Quickly With This Trick
- Did Chuck E. Cheese Give The Middle Finger To My 4-Year-Old?
- Counterfeit World Of Warcraft Theme Park Opens In China
(Fujoshi)
Washer Floods House, Sears Puts Dams Up In Front Of Customer
By Laura Northrup on July 29, 2011 11:30 AM
77 Comments
When his washing machine from a Sears Outlet failed during its very first load of laundry, flooding the house, Rob thought that everything would be okay. Replacing the defective washer was a painless and easy process, thanks to the staff of his local store. Getting Sears to cover the thousands of dollars' worth of water damage to his home...not so much. More »
Opt In To Overdraft Protection Right At The ATM
By Laura Northrup on July 29, 2011 10:30 AM
45 Comments
ATMs exist for routine banking transactions...deposits, withdrawals, balance inquiries, opting out of overdraft protection. Wait, what? GitEmSteveDave noticed, but didn't test, this option on a Sovereign Bank ATM. "I wonder how many people hit the button by accident and end up giving their rights up," he writes. Convenient, or dangerous? More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on July 29, 2011 9:45 AM
12 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
This Item Is 20% Off Only Online At Target: Not Available Online
By Laura Northrup on July 29, 2011 9:00 AM
11 Comments
Oh, Target. We hadn't received any stories about your tenuous grip on reality in a while, an thought that perhaps things were getting better. Then you advertised an item as being simultaneously on ale online only, but also available only in stores. What? More »
(Bods)
Google Voice Fails, Results In $700 T-Mobile Bill
By Laura Northrup on July 29, 2011 8:07 AM
119 Comments
Sophie makes a lot of phone calls to France, so she does the responsible, frugal thing. She uses the Google Voice app on her smartphone to make those calls over the Internets instead of using the T-Mobile network. Except somehow, the Google Voice app failed, and the phone itself placed those calls while making it sound like they went through the Voice app. "Complain to Google about it and give us $700," says T-Mobile. "If the call doesn't show up in your Voice history, it went through the cell network," says Google. More »
Apple App Store Charges Over And Over Again For New Operating System
By Laura Northrup on July 28, 2011 12:30 PM
51 Comments
Apple's new version of Mac OS has some new and exciting features, and for Mac fans is a bargain at only $30. It is not, however, worth three times that. Or even $4,000. That's what some customers have paid, without exactly meaning to. More than one person has come forward complaining that their PayPal accounts, linked to their iTunes accounts, are getting charged for their purchase of OS 10.7 Lion over. And over. And over. More »
(SCHMEGGA)
How Is FedEx SmartPost So Freaking Slow?
By Laura Northrup on July 28, 2011 11:30 AM
108 Comments
J. likes ordering from Woot, but hates FedEx SmartPost, the company's shipping method of choice. Describing it as "some sort of misbegotten bastard child of FedEx and the US Postal Service," J. calculates that it would actually be faster to travel from Woot HQ in Texas to his home on Brooklyn by bicycle. Which would be helpful if he weren't ordering inanimate objects. More »
Dog Dies After Visit To Petco Groomer, Owner Wants Hair Dryer Cages Banned
By Laura Northrup on July 28, 2011 10:30 AM
89 Comments
Sadie, a beloved 6-year-old Lhasa Apso in good health, died in 2008 after a regular grooming session at a California Petco. She became ill while inside a cage dryer, a kennel with an air blower attached (sometimes heated, sometimes not) and was immediately taken for emergency medical care. The veterinarian treating her concluded that the dog died of "severe heatstroke." But was the heatstroke caused by the actions of Petco's employees, as her owner's lawsuit alleges? More »
EECB To Sony Turns Lemon Laptop Into New Laptop
By Laura Northrup on July 28, 2011 9:30 AM
8 Comments
Aaron's Sony VAIO has failed a few times too many. He faithfully sent it back for repair or had a technician visit his home four times, believing Sony's promise that the repairs would fix the issue. The last time, it failed during finals week at his college on the East Coast. Sony's repair depot kept the machine for a month, yet the issue still wasn't fixed for good. The laptop is now out of warranty, but Aaron had the law on his side. He launched an executive e-mail carpet bomb to some Sony contacts, copying Consumerist. The next day, he heard back from two different people at Sony, offering him a new machine comparable to the one that had failed him. More »
Wells Fargo Forecloses On, Auctions Off House With Dead Owner Inside
By Laura Northrup on July 28, 2011 9:00 AM
87 Comments
Last year, Wells Fargo foreclosed on and auctioned off a modest townhouse on Cape Canaveral in Florida. The owner hadn't made any mortgage payments or used any electricity in over a year, and neighbors didn't recall seeing her. Her possessions and car were still in the house. Did she walk away from her mortgage and leave town entirely? Not quite. The house's new owner found something Wells Fargo's inspectors and property managers had missed when they inventoried the contents of the house and garage: the homeowner's mummified remains in the front passenger seat of her car. Her cause of death remains unknown. More »
Bank Of America Opens, Closes Credit Card Customer Never Applied For
By Laura Northrup on July 28, 2011 8:00 AM
67 Comments
As a wee baby consumer, Kodi's parents taught her that credit cards are terrible things that she should avoid. She did her best, avoiding credit cards, but wasn't able to stay away completely. Not because of any failure of her willpower, but because somehow Bank of America applied for and obtained a credit card on her behalf without her asking for it—or even knowing about it. More »
Wedding Photographer Ignores Clients For 2 Weeks, Won't Give Deposit Back
By Laura Northrup on July 27, 2011 9:30 AM
125 Comments
Emily isn't sure what to do. Last summer, she and her fiancé hired a photographer for their wedding in August. Earlier this month, about six weeks before the wedding, she tried to contact the photographer so she would be aware of some last-minute changes to the start time of the wedding. The photographer didn't respond, no matter how they tried to contact her. More than two weeks went by, and they prepared to hire another photographer with a month to go before the wedding. Finally, they heard back from the photographer, who promised their "non-refundable" deposit of $700 back. Then changed her mind. More »
Shut Down Google Account Was Flagged For Kiddie Porn...But Not Really
By Laura Northrup on July 27, 2011 9:00 AM
46 Comments
Last week, Google users look on in horror as we shared the story of Dylan, a man who was a huge fan of Google's Web services until he was suddenly locked out of his account with no warning or explanation. His Twitter campaign had the intended effect, getting the attention of a senior VP at Google who fast-tracked an appeal and got Dylan an explanation and his account access back. So what really happened? More »
We Lied, Your Watch Is Out Of Warranty: Now Give Us $106
By Laura Northrup on July 27, 2011 8:00 AM
49 Comments
Richard received a Casio Pathfinder digital watch as a gift. First its satellite time-syncing superpowers failed, and he called the company for help. They opened a case and assured him that since the case had been opened before his warranty expired, it was fine if he sent the watch in for repair at a later date. Then other functions started acting oddly. He sent the watch in for repair, and Casio determined that the watch was out of warranty and he'd have to pay more than a hundred bucks to get his superwatch back. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on July 22, 2011 12:30 PM
137 Comments
This is our 100th Friday Top Posts and Open Thread. Hooray!
- China's Hypergrowth Fueled By Building Giant Cities No One Lives In
- Neighbors Are Mad At Guy Who Got $300K House For $16
- This Is How You Should Quit Your Job At Taco Bell
- 7.5 Sweltering Hours On A Bus: The MegaSauna Rides Again, Gets Lost
- Small Arizona Town In Furor After 2nd Citizen Arrested For Speaking At Town Meeting
Pizza Hut Cares, Offers Gift Card When You Misunderstand Survey
By Laura Northrup on July 22, 2011 11:35 AM
22 Comments
This is a story of a small thing going wrong during a pizza order, and a relatively small gesture from the company to make things better. No, it's not a large, earth-shattering problem. Jay took a survey on the Pizza Hut web site, and wasn't entered in the drawing that enticed him to take the survey in the first place. Why was that, he wondered? So he used some Consumerist resources and got on the phone. More »
(XISMZERO)
Toys R Us Mystery Deal Not So Mysterious, More Frustrating
By Laura Northrup on July 22, 2011 10:30 AM
52 Comments
Caty wasn't trying to scam Toys 'R' Us out of fifty bucks. She saw an interesting promotion in the store's newspaper circular that required scanning a QR code in the ad and seeing what the "mystery deal" might be. She scanned the code, saw that it gave her a sweet deal on a game bundle, and headed over to the store. There she found empty shelves and employees who claimed that the deal had been a "mistake" and Caty had failed to follow a rule that wasn't on the newspaper circular. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds: Festivals And Fairs
By Laura Northrup on July 22, 2011 9:30 AM
14 Comments
As most of the country deals with an unholy heat wave, let's think about the good things that summer brings us. Like festivals and fairs. What's summer without deep-fried substances and avoiding carnies? So here are some neat recent pictures submitted to the Consumerist Flickr pool that celebrate this summer's fairs. More »
IIHS Crash Test Video Library Provides Edification, Entertainment
By Laura Northrup on July 22, 2011 9:03 AM
16 Comments
Have you always wanted to visit a web site that combines all of the fun of a demolition derby with all of the usefulness of serious research for your next vehicle purchase? No, you probably haven't, but it exists. It's the Consumer Reports crash test video player, loaded up with about 300 Insurance Institute for Highway Safety crash-test videos for various makes and models of cars. More »
Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User's Digital Life, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on July 22, 2011 8:00 AM
107 Comments
Something happened to Dylan's Google account, and it's been disabled. He doesn't know what happened to the account, and no one at Google with the power to help him is interested in acknowledging the problem or letting him back in to the cloud-based services where all of his correspondence and much of the digital trail from the last few years of his life is stored. Google doesn't own Twitter, though (yet), and he has taken to Twitter to try to draw attention to his problem and urge anyone who will listen not to trust Google with their digital lives. More »
(dooley)
Charter Drags Feet To Fix Entire Neighborhood's Internet Access
By Laura Northrup on July 21, 2011 12:45 PM
57 Comments
What does it take to get an entire neighborhood's Internet connection working when something is clearly wrong on the cable company's end? Judging from Alex's experience...a lot. His neighborhood has had wonky connections in the summer for years. Unfortunately for Charter, Alex actually knows something about networking, and got them to actually fix the problem. Here, for your edification, is his tale of woe and ultimate triiumph. More »
FTD Delivers Wrong Roses And Wrong Stuffed Animal To Wrong Address At Wrong Time
By Laura Northrup on July 21, 2011 11:30 AM
74 Comments
When Joe ordered flowers for his fiancée's birthday last week, his order wasn't too fussy. He wanted 24 yellow and orange roses and a stuffed dog, delivered to her workplace, on her birthday. Things happen in the flower-delivery business, we know, and seasonal substitutions are normal and to be expected. What he didn't expect, for his $70 or so, was to have half the amount of roses he ordered, in the wrong color and with the wrong stuffed animal, delivered to the wrong address, and nearly on the day after his fiancée's birthday. More »
Do Not Sell A $5,000 Dump Truck For $450 In Scrap Metal
By Laura Northrup on July 21, 2011 10:30 AM
50 Comments
Back in May, the owner of a 1977 International Harvester dump truck valued at about $5,000 parked it in his Syracuse, NY driveway. Neighbors told police that someone came with a flatbed truck, loaded up the dump truck, and took it away. Did they buy the truck? Repossess it? No. The couple are accused of stealing the truck, then selling it for about $450 in scrap metal. More »
It's Cheaper To Order Online While Standing In Sears Than To Shop At Sears
By Laura Northrup on July 21, 2011 9:30 AM
78 Comments
In a perfect consumer world, perhaps brick-and-mortar stores would price-match their own websites. Perhaps front-line employees would be permitted to use their own judgment once in a while. In this perfect world, it definitely would not be cheaper and easier to purchase an item for in-store pickup on your smartphone while standing in the store. More »
Verizon's Billing System Prevents Overpayments, Annoys Customer
By Laura Northrup on July 21, 2011 9:00 AM
48 Comments
Eric recently acquired some new smartphones, charging them to his Verizon bill. Seems straightforward enough. The problem was that when he went to pay that bill, the charge still hadn't hit his account. He tried to make an overpayment so he could start working on paying off the bill for the new phones, but the system wouldn't let him. A mobile phone company doesn't want its customers to send it money? That can't be right. More »
(smi23le)
Can't Anyone At LinkedIn Help My Employer?
By Laura Northrup on July 21, 2011 8:00 AM
38 Comments
The magic of the internet is that a company can have a huge, even ubiquitous presence, but a relatively small staff and an even smaller consumer-facing staff. We've featured a plenty of examples over the years: Facebook, Gmail, Skype... Time to add LinkedIn to the list. S. is in charge of social media for an unnamed organization, and has been trying to make LinkedIn's way of sorting employers recognize the organization's structure. It's not happening, and there's no clear way to reach someone with power at the site for help. More »
When An Airline Says 'It's Not A Problem,' It Will Be A Problem
By Laura Northrup on July 20, 2011 9:30 AM
39 Comments
Perhaps Simon should have known better than to trust an employee of U.S. Airways. He changed his travel plans, canceling the outbound portion of a round-trip ticket. The person he spoke with on the phone assured him that his original flight home would be just fine. This employee was either misinformed or out to make Simon's life miserable. Either way, his flight home was canceled, and he had to book a more expensive one-way flight that his employer won't pay for. More »
(_cck_)
CSR: Buy Some Window A/C Units From Sears While You Wait For Sears To Repair Your Central Air!
By Laura Northrup on July 20, 2011 9:00 AM
70 Comments
This week, the temperature in many parts of the country has been cranked up to "broil." We all know what that means: air conditioner breakdowns on a massive scale. Veronica's sick, elderly parents purchased their central A/C from Sears four years ago. When she called up Sears, they told her that they could send someone to look at it at the end of the week. That wasn't acceptable to Veronica: it was 103 damn degrees out there. More »
(crzybob)
Atlanta Thrashers Season Ticket Buyers Still Waiting For Refunds
By Laura Northrup on July 20, 2011 8:00 AM
13 Comments
Back in May, we shared the news that the National Hockey League's Atlanta Thrashers were still taking orders for season tickets right up until the announcement came that the team would be sold and move to Winnipeg. Disorganized and anti-consumer, sure, but as long as people who put down season ticket deposits for next season get their money back, everything would be okay. Yeah... about that. Fans who had already put down deposits for their season tickets are now getting a runaround, and the team owes each anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. More »
Should We Meddle In Furniture Sales Commissions?
By Laura Northrup on July 18, 2011 5:00 PM
97 Comments
Susan and her husband recently made a decent-sized purchase from Raymour & Flanigan, a chain in the Northeast that sells nice quality furniture. On a return visit to make some changes to their order, they learned that the original person who helped them had to split his commission on the sale with another saleswoman who happened to key in Susan's order while the original salesman was on a lunch break. Susan thinks this is unfair, and wants to defend the original salesman's right to the entire commission. But is it her fight, or is that just the nature of commission sales? More »
(SA_Steve)
7 Ways To Keep Your House Extra Hot This Summer
By Laura Northrup on July 18, 2011 4:00 PM
88 Comments
If there's anything that makes a summer heatwave even better, it's finding ways to capture that stifling heat and keep it in your home for as long as possible. Our toasty friends at Freeshipping.org compiled this useful list of ways to defeat your air conditioner and make sure your house stays as hot as possible all summer long. If you run an air conditioner, imagine all the money you can waste! More »
Alienware Sells Marine $6,000 Paperweight, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on July 18, 2011 3:05 PM
115 Comments
The Alienware Aurora ALX is a pricey, awesome gaming computer that sort of looks like a blue Cylon. Except in Drew's home, it looks more like a giant $6,000 paperweight. No matter how many extra parts Alienware/Dell try to sell him to fix the problem, the glorious beast still won't work. Drew is a Marine, and he, his family, and his computer are now stationed in Okinawa, Japan. That means transferring the warranty to Dell Japan if he wants to keep trying to get the damn thing to work. What's Japanese for "lemon law"? More »
AT&T Will Only Fix Your Vanishing DSL If You Buy Their Modem
By Laura Northrup on July 18, 2011 2:05 PM
58 Comments
Tonly lives in a deluxe condo building in the sky. Unfortunately for him, high-density urban living and AT&T DSL don't mix. He waited three months for sweet, sweet Internet access because, as AT&T explained, all of the ports for the building were full. Just a few months later, his access cut out for no clear reason. The most logical explanation is that the line to his condo was switched off by mistake during another customer's install. Easy enough to fix, isn't it? But Tony owns his modem, and AT&T is using that as an excuse not to fix the problem. More »
Best Buy Employees: We Want Our Awesome Discount Back
By Laura Northrup on July 18, 2011 1:06 PM
129 Comments
One of the top most awesome reasons to work in retail is for the sweet, sweet employee discounts. But we're hearing rumblings from some of our friends inside Best Buy that changes to the employee discount are making them sad. Blue, even. More »
Police Bust Tweens For Operating Unlicensed Lemonade Stand
By Laura Northrup on July 18, 2011 12:00 PM
190 Comments
It's the middle of summer, and we all know what that means: adorable kids learning the basics of capitalism by running lemonade stands. Among those basics: you need to lay down a few hundred bucks at City Hall before you even think about buying lemons and paper cups. Three Georgia girls thought they would earn money for a trip to the water park by selling lemonade in their neighborhood. They were successful...until the police chief happened to drive by, and shut them down for selling lemonade without business and food vendors' licenses totaling $180. More »
(formatc1)
Amazon Student: When A Paying Customer Isn't A Paying Customer
By Laura Northrup on July 18, 2011 11:00 AM
113 Comments
When is a discount not a discount? When the product discount customers get isn't the same thing that customers who pay full price get. See, people finishing up their free year of Amazon Prime as students can sign up for a half-price Prime account for next year. Except they're not entitled to all of the perks that paying Prime customers get, like sharing free shipping between all members of a household and their different Amazon accounts. More »
(karlfrankowski and Alex Barth)
7.5 Sweltering Hours On A Bus: The MegaSauna Rides Again, Gets Lost
By Laura Northrup on July 18, 2011 10:00 AM
54 Comments
When Alexandros set out on a Megabus trip from New York City to Washington, D.C. last week, he had no way to know that he and his fellow passengers were in for seven and a half hours of roasting hot travel mayhem. The travel delay was understandable at first: there was apparently an accident on I-95, the standard Megabus route between the two cities. This might have been bearable if the bus had had functioning air conditioning. Or any air circulation at all. Or if the passengers had been allowed to board the new bus they had promised. Or if the driver had received valid directions to the spot where they were supposed to exchange their rolling sauna for a new bus that never came. More »
(Tosplant)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on July 15, 2011 12:30 PM
174 Comments
- Philadelphia Saves $2 Million By Not Prosecuting Pot Smokers
- Woman Faces Jail Time For Growing Veggies In Front Yard
- Uninsured Californian: I'm Stuck With $40K Medical Bill After Being Taken To Hospital Against My Will
- Want Both Netflix Streaming And DVDs? That Will Now Be $15.98
- Chase Hugs It Out With Man It Had Thrown In Jail For Cashing Non-Fake Check
This Is How You Should Quit Your Job At Taco Bell
By Laura Northrup on July 15, 2011 11:45 AM
149 Comments
The sign, a glorious product of put-upon employee rage, began tearing up the Internet this morning. Apparently, a Taco Bell employee near Buffalo, NY went out in style, changing the sign out front to say, "I QUIT - ADAM / F*** YOU :)" A local television station reports that the now-former employee reached his limit after working twenty-two days straight and being denied a day off for Independence Day. (Yes, NSFW language inside.) More »
American Express Amazes Family After Cardholder's Death Abroad
By Laura Northrup on July 15, 2011 10:35 AM
54 Comments
Let's travel back in consumer history to 1989, a time before widespread Internet access, when she shopping and financial landscape was recognizable, but still different from what we deal with today. One thing that doesn't change is that true "Above and Beyond" service leads to customer loyalty, and reader Margaret remains loyal to AmEx because of how they came through for her family in a time of crisis and grief. More »
(alvazer)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on July 15, 2011 9:30 AM
13 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Who Ate My Amazon Account?
By Laura Northrup on July 15, 2011 9:07 AM
75 Comments
Some nefarious, unauthorized person "may have" accessed Joseph's Amazon account. If you're thinking, "So what? it's just an e-commerce account," note that he not only owns a Kindle and many annotated books for it, but has also now lost his purchase history and his wish list. Sure, Amazon has offered him a gift card to re-purchase the books he lost, but he's not really keen to trust the company again. More »
Sprint Loves You, Kinda Creeps You Out
By Laura Northrup on July 15, 2011 8:00 AM
50 Comments
Jerry doesn't really have a problem with Sprint, his mobile phone carrier. But what the carrier's site told him when he looked up the status of his contract has him holding back a bit. "We love you," it proclaims, offering a discount on a new phone. Sprint loves him? More »
(Fujoshi)
Police: Alleged Shoplifter Stuffed Beef Down His Pants
By Laura Northrup on July 14, 2011 12:30 PM
62 Comments
What probably started as a normal day at a South Carolina grocery store ended with action and intrigue after employees noticed a man leaving the store with several packages of tenderloin stuffed down his pants. According to the police report, a manager confronted the man in the parking lot, reaching inside his waistband and pulling out a tenderloin. And then things got interesting. More »
Sonic Calls Emergency Meeting, Can't Serve You Any Dinner
By Laura Northrup on July 14, 2011 11:30 AM
107 Comments
John and his fiancée wanted some fast food for dinner, and went to the drive-thru at their local Sonic. But they didn't get any food. They didn't get served at all, because the restaurant suddenly closed for a mysterious meeting that left confused customers to head elsewhere for their dinner. More »
Your Complaint Is Not Important At Kmart If You're 'Just A Customer'
By Laura Northrup on July 14, 2011 10:30 AM
170 Comments
Terrie finished up her shopping at her local Kmart and headed for the checkout. She was horrified to see that each open checkout had at least dozen customers in line, and the store had no intention of opening any more. When she inquired about making her purchase at the jewelry counter or opening some more registers, she learned exactly how important customers are to this particular store. More »
Banks Impose Surcharge For Using The Word 'Bank'
By Laura Northrup on July 14, 2011 9:30 AM
25 Comments
As usual, parody news site The Onion has managed to produce fake news that tells the truth better than actual facts can. This week's radio newsflash: not satisfied with charging us fees to receive statements, use tellers, use ATMs, have accounts, and transfer funds, banks will now automatically charge us seventy-flve cents to use the word "bank." That sentence cost me $1.50. More »
Warning: Do Not Buy A Pet While You Are Drunk
By Laura Northrup on July 14, 2011 9:00 AM
74 Comments
Oh, it happens far more often than any of us are willing to admit. You go out one evening and have a few drinks too many, and the next thing you know, you wake up to find a strange beagle in your bed, wagging its tail, and a credit card receipt from a pet store. Dog? What dog? You never wanted a dog...at least, not when you're sober. This scenario is enough of an actual problem for some Manhattan pet stores located near bars and clubs that they will turn away customers who have clearly been drinking. More »
Will These Employees Please Stop Hijacking My Cart?
By Laura Northrup on July 14, 2011 8:00 AM
197 Comments
B. keeps getting cart-jacked in big-box stores. Not by fellow customers envious of the amazing bargains she finds, but by store employees eager to clean up the store who think that her unattended cart has been abandoned. Not so, she insists, raising another question altogether: how long can you reasonably expect to leave your cart alone before it is, indeed, cartjacked? More »
Your Dog May Not Be Welcome On Summer Flights
By Laura Northrup on July 13, 2011 9:30 AM
41 Comments
You might have read that you can take your pet on a Continental Airlines flight, but that's no guarantee that your buddy will actually be allowed on the plane. That can depend on weather, but mostly depends on how full the flight is. You're shelling out extra money to travel with a creature you consider a family member, but to the airline, your pet is furry cargo that can be left behind. If you stubbornly insist on traveling together, you're stuck with the flight change fees. That's what happened to Steve when he tried to fly with his dogs down to his new home in Ecuador. His advice: Don't fly with pets during the summer. At all. More »
Bank Of America Disapproves Of My Spending Habits
By Laura Northrup on July 13, 2011 9:00 AM
99 Comments
Like a watchful, overprotective parent, Bank of America sees Alexander's spending habits and disapproves of them. Whenever he makes a debit card purchase over $50, they put a hold on his card. "They told me that I should stop spending my money at an exuberant rate," he notes. What? More »
Here is The Eye Exam Appointment You Didn't Ask For
By Laura Northrup on July 13, 2011 8:00 AM
59 Comments
Terry got an eye exam last year from the handy in-house doctor at a local Pearle vision, but decided not to buy the overpriced glasses that they had to offer. He had no intention of going back, so he was annoyed when they took the liberty of scheduling an appointment for him this year, and notified him of the date by e-mail. Except...well, the local store claims that they never did any such thing. More »
How A Sears Promotion Gobbled Up $25 Of My Money
By Laura Northrup on July 8, 2011 3:30 PM
61 Comments
Kenneth isn't quite sure what to do. He bought enough men's clothing items at Sears to trigger a deal giving him a restricted $25 gift card to Sears. Hooray! Only when he came back to return some of the items, the card's value was deducted from his refund, forcing him to spend $25 more at Sears than he had ever planned to. More »
(Jenn W)
Make Sure Your Mobile Phone Doesn't Sneak Off To Canada While You're Sleeping
By Laura Northrup on July 8, 2011 3:15 PM
95 Comments
Tara's stepson is part of her AT&T family plan. He's young, so his account is fairly locked down: he can't buy ringtones or games or even access the Internet at all. So why did his phone rack up $50 worth of data roaming in Canada, when he was 150 miles from the border at the time of the alleged downloads? Tara doesn't know. Her stepson doesn't know. And AT&T Wireless isn't all that sure, either. More »
EECB Leads To Dazzling Best Buy Service, Fridge Upgrade
By Laura Northrup on July 8, 2011 2:30 PM
52 Comments
Best Buy? Above and beyond? Yes, it's possible! The new refrigerator that Sandy ordered was delayed by several days, leaving her fridgeless for a week. She wasn't thrilled at the prospect of feeding her family without the modern appliance, so she fired off an email to all of the executives she could get her pixels on, copying us on all correspondence. Suddenly, she was summoned to the store to pick out any fridge she wanted for no extra charge, with immediate delivery. And a present for her son, too. More »
CitiFinancial Won't Let Loan Die, Trashes Your Credit
By Laura Northrup on July 8, 2011 1:15 PM
27 Comments
Jeffrey thought he was done paying his CitiFinancial Loan, but they kept dragging him back in. A customer service rep assured him that the final balance, $1, didn't have to be paid. So he didn't. This was a bad idea. More »
(Ben.d.s)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on July 8, 2011 12:30 PM
146 Comments
- Magazine With Ad For "Zookeeper" Digitally Inserted Into "How I Met Your Mother" Rerun
- The Post-Apocalyptic Clownscape That Was Six Flags New Orleans
- Whose $100 Million ATM Receipt Is This?
- 16 Tales Of Frugal Fathers
- Target, RiteAid, And Publix Change Policies To Cripple Extreme Couponers
(lupe1515)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on July 8, 2011 10:30 AM
10 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Antique Piggy Bank From eBay Stuffed With $133 In Cash
By Laura Northrup on July 7, 2011 12:30 PM
113 Comments
Shawn bought this antique piggy bank on eBay for $13.50. Adorable, isn't it? What was even more adorable was what he found when he pulled out the original cork: $133 in cash. That'll do, pig. That'll do. More »
(xkcd)
The Experience Of Not Receiving A Package From UPS, In Comic Form
By Laura Northrup on July 7, 2011 11:30 AM
53 Comments
Popular geeky comic xkcd turned this week to the topic of package delivery. Specifically, UPS package deliveries. More specifically, UPS delivery notifications that appear out of nowhere when you were home and totally would have run to the door if anyone had bothered to ring the doorbell. More »
Finally, A Feminine Hygiene Product Ad Acknowledges The Existence Of Blood
By Laura Northrup on July 7, 2011 10:30 AM
162 Comments
Finally, an American ad for feminine hygiene products implying that shed uterine linings are not a thin blue liquid. This print ad for Procter & Gamble's Always brand acknowledges, if only in the form of a tiny red dot, what actually happens to the pads that they once marketed by showing women doing cartwheels in white pants. Or something. More »
It's Not American Airlines' Problem That Your Mom Died
By Laura Northrup on July 7, 2011 9:30 AM
66 Comments
Rita's mother recently passed away. We offer our condolences to Rita and her family, and our rage to the American Airlines employees who were complete jerks to Rita as she tried to travel from Texas to the distant Canadian city of Halifax, Nova Scotia for the funeral. After her first flight was twice delayed due to "mechanical problems," she wound up stranded in Orlando. Missing her connection due to the two delays wasn't the airline's problem, a supervisor told Rita. More »
Sony Sends Technician To Your House To Break Your Computer
By Laura Northrup on July 7, 2011 9:00 AM
42 Comments
A functioning touchscreen is an important feature of a touchscreen computer. Yet the Sony VAIO desktop that Frank purchased at a Microsoft store and had shipped to his home on the other side of the country had a faulty touchscreen. Since he was on vacation when purchasing the computer, It was too late for a store return, so he had to deal with Sony. They very helpfully sent someone to his home to fix the computer, but the technician instead broke his VAIO even more, then didn't show up for the return visit where he was supposed to actually fix the darn thing. More »
Comcast Makes Up Imaginary Residential Account, Harasses You To Pay For It
By Laura Northrup on July 7, 2011 8:00 AM
67 Comments
S. has a super-special type of Comcast business account called Teleworker Enhanced. This account allows him to have business-class Internet access in his home. The problem, as far as Comcast is concerned, is that he has a business-class account in his home, so they keep making up a phantom residential account to charge him for, then send him to collections. He's had enough. More »
(cavale)
10 Brands That Just Might Disappear In 2012
By Laura Northrup on July 6, 2011 9:30 AM
140 Comments
The site 24/7 Wall Street makes an annual tradition of predicting which brands will disappear in the coming year. Next year, they predict the demise of such diverse brands as Saab, American Apparel, Sears, Kellogg's Corn Pops, and Soap Opera Digest. More »
Return Merchandise To Bankrupt Newport News, Get Sent To Collections
By Laura Northrup on July 6, 2011 9:00 AM
28 Comments
Late last month, the company that operates the Spiegel and Newport News women's clothing catalogs filed for bankruptcy. There's some very interesting background questions about why the company is bankrupt for the second time in eight years and why it's being sold to an affiliate of its parent company. But that's not what reader Angela is concerned about. She returned some merchandise to the catalog that she paid for with her store credit account. She sent it back several months ago, and still insist that she pay for it. This is not a practical way to get out of Chapter 11. More »
Eating Mini-Donuts Is Like Child Murder, Tweets Entenmann's
By Laura Northrup on July 6, 2011 7:24 AM
82 Comments
Attention, brands trying to be hip to the "Twitters": while it can sometimes be good exposure to mention one of the trending words or topics publicized on the right sidebar of the site, make sure that you know what that trending topic is referring to. At minimum, make sure that it doesn't refer to anything negative or potentially offensive. Such as a highly publicized murder trial. More »
(amanjo)
How I Took On Electrolux And Got A Working Refrigerator
By Laura Northrup on July 1, 2011 1:35 PM
27 Comments
Stuck with a fancy refrigerator that had a defective, leaking ice maker, Bob refused to accept a future of frequent repairs until the fridge's warranty ran out. Instead, he took on Electrolux and refused to back down until he had a functioning replacement fridge. Here's how he did it. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on July 1, 2011 12:30 PM
135 Comments
- Get $15 In Rice Krispies Cereal Class Action
- HP Notebook Can Apparently Shield Soldiers From Enemy Fire
- New Fee Is Your Chance To Break Verizon Contract Without Paying Early Termination Fee
- Predatory Car Sales Tricks To Watch Out For
- FedEx Delivers My Packages To The Garbage Can, Trash Collectors Deliver Packages To Back Of Garbage Truck
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on July 1, 2011 10:30 AM
11 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Sears Keeps Pushing Back Dishwasher Delivery, Charges When You Get Sick Of It
By Laura Northrup on July 1, 2011 9:30 AM
70 Comments
Perhaps it was unwise of Robert to order a dishwasher from Sears and expect to eventually receive a dishwasher. But his local Sears managed to do even worse than that. After they delayed his order six times, he had enough and canceled it. So, naturally, they went right ahead and charged his Sears credit card for the much-delayed, never-delivered dishwasher. More »
The Post-Apocalyptic Clownscape That Was Six Flags New Orleans
By Laura Northrup on July 1, 2011 9:00 AM
127 Comments
How long after civilization collapses will it take for our infrastructure to crumble into a rusting, weed-choked hellscape? With the help of some flooding, just a few years, if the current state of Six Flags New Orleans is any indication. Pump systems failed after Hurricane Katrina, leaving the site in up to seven feet of brackish water for about a month, corroding the rides and wrecking everything else. The park site is now property of the city of New Orleans after Six Flags declared it a total loss, collecting insurance and moving a few salvageable rides to other parks. The front gate is open, and the city already has enough problems and can't pay for 24-hour security. That means local teens and roving urban explorers have found their way in to show us all the carnage. More »
Parking Ticket Gets Paid, 35 Years Late
By Laura Northrup on July 1, 2011 8:00 AM
53 Comments
If you found a 35-year-old unpaid parking ticket pressed in a book that you bought in a garage sale, what would you do? An 89-year-old Michigan man who found such a ticket decided that it was his civic duty to mail the $1 ticket back with payment to Orlando, Florida, where it was issued in November of 1975. More »
Don't Let A Salesperson Tell You What The Contract Says: Read It
By Laura Northrup on June 30, 2011 11:33 AM
94 Comments
Joy comes to us with a cautionary tale. Don't let pushy salespeople talk you into signing a contract that you haven't read. Rushing you through signing a contract is a sign of possible trouble ahead. She learned this when she had the ADT alarm system already installed in her house switched on. The salesperson rushed her through a lengthy contract, telling her what each part supposedly said and claiming that she could totally cancel within thirty days without having to pay any kind of early termination fee. Spoiler alert: this was not actually true. More »
I Don't Want Some Justin Bieber Fan's Redbox Receipts
By Laura Northrup on June 30, 2011 10:35 AM
63 Comments
Andrew has a common problem: he keeps getting someone else's mail. Not in his paper mailbox, but someone else's e-mail. A Justin Bieber fan in a different state entered his e-mail address when renting a DVD, and Andrew received the receipt. When he contacted Redbox to straighten out the mixup, their unhelpful solution was to block all e-mail receipts from Redbox. Yep, including his own. More »
Geek Squad Thinks Self-Immolating Laptop Just Needs New Parts
By Laura Northrup on June 30, 2011 9:30 AM
53 Comments
Daniel has a Black Tie service plan for his laptop, so he dropped it off at Best Buy for what he thought was a simple camera repair. Back at home, he realized something must be wrong when smoke billowed out of the computer. This seems unsafe to Daniel, and he thinks that Geek Squad needs to replace the entire computer instead of just swapping out some parts. Geek Squad disagrees. More »
$1 Billion In Unwanted Dollar Coins Lurk In Government Bunkers
By Laura Northrup on June 30, 2011 9:00 AM
207 Comments
It's cost taxpayers an unnecessary $300 million so far, and won't end until 2016. It's wildly unpopular with the American public, even though it saves the government money in the long run. It's taking up comical amounts of space in secure federal government vaults. What is it? The United States Mint's series of dollar coins featuring the faces of all 44 presidents. Congress meant well when authorizing the program in 2005, but failed to realize that the American public thinks that dollar coins are an icky Canadian affectation. One billion of the coins are currently in hibernation, and at least a billion more coins will be minted but destined for storage. More »
PayPal Keeps Freelancer's Pay 'Under Review' Because They Feel Like It
By Laura Northrup on June 30, 2011 8:00 AM
69 Comments
Kate works as a freelance something-or-other, and uses PayPal to bill her clients. She received a $2,000 deposit from a client after a period without working, and needs the money to pay bills right now. Because her client didn't have a verified PayPal account and was using identity theft protection, his original payment got flagged as fraudulent. A new payment has been stuck in PayPal limbo: not fraudulent, but alsonot not released to Kate, and seemingly no one at PayPal is able to help her. Update: The issue has been resolved. More »
If You Don't Want An 'Optimized' Laptop, Best Buy Won't Sell You Any Laptops
By Laura Northrup on June 29, 2011 9:30 AM
190 Comments
Was it really almost a year and a half ago that The Consumerist published our investigation of Best Buy's sneaky pre-optimization of all computers in stock? It seems like it was only last week. Mainly because that's when reader D. visited a Best Buy store in New England and failed to purchase a Toshiba laptop for the sticker price. The store sales staff would rather lose a sale than let a computer go at the actual sticker price to a customer who didn't want the optimization. Forcing customers to pay for services that they might not even need must be a lucrative business. More »
Smart Ones Frozen Meals: Not All That Smart, Actually
By Laura Northrup on June 29, 2011 9:00 AM
131 Comments
Jenna sat down to eat her Smart Ones frozen entree, a vegetable-loaded lasagna, when she found that she'd just been served a big, steaming bowl of confusion. Eating frozen dinners is supposed to simplify meal planning when you're trying to lose weight, but the package manages to contradict itself regarding the meal's nutritional content. A simple enough graphic design error, sure, but it indicates a worrisome lack of attention to detail. More »
Ensenda Not Entirely Sure Where The Mailroom Might Be
By Laura Northrup on June 29, 2011 8:00 AM
49 Comments
Rob is an Amazon Prime customer who lives near Chicago. He likes Prime, but isn't thrilled with his last three shipments that came through a lesser-known delivery company, Ensenda. The comments on a previous post about Ensenda's inability to actually deliver things indicate that he's not alone. But his packages are: abandoned and alone, lost somewhere in the system. Or dumped on the first flat service the delivery person could find. This is not the quality of service that anyone should expect from a company paid to provide overnight shipping. More »
(il_kap)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on June 24, 2011 12:30 PM
134 Comments
- New Service Adds Your Drunken Facebook Photos To Employer Background Checks, For Up To Seven Years
- How To Always Get An Exit Row Seat
- IRS Gives $110,000 To Wrong Guy, Now He's In Jail
- Snapple Tells Me Why Snapple Apple Juice Drink Doesn't Have Apples In Ingredients List
- Being "Educated" Doesn't Mean You're Exempt From Being Polite
(reegmo)
Georgia Program Replaces Migrant Farm Workers With Ex-Cons
By Laura Northrup on June 24, 2011 11:30 AM
127 Comments
Recent immigration crackdowns in Georgia have left the agricultural sector with a labor shortage. A big one. An unscientific poll puts the gap as high as 11,000 workers, but plants still have to be harvested. The governor responded to farmers' complaints with a new program that puts people on probation to work in the fields at minimum wage, with bonuses for high production. This seems like an ideal match: probationers have a higher unemployment rate than the general population, and farmers need people in the fields. It turns out, though, that hard work, hot weather, low pay, and inexperienced workers don't make for a very bountiful harvest. More »
Disabled War Veteran's House Not Good Enough For This Homeowners Association
By Laura Northrup on June 24, 2011 10:30 AM
187 Comments
Would you want a severely disabled war veteran for a neighbor? It's hard to say "no" to that. Homes For Our Troops The group builds mortgage-free, accessible homes to severely disabled war veterans. The group was supposed to begin construction today on a specially designed house in Georgia for an Army veteran who suffered severe brain damage in Afghanistan. After months of planning, earlier this week the homeowners' association reversed its approval, saying that the house must be multiple stories and 700 square feet larger to be part of the neighborhood, or it will affect property values. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on June 24, 2011 9:30 AM
6 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
UPS Appears To Have Stomped On This Package, Then Left It In The Rain
More »
By Laura Northrup on June 24, 2011 8:45 AM
61 Comments
You can't blame Ju for being disappointed in the condition of the package that UPS left for him. They didn't just abandon it on his doorstep on a rainy day. They also appear to have drop-kicked it and had a few elephants stomp on it for good measure. More »
Why I Won't Ever Go Back To Kmart
By Laura Northrup on June 24, 2011 8:00 AM
90 Comments
Everyone has those moments as a consumer where we say, "Screw you guys, I'm not coming back." For M., that moment came for her at Kmart when she came back to pick up a refill and learned that in order to take part in Kmart's $10 for a 90-day supply generic drug program, she would need to enroll in the discounter's new Kmart Pharmacy Prescription Savings Club for only $10 per household per year. M. chose instead to transfer her prescriptions to one of the many pharmacies offering the same price for her generic drugs, without having to sign up for any memberships. More »
How To Break The eFax Cancellation Cycle Of Stupidity
By Laura Northrup on June 23, 2011 12:30 PM
44 Comments
Scott wanted to cancel his service with eFax. Simple enough. The site told him that this must be done via webchat. But the chat doesn't work, so he called them on the phone. The phone line told him that he needs to try the web site. And so on... More »
Do Not Threaten Suicide When Your Cable Is Turned Off
By Laura Northrup on June 23, 2011 11:30 AM
59 Comments
This news item, spotted on the Orange County Register's police blotter, is brief but intriguing: a man in Mission Viejo, Calif. was so distraught that his cable had been shut off that he did the only logical thing: threatened to kill himself. The person he spoke to at Cox Cable, in turn, called the police to report a potential suicide at the man's address. More »
(SA_Steve)
I Signed On To Sell Clothes, Not Force Magazine Subscriptions On People
By Laura Northrup on June 23, 2011 10:30 AM
146 Comments
L. works at a popular retailer of plus-sized women's clothing, Avenue. Selling clothes is the job that she signed on for, and she doesn't have a problem with that. It's the credit cards and magazine add-ons her company wants employees to push on customers that make her uncomfortable. She vented in an e-mail to Consumerist about why this bothers her so much. More »
Dell Warranty Provider Buys Customer New TV On Amazon
By Laura Northrup on June 23, 2011 9:30 AM
26 Comments
Two weeks ago, we shared the story of Tom, who bought a Vizio TV from Dell that he bought an extended warranty for, but couldn't track down the warranty company when the television actually failed. He finally got in touch with the nice people at Service Net Solutions, and they did amazed him by doing exactly what they were supposed to: replace his busted TV with a nicer one. Curiously, they did this by ordering one up for him from Amazon.com. More »
AT&T Wireless Acknowledges Their Crappy iPhone Service, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on June 23, 2011 9:00 AM
106 Comments
In 2009, loyal Sprint customer Matt jumped ship to AT&T, enticed by the glorious glossy screen of the then-exclusive Jesus Phone. I mean, iPhone. He sends $300 per month to AT&T for the four iPhones on his account. One would think that this would entitle him to an actual working mobile phone. Don't be silly. Matt's tale of woe includes months of frustration, including huge business deals lost due to crappy phone service. More »
Bank Of America Loses 8-Year Customer Over 20 Bucks
By Laura Northrup on June 23, 2011 8:00 AM
96 Comments
Nick became a customer of Bank of America since 2003, and hasn't had any major issues, so he has stuck with them. Until now. He works in Afghanistan, and needed to wire some money to his mother. No problem! He just needed to sign up for a free program that lets customers prove their identities before transferring huge sums of money. Free if you're in the United States and own a smartphone, that is - otherwise he would have to pay $20 for a physical card and wait for it to slowly meander through the military mail system. More »
(PepOmint)
Lowe's Wants You To Be Your Own General Contractor At Home
By Laura Northrup on June 22, 2011 9:30 AM
66 Comments
Eric's dad bought his kitchen renovation from a local Lowe's store. What he didn't know is that to wander in and buy services like this from a big-box home improvement store, you personally are in charge of the comings and goings of the different contractors, and must know enough about construction to make them come in the right order. Funny, I thought that was the entire point of going to a big-box store and hiring them to install everything for you. More »
Should We Open These Packages?
By Laura Northrup on June 22, 2011 9:00 AM
54 Comments
This sign was submitted to the Consumerist Flickr pool. Do you think I should open up one of these packages?
The magic of independent retail: signs like this one where the shopkeeper's personality so clear, you can feel it even from thousands of miles away. More »
HP Will Keep Sort Of Fixing Your Computer Until Warranty Runs Out
By Laura Northrup on June 22, 2011 8:00 AM
89 Comments
Terry is a graduate student, and doesn't really need to be shipping his only computer off for repairs every few months. If the computer is unplugged while asleep, the display refuses to come back on. He paid extra for an "in-home" warranty, so why does he have to keep mailing his computer to HP so they can not really fix it? He tells Consumerist that HP really seems to want him to leave him alone, being consistently rude. Even the person who answered the phone at executive customer service called him an "angry person with a phone number." Maybe he wouldn't be so angry if he had a working computer. More »
Deaf Party Planner Is Actually An Advance Fee Scam
By Laura Northrup on June 17, 2011 3:15 PM
58 Comments
Reader Steve in Florida owns a small restaurant. He recently received three odd phone calls from prospective customers—deaf people using a relay service—wanting to place a catering order for a party of about 100 people using a credit card. Oh, and even though the party is three weeks out, could his business send $956 to the party planner who will be picking up the food, even though the party is a few weeks out? Steve was right to be suspicious, and wants to warn other small business owners. More »
Regal Cinemas Improves Sondheim, Adds Blue Screen Of Death To 'Ladies Who Lunch'
By Laura Northrup on June 17, 2011 1:15 PM
86 Comments
If the projection system at a movie theater fails and management gives you passes for readmission, should they give you passes that actually readmit you to the program you saw? Regal Cinemas charges a premium for filmed theatre and opera events shown on movie screens, almost double what it costs to watch a regular movie. Katie was watching a screening of the New York Philharmonic's recent all-star version of the musical "Company" at her local Regal theater when the projection zonked out during a key song and was replaced by Microsoft's famed Blue Screen of Death. Due to satellite problems, they missed most of the rest of the performance. Management gave out passes for another movie...which was nice, but they weren't good for special events. Like, for example, the next screening of "Company" that people who missed a chunk of the show might want to see. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on June 17, 2011 12:30 PM
179 Comments
- 9 Confessions Of A Former Geek Squad Geek
- How Hackers Stole 200,000+ Citi Accounts Just By Changing Numbers In The URL
- David's Bridal Misled Me About Wait Time, Ruined Planned Mother-Daughter Day
- Diners and Employees at Marie Callender's Restaurants Abruptly Kicked Out
- BK Attacks Japan With Mini Spam Burgers For Women
(J-J-W)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on June 17, 2011 9:30 AM
35 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Would You Pay $3 To Watch Rebecca Black's 'Friday' On YouTube?
By Laura Northrup on June 17, 2011 9:00 AM
113 Comments
Well, it's Friday, so it's time for my usual ritual: rocking out to Rebecca Black's "Friday" video and hoping that no one catches me in the act. Except....wait a minute! Where did the video go? YouTube copyright claim?! It turns out that the video has been pulled from YouTube by Miss Black and her family since the vanity record label that produced the song and video has been trying to cash in on the inexplicable song's inexplicable success. The last straw came when the label tried to charge users a $2.99 YouTube rental fee to view the clip. Which leads to the important consumer question: is there any music video that you would pay three bucks to watch? More »
Keep Calling T-Mobile's Executive Office, Get Charged With Harassment
By Laura Northrup on June 17, 2011 8:00 AM
102 Comments
Gary's mom uses a prepaid T-Mobile phone, but doesn't use it a whole lot. She missed the deadline to re-up her account by three days, and is now stuck with a useless $50 refill card and a shut-off cell phone. After four fruitless attempts at calling regular customer service, Gary tracked down the executive customer service number, hoping to reach someone in the United States with some power. Instead, the person he reached was hostile and unhelpful. When Gary eventually reached that person's boss to complain, the boss said that if he kept contacting the executive offices, they'd have him charged with harassment. All of this seems like a lot more trouble than turning some old lady's phone back on. More »
Happy Hot Dog Man Turns Your Frankfurter Into An Edible Stick Figure
By Laura Northrup on June 16, 2011 10:30 AM
56 Comments
Infomercial products are all about solving problems that you didn't realize you had. Did you know, for example, that the hot dogs you and your family eat are incredibly boring? It's true. That's why someone created the Happy Hot Dog Man. For only $10.99, you can create the unholy spawn of a frankfurter and a gingerbread man in your very own home. More »
(bytehead)
AT&T Doesn't Need To Actually Read Your Pathetic E-mails
By Laura Northrup on June 16, 2011 9:30 AM
53 Comments
T. is in the military, and has recently deployed to Afghanistan. He has an AT&T phone, and wanted to see about switching to a different plan so he could leave his phone active for occasional calls, but pay less. What with being in Afghanistan and all. He e-mailed their customer service department to inquire about this, and received a response that indicates that while someone at AT&T Wireless is answering customer e-mails, they're not necessarily reading them. More »
Sorry, Best Buy Can't Sell You A Non-Scratched DVD
By Laura Northrup on June 16, 2011 9:00 AM
93 Comments
If brick-and-mortar retailers and entertainment companies want their customers to keep showing up and paying for content, it might help if they worked together to make sure that the DVDs on their shelves are playable, and not mysteriously scratched all to hell. Spencer bought two "American Dad" box sets at his local Best Buy, seeking out the least-mangled one on the shelf. He checked the DVDs of one set when he reached his car, found scratched and smudged discs, and headed back into the store to see if he could get a refund. Unfortunately, he could have ripped the DVDs in his car in the intervening ten minutes, and Best Buy wasn't interested. More »
Do Not Body-Pierce Kittens And Sell Them As 'Goth'
By Laura Northrup on June 16, 2011 8:00 AM
191 Comments
Cats are born equipped with defiant attitudes, night vision, and claws, so it doesn't take anything more to make them "goth." At least I always thought so. A Pennsylvania woman with kittens to sell had different ideas. She gave the animals ear and neck piercings, docked their tails, and then pierced their tail nubs. Why? She thought it would look "neat." Then she listed them on eBay for $100, until PETA and the local ASPCA noticed and came calling. She was convicted of animal cruelty, and the Superior Court of Pennsylvania recently affirmed her sentence and conviction on the grounds that no one could possibly be stupid enough to think that this was a good idea. I paraphrase. More »
(jon crel)
Hotels.com Leaves You Without A Place To Stay In Beijing, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on June 15, 2011 9:30 AM
39 Comments
Dylan traveled to China a few months ago. His consumer complaint doesn't directly involve any company in that country, though: his issue is with the company that was supposed to provide him with a place to stay in Beijing, Hotels.com. Miscommunication ensued when Hotels.com first had the wrong address for the hotel, then failed to actually reserve a room for Dylan. When he called the company for help, he learned that while they help customers book rooms in foreign countries, they don't necessarily have anyone on staff who speaks the language of those countries to smooth over issues. More »
My Pet Got Less Legroom, Her Plane Ticket Still Cost More Than Mine
By Laura Northrup on June 15, 2011 9:00 AM
120 Comments
Mari and her dog recently traveled by air. While neither of them was lost, traumatized, or killed, Mari found it odd that her dog's ticket cost more than hers. While Mari got a bargain on her ticket for $240 round trip, passage for her dog cost $125 each way. We assume that her dog is a great traveling companion and surely worth every penny, but the animal still had even less legroom than Mari, being confined to a bag inside the cabin. And she didn't even get snacks. More »
Why Is A Toy Store Promoting An M-Rated Video Game?
More »
By Laura Northrup on June 15, 2011 8:30 AM
92 Comments
Toys 'R' Us sells video games. A lot of games are decidedly toys for grown-ups, not for kids. One of these is the long-anticipated Duke Nukem Forever, which is promoted front and center in the store's advertising circular this week. Timely marketing, sure. But Omar asks: is it appropriate to promote this item so heavily at a store that devotes most of its floor space to items for children?More »
Dispatches From San Diego's Deep-Fried Dystopia
By Laura Northrup on June 10, 2011 12:45 PM
43 Comments
With our fingers on the feeble pulse of the latest news in junk food, we at Consumerist headquarters wait anxiously every year to hear what they're frying at the San Diego County Fair in Del Mar, California. Later fairs nationwide are sure to follow suit. New this year: deep-fried Girl Scout cookies and deep-fried Kool-Aid. Don't worry, you can still get the boring old classics like fried Krispy Kreme chicken sandwiches and fried Klondike bars. More »
(rjivani)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on June 10, 2011 12:15 PM
91 Comments
- Original Ronald McDonald Was Really Creepy
- This Caller Is Incredibly Unhappy With Movie Theater's No-Texting Policy
- Top 10 Dying US Industries Revealed
- Homeowners Bring Sheriff's Deputies To Bank Of America Branch To Collect Unpaid Debt
- Ohio Woman Has Had Same Bank Account For 98 Years
(.:livvy)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on June 10, 2011 11:15 AM
18 Comments
Here are twelve of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Dell MIght As Well Have Not Sold Me An Extended Warranty For This TV
By Laura Northrup on June 10, 2011 10:15 AM
42 Comments
Tom normally doesn't bother to buy extended warranties. Now he knows why. He did happen to purchase one for the Vizio TV that he bought from Dell last year, but the third-party warranty provider seems determined to ignore him at all costs. More »
(jking89)
Woman Gives Away Free Stuff To 'Mexican Women,' Causes Discount Store Frenzy
By Laura Northrup on June 10, 2011 9:05 AM
61 Comments
It's a scientifically documented fact that the best way to cause a frenzy in a retail store is to give stuff away to everyone in the vicinity. That's exactly what happened in Oceanside, Calif. recently when a woman shouted in a discount store that she would buy $100 worth of merchandise for each person there. As long as they were Mexican women. The generosity came with a tirade of profanity and a whole lot of questions about the woman's mental state. More »
Sears Takes Four Appliances Back, Refunds You For One
By Laura Northrup on June 10, 2011 8:30 AM
40 Comments
By Sears standards, maybe Benjamin was lucky. More than two months ago, he bought two washers and two dryers from his local store to go inside a coset. When they didn't fit in the appointed space, he sent them back under the rational assumption that Sears would credit him back for the purchase. This was an incorrect assumption. More »
My UPS Package Was Delivered, Just Not To Me
By Laura Northrup on June 9, 2011 12:30 PM
87 Comments
UPS claims that it has done its job: Adam's package, a gift that his wife got for him from Gamestop, was "delivered." And it was. Just not to him. Or to his house. Or, as far as he can determine, to anyone in his neighborhood. See, he was home, and a large brown truck is hard to miss. More »
Parent Wages Internet Campaign Against Disgusting McDonald's Play Area
By Laura Northrup on June 9, 2011 11:37 AM
136 Comments
If you noticed that the play area at your local fast-food restaurant was unacceptably filthy, what would you do? Sure, you might keep your children off the equipment and stop visiting that restaurant, and tell your friends and neighbors to do the same. But when one Arizona mom repeatedly complained about the conditions at her local McDonald's and still nothing changed, she went further. She paid for testing by an independent lab to see exactly what was crawling around in that playground. She also climbed through the playland tubes herself, filming the graffiti, discarded food, and filth her children had been romping around in. More »
(iPablosu)
No One At Microsoft Knows How To Recover Your Xbox Live Child Account Password
By Laura Northrup on June 9, 2011 10:30 AM
32 Comments
Pete wanted to share the joy of muliplayer gaming with the rest of his family, and so opened up a Family Gold account. All was well until he used some of his own points to buy downloadable content for his stepson. The system prompted him for a password that his stepson didn't have, Pete didn't have, and no one at Microsoft has the power to recover. More »
Customer Wants To Give Flickr Money, Flickr Can't Accept It
By Laura Northrup on June 9, 2011 9:30 AM
18 Comments
Trevor pays for a Pro account on photo-sharing site Flickr, and he'd like to continue doing so. Unfortunately, Yahoo, Flickr's parent company, doesn't seem to want his money. The payment page gets caught in an infinite loop when he logs in using his Yahoo account. Flickr keeps giving him complimentary extensions of his Pro account, but is that a viable long-term solution? More »
Delta Admits They Have Your Jacket, Won't Give It Back
By Laura Northrup on June 9, 2011 9:00 AM
42 Comments
Justin left his jacket behind on a Delta flight during a short connection in Atlanta. He might be prepared to just let it go, but Delta told him that they have the jacket. He was instructed to pick it up at Delta's lost and found during the Atlanta connection of his return trip. How convenient! The catch is that the lost and found office is outside of the security zone, and he didn't have a long enough layover to fetch the coat, then be sure he could get through security again in time to make his flight. So Delta still has his jacket. And they're not answering his calls. Or his tweets. More »
(XISMZERO)
Even Sears Doesn't Know What It Sells Anymore
By Laura Northrup on June 9, 2011 8:00 AM
29 Comments
Sears might be doing an okay job with adjusting to doing business in the 21st century if they weren't stuck with a pesky brick-and-mortar store network. Maybe. When John returned a malfunctioning dehumidifier to his local store, he wanted to exchange it for a working one. He couldn't, though, because the item was out of stock. Logical enough: dehumidifiers are popular in the summer. Yet he was able to go home, order the item online, and pick it up at the very store he had just been told was out of the item. More »
(laffy4k)
Match.com's 6-Month Guarantee Does Not Transfer To Chemistry.com
By Laura Northrup on June 8, 2011 9:30 AM
118 Comments
Chemistry.com is a dating site that is separate from, but owned by, Match.com. Meredith learned this the hard way when she clicked over to Chemistry from a page on Match, then found that all of her information was already in their system. Assuming that it was all part of the same site and that Match's advertised six-month guarantee was in effect, she signed up for a membership. After six months passed with neither chemistry nor matches, she learned that the guarantee doesn't extend to Chemistry.com memberships. More »
iCloud Is Free, But I Paid $99 For Its Predecessor Last Week
By Laura Northrup on June 8, 2011 9:00 AM
100 Comments
During this week's Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple announced its new cloud storage service, the creatively named iCloud. To grossly oversimplify the matter, iCloud is an evolution of Apple's three-year-old MobileMe service ...except that iCloud doesn't cost $99 per year. It will be free, unless you want to sync music between devices that you didn't buy from iTunes. (That costs $25 per year.) Apple plans to kill MobileMe on June 30, 2012, and current members won't have to pay to renew their subscriptions. That's pretty great, unless you're a subscriber who handed over a hundred bucks to renew just a few weeks ago. More »
(KGMH)
Sorry, Your Seeing-Eye Dog Has To Ride In The Trunk
By Laura Northrup on June 8, 2011 8:00 AM
113 Comments
Legally, service animals are allowed in any place that their humans are: stores, restaurants, buses, and, yes, taxis. Yet a Colorado taxi driver has been suspended from work and fined by the state after refusing to let a blind woman bring her dog inside his taxi, claiming allergies. He demanded that the dog ride in the trunk. The woman, late for an appointment, acquiesced... then complained, taking her story to the media to publicize service animals' rights. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on June 3, 2011 12:30 PM
113 Comments
- Mom Tries To Teach Kids Value Of Saving, Kids Learn Lesson About Bank Fees Instead
- Alleged Walmart Shoplifter Goes On Violent Rampage After Being Asked For Receipt
- Skin-Care Mall Kiosk Flirts $666 Right Out Of Your Pocket
- This Is How TV Ads Are So Loud
- Urban Outfitters Offers Jewelry Identical To Independent Designer's Line
Friskies Debuts Free iPad And Android Games For Your Cat
More »
By Laura Northrup on June 3, 2011 11:30 AM
36 Comments
It's a scientifically proven fact that cats love iPads, or at least love to smack things around that move. A few app developers have capitalized on this trend, making games specifically designed for cats. Some cats think that touchscreens are the greatest thing since feathers on a stick. Supposedly, touchscreens are tougher than claws, so the devices won't be damaged. In a brilliant marketing move, Purina, maker of Friskies, ran with this idea and has created free Android Tablet and iPad games for felines. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on June 3, 2011 10:30 AM
5 Comments
Here are twelve of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Cox Adds Banner Ads To Cable Programming Guide
By Laura Northrup on June 3, 2011 9:30 AM
55 Comments
Andy's Cox Cable DVR/cable box received an upgrade last night. What exciting new features would his television receive? As it turns out, the upgrade included an impressive new feature: a big old advertising block on the bottom of the channel guide screen that wasn't there before. More »
If Best Buy Doesn't Respect Your Time, Take Your $600 Elsewhere
By Laura Northrup on June 3, 2011 9:00 AM
105 Comments
N. thought that because he called the nearest Best Buy store (about an hour and a half away from his home) to have an iPad set aside for him, there would actually be an iPad set aside for him. Well, maybe there was for about five minutes, but after he traveled an hour and a half to get to the store. He sent this great letter to the company's Executive Resolution Team. More »
AT&T Thinks You Should Just Take That Tree Off High-Tension Line Yourself
By Laura Northrup on June 3, 2011 8:00 AM
54 Comments
There are some things that you really, really don't want to handle doing yourself. After a tree took out electric and phone lines on his property, A. in Texas is left with the heavy trunk resting on high-tension steel cables that normally go between the poles. An AT&T told A. during a visit to just remove the tree trunk and let the cables go up. A city inspector and a professional lineman separately told A. that doing so might lead to the cables flying up and taking the utility lines out again, and could also injure or kill the person doing the work. More »
New Restaurant Somehow Combines Grilled Cheese Sandwiches And Smartphones
By Laura Northrup on June 2, 2011 12:15 PM
76 Comments
When I want a grilled cheese sandwich but don't have the ingredients on hand, I have to use current, arduous methods of sandwich procurement. I have to call the shop ten minutes or so ahead of time, travel there, and then travel back home. If I want to eat in, I have to place my order and then wait for several minutes while my sandwich cooks. Fortunately, a new venture is out to reform these time-consuming tasks, letting you order up sandwiches on your smartphone and putting them in your hands about a minute after entering the shop. It's called The Melt, and sells grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. Only grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. More »
This Rotting Mansion Kind Of Represents The American Dream
By Laura Northrup on June 2, 2011 11:30 AM
71 Comments
In a rural area in Maryland, reader MrStinkhead came across something that's not so unusual: a mansion in the middle of a swath of farmland. What makes it unusual is that construction stopped partway through, sometime in 2010, and the building has been left exposed to the elements since. We don't have any more details than that, which makes it nicely mysterious. More »
Simplehuman's Customer Service Is Simply Wonderful
By Laura Northrup on June 2, 2011 10:30 AM
33 Comments
Simplehuman's X-Frame laundry hamper isn't cheap, but it's a quality item and looks really cool. Like an X-Wing Fighter, notes tipster Will. But after a simple washing, something terrible happened to the bag of Will's hamper. He wrote to them asking where to purchase a new bag, and instead received a new, free bag in the mail. More »
HP Call Center Supervisor Can't Help You, Answers To No One
By Laura Northrup on June 2, 2011 9:30 AM
86 Comments
Consumer electronics have this terrible, terrible habit of breaking down shortly after the manufacturer's warranty is up. In Eva's case, the battery of her HP laptop self-destructed just two weeks after her original warranty ended. She thought that perhaps since her battery had started failing during the warranty period, they might give her a break. Nope. Thus began her battle of wills with R., the HP call center supervisor who can't help you, but answers to no one. More »
(afagen)
Candlewood Suites Pushes Back New Hotel Opening Date, Forgets To Tell Guest
By Laura Northrup on June 2, 2011 9:00 AM
30 Comments
David had this crazy, completely irrational idea in his head. He thought that just because he had a confirmed ten-night Candlewood Suites stay, made through the InterContinental Hotels web site, there might be a room waiting for him. The reservation went through just fine, and was in the system. The problem was that the grand opening of this new hotel in El Paso, Texas had been pushed back to a few months after David's planned stay. His reservation was now invalid, but no one at the hotel chain bothered to notify him. Are other guests due for a rude surprise when they check in or call to confirm their reservations? More »
Netflix Suggests That Your Child Watch A Very Educational Documentary About Porn
By Laura Northrup on June 2, 2011 8:00 AM
104 Comments
Okay, the category Dan and his family were browsing on Netflix is called "Feel-Good Movies." Not "Feel-Good G-Rated Movies," or "Feel-Good Kids' Movies." Still, he was still a little alarmed to see an R-rated documentary on the porn industry between the Rugrats and Leapfrog features recommended for his young son.
"Look what they suggest as 'a feel good movie' right in between Rugrats and Leap Frog," he writes. "Both children's programming and age appropriate for our son. Unlike their suggestion..." More »
(PlagueX1)
Your New Part-Time Job: Waiting For Dish Network
By Laura Northrup on June 1, 2011 11:30 AM
26 Comments
Matt doesn't want anything unreasonable from Dish Network, his television provider. He just wants someone to come fix his high-definition channels in a timely manner. In theory, he doesn't have a problem with waiting for technicians to show up, but he's being asked to take entire afternoons off to wait for technicians who show up late or not at all. More »
Climb In Your Time Machine To Take Advantage Of This Rebate At Lowe's
By Laura Northrup on June 1, 2011 10:30 AM
11 Comments
"Hi STEPHEN," said the e-mail intended for new homeowners that Steve received from Lowe's. "Get settled in with up to $400 cash back on Whirlpool Gold Kitchen Appliances!" How thoughtful of Lowe's to tempt customers with a great rebate offer... that ended two months ago.
(smcgee)
After Six Months, Target Mobile Still Hasn't Coughed Up $50 Rebate
By Laura Northrup on June 1, 2011 9:30 AM
19 Comments
Back during last year's Black Friday shopping frenzy, Khoi purchased a new smartphone that cost $50, with a rebate offer of a $50 Target gift card along with it. The rebate card was supposed to show up within two weeks. Six months later, he's still waiting on that gift card, and he hasn't exactly been sitting around twiddling his thumbs and waiting for Target to mail it. Finally, at the 6-month mark, he decided to take his dissatisfaction to the very tippity top, writing to Target's CEO. More »
(crzybob)
Atlanta Thrashers Still Selling Season Tickets...After Move To Winnipeg Announced
By Laura Northrup on May 31, 2011 5:05 PM
55 Comments
Great news, hockey fans! Earlier today, you could still buy season tickets to watch the Atlanta Thrashers play during the 2011-12 NHL season. Even the best seats in the house are going to be pretty terrible, though, because the team announced this morning that it has been sold and is moving. To Winnipeg. Manitoba. Canada. Yet you could apparently still buy season tickets right up until the press conference. More »
Skin-Care Mall Kiosk Flirts $666 Right Out Of Your Pocket
By Laura Northrup on May 31, 2011 4:00 PM
270 Comments
Beware of beautiful women wielding skin-care products in mall kiosks. Kevin was on his way toward the mall exit when a skin-care kiosk saleswoman approached him, putting a product in his hand. An hour later, he somehow had spent about $666 on skin-care products that he never really wanted in the first place. How does this happen? Did the woman drug him? Did she sneak his credit card out of his wallet and scan it while he wasn't looking? Nope. It was all charm, flattery, and persistence. Then more persistence. His disjointed account sounds more like a description of a drunken evening than of a shopping experience. More »
Theft Of Pittsburgh's Iron Trash Cans Allegedly An Inside Job
By Laura Northrup on May 31, 2011 3:00 PM
29 Comments
After a police investigation, the mystery of where fifty of the city of Pittsburgh's metal trash cans ran off to has been solved. The culprit wasn't who Consumerist readers suspected. The cans were installed through a partnership with Lamar Advertising, and the man arrested for trying to recycle them just happens to work for Lamar. More »
(20 buckz)
Finding A Non-Crappy Place To Live When You Have Poor Credit
By Laura Northrup on May 31, 2011 2:00 PM
61 Comments
D. hates her current apartment, and is looking for a new place to live. The catch? She works as a temp, and has had some credit problems. She has a steady work history, and also a decade-long history of on-time rent payments to the management company she currently rents from. She wonders: what advice does the Consumerist Hive Mind have for her as she looks for a new home? More »
'Stolen' Urban Outfitters Jewelry Design Not All That Original
By Laura Northrup on May 31, 2011 1:00 PM
63 Comments
If there's anything that the Internet loves, it's a story about a big, evil corporation screwing over a creative individual or small company. That's why people were quick to get behind the Etsy seller who claimed that Urban Outfitters stole her jewelry designs and was selling cheap knockoffs. The jewelry is similar, but her claim that the designs were original and hers alone is a lot more complicated than that. More »
Great Moments In Targeted Advertising
By Laura Northrup on May 31, 2011 12:00 PM
74 Comments
Theoretically, the coupons that print out for you at the grocery checkout are carefully targeted to you based on your buying habits over time, or on the products in your cart on that particular day. Which is why one reader of Passive-Aggressive Notes was just a bit insulted when she purchased a single pint of Ben & Jerry's and some chocolate chips (for a baking project, she swears) and the machine spat out this Slim-Fast coupon. More »
The Economics Of The Breast Milk Market
By Laura Northrup on May 31, 2011 11:00 AM
67 Comments
Wet nurses, women who breastfed others' children for pay, have a venerable history, only going out of style when artificial infant formulas became widely available. Mothers who can't nurse, but want their babies to have the nutritional and immune benefits of human milk now have more options than ever. These range from informal online networks of "raw" milk donors to Prolacta, a company that takes breast milk donations and sells an ultra-processed milk product for premature infants that costs thousands of dollars per baby per week. More »
Rolex Mails Precious Inherited Watch To Wrong House, Never To Be Seen Again
By Laura Northrup on May 31, 2011 10:00 AM
93 Comments
When Ali's father passed away last year, one thing that he inherited was a Rolex watch. Ali wanted to wear the watch in memory of his father, but it hadn't run in years. He writes that he sent the watch off to Rolex for a repair estimate, but found a less expensive repair option and asked for the watch back. Having moved in the interim, he double-checked with Rolex to make sure that they would send the watch to his new address. They promised that they would, then promptly mailed it to his old address. The watch disappeared. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on May 27, 2011 12:30 PM
113 Comments
- Chatting With Porno Scambot Reveals Dark Truths About Nature Of Human Consciousness
- Don't Move To These 10 Cities If You Want To Have A Job
- Is This Dove Body Wash Ad Racist Or Just Poorly Executed?
- Man Finds $45,000 In New House, And Returns It
- How Booze Keeps Getting Served In Sippy Cups To Kids At Restaurants
TransUnion Wants You To Share Your Credit Score On Facebook
By Laura Northrup on May 27, 2011 11:30 AM
52 Comments
Social media may have created a culture of over-sharing, but what's too personal to share with your Facebook friends? Michael was checking his credit report, and was surprised to see a "Share on Facebook" button directly below his credit score. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on May 27, 2011 10:30 AM
3 Comments
Here are twelve of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Alleged Walmart Shoplifter Goes On Violent Rampage After Being Asked For Receipt
By Laura Northrup on May 27, 2011 9:30 AM
108 Comments
This is a textbook example of how not to behave when asked for your receipt at a store's exit. According to the Bradenton, Florida police, a 22-year-old woman tried to leave a Walmart with 43 items she hadn't paid for, worth a total of $211. When asked for her receipt, she went on a destructive rampage, causing more than $1,000 worth of damage to merchandise. She also punched and spat on store employees, and hit a manager with a bar stool from inside her cart. Police officers discovered marijuana in her purse, and she has been charged with, among other things, aggravated assault and battery. More »
Update: Best Buy Changes Credit Quota Firing Threat
By Laura Northrup on May 27, 2011 9:00 AM
117 Comments
Well, that was fast. The reader and Best Buy employee who wrote in earlier this week about the threat of termination being used to make employees generate more credit card applications from customers. (Or, as the headline put it, "cram credit cards down customers' throats.") The tipster wrote back in to let us know that management in this particular region has backed down. While offering credit applications is still an important part of the job, working twelve shifts without persuading any customers to apply is no longer grounds for automatic termination. More »
(Evelyn)
Delta Offers Refund, Explanation For Dog Cargo Confusion
By Laura Northrup on May 27, 2011 8:00 AM
40 Comments
This is Scruffy the dog. Last week his human, Evelyn, wrote to us about her problems with Delta shipping Scruffy as cargo instead of baggage, not letting her know where he was, and charging an extra $391 at the airport to fly 50-pound Scruffy from New York to Los Angeles. In her letter to Delta, Evelyn said that she would be informing everyone she knows not to use Delta, since it is "most certainly neither a safe nor convenient carrier for pets." Now, at least, Delta has explained to Evelyn what went wrong, and she'll be receiving a refund for the full $591 in dog-shipping fees. It doesn't sound like Evelyn and Scruffy are in a hurry to fly Delta again soon, though. More »
(KDKA)
City Paid $1,000 For Iron Trash Cans, Thieves Sell Them For Scrap Metal
By Laura Northrup on May 26, 2011 12:30 PM
109 Comments
Back in 2009, the city of Pittsburgh paid $250,000 for 250 elegant iron trash cans weighing more than 200 pounds each. Critics of the mayor called it a waste of city funds at the time, but they are very nice-looking. Now 20% of them are missing, and it took police and the public works department four months to figure out where they've gone. They were hauled off and sold for scrap. Update: Theft Of Pittsburgh's Iron Trash Cans Allegedly An Inside Job More »
Best Buy Store Won't Price-Match Website, Still Does In-Store Pickup
By Laura Northrup on May 26, 2011 10:35 AM
128 Comments
Reader B. is a Best Buy employee, and has a moral problem with a new policy. This policy may just be at B.'s store or in that district, but it's still annoying. Employees have been told that they can no longer price-match BestBuy.com. They can, however, help the customer place an order online for in-store pickup from inside the store, then wait around for up to half an hour. This seems inefficient at best to B, but sounds familiar to us. More »
(elle_emm)
Chase QuickPay Decides Your Rent Payment Is Fraud, Locks Down Accounts
By Laura Northrup on May 26, 2011 9:30 AM
52 Comments
Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo customers will soon be able to send money to anyone with an e-mail address or mobile number using a new Voltron of a service called ClearXChange. Chase already has something similar to that called QuickPay, which Derek and his roommate (a Wells Fargo customer) used to transfer their rent money while Derek was out of town. Let's see how that worked out for them. More »
Changing Dead Battery Kills Jeep's Stereo
By Laura Northrup on May 26, 2011 9:00 AM
126 Comments
Bob somehow got the crazy idea in his head that when he changed the battery in his Jeep Liberty, the factory-installed 6-CD changer would not stop working. He and other Chrysler vehicle owners should have known better. Of course their stereos, made by Chrysler part supplier Mopar, couldn't handle a battery change. Since no one has any idea how to fix this issue, Bob had the choice to get the same system replaced for only $575, or go out and buy a significantly nicer aftermarket stereo for a lot less money. Hmm, what to do? More »
'Made In America' Bib Is Cute, But Made In China
More »
By Laura Northrup on May 26, 2011 8:15 AM
37 Comments
Nathan came across this cute bib that allows your child to declare that he or she was "Made in America." It's cute and all, but just slightly ironic that the bib itself was made in China. "I understand what the bib manufacturer is trying to say with the phrase," he notes. "I enjoy the fact that it could be read as a contradiction."More »
Here's Why You Shouldn't Carry A Large Balance In Your Skype Account
By Laura Northrup on May 25, 2011 9:30 AM
48 Comments
Some strange things happened to Rob's Skype account recently, Scammers drained his account balance and tried to steal money from his credit card, too. While his credit card remained untouched, and his account is now secure, he'd still like that stolen balance back. Skype is awfully sorry, but he's not going to get that money back. More »
Best Buy Employee: Pressure To Cram Credit Cards Down Customers' Throats Now Intensifying
By Laura Northrup on May 25, 2011 9:00 AM
218 Comments
The next time you're shopping at Best Buy, try not to get too angry when employees attempt to cram store credit cards down your throat. They're not personally out to scam you, or hawking cards to line their pockets. They're just trying not to get written up, reprimanded, or fired. A very insightful tipster who works at a Best Buy somewhere in the United States shared with us the impossible credit application quotas now in place. More »
This LivingSocial Deal Comes With A Free Math Test
By Laura Northrup on May 25, 2011 8:00 AM
31 Comments
Mark sent along this deal that came up on group deal site LivingSocial for his area. You can get two tickets to a Camden, NJ Riversharks game for $10, or four for $26. While $26 is the normal price for two tickets, this makes sense. But it still doesn't make very much sense. At least no one went for that deal, though, right? More »
Company Retaliates For Bad Game Review With... Bad Reviews Of Reviewer's Novel
More »
By Laura Northrup on May 20, 2011 4:45 PM
52 Comments
Writer Mike Murdock published a fantasy novel in 2008 that had a sudden uptick in reviews on Amazon.com a few weeks ago. Why the sudden popularity? Was it reviewed somewhere prominent? Made part of Oprah's Book Club? Tweeted by Roger Ebert? Not exactly. Murdock also reviews video games, and recently published a very unfavorable review of the new Sega/High Voltage Software Wii game Conduit 2 on Joystiq. A High Voltage employee then sent a link to the book's Amazon page to co-workers, urging them to read Murdock's book and "return the favor." Well, if a one-star review calling the book "below fan-fiction garbage" is a favor.More »
United Healthcare Decides You Only Needed Second Of Two Procedures
By Laura Northrup on May 20, 2011 3:20 PM
92 Comments
The good news is that after having two procedures on her spine last fall, Jackie is able to walk again. The bad news is that even though the two procedures were identitcal, United is only paying for the first one and not the second, and won't actually explain why. She has appealed the decision, but things don't look promising. More »
Family's Comcast Signal Obscured By Tangled Vines, Incompetence
By Laura Northrup on May 20, 2011 2:47 PM
43 Comments
David has finally reached the end of his cable when it comes to Comcast reception at his house. He has had multiple technicians out to help. He has contacted the executive customer service SWAT team. He has Twittered. His connection is still crappy, and he's locked in a contract. He finally fired off this letter to company executives, hoping that people at or above the Jack Donaghy level can help him receive the service he's actually paying for. More »
(wireout)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on May 20, 2011 12:00 PM
123 Comments
- The Best Flowchart For Proper Office Coffee-Maker Etiquette
- Cruise Ship Passengers Mutiny After Being Stranded For 3 Days
- Drive-Thru Line For First In-N-Out In Texas Stretches Down Highway
- TV's "Tax Lady" Roni Deutch Closes Firm, Surrenders Law License
- Skimmers Found Installed Inside Gas Pumps. Inside!
Nestle Zaps Lil' Drums With Rare Grocery Growth Ray
By Laura Northrup on May 20, 2011 11:46 AM
48 Comments
We are humbled and delighted to report that our previous report that Nestle's Lil' Drums frozen dairy-like dessert products has shrunk from ten cones per package to twelve was inaccurate. Nestle reached out to Consumerist and shared the amazing news that our tipster spotted the packages in the wrong order: the number of Lil' Drums in a package is actually increasing, from ten to twelve. More »
(Eva_Deht)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on May 20, 2011 9:30 AM
3 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
A Sprint Phone Upgrade Is Immutable, Never To Be Undone
By Laura Northrup on May 19, 2011 12:30 PM
42 Comments
If you upgrade your mobile phone, then return the new phone because software problems render it unusable, does this mean that you've used up your upgrade and cannot receive a new subsidized phone again for the term of your current contract? Based on reader Jason's experience...yeah, that's pretty much it. More »
AT&T Supplies iPhone AC Adapter With Refurbished iPads, Hopes You Won't Notice
By Laura Northrup on May 19, 2011 11:30 AM
28 Comments
Have you purchased a refurbished iPad from AT&T recently? Did it have the correct adapter?Adam made an interesting discovery when he bought one for his wife, noticing that the supplied adapter is the one for the iPhone. While it's compatible, it charges the giant-sized iPod Touch that is the iPad more slowly, and isn't powerful enough to keep the iPad going in photo frame mode. More »
Amazon's 'Frustration-Free' Packaging Means Selling Item Without AC Adapter
By Laura Northrup on May 19, 2011 10:36 AM
84 Comments
From the Consumerist phone tipline: Reader Jonathan ordered a Jawbone headset from Amazon packaged in the company's exciting "frustration-free" packaging. Unfortunately, in this case, "frustration-free" means "AC adapter-free," and the best Amazon can do is to take the item back for a refund. More »
Buying Fixtures In A Retail Liquidation Sale: A Cautionary Tale
By Laura Northrup on May 19, 2011 9:30 AM
57 Comments
Liquidators hired to clean out a closing retail store sell everything, down to the equipent and fixtures. Well, theoretically they do. Jay bought a handtruck from a closing Borders store, paid in advance, and was told to stop by the store to pick up the purchase later that month when the store actually closed. When he did, the store had closed, and all of the fixtures were gone, along with the liquidators. More »
(Evelyn)
Delta Charges Extra $391 To Fly Your Dog, Then Misplaces Him
By Laura Northrup on May 19, 2011 9:00 AM
94 Comments
Evelyn's father booked a ticket for her and her dog to fly from New York to Los Angeles on Delta Airlines. Being a regular Consumerist reader, she was nervous about trusting Delta with her beloved pet, but notes that "[she] thought the horror stories must be rare enough that we should take the trip." Delta staff told her that her dog, who weighs about 50 pounds, needed to fly as cargo at a cost of $591, instead of the quoted $200. The ostensible reason was severe weather on the ground in Los Angeles. What this extra $391 got Evelyn was a missing pet for an hour, then an upset and dehydrated dog. More »
FTD Sends Your Mom More Craptacular Flowers Than Expected
By Laura Northrup on May 18, 2011 9:30 AM
101 Comments
It's not that we expect miracles from florists on major dead-plant-giving holidays. But the least we can expect is for the recipient—presumably, someone we give a crap about—to receive the item that we chose and paid for. Sarah's mom's birthday was the day before Mother's Day this year, so she decided to use a LivingSocial coupon and order up some beautiful flowers to honor both occasions. More »
Negotiate Your Own Sale At The Gap
By Laura Northrup on May 18, 2011 9:00 AM
22 Comments
Have you ever shopped for clothes online and said to yourself, "Man, I wish this could be more like Priceline, where I could name my own price, but the selection is limited and the deals not all that great?" The Gap is here to help you achieve that dream, with their new "Gap My Price" site. It's as if Gap and Priceline got together and spawned a largely useless but mildly entertaining deal site that generates coupons you can't use online. More »
(ashi)
Southwest Vacations Mysteriously Changes Mind About Ticket Cutoff After Consumerist Post
By Laura Northrup on May 18, 2011 8:00 AM
12 Comments
Luke experienced the strangest coincidence recently. He didn't get the Vegas show tickets that were part of his vacation package because the transaction went through 23 minutes too late. One morning, he hung up after yet another fruitless phone call to the company. Later that day, Southwest Vacations called him up to let him know that they would be sending the tickets after all. Hooray! Victory! What happened in those few hours to change their minds? Well, you may remember that Luke's story appeared on this site a few weeks ago. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on May 13, 2011 12:30 PM
188 Comments
- 8 Simple, Everyday Ways To Get A Brain Bleed
- An Open Letter To You From An Employee At A Liquidating Bookstore
- Beat High Airfares With The Old "Hidden City" Trick
- Why A 15-Year Mortgage Might Not Be Your Best Bet
- Honda Spokesman Gets Screwed By Honda Dealer
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on May 13, 2011 10:30 AM
11 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
J. Crew Replaces Dress Stained In Kindergarten Marker Mishap
By Laura Northrup on May 13, 2011 9:00 AM
35 Comments
Some of the stories of good customer service that we post are simply tales of good customer service executed by competent employees. These deserve praise, but don't compare to true "Above and Beyond" consumer experiences. That's what Jeremy's family experienced from J. Crew after a terrible fate befell their daughter's new dress (not pictured.) They called the store to see whether the dress was in stock so they could buy a replacement. Instead, J. Crew stunned the family by exchanging the damaged dress for a new one at no charge. More »
Toy Commercials, In Word Cloud Form
By Laura Northrup on May 13, 2011 8:00 AM
0 Comments
What does it look like when you take the words from toy commercial voiceovers and turn them into a tag cloud of sorts? It looks like this. One cloud is made from commercials targeting boys, and the other made from commercials targeting girls. I wonder which is which? More »
(dooley)
Sorry, Joining Your Fiancé's Verizon Plan Voids Your Phone's Warranty
By Laura Northrup on May 12, 2011 11:45 AM
40 Comments
David and his fiancée decided that it was finally time to take their commitment to the next level: joining their mobile phone plans together. Unfortunately, they were both already Verizon customers and wanted to upgrade their phones. If can't imagine why this would be a problem, you've never upgraded phones and then joined plans at Verizon. The process seems to be specifically designed to keep customers from doing this. More »
Lil' Drums Ice Cream Cone Packages Now Even More Lil'
Fans of Nestle's perfectly dessert-sized mini Drumsticks will be disappointed this summer. While the individual cones have stayed the same size, there are now only ten to a box instead of the former twelve. Update: Nestle let us know that the change is actually the other way around: the package is becoming less lil', not more. More »
By Laura Northrup on May 12, 2011 9:00 AM
25 Comments
Amazon Cloud Player Locks User Out Of Music Collection
By Laura Northrup on May 12, 2011 8:00 AM
59 Comments
The Amazon Cloud Player is a delightful new service that allows users to store music they've purchased from Amazon (or upload even more music from somewhere else) and listen to it from any Web browser or on a variety of mobile devices. Neat. Bryan thought that he would try it out, but something went wrong, and now his music is trapped in the cloud. Even though he writes that he's only used the Cloud Player on three different computers, Amazon clams that he's reached his limit of eight devices and can't access his files. More »
Vibram USA Doesn't Like Pouting Customers, Replaces Busted Shoes
More »
By Laura Northrup on May 11, 2011 10:15 AM
60 Comments
I hear from runners I know that Vibram 5 Fingers shoes are the greatest invention since... well, shoes. Reader Mark agrees, and when his pair developed burst seams and some other holes, he was unhappy. He would miss his unbelievably dorky-looking but comfortable shoes. So he did the only logical thing: he posted a photo essay online of the wonderful times that he and his shoes had together, and sent a link to Vibram USA.More »
At Procter & Gamble, 100 Is Pretty Much The Same Thing As 40
By Laura Northrup on May 11, 2011 9:00 AM
41 Comments
Sure, all sensible Consumerists know that bottled water is a terrible idea for the planet and for your wallet, and all of the cool kids filter their own tap water at home. Reader Bob is wise enough to know this, and he recently purchased a Pur filtration pitcher that came with an extra filter that can filter 100 additional gallons of water. Or maybe 40. See, unlike the people in charge of writing the copy on boxes of Pur pitchers, Bob knows that 40 is much less than 100. More »
Hotel Digs Out Old-School Carbon Credit Card Machine, Forgets To Actually Charge Customer
By Laura Northrup on May 11, 2011 8:00 AM
107 Comments
What do you do when you've received a product or service, but were never charged for it? Legally, in most cases you're not required to do anything, but what about those pesky ethics? Rebecca was traveling to Europe for business, and the hotel had trouble processing the transaction on either her business or personal credit cards. The hotel clerk hauled an old-school carbon copy device out of, we assume, some kind of Museum of Antiquated But Still Functional Financial Devices and took an impression of Rebecca's personal credit card. The bill was settled. Rebecca's company reimbursed her for the hotel stay. But six weeks later, the hotel still hasn't charged her card, and she isn't sure what to do. More »
([RAWRZ!])
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on May 6, 2011 12:30 PM
88 Comments
- Brooklyn Delivery Guy Calls Out Bad Tippers On His Blog
- Security Expert: Sony Knew Its Software Was Obsolete Months Before PSN Breach
- Logos Redesigned For What The Company Actually Does
- Well, At Least Netflix Is Being Realistic
- How Much Should You Spend On An Engagement Ring?
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on May 6, 2011 11:30 AM
7 Comments
Here are seven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Bosch Replaces Malfunctioning Washer, Breaks Up Matching Set
By Laura Northrup on May 6, 2011 9:36 AM
108 Comments
The good news: after seven months of repair attempts, Sylvia was able to get Bosch to replace her washing machine. The bad news: she paid big bucks for a matching washer and dryer set not too long ago, and the new washer on its way doesn't match the perfectly-working dryer at all. Is she being unreasonable to want a warranty replacement that is part of the pretty matched set she paid for? More »
What Can This Babies R Us Coupon Actually Be Used For?
By Laura Northrup on May 6, 2011 9:00 AM
50 Comments
In the comments of yesterday's Lane Bryant post, reader DeadPlasmaCell shared this terrible coupon for Babies R Us. The list of excluded items includes, essentially, the entire inventory of a Babies R Us store. What's left? Clothes? It would be a nice coupon if it said "20% off any clothing item" instead (except for the excepted clothing lines) but that would be too simple and much, much too easy. More »
(iPablosu)
Thoughtful Xbox Buys Owner An Unusable Present That Microsoft Can't Refund
By Laura Northrup on May 6, 2011 8:05 AM
99 Comments
Christopher did something very, very stupid yesterday. Well, that, or one of his Xbox controllers did something very thoughtful and bought him a present on its own, even though it's not Christmas or Bill Gates' birthday or anything. Unfortunately, the gift was a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops that there isn't even room on his console to download, and the Xbox used his Live account. Some present. This is the reason why you shouldn't leave anything on top of your controller that will keep hitting "accept." More »
Lane Bryant Sale Flyer Redefines 'Entire Store,' 'Everything'
By Laura Northrup on May 5, 2011 12:35 PM
69 Comments
David isn't really sure why he received this Lane Bryant flyer in the mail, seeing that he's not only thin, but, well, male. But that doesn't matter at Lane Bryant, where they're stretching the limits of reality and of the English language. More »
(AlishaV)
Michaels Warns Customers Of Possible Data Breach
By Laura Northrup on May 5, 2011 11:35 AM
38 Comments
If you've shopped at a Michaels big-box craft store recently and used a credit or debit card, keep an eye on your statements, especially if you shopped in the greater Chicago area. The chain notified customers on its e-mail list earlier today about a possible PIN pad breach in Chicago that may apply to other stores as well. More »
(srd515)
Southwest Vacations Lets Deal Expire, Sends You To Phone Sex Line To Complain
By Laura Northrup on May 5, 2011 10:37 AM
17 Comments
Luke learned two interesting things recently while booking his Vegas vacation through Southwest Vacations. First, Southwest Vacations isn't a part of Southwest Airlines, as he had assumed. Second, deals that are available when you first begin your online transaction aren't necessarily available once you finally check out. Not knowing that second bit of information cost him the "free" show tickets that were the reason he chose a more expensive booking through Southwest Vacations in the first place. More »
E-mail To Sprint CEO Gets $400 Rebate Check Re-Issued
By Laura Northrup on May 5, 2011 9:30 AM
17 Comments
Sprint owed Sean and his wife $400 in rebates for their shiny new LG Optimus phones. They tried to be patient, but a few months passed and the rebates were clearly overdue or missing. A few days ago, Sean finally sat down and sent this brief but effective email to CEO Dan Hesse. More »
Google Has Great Services For Customers, No Customer Service
By Laura Northrup on May 5, 2011 9:00 AM
36 Comments
If you're considering porting your mobile phone number to Google Voice instead of to a new carrier, consider this: free or inexpensive phone services have a hidden expense: customer service. When Peter's number port didn't work, Google's customer support structure left him with no real-time support options and no way to get the attention of anyone who could actually help him. More »
(Coyoty)
If You Wanted Real Bacon, You Should Have Said So
By Laura Northrup on May 5, 2011 8:10 AM
94 Comments
While Denny's continues to celebrate the glorious festival of Baconalia, Robert encountered quite the opposite recently at a local restaurant. He ordered a Cobb salad that included, among other things, bacon. When it arrived containing imitation bacon, he complained to the waitress and was told that if he wanted real bacon, he should have specified that he wanted the real thing. More »
(mphoenix)
Create An Emergency Kit For Your Pet
By Laura Northrup on May 4, 2011 10:45 AM
61 Comments
If you had to leave your home on short notice due to a natural disaster or other emergency, would you have a bag of emergency supplies ready to go? While adults and older children can handle packing their own bags in a hurry, members of your family who don't have opposable thumbs can't. More »
Well, At Least Netflix Is Being Realistic
More »
By Laura Northrup on May 4, 2011 9:32 AM
72 Comments
Say what you will about this exit survey for unsubscribing Netflix customers, but at least it's realistic about why people cancel Netflix. It's especially thoughtful of Netflix to include the addresses of still-functioning torrent sites for those users who aren't yet familiar with them. (Thanks, MedicallyNeedy!)More »
Ethically Dubious Ways To Make Your Next Flight More Enjoyable
By Laura Northrup on May 4, 2011 9:00 AM
138 Comments
Getting your way as a consumer often requires social awareness and a sense of what's appropriate. But up there in the rough and scary unfriendly skies, it's a whole other game. Sometimes, having a pleasant flight means making others physically uncomfortable and can push the boundaries of your personal moral code. What are these sneaky secrets? More »
Office Max Proudly Advertises Their Fuzzy Pricing Math
By Laura Northrup on May 1, 2011 10:00 AM
29 Comments
This fuzzy math that Laurie found at Office Max seems like your everyday pricing error— a stupid sign posted by bored and underpaid worker who doesn't bother to question authority. But look deeper. That sign says "As advertised." That means that Office Max put out a circular or other advertisement bragging that they're selling correction tape for one cent more than they normally do. Grab your coat, honey! We can't possibly miss this once-in-a-lifetime sale! More »
How To Save On Medical Care For Your Pet
By Laura Northrup on April 30, 2011 3:15 PM
100 Comments
There have been amazing advances in veterinary care in the last few decades, and amazing advances in cost along with them. An animal's serious illness can cost thousands of dollars, more out of pocket than their owner's medical treatment. (Well, assuming that the owner has health insurance.) Routine vaccinations and preventive care aren't cheap, either. The New York Times recently offered some advice for people who love their pets, but don't have a fortune to spend. More »
Brooklyn Delivery Guy Calls Out Bad Tippers On His Blog
By Laura Northrup on April 30, 2011 10:00 AM
413 Comments
Crappy tippers, beware. The delivery guy or gal who you grossly undertip this weekend might have a Tumblr account. Tired of meager tips from customers who clearly have some cash, one delivery guy in Brooklyn—Williamsburg, to be exact—is striking back by calling out lousy tippers on his blog, and gathering tips from readers. Unlike us, he leaves names, addresses, and locations unredacted. Check it out soon, because it probably won't stay up for long in its current form. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on April 29, 2011 12:30 PM
101 Comments
- Customer Catches Best Buy Breaking Law, Gets Banned From Store Best Policy Ever: Neither The Customer, Nor We, Are Always Right
- The Story Behind Easter Candy Favorite: Peeps!
- Toshiba Won't Repair Faulty Hard Drive Because You Sharpied "Faulty" On It
- Magic Metal Beans Keep Your Coffee Hot For Hours
- Allegations Of Photography Cause Plane Evacuation, 2.5-Hour Delay On United Flight
As Mother's Day Approaches, Flower Deals Do Not Get Better
By Laura Northrup on April 29, 2011 11:35 AM
39 Comments
ProFlowers sends a lot of promotional e-mails, and Barry is on their list. While the deals on flowers get worse as a major dead-plant-sending holiday approaches, the contrast between one day's deal and the next was extreme enough to make Barry ask, "How stupid do they think I am?" More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on April 29, 2011 10:30 AM
13 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. This week, Flickr finds goes high(er)-def: we take the pictures up to 640 pixels. (Warning: finds include scary clown picture. Proceed with caution.) More »
EECB Saves The Day When Scammer Disputes Chargeback And Wins
By Laura Northrup on April 29, 2011 9:30 AM
46 Comments
Lee's teenage son has a debit card, and he didn't sign up for any credit monitoring services or ask for mysterious entities to call his cell phone 15-20 times every day. When the mysterious credit monitoring service charge showed up on his bill, his father disputed the charge and thought that was the end. The company disputed the dispute and got their charge reinstated. What now? As a Consumerist reader, Lee knew what to do. More »
50-Year Sears Customer Vows 'Never Again'
By Laura Northrup on April 29, 2011 9:05 AM
222 Comments
Nicholas in California has shopped at Sears for his entire life. His parents shopped at Sears. His grandparents shopped at Sears. Now, after a recent experience, he says he won't ever shop there again. What kind of experience would drive a customer to say that? He copied Consumerist—and his entire e-mail contacts list—on his letter to Sears. Spoiler alert: it involves incompetent customer service. More »
This Is A $6,000 Toilet
By Laura Northrup on April 28, 2011 11:40 AM
49 Comments
If you have six thousand dollars to spend, there are a lot of things that you can do with it. You could buy a used car. You could furnish your living room. You could even buy six thousand Taco Bell bean burritos. Or you could go for the ultimate in luxury for your rear end and buy the $6,390 Numi from Kohler, which features handsfree operation, a built-in bidet, and speakers for your MP3 player. More »
Hotel Issues Refund, Priceline Keeps All Of The Money
By Laura Northrup on April 28, 2011 10:30 AM
87 Comments
Wynn could use the services of a Priceline negotiator. He booked a stay at a Marriott through Priceline, but due to some confusion, the hotel put the price of the entire stay on his credit card. The hotel promised Wynn a refund of the incorrect charge, and didn't end up charging Priceline for the hotel stay, either. That was incredibly nice of them, but leaves Wynn with a problem: Priceline still charged him, and simply kept all of the money. More »
Consumer Reports Rates Britax B-Nimble Strollers 'Don't Buy'
By Laura Northrup on April 28, 2011 9:30 AM
43 Comments
If you're in the market for a stroller with a confusing parking brake that could send your child rolling down a hill, consider the Britax B-Nimble stroller. Or...don't. Our safely strolling siblings at Consumer Reports found the stroller's parking brake system problematic, and have given it a "Don't Buy" rating. More »
(XISMZERO)
The Dunkin' Donuts Buttered Bagel Battle
By Laura Northrup on April 28, 2011 9:00 AM
109 Comments
Sometimes, the ripoffs that are the most frustrating are the smallest ones: small transactions that are repeated thousands of times and eventually add up to some real money. Brian has one such issue with his local Dunkin' Donuts outlets: they keep charging him too much for a bagel with butter. Seems petty, doesn't it? They charge him for a bagel with spread, then charge separately for the butter, at a difference of $1 for every bagel. If he buys a bagel five days a week, fifty weeks a year, that's $250 over the course of a year. He could be halfway to buying an iPad, just on butter overcharges. More »
Why Are Financial Companies Forcing Us To Have Weak Passwords?
By Laura Northrup on April 28, 2011 8:00 AM
132 Comments
Your bank or credit card company is probably the last entity you would want forcing you to set an incredibly weak Web password. But it's not just American Express that wants their customers to use really crappy, easily crackable passwords. Charlie recently discovered that Capital One and, to a lesser extent, Bank of America have limits on their customers' passwords that force them to choose crappy ones. More »
Recall Roundup: Fire In The Fish Tank Edition
By Laura Northrup on April 27, 2011 5:00 PM
33 Comments
While it makes sense, it's a little strange at first glance to read that an aquarium heater is being recalled for a fire hazard. Isn't it underwater? Not the parts that could potentially catch fire. But they're not the only thing catching on fire: on with the recall roundup! More »
Lawsuit: Benjamin Moore's Odorless Paint Actually Quite Stinky
By Laura Northrup on April 27, 2011 4:00 PM
46 Comments
Benjamin Moore's Natura paint is billed as an eco-friendly, odorless paint with no volatile organic compounds that doesn't stink up your house while it dries. Some consumers love it, and some don't. Bu some consumers really don't like it, and one woman has initiated a class-action suit claiming that Natura wouldn't dry and stunk up her house so badly that she couldn't stay in her home. More »
Anti-Consumer Behavior In A Tourist Trap? Well, I Never!
By Laura Northrup on April 27, 2011 3:00 PM
40 Comments
Mike came across this sign on a rack of sunglasses while on vacation at a famous vacation destination. "All of the sunglasses on the rack were exactly the same, and had a price tag of $12.00 marked down to $9.00," he writes. "No '25 cent' ones to be seen anywhere. Classic!" More »
Rest Easy, America: The New AFLAC Spokesduck Has Been Chosen
By Laura Northrup on April 27, 2011 2:07 PM
14 Comments
Our brief national nightmare is over: supplemental insurance company AFLAC has chosen a new man to voice its spokesduck after comedian Gilbert Gottfried was fired from the job for cracking jokes about the tsunami in Japan over Twitter. The new man for the job? a 36-year-old radio sales manager from Minnesota who auditioned for the job online. More »
Dish Network Doesn't Want Hospitalized Customer Back
By Laura Northrup on April 27, 2011 1:05 PM
44 Comments
E.'s dad has been in the hospital since February recovering from complications from heart surgery. The family didn't expect him to be hospitalized this long, and his bills are in a bit of disarray. The only company not willing to work something out? Dish Network, which canceled his past-due account, which was still in his ex-wife's name. More »
This Is Kind Of A Crappy Thank-You From Canon
By Laura Northrup on April 27, 2011 12:15 PM
53 Comments
"Our thanks to you!" trumpets this e-mail that Howard received from Canon after buying a printer from them. Well, that's nice. How is Canon thanking their customers? By offering a free smartphone and Android app to customers...if they sign a two-year contract with Verizon. Isn't that the deal you can get from Verizon if you walk in off the street? More »
(XISMZERO)
Sears, This Is Why No One Likes You
By Laura Northrup on April 27, 2011 11:00 AM
79 Comments
In-Store pickup for online orders from Sears is such a promising concept. You order something, pick it up a short time later at your local Sears store, bring it home, and enjoy your new and properly functioning appliance, tool, or gadget. Seasoned Sears shoppers and faithful Consumerist readers know that things often don't work that way. Today's exhibit: David, and his fight to get Sears to sell him a functioning toaster oven. More »
Lowe's Teaches Us: Protection Plans Are Useless, And/Or Lock Up Your Receipts
By Laura Northrup on April 27, 2011 10:00 AM
46 Comments
W. warns us all: don't buy expensive tools and the Master Protection Plan that goes with them from Lowe's. If you do, keep the receipt somewhere that you will absolutely not lose it, like a fireproof safe or stapled to your forehead. How does he know? It all begins with selling a used saw that originally came from Lowe's. More »
(arepa182)
Will Women's Clothing Sizes Ever Be Standardized?
By Laura Northrup on April 26, 2011 5:15 PM
191 Comments
The good news: clothing manufacturers have figured out (again) that perhaps they should standardize women's clothing sizes. The bad news: multiple companies are working on different systems, so this standardization won't be standardized any time soon. More »
Take Your Jewelry To Kay For Repairs If You Never Want To See It Again
By Laura Northrup on April 26, 2011 4:00 PM
41 Comments
Consumerist readers may fault Michelle for patronizing a chain jewelry store, but she and her family have a solid relationship with their local Kay Jewelers store. Such a solid relationship, in fact, that when her boyfriend's pocket watch needed repairs, she brought it back to the store in her hometown when it needed repairs. This turned out to be a mistake: she would have done just as well putting the watch under her mattress. More »
UPS Sends Yet Another Package Back To 2009
By Laura Northrup on April 26, 2011 3:07 PM
49 Comments
For me, half of the fun in ordering things online is watching the package find its way to me through the shipping service's online tracking system. The UPS package that Dean is waiting for won't provide him with that pleasure, though, because it has apparently been sent back to 2009 for delivery. Well, that, or UPS continues to recycle its tracking numbers. More »
Calculate And Track Your Gas Mileage With Fuelly
By Laura Northrup on April 26, 2011 2:00 PM
50 Comments
The best way to save money on gasoline is to use less of it. You can do that by driving less, and by being more conscious of your car's gas mileage. Fuelly is a handy little web application that's easy to use from your smartphone, or your computer. It tracks your gas purchases and mileage over time and calculates miles per gallon overall and per tank. More »
How Can I Prepare In Advance In Case My Flights Are Canceled?
By Laura Northrup on April 26, 2011 1:09 PM
75 Comments
Mrgrammarperson has an upcoming airline trip planned, and he's nervous that one of his flights will be canceled and throw his entire travel itinerary off. He asks the seasoned travelers of the Consumerist Hive Mind: what should he do if his flights are canceled to reach his destination on time? More »
The Easter Bunny Has Very Poor Math Skills
By Laura Northrup on April 26, 2011 12:00 PM
42 Comments
Is it an Easter miracle, or just fuzzy math? Reader Elgog sent in this photo of a chocolate bunny, wondering, "Apparently ¼ of the bunny equals about 5 servings. Does this make it a diet chocolate bunny?" No. If there are five servings, each of which consists of one-quarter of the bunny, that means that the fifth person is on a diet. Obviously.
AT&T Charges Your 82-Year-Old Grandma A $150 ETF
By Laura Northrup on April 26, 2011 11:00 AM
54 Comments
One might think that a recently-widowed 82-year-old woman moving in with her grandson in another state would be have a valid reason for AT&T to waive the early termination fee on her phone and Internet package. Not so! Reader Chris is the grandson in this situation, and he helped his grandmother get the $150 ETF waived. AT&T has finally cooperated: they think. More »
Meet The Frat-Boy Entrepreneurs Who Created Four Loko
By Laura Northrup on April 26, 2011 10:00 AM
44 Comments
The men who created Four Loko are exactly who you would expect to bring such a strong caffeine-infused booze confection into the world: former frat boys from a large midwestern university who attended college when Red Bull and vodka was king. After a few false starts, their company, Phusion Projects, briefly owned the caffeinated alcohol market, and because of that success got the kind of brand recognition that no company wants. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on April 22, 2011 12:30 PM
2 Comments
Here are twelve of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
(Kelly)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
Customer Catches Best Buy Breaking Law, Gets Banned From Store
Lawsuit: Campbell's "Regular" And "25% Less Sodium" Tomato Soup Both Contain 480mg Of Sodium
Texas Man Loses 78% Of Tax Refund After Winning Free Donut Coupons At Houston Astros Game More »
By Laura Northrup on April 22, 2011 11:30 AM
83 Comments
Couple Uses Legal Loophole, Gets House Practically For FreeCustomer Catches Best Buy Breaking Law, Gets Banned From Store
Lawsuit: Campbell's "Regular" And "25% Less Sodium" Tomato Soup Both Contain 480mg Of Sodium
Texas Man Loses 78% Of Tax Refund After Winning Free Donut Coupons At Houston Astros Game More »
Papa John's Catches Royal Wedding Fever, Makes Creepy Portrait Pizza
By Laura Northrup on April 22, 2011 10:30 AM
34 Comments
Here at Consumerist Global Headquarters, we were so preoccupied with the final rounds of the Worst Company in America tournament last week that we missed what is arguably the biggest chain-pizzeria news of the entire month. Papa John's commissioned a food artist to design a celebratory wedding portrait. It's in honor of the upcoming marriage of two charming young rich people named William Windsor and Catherine Middleton. You may have heard of them. More »
T-Mobile Isn't Sure How It's Going To Replace Phone Stolen In Shipment
By Laura Northrup on April 22, 2011 9:00 AM
28 Comments
Hey, T-Mobile, why is Autumn paying for service when her phone never reached her in the first place? She and her husband ordered their shiny new devices online, and one mysteriously disappeared while the package was in the hands of UPS. Well, not so mysterious: someone opened up the box and stole the phone. Two weeks later, she's still waiting for the phone, a consistent answer from T-Mobile, or—let's go crazy here—maybe both. More »
Take Preventive Measures To Avoid Zombie Billing
By Laura Northrup on April 22, 2011 9:00 AM
47 Comments
How can you prevent a zombie billing invasion after your satellite TV contract is up? Simple, explains reader catastrophegirl: give the company a credit card to put on file that expires before your contract is up. If they try to put the zombie charges on the card—well, they can't. More »
When GPS Suction Cup Won't Suck, TomTom's Customer Service Does
By Laura Northrup on April 22, 2011 8:00 AM
27 Comments
To be fair, it's not that the customer service agents that Dave spoke to at TomTom were unfriendly. It's just that their RMA process is needlessly complicated. He received a defective suction cup thingy with his GPS unit, and called up the company so they could send him a new one. He spent more than an hour on the phone with various customer service reps to get a replacement. How much did TomTom spend paying their employees to verify that Dave was, indeed, eligible to receive a small piece of plastic that's not very useful when one doesn't already own a TomTom GPS? More »
Sprint Does Everything Possible To Drive Longtime Customer Away
By Laura Northrup on April 21, 2011 12:30 PM
75 Comments
G. has been a longtime loyal Sprint wireless customer. Thirteen years, to be exact. She recently signed a new contract, and then a series of things happened in quick succession that make having service with Sprint darn near unacceptable. There's a broken phone, service that doesn't work in the house after a move, promised 4G service that hasn't showed up yet, and a promised rebate that never materialized. More »
Someone Explain To Experian How American Express Cards Work
By Laura Northrup on April 21, 2011 11:45 AM
58 Comments
How does American Express work? Michael writes that Experian doesn't seem to understand how the company's credit limits work. His card technically has no limit, and this confuses Experian. They coped with the confusion by showing that instead of having theoretically infinite available credit, he had $0, making his pristine record look pretty bad to potential lenders. More »
Is It Amazon's Fault They Still Have My $200, Or Mine?
By Laura Northrup on April 21, 2011 9:30 AM
102 Comments
David ordered a Kindle and cover from Amazon shortly after Christmas, but it disappeared in transit and was never heard from again. These things happen in commerce. What David doesn't understand is why, after he was too busy to respond after an initial e-mail exchange, Amazon didn't try to contact him or just automatically issue a refund or replacement for the missing Kindle. More »
Healthy Cooking Teacher Must Stop Taking Name Of Kraft Mac & Cheese In Vain
By Laura Northrup on April 21, 2011 9:00 AM
130 Comments
In the mysterious northern land of Canada, the delicious boxed food-like substance that we Americans call "Kraft Macaroni & Cheese" is called by its original name: "Kraft Dinner," or "KD," affectionately. When a Calgary food blogger began a cooking class for college students meant to show them quick, easy, and non-orange food options, he called it "Kick the KD." Then Kraft contacted him to let him know that they didn't appreciate having the name of their flagship product taken in vain. More »
Soap.com Wants To Fill A Different Kind Of Easter Basket This Year
By Laura Northrup on April 21, 2011 8:00 AM
19 Comments
Jim stopped by online personal-care superstore soap.com (now part of Amazon) and typed in the seemingly innocuous search term "Easter." The site returned a page full of sex toys are are decidedly rabbit-themed, but not traditional Easter gifts. (This post contains small images that may not be safe for work, depending on where you work.) More »
Couple Uses Legal Loophole, Gets House Practically For Free
By Laura Northrup on April 20, 2011 5:00 PM
147 Comments
How did an Iowa couple with two foreclosures already under their belts get to own their house free and clear after making only one mortgage payment? By taking advantage of a law designed to keep married couples from making huge financial commitments without the other's consent. Since the wife was late to their closing and didn't sign the mortgage, the couple now owns their house free and clear after making only one payment. More »
Sears Helpfully Pre-Assembles Your Grill So It Won't Fit In Your Car
By Laura Northrup on April 20, 2011 4:15 PM
95 Comments
The bad news: Sears has started channeling the Geek Squad, pre-optimizing all merchandise in stock before customers have a choice in the matter. The worse news: they're failing at it terribly. Ron tried to purchase a gas grill on sale at Sears. He placed his order online for instore pickup, only to discover that all of the grills in stock were already assembled. Fine, except an already-assembled grill won't fit in his car. The only bright spot for consumers: unlike Geek Squad, Sears doesn't even have the foresight to charge for the optimization service. More »
Library E-Books Finally Come To The Kindle
By Laura Northrup on April 20, 2011 3:05 PM
41 Comments
Kindle users, fire up your brains for even more delicious books. Amazon announced earlier today that the OverDrive ebook library lending system is coming to the Kindle platform. The technology is already available on competing book replacement devices, the Nook and Kobo. Kindle Library Lending will give Kindle users access through the 11,000 public and school/college libraries that are already part of OverDrive. More »
Shrink Rayed Noxzema Jar Has 2 Fewer Ounces, Bonus False Bottom
By Laura Northrup on April 20, 2011 2:15 PM
62 Comments
Last year, Noxzema scooped two ounces out of their signature blue jars after a minor redesign. Mike noticed that the jar still appeared to be the same size as the previous 14-ounce incarnation, so he did the only logical thing one can do in this situation: he attacked the jar with a saw to confirm that it did indeed have a false bottom. More »
False Alarm: There Is No 50% Off Everything Sale At Michaels
By Laura Northrup on April 20, 2011 1:00 PM
39 Comments
Customers (myself included) on the email list of craft retailer Michaels received a message this morning with the subject line of "50% off your entire purchase - Friday only." thought that perhaps the stakes had been raised in the ongoing coupon arms race between the big-box craft retailers. Alas, no. More »
Have You Been Signed Up For Bank Of America's Customer Years Program?
By Laura Northrup on April 20, 2011 12:00 PM
93 Comments
Have you ever heard of the Bank of America Customer Years program? Patricia hasn't, which is interesting, because she apparently consented to sign up for it. She saves all paperwork that her financial institutions send her, and can't find any trace of this program: or any valid reason why she would have signed up for it. More »
Calphalon Replaces Flaky Omelet Pans, Delights Customer
By Laura Northrup on April 20, 2011 11:00 AM
68 Comments
When the non-stick coating began to flake off Denise's set of Calphalon omelet pans, her first plan was to get rid of them and buy new ones. Then she had a different idea: pack the old pans up and send them to Calphalon in an attempt to get a discount on a new set. They sent something back, but it wasn't a coupon. More »
T-Mobile Upgrade Error Leads To Unwanted Data Plan
By Laura Northrup on April 20, 2011 10:05 AM
10 Comments
Were Michael's troubles with Target and T-Mobile due to miscommunication, or did someone intentionally mislead him? Everyone's pointing fingers at each other, but the lesson is clear: if your mobile phone company tells you that you have an upgrade available for which you're not eligible, it's probably a good idea not to take it unless you're able to quadruple-verify that taking the upgrade won't lead to a data plan you can't use and don't want. More »
An iPad 2 Smart Cover Is Much Less Entertaining Without The iPad
By Laura Northrup on April 19, 2011 4:35 PM
38 Comments
Jeremy's iPad 2 has been backordered, and he has to wait another month or so to receive it. That's okay, though. They sent along his Smart Cover in advance, and he's found at least as many uses for the cover as he would have had for the iPad. Kind of. More »
(Fujoshi)
Botched Supercut Has Happy Ending
By Laura Northrup on April 19, 2011 3:30 PM
153 Comments
After receiving a coupon in the mail, Jacqueline thought she would save some money by getting her hair trimmed at a local Supercuts. This turned out to be a false economy, since her stylist didn't seem to actually listen to what Jacqueline wanted, and was more interested in her lunch than in her customer. More »
Allstate Salesman Tells You One Thing, Sells You Another
By Laura Northrup on April 19, 2011 3:00 PM
65 Comments
Noah decided that it's time to be all grown up and insure his possessions, and so he called up Allstate to take out a pretty basic renter's insurance policy. He conferred with the salesman first in order to make sure that his valuable watches would be covered under the policy, and not require an extra rider. Yes, Noah was assured, those watches would be covered. Then his policy showed up in the mail. Guess what it doesn't cover? More »
Mother Claims 4-Year-Old Served Boozy Mudslide Instead Of Milkshake At Chili's
By Laura Northrup on April 19, 2011 2:00 PM
143 Comments
There might be something wrong when a 4-year-old child doesn't want to finish a chocolate milkshake. A mother in Chicago claims that her daughter didn't want to finish her shake at Chili's because it was actually the sweet, boozy chocolaty concoction known as a Mudslide. The child was diagnosed with alcohol ingestion overdose, but did she take in the booze at Chili's? More »
Want Milk In Your Coffee? At Some McDonald's, You'll Have To Buy A Whole Carton
By Laura Northrup on April 19, 2011 12:30 PM
113 Comments
McDonald's wants to be your caffeine pusher of choice, and promotes their inexpensive brewed coffee and frozen creations as quick, convenient, and cheap. $1 is the price point advertised on billboards. Cheap! What they don't mention in these ads, though, is that price applies if you want your coffee black or with cream or half and half. If you prefer milk in your coffee, some franchises will accommodate you, but at others, you're going to have to pay for a half-pint carton of milk. More »
Fifth Third Is Jealous You're In A Committed Mortgage Relationship With Another Bank
By Laura Northrup on April 19, 2011 11:00 AM
34 Comments
It's not all that interesting that Fifth Third Bank sent Jeff and his wife a letter encouraging them to refinance their mortgage: after all, they're Fifth Third customers, but their mortgage is with another bank. What is interesting is that they just took out the mortgage a few months ago, and they went with another bank because Fifth Third turned them down. More »
Lawsuit Questioning Beefiness Of Taco Bell Beef Dropped
By Laura Northrup on April 19, 2011 10:00 AM
40 Comments
The Alabama law firm that filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against Taco Bell regarding the quality and contents of its ground beef—or "taco meat filling"—has voluntarily dropped the suit. The original lawsuit accused Taco Bell of serving ground beef in its "Mexican-inspired" meals that didn't meet the USDA definition of "ground beef." Even before the suit was dropped, Taco Bell was able to turn the suit into a marketing opportunity, describing the contents of that meat filling in detail, and taking out full-page ads thanking the plaintiffs. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on April 15, 2011 12:30 PM
7 Comments
Here are twelve of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
(rjivani)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on April 15, 2011 11:30 AM
107 Comments
- It Was Inevitable That These Two Businesses Would Someday End Up Next To Each Other
- Here They Are: Your Worst Company In America Final Four!
- Facebook's 'Previous Status Updates' Bring Back Unwanted Memories
- InStyler Attacks The Thriving Used Hair Straightener Market
Samsung Achieves Exciting New Levels Of Excessive Packaging
By Laura Northrup on April 15, 2011 10:30 AM
45 Comments
Welcome to Illustrated Storytime with The Consumerist! Today's picture book is by reader Joergen, who found the excessive packaging of his Samsung printer cartridges so egregious that he took step-by-step photos of the box-opening process. Then the opening of the box within the box. Then the opening of the box within that box. And then.. More »
Olive Garden Serves Sangria To Toddler In Sippy Cup
By Laura Northrup on April 15, 2011 9:30 AM
61 Comments
The past month has been a booze-fueled haze for the nation's toddlers at chain restaurants. After a Michigan child received a cup full of alcoholic margarita mix instead of apple juice at an Applebee's, a Florida Olive Garden filled a toddler's cup with sangria instead of orange juice. The child was checked out at a local hospital and was unharmed. More »
Do You Like E-Mailed Receipts For Offline Purchases?
By Laura Northrup on April 15, 2011 9:06 AM
92 Comments
Our smart-shopping colleagues over at ShopSmart magazine recently noticed a promising trend at some high-end retailers: stores e-mailing your receipt to you rather than printing it out on old-fangled paper. Stores trying it out include Apple Stores, Nordstroms, Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, and a few Whole Foods stores. More »
Extreme Couponing: Fraud Edition
By Laura Northrup on April 15, 2011 8:45 AM
224 Comments
A lot of people find TLC's new reality show "Extreme Couponing" horrifying due to the at times obnoxious behavior and extremely organized hoarding of the show's subjects. But fellow (less extreme) couponers are upset for a different reason: they think that one woman featured on the show got some of her fantastic deals by using coupons fraudulently. More »
Comcast's Xfinity Extreme 105: Pay More To Reach Download Cap Even Faster
By Laura Northrup on April 14, 2011 4:15 PM
112 Comments
Today, our friends at Comcast announced their new tier of Comcastically fast broadband service in 40 metropolitan areas. It promises speeds of up to 105 Mbps. Zoom! The future is here. So, with that zippy download speed, Xfinity Extreme get higher download caps, right? More »
Drink Wilkins Coffee Or These Muppets Will Hurt You
By Laura Northrup on April 14, 2011 1:30 PM
19 Comments
In 1957, Starbuck was a literary character, and instant and percolator coffee reigned supreme. Television advertising was then a new medium and sort of uncharted territory. One regional coffee company, Wilkins, hired a promising young puppeteer named Jim Henson to produce more than 150 short ads to air in the Washington, D.C. market. How do you get a marketing message across in eight seconds? The threat of violence. More »
Etsy Finds New And Exciting Ways To Plaster Your Real Name Everywhere
By Laura Northrup on April 14, 2011 12:30 PM
41 Comments
One would think that after the overwhelming negative reaction to the privacy changes that Etsy made earlier this year, the whimsical hipsters at online craft market Etsy would have learned their lesson by now. Don't be silly! In a post to the site's user forums, CEO Rob "Rokali" Kalin let slip that Etsy plans to identify users by their real names throughout the site, including on forums. More »
Engagement Ring Disappears From Force-Checked Bag On United Flight
By Laura Northrup on April 14, 2011 11:38 AM
156 Comments
Brad flew halfway across the country to propose to his girlfriend, but the engagement ring that he picked out didn't make the trip. He was forced to check his carry-on, and somewhere between handing over his bag to United employees and landing in Boston, the lock came off his bag and the engagement ring mysteriously disappeared. United claims no responsibility because he didn't contact someone in the airport soon enough. Which is funny, because he did, and encountered an indifferent response. For which United later apologized. More »
Funeral Home Patrons Find 'Walking Dead' Billboard Offensive For Some Reason
By Laura Northrup on April 14, 2011 9:30 AM
42 Comments
Remarkably, no one at ClearChannel Advertising seems to have realized that it might be a bad idea to post a giant ad for a zombie-themed television program on the exterior wall of a funeral parlor. That's precisely what happened in the town of Consett in England. The advert for post-apocalyptic drama The Walking Dead has now been taken down, and the company responsible has apologized, but how on earth did this happen in the first place? More »
(dmuth)
Would You Take A Bad Amazon Marketplace Review Down For A Refund?
By Laura Northrup on April 14, 2011 9:00 AM
116 Comments
T. ordered a replacement power adapter for his MacBook from an Amazon Marketplace seller. He was under the impression that it was a genuine Apple product, but the $35 price tag probably should have been an indication that it wasn't. The item arrived, worked okay, and then T. accidentally broke it. Two months after he left a tepidly negative review, he heard from the seller, offering a refund to encourage him to remove his negative feedback. Coincidentally, the seller had received a huge increase in negative feedback in the period since T's purchase. What would you do? More »
(elle_emm)
Chase Rep Thinks Deaf People Can't Have Credit Cards
By Laura Northrup on April 13, 2011 5:00 PM
124 Comments
Dheeraj's father is a silent partner in the business that they own together. They made him the personal guarantor when applying for a new business credit card from Chase recently, not realizing how many problems it would cause while trying to get the father's card activated. See, Dheeraj's father is deaf, and Chase was completely lost when it came to ways for him to prove his identity and activate the card. Now the account is frozen because all of Chase's ways for business credit card customers to prove their identities depend on speaking directly with the cardholder on the phone. More »
I Lost Priceline Hotel Reservation Because My Card Was Maxed Out
By Laura Northrup on April 13, 2011 4:00 PM
124 Comments
Josh doesn't have a lot of money. When he and his girlfriend went to check in to the Crowne Plaza hotel room they reserved on Priceline, he handed over his credit card to confirm the reservation, and his card was declined. They wouldn't accept his girlfriend's card to put on file for incidentals, and they were ultimately turned away, losing the reservation...and the money they paid Priceline for the room. More »
(Jinx!)
Roku Replaces 3-Year-Old Streaming Video Box That Stops Streaming
By Laura Northrup on April 13, 2011 3:05 PM
36 Comments
When James's father gave him one of the original Roku units from a few years ago, he couldn't get it to connect to his house's network... or to see any networks at all. He gave the company a call for help, not expecting much because the unit was well out of warranty. A short time later, a brand-new replacement box was on its way. More »
Target Sells Bike Without Brake Parts, Won't Exchange Without Receipt
By Laura Northrup on April 13, 2011 2:00 PM
75 Comments
When buying someone a gift at Target, always, always, always ask for and give a gift receipt. It's useful not only when the gift is the wrong size or something the recipient doesn't like or need, but also when it's defective. Kekoa's daughter received a bicycle from Target for her last birthday, a gift from her grandparents. Some parts were missing from the box, but employees at the local Target were helpless and unhelpful because the family didn't have a receipt. More »
Buying A Verizon Phone Through Sam's Club Has No Activation Fee, Except For How It Does
By Laura Northrup on April 13, 2011 1:00 PM
85 Comments
Lisa bought a Droid X for her daughter on her family plan, going through the Sam's Club Mobile website. Now, the site promised a deal where there was no activation fee, so she was confused when she opened her first bill and saw a $25 activation fee. Sam's Club has refunded the fee to her, but she won't see it back for another three months or so. More »
Borders Revises Store Closing Ad To Make It Less Confusing
By Laura Northrup on April 13, 2011 11:45 AM
12 Comments
We're delighted to report that Borders sent out a new e-mail blast to customers in markets with closing stores. This flyer is significantly less confusing than last week's, which sent r Devin on a heroic quest to get the additional 10% discount that the e-mail had promised him. More »
Maybe Staples Knows Something About This Safe That We Don't
By Laura Northrup on April 13, 2011 11:00 AM
26 Comments
Staples' marketing reminder emails are very useful for some products that people buy frequently and regularly: say, printer ink or dry-erase markers. We're not sure how sophisticated their marketing reminder software is, though, because they contacted Matthew to let him know that it's time to buy a new fireproof safe. More »
Facebook's 'Previous Status Updates' Bring Back Unwanted Memories
By Laura Northrup on April 13, 2011 10:00 AM
102 Comments
People share all kinds of news via Facebook status update: births, college acceptances, new jobs, and deaths. Facebook recently introduced a feature that rehashes "previous," (originally called "memorable") status updates in the right sidebar, with some of the text of and a link to certain status updates, which could be several years old. It's incredibly confusing at first, but at least it generates pageviews for Facebook.
The feature has been causing Carroll a lot of anxiety lately because it keeps pulling up statuses from her and her contacts' feeds from a period in her life that she would rather not remember, when many of her loved ones and pets died in a short span of time. More »
Fox Soccer Channel Delivers Lousy Streaming Video, Indifferent Customer Service
By Laura Northrup on April 12, 2011 5:05 PM
52 Comments
The great thing about the revolution in streaming video is that we can subscribe to niche services that supplement or replace cable TV. The problem with such services is that when they fail, you only have one option for that content. John, a fan of England's Premier League, subscribes to a service through Fox that streams games not broadcast on the Fox Soccer Channel. The streaming service is on its second year, and the quality is noticeably worse than last year. He could cancel his subscription, but that would leave him with no soccer at all. More »
You Shall Not Question The Holy CVS Price Scanner
By Laura Northrup on April 12, 2011 4:00 PM
166 Comments
Aaron didn't want to be a jerk, but he also didn't want to pay $5.79 for a twelve-pack of Dr Pepper when the sign on the store shelf clearly said that it was $5.19. Instead of overriding the price and acknowledging the store's own sign, the cashier entered a battle of obstinate wills, from which there emerged no clear victor. More »
Former Sears CEO's Compensation Tripled In 2010
By Laura Northrup on April 12, 2011 3:00 PM
22 Comments
Back in February, the Sears Holding Company named Louis J. D'Ambrosio, formerly of IBM and of Avaya, its new CEO. As the company continues to struggle for profits and relevance, the Associated Press determined that W. Bruce Johnson, interim CEO from 2008 until this year, got a huge raise in 2010, which more than tripled his pay. For what? Not improving customers' satisfaction with Sears, if our mailbox is any indication. More »
$700 In Citi Rewards Gift Cards Stranded In New Jersey
By Laura Northrup on April 12, 2011 2:00 PM
31 Comments
Yuriy traded in 70,000 Citi credit card reward points for $700 in gift cards. He intended to use the cards to buy a new laptop for his mother—how sweet! But something has gone horribly wrong, and the package of gift cards is stranded in Secaucus, N.J. It will take seven weeks for Citi to believe that the cards are really missing and issue replacements. More »
InStyler Attacks The Thriving Used Hair Straightener Market
By Laura Northrup on April 12, 2011 1:15 PM
148 Comments
You may have seen the InStyler advertised on on television: it's a hair straightener with a rotating heated tube between two brushes. Michelle bought one at Target last year, and decided that she didn't want it anymore. She listed it on Craigslist, and she tells Consumerist that's when the cease and desist e-mails started from the product's manufacturer. More »
(jojoling)
Sorry, Your 3-Month-Old Starbucks Mug Is Out Of Warranty
By Laura Northrup on April 12, 2011 11:45 AM
100 Comments
Mark has a warning: it's fine if you want to hand over your money for a venti Java Chip Frappuccino, but don't buy durable items at Starbucks if you expect them to be, well, durable. He bought a mug back in December, and the mug now has a defect that makes coffee drip on you while you drink. Not liking this feature, he contacted Starbucks and learned that their warranty on mugs lasts only 60 days. "I was shocked that Starbucks would only stand behind their products for 60 days," Mark writes, "specifically because those same products come at a premium price and sold with overpriced coffee." More »
( WMAZ)
Church Group To Pray At Gas Station For Lower Fuel Prices
By Laura Northrup on April 12, 2011 11:00 AM
213 Comments
For the third time, members of a church group in Georgia will gather to pray for stability in the economy, lower fuel prices, and peace in the Middle East. Where will they gather? The gas station of their local Kroger, where else? More »
Slobstopper: Your Coffee And Donut-Blocking Poncho
By Laura Northrup on April 12, 2011 10:00 AM
33 Comments
Have you ever sipped coffee while driving, and spilled it down the front of your shirt? Man, we've all been there. What if there were a product that could prevent such mishaps? Perhaps a massive synthetic backless poncho of an adult bib, with a handy homemade-looking infomercial, and with a gross name. Yes! That's perfect! More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on April 8, 2011 12:30 PM
4 Comments
Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
(Katie@!)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
Apple Store Guard Shoots And Kills Robbery Suspect
A-Hole Identity Thieves Send Thank You Flowers To Victim
Is A Footlong Sub Still A Footlong Sub With Only 6" Of Bread?
Sad In-Flight Meals Are Enough To Make Us Lose Our Appetites More »
By Laura Northrup on April 8, 2011 11:30 AM
139 Comments
Closing Borders Store Tells Customers Where To Find A RestroomApple Store Guard Shoots And Kills Robbery Suspect
A-Hole Identity Thieves Send Thank You Flowers To Victim
Is A Footlong Sub Still A Footlong Sub With Only 6" Of Bread?
Sad In-Flight Meals Are Enough To Make Us Lose Our Appetites More »
Amtrak Charters Sweet Bus When Tracks Are Unsafe
By Laura Northrup on April 8, 2011 10:30 AM
71 Comments
An exemplary customer service experience....with Amtrak? It's possible! Thomas was traveling from Boston to Buffalo, NY, and learned that some of the track in New England was impassible, so passengers would be taking a bus for part of their trip. He expected to be put on a Greyhound bus...not a travel experience to look forward to. But Amtrak had something nicer planned for its passengers. More »
Sign At Closing Borders: 'Manga So Cheap, You Don't Need To Steal Them Anymore!'
By Laura Northrup on April 8, 2011 9:30 AM
69 Comments
Reader Syndicate Product spotted this sign at a Borders store in liquidation, noting that manga and graphic novels were only 30% off at the time...and then there's the 8% sales tax in this area. Not particularly cheap, then. The sadness and frustration still come through. More »
You Could Be Under Sidekick Contract Or Not, Depending On T-Mobile's Whim
By Laura Northrup on April 8, 2011 9:00 AM
26 Comments
Chad is a T-Mobile customer who used to be a Sidekick user. He also still is a Sidekick user, depending on which situation is more advantageous to T-Mobile. See, he signed a new contract and got a shiny new Sidekick last February. Earlier this year, that phone died and he bought an inexpensive Android phone to use while he waits out his contract. T-Mobile is ending Sidekick service soon, and has offered users still under contract the choice of leaving their contracts with no early termination fee, or switching to a different subsidized phone and sticking around. Chad is still under the original contract that he signed when he got his Sidekick last year, but at the same time is not under a Sidekick contract according to T-Mobile, so neither option is open to him. More »
AT&T Needs To Come Pick Up Its Crap From My House
By Laura Northrup on April 8, 2011 8:00 AM
104 Comments
Scot has been patient, but he wants AT&T's crap out of his house. He was supposed to have U-Verse service at his new house back in December. A technician came to install service and left a pile of HD receivers and other equipment behind, promising to come back at a later date to finish the installation after a line was run to Scot's house. The technician stood him up, no appointments were available for another month, and Scot sought refuge in the (comparatively) warm embrace of Comcast.
But $1,000 worth of AT&T equipment has been sitting around his house for three months. Scot doesn't need it, and doesn't think it should be his responsibility to haul it to a UPS Store. AT&T doesn't seem to want it back. A customer service representative told him to throw it in a dumpster for all the company cares, which is idiotic and incredibly wasteful. More »
DirecTV Drains Your Bank Account To Pay Your Sister's Bill
By Laura Northrup on April 7, 2011 12:33 PM
150 Comments
Don't lend your debit card to friends or family to pay their DirecTV bill if you don't want to be on the hook if they fail to pay their bill. As we learned during the debacle where the satellite provider drained the bank account of a dead customer's friend, any debit or credit card that has ever been used for a given account stays on file...pretty much forever. Reader Laura learned this the hard way when the company drained her bank account to pay her sister's bill. More »
Liveblogging A Time Warner Cable Installation On Yelp
By Laura Northrup on April 7, 2011 11:30 AM
68 Comments
Ted in Brooklyn wanted a visible public record of his interactions with Time Warner Cable. He decided to liveblog his experience, somewhere that people might actually see it. That place was a review on Time Warner Cable's New York City Yelp page. He updated the page as events became more convoluted and Kafkaesque. There are a lot of updates. More »
Learn All About For-Profit Education: For Free
By Laura Northrup on April 7, 2011 10:30 AM
163 Comments
We often post here about the problems with for-profit higher education: high-pressure recruitment, unrealistic job placement expectations, and huge debt loads. If you know anyone considering enrolling at a for-profit school, this infographic from Campus Progress synthesizes quotes from people involved in the industry, statistics, and facts in an easy-to-digest cartoon form. More »
Trucks Filled With Dr Pepper Mysteriously Disappear In Texas, Turn Up Empty
By Laura Northrup on April 7, 2011 9:30 AM
73 Comments
There's either a huge black market in stolen Dr Pepper out there, or a band of incredibly thirsty criminals somewhere in Texas. In the last two months, in three separate incidents, soda rustlers have hot-wired five tractor-trailers from Dr Pepper distribution centers in different cities. All five trucks were later found abandoned and unharmed, but empty. Each truck was loaded with $20,000 worth of bubbly product. More »
T-Mobile Doesn't Particularly Seem To Care That My Phone Is Posessed
By Laura Northrup on April 7, 2011 9:00 AM
36 Comments
Okay, Tristan's phone probably isn't possessed by anything supernatural, but it does definitely have a defect that leaves it making phantom keystrokes, freezing, and dropping calls. T-Mobile's support isn't all that interested in helping him, though, and even hung up on him for "threatening legal action" when he quoted his warranty. More »
Apple Whisks Defective iPad Away, Leaving Me Without One
By Laura Northrup on April 7, 2011 8:02 AM
72 Comments
The problem with having the latest, shiniest, newest gadgets is that when something goes wrong and that shiny gadget sells out, there aren't any others to exchange it for. That seems to be what happened to Nicholas, who bought an iPad 2 at Target, and shipped it off to Apple after had screen problems after only a few hours of use. More »
In Search Of The Mythical 10% Additional Borders Discount
By Laura Northrup on April 6, 2011 5:00 PM
44 Comments
Do you live near a closing Borders store? Did you receive an e-mail last week promising 10% off in addition to rewards-card discount and liquidation markdowns? Devin did, and he and other customers were frustrated when Borders employees wouldn't give him the discount promised in the e-mail. Except the message didn't promise any additional discount. Or maybe it did. More »
(sdc2027)
'Extreme Couponing' Is Back On TLC, And We Can't Look Away
By Laura Northrup on April 6, 2011 4:00 PM
168 Comments
Consumerist readers are divided on the subject of hardcore couponing: some are dedicated practitioners, and everyone else seems to think that couponers disrupt commerce and are poisoning their families with transfats, high fructose corn syrup, and greed. Last year, TLC made a one-off documentary, Extreme Couponing, that was such a hit that it is now becoming a reality series in its own right. Should you watch? More »
Ecko Is Totally, 100% Serious About The Discounts-For-Tattoos Deal
More »
By Laura Northrup on April 6, 2011 3:00 PM
40 Comments
Because of the timing, some people (including us) wondered whether Ecko's widely publicized deal where customers can receive a 20% discount for life by having the company logo tattooed on their bodies was an April Fool's prank. Marc Ecko Enterprises reached out to media outlets to assure us that no, it is not, and sent along some photos to prove their point.More »
(amanjo)
How Can I Get My Fridge Fixed If I'm Never Home?
By Laura Northrup on April 6, 2011 2:01 PM
160 Comments
S. rents a house in Florida, and the refrigerator needs repair. Her dilemma is that her landlord wants to use a specific repairman, who is only available when S. and the rest of her household aren't available to wait around. The landlord has offered to let the repairman in, but S. isn't comfortable with having anyone in her home when she's not around. What would you do? More »
Bearded Man Steals $658 Worth Of Razors, May Have Shaved Beard By Now
By Laura Northrup on April 6, 2011 1:00 PM
41 Comments
New Jersey's Hunterdon County Democrat urges the public to watch out for a criminal on the loose. A tall, burly, bearded man shoplifted $658 worth of expensive razors from a Walgreens store. Police told the newspaper that the man "may or may not have a beard at this time." More »
(Marike79)
Why Did GameStop Sell Me A Used Game As New?
By Laura Northrup on April 6, 2011 12:20 PM
192 Comments
Patrick had a confusing experience at GameStop recently, when he bought a copy of God of War III. He asked for a new copy of the game, which was on sale, but received an unsealed copy of the game that looked more like a used game. Thanks to a sale, the price difference between new and used copies was only $2, but why did they sell him a not-so-new game in the first place? More »
Woman Buys Milk With Free Bonus Insects, Complains For Some Reason
By Laura Northrup on April 6, 2011 11:00 AM
60 Comments
American consumers are so ungrateful. An Indiana woman bought a gallon of Great Value house-brand milk at Walmart that included a delicious selection of flour bugs. She's currently pregnant, so why didn't she appreciate the extra protein? She declined the store's offer of replacement milk, and wants a refund. More »
EECB Gets Kaiser Permanente's Attention, Reader's $900 Refund
By Laura Northrup on April 6, 2011 10:00 AM
38 Comments
Reader Laura had Kaiser Permanente health insurance through her employer. When she lost her job, she paid Kaiser directly for COBRA coverage. She stuck with the company for her employer-subsidized health insurance when she started a new job earlier this year, and was under the impression that the COBRA plan would end when her new coverage began. It didn't.
When she couldn't convince anyone in first-line customer service that she really, really didn't mean to have two separate insurance plans simultaneously, she did some research and launched an executive e-mail carpet bomb at the company, bringing the bureaucratic stupidity to the attention of someone with actual power.
More »
Comcast Says It's Not Pulling My Credit Report, Then Pulls My Credit Report
By Laura Northrup on April 5, 2011 5:00 PM
106 Comments
Brian found himself in a troubling situation with Comcast. He was setting up service at his mother's home, about thirty miles from, his home where he already had Comcast service. Comcast's systems apparently aren't set up to handle one person with separate accounts in different regions. A customer service rep told Brian that he would not be checking his credit report in order to set up the new service: then ran right up against the freeze Brian had put on his credit report in order to prevent unauthorized access. From, say, Comcast. More »
(Marike79)
Is A Footlong Sub Still A Footlong Sub With Only 6" Of Bread?
By Laura Northrup on April 5, 2011 4:00 PM
310 Comments
Ron has a problem that truly speaks to the dilemmas of our day. He wants to get a $5 footlong at Subway, but on a 6" roll to save carbs and calories. The sandwich artists at his local Subway insist that this is not possible, and that he needs to pay more than the price of a $5 footlong because he is really ordering a six-inch sub with double meat. It's an exquisite kind of fast-food logic where you pay more and get less. More »
Crayola's Colorful Bubbles Delight Children, Stain Everything
By Laura Northrup on April 5, 2011 3:00 PM
63 Comments
How would you like to blow bubbles in bright colors? Sounds awesome, right? Crayola's new washable Colorful Bubbles seem like an amazing idea, especially if their bright colors don't stain. Except some parents are complaining online that they kind of, um, do. More »
How Does A $25 Traffic Ticket Become A $911 Ticket?
By Laura Northrup on April 5, 2011 2:00 PM
166 Comments
When you receive a parking or traffic ticket, don't forget about it. In this time of widespread budget crisis at all levels of government, they're apparently not messing around. Brent received a ticket from a California Highway Patrol officer for not changing the address on his driver's license. He made the change, but forgot to send the ticket back. In just a few months, his $25 fine somehow turned into a $911 fine. Wait, what? More »
FedEx Package Takes 14 Months To Travel 230 Miles And Back
By Laura Northrup on April 5, 2011 1:00 PM
48 Comments
Where did Emily's Fedex package run off to? It took more than a year to make the trip from New York City to Washington, DC, traveling at a rate of about half a mile per day. How does that happen? We like to imagine a massive fleet of turtles that are tasked with the important job of transporting gifts up and down the eastern seaboard. More »
Wired Invites You To Re-subscribe Before Sending Any Magazines
By Laura Northrup on April 5, 2011 12:15 PM
48 Comments
Aggressive subscription renewals are nothing new in the dying field of magazines. But reader Ben was a little surprised when the first thing he received as a new subscriber to Wired wasn't a welcome letter or a magazine. It was a solicitation to re-up for another year. More »
Airline Employees Really Don't Care That You Left Your iPad On The Plane
By Laura Northrup on April 5, 2011 11:00 AM
189 Comments
If there's anything I've learned over the last year of reading the stories that our readers send in to The Consumerist, it's this: the seat-back pouches on airplanes are the perfect place to stash your iPad during a flight, then never see it again. This apparently happens to a surprising number of people, but Amin thought he was lucky: he noticed that his was missing only twenty minutes after getting off the plane. This meant that he could rush back and perhaps recover the iPad before the plane took off again. Except...well, we're posting this story, so you can probably guess what happened next. More »
90% Off An Imaginary Price Is Not A Sale
By Laura Northrup on April 5, 2011 10:00 AM
97 Comments
Paul Michael at Wise Bread thought that he had found a great deal on throw pillows at his local Hobby Lobby store. Signs advertised ninety percent off! Imagine that, a $50 fancy throw pillow for only five bucks! It was only when he looked closer that he noticed that the "original" prices were surprisingly high for mass-produced pillows: about $90 to $120. Research online showed similar pillows from the same company for sale for around half that. Just what was going on here? More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on April 1, 2011 12:30 PM
10 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
(kakissel)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on April 1, 2011 11:30 AM
88 Comments
- Meet Your Worst Company In America Sweet 16!
- Starbucks CEO Laughs At The Notion That His Coffee Costs $5
- Is Aldi Just Trader Joe's Without The Marketing Budget?
- Valve Disables Steam Account, Won't Explain Why
- Debunking The Creation Myths Behind 5 Huge Companies
Combination Axe/Knife Recalled Due To Laceration Hazard
By Laura Northrup on April 1, 2011 10:30 AM
50 Comments
You can cut yourself when using an axe with a knife that nestles inside the handle? Who knew? Silly as it might sound, this is a real hazard, since the knife can theoretically fall out of the axe handle while you're using the axe to chop. A related product that contains a saw instead of a knife has not been recalled. The company that distributes the product, Gerber Legendary Blades (part of Fiskars) has received five reports of five injuries that required stitches, so stop giggling. More »
T-Mobile Doesn't Want My Money, Casts Me Into Billing Purgatory
By Laura Northrup on April 1, 2011 9:30 AM
38 Comments
Jill is a T-Mobile customer. She and her boyfriend ended their old family plan contract and started new contracts so they could get new phones on separate accounts. They would very much like to send T-Mobile money for the final bill, but their money is no good to T-Mobile. They just don't want it. More »
Would You Like A Picture Of Yoda Riding A Tauntaun On Your Pizza Box? Just Ask
By Laura Northrup on April 1, 2011 9:00 AM
72 Comments
Domino's is making an effort to win the hearts of American consumers by improving their food and their service. So what happens if you order online, adding a note that you would like a picture of Yoda riding a tauntaun on your pizza box? What you ask for is what you'll get. More »
Help, The Price Of My Life-Saving Drug Went Up 2000%!
By Laura Northrup on April 1, 2011 8:00 AM
151 Comments
Colchicine, a drug primarily used to treat gout, is an old drug. Very old. Extracts from the plant it comes from, colchicum, have been used in gout treatment for thousands of years. In pill form as colchicine, it's been on the market in the United States since the 19th century and predates the Food and Drug Administration. A few years ago, the company that makes one brand of the drug, Colcrys, obtained FDA approval for their version, and the exclusive rights to sell it in the United States for three years. Who cares? Reader Nick does. He works in retail, isn't wealthy, and the colchicine he takes twice a day for a serious medical condition shot up in cost from about $20 per month to closer to $400. More »
Wells Fargo Is Worst Friend Ever, Borrows $377.09 For Two Weeks Without Asking
By Laura Northrup on March 31, 2011 12:30 PM
85 Comments
Tom is angry at Wells Fargo, because they're borrowing $377.09 from him without his permission. When Wells Fargo purchased Wachovia a few years ago, Tom's car loan came along with it. Every month, the bank would draft a payment of $384.43 from Tom's account. His last payment was due in March, and it was only $6.34, but Wells Fargo just went ahead and took the entire $384.43 out of habit. More »
Oh, You Wanted To Actually Use Your $200 3G Microcell?
By Laura Northrup on March 31, 2011 11:35 AM
27 Comments
AT&T encourages customers to buy the 3g MicroCell, a tiny cell phone tower for their homes, when their phone reception is poor, and will often send one for free to customers with chronic crappy reception complaints. But reader Darrell learned that while AT&T is happy to sell the device to customers in Manhattan, they can't actually activate it right now so it's useful. Update: AT&T contacted us to let us know that there is no Manhattan outage, thus proving the importance of calling back and getting a different call center rep when you hear something like this. More »
Want Prettier Armpits? New Dove Deodorant Can Help
By Laura Northrup on March 31, 2011 10:35 AM
79 Comments
.Ladies of Consumerist, have you ever been concerned about how attractive your armpits are? Yeah, me either. But someone out there apparently does, and Unilever's Dove brand now has a deodorant/antiperspirant for her. One that includes moisturizers that give you a "piticure," and give women one more body part that apparently is never pretty enough. One ad for the product declares that "nearly 100% of women" find their underarms unattractive. More »
It Shouldn't Take A Manager's Help To Buy A Computer From Best Buy
By Laura Northrup on March 31, 2011 9:30 AM
121 Comments
David and his wife recently visited Best Buy to purchase a laptop for his wife. Theoretically, this isn't a bad idea: she knew more or less what she wanted, and could walk out of the store with a computer in hand. This still isn't so simple at Best Buy, though. There were no computers left that weren't currently being optimized by the Geek Squad. That day's task was creating boot disks for the computers, for an extra $100 or so. "It's been a while since I made a boot disk," David notes, "but as I recall it takes a blank dvd and about ten minutes." Well, yes, there's that. They eventually needed a manager's help to accomplish what they visited the store to do: buy a computer. More »
Where Are They Now? Adam And The Nonexistent Home Warranty
By Laura Northrup on March 31, 2011 9:00 AM
44 Comments
Back in November 2009, we featured the story of Adam and his wife, who bought a house and were under the impression that this house included a one-year warranty. You can't blame them for having this impression, since it was included in the purchase and was supposed to be paid for by the listing agent. When the house's heat pump broke and they actually needed the warranty, they learned that the paperwork was never filed, and the promised warranty didn't exist. He asked the Consumerist Hive Mind for advice, and the Hive Mind delivered. But how did things turn out? More »
(Marike79)
Is A Worldwide Netflix Expansion Coming Soon?
By Laura Northrup on March 31, 2011 8:00 AM
13 Comments
If you envy your American and Canadian friends' access to Netflix, you may not have much longer to wait until you receive red envelopes of your very own. Our friends at Hacking Netflix noticed something interesting in "employment" section of the company's website. They're looking for quality assurance analysts who speak one of many languages, which signals a massive Netflix rollout in Asia, South America, and Europe. More »
Modern Technology Is Stalking Your Every Move
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2011 5:00 PM
47 Comments
Who knows where you are and what you're thinking right now? Your phone company. If you carry a smartphone, or even a not-so-smart phone, your mobile phone carrier knows more about your whereabouts over the past few months than you'll ever be able to remember. Comforting, isn't it? More »
Artist Sculpts Skull Out Of McDonald's French Fries
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2011 4:00 PM
35 Comments
Did you think that no good could ever come from the McDonald's dollar menu? Not so. Check out the art of Christopher Chiappa, who made arc and skull sculptures from burgers and fries, photographed himself with them, and calls the diptych "McMiracles." It's certainly healthier than eating them. More »
(andy_57)
AT&T Rep: Our Service Is So Terrible In Houston Because It's So Popular
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2011 3:00 PM
60 Comments
Reader Chris is an AT&T Wireless customer with an iPhone, and has noticed a marked decline in the quality of his phone calls at both work and home. That's not unusual, especially for customers who live in large cities like he does. His real complaint is about AT&T's attitude toward their declining service. A customer service representative told him that this is just what happens when a service becomes more popular, and he should try buying a 3G Microcell to see whether that improves his service. Chris doesn't agree that he should pay more for his mobile phone service because it's becoming worse. More »
Use Up Your Blockbuster Gift Cards Before April 7, 2011
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2011 2:00 PM
18 Comments
Do you have any Blockbuster Video gift cards lying around the house? Better find them and use them up soon, assuming that you can find a Blockbuster outlet. Multiple sources inside the company have let us know that those gift cards won't be accepted after April 6, 2011 due to the company's bankruptcy. More »
(claytron)
Where Are They Now? The First-Time Homebuyers And The Secret Room Filled With Moldy Garbage
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2011 1:00 PM
143 Comments
Last June, we shared the story of Jeannine and her husband, who discovered all kinds of exciting surprises in their home after purchasing it. These included a sealed room filled with garbage coated in a fuzzy white mold and a shower literally patched up with duct tape. None of these issues were disclosed by the sellers, or noticed by the inspector that the couple hired. Consumerist readers had 266 comments' worth of advice for Jeannine and Mr. Jeannine, but we never heard back from them. So where are they now? Things have actually gotten worse. More »
Will Making Gift Cards Entirely Virtual Make Them Better?
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2011 12:18 PM
27 Comments
We at Consumerist have long taken a stance against gift cards: they're like giving someone a gift of cash, only with rules and limitations. What's the point of that? There's a whole secret economy in unused gift cards in America: up to 20% of the things are never used up. But some planned changes to gift cards could theoretically make them easier to spend and harder to lose. More »
(flaimo)
Lawsuit: Man's Monster Energy Drink Flavored With Dead Mouse
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2011 11:00 AM
52 Comments
A man in Washington state hasn't consumed a beverage from a can in more than a year. It's hard to blame him: he claims that more than a year ago, he discovered a mouse at the bottom of his Monster energy drink. Now he's suing Hansen Beverage Company, the maker of Monster. His lawyer and Monster's insurer ran tests, and independent lab results prove the mouse's identity. More »
(dooley)
Verizon Monopoly Means No Home Broadband For Me
By Laura Northrup on March 30, 2011 10:00 AM
78 Comments
If you ever wonder why Internet service provider monopolies are a bad thing, just ask reader Icanhas. For some mysterious and intriguing reason involving pineapples, he can't have cable. So his only option for broadband Internet is Verizon DSL, which isn't accepting new customers in his area. Why? Well, they're putting all of their resources toward FiOS. When will FiOS be available in Icanhas's area? Not anytime soon. More »
Stupid Shipping Gang Underpackages Glass Jar, Mauling Customer
By Laura Northrup on March 29, 2011 5:00 PM
92 Comments
We like to post pictures of items comically overpackaged by the Stupid Shipping Gang, in order to point, laugh, and call attention to the wastefulness. Nicole's experience shows what can happen to consumers when an item is stupidly packaged: Amazon sent her a woefully underpackaged glass bottle of vitamins, which broke in transit and cut Nicole's finger when she went to open it. Now Amazon won't give her a refund until she sends the box of broken glass, vitamins, plastic wrap, and a tiny bit of blood back. More »
Valve Disables Steam Account, Won't Explain Why
By Laura Northrup on March 29, 2011 4:08 PM
158 Comments
Jeff's account for the gaming platform Steam has been disabled, locking him out of Team Fortress 2 and other games he's purchased. When he asked why, Steam support was tight-lipped, saying only that he was accused of "scamming or hijacking another user's account," refusing to elaborate or let Jeff make his case. More »
FedEx Routes Document To Wrong City, Annoys Law Professor
By Laura Northrup on March 29, 2011 2:45 PM
55 Comments
Fedex Office, the entity formerly known as Kinko's, offers a service where you can upload a document, have it printed at a store near you, and pick it up. How wonderful! Unless the system, in its infinite wisdom, sends your document to a store that is a 4-hour drive away. That's what happened to a UCLA law professor, who tried to call FedEx and fix the situation. Maybe this would have worked had the customer service rep been capable of basic communication in English. More »
Swoopo Parent Files For Bankruptcy, Site Down Due To 'Technical Issues'
By Laura Northrup on March 29, 2011 2:00 PM
27 Comments
If you're a fan of online gambling masquerading as an auction, you'll have to turn away from Swoopo and instead use one of its dozens of clones. The penny-auction leader filed for bankruptcy last week, and the site has been down due to "technical issues" for over a week. Will it be back? No one knows, and no one at Swoopo is answering support e-mails or any other contact. More »
TurboTax Eats Tax Return, Apologizes With Free Software
By Laura Northrup on March 29, 2011 1:00 PM
15 Comments
Here's a story about TurboTax that is at least a little bit heartwarming. Tyler filled out all of his tax information on the TurboTax website, and paid for an extra upgrade to save himself some data entry for his investments. But somehow, the TurboTax servers ate his 2010 return, and the information was nowhere to be found. He steeled himself for a long wait on the phone and a vicious fight with rude Intuit representatives, but that's not what happened. More »
Zombie Wells Fargo Account Rises From Dead, Collects Overdraft Fees
By Laura Northrup on March 29, 2011 11:45 AM
65 Comments
Leigh thought that she had laid her Wells Fargo checking account to rest. It was closed, gone, out of her life forever. When some forgotten auto-payments hit the account, though, instead of rejecting the payments, the bank zombified the account, brought it back to life, and charged Leigh and her husband a $35 overdraft fee for each item that hit their account. Wells Fargo put them on a payment plan to repay their balance, then turned around and sent the account to collections less than a month into the agreed-upon payment plan. Now they've been flagged as overdrafters in the Chexsystems database, and are still watching the account to make sure that no erroneous auto-payments hit it and trigger more overdrafts. More »
Jimmy John's Sandwiches Are Not Handcrafted In Liberia
By Laura Northrup on March 29, 2011 11:00 AM
61 Comments
Richard was enjoying a sandwich at Jimmy John's when he noticed something odd about a sign on the wall. The patriotic placard, meant to advertise that the sandwiches are "handmade in the U.S.A.," doesn't have an American flag on it. It is nice and patriotic-looking and all. It what looks like the flag of Liberia with an extra white stripe at the top, which Richard was told is a "stylized American flag." More »
CVS Doubles Down, Surpasses Rite Aid With 41" Receipt
By Laura Northrup on March 29, 2011 10:00 AM
61 Comments
A mere twenty-one inch long receipt? CVS isn't about to sit back and let competitor Rite Aid soak up all of the ridicule from the Internet for comically long receipts. No way. The retailer brought its A game when reader Chris stopped by recently to pick up some things for his upset stomach, showering him with a 41-inch long receipt consisting mostly of coupons for junk food, cosmetics, and vitamins. More »
Prepaid Debit Cards Rack Up Fees As Soon As You Even Think About Getting One
By Laura Northrup on March 27, 2011 12:00 PM
67 Comments
Using TurboTax to file his taxes last month, Sam chose an interesting new option for his refund: a TurboTax-branded Greendot prepaid debit card. He doesn't have a bank account at the moment, and wasn't receiving a huge refund, so this seemed like a good option. He tried to use up the card soon after receiving it in order to avoid the monthly "maintenance fees" that come with prepaid debit cards. What he didn't know was his account really began on the day that he requested it online, so he was paying monthly fees when he had the card for barely a week. More »
(jetalone)
iPad 1 Is On Clearance Sale At Verizon, But Where'd They All Go?
By Laura Northrup on March 27, 2011 11:00 AM
51 Comments
The debut of the iPad 2 means that you can get some sweet, sweet deals on the original iPad if you know where to look. D. knew where to look, which was a local Verizon Wireless store. Not the first place most people would go for iPads. Including, from what D. observed, the store's own staff. When D. brought to store employees' attention that their iPads in stock were marked down to $299, they suddenly didn't have any more stock. Then they did. Then they didn't. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on March 25, 2011 4:15 PM
8 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
25 More Terrible (Or Awesome) Breakfast Cereals
By Laura Northrup on March 24, 2011 12:30 PM
110 Comments
Some breakfast cereals from the past now seem like deeply questionable marketing ideas. Or amazing ones. All (okay, most) of the cereals in this gallery were probably delicious, but few are still around. It's usually obvious why. More »
What Teller Would Cash This Clearly Fraudulent Check?
By Laura Northrup on March 24, 2011 11:30 AM
132 Comments
Vanessa's rent check was stolen somewhere between her mailbox and the property management office. It ended up in the hands of unsavory fraudsters, who altered the check in a decidedly low-tech way: with a Sharpie. More »
4 Years In, Fedex Still Doesn't Understand That I've Moved
By Laura Northrup on March 24, 2011 10:30 AM
19 Comments
How long does it take to change a customer's address when they move? One might think that Fedex, a shipping company, would have a pretty good handle on that kind of thing. Not so. Nick moved four years ago, and has been trying to convince Federal Express of this fact ever since. He's not just a package recipient: he's a customer of theirs. More »
Barilla Redesigns Pasta Package To Let Consumers Know That Pasta Package Is About To Be Redesigned
By Laura Northrup on March 24, 2011 9:30 AM
71 Comments
The redesign of a familiar package is apparently a frightening and confusing time for consumers. That's why Barilla was kind enough to redesign its whole-grain pasta package in order to let us know that the package is about to be redesigned. More »
Caremark Switches My Prescription To Name-Brand For No Particular Reason
By Laura Northrup on March 24, 2011 9:05 AM
65 Comments
Many people expressed surprise that drug retailer CVS is a participant in our Worst Company in America tournament. In addition to the everyday issues that a pharmacy/drugstore creates for consumers, though, CVS also owns prescription benefits administrator Caremark. Brandon is a Caremark customer who takes a venerable but still useful medication called Synthroid. He recently ran into a weird situation with his refill, where he was switched to the name-brand medication for no discernible reason. Twice. More »
Wedding Set Returns From China With Unacceptably Crappy Repair
By Laura Northrup on March 24, 2011 8:00 AM
40 Comments
Good news! Reader Jennifer's wedding set has returned from its long voyage to China for repair. The bad news: she writes that the repair work done in China was so terrible that her local store sent it back out to a US repair facility to be fixed. When Jennifer finally went to pick the rings up, she found their repair job unsatisfactory—the word "botched" comes up—and now they've been sent back. Again. More »
How To Confuse PayPal: When Chargebacks Attack
By Laura Northrup on March 23, 2011 5:10 PM
48 Comments
Debbie found a seamstress online to make her a custom wedding dress and sent payment using PayPal. She fell out of contact with the seamstress, became nervous, and filed a chargeback with her credit card company. After the chargeback, she heard from the seamstress again, and sent a new payment so the dress-making could go forward. Somehow, PayPal sent the seamstress two payments, and the actual nightmare began. This situation was beyond PayPal's comprehension, and now Debbie is being hounded by PayPal collections. More »
(cdedbdme)
Allegra Is Now Non-Prescription, So It Costs Me More. Sigh.
By Laura Northrup on March 23, 2011 4:00 PM
143 Comments
Good news if you prefer the allergy medication Allegra: it's now available over-the-counter. Bad news, if you're reader Cynthia: it'll cost more for you out of pocket, and you can't get it from the Kaiser mail-order pharmacy anymore. More »
Package Of 100 Certificates Yields 96 Useful Certificates, 4 Stupid Bent Sheets
More »
By Laura Northrup on March 23, 2011 3:15 PM
96 Comments
Perhaps Alan's expectations were out of line. He bought a package of one hundred certificates at Staples, expecting it to contain one hundred certificates that he could use for whatever award he was giving out. Instead, four of the sheets had been folded and wasted. A small indignity in modern consumerism, but an annoying one. More »
No One Said Verizon FiOS Pricing Schemes Had To Make Sense
By Laura Northrup on March 23, 2011 2:00 PM
57 Comments
James would like some fast Internet tubes running to his house. Faster than the regular access that Verizon sells to consumers. He's willing to pay more for the privilege, but frustrated that it would actually cost less to have two separate lines run into his house and use a load-balancing router than to have a single line that's twice as fast. More »
Royal Wedding Mug Mixup: Idiotic Error Or Savvy Prank
By Laura Northrup on March 23, 2011 1:07 PM
63 Comments
This royal wedding souvenir mug from Guandong Enterprises Ltd. could be either of two things. It could be a Chinese company hoping to capitalize on global royal wedding mania and sell a few overpriced, unauthorized souvenir mugs without doing enough research beforehand. Or it could be something even more interesting: a cynical prank mocking outsourced manufacturing, cultural ignorance, and the globalized economy. More »
Chase Punishes You For Not Earning Enough Money
By Laura Northrup on March 23, 2011 12:15 PM
135 Comments
Since they can't extract money from our pockets with cascading overdrafts anymore, banks have to get creative. Bradley learned that these indignities add up when the bank deems you insufficiently profitable, and charges a fee on your no-longer-free checking account. Never mind that Bradley is a college student. He doesn't have a lot of money on hand, and from Chase's point of view, not nibbling away at his patience and his money now could lead to another 60 years of business from him. Theoretically. More »
Still Making Payments I Can't Afford On My Ex-Wife's Wedding Ring
By Laura Northrup on March 23, 2011 11:00 AM
252 Comments
Reader Douglas's wife left him, which we're very sad to hear. He wrote to Consumerist about it because he's still paying for her ring, which they purchased at Jared when they got married two years ago. He's struggling financially, and made arrangements with the company to make payments of $50 per month at a lower interest rate. A few months later, they suddenly raised the payments back up to $100, claiming that there is nothing they can do to change the situation. Douglas is stuck. More »
(afagen)
Yelp Elite Reviewers Engage In Degenerate Feeding Frenzy, Terrify Waitstaff
By Laura Northrup on March 23, 2011 10:00 AM
72 Comments
The phrases "elite Yelp reviewer" and "ravenous horde" do not normally go together, but this e-mail from Yelp to its most insightful and prolific New York City users makes us wonder. In the e-mail, members of the Elite squad are scolded for poor etiquette, auctioning off their event invitations to the highest bidder(!), and swarming on trays of free food like a swarm of highly opinionated locusts, terrifying waitstaff and keeping less ravenous partygoers from tasting the snacks. More »
Sephora Replaces Fancy Skin Care Stuff Broken In Mail, No Questions Asked
By Laura Northrup on March 22, 2011 5:00 PM
37 Comments
Alexis ordered a few bottles of, in her words, "fancy skin care stuff" from Sephora, and one bottle arrived broken and making a huge, soapy mess. Preparing to fight for a replacement, she was pleasantly surprised when the Sephora representative told her that they'd send her a replacement: no need to return the bottle. More »
Comcast Is Hounding Me With Comcastic Sales Robocalls
By Laura Northrup on March 22, 2011 4:00 PM
25 Comments
Parker is a reluctant Comcast customer. Comcast would like Parker, and many other companies, to upgrade their service. Unfortunately, someone at Comcast believes that the way to convince customers to do this is to robocall them daily: even if they ask to be taken off the list. More »
(brad.coy)
Verizon Charged Me For Using A Device I Never Turned On
By Laura Northrup on March 22, 2011 2:45 PM
87 Comments
A Verizon store employee giving inaccurate information, and a customer forced to pay extra because of the error? No! Impossible! Yet it happened to Steve, and he's not sure what to do. More »
6 Months And $420 Later, I Still Have No Sealy Warranty Replacement Mattress
By Laura Northrup on March 22, 2011 2:00 PM
49 Comments
A product might come with a warranty, but it isn't much good if the company refuses to honor that warranty. Mike has had his Sealy/Stearns & Foster mattress replaced for sagging issues three times since he bought it in 2006. In October, it was time for a fourth replacement, which is worth a story in itself. After moving away from the original retailer that sold him the mattress, he has to go through the corporate office for his warranty claims. He still doesn't have his mattress, but Sealy now has more of his money. More »
Please Stop Sending My 16-Year-Old Daughter Credit Card Solicitations
By Laura Northrup on March 22, 2011 1:00 PM
77 Comments
Theoretically, a 16-year-old shouldn't be on the mailing list for unsolicited credit card offers. Neither should a 13-year-old. Yet companies just can't stop sending solicitations to J's teenage daughter—even after J. specifically opted her out of the offers. Permanently. Or so the family thought. Now they've started up again, and J. isn't sure how to make them stop. More »
Flashback To 2007: Stephen Colbert On AT&T's Formation
By Laura Northrup on March 22, 2011 11:30 AM
32 Comments
It seems like only yesterday that Cingular gobbled up AT&T Wireless, becoming the AT&T Wireless that we know and love today. Now that they've proposed bringing T-Mobile USA into the family, we can't help but remember this classic clip from "The Colbert Report" from 2007 — way back when no one had ever heard of a toxic asset, and the original iPhone was enthralling new technology. More »
What Should I Know To Provide For My Family After I Die?
By Laura Northrup on March 22, 2011 11:00 AM
78 Comments
While everyone should have their financial and legal affairs in order in case of sudden and untimely death, reader Charlie has to worry about this much too early in his life. He's been told that he has only a few years to live, and wants to begin planning now to make his passing easier on his family and to provide for them. More »
(tuchodi)
Mash Up Gender-Targeted Toy Advertisements For Your Amusement
By Laura Northrup on March 22, 2011 10:00 AM
74 Comments
The average child watches thousands of television commercials every year. Ads geared to kids don't just encourage purchases of mass-produced plastic toys and mass-produced junk food: they also enforce rigid gender stereotypes about who should be playing with which kind of toy. Girls want sparkly pink ponies that bake cupcakes and need to be fed bottles, and boys want loud, fast remote-controlled tanks that shoot lasers and green slime. But happens when you pair the audio to a "boy" ad with the video to a "girl" ad? More »
AT&T To Purchase T-Mobile USA For $39 Billion, 1000 Rollover Minutes
By Laura Northrup on March 20, 2011 3:24 PM
175 Comments
AT&T Wireless has made its next move in the race against Verizon for nationwide mobile phone domination: it's acquiring fellow GSM carrier T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom for a combination of cash and AT&T stock currently valued at $39 billion. DT will then have an 8% stake in AT&T, and AT&T will gain 33.7 million current T-Mobile USA customers. More »
(Kimaroo)
Day 7 With No Heat Or Hot Water: Thanks, Sears
friggin' wicked cold at night. How long ago did the boiler break down? It's been more than a week. More »
By Laura Northrup on March 18, 2011 4:15 PM
58 Comments
Jim's boiler from Sears broke, and he's been without heat or hot water since. It's not the middle of winter, but he lives in New England, where it still gets 
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on March 18, 2011 12:30 PM
99 Comments
- Man With 4th Amendment Written On His Chest Sues The TSA
- Here's Your Lineup For Worst Company In America 2011!
- Do Not Drink An Entire Bottle Of Soy Sauce
- Gilbert Gottfried Loses Aflac Duck Gig Because He Thinks The Japan Tsunami Is Hilarious
- Too Bad Your Dad Died: Now Give Us $363
(Stéfan)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on March 18, 2011 11:30 AM
4 Comments
Here are six of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
28 More Borders Stores Added To Closing List
By Laura Northrup on March 18, 2011 9:35 AM
63 Comments
Borders announced late yesterday that heartbreak, job loss, and terrible liquidation sales are coming to even more of its stores than previously announced, as part as the company's bankruptcy plans. In a statement the company said that the stores added to the list will close by late May, and could start liquidation as soon as this weekend. More »
(gdrage)
Target Sells Your Reserved iPad, Then Promises Imaginary Discount
By Laura Northrup on March 18, 2011 9:00 AM
66 Comments
It seemed reasonable enough to Mark: his local Target gave out more tickets to purchase 16 GB iPads than they had iPads, and he was the last person to reserve a ticket. The store had plenty of 64 GB models left, though, but Mark didn't want to pay that much and tried to leverage the situation into a discount on one of those. Some employees agreed that the company should make this happen, and others claimed that it wasn't physically possible. Mark began a quest to get his promised discount, but it looks like he'll be running Flash on his iPad before that ever happens. More »
(sa_ku_ra)
Please, Make The Imaginary DSL Bills Stop
By Laura Northrup on March 17, 2011 1:15 PM
60 Comments
It's not that Whitney is stuck in a zombie debt situation. Her problem is that her debt never existed in the first place. She's being billed for DSL service by "Frontier Communications" - which is a real company, but that doesn't seem to be who she's dealing with. The Frontier that's billing Whitney is unreachable and apparently not real, despite their ability to generate bills, then sell them to a collection agency. If that's the case, though, how did they get her credit card information to bill her? More »
Ally Bank Thinks My Fiancee Is A Scammer, Bans Me For Life
By Laura Northrup on March 17, 2011 11:30 AM
90 Comments
Is it a crime to get engaged to someone from another country? No, but it does raise red flags for wire fraud when you're trying to transfer money. That's what Robert learned when his Egyptian-born fiancée tried to deposit money into their wedding savings account that they share, but is in her name because she doesn't yet have a Social Security number. More »
Hey, Companies! Want Good Survey Ratings? Don't Call At 5:30 AM
By Laura Northrup on March 17, 2011 10:30 AM
54 Comments
Miss M. called T-Mobile customer service last night around midnight. She was happy with the customer service she received, and went to bed with her problem solved. When the company called her back to ask her to answer a survey about the call, she would have been happy to give them a nice evaluation....except that the call came at 5:30 in the morning. More »
(RentVine)
Borders Employee: I Don't Want To Mislead Customers To Sell Rewards Cards
By Laura Northrup on March 17, 2011 9:35 AM
53 Comments
Reader "Ann" works at Borders, and wants Consumerist readers to know that many employees there find the constant flogging of the rewards program problematic. Ann, for one, found a sales script that employees are encouraged to use so troubling that she wrote in to Consumerist about her concerns. More »
Car Insurance Companies Keep Calling With Rate Quotes I Never Asked For
By Laura Northrup on March 17, 2011 9:00 AM
26 Comments
James thinks that he might be the victim of a scam. Or a prank. Something strange is going on, with fraudulent credit card charges and phone calls from car insurance companies that he never requested. He's not sure whether the two things are even related, or what they could mean. More »
Penny Auctions: Different Flavors Of Retail Crack
By Laura Northrup on March 16, 2011 4:45 PM
46 Comments
We often receive e-mails from readers wondering whether this or that penny auction site is an awesome way to kill time and get cheap iPads, or a scam. Back in 2009, we looked at Swoopo, and penny auction sites have proliferated since then. The sites differ somewhat, but the business model is always the same, with users placing prepaid bids, and the auction site collecting far more from all of the bids than the retail value of the item. It's like a very lucrative, for-profit raffle. More »
Time Warner Cable iPad App Is Great For TV On The Go... But Only In Your House
By Laura Northrup on March 16, 2011 3:45 PM
37 Comments
TV lovers, rejoice! The future of legal, licensed television watching is here, and it's....incredibly locked down! Time Warner has introduced a beautiful new iPad app that lets you log in with your Time Warner Cable username and password and watch TV anywhere on your iPad. Well...as long as "anywhere" is "in your house, or on the wireless network of another Time Warner Cable customer, as long as you yourself have a cable package from Time Warner at home." So much for mobile. More »
Grocery Stores Can Have Terrible Liquidation Sales, Too
By Laura Northrup on March 16, 2011 3:15 PM
15 Comments
It's not just big-box retail stores like Circuit City and Borders that have liquidation sales offering terrible deals for consumers. The hideous black, red, and yellow signs have gone up at a Pathmark grocery store in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Like other liquidation sales, though, all prices go back up to retail and are marked down from there. The problem with this is that customers miss out on the weekly specials going on at every Pathmark except the one shutting down. More »
Kay Jewelers Sends Wedding Rings To China For Repair: Will They Ever Come Back?
By Laura Northrup on March 16, 2011 2:05 PM
136 Comments
Jennifer and her husband bought her diamond wedding ring set in 2006, and the anniversary band to go along with it in 2007. They also bought an extended warranty for the rings, which was either a great idea or a terrible one, depending on how you look at it. It was a great idea because her rings seem to be defective. It was a terrible idea because she ultimately sent the jewelry off to the vendor in China for repair, and now Kay representatives are ducking her questions. She fears that the rings have been lost. More »
Make Sure You Really Want Dish Network Before Signing A Contract
By Laura Northrup on March 16, 2011 1:00 PM
94 Comments
If you order Dish Network, make sure that you really, really want Dish Network. Or you could end up like Tony, who signed up for the service, realized it wasn't for him, and now has to pay a $450 early termination fee, in addition to subscription fees and shipping the boxes back. More »
(agoailam)
How To Split A Restaurant Check
By Laura Northrup on March 16, 2011 11:05 AM
262 Comments
Are you going out to eat today? The Awl provides this helpful guide to splitting the check at a restaurant. Writer Neel Shah helpfully devises different rules for people over and under the age of 25. Or maybe for people who are or aren't poor. Whatever the case, there's a social contract involved, and if you only pay what you owe down to the last cent, you're sort of a cheap jerk. Or under 25. More »
Can My Co-Workers Rightfully Steal Mail I Have Sent To Work?
By Laura Northrup on March 16, 2011 10:00 AM
379 Comments
If you have a regular 9-5 job, one way to be sure that you receive your personal deliveries safely is to have them sent to the office. Unless you're reader A. and her husband. They work for two different small companies, and have discovered that any items mailed to them at work end up in someone else's hands. Both A. and Mr. A have been told that all mail addressed to the office is company property, and belongs to either whoever finds it first, or management. This seems wrong to them. More »
Etsy Sort Of Listens To Internet, Changes Privacy Defaults
finally sort of listened to its sellers, customers, and the entire Internet this afternoon when they changed a controversial feature that users claimed was a privacy breach. Users' feedback history on the site is now private, and they can change those settings to become less private. Why did this matter? More »
By Laura Northrup on March 15, 2011 4:50 PM
35 Comments
Whimsy emporium Etsy 
Too Bad Your Dad Died: Now Give Us $363
By Laura Northrup on March 15, 2011 4:00 PM
143 Comments
Melissa's father passed away at the end of January. She's just now settling his estate, and most companies she has dealt with have been accommodating and understanding. The exception? Verizon Wireless, which told Melissa that it was her fault she hadn't been able to contact them until they sent a collection notice. She owes—or, rather, her father's estate owes—$362.80 that she doesn't have on hand. They're making a sad and difficult time even worse. More »
(misterjt)
Sears Delivers New Stove, Ends Family's 6 Weeks Without Cooking
By Laura Northrup on March 15, 2011 3:30 PM
21 Comments
Remember Ian, whose family was stuck with a series of defective Kenmore stoves and hadn't been able to cook at home for six weeks? He reports that Sears delivered a new stove to his house on Saturday, and this one seems to be actually functioning. So far. Hooray! More »
When Large Packaging Disguises Tiny Content
By Laura Northrup on March 15, 2011 2:05 PM
53 Comments
One way around the Grocery Shrink Ray is to leave packages the same physical size, but put less product in them. Two readers recently noticed that they weren't getting as much value for their money as they thought when shopping at Walmart. More »
At CVS, The Word 'Clearance' Is Essentially Meaningless
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By Laura Northrup on March 15, 2011 1:00 PM
40 Comments
Reader Juhgail noticed "clearance" tags on an item that she was planning to buy anyway. Since "clearance" nearly always also means "sale" in retail, it's nice when that happens. Except in CVS's reality vortex, "clearance" actually means "we stuck a shelf tag on it, but left it at the same price." Makes sense.More »
(ideagrrl)
Double-Check Your Budget Truck Reservation If You Don't Want To Give Away Your Stuff
By Laura Northrup on March 15, 2011 12:30 PM
70 Comments
Moving can a great time to take a clear-headed look at your possessions and determine what it is that you truly need. H. and his family ended up giving away many of their belongings during a recent move, but not because of any desire to downsize. They had to leave their things behind because the employees at his local Budget thought that a family that booked two identical trucks had done so only because they double-booked. Not because they actually needed two trucks. Nope. More »
7 Hours Sitting In The Aisle Of An Overbooked Megabus
four five more passengers than seats. The last four five passengers had a choice between two incredibly crappy options: be stranded overnight in the city of departure and miss their connections, or crouch in the aisle, cursing Megabus with every mile. Sean and his companions went for the second option. More »
By Laura Northrup on March 15, 2011 11:00 AM
136 Comments
This weekend, Sean spent a miserable seven hours sitting in the aisle of a packed Megabus traveling between two East Coast cities. The company had taken too many reservations for the overnight bus, and had 
You Want Your Real Name Associated With Your Etsy Purchase History, Right?
By Laura Northrup on March 15, 2011 10:00 AM
60 Comments
Have you ever made a purchase on the crafty marketplace, Etsy? If you have, consider checking your privacy settings, since the site is beginning to have more in common with Facebook than an old-fashioned online bazaar. The company behind the site managed to annoy sellers, buyers, and more or less the entire Internet by changing its privacy policy earlier this year.
The changes allow users to search for their friends and marginal acquaintances' Etsy usernames and feedback histories by e-mail address. Not all that different from most social networking sites... but most people who sign up to use Etsy do so to buy things, not to socialize and spy on what their friends are buying. Now, the full names of users who provided them to the site are available to the public and indexed by search engines by default. Users must opt out of these exciting new privacy-defying features. More »
At Capital One, A CSR's Mistake Is Unchangeable Forever
By Laura Northrup on March 11, 2011 2:35 PM
51 Comments
At Capital One, front-line customer service representatives wield enormous power. At least that's how it seems based on Rachel's story. She called in to request an increase to her credit limit, and received a small one. She accepted the increase over the phone, and all was well, until she received a letter telling her that she had been offered the limit increase and declined it. It appeared that the customer service representative had made a mistake. Easy enough to fix, right? Well... no. No one Rachel talks to has the power to override this all-powerful CSR's typo. More »
(XISMZERO)
Sears Leaves Family Without Functioning Stove For 6 Weeks
By Laura Northrup on March 11, 2011 1:45 PM
40 Comments
In 2009, Ian's family had their kitchen remodeled to become super-awesome. One of the additions was a pricey, but fast and energy-efficient, Kenmore induction range. While the new cabinets and granite countertops are still going strong, the family has been without a stove for six weeks now, severely hampering their ability to make their own meals at home. Sears and the repair company that tried to fix the stove keep blaming each other for the failure, but it's Ian's family that ends up paying to eat out every night. Update: Sears has delivered a new, functioning stove. More »
(Klaus M)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on March 11, 2011 12:45 PM
4 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Burger King's Stacker Deal Uses Questionable Math, Robs Customers Of Bacon
By Laura Northrup on March 11, 2011 11:45 AM
94 Comments
Do you like to mix and match your fast food items? Stephen was contemplating the current pricing structure of the Burger King Stacker, and realized that the modular sandwich relies on some strange math. Sure, you can pay more and receive more patties, but the best deal comes if you're willing to toss out two buns and combine three single Stackers into a sort of Ultimate Triple Stacker. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on March 11, 2011 11:30 AM
122 Comments
- Calm Man Successfully Buys TV And Denies Walmart Receipt Checkers
- Confessions Of A Staples Employee
- Judge: Sony Can Have IP Address Of Anyone Who Visited Forbidden Site
- How I Saved My Money From A Scammer
- Trick Fraudulent Debt Collectors With Google Voice
Tiny Walmarts Multiply, Spread Across Arkansas
By Laura Northrup on March 11, 2011 8:10 AM
48 Comments
Like the tiny brooms in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," mini Walmarts are marching rhythmically into communities in Arkansas. After the opening of the world's smallest Walmart on the University of Arkansas campus, BusinessWeek reports that the megaretailer plans to begin construction next week on three new Walmart Express stores. More »
Best Buy Screws Up Appliance Delivery Badly Enough To Drive Customer To Sears
By Laura Northrup on March 10, 2011 12:30 PM
69 Comments
Jason ordered a new dryer from Best Buy, and his experience was so frustrating that he actually threatened to buy from Sears instead. How bad does a shopping experience have to be to drive a man to such madness? More »
Should I Try A Chargeback When Grocery Store Won't Budge?
By Laura Northrup on March 10, 2011 11:30 AM
108 Comments
Arguably, the most important fact in this story is that there's a grocery chain called "Schnucks." It's located in the Midwest, and Brandon and his fiancee shop there, employing a complicated credit-card-tab-splitting procedure that normally causes no problems. This time, it did, resulting in a double charge. Brandon wonders whether he's justified in pursuing a chargeback, since he still doesn't have his money back. Short answer: Yes. More »
T-Mobile Puts Sidekick Out To Pasture, Annoys Former Customer
By Laura Northrup on March 10, 2011 10:36 AM
38 Comments
Adam is one of the last of the T-Mobile Sidekick customers hanging around. The phone is finally being put to pasture in May, as T-Mobile turns to Android instead of Danger/Microsoft. But Adam is annoyed at how T-Mobile chose to (not) tell him, and their offer of a replacement phone. Not that this actually affects him, since he had switched to Verizon days before. More »
Costco Sues For Being Forced To Return Rebate Money It Didn't Keep
Costco, based in Washington, thinks that they should get to keep the money, and filed a lawsuit last week defending that right. This should be interesting. Costco, based in Washington, was recently forced to turn over money from its' rebate program that it says it never even kept. More »
By Laura Northrup on March 10, 2011 8:15 AM
71 Comments
What happens when you don't claim a rebate? In Washington State, the retailer from which you didn't claim the cash hands the money over to the state for safekeeping in a program for consumers who later claim the money.
(3n)
1800Flowers Fixes Balloon Mixup, Sends Refund And Replacement
By Laura Northrup on March 9, 2011 5:00 PM
41 Comments
Chad ordered flowers for his fiancee's birthday from 1800Flowers.com, and they included the wrong balloon with her order, making Chad look insensitive in front of her family. That's annoying. But don't clear a space in the Garden of Discontent just yet, because a quick call to the company got Chad a replacement arrangement and a refund. More »
(eakwave1)
At UPS, 'Improper Packaging' Means 'Someone Cut Open Your Package'
By Laura Northrup on March 9, 2011 4:05 PM
149 Comments
Michelle sold her engagement ring to a friend, and shipped it from a UPS Store in the Midwest. The ring was valuable, so she purchased $200 worth of shipping insurance on the ring and sent it on its way to New England. When the box arrived, it had been cut open and the ring removed. Michelle's insurance claim was denied because the item was "improperly packaged." More »
Amazon Takes My $1200, Sends Back Flurry Of Form Letters
By Laura Northrup on March 9, 2011 3:00 PM
119 Comments
One of the problems with selling online is that you can't make your customers leave you feedback or ratings. You can remind them, offer discounts on their next purchase, and some shady vendors even try to bribe customers for food feedback. What you can't do is force customers to leave you feedback, good or bad. Mike is a very small-time Amazon Marketplace seller, having sold seven items in the last four years, and none of the buyers have left him any feedback. He recently sold an expensive camera lens, and now Amazon has frozen his account because More »
Sorry, You Can't Have The Order You Paid For
By Laura Northrup on March 9, 2011 2:00 PM
64 Comments
Henry saved time and money by using an online coupon code to place a furniture order from his local Office Depot for in-store pickup. Well, he thought he was saving money. According to the store employee he dealt with, he "hacked" the ordering system by using a coupon, and could only receive his order by paying an extra $25 to have it delivered. Nice. More »
A Gallery Of Terrible (Or Amazing) Cereal Boxes
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By Laura Northrup on March 9, 2011 1:00 PM
89 Comments
While looking for a photo to illustrate a post about children and cereal cartoon mascots, I made some interesting discoveries in our Flickr pool: horrifying (or maybe just awesome) breakfast cereals that I really shouldn't be surprised hit the market. Some are vintage, some are recent, but they have one thing in common: you would have devoured them when you were six years old. More »
How Can I Fix My Capital One Data Entry Error?
By Laura Northrup on March 9, 2011 12:00 PM
21 Comments
Devin moved his banking to a local credit union. Hooray! The problem is that he accidentally gave his credit card company the wrong bank account number when he switched banks. He didn't find out about the mixup until after his due date had already passed. He wonders: is there anything he can do to avoid the late fees and interest hikes sure to follow? More »
Dish Network Doesn't Want Equipment Back, Would Prefer To Bill You For Service
By Laura Northrup on March 9, 2011 11:00 AM
29 Comments
Susie switched from Dish Network to DirecTV recently, but still must face Dish in order to get her service disconnected. Unfortunately, the company doesn't seem to want their equipment back, and is making her pay for the month during which she still had their equipment, but wasn't using the service. More »
(nrivera)
SiriusXM Doesn't Want My Filthy Online Bill Pay Money
By Laura Northrup on March 9, 2011 10:05 AM
49 Comments
Buz uses his credit union's bill pay service to pay all of his bills. Normally, this works out pretty well for him: none of the companies he regularly sends money to have a problem with it. Trying to pay for his satellite radio with anything but a credit or debit card just results in invoicing fees and frustration. More »
Study: Kids Think Cereal With Cartoon Mascot Tastes Better
By Laura Northrup on March 8, 2011 5:00 PM
78 Comments
Here's a sad, but entirely unsurprising piece of consumer news. In a peer-reviewed study recently published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication fed the same cereal to school-aged children in different boxes. Boxes with a cartoon character earned higher tastiness ratings from the kids. More »
How I Saved My Money From A Scammer
By Laura Northrup on March 8, 2011 4:00 PM
106 Comments
Justin fought the scammers and emerged victorious. When he saw fraudulent charges pending on his account, he dutifully called his bank, Chase. When the bank told them that there was nothing they could do until the charges went through and his money was gone, he took action. Here's how he did it. More »
(Billogs)
Avoid Walmart Receipt Check By Loudly Declaring That You Bought Condoms
By Laura Northrup on March 8, 2011 3:05 PM
120 Comments
At Walmart, it's not just electronics that have anti-theft tags: it's any small, desirable item. Like a box of condoms. Patrick found a way to use this information to his advantage and avoid a receipt check at Walmart. Whether anyone should do this, especially after they've tripped the alarm, is a matter for debate. More »
Florida Motorists Illegally Detained For Paying With Large Bills
By Laura Northrup on March 8, 2011 2:00 PM
116 Comments
Is it a crime to pay a $1 toll with a $100 bill? The people responsible for counting out change might wish that it were, but paying a toll with legal tender isn't a crime. Toll collectors in Florida allegedly asks motorists for personal information and illegally detained them for paying with bills deemed too large. Even better? Toll takers flagged and detained drivers paying with bills as small as $20 based on racial profiling. More »
UK Ad Predicts Feline Evolution, Rise To Power
By Laura Northrup on March 8, 2011 11:05 AM
38 Comments
Fans know that The Consumerist is the place to go for consumer advocacy, money-saving tips, and news about the oddities of global capitalism. But we also work hard to prepare our readers for the coming rise to power of our feline overlords. This UK milk commercial combines slightly off CGI with a warning about what we're in for when cats finally evolve opposable thumbs. More »
(altemark)
Want Just A Credit Report From TransUnion? Too Bad
By Laura Northrup on March 8, 2011 10:00 AM
61 Comments
Michael wanted to pay a copy of his Transunion credit report. In theory, this shouldn't be a problem: he gives Transunion money, they give him a credit report. If only it worked that way. It turns out that just buying a single copy of your report from Transunion is like trying to buy a mobile phone in America from a retail store: you can get it for "free" with a subscription to monitoring service, or as part of a package deal with other services, but you can't just hand over cash for a credit report. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on March 4, 2011 12:30 PM
2 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
(dooley)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on March 4, 2011 11:30 AM
89 Comments
- Why Banks Threatening To Limit Debit Card Swipes To $50 Is Horrible, And Hooey
- Mazda Recalls 65,000 Cars... Over Spider Webs
- The Home Theater System, The Day Off Work, And The Lying UPS Guy
- Watch This Malfunctioning Escalator Fling Its Passengers
- Former Installer: Why You Shouldn't Get Lowe's Installation (Or Why You Should)
No One Has The Power To Refund My Barnes & Noble/GameStop Order
By Laura Northrup on March 4, 2011 10:35 AM
31 Comments
When you buy a video game from Barnes & Noble online, the order is actually fulfilled by GameStop. A nice little bit of corporate synergy and specialization, right? The problem is that when you make a mistake or something goes wrong with your order, you enter a strange state of e-commerce purgatory, with each retailer claiming that the other is the only one empowered to change or cancel your order. That's what happened to Patrick, whose order has now lurked in corporate synergy purgatory for an entire month. More »
The Worst Pizza Hut Ever Is Right Around The Block
By Laura Northrup on March 4, 2011 9:00 AM
196 Comments
CJ and his family have tolerated subpar service from a local Pizza Hut for years because of the convenience: this Pizza Hut is just a three-minute drive away from their house. Well, placing orders from this outlet should be convenient in theory, but his last delivery order was missing the ordered Que Papa potato bites, and somehow took much too long to show up, nearly everyone in the store claims to be a manager, and the delivery person took all of the cash CJ's son handed him instead of giving some change. Yet the story actually gets worse from there. More »
Clarks Stands Behind And Replaces Leaky Shoes
By Laura Northrup on March 3, 2011 12:45 PM
17 Comments
Keeping your feet dry is sort of a key feature of shoes, so Justin was disappointed when the sole of his Clarks boots cracked and leaked whenever he wore the boots in the rain. He contacted the company and learned that their shoe soles have a five-year warranty, and mailed out his broken shoes and had a replacement pair within just a few weeks. Hooray! More »
([RAWRZ!])
Do You Take Frugality Too Far?
By Laura Northrup on March 3, 2011 11:35 AM
133 Comments
The readers of Consumerist and other personal finance blogs sometimes enjoy rounds of competitive frugality. Sure, you can mend your own clothes, make your own coffee at home, re-use plastic bags, change your own oil. But is it possible to take frugality too far, to the point that it harms your life? More »
Comcast Disconnects Your Cable. You're An RCN Customer.
By Laura Northrup on March 3, 2011 10:30 AM
44 Comments
You don't need to actually be a Bank of America customer in order for them to foreclose on your house, and you don't actually need to be a Comcast customer for them to disconnect your cable. That's what Brett writes happened to him recently when a neighbor had their cable fixed. More »
Wellness Recalls Canned Cat Food For Low Thiamine Levels
By Laura Northrup on March 3, 2011 9:30 AM
25 Comments
Wellness is a higher-end brand of dog and cat food that's now even carried at Petsmart. After discovering that some flavors didn't contain enough thiamine (Vitamin B1), an absolutely essential nutrient for cats, the company announced a voluntary recall of all canned cat food manufactured between certain dates. More »
Gamers Stationed Abroad Can't Buy Live Console Subscriptions
By Laura Northrup on March 3, 2011 8:00 AM
73 Comments
Nick is stationed in Germany with the U.S. Air Force. After a long day of serving his country, he likes to play Xbox. But online play is difficult for military gamers serving abroad because of the way that payment systems at Microsoft and Sony are set up. For those whose credit card billing address is their APO address, the system just won't accept their addresses and go through. Can't anyone help the fine, brave gamers of the military? More »
Best Buy Pulls Free Corset From 'Burlesque' Blu-Ray Deal
By Laura Northrup on March 2, 2011 5:00 PM
79 Comments
Best Buy had a neat package deal for customers who want a Blu-Ray copy of the movie "Burlesque." For $20, shoppers would get both the movie and a free corset of questionable quality. The corset was exclusive to Best Buy: but not for very long, because stores were ordered to pull the corsets before the item went on sale. More »
You Don't Have To Buy An E-ZPass From The State Where You Live
By Laura Northrup on March 2, 2011 4:15 PM
151 Comments
The zone of state toll systems that are part of E-ZPass now stretches far beyond the New York metropolitan area where it began. Now you can use your E-ZPass in toll-zapping booths in 14 states, a vast road-trip zone stretching from Virginia to Illinois to Maine. It's all a compatible system, but different states set their own fees to issue the transponders and maintain your account.
What not all consumers know is that you don't have to buy your pass from the state where you live, and you can save money by ordering from across the border. Whether this is a good idea or not depends on where you live, and on where you drive. More »
Flying Wiimote Trashes TV, Discover Makes Loss Less Painful
By Laura Northrup on March 2, 2011 3:30 PM
59 Comments
Stephen broke his new LCD TV the old-fashioned way: his 6-year-old son flung a Wiimote into it. Oh, well, sucks to be him, right? He called around looking for some way out of paying to replace the set, a 46" Sony Bravia that cost more than $900 with tax. Homeowner's insurance? Nope. He didn't buy a warranty from Best Buy when purchasing the TV, and a Geek Squad warranty wouldn't have covered this damage. Time to just go buy a new TV? Not so fast! One of his Facebook friends was savvy enough to tell Stephen to check with his credit card company. More »
Woman Killed Trying To Save Car From Repo Man
By Laura Northrup on March 2, 2011 2:00 PM
164 Comments
A California woman was crushed to death yesterday by her own car while trying to save it from repossession. Authorities still aren't quite sure how the accident happened, but the 41-year-old was standing between her car and the tow truck, and was somehow pulled under her vehicle and dragged 40 feet. She died of internal bleeding later that night at a local hospital. More »
(tjean314)
Craigslist Isn't Giving Away $1000 Apple Gift Cards, Either
By Laura Northrup on March 2, 2011 1:45 PM
2 Comments
We've already established that Craigslist isn't giving away free iPads to randomly selected people who post ads. But the weird scam just keeps going. Uyen first received the "Free iPad" e-mail after posting an ad on Craigslist, but realized that it was clearly too good to be true, did some research, and found Consumerist. Yay! Then someone—no one is quite sure who—sent a follow-up e-mail with a different, but inexplicably more lucrative deal. Sorry, kids, but cynical Uyen is right: this one's too good to be true, too. More »
AT&T Demands UVerse Upgrade To Remove Dead Father's Name From Account
By Laura Northrup on March 2, 2011 12:00 PM
37 Comments
It can be very useful to be grandfathered into an old plan that isn't available anymore. What one Reddit poster and his mother have discovered, though, is that it creates some problems. Like when someone dies, and AT&T insists that they can't make any changes to your DSL and landline account unless you upgrade to UVerse. More »
This Isn't A Water Bottle, It's More Of A Bottle-Shaped Plastic Bag
More »
By Laura Northrup on March 2, 2011 11:08 AM
147 Comments
Sure, we should all use less plastic. But Mike writes that he bought a case of Aquafina that he thinks takes reducing plastic too far. The bottles collapse on themselves, leak, and generally don't do the job for which they're intended.More »
(dooley)
Frontier Takes Over Our Internet Service, Slows It Waaaaay Down
By Laura Northrup on March 2, 2011 10:00 AM
37 Comments
As Verizon builds their FiOS network, they've sold off their landline and DSL business in many markets to Frontier. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it has been for Nick and other former Verizon customers in his town in West Virginia. Their connection speed fell to one-sixth of what it was with Verizon. The speed has improved recently, but they've traded consistent slowness for intermittent outages. Nick can now stay online for about two minutes at a time. More »
Amazing Deals Available At Borders And Ultimate Electronics Liquidation Sales
By Laura Northrup on March 1, 2011 5:00 PM
69 Comments
Two big-box retailers are currently liquidating: Ultimate Electronics is closing all of its stores, and almost a third of Borders locations are closing. Surely this presents some excellent savings opportunities for consumers. Let's be vultures and check in on the progress of the sales. More »
GameStop's New Preorder Bonus: Dead Roaches
By Laura Northrup on March 1, 2011 4:00 PM
59 Comments
Here's a horrible Gamestop shopping experience that we never would have expected: a customer bought a few inexpensive used games, got them home, and discovered that they were terribly buggy. And by "buggy," we mean "the cases were filled with dead roaches and roach eggs." More »
Are You Having Trouble With Bank Of America Today?
By Laura Northrup on March 1, 2011 3:00 PM
75 Comments
Have you been unable to log in to your Bank of America online account? You're certainly not alone. The bank told Crain's that "some customers may experience slowness" and many customers aren't able to access the bank's Web site at all. More »
Watch This Malfunctioning Escalator Fling Its Passengers
By Laura Northrup on March 1, 2011 2:00 PM
101 Comments
For me, malfunctioning escalators are the stuff of nightmares. I still secretly fear that up escalators are going to eat me. So this people-flinging Metro station escalator from the day of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" last year has given me a whole new category of escalator malfunctions to fear. More »
The Home Theater System, The Day Off Work, And The Lying UPS Guy
By Laura Northrup on March 1, 2011 1:00 PM
163 Comments
Jonathan was waiting for UPS to deliver an important and expensive package to his house. He even took a day off work, in order to make sure that he didn't miss the delivery. The UPS site said that the package would arrive by 7:00 PM, but that time came and went. Not only did the package not show up, the driver pretended that he had tried to deliver the package, and logged it in the system as such. Nice try: Jonathan was at home, with his door open at the time. More »
Bank CD Opened In 1974, Mysteriously Eaten By Bank Of America
By Laura Northrup on March 1, 2011 12:00 PM
29 Comments
Laura (no, not me) is trying to track down a 37-year-old certificate of deposit that belonged to her grandparents. This is more difficult than it sounds, since their original bank was gobbled up by progressively larger and larger banks until it became part of...Bank of America. Laura's grandmother passed away recently, and it bothers her that this situation isn't resolved. She's determined to find this lost CD: even though Bank of America alternately claims that there are no records of it, or that her grandfather cashed it in after he died. More »
Former Installer: Why You Shouldn't Get Lowe's Installation (Or Why You Should)
By Laura Northrup on March 1, 2011 11:00 AM
89 Comments
An anonymous reader who once worked installing as an installer for Lowe's shared some very helpful advice with us: you probably shouldn't go to a big-box store for your deck-building and window-installing needs. Why is that? Let him count the ways. More »
Geek Squad Will Hold My EVO Hostage For Up To 30 Days
By Laura Northrup on March 1, 2011 10:00 AM
57 Comments
You've heard it from us before, but we can't remind our readers too many times: extended warranties are usually not such a wise investment. Here's an excellent case study. Ryan pays $9.99 per month for a Geek Squad Black Tie service contract on his HTC EVO. For that much money, he logically assumed that when his phone malfunctioned, he would not be left phoneless for 30 days or more. He was incorrect. That may actually be worse than getting a replacement or repair under the normal manufacturer's warranty. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on February 25, 2011 12:30 PM
104 Comments
- Wells Fargo Meeting Today With Philly Homeowner Who "Foreclosed" On Them (Here's How He Did It)
- Seattle-Area Restaurant Refuses To Serve TSA Agents
- Scenes From A Borders Liquidation Sale
- Undercover TSA Agent Makes It Through Full-Body Scanners With Gun In Her Undies
- How Not To Show A Restaurant That You're Annoyed :(
What Does This Captcha Say? No, Really.
By Laura Northrup on February 25, 2011 11:30 AM
117 Comments
Scott came across this puzzle when trying to request some free seeds for his garden. Go ahead and try to figure it out. We'll wait.
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on February 25, 2011 10:30 AM
2 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Sorry, No Parts At Asus: Guess You'll Just Have To Buy A New Computer
By Laura Northrup on February 25, 2011 9:30 AM
51 Comments
As consumer electronics become lighter and tinier, and are assembled on the other side of the planet, we're more inclined to replace something than to repair it. Mike's experience takes the "ending is better than mending" phenomenon to a new level: he'd be happy to replace the unbearably loud fan on his Asus Eee PC himself, but the company doesn't sell parts. Asus could accept the machine for repair, but no one knows how much the repair would cost, or if it's even possible. More »
SunChips Debuts New, Slightly Quieter Biodegradable Bags
By Laura Northrup on February 25, 2011 9:00 AM
23 Comments
Good news for trash-haters and late-night snackers alike: biodegradable SunChips bags are back in the United States! But it's not the controversial original version that caused an unbearable racket and allegedly didn't compost all that well. More »
(Rentvine)
Surprise: Working In A Closing Ultimate Electronics Really Sucks
By Laura Northrup on February 25, 2011 8:00 AM
90 Comments
Consumerist readers know that liquidation sales at big-box stores usually offer nothing but large, rude crowds and crappy deals. An anonymous Ultimate Electronics employee who is also a longtime reader wrote in to offer some tips for shoppers who want to check out the sale. Those tips are really more of a rant about what it's like to work in a store that's being liquidated. More »
Is Windows 7 Optional At Lenovo, Or Not?
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2011 3:30 PM
49 Comments
Greg wanted to order Lenovo's new ultraportable laptop, the x120e, without Windows 7. A site error briefly let some customers (including Greg) order the computer without an operating system, but then restored the unwanted OS when he went to check out. He hopped on customer support chat, and found a representative who... well, we don't want to say that the rep "lied," but they were certainly misinformed about the company's own products. More »
Great Complaint Letter Leads To Replacement Pens, Loyalty
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2011 2:30 PM
48 Comments
Christopher is an editor, and always needs to keep a red pen at the ready. He even has a preferred brand, the Pilot Precise V5. When he recently found that one of his pens was defective, he wrote a great letter to Pilot about the situation and was amply rewarded with...well, with more pens. More »
(Blue387)
Recalled Windstar Not Worth Fixing, Ford Wants To Buy It
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2011 1:30 PM
165 Comments
Eric owns an elderly (model year 1999) Ford Windstar, and isn't particularly interested in trading it in for a new car for financial reasons. Ford recently recalled hundreds of thousands of older Windstars, and Eric dutifully brought his car in for repair. Instead of a freshly safe car, he received an offer of $3,700 for his van. If he wanted to keep the van, he would need to sign a document absolving ford of any liability if anything goes wrong with the car. What would you do? More »
(WMUR)
Alleged Shoplifter Stabs Home Depot Employee With Scissors, Flees At 100 MPH
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2011 9:30 AM
24 Comments
When an alleged shoplifter was caught at a New Hampshire Home Depot store, loss prevention staff brought him to the front office to speak with him, which is the normal procedure. As police put it, though, "the subject became agitated" and fled the store: stabbing an employee in the hand with a pair of scissors, and losing police in a high-speed chase that apparently reached 100 MPH. More »
Does The Pep Boys 29-Minute Oil Change Guarantee Actually Apply?
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2011 9:00 AM
240 Comments
Troy is a rational person, which is why he took Pep Boys' advertisement of a guaranteed 29-minute oil change literally. A sign at his local outlet claims that if your oil change takes more than 29 minutes, you'll receive a $10 voucher for your next oil change. Except that's not actually how the program works, and Troy found that there's apparently always a way to weasel out of giving customers the $10. More »
Is This A Macy's Ad, Or A Math Test?
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2011 8:00 AM
46 Comments
We love to make fun of the asterisk-riddled coupons available at Macy*s, but reader JB sent in an ad that takes confusing sales to an entirely new level. More »
(Mike)
Scenes From A Borders Liquidation Sale
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2011 5:00 PM
102 Comments
Savvy shoppers know that there aren't any true deals to be found at the liquidation sales of closing retailers, but most people aren't savvy shoppers. Employees of doomed Borders stores are sharing their experiences online, and report that their stores are doing record business now that the liquidators have arrived and the garish "store closing" signs are up. Thanks to consumer confusion, business is good at the stores that aren't closing, either. Who knew bankruptcy was so good for business? More »
Shoplifter Stuffs Chainsaw Down His Pants
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2011 4:00 PM
38 Comments
If you were a criminal and needed to shoplift a chainsaw from a retail establishment discreetly, safely, and efficiently, how would you go about it? An Oklahoma man allegedly chose a novel method: stuffing it down his shorts. More »
Verizon FiOS Wants Me Back, But Makes It Extra Difficult
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2011 3:00 PM
36 Comments
Arthur loved the Verizon FiOS service he once had, and wants it back. He's not as fond of their customer service or their prices, though, and ditched them for Cablevision. He met a salesman who made a great deal happen...and now the vagaries of Verozn's system mean that if he signs back on with Verizon, the nice salesman will lose credit for the sale to Arthur, and also the commission. What to do? More »
Dell Promises Fix For Defective Alienware Laptop, Now Won't Help Me
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2011 2:00 PM
44 Comments
David's Alienware laptop has a defective hinge design, and he's already had the problematic part fixed twice. While Dell has promised a fix for the defect in the near future, David's warranty has expired and his computer is close to breaking again. He needs help from Dell that no one is interested in providing. More »
Billboard Comes Down After Outcry Over Jonestown Reference
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2011 1:00 PM
107 Comments
You know what puts me in the mood for Mexican food? References to '70s suicide cults. I must be the only one, though, because an Indiana restaurant chain ended a billboard campaign after complaints about its Jonestown theme. "We're like a cult, with better Kool-Aid," the billboards read. "To die for!" More »
How To Stop Advertisers From Stalking You Online
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2011 12:00 PM
40 Comments
Thanks to behavioral ad tracking, the image of the Modern Claddagh Ring followed me everywhere on the Internet for days, and the same yarn stores advertise at me everywhere I turn. How can you avoid this fate if you don't want to use ad-blocking plugins, and still want (or need) to accept cookies? More »
Will A Bank Employ Me If I Defaulted On My Mortgage?
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2011 11:45 AM
68 Comments
S. finds himself in a situation that's very common in this recession: he's unemployed, and his house was foreclosed on. The twist to his story is that he's considering applying for a job at the very bank that his mortgage was from. Does he have a chance? More »
Bank Of America Puts Customer In Default After Paying Off Mortgage
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2011 10:00 AM
86 Comments
Not being a Bank of America customer won't protect you from the company's formidable foreclosure machine, but if you are a customer, paying off your entire mortgage doesn't help, either. After an Illinois woman sent a check for more than $60,000 to pay off her mortgage, she learned that the company hadn't applied the money in her escrow account to the principal as they were supposed to, putting her in default. The company helpfully came after her to collect the money she supposedly owed and help her avoid foreclosure. More »
(cote)
Dish Network Ignores Own Policy, Imposes Weird Restrictions On Cricket World Cup
By Laura Northrup on February 22, 2011 3:00 PM
49 Comments
Satellite and cable TV DVRss and cable boxes that let you share content throughout your house are pretty impressive technology, aren't they? Bobby was under the impression that his Dish Network system let him share programming throughout his house. It was only after he spent $129 for a pay-per-view sports event (the ICC Cricket World Cup) that he discovered he couldn't watch the matches on his secondary receiver without shelling out more money. More »
PayPal Resolves Dispute In Your Favor By Draining Your Checking Account
By Laura Northrup on February 22, 2011 2:00 PM
90 Comments
When Russell contacted PayPal about what appeared to be fraud on his account, he rather naively assumed that his being proactive would pay off, and keep his checking account balance safe from the fraudsters. Not so fast! He wants to warn others not to be naive enough to actually believe what PayPal says. More »
Capital One Burrows Into Your Wallet, Makes Your Life Hell
By Laura Northrup on February 22, 2011 1:00 PM
32 Comments
Gerard, now 26, has spent his entire adult life fighting with Capital One. No, we are not exaggerating: he got his first credit card with the company at age 18, and they have been causing him payment and credit-report headaches ever since. More »
(XISMZERO)
Sears Replaces Reader's Basement-Flooding Washer
By Laura Northrup on February 22, 2011 12:00 PM
11 Comments
Consumer victory! After being featured on this site last week, reader Sharon's basement-flooding washing machine is going to be replaced. While the replacement itself is due to Sharon's own diligent work trying to make Sears see logic, she'll be getting more expensive replacement washer for her trouble after her Consumerist appearance. More »
FTD Delivers Forgotten Valentine's Day Flowers Only After Intensive Pestering
By Laura Northrup on February 22, 2011 11:45 AM
28 Comments
Dennis didn't get to take part in this year's Valentine's Day Garden of Discontent, but not because he was happy with the flowers that he ordered for his wife. The company didn't deliver the flowers he ordered, and only dropped off any flowers at all after he called them for five days in a row. More »
Frederick's Of Hollywood Can't Get Un-Mangled Corset To Customer
By Laura Northrup on February 22, 2011 10:00 AM
26 Comments
As years of Stupid Shipping Gang posts on this site have illustrated, some items can easily be mailed in plastic bags, and other really require something with more structure. A t-shirt, for example, or a pair of pants can easily be mailed in a plastic bag, rolled up, crammed in a mailbox, and otherwise squished around. Corsets, however, have just enough structure and rigidity to serve their figure-wrangling purpose, but not enough to withstand being rolled up or crammed in a mailbox. Stephanie ordered a corset from Frederick's of Hollywood. When it showed up in her mailbox, she learned that for a major lingerie retailer, Frederick's isn't great at shipping shapewear so it arrives intact. More »
How Not To Show A Restaurant That You're Annoyed :(
By Laura Northrup on February 22, 2011 9:00 AM
239 Comments
What's more obnoxious than leaving a few pennies on the restaurant table as a tip to make a point? Try writing in a tip of two cents on your credit-card slip, then leaving a passive-aggressive note with a smiley face. More »
Help, Google Ate My Voice Contacts And Won't Respond To Me
By Laura Northrup on February 22, 2011 8:00 AM
11 Comments
Google's forum-based method of providing tech support works for many of the company's consumer products, but didn't work so well during the company's failed experiment with the mobile handset business. Customers' e-mail and Google Voice accounts are now often central to their lives, and Mark has learned that some problems simply don't lend themselves to self-service tech support. More »
Split The Rent Helps You Calculate Rent Fairly
By Laura Northrup on February 18, 2011 12:30 PM
19 Comments
Do you share an apartment or house with multiple people, but aren't sure how to divide up the rent? Not all bedrooms are created equal, but the Split the Rent calculator can help you figure out who owes what. It accounts for variables like bedroom size, private bathrooms, windows, closet space, and the amount of common space in the home. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on February 18, 2011 11:30 AM
84 Comments
- The Consumerist's 2011 Valentine's Day Garden Of Discontent
- DirecTV Drains Customer's Bank Account To Pay For Her Dead Friend's Satellite Service
- Vermont Teddy Bear Gets Guy Dumped On Valentine's
- Walmart Employees Fired For Stopping Armed Robber
- The Secret Economy Behind Free Food Samples
HTC: Phone Repair By Sprint Store Voided Warranty
By Laura Northrup on February 18, 2011 10:45 AM
35 Comments
If Sprint is the exclusive seller of the HTC Evo, and Sprint stores will also repair your Evo when you have a problem with it, isn't it logical that having Sprint repair your smartphone won't void the warranty? Not so fast, smart guy or gal! Rodney writes that he and his wife actually left Sprint because a local Sprint store charged for a repair that actually voided the warranty. That repair? The phone's 4th in seven months. Update, 2/23/11: HTC is issuing Rodney a refund. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on February 18, 2011 10:30 AM
7 Comments
Here are seven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Zombie Debt Collector Tries To Collect 11-Year-Old PayPal Balance
By Laura Northrup on February 18, 2011 8:00 AM
97 Comments
Christopher is currently being haunted my a small debt from his past. At least, it might be from his past: he's not sure. A collection agency is after him trying to collect a $315 PayPal balance from the dot-com bubble era. He doesn't remember owing PayPal any money, but who knows? That was a crazy time. He wonders what his next steps should be. More »
Walmart Employee Claims Returning Books To Store Is Illegal
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2011 1:30 PM
142 Comments
Have you ever purchased a book and then returned it, unread, to the store that it came from? If so, you're a criminal. According to an employee at Myra's local Walmart store, it's illegal to return books to a store. It just can't be done. Except that when the employee tried putting the return though, it worked just fine. More »
Olive Garden Replaces The Uneaten Lasagna You Left Behind
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2011 12:30 PM
81 Comments
Restaurants like the Olive Garden that serve immense portions are used to boxing up diners' food and sending them on their way, sure. A fair amount of these boxes must be left behind, because people are forgetful. When Else filled up on salad and breadsticks and didn't touch her lasagna, she wandered off without her carryout box. She called the restaurant to see whether her box hadn't been thrown away. It had. But they had something even better forher. More »
At Subway, 'Any Purchase' Only Means A Sandwich
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2011 11:30 AM
58 Comments
Maggie stopped by Subway on Valentine's Day for a free cookie promotion. Mmm, cookie. While the promotion ostensibly was for a free cookie with any purchase, Maggie wanted to purchase a one cookie to get her free cookie. According to the Subway franchise she visited, this doesn't work. More »
You Can Donate Money Toward The National Debt
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2011 10:30 AM
89 Comments
Are you outraged at recently proposed federal budget cuts, and dismayed that you just aren't contributing enough in taxes to help pay off the national debt? Good news! The Treasury Department has a program in place to donate toward the national debt. The program began in 1996, and has collected more than $406,000 so far this year. More »
Watch Out For Bank Of America's 'Check Image Service Fee'
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2011 9:00 AM
65 Comments
Joseph is a longtime customer of Bank of America who has always had a fee-free banking experience. Then he noticed an unfamiliar $3 fee on his account called a "Check Image Service Fee." He hadn't heard anything about this, so he signed on customer service chat to find out what it was all about. It turns out to be a fee for having printed images of your canceled checks on a paper statement. Really, the fee is intended to encourage customers to stop receiving paper statements in the mail. More »
The Children's Place: Where 3 for $20 Equals $20.97
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2011 8:00 AM
41 Comments
After Mario bought some shirts at The Children's Place shortly before Christmas, he discovered that the "sale" the store was running on the items he bought was a bad deal. Using an amazing trick of fuzzy math, the store actually increased the price of the items that Mario bought by putting them on sale. Wait, what? More »
(sussmanb)
Heroic FedEx Guy Brings Own Truck For Snowy Delivery
By Laura Northrup on February 16, 2011 5:00 PM
40 Comments
It's not just pizza delivery guys who can be heroic. Ken lives on a rarely plowed dirt road, and a snowstorm made his house unreachable for most vehicles. That included the FedEx truck with a package meant for him on it. He planned to meet up with a driver elsewhere or pick up the package, but instead the driver employed his personal vehicle to forge through the snow and bring Ken his new monitor. More »
Brand-New Kenmore Washer Won't Stop Flooding My Basement
By Laura Northrup on February 16, 2011 4:00 PM
35 Comments
Sharon bought a Kenmore Elite Steam washer and dryer from Sears in August 2010. When the appliances showed up in September, they promptly began flooding her basement. She's been scolded for not following directions correctly (even though she claims to follow the washer's instructions to the letter) and is coming up on her fourth repair visit for the same problem. Sears keeps reassuring her that she's a valued customer. Right. Tell that to her basement floor. Update: Sharon is getting a new washer. More »
Economic Downturn Puts Police Horses Out To Pasture
By Laura Northrup on February 16, 2011 3:00 PM
43 Comments
Have you seen a police horse lately? The New York Times reports that mounted patrols are on the decline nationwide, victims to budget cuts despite their popularity with the public and ability to put a cuddly, slightly archaic face on policing. "They are a valuable element to policing. The problem is I just couldn't afford it," the police director of Newark, N.J. told the Times. More »
(afagen)
Government Employee Dies At Desk, No One Notices
By Laura Northrup on February 16, 2011 2:00 PM
180 Comments
It's the nightmare of every employee who feels undervalued and isolated at work: you could die at your desk and no one would ever notice. This actually happened to a 51-year-old employee of Los Angeles County: she passed away at her desk sometime on Friday, and wasn't discovered until a security guard found her on Saturday. She had last been seen alive at 9 AM on Friday. More »
Something Strange Is Going On At This Silent Auction
By Laura Northrup on February 16, 2011 1:00 PM
78 Comments
David and his roommate attended an event over the winter holidays that included a silent auction for the benefit of charity. He and his roommate both bid on the same autographed item. First the auction organizers called David to let him know that he had won. Then they called his roommate to tell him that he had won the same item in the auction, with the next lower bid. They weren't told while bidding that the item was one-of-a-kind, but something about this situation doesn't seem right, either. More »
This Polo Shirt Is Not Up To Buy More's Exacting Standards
By Laura Northrup on February 16, 2011 12:45 PM
31 Comments
Even if a shirt is purchased as part of a joke, it should hold up to multiple wearings and washings, right? Michael ordered a polo shirt with the Buy More store logo from the NBC series "Chuck." The shirt is clearly defective, with a seam under the front buttons already unraveling, but NBC is holding firm: they won't exchange the shirt for a non-defective one. What would Big Mike say? More »
At Casual Male XL, Everyone Wins The Super Bowl
More »
By Laura Northrup on February 16, 2011 11:00 AM
41 Comments
Reader Brian has made an amazing discovery. The clothing company Casual Male XL exists in a heartwarming yet incredibly boring alternate universe where there is no victor in the Super Bowl. Everybody wins!More »
Restaurant Seats Us, Then Kicks Us Out For Being Late
By Laura Northrup on February 16, 2011 10:00 AM
176 Comments
When you're late for your restaurant reservation, it's well within the establishment's rights not to seat you at all, or to make you wait until after customers who actually showed up on time are settled at their tables. Steven writes that he showed up late for his reservation on Valentine's Day, but restaurant staff initially seated him and his companion. When they were about to order, a restaurant employee came and asked them to leave the table, since they had really forfeited their reservation and the restaurant had seated them by mistake. Steven didn't just leave the table, he left the restaurant and dined elsewhere—and now isn't sure how to follow up on the experience. More »
Amex's Platinum Business Card Promises Are Less Than Golden
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2011 4:00 PM
42 Comments
Lois is a longtime American Express customer. She's had an AmEx card in her wallet for longer than most Consumerist readers have been alive. When she received a mailing offering 50,000 bonus reward points and extra privileges for upgrading her account to a Platinum Business card, she went for it. Except she never received the reward points. Or the airport lounge privileges. Or, apparently, the upgrade to a Platinum Business card. More »
Washington, DC Safeway Store Introduces Receipt Checks
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2011 3:00 PM
98 Comments
Know what American retail needs? More receipt checks. DCist reports that a Washington, D.C. Safeway store has traded uniformed security guards posted at the door for plainclothes Walmart-style greeters who politely block shoppers from exiting until their receipts are checked. There's an almost literal escape hatch, though: for now, tipsters say that there are no receipt checkers posted at the exit to the parking garage. More »
Check The Specs Yourself Before Ordering Electronics
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2011 2:00 PM
113 Comments
Corey found a great deal on a Dell laptop at Best Buy. He was under the impression that the computer included a Blu-Ray optical drive, since Best Buy's "specifications" page listed the drive as included on the computer. Twice. So did the product overview page. But after bonding with the computer for a few hours, Corey learned that the computer was Blu-Rayless. More »
(rogersmj)
Wegmans Introduces Amazing Soda Fountain For Wine
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2011 1:00 PM
38 Comments
Have you ever eaten in a food court or buffet and wished that you could get a glass of wine as easily as getting a Diet Coke from a soda fountain? At the food court in the Allentown, PA Wegmans grocery store, you can purchase from a vending machine a 5-ounce glass of wine, a half-glass, or a 1-ounce "sample." A full glass costs $6 to $10. More »
Fast Food Calorie Counts Don't Stop Kids From Overeating, Either
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2011 12:30 PM
78 Comments
A provision in last year's federal health care reform bill requires all food-serving establishments with more than 20 outlets to post the calorie count of every item on the menu so customers know exactly what they're getting themselves into. The FDA is taking nationwide an idea that some cities and counties had already put in place. It seems like a good idea in theory, but studies show that calorie counts on menus just make people say "ah, screw it" and order the same amount of food that they would have without the calorie posting—or more. A new study in this month's International Journal of Obesity shows that children, too, fall into the same delicious caloric trap. More »
Was FTD Just Overwhelmed This Valentine's Day?
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2011 10:00 AM
113 Comments
Was the combination of a flower-centric holiday and a controversial Groupon promotion too much for FTD to handle? The network didn't spend this Valentine's Day just sending puny flower arrangements to people's moms. For many people, they just went ahead and didn't deliver the flowers at all. Two readers who took advantage of the Groupon discount shared their stories. More »
The Consumerist's 2011 Valentine's Day Garden Of Discontent
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2011 9:00 AM
86 Comments
On Valentine's Day, we are expected to show loved ones how much they mean to us by giving them dead plants. For extra style points, we pay strangers to bring these dead plants to the recipient for us. However, florists are unfathomably busy on Valentine's Day. So busy that we almost feel bad criticizing when things go wrong. Almost. The Consumerist's annual Valentine's Day Garden of Discontent is a collection of flower or gift deliveries that aren't what the recipient had in mind—and sometimes aren't even close. More »
Billshrink Helpfully Suggests How I Can Spend More Money
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2011 8:00 AM
18 Comments
Billshrink is an incredibly helpful service that lets you know when you could be spending less on a service that you use. But when things go wrong, it's a little silly and not helpful at all. Ben reports that he keeps receiving these notices about how he could spend more money on his Verizon Wireless bill.
(Yo Spiff)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on February 11, 2011 12:30 PM
9 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on February 11, 2011 11:30 AM
122 Comments
- Dead Woman's Parents Told To Repay Her Wells Fargo Student Loan
- Woman Bites Into Razor In Walmart Brand Ice Cream
- Man Behind $4,800 Snow Removal Defends His Pricing
- Surveillance Tape Shows Man Who "Forgot" Case Of Soda Is A Thief And A Liar!
- Top 10 Cities With Highest Fast Food Saturation
(jfingas)
Verizon Sends Your iPhone And Your Calls To New Jersey, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on February 11, 2011 10:30 AM
45 Comments
Matt's parents are loyal, longtime Verizon Wireless customers, and they wanted iPhones. Really, really wanted iPhones, to the point that they got up at 3:30 AM on February 3rd to place their orders at the special Verizon-subscriber time. But their iPhones never showed. Thanks to a shipping error, their phones—and their phone calls—ended up shipped to someone else, with both receipts in the box. Verizon's response: they told them to order the phones again on February 10, with the general public. The frustration! More »
Newegg Knows What Women Really Want This Valentine's Day: Sexism
By Laura Northrup on February 11, 2011 9:30 AM
287 Comments
This Valentine's Day gift suggestion list from Newegg has a "Cutie and the Geek" theme, featuring gifts ostensibly for a Newegg shopper, his wife or girlfriend, and gifts that the entire couple can use. Sample items from the "cutie" section: red freshwater pearls, Ralph Lauren sunglasses, and a pink netbook. Sample items from the "geek" section: an electric razor, a 120 GB solid state drive, and a home server. Cary finds the selection a bit sexist, writing: "Great piece of marketing work. I guess women aren't allowed to enjoy geeky toys and instead need 'pink netbooks' or jewelery as gifts." More »
These Ants Taste Like Bacon
inches centimeters long—and thanks to Thinkgeek, you can eat them. More »
By Laura Northrup on February 11, 2011 9:00 AM
34 Comments
Have you ever wanted to snack on giant toasted ants with a "nutty, bacon-like flavor"? Good news. In northern South America, you can find the largest leafcutter ants in the world—about two 
HP Pretends Linux Voids Netbook Hardware Warranty
By Laura Northrup on February 11, 2011 8:00 AM
153 Comments
Installing a different operating system on a computer does not change its hardware. This is a simple enough concept...unless you work in technical support for HP. Their phone tech support have joined their Geek Squad brethren in insisting that a Linux-infested laptop was no longer under warranty.
Kyle didn't want to put Windows back on his netbook just so his problem would fit phone support's standard script. He tried to make tech support see logic...and eventually they did. (Or gave him a new battery so he would go away, but the end result is the same.) More »
(Rentvine)
Ultimate Electronics To Liquidate, Close All Stores
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2011 4:15 PM
68 Comments
Ultimate Electronics, a Colorado-based chain, took on a nationwide expansion in 2010, opening new stores, entering new markets, and taking over a lot of empty retail space abandoned by Circuit City. Now the big-box dream is over: the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late January, and announced this week that it will liquidate and close all 46 stores. More »
(joyosity)
Should Restaurant Refund Me For Edamame Appetizer With Free Giant Worm?
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2011 12:30 PM
148 Comments
Some time ago, on an unknown farm, a worm crawled inside a soybean pod to eat the delicious bean within. The pod was harvested with the worm inside, cooked, and served to reader Sarah as an edamame appetizer at a local Japanese restaurant. Sarah was disgusted and wants a refund of the $3 or so she paid for the appetizer. The restaurant's manager claims that business is slow and they can't afford to give her a refund. More »
DirecTV's Computer System Goes Down, My Deal Goes Down In Flames
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2011 11:30 AM
40 Comments
Steven wanted to sign his family up for DirecTV using an amazing deal available to them through AAA. When he was in he middle of signing up for this deal, just before giving his debit card number, the company's systems went down. Apparently, the company needs your payment info to lock in promotional rates, but Steven couldn't get back through until after his promo rate had expired. Now he is sad, and still stuck with cable. More »
TurboTax's Pricing Scheme Is A Little Confusing
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2011 10:30 AM
67 Comments
You depend on the company that makes your tax preparation software to actually be good at math, but Kevin is a little confused when looking at the pricing scheme for TurboTax this year. It doesn't make any sense, he points out, if you need to file state income taxes, or if you're filing returns for multiple households. More »
Please, Please, Don't Buy Mobile Phone Minutes From Radio Shack
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2011 9:30 AM
73 Comments
Sure, you can buy minutes for your prepaid mobile phone at Radio Shack. But that doesn't mean that you should. Reader Adam's source for this information: a Shack employee, who told Adam that he should get his minutes elsewhere, claiming that employees get in trouble for selling them. Wha? More »
Dead Woman's Parents Told To Repay Her Wells Fargo Student Loan
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2011 9:00 AM
110 Comments
Many young adults complain that they will be trapped in student loan debt for the rest of their lives. It could be worse: yes, really, worse. A young woman in Kansas died of cancer shortly after graduating from college, and the lenders of her $45,000 in student loans decided to come after the balance from her estate: in her case, her parents. Because every grieving family needs to fight banks. More »
(NoNo Joe)
Circuit City Rises From Dead, Traps Customer In Laptopless Purgatory
By Laura Northrup on February 9, 2011 9:30 AM
43 Comments
Systemax, the same company that now owns TigerDirect and the CompUSA brand name, devoured the remains of Circuit City and relaunched it. Unfortunately, this zombie retailer seems to have the collective customer service skills of...well...zombies. Kelly ordered a laptop, which is waiting around to be shipped. No one seems capable of throwing the computer on a truck, or telling her why the computer has not yet been placed on a truck. More »
(vndrl)
In The UPS Time Zone, End Of Business Day Is Midnight
By Laura Northrup on February 9, 2011 9:00 AM
81 Comments
When you order something for "next day" delivery, what constitutes a day? Travis wrote that his very important package didn't arrive that day. Normally not an issue, but he had taken a vacation day from work to wait for it. UPS told him that the package absolutely would show up by the end of the business day, where "end of the business day" is defined as "midnight." Not only does Travis find this a strange way to define "business day," but the package didn't show up then, either. More »
No One Knows Where My Verizon iPhone Could Possibly Be
By Laura Northrup on February 9, 2011 8:00 AM
52 Comments
Where is Sandy's Verizon iPhone? It was supposed to be on her doorstep yesterday, but...it's not. The box that it was supposed to be in contains only iPhone accessories. Verizon must conduct a three-day investigation into whether they shipped her an iPhone or not, leaving her without the precious phone that she pre-ordered after ten years with Verizon. More »
Does The Hertz Claims Department Really Exist?
By Laura Northrup on February 4, 2011 12:30 PM
43 Comments
Have you ever tried to reach the "claims department" of Hertz? Mark was in a car accident with a Hertz customer, and isn't able to get hold of anyone. Either this department is grossly understaffed, or it doesn't exist. More »
Accused Puppy-Mailer Wants Dog Back
By Laura Northrup on February 4, 2011 10:30 AM
92 Comments
The woman who tried to ship a four-month-old puppy from Minneapolis to Atlanta in an airless box using Priority Mail earlier this week reportedly would like the dog back. Will her request be granted, or will the puppy be made available to the numerous people all over the country who actually know how to keep an animal alive and have inquired about adopting him? More »
(RAWRZ!)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on February 4, 2011 9:30 AM
9 Comments
Here are twelve of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
There Is No Good Reason To Buy These 9/11 Commemorative Coins
By Laura Northrup on February 4, 2011 9:00 AM
65 Comments
If you enjoy commemorative coinage, and want something tangible and shiny to mark the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, wait for the official coin coming from the U.S. Mint later this year. Skip the neat-looking coin currently being hawked on cable TV. That coin comes from a company with an untrustworthy past when it comes to 9/11 coinage, headed by the same man who brought us the Bedazzler. More »
12-Year-Old Finds Unexpectedly Racy Valentine's Conversation Heart
By Laura Northrup on February 4, 2011 8:00 AM
67 Comments
As a literal-minded, sugar-crazed child, near Valentine's Day I always wondered whether you could have an entire conversation with conversation hearts, the chalky seasonal candy. (You really can't.) A 12-year-old California girl says that she recently found an unexpected dirty message in her bag of candy hearts, and her parents notified a local TV station just in case it might happen to other families, too. More »
(formatc1)
New Balance Swaps Split Sneakers For New Ones With No Hassle
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2011 12:30 PM
42 Comments
Jaime liked New Balance shoes, and bought a pair to replace her beloved retired ones. When the new ones failed only after a few months, she was disappointed, but didn't get around to contacting New Balance about it for months. When she finally did, she expected perhaps a coupon or another small discount for her trouble. Nope. More »
Elderly Woman Jailed For Throwing Condiments In Library Book Drop
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2011 11:30 AM
72 Comments
There are a number of ways to let an establishment know that you are unhappy with the service that it provides. Do not, however, follow the example of a 75-year-old Idaho woman who deposited ketchup, mayonnaise, maple syrup, and other sticky condiments in her local library's book drop, destroying books and evading capture. She recently plead guilty to the crime, and will serve one month in jail. More »
Verizon Refuses To Believe That They Have Your Router And DVR
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2011 10:30 AM
56 Comments
Andre has had issues with a Verizon equipment return spanning almost an entire year. Verizon claims that they never received the FiOS equipment that he sent back in March of last year. Andre sent the equipment back, and has the UPS tracking information to prove it. Verizon doesn't think that he did, and has sent a collection agency after him for the $1800 he supposedly owes. More »
Enjoy Our Down Bedding: Too Bad You're Allergic To Down
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2011 9:30 AM
69 Comments
If you're allergic to down and stay at a Quality Inn, you should probably check ahead of time to see whether there is any down-free bedding available in the entire building. Jason is allergic to down, and this was the first hotel he had ever encountered that couldn't provide him with feather-free bedding to accommodate his allergy. His complaints to corporate were met with more or less a shrug. More »
Did You Rent A Foreclosure-To-Be?
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2011 9:00 AM
50 Comments
Personal finance blogger Romeo of How We Prevent Wealth recently had a lucky near miss: he put down a deposit on a new rental home, then purely by chance learned that the same home was about to enter foreclosure. He was able to avoid the situation and get his deposit back, but he might not have been so lucky. More »
(Rego)
Craig Newmark Isn't Giving You A Free iPad, Either
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2011 8:00 AM
28 Comments
Well, darn. It looks like the Craigslist iPad scammers took our advice. These enterprising folks would pose as the company CEO, e-mail Craiglist posters, informing them that they had won a free iPad. Of course, the name they used wasn't even the CEO of Craigslist, and free iPad might arrive only when the "winner" completes a bunch of affiliate-payout offers. Now the scamsters are using the name of Craigslist founder Craig Newmark. He's not giving you an iPad, either. More »
REI Ate My $385.04 Store Credit Like So Much Trail Mix
By Laura Northrup on February 2, 2011 9:30 AM
52 Comments
REI, the outdoors equipment co-op, has a very generous return policy. Brandon returned something and received a store credit in return, but can't actually exchange it for merchandise. Company representatives told him that the credit still exists, but is mysteriously "on hold" - but no one knows why, or what that means. More »
Move Your Comcast Account, Get Bonus $8 Late Fee
By Laura Northrup on February 2, 2011 9:00 AM
25 Comments
Mark wrote to us with a warning for Comcast customers: if you move while your account is set on auto-pay, the system is set up so that you will miss a payment and be hit with a late payment fee. Why is it set up that way? Nobody knows. More »
(_tar0_)
Woman Charged With Animal Cruelty For Mailing Live Puppy
By Laura Northrup on February 2, 2011 8:00 AM
142 Comments
"This is for your 11th birthday. It's what you wanted," was written on the outside of an Atlanta-bound Priority Mail box in a Minneapolis post office. It caught postal workers' attention when it started moving on its own and making loud panting sounds. They got permission to open the box and found... a four-month old poodle-schnauzer mix puppy who was very, very happy to be free. The woman who mailed the box was charged with animal cruelty, then went back to the post office to try to get a refund for the $22 in postage she paid. More »
(pyza*)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on January 28, 2011 12:30 PM
102 Comments
- Realtor Slices Price On Snake Infested Home
- DiGiorno's Pizza And Cookies Combo Is Watershed Moment In American Obesity
- The "World's Fastest Beer Machine" Fills Cups From The Bottom Up
- Taco Bell President Responds To "Meat Filling" Lawsuit
- Port Your Mobile Number To Google Voice Now Live
(Razor512)
No, Apple Won't Engrave Swear Words On Your iPod
By Laura Northrup on January 28, 2011 11:30 AM
72 Comments
RedOryx and her sister both ordered shiny new iPods directly from Apple, and they made an annoying discovery: you can have pretty much anything engraved on the back of your iPod...as long as it doesn't include any swear words. More »
(Shermeee)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on January 28, 2011 10:30 AM
5 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
(skampy)
New Gym Business Model: Work Out More, Pay Less
By Laura Northrup on January 28, 2011 9:30 AM
45 Comments
At traditional gyms, you pay the same dues whether you visit the facility twice a day or twice a year. This makes a lot of sense for gyms, but doesn't give you a financial incentive to actually go. But what if you had one? More »
(MShades)
Whirlpool, Free Us From This Fridge's Unholy Buzzing Sound
By Laura Northrup on January 28, 2011 9:00 AM
23 Comments
Justin and his wife saved up and bought a sweet, petite, shiny new Whirlpool refrigerator from Lowe's. They were thrilled with their new purchase for about three weeks, until it began to make an unholy buzzing noise. No one can make the buzzing stop. Not Whirlpool, not Lowe's, not an endless procession of repairmen, and not either company's executive customer service. What now? More »
(joyosity)
Strange, This Yogurt Sample Tastes Just Like Semen
By Laura Northrup on January 28, 2011 8:00 AM
176 Comments
Earlier this week, a shopper in a New Mexico grocery store received a free sample of yogurt. She tasted it, then immediately spat it out on the floor and called the police. The woman told police that the yogurt tasted like it contained a "bodily fluid." Specifically, semen. More »
One Serving Of Crystal Light: Half Of This Pre-Measured Packet
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2011 12:30 PM
85 Comments
Foods that are bad for you have long fudged their calorie and fat content by putting the information for an impossibly tiny serving size on the package, instead of the amount that real people actually eat. Sandar thinks that Kraft is trying to pull the same trick with a new Crystal Light line. The packets of drink mix are designed with a 16-ounce water bottle in mind, but one "serving" is half the bottle—and half the packet. More »
AT&T: Where Seven Months Equals Two Years
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2011 11:30 AM
37 Comments
AT&T is a powerful company, but we didn't know that they were powerful enough to interfere with the passage of time. Yet they are! They used their magic to take Mark's seven-month-old DSL modem, and transform it into a 2-year-old DSL modem. More »
Morningstar Corn Dogs Make Triumphant Return To Grocery Shelves
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2011 10:30 AM
52 Comments
They're back! Around this time last year, we investigated the sudden disappearance of Morningstar Farms' delicious vegetarian corn dogs and hot dogs from grocery shelves. Consumers seem to care very deeply about this product. We're happy to report that the corn dogs, at least, are back on the Morningstar Farms website, and a reader has spotted them in the wild. More »
The 8 Least Evil Banks In America
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2011 9:30 AM
95 Comments
Banks that aren't evil? Really? CNN Money rounded up eight American banks that might not be consumer paradises, but offer free checking, no ATM fees, and comparatively high interest rates for savings accounts. More »
(Family photo)
Hairless Kitten Freezes To Death After Trip In Delta Cargo Hold
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2011 9:00 AM
169 Comments
Snickers, an eleven-week-old hairless kitten, flew from from a breeder in Utah to her new home in Connecticut in the supposedly climate-controlled cargo hold of a Delta Airlines plane. Her new family paid the airline $70 extra so she would be removed immediately. Instead, she sat under the plane for about 50 minutes, on a 10 degree Fahrenheit evening. When she finally met her family, she showed symptoms of severe hypothermia. They tried to warm her up and rushed to a vet, but it was too late. More »
Citibank's Rewards Provider Ships Your Prize 1500 Miles Away, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2011 8:00 AM
11 Comments
Rick moved and changed his address with his credit card company, CItibank, but didn't change it with the bank's rewards program vendor. No problem: just put in a different shipping address when he placed the order, right? Not exactly. Now the company's best option is for him to wait for the package to be sent to the address where he no longer lives, complain of non-delivery, and wait for a new package to come. This seems a bit inefficient. More »
(Don Solo)
Verizon Refunds Snowpocalypse Mobile Overages
By Laura Northrup on January 26, 2011 9:30 AM
39 Comments
Here are two nuggets of delicious customer service in one e-mail. Brock spent hours on the phone during one of America's recent massive snowstorms trying to straighten out his air travel plans. This made him use up cell phone minutes and rack up huge overage charges, which Verizon partially refunded. Oh, and JetBlue was extremely helpful too—once he got through. More »
Stupid Shipping Gang Thinks Every Dog Treat Needs Separate Box
By Laura Northrup on January 26, 2011 9:00 AM
30 Comments
Dog treats shipped in separate boxes large enough to put a dog inside. A wallpaper border crammed on the edge of a box that could fit five more rolls. And a laundry rack shipped to a FedEx store in a box large enough for its purchaser to climb inside. These are the tales of the Stupid Shipping Gang. More »
H&R Block Revives AOL Business Plan, Blankets Nation With Unwanted CDs
By Laura Northrup on January 26, 2011 8:00 AM
54 Comments
If you had a pulse and/or a mailbox in the '90s, you received some AOL disks in the mail. They promoted a free trial, but everyone knows their real purpose: to have their labels peeled off and to be used for file storage. AOL eventually switched to read-only CDs, then switched to total irrelevance. But their familiar promotional tactic is back: adopted by tax preparers H&R Block to distribute their income tax software. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on January 21, 2011 11:30 AM
72 Comments
- Protected By Cops, Emergency Locksmith Rips Woman Off For $613
- Superstreets Save Lives And Fuel By Ditching Left Turns
- Texting Woman Who Fell Into Fountain May Sue Mall
- 8 Ways Your 1040 Is Different This Year
- My Rotisserie Chicken Has a Chemical Found In Brake Fluid
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on January 21, 2011 10:30 AM
8 Comments
Here are seven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Roku Has Your Returned Player For 2 Weeks, Still Won't Issue Refund
By Laura Northrup on January 21, 2011 9:30 AM
38 Comments
Consumerist readers (and editors) seem to love their Rokus, but has anyone in our audience ever tried to return one? June writes that she changed her mind after purchase, and can't get the company to issue her a refund for the player that she's already returned. More »
Long For The '70s? This Vintage Hilton Ad Will Cure That
More »
By Laura Northrup on January 21, 2011 9:00 AM
71 Comments
No person in their right mind should ever long for the '70s. In case, they do, however, we offer as counter-argument this incredibly weird Hilton ad, which features a magician, a Scott Bakula impersonator, and a bunch of hotel maids dressed in what later became the Munchkin costumes for a community theater production of "The Wizard of Oz."More »
Kmart Doesn't Remember That It Sold These Shirts Without Ironclad Receipt Evidence
By Laura Northrup on January 21, 2011 8:15 AM
81 Comments
Roger is stuck with some clothes that relatives bought him for Christmas that don't fit. Did these relatives cut the tags off? Buy him shirts from an obscure store with only a few locations? No. The shirts come from Kmart, which has so much trouble remembering its own recent inventory that they've deleted all trace of this recent merchandise from their systems and can't take the shirts back. More »
The Item You Ordered From Sears May Or May Not Have Ever Existed
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2011 12:45 PM
21 Comments
Michael admits that he probably should have known better than to order something from Ssears.com and...well, to expect it to show up. What he didn't expect was to spend two suspenseful weeks where the retailer apparently wasn't sure whether the items had been shipped, would be shipped, were in stock, were ever in stock, or actually existed. At least that's how it sounds to us. This is impressive even by typical Sears standards. More »
Why Is JC Penney Unable To Send Me The Sizes I Actually Ordered?
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2011 11:30 AM
33 Comments
For those of us who wear very unusual and/or large sizes of clothing, ordering clothes online is a thing of beauty and convenience. Unless you're Matt, and JC Penney's online fulfillment people are utterly unable to read the numbers on a pair of pants and put them in the correct box. Through multiple clothing orders, the retailer has been unable to send Matt the sizes that he actually requests—which I always thought was the entire point of ordering clothes online. More »
Are You Getting Your Office Depot Rewards?
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2011 10:30 AM
17 Comments
Do you use Office Depot's Worklife Rewards program? Have you been receiving your rewards? Jesse had a problem with his rewards account, and we hope that no other readers have experienced a similar problem. He writes that a customer service rep told him that many customers aren't receiving any of the rewards in their accounts, and must call in order to have them credited to their accounts. More »
(rmgustaf)
Avoiding Student Loan Default At Citibank: A Cautionary Tale
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2011 9:30 AM
51 Comments
It's an enormous relief to find someone at a large, powerful company who is kind, helpful, and able to solve your problems. Unfortunately, reader Flora learned that just because a person is kind and helpful, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't document your conversations with them in case things go horribly wrong. More »
Libbey Offers Stemless Wine Glasses, Flawless Service
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2011 9:00 AM
33 Comments
Mark bought a set of a dozen stemless wine glasses made by Libbey, but discovered that one of the red wine glasses was missing when he unboxed it. He contacted Libbey to see about obtaining a single replacement glass. This was no problem for Libbey: they promptly sent him another set of twelve glasses to make up for the oversight. More »
The World's Smallest Walmart Opens On A College Campus
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2011 8:00 AM
47 Comments
America, please welcome the world's smallest Walmart. It opened last week on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville. Of course, the concept of "small" is relative when it comes to Walmarts: the new store is about 3,500 square feet of retail space, and replaces the former campus health center pharmacy. More »
Is This Lost Rental Car Key Penalty Excessive?
By Laura Northrup on January 19, 2011 9:30 AM
110 Comments
Have you ever lost the keys to your rental car? D. did this past weekend, and tells Consumerist that she thought that Alamo's method of issuing a replacement key was a little bit inefficient and expensive. She was instructed to hire a tow truck at her own expense to bring the car back to the lot, then charged a $250 key replacement fee. More »
Save Money: Get Married In A Funeral Home
By Laura Northrup on January 19, 2011 9:00 AM
86 Comments
Superficially, weddings and funerals have a lot in common: everyone's dressed up, families get together, some people are crying, and the guests of honor ride off in fancy vehicle to an uncertain future. Funeral homes, though, are large and beautiful spaces that provide a cheaper alternative site for wedding receptions and/or ceremonies. More »
DirecTV Installer: Oh, Most People Don't Notice Our Stealth Warranty
By Laura Northrup on January 19, 2011 8:00 AM
78 Comments
Was it an error, or a sneaky upsell tactic? When Brandon's grandfather moved, taking his DirecTV service along with him, he declined an extended warranty. The final paperwork for the installation included the unwanted warranty, however. When Brandon pointed this out, the installer noted that most people don't notice this stealth warranty. Oh, yeah? Brandon declined again—so, of course, the warranty showed up on the next bill. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on January 14, 2011 12:30 PM
53 Comments
- Southwest Pilot Holds Plane For Murdered Child's Family
- 7 Great Jobs You Probably Can't Get
- Gym Guards Beat Man To Pulp When He Tried To Cancel
- How To Shovel Snow So The Plows Don't Clog Your Driveway
- Slash Your Restaurant Bill By Keeping An Eye Out For Upsells
(ecanales)
Don't Call Apple About Your Expanding MacBook Battery Unless It Explodes
By Laura Northrup on January 14, 2011 11:30 AM
94 Comments
The necessary but easily interchangeable pieces of a laptop, such as the power cord and any removable batteries, usually aren't covered under the laptop's warranty. When those items wear out or break in the course of normal use, you're expected to replace them. When the 1.5-year-old battery to Tommy's 6-year-old Macbook Pro overheated and began to expand, Apple representatives were sympathetic, but unable to replace the battery since, well, batteries are only supposed to last for a year or so. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on January 14, 2011 10:30 AM
8 Comments
Here are seven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
These Salmon Are A Swimming Oxymoron
By Laura Northrup on January 14, 2011 9:30 AM
61 Comments
While it is technically possible that a fish could be raised on a farm, released into the wild, and then caught, that's rather unlikely with the Atlantic salmon, which is endangered in the wild. So we can't help but think that there's something wrong with this ad from New England grocer Stop 'N' Shop.
(~dgies)
Sony Closes CD Factory In NJ, 300 Lose Jobs
By Laura Northrup on January 14, 2011 9:00 AM
63 Comments
Three hundred people in New Jersey are losing their jobs, and it's all our fault. Enough consumers prefer to buy digital downloads (when we buy music at all) that Sony is closing down their Pitman, NJ CD factory at the end of March. More »
GMAC Buys Your Mortgage, Tosses It In A Drawer
By Laura Northrup on January 14, 2011 8:00 AM
57 Comments
How are things in the mortgage industry today, in what is supposed to be the post-robosigner era? According to source on the ground, reader Chris, it's not so great. Chris writes that when he and his wife refinanced their house, they knew that GMAC would most likely buy their loan from the mortgage originator. What they couldn't have predicted was that GMAC would wait around for more than a month before they got around to actually acquiring the mortgage, then call Chris and tell him that he was delinquent on the mortgage that he had already paid. More »
Real Estate Listing Leads To Rental Scam
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2011 12:30 PM
56 Comments
Just after Thanksgiving, reader Adam's new renter showed up on his doorstep to look at the house and pick up her keys. The trouble is, while Adam's house is for sale, it's not for rent. The woman on his doorstep was the victim of an Internet rental scam. More »
"Forever Lazy" Describes Either A Product Or Its Target Market
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2011 11:30 AM
39 Comments
Do you long for the warmth and comfort of a Snuggie, but would rather look like an overgrown infant than a demented cultist? Perhaps the Forever Lazy is what you've been looking for. It's a fleece onesie that comes in toddler through adult sizes. While it doesn't come with attached feet, it does have zippered flaps so you can go to the bathroom without getting cold. More »
(XISMZERO)
3 Hours Before Delivery, Sears Notices Your Stove Is Out Of Stock And Discontinued
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2011 10:30 AM
76 Comments
Oh, Sears. Why don't you understand that the point of commerce is to sell merchandise to your customers? Chad tells Consumerist ordered a set of appliances for his new home from Sears, with a delivery time 8 days in the future. Three hours before his delivery window, Sears called to let Chad know—oh, yeah, the stove that he ordered was discontinued. More »
When Should You Warn Others Away From A Business?
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2011 9:30 AM
86 Comments
Nathan wonders: if a company makes repeated errors, then attempts to make things right, should you still warn others against patronizing them? He tells Consumerist that a chain pizza place failed to apply his coupon on four separate orders. He failed to notice at the time, and the restaurant manager offered a refund and free pizza once he called them on it. But should he recommend the place to others? What would you do? More »
T-Mobile Store Can't Explain Why You Can't Have This Deal: You Just Can't
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2011 9:00 AM
89 Comments
Kevin and his wife tried to take advantage of a buy one smartphone, get one free promotion that T-Mobile e-mailed them about. At the time, Kevin was at the end of his contract and eligible for a full upgrade. His wife was a few months away from her full upgrade, but willing to pay a fee to replace her non-working phone. Because Kevin's wife wasn't yet eligible, the local store refused to honor the promotion, even after corporate intervened. More »
(Neubie)
HSBC Just Assumes You Want The $90 Check-Printing Service
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2011 8:00 AM
85 Comments
Adam never received checks for his new HSBC account, so he stopped by his branch to order some. He must have struck bank employees as the kind of guy who demands nothing but the best, since branch employees handed him the order form for the most expensive checks. The ones that cost $90. More »
BlueAnt Cares When Bluetooth Fails And Police Caught You
By Laura Northrup on January 12, 2011 9:30 AM
83 Comments
The BlueAnt Bluetooth headset that Bixby's wife normally uses to talk on the phone in the car failed to connect one day...which just happened to be the day that a police officer saw her holding her phone, which was on speaker phone at the time. She received a ticket. Bixby wrote to BlueAnt about the situation, and received a surprise. More »
U.S. Seizes Killer Chocolate Eggs At Canadian Border
By Laura Northrup on January 12, 2011 9:00 AM
138 Comments
The Kinder Surprise is a delicious chocolate egg that contains a small toy. They're available pretty much everywhere....except the United States, which has banned them because the tiny toys present a choking hazard to small children. And people who like to swallow chocolate eggs whole, we guess. The CBC reports that a Winnipeg woman didn't know this, and was almost fined $300 for attempting to bring a single $2 egg into the country. More »
(DQD)
The Restocking Fee Is Dead At Apple Stores
By Laura Northrup on January 12, 2011 8:00 AM
12 Comments
The word on the street—or at least on electronics blogs—was that Apple stores would do away with the traditional 10% restocking fee on returns. This new feature starts not just as other electronics retailers are doing away with their restocking fees, but was timed ever-so-coincidentally for January 11, the launch day of the Verizon iPhone. Is the rumor true? Reader Tim reports that it is indeed, and he's even tested it. More »
Sometimes, Rarely, Walmart Will Price-Match Itself
By Laura Northrup on January 10, 2011 2:45 PM
62 Comments
Retailers that have an online presence generally don't price-match their own websites. As illogical as this seems (especially for big-box stores that have in-store pickup options) the policy is the policy. Except sometimes there is a way around it. That's how John saved $8 at Walmart—by making the store price-match its own website. More »
Verizon: Sorry Your Phone Doesn't Work. Want To Buy Another?
By Laura Northrup on January 10, 2011 1:45 PM
46 Comments
Austen owns an original Motorola Droid. Well, technically, he owns his fourth Motorola Droid since he bought it on the day the phone was originally released. He's had three replacements of defective phones, and Verizon has helpfully offered to upgrade his phone. If he pays for a new, upgraded phone. He is, understandably, not too thrilled with the idea of purchasing a new phone that might also cast him into smartphone replacement purgatory. More »
Starbucks Decides To Be Starbucks Again
By Laura Northrup on January 10, 2011 12:30 PM
45 Comments
Back in the summer of 2009, Starbucks began a strange experiment: caffeine dispensaries that were Starbucks-owned and operated, but had different branding and were decorated similarly to other neighborhood businesses. Like the coffee shops your neighborhood had before Starbucks came along. This is a sad month for the experiment, though: the first stealth Starbucks, 15th Ave. Coffee and Tea in Seattle, is closing at the end of January. It will become just another Starbucks. More »
eBay Chat Agents Live In The Mythical Nation Of "Chat Session Ended"
By Laura Northrup on January 10, 2011 11:30 AM
66 Comments
D. suspected that his customer service chat rep at eBay didn't really understand what he was saying. So he asked where the rep was located. We suspect that hanging up on the customer is not the eBay-endorsed response to such queries.
Trapped In An Infinite In-Store Pickup Loop At Best Buy
By Laura Northrup on January 10, 2011 10:00 AM
54 Comments
Michael normally likes Best Buy—which may reflect on the management of his local store, rather than making him an uninformed consumer. Yet he placed an in-store pickup order a few weeks ago at another nearby Best Buy, and the situation has become a case study in bad customer service. Or perhaps nonexistent customer service. See, nobody at this store will pick up the phone. At all. Michael even called the store from inside the store and watched employees work very, very hard at not picking up the phone. More »
Letter To Michael Dell Frees College Student From Dell Hell
By Laura Northrup on January 10, 2011 9:00 AM
32 Comments
At the end of last semester, Alex experienced one of the great college student nightmares of our time: his Dell laptop fried itself shortly after the warranty expired. While he Fortunately, he had a few things going for him: his father had originally purchased the computer on a credit card (American Express) that extended his warranty protection, and Alex knew enough to research the specific problem. AmEx's repair offer didn't satisfy Alex, so he summarized the situation in a letter to Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell. More »
How This $2,000 HDMI Cable Will Change Your Life
By Laura Northrup on January 10, 2011 8:00 AM
71 Comments
If you have an extra $2,000 in your home entertainment budget, consider investing it in the 12-meter AudioQuest Coffee cable. Oh, sure, it's not for everyone, but online customer reviews report life-changing and scientifically impossible experiences that you just can't get with your ordinary $5 HDMI cable. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on January 7, 2011 12:30 PM
69 Comments
- Woman Faces Year In Prison For Trying To Return Lost Wallet On Her Own
- Censorship Shrink Ray Takes Racial Epithet Out Of Huck Finn
- Pittsburgh Man's House Gets Demolished By Accident
- More New Debit Card Fees Loom
- You Should Definitely Buy Cameron's House From "Ferris Bueller"
Don't Miss Your Nonexistent Prescription Refill Reminder From Target!
By Laura Northrup on January 7, 2011 11:30 AM
53 Comments
If you choose to use auto-refill for your prescriptions at a chain pharmacy, be very, very careful if you move, or if you just happen to get one refill at a different store than usual. G. learned the hard way that Target, at least, will refill your prescription, fail to call you, and if you don't happen to pick up your refill within two weeks: too bad for you; you've lost that refill! More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on January 7, 2011 10:30 AM
6 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
This UPS Center's Package Pickup Could Not Be Much Less Pleasant Or Efficient
By Laura Northrup on January 7, 2011 9:30 AM
113 Comments
Chantell thought that it would be simpler and more efficient to pick up a UPS package declared "undeliverable" at the shipper's local facility near her home—a large city somewhere in the southern half of the country. Her experience at the local distribution center could be described as many things, but "simple" and "efficient" are not even close. More »
(.:AR:.)
Lenovo Demonstrates How Not To Keep Track Of Your Inventory
By Laura Northrup on January 7, 2011 9:00 AM
22 Comments
When you order an item from Lenovo, your item could be out of stock, backordered, shipping sometime in six months, or have falled into another dimension never to be heard from again. At least, that's what Eamonn discovered when ordering a USB thumb drive along with a Thinkpad. Lenovo first showed an absurdly far-off shipping date, and then finally—days later—admitted that they had sold something that was never actually in stock. More »
(moonpir)
Why Do Happy Meals Have To Be Sexist?
By Laura Northrup on January 7, 2011 8:00 AM
314 Comments
Rose has a problem with McDonald's. It's a relatively tiny one, but something that she wishes McDonald's would fix. See, for her occasional visits to buy Happy Meals for her kids, she would prefer not to be asked whether she wants a "girl toy" or a "boy toy." More »
(iPablosu)
The Red Ring Of Death Affects A Very Occasional Xbox Player
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2011 12:30 PM
69 Comments
Here's the thing with warranties: they're limited not by how many hours you've used an item, but by how long you've owned it. Usually, this works in our favor as consumers, but not in Nathan's case. He writes that his little-used Xbox 360 has failed after three years, presenting the dreaded Red Ring of Death. He wonders: since this is the same problem that more frequent Xbox users see after less time has elapsed, why can't Microsoft offer him a repair even though his warranty has expired? More »
(zamburak)
Seagate Replaces Suspiciously Sparking Power Plug
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2011 11:30 AM
26 Comments
It's a common theme in "above and beyond" posts: a customer contacts a company asking where he or she can buy a certain small part for their widget, and the company sends the part for free—or a new widget entirely. Today, we honor Seagate, which sent globe-trotting academic Donna a new power cord and international plug thingies for her external hard drive when her American plug began to misbehave. More »
Sorry, Your Four-Year-Old $3K Oven Is Too Old To Repair
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2011 10:30 AM
177 Comments
Are all appliances, not just cheap ones, now considered disposable? Celia tells Consumerist that she paid $3,000 for her KitchenAid double oven four and a half years ago. The appliance broke down after she did something completely unreasonable during Thanksgiving: she tried to use both ovens at the same time. After a lengthy attempt to get it repaired, she learned that it wouldn't be possible to get the oven fixed. Why? Because Whirlpool, parent company of KitchenAid, doesn't make the part anymore. More »
How Many Non-Working Smartphones Before You Just Give Up?
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2011 9:30 AM
58 Comments
How many defective smartphones does it take in order for a customer to surrender in frustration and just pay an early termination fee? Craig is on his fourth HTC Evo from Sprint since mid-December. He would like a working phone. Sprint, it seems, would like him to go away. More »
Watch Out For Phantom Comcast Technician Visits On Your Bill
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2011 9:00 AM
25 Comments
Have you called Comcast recently to make any changes to your account or your services? Make sure that you don't have any phantom technician visits billed to your account. That's what happened to Jason every time he made any changes to his account. More »
Holy Crap, The Electric Heated Snuggie Really Exists
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2011 8:00 AM
28 Comments
I've never found the Snuggie all that appealing. "Call me when they make an electric, heated version," I've always said. Yesterday, our man on the ground at the Consumer Electronics Show called. The Coz-E, an electric blanket with sleeves, debuted this past fall, and somehow nobody gave me one for Christmas. Or even told me. More »
New Jersey Wants To Balance Budget With Your Gift Cards
By Laura Northrup on January 5, 2011 9:30 AM
82 Comments
What would be even worse than losing the entire stored value of your gift cards after a few years? Having the state seize it as unclaimed property and use your money to pay its bills. More »
It's Time For Another Visit To Target's Reality Vortex
More »
By Laura Northrup on January 5, 2011 9:00 AM
32 Comments
We've known for a long time now that Target has a very loose grip on reality. Here are three more pieces of evidence that the discounter just isn't in the same reality as the rest of us. More »
Did Citibank Block Your First Purchases Of The New Year?
By Laura Northrup on January 5, 2011 8:00 AM
27 Comments
1/1/11 is a nice-looking date, as sets of digits go. But M. reports that the new date caused a hiccup on the debit card that she uses for her Citibank checking account. But, wait—a Citibank representative assured her that everyone had problems with their cards right after the new year began. Really? More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on December 31, 2010 12:30 PM
52 Comments
- 68-Year Old Punches Teen For Not Turning Off iPhone On Flight
- Hotel Washes Every Coin They Get As Courtesy For Guests
- NYC Mayor: City Should Pay For Vehicle Crunched By Tow Truck
- Guy Tries To Give Up Cable, Wimps Out In Under A Month
- How The Cleveland Browns Told Off Annoying Fans In 1974
(jetalone)
Snapfish Wants To Be Really, Really Sure That You Have Enough Envelopes
By Laura Northrup on December 31, 2010 11:30 AM
9 Comments
Maybe photo-printing service Snapfish wasn't purchased by HP. No, the company just might have been acquired by Santa Claus. This holiday season, they just couldn't stop giving things away. When Paige's mother was missing half of the envelopes for her order of 40 holiday cards, Snapfish was quick to send new ones. Three times over. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on December 31, 2010 10:30 AM
3 Comments
Here are twelve of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
At Least This Journeys Promotion Gets Your Attention
By Laura Northrup on December 31, 2010 9:30 AM
47 Comments
"Try on shoes, get a free smartphone," declared a sign in the window of Ryan's local Journeys store. That sounds like a deal that can't possibly be true. And it's not. More »
Banana Republic Register Mishap Leaves You With Neither GIft Card Balance Nor Clothes
By Laura Northrup on December 31, 2010 9:00 AM
33 Comments
The good news: There is a store that will accept American Express gift cards without even trying to throw you in jail. It's Banana Republic. The bad news: A still-unexplained register problem left Andrew without the $90 remaining balance on his card or the items that he tried to purchase. More »
Watch Out: Spam Texts Could Be Text Scams
By Laura Northrup on December 31, 2010 8:00 AM
40 Comments
Ah, for the days when phone slammers had to actually call you in order to enroll you in services you don't want. P.W. tells Consumerist that he received a few texts from an unknown shortcode number, most likely wrote them off as spam, and ignored them. Until he noticed a mysterious $10 charge on his phone bill. More »
Home Depot Cancels Sale, Overnights Free Tool To Customer After EECB
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2010 12:45 PM
21 Comments
SgtBeavis ordered a clearance item from Home Depot last week. The site claimed that the item was on backorder, and let him place the order. Then they canceled it. Fortunately, the good sergeant reads Consumerist, and decided to write to the CEO of Home Depot to get the situation fixed. It worked: Home Depot overnighted the item to his house for free. He and his woodworking buddies were stunned, More »
Save Money On Magazine Subscriptions By Complaining About N00bs
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2010 11:30 AM
52 Comments
Are you annoyed at the great introductory prices new subscribers to a magazine get, while old-timers' subscription prices climb higher? Yeah, it's the nature of subscriptions, but Gabe found a simple way around it: he called up the magazine and complained about the discrepancy. More »
Best Buy Cancels Order Due To Pricing Error, Then Puts It Through At MSRP
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2010 10:30 AM
68 Comments
Online pricing mistakes happen. When they do, the retailer isn't obligated to sell the item to you at the original price. Life and retail just are not fair. However, what companies are not supposed to do is cancel your order at an erroneous sale price, then put it through again at the much-higher original price that you didn't want to pay. That's what happened to John's brother and some other posters on the sale forum Slickdeals. More »
(Aidras)
Did Banfield Mislead Dog Owner Into Expensive Pet Care Contract?
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2010 9:00 AM
76 Comments
Beware any service that's sold to you with the promise that you can "cancel at any time." Brian claims that he was misled into buying a $29/month "wellness plan" for his dog. He was told that he could cancel the plan after the first year with no early termination fee. That's apparently not what the actual contract says, and now he's stuck paying either a fee, or for another year of the plan. More »
(Edd!)
A New Record? Reader Receives Four Defective Nexus Ones In Four Months
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2010 8:00 AM
21 Comments
Four months ago, Steve bought one of the very last Nexus Ones. Remember? The Google-designed phone that was supposed to change the entire mobile phone industry and instead just showed the world that Google didn't know how to sell tangible objects? Its successor, the Nexus S, has arrived, but it seems that late Nexus One adopters like Steve can only exchange their defective devices for another refurbished Nexus One. This would be acceptable if HTC hadn't sent Steve three defective phones in the course of a month. More »
XM Radio: Useful Service, Useless Customer Service
By Laura Northrup on December 29, 2010 9:30 AM
62 Comments
Bruin likes XM satellite radio. Well, the service. Not the customer service. The confusion and incompetence that he encountered while trying to simply get the account permissions stream radio programs online was stunning. He lost his service, was charged an erroneous $480, and put him on endless holds. Until that one magical representative showed up who fixed everything and helped XM keep Bruin as a customer. More »
Yankee Candle Too Swamped To Answer Phone, Sends Free Candle Instead
By Laura Northrup on December 29, 2010 9:00 AM
22 Comments
Is a company that goes the extra mile to fix their own error during the key holiday season really going "above and beyond"? I would have to say "no," but Robin was still impressed with the way that Yankee Candle handled an error they made with her order. Except for how they wouldn't have had to send a replacement item had anyone been available to answer the phone when Robin called. More »
Oops, My Time Warner Installer Accidentally Upsold Me!
By Laura Northrup on December 29, 2010 8:00 AM
30 Comments
Alex has a Time Warner DVR, but never asked for one. He tells Consumerist that the installer brought one to his home and connected it to the main TV instead of a cable box, but without installing DVR service. Because Alex and his roommate never asked for it. He'd be inclined to write this off as a simple error on the installer's part, but he knows three other households in different parts of New York state that have had strangely forgetful cable installers. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on December 24, 2010 12:30 PM
8 Comments
Here are seven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on December 24, 2010 11:30 AM
30 Comments
Diners Ask Restaurant For 47 Separate Checks... And That's Before They Pulled Out Their Groupons
Doritos Bag Contains Only Three Chips
Call This Radio Shack Salesman On His Crap, And He'll Call Security On You
Target Cashier Didn't Charge Me For DVD. Should I Tell Them?
Forget St. Nicholas - On To St. Valentine's Day!
More »
By Laura Northrup on December 24, 2010 10:30 AM
12 Comments
Are you tired of Christmas, and ready to start planning your Valentine's Day party? Brian writes that the midwestern grocer Dahl's is ready to help you, since they've already put out their display of Valentine's Day-themed plates and napkins. We can all eat our chocolate eggs off them before December slips away. More »
My Very Important USPS Package Is Doing Laps Around New York City
By Laura Northrup on December 24, 2010 9:30 AM
52 Comments
A piece of registered mail left Hong Kong on December 7th, and is on its way to Michael in Manhattan. While it has reached the correct city, tracking information shows that the envelope is currently doing laps from Queens to Manhattan. Michael just wants to show up at a post office and pick the darn thing up, but no one can intercept it or even tell him where it is until his neighborhood mail carrier attempts to deliver it at least once. More »
Microsoft Replaces Defective Netbook, Saves Christmas
By Laura Northrup on December 24, 2010 9:00 AM
11 Comments
Even the biggest and scariest corporations employ compassionate people who put customers first. You just have to find them. David was lucky enough to find one such employee at Microsoft. He received a free Dell netbook after purchasing Office 2010, and set it aside as a Christmas gift for his mom. It was defective. David thought that the gift would be late...until a Microsoft employee went above and beyond, saving Free Netbookmas. More »
LG's Customer Service Reps Are Nice, But My Webcam Is Still Messed Up
By Laura Northrup on December 24, 2010 8:00 AM
6 Comments
Ted really likes his new LG netbook, except for one problem: the self-focusing webcam focuses itself in the wrong spot. The company's customer service representatives were extremely friendly but ultimately useless. Now Ted has to continue...just a bit out of focus. More »
Sony 3D Television Promotion Goes Wrong, And No One Can Fix It
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2010 12:30 PM
35 Comments
Chris's 3D television was supposed to come with a voucher from Sony for four free PlayStation Network games. It didn't. Now he's stuck in that rarest of situations: a problem involving multiple companies where Best Buy is the most helpful and cooperative. More »
(jetalone)
Snapfish Takes On Too Many Christmas Orders, Then Avoids Customer Contact
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2010 11:30 AM
49 Comments
Stacey is a longtime customer of HP's Snapfish service. She tells Consumerist that she wasn't able to get her photo calendars ordered until December 19th. No worries, though: the shipping deadlines on the site said that they'd be able to get the calendar out in plenty of time if she paid for two-day shipping. Except this turned out to not be, strictly speaking, true. Stacey found herself without her palnned gifts and suck on the phone with a customer service agent whose entire job, it seemed, is to "listen to people complain and then to explain how busy HP is." More »
Get A Gift From Target? Guard The Receipt Carefully
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2010 10:30 AM
35 Comments
When giving or receiving gifts from Target, keep careful track of the gift receipt. If you don't, the store's policies might cause you to lose some money, then feel some rage. That's what happened to Chris when he exchanged a set of sheets that were the wrong size. Even though he swapped them for a smaller (and thus cheaper) set, he had to pay Target extra for the privilege. More »
Boxing After Bedtime Is Not A Good Ad Choice For A Kiddie Game Site
More »
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2010 9:30 AM
40 Comments
What is an inappropriate ad on a site specifically designed for children? Tina was surprised to see this advertisement for the new FX series "Lights Out." Not only does the ad contain the image of a blood-covered boxer, but the show it advertises is on at 10 PM - well after the target audience's bedtime.More »
Why It Sucks To Be Sears Right Now
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2010 9:00 AM
102 Comments
Five years after their merger, how are Sears and Kmart faring? Not so well. The company faces deteriorating stores in near-abandoned malls, fierce competition in nearly every category, locations that were prime retail space in about 1974, and snarky consumer bloggers that mock the company at every turn. Oh. More »
(Rentvine)
Here's What Happens When You Trust A Big-Box Electronics Store
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2010 8:00 AM
80 Comments
Ben's father is the kind of lucrative and delectable customer that big-box electronics store salespeople love. Or perhaps they just love their bank accounts. A few months ago, Ben writes, his dad walked into an Ultimate Electronics store knowing that he wanted to buy a 3D TV, and...not much else about what he was looking for. Ben knows enough about electronics to conclude that the local Ultimate store sold his father products that he didn't need, then botched the installation. More »
(firepile)
Help, I Accidentally Shoplifted A Glass Pickle
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2010 9:30 AM
144 Comments
Steve absent-mindedly stuffed a pickle in his pocket while shopping. A glass pickle. No one noticed him take it...including Steve. He'd be happy to go back to the store and pay for it, but the ornament is now broken. More »
Snapfish Sends Another Copy Of Photo Book, No One Knows Why
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2010 9:00 AM
9 Comments
A few weeks ago, we shared Karina's complaint about Snapfish. She wrote that when she took advantage of a "buy one photobook, get two free" deal, the company kept canceling her order instead of printing the books. Shawn has the opposite problem: Snapfish sent him another copy that he never asked for of a book that he had already printed. Of course, they haven't charged him. Is there some kind of Law of Conservation of Photobooks at work here? More »
Call This Radio Shack Salesman On His Crap, And He'll Call Security On You
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2010 8:00 AM
170 Comments
Eric writes that he wanted to upgrade the phone that he uses on his T-Mobile prepaid plan. He decided on a T-Mobile Comet, and found a great price on it at Radio Shack. The crack sales team at The Shack had the phone in stock, and would be very happy to sell it to him along with a two-year contract. This being the reason why Eric has a prepaid plan, he declined. The salesman insisted that this was a policy that came straight from the district manager, and "called" to confirm it. When Eric asked for the manager's number so he could discuss the problem himself, the manager turned out to be a fax machine. When Eric insisted on being given the real number, that's when the salesman threatened to call mall security. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on December 17, 2010 12:30 PM
94 Comments
- Man Cons Woman Into Paying For eBay Auction She Won
- This Dunkin' Donuts Tip Cup Has Trust Issues
- Man Rigs UPS Package With Car Alarm In Attempt To Catch Thief
- Jos. A. Bank Advertises "Super Jew Day" Sale?
- Buzzwords To Avoid When Looking For A New Job
Why Is Canon Still Selling Camera They Claim Is Out Of Stock?
By Laura Northrup on December 17, 2010 11:30 AM
92 Comments
Sara has a wonderful husband who is getting her the digital camera and lens kit of her dreams for Christmas. He even ordered it six weeks ago, in order to make sure that it would definitely arrive in time for Christmas. It hasn't showed up yet because Canon claims that it's out of stock. Fine....so why does their Web site list the same exact item as "in stock"? More »
(.sanden.)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on December 17, 2010 10:30 AM
13 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. I think that this week's crop is exceptionally good, but I'm biased.More »
Verizon Is Shockingly Solicitous Toward Seattleites Who Don't Want Phone Books
By Laura Northrup on December 17, 2010 9:30 AM
44 Comments
Steve lives in Seattle, where a recently passed city ordinance dictates that phone book publishers must let residents opt out of doorstop delivery. He chose to opt out of delivery, and watched piles of Verizon Superpages volumes arrive in his neighborhood. and wrote to us because he was impressed with the lengths to which Verizon went to acknowledge his request, as well as to make absolutely sure that Steve hadn't changed his mind about wanting a phone book. More »
(Jenn W)
You Meant A $15 Starbucks Gift Card, Not $50? That's Too Bad
By Laura Northrup on December 17, 2010 9:00 AM
97 Comments
It was an understandable mistake: Ann writes that she asked for a fifteen-dollar gift card from Starbucks. The person at the counter processed a fifty-dollar gift card instead. But the Starbucks point-of-sale system isn't set up to handle this kind of unforeseen circumstance, so Ann is out fifty bucks for the next month or so while Starbucks customer service sorts this out. More »
Sears, Don't Make Me Give My Dad A Box Of Air Filters For Christmas
By Laura Northrup on December 17, 2010 8:00 AM
35 Comments
Robert found an amazing Black Friday deal on a cordless drill/driver/saw kit, and ordered it as a Christmas gift for his dad. Unfortunately, he ordered it from the notorious anti-capitalist pranksters at Sears, a company whose apparent mission it is to not successfully sell anything to anyone, ever. Sears shipped Robert a giant box of air filters instead of his backordered drill set. Fair enough: he arranged to ship the air filters back. Sears refused delivery of the package. He's stuck with the air filters, and has no gift. He wants to know whether other readers have had similar experiences with their Black Friday orders from Sears. More »
Fedex Carrier: Neither Wind, Nor Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor ...Ah, Screw It
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2010 12:30 PM
59 Comments
Fedex's choice of a spot to leave Jason's package has its advantages and disadvantages. In the plus column, if anyone steals it, they will leave important forensic evidence in the form of footprints in the snow. In the minus column, it's an incredibly stupid place to leave a package, even if the front sidewalk isn't shoveled.
OtterBox Replaces iPhone Case With No Questions, Amazes Customer
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2010 11:30 AM
41 Comments
Andrew's OtterBox Defender case (not pictured) for his iPhone 3Gs protects his phone tirelessly, but it's seen better days. After using it for about a year, he noticed some ordinary wear problems with the case, including a missing headphone jack flap. When he contacted the company about their warranty requirements, they simply turned around and shipped him a new case. More »
Who Screwed Up And Sent Me Some Other Guy's Deodorant?
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2010 10:30 AM
28 Comments
Last week, Jon kept receiving packages from drugstore.com that he didn't order. He was confused, until some detective work solved the problem: a man with the same (relatively common) first and last names as Jon was staying at a nearby hotel, ordered the items, and an overzealous address correction system at UPS assumed that the package really belonged to Jon. What he wants to know is: who screwed up here? More »
68 Families Evicted Because Landlord Owes $79,000 Water Bill
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2010 9:30 AM
139 Comments
Terrible: being forced out of your home during the Christmas/New Year's holiday stretch. Even worse: losing your home because your landlord hasn't paid the water bill in months. That's what is about to happen to sixty-eight families in Oklahoma because their out-of-state landlord hasn't paid the apartment complex's water bill in months. More »
This Sale Depends On What The Meaning Of "Everything" Is
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2010 9:00 AM
55 Comments
If you see signage in a store that says "40% off everything," what do you assume that might mean? While shopping at Ann Taylor Loft, Mike had this wild idea that such signs mean that everything in the store is marked down 40%. He was wrong. The sale specifically excluded new spring merchandise in one corner of the store...which most of the store signage failed to mention. More »
Sorry, It's Your Fault HP's Programmers Screwed Up
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2010 8:00 AM
66 Comments
If a company's software won't work with its own products, whose problem is that? Chris reports that HP seems to believe that because their own software won't work with one of their own products (for which it was recommended) that this is his problem. More »
(Achiam)
Levi's Provides Fantastic Service Once You Email Their PR Department
By Laura Northrup on December 15, 2010 9:30 AM
8 Comments
Last week, we shared Francis's story of a package mixup at Levi's. The company sent him the wrong box, and customer service reps seemed more worried about getting the incorrect package back than about making sure that his order was correct. Francis wrote to us, but shortly afterward he sent the same message to every Levi's PR contact he could find—and heard back within the hour from a wonderfully helpful employee in the Corporate Affairs department. Yay! We love happy endings. More »
Let's Hope Energy Drinks Improve Your Math Skills
By Laura Northrup on December 15, 2010 9:00 AM
19 Comments
Frank spotted this sign at his local Stop & Shop. "And to think, one of the reasons we moved to this town was for its highly touted education system," he laments. Maybe the employees of this convenience store are from the next town over. More »
I Was Stalked By A Crazed Christmas Tree Salesman
By Laura Northrup on December 15, 2010 8:00 AM
75 Comments
How aggressive do you expect someone to be when they're selling holiday cheer? Matt writes that he expected a strong sales pitch from the nursery where he went to price out Christmas trees, but didn't expect a pushy sales pitch that would make the average used car salesman blush. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on December 10, 2010 12:15 PM
71 Comments
- Buy A Burger At Sonic, Get A Free Hooker
- Oops! I Made It Past The TSA Screeners With A 6-Inch Hunting Knife
- Tossing That Newspaper In A Trash Can Could Cost You $100
- Here Are The Most Counterfeited Products For The Holidays
- Hilarious Cash4Gold Letter Is Fake
HSBC Redefines "Opt-in," Won't Accept "No" For An Answer
By Laura Northrup on December 10, 2010 11:45 AM
43 Comments
Daniel came across this page while logging in to his credit card account. "I can sign up, sign up, say yes or be reminded later. I couldn't find anywhere on this page that would let me say 'No, I don't want this'," he writes. "It seems kind of, well, wrong to not give a customer the option to NOT opt in." More »
Chegg Wants Your Textbooks Back Before Finals, Or They'll Charge Full Purchase Price
By Laura Northrup on December 10, 2010 10:45 AM
64 Comments
Is your college's semester a little longer than most? If you use the textbook rental service Chegg.com: that's too bad. They need your books back now. Shawn reports that even though he needs his textbook until December 23rd, Chegg claims that they need it back by the 20th, or they're going to charge him full price, even if he gets an extension. Is that company policy? Well.... no. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on December 10, 2010 9:30 AM
9 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Levi's Not Terribly Concerned That They Sent You The Wrong Order
By Laura Northrup on December 10, 2010 9:00 AM
43 Comments
Francis tells Consumerist that his online order from Levi's went slightly wrong. They sent him the wrong order. Simple enough: especially when the item was intended as a holiday gift, most retailers would immediately put a replacement order in the mail. Not Levi's. Francis says that they were much more concerned with getting the other customer's order back than with making sure that he received his original order in a timely fashion. Update: Francis's situation was fixed even before we posted his story on the site. Hooray! More »
If You Want Unbiased Hotel Reviews, Don't Trust Expedia
By Laura Northrup on December 10, 2010 8:00 AM
46 Comments
What's the purpose of hotel reviews on Expedia.com? Based on the recent experiences of two customers who wrote to Consumerist this week, it's not to provide a balanced overview of customers' experiences. Two unrelated readers stayed in different hotel chains in different cities, had bad experiences, and wanted to warn other travelers. Expedia posted neither of their reviews. Why not? More »
Yes, You Can Buy A Chia Pet For Your Pet
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2010 12:30 PM
38 Comments
I wanted to file this under "new and exciting products," but it's not new. Just new to us. Sure, you can buy c-c-c-cat grass and grow it at home any number of ways, but do those other ways come with annoying commercials? THEY DO NOT. More »
Before You Buy A Store's Extended Warranty, Check With The Manufacturer
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2010 11:30 AM
42 Comments
It's no surprise that an electronics store salesperson might try to talk you into an extended warranty that you don't need. However, reader Chris learned recently to be even more cautious in his dealings with salespeeps: they might be misinformed as to how long the manufacturer's own warranty is. Or—gasp!—even trying to mislead customers. More »
Defective Droid Sends Reader To Verizon Smartphone Replacement Hell
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2010 10:30 AM
56 Comments
Maybe we need to turn "Tales of Verizon Smartphone Replacement Hell" into a recurring series. In today's installment, an Android update breaks Brian's Motorola Droid, and he goes through five replacement phones in just over three months. Oh, and a free screen protector, which belonged to the previous owner of his "Certified Like New Replacement" phone. More »
At The Gap, "50% Off All Sweaters" Is Essentially Meaningless
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2010 9:30 AM
74 Comments
One would think that with a major national retailer such as The Gap, promotional signage would be carefully coordinated on a national basis. Local stores wouldn't be slapping whatever placards they have lying around in the store window, whether or not the sales advertised on those placards are actually happening, and regardless of whether the prices on the placards are actually true. Jeremy tells Consumerist that... well, at his local Gap, that pretty much seems to be the case. More »
Pizza Hut Receipt: "Careful This Gal Is A Bitch"
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By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2010 9:00 AM
128 Comments
Apparently, at one Nebraska Pizza Hut, complaining about a botched order makes you a bitch. When one customer called to complain about her order, she received a credit for free pizza. That pizza arrived with a special message on the receipt: "CAREFUL THIS GAL IS A BITCH." She chose not to eat the pizza that came with that message, afraid it had been tampered with.More »
(izik)
Geeks.com Gives Full Refund When New Ubuntu Distribution Breaks Netbook
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2010 8:00 AM
33 Comments
Adam ordered an older netbook from geeks.com. When it arrived, the wireless Internet didn't work, so he upgraded the version of Ubuntu Linux from 8.04 to 10.04. This just broke almost everything else on the computer. He returned the netbook to geeks.com, but didn't expect them to offer a full refund of the purchase price and shipping — which goes against the stated return policy. More »
The Fuel Doctor FD-47 Is More Of A Fuel-Savings Quack
By Laura Northrup on December 8, 2010 9:30 AM
101 Comments
A basic understanding of physics should tell you that the Fuel Doctor—a small device that you plug into the 12-volt power outlet in your car—will not work. The gadget claims that by "conditioning" your car's electrical systems, it increases power and gas mileage. But...why have none of the major automakers thought of this? Is it all a plot between the car and gas companies... or is the Fuel Doctor just automotive snake oil?
To find out, Consumer Reports plugged the device in to cars set up with sensitive fuel mileage meters, and also tested the vehicles' power with and without the Fuel Doctor. Their verdict? Well, there are some pretty lights on the Fuel Doctor, so it makes a nice decoration. More »
Delta CEO Listens To This Frequent Flyer's Plea
By Laura Northrup on December 8, 2010 9:00 AM
32 Comments
Chris didn't really have a serious consumer "problem," but he had an issue that regular customer service channels couldn't help him with. He's a very frequent flyer, but had been accumulating miles through Alaska Airlines, even though he now does all of his flying with Delta. He sent off concise and businesslike executive e-mail carpet bomb explaining his dilemma, and promising Delta all of his business if they'd match his l33t MVP Gold status. More »
(jetalone)
Snapfish Offers Special Deal: Get No Photobooks For The Price Of One
By Laura Northrup on December 8, 2010 8:00 AM
33 Comments
Karina writes that she found a fantastic promotion from Snapfish: order one photo book, get two free. A great deal if you want to try putting your photos in printed book form. Snapfish can't quite get it together to actually print and send Karina's books, though. They keep canceling her order without issuing a refund, and no one seems to know why. More »
(chewlf)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on December 3, 2010 12:30 PM
51 Comments
- Go Hiking In Style With These Teva Stiletto Heels
- Coupon Grandmaster Scores $1658.53 Of Stuff From Walgreens For $19.99, Donates All To Charity
- Download Our Free Easy Excel Budget Spreadsheet
- Is "I'm From Europe" A Good Excuse For Being A Crappy Tipper?
- Hotel Desk Guy Won't Let My Wife Use The Bathroom
Silly Human, U.S. Airways Policies Are Not Based On "Logic"
By Laura Northrup on December 3, 2010 11:30 AM
66 Comments
As a Consumerist reader, Chris really should have known better. He tells Consumerist that he tried to change his US Airways flight reservation due to a change in his plans, but the quirks of scheduling meant that he would end up paying more money to take fewer flights. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on December 3, 2010 10:30 AM
6 Comments
Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Check Your Blind Zones When Test-Driving A Car
By Laura Northrup on December 3, 2010 9:30 AM
66 Comments
Even if you do happen to have an eye installed in the back of your head, every car has a blind spot behind it, and the dangerous possibility of running over low-to-the-ground animals and children in that massive blind spot. While rear-view cameras in vehicles are becoming more common, they're still more of a luxury add-on than necessary safety equipment. More »
(rcohen89)
How To Save Up Money For The Apocalypse
By Laura Northrup on December 3, 2010 9:00 AM
36 Comments
Once you've taken advantage of the Second Coming Jewelry Sale, you may be wondering: how can I make sure that I have a nest egg ready for the End Times? Reader loquaciousmusic came up with this great idea to take advantage of two proposed "expiration dates" for the Earth. If the world ends—oh, well, you probably won't have missed that $10 per week. If it does—hey, use the money to buy yourself something cool to celebrate still being alive. More »
Zippo Understands When Your Lighter Just Doesn't Work Like It Used To
By Laura Northrup on December 3, 2010 8:00 AM
69 Comments
The Zippo lighter that Mark has carried around the world with him for the last 30 years just wasn't working like it used to. (I would say that it "lost its zip," but that's a stale pun and The Consumerist is far too dignified for that kind of thing.) He theorized that the reason could be the off-brand flints and fuel that he purchased for it locally. Zippo's representative agreed, and to test that theory, sent him some free genuine Zippo brand fuel and flints in the mail immediately. "You're probably the 'most-best' company in the world!" Mark wrote back to them. More »
(SA_Steve)
Reader's 323,000 Hilton Points Zapped Out Of Existence
By Laura Northrup on December 2, 2010 12:20 PM
61 Comments
Due to the nature of Craig's work, he spends about half of his nights sleeping in hotels. If you're a hotel chain, he's the kind of customer you would want to work hard to keep. However, Hilton doesn't think so: since his work didn't bring him near any Hilton properties in the last year, they canceled his rewards account and purged all 323,000 of his HHonors points. More »
This Is What Fantastic Service From Verizon Looks Like
By Laura Northrup on December 2, 2010 11:30 AM
25 Comments
We've shared plenty of Verizon Wireless defective phone nightmare stories from readers recently, but maybe things are changing over there. Several Verizon employees went out of their way to be helpful to Chris—which, as the person who screens Consumerist tips, I find completely shocking. Or it could just be that Chris was lucky. Either way, here's his Verizon nightmare that eventually turned into a success. For now. More »
Chase Makes It Just A Little Harder To Pay Down Your Car Loan Principal
By Laura Northrup on December 2, 2010 10:30 AM
89 Comments
If you want to pay down the principal on your Chase car loan by adding a little extra to your payment when you pay online...well, don't bother. Sean discovered that paying a little extra on your auto loan isn't so simple. Any extra money you might send is considered an early payment for next month...not applied to the principal. Sneaky. More »
Enterprise Wants $300 For Phantom Windshield Crack
By Laura Northrup on December 2, 2010 9:30 AM
51 Comments
Kyle writes that he rented a car from Enterprise earlier this year, paid for by his then-employer. When he returned the car to Enterprise, and the rental agent didn't walk around the car with him to check for damage. He didn't think much of this at the time, but maybe he should have: the company is now after him for his share of the replacement cost of a cracked windshield. What cracked windshield? More »
Microsoft Has Different Instructions Every Time I Call About My Brand-New Broken Xbox
By Laura Northrup on December 2, 2010 9:00 AM
15 Comments
Peter tells Consumerist that in early November, he purchased a new Xbox 360 with Kinect. His new system didn't waste any time—it started breaking down that very night. Bringing it back to the store wasn't an option, since he had transferred all of his licenses. His only choice was to contact Microsoft for repairs or a new box. More »
A Cautionary Comcast Tale: Decimal Points Are Very Important
By Laura Northrup on December 2, 2010 8:00 AM
37 Comments
When a California retiree missed a decimal point and sent Comcast an online payment of $6,894 instead of $68.94, the massive overpayment didn't raise any red flags in Comcast's system. It didn't cause a cascade of overdrafts in his bank account, either, since he had enough money to cover it. To bring the situation to Comcast's attention, though, he had to enlist the help of a local newspaper and a television station. More »
Virgin Mobile And Walmart Team Up To Make Great Mobile Broadband Plan Disappear
By Laura Northrup on December 1, 2010 9:30 AM
29 Comments
Scott tried to do a nice thing and buy a low-cost, low-bandwidth mobile Internet plan for his mother. Unfortunately, there's some confusion between Virgin and Walmart, and the plan that Scott thought he was buying has disappeared into a reality vortex. One where customer service reps insist that he purchased the item from Walmart.com when he didn't. More »
Celebrate The Imminent Return Of Jesus With 50% Off All Jewelry
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By Laura Northrup on December 1, 2010 9:00 AM
45 Comments
When the End Times come, all world economies will collapse, leaving the unlucky survivors to barter for their survival. Precious metals and gems will be very popular. That's probably why this jewelry store in the Midwest took out local TV ads promoting their "Second Coming Sale" with 50% off all merchandise. It's not even close to Easter yet! More »
(dansana)
Intel Needs Proof Of Your Citizenship To Give A $200 Refund
By Laura Northrup on December 1, 2010 8:00 AM
77 Comments
Ricardo is really confused He returned a product to Intel under warranty, and is due a refund. Unfortunately, he can't obtain that relatively small refund until he gives Intel some information about his background, including his place of birth and citizenship. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Black Friday Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on November 26, 2010 6:30 AM
48 Comments
This Open Thread is up early so you can share your bargain-hunting victories... or smug assertions of your moral superiority for staying home and not buying anything. Either way.
- I Can't Play My Video Game, Nor Can I Return It (Updated)
- What $200,000 In Student Loan Debt Looks Like
- I've Got $555,000 In Student Loans
- Are You Participating In "Opt-Out" Day?
- Which Products Are You Most Thankful For?
(gsz)
Thanksgiving Open Thread And Recipe Swap!
By Laura Northrup on November 25, 2010 9:00 AM
103 Comments
Happy Thanksgiving! We are celebrating Here's mine: peanut butter fudge. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on November 19, 2010 12:30 PM
67 Comments
- Enraged Passengers Refuse To Leave Plane
- Man Lets House Go Into Foreclosure Over $25 Fee
- Magazine That Stole Writer's Story Likely Shutting Down; Blames Writer
- Debt Collectors Exploit Facebook To Embarrass You To Friends And Family
- Test If Your ISP Is Shaping Your Download Speed
(peterme)
Eddie Bauer Goes Above And Beyond, Even To Afghanistan
By Laura Northrup on November 19, 2010 11:30 AM
10 Comments
Derek is serving in Afghanistan with the U.S. military. He writes that he ordered a fleece jacket from Eddie Bauer, but didn't provide a necessary part of his APO address. Eddie Bauer came through with fantastic awesomeness and sent a free replacement fleece....with two-day shipping More »
(~dgies)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on November 19, 2010 10:30 AM
6 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Is A Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy Attacking My Time Warner DVR?
By Laura Northrup on November 19, 2010 9:30 AM
86 Comments
Micah has an unusual problem with Time Warner Cable. He tells Consumerist that his DVR simply refuses to record two daily programs that he likes to watch. Those programs? Countdown with Keith Olbermann and The Rachel Maddow Show. A Time Warner technician could find no problems with the DVR itself. More »
Sears Pushes Last-Minute Holiday Gift Panic Up To Mid-November
By Laura Northrup on November 19, 2010 9:00 AM
29 Comments
Here's the latest variation on Christmas Creep: Last-Minute Gift Panic Creep. This photo was taken on November 14th at Sears. Sears began its holiday displays back in July, so it would make sense that they've also pushed up last-minute gift panic. More »
Comcast Still Billing Customer For Account Canceled in 2006
By Laura Northrup on November 19, 2010 8:00 AM
47 Comments
Dan canceled his Comcast service almost five years ago, in January 2006. He moved to Korea in 2008. You might assume that the company would have stopped billing him by now. You would be wrong. More »
Amazon Prime Customers Don't Like Ensenda, Either
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2010 12:30 PM
87 Comments
We've previously shared letters from readers who aren't thrilled with OnTrac, a regional shipping company that Amazon uses for some shipments for Amazon Prime, their all-you-can-buy unlimited free delivery option. Now we're hearing rumblings of problems with another smaller delivery company, Ensenda. More »
Did eCampus Ever Send Customer Her Textbook Or Her Refund?
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2010 11:30 AM
14 Comments
What's worse than paying ridiculous prices for textbooks? Paying a slightly less ridiculous price for a textbook, then never receiving the book or the refund the company promises. In October, more than halfway through the semester, Emily was forced to request a chargeback for a book that she never received. She suspects that the company never mailed it at all, and they also never issued her a promised refund. More »
Kmart's Online Doorbuster Is Kind Of A Bust
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2010 10:30 AM
23 Comments
Maybe Kmart is now a massive anti-capitalist prank like its sibling store, Sears. They appear to sell things, and taunt consumers with sales and deals, but refuse to actually sell things to anyone. That would explain the advertised-but-defunct sale that Christina recently ran into. (Or a miscommunication between marketing and IT....but that's way less fun.) More »
34 Uses For Toothpaste Outside Of Your Mouth
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2010 9:00 AM
61 Comments
Yes, toothpaste is important for keeping your teeth clean and whole, but it also has many interesting uses around the house. Our friends at Coupon Sherpa compiled a list of 35 users for the wondergel, some of which may not have occurred to you. More »
What Did This Woman Do To UPS To Get On Brown's Blacklist?
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2010 9:00 AM
102 Comments
An Oregon woman whose medical problems leave her unable to drive thought that being able to buy almost anything online would make her life easier. That was before UPS began its mysterious war with her. Now, she's forced to either buy from stores that use a different carrier, or have her packages delivered to a neighbor's house. Why? The Oregonian tried to find out. More »
VTech Tech Support: "Sometimes Our Product Works, Sometimes It Doesn't"
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2010 8:00 AM
51 Comments
Juan writes that his granddaughter has a cute little digital picture frame marketed to children. He tried to hook it up to his computer to load some pictures on it for her, and couldn't get it to cooperate with his computer. Juan tried to connect the picture frame using both Windows 7 and Vista, both of which the product's marketing materials claim are compatible operating systems. Only...not so much. "Sometimes the program works and sometimes it doesn't," an employee helpfully told Juan after asking if he has a Windows XP system lying around. More »
Samuel Adams Comes Through, Replaces Reader's Shattered $150 Super-Beer
By Laura Northrup on November 17, 2010 9:30 AM
38 Comments
About a month ago, we published the story of a premium alcoholic beverage cut down in its prime—a bottle of Samuel Adams Utopias that broke near the end of its cross-country journey. Many of you were deeply concerned about the situation, and we're happy to report that the folks at The Boston Beer Company came through—reader Z. now owns a beautiful new bottle. More »
(DQD)
If You Want An Apple Store Gift Card, Don't Order It Online
By Laura Northrup on November 17, 2010 9:00 AM
54 Comments
We at The Consumerist are known for our anti-gift card stance, but sometimes you find yourself in a situation where a gift is required and cash seems tacky. Vivian writes that she got an Apple gift card for her sister as a nice present, and it disappeared from her sister's mailbox. Unlike other high-value items that they sell, Apple mails gift cards using U.S. Postal Service first class mail, and someone stole and spent the card. More »
(pdxmac)
No, The Craigslist CEO Is Not Sending You A Free iPad
By Laura Northrup on November 17, 2010 8:00 AM
48 Comments
A. is selling a washer/dryer on Craigslist, and received an amazing e-mail from the CEO himself. They're doing a drawing to choose random users to send free iPads to—no strings attached! Well, except that you have to complete a bunch of affiliate offers to get the "free" iPad. And for some reason the CEO of Craigslist uses a Hotmail address. And has changed his name from Jim Buckmaster to Herman Fischer. Hmm. Maybe something is wrong here. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on November 12, 2010 12:30 PM
33 Comments
- Starbucks Baristas Nationwide Realizing They Work At A McDonald's That Doesn't Serve Burgers
- Chef Doesn't Quite Appreciate Reviews From Inbred, Jobless, Bored Yelp Users
- GameStop Is Out Of The Game You Want? Order It For In-Store Pickup, Return 10 Minutes Later
- Used SUVs & Trucks Costing More Than New Ones
- Why Can't We Resist These Classic Sales Pitches?
(dooley)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on November 12, 2010 11:30 AM
16 Comments
Here are seven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
MasterLock Replaces Busted Padlock, Secures Customer Loyalty
By Laura Northrup on November 12, 2010 10:30 AM
40 Comments
Adam bought a Speed Dial padlock from Masterlock. The product promises to be more secure, and also looks really cool. Someone managed to get through the lock and steal his things. It wasn't a huge loss, but he wrote to the company to let them know what happened to his lock. Master Lock responded by offering him a free replacement lock. More »
Babycakes Makes Baking Cupcakes More Convenient, More Stupid
By Laura Northrup on November 12, 2010 9:30 AM
82 Comments
This isn't really a "new" product—it's been around since at least this past spring, but it just recently came to our attention. Yes, if you are too impatient to wait the fifteen minutes or so that it takes to bake cupcakes and other small baked goods in a regular old oven, this monotasking, space-hogging glorified George Foreman grill is here to help you expand your waistline. More »
If I Used 200 Gallons Of Water Per Day, I Think I Would Notice
By Laura Northrup on November 12, 2010 9:00 AM
109 Comments
What's wrong with Arif's water meter? He and his fiancée use a modest amount of water, but the local water authority claims that the two of them are somehow using 200 gallons per day. If this seems like it should be a straightforward problem to fix...well, you've never had to deal with a local water authority. More »
( Wayne Gunn)
74% Of You Maniacs Plan To Shop On Black Friday This Year
By Laura Northrup on November 12, 2010 8:00 AM
92 Comments
Who will you be fighting for a parking space at the mall this year? A recent survey by Market Forice Information indicates that almost three-quarters of the American public plan to go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving this year, and sixty-one percent plan to do some shopping online on the next weekday, or "Cyber Monday." More »
Best Buy's Ordering And Inventory Systems Still Defy Common Sense
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2010 12:30 PM
33 Comments
Dorian had a really great online shopping deal: $50 worth of reward points if he spent $100 or more at BestBuy.com. Amazing! He writes that he placed an order, but his mistake was requesting in-store pickup. His local Best Buy store couldn't get him the items through in-store pickup: even when he physically went to the shelf and found the items he had ordered. It just doesn't work that way. More »
Hold On To Your Patterns For Dear Life At Jo-Ann Fabric
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2010 11:30 AM
93 Comments
One would think that craft supplies superstore Jo-Ann Fabric would be used to having customers bring their own knitting or sewing patterns in with them to buy supplies, then wandering off and leaving them behind. Perhaps this gets annoying. Elizabeth writes that when she brought a precious knitting pattern in with her and left it behind, employees promised that the pattern was in the lost and found...but it mysteriously disappeared before she could pick it up. More »
(dsuniaga)
NY Times Exec: Credit Cards Make People Beautifully Ignorant Of Their Spending
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2010 10:30 AM
29 Comments
Gerald Marzorati, the assistant managing editor for new media and strategic initiatives at the New York Times, said something out loud during a recent panel discussion that everyone knows, but no one really wants to admit: using a credit card separates you from how much you're really spending, and subscribers seem blissfully unaware of subscription hikes. More »
Comic Book Store Worker Takes Crazy Customer Interactions, Turns Them Into Comics
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2010 9:30 AM
54 Comments
Working retail means working with the public. Working with the public means overhearing some crazy stuff. One comic book store worker took the logical next step and turned customer quotes into pithy one-panel cartoons. More »
(paalia)
Call Mastercard To Report A Merchant Breaking Rules, Get Your Account Frozen
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2010 9:00 AM
49 Comments
Christopher meant well. He tells Consumerist that he called his credit card company to let them know about a merchant that posted a minimum charge amount to use a credit card. MBNA, in turn, decided that Christopher didn't sound like he "was supposed to" and froze his account. More »
(stirwise)
It Took 13 Months To Get My Incredibly Crappy Wedding Video - What Should I Do?
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2010 8:00 AM
92 Comments
What's more precious: money or memories? A bad wedding videographer can leave you with with neither. Autumn writes that she and her husband hired a videographer for their wedding, assuming that when you pay $1,000 for a videographer, you receive a video of highlights of the wedding and reception in a timely manner. Instead, Autumn had to hound the company to actually get her video, finally receiving it in August 2010 after a July 2009 wedding. Oh, and the video is also missing most of the moments from the reception that people actually want to remember. Maybe the company assumed that after a year passed, the couple would forget that there had been a father-daughter dance. And speeches. More »
GameStop Is Out Of The Game You Want? Order It For In-Store Pickup, Return 10 Minutes Later
By Laura Northrup on November 10, 2010 9:30 AM
180 Comments
The bad news: the GameStop where Ambyr went to buy a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops for her husband only had enough copies of the game to fill pre-orders. The good news: In GameStop's universe, to "pre-order" means that you leave the store that just refused to sell you a game, order that game online, and then return fifteen minutes later. Bad for logic, good for Ambyr. More »
Comcast "Upgrades" Signal, Drives Loyal Customer To DirecTV
By Laura Northrup on November 10, 2010 9:00 AM
76 Comments
The cable television business model is, in essence, very simple. We consumers pay the cable company. They zap programming to our eyeballs, and we send them money. One longtime customer was happy to exchange about $60 every month for access to a little bit of TV. Then Comcast transitioned to a digital signal, and everything just went to hell. More »
(izik)
ASUS, I Just Want My Computer Back From Warranty Repair Hell
By Laura Northrup on November 10, 2010 8:00 AM
50 Comments
Rob really, really liked his ASUS laptop. He kept it clean, treated it kindly, and loved it very much. Yet the display mysteriously broke...sort of... and it began crying rainbow LCD tears when it was only six months old. He sent it in for repair, and the company first told him that the repair would take three business days...then fourteen. Rob would really, really like his computer back. More »
(sussmanb)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on November 5, 2010 12:45 PM
73 Comments
- Microsoft Explains Why Its Xbox Live Price Hike Is Good, And Good For You
- Squatters Spoil Dream Home With Fake Deed Claims
- Halfway To Paying Off $70,000 In Debt
- Capital One Made Me Different Loan Offers Depending On Which Browser I Used
(EvanHahn)
Customer Forgets Doggie Bag, Demands Gift Certificate
By Laura Northrup on November 5, 2010 11:45 AM
109 Comments
If you left a busy restaurant without your doggie bag, what would you do? (A) Shrug and think about the delicious lunch of leftovers that will never be? (B) Go back to the restaurant to see if it was still there? Or would it be (C) Call the restaurant and demand a gift certificate in compensation? A customer of a Boston restaurant attempted option (C) recently, and the restaurant took to social media to share their... surprise? confusion? More »
Teen Steals 12-Pound Turkey Breast By Stuffing It Down His Pants
By Laura Northrup on November 5, 2010 10:30 AM
57 Comments
Sidling up to a deli counter and stuffing a 12-pound turkey breast down his elastic-waisted sweatpants must have seemed like a good idea at one point. So a Brooklyn teen gave it a try. However, the nature of elastic and the laws of physics intervened, and he ditched the turkey in the street after waddling out of the store. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on November 5, 2010 9:30 AM
11 Comments
Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
OXO Spins Broken Product Into Customer Loyalty
By Laura Northrup on November 5, 2010 9:00 AM
47 Comments
OXO makes some cool and innovative household products that you didn't know you needed until you see them in the store. But it's good to know that after that surprisingly easy-to-use gadget stops working, the company will stand behind it, too. That's what Dan learned when his salad spinner broke. They shipped a new one off to him after his first message to customer service. More »
Lowe's Holds Sale, Underestimates Demand For 90% Off KitchenAid Stand Mixers
By Laura Northrup on November 5, 2010 8:00 AM
64 Comments
Home improvement retailer Lowe's went on Facebook and invited all of its friends to a totally awesome pre-Black Friday party late Thursday night and early Friday morning. Like all really fun parties, too many people showed up and things got out of hand. Which is to say that the doorbuster item, a KitchenAid stand mixer at 90%, sold out quickly, and took the store's entire site down with it. More »
Sorry, Best Buy Store Changed Their Minds, No Kinect For You At Midnight
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2010 5:00 PM
107 Comments
Mike pre-ordered the Kinect, a new sensor thingy for the Xbox, from his local Best Buy. He expected the store to be open at midnight so he could be united with his new toy just after the official release. The store web site said that they'd be open at midnight, so why should he expect anything different? More »
(a.drian)
Let This Web Site Play Shirt Matchmaker For You
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2010 4:00 PM
25 Comments
Everyone has that one shirt: a shirt so wonderful, you would happily buy a dozen more like it. Maybe—just maybe—a world like that will be possible someday soon, thanks to the Shirt Fit Finder. This site compares the sizing of different brands of shirts, and finding something similar for you to buy. The bad news? Their selection of brands and sizes is terribly limited. The worse news? It only works for men's shirts. Ah, well. Someday. More »
Panda Express Makes You Pay For Food That Never Comes
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2010 12:40 PM
88 Comments
How long is an unacceptable length of time to wait for your fast food? When Panda Express ran out of a few of the items that Dave ordered, employees first asked him to wait for the missing items, then asked him to pay for the missing items, then (after a half hour had passed) offered to substitute another entree for the missing items that he had already paid for. Dave wanted either a refund, or the food that he actually ordered and paid for. More »
What Do I Need To Pay When I Break My Lease Four Months Early?
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2010 11:50 AM
91 Comments
Shannon in Alabama recently got engaged, and she'll be moving into the house her fiancé owns after the wedding in December. The problem is her current place, which she just leased in April. She wrote to Consumerist for help figuring out what to do, since her landlord doesn't seem too clear on the procedures, either. More »
(afagen)
Priceline Restores Insanity, Moves Hotel Reservation To Different City
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2010 10:30 AM
119 Comments
Priceline has a very different understanding of what a "hotel reservation" is than Shane does. He and his wife and children planned to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Washington, D.C. to attend this past weekend's Rally To Restore Sanity And/or Fear put on by comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. They reserved a hotel room in a close suburb, near a Metro station, correctly assuming that traffic would make driving into the city a bad idea. More »
It's Sort Of Like A Flowbee For Dogs, Except Not
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2010 9:30 AM
36 Comments
My dog thinks that I'm always looking for new and innovative ways to torture her, such as toothbrushes, ear drops, and baths. She should be grateful that I don't have a Dyson vacuum, since the company is launching a carefully designed pet-vacuuming attachment, which will go on sale in the U.S. in January 2011. More »
Starbucks Celebrates Election Day By Hauling Out Holiday Menu And Cups
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2010 9:00 AM
36 Comments
Tuesday was Election day, so in the universe that Starbucks inhabits, that means it's time to bring out the full holiday menu and red-and-green cups. While you'll never catch me whining about the availability of peppermint mochas, this is an important bit of consumer information which helps prove mathematically that Christmas Creep may be coming to an end. Maybe. More »
Polite Complaint Letter Frees Customer From Capital One's Hassle-Filled Rewards Trap
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2010 8:00 AM
51 Comments
It seems that you can't turn on a television without hearing about Capital One's "no-hassle" credit card rewards. Haim learned that these rewards actually are, um, sort of a hassle. He wanted to use his rewards points to pay for part of his vacation, and pay for the rest himself. This concept was too much for the nice folks at Capital one, and he hit a customer service roadblock. Haim then used his finely honed consumer skills to send an executive e-mail carpet bomb emphasizing what a great customer he's been. It worked. More »
Comic Strip Ponders Horrible Future Of The Grocery Shrink Ray
By Laura Northrup on November 3, 2010 9:30 AM
34 Comments
Team Consumerist aren't the only ones with a watchful eye out for the Grocery Shrink Ray. Cartoonist Jen Sorensen of Slowpoke Comics recently noticed the phenomenon, and illustrates a bleak future for beloved products as the shrinkage continues. The fate awaiting the iconic plastic honey bear is too horrible to imagine. More »
(JOE WU)
Election Day Robocall Barrage Takes Out Comcast Phone Service In New England
By Laura Northrup on November 3, 2010 9:00 AM
36 Comments
Political robocalls annoy the hell out of just about everyone, but on Election Day Eve this year in New England, things somehow got even worse. A barrage of last-minute automated calls to voters in New Hampshire and part of Massachusetts actually took down Comcast's phone network. "Between 5:30 pm and 7pm, whenever I tried to call out on Comcast VOIP the phone either would not dial or there would be a message saying all circuits were busy," writes David, who lives in the affected area. "I know - I should cancel the landline!" Only if the robocallers have your number. More »
Lenscrafters Breaks Your Glasses, Offers 50% Off New Pair
By Laura Northrup on November 3, 2010 8:00 AM
76 Comments
Be wary when someone offers to clean your glasses for free. Two different readers on opposite sides of the country wrote to us in one 24-hour span with Lenscrafters horror stories. They describe perfectly good glasses ruined after an offer of a nice cleaning from the eyewear giant. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds: Halloween Edition
More »
By Laura Northrup on October 29, 2010 12:30 PM
10 Comments
Here are ten great Halloween-themed pictures from the Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Or, to be precise, five great holiday- and fall-themed pictures added to the pool this week, and five cute pictures of animals wearing costumes.More »
(Alaidh)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on October 29, 2010 11:30 AM
67 Comments
- Tipsy Angry Man Dumps 32,000 Pieces Of Mail
- Watch Out For The "Dirty Filter" Mechanic Scam
- Conan Dares NBC To Sue Him Over Masturbating Bear
- Federal Court Shuts Down LimeWire With Permanent Injunction
Read This News Site And They Will Hunt You Down And Sue You
By Laura Northrup on October 29, 2010 10:30 AM
116 Comments
The North Country Gazette, an online-only publication based in Chestertown, NY, wants you to know that reading their site without a subscription is serious business. How serious? Well, if you read more than one page on the site without a subscription, the site owner claims that she will use your IP address to track you down and sue you. More »
Should The Map Updates I Paid For Overfill My GPS's Memory?
By Laura Northrup on October 29, 2010 9:30 AM
95 Comments
C.R, bought a Navigon GPS unit a few years ago, and also paid for a service that allows him to download fresh maps every so often. When he went to install the latest map, he discovered something irritating: the memory that came with his unit wasn't enough, and he would need to go out and buy an 8 GB microSD card to fit all of the map goodness. Is this fair? More »
Reader's New CEO Pen Pal Comes Through, Gets Him $200 Service Credit
By Laura Northrup on October 29, 2010 9:00 AM
3 Comments
DirecTV President and CEO Mike White made good on his promise to help reader Daniel. We published Daniel's Saturday evening e-mail exchange with Mr. White yesterday, and received an update on the situation. He received a full credit for the NFL Sunday Ticket package that was renewed this season without his permission. More »
A Lone Dunkin' Donuts Sort Of Abolishes Pennies
By Laura Northrup on October 29, 2010 8:00 AM
170 Comments
One donut shop is taking a stand against the bacteria-ridden zinc disks of suck that are pennies. Reader Tom sent us this photo from a store he recently visited. In a policy change that was probably born during an 8 AM rush, this franchise appears to be are rounding customer totals up or down to the nearest five cents, and only providing pennies to those annoying people who actually want them. More »
Why Does AOL Instant Messenger Mobile Use Text Messages Without Telling Me?
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2010 4:30 PM
129 Comments
Heather tells Consumerist that has AOL Instant Messenger installed on her smartphone, but doesn't really use it. Lately, she's left the program running more often, and made an alarming discovery: she was charged for 800 text messages, even though she didn't send 800 text messages. The culprit? AIM, of course. Each IM to and from her phone was charged as a text message. More »
Sears Finally Runs Out Of Living Customers, Reaches Out To Zombies
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2010 12:30 PM
37 Comments
In an encouraging step, Sears has made its merchandise and web shopping experience more accessible to a marginalized population that most retailers ignore: zombies. They've even translated the site into Zombian. As they put it, "Zerger bargarz zambah barg!" Yes. More »
At Least It Isn't Oozing Blood
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2010 10:30 AM
97 Comments
Aaron discovered this item in the Halloween costume department of his local Target. It is supposed to create the illusion of a wound beneath your clothing. On the shelf, it looks like... um.
DirecTV CEO Answers Customer E-mail On A Saturday Evening, Promises Help
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2010 9:30 AM
28 Comments
Daniel's problem was very simple. He is a DirecTV customer, and subscribed to the satellite provider's NFL Sunday Ticket package of football awesomeness. He decided not to renew this year, then discovered that DirecTV had already helpfully renewed the package for him. He wasn't happy, and sent out an executive e-mail carpet bomb to a nice selection of executives. Who answered him, within an hour and a half on a Saturday? President and CEO Mike White. More »
NY DMV Doesn't Believe I Already Paid Fee, Wants More Money
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2010 9:00 AM
47 Comments
New York's Department of Motor Vehicles doesn't believe that Danjalier already paid the fees to have his driver's license un-suspended. Never mind that he used a credit card, the charge from the DMV posted to his credit card, and the credit card company (American Express) tried to convince the DMV that yes, Danjalier had in fact already paid them. More »
Family Claims Comcast Let Grandma Bleed To Death On Thanksgiving
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2010 8:00 AM
152 Comments
What happens when you have phone service through Comcast and you dial 0 for the operator in an emergency? A family in Florida claims that Comcast's negligence killed their grandmother. The elderly woman bled to death next to her phone while waiting for the Comcast operator and emergency services to figure out where she lived. Now they're suing Comcast. More »
(zipsonic)
I Do Not Appreciate Your Drug-Pushing Calls, CVS
By Laura Northrup on October 27, 2010 9:30 AM
87 Comments
Josh used to get his prescriptions at CVS. He stopped when the company kept calling him, pushing more drugs, and refused to stop calling no matter who he asked. CVS seems to believe that they can annoy customers into purchasing more drugs. More »
(B Bretz)
The New GameStop Rewards Card Isn't Worth Your Time Or Privacy
By Laura Northrup on October 27, 2010 9:00 AM
143 Comments
Last week, we learned that at least one Gamestop employee won't even sell to you unless you sign up for a rewards card. Why might that be? Reader Dragonfire81 has mysterious inside knowledge, and warns all good Consumerists to stay far, far away from the new rewards program that Gamestop is pushing. More »
AirTran Forgets To Tell Your Disabled Mom That Her Tickets Are Standby
By Laura Northrup on October 27, 2010 8:00 AM
100 Comments
Kym's disabled mother was going to move in with her a few weeks ago. She purchased tickets for her mother and four nieces to fly to Kym's city from a major hub airport about two hours away from their town. Instead of getting on their flight, the family ended up stuck in the airport for six hours, then had to hire a car service to drive them back home. What happened? Garden-variety airline delay? No, Kym writes: AAA sold her sister standby tickets without letting her know. The stress of the experience has affected Kym's mother so much that she still hasn't been able to make the flight. More »
Federal Court Shuts Down LimeWire With Permanent Injunction
By Laura Northrup on October 26, 2010 11:45 PM
105 Comments
LimeWire, the Gnutella-based peer-to-peer file-sharing service, is no more. Major record labels, also known as file-sharers' archnemesis the RIAA, obtained an injunction from a U.S. District Court judge in New York City that stops Limewire from distributing their software or facilitating any file-sharing. More »
(Mia Oh)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on October 22, 2010 12:30 PM
6 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on October 22, 2010 11:30 AM
86 Comments
- Subway Says Your Sandwich Is "Cheating"
- Is Olde English Truly The Worst Beer?
- Confessions Of Walmart Employees
- Norton Has Detected Itself
- Man Eats 10 Cans Of Tuna Weekly For 2 Years, Gets Mercury Poisoning, Sues
How Fantastik's Packaging Has Changed From 1967 To Today
By Laura Northrup on October 22, 2010 10:30 AM
54 Comments
Flickr user RhymePile submitted to the Consumerist Flickr pool this fantastic photo of bottles of Fantastik brand all-purpose cleaner from 1967 and today, side-by-side. More »
Lane Bryant Website Error Deprives Reader Of Entire Grad School Wardrobe
By Laura Northrup on October 22, 2010 9:30 AM
107 Comments
It's hard not to take it just a little bit personally when a store doesn't want to sell you something. That's what happened to Hel when she got a great coupon code from Lane Bryant that gave her 50% off a large purchase. She tells Consumerist that she assembled a $1,400 order ($700 with the coupon) — an entire wardrobe for the next few years, really. More »
I Don't Want To Give Up My Droid X For Forced Switch To AT&T
By Laura Northrup on October 22, 2010 9:00 AM
125 Comments
Nick is one of the current Verizon customers whose contract has been transferred to AT&T due to Verizon's acquisition of Alltel. He writes that he would be okay with this if AT&T actually offered a phone comparable to his current Droid X, and if he didn't have to pay $200 for the sort-of-comparable phone they're offering, the Samsung Captivate. More »
20 People Die In Plane Crash Caused By Loose Crocodile
By Laura Northrup on October 22, 2010 8:00 AM
43 Comments
An August plane crash in the Democratic Republic of Congo was blamed on a balance in the small aircraft. But what caused that loss of balance? According to the flight's only survivor, the passengers were running away from a stowaway on the flight: a live crocodile. More »
(SA_Steve)
Has Toys 'R' Us Forgotten That Its Customers Are Children?
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2010 12:30 PM
86 Comments
Alexander wonders: if Toys 'R' Us is a business that caters to children, why aren't their policies very child-friendly? If fickle children receive duplicate gifts or things they just don't want, why won't the chain take them back? He shared a recent experience along with his rant. More »
This Is A $300,000 Barbie Doll
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2010 11:30 AM
16 Comments
A Barbie doll dressed in a black cocktail dress, pink heels, and a sparkly pink necklace sold at auction at Christie's yesterday for $302,500. Well, perhaps it's not a Barbie doll so much as some plastic and fabric that happens to be attached to a custom-designed Cubist pink and white diamond necklace made by Australian jewelry designer Stefano Canturi. More »
Regret Buying That Groupon? Here's How To Sell It
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2010 10:30 AM
30 Comments
This month saw a momentous occasion for me: group-discount site Groupon finally set up shop in the metro area where I live. What happens, though, when you buy a voucher from Groupon or a similar site that you later regret, and you'd rather have the cash? What if you move away before doing all of the amazing things you've bought vouchers for? Well, there are sites that can help you take care of that. More »
Priceline Really Doesn't Want This Guy's $244 Back
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2010 9:30 AM
31 Comments
Andrew tells Consumerist that he received a refund of $244.16 from Priceline.com after canceling a hotel reservation. That part isn't the problem. The problem, from Andrew's point of view, is that Priceline never charged him for the now-canceled hotel rooms in the first place. He doesn't hate free money, but wonders whether Priceline will finally notice their mistake and sic a collection agency on him sometime in 2012. More »
GRE Score Disaster Averted By Helpful, Competent Employee
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2010 9:00 AM
26 Comments
Some institutions aren't part of the government, but are still monopolies or so ubiquitous that they can't be avoided. The Educational Testing Service, which administers the GRE, TOEFL, and other scary and commonly accepted exams worldwide, is one such company. Reader Katstermonster recently had an infuriating encounter with ETS...which had a happy ending when she finally located a customer service representative willing to go above and beyond to actually solve a customer's problem. More »
(_Dinkel_)
Eat Healthier By Leaving Your Credit Cards At Home
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2010 8:00 AM
35 Comments
In the last few decades, Americans use credit (or debit) cards for more and more of our everyday spending. We're also, collectively, becoming more and more obese. A group of researchers wondered: is there a correlation here? They conducted four experiments looking at what types of food people purchase when using a credit card, and what they purchase when using cash. They published their findings in the Journal of Consumer Research. The result is not surprising: people are more likely to buy junk food, on impulse, when paying with plastic. More »
Cox Offers Amazing Cable Deal Over Chat, Calls To Snatch It Away
By Laura Northrup on October 20, 2010 9:30 AM
31 Comments
John's wife used Cox's online customer service chat to negotiate a better deal on their cable service. Usually, this is an effective tactic. Twenty minutes after concluding the chat and signing up, she received a phone call from Cox—canceling the appointment to upgrade service and rescinding the deal. "Technology only goes so far. We are all only human," the representative told her. Which proves, at least, that the Internet representatives aren't robots. So that's something. More »
(decaf)
Lenovo Customer Service Is Incapable Of Sending Me The Right Battery
By Laura Northrup on October 20, 2010 9:00 AM
29 Comments
Steven would like a functioning battery for his Lenovo Ideapad. The computer is under warranty: he bought it less than three months ago. He writes that every time he calls their customer service center for a replacement battery, they send the wrong one. After the second time, this is becoming sort of tiresome. More »
(Marike79)
To Sell You A Used Game, This GameStop Requires Your Phone Number
By Laura Northrup on October 20, 2010 8:00 AM
131 Comments
Did you know that GameStop is a membership-only establishment, like a warehouse club? You're only allowed to shop there if you have their rewards card. I didn't know that, and neither did Jeff. He tells Consumerist that he foolishly tried to purchase a game, but refused to join the rewards program or give the cashier his phone number. The cashier, in turn, refused to sell anything to him. More »
(hehaden)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on October 15, 2010 12:30 PM
68 Comments
- Bob Saget Disapproves Of Your Parenting Techniques
- Fairmont Hotel Cancels Reservations After Receiving $13,000 Deposit
- Coca Cola: We Don't Need To Make A Cane Sugar Version Because You Already Have Mexican Coke
- Things To Buy Exclusively At Warehouse Stores
- Reporter Lives For Month Without A Bank, Fee Orgy Ensues
UPS Shatters Precious Sam Adams Utopia Bottle, Dreams
By Laura Northrup on October 15, 2010 11:30 AM
141 Comments
Z. bought a wonderful gift for his sister while in New England: a bottle of Sam Adams Utopia, a strong, expensive specialty brew that you can't exactly buy at the corner liquor store in California, where she lives. To Z's dismay, the package seemed to make the cross-country journey just fine, only to have the bottle break shortly before reaching Z's doorstep. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on October 15, 2010 10:30 AM
5 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Samsung Blames Canada For Your Monitor Problems
By Laura Northrup on October 15, 2010 9:30 AM
34 Comments
Miguel writes that his Samsung monitor stopped working, but it has a 3-year warranty. He contacted Samsung to see if they could help him. They could not, but not for any mundane reason. Samsung insists that his monitor is from Canada, and they can't provide warranty service to Miguel because he doesn't live in Canada. Where did he buy his monitor? Um, a Sam's Club store in Missouri. More »
Target Thinks Your Mom's Homemade Halloween Costumes Suck
More »
By Laura Northrup on October 15, 2010 9:00 AM
87 Comments
The staff and the readers of The Consumerist share a love of cheap, homemade Halloween costumes. That's why we're a little disappointed in Target's holiday ad offering, which features a creative (if fragile) homemade Iron Man costume made by a proud mom and worn by a dismayed little boy. More »
(dooley)
Verizon Fixes Billing Quagmire, Overnights Refund Check After Consumerist Post
By Laura Northrup on October 15, 2010 8:00 AM
23 Comments
On Wednesday, we shared Mike's Verizon billing horror story. Instead of putting all of his Verizon and Verizon Wireless services on one bill as they were supposed to, the company pummeled Mike with a half-dozen different bills that added up to $1,100 for about a month and a half of service. He spent hours on the phone trying to fix this mess before writing to Consumerist. Then a higher power interceded: Verizon's Executive Support and Media Relations departments, who we had passed Mike's story on to in addition to publishing it. More »
Overstock And Amazon Comically Overpackage Readers' Orders: Newegg, Not So Much
By Laura Northrup on October 14, 2010 12:30 PM
58 Comments
It's time for another installment of the Adventures of the Stupid Shipping Gang! We've packaged three reader stories in one post to make sure they stay extra-secure. In this edition: Amazon overestimates the fragility of Pyrex, Newegg underestimates the fragility of computer parts, and Overstock sends someone an awful lot of crumpled-up paper. More »
For Some Reason, Mexican Reader Finds This Halloween Costume Offensive
By Laura Northrup on October 14, 2010 11:30 AM
185 Comments
Javier, a Consumerist reader who lives in Mexico, crossed the border to do some shopping at Walmart. He noticed this costume in the Halloween section. He finds it offensive. "I was wondering if we might also find a costume like this," he writes, enclosing an old photo of a white performer in blackface. More »
Blue Nile Sends E-Mails From Actual Human, Provides Free Earring Back
By Laura Northrup on October 14, 2010 10:30 AM
43 Comments
Steve purchased diamond earrings from Blue Nile for his wife back in January, and contacted the company because the back of one earring was starting to turn black. Concerned that there might be a problem with the metal, he contacted Blue Nile, and was thrilled that an actual human responded to him, and offered to replace something as simple as an earring back. More »
OfficeMax Needs To Get Its Story Straight Before Selling Any More RAM
By Laura Northrup on October 14, 2010 9:30 AM
136 Comments
Daniel writes that a recent experience with OfficeMax taught him an important lesson: don't believe a damn word of what anyone at this particular OfficeMax says. A store employee assured Daniel that he knew what type of RAM was the correct one for his Macbook Pro...and was wrong. When Daniel tried to return the RAM, a manager told him that opened RAM couldn't be returned, but he could dispute the charge with his credit card company...but the chargeback was denied, with OfficeMax claiming that Daniel should have taken the item back to the store. More »
Southwest Damages Suitcase, Not As Awesome As Everyone Claims
By Laura Northrup on October 14, 2010 9:00 AM
75 Comments
Sure, you don't have to pay to check your luggage on Southwest. Tara tells Consumerist that after her new suitcase was stained and broken while in Southwest's hands, and she'd rather pay to check a bag that survives the trip intact. The airline says it's their policy not to repair or replace suitcases damaged in transit. They've offered her a $100 voucher for future flights. Tara, who tried Southwest based on positive comments from Consumerist readers, isn't interested in flying with them again. More »
Why Does Digital Camera Repair Cost More Than Just Buying A New One?
By Laura Northrup on October 14, 2010 8:00 AM
140 Comments
Dan writes that he was very happy with his Panasonic camera, a point-and-shoot with a nice zoom lens. He would have been happy to pay $100 to get it back in working order and avoid buying a new one. Alas, this was not to be. Since a special part needed to be ordered from Japan, Panasonic wanted $488 to repair a camera that originally cost $300. Dan is better off buying a new camera—which won't be a Panasonic. More »
(Tha_Sco)
For Your Next Vacation, Try Norwegian's Exciting All-Upsell Cruise
By Laura Northrup on October 13, 2010 11:15 AM
88 Comments
Jarrod tells Consumerist that his father-in-law recently traveled to Alaska with Norwegian Cruise Line. His biggest gripe was that everything a passenger could do on board, including purchases in the gift shop, carried an automatic 18% gratuity. This would be acceptable if the service were good enough to justify a tip at all. But Jarrod notes, "[Room stewards] knew they were getting an automatic 18%, so why work for it?" More »
Why Won't My Town Let Me Worry About My Own Crap?
By Laura Northrup on October 13, 2010 9:30 AM
102 Comments
Terri writes that when the homes in her neighborhood were built more than 60 years ago, they were built with septic tanks instead of being part of a municipal sewer system. Instead of maintaining their own tanks, some residents want to be part of the sewer system, and the neighborhood is about to become one with the sewer system. Terri wonders: what can she do to stop this? She'd welcome input from any readers who have had similar experiences. More »
Verizon's FiOS "One Bill" Service Is More Like "Six Bills, None Of Which Make Any Sense"
By Laura Northrup on October 13, 2010 9:15 AM
30 Comments
MIke writes that he's having some catastrophic billing issues with Verizon. He's never had good luck with their customer service, which was fine with him because he never really had issues with his account. The simple act of choosing a new home service bundle set off a chain reaction ended up with Mike receiving multiple bills with different charges for different things, totaling about $1,100 for a 45-day period.
When he threw up his hands and asked Verizon to just cancel his service, waiving the early termination fees for his trouble, they couldn't handle that, either. Update: Verizon has fixed the accounts and given Mike a full refund. More »
Check Fraud Leads To Kafkaesque Nightmare For Wachovia Customer
By Laura Northrup on October 8, 2010 4:15 PM
69 Comments
What do you do when you have tried every possible tactic you can think of to resolve a situation, and you can still make no progress? Michael, a 20-year Wachovia customer, now finds himself in just this situation with the bank. No one at Wachovia has the power to straighten out his customer service nightmare that began when someone forged a check on his account back in June. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on October 8, 2010 12:30 PM
53 Comments
- If This Snickers Lady Scares The Crap Out Of You, You Are Not Alone
- Worst Company In America Trophy Mailed To Comcast
- What Are The Common Car Mechanic Scams?
- Consumer Reports Finds The Absolute Worst Credit Card
- Wow! That's A %T#!!% Ad! Staples Commercial Voted Worst Ad In America For 2010
If A Lucky Brand Product Is Defective, You're Pretty Much On Your Own
By Laura Northrup on October 8, 2010 12:15 PM
65 Comments
Lisa writes that she purchased a neat Lucky Brand patchwork bag from Macy's just about a year ago, and the bag has fallen apart long before its time. The list price is just above $150, so one would expect it to hold up for more than a few months. While the manufacturer admits that the self-destructing purse isn't up to their usual standards, they offer no warranty or repair service to customers. More »
Why Does American Express Need A Copy Of My Wife's Tax Return?
By Laura Northrup on October 8, 2010 11:30 AM
84 Comments
Evan writes that he recently got married, and the newlyweds make more money than they did at this time last year. American Express suspects something, and has suspended their credit card, demanding a copy of his wife's tax return from last year. What's going on? More »
(FlySi)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on October 8, 2010 10:30 AM
11 Comments
Here are seven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
My House Is In The Tiniest Broadband Dead Zone In Texas
By Laura Northrup on October 8, 2010 10:15 AM
51 Comments
Cliff and his wife recently purchased a house—hooray for them! Strangely, Cliff tells Consumerist, this house exists in a tiny pocket of space and time that their broadband provider of choice, AT&T Uverse, cannot reach. Well, that, or they live in a newly constructed area that doesn't have the infrastructure for it...even though it should. More »
(ismh_)
Helpful Best Buy Employees Recycle Van Full Of Computers, Delight Customer
By Laura Northrup on October 7, 2010 12:30 PM
51 Comments
Mindy writes that she had all of the elements for a disastrous morning lined up: she visited Best Buy with a preschool child, an infant, and a van full of old electronics for recycling. However, she found herself in a parallel universe full of helpful Best Buy and Geek Squad employees willing to accept more electronics than the usual limit and give helpful advice. More »
(pnwra)
Should I Worry That My Townhouse Neighbor Has Disappeared?
By Laura Northrup on October 7, 2010 11:30 AM
104 Comments
Grant tells Consumerist that his next-door neighbor disappeared...maybe because of an impending foreclosure, maybe not. No one knows where she has gone. They do know that the house is unoccupied, and Grant worries that the ravages of a Midwestern winter might burst a pipe or cause other damage to the empty home. Why does he care? They're townhouses, and whatever happens to the house next door could affect him. More »
New Gap Logo: Next Tropicana-Style Redesign Flop?
By Laura Northrup on October 7, 2010 10:15 AM
59 Comments
The marketing geniuses at The Gap seem to have fiddled around with Photoshop for a few minutes and designed a new company logo that's as bland and uninteresting as jeans and a black t-shirt. It's not ugly, but it's not memorable or creative, either. What were they thinking? More »
How To Avoid Scammy Online Pet Drug Merchants
By Laura Northrup on October 7, 2010 9:30 AM
50 Comments
It's tempting to skip an expensive visit to the vet's office when you can just order the same drugs online. Sites offer the exact medications that the vet's office sells—at much lower prices, without a prescription. It's not such a good idea, though. Much like buying human drugs online from shady sources (no prescription needed) you may not get exactly what you ordered. The medications that show up on your doorstep could be ineffective, or may even harm your pet. More »
Elderly Woman Evicted From Home Due To Deed Mix-Up
By Laura Northrup on October 7, 2010 9:00 AM
48 Comments
An elderly woman in Kansas City was forced out of her longtime home this week because of a deed mixup. No, Bank of America didn't foreclose on her by mistake. Why are her belongings on the lawn? The situation dates back to 1998, when her friend and roommate, the owner of the house, died without properly transferring the deed. A probate battle ensued. Now a real estate company owns the house, and has offered to sell it for $60,000. They paid $13,000 at auction. More »
Citicard Thinks You Need To Pay Off $3,422 Credit Card Balance Twice
By Laura Northrup on October 7, 2010 8:00 AM
96 Comments
Jon tells Consumerist had things arranged very nicely with his credit card from Citi. He would use his credit card for purchases, then pay the balance off at the end of every month. He set up his account to auto-debit the credit card balance from his checking account every month. One month, he paid his balance of more than $3,000 early. The autopay from his checking account went through anyway. Jon would like his money back. More »
Sorry, Your $80 Brooks Brothers Shirt Is Only Good For Two Years
By Laura Northrup on October 6, 2010 9:30 AM
115 Comments
The phrase "unconditional guarantee" gives the impression that a product has a guarantee, and that it's unconditional. B. writes that at Brooks Brothers, "unconditional" seems to mean "as long as you don't wash or wear articles of clothing." Is he out of line to expect the company to stand behind frequently worn and laundered items like dress shirts? Or is Brooks Brothers' use of the word "unconditional" in this situation misleading? More »
Pre-Paying For Rental Car Gas: Not Such A Great Deal, Actually
By Laura Northrup on October 6, 2010 9:00 AM
50 Comments
The next time you rent a vehicle, you might have an exciting new option: to pre-purchase a set of gas for your return, freeing you from both the high markup on gas near the airport and the even higher markup on gas that rental places normally charge when you don't return the tank full. Charles counsels you to avoid this special deal, at least in New York State, since the taxes involved make this deal much, much less appealing. More »
Was Our Rejection Two Coincidental Typos, Or Vast Rebate Conspiracy?
By Laura Northrup on October 6, 2010 8:00 AM
55 Comments
Have you recently had an HP rebate cruelly denied even though you followed the instructions flawlessly and included all items asked for? A. tells Consumerist that this happened to two family members in two separate transactions. It may have been a coincidence, but still made A. suspicious. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on October 1, 2010 12:30 PM
63 Comments
- Wow! That's A $&#!!% Ad! Staples Commercial Voted Worst Ad In America For 2010
- Best Buy Field Agent Scopes Me In Parking Lot
- Collectors, Stop Harrassing Me About Mom's Debt
- Children Can Now Stay On Parent's Health Care Policies Until Age 26, And 3 Other Health Care Reforms That Just Kicked In
- Best Buy Security Thinks I'm A Dumb Criminal, Stole iPad From Them
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on October 1, 2010 11:30 AM
11 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Papa John's Deploys Anchovy Shrink Ray
By Laura Northrup on October 1, 2010 10:30 AM
51 Comments
Some people like to eat anchovies. Reader H., for example. While H. likes to eat anchovies, however, he's deeply disappointed that Papa John's charges enough for the little fishies to disappoint even Philip J. Fry. More »
UPS Refuses To Listen To UPS, Won't Release Package To Authorized Person
store pickup center to release a package to someone who is not the addressee? Ace writes that apparently, one needs more than a signed note authorizing the pickup and an order from a UPS call center. What should have been a routine package pickup turned into a bizarre slap-fight. More »
By Laura Northrup on October 1, 2010 9:30 AM
75 Comments
What is the standard for a UPS 
Can Of Planters Trail Mix Comes With Free Dried Gecko
By Laura Northrup on October 1, 2010 9:00 AM
33 Comments
You never know what you might get the next time you reach into a container of trail mix. Peanut...raisin...dried apricot...sunflower seed...dried gecko. AHHH!!! DRIED GECKO! More »
If You Think Your Dog Will Destroy Kong's Nearly Indestructible Toys, Save Your Receipt
By Laura Northrup on October 1, 2010 8:00 AM
85 Comments
Pet owners (and pets) prize Kong brand toys for their indestructible qualities and incredible funness. What happens when one of their toys fails? Mike tells Consumerist that if you want a replacement toy when yours breaks, you'd better hold on to the receipt. More »
Did The ECA Charge You For The Membership You Already Canceled?
By Laura Northrup on September 30, 2010 12:30 PM
22 Comments
Last year, we reported on the trouble that members of the Entertainment Consumers Association had with canceling their memberships, as well as other complaints about the group. Now, one reader reports that he was charged for the membership that he canceled earlier this year. More »
(PepOmint)
Would Your Home Kitchen Pass A Health Department Inspection?
By Laura Northrup on September 30, 2010 11:30 AM
90 Comments
You might be reticent to eat in a restaurant that has done poorly on a recent health inspection, but be honest with yourself: would your kitchen pass the same kind of inspection? A writer for the New York Times wondered this, and invited a real live city inspector to examine his own home kitchen. He did not do well. More »
Best Buy Security Thinks I'm A Dumb Criminal, Stole iPad From Them
By Laura Northrup on September 30, 2010 10:30 AM
422 Comments
John has a bit of advice for iPad owners: don't use the device in public. At least, don't use it for price comparisons at a Best Buy with particularly clueless loss prevention staff unless you want to be accused of theft and have the police show up. He writes that this happened to him while checking some prices on his iPad. More »
Why Won't Gamefly Answer Their Stupid Phones?
By Laura Northrup on September 30, 2010 9:30 AM
81 Comments
John tells Consumerist that he is having a baffling problem with Gamefly. He can't cancel his son's account online, but customer service is unreachable. The company keeps sending games that he doesn't want and charging his card. What's wrong here? Update: the account has now been closed. More »
Dial Hand Soap Bottle Grows Slightly Taller To Disguise Shrink Ray Attack
By Laura Northrup on September 30, 2010 9:00 AM
48 Comments
Todd reports that while the new Dial hand soap bottle has a sleek new design that is slightly taller and adds more sexy curves, it's all a facade to distract us from how the product has been Shrink Rayed. The old bottle was 11.25 ounces, and the new is 9.375. Todd writes, "But perhaps the most audacious part of it is the fact that they shrunk the bottle, redesigned the shape and label ever so slightly, and slapped a "NEW!" label on it, thinking we would never notice." More »
Comcast Shuts Off Customer's Internet Access For Phantom Data Usage
By Laura Northrup on September 30, 2010 8:00 AM
124 Comments
Jodi writes that while she doesn't agree with Comcast's habit of turning off customers' Internet access due to "excessive usage," while she's their customer, she intends to play by their rules. This would be a lot easier if her usage meter didn't indicate that her household used more bandwidth than should have been technically feasible. More »
Avoid The Lottery: Play This Deeply Depressing Lottery Simulator Instead
By Laura Northrup on September 29, 2010 9:30 AM
62 Comments
There are lots of things that you would probably do if you won the lottery. Pay off your family members' mortgages, fill a Jacuzzi with hot chocolate, buy a water park, or donate to your favorite blog. However, a basic understanding of math will force you to admit that there are much better places for your dollar than the lottery's coffers. You can, however, simulate the experience of playing the lottery for decades at a time without ever spending money on a ticket. This handy web app simulates the experience of playing the same numbers in the multi-state MegaMillions game for as long as ten years. More »
IAMS Sends Coupons, Free Food When Your Mom Can't Afford Cat Food
By Laura Northrup on September 29, 2010 9:00 AM
137 Comments
Suzanne writes that when her mother was short on money but needed high-quality food for her sick cats, Iams was a reasonable choice but still outside her budget. So she called the company's customer service, explained her situation, and was rewarded. She not only received coupons, but she cultivated a friendly relationship with the customer service reps. More »
Netgear Tech Support: Pay Geek Squad $139 To Troubleshoot Your $79 Router
By Laura Northrup on September 29, 2010 8:00 AM
97 Comments
What should you do when you have trouble with your Internet connection? N. tells Consumerist that his combination DSL modem and wireless router from Netgear simply won't work. According to the ever-helpful technical support team at Netgear, there's nothing left that they can do, and his only option left is to call the Geek Squad to perform a house call. If it didn't require a $139 house call to troubleshoot a $79 device, N. might go along with this plan. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on September 24, 2010 12:30 PM
66 Comments
- Kid Gets Herpes From Condom He Found In Hotel Room
- Price Chopper Supermarket Emails Customer's Employer, Demands Disciplinary Action For Negative Tweet
- Vote Here For Worst Ad In America 2010!
- Drug Rep Accidentally Emails Consumer Truth About Overpriced Pills
- USPS Out Of Regular Mail, Only Fancy Mail Left
Scottrade Won't Accept My Weird Foreign Marriage Certificate
By Laura Northrup on September 24, 2010 11:30 AM
83 Comments
Kim tells Consumerist that while she lives in the United States, she got married in the Cayman Islands. That sounds very beautiful and romantic and all, but she wondered: would she have problems with the handwritten marriage certificate when she returned home and needed to change her last name? Nope. No private or government institutions had any trouble with the handwritten certificate...except Scottrade. Apparently, online brokerages are stricter about name changes than the U.S. State Department. Who knew? More »
(Don Solo)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on September 24, 2010 10:30 AM
5 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
KitchenAid Doesn't Care That Your Oven Won't Turn Off
By Laura Northrup on September 24, 2010 9:30 AM
55 Comments
Chris writes that he spent $1,700 on a KitchenAid brand stove four years ago, and that stove now has a problem that the company isn't interested in fixing. The off button for the oven doesn't work. Chris correctly thinks that this is a safety issue, but there are no authorized repair technicians willing to travel to where he lives. KitchenAid representatives promised to help...but now the warranty has expired, and now the company offers no help at all. More »
US Airways: Sorry Your Sister Is Gravely Ill. $30 To Sit Together, Please.
By Laura Northrup on September 24, 2010 9:00 AM
81 Comments
Bernadette writes that when sister-in-law was gravely ill on the other side of the country, her husband booked an expensive last-minute flight to bring her back to the East Coast. He was alarmed to learn that U.S. Airways couldn't guarantee that he and his sister would sit together on the flight from California to New Jersey...unless he paid an extra $15 "choice seating" fee on each ticket. It's a relatively small amount of money, but the family found it heartless under the circumstances. More »
Holiday Inn Manager: If You Book Through Priceline, You're A "Bad Customer"
By Laura Northrup on September 24, 2010 8:00 AM
123 Comments
Discount travel websites can provide amazing discounts, but can also make you a second-class consumer of sorts—particularly in hotels. Jesse learned this the hard way when he booked a stay at a Holiday Inn in a major American city. He tells Consumerist that he reserved his room through Priceline, and called the hotel to make sure that his reservation would include two double beds for the four people traveling. He checked in to find a single queen bed in the room. His mistake? According to the hotel manager, being a "bad customer" who booked through a third-party site. More »
Wells Fargo Wouldn't Accept My Deposit - So Where Is It Now?
By Laura Northrup on September 23, 2010 12:30 PM
51 Comments
Adrienne tells Consumerist that she did something very mundane: she deposited a payroll check that her fiancé had signed over to her in her Wells Fargo bank account using an ATM. Based on previous experience, and assuming that a payroll check from a Fortune 1000 company is a straightforward enough deposit, she then paid bills using the money that she thought was in her account. More »
Toshiba's Netbook Repair Runaround Is Demoralizing
By Laura Northrup on September 23, 2010 11:30 AM
46 Comments
One might think that the warranty repair of a netbook that failed after less than three weeks of use would be simple and painless. One would be wrong. Robert asks in his e-mail to Consumerist about Toshiba, "are all computer companies this crappy?" Yes, some of them, but it's a sad day in America when customers buy a laptop and can expect to encounter the same hardware failures and general runaround that Robert writes that he experienced. More »
(Yandle)
Executive E-Mail Carpet Bomb Resolves Travelocity Error, Preserves Awesome Price
By Laura Northrup on September 23, 2010 10:30 AM
2 Comments
Gail writes that when things went awry with her hotel and car package reservation on Travelocity, regular customer service wasn't able to resolve the error. Representatives told her to give up and reserve them separately, or to leave Travelocity staff alone and use another service. As a Consumerist reader and loyal Travelocity customer, she knew that she deserved better. She found an e-mail for the company's VP of Sales and Customer Care, which didn't get her the package deal she wanted—she got her hotel stay for free instead.. More »
Kroger: Where "Gluten-Free" Means "May Contain Wheat"
By Laura Northrup on September 23, 2010 9:30 AM
68 Comments
People with food allergies or sensitivities know that no matter what the colorful claims on the front of a food's package might be, you still need to chEck the ingredients. Briana writes that her recent experience at Kroger brought this point home. The front of a chicken broth carton declared the product to be "gluten-free," but the side of the package said "may contain wheat." Which is it? While food packaging might brag that its contents are gluten-free, such labels aren't yet regulated by the FDA. In the case of Briana and Kroger, this led to some confusion. More »
Best Buy: Our Website Is Always Correct, You Must Be Wrong
By Laura Northrup on September 23, 2010 9:00 AM
41 Comments
When you find a discrepancy between the information on a retailer's website and the information a product's manufacturer prints on the package, who should you believe? Brie tells Consumerist that when she found such a discrepancy, Best Buy employees insisted that their site couldn't possibly be wrong. The product packaging, they insisted, must be misprinted. Well, no. More »
Similac Baby Formula Recalled Because It May Contain Chunks of Beetle
By Laura Northrup on September 23, 2010 8:00 AM
48 Comments
Certain types of Similac powdered baby formula have been recalled because of, as the FDA delicately puts it, "the remote possibility of the presence of a small common beetle in the product." More »
Weber Offers Free Parts After Customer Neglects, Burns Up His Own Grill
By Laura Northrup on September 22, 2010 9:30 AM
23 Comments
Brad screwed up his Weber grill, and it caught fire. He admits that it's his fault for not cleaning the grill properly for three years, which led to fires under the control panel. When he called Weber to ask for an explanation of what could be wrong, the company not only helped him, they went way above and beyond and offered to send him—for free—replacement parts that would make his grill functional again. More »
How Is A Dump Truck Crashing Into My Parked Car My Fault?
By Laura Northrup on September 22, 2010 9:00 AM
111 Comments
Somewhere in upstate New York, a mysterious dump truck rolled down a hill, hitting Jennifer's partner's vehicle and one other car. While it's wonderful that no one was hurt, now the incident has turned into a consumer issue. The truck owner's insurance company doesn't want to accept fault for the incident, leaving Jennifer's partner to file a claim against his own meager insurance. How, she wonders, can they fight back? More »
College Libraries Save Money By Ignoring Netflix Terms Of Use
By Laura Northrup on September 22, 2010 8:00 AM
48 Comments
Plenty of Americans have cut their household entertainment budgets by subscribing to Netflix instead of seeing movies in theaters or purchasing DVDs. Now, some college libraries are doing the same thing, sort of. They're using rented DVDs or streaming video instead of purchasing the movies that professors assign. Is this a violation of Netflix's terms of use? Yes. But the librarians don't particularly care, and Netflix doesn't seem to, either. Yet. As a Netflix spokesman said, "We just don't want to be pursuing libraries." More »
(afagen)
Parking Garage Math: Where Two Minutes Equals One Hour
By Laura Northrup on September 17, 2010 4:30 PM
141 Comments
Where do two minutes equal an hour? A parking garage, of course. Everyone knows this, but what about when another customer delays you and pushes you past the one-hour mark? Nathan tells Consumerist that while the customer ahead of him in line argued with the garage attendant, his own time in the garage passed one hour, and the attendant insisted that Nathan pay for the full two hours. More »
(sk8bette)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on September 17, 2010 12:30 PM
92 Comments
- "Sexy" "Sesame Street" And "Costume" Should Not Be In The Same Sentence
- Meet The Airline Seat That Will Destroy Your Crotch
- You're Never More Than 115 Miles From McDonald's
- What's Wrong With This Walmart Sign?
- Store Says Mother Is "Too Fat" To Enter Warehouse
(loop_oh)
Gymboree And UPS Worked Together To Make My Life Incredibly Awkward
By Laura Northrup on September 17, 2010 12:15 PM
23 Comments
Caitlin has a bit of advice: if you plan to order from Gymboree and have some items shipped to you and other items shipped to a friend as a gift, don't order all of the items in the same transaction. Maybe not on the same day. She writes that the company messed up her order in every way short of losing it or sending the wrong items, and has put her in the awkward position of having to ask her friend to send what appeared to be a gift, but was actually Caitlin's order, to Caitlin. Gymboree, for its part, blames UPS. More »
You're Locked Out Of Chase Online Banking And Can't Get To A Branch? Tough.
By Laura Northrup on September 17, 2010 11:30 AM
37 Comments
Nathaniel writes that Chase Bank refuses to believe that he is who he says he is. He's locked out of his online banking account, and none of the telephone reps' "public records" questions prove his identity have anything to do with him. While a trip to a branch would most likely straighten the situation out, he's physically disabled and such a trip would be difficult. More »
(jayRaz)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on September 17, 2010 11:15 AM
9 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
I Don't Care Who Screwed Up My Flight Plans, I Just Want My Money Back
By Laura Northrup on September 16, 2010 12:30 PM
48 Comments
Rick writes that he booked flights for a family trip using Expedia. Due to an apparent mistake at Delta Airlines, his ticket and his wife's were canceled out from under them for the first leg of their trip, but their daughter's wasn't. Rick has been pursuing a refund for the last-minute tickets he had to buy, but no one seems to know who should be issuing that refund. More »
What Should I Do When An Amazon Marketplace Vendor Disappears?
By Laura Northrup on September 16, 2010 11:30 AM
61 Comments
Darren tells Consumerist that the vendor that sold him a failing MacBook Pro battery through the Amazon Marketplace has disappeared. Since the replacement battery wasn't made by Apple, he'd like to find out what kind of warranty the battery might have and seek a replacement. Amazon is no help, and the company's domain name is no longer registered, so e-mails bounce back. What should he do? More »
General Electric Responds To Twitter Distress Call, Fixes Shattered Stove
By Laura Northrup on September 16, 2010 10:30 AM
35 Comments
Mike writes that his parents came home one day to discover that the pretty black decorative glass on their oven door had broken into thousands of tiny black decorative glass shards. The stove was out of warranty, but they tried to contact GE anyway. After Mike learned about the situation, he posted to Twitter about it, hoping that GE might have some kind of special social media team scouring the Internet for dissatisfied customers. They did. More »
(dougtone)
Lost Megabus Driver Crashes Into Bridge While Checking GPS; Four Passengers Killed
By Laura Northrup on September 16, 2010 9:30 AM
92 Comments
Very early Saturday morning, a double-decker Megabus lost on its way to the bus station crashed into a low railroad overpass (pictured) outside of Syracuse, NY. Four passengers were killed, and twenty people injured, including the driver. Now, the public has learned that the driver was looking at his personal GPS unit at the time of the accident—which Megabus drivers are not permitted to use while driving for work. More »
Would You Let A Station Attendant Hold On To Your License While You Pump Gas?
By Laura Northrup on September 16, 2010 9:00 AM
128 Comments
Larry tells Consumerist that when he tried to pay for gasoline with his credit card recently, the station attendant didn't just ask to see his driver's license. She asked to keep it while he pumped gas. Have you run across this in your own travels? What would you do? More »
The Police Have Apparently Deputized This Sam's Club Receipt Checker
By Laura Northrup on September 16, 2010 8:00 AM
341 Comments
Julie calculates that her family has spent at least $2.4 million at Sam's Club over the last decade, buying supplies for their restaurants. That relationship is now over, she tells Consumerist, because someone at the store called the police on her father for having an expired registration. He left the store with two tickets and a healthy dose of humiliation. He's concluded that Sam's Club no longer needs his business. More »
(dooley)
Verizon Wireless Wants You Back, Turns Into Creepy Stalker With No Concept Of Time Zones
By Laura Northrup on September 15, 2010 9:30 AM
24 Comments
Verizon Wireless really, really loved Mike. That's the only conclusion we can draw from the carrier's attempts to woo him back. Unfortunately, the company with a nationwide customer base doesn't seem to understand this whole "time zones" thing we have going on, and called Mike a little too early for his taste. More »
(rmgustaf)
Sallie Mae Sends Student Loan Bills Into Abyss, Still Expects Me To Pay Them
By Laura Northrup on September 15, 2010 9:00 AM
68 Comments
Unless you're the U.S. Postal Service, paperless billing can be a real blessing. It saves trees and clutter, saves companies money, and is generally quite useful. James tells Consumerist that he discovered a case where paperless billing is not so great: when a company enrolls you in it without telling you, doesn't verify that they have your e-mail address from the present decade, and sends collections after you. More »
Rogue Wallet Replaces Entire Batch Of Bad Wallets, Stuns Customer
By Laura Northrup on September 15, 2010 8:00 AM
67 Comments
Michael writes that his wallet, which he purchased over a year ago, was starting to fall apart a bit. He recently received a new wallet in the mail from Rogue Wallet, the small company that manufactured his, but.... he had never contacted the company. He wasn't dealing with a psychic wallet maker. (That would be awesome.) Instead, he discovered a company that very candidly owned its mistake and wanted to please customers even if nothing had gone wrong with their personal wallets yet. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on September 10, 2010 12:30 PM
84 Comments
- Bank Screws Man For $900, He Tells Others, Ultimately Costing Bank $100,000 In Lost Business
- Mirror Shatters To Floor, Installer Shrugs
- Hyatt Charges Asthmatic Woman $250 For Smoking, Says It Has Secret Photos
- Does McDonald's Really Have The Worst Burgers?
- Verizon Guy Tells Me The Customer Is No Longer Always Right
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on September 10, 2010 10:30 AM
12 Comments
Here are twelve of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
How 5 Different Companies Treated Us After My Father's Death
By Laura Northrup on September 10, 2010 9:30 AM
118 Comments
Everyone deals with death at some point, and everyone grieves differently. The major corporations our lives are intertwined with often don't want to let us go—or create unneeded problems for our survivors. Dan's father recently died, and he wrote up a comparison of his family's experiences with a variety of large companies. Out of Bank of America, American Express, Fidelity, AT&T Wireless, and Comcast, which companies do you think were the easiest to deal with under the circumstances? More »
USAA And Mastercard Turn Celebrity Librarian Into Unwitting Consumer Scofflaw
By Laura Northrup on September 10, 2010 9:00 AM
65 Comments
K.G. writes that she used her Mastercard to pay for a car rental from Avis. The card issuer, Consumerist darling USAA, assured her that the card provided insurance coverage for rental cars. Good to know! Except for how the insurance claim was denied, possibly because she used a coupon for the car rental. No one is entirely sure. The bill went straight to a collection agency without ever giving K.G. an opportunity to, um, actually pay it. Now she's being penalized for ducking a bill she was never sent, and still can't get a straight answer out of any of the companies involved. More »
What Happens When You Let 100 Cats Loose Inside An IKEA?
By Laura Northrup on September 10, 2010 8:00 AM
89 Comments
Who knows better than cats what the most comfortable and interesting spaces in your house are? That's the idea behind a new commercial for IKEA. To get the crucial kitty footage, one hundred cats were—why not?—let loose inside the Wembley store after hours to romp and nap for the cameras. More »
An Unexpected Win At TD Bank's Penny Arcade
By Laura Northrup on September 9, 2010 12:30 PM
48 Comments
At some heartless banks, a malfunctioning self-serve coin counting machine could lead to lost money and general sadness. Not at Flexo's local TD Bank branch, however. A malfunctioning machine meant $32 more in his account. Unfortunately, this windfall came at the expense of the unknown previous customer to use the machine, to whom the $32 actually belonged. More »
(KitanaOR)
Times Square Pop-Tart Emporium Doesn't Open Until After Breakfast
By Laura Northrup on September 9, 2010 11:30 AM
47 Comments
When do you eat Pop-Tarts? They're supposed to be a breakfast food, aren't they? So why does the new Pop-Tarts World store in Manhattan's Times Square not open until 11:00? That's lunchtime, people! More »
Giant Eagle's New Shelf Tags Target Ice Cream-Eating Diabetics
By Laura Northrup on September 9, 2010 10:30 AM
49 Comments
Now, it could be that Giant Eagle grocery stores plastered every shelf in their stores with tags advertising their new program which provides free diabetes medications to customers. As tipster Greg writes, "While, as a diabetic, I appreciate the free meds from Giant Eagle grocery store, did they really have to advertise it next to the Breyer's ice cream? That really hurt."
(Colin)
Verizon Sends Customer One Pre-Broken Droid After Another
By Laura Northrup on September 9, 2010 9:30 AM
76 Comments
Colin would like a functioning smartphone. Unfortunately, he purchased the original Motorola Droid from Verizon, and tells Consumerist that somehow the company is unable to provide him with one. His fifth replacement phone was shipped to a Verizon Wireless store, where Colin had to convince the manager that there was actually a problem with the phone...all for nothing, since the manager didn't note his account about the broken phone as promised. More »
Samsung's Kafkaesque Refrigerator Executive Customer Service Runaround
By Laura Northrup on September 9, 2010 9:00 AM
57 Comments
Jason's story about his Samsung refrigerator seems, for the first few paragraphs, to be a relatively mundane incident involving a customer who is (justifiably) annoyed when some relatively small features of his $2,700 refrigerator kept breaking, requiring repairs. But when the icemaker and the entire freezer began to fail, Jason's story took a different turn. A repairman encouraged him to seek a replacement for the frequently failing fridge, which he did. Now his quest for a new fridge looks more like a part-time job, and Samsung's executive customer service is beginning to look like ... regular customer service. More »
Love In The Time Of Soul-Crushing Student Loan Debt
By Laura Northrup on September 9, 2010 8:00 AM
133 Comments
What kind of lies about money would cause you to end a romantic relationship? What is more important—debt or money problems themselves, or if your significant other lies about them? As young Americans begin their adult lives with unprecedented amounts of student loan debt, it's important to confront debt and be honest with oneself and before pursuing a serious relationship. Just ask the California woman whose fiancé broke their engagement after learning that her student loan debts were significantly higher than she had previously disclosed. More »
Day 5 Of Our Verizon Data Outage With No Explanation In Sight
By Laura Northrup on September 8, 2010 9:30 AM
25 Comments
Micah tells Consumerist that he and his wife just signed a new Verizon contract and bought new smartphones—a Droid X and a Droid Incredible. They're both heavy smartphone users, but weren't too worried about a recent data outage... until it stretched on for four days. Verizon can't explain what suddenly went wrong, or fix the problem. This is sort of the opposite of the provider's current "Rule the Air" ad campaign. More »
3 New Victims Of The Grocery Shrink Ray: Cookie Crisp, Oreos, And Finish Detergent
By Laura Northrup on September 8, 2010 9:00 AM
53 Comments
What do Cookie Crisp cereal, Double Stuf Oreos, and Finish dish detergent have in common? None of them are particularly good for you if you eat them, even if the first two are delicious in moderation. Yet all three were recently hit by the Grocery Shrink Ray, making each Finish tablet a tiny bit smaller, reducing the amount of cereal in the box by more than 20%, and giving consumers four fewer Double Stuf Oreos in a package. When will the indignities end? More »
(oamg823)
Walmart Auto Care Leaves Car Unlocked With Ignition On, Wanders Off
By Laura Northrup on September 8, 2010 8:00 AM
157 Comments
Peter copied Consumerist on his letter to Walmart about his baffling recent experience with a local Auto Care Center. The ever-helpful technicians—who, as he learned later, were apparently random people drafted to perform oil changes on an understaffed day—left Peter's car unlocked and unattended in the parking lot, with the ignition on but the motor not running, despite his explicit instructions. Would you have shrugged the incident off, or been as angry as Peter? More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on September 3, 2010 12:30 PM
12 Comments
Here are twelve of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
Unexpected Work Transfer And An Upside-Down Mortgage Create Sticky Financial Situation
By Laura Northrup on September 3, 2010 11:30 AM
121 Comments
In a secure profession that very rarely requires people to relocate, John made what seemed like a pretty solid financial decision. He and his wife bought a house. He tells Consumerist that this seemed like a great idea until his employer transferred him (involuntarily) across the country. He left behind his wife, who works in the same field but was not transferred, and the house, on which he is upside down. This has left the couple in a nasty financial situation they never anticipated. He wonders: can the Consumerist hive mind offer him any wisdom? More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on September 3, 2010 10:30 AM
81 Comments
- Yelp Reviewer Gives 1 Star For Restaurant That Hasn't Opened Yet
- Fast Food Advertising Vs. Reality: Quiznos Baja Chicken Sandwich
- AMEX, Visa, MasterCard All Give Thumbs Up To $10 Credit Card Minimums
- You're More Likely To Go Bankrupt From Winning A Lottery Than To Win One
- Apple Debuts Overhauled Line Of iPods
Southwest Also Breaks Guitars
By Laura Northrup on September 3, 2010 9:30 AM
36 Comments
Brian hasn't written a song about it yet, but he tells Consumerist that Southwest Airlines broke his guitar. However, they won't take responsibility for the situation because the case wasn't broken More »
Heinz Is Desperate To Be Your Facebook Friend
By Laura Northrup on September 3, 2010 9:00 AM
56 Comments
Michael snapped this picture of a bottle of Heinz ketchup that just comes right out and asks you to become its friend. He writes, "Is Heinz that desperate now that they need to slap a HUGE 'find us on facebook' thing right on their iconic package label? This facebook thing is getting out of hand!" Sort of like URLs in 1997. Using the entire front label as a plea for Facebook friendship is a new and slightly frightening tactic, though.
My AT&T DSL Nightmare Began On Friday The 13th
By Laura Northrup on September 3, 2010 8:00 AM
42 Comments
Koji would like to sign up for AT&T DSL. However, some evil force at AT&T doesn't want him as a customer, and keeps sneaking into the computer system to cancel his account activation and otherwise destroy any hope that he might have of DSL. Why is this happening? No one at AT&T knows. More »
Chase Declares New York State Lottery 'Illegal Internet Gambling'
By Laura Northrup on September 2, 2010 12:30 PM
82 Comments
Not everyone is fond of state lotteries, but you know what they're not? Illegal. Still, Tim shared his experience with the New York State Lottery and his credit card company, Chase, where the bank chose to treat his lottery subscription payment as a cash advance, with the $10 fee and astronomical interest rate that goes along with it. More »
Fast Food Advertising Vs. Reality: Quiznos Baja Chicken Sandwich
By Laura Northrup on September 2, 2010 11:30 AM
99 Comments
Sarah writes that her recent experience at Quiznos was bad enough that she doesn't plan to ever return. Looking at the pictures she sent in and the description of what happened, we can see why. She was served something that sort of resembled a Baja Chicken sandwich, but wasn't much like it at all. More »
APX Forgot To Tell Me I Was Paying For A Pretend Alarm System
By Laura Northrup on September 2, 2010 10:30 AM
79 Comments
Logan tells Consumerist that he has a serious issue with his alarm company, APX. He had an alarm system installed a few months ago, but only just now discovered that the alarm wasn't effective. Being connected to local emergency services is sort of the point of an alarm system, but APX didn't actually connect Logan's alarm, perhaps hoping that they wouldn't notice. More »
(Hugo90)
Car Sales Haven't Been This Crappy Since 1983
By Laura Northrup on September 2, 2010 9:30 AM
84 Comments
Americans only bought just under 1 million new cars last month, which is the weakest August since the 993,100 sold in 1983. This figure looks extra weak in comparison to last August, when the Cash for Clunkers program was in full force. Now, the business is quite different. More »
(Jay Adan)
You Can Get Unemployment Payments On A Debit Card That No One Accepts
By Laura Northrup on September 2, 2010 9:00 AM
63 Comments
Many states no longer issue unemployment checks. You can receive your payments through direct deposit, or using a Visa or Mastercard-branded debit card. That's the state of affairs in Pennsylvania, where reader Sam lives. He tells Consumerist that this method would be less of a racket for banks and more useful for people on unemployment if there were any places other than fee-happy ATMs that actually accepted the darn things. More »
Contacting Chase Executive Customer Service Saves Reader $240/Year In Fees
By Laura Northrup on September 2, 2010 8:00 AM
6 Comments
How can executive customer service help you? JP Morgan Chase gobbled up Jon's bank, Washington Mutual, and his high-yield savings account along with it. He writes that when the bank eventually changed his account over to a different type, one that came with a $20/month fee for customers who didn't keep a $15,000 balance. Instead of rolling over and paying $240 in extra fees or taking his money to another bank, Jon tried something different: he reached out to executive customer service. More »
Amazon Locks You Out Of Kindle Account, Ignores You For A Month
By Laura Northrup on September 1, 2010 9:30 AM
38 Comments
E-readers have a definite advantage over traditional dead-tree books when you're going on vacation: you can bring a wealth of reading material in one small device. One difference, though: your analog bookshelf can't lock you out. Your Amazon account can. That's what Natalia writes happened to her. No one at Amazon has been able to fix the problem for more than a month now. More »
(dsb nola)
Procter & Gamble Keeps Delicious Customer Service Flowing
By Laura Northrup on September 1, 2010 9:00 AM
27 Comments
David and Alan don't know each other (we assume) but they have both recently had problems with their Pur brand water filters. Now, Pur is a brand from Procter & Gamble, a company not really noted for their attentive customer service. However, both readers had such positive experiences that they just had to share them. More »
(cavale)
Giant Eagle Dispenses Antidepressants Instead Of Fertility Drugs, Now Taking It Very Seriously
By Laura Northrup on September 1, 2010 8:00 AM
95 Comments
The words "Clomiphene" and "Clomipramine" might look similar, but if you work in a pharmacy, you should know that they stand for very different things. Clomiphene is the generic version of the fertility drug Clomid. Clomipramine is a tricyclic antidepressant. A woman in Pittsburgh says that the pharmacy at a Giant Eagle grocery store gave her the antidepressant when she was prescribed the fertility drug. She had a severe allergic reaction and ended up in the emergency room. More »
Zagg Offers Free Shipping To Continental U.S., Mer-people Of Lake Michigan
By Laura Northrup on August 27, 2010 1:30 PM
37 Comments
Greg received this e-mail newsletter from Zagg, which doesn't just offer free shipping. It makes a strange and wonderful secret known only to those Americans lucky enough to be on Zagg's mailing list. According to this map, Lake Michigan either no longer exists, or is home to a secret society of iPhone-using, water-dwelling mer-people.
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on August 27, 2010 12:30 PM
12 Comments
Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. More »
((allancaplan)
Does Your Doctor's Office Combat Insurance Fraud With Webcams?
By Laura Northrup on August 27, 2010 11:30 AM
142 Comments
Melissa tells Consumerist that she had an irritating recent visit to her optometrist's office. The experience led her to find a new provider (hooray, free market!) but she wonders whether the offending office's tactics are becoming more common in other places. She wants to know: have any of your health care providers started photographing patients, claiming that the snapshots are to prevent insurance fraud? More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on August 27, 2010 10:30 AM
87 Comments
- Domino's Delivers Racism To Your Front Door In Under 30 Minutes
- Tips On Tipping Everyone From Your Pizza Guy To Your Sherpa
- Bank Credits $95,093.35 Junk Mail Check To Man's Account, Has To Beg For It Back
- Man Crams Soaking Pool, Video Lounge, Cafe Into 182 Sq Ft Apartment
- Chinese Traffic Jam Enters 10th Day
Hertz Alienates Longtime Customer With $10 Convenience Fee For 75 Cent Toll
By Laura Northrup on August 27, 2010 9:30 AM
79 Comments
It's pretty convenient to not have to pay tolls when you're renting a car. Bruce tells Consumerist that he rented a car from Hertz that was enrolled in PlatePass, a service that scans a rental car's license plate and automatically charges the toll to the renter's credit card—along with a $10 fee. This fee is probably more convenient and less infuriating if you rack up more than 75 cents in tolls during the course of your rental. More »
(bnilsen)
That Free Balloon In Your Hotel Room May Be A Used Condom
By Laura Northrup on August 27, 2010 8:00 AM
231 Comments
Kids: don't try to blow up balloons that you find on the floor. Or anywhere that's not from a sealed package. A 4-year-old boy awaits sexually transmitted disease tests in Atlanta after he did just that. He mistook a previous guest's used condom for a balloon, tried to blow it up, and became mysteriously ill shortly afterward, with a fever and mysterious white bumps in his mouth. More »
How To Avoid The Nefarious Tricks Of Outlet Malls
By Laura Northrup on August 26, 2010 12:30 PM
118 Comments
What is an outlet store? Long ago, factories where consumer goods were made were actually situated in the United States, and shoppers could visit factory stores to find overruns, merchandise with tiny errors, and other wonderful cut-rate goodness. (As an exciting bonus, if you took a wrong turn, you could end up on the factory floor.) Outlet malls have proliferated, but there are few factories left in America. Today, a store proclaiming itself to be an "outlet" is more likely to be peddling lower-quality merchandise under a well-known brand name. So how do you know when an outlet isn't offering any true deals? More »
Your Local Mall's New Anchor Store.... Costco?
By Laura Northrup on August 26, 2010 11:30 AM
85 Comments
There are a lot of empty anchor stores in American malls these days, especially since major department store chains have continued devouring each other. What to do with these massive empty retail spaces? Well, one possible tenant that doesn't normally occupy enclosed malls is interested....Costco. More »
There Are No TVs Here, Only Dell Hell And Despair
By Laura Northrup on August 26, 2010 10:30 AM
40 Comments
Brandon tells Consumerist that he found the best deal around on a huge Vizio TV from Dell. Unfortunately, instead of finding himself in 47" HDTV bliss, Brandon found himself condemned to weeks in Dell Hell, while the company threw out empty promises and conflicting excuses, and in the end simply can't deliver the television that Brandon purchased. More »
Sonic Alert Doesn't Want You To Sleep Through Class, Sends Free Alarm Clock
By Laura Northrup on August 26, 2010 9:30 AM
104 Comments
Justin writes that he is a college student and a heavy sleeper. Ordinarily, these are not a good combination, but he has a special weapon in the war on slumber: the Sonic Bomb alarm clock from Sonic Alert. The product is designed for the hard-of-hearing as well as sound sleepers. He explained his issues with the clock that led him to sleep in, and suggested some ways to improve the product. Instead of brushing off his concerns, Sonic Alert expressed concern that he was sleeping through class. They sent him—for free—a different clock with one of the features that would help Justin actually get up in the morning. More »
DirecTV Apparently Didn't Trust Me To Pay Final Bill
By Laura Northrup on August 26, 2010 9:00 AM
73 Comments
Ian writes that he was once a DirecTV customer. He wasn't unhappy with their service, and would have considered going back if the stars aligned correctly one day. Switching to Comcast, however, currently saves him $100 per month, which is nothing to sneeze at. What has Ian sneezing mad, however, is that while DirecTV told him that he'd receive a final bill to pay in the mail, the company instead went ahead and charged his credit card for the final bill without his permission. More »
Ontrac Delivery Staff Unsure How To Operate Intercoms, Actually Deliver Packages
By Laura Northrup on August 26, 2010 8:00 AM
65 Comments
Dick tells Consumerist that his recent Amazon order was more of a comedy of errors than the simple business transaction that it should have been. It wasn't Amazon's fault. Their delivery company Ontrac somehow managed to not deliver his package, then send it back to Amazon, then deliver both the replacement item that Amazon sent and the original package to Dick within an hour of each other. Something is terribly wrong here. More »
(Charliux)
Destroying Underwear Returned To Stores: Wasteful Or Good Hygiene?
By Laura Northrup on August 25, 2010 9:30 AM
102 Comments
G. writes that she learned something during a recent shopping trip to Gilly Hicks that shocked her. While customers can't try underwear on in the store fitting rooms, they can try it on at home and return it. However, once the underwear is returned to the store, it's destroyed. G. finds this shocking and wasteful, but it's no big secret. It's a common retail practice for returned underwear to be "damaged out," or put aside for later destruction, when it's been returned. More »
Ultra Pet Rewards Loyal Customer Generously For Kitty Litter Complaint
By Laura Northrup on August 25, 2010 9:00 AM
51 Comments
Liz writes that she tried a different type of cat litter from UltraPet, the manufacturer of her regular brand. The new litter didn't work as well as advertised, and she contacted the company about the issue. They offered her a refund or a free bag of her regular litter, but she couldn't produce the original receipt. Liz didn't expect that the company would send along something better instead. More »
Bank Of America Quizzes Me About Sister's Real Estate Holdings For Account Verification
By Laura Northrup on August 25, 2010 8:00 AM
102 Comments
Seth tells Consumerist that when he tried to open an additional savings account with Bank of America, recently, the überbank put up some privacy roadblocks that he found intrusive and problematic. He's already a customer, but the bank insisted on verifying his identity when he applied for a new savings account online. One of the questions was about his sister's financial transactions, not his, which made him uncomfortable. More »
The Snuggie Macarena Dance Haunts My Dreams
By Laura Northrup on August 22, 2010 1:30 PM
41 Comments
Just because you can write a song about Snuggies and set it to the tune of "Macarena," that doesn't mean that you should. Yet the evil geniuses behind the Snuggie have done so, and inflicted it on the Internet. And the airwaves. More »
Bedbugs Spread Across America In Search Of Delicious Fresh Humans
By Laura Northrup on August 21, 2010 5:00 PM
97 Comments
New York City is experiencing a bedbug infestation, with the critters back in the news for munching on humans at a movie theater and even the Empire State Building. We expect to hear about bedbugs in densely populated urban areas like New York and San Francisco, but NPR reports that the critters are showing up nationwide. More »
Yogurt Shop Sells Frozen Treats Using Verizon Math
By Laura Northrup on August 21, 2010 3:00 PM
125 Comments
"Maybe I'm being picky," tipster David writes. "But it says what it says." More »
eBags Happily Replaces Worn-Out Laptop Bag
By Laura Northrup on August 20, 2010 2:15 PM
18 Comments
James writes that he bought a great laptop bag made by eBags.com in 2008, and it has served him well all of that time. When some of the stitching came loose and the zipper fell apart, he contacted the company about a repair or discounted replacement. eBags went beyond what James expected, instead offering him a refund for the bag's full purchase price to buy a replacement. More »
(pic-nerd)`
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on August 20, 2010 12:15 PM
6 Comments
Here are thirteen of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
An Easy Way To Get Wells Fargo To Remove A $30 Fee
Woman Says Southwest Refused To Serve Her Alcohol, Wouldn't Say Why
Five Guys Named Best Fast Food Burger In U.S. By Zagat Guide
This Hobby Lobby Reserves The Right To Search Your Car More »
By Laura Northrup on August 20, 2010 10:30 AM
126 Comments
How Much Would You Tip This Dedicated Domino's Driver?An Easy Way To Get Wells Fargo To Remove A $30 Fee
Woman Says Southwest Refused To Serve Her Alcohol, Wouldn't Say Why
Five Guys Named Best Fast Food Burger In U.S. By Zagat Guide
This Hobby Lobby Reserves The Right To Search Your Car More »
Why Is Dish Network Billing Me For Someone Else's Account?
By Laura Northrup on August 20, 2010 9:30 AM
46 Comments
Liza tells Consumerist that she signed up for Dish Network about a month ago, but ultimately didn't keep the service because she couldn't get reception. She still got the privilege of paying for the service, though, since someone put her billing information down for a different customer's account. More »
Does Your Pet Need Health Insurance?
By Laura Northrup on August 20, 2010 9:00 AM
133 Comments
Most pet owners grumble at vet bills, and wonder whether health insurance for their pets would be cost-effective. Consumer Reports Money Adviser crunched numbers for a hypothetical dog from puppyhood to euthanasia, and concluded that pet health insurance is a sound investment...if your pet has a serious or chronic health condition. Wait, that's just like health insurance for humans. More »
Oops, Comcast Didn't Really Increase Your Internet Connection Speed
More »
By Laura Northrup on August 20, 2010 8:00 AM
62 Comments
Robert writes that he received an exciting e-mail from his Internet provider, Comcast. They were giving him a better connection! Faster downloads! Then Comcast followed up a few days later to say, approximately, "hey, remember that e-mail we sent saying that your Internet connection is faster now? Yeah, it's not actually true." More »
Would You Like A Complimentary Upsell While You Wait For Your Sub?
By Laura Northrup on August 19, 2010 12:30 PM
143 Comments
Todd writes that after he paid for his sub at a local pizza/sandwich shop, the helpful counter person asked him, "Would you like a drink while you wait?" Assuming that she was offering him a beverage while he waited for his sub to be made, Todd accepted. Except the drink wasn't complimentary. More »
(OliBac)
Proflowers Offers 12 Months Of Crappy Plants For Only $500
By Laura Northrup on August 19, 2010 11:15 AM
26 Comments
Proflowers' "12 Months of Plants" sounds like it would make a lovely gift for a person who enjoys plants. At close to $500, it's not cheap, but it does promise a pretty, seasonally-appropriate potted plant every month for the recipient. That's what the company promises, at least. Reader Janet writes to warn readers that what she has actually received each month is a leafless, bloomless, or otherwise poorly cared for plant with no instructions. Complaining to the company only gained her another leafless rose plant. More »
At Chase, Depositing A $4,000 Check In An ATM Is "Unusual Activity"
By Laura Northrup on August 19, 2010 10:30 AM
100 Comments
Carol tells Consumerist that while in a financial pinch, she took out a title loan for $4,000, depositing it in her Chase bank account using an ATM. Instead of helping the situation, the deposit made her financial mess worse. Chase froze her out of her accounts and made her order a new debit card, but no one at her local branch or in the corporate "Risk Control" department has the power to tell her what the problem is. Her account remained locked after the check cleared. Bank staff also took the opportunity to attempt to sell her student loans and overdraft protection. Not a good time, Chase. More »
How To Make Your Own Frappuccino On A Stick
By Laura Northrup on August 19, 2010 9:30 AM
17 Comments
The Starbucks Frappuccino is a refreshing, wonderful, caffeine-filled, and calorieriffic treat, but it has two major flaws. First, it's quite expensive. Second, it doesn't come on a stick. Fortunately, a contributor to Instructables has devised a Frappuccino-ish frozen espresso treat on a stick. Now it's summer. More »
Some Fancy New Laundry Products Are Utterly Pointless
By Laura Northrup on August 19, 2010 9:00 AM
68 Comments
Our colleagues at Consumer Reports test all sorts of products to determine which are worth buying, and which aren't. This month, they rounded up some laundry products currently on the market that aren't worth picking up in the store: including a detergent blessed by Martha Stewart herself that wasn't any more effective than plain water. More »
HSBC Closes Bank Account Over 14 Cent Overdraft
By Laura Northrup on August 19, 2010 8:00 AM
43 Comments
"Don't overdraw your bank account" is pretty sound advice. However, reader Phil advises that if you do happen to overdraw your HSBC account—even by a few cents—the bank will mercilessly close your bank account with no warning. That's what happened to him. More »
(SA_Steve)
"Open 23 Hours, 39 Minutes" Doesn't Make A Very Catchy McDonald's Sign
By Laura Northrup on August 18, 2010 9:30 AM
111 Comments
Gregory writes that he made a trip to a 24-hour McDonald's after 4 AM because, well, it was a 24-hour McDonald's and would ostensibly be open. This particular McDonald's apparently shut down between 4:00 and 4:30, simultaneously ignoring the concepts of "open 24 hours" and "fast food." More »
Job Search Credit Check Scammers Still Roaming The Internet
By Laura Northrup on August 18, 2010 9:00 AM
25 Comments
Molly writes that her brother has been looking for employment for a long time, and finally received a tentative job offer for a job in a warehouse. It's underemployment, but it's employment, right? The problem is that the agency doing the hiring seems kind of shady to Molly. They want to verify that her brother is a U.S. citizen by having him use a "free" credit score service, and e-mailing them the score. Molly's right: it's a scam. More »
Southwest Flight Attendant Takes Screaming Baby From Arguing Parents
By Laura Northrup on August 18, 2010 7:17 AM
129 Comments
What, exactly, happened on a recent Southwest Airlines flight from Dallas to Albuquerque? Did a thoughtful flight attendant give a restless baby a change of scenery while her parents argued, or was the airline employee out of line to remove a screaming child from her parents and notify police on the ground of a suspected abuse case? Even those who were on the plane aren't sure. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on August 13, 2010 12:30 PM
18 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Recent Recall Roundup
By Laura Northrup on August 13, 2010 11:30 AM
11 Comments
The world is a dangerous place. Or at least it seems that way when you read the latest recalls from the CPSC. Inside: play pens, pacifiers, minibikes, dehumidifiers, and decorative torches that are trying their best to kill you. More »
(drjeff)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on August 13, 2010 10:30 AM
107 Comments
Denny's Fried Cheese Melt Pushes Gooey Cheese Tolerance To New Levels
How About A Nice Beer Popsicle?
Walmart Employees Asked To Stay Behind While Flood Waters Rise?
Mall Skin Care Kiosk Hustles Mentally Disabled Man For $300, Refuses To Refund
VIDEO: Forever 21 Security Puts Choke Hold On Deaf Customer More »
Duane Reade Deploys Rewards Program Shrink Ray
By Laura Northrup on August 13, 2010 9:30 AM
39 Comments
Even retailer rewards programs can fall victim to the Shrink Ray. The latest victim? Duane Reade. Reader RC was saddened to learn of he change, and lays it out for us. More »
Comcast: Oh, You Wanted To Keep Your Decade-Old E-mail Address?
By Laura Northrup on August 13, 2010 9:00 AM
59 Comments
Some advice for Comcast customers: if you want to keep your comcast.net e-mail address when significantly changing your services, you should mention this sometime during the process. Nancy tells Consumerist that's what she learned when she had Comcast combine her cable and Internet access and roll them into a Triple Play account. Sure, the installation went awry, but you expect that. She didn't expect the company to shut off her e-mail account, since she was continuing as a Comcast customer and all. This was apparently very naive of her. More »
Expedia, Delta, And Bank Of America Team Up, Form Bad Customer Service Voltron
By Laura Northrup on August 13, 2010 8:00 AM
31 Comments
Paul tells Consumerist that he has a few problems. First, Expedia and Delta Airlines failed to correctly undo and reschedule a flight that his family took from Michigan to Florida. Second, his wife and children have gained the ability to bilocate. Or teleport. At least according to Delta and Expedia. Neither company seems fazed that the family flew the same route twice in a row both times. Sure, this trip might be physically possible, but it's also completely insane. More »
Go Ahead, Try To Make Sense Of This Xbox Live Pricing Scheme
By Laura Northrup on August 12, 2010 12:30 PM
74 Comments
Did you know that "free" is basically the same thing as $10? Neither did Jer, until he went to renew his Xbox Live account. He tells Consumerist that along with his account expiration date, he discovered the most baffling pricing scheme this side of Target. More »
Should I Patronize A Company That Treated Me Unprofessionally As A Job Applicant?
By Laura Northrup on August 12, 2010 11:30 AM
203 Comments
If you've applied for a job with a company and been turned down, how does that affect how you feel about that company? What if you feel that the company treated you poorly as a job applicant? Joe writes that he wonders just that. He feels that a company of which he was a customer treated his girlfriend unprofessionally after interviewing for a job there, and wonders whether he's justified in taking his business away from them. More »
Ford Sends $50 Gift Card To Make Up For Delayed Fiesta
By Laura Northrup on August 12, 2010 10:30 AM
50 Comments
Leslie has been waiting for her Ford Fiesta for quite a while now. She's been patient and not too sad, but was still delighted when the automaker sent her a letter apologizing for the delay, including a $50 Mastercard gift card. "Fifty dollars is no lottery win," she writes, "but hey, it beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick any day." Very wise, Leslie. More »
Illinois Sort Of Ends Pre-Employment Credit Checks, But Not Really
By Laura Northrup on August 12, 2010 9:30 AM
68 Comments
Some experts claim that there's no connection between poor credit history and poor job performance. That doesn't stop employers from evaluating applicants based on their credit reports. The governor of Illinois signed a law this week prohibiting employers from hiring on the basis of credit checks...but there are some pretty big exceptions. More »
Start Your Christmas Decorating Before Labor Day, Thanks To Costco
By Laura Northrup on August 12, 2010 9:00 AM
44 Comments
Daniel reports that Christmas decorations are already out at his San Francisco Costco. "SERIOUSLY, WTF?? It's not even September yet!!" he writes. Like that stops anyone. More »
Don't Buy A Droid If You Plan To Actually Use The GPS
By Laura Northrup on August 12, 2010 8:00 AM
185 Comments
GPS functionality is an important selling point of smartphones. Brandon writes that he wanted to do more with his Droid's GPS than check in to Foursquare: he wanted the device to shout turn-by-turn directions at him. When his phone's GPS stopped working well enough for navigation, he went to Verizon for a replacement. That phone's GPS didn't work very well, either, so he sought another replacement. Then, another. Finally, a Verizon employee wondered: why doesn't Brandon just go buy a standalone GPS if this is so important? Why, indeed? More »
Unilever's Insensitive Solutions For Customers With Sensitive Skin
By Laura Northrup on August 11, 2010 9:30 AM
60 Comments
Unilever is a massive conglomerate that sells a huge variety of products, but you can't get that big and successful without listening to your customers' needs. Right? Alissa tells Consumerist that she recently learned how close attention the company pays to customer complaints when she complained about the sudden addition of fragrance to a product marketed to people with sensitive skin. The company took two days to send a response that might as well have been written by a robot, and made it clear that no one even read her complaint—let alone cared about it. More »
Comcast Charges $2 For You To Deliver Their Cable Boxes
By Laura Northrup on August 11, 2010 9:00 AM
38 Comments
Comcast may have sent you a shiny new digital cable box for free, but that doesn't mean that you can give it back for free. If you want to de-clutter your house and bring your box back, you're going to have to pay up. An anonymous reader tells the Consumerist phone tipline that Comcast charged him $1.99 to take his spare cable boxes off his hands. More »
TD Bank Sells Overdraft Protection As A "Free" Service
By Laura Northrup on August 11, 2010 8:00 AM
40 Comments
Frank writes that he received a call from his bank, TD Bank, that insults the consumer savvy and the intelligence of their customers. TD kept calling him...unsurprisingly, to try to sell him on the idea of opting in to overdraft protection. Their sales pitch? Overdraft protection is a "FREE SERVICE." Well, yeah, like many services, it's free until you actually use it. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on August 6, 2010 12:30 PM
8 Comments
Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
(dM.nyc™)
If I Wanted A Newspaper Subscription, I Would Subscribe To Your Newspaper, Wouldn't I?
By Laura Northrup on August 6, 2010 11:30 AM
142 Comments
Sure, times are difficult in the newspaper business, and new and innovative ways to attract readers are essential right now. However, we can go ahead and not recommend this method. Laura writes that the carrier for her local weekly paper subscribed everyone on her route by default, and left a cheerful note telling them to call customer service if they didn't want it. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on August 6, 2010 10:30 AM
96 Comments
*Delta Passenger Kicked Off Flight For Asking If Pilot Had Been Drinking*Walmart Asks You To Please Have Your Receipt Ready
*A Pilot's Perspective On Woman Removed From Plane For Asking If Captain Had Been Drinking
*Seven Puppies Die After American Airlines Flight
*Geek Squad Will Turn On Your Ebook Device For You For $29.99 More »
Best Buy: Silly Girl, Video Games Aren't For You!
By Laura Northrup on August 6, 2010 9:30 AM
121 Comments
After Alexandra and her boyfriend both (but separately) ordered the same game from Best Buy, the retailer canceled thousands of orders due to a pricing error. It happens. However, she reports that while her boyfriend received a coupon code along with his cancellation notice, she received nothing. She thinks that Big Blue and Yellow profiled her. Best Buy? Profiling their customers? No way! More »
Watch Out For Dell's Imaginary Shipping Time Trap!
By Laura Northrup on August 6, 2010 9:00 AM
57 Comments
Jason has a warning for you if you plan to order any computers from Dell, but need the system urgently: believe nothing that your online shopping cart tells you. The estimated shipping date for your system may or may not reflect reality. Then, like Jason, you may find yourself with an unacceptably long time frame only after the order is finalized and your credit card charged. More »
(SL_SD)
HP Happy To Fix My Computer For Free After I Took Them To Small Claims Court
By Laura Northrup on August 6, 2010 8:00 AM
71 Comments
Do you have a defective computer that the manufacturer refuses to repair? Emmanuel has some advice for you: take 'em to court. Facing a constantly rebooting laptop, he tells Consumerist that HP was only willing to fix it if he paid a $225 fee. Unsatisfied with this solution, he filed in small claims court, and the company offered to fix it for free. As long as he drops the case. More »
(kfas)
Guess What? Your Roommate Called Us About A Potentially Embarrassing Product!
By Laura Northrup on August 5, 2010 12:30 PM
72 Comments
Dawn tells Consumerist that she had a potentially embarrassing experience recently involving a phone call, a celebrity-endorsed beauty product, and a shared phone line. She called to ask some questions about Joan Rivers' Great Hair Day, a special hair powder marketed to women with thinning hair. Much to her horror, even though she didn't provide the company with her phone number, they called back within minutes to talk about the product, without even checking to see whether it was Dawn who answered the phone. Nice. More »
Why Even Stay-At-Home Parents Need A Part-Time Job
By Laura Northrup on August 5, 2010 11:30 AM
66 Comments
The question of whether a parent should stay at home full time or work is a delicate one, and depends on the resources and needs of each individual family. Tracy at personal finance blog MoneyNing makes a solid financial case for having the stay-at-home parent work outside of the home at least part-time. More »
(xmacex)
Firestone Fixes Broken Axle For Free, Blames "Miscommunication"
By Laura Northrup on August 5, 2010 10:30 AM
29 Comments
Remember Greg? The front axle of his car broke as he tried to drive it out of a Firestone Complete Auto Care shop, and the shop wouldn't take responsibility for the incident. We heard back from Greg. He reports that the regional manager declared the situation a "miscommunication." He now has a repaired axle and a word of thanks for the readers of Consumerist. More »
Lenscrafters' Guarantee Is Kind Of Crappy Unless You Complain To Corporate
By Laura Northrup on August 5, 2010 9:30 AM
36 Comments
What does it mean to you when you hear that a company "guarantees" a product? Does it mean, "if this thing breaks, we'll sell you a new one at half price?" Justin tells Consumerist that's what means at LensCrafters, and he finds that very disappointing. He now refuses to go back there for his glasses in the future. Would you? More »
I Can't Afford Cable Anymore. How Can I Revive My Analog TV?
By Laura Northrup on August 5, 2010 9:00 AM
98 Comments
We hear the same exhortation everywhere: cut the cable! Save money! Ditch your cable company and live free! But if you had cable TV during the great DTV switch back in 2009, you probably didn't think to send away for any government-subsidized converter boxes. If you've recently dropped your cable subscription out of rage or frugality, what are your options? Karen wants to know, and hopes that Consumerist readers have some ideas. More »
(Razor512)
Best Buy Drowned 3 Of My iPods, Offers $25 In Consolation
By Laura Northrup on August 5, 2010 8:00 AM
57 Comments
Do you enjoy having a functioning iPod Touch? Then don't let Best Buy get their clumsy mitts on it and hire them to apply the tricky, delicate Zagg Invisible Shield. Reader Span_Wolf writes that he thought that he had a run of terrible luck with buying defective iPods, but eventually figured out the real cause of his troubles: he thinks, and Apple agrees, that Best Buy staff's misapplication of the fancy plastic cover damaged the devices. More »
(cking)
Letter To Sirius/XM Executives Ends Zombie Credit Card Charges
By Laura Northrup on August 4, 2010 9:30 AM
41 Comments
Olivia recently wrote in to share her story of success in sending an executive e-mail carpet bomb to Sirius/XM Sattelite Radio. She writes that the company has been billing her credit card for $44.79 every three months since the middle of 2008, even though her original subscription came from a gift card, and she never authorized payments from her credit card. Should she have noticed this? Yes. Should Sirius have billed her when she made it clear that they were not to charge her? Uh, no. More »
How Buying Gift Cards To Shop Online Can Backfire
By Laura Northrup on August 4, 2010 9:00 AM
90 Comments
S. tells Consumerist that she had a bad experience with Lane Bryant, and now she doesn't know where to turn. She doesn't use credit cards, but couldn't pass up a great online-only sale on jeans. She went to a brick-and-mortar store and purchased a gift card, then used the gift card to make the purchase online. Simple, right? Nope. Lane Bryant canceled her order, and now S. is stuck with a $50 Lane Bryant gift card she had budgeted for two pairs of jeans. More »
Seven Puppies Die After American Airlines Flight
By Laura Northrup on August 4, 2010 8:00 AM
96 Comments
Chicago's CBS2 reports that fifteen puppies were loaded on a Chicago-bound American Airlines flight in Tulsa. A few hours later, five of the puppies were dead when they arrived at O'Hare airport. Two more died in the care of a veterinarian. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on July 30, 2010 12:30 PM
9 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on July 30, 2010 11:30 AM
74 Comments
- Is Ordering Drinks Without Ice Just A Scam To Get More Delicious Beverage?
- Vitaminwater Isn't Healthy, Rules Federal Judge
- Man Spends 24 Hours Inside A 24 Hour Fitness
- Man Demonstrates His Superior Walmart Shopping Technique
- Don't Do These Things If You Want To Save Dough
The Lenscrafters Sales Vortex Will Not Let You Just Buy Frames
By Laura Northrup on July 30, 2010 10:30 AM
103 Comments
Ryun writes that his long search for the perfect eyeglass frames led him to Lenscrafters, but the store's sales tactics left him confused, embarrassed, and without the frames of his dreams. Was he wrong to walk out on the chain when they pulled out sales tactics he wasn't comfortable with? More »
(ASurroca)
How To Avoid Online Coupon Scams
By Laura Northrup on July 30, 2010 9:30 AM
35 Comments
The Internet makes it super easy to share e-commerce coupon codes and even printable coupons. However, it also provides more opportunities for counterfeit coupons to circulate, which annoy retailers and disappoint shoppers. How does a beginning online coupon hunter know what to look out for? More »
(xmacex)
Firestone Complete Auto Care Hopes You Don't Notice Your Car's Broken Front Axle
By Laura Northrup on July 30, 2010 9:00 AM
72 Comments
Greg tells Consumerist that he was a loyal customer of Firestone Complete Auto Care, and brought his car in for some diagnostic tests to figure out some non-urgent problems. The shop called him to tell him that his car had a fuel filter problem and he would need to take it to the dealer: fine, that happens. When Greg started up his car to leave, it was hard not to notice the loud knocking sound in front. Either he happened to break the front axle when starting the car, or something went horribly awry during his repair. More »
US Airways Sold My "Choice Seat," Made Me Sit In Back Of Plane
By Laura Northrup on July 30, 2010 8:00 AM
99 Comments
Justin writes that he booked a flight on US Airways, and decided that his comfort was worth paying $15 extra for the privilege of having the seat of his choice, on an aisle at the front of the plane. When he went to check in, he learned that the same special seat had been sold to someone else. He warns Consumerist readers: don't assume that you will actually get the seat assignment that you pay for. More »
Zappos Turns Office Tour Into Vegas Tourist Attraction
By Laura Northrup on July 29, 2010 4:00 PM
48 Comments
A Vegas tourist attraction that doesn't involve hookers, blackjack, or magic? It's possible! Famed retailer of shoes and joy Zappos opens its office doors to hundreds of people every month, welcoming everyone, not just business executives and crazed fans. More »
(zeevveez)
Pottery Barn Picks Up Stinky Rug, Brings New One For Free
By Laura Northrup on July 29, 2010 12:30 PM
11 Comments
Have you ever heard of latex decay? Apparently, it's a problem that plagues area rugs from Pottery Barn manufactured during a certain period. It happened to Victoria, and a simple call to the company got her a replacement rug costing $100 more than the one she already had. Not only was there no charge to her, but since Victoria doesn't have a car, Pottery Barn paid for UPS pickup of the old rug and delivery of the new one. Lovely. More »
Why Does IKEA Need To See My ID To Exchange A Defective Bed?
By Laura Northrup on July 29, 2010 11:30 AM
108 Comments
Pity those of us who live in the hinterlands, far from any IKEA stores. When we do manage a trip into civilization to buy cheap furniture with strange names, we take a risk. We risk buying a defective item and having to drag it hundreds of miles back to the store it came from. Jason tells Consumerist that's what happened to him when he bought a set of bunk beds with a manufacturing defect. But that's not his main concern. What he wants to know is: is it unreasonable for a store to scan your driver's license when exchanging an item that is obviously defective? More »
Walmart Wants You To Get Liquored Up For Back-To-School Shopping
By Laura Northrup on July 29, 2010 10:30 AM
28 Comments
I found these plastic shot glasses nestled among the crayons and glue sticks in the back-to-school section of my local Walmart. I'm not sure what it implies. Do college students use Elmer's Glue now?
My friend with several school-aged children saw it differently, noting, "That might be what I need to survive back to school shopping." For the parents. Brilliant. More »
iTunes Season Pass Customers Hope To See Sunday's "Mad Men" Sometime This Week
By Laura Northrup on July 29, 2010 9:30 AM
67 Comments
Are you an iTunes customer who bought a season pass to Mad Men? Have you not been able to download Sunday's episode yet? Lulu hasn't, and neither have a lot of other customers. Apple is doing a poor job of supporting customers who have ditched cable, but still want to pay for content. More »
Please Make Dead Friend's Creditors Stop Calling My Mom
By Laura Northrup on July 29, 2010 9:00 AM
83 Comments
Kevin's mom is the executor of a family friend's estate. Chase, the company that holds this family friend's mortgage somehow got hold of her phone number, and is now calling her incessantly, looking for.... the dead person? Chase reps claim that they're not allowed to speak with the executor of the estate, yet they keep calling back despite pleas to leave her alone. More »
Georgia Woman Plans To Win Foreclosed House Back With Cornbread
By Laura Northrup on July 29, 2010 8:00 AM
89 Comments
Many people, facing underemployment and foreclosure on their home, would despair. Not reader Bev. She's determined to win her house back when it's sold at auction, and is fighting back with... cornbread. Wait, cornbread? More »
Is Ordering Drinks Without Ice Just A Scam To Get More Delicious Beverage?
By Laura Northrup on July 28, 2010 9:30 AM
382 Comments
I like to order my cold drinks (especially soda) without ice, because—shocking revelation—I don't really like ice. I didn't realize that all of these years, I've been running a massive scam on the eateries of America, weaseling extra beverages out of them with my innocent request. That's what a barista at a Borders store accused JD of doing when he ordered an iced chai with no ice. She gave JD what he describes as "half a cup of lukewarm chai" (pictured). New Borders policy, or was she a vigilante anti-ice crusader? More »
(pjmorse)
What's The Best Airline For Your Pet To Travel?
By Laura Northrup on July 28, 2010 9:00 AM
52 Comments
Sometimes you don't have a choice—you have to fly with your pet. In memory of Paco, the dog Delta Airlines lost back in May, here's Petfinder.com's updated list of the best airlines for traveling with kritters. All of the recommended carriers have changed from last year. Spoiler alert: Delta is not on it. More »
(XISMZERO)
Sears Still Has Customers, Can't Manage To Sell Them Actual Merchandise
By Laura Northrup on July 28, 2010 8:00 AM
96 Comments
Freddy tells Consumerist that his girlfriend tried to buy a vacuum cleaner from Sears, but the self-destructive retailer stopped her at every turn. After waiting through six weeks of delays and broken promises, she finally asked for a refund and bought the same item at a lower price at Walmart. More »
(jayRaz)
Southwest Forces Standby Flier Off Plane To Free Two Seats For Passenger Of Size
By Laura Northrup on July 25, 2010 4:45 PM
166 Comments
The Sacramento Bee reported yesterday that Southwest Airlines removed a standby passenger from a plane after boarding in order to make room for a late-arriving passenger who required two seats but had only purchased one. So why didn't Southwest follow its own famed "Passenger of Size" policy and make the passenger unable to fit in a single seat wait? It's sort of a reverse of Kevin Smith's famous removal from a flight on Southwest this past February. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds: We All Scream
More »
By Laura Northrup on July 23, 2010 12:30 PM
14 Comments
Blah, blah, vegetables. Everyone knows that the real food of summer is ice cream. Here are eleven photos celebrating everyone's favorite chilly treat, in all of its forms. Except there are no microwaveable milkshakes.More »
(Red~Star)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on July 23, 2010 11:30 AM
63 Comments
This "Modern Claddagh Ring" Looks Strangely Familiar
United Removes Passenger From Flight After He Asks Whether A Meal Will Be Served
3 Reasons You Might Not Always Save Money At Costco
Undercover IKEA Receipt Checker Detained Me, Manager Threatened Jail
Buy These Suitcase Stickers If You Want To Get Frisked More »
Man Who Hates Clipping Coupons Uses Coupons To Spend $1 Per Day On Food
By Laura Northrup on July 23, 2010 10:30 AM
85 Comments
Sure, the exploits of the coupon ninjas are interesting, but we live, shop, and eat in the real world. Who has time to make a job—or at least a time-consuming hobby—out of couponing? Jeffrey doesn't. Yet he began a challenge to feed himself on $1 per day in April...and is still at it. Using sales, coupons, and (ugh) rebates, he's managed to survive, without a huge time investment in couponing. What are his secrets? More »
Are Retailers Suddenly Burying You In E-Mail?
By Laura Northrup on July 23, 2010 9:30 AM
88 Comments
Trance has a question for the Consumerist hive mind: Are you receiving more promotional e-mails than you were, say, a year ago? Not spam, but actual retailers that you want to hear from when they have a sale. Trance doesn't have statistics for this, but thinks that she's receiving more messages this year than last year, and has had to unsubscribe. More »
Home Buyer Takes Consumerist Hive Mind Advice, Emerges Victorious
By Laura Northrup on July 23, 2010 9:00 AM
35 Comments
Remember Frank? He asked Consumerist readers for advice about his short-sale purchase of a house gone terribly, terribly wrong. He's back, with an update! As you may recall, the hive mind advised him to walk away from the deal. Better yet, run away. Or drive away in a supercharged muscle car. Frank writes that he took this advice to heart, and emerged victorious. But not in the way you might expect. More »
Sephora Redefines "Free," Forgets To Mention Required Purchase
By Laura Northrup on July 23, 2010 8:00 AM
49 Comments
Kayce writes that back in June, she saw an offer online from beauty retailer Sephora promising a free manicure to promote the launch of a new nail decal. She hadn't seen anything that claimed any kind of purchase was required, and was confused when she learned that the "free" manicure required a $15 purchase. More »
Panda Express Avoids Food Giveaway Pandemonium, Serves Up Teeny Portions
By Laura Northrup on July 22, 2010 12:30 PM
108 Comments
Matt tells Consumerist that Panda Express may have found a way to avoid a coupon debacle similar to KFC's grilled chicken giveaway last year. Their brilliant plan: dish up tiny portions, then charge comically high prices for meal add-ons. Like a $4 egg roll. More »
Good News, Everyone: Microwaveable Milkshakes Exist
By Laura Northrup on July 22, 2010 11:30 AM
72 Comments
Do you want to experience the deliciousness of a milkshake in your own home, but are too lazy to throw some ice cream and milk in a blender? Kroger is here to help, and the grocer now sells the Micro Shake: a frozen treat that you stick in the microwave to soften a little, then stir and eat. Because this is America. More »
(Andrew_N)
Mr. Coffee Replaces Missing Parts For Free, Keeps Sweet Caffeine Flowing
By Laura Northrup on July 22, 2010 10:30 AM
20 Comments
C. bought a Mr. Coffee espresso machine on clearance, but discovered that a few parts were missing. Specifically, the filter basket. Deciding that it was probably easier to buy a new filter basket than to deal with returning a small-scale Box of Crap, C. contacted Mr. Coffee. And Mr. Coffee provided. More »
(hyku)
Williams-Sonoma's Registry Policies Are Top Secret, Unless You Can Use The Internet
By Laura Northrup on July 22, 2010 9:30 AM
39 Comments
One would think that a luxury kitchen goods retailer like Williams-Sonoma would be absurdly friendly to couples preparing to set up a gift registry before their wedding. How difficult is it to discover the store's policies for registry completion discounts, returns without a receipt, and other relevant things? Dan writes that at his local Williams-Sonoma, customers aren't permitted access to that information until they sign up for their registry. Even though it's on the store's website. Huh? More »
This "Modern Claddagh Ring" Looks Strangely Familiar
More »
By Laura Northrup on July 22, 2010 9:00 AM
102 Comments
I'm not Irish, and I've never really cared for claddagh jewelry, but I can't shake the feeling that I've seen this ring design somewhere else before. Does it look familiar to you?More »
Times Of London Erects Pay Wall, Locks Out Most Of Its Readership
By Laura Northrup on July 22, 2010 8:00 AM
48 Comments
Cash-strapped fishwraps all over the world are watching the Times of London's new content paywall business model. How's that working out for them? Depending on how you look at the numbers and whether you value total visitors or pageviews, the newspaper, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., lost either two-thirds or 90 percent of their online readership since the pay walls were erected. More »
Call AmEx To Negotiate Payment Plan, Get A Stern Lecture Instead
By Laura Northrup on July 21, 2010 9:15 AM
157 Comments
Sophie did what any good Consumerist struggling with credit card debt would do. She called up her lender, American Express, and asked if they would be able to help her with some kind of payment plan before she missed any payments. knows that some credit card companies are currently happy to negotiate when struggling customers call them up, since a customer making lower payments is better than a customer missing payments, or not making any payments at all. Right? More »
Why Did Walmart Add A $3 Warranty To This DVD Purchase Without Asking?
By Laura Northrup on July 21, 2010 8:45 AM
64 Comments
Would you buy an extended warranty for a DVD? We can't imagine that most people would...and if they did, it would last longer than a year. John, however, sent in this receipt from a Texas Walmart store. He writes that the store tried to sneak a $3 "protection" plan along with his ex's purchase of a $15 DVD. And not just any old warranty: it's an extended warranty that, as far as we can determine, Walmart doesn't even sell for DVDs. More »
(Fisher-Price)
Sorry, Girls: Your Toy Blocks Cost More, Have Fewer Pieces
By Laura Northrup on July 21, 2010 8:15 AM
64 Comments
The first rule of toy marketing: if you want to sell something to girls, make it pink! And in the case of the Fisher-Price TRIO building blocks set on Amazon, make the girls' product cost $8.50 more than the "standard" product, for no clear reason. Even though it contains fewer blocks. More »
(jpmarth)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on July 16, 2010 12:30 PM
17 Comments
Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
(asrusch)
Start Your Child's Beer Pong Training Early
By Laura Northrup on July 16, 2010 10:30 AM
21 Comments
Rounding out our trilogy of beer pong posts this week, here's an exciting product that commenter Nic715 pointed out: Hasbro's game Cuponk. Throw the ball into the cup, and lights go off and electronic noises sound. It's a way to have some family fun and hone your kids' skills long before they leave for college. More »
(johnliao)
The Children's Place Doesn't Understand How Parents Shop For Children's Clothes
By Laura Northrup on July 16, 2010 9:30 AM
216 Comments
Kim tells Consumerist that she was dismayed to learn that The Children's Place has started limiting how many returns customers can make, scanning driver's licenses to track repeat returners. She wonders, have company executives tried to corral multiple preschoolers into trying on stacks of clothing in a store fitting room? More »
College Library Parodies Old Spice Commercials To Coax Students From Dorm Rooms
By Laura Northrup on July 16, 2010 9:00 AM
54 Comments
I'm a college librarian by training. One of the challenges in the profession right now is convincing students who have grown up with instantaneous access to information from home that a library has something to offer them. Brigham Young University's Harold B. Lee Library reached out to students by producing a video that shows off library resources and looks awfully.... familiar. More »
(effekt!)
Factory That Made Moldy, Barfy Recalled Tylenol Closes For Upgrades, 300 Lose Jobs
By Laura Northrup on July 16, 2010 8:00 AM
18 Comments
Johnson & Johnson announced late yesterday that they will lay off most of the employees of the Philadelphia-area factory that produced the controversial musty, stinky pills recalled earlier this year. Staff have been on full pay and benefits since the plant shut down in April, but the controversial (that is: filthy) facility will close down for upgrades until some undefined point in 2011. More »
(indi.ca)
Yugster Sends Broken Item In Opened Box, Makes Customer Pay To Ship It Back
By Laura Northrup on July 15, 2010 12:30 PM
37 Comments
Yugster.com is a site that follows a similar business model to Woot, but without the amazing writing staff. Josh writes that he's made a few purchases from the site, and the last one resulted in an opened box that contained a broken product from a defunct manufacturer. The company ultimately gave him a refund, but left him on the hook for return shipping. This turned him off the site entirely. More »
No, Amazon, I Will Not Pay For Repairs To My Defective Kindle
By Laura Northrup on July 15, 2010 11:30 AM
98 Comments
Michael tells Consumerist that he's disappointed in his Amazon Kindle, but really disappointed in Amazon and their lack of support for his problems with the device. The company admitted that his Kindle malfunctioned because of a product defect...but want Michael to pay the $89 fee for having his Kindle serviced out of warranty anyway. He's not really interested, since he could buy a new Kindle for almost twice that. More »
(Trebz)
Dog Chew Toy Can't Withstand Chewing, Hartz Issues Refund Without Receipt
By Laura Northrup on July 15, 2010 10:30 AM
42 Comments
Dogs sure can chew. Taryn's puppy, Bacon, destroyed a stuffed toy in a matter of minutes. The toy's packaging claimed that it was able to endure sustained nomming, so she complained. An e-mail to the manufacturer, Hartz, led to a refund for the toy's purchase price, even though they had misplaced the receipt. More »
What Should A "Lifetime License" To Software Really Include?
By Laura Northrup on July 15, 2010 9:30 AM
90 Comments
C. was an early adopter of PlayOn, a video streaming service that lets users stream all sorts of free video content from Windows PCs to a variety of devices. PlayOn recently changed their pricing structure, and C. tells Consumerist that they're upset that the "Lifetime License" that cost $40 at launch had a rather short lifetime. Or did it? More »
Early Tests Show Some Runaway Toyotas Caused By Driver Error
By Laura Northrup on July 15, 2010 9:00 AM
102 Comments
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that, according to an anonymous source, preliminary analysis at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows that most unintended acceleration incidents involving now-recalled Toyota vehicles were due to driver error. More »
How Can I Free Myself Of The Crate & Barrel Catalog Scourge?
By Laura Northrup on July 15, 2010 8:00 AM
51 Comments
Tor has a simple request. He wants companies to stop wasting paper and sending him printed catalogs. He would also appreciate it if companies would stop selling his name ad address to each other in order to send him even more catalogs. This is a tall order—well, at least it is for Crate & Barrel. More »
Your Redbox Reservation Is A Sacred, Unbreakable Covenant
By Laura Northrup on July 14, 2010 9:30 AM
101 Comments
We touched on this topic last week in a post about a broken Redbox machine, but reader Nick wants Consumerist readers to know something important about Redbox. Whether your local kiosk has been smashed in or you just plain change your mind, there is no power on earth that can cancel your reservation and give you a refund. None. More »
Old Spice's Brilliant Marketing Your Product Could Market Like
By Laura Northrup on July 14, 2010 9:00 AM
65 Comments
We at Consumerist mostly focus on when companies screw up, with some exceptions. We must give credit for brilliant marketing strategies when it is due, though, and yesterday's personalized YouTube video blitz by Old Spice's towel-wrapped spokesman, Isaiah "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" Mustafa, qualifies as brilliant. More »
Chase Now Has Human ATM Greeter Who Helpfully Sells Overdraft Protection
By Laura Northrup on July 14, 2010 8:00 AM
76 Comments
As the August 15th deadline for bank customers to opt in to overdraft protection on their existing accounts looms, banks are trying some innovative new tactics. Nicole tells Consumerist that she visited an ATM Chase branch on a Saturday morning to withdraw some cash, and encountered an employee stationed near the ATMs, asking customers whether they had "made a decision" about their "debit card overdraft coverage." More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on July 9, 2010 12:30 PM
14 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
I Bought A Woot Bag Of Crap, Someone Sent Me A Wad Of Cash
By Laura Northrup on July 9, 2010 11:45 AM
9 Comments
Reader WootAndTheWay tells Consumerist was one of the lucky few who got to order the Bag of Crap from Woot.com during the last Woot-off. Once the package arrived, she found that she was luckier than she had thought. Her box contained the usual assortment of random closeout goodness, and a folded-up envelope containing $609 in cash. Wait, what?
Woot says that they don't know anything about how the envelope got there. It's easy to believe them, since this is a very poor business model. What would you do? More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on July 9, 2010 11:30 AM
58 Comments
Subway Bastard Makes Sandwiches Bad On Purpose
Woot To AP: You Owe Us $17.50 For Copying Our Content
27 Of The Sickest Things You've Done To Save Money
This Batman Product Is Confusing But Only Costs $1.50 More »
(TushyD)
Sam Adams Offers Personal Note, Refund For Gross Spoiled Beer
By Laura Northrup on July 9, 2010 9:30 AM
103 Comments
Ryan writes that he bought some Samuel Adams beer, but it wasn't up to his expectations. That is to say that it tasted so bad, it made everyone who tried it physically ill. The grocery store wouldn't offer a refund, so he decided to contact the company, receiving a refund and an unexpected personal reply. More »
Amazon Sends Medium-Sized Box Of Air, Includes Free Watch Batteries
By Laura Northrup on July 9, 2010 8:30 AM
59 Comments
Amazon chose the worst possible packaging to send this card of watch batteries to catastrophegirl. Well, that's not true: they could have used an even bigger box and included more air packs. See, she tells Consumerist that the air packs arrived perfectly, but the watch batteries slid between the box flaps and hid. More »
Realtor's Incompetence Means I Can't Move Into My Vandalized, Deteriorating Short-Sale House
By Laura Northrup on July 9, 2010 8:00 AM
97 Comments
One might think that with the collapse of the housing market and the global economy, realtors and banks might have some idea how to handle a short sale transaction. A short sale, after all, is when a homeowner sells their home for less than they owe on the mortgage in order to avoid foreclosure. Frank writes that he would like very much to move into the house he signed a contract to buy back in November, but the seller's realtor forgot to submit documents to the seller's bank, leaving the house vacant to be vandalized and deteriorate for months on end. More »
Staying Cool Frugally: It's Like Staying Warm Frugally, But Backwards
By Laura Northrup on July 8, 2010 12:30 PM
79 Comments
We in the Northeast won't stop whining about our heat wave. (It's really hot here! Did you hear?) But the beginning of hot weather is also a good time to remember that the same insulating and cooling tricks that frugal Consumerists use in the winter to keep heat in can also serve to keep heat out in the summer. More »
Maybe XM And Sirius Should Try Acting A Little More Like A Monopoly
By Laura Northrup on July 8, 2010 11:30 AM
81 Comments
Paul reports that there's good news and bad news as far as the merger of XM and Sirius satellite radio goes. The two companies have not decided to band together and operate as one scary monopolistic entity. The bad news is that the companies seem to be cooperating to confuse customers and turn them off of the idea of satellite radio entirely. More »
No, The Right To Call And Sell You Stuff Is Not Transferable
By Laura Northrup on July 8, 2010 10:30 AM
49 Comments
Russell wants to know: if a company cold-calls you to sell you things when you're part of the federal Do Not Call registry, and insists that the call is totally legal because they've "partnered with" a company that you do business with, does that make it okay? No. No, it does not. More »
Gamestop Suddenly Hates Me, But Doesn't Know Why
By Laura Northrup on July 8, 2010 9:30 AM
31 Comments
Lu seems to have annual run-ins with stubborn gaming retailers. Last year, a simple GameCrazy purchase racked up illicit fees and an apology from the chain's district manager. This year, he writes that Gamestop decided to just deny an online purchase with no obvious problems. Why? Apparently Gamestop's system just doesn't like Lu. More »
(Gunns)
AT&T Still Wants Some People To Have Unlimited Data: BlackBerry Users
By Laura Northrup on July 8, 2010 9:00 AM
50 Comments
Michael writes that his wife uses a BlackBerry for her work e-mail, but pays for the service herself. It's part of a family plan with Michael's iPhone, to be precise. When Michael tried to put their phones on a limited data plan, he learned something interesting and hilariously backwards: customers can only pay $15 for Enterprise access (e-mail on a Microsoft Exchange server) if they're also paying $30 per month for unlimited BlackBerry data. What if they don't use that much data? Well, too bad. More »
Virgin Mobile Jolted Into Action By Executive E-Mail Carpet Bomb
By Laura Northrup on July 8, 2010 8:00 AM
30 Comments
Nancy tells Consumerist that she and her husband recently bought shiny new phones from Virgin Mobile, and were quite happy with their service. Well, until Nancy's phone stopped working entirely. She tried the normal technical support channels, but encountered a run-around that lasted for almost two weeks. Two weeks during which Nancy lacked a functioning phone. She gave up on the normal channels, read our guide to sending an executive e-mail carpet bomb, and sent us a copy of her original missive. More »
Great Customer Service Is Just How Wagner Rolls
By Laura Northrup on July 7, 2010 9:30 AM
11 Comments
Michael writes bought an electric paint roller to get through the huge amount of painting required to make his new house look nice. Eventually, its motor died, leaving Michael and his wife without painting power. All was not lost, however: Michael had saved the receipt, and the roller had a two-year warranty. A two-year warranty that the company stands behind. Now Michael has an even better roller, and wanted to share his experience with Consumerist. More »
Petsmart Redefines Coupon Expiration Dates
By Laura Northrup on July 7, 2010 9:00 AM
50 Comments
If a coupon says that it expires on July 4th, most people assume this means that you can use it on July 4th. Not so, in Petsmart's universe. In their coupon vortex, July 4 ends at 6:00 AM on July 4th. Which is a little weird for an online coupon, but completely insane for a printable in-store coupon when no Petsmart store opens until several hours later. More »
JC Penney Destroys Unsold Clothing On Orders From Ralph Lauren
By Laura Northrup on July 7, 2010 8:00 AM
78 Comments
H&M went through public shaming when they were caught shredding and throwing away brand-new merchandise instead of donating it to charity. Now a JC Penney store in Pennsylvania has reportedly done the same thing. Company representatives admitted to the Pittsburgh TV station that exposed the destruction of merchandise that this is official company practice, but only for items from the Penney's-exclusive Ralph Lauren Living line. More »
You Want Your Real Name Publicly Associated With Your World Of Warcraft Account, Right?
By Laura Northrup on July 6, 2010 7:15 PM
189 Comments
If you want to use certain official World of Warcraft forums, you're going to have to come out. That is, you're going to have to make your real full name visible on forums. No, not your character name: your real name. No, it's not a severely delayed April Fool's joke. And no, Blizzard, the company behind the game, doesn't seem to care that their players like to post on forums but also might have problems with stalkers or identity theft, and also occasionally seek gainful employment. More »
(loganck)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on July 2, 2010 12:30 PM
4 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
Don't Buy A Digital Game And Expect To Return It For A Refund
Smooth Down Your Lady Parts With Camelflage Or Camel Ammo
Verizon: Die Fighting In Afghanistan, Pay $350 Early Termination Fee
Why Your Starbucks Barista Hates You More »
By Laura Northrup on July 2, 2010 11:30 AM
75 Comments
Wait On Line To Show Your Costco Receipt Or You Will Be AssaultedDon't Buy A Digital Game And Expect To Return It For A Refund
Smooth Down Your Lady Parts With Camelflage Or Camel Ammo
Verizon: Die Fighting In Afghanistan, Pay $350 Early Termination Fee
Why Your Starbucks Barista Hates You More »
Nice Try, Restaurant, But You Can't Trick Me Into Buying Bottled Water
By Laura Northrup on July 2, 2010 10:30 AM
120 Comments
A blogger who complains about food at Bon Apétit magazine is tired of restaurants attempting to trick him into buying bottled water when all he wants is some lovely, refreshing tap water with ice in it. The free stuff that comes out of the tap. Instead, the staff offer water without offering tap as an option at all. Most diners either didn't notice the ruse, or didn't care. More »
American Apparel Promised A Free Thong, But I Remain Without Butt Floss
she signed up for American Apparel's e-mail list to get a free thong. SHe signed up, and then the company ended the promotion after the fact, perhaps hoping that customers wouldn't notice. Update: American Apparel contacted us, and B. now has replacement thongs. More »
By Laura Northrup on July 2, 2010 9:00 AM
40 Comments
It's a familiar story: company offers free item. The promotion goes viral and appears on deal sites, as well as the world's greatest consumer blog. Company runs out of the free item and shuts down the promotion. That's what B. says happened when 
Off's Clip-On Bug Repellent Would Be A Great Idea If It Worked
By Laura Northrup on July 2, 2010 8:30 AM
44 Comments
If you're planning some picnics or camping this holiday weekend and don't want mosquitoes to nom you alive, some bug repellent is a great idea. How about the new Off brand clip-on repellent fans that you keep seeing commercials for? While going without bug spray is an appealing prospect, the clip-ons don't work very well. Some of our colleagues at Consumer Reports locked themselves in bug-filled cages to test bug sprays, including the clip-ons, and bring us this disappointing news. More »
How On Earth Did They Make That Old Spice Commercial?
By Laura Northrup on July 2, 2010 8:00 AM
51 Comments
A new commercial in Old Spice's "the man your man could smell like" series of ads hit the airwaves and the Internets this week. If you're not delighted, you should be. The commercials are silly, visually interesting, and—according to their star, the very visually interesting actor Isaiah Mustafa—surprisingly low-tech behind the scenes. More »
Cross Honors Lifetime Warranty, Repairs Priceless Antique Pen
By Laura Northrup on July 1, 2010 12:30 PM
48 Comments
Andy always carries his father's old 50-year-old Cross pen. It's the only everyday item he has that belonged to his father, and he was devastated when it broke. He contacted Cross to see about getting the pen repaired, and the company sent it back: the same pen, good as new, in a spiffy little case. More »
What Would You Do With A Forklift Full Of Wheat Thins?
By Laura Northrup on July 1, 2010 11:30 AM
53 Comments
Have you seen Nabisco's new attempt to engage with customers through those social networking thingies that all the kids are into? They're the latest brand to reach out through social media and find customers who are already talking about their brand, then engage with them. In completely ridiculous ways. Take, for example, the woman whose mournful Facebook post about running out of Wheat Thins led to the delivery of more Wheat Thins than one person could ever eat. More »
(zieak)
Apparently, The Salvation Army Doesn't Want My Stuff
he she thought that donating some items to the Salvation Army would be satisfying and relatively simple. Unfortunately, he she hadn't counted on the people handling pickups for his her local branch to have the sort of vague sense of time that one normally associates with cable installers or appliance repair technicians. More »
By Laura Northrup on July 1, 2010 10:30 AM
105 Comments
Jing tells Consumerist that 
Can You Accuse A Mac Genius Of Malpractice?
By Laura Northrup on July 1, 2010 9:30 AM
111 Comments
Ryan writes that an Apple retail store's Genius declared his MacBook Pro dead: the required logic board replacement would have cost more than a new computer. So Ryan moved on, and sold his old MacBook for parts. Only it turned out that the Genius misdiagnosed Ryan's computer. The logic board was fine, and the real cause of his computer's failure was an inexpensive-to-replace bad stick of RAM. Ryan dropped two grand on a new computer for no reason. More »
Walmart Is Trying To Fill My Yard With Plastic Garbage Cans
By Laura Northrup on July 1, 2010 9:00 AM
42 Comments
Shantelle tells Consumerist that she ordered one garbage can from Walmart online. No one is entirely sure how, but she ended up with five cans instead. She could give them away or start a drum circle, but now she's stuck with a dilemma: how does she return something to a store when she never bought it in the first place? Will Walmart ever catch up with her and charge her for the four additional cans...even though there's no documentation that she ever received them? More »
Airline Passengers Showered With In-Flight Maggots
By Laura Northrup on July 1, 2010 8:00 AM
85 Comments
A US Airways flight from Atlanta to Charlotte had to return to the airport gate on Monday evening after writhing maggots rained down on passengers in one row while the plane was taxiing. The source of the critters? A container of rotten meat that a passenger somehow brought on the plane and stashed in the overhead bin. More »
Domino's Thinks Your Actual Pizza Could Star In An Ad
By Laura Northrup on June 30, 2010 9:30 AM
41 Comments
Do you like photography? Do you like money? Do you like pizza? Well, are you willing to tolerate Domino's instead? The chain is running a photo contest, and has solicited photos of actual, real-life pizzas from customers. Our tipster J.P. wonders, "I wonder if they'll be so bold as to post EVERY entry no matter how it looks?" Guess we'll find out. More »
American Eagle Wants A Note From Charles Schwab Before They'll Accept My $15 Return
By Laura Northrup on June 30, 2010 9:00 AM
57 Comments
Tiffany tells Consumerist that she thought that returning a pair of $15 sunglasses to an American Eagle store would be a simple transaction. This seems sensible enough. What she didn't know that her bank issuing her a new credit card was simply too much for the chain's computers. Bringing in her credit card statement wasn't enough, and now store employees now insist that she have her bank issue her a personalized letter in order to issue the refund. More »
Dollar Tree Annexes Canada, Sells 61-Star American Flag
By Laura Northrup on June 30, 2010 8:00 AM
101 Comments
This American flag found for sale at Dollar Tree has either fallen through a crack in space and time from a future when the United States has annexed Canada, or the Chinese company that produced it screwed up. Dollar Tree, for its part, claims that the flag is a "patriotic banner" and not supposed to be a regulation American flag. Right. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on June 25, 2010 2:14 PM
67 Comments
Friendly's Burger Has Grilled Cheese Sandwiches For Buns
Old Thermos Ad: Use Our Product Or Your Baby Will Die!
Continental Takes Three Days And Counting To Fly Passenger From Texas to New Hampshire
Carl's Jr. Guy Tells Me He Doesn't Give A F*ck
Privacy Change: Apple Knows Where Your Phone Is And Is Telling People More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds: Eat Your Vegetables
By Laura Northrup on June 25, 2010 12:30 PM
25 Comments
In celebration of the real beginning of summer, here's a Flickr compilation consisting entirely of delicious, delicious fresh fruits and vegetables. And, of course, a cat. More »
Do Not Try To Sell Your Baby For $25 In Front Of Walmart
By Laura Northrup on June 25, 2010 9:30 AM
64 Comments
Aspiring entrepreneurs, keep in mind: Walmart doesn't want you selling anything in front of their stores. And they really, really don't want you to sell your own children out front at cut-rate prices. Police in Salinas, Calif. say a couple were trying to do just that: sell their 6-month-old infant to a stranger for less than the price of a case of diapers. More »
Petsmart Manager Not Too Concerned About This Parakeet Corpse In Bird Habitat Door
By Laura Northrup on June 25, 2010 9:00 AM
77 Comments
Jack is an animal lover and a mechanic. He writes that when he went to fix a habitat door at a local Petsmart store, he found a dead parakeet trapped inside a hollow part of the door. It wasn't the dead bird that bothered him the most, though: it was the manager's total lack of concern about the situation. He was upset enough to e-mail Consumerist. (Warning: post contains non-graphic dead pet photo.) More »
(drustar)
Your New iPhone's Reception Is Bad Because You're Holding It Wrong
By Laura Northrup on June 25, 2010 9:00 AM
69 Comments
Apple has a message for you if you notice problems with the reception on your shiny new iPhone 4. The problem isn't the phone—it's you. If you hold your phone so that your gubby little hands bridge the metal antenna bars that wrap around the phone, the signal will suck more than usual. Apple's high-tech solution: don't hold it that way. More »
Burned By A Defective IKEA Oven Mitt, I Seek Justice... But What Kind?
By Laura Northrup on June 25, 2010 8:30 AM
74 Comments
Scott tells Consumerist that he used some new oven mitts from IKEA last night, and found out that one of them is defective. Unfortunately, he learned this the hard way: by burning his thumb. Now, he's not really sure what to do: the store is a few hours away, and he's not really sure what he wants from the store in return for the incident. What would you do? More »
Publix Takes Moldy Garlic Even More Seriously Than You Do
By Laura Northrup on June 24, 2010 12:30 PM
101 Comments
Ian and his family love garlic, but he tells Consumerist that his favored Publix store seemed to have trouble stocking garlic that wasn't either moldy or sprouted. Neither of these are good qualities for fresh garlic, so Ian e-mailed the chain's corporate office about the situation. Eventually, he received a response with an almost Wegmans-like level of class and problem-solving. More »
This May Be The World's Least Competent Geek Squad Outpost
By Laura Northrup on June 24, 2010 11:30 AM
106 Comments
Cyndi writes that she has had her HP computer for just about 20 months, and a two-year extended warranty with Geek Squad along with it. From the very first months that she owned the computer, things have gone wrong with the computer, but things have gone even more terribly wrong with Geek Squad's repairs. Raise your hand if you're surprised. More »
(barron)
Bring A Cash Tip If You're Going To Supercuts
By Laura Northrup on June 24, 2010 10:45 AM
107 Comments
If you're planning a haircut at Supercuts anytime soon, bring cash to tip your super cutter. Joe reports that his local branch of the chain, at least, has stopped letting customers add a tip for their stylist to their total bill. Tips are now cash only. More »
Grocery Same Size Ray Keeps Shaving Cream Same Size, Lies About It
By Laura Northrup on June 24, 2010 10:30 AM
34 Comments
We've extensively documented the use of the Grocery Shrink Ray to fool humans' puny brains into thinking that familiar products are the same size they've always been. But Jim has discovered something even more devious: the Same Size Ray, which has a similar but more nefarious effect on consumer products. It emblazons packaging with the exciting news that a product is now bigger: but it's all a cruel lie. Maybe. More »
Buy A Cheap Blu-Ray Player, Get A Box Of Useless Remotes Instead
By Laura Northrup on June 24, 2010 9:30 AM
31 Comments
If you pick up an electronics box and notice that it has been resealed and is suspiciously.... rattley....you might want to just leave it on the shelf, no matter how good a deal it might be. Unless you need some random remote controls, cables, and manuals to other devices. At least, that's the lesson we're taking away from William's e-mail about what he found inside a Blu-Ray player box at his local Walmart. More »
Do Not Choose The Cheapest Doctor In Tijuana For Your Weight Loss Surgery
By Laura Northrup on June 24, 2010 8:00 AM
169 Comments
For many major purchases, it's worthwhile to shop around for the lowest price, even if you have to travel a bit to close the deal. There is one major purchase that you don't want to try that with, though: bariatric surgery. Larissa learned that lesson the painful and horrific way. Her surgery has gone wrong, and now she needs to find a doctor in the US to repair the cut-rate duodenal switch she paid the worst surgeon in Tijuana $12,500 for. More »
Help! AFLAC's Recruiters Won't Stop Stalking Me
By Laura Northrup on June 23, 2010 9:30 AM
42 Comments
Elliot has a unique problem in this recession. He tells Consumerist that recruiters claiming to represent the insurance company AFLAC have been calling, emailing, and otherwise harassing him and other people he knows who are looking for work. He doesn't want to work for AFLAC. How can he make them stop calling? More »
(C.Barr)
Bank Of America Says I Stole $11,000 From Myself, Gambled It Away
By Laura Northrup on June 23, 2010 9:00 AM
125 Comments
Reader M. has a sad and frightening cautionary tale for us all. He's unemployed, and his debit card was stolen. Now he's been accused of stealing more than $11,000 from himself and gambling it away at casinos. Bank of America has finished its investigation, and concluded that M. is responsible for the withdrawals, and now must pay back the $11,000 he didn't spend. At the 20% APR charged for cash advances, naturally. More »
Want To Sell More Housewares And Gadgets? Don't Carpet Your Store
By Laura Northrup on June 23, 2010 8:00 AM
25 Comments
Everything in a retail environment affects how we perceive things and how we shop—from the decor and lighting of a store to... the flooring? A study published this month in the Journal of Consumer Research provides scientific proof that the relative hardness of the floor customers stand on can affect their purchasing decisions. And no, comfier feet do not mean that customers will spend more money. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on June 18, 2010 2:00 PM
13 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on June 18, 2010 12:00 PM
78 Comments
OKCupid Is Hiding The Good-Looking People From Us Ugly Freaks
Target Realizes Spain Is No Longer A Dictatorship; Pulls Shirt With Franco Flag
When You Boycott BP Gas Stations, BP Can Profit
There's A Reason You Can Get This House At A Discount
Hallmark Pulls Card With Audio Clip Over Accusations Of Astronomical Racism
(raebrune)
Watch Out For Stealth Magazine Subscriptions At Motherhood Maternity
By Laura Northrup on June 18, 2010 11:15 AM
48 Comments
Derek tells Consumerist that expectant readers should be careful when shopping at Motherhood Maternity stores. His wife ended up with a stealth subscription to Parenting magazine that she claims she never asked for or approved. More »
IAMS Recalls Vitamin-Deficient Canned Cat Food
By Laura Northrup on June 18, 2010 10:00 AM
32 Comments
Do you feed your cat or kitten Iams ProActive Health canned food? Check the dates on the cans, because your noms may be part of a recall. The food isn't dangerous in itself, but has dangerously low levels of vitamin B1, which is essential for cat nutrition. More »
AT&T Kicks Business's iPhone 4 Order To The Back Of The Line
By Laura Northrup on June 17, 2010 2:00 PM
80 Comments
Tyler tells Consumerist that he and his family, like every other person in the United States (or so it seems) tried to pre-order the iPhone 4. Since they were ordering three phones for their small business, they dealt with the business sales department over the phone. Their order went through: and then everything went horribly, horribly wrong and the entire iPhone pre-order system went down in flames. Now Tyler and family's order has been pushed back, and now their order now comes after those placed after their call. More »
Sorry, The Ad For Our Specials Today Doesn't Reflect Reality
By Laura Northrup on June 17, 2010 12:00 PM
103 Comments
If you sat down at a restaurant table and saw a sign advertising a special—say, $4.99 breakfasts—with a photo of a certain meal, you'd assume that the promotion includes that meal, right? Well, Felicia writes, at Marie Callender's, your assumption would be wrong. More »
Panasonic: If We Had Actually Helped When You Called For Support, Your TV Would Be Under Warranty
By Laura Northrup on June 17, 2010 11:30 AM
52 Comments
James has a sweet Panasonic 42" plasma screen TV. He writes that the device has an exciting new feature: it now refuses to turn on. Back in January, he called Panasonic support, who were able to help him unplug and reset the TV a few times. That helped, but it broke for good back in May. Now Panasonic says that his warranty is up, but they totally could have helped him if the set had broken closer to the end of this one-year warranty. Say, two months after the warranty ended in November 2009. Also known as January—when he originally called Panasonic about the problem. More »
(Sterlic)
If You're Not Going To Buy These Toys From Target, Don't Even Touch Them
By Laura Northrup on June 17, 2010 10:30 AM
365 Comments
Jason tells Consumerist that his local SuperTarget seems to have a new policy: don't even look at the toys on display unless you're going to buy them. Or maybe this is just the personal policy of a single cranky, elderly employee who scolded Jason's children for browsing the toy aisle while their parents shopped. Whatever the case, after this incident Jason and his family aren't keen to buy toys—or anything else—at Target anymore. More »
Target Thinks That 2 Is Basically The Same Thing As 10
More »
By Laura Northrup on June 16, 2010 3:30 PM
45 Comments
So, um, how many bottles do I have to buy to get that $5 giftcard, Target? Is it 2? Or 5? Or maybe 2? I think I need to lie down. More »
(Ninja M.)
AT&T Salesman's Lies Stuck Me With A Stupid Obsolete iPhone
By Laura Northrup on June 16, 2010 3:00 PM
136 Comments
Tim writes that back in April, he walked out of a local AT&T store with a shiny new iPhone 3GS and a tiny pack of lies. A pushy salesman told Tim that he had heard from corporate that there was no new iPhone model planned for the rest of this year. Nope, no way. (Clearly neither Tim nor this salesman are regular readers of Gizmodo.) More »
Ames True Temper Replaces Broken Decade-Old Shovel
By Laura Northrup on June 16, 2010 12:30 PM
20 Comments
As consumers in modern America, we often cynically assume that "Lifetime Guarantee" is just a something companies slap on products with no basis in fact, like "New and Improved!" or "With Calcium." But there are companies who take the lifetime warranty concept seriously, and will replace a ten-year-old shovel after its handle breaks just as garden season begins. Matt discovered that a shovel he picked up at Home Depot a decade ago carried such a guarantee...and the company replaced his broken shovel even though all proof of purchase was long gone. More »
Geico's Customer Service Reps Are So Infuriatingly Polite I Can't Stand Them
By Laura Northrup on June 16, 2010 11:40 AM
109 Comments
Customer service representatives on the phone can be rude, brusque, and just plain useless. But what happens when their phone demeanor is so polite and full of thanks and apologies that it's excessive and a waste of everyone's time? It's part of the script, but is it productive? That's what John wondered during a recent call to his insurance company, Geico. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on June 11, 2010 2:00 PM
12 Comments
Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Also, there's a bacon recipe.More »
(afagen)
What Should Restaurants Offer You After Serving Unacceptable Food?
By Laura Northrup on June 11, 2010 1:15 PM
112 Comments
What is a restaurant's responsibility to its customers when something goes wrong? Does that change when a customer chooses takeout or delivery? Matt wrote in to ask what we think is the best course of action for a restaurant to take—especially when the problem is non-food objects in your takeout or delivery pizza. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on June 11, 2010 12:00 PM
116 Comments
- Delta Smashed My Bike And Won't Refund The Baggage Fee
- Sorry, We Already Buried A Lady Next To Your Husband
- If Only BP Would Follow The Advice On Its Own Signs
- Taco Bell Tries To Bring Back $2 Bill For Publicity Stunt
- BP Tries To Clean Up Coffee Spill
Mazda Dealer Won't Give Loyalty Discount Because Insurer Now Owns My Totaled Car
By Laura Northrup on June 11, 2010 9:30 AM
142 Comments
What does it mean to be "loyal" to a car manufacturer? Brett tells Consumerist that he wanted to take advantage of a program that offered a $500 loyalty discount to people who already own Mazdas. He negotiated a price with a local dealer, then learned that he wasn't eligible for the $500 discount...because his previous Mazda had been totaled (that's a picture of it, at left), and his car insurance company now holds the title. More »
Deep Down, Your Parking Garage Will Always Wonder What Might Have Been
By Laura Northrup on June 10, 2010 2:44 PM
44 Comments
Ben in New York City (not Popken) had a problem with his parking garage. He writes that even though he canceled his account in three different ways, the garage kept billing him. So he wrote a nice complaint letter that was playful, comparing the parking garage to a jilted lover who just couldn't let him go. A company representative wrote back, playing along—and severing Ben's relationship with the garage for good. More »
Why Don't I Get The Cash Discount For Gas When I Pay With My Debit Card?
By Laura Northrup on June 10, 2010 12:00 PM
104 Comments
David writes that he recently had a confusing experience at a gas station, and he wanted some clarification. He's used to receiving a cash discount when he pays with his debit card at gas stations, but came across a gas station owner who wouldn't give a cash discount for anything but actual greenbacks. Are this gas station's policies illegal, David wonders? More »
Blu-Ray Redbox Spotted In The Wild, Rental Costs $2 For First Day
By Laura Northrup on June 10, 2010 11:15 AM
28 Comments
While Redbox says that they're still figuring out price points for Blu-Ray discs in their movie kiosks, reader Dave discovered a box in the wild near San Francisco—clearly part of some test marketing effort. The price points are different from anything we've heard before. The machine offers Blu-Ray rentals for $2 for the first night, then $1 for each subsequent night. Yes, he sent pictures. More »
Delta Sends Boston-Bound Child to Cleveland And Vice-Versa
By Laura Northrup on June 10, 2010 10:06 AM
102 Comments
Not content to just lose business clothes and cute little dogs and smash bikes, Delta took two children flying as unaccompanied minors and put them on the wrong planes, according to Cleveland's WOIO. More »
I Bought A Banned Playstation 3 On Craigslist
By Laura Northrup on June 9, 2010 2:00 PM
118 Comments
Patrick writes that he bought a used Playstation 3 on Craigslist, which Sony has banned from the Playstation Network forever. Why? Sony can't tell him. Will the console ever be allowed back on the Playstation Network? Nope. Even with the change of ownership? Nope. Funny how the seller forgot to tell Patrick this. More »
Hollister Provides Refund, Will Show Employees What Washed Shorts Look Like
By Laura Northrup on June 9, 2010 12:00 PM
26 Comments
Roger, whose Hollister shorts shrank a full size after he had the audacity to wash them, sent us an update. He writes that his situation has a happy ending: the company refunded his entire purchase, not just the shorts, and claim that they'll be taking the opportunity to make sure to train their employees to see what a pair of washed shorts looks like. See the effect a good complaint can have...once you finally get through to someone with power? More »
Lawsuit: Land O'Lakes Must Pay $25 Million For Massive Egg Price-Fixing Conspiracy
By Laura Northrup on June 9, 2010 11:10 AM
56 Comments
A recent class-action lawsuit against Land O'Lakes alleges that the farmers' co-operative was part of a price-fixing conspiracy within the the ovo-industrial complex to keep egg prices artificially high. According to court documents, conspirators worked toward having fewer total hens laying in the United States, leading to more money per egg for everyone, and a nice violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. More »
Sprint Charges A $10 Monthly Awesomeness Fee To Own The HTC EVO
By Laura Northrup on June 9, 2010 10:15 AM
132 Comments
The HTC EVO is a sophisticated and pretty sweet smartphone that runs on Android and is exclusive to Sprint. That's all pretty normal. What isn't normal is that Sprint is charging EVO owners a $10 fee above the cost of their normal data plan—an unlimited data plan—and no one at Sprint can really explain why. Promotional materials claim that the fee is for a "richer data experience with an advanced processor," which makes no sense. They might as well call it an "awesome phone fee." More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on June 4, 2010 4:00 PM
14 Comments
Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Great Moments In Outlandish Breakfast Cereal Health Claims
By Laura Northrup on June 4, 2010 3:00 PM
58 Comments
Breakfast cereals may be a delicious way to start your day, but they aren't drugs. Unfortunately, that mere fact hasn't stopped food companies from marketing cereals based on their amazing health effects. In fact, as we've reported before, the more health claims on a cereal box, the more likely it is to be really bad for you. Here are a few amusing examples from around the world. More »
If Your Clothes Shrink After Washing, That's Not Hollister's Problem
By Laura Northrup on June 4, 2010 2:01 PM
109 Comments
Roger would like the readers of Consumerist to know that clothing retailer Hollister, part of Abercrombie & Fitch, doesn't stand behind its products at all. He writes that he ordered a pair of shorts online, which shrank significantly after the first time they went through the laundry. (Yes, he followed the care instructions.) The company refused to remedy the problem or issue Roger a refund, because the shorts weren't returned in their original, untouched, tags-on condition. Wait, isn't that the point? More »
Why Am I Punished For A Forever 21 Cashier's Mistake?
By Laura Northrup on June 4, 2010 1:01 PM
108 Comments
Kat tells Consumerist that she had an odd experience while shopping at Forever 21. The store accidentally charged her twice for an item that was on clearance—no returns. In most retail establishments, this isn't a problem. But at Forever 21, based on Kat's experience, all the chain can offer you is store credit instead of a refund of the overcharge. Kat wanted the money returned to her account. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on June 4, 2010 12:00 PM
108 Comments
- Subway To Start Tessellating Cheese July 1?
- Did Citibank Fire This Woman For Being Too Sexy?
- Couple Discovers Secret Room In New Home, Secretly Filled With Moldy Garbage
- 25 Incredibly Sexist Ads From Back In The Day
- Passengers Stiff Cabbie For $1,427 Fare
Don't Rinse With This Contact Lens Solution Unless You Want Burned Corneas
By Laura Northrup on June 4, 2010 11:20 AM
133 Comments
Do you wear contact lenses? Do you enjoy having un-scorched corneas? Then you should look out for Clear Care, a contact lens solution that uses peroxide to disinfect lenses. Used correctly, the peroxide cleans lenses nicely and is neutralized by the time you wake up. When used incorrectly to rinse lenses right before inserting them in your eyes, the product causes chemical burns to the cornea and copious screaming. More »
Brome Bird Care Defeats Customer Complaints And Squirrels
By Laura Northrup on June 4, 2010 10:00 AM
53 Comments
Sandy has a delightfully squirrel-proof bird feeder, but five years of outdoor use and bird landings took a toll. She tells Consumerist that when she contacted the manufacturer, Brome Bird Care, about buying some replacement perches, the company just went ahead and replaced the entire feeder, claiming a defect in the original. Chirp for joy! More »
Another Foxconn Employee Dies Mysteriously, Chinese Government Censors Suicide News
By Laura Northrup on June 3, 2010 4:00 PM
31 Comments
Another presumably young, healthy employee at Foxconn's factory in Shenzen, China has died under mysterious circumstances. The reason for the 28-year-old engineer's death still isn't clear—but he did die at home shortly after working 34 hours straight at the factory. More »
I Don't Want This Random Government-Subsidized Cell Phone
By Laura Northrup on June 3, 2010 2:48 PM
75 Comments
There are programs that provide government-subsidized cell phones to low-income people. This is all very useful and lovely...unless you're Laurin, who is stuck with a subsidized phone that no one in her household ordered, and the company doesn't seem to want back. More »
BP Is Working Very Hard To Keep Reporters Away From Dead Marine Animals
By Laura Northrup on June 3, 2010 2:20 PM
88 Comments
According to a BP contractor who took a few reporters on a secret tour of the oil-soaked dead wildlife of the Gulf Coast, the company's post-oil-spill logic makes perfect sense. Keep reporters and dignitaries far, far away from dead and dying animals, and if they wait long enough, the evidence (i.e. the animal corpses) will wash out to sea. More »
FreeCreditReport Looking For New House Band
By Laura Northrup on June 3, 2010 12:15 PM
19 Comments
Our friends at FreeCreditReport.com, now required by to change their services by the FTC, plan to rebrand as FreeCreditScore.com. They're also looking for a new house band, to play a whole new set of insipid and misleading but catchy credit-related ditties. Your band, if you have one, can enter. If you don't, you can vote. More »
Do Not Market Your $8 Cupcakes By Insulting Fat People
By Laura Northrup on June 3, 2010 12:00 PM
212 Comments
There are a lot of things to keep in mind when launching a small business. One of them: try not to build your marketing around an insult a substantial portion of the American population. A small bakery in North Carolina forgot this important truth, and launched with the tagline “So Good It Makes Fat People Cry." The slogan didn't make anyone cry—it just pissed people off. More »
Chick-Fil-A Will Accept Your Free Sandwich Reservation Now
By Laura Northrup on June 3, 2010 11:15 AM
77 Comments
Perhaps hoping to avoid the chaos, madness and chicken shortages of other recent food giveaways, Chick-Fil-A is trying a novel approach for its current free spicy chicken sandwich promotion. You reserve a specific time slot at a specific restaurant, print out a coupon tied to your reservation time and e-mail address, show up at the appointed time, and.... nom nom nom nom nom. More »
Send AT&T CEO Too Many E-Mails, Get A Free Cease And Desist Order
By Laura Northrup on June 3, 2010 10:00 AM
83 Comments
If you're planning to send AT&T Wireless an Executive E-Mail Carpet Bomb regarding their changes to iPhone and iPad data plans, maybe remove CEO Randall Stephenson from your address book. Engadget reports that a customer who sent Stephenson one e-mail too many got a friendly call from the Executive Response Team.... threatening him with a cease and desist order. More »
I Got A Free Night In A Hotel: Should I Complain?
By Laura Northrup on June 2, 2010 12:00 PM
65 Comments
Ryan writes that he has a moral dilemma. Traveling for a wedding, he and his wife checked in to their hotel late. Past midnight. Somehow, this resulted in their not being charged for the first night of their stay, even though hotel staff promised to straighten the situation out. More »
Best Buy Might Give You A Free iPod If You Know To Ask
By Laura Northrup on June 2, 2010 11:15 AM
18 Comments
Apple is running their regular back-to-school promotion for students and teachers this summer. Buy a Mac, get a free iPod Touch. Neat deal. But let's say that you're another retail outlet that sells Apple computers, but doesn't offer that deal. Say that you're....Best Buy. How do you convince customers to buy a computer from you, when you can't offer them a free iPod? Well...offer them 18-month financing. Then point out how many RewardZone points they're going to earn. Finally, you could just give up and give them a free iPod.... but only if they ask. According to an inside source, that's exactly what Best Buy plans to do. More »
(少佐)
Apartment Scammer Wants To Give My $1500 Back - What's The Catch?
By Laura Northrup on June 2, 2010 11:00 AM
67 Comments
Pat tells Consumerist that her son fell for an apartment scam. Looking for a sublet in San Francisco from his home in Massachusetts, he settled on a place and met up with the landlord's brother, who—what luck!—happened to live in the same area as Pat's son! Of course, once he moved there, he discovered that his keys didn't work, since someone else entirely lived in and owned the apartment. More »
(cote)
Dying Won't Get You Out Of Your Dish Network Contract
By Laura Northrup on June 2, 2010 10:00 AM
57 Comments
Dish Network has extremely loyal to Elizabeth Cordry of Forth Worth, Texas. So loyal that they would let nothing remove her from the ranks of their customers. Including her death. When she died in January at age 85, her son tried to end service, but the company insisted that she had a contract that could only be canceled if her family produced a death certificate. Since she was no longer under a contract, her son refused to produce the certificate. More »
(_cck_)
Sears: We Can't Replace Your Mom's Air Conditioner, So Cancel Your Vacation
By Laura Northrup on May 29, 2010 4:43 PM
95 Comments
Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer, and what does summer mean here at The Consumerist? Air conditioner horror stories, of course! Janet, a senior citizen with health problems living in Memphis, Tenn., tells Conumerist that Sears is dragging out the repair of her air conditioning unit in a way that's unacceptable considering the current weather conditions. When Janet's daughter explained to a Sears that she couldn't leave her alone in a roasting house during her planned, non-refundable vacation, she says the rep helpfully suggested that she cancel the vacation. Not helping, Sears. Not helping. More »
(umbriago)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds: Best Of The Cat Picture Drive
By Laura Northrup on May 28, 2010 2:01 PM
52 Comments
"Consumerist needs your help in order to alleviate our cat picture shortage!" we said. "I'm broke," a few readers replied. "But I have cat pictures!"
"Send 'em over," we said. And thus the great Cat Picture Drive of 2010 was born. Donations poured in from all over the world. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
The 8 Worst Meals (And 1 Dessert) In America For 2010
Verizon Bill Collector Threatens To Blow Up Man's House
Burger King To Offer Actual BBQ Ribs
Got $1.15 Million? 'Amityville Horror' House Is Up For Sale
More »
By Laura Northrup on May 28, 2010 12:01 PM
75 Comments
Lady Enters Security With $24,000 Rolex, Leaves Without, Suit AllegesThe 8 Worst Meals (And 1 Dessert) In America For 2010
Verizon Bill Collector Threatens To Blow Up Man's House
Burger King To Offer Actual BBQ Ribs
Got $1.15 Million? 'Amityville Horror' House Is Up For Sale
More »
Aetna Will Never Forget You - Or Your Old Policy Number
By Laura Northrup on May 28, 2010 11:01 AM
38 Comments
D. has a warning for people who are attending college after a stint in the grown-up workforce. She tells Consumerist that if you had health insurance through Aetna at your job, and your university provides student insurance through Aetna, this change will confuse Aetna's system so thoroughly that everything you do will be billed to your old account number, forever and ever. More »
Suicides At Foxconn Prompt Cartoons, Raises, No-Suicide Pledge
By Laura Northrup on May 28, 2010 10:00 AM
49 Comments
Is Foxconn, the huge electronics company that manufactures for global brands such as HP, Dell, and Apple (yes, they make the iPad and iPhone) a towering fortress of secrecy where employees cower in fear, ten people to a dorm room, or a normal manufacturing outfit that has had a weird cluster of employee suicides recently? More »
(pdxmac)
Target Just Can't Stop The Crazy Prices
By Laura Northrup on May 27, 2010 2:00 PM
35 Comments
Sure, we've explained the apparent insanity of Target's prices, but the crazy just keeps on coming. Here are a few examples from our stuffed-full Target is Crazy mailbag. More »
TV Networks Object To Diaper Commercial That Uses Word "Pooping"
By Laura Northrup on May 27, 2010 12:00 PM
88 Comments
Diaper commercials, much like commercials for menstrual products, have always sort of glossed over the actual function of the products. No more. A new Huggies ad for denim-patterned diapers (really) features a voice-over that says "I poo in blue," and ends with the tagline, "The coolest you'll look pooping your pants." More »
Once Facebook Thinks You're Dead, You're Dead Forever
By Laura Northrup on May 27, 2010 11:00 AM
55 Comments
We saw this coming as soon as Facebook introduced the memorial status for the Facebook accounts of dead people. It was bound to happen at some point. Facebook has begun declaring people dead. Well, specifically, people are having their friends and loved ones declared dead as a prank, but it's nearly impossible to rise from the Facebook dead. That's what happened to Ryan, who has been dead for over a month now. More »
BJ's Charges For "Free" Replacement Glasses, Then Loses Them
By Laura Northrup on May 27, 2010 10:00 AM
44 Comments
Keith's daughter wears glasses, and recently a pretty mundane thing happened—her glasses broke during gym class. No problem, though: he bought the glasses at BJ's Optical, where replacement insurance is included on childrens' glasses. Except the "free" replacements somehow cost $39 under this insurance plan. And BJ's took several weeks to lose the frames on their way to or from the site where the glasses are actually made, then start the whole process over again. Keith is not satisfied. More »
(Incase.)
Nutella Loves Loyal Customer Back, Sends Merchandise Variety Pack
By Laura Northrup on May 26, 2010 2:00 PM
55 Comments
Kevin discovered something totally awesome about Nutella. Maybe they were being generous, maybe he sent them such a stack of seals that they couldn't help but reward him. Or maybe this was all a massive Nutella Store mixup. Whatever the case, Kevin has a huge pile of Nutella merch and a renewed love of the company. More »
UPS Calls You For Directions To Your House, UPS Store
By Laura Northrup on May 26, 2010 12:00 PM
76 Comments
Sounds like it's not just Megabus drivers who need to invest in a GPS. Alphonzo tells Consumerist that his local UPS drivers are evidently unable to locate his house. It sounds like some of his local drivers have no sense of direction whatsoever. More »
(snakeuvs)
Should I Assume All HDTVs Self-Destruct And Just Buy Something Crappy?
By Laura Northrup on May 26, 2010 10:01 AM
147 Comments
Brendan has a question for the Consumerist hive mind. He wants to buy a large-ish HDTV, but isn't sure that his usual method of buying technology—buy the cheapest thing he can get his hands on, and count on it not to break for a year or two—will work at these price points. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on May 21, 2010 2:01 PM
5 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
(suez92)
Hampton Inn Wants You To Use Imaginary Boxspring Measurements
By Laura Northrup on May 21, 2010 11:00 AM
68 Comments
Older stairwells were apparently not designed to handle the massive boxsprings that come with today's double beds. When Sarah ordered a mattress set from Hampton Inn, she didn't realize this, and ran up against a no-return policy and an inexplicable $500 markup for a split boxspring. More »
What Should I Do With My Stacks Of Chinese Currency?
By Laura Northrup on May 21, 2010 10:00 AM
66 Comments
Greg has a question for the world travelers and expats who are part of the Consumerist hive mind. He writes that he has about $2,000 worth of Chinese yuan, in cash, from his first year as a teacher in China. He's back visiting the US for a few weeks, and can't figure out what to do with his giant pile o'yuan. More »
Domino's Franchise Urges You To Campaign For Return Of Parmesan Peppercorn Sauce
By Laura Northrup on May 20, 2010 2:00 PM
47 Comments
I haven't ordered from Domino's since approximately 1988, so I wouldn't know, but they apparently have a wonderful breadstick dipping sauce. Or, they used to. It's been discontinued. Scott tells Consumerist that he was dismayed to learn this after placing his most recent order, but heartened to learn that his local franchise is urging customers to contact corporate and bring the precious sauce back. More »
Ex-Panera Bread CEO Opens Commie Not-For-Profit Eatery
By Laura Northrup on May 20, 2010 12:00 PM
118 Comments
What is a meal at Panera Bread worth to you? A former Panera location in a prosperous St. Louis suburb has reopened as "St. Louis Bread Company Cares," a restaurant where customers can select a meal, then pay what they think the meal is worth—or as much as they can afford. If customers can't afford to pay anything, they can volunteer to work there. A not-for-profit foundation runs the restaurant, which opened this week. More »
1-800-Contacts Comes Through For Your Eyes In An Emergency
By Laura Northrup on May 20, 2010 11:00 AM
56 Comments
1-800-Contacts is the rare company where an actual human picks up the phone when you call—no maze of phone menus. Peter tells Consumerist that he had a fantastic experience where a customer service rep went above and beyond in the service of the health of his eyes. More »
My Dental Bill Was Sent To Collections By Mistake - Who Do I Pay Now?
By Laura Northrup on May 20, 2010 10:00 AM
77 Comments
S. writes that in 2008, she owed a lot of money—about $8,000—to her dentist. She worked out a payment plan with the office, and asked them to auto-bill her credit card every month. They frequently forgot to bill her, but she wasn't too concerned about the situation. At least, until a debt collector called her, saying that the dentist had sold her balance to them. The dentist's office claims that this is a mistake. Now both entities want S.'s money, and she's not sure who she should pay. More »
(nDevilTV)
Your Cash Is No Good At The Apple Store
By Laura Northrup on May 19, 2010 2:00 PM
156 Comments
If you're saving up to buy an iPad, don't do it by sticking your spare cash into an envelope. (Or a sock, for that matter.) As a woman in Palo Alto, Calif. learned, the same "credit or debit cards only" policy that Apple put in place to prevent rampant reselling of iPhones exists for iPads, and no stack of bills can be exchanged for the shiny gadget. More »
Comcast Says You'll Need An Antenna If You Want Network TV In High Def
By Laura Northrup on May 19, 2010 12:02 PM
79 Comments
Holden, a longtime Comcast customer, recently replaced his decade-old cable box with two shiny new ones. Comcast, unable to let a happy customer be, sent equipment that won't allow his household to watch high-definition channels without paying for an extra cable package. Customer service's most helpful response: Hook up an antenna, and switch inputs whenever they want to watch something on broadcast TV! Not helping, Comcast. Not helping. More »
Maybe You Won't Notice The Newegg Watermark On This Sears Product Page
By Laura Northrup on May 19, 2010 11:00 AM
37 Comments
Shopping for a monitor on the Sears website, reader Ben discovered something strange on the page for the HP Pavilion 2009M. The product photo had a watermark on it. But not a Sears watermark—a Newegg watermark. More »
Elderly Woman Accidentally Donates $5,365 To Goodwill Inside Sock
By Laura Northrup on May 19, 2010 10:00 AM
45 Comments
If you like to hide large amounts of cash around your house, make sure to remember where you put it. And if you do tend to forget, make sure to check the crevices and pockets of everything before you donate it to charity or throw it away. This goes triple when cleaning out the home of an elderly relative. A 96-year-old woman in Asheville, N.C. recently donated a blanket that contained more than $5,000 in cash—and the Goodwill store managed to locate her and return the money. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on May 14, 2010 3:00 PM
19 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
(jezraj)
Thieves Flood Your Phone Line While Draining Your Bank Account
By Laura Northrup on May 14, 2010 2:00 PM
32 Comments
How can you electronically drain someone's bank account while also preventing their bank from contacting them to verify the transaction? Use telephony to flood all of their phone lines with anything from dead air to phone sex promo recordings. According to the Communication Fraud Control Association, these scams are increasing in recent weeks. Be wary. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on May 14, 2010 12:00 PM
43 Comments
Entire Dog Lost, Delta Offers $200 CreditHome Depot Called "Arrogant," Must Actually Pay Inventor For Invention
Al Franken Teaches You About Critical Facebook Privacy Settings
Shop At Costco Without a Membership
How Predatory Lending Works, From Payday Loans To Rent-To-Own
What Happens When You Eject A NY Times Reporter From Your Restaurant More »
Someone At Duane Reade Needs To Learn How To Activate AmEx Gift Cards
By Laura Northrup on May 14, 2010 11:00 AM
36 Comments
Stephanie did a wonderful thing, and bought a $100 American Express gift card as a gift for her assistant this past Christmas. Unfortunately, she tells Consumerist that the Duane Reade store where she purchased the card did a terrible thing, and failed to actually activate it for her. Twice. Now her assistant was embarrassed when she tried to use the card at a spa and it was rejected, and Stephanie has had to pay $11.90 in card-loading fees with no working gift card to show for it. More »
Costco Dispenses E85 Ethanol Instead Of Gas
By Laura Northrup on May 14, 2010 10:00 AM
89 Comments
A tank that customers at an upstate New York Costco gas station thought was full of premium gasoline may have actually dispensed E85 ethanol, damaging engines and fuel systems of cars not designed to deal with the fuel. E85 is a mixture of 85% corn juice and 15% gasoline that can severely damage engines not designed for it. More »
Comcast Would Like You To Return The Cable Boxes Destroyed When Your Home Burned Down
By Laura Northrup on May 13, 2010 12:02 PM
113 Comments
Working hard to maintain their Worst Company in America trophy, a Comcast rep demanded that a couple whose home was destroyed in an apartment fire return their cable boxes, or pay $1,300. Oh, and they lose their promotional rate because they had the audacity to suspend their service. Because they are living in a hotel. After their home was destroyed. More »
Tracfone And Straight Talk Are Not Entirely Sure Why They Canceled My Account
By Laura Northrup on May 13, 2010 12:00 PM
29 Comments
Having trouble reaching a human at Tracfone or its new, Walmart-exclusive cousin Straight Talk? Call their corporate office at (800) 876-5753. This bit of information comes courtesy of reader Michael, whose service was canceled out from under him for a reason that no one fully understands to this day. Here's his story, in the form of an open letter to Straight Talk. Which, thankfully, he didn't send, because it sounds like nobody there would have had time to read it. More »
Southwest Sent My Flight Confirmation To Someone, But It Wasn't Me
By Laura Northrup on May 13, 2010 11:00 AM
64 Comments
If you like to use a plus sign to create unique addresses in Gmail or another mail system for filtering, spam tracking, or other purposes, don't try it with Southwest Airlines. Instead of returning an error, Southwest will simply fling your message into the ether, never to be heard from again. More »
The FDA Would Like You To Stop Drinking Your Benadryl Lotion
By Laura Northrup on May 13, 2010 10:00 AM
82 Comments
The word "topical" has a very distinct meaning. That is: "Put this on your skin." The American people seem to be a bit confused on this point, however, because the FDA has politely reminded us FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP DRINKING BENADRYL LOTION. More »
Dell Lost My Monitor Order, Now Incessantly Robocalls Me
By Laura Northrup on May 12, 2010 2:00 PM
21 Comments
What happened to Vlad's Dell order? At first, Dell seemed to have misplaced it. Then they seemingly changed it without his permission. Now they keep robocalling him every two days to verify that he still wants his "backordered" item. Six hours spent on the phone with Dell haven't straightened out the situation. More »
Costco Really Loves Your Mom, Buys Her A Coffee Machine For Mother's Day
By Laura Northrup on May 12, 2010 12:00 PM
59 Comments
Joshua received such stunningly good customer service while shopping for a Mother's Day gift at Costco that he had to share his story with Consumerist. He writes that he located a store that had the specific coffee machine that he wanted in stock, called the store to verify, and drove some distance to the store to pick it up. When he arrived, he learned that the store didn't have the machine in stock after all...but it's what happened next that makes this a true "Above and Beyond" story. More »
Teva Pharmaceuticals: The Ubiquitous Company You've Never Heard Of
By Laura Northrup on May 12, 2010 11:00 AM
29 Comments
Generic prescription drugs are just that: generic. Most patients don't think much about who actually manufactures them. It's pretty likely, however, that you have something in your medicine cabinet manufactured by Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. A profile of the company in this past weekend's New York Times is fascinating. Most interesting of all: while the company is sensibly frugal enough to make Captain Moneycat purr, they refuse to move manufacturing to China or India, as many of their competitors have. More »
(Neubie)
Home Depot Called "Arrogant," Must Actually Pay Inventor For Invention
By Laura Northrup on May 12, 2010 10:00 AM
122 Comments
Home Depot had a problem: their employees kept sawing off their own extremities with the saws they used to cut lumber for customers. Michael Powell invented a gadget which fixed the problem, and offered to sell the device to the chain for $2,000 each. Then, the inventor's lawsuit alleged, Home Depot simply stole the gadget's design, made their own, and wouldn't compensate him. "F*** Michael Powell. Let him sue us." one executive said at the time. Now the chain must pay him a judgment of about $25 million. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on May 7, 2010 2:00 PM
12 Comments
Here are seven of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Also, some interesting bonus vintage ads.More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
Now This Is How You Tell A Zombie Debt Collector To Buzz Off!
Why Did Starbucks Write "Big Dick" On My Drink Cup?
My HP Printer Makes Me Waste Ink, CSR Won't Help Me Stop
Woman's $10K Mortgage Payment Vanishes Into Thin Air More »
By Laura Northrup on May 7, 2010 12:01 PM
69 Comments
Thanks For Letting The World Know I Bought Sex Toys, Adam & EveNow This Is How You Tell A Zombie Debt Collector To Buzz Off!
Why Did Starbucks Write "Big Dick" On My Drink Cup?
My HP Printer Makes Me Waste Ink, CSR Won't Help Me Stop
Woman's $10K Mortgage Payment Vanishes Into Thin Air More »
(avlxyz)
Freshway Foods Lettuce Recalled In 23 States Following E. Coli Outbreak
By Laura Northrup on May 7, 2010 11:20 AM
6 Comments
Freshway Foods has recalled shredded romaine lettuce distributed in 23 states and the District of Columbia due to possible E. coli contamination. The affected lettuce was packaged for food service, wholesale, and salad bar consumption—not directly to consumers, except in salad kits sold at Kroger, Giant Eagle, Ingles Markets, and Marsh. More »
(miamism)
Do Not Mock Your Co-Worker's Tiny Penis While Testing Full-Body Scanners
By Laura Northrup on May 7, 2010 11:10 AM
92 Comments
If you've been wondering how much of your body airport full-body scanners actually do reveal, a recent TSA training session in Miami shows the answer: enough for your co-workers to mock the size of your genitals. The target of the mockery eventually found it unbearable, and police say that he "could not take the jokes anymore and lost his mind," attacking one of his colleagues in the parking lot. He was arrested for aggravated battery. More »
(nttrbx)
Send Your Defective Plants Back To Sea Life And You Will Be Rewarded Twofold
By Laura Northrup on May 6, 2010 12:00 PM
14 Comments
Luke writes that he bought some aquatic plant bulbs that failed to sprout. He was sad, but then he saw the company's promise of replacement bulbs on the back of the box. He sent the dud bulbs back to the company, and was surprised to receive back twice as many bulbs as he sent in. They even replaced bulbs for which he hadn't saved the receipt. More »
(jm3)
Thanks For Letting The World Know I Bought Sex Toys, Adam & Eve
By Laura Northrup on May 6, 2010 11:00 AM
158 Comments
G. writes that she placed an order from Adam & Eve, a venerable seller of adult merchandise. Discretion was crucial, since G. has packages sent to her at work instead of her home mailbox. Fortunately, this company ships packages in unmarked boxes. They do not, however, practice the same discretion with their promotional mailings, which caught G. by surprise. More »
Store-Brand Soft Drinks May Contain Less Sweet, Precious Caffeine
By Laura Northrup on May 6, 2010 10:30 AM
24 Comments
When shopping for soda, it's a reasonable assumption that store-brand colas have more or less the same amount of caffeine as the name brand, right? Or at least the same amount of caffeine from one bottle to another. Some scientists studied a wide variety of sodas, tested their caffeine levels and learned...not so much. More »
Whoops: Megabus Driver Doesn't Know Route From D.C. To New York
By Laura Northrup on May 6, 2010 10:01 AM
64 Comments
David tells Consumerist that he took a nightmarish Megabus trip where the driver did not, strictly speaking, now how to get to New York City from Washington D.C. After it took the driver an extra three hours to get there, he worked hard to find out how to complain to someone with actual power to give him a refund on. If you find yourself on a similar epic trek, or riding inside a MegaSauna, David sent along the contact information that he found. More »
Better Marriage Blanket Protects Your Partner From Noxious Farts
By Laura Northrup on May 5, 2010 2:00 PM
55 Comments
If you are emitting such noxious gas that you require a carbon filter blanket in order to prevent divorce, you may have some kind of underlying medical condition that you should get checked out. But if you don't have health insurance, maybe you should try the Better Marriage Blanket instead. More »
No, A $1,000 Purse Is Still Not An Investment
By Laura Northrup on May 5, 2010 12:00 PM
119 Comments
Around this time last year, we posted an article about how luxury goods companies are marketing their products as "investments" during the recession, rather than indulgences. It's an interesting way to position four-figure handbags, but a bad use of the word "investment." The Los Angeles Times' Your Stylist column recently brought out this meme, describing an expensive handbag as an investment and "your new best friend." Should it be? More »
Why Did Starbucks Write "Big Dick" On My Drink Cup?
By Laura Northrup on May 5, 2010 11:00 AM
163 Comments
Christian's feelings are a little hurt. He tells Consumerist that he doesn't understand why someone at Starbucks felt the need to give him a nickname, and to write that nickname on his cold drink's cup. What did they write? "Big Dick." More »
Verizon, My New Smartphone Has An Incredible Amount Of Bloatware
By Laura Northrup on May 5, 2010 10:01 AM
154 Comments
Timothy copied Consumerist on his EECB to Verizon. While he likes his new HTC Droid Incredible a lot, he's deeply disappointed in how many applications the phone shipped to him with. "Effectively, we are paying you for the privilege of having to repeatedly be harassed by your adware," he writes. Do you agree, or is Timothy overreacting? More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on April 30, 2010 2:00 PM
3 Comments
Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
Krispy Kreme + KFC Double Down = You Don't Wanna Know
Sprint Employees Fired For Capturing Apple Store Shoplifter
How Real Is That Olive Garden Cooking School?
Walmart Manager Hates It When You Donate Loss Leaders To Homeless Shelters More »
By Laura Northrup on April 30, 2010 12:00 PM
64 Comments
Congratulations Comcast; You're The Worst Company In America!Krispy Kreme + KFC Double Down = You Don't Wanna Know
Sprint Employees Fired For Capturing Apple Store Shoplifter
How Real Is That Olive Garden Cooking School?
Walmart Manager Hates It When You Donate Loss Leaders To Homeless Shelters More »
Bank America Loves You Too Much To Ever Let You (And Your Checking Account) Go
By Laura Northrup on April 30, 2010 11:00 AM
74 Comments
Cassie writes that she is trapped in an extra special circle of banking hell. No matter what she does, Bank of America is unable to close her checking account. Just when she thinks it may finally be dead, the bank charges inactivity fees to her account, which in turn re-activate the account, starting the process all over again. It's like the worst zombie movie ever. More »
Acer Netbook Fails After 3 Weeks; Repair Facility Helpfully Breaks It More
By Laura Northrup on April 30, 2010 10:00 AM
30 Comments
The Acer netbook that Danielle bought for law school is light and portable, but not so great in the "actually working as a netbook" sense. She tells Consumerist that problems with the wireless card began in the first few weeks she owned the machine. When she was finally able to send the netbook in for service, Acer somehow managed to send it back to her in worse condition than it was originally. On the first repair attempt, they sent the computer back with the display non-functional. On the second, they somehow broke the M key. More »
This Breyers Cookies And Cream Ice Cream Sort Of Forgot The Cookies
By Laura Northrup on April 29, 2010 2:00 PM
104 Comments
Kevin bought some Breyers cookies and cream ice cream, and he writes that he was disappointed to find an almost total lack of cookies in the container. Noooo! More »
(Fing'rs)
Don't Let Your Manicurist File Down Your Nerve Function
By Laura Northrup on April 29, 2010 12:00 PM
52 Comments
Consumer Reports Health medical adviser Orly Avitzur, M.D. has both a medical practice and a lovely set of manicured nails. It's this combination that gave her unique insight into the possible problems with manicures that are purportedly fancy "gel manicures," but are actually something else more dangerous entirely. More »
(foxyvoxy)
FTC Keeping Eye On Possible Blog Payola Cases: Ann Taylor Not Punished
By Laura Northrup on April 29, 2010 11:00 AM
16 Comments
A reminder to any bloggers who like free stuff, and companies working on exciting new Internet marketing strategies: the Federal Trade Commission is watching you, so keep to their guidelines that dictate bloggers must disclose any compensation that they receive for posting about or reviewing a product. While they didn't take any action against clothing retailer Ann Taylor for offering gift cards to bloggers who posted about a new collection, the scrutiny was an important message in itself. More »
Bank Of America Misplaced Divorce Decree, Handed Over All My Money To Ex
By Laura Northrup on April 29, 2010 10:00 AM
142 Comments
Deb tells Consumerist that she did the proper thing after her divorce: months ago, she brought a copy of the divorce decree to her local Bank of America branch so they could remove her ex-husband from the account. The branch manager declared the situation taken care of, which is why Deb was horrified to learn last week that her ex's name had never been removed from the account, and he had transferred its contents—all of her money—into his own account. Yep, the branch manager made a mistake, and no one at BoA will admit that it was their mistake. More »
(AZAdam)
I Thought My Apartment Included Utilities. Now I Have A Zombie Gas Bill
By Laura Northrup on April 28, 2010 2:00 PM
87 Comments
Jesse has turned to Consumerist for help because he is being haunted by a relic from his past. Specifically, he writes that a debt collector has contacted him, claiming that he owes them for having a gas service account that he never used—in an apartment where he thought all utilities were included. What should he do? More »
Mysterious Object In Chef Boyardee Can Not A Rat, Just Another Giant Clump Of Mold
By Laura Northrup on April 28, 2010 12:00 PM
35 Comments
Good news: the large, fuzzy creature that an Ohio woman found nestled on the top of her can of Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs was not a rodent hoping to star in a "Ratatouille" sequel. It was just a fluffy, cuddly clump of mold. More »
Isotoner/Totes Refunds Warranty Replacement Shipping, Sends Bonus Umbrella
By Laura Northrup on April 28, 2010 11:00 AM
13 Comments
Tracey tells Consumerist that she bought an emergency Totes umbrella which broke disappointingly soon after purchase. She sent it in for a warranty replacement, and was surprised when the company not only refunded her shipping, but sent two new umbrellas to replace her defective one. More »
Red "Sale" Sign At Kohl's Means Item Is FOR Sale, Not ON Sale
By Laura Northrup on April 28, 2010 10:00 AM
58 Comments
Nice try, Kohl's, but we see through your game. An item isn't on sale just because you say it is. You have to actually decrease the price. Noah writes that when he found a tag emblazoned with the word SALE, he thought this meant that perhaps the item was on sale. Don't be silly, Noah. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on April 23, 2010 2:00 PM
8 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post.More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
Colbert: KFC Double Down Is "Warped Creation Of A Syphilitic Brain"
4 Common Scams And How To Avoid Them
Apple Bans Man From Ever Buying Another iPad
Facebook Kills More Of Your Privacy For Cash
More »
By Laura Northrup on April 23, 2010 12:00 PM
57 Comments
10 Fast Food Items Worse For You Than The KFC Double DownColbert: KFC Double Down Is "Warped Creation Of A Syphilitic Brain"
4 Common Scams And How To Avoid Them
Apple Bans Man From Ever Buying Another iPad
Facebook Kills More Of Your Privacy For Cash
More »
VIDEO: Sir Mix-A-Lot Likes Big Butterfingers
By Laura Northrup on April 23, 2010 11:00 AM
33 Comments
Butterfinger's mystifying new Butterfinger Defense League marketing campaign now has a theme song. Based on "Baby Got Back." Performed by Sir Mix-A-Lot. Of course there is a (slightly NSFW) video. More »
Store Sells Food Old Enough To Drive, Still Not Breaking Any Laws
By Laura Northrup on April 23, 2010 10:05 AM
47 Comments
Sure, eating expired food isn't going to kill you, but eating food that's been on the shelves since the George H.W. Bush administration isn't a delectable culinary experience either. A liquor store near Sacramento, Calif. was caught selling food that wasn't, strictly speaking, expired, but wasn't exactly fresh either. More »
Become A TiVo Premiere Early Adopter At Your Own Peril
By Laura Northrup on April 22, 2010 2:00 PM
28 Comments
Victor wants to warn Consumerist readers: no matter how much you love your TiVo, do not jump in and let yourself be an early adopter of the company's new product, the Premiere (or series 4) box. He and other Premiere users have shared their tales of heartbreak and bugs with the Internet. More »
Kleen Kanteen Sends New Bottle Cap, Packs A Snack
By Laura Northrup on April 22, 2010 12:02 PM
26 Comments
Omar recently had a great experience with Kleen Kanteen, makers of fine, Meg-approved stainless steel water bottles. He tells Consumerist that they replaced the cap of his bottle free of charge. They even enclosed a delicious snack for him in the package. What? Amazing! More »
New Twitter Friend At Sears Helps Reader Get New Dishwasher
By Laura Northrup on April 22, 2010 11:04 AM
21 Comments
Remember Bob? He had an extended warranty on his Kenmore dishwasher, and Sears decided that it would much rather send repairman after repairman to fix his defective dishwasher—and reimburse him to pay someone to wash his dishes. Between following Doug Moore, SVP and President of Appliances on Twitter and writing to Consumerist, Bob is getting a new dishwasher. A functioning dishwasher. More »
Citibank Celebrates Record Profits By Treating Customers Like Deadbeats
By Laura Northrup on April 22, 2010 10:00 AM
71 Comments
Citicorp posted a $4.4 billion profit this past quarter. Pretty fantastic, right? How are they rewarding their loyal customers? By jacking their interest rates and closing their credit card accounts, of course. More »
Skip Pesky Trailers And Ads On DVDs With Not-So-Secret Codes
By Laura Northrup on April 21, 2010 2:00 PM
65 Comments
Sometimes the ads and trailers at the beginning of a DVD give you interesting information about upcoming releases you otherwise wouldn't have heard of. Most of the time, though, they're just annoying as all heck. Here are some not-so-secret remote control codes that can help you skip the ads and get right to the movie. More »
(karlfrankowski and Alex Barth)
Megabus Offers Complimentary Megasauna On NYC To DC Trip
By Laura Northrup on April 21, 2010 12:05 PM
81 Comments
Megabus is a bus service that goes from city to city, and is meant to compete with Amtrak and Greyhound. They offer decent prices, occasional great specials, and free wi-fi. On a trip during Easter weekend, Mark learned that the service offers another perk he didn't exactly want: a 4-hour complimentary Megasauna. The air conditioning on his bus failed, and the passengers roasted down the East Coast. More »
Price Is No Object At These Best Buy Stores
By Laura Northrup on April 21, 2010 10:05 AM
28 Comments
From separate Best Buy stores, in different parts of the country, David and Adama sent us these two pictures of deeply confusing, Target-worthy sales. Would you like to buy a Blu-Ray of "The Fugitive" for only $14.99? Or you could go a few inches away, where it's $14.99. If you need something to play it on, you can get a Blu-Ray plater for 50% off its original price if you buy a TV. That original price is either $129.99 or $149.99 depending on where you look. More »
Netflix Rolls Out Some Captions For Streaming Video
By Laura Northrup on April 20, 2010 4:15 PM
45 Comments
Netflix streaming is great. If you're like me and most of your Netflix queue consists of TV series and independent movies, it's the best deal in entertainment. One of its major flaws, though, is that video streams lack captions or closed-captioning. Netflix is starting to fix this problem...but only for a limited number of videos and only for users who stream on their Mac or Windows PCs. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on April 16, 2010 4:00 PM
18 Comments
Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Well, seven of them are neat, and the other one is terrifying.More »
(oamg823)
Walmart Receipt Checker Helps Customer, Justifies Existence
By Laura Northrup on April 16, 2010 2:00 PM
76 Comments
Wes writes that he has discovered a previously unknown use for retail receipt checkers. They can help you to determine when a store is ripping you off, rather than the other way around. More »
College Professor Outsources Grading Papers To Asia
By Laura Northrup on April 16, 2010 1:00 PM
75 Comments
As you struggle to repay your student loans, you can at least comfort yourself with the knowledge that your papers were graded by qualified professors and teaching assistants, and not by housewives in Bangalore. Students attending college today... may not be so lucky. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
We Don't Get Why This Sign Is So Funny
Epic Map: Pizza Vs Guns vs Strippers
Does TV's Dr. Oz Really Know How To Fix What Ails You?
Entire Coffee Shop Staff Quits Simultaneously
More »
By Laura Northrup on April 16, 2010 12:00 PM
100 Comments
Towing Company Sues Student Over Facebook PageWe Don't Get Why This Sign Is So Funny
Epic Map: Pizza Vs Guns vs Strippers
Does TV's Dr. Oz Really Know How To Fix What Ails You?
Entire Coffee Shop Staff Quits Simultaneously
More »
Let Costco Outfit You For The Coming Apocalypse
By Laura Northrup on April 16, 2010 11:00 AM
82 Comments
Everyone loves Costco for its high quality and low prices for items as diverse as wine, toilet paper, cashews, and caskets. What you may not know is that for only $800 (plus shipping) you can store enough freeze-fried food to feed one person for a year, two people for six months, and four people for three months. You can get everything at Costco. More »
Sears Spares No Expense To Not Give You A New Dishwasher
By Laura Northrup on April 16, 2010 10:00 AM
47 Comments
Bob tells Consumerist that his Kenmore dishwasher has several times due to the same problem—caused, according to one repairman, by a design flaw. It seems that it would be more cost-effective for Sears to replace his dishwasher with one that does not randomly die. Sears does not agree, and requires that an appliance fail four times due to the same problem in the course of a year before it can be replaced. When Bob complained to Sears about his issues, they offered to reimburse him to pay someone to wash his dishes. More »
Bikinis For Children: Now With Padded Bras
By Laura Northrup on April 15, 2010 2:00 PM
60 Comments
What constitutes an appropriate swimsuit for elementary school-aged girls? Is a bikini inappropriate? How about a padded bikini? This summer, U.K. discounter Primark tried marketing a bikini with a padded top, aimed at girls as young as seven. It didn't go well. The chain removed the suit from its racks only hours after tabloid The Sun declared the product a [pedophile] bikini. More »
Pizza Hut Raises Minimum Delivery Order To $10.50 To Match $10 Pizza Promotion
By Laura Northrup on April 15, 2010 12:00 PM
58 Comments
Matt writes that local Pizza Hut used to have a $10 minimum for online delivery orders. That's fair enough, and a common practice. But when the chain raised the minimum to $10.50 at the same time that they debuted a $10 pizza promotion. Is Pizza Hut deliberately trying to encourage customers to order extra items they don't need to make the minimum? More »
(JCMar)
Why Is Angie's List Spying On Me?
By Laura Northrup on April 15, 2010 11:10 AM
65 Comments
James tells Consumerist that he tried Angie's List, and wasn't thrilled with the experience. He was surprised and displeased, however, when a representative from the service reached out, called him, and asked him some questions about the professionals he had searched for. Would you have reacted the same way? More »
Actual Children Taste-Test Generic Cereals, Declare Them Delicious
By Laura Northrup on April 15, 2010 10:00 AM
97 Comments
Personal finance blogger Len Penzo doesn't have a minivan full of highly trained tasters at his disposal like our siblings at Consumer Reports. When he set out to compare generic and name-brand cereals, he found something even better. He rounded up the small children of his neighborhood, and subjected them to a blind cereal taste-test. More »
Hobby Lobby Just Wants To Share Craft Supplies And Christ With You
By Laura Northrup on April 14, 2010 2:00 PM
532 Comments
The big box craft store Hobby Lobby famously places full-page, Christian-themed ads every Easter in newspapers in the markets where it has stores. They also make this message the centerpiece of their Web site during the period right before and after Easter, with a religious messages where normally one would find information about sales on picture frames and sock yarn.
Sarah tells Consumerist that she noticed this when she visited the chain's site to print out a coupon, and wrote to the company to tell them that she was offended. A Hobby Lobby representative answered that he was sorry that she was offended, but the company believes that it would conversely be "truly insensitive" not to share their religious message with all customers, Christian or not. More »
Twitter Complaint Makes Maytag Step Up, Fix Problem Washer
By Laura Northrup on April 14, 2010 12:00 PM
12 Comments
Matt tells Consumerist that he was disappointed in his Maytag washing machine, which had required two service visits in as many years. Maytag's social media team, monitoring the Internets for unhappy customers, saw his frustrated tweet about the washing machine, and reached out to him to set things right. More »
Vivitar Sells Camera With Imaginary Optical Zoom, Hopes No One Notices
By Laura Northrup on April 14, 2010 11:00 AM
43 Comments
When shopping for a digital camera, it's good to carefully weigh your photography needs, the amount you wish to spend, and the specifications of different cameras. Unfortunately, doing so requires that the advertised specifications for a camera be accurate. That's what the UK-based site DigicamReview and several reviews on Amazon say that Vivitar sort of forgot to do with their Vivicam 8225. While the inexpensive camera advertises a 2X optical zoom, advanced users claim that there's no optical zoom at all. More »
It's Never Too Early To Get Your Child Her First Cubicle
By Laura Northrup on April 14, 2010 10:00 AM
38 Comments
If you have a child, you want him or her to be prepared for the future. So why not begin their dreary cubicle farm confinement before they even learn how to read? That's what the Little Tykes Young Explorer does, combining a home cubicle and child-sized seating with a computer loaded with kid-friendly software, all at a rather inflated price. Which is a lot like real office furniture, come to think of it. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on April 9, 2010 3:00 PM
15 Comments
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Be sure to check out the perpetual Photo Gallery right here on the site to see the latest additions all week long! More »
MLB.tv Decides Entire Planet Is A Blackout Area
By Laura Northrup on April 9, 2010 2:00 PM
57 Comments
The MLB.tv banner ads that brag, "NO BLACKOUTS!: Blackout and other restrictions apply" may be more accurate than we initially thought. Owen tells Consumerist that he was unable to watch a Cubs/Braves game, even though he was trying to watch well after the game was over, when blackouts should no longer apply. More »
(kfas)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
The Most Reasonable Letter We've Ever Received From A Guy Whose Bank Misplaced $14,000
Is It Okay To Download A Pirated Copy Of A Book You Already Own?
Teacher Defeats Traffic Ticket With The Power Of Math
Man Receives Ticket While Walking From Car To Parking Meter More »
By Laura Northrup on April 9, 2010 12:00 PM
68 Comments
Apple Store Goes On Security Lockdown When You Try To Buy A LaptopThe Most Reasonable Letter We've Ever Received From A Guy Whose Bank Misplaced $14,000
Is It Okay To Download A Pirated Copy Of A Book You Already Own?
Teacher Defeats Traffic Ticket With The Power Of Math
Man Receives Ticket While Walking From Car To Parking Meter More »
(NNECAPA)
Ruby Tuesday Will Pay You Fifty Cents To Eat This Sandwich
By Laura Northrup on April 9, 2010 11:10 AM
43 Comments
The economics of the restaurant business are strange and confusing. But Dave writes that he couldn't help but find this deal at Ruby Tuesday amusing. You can have a nice salad bar lunch for $7.99...or some mini sandwiches or burgers and fries along with salad bar access for $7.99. After 3 p.m., the price for the salad bar goes up fifty cents...but the price of the sandwiches does not. More »
Citibank Helpfully Sends $0.00 Collection Letter
By Laura Northrup on April 9, 2010 10:00 AM
41 Comments
Citibank is so funny! They sent G. a prank collection letter for her student loan. Even though she doesn't owe a balance. Hehe! April Fool! More »
(oracorac)
Walgreens Takes Pity On You When You Get Mugged For Your Wallet And Prescriptions
By Laura Northrup on April 8, 2010 2:00 PM
35 Comments
Tabitha and her husband were part of a horrible chain of events. She was ill, and her husband was mugged on the way home from the pharmacy with her prescriptions. With his credit cards, cash, and his wife's medicine all gone, her husband went back to the pharmacy...and received true above and beyond service. More »
Do You Need Identity Theft Protection Against The Census?
By Laura Northrup on April 8, 2010 12:00 PM
29 Comments
Several alert readers sent us this advertisement that ran on the front page of CNN.com today. Wait—is the census going to steal my identity? Is my name, race, and birthdate all someone needs to open a credit card in my name? No. You do not need identity theft protection because of the census. Equifax has just mashed up some good information about how to avoid census scams with a sales pitch for credit monitoring services. More »
Teacher Defeats Traffic Ticket With The Power Of Math
By Laura Northrup on April 8, 2010 11:00 AM
162 Comments
Have you ever suspected that your city or town is trying too hard to catch traffic scofflaws in the pursuit of ticket revenue? A Florida woman received a ticket based on evidence from a red light camera, but believed the ticket was unfair because the yellow light was too short. The power of math proved that she was correct.. More »
Should I Keep A Free Cell Phone Line That I Can't Actually Use?
By Laura Northrup on April 8, 2010 10:05 AM
45 Comments
John has a mobile phone service dilemma. He writes that he's not able to get any reception in the dorm room where he lives. Even his carrier, AT&T, seems to have admitted defeat and has offered to waive the bill for his line for the next six months. John wonders whether he should give up on AT&T and change to a carrier that actually works. More »
Yes, You Can Still Make Claims On Your Circuit City Extended Warranty
By Laura Northrup on April 3, 2010 7:00 PM
10 Comments
If you bought a TiVo with an extended warranty at Circuit City before the chain died and came back as a retail zombie, TiVo forum poster Mark has good news and bad news for you: It is still technically possible to use your warranty, but doing so requires superhuman levels of persistence. More »
(pic-nerd)
Once You Break Your Nook, No One Can Repair It
By Laura Northrup on April 3, 2010 6:01 PM
58 Comments
If you buy a nook from Barnes & Noble and think there might be any possibility whatsoever that you could drop it, be sure to buy a protection plan for it. That's because if the nook breaks and you didn't buy an extended warranty, no one at Barnes and Noble can fix it. Not even if you offer to pay for the repairs. More »
No One Has The Power To Cancel Your Hotel Reservation Made Through An Airline Web Site
By Laura Northrup on April 3, 2010 4:55 PM
27 Comments
Booking a hotel room through an airline's web site can lead to a roach-infested, unacceptable hotel experience, as reader Bruce learned recently. Nick tells Consumerist that he had a similar Kafkaesque hotel booking experience booking a Super 8 reservation through Continental Airlines. He learned that no one at either the airline or the hotel had the power to change his reservation—even though he was trying to cancel the reservation months in advance. More »
(jencu)
Should I Have Given Back The iPad UPS Delivered Early?
By Laura Northrup on April 3, 2010 3:19 PM
117 Comments
Frederick tells Consumerist that he had an interesting dilemma yesterday. Another member of his household ordered an iPad, which showed up yesterday due to an error on UPS's part. He accepted the package, then gave it back when the driver returned 45 minutes later, explaining that the delivery was a mistake. Would you have given it back? More »
This Cheese Is Not Exactly Deli Fresh
By Laura Northrup on April 3, 2010 11:00 AM
53 Comments
Nick writes that he found this cheese at Kroger. Sure, mold isn't going to hurt you, but how far marked down would it need to be for you to buy it? More »
Terminix Will Never Stop Sending Me Junk Mail
By Laura Northrup on April 3, 2010 9:00 AM
46 Comments
David wants to know why Terminix won't stop sending him mail. He just wants to them to leave him alone. The company received his requests to stop sending mail...and instead started sending junk to him and to his imaginary wife. This was not helpful. More »
Should You Tip The Owner Of A Restaurant If He Delivers Your Food?
By Laura Northrup on April 2, 2010 4:45 PM
124 Comments
Daniel recently had an interesting tipping dilemma. He ordered a smoked brisket from a locally owned barbecue place, and had it delivered. Unexpectedly, the restaurant owner himself showed up to deliver the brisket. So, he asks: should he have tipped the restaurant owner? More »
(eva101)
As Miami Homes Enter Foreclosure, Cats Move In
By Laura Northrup on April 2, 2010 4:12 PM
33 Comments
In Miami-Dade County, hit particularly hard by the housing boom, about one in ten dwellngs are in foreclosure. Don't worry, though. They're not empty. Homeless families have moved in. To be precise, colonies of feral cats. Because nothing makes a bank-owned property more appealing than the stench of cat urine. More »
(giarose)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
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By Laura Northrup on April 2, 2010 4:00 PM
11 Comments
Here are eight of the subjectively best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Be sure to check out the perpetual Photo Gallery right here on the site to see the latest additions all week long! More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on April 2, 2010 12:23 PM
77 Comments
Amazon.com Rep: "Your Package Has Been Eaten By An Alligator"4 Myths About Tipping From A Former Pizza Delivery Guy
Is It Ever Okay To Not Tip The Pizza Guy?
This Is Why You Don't Answer Anonymous Telephone Surveys At Work
(Kimaroo)
You Can Use Bed Bath And Beyond Coupons At Babies 'R' Us (Sometimes)
By Laura Northrup on April 2, 2010 11:15 AM
25 Comments
Did you know hat you can take those super-awesome Bed, Bath, and Beyond 20% off one item coupons and use them at Babies "R" Us? Blogger John of Baby At Play heard about this coupon swap, and investigated the situation on behalf of all parents and doting friends and relatives. Turns out it can be done...but not all stores participate. More »
SquareTrade Replaces Item Out Of Warranty, Almost Makes Extended Warranties Worthwhile
By Laura Northrup on April 1, 2010 4:55 PM
14 Comments
Like most readers of Consumerist, Adam is cynical about extended warranties. However, he writes that he had a surprisingly good experience with a SquareTrade warranty that he purchased, and wanted to share. More »
Man Sues Petsmart For $1 Million After Stepping In Dog Poop
By Laura Northrup on April 1, 2010 4:47 PM
124 Comments
When visiting a pet store that allows leashed pets to visit, is it unreasonable to keep an eye out for dog poop? Inside the store? The Virginian-Pilot reports that a man is suing Petsmart in federal court after slipping and falling on a pile of feces in a Norfolk, Va. store. He alleges that the fall exacerbated his existing back injury and knocked out four of his false teeth. More »
USPS Cares About Your Mail When It Doesn't Really Count
By Laura Northrup on April 1, 2010 3:44 PM
59 Comments
Lana is a little frustrated with the U.S. Postal Service right now. She writes that she received an odd envelope in the mail from USPS—the tear-off advertising sheet from the front of a Netflix envelope addressed to her. An overly conscientious postal employee took the flyer, carefully placed it in a damaged item envelope, and mailed it back to Lana. More »
Perhaps You Would Like A Delicious Ham For Your Passover Seder
By Laura Northrup on April 1, 2010 12:25 PM
111 Comments
If you're worried that grocery store loyalty and discount cards let retailers amass a detailed profile of you and use your buying habits for marketing purposes....don't worry. Safeway, at least, doesn't actually seem to be paying attention. That's the conclusion you can draw from the coupon that Steve says printed out during his shopping trip for his Passover seder. More »
Borders's Bold New Business Strategy: Crazy Pricing
By Laura Northrup on April 1, 2010 11:01 AM
29 Comments
Troubled and experiencing a turnover in its leadership, perhaps Borders is trying a new strategy: completely illogical pricing. Hey, it works for Target. (Thanks to Asa in New York for the photo!)
My Friend Gave Me A Completely Useless AmEx Gift Card
By Laura Northrup on March 31, 2010 3:58 PM
56 Comments
Have you ever exchanged an American Express gift card for goods or services? Luke writes that he received one as a gift, but hasn't been able to use the card to make any purchases. All he's managed to do is prove the futility of giving people credit card-branded gift cards as presents. Cash, my friends. Think cash. More »
(apium)
Being Locked Out Of Quickbooks Leads To An Endless Series Of Upsells
By Laura Northrup on March 31, 2010 3:15 PM
65 Comments
Quickbooks from Intuit is a very popular piece of accounting software used by accountants and non-accountants alike. One of its more annoying features is that customers must call to register their software after purchase, or it won't work. Brian writes that his problem with Quickbooks came when the registration code for his new copy of QuickBooks wouldn't work, and Intuit wanted him to pay $40 for technical support in order to get help registering the software he had already paid for. More »
UPS Charges You $11 To Fix Zip Code Mistake
By Laura Northrup on March 31, 2010 2:25 PM
50 Comments
Richard has a warning for the Consumerist community: he writes that if you mess up a zip code on an overnight UPS package, they will charge you an $11 "address adjustment" fee to fix it. Excessive? Richard thought so, and UPS was nice enough to waive it when he asked. More »
Pizza Hut Won't Let Customer Use Credit Card Without Photo ID
By Laura Northrup on March 31, 2010 12:40 PM
107 Comments
Chuck tells Consumerist that he witnessed a strange transaction at Pizza Hut recently. When another customer went to pay for her purchase with a credit card, the person behind the counter asked to see her ID before allowing her to pay for her pizzas with a credit card. She didn't have any ID with her, and was forced to leave without her pizzas. More »
Recall Roundup: Step Away From The Pepper Edition
By Laura Northrup on March 31, 2010 11:27 AM
31 Comments
Salmonella in the pepper! Salmonella in the hydrolyzed vegetable protein! Salmonella everywhere! Oh yeah, and some other stuff was recalled too. More »
For Dyeing Easter Eggs, Cheap, Simple, And Classic Is Best
By Laura Northrup on March 28, 2010 6:00 PM
52 Comments
You can find a variety of Easter egg dyeing kits in stores, but what sets them apart? Holidash tested a variety of commercial egg-decorating kits, evaluating methods to decorate eggs with everything from glitter to Star Wars decals. Their winner? The classic color tablets and wire egg holders of the century-old Paas egg-dyeing kit. More »
To Your Brain, Bacon And Chocolate Are Sort Of Like Cocaine
By Laura Northrup on March 28, 2010 4:00 PM
39 Comments
A recent scientific study on rats shows that our brains' wiring is what causes humans to love overeating so darn much. Rats offered a selection of rich, tasty human foods not only became obese, but their brain chemistry changed. The rats needed more food to feel content...and discomfort wouldn't keep them away from their tasty snacks. More »
Texas Woman Awarded $9 Million In Walmart False Arrest Lawsuit
By Laura Northrup on March 28, 2010 2:00 PM
125 Comments
After being accused of cashing counterfeit money orders and arrested at a Walmart in 2008, a Houston woman has won $9 million in damages in a civil lawsuit against the retailer. 24-year-old Nitra Gipson spent two days in jail...and the money orders turned out to be genuine. More »
Kick Off Spring Cleaning By Home-Detailing Your Car
By Laura Northrup on March 28, 2010 12:00 PM
33 Comments
Spring is actually here, and do you know what that means? Spring cleaning! Consumer Reports offers tips Ugh. If you live in a wintery climate, take some time to clean up your vehicle and pretend that all that salt and gravel never happened. Our sister publication Consumer Reports shows you how. After all, who else thoroughly tests kinds of car wax? Exactly. More »
Netflix Streaming For Wii Loads Slow, But Still Faster Than PS3
By Laura Northrup on March 28, 2010 10:00 AM
84 Comments
Now that Wii-owning Netflix customers have received their streaming discs, let the console wars begin anew! At stake now: which provides the best Netflix-browsing experience....and the least agonizingly slow load times? More »
Amazon.com Rep: "Your Package Has Been Eaten By An Alligator"
By Laura Northrup on March 28, 2010 8:00 AM
46 Comments
Sometimes calling customer service just leads to theater of the absurd. Earlier today, reader Will blogged about his recent interaction with Amazon customer service. He writes that when he called up Amazon to find out the location of a missing package. The rep informed him that the package had been eaten by an alligator. More »
Holy Crap, The FreeCreditReport.com Guy Is French-Canadian
By Laura Northrup on March 27, 2010 6:30 PM
80 Comments
In celebration of the upcoming FTC-mandated drastic changes to "free" credit report advertising and web sites, public radio program Marketplace located the actor and musician who serves as the public face of FreeCreditReport.com in its horrifically catchy ads. That's when they discovered something that, as they put it, means you will never look at the ads the same way again. The singing spokesdude, Eric Violette, is actually a pretty talented musician, but he isn't the man singing the jingle. See, the commercials were cast and filmed in Montreal, and Violette has a distinct French accent. More »
Go To Subway, Get Two $5 Footlongs For Only $9.99
By Laura Northrup on March 27, 2010 5:30 PM
44 Comments
Tomorrow is Sunday, which means that you can take advantage of the exciting Sunday sale at Mike's local Subway. Yes, this restaurant does participate in the $5 footlong promotion. We asked.
This Computer Game Is On Clearance At Walmart Because It's Now Defunct
By Laura Northrup on March 27, 2010 4:27 PM
62 Comments
Kain tells Consumerist that he was searching the clearance section at his local Walmart for deals when he discovered something that was an unbelievably bad deal. Ten "collector's edition" copies of the multiplayer game Tabula Rasa marked down to only $25! Too bad that the servers required to play the game shut down on Feburary 28, 2009. More »
AT&T Wireless Directs Salt Lake City 911 Calls To Seattle
By Laura Northrup on March 27, 2010 2:30 PM
31 Comments
For some reason that no one has been able to figure out yet, on Thursday night, all 911 calls that AT&T Wireless customers in the Salt Lake City, Utah made area ended up routed to dispatchers in Seattle. More »
This Infomercial Uses A Familiar Voice To Get Your Attention
By Laura Northrup on March 27, 2010 10:00 AM
41 Comments
If you hear a vaguely familiar voice screeching from your television set during a commercial break, fear not. It's only actor, comedian, and ex-parrot Gilbert Gottfried's voiceover for the Shoedini commercial. It's hard to get across in mere words how much I wish I were kidding right now. More »
This Isn't A Frozen Green Bean, It's A Chunk Of Garter Snake
By Laura Northrup on March 27, 2010 9:00 AM
61 Comments
Remember the animal head that a Houston family found inside a bag of frozen Pictsweet green beans? The family was convinced that the animal was a snake, though experts thought that it was a frog. Maybe they were right after all, and the animal was a snake...because a different part of a snake was found inside another bag of Pictsweet green beans in Wisconsin. What part? Well, it's not the head, and it's not the end, but it was conveniently cut to the same length as the green beans. More »
Congressional Audit Shows That EnergyStar Label May Be Meaningless
By Laura Northrup on March 26, 2010 5:31 PM
47 Comments
Does an EnergyStar label change your perception of a product? Maybe it shouldn't. Last year, an audit showed that Energy Star gave its rating to products that misrepresented their energy usage. This time, auditors posed as companies and submitted completely absurd appliances for EnergyStar ratings, like a gasoline-powered alarm clock the size of a portable generator, and a space heater with a feather duster on top claiming to be an "air purifier." Is the study meaningless because no actual products were sold, or a warning that the program is sloppy and susceptible to fraud? More »
(eva_deht)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on March 26, 2010 5:00 PM
13 Comments
Here are nine of the subjectively best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Be sure to check out the perpetual Photo Gallery right here on the site to see the latest additions all week long! More »
Close Reading Of Press Release Shows Why Everyone Hates AT&T Wireless
By Laura Northrup on March 26, 2010 3:44 PM
65 Comments
The 3G Microcell, the mini cell tower that AT&T has been threatening their customer base with since last fall are coming soon. AT&T Wireless customers remain underwhelmed. Why? Using technology similar to Consumerist's own Megglefish, Tested's Will Smith translated the press release from PR-speak to English for us, and teased out the precise reasons why this is a terrible, terrible idea. It's all there. You just have to find it. More »
This Bottle Of Salad Dressing At Target Only Expired Five Months Ago
By Laura Northrup on March 26, 2010 1:52 PM
52 Comments
Paul Newman (who died in 2008) may have still been alive when this bottle of salad dressing was manufactured. Bridget in Minnesota told Consumerist that sge purchased it at her local Target. She got a refund from the store, but she's still a little alarmed that they would sell her such a thing. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on March 26, 2010 1:30 PM
112 Comments
Kmart Posts Amazing Coupon On Internet, Then Forgets Internet Exists
UPS Guy Outwits Thieves With Clever Hiding Place
Behold The 2010 Worst Company In America Bracket!
Ben & Jerry's And Starbucks Both Giving Away Free Food Tomorrow
Family With Shattered TV Takes Best Buy To Court, Wins More »
Subway Won't Take My Credit Card, But I Want My Sandwich
By Laura Northrup on March 26, 2010 11:17 AM
112 Comments
What do you do when Subway has prepared your delicious sandwich, and then the only credit card you're carrying with you doesn't work in the machine? Do you leave the poor, innocent sandwich behind? Do you leave your poor, innocent credit card number behind? Or do you take this as a cautionary tale about always carrying emergency cash? More »
(ashi)
FTC Catches 30% Of Funeral Homes Violating Consumer Laws
By Laura Northrup on March 25, 2010 6:29 PM
34 Comments
Thanks to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers have certain rights when it comes to funerals. Consumers have the right to purchase only the products or services they need, to use the services of a funeral home while declining embalming, to see written price lists before they begin to make decisions, and the right to purchase a casket or urn elsewhere. An undercover FTC investigation, however, discovered that in 30% of the funeral homes they visited, at least one part of the Funeral Rule of 1984 was violated. More »
I Don't Want A Savings Account, Fifth Third: Please Stop Calling Me
By Laura Northrup on March 25, 2010 4:46 PM
66 Comments
Brad is a customer of Fifth Third Bank. He's annoyed at the bank's marketing practices. He tells Consumerist that when he transferred a large amount of money from his account with a credit union, Fifth Third decided that he clearly had too much money, and they wanted to help him open a savings account to remedy that situation. Well, that's not what they said, but close enough. More »
(cote)
Your Gigantic Carry-On Bags Are A Hazard To Flight Attendants
By Laura Northrup on March 25, 2010 3:39 PM
137 Comments
It's logical that as airlines charge customers fees to check their luggage, passengers will carry on as much of their belongings as they possibly can. The logical consequence of that? Passengers and crew getting bonked on the head by bottles of liquor and carry-on toilets. More »
(Muffet)
It's Cheaper For Farmers To Let Strawberries Rot Than Sell Them Now
By Laura Northrup on March 25, 2010 1:18 PM
98 Comments
In Florida, acres of delicious strawberries are starting to ripen, and... being left to rot and plowed under. Thanks to cold weather at just the right point of the winter growing season, berry crops are so bountiful that it's more cost-efficient to let the berries rot than it is to pay anyone to pick them. More »
Verizon Already Has Too Many Compliments, Doesn't Need Yours
By Laura Northrup on March 25, 2010 12:35 PM
20 Comments
Dave wanted to leave a compliment for a an especially helpful Verizon customer service representative. However, Verizon's own system thwarted his good deed: Verizon's customer service compliment line has a full voicemail box and can't accept any more praise. More »
(B Rosen)
Schering-Plough Cares That Your Pet Ate Your Claritin
By Laura Northrup on March 25, 2010 11:25 AM
55 Comments
Dogs are wonderful creatures to have in your life, but they have a serious vice. They like to eat things that should not be eaten. Like paper wrappers, light bulbs, socks, and human medications. Matt's puppy somehow got its paws on and ate seven Claritin tablets. When she called up the SPCA's poison control center for help, Matt's wife learned something downright heartwarming about Schering-Plough, the maker of Claritin. More »
Beer Shrink Ray Takes Away .8 Ounces Of Precious Red Stripe
By Laura Northrup on March 24, 2010 5:30 PM
46 Comments
Bad news if you like to sip a Red Stripe beer while snacking on Wheatables. Exported bottles of Red Stripe have been zapped by the Grocery Shrink Ray, shrinking from 12 fluid ounces to 11.2. More »
Dell's Tech Support Will Stop At Nothing To Help Break Your Computer
By Laura Northrup on March 24, 2010 4:20 PM
40 Comments
Janna's Dell laptop broke, but it was still under warranty. She tells Consumerist that she contacted their technical support by web chat, imagining that it would be simple and easy to get a computer under warranty repaired. Her journey through Dell's tech support began with the chat rep encouraging her to grab a screwdriver and take her computer apart herself, and somehow got even more discouraging from there. When she finally got Dell to take the laptop in for repairs, Dell somehow helpfully cracked her LCD. More »
How Does Brake Override Technology Stop Runaway Cars?
By Laura Northrup on March 24, 2010 3:54 PM
32 Comments
The recent fuss over Toyota's recalls has brought a lot of attention to a previously rather boring car feature: brake override. It wasn't a very sexy feature until we began reading about throttles gone rogue, taking drivers on a terrifying ride. Brake override, and its absence on the affected Toyota models, became very interesting all of a sudden. But how does it work? Does it really work? Our sister publication Consumer Reports has a test track and some Toyotas lying around, so they set out to find out. More »
(theilr)
Why Are My Pepsi Bottles Suddenly Impossible To Open?
By Laura Northrup on March 24, 2010 1:06 PM
114 Comments
It's Soda Bottle Complaint Week here at The Consumerist. Today's complaint is against Pepsi two-liter bottles and Mott's apple juice bottles, which Anthony thinks are far too difficult to open. He has to use pliers. Is he the only one? More »
Jewelry Store Ruins Engagement Surprise With Pointless Junk Mail
By Laura Northrup on March 24, 2010 12:10 PM
156 Comments
How important is the element of surprise? Do you want to be surprised when you receive a gift? When people are about to throw a surprise party for you? What about when you accidentally learn that your boyfriend is about to propose...thanks to a stray piece of junk mail? More »
Dell EECB Results In Free Replacement Motherboard And AC Adapter
By Laura Northrup on March 24, 2010 11:04 AM
18 Comments
How long should an AC adapter for a laptop last? Michael writes that the adapter for his Dell Inspiron laptop stopped functioning after less than two years of use. He finds this unacceptable. While most people would have shrugged and ordered a new adapter, not Michael. He found the situation unacceptable, and deployed the fearsome power of the executive e-mail carpet bomb. More »
Walgreens Now Sells Televisions By The Inch
By Laura Northrup on March 21, 2010 7:00 PM
42 Comments
Rob took this picture of a 15" LCD television for sale at Walgreens in Virginia. It's nice that they chose to highlight the price, but confusing that they also posted the unit price. If you're wondering, TVs cost $8 per inch. I like this pricing scheme, and hope to see other retailers adopt it. More »
(brunosan)
Finish Up Your Weekend With Some Light Reading On Health Care Reform
By Laura Northrup on March 21, 2010 5:00 PM
42 Comments
You know what's even less exciting than health insurance regulations? Homework! But as Congress prepares to vote on the huge and hugely controversial health care reform bill tonight, it's a good time to familiarize yourself with what the proposed bill does—no matter what your opinion of it might be. More »
Family With Shattered TV Takes Best Buy To Court, Wins
By Laura Northrup on March 21, 2010 3:00 PM
65 Comments
Remember the Florida family whose sad story of a smashed TV we shared on Super Bowl Sunday? When they unboxed their 50-inch plasma screen HDTV, they found a cracked screen and a world of sadness. They took a page from the Consumerist playbook and sued Best Buy in small claims court. When the mega-retailer failed to send a representative, they won a default judgment. More »
Sushi Restaurant That Served Illegal Whale Now Closed
By Laura Northrup on March 21, 2010 1:00 PM
52 Comments
The Hump, a Santa Monica, Calif. sushi restaurant accused of illegally selling whale meat, closed yesterday. The reason given on the restaurant's Web site? By closing, they hope to bring attention to the damage done by illegal whaling. Riiiight. More »
This Baby Outfit Provides A Disturbing Vision Of The Future
as much as more than anyone, but can kids' shirts go too far? Or does it matter all that much when the wearer can't even talk yet, let alone read? That's what Brian wonders about this outfit from Wry Baby available at Babies 'R' Us. More »
By Laura Northrup on March 21, 2010 10:00 AM
68 Comments
Is "Someday I'll get trashed at prom" an appropriate slogan for a baby t-shirt or onesie? How about "future cougar?" Sure, we at Consumerist like over-the-top humor 
That Mysterious $230,000 Deposited In Your Bank Account Is Probably Not Yours
By Laura Northrup on March 21, 2010 8:00 AM
61 Comments
If you checked your bank account balance to see a mysterious $230,000 deposit, what would you do? If your answer is "contact the bank and make sure the money goes back to its rightful owner," you are correct. If you said "buy a Camaro and a new wardrobe, check into a hotel, and brag about your windfall to a police officer," you are incorrect. Unfortunately, an Alaska fisherman chose that second option, and now he's in jail. More »
Tampa's Stripper Mobile Is Back In Business
By Laura Northrup on March 20, 2010 7:00 PM
42 Comments
The Stripper Mobile is a rolling billboard for Tampa's Déjà Vu gentlemen's club. It's a truck that rolls around the city with a glassed-in box in the back where bikini-clad strippers pole dance, gyrate, and distract every driver on the road. The city took the Stripper Mobile off the road because of...problems with the truck's registration. The city, however, was concerned with the Stripper Mobile's trips through residential neighborhoods, skimpy bikinis, and vigorous booty-shaking. Now the truck is back, in a much tamer form that will probably still piss people off. More »
(Torley)
Walmart Racist PA System Prank Culprit Arrested
By Laura Northrup on March 20, 2010 5:00 PM
169 Comments
The police in Washington Township, N.J. have tracked down and arrested the alleged perpetrator of last weekend's unauthorized PA announcement of "Attention Walmart customers: All black people leave the store now." It will surprise absolutely no one that the suspect is a 16-year-old boy. More »
Should FedEx Have Walked Into My House To Deliver Package?
By Laura Northrup on March 20, 2010 3:00 PM
136 Comments
Sam had an odd experience with FedEx back in February. He writes that when he didn't come to the door right away, instead of leaving the package on the porch, the deliveryman just opened the door and walked in. This confused Sam a bit, and he wrote to Consumerist asking what he should do. More »
Moen Keeps Excellent Customer Service Flowing
By Laura Northrup on March 20, 2010 1:00 PM
39 Comments
Jim recently learned that Moen actually believes in the whole "lifetime warranty" thing. Or at least is willing to support their products for ten years. He writes that he contacted the company asking for a specific o-ring to fix his faucet, and instead the company went right ahead and sent him an entire new shower head. More »
Geek Squad To Provide Yet Another Useless Service For 3D Televisions
By Laura Northrup on March 20, 2010 10:00 AM
66 Comments
HDGuru reports that Best Buy is at it again, charging innocent customers for truly unnecessary services. This time, they're offering to sync your 3D glasses as part of a Geek Squad package to hook up your new 3D TV and Blu-Ray player. Sure, the connection services are logical enough, but the glasses sync thing makes no sense. Why? Because 3D glasses don't need to be synced. More »
Kmart Posts Amazing Coupon On Internet, Then Forgets Internet Exists
By Laura Northrup on March 20, 2010 8:00 AM
217 Comments
Here's a helpful piece of advice for Kmart and Sears Holding Company as a whole: if you're going to issue a coupon valid only for a few stores and post it on your Web site, don't put the words "valid at all stores" on it. See, there is this thing called the "internet," which people like to use to share coupons and deals. Customers printed out what looked like a perfectly valid coupon from Kmart's site, then were treated like criminals and accused of fraud when they actually tried to use those coupons. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on March 19, 2010 5:00 PM
5 Comments
Here are nine of the subjectively best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Be sure to check out the perpetual Photo Gallery right here on the site to see the latest additions all week long! More »
Tell FCC What You Think About Proposed Comcast/NBC Mergepocalypse By May 3
By Laura Northrup on March 19, 2010 2:40 PM
34 Comments
Do you have strong feelings for or against Comcast's proposed acquisition of 51% of NBC/Universal? The FCC has asked for comments from "interested parties," so if you have anything compelling to say on the matter, here's where to go. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on March 19, 2010 1:30 PM
99 Comments
Restaurant: We Don't Charge Enough For This Food, So You Can't Have A Doggie Bag
Homeless Guy Lives On Rewards Points From His Former Life
Beat The "Four Square" Dealership Ripoff
Citibank Cannot Credit Your Credit Card Rewards To Your Account, No Matter What
By Laura Northrup on March 19, 2010 12:30 PM
28 Comments
Chris had a pretty simple request. He writes that he wanted his credit card issuer, Citibank, to save a few trees and save him some legwork, and credit his rewards to his account instead of cutting a check. No one in the Citibank call center hierarchy had the power to make this happen. More »
Credit Card Company Takes Seven Months To Notice You Moved To Illinois
By Laura Northrup on March 19, 2010 11:27 AM
45 Comments
Mike tells Consumerist that one of his recent purchases triggered a fraud alert on his credit card account. It's nice to know that your card issuer is looking out for you, right? This alert was location-based, since he was using his card in Illinois, and the main billing address for the card is in Iowa, where Mike used to live. What he finds confusing about this situation is that he moved to Illinois seven months ago. More »
Grocery Shrink Ray: Secret Weapon In The War On Obesity?
By Laura Northrup on March 18, 2010 5:30 PM
64 Comments
Consumerists, I think we've been wrong about this Grocery Shrink Ray thing all along. We've long believed that companies deploy the Grocery Shrink Ray to imperceptibly decrease the amount of product in a package without customers noticing. But maybe—just maybe—there's a higher purpose. Maybe they're trying to save us from consuming a precious few calories and use social engineering to get us to snack less over time until at some point we're hardly snacking at all. Consider this exhibit: the shrinking Double Gulp cups at Chris's local 7-11 in Maryland. More »
Grocery Self-Checkout: Blessing Or Scourge?
By Laura Northrup on March 18, 2010 3:46 PM
284 Comments
Our sister publication ShopSmart asked their readers today what they think of grocery store self-checkout systems. Would you rather stand and watch someone else scan and bag your groceries, or do you prefer to buy your Oreos and hemorrhoid cream without another soul knowing? More »
Celebrate The iPad's Launch By Sculpting Steve Jobs' Head In Cheese
By Laura Northrup on March 18, 2010 2:30 PM
39 Comments
Are you excited about the launch of the iPad? Do you like cheese? Take your brand loyalty to new and disturbing levels by sculpting the head of Steve Jobs in cheese. Cheese Steve is made out of mozzarella, black pepper, and my nightmares. It's odd to celebrate the iconic CEO of a company by sculpting what looks like his embalmed corpse in soft cheese. More »
Disgruntled Former Dealership Employee Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely, Honks Horns
By Laura Northrup on March 18, 2010 1:45 PM
62 Comments
Some car dealerships and lenders have equipped cars with devices that disable the ignition or make the horn honk nonstop when payments are late. We wrote about this last year, but didn't realize that the interface has fantastic potential for pranks. And that's how a laid-off car dealership employee was allegedly able to disable the ignitions of more than 100 cars purchased from the dealership. Or set off their horns in the middle of the night. More »
United Forgets That You Had Reserved Seats, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on March 18, 2010 12:35 PM
95 Comments
Silly Mike. He thought that by booking seats in the bulkhead row next to each other on well ahead of time for his flights to and from Tokyo on United later this week, he would actually get to sit in those seats. Instead, he writes, United's customer service changed the plane type for their flight long after he reserved his tickets. Yet the airline somehow managed to not re-book seats for Mike and his wife at all. When he called to straighten things out, the airline put them on a different flight not sitting together and took away their precious bulkhead seats. United's representatives don't see why Mike has a problem with any of this. More »
Dell Just Calls This $150 Upsell What It Is
By Laura Northrup on March 18, 2010 11:15 AM
29 Comments
Dell has given up even pretending to be subtle. They've just gone ahead and call their offer of in-home programming for your Logitech Harmony remote control what it is—an upsell. More »
(pterjan)
Paris Subway Platforms Transformed Into Large, Very Loud Living Rooms
By Laura Northrup on March 17, 2010 5:48 PM
24 Comments
Have you ever secretly wished that the subway platform you were waiting on could be transformed into a comfy living room? Or at least a living room furnished by IKEA? For another week, you can experience just that in four stops on Paris's Métro system. Instead of molded plastic seats, have a seat on an Ektorp couch! More »
Hey, Nerds! Your Takeout Order Is Ready
By Laura Northrup on March 17, 2010 3:01 PM
104 Comments
Whoever wrote up this Macaroni Grill guest check apparently looked at the customers waiting for the order, then called it as they saw it. More »
This 1-Year-Old Happy Meal Has Aged Surprisingly Well
By Laura Northrup on March 17, 2010 2:30 PM
83 Comments
Have you ever wondered what a McDonald's Happy Meal looks like after it's sat on a shelf (not in a freezer) for a year? This seems like one of those things I would learn accidentally, but writer Nonna Joann Bruso decided to find out on purpose.
The results? Not as disgusting as you might think, which itself is sort of disgusting. More »
Old Navy Restricts Drunken Revelry To Ages 13 And Up
By Laura Northrup on March 17, 2010 12:45 PM
21 Comments
Michael found this festive "I Rish I Was Drunk" button in an Old Navy store earlier this month. The fine print at the bottom warns, "Not intended for 12 years and under." Ages thirteen and up? Pass the Guinness, apparently. More »
Food Companies Start Listening To Customers, Ditch High Fructose Corn Syrup
By Laura Northrup on March 17, 2010 12:00 PM
131 Comments
Do Americans feel strongly enough about high fructose corn syrup to seek out food without it? Will anyone go out of their way and pay extra to find soda or ketchup without the controversial corn-based sweetener? AdAge reports that some companies are removing it from their products, but have discovered that marketing the change without alienating consumers who weren't aware of or simply don't care about the presence of HFCS poses unique problems. More »
Join Church Of Nationwide Insurance, Get Accident Forgiveness
By Laura Northrup on March 17, 2010 11:00 AM
69 Comments
Sean received an exciting promotional letter from Nationwide Insurance a few weeks ago. Did you know that Nationwide has its own imaginary patron saint? It's true! Is this mailing a lighthearted way to sell the idea of "accident forgiveness," or a culturally and religiously insensitive ad campaign? Sean thinks it's the latter. What do you think? More »
Microsoft EECB Saves The Day When Zune Leaks Battery Acid
By Laura Northrup on March 14, 2010 10:00 PM
19 Comments
Tristan tells Consumerist that his Zune was about two years old and out of warranty when it began leaking battery acid on his hand. Appalled at the options that regular customer service offered, he used techniques from the Consumerist toolbox and empowered himself. He used our guide to crafting an Executive E-mail Carpet Bomb, and found contact information for Microsoft executives on the site as well. Getting his case in front of a person with actual authority earned Tristan a free repair of his obviously defective Zune. More »
Will This Food Kill Me? Ask The Internet
By Laura Northrup on March 14, 2010 5:00 PM
48 Comments
Last month, we posted about a Slate article encouraging people to depend on their senses and instincts when deciding whether food is safe to eat, rather than going solely by printed expiration or "sell by" dates. "Is the food slimy and smelly?" that post proclaimed. "Don't eat it." But if you doubt your own judgment and are unsure of the exact level of smelliness and sliminess that is acceptable for you and your family, the Livejournal community Can I Eat This? is here to help you navigate the scary world of your own refrigerator. More »
Best Buy Sends Your Playstation 3 To New Jersey. You Live In Missouri.
By Laura Northrup on March 14, 2010 3:00 PM
74 Comments
Steve writes that his brother used to live in New Jersey. He now lives in Missouri. When ordering a Playstation 3 from Best Buy, he repeatedly corrected his address in Best Buy's system, but somehow the PS3 still ended up shipped to his former address in New Jersey. Now Best Buy doesn't intend to do anything until Steve's brother convinces the current occupant of his former home in New Jersey to send the PS3 back. Good luck with that. More »
(joelogon)
CDC Used Shopper Loyalty Cards To Solve Mysterious Salmonella Outbreak
By Laura Northrup on March 14, 2010 1:00 PM
36 Comments
The shopper loyalty cards that your grocery store provides can have a higher purpose than giving you discounts, profiling your shopping habits, and racking up points for rewards programs. Loyalty card data can also help track down the source of foodborne pathogens, retaining records of specific brands and items that customers probably won't remember. Trying to find the source of a mysterious salmonella outbreak, the CDC mined grocery loyalty card data to narrow the source down to specific brands of Italian cured meat. More »
Ticketmaster CAPTCHA Editorializes On Late Night TV Wars
By Laura Northrup on March 14, 2010 11:00 AM
22 Comments
While looking at tickets for Conan O'Brien's upcoming comedy tour, Aaron came across this strangely appropriate CAPTCHA.
Walmart Fires Employee For Using Medical Marijuana
By Laura Northrup on March 14, 2010 9:00 AM
220 Comments
Warning: Even if medical marijuana is legal in your state and you have a valid prescription, your employer can still fire you for using it. A Michigan man learned this the hard way after failing a drug test given by his employer of five years, Walmart. More »
TruGreen Not Impressed With The Job TruGreen Is Doing On Your Lawn
By Laura Northrup on March 13, 2010 7:30 PM
83 Comments
Paul received a door hanger from with a nice personal note from a salesman for the lawn care company TruGreen. "I see you're treating the weeds already, but I have licensed techs, who use industrial strength products," he wrote. "Give us a call to see aggressive gauranteed [sic] results!" How perceptive! Paul could almost take it seriously were his current lawn care company not TruGreen. More »
Laptop Sets Off Smoke Alarm, HP Just Keeps Putting New Defective Parts In
By Laura Northrup on March 13, 2010 5:30 PM
53 Comments
Ryan tells Consumerist that his HP dv2700se laptop has been problematic, losing wireless connectivity, and overheating a bit. And when I say "a bit," I mean "tried to set his desk on fire." HP's solution? Keep replacing the graphics processing unit (GPU) with the same flawed part until his warranty runs out. Ryan does not find this solution acceptable. Here is his story, with pictures. More »
Consumer Reports Quantifies Waste Due To Stupid Packaging
By Laura Northrup on March 13, 2010 9:30 AM
83 Comments
Do you squeeze every last bit of toothpaste out of the tube, and remove the spout to get every last drop of detergent out of the bottle? You're reading Consumerist, so you very well might. But sometimes extreme measures are needed to get everything out. Our sister publication Consumer Reports noticed this, and applied some mad science to see exactly how much product people are paying for, but leaving behind. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
More »
By Laura Northrup on March 12, 2010 5:00 PM
15 Comments
Here are nine of the subjectively best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Be sure to check out the perpetual Photo Gallery right here on the site to see the latest additions all week long! More »
Old Navy Refunds Entire Coat Purchase Price When Buttons Fall Off
By Laura Northrup on March 12, 2010 3:45 PM
37 Comments
Old Navy produces solid, inexpensive clothing, but isn't a brand that one normally associates with high-end customer service. Yet Ashley had such a great experience after a catastrophic coat button loss, she just had to share. She tells Consumerist that after some decorative buttons fell off her coat, the company simply gave her a store credit for the full purchase price of the coat. More »
(Ack Ook)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on March 12, 2010 2:30 PM
75 Comments
Check Out The Secret McMenu Item That's Sweeping SF, The Mc10:35
Why Was I Banned From Walmart For Not Showing My Receipt?
Homeless Guy Lives On Rewards Points From His Former Life
Burgled Domino's Delivery Guy Ordered To Pay Back Money Stolen From Him More »
Restaurant: We Don't Charge Enough For This Food, So You Can't Have A Doggie Bag
By Laura Northrup on March 12, 2010 1:00 PM
513 Comments
If you order food, should you be able to take the uneaten portion home with you? Sure, you can't take home a box full of roast beef and shrimp from an all-you-can eat buffet, but can you take home half of a cheeseburger from a chain restaurant? Jennifer writes that the staff at the McCormick and Schmick's that she visited recently don't seem to think so. Her boyfriend wasn't allowed to take the uneaten portion of his burger and fries home because it was purchased during happy hour, at happy hour prices. More »
Are You Eligible For Tax Credits? Follow This Handy Flowchart
By Laura Northrup on March 12, 2010 12:35 PM
20 Comments
Do you suspect you may be eligible for tax credits for to purchasing a new home or remodeling an existing one, but would like a sleek, simple infographic to guide you? Fixr is here to help, with a simple guide to this year's tax credits. More »
Consumer Reports Tests 3D Televisions, Goofy Glasses
By Laura Northrup on March 12, 2010 11:00 AM
63 Comments
We might have all of the cat pictures here at Consumerist, but our sibling publication, Consumer Reports, gets to play with very cool toys. Right now, the folks in the TV-testing lab have some of the exciting new 3D televisions from Panasonic and Samsung, and they made a preliminary video to show them off and weigh the pros and cons of being an early 3D TV adopter. Sorry, the video is only in 2D. More »
Netflix Changes Movie Page Setup, Users Freak Out
By Laura Northrup on March 11, 2010 5:06 PM
63 Comments
Have you noticed Netflix's new movie information page? A lot of other people have. The new, cleaner layout rearranges the user interface a bit, and removes social features from movie pages—you can't see which of your friends have watched, rated, or reviewed that particular movie. Is this a good move, or a terrible one? More »
CDW Puts Small Item In Medium Box, Then Puts Medium Box In Large Box
By Laura Northrup on March 11, 2010 3:30 PM
40 Comments
Michael really has no complaints against CDW. He's just amused at the size of the box that they sent his serial adapter (that small metal thing at bottom right) in. He writes: More »
This Overstock.com Banner Ad Is Only A Cruel Joke
By Laura Northrup on March 11, 2010 3:00 PM
37 Comments
Sometimes banner ads online promise a great price, but do not reflect actual reality. That's the sad lesson that reader Ricky writes that he learned recently after clicking on a banner ad for Overstock.com. See, the banner advertised products for sale at Overstock.com and bore the company's logo, but the company did not produce the ad, and the prices are not real. More »
(GitEmSteveDave)
Ask The Consumerists: Would You Use A Credit Card With Your Photo On It?
By Laura Northrup on March 11, 2010 1:30 PM
122 Comments
Thinking about the controversy over asking for ID during credit card purchases, and the competing values of privacy and safety, Daniel had an interesting idea—though it isn't a new idea. What if credit cards were photo IDs, and had our pictures on them? Logistical nightmare, or handy fraud-prevention tool? More »
Chase Thinks Boston Non-Smoker Bought $100 Worth Of Smokes In Florida
By Laura Northrup on March 11, 2010 12:55 PM
36 Comments
Now that Chase has reversed their initial decision and issued a refund to the retiree they accused of credit card fraud, maybe they can take a look at a rather similar case, but on a smaller scale. Reader P tells Consumerist that Chase ruled that he is responsible for some uncharacteristic purchases he purportedly made thousands of miles away from where he was at the time. More »
Consumer Protection Agency May Exempt Payday Lenders, Pawn Shops, Entire Point
By Laura Northrup on March 11, 2010 11:44 AM
40 Comments
The Washington Post reports that thanks to legislative compromise, banks and mortgage brokers may be the only financial institutions regulated by the proposed federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency—leaving entities that loan money but don't hold bank charters, such as auto dealers, pawn shops, and payday lenders, unregulated by the industry. Now an unholy alliance of banking industry groups and consumer advocates are fighting the proposal, each for their own reasons. More »
(YouTube)
Man Dies In Freak Gas Pump Fire Caused By Static Electricity
By Laura Northrup on March 10, 2010 4:47 PM
98 Comments
A Pennsylvania man died last Friday in a freak fire at a gas station. Authorities say that the fire was sparked by static electricity on the man's body, and he died of inhalation of superheated gases. While this type of fire is very rare and fatalities even rarer, they do happen. To prevent them, you should do something terribly mundane: do not ever get back in your car while fueling, and make sure to touch a metal surface before fueling. More »
(rmgustaf)
Sallie Mae's Customer Advocate Unit Makes Up For Regular Customer Service
By Laura Northrup on March 10, 2010 4:00 PM
14 Comments
Jen wrote to Consumerist to let us know that the number we posted in August for student loan servier Sallie Mae's Customer Advocate Unit is still valid and staffed with extremely helpful people.. She cut through the nonsense of regular customer service who were unable to help, then hung up on her. More »
Chase Returns Retired Teacher's Stolen $6,200
By Laura Northrup on March 10, 2010 3:30 PM
28 Comments
For some reason, Chase bank decided to take a second look at the $6,200 an unidentified person removed from Bronx retiree Ernest Nitzberg's checking account. It just might have been the outcry after he shared his story with a global audience on the Huffington Post. More »
Scarves With Microwaveable Heat Packs Recalled Due To Fire And Burn Hazard
By Laura Northrup on March 10, 2010 2:20 PM
22 Comments
The Therma Scarf, a polyester/cotton blend scarf with pockets and microwaveable heat packs marketed by infomercial powerhouse Telebrands, has been recalled. The scarf's heat packs, made of flaxseeds, pose a fire and burn hazard to wearers. In a related story, someone actually thought it would be a good idea to make a microwaveable scarf with pockets. More »
5-Year-Old Speaker Dies, Logitech Replaces Entire System For Free
By Laura Northrup on March 10, 2010 12:30 PM
50 Comments
Sifting through readers' customer service stories, it seems that Logitech has really great customer service, and the company stands by its products: once you're actually able to get hold of them. Reader Matt writes that when he called in looking for a replacement for a dead speaker, expecting to pay for it, Logitech simply shipped him an entire new system instead. For free. More »
Domino's Gross-Out Video Star Gets 24 Months Probation
By Laura Northrup on March 10, 2010 11:00 AM
28 Comments
Last spring, two morons videotaped themselves doing unspeakable things to the food they were about to serve at an unidentified Domino's restaurant. The video was posted to YouTube, and the situation didn't end well for anyone.
Based on a few clues, Consumerist commenters tracked the specific location down. The employees behind the video lost their jobs, that location closed a few months later, and no one could eat products from Domino's without imagining that parts of their meal had been crammed up someone's nose. While camerawoman Kristy Hammonds is still waiting for her trial, star Michael Setzer has been sentenced to 24 months of supervised probation. More »
Amazon Offers $25 Gift Card To Disappointed Comics Fans After Epic Price Glitch
By Laura Northrup on March 10, 2010 2:15 AM
24 Comments
On Sunday, I heard rumblings of a wondrous event from my comics-loving friends. Amazon had marked lots of great graphic novels and other goodness from Marvel and independent publishers down to impossibly low prices. Lower than wholesale prices. Think $15 for a book that normally costs $125. Was it a clearance? A fire sale? A database error? Who cares? Time to go shopping. More »
Eddie Bauer Outlet Destroys Unsold Clothing, Throws It Away
By Laura Northrup on March 7, 2010 7:30 PM
156 Comments
Reader W.J. is a dumpster diver. During the controversy over H&M and Walmart destroying unsold clothing in Manhattan a few months ago, experienced dumpster divers pointed out that this is nothing new. W.J. e-mailed Consumerist about her recent find in the trash of an unnamed Eddie Bauer outlet store, and also made a video of her finds and how they were rendered unusable before throwing away. More »
Ubisoft Authentication Servers Go Down, No One Can Play Anything
By Laura Northrup on March 7, 2010 5:30 PM
80 Comments
Hey, remember a few weeks ago when we posted about Ubisoft's draconian DRM measures that keep players from saving their progress if their Internet connection goes out? Today, players found out what's even worse than that: the authentication servers going down. [The Escapist]
Chase Tells 44-Year Customer He Fits Fraud Profile, Stole $6200 From Himself
By Laura Northrup on March 7, 2010 4:00 PM
63 Comments
Over at the Huffington Post, retired teacher Ernest Nitzberg blogged about the experience that made him sever his 44-year banking relationship with Chase. He writes that Chase accuses him of using a debit card that he was never issued to buy $6200 worth of merchandise that he was unlikely to want or need. Makes perfect sense to us, too. More »
ABC7 Cuts Off Cablevision Customers Just In Time For Oscars
By Laura Northrup on March 7, 2010 3:00 PM
72 Comments
Oscar is being held hostage in the latest battle between the New York City-area ABC affiliate and cable provider Cablevision. At midnight last night, ABC7 cut off their feed to Cablevision, leaving millions Oscarless. This caught our attention not only because it was a spectacularly obnoxious negotiating ploy on ABC's part, but also because local media are giving Cablevision customers some pretty bad advice. More »
If You Have Difficulty Operating Eggs, Try An EZ Cracker
By Laura Northrup on March 7, 2010 2:00 PM
92 Comments
You know what piece of technology confuses a lot of people? Eggs. At least that's the impression I get from the existence of the EZ Cracker, a device which cracks and separates eggs for people who are probably too helpless to be allowed near a stove. Oh, and their commercial has—why not—Wendy from the old Snapple commercials. More »
Well, This Employment Graph Is Just Terrifying
By Laura Northrup on March 7, 2010 12:00 PM
71 Comments
This graph shows employment declines at the same chronological point during America's last six recessions. Guess which one represents the current recession. Go ahead, guess. [New York Times] (Thanks, Dan!)
Salmonella In Common Food Additive Leads To Recall Of Pretty Much Every Food Ever
By Laura Northrup on March 7, 2010 10:00 AM
80 Comments
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein is a flavor enhancer, similar in composition and tastiness to the much-maligned monosodium glutamate, that is seemingly unavoidable. Thanks to salmonella contamination in the HVP paste at Basic Food Flavors, Inc. in Las Vegas, the FDA has recalled every food containing the product, ranging from salty snacks to salad dressings to soup and gravy mixes. The list of recalled foods containing the product is still growing, and encompasses familiar brand names ranging from Walmart's Great Value brand to McCormick to Trader Joe's. Now we now get to find out exactly how complex our food supply is and how widely used an additive HVP is. More »
Indiana County Won't Prosecute Stores With Redboxes
By Laura Northrup on March 7, 2010 8:00 AM
66 Comments
The Indiana prosecutor who sent letters threatening criminal prosecution to grocery and big-box stores containing video rental kiosks has decided not to prosecute because the general public thinks that the idea is incredibly stupid. More »
Best Buy Doesn't Really Want To Sell Any $300 Headphones
By Laura Northrup on March 6, 2010 6:00 PM
140 Comments
Chris tells Consumerist that he wanted to exchange $300 for a pair of headphones, but Best Buy was uninterested in actually selling them to him. Which is odd, since we thought that was the point of this whole "retail" thing. More »
(sfxeric)
How Can I Make The Scamtastic Junk Mail Stop?
By Laura Northrup on March 6, 2010 4:00 PM
51 Comments
Jon needs help in getting out from under a pile of junk mail. He writes that after falling for a psychic scam, his grandparents have ended up on mailing lists advertising every scam imaginable. They receive about one hundred pieces of mail per week. He wants to stop the deluge, but isn't sure how. Can the Consumerist hive mind help him? More »
Who Will Advocate For Toyota Owners In Japan?
By Laura Northrup on March 6, 2010 2:00 PM
15 Comments
Toyota has been criticized—and rightly so—for its handling of the recall clusterfracas in the United States and Europe. But how many cars have been recalled for possible unintended acceleration issues in Japan, where consumer protections are much weaker than in the U.S., Canada, and the E.U.? According to today's New York Times, that would be zero. Even though some Japanese drivers have had similar runaway acceleration incidents, consumer protection in Japan is weak and the government tends to side with industry. This means that car owners experiencing problems have nowhere to turn. More »
(JFeister)
Having A Problem With Chase Bank? Here's Where To Turn
By Laura Northrup on March 6, 2010 10:00 AM
3 Comments
We have a lot of executive customer service contact information for Chase credit cards, but not as much for Chase bank. That's all about to change, my friends. Here's someone you can turn to if you have problems with the banking side of Chase. Remember, only pester executive customer service contacts once you've exhausted all other options. More »
Sorry, You Only Get DirecTV Referral Bonus If You Call Special Referral Number
By Laura Northrup on March 6, 2010 8:00 AM
61 Comments
David referred a friend to DirecTV. The satellite provider has a pretty neat referral program, promising a discount to both the new customer and the person who referred them to DirecTV. Well, theoretically. David writes that he and his friend learned that in order to get their referral discounts, the new customer has to either sign up on the Web or call a special number. He didn't know this, and now neither he nor his friend will get their discounts. More »
(gaab22)
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on March 5, 2010 7:00 PM
8 Comments
Here are eight of the subjectively best photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. There is, of course, a cat picture. Be sure to check out the perpetual Photo Gallery right here on the site to see the latest additions all week long! More »
Xbox Live No Longer Bans Gay People From Describing Themselves
By Laura Northrup on March 5, 2010 3:00 PM
48 Comments
One of Xbox Live's more irksome policies has been that if your gamertag happens to mention that you are gay or lesbian, that's not permitted. (Or if you use your real name, which happens to contain the letters G-A-Y in that order.) But Microsoft has changed their code of conduct, and this policy is no more. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on March 5, 2010 2:15 PM
67 Comments
Do A Total Background Check On Yourself
Comcast: 'Unlimited Usage' Doesn't Mean 'Unlimited Usage'
Please Stop Sending Us Photos Of This Recalled Keychain
Chase: Just Ignore That Strange Patriot Act Letter Someone Sent You
By Laura Northrup on March 5, 2010 12:31 PM
61 Comments
Chris is not impressed with his recent interaction with Chase, his bank. He writes that he received a letter telling him that his credit card had been closed because it lacked Patriot Act verification. This would be less of a concern if he actually had the credit card in question. Chase told him to "go ahead and disregard" the letter. He's now considering switching banks. More »
Strangely Beautiful Map Shows Territory Controlled In The Fast Food Wars
By Laura Northrup on March 5, 2010 11:15 AM
71 Comments
I had always assumed that McDonalds' hamburger hegemony of the United States, if not the world, was complete. I was wrong. Clearly, I need to leave the Northeast more. The above map shows the dominant burger chains in different parts of the United States. The black dots represent the density of McDonald's, and other colors represent...everyone else. More »
Indiana Prosecutor Wants PG, PG-13, And R-Rated Movies Out Of Redbox Kiosks
By Laura Northrup on March 4, 2010 6:31 PM
179 Comments
Redbox kiosks are cheap and convenient sources for DVD rentals. And, according to a prosecutor in southern Indiana, they're corrupting our children. Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Stanley Levco has sent letters threatening legal action against retailers providing space to Redbox and MovieCube kiosks. The problem? Automated kiosks don't have enough safeguards preventing minors from renting material that could theoretically harm them. More »
US Fidelis Files Chapter 11, No Longer Sells Warranty-Like Objects
By Laura Northrup on March 4, 2010 4:30 PM
23 Comments
Extended car warranty company US Fidelis already stopped selling new car service contracts and laid off over half of their staff at the end of 2009, and has now filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. More »
Cablevision Produces New Bitchy Video Loop Aimed At ABC
By Laura Northrup on March 4, 2010 3:32 PM
47 Comments
New York City area cable provider and ISP Cablevision is in a contract renewal fight with yet another content provider. This time, it's ABC's flagship broadcast station WABC that wants more money, and Cablevision has raised the stakes in the passive-aggressive public service announcement wars. They've redirected customers' cable boxes to a special channel where a looped announcement plays, and have started a YouTube channel to get the word out to any non-customers who might happen to care. More »
Newegg's Overnight Shipping Takes Several Days
By Laura Northrup on March 4, 2010 1:00 PM
67 Comments
Imagine it: you're trying to patch things up with an estranged parent, and send a thoughtful gift for their birthday. You pay more than $50 for overnight shipping, and wait for the gift to arrive. Only 48 hours later, the item hasn't even shipped yet, while an identical item headed for another recipient, sent using standard shipping, has already shipped. What? That's what reader Janet writes happened to her when she ordered a coffee machine from Newegg for her mother's birthday. More »
Don't Let AT&T Convince You That Your Phone Needs A Data Plan
By Laura Northrup on March 4, 2010 12:00 PM
50 Comments
At the beginning of February, we began hearing from AT&T Wireless customers who AT&T helped out by putting them on a smartphone data plan that they didn't ask for. AT&T Wireless implemented this policy back in the fall for new subscribers, and is now apparently identifying smartphone users and putting them on data plans. However, you don't have to keep the plan if you'd rather not...as long as you bought the phone before September 6, 2009 or it is an unlocked device. More »
Why Won't Tupperware Send Me My Cereal Bowl Lids?
By Laura Northrup on March 4, 2010 11:27 AM
30 Comments
Brandy likes Tupperware very much. Well, she used to. She writes that when she sent in for a warranty replacement for some of her items, the company neglected to send her the coordinating lids...and now won't answer her e-mails. Without its lid, a Tupperware cereal bowl is just a plastic bowl. And what's the point of that? More »
Hot Topic And Comic Artist Settle Plagiarism Dispute
By Laura Northrup on March 3, 2010 6:30 PM
19 Comments
The controversy involving mallternative retailer Hot Topic stealing text and images from web comic Kawaii Not is settled. This wasn't a case of outright theft, but of miscommunication between companies. More »
Court Awards Custody Of Grandmother's Frozen Head To Cryonics Company
By Laura Northrup on March 3, 2010 4:05 PM
44 Comments
There are many things that a family needs to consider and in the weeks and months after a loved one's death. A court battle over legal custody of her frozen head should not be one of those things, but that's what a Colorado family faces after the death of their 71-year-old grandmother. More »
(orphum)
Foodborne Illness Costs U.S. $152 Billion Annually, Still Good Excuse To Skip Work
By Laura Northrup on March 3, 2010 2:13 PM
29 Comments
It may seem like a minor inconvenience when you're home sick with some kind of foodborne illness, but the overall cost of these illnesses to our economy is huge—and staggering when you consider how many foodborne illnesses are preventable. A new study from the Produce Safety Project, a Pew Charitable Trusts initiative, shows that foodborne illness costs $152 billion nationwide each year in medical care and quality of life. More »
(elvissa)
One Knife Breaks, KitchenAid Replaces The Whole Set
By Laura Northrup on March 3, 2010 2:00 PM
31 Comments
Starla used to have a wonderful set of red-handled knives from KitchenAid. While washing dishes, one day she dropped a large knife into the sink, somehow cracking the blade down the middle. This wouldn't do. She contacted KitchenAid to find out whether they would replace the broken knife, which was only a few years old. Since the red set had been discontinued, they just sent her a whole new set of knives. More »
Way To Defeat The Entire Point Of Streaming Video, Netflix
By Laura Northrup on March 3, 2010 12:28 PM
94 Comments
Netflix has the five-part miniseries "Torchwood: Children of Earth" available for Instant Streaming. (It's good. You should watch it.) Cameron would like to watch it, but doesn't really see the point. For some reason, the second of five episodes can't be streamed, and must be watched on DVD. More »
Reach The CEO's Office At TiVo
By Laura Northrup on March 3, 2010 11:00 AM
12 Comments
Are you struggling with a problem with TiVo that regular customer service can't solve? Send your complaint to the office of President and CEO Tom Rogers at trogers@tivo.com, and you'll hear back from someone in the Executive Relations department. (Thanks to reader IndyJaws for the info!)
Why Does Spicy Hormel Pepperoni Cost More Than Original Flavor?
By Laura Northrup on February 28, 2010 6:00 PM
49 Comments
The blogger known as HolyJuan made a horrible discovery after purchasing some Hormel brand pepperoni. By purchasing the "Hot & Spicy" pepperoni, he paid the same price per bag for three fewer ounces of pepperoni goodness than the original flavor. What is this nonsense? More »
Do Not Go To Kmart In Speedos And Terrorize Customers With A Sex Toy
By Laura Northrup on February 28, 2010 4:00 PM
32 Comments
That headline may have ruined your plans for the remainder of the weekend, but it's for your own good. Seven college-age men were caught doing just that on Saturday at a Panama City Beach, Florida Kmart store. Police intervened, but the store did not prosecute. More »
(Jay Adan)
Man Spends $700 On Cell Phone Minutes To Get $700 Unemployment Check
By Laura Northrup on February 28, 2010 2:00 PM
110 Comments
Filing for unemployment benefits can be an exhausting bureaucratic mess, but it shouldn't cost you hundreds of dollars. In theory. According to TV station KOB, though, a New Mexico man spent so many hours on hold with the unemployment office that he ran up a $700 cell phone bill. More »
School Watched Student On Webcam On Suspicion Of Drug Dealing
By Laura Northrup on February 28, 2010 11:42 AM
154 Comments
Man, I can't wait to see the "Law & Order" episode they're going to make out of this. The family who filed a class action lawsuit against their son's school district for allegedly spying on their son at home through the webcam of his school-issued Macbook has demanded to see the actual photos and other digital records pertaining to the case. The family claims that the school was watching the him on suspicion that he was using and selling drugs. They insist that the incriminating photos caught him ... eating candy. More »
(Samsung)
Virgin Mobile Isn't Quite Clear On The Meaning Of "Playlist"
By Laura Northrup on February 28, 2010 10:00 AM
77 Comments
Jennifer writes that she bought a new phone, a Samsung Mantra, based on the features listed for the phone on Virgin Mobile's web site. The problem is that the phone doesn't actually seem to have the advertised features that led her to buy the phone in the first place. More »
(vitroid)
Want To Help With Chile Earthquake Relief? Here Are Some Ideas
By Laura Northrup on February 28, 2010 8:00 AM
19 Comments
Are you looking for ways to help out the groups providing relief after the massive earthquake that hit Chile? Yahoo has made a nice list of groups that have confirmed that they are sending teams to Chile, and you can also donate by text message. More »
Hey, Best Buy, Way To Drive Another Customer Away With "Optimization" Nonsense
By Laura Northrup on February 27, 2010 7:00 PM
110 Comments
J. in California tells Consumerist that he liked Best Buy. He was a loyal customer until he attempted to buy a laptop there for a friend, and ran up against a brick wall of strangeness and dysfunction, all in the name of... Geek Squad optimization. More »
Hot Topic Steals Adorable Designs From Webcomic
By Laura Northrup on February 27, 2010 5:00 PM
37 Comments
Update: Meghan and Hot Topic have settled this situation. Fans of the adorable webcomic Kawaii Not were surprised to discover buttons made from comic panels for sale at Hot Topic. The problem? The artist sort of didn't license the designs to Hot Topic, and they are copyrighted. Artist Meghan Murphy does sell her own buttons...and these aren't those. More »
Yelp Accused Of More Negative Review Extortion
By Laura Northrup on February 27, 2010 3:00 PM
43 Comments
Yet again, business owners are accusing massive review site Yelp of extortion—and they've filed a class action lawsuit. This time, instead of guaranteeing positive reviews in exchange for cupcakes, the site is accused of contacting business owners and offering to remove their negative reviews for money. In a written statement, Yelp denied the allegations and noted, "Running a good business is hard; filing a lawsuit is easy." More »
Please Stop Sending Us Photos Of This Recalled Keychain
By Laura Northrup on February 27, 2010 1:00 PM
54 Comments
For some reason, this Tinkerbell keychain from yesterday's Recall Roundup caught people's attention and they keep pointing it out to us. Please stop. More »
Why Is The President Of Toyota Named Toyoda?
By Laura Northrup on February 27, 2010 12:00 PM
39 Comments
Why do the Toyota car company and the Toyoda family that founded it have different names? It's not because of transliteration magic exactly: it's because the company changed the characters that form its name in order to have a luckier number of brush strokes, and aid in their quest for world vehicular domination. Or something. More »
Great Value Detergent Is A Better Value If You Hack A Hole In The Side
By Laura Northrup on February 27, 2010 9:00 AM
81 Comments
Josh got down to the bottom of his bottle of Walmart's Great Value house brand laundry detergent and made a terrible discovery. Poor bottle design means that most customers aren't using all of the detergent that they pay for. He found an extremely unattractive, yet effective solution to the problem. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
By Laura Northrup on February 26, 2010 6:30 PM
3 Comments
Here are seven wonderful photos readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Also, be sure to check out our new Photo Gallery to see the latest additions all week long! More »
(Noir_cl)
Ask The Consumerists: How Do You Stay Calm When You're Being Wronged?
By Laura Northrup on February 26, 2010 5:17 PM
100 Comments
Stacey has an interesting question for the Consumerist hive mind. She wonders: when you are in the middle of a grave consumer injustice, how do you stay calm? How do you hold on to your temper and stay professional, whether on the phone or dealing with a company in person? More »
Watch Baseball With No Blackouts - Blackout Restrictions May Apply
By Laura Northrup on February 26, 2010 4:30 PM
28 Comments
Andrew sent us this perplexing banner from MLB.tv. He saw it on the Atlanta Braves' web site. "NO BLACKOUTS!" it proclaims. Then at the bottom: "Blackout and other restrictions apply." Well, at least the banner ad is honest.
The iMaxi Is A Disturbingly Appropriate iPad Case
By Laura Northrup on February 26, 2010 3:31 PM
55 Comments
There are a lot of people who don't like the name of the iPad, Apple's upcoming device that will save the news industry, destroy the nettop market, cure cancer, and save the princess. This is because the name makes them think of feminine hygiene products. An Etsy seller took the product's name as inspiration, and has produced the iMaxi: a handmade, utilitarian case designed to protect your iPad and look exactly like a gigantic menstrual pad. More »
Recall Roundup: Product Recall Merit Badge Edition
By Laura Northrup on February 26, 2010 2:40 PM
15 Comments
The past few weeks in product recalls: lots and lots of lead and salmonella. Not in the same products. As far as we know. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on February 26, 2010 1:31 PM
67 Comments
VIDEO: Owner Describes Surviving Out Of Control Lexus
Theater VP: Go F*** Yourself, Here are Directions To Another Theater
Caribbean Cruise Ship Turns Into Diarrhea Nightmare Vessel
Blueberry Rain Check Leads To Epic Battle, Police Intervention, Changes At Walmart
By Laura Northrup on February 26, 2010 11:30 AM
57 Comments
Walmart offers rain checks. Not everyone is aware of this, including people who work at and manage Walmart stores. The mega-retailer has few advertised specials that would require rain checks, you see. That's how a disabled Florida senior citizen ended up having the police called in and being banned for life from Walmart after he tried to get a rain check for a pint of blueberries. More »
Muslim Hollister Employee Fired Because Of Headscarf
By Laura Northrup on February 25, 2010 5:55 PM
266 Comments
Update: This is the new discrimination incident that this post was about. Sorry for the link mixup. There are evidently a lot of things that violate the "look policy" of Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister stores. For example, having a prosthetic arm. Or wearing an Islamic head scarf. According to the complaint a California woman filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a Hollister store hired her, then fired after a visit from a district manager who found the scarf inappropriate work attire. More »
Snob Snuggie Combines Style, Warmth And Smug Self-Satisfaction
By Laura Northrup on February 25, 2010 5:00 PM
12 Comments
There is the Snuggie that you wear while watching American Idol and eating Cheetos. That's the regular, plebeian fleece Snuggie. Then there is the Snuggie that you wear while reading continental philosophy and eating havarti with dill on organic rice crisps. That is the "happiness in bed" sleeved blanket. Or, as Buzzfeed calls it, the Snob Snuggie. [Sleeved Blanket] (via Buzzfeed)
Weird-Tasting Girl Scout Cookies Recalled
By Laura Northrup on February 25, 2010 4:40 PM
52 Comments
Some Girl Scout cookies have been recalled because they "contain oils that may be breaking down which can result in an off taste and smell." Fortunately, only the lemon creme sandwich cookies were affected, and nobody likes those anyway. More »
Warning: Your Older MacBook's Hard Drive May Self-Destruct At Any Time
By Laura Northrup on February 25, 2010 12:45 PM
45 Comments
You should be backing up the data you keep on your laptop in case of hardware failure, theft, or an unexpected cup of coffee on your keyboard. This bit of common computer sense has a bit more urgency if you own certain MacBooks sold in 2006 and 2007, since their hard drives may fail suddenly with no notice. Fortunately, Apple has a free repair program: but only until the computer is (at most) four years old, and only once your hard drive has already failed. More »
Oneida Actually Means The Whole "Guarantee" Thing
By Laura Northrup on February 25, 2010 12:00 PM
38 Comments
Thomas bought a set of Oneida flatware about a dozen years ago. He writes that he assumed that he just needed to buy new knives when his came apart at the handles, but someone advised him to contact the company. He did, and was amazed at Oneida's response to his request. More »
Getting Refund For Defective Treadmill Is Like Running On... Well, You Know
By Laura Northrup on February 25, 2010 11:09 AM
25 Comments
After purchasing a large piece of fitness equipment from Amazon, do not move. Ever. This apparently confuses the customer service representatives and sends you on a two-month odyssey of buck-passing, missed connections, confusion, and consumer mayhem. Vu writes that he has learned this lesson the hard way. He would like Amazon to come pick the damn thing up so he can get his refund. More »
VIDEO: The Daily Show On Credit Card Reform
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2010 5:30 PM
22 Comments
When you are a major national bank, and your fees and policies compare unfavorably to those of a Mafia loan shark, you're probably in trouble. To celebrate the CARD Act going into effect on Monday, last night "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" gave their audience a quick overview of how credit cards work. ("Or maybe they'll just give you a rate hike of 30% for no reason at all. Why? F*** you, that's why!") Then correspondent Wyatt Cenac spoke with two people who have unique insights into how the American lending industry works: former Bank of America credit collections CSR, YouTube star, and Consumerist hero Jackie, and former Mafia loan shark Lou. More »
Pizza Hut Offers Opposite Of Volume Discount For "50 Cent" Chicken Wings
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2010 5:00 PM
52 Comments
Pizza Hut is now running a promotion for 50-cent chicken wings. That's per wing, not per order. Not the best price around, but a sensible pricing scheme. In theory. Brian writes that he discovered where this promotion begins to fall apart. More »
AT&T Credits New Customer's $200 T-Mobile ETF Just To Be Nice
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2010 3:15 PM
39 Comments
Mike shared with Consumerist a story that is almost baffling for many reasons. First, he writes that T-Mobile charged his wife a $200 ETF when there were only 90 days left on her contract. But then a delightful, wonderful AT&T customer service rep offered a $200 credit for AT&T service—effectively paying her T-Mobile ETF and earning themselves two delighted customers in the process. More »
(Paul V8)
The Inventor Of The Easy-Bake Oven Has Died
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2010 2:07 PM
30 Comments
Ronald Howes had an illustrious career as an inventor. While he did some defense work, what we care most about is his work at toy maker Kenner. There, he helped make Play-Doh less toxic, helped create the modern version of the Spirograph, and invented the Easy-Bake oven. He died last week at age 83. More »
Magical USAA Check-Depositing Smartphone App Now Available For Android
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2010 12:22 PM
38 Comments
Do you envy iPhone users' ability to deposit checks in their USAA accounts by snapping a picture and using a fancy secure app? Now, check-zapping abilities have been granted to phones using Google's Android mobile operating system. More »
Oh Look, There's A Severed Frog Head In My Green Beans
By Laura Northrup on February 24, 2010 11:05 AM
44 Comments
There's some disagreement about the identity of the creature whose head ended up in a Texas family's frozen green beans. Is it a frog? Is it a snake? The family and the vegetable manufacturer disagree, but we do know that it is quite obviously not a bean. (Warning: picture and video inside.) More »
Theater VP: Go F*** Yourself, Here are Directions To Another Theater
By Laura Northrup on February 23, 2010 4:00 PM
365 Comments
Sarah had an unpleasant experience at her local movie theater, and sent a complaint e-mail to the company that runs it. We don't know what response she expected, but it probably wasn't a letter from a company vice president that began, "Drive to [a competing theater] and also go f*** yourself. If you dont have money for entertainment, get a better job, and don't pay for everything on your credit or check card." More »
Sky Mall Kitties Song Celebrates Nonsensical Pet Products
By Laura Northrup on February 22, 2010 2:00 PM
33 Comments
Do you marvel at the ridiculous products in the SkyMall catalog? Musician Nina Katchadourian does, and she has written a song about them, viewed through the lens of the cats featured within its pages. The SkyMall Kitties. More »
Hey, Is This An Apple Store, Or A Computer School?
By Laura Northrup on February 21, 2010 7:00 PM
109 Comments
Mark tells Consumerist that he noticed a disturbing trend while shopping at his local Apple Store this weekend. While using the display models and contemplating a purchase, he and his son were displaced twice to make room for a customer training session. Does the Apple Store still exist to sell computers, Mark wonders, or is it now primarily an educational institution? More »
Gilette Raises Razor Blade Prices, Then Deploys Shrink Ray
By Laura Northrup on February 21, 2010 5:00 PM
132 Comments
Greg is unhappy with Gilette, the maker of his favored razor. He writes that first, they raised the prices (at Walmart, at least.) Then the number of razors in each package decreased, from four to three and from eight to six. Will the indignities never end? More »
Guitar Center Solves Receipt Check Dilemma: Give Receipts At The Door
By Laura Northrup on February 21, 2010 3:00 PM
117 Comments
Tommy reports that he visited a Guitar Center store in Houston, and found what seems like a nice compromise between receipt checking and not receipt checking. Instead of giving out receipts at the cash register, the store gives customers their receipts at the exit, as they leave the store with their merchandise. Since it's hard to put a Stratocaster in a plastic bag. More »
Do Not Steal An ATM, Then Ram A Stolen Truck Into It
By Laura Northrup on February 21, 2010 1:00 PM
32 Comments
Police in East Peoria, Illinois say that an unidentified man used a stolen pickup truck to smash through the door and front window of a gas station and dislodge an ATM from the wall it was bolted to. He then hauled the machine to a parking lot where he attempted to withdraw cash by backing the truck into the ATM. He was not successful, and may have stolen another vehicle to leave the area. More »
Please Prepay This Gas Station In Advance
By Laura Northrup on February 21, 2010 11:00 AM
103 Comments
Reader Neil found this sign on a gas pump near Cleveland. He's disappointed, since he prefers to pre-pay after the transaction is over.
Barnes & Noble Offers Great Battlefield Bad Company 2 Deal, Then Changes Its Mind
By Laura Northrup on February 21, 2010 9:00 AM
55 Comments
For a brief, shining moment, Barnes & Noble let customers pre-order the upcoming PC game Battlefield Bad Company 2 for $19.95, far below the retail price. Gamers were skeptical, but placed orders anyway. Their skepticism was well-founded, since the retailer caught the error and canceled all of the mistaken pre-orders...nine days after the deal began to go viral. More »
Foxconn Workers In Mexico Revolt, Set Factory On Fire
By Laura Northrup on February 20, 2010 9:00 PM
58 Comments
Gizmodo reports, based on a story in the subscription-only El Norte, that workers in a Foxconn factory in Juarez, Mexico became enraged and set the building on fire. Supervisors had misled the workers into working unpaid overtime. A delightful follow-up to the Reuters report about a Foxconn security guard threatening a foreign reporter. [Gizmodo] (Thanks, GitEmSteveDave!)
Who Is The Weird-Looking Guy In This Ad?
By Laura Northrup on February 20, 2010 7:00 PM
58 Comments
If you've spent enough time on the Internet without good ad-blocking software, you've probably seen the odd-looking fellow on the left. He's clearly the product of either a very polluted gene pool or a graphic designer with an odd imagination. But why has he become a mascot for mortgage refinancing and other financial products? MainStreet's Michael Schreiber decided to find out. More »
(brianc)
New General Motors CEO To Receive $9 Million Compensation Package
By Laura Northrup on February 20, 2010 5:00 PM
31 Comments
Ed Whitacre, new CEO of General Motors, will receive a $1.7 million salary and $9 million total compensation package. That's about twice what his predecessor Fritz Henderson received. Don't cry for Henderson, though—he's making almost $3,000 per hour consulting for GM for twenty hours a month. More »
Verizon Not Charging Soldiers For Mobile Calls From Haiti To U.S.
By Laura Northrup on February 20, 2010 3:00 PM
12 Comments
Verizon Wireless now says that the astronomical bills some customers received after making cell phone calls from Haiti shortly after the catastrophic earthquake there last month were due to a computer glitch. According to the Fayetteville Observer, mobile calls placed in Haiti showed up in their system as being placed in Jamaica. Calls from Haiti to the United States should have been free all along, and Spc. James Crawford does not owe Verizon almost $2,000 for phone calls he placed to his pregnant wife back in North Carolina. More »
Make Only Minimum Credit Card Payments, And Your Heirs Will Still Be Paying During The Robot Wars Of 3510
By Laura Northrup on February 20, 2010 1:00 PM
46 Comments
Cracked shares a cautionary tale of what will theoretically happen to a person who makes only the minimum payment on a credit card balance of about $10,000. Like all solid financial advice, it begins with an Amazon.com addiction and ends with the Earth being destroyed two thousand years in the future by a power-mad Bank of America. More »
Inexperienced Attorney Wins Epic Foreclosure Battle Against Wells Fargo
By Laura Northrup on February 20, 2010 9:00 AM
69 Comments
Consumerist's Hero of the Weekend is attorney and writer Wajahat Ali, who fought an epic battle for a home loan modification against Wells Fargo and won. Eventually. It's a well-written and terrifying look into the financial crisis, the state of America's megabanks, and how homeowners in need seemingly stand no chance against the towering indifference, incompetence and confusion of those megabanks. More »
Uncle Milton Offers Whimsical Customer Service, Replacement Tadpole
By Laura Northrup on February 19, 2010 6:30 PM
32 Comments
Elizabeth was raising two tadpoles under the watchful eye of Master Yoda in a frog habitat at work. When tragedy struck and one of the tadpoles suffered an early death, Elizabeth e-mailed a plea for help to the company that made the habitat, Uncle Milton. Her efforts resulted in the shipment of a new tadpole and a wonderfully funny and geeky e-mail exchange, which she shared with the world on her Livejournal. More »
Get A Free Pretzel At Auntie Anne's Tomorrow
By Laura Northrup on February 19, 2010 4:56 PM
5 Comments
Do you have a need for free refined carbohydrates that can't wait for Tuesday's free pancakes at IHOP? Head to your nearest Auntie Anne's pretzel shop between 10 AM and 3 PM tomorrow, [Free Pretzel Day]
Public School Spycams Either A Glitch Or A Security Feature
By Laura Northrup on February 19, 2010 4:18 PM
72 Comments
The Pennsylvania school district accused of using school-issued laptops to spy on their students insists that their ability to activate the computers' webcams from anywhere is a security feature. Oh, but school employees told students earlier that the lights next to their webcams were coming on now and then due to a "glitch." More »
Morningstar Farms Veggie Dogs Disappear, Taking Vegetarians' Dreams With Them
By Laura Northrup on February 19, 2010 12:43 PM
92 Comments
After the Eggo waffle saga, readers implored us to find the whereabouts of another iconic [to vegetarians] American prepared food: the Morningstar Farms veggie dog. The dogs disappeared from stores nationwide sometime in the summer of 2009, but have never returned. More »
I Owe More Taxes Than I Expected: Should I Hire An Accountant?
By Laura Northrup on February 19, 2010 11:08 AM
79 Comments
Tax Cat here! Filing your income taxes can be even more unpleasant than going to the vet for shots. Especially if, like reader Fletcher, you dutifully filled out your tax return and discovered an ugly surprise: you owe more money than you expected. A lot more. More »
You Want Broadband At Home? Fine, British Telecom Wants $70,000
By Laura Northrup on February 18, 2010 6:25 PM
31 Comments
The Walker family, who live in a 150-person village in England, would like to upgrade their dialup Internet connection to broadband. Unfortunately, in order to do that, British Telecom insists that they would need to install higher capacity equipment for the entire village, and send the Walkers the £45,000 ($69,788) bill.
It probably goes without saying that BT has a monopoly. More »
(Ninja M.)
Your iPhone Comes From A Towering Fortress Of Secrecy And Paranoia
By Laura Northrup on February 18, 2010 4:54 PM
35 Comments
You know that your iPhone was made in China, but do you really know where it came from? Reuters recently looked inside the mainland China factories of Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn—manufacturer of many of Apple's best-known devices, including the iPhone. Or just parts of them, since Apple is known for having different parts of a device made in by different companies entirely in order to protect proprietary information. More »
(schatz)
I'm Stuck With A Broken TV From A Bankrupt Retailer. What Do I Do?
By Laura Northrup on February 18, 2010 3:12 PM
60 Comments
Marnin would like some help from the Consumerist hive mind. He writes that his friend purchased a Proscan TV from a retailer that declared bankruptcy a week after the purchase. The TV, of course, More »
Walmart Customer Traffic And Total Sales Down
By Laura Northrup on February 18, 2010 1:31 PM
74 Comments
Is it a good sign or a bad one for the American economy if Walmart's sales are down nationwide? Does it mean that the affluent are back on their feet and no longer forced to shop downscale, or that none of us has any money at all? More »
US Airways Uninterested In Seating Small Children With Parents
By Laura Northrup on February 18, 2010 1:04 PM
154 Comments
You probably don't want to be sandwiched between a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old on an airplane. Know who does, though? Their mother. Unfortunately, one parent, blogger Sierra Black, writes that US Airways is not terribly concerned with making sure that parents and children get to sit together. On a seven-hour flight. The airline placed Black and her two children in the center seats of three different rows in different parts of the plane, but no airline staff seemed to understand why she thought that this was a problem. More »
Public School Issued Laptops To Students With Webcam Spy Software Included
By Laura Northrup on February 18, 2010 11:05 AM
170 Comments
If your child has a school-issued laptop, you may want to leave it closed whenever possible, or just cover up its built-in webcam. A family in Pennsylvania has accused their son's school district of installing software on school-issued laptops that allows officials to spy on students at any time through the laptops' webcams. More »
(eralon)
Taste Tests Show Frozen Diet Meals Now Shockingly Edible
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2010 3:33 PM
41 Comments
Our colleagues at Consumer Reports taste-tested frozen diet meals recently, finding them not just refreshingly frog-free, but surprisingly tasty! More »
Amazon's A-Z Guarantee Achieves Rubik's Cube Justice
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2010 2:02 PM
69 Comments
Jennifer writes that she purchased a Christmas gift from a third-party seller through Amazon, but was disappointed with the condition in which the item arrived—the exterior packaging was crushed. She wasn't happy with the seller's proposed $2 refund on the more than $20 she had paid for expedited shopping, but More »
Edward Cullen Man Pillow: Eternally Yours For Just $45
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2010 12:37 PM
21 Comments
"For all the twilight crazed lonely women in the world, Edward Cullen is finally here to be with you and only you," the product description of the Edward Cullen mannlow begins. Is that a promise, or a threat? Yes, mortals who pine after a fictional and emotionally abusive but sparkly vampire have their own answer to the Girlfriend Pillow. More »
The Valentine's Day Garden Of Discontent
By Laura Northrup on February 17, 2010 11:05 AM
71 Comments
On Valentine's Day, we are expected to show loved ones how much they mean to us by giving them dead plants. For extra style points, we pay strangers to bring these dead plants to the recipient for us. However, on designated flower-giving holidays, the extra demand means that florists can really screw up. Here is this year's crop of Valentine's Day flower failures from the Consumerist Garden of Discontent. More »
Now Your Dog Can Post Mindless Drivel To Twitter, Too
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2010 1:30 PM
52 Comments
Have you always wanted to use an Internet-enabled collar and a Twitter feed to keep up with what your dog is up to when you're out of view? Me either, but Mattel thinks that there might be a market for this sort of thing, and will bring Puppy Tweets to market this summer. More »
Chase Doesn't Want Your Paltry $16 Haiti Relief Donation
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2010 1:00 PM
21 Comments
Chris writes that while closing a Chase credit card, he had to decide what to do with his leftover rewards credit. He tried to donate his rewards to charity, but learned that $16 isn't enough to be considered a valid donation. Bwuh? More »
No, You Can't Have These Cheerios For 14 Cents
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2010 11:00 AM
229 Comments
Phill tells Consumerist that he saw a pricing error on cereal at his local Safeway, and brought it to the attention of store employees. In the process, he tried to invoke Safeway's price guarantee. After all, if the cereal was marked 28 cents per pound (instead of 28 cents per ounce, as it should have been) why shouldn't Phill be able to buy it at that price? Yet the store employees would hear none of it. More »
Brookstone Replaces Broken Electronic Thingy, Delights Skeptical Customer
By Laura Northrup on February 14, 2010 8:00 PM
10 Comments
Reader Deejmer had a lovely experience at Brookstone that he couldn't help but share. He writes that he received a wireless speaker as a gift and grew to love it. When the device died, he couldn't produce the receipt, but his local store was happy to exchange it out for him. Yay! More »
Some Best Buys Still Forcing Computer Optimization, Being Jerks
By Laura Northrup on February 14, 2010 4:00 PM
83 Comments
Michael just fired this EECB off to Best Buy. Apparently, not all stores have received the metaphorical (and literal) memo that they shouldn't (1) Geek Squad optimize every computer in the store, and (2) be total dicks about it. More »
Google Buzz Contact Sharing Not Just Potentially Embarrassing
By Laura Northrup on February 14, 2010 2:00 PM
74 Comments
Google Buzz's amazing integration of Twitter-like functionality and automatically following everyone you know isn't just an annoying and potentially embarrassing feature. For some users, it's a security hazard. More »
Papa John's Heart-Shaped Pizzas Still Heartbreakingly Round
By Laura Northrup on February 14, 2010 12:00 PM
65 Comments
To celebrate Valentine's Day and deliciousness, Shana ordered two heart-shaped pizzas from Papa John's last night. Had she seen our post on this very same pizza last year, she would have been aware that the heart is a lie and the pizza is only vaguely heart-shaped-ish. But Papa John somehow managed to do even worse this year. More »
Computer Engineer Barbie Thinks Math Is Awesome And Lucrative
By Laura Northrup on February 14, 2010 10:00 AM
110 Comments
Over the last five decades, the vaguely human-shaped fashion doll Barbie has had a lot of careers. Barbie's jobs have changed over time along with perceptions of what the little girls who played with her could grow up to become. She was a nurse in 1961, then a surgeon in 1973. She was a student teacher in 1965, and President of the United States and a Starfleet officer in 2000. Now, Mattel is hopping on the geek chick bandwagon with Computer Engineer Barbie. More »
Filmmaker Kevin Smith Kicked Off Southwest Flight For Being Too Fat
By Laura Northrup on February 14, 2010 2:30 AM
292 Comments
Every so often Southwest Airlines arbitrarily and incorrectly decides that someone is too fat to fly in a single seat. These are people who have regularly flown Southwest in the past and can fit themselves in one seat without a problem. Prior to now, none were cult celebrities with more than a million and a half Twitter followers and a smartphone. Then an air captain declared filmmaker Kevin Smith a "safety risk," and all hell broke loose. Update: Southwest has responded. More »
(B Rosen)
Don't Sign Your Soul Over To Student Loan Debt
By Laura Northrup on February 13, 2010 7:00 PM
189 Comments
Welcome to the American Dream. To follow that dream, you borrow heavily to get the education you need for your chosen career, in the mistaken belief that you will be able to get a better-paying job in that career once your education is completed, and repay the loans. Borrowing the money for education isn't always an investment in yourself—often, it's committing yourself to decades of commitment to a debt that is difficult to discharge or negotiate when you encounter a bad job market or other hard times. More »
Chicago Seeks Corporate Sponsors For Public Transit
By Laura Northrup on February 13, 2010 5:35 PM
69 Comments
Imagine giving public transit directions to your urban home in the future. "Oh, yeah, you take the Target Red Line, transfer at Comcast Station to the Apple Gray Line headed Fox Sports Westbound, and finally get off at Taco Bell Station." Seem crazy? Well, you have to name transit stations something, and both Metra and the Chicago Transit Authority are exploring the idea of selling naming rights to stations. They're not the first city to do this. More »
H&R Block Upsells Tax Service, But Won't Downgrade
By Laura Northrup on February 13, 2010 3:00 PM
28 Comments
Tax Cat here with a reminder about using a free service to prepare your taxes. Beware sneaky upsells on "free" tax preparation options for people with simple tax returns. We've already seen a Consumerist reader get charged for this unawares with TurboTax, and now reader Shane reports that If you miss an option on H&R Block's form, you'll be paying extra for access to your own data. More »
Toyota Recalls 8,000 Tacoma Pickup Trucks While They're At it
By Laura Northrup on February 13, 2010 1:00 PM
26 Comments
Toyota has recalled eight thousand Tacoma pickup trucks because of possible cracks in the driveshaft. Interestingly, this same part was used in some Ford and Nissan vehicles, but apparently Toyota management said, "what the hell, we'll recalling everything else—might as well bring this one in too while we're at it." More »
(kalleboo)
AOL Has No Reason To Cancel Your Free Account
By Laura Northrup on February 13, 2010 12:00 PM
76 Comments
Jim wants his AOL e-mail account to go away. It's a free account, so billing isn't an issue—he just wants it closed. This seems like a relatively straightforward request to anyone except AOL. He writes that the company somehow makes it impossible to cancel a free account. More »
What Does Prosperity Taste Like? Beef.
By Laura Northrup on February 13, 2010 11:00 AM
44 Comments
What does prosperity taste like? According to McDonald's in Singapore, it tastes like beef. From a historical point of view, I suppose that's true.
What's a Prosperity Burger? It's a beef or chicken burger on a long bun, almost like a small sub sandwich, with onions and a black pepper sauce. If you want mega prosperity, apparently you need to add some twisty fries.
(Thanks to Dan for the picture!) More »
(rowens27)
How A $19.99 Flower Arrangement Costs $49.95
By Laura Northrup on February 12, 2010 4:45 PM
113 Comments
Craig writes that he found a great deal from Proflowers recently: a dozen roses for $19.99. Good boyfriend and sensible shopper that he is, he ordered them for Valentine's Day, only to discover that the delivery charges and holiday surcharges made the cost more than double. More »
(kainr)
Avoid Credit Card Annual Fees: Just Charge $2,400 Per Year
By Laura Northrup on February 12, 2010 4:15 PM
67 Comments
Jesse has a credit card that he doesn't use, but keeps open to help his credit score. Citibank has foiled his brilliant plan by adding a $60 annual fee. He can avoid the fee by charging at least $2,400 on the card each year. More »
Cheaters Ruin 1-800-Flowers Chocolate Box Promotion For Everyone
By Laura Northrup on February 12, 2010 2:00 PM
55 Comments
The chocolate box/flowers promotion seemed like a great idea. On certain boxes of Harry London candy sold in chain drugstores, there was a peel-off coupon offering up to $20 off an order from 1-800-Flowers. The problem is that some unscrupulous shoppers went into stores, peeled all of the coupons off, sold some codes on the Internet, and ruined the promotion for everyone. Now 1-800-Flowers has put a stop to the promotion, and is canceling already placed flower orders out from under customers. Not cool. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
Al Franken Makes Comcast's CEO Look Like A Tool
Oregon Woman Sues McDonalds Over Too-Hot Coffee
Our Top 13 Grossest Food Stories Of All Time
12 Insane (But Awesome) Things You Can Actually Buy Online
More »
By Laura Northrup on February 12, 2010 1:30 PM
107 Comments
The Apple Store Guy Could Tell I'd Had A Bad Day, So He Pretended My Laptop Was Still Under WarrantyAl Franken Makes Comcast's CEO Look Like A Tool
Oregon Woman Sues McDonalds Over Too-Hot Coffee
Our Top 13 Grossest Food Stories Of All Time
12 Insane (But Awesome) Things You Can Actually Buy Online
More »
How To Buy The Right Gift Of Underthings For Your Special Lady
By Laura Northrup on February 12, 2010 12:15 PM
87 Comments
Valentine's Day is soon approaching. Whatever your feelings about the day, the cold capitalist fact remains: this is a holiday when people who are not women venture into stores and attempt to purchase underthings for women. This can sometimes end badly. Fortunately, blogger Treacle over at Wisebread has broken down the essentials of lingerie-buying into four simple steps that even the most fashion-impaired gentleman can use to find a suitable gift. More »
Nobody Told Me I Was Buying A Suicide House
By Laura Northrup on February 12, 2010 11:36 AM
357 Comments
Sue recently purchased a new home. She writes that she closed on the house...and then learned that the previous owner had committed suicide somewhere inside it. She wouldn't have bought the house had she known. The real estate agents claim that they weren't aware of the situation, but if they had, did they have any moral obligation to tell her? More »
Save Money And Energy By Insulating Your Hot Water Pipes
By Laura Northrup on February 11, 2010 4:54 PM
28 Comments
Are you looking something exciting to do this weekend? Why not roll up your sleeves and insulate your hot water pipes? It might not be as entertaining as throwing your cat in the snow, but it does provide more energy savings and significantly fewer wet, angry cats. [Consumer Reports Home]
Starbucks And Chase End Duetto Rewards Credit Card
By Laura Northrup on February 11, 2010 4:37 PM
26 Comments
The Starbucks Duetto Visa card seems like a relic of another time. A time when everyone thought that both coffee-infused sugar bombs and huge amounts of credit card debt were a good idea. Well, Starbucks is still with us, but the Duetto Visa card's run is over. You can no longer earn Starbucks cards while racking up debt. More »
Honda Dealer Tricks Toyota Owners With Fake Recall Notice
By Laura Northrup on February 11, 2010 3:06 PM
52 Comments
Reader TheLoneGoldfish sent us this very sneaky mailing from an area Honda dealer. "Attention Toyota owners: Important Recall Information Enclosed," the envelope declares. That important information: a letter noting that hey, this would be a really great time to trade in their Toyota for a Honda! More »
Magical Refund Check Surfaces 11 Years After Emergency Room Visit
By Laura Northrup on February 11, 2010 2:35 PM
48 Comments
Reader Smashville has shared with Consumerist what is either a wonderful Above and Beyond story or a clerical clusterfrak of epic proportions. He writes that eleven years after an emergency room visit, his mother received a refund check for $160.00 for an overpayment that she forgot she had ever made. More »
T-Mobile's Response To Poor Reception: "You're Welcome To Leave"
By Laura Northrup on February 11, 2010 12:19 PM
68 Comments
Matt writes that although he has been a loyal T-Mobile customer for a long time, the company is no longer interested in keeping his business. At least, that's what it looks like. More »
The 10 Biggest Workplace Annoyances
By Laura Northrup on February 11, 2010 11:05 AM
228 Comments
A research group polled workers and discovered something utterly unsurprising: there are a lot of things that annoy people about their jobs. Most of these involve co-workers behaving obnoxiously. More »
Sorry, Sally Hansen Representatives Can't Tell You Anything About Sally Hansen
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2010 3:53 PM
36 Comments
The origins of the extremely popular nail care brand Sally Hansen are shrouded in mystery. The most that Beautypedia researcher Daynah Burnett says she has been able to figure out is that there was never a person named Sally Hansen. More than that is apparently on a need-to-know basis: the company doesn't put any information on its web site, and even its customer service representatives don't seem to know. More »
Customer Banned For Life From Tim Hortons For Complaining About Coffee
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2010 2:14 PM
96 Comments
According to various news sources in Canada, a man in New Brunswick has been banned for life from both of his local Tim Hortons coffee/donut shops after complaining a few times too many about the burnt taste of the chain's decaf. Now he makes his own coffee at home, which is probably just as well for everyone involved. More »
Facebook And Twitter Complaint Gets Dead Whirlpool Oven Fixed
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2010 12:37 PM
9 Comments
When Adam's oven died in the middle of baking a batch of cookies, he did what most modern, hyper-connected people would do: he complained about it on Facebook and Twitter, asking his friends for help. Help instead came from a new friend: a Whirlpool employee monitoring the social media, looking for unhappy customers. More »
Hoover Can't Decide What Information It Wants From Customers
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2010 11:34 AM
27 Comments
Billy sent us this excerpt from the registration card for his new Hoover vacuum cleaner. Pick a side, Hoover.
(cag2012)
HP EECB Leads To Complete Refund For Defective 2-Year-Old Laptop
By Laura Northrup on February 7, 2010 7:00 PM
41 Comments
When Rick's 2-year-old laptop failed for the second time due, he did not roll over and buy a new laptop or pay $400 for the repairs. This particular model of laptop had been recalled due to this very flaw, and that was not acceptable to Rick. He fought back, and shares his tale of triumph. More »
Group Pledges To Buy No Clothing For A Year, Somehow Survive
By Laura Northrup on February 7, 2010 5:00 PM
76 Comments
The Great American Apparel Diet is not, as it seems at first glance, what you have to follow in order to look good in a bizarre adult romper. No, it's a pledge that a group of women have taken to not buy any new clothing for one year. What have they learned? That people tend to buy a lot more stuff than they really need. More »
Cox Accidentally Offers Everyone In Arizona A Free PlayStation 3
By Laura Northrup on February 7, 2010 3:00 PM
95 Comments
Christopher writes about a promotion from Cox that sounded pretty great. The cable company and ISP offered a free Playstation 3 slim to customers who either signed up for a new account or upgraded to faster broadband. The problem with such a great offer? People tend to tell their friends. And those friends tend to call Cox to see if they can get in on the deal, too. More »
Best Buy Sells Shattered TV In Time For Super Bowl Party
By Laura Northrup on February 7, 2010 1:00 PM
132 Comments
On this, the holiest of all American TV-watching days, we'd like to share with you the horrific story of a Florida family whose Super Bowl viewing party will be a lot less intense than they had planned. The new, expensive HDTV they purchased from Best Buy was somehow shattered inside its box, and the retailer claims that it's the family's fault. More »
Bottle Of Sprite Includes Free Inch-Long Cockroach
By Laura Northrup on February 7, 2010 11:00 AM
39 Comments
Coca-Cola in China has been fined 2.05 yuan (30 cents) after a customer found a cockroach just over an inch long inside a bottle of Sprite. At least it wasn't Coke or another cola, because then the customer wouldn't have noticed until the bug was in his mouth. More »
12 Insane (But Awesome) Things You Can Actually Buy Online
By Laura Northrup on February 7, 2010 9:00 AM
40 Comments
There are lots of weird and amazing things that you can buy on the Internet. Cracked rounded twelve of the craziest things that you can order online. Most of them seem like things that someone might order if they are an aspiring supervillain. Or have so much money they don't know what to do with it all. Or both. More »
Oregon Woman Sues McDonalds Over Too-Hot Coffee
By Laura Northrup on February 6, 2010 7:00 PM
336 Comments
A woman in Oregon has sued her local McDonald's franchisee after spilling hot coffee from the drive-thru window on herself. She claims that the coffee was too hot and the lid too loose, and seeks $7,500 in damages. More »
FDA May Update Serving Sizes To Reflect How Much People Actually Eat
By Laura Northrup on February 6, 2010 5:00 PM
121 Comments
As anyone who has tried to carefully count calories knows, the serving sizes on food packages don't have much to do with reality. The FDA has finally realized that putting accurate serving sizes on labels might have an effect on the amount of food Americans cram into our mouths in one sitting. More »
(Apreche)
Long Queue Waits Sort Of Defeat The Point Of Netflix
By Laura Northrup on February 6, 2010 3:00 PM
171 Comments
Jeff is patiently waiting for the recently released movies in his Netflix queue, but his taste in films is evidently working against him. He says that the top ten discs in his queue all have long waits, and he is frustrated. Is he being throttled, a victim of having popular tastes, or both? More »
Dell, I Do Not Appreciate Your 5 AM Wakeup Robocalls
By Laura Northrup on February 6, 2010 1:00 PM
60 Comments
A few years ago, Kate made a horrible mistake. As the IT contact for her employer, she gave Dell her cell phone number. She tells Consumerist that apparently this gave the company license to give her status updates on the company's Dell orders between 5 and 6 A.M. Pacific time. Even after she no longer worked in that position. Even after repeated phone calls and e-mails begging Dell to stop calling her. The worst part? Kate isn't the only one. More »
(Gawker)
Impending Snow Makes Washington, D.C. Residents Lose Their Damn Minds
By Laura Northrup on February 6, 2010 11:00 AM
232 Comments
Gawker shared photos of pillaged Safeway and Wegmans stores in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Maybe it's my roots in upstate New York's snow belt, but I have to ask: D.C., you do remember that snow melts, right? See, this is the effect of mass weather-induced panic and, apparently, an area almost wholly dependent on takeout food. More »
(Jsome1)
Our Top 13 Grossest Food Stories Of All Time
By Laura Northrup on February 6, 2010 9:00 AM
32 Comments
Tales of unacceptable food don't just appeal to our more prurient interests. They do hit the "eww, can't look away!" center of the brain quite squarely, but these stories do more than that. They give us an uncomfortable insight into the complexity of the Western food supply, how industrialized and automated food processing really is, and how underpaid restaurant staff can be really obnoxious sometimes. Fast-food employees in particular.
In that spirit of public education and outreach, here are 13 of the grossest food-related stories from the last four years and change of The Consumerist. Enjoy. Learn. Try not to vomit.
This post does contain pictures, but they're tiny and it's difficult to determine what's in them. Well, mostly. More »
FTC To Retailers: Bamboo And Rayon Are Not The Same Thing
By Laura Northrup on February 5, 2010 3:07 PM
22 Comments
The FTC has sent warning letters to 78 companies about clothing and household products marketed as being made from bamboo. Many of the products were were allegedly made out of rayon that may or may not have originally been derived from bamboo. The offenders include huge names like Walmart, Land's End, Kohl's, The Gap, and Target. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
Bank Sues Victim To Avoid Replacing $200k In Stolen Funds
South Butt Rebuts North Face
10 Of The Strangest Unclaimed Airline Baggage Items Ever Found
This Weight Watchers Meal Includes A Free Frozen Frog
More »
By Laura Northrup on February 5, 2010 2:00 PM
66 Comments
Best Buy Sends Customer To Jail For Paying With AMEX Gift CardBank Sues Victim To Avoid Replacing $200k In Stolen Funds
South Butt Rebuts North Face
10 Of The Strangest Unclaimed Airline Baggage Items Ever Found
This Weight Watchers Meal Includes A Free Frozen Frog
More »
Pepsi With H1N1 Flavoring Now Available At Walgreens
By Laura Northrup on February 5, 2010 12:51 PM
66 Comments
First, there was Pepsi Vanilla. Then there was Pepsi Lime. Now, exclusively at Walgreens, you can get the latest special flavor of Pepsi: Pepsi H1N1. It is also available in frozen pizza, Buffalo wing, and ice cream form. More »
(Heinz)
Our Long National Nightmare Is Over: Heinz Redesigns Ketchup Packet
By Laura Northrup on February 5, 2010 11:02 AM
74 Comments
Your suffering may finally be over, fast food fiends. No more awkwardly torn ketchup packets and tomato-soaked fingers. No more dipping your fries into a dollop of ketchup on a napkin or burger wrapper. NO. Heinz has introduced the ketchup packet 2.0, and the future looks...well, remarkably like the containers of McNugget dipping sauces McDonald's has been using since the '80s. But it's still an improvement. More »
HTC Says They're Shipping My New Nexus One: I Don't Believe Them Anymore
By Laura Northrup on February 4, 2010 4:29 PM
19 Comments
The launch and early customer support of the Google's Nexus One phone, manufactured by HTC, has been a bit problematic. But let's try some optimism! Maybe now that the early hype has died down and HTC has had some time to get used to the situation, warranty replacements will take place in a timely fashion! Or...well, as reader Michael writes, evidently not. Update: Thanks to this post, Michael's new phone is on its way. More »
Do Not Drive Your Truck Into A Gas Station Instead Of Prepaying
By Laura Northrup on February 4, 2010 3:40 PM
90 Comments
A man in Alabama has been charged with attempted murder and resisting arrest after allegedly driving his truck into a gas station. According to Jefferson County police, the suspect was angry that the only pump available was pre-pay only. More »
Report: Apple Offering 15% Buyout For Yellow-Screened iMacs
By Laura Northrup on February 4, 2010 3:00 PM
34 Comments
Gizmodo is reporting today that Apple is offering a 15% "refund bonus" to some customers who return one of the numerous 27" iMacs with a nasty yellow tinge to their beautiful big screens. iMacs are not cheap, so that's at least $250 depending on your computer's configuration. More »
Light Bulb's Promises Are True Only Where Nighttime Lasts Three Hours
By Laura Northrup on February 4, 2010 1:10 PM
116 Comments
Rick bought a light bulb at Home Depot that turned into more of a geography test. The question it poses: is there anywhere in the world that has an average of three hours of darkness year-round? The answer: no. Which means that the claims on the front of this light bulb package contradict each other. More »
(esparta)
Save Serious Money On Your Cell Phone Bill By Making One Phone Call
By Laura Northrup on February 4, 2010 11:47 AM
28 Comments
Theresa had a contract with Helio/Virgin Mobile that ended this month, putting her in a position to negotiate. She writes that by comparison shopping and politely asking for the customer retention department, she and her girlfriend were able to knock $35 per month off the bill for their family plan. Here's how she did it. More »
When Should You Freak Out About Critters In Your Food?
By Laura Northrup on February 4, 2010 11:34 AM
91 Comments
One frequent comment on posts such as Saturday's ""This Weight Watchers Meal Includes A Free Frozen Frog" is that Americans are too far removed from where our food really comes from, and it's unreasonable to expect that our food be 100% critter-free. Is it? More »
(*_Abhi_*)
8 Ways To Make Sure Your Complaint Letter Will Be Ignored
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2010 4:04 PM
61 Comments
You're mad, you're annoyed, or you've been ripped off. So you decide to take action, and open up your word processor or e-mail client to write a complaint letter. But that doesn't mean you actually want anyone to take you seriously, or to help you. Follow these tips to make sure your complaint goes nowhere near anyone in power. More »
(TKCS)
Some Americans Just Now Discovering That Store Brands Are Good
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2010 3:06 PM
79 Comments
Here's another consumer trend that should surprise absolutely no one. According to the Boston Globe, Americans are shedding their brand loyalties and flocking to generic products. What? No way! More »
HP Needs You To Fax Broken Printer's Receipt In The Next 30 Minutes
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2010 12:45 PM
44 Comments
Ron in Utah tells Consumerist that he purchased what he thought was a brand-new HP printer, but ended up being more of a Box of Crap. The printer inside wasn't just non-functional, it was so old that the warranty had expired. HP Customer service's answer? Before they could help him, he had to fax his original receipt within thirty minutes GO NOW NOW NOW TO THE FAX MACHINE NOW! More »
"Lost" Sweepstakes Prize Disappears Into Electromagnetic Anomaly (Or Maybe Just FedEx)
By Laura Northrup on February 3, 2010 11:03 AM
29 Comments
Last night was the much-anticipated season premiere of "Lost," and ABC built up excitement with a sweepstakes where 815 fans would receive a USB drive with exclusive video clips from the premiere. Sounds pretty awesome. Reader and Lost fan Nicholas writes that he won the sweepstakes, but his prize never showed up. The marketing firm running the contest and FedEx blame each other, and Nicholas is left without his cool prize. More »
Blog And Twitter Campaign Convinces Sony To Replace Defective TV
By Laura Northrup on January 31, 2010 8:00 PM
26 Comments
Scott has been a longtime and loyal Sony customer, but the company finally disappointed him. He writes that his lovely 46" LCD began to produce strange images on one side of the screen for ten minutes after powering up—not catastrophic, but not acceptable for a $3,000 TV, either. The regular channels of customer service were no help, so Scott took his case to his blog and to Twitter. The result? He heard from executive customer service within hours, and received a new TV for his trouble. More »
Whoever Designed This Ad Must Have Noticed The Subtext
By Laura Northrup on January 31, 2010 6:00 PM
49 Comments
Beer and sausages may indeed be the perfect combination for your Super Bowl gathering, but there's something about this grocery store display from Budweiser and sausage maker Johnsonville that is terribly wrong. I think it's the man's expression as he points to his, er, bratwurst. More »
Customer Escapes Best Buy Laptop Purchase Without Optimization Fees
By Laura Northrup on January 31, 2010 4:00 PM
37 Comments
During a recent trip to Best Buy to purchase a new laptop, Kristene was pleasantly surprised. She discovered that what our anonymous employee tipster told us in the post "Employee: Best Buy Scrambling To Clean Up Optimization Mess" is true, and customers at at least one Best Buy aren't being forced to buy optimized computers. More »
(ashi)
Help, I'm Getting Someone Else's Newegg Emails!
By Laura Northrup on January 31, 2010 2:00 PM
49 Comments
Reader IfThenElvis has a problem with his Newegg account. Well, technically, it's not his account. It was just registered using his email address. More »
(noizyboy)
10 Of The Strangest Unclaimed Airline Baggage Items Ever Found
By Laura Northrup on January 31, 2010 10:00 AM
87 Comments
You've probably heard of the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama. It's where all lost suitcases that are never reunited with their owners end up. This makes it both the world's most amazing thrift store and a collection of pretty weird stuff. A recent mental_floss article rounded up ten of the strangest (and most valuable) things they've found. More »
How Can I Make The Newspaper Stop When I Don't Subscribe?
By Laura Northrup on January 31, 2010 8:00 AM
104 Comments
We know that the newspaper industry is suffering. Subscribers are fleeing, ad revenue is down, and things are generally dark and terrible. However, this does not mean that it is a good idea to throw sacks of junk mail on the lawns of people who won't subscribe to your paper. It will not endear you to them. We're looking at you, Baltimore Sun. More »
Cuisinart Decides Maine's Consumer Protection Laws Don't Apply
By Laura Northrup on January 30, 2010 8:00 PM
93 Comments
Cuisinart doesn't just ignore consumer protection laws in California—reader Eatswell reports that Cuisinart has decided that the strong implied warranty laws in Maine don't actually applied to them. Stuck with a non-working coffeemaker, Eatswell wants to fight back. More »
(AComment)
Alleged ATM Skimmer Crooks Caught Near Boston
By Laura Northrup on January 30, 2010 6:00 PM
22 Comments
The Secret Service has apprehended an alleged ring of ATM skimmer crooks in eastern Massachusetts. The group set up skimmers with pinhole cameras on Bank of America and Citizens Bank ATMs in the greater Boston area. According to authorities, when one of the suspects was caught, he had almost $100,000 in twenties in his possession. More »
(annia316)
Beauty.com Facebook Revolt Quelled Within Minutes With Free Stuff
By Laura Northrup on January 30, 2010 2:00 PM
15 Comments
Kim's Beauty.com order was eligible for a pretty neat "free gift with purchase" deal, but the free item ran out before her order went through. She, and other customers, took to the company's Facebook page to complain about the situation. A company representative reached out on Facebook, offering to send a new free item out to the dissatisfied customers. This representative turned out to be the company president. More »
This Weight Watchers Meal Includes A Free Frozen Frog
By Laura Northrup on January 30, 2010 12:00 PM
92 Comments
Noreen tells Consumerist that she made an exciting discovery yesterday. Her Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen meal, a fettucine alfredo dish that is supposed to be meatless, included a free protein-rich side dish. A tiny frog! More »
When Buying Cleaning Supplies, Don't Pay For Water
By Laura Northrup on January 30, 2010 10:00 AM
44 Comments
In order to save money and the total number of heavy bottles you need to haul home from the store, try buying ultra-concentrated cleaning supplies and adding your own water at home. Reader M. discovered these products at Big Lots, and shares his secrets. More »
Subway's Beef Barbacoa Sub Could Use Some Beef
By Laura Northrup on January 30, 2010 8:00 AM
94 Comments
Subway is offering a limited-time sandwich, the "Beef Barbacoa," in a few markets. Skylar in California ordered this sandwich, being misled by the name into thinking that it contained a reasonable amount of beef. Don't be silly, Skylar. More »
(Photo: gordonflood.com)
Low-Flow Toilets Provide Water Savings, Entertainment
By Laura Northrup on January 29, 2010 4:00 PM
76 Comments
If you were unfortunate enough to have one of the early low-flow toilets installed in your home, you probably remember it as an ... unpleasant experience. Fortunately, the newer models have enough power to get their job done using surprisingly little water—as little as 1.28 gallons. Consumer Reports proves this by flushing what look like brightly colored toys down the toilet. This is very entertaining to watch. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
Fed-Up Xbox Gamer Has Gone Through 6 Broken Consoles
Whole Foods Finds Way To Make Overweight Folk Feel Even More Self-Conscious
Woman Accuses Dell Tech Support Of Launching Her Webcam Without Permission
The Debtor Debt Collectors Hate To Call More »
By Laura Northrup on January 29, 2010 3:30 PM
67 Comments
Target Employee Explains Discounter's Apparent CrazinessFed-Up Xbox Gamer Has Gone Through 6 Broken Consoles
Whole Foods Finds Way To Make Overweight Folk Feel Even More Self-Conscious
Woman Accuses Dell Tech Support Of Launching Her Webcam Without Permission
The Debtor Debt Collectors Hate To Call More »
(Photo: Carblog)
Honda Dealer Mocks Toyota, Touts Cars' Non-Deathtrap Status
By Laura Northrup on January 29, 2010 12:36 PM
42 Comments
Well, this is classy. The photo at left purports to be of a Honda dealer in Dallas taking advantage of Toyota's own private carpocalypse. That is, the serious gas pedal issue that has led to the recall of 2.3 million vehicles and halted production and sales of Toyotas. Hondas, as we all know, are free of mechanical defects. More »
(Photo: oneiroi)
These Fake Plastic Pennies Cost Only 4.5 Cents Each
By Laura Northrup on January 29, 2010 11:03 AM
39 Comments
It's never too early to teach your kids about financial responsibility. That's why play money is a fun idea. What we find fiscally suspect, however, are plastic pennies from Learning Resources. 100 plastic pennies for the low, low price of $4.50. Yes, that's four cents per penny, and even more than the U.S. Mint pays to make real pennies. More »
(Photo: BenFrantzDale)
Rent Out Your Household Items For Fun And Profit
By Laura Northrup on January 28, 2010 3:43 PM
54 Comments
What items do you keep around your house, but don't use very often? A shovel? A laundry drying rack? A food processor? What if you could rent these items out to people in your area, and in turn rent seldom-used items from them for a few dollars? Rentalic.com is trying to make these exchanges happen nationwide. More »
(Photo: SuziJane)
FTD Doesn't Bother To Find Florist, Makes Your Grandma Sad On Her Birthday
By Laura Northrup on January 28, 2010 2:49 PM
56 Comments
Erin has a Valentine's Day warning for Consumerist readers. Not only is FTD part of the nefarious WebLoyalty cabal, but she tells Consumerist that they're also happy to take customers' money and conveniently forget to dispatch a florist with actual flowers. More »
(Photo: Yann Rocq)
Should Home Depot Tell People This Freezer Has No Warranty?
By Laura Northrup on January 28, 2010 12:08 PM
47 Comments
Braxton came across a great deal while shopping for a new freezer. However, being a good Consumerist, he writes that he went home and researched the product before handing over any money. What he learned was that the freezer had no warranty...a fact that Home Depot conveniently forgot to disclose. More »
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This Contact Lens Solution Bottle Is A Little Misleading
By Laura Northrup on January 28, 2010 11:01 AM
85 Comments
Noah found a bottle of contact lens solution that proclaimed on its package that it's small enough to comply with the TSA's liquid rules. This would be great if the bottle were small enough to comply with the TSA's liquid rules. More »
(Photo: Lawrence in Houston)
Evil Mutant Cotton Sneaks Into H&M "Organic" Clothing
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2010 4:43 PM
49 Comments
Global fast fashion retailer H&M and European chains C&A and Tchibo have been caught selling misleading "organic cotton" products to consumers. Independent testing done by Germany's Financial Times showed that 30% of the samples contained genetically modified strains of cotton. Oops. More »
How Did This Used Redbox Disc Get Sold As A New DVD?
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2010 3:46 PM
67 Comments
David noticed something strange about the purportedly new, sealed DVD that he bought at closeout chain Marshalls. He writes that when he unsealed and opened the case, the DVD inside formerly belonged to...Redbox?! More »
(Photo: DenverDwellings)
Sam's Club Lays Off 10% Of Employees
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2010 2:46 PM
65 Comments
Sam's Club, owned by Walmart, is cutting about 11,200 jobs nationwide in its stores. That's about ten percent of the chain's workforce. The part-time employees who currently hand out product samples and perform demonstrations will be replaced with ringers from the outside company that performs the same service in Walmart stores. More »
(Photo: blmurch)
Chase Sets Early Payment Trap For Mortgage Customers, Too
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2010 1:55 PM
70 Comments
Chase's statement cycle trap isn't just set for credit card customers. Mortgage and loan customers can be charged a fee for paying too early, too. Serves you right for trying to be proactive and plan ahead! Dana says that Chase punished her for setting up her automatic monthly payment to send on the 30th of the month instead of the 1st, and charged her $52.96 for two months' transgressions. More »
Coca-Cola
New Coke Bottles Made From Sugar Cane, Soda Still Made From Corn
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2010 12:23 PM
44 Comments
At a time when everyone is fretting about their "carbon footprint," it's nice to see that Coca-Cola has decided to to reduce the amount of petroleum used to make their bottles by using some plant-based plastic. But not just any plant: the bottles will be made from mono-ethylene glycol derived from sugar cane. More »
(Photo: Jerry7171)
Why Hummel Figurines Are Pretty Much Worthless Now
By Laura Northrup on January 27, 2010 11:05 AM
137 Comments
Collectibles are a strange thing. People buy them for aesthetic or sentimental reasons, or as an investment. The latter reason is kind of stupid, since if everyone holds on to and cherishes a mass-produced item, it never becomes rare enough for supply to go down and demand to go up. (See: Beanie Babies.) It took much, much longer for the market to crash, but that's what's happening now as Hummel figurines no longer suit modern tastes and their aficionados in the Greatest Generation die off. More »
Boar's Head, Dietz & Watson, Daniele Salami Recalled For Salmonella
By Laura Northrup on January 26, 2010 6:30 PM
21 Comments
Last week, 1.2 million pounds of various cured meats made by Rhode Island's Daniele International but sold under different names were recalled due to possible salmonella poisoning. Labels the affected meats were sold under include Daniele, Dietz & Watson, Black Bear of the Black Forest, and Boar's Head. More »
(Photo: Randy Lemoine)
Meet The Bad Consumers Of The Apple Genius Bar
By Laura Northrup on January 24, 2010 7:00 PM
114 Comments
Sure, we focus on stories of bad customer service here, but Gizmodo turned the shiny white counter around and solicited stories from anonymous Apple Geniuses about the worst customers they've ever encountered. More »
(Photo: sidewalk flying)
Family Cuts Grocery Bill In Half By Planning Meals Ahead
By Laura Northrup on January 24, 2010 5:00 PM
77 Comments
Meal plans may not be very exciting or sexy, but they keep you from staring blankly at the refrigerator before padding off to order pizza. One family in Texas cut their grocery expenses in half by planning their dinnersa year in advance. That's pretty extreme, but their example is still useful for the less insanely organized. More »
Cuisinart Customer Service Doesn't Bother To Read Own Warranty
By Laura Northrup on January 24, 2010 3:00 PM
68 Comments
After receiving a ten-piece cookware set with one pan damaged right out of the box, Drew's girlfriend knew that she wanted to replace it. That's what warranties are for! He tells Consumerist that when they tried to send that pan back to Cuisinart for replacement (instead of shipping the entire set back to Amazon, which seemed wasteful) customer service staff insisted that while the product's warranty might say something, that doesn't actually make it true. More »
(Photo: Ian Muttoo)
Best Buy Sells Box With Wrong Hard Drive, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on January 24, 2010 1:00 PM
145 Comments
Tony writes that he purchased a Western Digital hard drive from Best Buy this weekend, but not the hard drive he had thought. When he opened the box, he discovered that it contained a different hard drive entirely—not quite a Box of Crap, but still not what he had paid for. But Best Buy stood firm, admitting there was nothing they could do. More »
(Photo: XISMZERO)
Sears Loses Track Of Inventory, Loses Freezer Sale
By Laura Northrup on January 24, 2010 11:00 AM
43 Comments
Rosemarie very optimistically ordered a new freezer from Sears' web site. She writes that she had every reason to believe that she would actually receive a freezer on the day she chose—yesterday, Saturday, January 23rd. The site told her that this particular freezer was in stock and could be delivered on the 23rd. Great! Except the freezer somehow mysteriously went out of stock in the next 24 hours, and Rosemary's delivery was delayed for three weeks. More »
(Photo: swanksalot)
1.2 Million Pounds Of Cured Meat Recalled For Salmonella
By Laura Northrup on January 24, 2010 9:00 AM
40 Comments
1.2 million pounds of Daniele International salami, sausage, and other cured meat products have been yanked out of stores and recalled due to possible salmonella contamination. The meats are linked to 184 sick individuals in 38 states. At least 35 people have been hospitalized, but none have died. More »
Target Employee Explains Discounter's Apparent Craziness
By Laura Northrup on January 23, 2010 8:00 PM
89 Comments
A mysterious Target employee has come forward to share a closely guarded secret with the readers of Consumerist. The secret of why Target is so freaking crazy. More »
Barnes & Noble Is Unfailingly Polite While Breaking Promises To Customers
By Laura Northrup on January 23, 2010 6:00 PM
25 Comments
Did you think that perhaps Barnes & Noble's epic problems getting the Nook e-reader in the hands of customers by Christmas would be over after Christmas? Not quite. Jesse Vincent blogged about his experience of broken promises, mysteriously canceled orders, and how Barnes & Noble still hasn't even sent the famous $100 gift card that Nook customers were promised. More »
(Photo: jonny.hunter)
Walmart Customer Arrested For Urinating On Steaks
By Laura Northrup on January 23, 2010 3:04 PM
74 Comments
Either this man was not in his right mind, or this was the stupidest animal-rights protest ever. The police in Canton, Ohio report that a man was arrested and jailed for urinating on a Walmart meat counter, ruining $600 worth of steak. More »
Easter Creep: Now Right Next To The Tampons
By Laura Northrup on January 23, 2010 1:00 PM
62 Comments
At an unidentified drug store last week, reader H. found something strange next to the tampons: a display of Cadbury Creme Eggs. Whoever decided to pair these products together is some kind of marketing genius, considering the kinds of chocolate cravings that some women get during their Special Time. But there's nothing unusual about having the Easter candy out early. Why, at some Walmarts, it's been out for a month now. More »
(Photo: merci)
Hotel Employs Professional Snugglers To Pre-Warm Beds
By Laura Northrup on January 23, 2010 11:00 AM
80 Comments
If you're looking for a job in the hospitality industry and have highly refined snuggling skills, some Holiday Inns in Britain might have just the job for you. They're offering guests the opportunity to have their beds pre-warmed by a member of the hotel staff. Yes, a hotel employee will climb into your bed wearing fleece pajamas, stay there until the bed reaches a temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit, and then go away. More »
(Photo: missyosgirl)
Fast Food Managers Abuse Power, Force Teenage Workers Into Sex
By Laura Northrup on January 23, 2010 9:00 AM
203 Comments
Supervising nubile teenagers in a fast-food establishment does not mean that you have an open invitation to abuse your authority and demand sex from them. This seems that it would be a self-evident rule of management. It is not. More »
(Photo: WexDub)
Can A Large Person Fly Comfortably Anywhere?
By Laura Northrup on January 22, 2010 3:00 PM
261 Comments
Deb has an interesting question. She and her husband openly admit that they're too large to fit in a single seat, so they purchase three seats when they travel by air. The problem, she writes, is that is that even when airline customers are happy to buy more than one seat, they are not actually granted access to multiple seats. Unmovable armrests and other barriers keep passengers of size from actually using the extra seat they have paid for. So, Deb wants to know: what's a fat frequent flier to do? More »
(Photo: Adventuress Heart)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
US Airways Takes Parts Out Of Xbox To Make Flying Safer
Best Buy Employee Told Me To Shut Up When I Said I Didn't Have To Show Receipt
Another Reason To Avoid Giant Megapixel Point-And-Shoot Cameras
Mind Those Milk Expiration Dates
More »
By Laura Northrup on January 22, 2010 2:30 PM
86 Comments
Lexicon Puts $500 Blu-Ray Player In New Case, Charges $3000 Markup ...And Gets CaughtUS Airways Takes Parts Out Of Xbox To Make Flying Safer
Best Buy Employee Told Me To Shut Up When I Said I Didn't Have To Show Receipt
Another Reason To Avoid Giant Megapixel Point-And-Shoot Cameras
Mind Those Milk Expiration Dates
More »
(Photo: wickenden)
Costco Ships Your Mom's Casket To Houston, But The Funeral Is In New Jersey
By Laura Northrup on January 22, 2010 11:00 AM
85 Comments
D.'s mother passed away last week. The funeral is today, and the wake was yesterday. He writes that thanks to Costco and their supplier Universal Casket, the casket that he ordered with expedited shipping was somehow shipped to a different city entirely, leaving the family scrambling for a new casket at the last minute, and defeating the entire purpose of ordering a casket by mail order in the first place. Costco did reach out and make things right, but not until later. More »
(Photo: alexdecarvalho)
Scripps And Cablevision End Food Network/HGTV Standoff
By Laura Northrup on January 22, 2010 7:31 AM
16 Comments
The long regional nightmare is over: Cablevision and Scripps have ended their passive-aggressive standoff and come to an agreement that put Food Network and HGTV back on Cablevision customers' TVs. The secret ingredient: an undisclosed amount of cash. More »
Would This ATM Skimmer Have Fooled You?
By Laura Northrup on January 21, 2010 6:43 PM
71 Comments
Would you have noticed this ATM skimmer, spotted on a Citibank ATM in California? The actual card slot is on the left. The skimmer is on the right. The contraption is seemingly custom-designed for this model ATM, and includes a pinhole camera for capturing victims' PINs. Fancy. More »
Recall Roundup: When Glitter Attacks
By Laura Northrup on January 21, 2010 3:47 PM
16 Comments
This week in recalls: flaming sparkly things, collapsing chairs and bikes, and chicken pot pies seasoned with metal pins. A little something for everyone! More »
(Photo: gongus)
Help, Previous Owners Forgot To Give Us The House Alarm Passcode!
By Laura Northrup on January 21, 2010 2:01 PM
166 Comments
Darin and his wife tell Consumerist that they recently bought a house that included an already-installed home alarm system. Neat! They would like to get the code to this alarm system. Unfortunately, the previous owners are unreachable, and the company that installed the alarm will only reset the code if the couple signs up for monitoring service. More »
(Photo: Daquella manera)
Newborn And Mountain Dew Ruin Macbook, Applecare Goes Above And Beyond
By Laura Northrup on January 21, 2010 12:42 PM
23 Comments
Mark's MacBook had an unfortunate run-in with an open container of Mountain Dew while he was holding his newborn daughter. He called Apple, but expected no help from the company, and certainly not an exception to Applecare's accidental damage rules. He was wrong, and surprised. More »
Sorry We Missed The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Snuggie
Snuggie Funky Cozy. They sold out. For obvious reasons. More »
By Laura Northrup on January 21, 2010 11:09 AM
19 Comments
We work hard to bring our readers all Snuggie-related news, and were remiss in not reporting on an exciting product from Hot Topic before it finally disappeared from the market. Shortly before the holidays, Hot Topic introduced the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 
Lack Of Google/HTC Customer Service Is Problematic
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2010 4:22 PM
21 Comments
The Google/HTC Nexus One has been out for two weeks now, but the poor customer service vortex has sucked in many Consumerist readers, devouring their access to a functional phone, as well as their 14-day grace periods for returns. More »
(Photo: matt.davis)
Now You Can Attend Funerals Live Over The Internet
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2010 2:08 PM
45 Comments
Geographically scattered modern families and recession-era meager travel budgets lead to a problem that's hard to ignore: it's hard for many Americans to pick up and travel to a distant funeral. So if you can't travel to the service or manage time off work, why not watch live over the Internet? Just, please, hold your tears: your computer warranty doesn't cover liquid damage. More »
(Photo: rutlo)
Chart Makes Comparing Cell Phone Carriers Slightly Less Confusing
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2010 12:21 PM
38 Comments
If you're in the market for a new cell phone and calling plan, the sheer number of options is terrifying. According to Billshrink.com, there are (theoretically) 10,000 possible combinations of voice plans, data plans, other add-ons, and ... I think I need to lie down. But wait! Here's a nice, objective cell phone plan comparison chart that can help you make sense of all this madness! More »
(Photo: Deal Seeking Mom)
Learn To Play The Drugstore Game From The Very Beginning
By Laura Northrup on January 20, 2010 11:08 AM
34 Comments
Are you curious about what dedicated bargain-hunters call the Drugstore Game, taking advantage of drugstores' reward programs in order to acquire more toothbrushes and shampoo than your family could ever possibly use? What frugal person isn't? Yet the forums where people discuss the tricks of this game can be intimidating, and it's hard to know where to start. What if you're not ready for major-league Drugstore Game? Is there maybe Drugstore Game T-Ball? Yes, there is! More »
(Photo: United Nations
Development Programme)
American Airlines Grounds Haiti Rescue Team's Medical Supplies
By Laura Northrup on January 18, 2010 6:42 PM
83 Comments
American Airlines has imposed a baggage embargo on flights to Haiti and the Dominican Republic in order to prevent holdups and make sure everyone's baggage gets to ride along. Permitted: surfboards and golf clubs. Not permitted: a San Diego volunteer group's giant bag of medical supplies. Update: some creative packing on the volunteers' part got things straightened out, and the supplies are en route. More »
Never Chill Your Hands With Beer Or Soda Again
By Laura Northrup on January 18, 2010 5:46 PM
59 Comments
Do you ever find yourself holding on to a soda or beer can, regretting how your hand feels cold and your body heat warms up the drink? Me either. But now there's a product that has come to the rescue, saving you from having to hold on to beverage cans with your hands. Like an animal. More »
(Photo: WMBF)
Alleged Shoplifter Dies After Encounter With Walmart Security
By Laura Northrup on January 18, 2010 1:45 PM
167 Comments
A South Carolina woman died shortly after a run-in with Walmart loss prevention. Was the asthma sufferer's death a coincidence, caused by the stress of being caught by security, or something even more sinister than that? Test results and a review of surveillance footage should clarify the situation somewhat in a few months. More »
Why Does The Word "Baby" Make The Same Product More Expensive?
By Laura Northrup on January 17, 2010 6:30 PM
114 Comments
Gail has an interesting question. She would like to know why the "baby" version of her son's eczema cream costs $.50 more than the adult formula, even though the products' packaging and contents are seemingly identical. More »
(Photo: BitchBuzz)
Make Chase Value You For The Great Customer You Are
By Laura Northrup on January 17, 2010 4:28 PM
31 Comments
Do you need some consumer power inspiration? Who doesn't? Here are two more readers' success stories about making a ginormous bank—Chase—treat them like the wonderful and valuable customers they are. More »
(Photo: mava)
Ask These Questions Before You Sign Your Next Lease
By Laura Northrup on January 17, 2010 1:27 PM
83 Comments
Are you looking for a new apartment or house? Apartment Therapy has some advice about what questions you should ask before putting your name on a new lease. We're featuring this on Consumerist because there is advice about negotiating extra fees and deposits for cats, a crucial topic for our readership. More »
(Photo: Lexicon)
Lexicon Puts $500 Blu-Ray Player In New Case, Charges $3000 Markup ...And Gets Caught
By Laura Northrup on January 17, 2010 11:39 AM
124 Comments
If you've always suspected that high-end audiovisual equipment is sort of a ripoff, the folks at Audioholics have confirmed some of your suspicions. In their review of the $3500, THX-certified Lexicon BD-30, the site just came out and said it: the player is another manufacturer's very nice $500 Blu-Ray player slapped inside a new case and sold with a $3000 markup. More »
(Photo: Penn-Cann Mall)
Radio Shack Goes To Great Lengths To Please Customer With Dead Phone
By Laura Northrup on January 17, 2010 9:30 AM
22 Comments
Bill wants to publicly praise a store that went above and beyond to make him happy after his Palm Pre failed during the holidays. He writes that the store employees put in extra effort on December 26th, a hectic retail day, to make sure that he received the phone he needed in a timely manner. That store was... Radio Shack. More »
(Photo: United Nations
Development Programme)
Text Message Donations For Haiti May Be Delayed Up To 3 Months
By Laura Northrup on January 17, 2010 7:30 AM
95 Comments
It's quick, easy, and convenient to donate to relief efforts for Haiti earthquake victims by sending a text message, but not such a great idea if you want to be sure that your donations reach people and organizations in need before sometime in April.
Mobile carriers don't actually submit your donation to the charity until after you've paid your bill. Experts agree that the donations will take at least one billing cycle for pledges to reach their destination. More »
(Photo: saebaryo)
Security Breach At JFK Airport Leads To Delays, Evacuations
By Laura Northrup on January 16, 2010 7:59 PM
71 Comments
Thousands of passengers were evacuated from the American Airlines terminal at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport after an unidentified person opened a door restricted to airline personnel and TSA officers. Like the Newark incident of a few weeks ago, the offender was caught on camera but has not yet been found. It remains unknown whether he was a criminal or a moron. [Reuters] [NYDN] (Thanks, GitEmSteveDave!)
(Photo: Bruno Girin)
Why A Pint Of Ice Cream Is Never Labeled "1 Serving"
By Laura Northrup on January 16, 2010 7:00 PM
86 Comments
"Serving size: 1 serving," a bag of frozen ravioli I bought recently read. A pasta Zen koan. It wasn't a single-serve bag, so could they give me the serving size in ounces? Number of ravioli? Just how arbitrary is this "serving size," anyway? Slate's Explainer explains: more so than you'd think. More »
(Photo: simminch)
Is It Poor Taste To Solicit Hotel Rewards Points Donations?
By Laura Northrup on January 16, 2010 5:00 PM
62 Comments
Jeremy received a solicitation from Hilton to donate his points from the chain's loyalty program, HHonors, to the Red Cross in order to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti. He thinks that this e-mail blast was in poor taste. Do you? More »
(Photo: Andrew Michaels)
New Vulva Dye Doesn't Really Work, But Is Quite Tasty
By Laura Northrup on January 16, 2010 3:04 PM
35 Comments
We mentioned the existence of My New Pink Button a few days ago. This new and exciting product promises to "restore the pink to a woman's genitals," since women don't already have enough things to be insecure about. While Consumer Reports doesn't have this on their testing schedule (yet), one enterprising blogger has tested the product so you don't have to. And there are pictures. No, not that kind. More »
(Photo: simone.brunozzi)
Apparently, Replacing A Dead Nexus One Is Too Hard For HTC
By Laura Northrup on January 16, 2010 11:06 AM
31 Comments
Prashant loves Google's software products and open policies, and decided to purchase a Nexus One on the very first day they hit the market. He writes that the phone he purchased was dead, and handset manufacturer HTC keeps making promises to send a handset that they never actually send. More »
(Photo: Tata Motors)
Impossibly Cheap, Tiny Car Coming To American Market
By Laura Northrup on January 16, 2010 9:00 AM
169 Comments
Back in the early '00s, I saw Smart cars zipping around my neighborhood in France and thought, "Europe is so weird! They'd never sell those in the US." But I was wrong. And the relative success of tiny cars like the Mini Cooper and, the Smart fortwo has led to the inevitable. The world's cheapest car, India's Tata Nano, is coming to America and Europe in about three years. More »
Godiva Trades Plastic Shard For More Delicious Chocolates
By Laura Northrup on January 15, 2010 4:26 PM
15 Comments
Hannah tells Consumerist received an unexpected present over the holidays: a brown plastic shard inside the Godiva chocolate she was eating. She contacted Godiva, and after the company checked out the incident, she received a box in the mail that contained four times as much chocolate as she had originally purchased. It's paying it forward, but with more calories. Lots and lots of calories. More »
(Photo: bnilsen)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on January 15, 2010 2:30 PM
91 Comments
Bank Of America Seizes Wrong House, Causes Big Stink. No, Really.
EECB NBC To Save The Conan O' Brien Show
Walmart Holds Another Customer Hostage
I Stopped A Nosey Target Clerk From Scanning My License
Girl "Grows Back Face" After Pain Relief Pill Made It Turn Black And Fall Off
(Photo: Thox)
Lenovo Charges For "Free" Windows 7 That's Four Months Late
By Laura Northrup on January 15, 2010 12:16 PM
73 Comments
Michael purchased a new laptop from Lenovo this past summer. This laptop came with the promise that he would receive a free copy of Windows 7 as soon as the new operating system was released. Michael writes that (as other customers of various computer vendors have discovered) the free OS was not free—it cost over $30. And four months after the retail release date of Windows 7, Michael still hasn't received his disc. More »
(Photo: The Joy Of The Mundane)
Sorry, Burger King Is Not A BYOB Establishment
By Laura Northrup on January 15, 2010 11:05 AM
48 Comments
A man in Florida was arrested for allegedly firing a weapon into a dwelling after he lost his temper. The "dwelling"? A Burger King. The "weapon?" A beer bottle the fast food establishment wouldn't let him bring inside. More »
New Nonprofit Created To Make Drivers Put The Damn Phone Down
By Laura Northrup on January 14, 2010 3:39 PM
98 Comments
What would it take to get you to put the phone down while you're driving? FocusDriven is an advocacy group for the victims of accidents caused by distracted drivers, and their families. The group hopes to do for distracted driving what Mothers Against Drunk Driving was able to do for drunk driving—raising awareness that it's a really stupid thing that can hurt innocent people you don't know. More »
This Petsmart Uses The Opposite Of Bulk Pricing
By Laura Northrup on January 14, 2010 2:03 PM
23 Comments
Maybe, you, our wonderful and brilliant readers, can figure out the logic behind the pricing scheme for aquarium air stones that Kevin discovered at Petsmart. Because we sure as heck can't. In a move that would make Target weep with envy, air stones become more expensive the more you buy. More »
(Photo: The Consumerist)
Verizon FiOS Early Termination Fee To Double This Week
By Laura Northrup on January 14, 2010 12:09 PM
31 Comments
Are you planning to sign up for Verizon FiOS service? If you wait until this Sunday to sign up, you're going to be liable for a higher early termination fee. The fee for ending a two-year contract will more than double, from $179 to $360. More »
(Photo: Wm Jas)
How To Turn Crap Lying Around Your House Into Money
By Laura Northrup on January 14, 2010 11:02 AM
68 Comments
Most people could use more money. Most people also have crap lying around their house that they no longer use. What they may not realize is that useless crap lying around the house can be transformed into cash, thus solving both problems. Unfortunately, there is no Cash4Clutter, but there are other ways to cash in on stuff you don't use. More »
(Photo: mlinksva)
Whole Bunch Of Store Credit Cards Add $1 Paper Statement Fee
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2010 4:12 PM
72 Comments
Last week, I mentioned in passing that World Financial Network National Bank, home of more retail-branded credit cards than you can fit in the average wallet, is adding a "paper statement fee" to all of their credit cards. And if you use store credit cards at all, the odds are pretty good that you have a WFNNB card in your wallet. More »
(Photo: thee_erin)
Fluevog Offers Great Service, Free Slightly Scuffed Shoes
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2010 2:53 PM
43 Comments
People seem to either love or hate the odd designs of Fluevog shoes, but on a visit to one of their retail stores, Lee learned that the company's retail customer service went well above and beyond to make a customer with a problem happy. More »
(Photo: simone.brunozzi)
Google And T-Mobile Will Charge Up To $550 To Break Your Nexus One Contract
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2010 2:40 PM
56 Comments
If you're interested in the new Google/HTC Nexus One smartphone with a T-Mobile contract and can look past the problematic 3G access and buck-passing technical support, that's great. Just, before you go through with the purchase, make sure you really, really like the phone and the service. Because, according to the Android fan site Phandroid, T-Mobile and Google have partnered up to charge you as much as $550 in "equipment recovery" and early termination fees. Update: T-Mobile has confirmed that they will be charging their own ETF on top of Google's fee. More »
(Photo: am07)>
If You Want A Zhu Zhu Pet, Now's The Time
By Laura Northrup on January 13, 2010 11:05 AM
59 Comments
It seems like only a few weeks ago that fist fights were breaking out in stores over Zhu Zhu Pets. Because it was. Now that Christmas has passed, the cycle is complete, and retailers are up to their whiskers in robot rodents. More »
Cablevision Explains Why Their Business Model Is Good And Scripps Sucks
By Laura Northrup on January 10, 2010 6:00 PM
93 Comments
Cablevision has a new looped announcement in their food fight against Scripps. The message plays on the channels where HGTV and Food Network used to be. This time, they ask why Scripps doesn't just sell Food Network and HGTV directly to interested customers. Funny, I keep saying that about the entire cable lineup. More »
(Photo: recoverling)
Welcome To The Permanent Temporary Workforce
By Laura Northrup on January 10, 2010 4:00 PM
150 Comments
As we recover from the Great Recession (tm), unemployment may go down, but something will have changed. Economic conditions have accelerated the trend toward what BusinessWeek calls the "disposable worker." Americans' concept of a full-time job—one that includes health and retirement benefits and a measure of security—will need to change in the coming years. More »
Sprint Imposes $5 Monthly Fee Because You Might Pay Late
By Laura Northrup on January 10, 2010 2:00 PM
73 Comments
If you have a spending limit on your Sprint account because of your credit history, or in order to prevent runaway data bills, as of today you'll have to pay for that privilege. Sprint has imposed a $4.99 per month surcharge on all mobile phone accounts that have spending limits in place. More »
Acer Recalls 22,000 Defective Laptops
By Laura Northrup on January 10, 2010 12:00 PM
10 Comments
22,000 Acer laptops have been recalled by Acer and the CPSC because of a wiring defect. The computers can short circuit, melt the casing, and theoretically burn users. More »
Redbox Offers Free Movie Rental Good For Six Whole Hours
By Laura Northrup on January 10, 2010 10:00 AM
66 Comments
Several readers in the Oklahoma City area wrote to us about a recent issue with Redbox. Kiosks all over the area were full and unable to accept DVD returns. Redbox made up for the outage by offering area consumers a free rental. Except the free rental code was only good for six hours after the message was sent out. More »
(Photo: Shika Kaoin)
Idiot Disrupts Everyone's Air Travel For Goodbye Kiss
By Laura Northrup on January 10, 2010 8:00 AM
114 Comments
The man who went through security the wrong way, disrupting airline traffic at Newark and thus nationwide, was neither a terrorist nor a dumbass, as we had speculated last week. He was a romantic fool who wanted a kiss from his girlfriend. Okay, maybe that falls under "dumbass." More »
(Photo: 111 Emergency)
Verizon Customer's DSL Upgraded, House Still Not On Fire
By Laura Northrup on January 9, 2010 5:01 PM
30 Comments
Remember Michael? When he tried to upgrade his Verizon DSL, a customer service rep helpfully told him that 7 mbps was not only unavailable at his address, but it would burn his house down. After this slightly surreal exchange was featured on Consumerist, Michael reports that Verizon's executive customer service got in touch with him and figured out the situation. Guess what? He could get the blazing fast DSL that Verizon had repeatedly refused him. More »
(Photo: frankieleon)
Consent-Only Overdraft Protection: Maybe Not So Great
By Laura Northrup on January 9, 2010 4:00 PM
86 Comments
Starting on July 1st, the Federal Reserve has required banks to get consent from customers before enrolling them in overdraft protection programs so they can experience the excitement of cascading overdrafts. The problem is that consumers may be trading overdraft fees for insufficient funds fees and good old-fashioned bounced checks...and end up worse off in the long run. More »
(Photo: tonystl)
DNA And Fingerprints Collected From 1982 Tylenol Poisoning Suspect
By Laura Northrup on January 9, 2010 3:00 PM
30 Comments
The 1982 Tylenol poisoning murders, the chief reason why the tamper-proof packages of modern over-the-counter medications must be broken into with, at minimum, a chainsaw, are being investigated again in light of new tips and new forensic techniques. Well, that only took 28 years. More »
Make Free Cell Phone Calls With...MagicJack?
By Laura Northrup on January 9, 2010 2:00 PM
59 Comments
Do you have poor cell phone reception in your home? You could pay your carrier $150, then $20 per month for a mini cell tower, or femtocell, that lets you make calls using the magic of the Internet. Or you could pay a tiny fraction of that amount for MagicJack's version of a femtocell. More »
(Photo: Jay Adan)
Unemployment Rate Still Only 10% Because Everyone's Just Giving Up
By Laura Northrup on January 9, 2010 1:00 PM
82 Comments
The good news: the national unemployment rate hasn't gone above 10%. The bad news: it's because hundreds of thousands of people are giving up hope and dropping out of the labor force entirely. The percentage of Americans taking part in the labor force is the lowest it's been since the mid-'80s, and over 900,000 people are no longer looking for work because they don't think any is available. More »
(Photo: NCinDC)
H&M Insists That All Unsold Clothing Is Donated, Manhattan Store Went Rogue
By Laura Northrup on January 9, 2010 11:30 AM
53 Comments
After last week's uproar and public shaming, over unsold clothing that was intentionally destroyed, then thrown in the trash behind the chain's Herald Square location, clothing retailer H&M insists that the incident was against company policy and a fluke. Then TV station WPIX caught an employee throwing away a giant bag of shoes a few days later. More »
(Photo: avatar-1)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
10 Movie Theater Secrets
Man Buys $3 Billion CD-ROM On Amazon Just To See What Would Happen
Consumer Reports Science Proves Slap Chop Sucks
Um, Why Are All The $1 BK Double Cheeseburgers I Buy Tiny?
More »
By Laura Northrup on January 8, 2010 1:00 PM
46 Comments
Best Buy Optimization Is A Big Stupid Annoying Waste Of Money10 Movie Theater Secrets
Man Buys $3 Billion CD-ROM On Amazon Just To See What Would Happen
Consumer Reports Science Proves Slap Chop Sucks
Um, Why Are All The $1 BK Double Cheeseburgers I Buy Tiny?
More »
Consumer Reports Science Shows Magic Jack Is Actually Worthwhile
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2010 4:55 PM
74 Comments
Consumer Reports didn't love Vince's nuts, and their tests found that the Snuggie sheds like a pack of crazed Labrador retrievers. But in their article about informercial products this month, they did find one that their mad science shows actually works, provides good value, and is useful: the Magic Jack. More »
(Photo: consumerisn't)
H&M Store Cuts Up Unsold Clothing, Throws It Away
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2010 4:15 PM
126 Comments
Some retailers donate unsold clothing to charity, or discount it by the palletful and sell it to thrift stores or closeout retailers. But the New York Times reports that the H&M at Herald Square in Manhattan gets rid of their unsold clothing by cutting holes in it to render it unwearable, then throwing it away. More »
(Photo: BBC)
Roku Uses FedEx TARDIS Service, Sends Package Back In Time
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2010 2:45 PM
52 Comments
Roku and Fedex have done an amazing thing. They didn't send Merujo's new media player via Smartpost. They sent it three months back in time and to the wrong city and state. Or maybe they just can't find the correct tracking number. More »
Photo: ceejayoz
Wegmans Charges $1.50 For Free Bottle Of Listerine
By Laura Northrup on January 6, 2010 1:45 PM
35 Comments
Please, Wegmans. You know we've gone down this road with Target and they refuse to seek help. You're the grocery store I grew up with, and even Consumer Reports loves you. So why does it have to be this way? Why are you going crazy? More »
Booty Pop: Like A Push-Up Bra For Your Butt
By Laura Northrup on January 3, 2010 8:30 PM
75 Comments
The idea of panties with built-in ass enhancement is hardly new, but selling them via infomercial is. And it kind of scares us. That popping sound is particularly disturbing. More »
Unlocked Nexus One Smartphone Will Cost $530
By Laura Northrup on January 3, 2010 6:30 PM
38 Comments
Google! Touchscreen! Replicants! The Nexus One, a touchscreen smartphone designed by Google and made by HTC, may not be the next Jesus Phone, but word on the street is that it's quite nifty and goes on sale on Tuesday, January 5th. What should you know before you order? More »
(Photo: cloudzilla)
Make Your New HDTV Slightly More Awesome
By Laura Northrup on January 3, 2010 4:30 PM
32 Comments
Did you acquire a shiny, flat new HDTV in 2009's end-of-the-year buying frenzy? If your new TV looks a little odd, you may need to calibrate it. Consumer Reports Electronics can help. More »
(Photo: Big C Harvey)
Where Should A Good Consumer Register For Wedding Gifts?
By Laura Northrup on January 3, 2010 2:30 PM
157 Comments
We post plenty of wedding registry horror stories here at Consumerist. Knowing this, reader Elizabeth would like to know: where are the best places to register? More »
FYE Loses Customer Through Use Of Relentless Upsells
By Laura Northrup on January 3, 2010 12:30 PM
193 Comments
Holly visited her local FYE store to purchase a DVD. She writes that she was met with such relentless upselling when all she wanted was to buy a single DVD that she is no longer interested in shopping at FYE at all. More »
(Photo: frankieleon)
Cash For Clunkers Customers Entitled To More Cash
By Laura Northrup on January 3, 2010 10:30 AM
45 Comments
Some customers who purchased cars during the 2009 CARS rebate program, popularly known as Cash for Clunkers, were entitled to a portion of the scrap value of their old cars, in addition to the government rebate of $3,500 or $4,500. What? And the dealerships didn't tell them? Gasp! More »
(Photo: Theresa Thompson)
Radio Shack Celebrates Purchase Anniversary With E-mail
By Laura Northrup on January 3, 2010 8:31 AM
25 Comments
Brad discovered that Radio Shack is much more thoughtful than he had ever imagined. They very thoughtfully sent him an e-mail to celebrate the anniversary of his last purchase. Or maybe they're just having problems with their e-mail notification system. More »
Office Depot Offers Refund For Computer Ruined With Glue
By Laura Northrup on January 2, 2010 8:30 PM
24 Comments
Last week, we shared the story of Scott, whose computer was not quite repaired by Office Depot's Product Protection Plan. We're pleased to report that Office Depot got in touch with Scott through Consumerist and has given him a full refund for the computer that hey slathered glue on and mailed back to him. More »
(Photo: New England Oddities)
Banks Ring In 2010 With Exciting New Fees
By Laura Northrup on January 2, 2010 6:30 PM
94 Comments
New laws and rules affecting banks and credit card issuers go into effect soon, depriving them of their badly needed profits. Since sudden rate hikes and cascading overdraft fees are soon to be things of the past, bankers are busy formulating creative new fees. Here's what you have to look forward to in the new year. More »
(Photo: MPD01605)
Do Not Leave Common Sense Behind When Trying Out Your Shiny New GPS
By Laura Northrup on January 2, 2010 2:30 PM
144 Comments
Like many Americans this year, I received a GPS unit as a Christmas gift. Its first real test was navigating to an unfamiliar town for New Year's Eve, and it sent me on a circuitous, traffic-clogged route to the nearest freeway entrance after picking up a friend. "What? No!" I yelled at the device when it asked me to make a pointless, impossible left turn onto a dead-end street.
I only ended up a half-mile away from my route at any given time, and quickly realized that global positioning satellites are no substitute for actual common sense, assuming that you have any. But some of my fellow holiday GPS recipients haven't been so lucky. More »
(Photo: jonathansin)
Lenovo Ignores Customer, Waits For Gift To Reach Wrong Destination
By Laura Northrup on January 2, 2010 11:30 AM
36 Comments
We hear that Lenovo, heirs to the Thinkpad line of laptops, makes some very nice computers. In the last few months, though, more and more Consumerist readers are having problems getting the company to complete an exchange in which money is exchanged for a computer. E.J.'s purchase is one such failed exchange, and his father's Christmas laptop is now lurking in a UPS facility, a few hundred miles away from where it was supposed to be delivered. More »
Cablevision Replaces Food Network And HGTV With Passive-Aggressive Announcement
By Laura Northrup on January 2, 2010 9:30 AM
99 Comments
Cablevision subscribers woke up yesterday to discover that Food Network and HGTV were gone from their television screens. GONE! What now runs on the space where those stations used to be is a slightly rewritten version of Cablevision's statement about the situation. It strikes us as a little passive-aggressive. More »
Non-Crisis Is Over: Fox, Time Warner Reach Agreement
By Laura Northrup on January 1, 2010 9:17 PM
43 Comments
Fox and Time Warner Cable have settled their differences, and come to an agreement regarding Fox content over Time Warner's cable network. More »
(Photo: Karamellzucker)
Thank You, Consumerist, For Easing Chase's Credit Strangehold On Me
By Laura Northrup on January 1, 2010 4:30 PM
15 Comments
Is reducing your credit card debt one of your goals for 2010? You're in the right place. Josh used information that he found on Consumerist to significantly reduce his credit card interest rates and help him and his wife on their way to freedom from debt. More »
(Photo: Gonzalo Baeza Hernández)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on January 1, 2010 3:00 PM
51 Comments
AT&T Customer Service: "New York City Is Not Ready For The iPhone"
Giant Mold Universe Found Inside Chef Boyardee Can
HP Ink Costs More Than Human Blood
Customer Knows Her Stolen iPhone Is Being Sent To Apple, But Apple Says They Can't Return It
Even Best Buy Staff Admit That Geek Squad Is Useless
Happy New Year, Consumerists! More »
Bacon Salt Gift Pack: The Only Thing You Need To Buy Today
By Laura Northrup on January 1, 2010 1:43 PM
28 Comments
We don't have a Morning Deals post today, and that's because sellout.woot has the only thing on the entire Internet that you need to buy: the Bacon Salt Ultimate Bacon Lover’s Gift Pack. It has three different flavors of Bacon Salt, a jar of Baconnaise, and a tube of bacon-flavored lip balm. More »
(Photo: ensign_at_e233net)
SIGG CEO Contacts Customer, Restores Faith In Bottle Exchange
By Laura Northrup on December 31, 2009 3:35 PM
8 Comments
A few months ago, SIGG USA announced that the plastic liners of their metal water bottles actually contain the dread plastic additive bisphenol-A (BPA.) Since avoiding BPA is the reason for the popularity of metal water bottles in the first place, SIGG offered to exchange the thousands of the offending bottles for shiny new ones. Many Consumerist readers have written in to share their tales of mixups, confusion, and mysterious $50,000 gift certificates in dealing with the replacement program, but Matt actually had a pleasant experience, and he shared it with Consumerist. More »
(Photo: frankieleon)
Americans Falling Behind On Credit Card Payments Again
By Laura Northrup on December 31, 2009 2:45 PM
23 Comments
As a country, we were doing pretty well paying down our credit card debt for most of 2009, but according to Moody's Investor Services, the number of people who are behind on their payments rose slightly in November. More »
Science Toys "For Girls" Don't Need As Much Power
By Laura Northrup on December 31, 2009 1:30 PM
111 Comments
Budding female science nerds of America, Toys R Us has an important message. This message is: "don't worry your pretty little head with the most powerful science toys we have to offer." More »
Another Snuggie Hybrid: The Bathrobe Jumpsuit Blanket Thing
By Laura Northrup on December 31, 2009 12:30 PM
37 Comments
Sometimes I say to myself, "I like to wear a bathrobe and sweatpants around the house, but putting on two different articles of clothing is too much work." Peering into the minds of people like me who are cold, lazy, and have given up entirely on the outside world, JC Penney has introduced the Snuggle Suit. More »
(Photo: osde8info)
How Long Until The Netbook Becomes Obsolete?
By Laura Northrup on December 31, 2009 11:30 AM
70 Comments
Netbooks are currently very popular, and were a hot gift this holiday season. But are the tiny, stripped-down computers really the future of consumer laptops? According to the BBC, some technology experts think that the netbook may have already peaked—and most of what people seek out netbooks for today, they may use other devices, including tablets, in the future. More »
U.S. Fidelis Stops Selling Useless Car Warranties
By Laura Northrup on December 31, 2009 11:00 AM
15 Comments
Remember US Fidelis, one of the nation's leading companies in the useless auto warranty market? Since the company's anti-consumer practices were uncovered this spring in a Today Show exposé, they haven't been doing very well. The company has laid off over half of its employees, and now has stopped selling new service contracts altogether. More »
(Photo: Noël Zia Lee)
Do Not Use "Twitter" As Your Twitter Password
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2009 1:45 PM
56 Comments
Twitter is looking out for you. When you register, in addition to telling you how strong or weak your password is, there are also certain passwords that are forbidden. These include "computer," "twitter," and "vagina." More »
Who Is This Banner Ad Targeting?
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2009 12:45 PM
63 Comments
The man at left appears in banner ads for mortgage refinancing. He looks like a person most people would avoid. So why does this ad network think that he will persuade us to refinance our mortgages? More »
Shrink Ray Renders Mini Coke Cans Even More Mini
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2009 11:00 AM
100 Comments
Sure, you can call Coke's new 7.5-ounce mini can an exciting new marketing ploy, giving customers a nice, even, guilt-free 90-calorie gulp of soda. But reader Josh sees the change for what it is: a fancied-up version of the Grocery Shrink Ray. And not even his wife can convince him to buy them anymore. More »
(Photo: Mike Souza)
Detroit Airport Wants Passengers To Stop Showing Up So #%&*@$ Early
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2009 10:30 AM
105 Comments
There's a downside to media reports of airport mayhem. In Detroit, destination of the flight on which a failed alleged terrorist attack took place on Christmas Day, passengers expect additional security screening and are showing up early. Too early. Early enough that they're screwing up the entire flight schedule. More »
(Photo: Ana Santos)
Next Time You Fly, Prepare To Be Patted Down And Computerless
By Laura Northrup on December 27, 2009 7:30 PM
265 Comments
Are we not allowed to have electronics with us in the cabin when we fly now? Is it true that we can't get up in the last hour of a flight, and everyone gets patted down now? Most importantly, what about the electronics? More »
(Photo: 1Happysnapper)
AT&T Customer Service: "New York City Is Not Ready For The iPhone"
Update: New York customers are now able to order iPhones via AT&T's Web site. It would appear that the company has once more modified its "promotions and distribution channels." We've requested a statement from AT&T, and will update this post if and when we receive it. More »
By Laura Northrup on December 27, 2009 5:30 PM
100 Comments
AT&T has apparently found a workable solution to the reported data congestion in New York City. They've quietly stopped selling the iPhone from their web site to customers in the New York metropolitan area.Update: New York customers are now able to order iPhones via AT&T's Web site. It would appear that the company has once more modified its "promotions and distribution channels." We've requested a statement from AT&T, and will update this post if and when we receive it. More »
(Photo: blue_j)
Was Fatal Car Accident Caused By Stuck Toyota Accelerator?
By Laura Northrup on December 27, 2009 3:30 PM
36 Comments
Police in Southlake, Tex. are investigating whether a fatal automobile accident could have been caused by the same mechanical issue that led to the recall of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles and multiple fatal accidents in the U.S., including one involving a California Highway Patrol officer and his family. In the accident on Saturday morning, police say that the vehicle ran a stop sign, hit a tree and a fence, and drove into a pond. Two people were killed, and two were injured. More »
Great Best Buy Deal: Get Free Program Tweetdeck For Free
By Laura Northrup on December 27, 2009 1:30 PM
15 Comments
Matthew sent us this page from today's Best Buy advertising flyer. They're offering an amazing deal this week—buy a CD from certain Interscope musicians, and you can download Tweetdeck for iPhone absolutely free. Which would be a very nice deal if Tweetdeck weren't already free. More »
Lorac Replaces Entire Makeup Kit After Two Eyeshadows Smashed In Transit
By Laura Northrup on December 27, 2009 11:30 AM
16 Comments
Lizbeth ordered an eye makeup kit from Lorac Cosmetics, but two of the eyeshadows in the case were smashed when the kit arrived. She contacted their customer service about replacements for those few colors, and got a lovely surprise in return. More »
This Toys R Us Sign Is Technically True, But Still Stupid
By Laura Northrup on December 27, 2009 9:30 AM
20 Comments
"I guess technically, $.01 is 'over $0,'" writes reader Don in Arizona who found this sign, "and in 1850, saving $.01 was probably a smoking hot deal but today, not so much...."
(Photo: James Nash (aka Cirrus))
Even Best Buy Staff Admit That Geek Squad Is Useless
By Laura Northrup on December 27, 2009 7:30 AM
98 Comments
Chris learned a very entertaining lesson this weekend. He tells Consumerist that he went out yesterday in search of a Mini SD card at his local Best Buy. A Mini SD card that the Geek Squad staffer who picked up the phone at Best Buy assured him the store carried. Guess where this is going? More »
Mattel Sells Overpriced Barbie Printer, Forgets To Make Overpriced Refill Cartridges
By Laura Northrup on December 26, 2009 7:30 PM
69 Comments
Mattel's new "beautronics" device aimed at tween girls, the Barbie Nail Printer, is a glorified inkjet printer that customizes and prints designs on your fingernails. Neat idea in theory, though a bit pricey at $180. However, Mattel has apparently overlooked an essential part of the inkjet printer business model: selling new and overpriced cartridges. The problem, reader Richard writes, is that the company refuses to take orders for new cartridges, saying that they won't be available until next year. But I want pink leopard print fingernails now! More »
LEGO Shop Rushes Watch To Child's Door For Christmas
By Laura Northrup on December 26, 2009 5:30 PM
29 Comments
At the last minute, Andrew ordered what must be the coolest watch ever created as a Christmas gift for his eight-year-old, watch-fascinated son. He planned to leave an IOU under the tree, but LEGO Shop had other ideas. More »
Staples Cashier: You Need A Warranty Because All Of Our Electronics Are Crap
By Laura Northrup on December 26, 2009 3:30 PM
83 Comments
Jack in New York went to his local Staples store to buy a GPS, and writes that he ran across a novel sales pitch for extended warranties. According to this cashier, the electronic devices that Staples sells are so terrible, customers have no choice but to buy an extended warranty from Staples. More »
(Photo: Tambako the Jaguar)
ISPs Trying To Scare You Into Buying More Internets
By Laura Northrup on December 26, 2009 11:02 AM
49 Comments
How much bandwidth does the average consumer need? Well, according to the totally unbiased folks at America's major Internet service providers, more than they're probably using now. According to Time Warner, Grandma needs Roadrunner with PowerBoost in order for you to send her photos. And AT&T thinks you need at least 3 mpbs to use Facebook. What? More »
Best Buy Overcharges For Out-Of-Stock GPS, Won't Cancel Order
By Laura Northrup on December 26, 2009 9:00 AM
84 Comments
Daniel is the latest Consumerist reader to experience problems with ordering an item from Best Buy's website. He writes that a retail sales associate who was either misinformed or dishonest led him to order GPS units as Christmas presents. Daniel's debit card was charged before the items were delivered, which isn't supposed to happen. Then Best Buy charged him the wrong price and lost his order, which really isn't supposed to happen. More »
(Photo: Falashad)
Yes, Walmart Already Has The Easter Candy Out
By Laura Northrup on December 25, 2009 6:50 PM
77 Comments
The place: Walmart. The date: December 23, 2009. The endcap display at Bob's local store: Easter candy.
Hug your loved ones close, my dears, for the apocalypse is nigh. More »
(Photo: Furryscaly)
Make Debt Collectors Give You Money By Suing Them
By Laura Northrup on December 25, 2009 5:30 PM
92 Comments
This may not work for everyone, but it worked for Jeff. He tells Consumerist that after he filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy, Sallie Mae representatives continued to call him, which is sort of illegal. So his bankruptcy attorney sued them. And won a $4,000 settlement. More »
(Photo: AlishaV)
Whole Foods Shrink Rays Holiday Dinner
By Laura Northrup on December 25, 2009 3:25 PM
52 Comments
Paul and his wife purchased a pre-cooked feast for eight people at Whole Foods, but they claim that they didn't get their whole order of food. Their two-pound side dishes, sold by weight, actually weighed in at as little as 1 pound, 3 ounces. Is their kitchen scale broken, or is something wrong at Whole Foods? More »
Guess What's In This Package?
By Laura Northrup on December 25, 2009 1:30 PM
174 Comments
No, really. Guess.
Are you entitled to a refund if your wrapping paper doesn't sufficiently conceal a package's contents? Megan thinks so. Last week when she wrapped her fiance's Christmas present, he got an unexpected surprise. He could tell exactly what the gift was through the opaque wrapping paper. More »
(Photo: ljcybergal)
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on December 25, 2009 11:30 AM
39 Comments
Walmart Accused Of Secretly Videotaping Public Restroom
What Happened With Operation Chokehold
Company Forecloses On Wrong Condo, Throws Out Everything
GameStop Tells Me It Doesn't Care It's Violating Merchant Agreement
Closeted Lesbian Sues Netflix For Potential Outing
Happy Giftmas, Consumerists! Did Santa Cat visit your house? He brought me a cocker spaniel with stomach flu. It's exactly what I wanted! More »
(Photo: bitsonwheels.com) [RIP]
Comcast Settles BitTorrent Throttling Lawsuit
By Laura Northrup on December 25, 2009 9:00 AM
39 Comments
Comcast has settled a $16 million class-action lawsuit accusing the Internet provider of preventing customers from sharing files via BitTorrent. The suit alleges that Comcast sold users "unlimited" internet access that was, in fact, quite limited. Comcast still admits no wrongdoing, and affected customers will receive up to $16 each as part of the settlement. Ka-ching! More »
(Photo: j.reed)
An Incredibly Depressing Last-Minute Gift: Medical Gift Cards
By Laura Northrup on December 24, 2009 5:45 PM
34 Comments
What's this? A gift card? For health care? Oh, you shouldn't have! Really. You shouldn't have. Yet, medical gift cards issued by health insurers and hospital systems are increasingly more common. More »
Snuggie Mates With Snowpants, Evolves Legs
By Laura Northrup on December 24, 2009 4:45 PM
51 Comments
Japan has raised the stakes in the couch potato wars, and is producing a sleeping bag with legs. It's like a snowsuit. For grown-ups. Except you can't use your arms. More »
Office Depot Repair Slathers Glue On Laptop, Says "Good Enough"
By Laura Northrup on December 24, 2009 11:30 AM
43 Comments
Scott's Acer Extensa broke, but he had an Office Depot extended warranty plan. Hooray! However, he writes, Office Depot's repair staff have a strange idea of what it means to repair a computer, and went right ahead and rendered his computer non-functional. More »
(Photo: {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester})
United Airlines Calls Up Delayed Traveler, Offers Compensation
By Laura Northrup on December 24, 2009 11:00 AM
12 Comments
We've brought you plenty of airline horror stories recently, but Marine officer Christopher's experience is positively heartwarming in comparison. After the East coast snowpocalypse canceled his original flight and he was forced to wait on the tarmac for three hours due to a baggage handler shortage, United Airlines contacted him to offer a $250 travel voucher. No EECB needed. More »
(Photo: Scurzuzu)
Is It Ever Okay To Buy Gifts At A Thrift Store?
By Laura Northrup on December 24, 2009 9:45 AM
104 Comments
Tacky, incompetent regifting is one thing, but Mrs. Money over at the Ultimate Money Blog raises another question: when is it appropriate to give people gifts that you've purchased at a thrift or consignment store? More »
Pay Czar Rules On Bailed-Out Executives' Salaries
By Laura Northrup on December 24, 2009 8:45 AM
5 Comments
The pay czar has spoken. Late yesterday, the Treasury Department's pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, ruled on whether executives of bailed-out companies can receive higher salaries than the $500,000 limit. Rulings included exemptions for General Motors, GMAC, and Chrysler. Citigroup has repaid enough of its bailout funds that it will be exempt from pay caps in 2010. [Marketwatch]
Snapfish Gives Customer Free Prints For Bad Weather
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2009 6:45 PM
14 Comments
Troy in Texas ordered his photo Christmas cards a bit late from Snapfish, and experienced something beautiful and unexpected: the company offered customers store credit to make up for weather delays that weren't even the company's fault. Gasp! More »
Barnes & Noble Promises Nook Arrival By Christmas, Unless You're In Alaska
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2009 3:00 PM
48 Comments
Laurie in Alaska tells Consumerist that she ordered a Nook from Barnes & Noble that was intended as a Christmas present. The shipping date kept getting pushed back, but customers were assured that their e-readers would arrive in time for Christmas, no matter what. Except Laurie's order shipped early this morning, USPS Priority Mail, which normally takes at least a week to reach Alaska. More »
(Photo: ensign_at_e233net)
SIGG Asks For Gift Certificate Code, Charges Debit Card Anyway
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2009 11:45 AM
22 Comments
Four months in, customers are still experiencing problems with SIGG USA's metal bottle replacement program. Amy writes that her purchase required her to input billing information, even though she had gift certificate code, her debit card was charged, and she has been unable to reach SIGG to obtain a refund. More »
AT&T Tries Pushing WiFi Instead Of Tiered Mobile Data Pricing
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2009 11:00 AM
82 Comments
Realizing that their customers are not keen on the idea of tiered mobile data pricing, AT&T has a new solution: offer delicious carrots instead of beating already-dissatisfied customers with sticks. Instead, AT&T Mobility President Ralph de la Vega told BusinessWeek that AT&T is looking to expand their public wi-fi network, and use access points—free or free to AT&T customers—at sites such as McDonald's, Starbucks, and Barnes & Noble to help alleviate the strain on the 3G data network. More »
Photo: tornatore
Tales Of Epic Re-Gifting Fail
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2009 10:40 AM
120 Comments
Mainstreet.com asked their readers to recount the worst re-gifting experiences they've had. People really, really seem to like re-gifting unwanted wedding gifts without removing the original cards first. But the real winner in the categories of both cheapness and stupidity has to be the person who checked a book out from the library, then gave it to a friend as a gift. More »
(Photo: Marvin Kuo)
Second BlackBerry Data Outage This Week Now Over
By Laura Northrup on December 23, 2009 8:30 AM
33 Comments
Blackberry users on all mobile carriers in North and South America experienced e-mail and Internet outages for about eight hours late on Tuesday. This follows a shorter outage on December 17th that only affected e-mail services. More »
(Photo: jeffwilcox)
Microsoft Must Change Word Or Stop Selling It
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2009 7:30 PM
56 Comments
A federal appeals court has ordered Microsoft to remove custom XML functionality from any copies of Word 2007 that go on sale after January 11th. The ruling struck down Microsoft's appeal of an earlier verdict that technology used in Office 2007 originated with the Canadian company i4i Software. More »
(Photo: Great Beyond)
NES Emulator Available On iPhone App Store For Brief, Shining Moment
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2009 6:52 PM
32 Comments
MacWorld reports that Nescaline, an NES emulator, received Apple's blessing and was briefly available for download from the App Store, but quickly disappeared. iPhone users craving marathon mobile sessions of Paperboy were bereft. More »
(Photo: Edgar Zuniga Jr.)
Do Not Retaliate For Bad Customer Service With Bomb Threats
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2009 5:00 PM
12 Comments
Protip: The best way to deal with poor customer service from a mall is not to turn around and call in a bomb threat. From your office phone. Without blocking caller ID. Yes, a man in a Salt Lake City suburb allegedly did that. More »
Fedex Abandons Package On Your Doorstep, Forgets About It
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2009 4:35 PM
78 Comments
Fedex delivered a package to David's house that was destined for a business on a different street, about half a mile away. He says that it took a ludicrous amount of time and effort on his part to get FedEx to come back and pick up the package. Did FedEx expect him to keep it? Did they expect him to get it to the destination himself? He's not sure. More »
(Photo: Giftcardcollector.com)
A Look Back At The Origin Of Gift Cards
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2009 3:35 PM
50 Comments
Sure, we at Consumerist may try to steer people away from gift cards, but they remain the most popular holiday gift. But where did they come from? How did the gift card evolve from its less versatile ancestor, the gift certificate? The Big Money has a retrospective. More »
(Photo: theogeo)
Watch Out For Stricter Post-Holiday Return Policies This Year
By Laura Northrup on December 22, 2009 2:15 PM
38 Comments
If part of your plans this week involve trading in some of your holiday gifts for sweet, sweet cash, you may need to plan ahead. According to the National Retail Federation, 17% of stores have tightened their return policies since the end of last year. What should you know before you try to bring back that magenta scarf or duplicate toy? More »
(Photo: quatre mains)
Yeah, It's Pretty Much Chaos At Delta/Northwest Right Now
By Laura Northrup on December 20, 2009 10:00 PM
52 Comments
Adding to the problems caused by snowstorms, travel delays, and a general lack of communication in the skies today, readers report that Delta's and Northwest's computer systems are still not integrated, resulting in some completely un-hilarious travel snafus. More »
Anchor Bay Trusts Customer, Makes Up For Missing Disc
By Laura Northrup on December 20, 2009 6:00 PM
17 Comments
Last Christmas, Steve bought his wife a copy of "Evil Dead," Ultimate Edition, published by Anchor Bay Entertainment. The set was missing a disc, and Anchor Bay never followed up on his initial e-mail. At the beginning of December, almost a year later, he contacted the company again, and they did a fantastic job making up for the original missed email. More »
Spyker Makes One More Offer For Saab
By Laura Northrup on December 20, 2009 3:00 PM
30 Comments
Saab may not die after all! Spyker Cars made another offer yesterday, along with a proposal addressing the concerns that led GM to turn down their initial offer. More »
(Photo: nrivera)
Sorry, It's Your Problem That AT&T Rep Lied About Smartphone Data Plans
By Laura Northrup on December 20, 2009 2:00 PM
91 Comments
Robert, an iPhone user and AT&T defender, tells Consumerist that the company has managed to turn him against them. What? No! And it's all thanks to a misinformed retail store rep and some subsequent bad customer service from call center reps. Apparently, the employees at his local store don't read Consumerist, or they would know that AT&T no longer allows customers with smartphones to cancel their data plans. More »
(Photo: frankieleon)
Call Bank Of America About Account, Get Credit Limit Cut By 65%
By Laura Northrup on December 20, 2009 11:00 AM
111 Comments
Sean has a warning for Consumerist readers with Bank of America credit cards. At the beginning of December, he tells us that he called the bank about a billing issue, which earned him an account review and a drastic reduction in his credit limit. More »
(Photo: onecrazyweasel)
6 More Buffalo Target Employees Fired For Buying Zhu Zhu Hamsters
By Laura Northrup on December 20, 2009 10:00 AM
85 Comments
The Buffalo News reports that a total of seven overnight employees at the Cheektowaga, NY Target store were fired for purchasing Zhu Zhu Pets at the end of their shifts. In a statement to the paper, Target claims that its policy forbidding employees from buying hot items before store opening time was made clear to employees—a claim that the seven now-former employees deny. More »
(Photo: Robert S. Donovan)
Delta Cancels Flights Due To Storm, Plays "Let it Snow" For Customers On Hold
By Laura Northrup on December 20, 2009 7:25 AM
95 Comments
The massive snowstorm on the East Coast this weekend has led to canceled and delayed flights—and a lot of aggravation on the part of Delta Air Lines customers. Because the only thing better than waiting for hours on hold to learn your flight's status or reschedule a flight canceled due to snow is listening to "Let it Snow." On a loop. More »
(Photo: grantlairdjr)
You Must Waste A Shopping Bag At Bath & Body Works, Or Else
By Laura Northrup on December 19, 2009 4:00 PM
111 Comments
Some retailers, like CVS, reward their customers for using reusable shopping bags. Others, like Macy's and Borders, sort of do the opposite. Reader Jennifer says that this happened to her. A local Bath & Body Works store wouldn't sell her anything if she stubbornly insisted in putting her purchase inside one of the bags she already had. Wait, isn't she saving the store money by not taking a bag? More »
(Photo: *Greig*)
Closeted Lesbian Sues Netflix For Potential Outing
By Laura Northrup on December 19, 2009 3:00 PM
129 Comments
Here's the problem with anonymized data: if it were truly anonymized, it wouldn't be useful to anyone for anything. With enough data about a person—say, their age, gender, and zip code—it's not hard to narrow down who someone is. That's the idea behind a class-action lawsuit against Netflix regarding the customer data they released to the public as part of the Netflix Prize project, a contest to help create better movie recommendations. A closeted lesbian alleges that the data available about her could reveal her identity. More »
Best Buy, Why Have You Sent Me A Random $50 Gift Card?
By Laura Northrup on December 19, 2009 2:00 PM
46 Comments
Brian has an enviable but confusing problem. He has received a $50 Best Buy gift card from a mysterious benefactor. Has he done something pleasing to the overpriced electronics gods? Has he received a gift from someone he knows who wishes to remain anonymous? He doesn't know. But, as a Consumerist reader, he's suspicious. More »
Barnes & Noble Will Send You $100 If Nook Doesn't Show Up By Christmas
bribe gift card to the delivery addresses for pre-ordered Nooks that aren't slated to arrive by December 24th. More »
By Laura Northrup on December 19, 2009 12:00 PM
27 Comments
Barnes & Noble keeps pushing the delivery date for pre-ordered Nooks back. Realizing that many of the e-readers were purchased as Christmas gifts, they're sending a $100 
Photo: Sarah-Mitt
Target Worker Fired For Zhu Zhu Pet Purchase
By Laura Northrup on December 18, 2009 6:25 PM
51 Comments
A veteran Target employee in Buffalo, NY claims that she was fired for purchasing a Zhu Zhu pet. The chain told TV station WKBW that all employees were clearly instructed in a memo not to purchase the robot hamsters before 4 A.M., which the employee denies. [WKBW]
Photo: Largeprime
Visa Cuts Off Payments To Unrepentant Scammers
By Laura Northrup on December 18, 2009 6:00 PM
16 Comments
That "local mom" trying to sell you her secret formulas for weight loss and tooth whitening in Internet ads may need to find a new job. Visa cut off payments to 100 merchants. The culled companies were the fine folks behind the "free sample" negative-option scams that Consumerist has written about extensively in the past. More »
Too Bad: Your Incinerated Belongings Are Not Zipcar's Problem (Updated!)
By Laura Northrup on December 18, 2009 2:15 PM
153 Comments
We have an update to this story, with a happy ending for everyone except for the ill-fated Mini Cooper.
Is John asking too much from Zipcar? He writes that he and his wife rented a Mini Cooper for a weekend trip. On their way home, their car first overheated, then burst into flames just minutes after they pulled over. The couple survived uninjured, but didn't have time to get all of their belongings out of the car. Zipcar sent roadside assistance, reimbursed John and his wife for their car ride home, and gave them a credit good for another daylong car rental. However, the company will not cover any of their personal items destroyed in the fire. More »
Photo: Dr. Hemmert
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on December 18, 2009 12:30 PM
91 Comments
Delta Offers Gold Status To Victims Of Pyschotic American Airlines Stewardess
State Of California Doesn't Know How To Accept $14 Fee
Craig Ferguson Badmouths Continental Airlines
17 Extinct Things You Probably Don't Miss
Target Cancels Zhu Zhu Pet Order Placed In September, Ruins Christmas
Happy Friday! Who among you is brave enough to go near a mall this weekend? Not me. More »
Photo: marcus_in_ny
Merrick More Than Makes Up For Unacceptable Cat Food Can
By Laura Northrup on December 18, 2009 9:00 AM
33 Comments
Monica received a bad can of cat food from her usual company, Merrick Pet Food. But what began with a foul stench ended with her not just staying with the company, but sharing her story with Consumerist. More »
Photo: Storeyland
Christmas Light Shortage Sweeps The Nation
By Laura Northrup on December 18, 2009 8:43 AM
45 Comments
Maybe there is no such thing as Christmas retreat. Maybe there's just a light shortage. News outlets across the country have reported on a shortage of strings of lights. Somewhere, Clark Griswold weeps. More »
Disney Princess Shrink Ray Hits Mattel Dolls
By Laura Northrup on December 17, 2009 5:46 PM
26 Comments
Shopping for toys at Target, Anthony noticed an interesting change in a small, inexpensive doll that his daughter enjoys. The princesses have been affected by a toy shrink ray—the dolls are smaller, the mold used to make them is different, and they come with fewer accessories—for the same price, naturally. More »
Photo: Muffet
Study Shows High Fructose Corn Syrup May Cause Obesity, Diabetes, Heart Disease
By Laura Northrup on December 17, 2009 12:45 PM
189 Comments
A University of California study on human subjects seems to indicate what food activists have long believed: high fructose corn syrup has special qualities which cause humans to pork up like animals in a feed lot. Oh, and it also may help cause life-threatening chronic diseases. The study was small, but frightening. More »
Photo: JOE M500
Research Shows That People Really Love Bacon
By Laura Northrup on December 17, 2009 12:00 PM
101 Comments
Bacon: it makes the recession taste better. That's our theory, anyway, after reading an article on Burgerbusiness.com with original research showing that menu items containing bacon at all restaurants are up 26.5% since 2005. More »
Photo: Bank of America
Bank Of America Names President Of Consumer Banking As New CEO
By Laura Northrup on December 17, 2009 7:53 AM
10 Comments
Update your EECB contact lists: Bank of America has named their new CEO. The new man in charge will be Brian T. Moynihan, who has been the president of president of Consumer and Small Business Banking since August. According to BusinessWeek, the board chose Moynihan after an external candidate dropped out of contention. More »
Svedka Can See The Future: Fortunately, It Has Vodka
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2009 4:00 PM
52 Comments
This liquor store is a very forward-thinking establishment. So forward thinking, in fact, that it has looked twenty-four years into the future to tell us what the top vodka of 2033 C.E. will be. It will be Svedka. More »
Photo: TimmyGUNZ
McDonald's To Offer Free Wifi
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2009 3:33 PM
95 Comments
What goes better with greasy fries and corn syrupy sodas than delicate electronic equipment? McDonald's announced today that they plan to roll out free wi-fi in their outlets that currently offer it for a fee. The goal is to make their restaurants more amenable to people hanging out, and gobble up more of Starbucks' share of the latte-sipping market. More »
Photo: U.S. Army
Walmart Overcharges Soldiers Stationed Abroad For Shipping
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2009 2:02 PM
88 Comments
The idea behind military mail is to allow people in a given country to send mail to their loved ones stationed anywhere in the world, for the same price as mailing a letter or package to any other destination in the United States. However, the military paper Stars and Stripes reports that some retailers are increasing prices for customers with APO/FPO addresses, claiming "higher transportation costs." The biggest offender? Walmart. Surprise! More »
Comcast Celebrates Conquest Of NBC With Gifts Of Sh*tty DVDs
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2009 10:30 AM
56 Comments
Christmas has come early to the employees of Comcast! A reader who is also a Comcastployee tells Consumerist that received a package at home yesterday which contained a letter from current and former CEOs Ralph and Brian Roberts, and some thoughtful gifts. To honor the looming Comcast/NBC Universal mergerpocalypse, the Robertses presented Comcast employees with two of the hottest DVDs in the Universal catalog: fullscreen copies of "Kindergarten Cop" and "The Bourne Ultimatum." Aww, you shouldn't have! More »
Photo: frankieleon
Redbox Won't Take Reader's Money, Bans Credit Card Forever
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2009 9:30 AM
58 Comments
What can you do when a company bans not you, but your only credit card? John explains that he returned some Redbox movies before his vacation. Then his vacation got really exciting, and his credit card was briefly and accidentally reported stolen. He straightened things out with the credit card company, but Redbox was not so forgiving. He owes the company $15, but they won't accept his money. Now he's unable to borrow from Redbox, and their customer service is no help. More »
Photo: g-hat
The Opposite Of Christmas Creep: Christmas Retreat
By Laura Northrup on December 16, 2009 8:15 AM
89 Comments
Around the 12th of December, Jasper in northern Virginia needed some lights to finish decorating his Christmas tree. He drove to store after store in search of a simple string of indoor lights, but could find none. I suppose that's what happens when stores start putting Christmas decorations out long before Halloween. More »
E-mail To Lenovo President Gets Reader Immediate Answer, New Laptop
By Laura Northrup on December 13, 2009 9:00 PM
10 Comments
Patrick was frustrated. He explains that he was stuck with a defective and non-functional Lenovo laptop that was only a few months old. Before pursuing a chargeback, he decided to send a letter to the company's president and COO, Rory P. Read. His message was detailed but straightforward, and a great example of one of the finest weapons in the Consumerist toolkit, the executive e-mail carpet bomb. Read and learn. More »
Photo: tiffa130
Recent Class Action Settlement Roundup
By Laura Northrup on December 13, 2009 6:00 PM
9 Comments
Motorola handsets, cell phone ringtones, BP propane, Sony VAIO laptops, and the hormone replacement medication Estratest: if you purchased any of these items, you could be eligible for some recently settled class actions. Are you? Well, there's only one way to find out. More »
Photo: gingerblokey
Power-Saving LED Traffic Lights Can't Melt Snow, Cause Accident
By Laura Northrup on December 13, 2009 5:02 PM
104 Comments
Sure, LEDs are a great new energy-saving technology. The problem is, they're no match for a Midwestern winter. That's what the town of West Bend, Wis. learned when they installed LED traffic signals. LEDs don't generate heat, which is normally a selling point. It's not so appealing when you're trying to keep traffic signals snow-free, and the ostensibly green move has caused at least one accident. More »
Photo: MyGift
T-Mobile Doesn't Believe That You Moved To England
By Laura Northrup on December 13, 2009 4:00 PM
80 Comments
Chelsea moved to London while she was still under a T-Mobile USA contract. This would be a perfectly legitimate reason to let her out of her contract without an early termination fee. Unfortunately, she wrote to Consumerist, she can't prove to T-Mobile's satisfaction that she no longer lives in the United States. More »
Photo: mattjiggins
17 Extinct Things You Probably Don't Miss
By Laura Northrup on December 13, 2009 2:00 PM
233 Comments
Collectively as a culture, we never did figure out what to call the decade that's ending in two weeks, did we? The '00s... the aughts? Whatever you call it, our everyday lives have changed quite a bit in the past ten years. New York Magazine rounded up a few of the things that used to be common, but have now disappeared. We're sure you can think of some even better ones. More »
Planet Hollywood Responds To Negative Facebook Comment With Free Wine And Chocolates
By Laura Northrup on December 13, 2009 1:00 PM
29 Comments
Frustrated with a room mix-up and subsequent bad customer service at Planet Hollywood's hotel/casino in Las Vegas, Brad expressed his frustration in a note on their Facebook fan page. More »
Photo: whatatravisty
Kill Slightly Fewer Trees By Leaving Junk Mail Lists
By Laura Northrup on December 13, 2009 11:00 AM
58 Comments
Thanks to e-mail and online bill payments, mailboxes are a lot less personal than they used to be. According to WalletPop, each week, the average American receives 1.5 pieces of mail they might actually be interested in (yes, including bills), but 16 pieces of junk mail. Evidently, "OCCUPANT" is a pretty popular guy. But when unwanted solicitations are 90% of what's in our mailboxes, why do they keep on coming? How can you make them stop? More »
Photo: TheTruthAbout...
State Of California Doesn't Know How To Accept $14 Fee
By Laura Northrup on December 12, 2009 7:00 PM
54 Comments
Reader Justin may have discovered the real reason for California's fiscal crisis. He owes the DMV $14, but says that the DMV doesn't seem to want his money. Which is strange, since this is the opposite of how most people think of the DMV. Maybe they don't have any lines, either. More »
TracFone Offers Delightfully Competent Customer Service
By Laura Northrup on December 12, 2009 5:00 PM
29 Comments
Perhaps Greg is just lucky. Or it could be that TracFone's customer service has improved quite a bit since we posted their executive customer service number a little over a year ago. Whatever the case might be, Greg had an unexpectedly hassle-free experience with the prepaid mobile phone provider, and wanted to let Consumerist know about it. More »
Photo: sew-mad
What You Should Know About Store Credit Cards
By Laura Northrup on December 12, 2009 3:00 PM
30 Comments
It might be tempting to open a store-only credit card, especially when you're about to make a big purchase and retailers offer big discounts to open an account on the spot. The problem is, that card you may only use a few times per year might hurt your credit score enough to outweigh a 15% discount on a new suit. These problems will persist even if retailers are forced to verify customers' income before issuing them cards. More »
Photo: elifins
Target Cancels Zhu Zhu Pet Order Placed In September, Ruins Christmas
By Laura Northrup on December 12, 2009 1:24 PM
187 Comments
Long before the national robot hamster shortage began, before fights broke out over the toy critters, and even before Consumerist took notice of the trend, Stacey's daughters wanted Zhu Zhu Pets for Christmas. She ordered two hamsters and a playset for them from Target.com in mid-September, and waited for them to come off backorder. And waited. Finally, less than two weeks before Christmas, Target canceled her order. More »
Photo: pink_fish13
General Mills To Make Kids' Cereals Slightly Less Unhealthy
By Laura Northrup on December 12, 2009 9:00 AM
56 Comments
Well, makers of sugary cereals have failed to convince the public that they can prevent swine flu, and that they're a legitimate part of a healthy breakfast. Now General Mills will join Kellogg's in reformulating heir sweetest cereals to contain less sugar. More »
Photo: 111 Emergency
Verizon CSR: Faster DSL Will Burn Your House Down
By Laura Northrup on December 11, 2009 3:15 PM
78 Comments
Update: Reader's DSL Upgraded, House Still Not On Fire
Michael would like some faster Internet tubes to run into his house. He would be happy to give his ISP, Verizon DSL, money to provide this service, but he can't. He writes that repeated calls to Verizon's sales line resulted in a series of answers that disagreed with each other, culminating in a call where the rep quite sincerely informed him that Verizon cannot give him faster DSL because it will burn his house down. More »
Update: Accidental "New Moon" Taping Felony Charges Dropped
By Laura Northrup on December 11, 2009 1:55 PM
43 Comments
The felony piracy charges against a woman who accidentally taped a few minutes of the film "New Moon" while taking videos of her sister's birthday party have been dropped. The incident occurred at a theater in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, and Cook County prosecutors announced today that they have dropped the case. More »
Photo: ukanda
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
Man Pays Best Buy For Washer/Dryer, It Doesn't Appear, Takes Laundry To Store, Shames Store Into Delivering
Let This Comic Strip Show You How To Save Money At The Movies
Asking For Orange Juice On American Airlines May Violate Federal Law
More »
By Laura Northrup on December 11, 2009 1:43 PM
94 Comments
UPDATED: No, Wells Fargo, You Can't Leave Animals To DieMan Pays Best Buy For Washer/Dryer, It Doesn't Appear, Takes Laundry To Store, Shames Store Into Delivering
Let This Comic Strip Show You How To Save Money At The Movies
Asking For Orange Juice On American Airlines May Violate Federal Law
More »
Photo: Paxton Holley
Whew: Coke Products Return To Costco On Monday
By Laura Northrup on December 11, 2009 1:00 PM
36 Comments
The nightmare is over for Americans who use warehouse club Costco to fuel their copious Coke habits. The retailer and Coca-Cola have settled their price differences, and Coca-Cola beverages will return to Costco stores on Monday. More »
Help, Verizon Doubled My ETF Behind My Back!
By Laura Northrup on December 10, 2009 2:45 PM
37 Comments
The spark had left his mobile phone relationship, and Dean left his iPhone 3G for a Droid. He happily paid an ETF to escape his AT&T contract, only to find himself trapped in a strange void between Verizon's previous early termination fee for smartphone contracts and the newly doubled fee. Now, he tells Consumerist that due to the ETF change, he is trapped in a contract that he claims he never signed. More »
Photo: mrkathika
Reader's $400 In JetBlue Credits Expire With No Notice
By Laura Northrup on December 10, 2009 12:55 PM
60 Comments
S. had canceled two JetBlue flights some time ago. Instead of refunding customers' credit or debit cards after a reservation cancellation or change, JetBlue issues credits for future flights. Fine. The problem—and the detail that wasn't made clear to S.—is that these credits expire. More »
BlueHippo Can't Pay Bills, Switches To Chapter 7, May Finally Die
By Laura Northrup on December 10, 2009 12:40 PM
30 Comments
A chain of events over the last month does not bode well for the continued existence of the no-credit-check, allegedly scammy computer purveyor BlueHippo. When the FTC found the company in contempt of its agreement to stop scamming people, Bluehippo's payment processor froze the company's funds with little notice. The company was unable to pay its bills and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Now, the company has changed to a Chapter 7 filing (liquidation) and will most likely go out of business. More »
Photo: Mafia Wars screen capture
Get Virtual Game Cash For Health Reform Astroturfing
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2009 7:30 PM
34 Comments
Don't want to fork over actual cash or start a shady "free" trial in order to get sweet, sweet virtual currency for your favorite game on Facebook or MySpace? Well, you could always take a health care survey that pays you to tell your representatives in Congress how opposed you are to health care reform. Mmm, smell that astroturf! More »
Photo: stu_spivack
15-Year-Old Cheese Sells For Only $50 Per Pound
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2009 7:06 PM
46 Comments
Do you enjoy cheddar cheese? Do you prefer your cheese well-aged? Perhaps you would enjoy, for $50 per pound, what the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel calls "the single malt scotch of cheddar." It's 15-year-old cheddar from Hook's Cheese Co. of Mineral Point, Wisconsin. And the few stores allowed to carry it can barely keep it on the shelves. More »
Grocery Shrink Ray Strikes Store-Brand Sugar
By Laura Northrup on December 9, 2009 4:25 PM
44 Comments
The grocery shrink ray has struck bags of sugar in two different parts of the country. Bags that a rational consumer would assume contain five pounds of sugar—since they've contained five pounds of sugar for as long as most Americans can remember—now contain four pounds of sugar. Somehow, we don't think that grocers are doing this as an effort to reduce Americans' sugar consumption. More »
Netflix Offers Ex-Customer Disappearing Free Trial
By Laura Northrup on December 6, 2009 9:00 PM
33 Comments
Dana used to be a Netflix subscriber, and they want her back. To entice her back, they sent her an e-mail offering a free trial. She decided to try it out...but Netflix wouldn't let her. Because, according to their system, she is an existing Netflix customer. Who received an email addressing her as a former customer. More »
Photo: frankieleon
Walmart Unfair Pay Lawsuit Settled In Massachusetts
By Laura Northrup on December 6, 2009 7:00 PM
48 Comments
Current and former Walmart employees in Massachusetts (and their lawyers) were awarded $40 million in back wages this week in a class-action lawsuit. The suit was filed eight years ago, and claimed that the mega-retailer owes some hourly employees up to fourteen years' worth of unpaid overtime, missed breaks, and other uncompensated work. More »
Photo: catastrophegirl
Dan Brown Haunts DirecTV DVRs With Unwanted Movie Rentals
By Laura Northrup on December 6, 2009 5:00 PM
66 Comments
If you own a DirecTV DVR, did you receive a mysterious, unwanted rental of "Angels and Demons" this weekend? Readers Jeff and Catastrophegirl did, and they have a warning: Don't watch it! It's a trap! More »
Zhu Zhu Pets May Contain Poisonous Substance: Should You Care?
By Laura Northrup on December 6, 2009 3:00 PM
55 Comments
This holiday season's inexplicably hot toy, Zhu Zhu Pets, may be hazardous to your health. And not just because many parents stood outside in the cold for hours to get one. No, according to green ratings guide GoodGuide.com, the cuddly robot toys contain high levels of the substance antimony, which could be hazardous. More »
Photo: scott*eric
IRS Tells Single Mom She's Too Poor, Must Be Lying
By Laura Northrup on December 6, 2009 1:00 PM
148 Comments
A single mom in Seattle thought she was playing by the rules. She earned under $19,000 per year as a hairdresser, supported her two children, and shared a home with her parents. Then the IRS audited her, claiming that she simply didn't earn enough money to be able to live in Seattle, and must be hiding something. Two years and $10,000 in accountant bills later, the IRS has determined that she isn't trying to run a scam, but can't figure out who her children are dependents of. More »
Photo: Meg Marco
Lowe's Travels To The Future To Discount Your Appliances
By Laura Northrup on December 6, 2009 11:00 AM
31 Comments
Mary was purchasing a washer and dryer set for her home at Lowe's. Just as she was finalizing the purchase, a sales circular with a lower price on the very appliance she was buying dropped through the time/space continuum, and visited the store from the future. Or maybe an employee put it out early. Either way, the store's manager very generously let Mary buy her washer and dryer for the much lower future price because of an employee's mistake. More »
Photo: AComment
More Americans Plan Gifts Of Cash This Year
By Laura Northrup on December 6, 2009 9:00 AM
48 Comments
A Western Union survey proves that perhaps the American public is taking the message of Consumerist's anti-gift card to heart. Instead of tangible gifts or gift cards, more Americans are reportedly giving each other the gift of versatile, useful cash. More »
White Castle Couch Pouch: For When You've Really Given Up
By Laura Northrup on December 5, 2009 9:00 PM
60 Comments
Sure, there's the Snuggie. If you're the enterprising sort, there's the homemade Snuggie. There's even a Snuggie for your best friend. But when you've truly, truly given up on both physical activity and on life, forget a blanket with sleeves. That's not hardcore enough. What you need is a sleeping bag with sleeves. White Castle is here to help. More »
Photo: Vali...
Lee Declares All Facebook Contest Entrants Winners
By Laura Northrup on December 5, 2009 7:00 PM
14 Comments
Something appears to have gone wrong with a contest that Lee Jeans ran on Facebook, and the company was forced to change the rules partway through. However, instead of canceling the contest or changing the rules in their own favor, the change means that everyone who entered the contest before Wednesday, December 2, under the original rules, won automatically. Yay! More »
Photo: penner42
Best Buy Customer Suffers Long Hold Times, Severe Lack Of Netbook
By Laura Northrup on December 5, 2009 3:00 PM
48 Comments
Ed took advantage of a great Black Friday sale at Best Buy to order a netbook for his mother's December birthday. Unfortunately, thanks to high demand for this particular deal, his order was first delayed, then backordered, and he is left without a netbook to present to his mother. What would you do? More »
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Lord & Taylor Bans Items Containing Canine Fur
By Laura Northrup on December 5, 2009 2:00 PM
63 Comments
Poor raccoon dogs. For a long time, they've suffered a severe identity crisis at the hands of the fashion industry. Their fur has been mislabeled as "raccoon" fur on clothing labels, and even more insulting, as faux fur by some labels. That's an insult not just to the canines, but to conscientious shoppers who think they're buying items with fake fur trim. Another retailer, Lord & Taylor, has joined J.C. Penney in promising to stop selling products that contain the critters, but mislabeling runs rampant. More »
Photo: Sklathill
FCC Questions Verizon $350 ETFs For Smartphones
By Laura Northrup on December 5, 2009 1:00 PM
42 Comments
The Federal Communications Commission has a few questions for Verizon Wireless about their decision to double the early termination fees for contracts that include smartphones and other "advanced devices." More »
Photo: Big C Harvey
Recall Roundup: Slim Faster Edition
By Laura Northrup on December 4, 2009 1:00 PM
17 Comments
Here's a fresh batch of recalls for you! Manufacturers have seemingly forgotten that drawstrings on children's clothing are bad, and bacterial contamination in Slim-Fast cans could give you far more weight loss than you ever intended. More »
Photo: Ken Lund
U.S. Department Of Education Cracking Down On For-Profit Colleges
By Laura Northrup on December 4, 2009 12:30 PM
95 Comments
The combination of record unemployment and federal stimulus money destined for education has led to an education boom of sorts. Especially for for-profit colleges. Now the U.S. Education department is taking another look at for-profit schools...particularly the tactics used by their admissions staff, and the compensation structures for employees. More »
Photo: Koonisutra
Customer Punches Elderly Walmart Greeter In The Face
By Laura Northrup on December 4, 2009 12:16 PM
103 Comments
It seems that a Pennsylvania man really, really didn't want to show his receipt at Walmart. So, allegedly, he punched the 72-year-old greeter in the face. Now, the greeter is severely injured and hospitalized, with half of the bones in his face broken. More »
Photo: Dave Friedel
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
Judge Tells Debt Collection Firm To Pay Stranger $115 For Dragging Him To Court
Let This Flowchart Tell You Which Chain Restaurant To Visit Next
Why A Live Twitter Feed On Your Billboard Might Not Work Out
By Laura Northrup on December 4, 2009 12:00 PM
102 Comments
Passenger Of Size Allegedly Has Picture Taken By Flight AttendantJudge Tells Debt Collection Firm To Pay Stranger $115 For Dragging Him To Court
Let This Flowchart Tell You Which Chain Restaurant To Visit Next
Why A Live Twitter Feed On Your Billboard Might Not Work Out
Happy Friday! Welcome to Open Thread, where Consumerist commenters talk about whatever's on their minds. And post pet pictures. More »
Photo: pheaber
Redbox Testing Higher Prices In Some Markets
By Laura Northrup on December 4, 2009 11:50 AM
60 Comments
Renting a DVD for $1 per day is a simple, easy-to-understand pricing scheme. But in some markets, Redbox kiosks are testing some new pricing plans. They will charge either $2 or $1.50 for the first night, and $1 for subsequent nights. More »
Photo: penner42
Customer Makes 2-Hour Best Buy Trek For Vanishing Netbook
By Laura Northrup on December 3, 2009 3:00 PM
78 Comments
Valente's plan was simple enough: Purchase a netbook from Best Buy during Cyber Monday sale. Order it from Best Buy's web site for in-store pickup so he could be sure to have it in hand. Bring netbook home and hide it from his son until Christmas. Unfortunately, he tells Consumerist, the transaction didn't work out according to his plan, he drove to another Best Buy two hours away that claimed to have a netbook on hold for him. A netbook that did not, as it turned out, exist. More »
Oil Company Promised To Melt Glaciers Back In 1962
By Laura Northrup on December 3, 2009 1:30 PM
5 Comments
1962! It was a great year if you like large cars, crinolines, the Kennedys, and strangely prescient oil company ads. Humble Oil, which eventually became part of the company we now know as Exxon, ran this ad in Life magazine, and it's been making the rounds of the Internet since. More »
Photo: rjmonts
North Pole, Alaska Will Answer Letters To Santa After All
By Laura Northrup on December 3, 2009 10:15 AM
29 Comments
Letters that children mail to "Santa Claus, North Pole" will be destined for North Pole, Alaska after all, and the letters personally answered by dedicated volunteers. The program was initially shut down for logistical reasons, but restored after Rudolph paid a visit to Fairbanks and taught everyone the true meaning of Christmas. Or something like that. More »
Photo: gumbyliberation
Zombie Brands: Not Just For Retail Anymore
By Laura Northrup on December 2, 2009 6:13 PM
42 Comments
We've followed the nationwide invasion of zombie retailers such as Sharper Image, Circuit City and Linens 'N' Things—brands that go bankrupt, then reappear on the web or in the same strip malls they originally roamed. Zombie brands don't just exist in retail, though. Mainstreet.com rounded up a horde of re-animated brands that includes a magazine and a major-league sports franchise. More »
Monday Morning Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on November 30, 2009 7:00 AM
121 Comments
We hope that your holiday weekend was delightful. While we roast and carve a batch of delicious new posts, what's on your mind this morning? More »
Black Friday Shopping Mayhem Roundup
By Laura Northrup on November 29, 2009 8:00 PM
56 Comments
For some reason, Walmart and Toys R Us stores were the focal points of this year's Black Friday mayhem nationwide. Perhaps because the chains offer both toys for children and toys for adults—electronic ones, at least. Fights and other oddities broke out here and there nationwide. However, shoppers and store employees survived the day with no deaths, major injuries, or significant property damage. More »
AOL Rearranges Deck Chairs, Introduces New Logo
By Laura Northrup on November 29, 2009 5:00 PM
82 Comments
Close to severing ties with Time Warner and fresh off announcing that they plan to cull almost a third of their work force by the end of the year, AOL has debuted—why not?—a new logo and branding campaign. The new logo has a variety of backgrounds, but always the new name in a sans-serif font: "Aol." Yes, with the period. More »
How Clean Are Netflix DVDs?
By Laura Northrup on November 29, 2009 3:00 PM
54 Comments
Netflix DVDs and their envelopes pass from hand to hand, and from home to home, with all sorts of interesting opportunities for contamination. What sorts of bacteria are on them? A Texas local news team set out to find out and discovered...well, not much of anything likely to kill you. Sorry to disappoint. More »
Arby's Coupon Promotion Wastes Trees, Mystifies Customers
We don't need thousands of useless coupon sheets that will go straight into the trash around to make the point for you. Thanks, commenters—evidently, this is the tray liner, so not so much a waste of paper. But a 1 cent coupon is still inherently silly. More »
By Laura Northrup on November 29, 2009 1:00 PM
30 Comments
Mike received this coupon sheet when buying a $5.01 combo at Arby's. We get it, Arby's, the combo is such a good deal that you don't need a coupon. You've made your point. 
Black Friday Sales Figures Almost Didn't Suck
By Laura Northrup on November 29, 2009 11:00 AM
28 Comments
Overall, Black Friday retail sales weren't too bad, as shoppers sought deals on all sorts of products, focusing on computers (especially netbooks, if Consumerist readers are any indication), flat-panel televisions, and Snuggies. Sales were up slightly over last year nationwide, especially in the western United States, and online sales were up 35% over Black Friday 2008. More »
Prepare Your Delta Air Lines EECB For Takeoff
By Laura Northrup on November 29, 2009 9:00 AM
11 Comments
After reading Martin's unaccompanied minor air travel horror story yesterday, Aaron sent us this updated list of Delta Air Lines executive contact information from Elliott.org. More »
Free Shipping From QPB: Just Pay Shipping And Handling
By Laura Northrup on November 29, 2009 7:00 AM
15 Comments
Jon received this e-mail from the book club QPB. It promises free shipping, and a free travel set, if he pays shipping and handling. That shipping is on the travel set, we presume, but no one can really be sure. More »
BlueHippo Files Chapter 11 After Bank Accounts Frozen
By Laura Northrup on November 28, 2009 7:00 PM
80 Comments
It appears that when the FTC filed a contempt charge against scamtastic consumer electronics purveyor Bluehippo, the company's bank took notice and froze their accounts. Now Bluehippo has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, claiming that they can't repay their creditors, what with the frozen bank accounts and all. This will not end well. More »
Best Buy Holds Discounted Netbook, Delights Customer
By Laura Northrup on November 28, 2009 3:00 PM
44 Comments
A story about a great customer service experience at Best Buy? On Black Friday? It doesn't seem possible. And yet, it happened to Brian and Briana when they shopped the early sale for Silver Reward Zone members. More »
Delta Air Lines: You Need To Pay A Fee To Pay This Fee
By Laura Northrup on November 28, 2009 1:00 PM
84 Comments
Update: Delta representatives are in touch with Martin and his family, and we'll let you know when they work something out.
Martin's 5-year-old stepdaughter has had a very eventful holiday week. So has her family. Flying as an unaccompanied minor, she had to miss her original flight on AirTran and her family booked another at the last minute. The first reasonably priced flight available was on NWA/Delta, but her parents tell us that communication between different departments seems to have shut down—resulting in fees, hours of delays, and the child ultimately missing her flight because the airline didn't mark down that the unaccompanied minor fee had already been paid. More »
Buy A Mattress, Get A Free Video Camera
By Laura Northrup on November 28, 2009 11:00 AM
31 Comments
A few weeks ago, Macy's ran this somewhat mystifying promotion. Simple enough: Buy a mattress, get a free video camera via mail-in rebate.
It's interesting to see a department store modern enough to openly market to aspiring amateur porn stars. More »
Duck Tape Determined To Make Up For Defective Roll
By Laura Northrup on November 28, 2009 9:00 AM
46 Comments
"Above and Beyond" stories can come from the most mundane sources. Such as this e-mail that reader MJ sent in praise of the customer service for Duck Tape brand duct tape. More »
Busting Myths About Black Friday And Cyber Monday
By Laura Northrup on November 27, 2009 3:30 PM
31 Comments
Black Friday isn't really the top holiday shopping day of the season—the last Saturday before Christmas is. Today, we have Cyber Monday, when turkey-bloated office workers purportedly return to work and spend the day looking for deals online. But is Cyber Monday really the biggest online shopping day of the year? Well, no. Focus put some numbers together to clear up misconceptions about Americans' online holiday shopping patterns. More »
First Toy Store Melee Reported In Connecticut
By Laura Northrup on November 27, 2009 2:00 PM
30 Comments
The crowd waiting at the doors of the Toys R Us in Manchester, Conn., burning up with Black Friday fever, grew impatient. Shortly before the store opened at midnight, a group of people tried to jump the line and get through the doors. The store didn't open until nearly an hour later—and after twenty police officers got the crowd under control. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
Fashion Photographer Offers $5,000 Reward For Demi Moore's Hip
Police Drop Theft Charges Against Pub Non-Tippers
Kodak: Your Camera Has A Beach Mode, So Don't Take It To The Beach
Sorry, No Mortgage: Experian Says That You're Dead
More »
By Laura Northrup on November 27, 2009 12:00 PM
46 Comments
Google Bans Scammy Advertisers From NetworkFashion Photographer Offers $5,000 Reward For Demi Moore's Hip
Police Drop Theft Charges Against Pub Non-Tippers
Kodak: Your Camera Has A Beach Mode, So Don't Take It To The Beach
Sorry, No Mortgage: Experian Says That You're Dead
More »
Publix Insider Explains Cold Turkey Office Party
By Laura Northrup on November 27, 2009 11:00 AM
21 Comments
On Tuesday, we published the story of a woman who ordered a turkey from a Publix supermarket deli for her office's Thanksgiving celebration, only to discover that her "fully cooked" turkey was cooked, but cold. This was a problem. Her story had a happy ending, but we heard from a Publix employee who confirmed that selling a cold turkey with no warning is wrong...and would lead to trouble for any employee who tried it at our tipster's store. More »
Salvation Army To Accept Credit Cards In Kettles
By Laura Northrup on November 27, 2009 9:29 AM
43 Comments
Do you brush off Salvation Army bell-ringers, saying that you don't have any cash? In certain cities, you'll need to find a different excuse. This holiday season, the ubiquitous charity introduces kettles that accept credit cards. More »
Delivery Companies' Secret Training Manual
By Laura Northrup on November 27, 2009 9:00 AM
24 Comments
Have you ever wondered what the employees of some delivery companies must be thinking? Collegehumor.com has discovered the possible secret to globally consistent poor package delivery. More »
Keep These Numbers Handy If You're Cooking A Turkey
By Laura Northrup on November 26, 2009 8:00 AM
25 Comments
Are you cooking a turkey, but not accustomed to baking and carving entire animals? You're not alone, and there are hotlines full of helpful and knowledgeable people ready to help you with any and all poultry crises. Or other food safety issues.
There's also an app for that—the interactive Turkey Timer iPhone application is on sale for $1.99 today (regular price $2.99). It reminds you when to baste, tells you how long until the turkey is cooked, and even estimates the internal temperature of your bird. (Warning: do not insert iPhone inside turkey.) More »
Toyota Will Shorten Recalled Vehicles' Gas Pedals
By Laura Northrup on November 25, 2009 8:42 PM
30 Comments
If your car is one of the 3.8 million Toyotas affected by the stuck gas pedal recall, soon you'll put your driver's side floor mat back in. Starting in December, Toyota will begin repairing the defect temporarily by removing 3/4" from the bottom of the pedal. They'll begin installing replacement pedals in April. More »
Pep Boys Loses Your Keys, Doesn't Fix Your Car
By Laura Northrup on November 25, 2009 4:11 PM
39 Comments
Mike took his car to his local Pep Boys for some simple service. In the end, he might have been better off leaving the car in his driveway. He claims that the shop's employees lost his only car key, then made excuses to leave his car without being repaired for days on end. He's asking Consumerist for help. More »
Four Tips To Make Holiday Air Travel Easier
By Laura Northrup on November 25, 2009 10:49 AM
58 Comments
Are you traveling by air this week in order to celebrate Thanksgiving where you belong...or at least where you feel obligated to be. USA Today published a list of holiday travel tips...they're all good general travel tips, but especially helpful when airports are crowded and stress is high. More »
GM Fails To Send Saab Back To Sweden
By Laura Northrup on November 25, 2009 10:40 AM
38 Comments
After acquisition talks between Swedish company Konigsegg and General Motors fell apart, Saab is without a home. This makes the third division of GM that the company has failed to divest itself of, after Saturn and Germany's Opel. Saab may be shut down, like Saturn—or kept, like Opel. More »
Great, Now Demi Moore's Torso Is Missing
By Laura Northrup on November 24, 2009 3:30 PM
107 Comments
In all of the chatter surrounding the Demi Moore W cover controversy, many people have insisted that her vanished hip is part of a perfectly natural pose. They were correct. The photo shows the natural standing pose... of a runway model in her mid-twenties. It appears that Moore's head, legs, and arms were superimposed on the hips and torso of model Anja Rubik.
Fashion Thunderdome: two models enter, one magazine cover leaves. More »
Is A "Fully-Cooked" Turkey Supposed To Be Hot?
By Laura Northrup on November 24, 2009 11:30 AM
118 Comments
Wendy was in charge of planning the at-work Thanksgiving feast for her colleagues at her new job, and was happy to take on the task. A series of misunderstandings at the grocery store deli meant that she nearly had to serve her colleagues a fully cooked but entirely cold turkey. More »
Honest E-mail To Priceline Gets Executive Customer Service Attention
By Laura Northrup on November 23, 2009 12:00 AM
17 Comments
—>Mohamed made a mistake, forgetting to use his Priceline bonus cash on a transaction. He contacted Priceline through their online help interface and was stunned at the quick and helpful response he received. His request was forwarded straight to the executive customer service team, and taken care of immediately. More »
Trash Crew Helpfully Hauls Away Brand-New Dryer
By Laura Northrup on November 22, 2009 10:00 PM
76 Comments
—>It's rather nice to live in a city or town where municipal trash pickup will haul away your old, unwanted appliances. When they haul your brand-new appliances away, though, you've got a problem. That's what happened to a West Virginia couple, whose dryer disappeared from in front of their house before they had a chance to install it—at the same time the city hauled away their old washing machine. More »
Ecosense Brand Insecticide Not Eco-Friendly, Makes No Sense
By Laura Northrup on November 22, 2009 8:00 PM
51 Comments
—>Reader Dan came across Ortho's Ecosense insecticide in the store, and noticed something strange. The name "Ecosense" implies some kind of crunchy environmental friendliness, does it not? Why, it's even written in green right on the package. So why does the package also have the disclaimer, "not intended to imply environmental safety either alone or compared to other products"? More »
Disney Claims "Up" DVD Missing Captions Were A Mistake
By Laura Northrup on November 22, 2009 6:00 PM
66 Comments
—>Many Consumerist readers wrote to Disney about the missing captions in rental editions of the Pixar movie "Up," either because they were personally affected or they found the omission offensive. In their response, Disney at least acknowledges the unique issue and promises to make up for the mistake of consumers submit proof that they rented "Up." More »
Fashion Photographer Offers $5,000 Reward For Demi Moore's Hip
By Laura Northrup on November 22, 2009 4:00 PM
81 Comments
—>Demi Moore and W cover photographer Anthony Citrano disagree about whether the infamous picture of Moore was modified to Photoshop out a chunk of her hip. They took their argument to the court of public opinion: Twitter. More »
Google Bans Scammy Advertisers From Network
By Laura Northrup on November 22, 2009 3:00 PM
61 Comments
—>At last, someone has taken a stand against the tooth whitener ad menace. It's no tiny or obscure ad network: it's Google. The company has decided to live up to its "don't be evil" motto and ban advertisers who place ads that lead to sites peddling products like scammy free trials, get-rich-quick schemes, and malware. Previously, they would ban individual ads, but not advertisers. This was akin to playing a massive game of whack-a-mole with thousands of identical "local moms" who had identified the secret to weight loss. Or tooth whitening. Or stretch marks. Or... More »
Cracker Barrel Maple Syrup Struck By Shrink Ray And Sugar Ray
By Laura Northrup on November 22, 2009 2:00 PM
144 Comments
—>Reader Kimaroo noticed that something was amiss with the with the single-serve bottle of maple syrup she receives with her French toast at Cracker Barrel. Not only did it seem smaller, she could have sworn that the bottle used to contain 100% maple syrup instead of "100% Pure Natural Syrup." Fortunately, she had another bottle from a different Cracker Barrel visit stashed at home, and was able to compare the ingredients. Indeed, her maple syrup had been hit by the Grocery Sugar Ray: nearly half of its mapley goodness has been replaced with cane syrup. More »
All-Day eBay Search Outage Frustrates Shoppers, Angers Sellers
By Laura Northrup on November 22, 2009 1:00 AM
48 Comments
—>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 »
Ground Beef Gains Time-Travel Ability
By Laura Northrup on November 21, 2009 11:00 PM
59 Comments
—>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 »
At Least The Prison Economy Is Flourishing
By Laura Northrup on November 21, 2009 9:00 PM
59 Comments
—>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 »
Fewer Consumers Write Personal Checks, Fewer Retailers Accept Them
By Laura Northrup on November 21, 2009 7:00 PM
110 Comments
—>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 »
Sorry, No Mortgage: Experian Says That You're Dead
By Laura Northrup on November 21, 2009 6:00 PM
59 Comments
—>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 »
Possible Class-Action Suit Alleges Xbox Bans Result Of Vast Redmond Conspiracy
By Laura Northrup on November 21, 2009 5:00 PM
142 Comments
—>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 »
Kodak: Your Camera Has A Beach Mode, So Don't Take It To The Beach
By Laura Northrup on November 21, 2009 3:00 PM
107 Comments
—>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 »
What Does "Hostile Takeover" Mean?
By Laura Northrup on November 20, 2009 11:45 PM
22 Comments
—>Does the phrase "hostile takeover" give you a mental picture of Vikings swarming into an office building and taking over by brute force? The term is in the news due to proposed takeovers of Cadbury and Barnes & Noble, but that's not quite what the term means. Marketplace's Paddy Hirsch and his trusty whiteboard explain. More »
Eggo Shortage Story Sweeps Mainstream Media, Panic Spreads
By Laura Northrup on November 20, 2009 10:44 PM
42 Comments
—>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 »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on November 20, 2009 8:00 PM
240 Comments
College Students Arrested For Refusing To Pay Tip More »
Smoking Near Apple Computers Creates Biohazard, Voids Warranty
By Laura Northrup on November 20, 2009 6:00 PM
257 Comments
—>Unless you've just arrived in 2009 on a time machine, you know that smoking isn't good for you. Did you know, that smoking isn't good for your computer, either? It's true, at least according to Apple. Two readers in different parts of the country claim that their Applecare warranties were voided due to secondhand smoke. Both readers appealed their cases up to the office of God Steve Jobs himself. Both lost. More »
Save The Earth And Your Yuppie Cred With Reusable Starbucks Cup
By Laura Northrup on November 20, 2009 5:37 PM
39 Comments
—>Do you enjoy Starbucks chilled beverages, but hate the waste that comes from so many disposable plastic cups? Do you also want to keep your friends and co-workers from knowing about your secret environmentalist tendencies? Maybe you should consider purchasing the reusable Starbucks cold cup, a sturdy plastic tumbler made to look just like its flimsier, single-use cousins. More »
TiVo Can't Let Reader Go, Keeps Billing Thrice-Canceled Account
By Laura Northrup on November 20, 2009 4:59 PM
23 Comments
—>Over a year ago, Michael didn't want TiVo service anymore, and he called them to cancel. This would have been a perfectly reasonable request. The problem, he tells Consumerist, is that TiVo refuses to acknowledge his multiple cancellations, and now won't let him call and try canceling again until he pays the balance that has accrued since his credit card expired. More »
eBay's $2.025 Billion Sale Of Skype Complete
By Laura Northrup on November 20, 2009 2:04 AM
33 Comments
—>eBay has successfully unloaded Skype. They remain a minority stakeholder, but 70% of Skype has been sold to a group that includes the original co-founders of the internet telephony company. More »
Turn Your Perfectly Normal Jeans Into Stirrup Pants
By Laura Northrup on November 19, 2009 8:48 PM
49 Comments
—>Maybe the Mayans were right about this whole apocalypse thing. Stirrup pants have returned to haunt shoppers, appearing everywhere to terrify shoppers. But then we at Consumerist received an e-mail about a product intended to turn regular, innocent, civilized, non-stirrup pants into stirrup pants. Why? WHY? More »
Coca-Cola Redesigns Fruit Juice Cartons To Emphasize Fruit
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2009 9:15 PM
7 Comments
—>One year after Tropicana's disastrous redesign of their orange juice packaging, Coca-Cola is debuting a redesign of the cartons in their various lines of fruit juices. Coke's key advantage: the new design isn't hideously ugly. More »
Beware The Popeyes Onion Ring Math Test
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2009 9:05 PM
3 Comments
—>Um...I guess I'll have two orders of six onion rings. (Thanks, Alan!) More »
Walmart Won't Let Family Print Photos Of Dead Relative For Funeral
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2009 8:22 PM
197 Comments
—>After the death of a relative, Mike put together a photo tribute for the funeral, in order to "remember the good times," he says. Only a Walmart cashier put a stop to his purchase. Here's what happened. Do you think Walmart was in the right? More »
Geek Squad Contributes To Society, Opens Outlet In Children's Hospital
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2009 2:30 PM
51 Comments
—>The announcement that Best Buy plans to open a Geek Squad outlet inside the Children's Hospital in Minneapolis seems, at first, incongruous. "Geek Squad?" we said. "Haven't these families already suffered enough?" Except this Geek Squad isn't there to profit off sick kids—they're there to help. No, really. More »
Federal Judge Rules Against Scrappy Mac Clone Manufacturer Psystar
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2009 2:15 PM
65 Comments
—>Sorry, Mac OS lovers who don't love the price tags on Apple hardware. Apple has emerged victorious in their copyright lawsuit against Mac clone manufacturer Psystar. U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup ruled that Psystar is violating Apple's copyright as well as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by selling computers with a modified version of OS X pre-installed. More »
Lick An Envelope, Taste Some Bacon
By Laura Northrup on November 18, 2009 2:00 PM
48 Comments
—>The entrepreneur-humanitarians behind Bacon Salt, Bacon Pop, and Baconnaise have introduced two new products. J & D's has expanded their bacon flavoring empire to bacon-flavored microwave popcorn and another product that is neither food nor seasoning—snail-mail envelopes. More »
If Yours Isn't Good Enough, He'll Get Some At The Office
By Laura Northrup on November 16, 2009 12:00 AM
90 Comments
—>Marketers had a message for the housewives of the 1950s: they weren't doing a good enough job at home. Their husbands had to resort to going elsewhere for it. Why, even the girls at the office could do it much better. More »
When Traveling, Beware The Snow Globe Terrorist Menace
By Laura Northrup on November 15, 2009 10:00 PM
120 Comments
—>Beware the snow globe menace! The TSA has decreed that since they can't determine how much liquid is in a snow globe, passengers are not allowed to bring them in their carry-on luggage on planes. More »
Disney Removes Closed Captioning From "Up" Rental Release
By Laura Northrup on November 15, 2009 8:00 PM
270 Comments
—>Imagine you're deaf or hard of hearing, and put off watching Pixar's "Up" until the DVD release. You rent the DVD from Netflix, Redbox, or Blockbuster, and the box or Web listing promises captions. But when you settle in to watch the movie, you discover that there are no captions to be found. Not in any language. More »
Help, My House Has A Nonexistent Warranty!
By Laura Northrup on November 15, 2009 6:00 PM
102 Comments
—>Adam and his wife have a question for the Consumerist hive mind. He says that the purchase of his house one year ago included a home warranty. Or, well, it was supposed to. When something went wrong, they tried to file a claim and learned that the agent who listed the house never mailed in the warranty paperwork. More »
Target's Reality Vortex Expands To Walgreens
By Laura Northrup on November 15, 2009 4:00 PM
62 Comments
—>Stephanie sent us this photo from her local Walgreens. Have they been taking lessons in pricing from Target? Sure, MSRP is is merely a suggestion, but this is a rather obvious case. More »
New York State Holds License Plate Fundraiser
By Laura Northrup on November 15, 2009 2:00 PM
233 Comments
—>As part of an attempt to make up a budget shortfall, New York State is holding a huge fundraiser. No, not a bake sale: starting in April 2010, the state is forcing all car and tractor-trailer owners in the state to buy new license plates when they renew their registrations. And not just any license plates. Ugly license plates. More »
Kellogg's Finally Explains Eggo Waffle Shortage
By Laura Northrup on November 15, 2009 12:00 AM
92 Comments
—>Consumerist's quest to find out on behalf of you, our readers, where all of the Eggo waffles have gone has come to an end. The culprit isn't aliens or unemployed Americans munching on waffles at home while watching Judge Judy. It was a flood at the factory in Atlanta where the waffles are made. More »
Congress Investigates Airline Fees In Search Of Tax Revenue
By Laura Northrup on November 14, 2009 10:00 PM
51 Comments
—>Congress is concerned about the new fees that airlines seem to enjoy piling on their passengers. But not out of any sense of concern for consumers' wallets. The problem is the lost tax revenue that airports are missing out on when airlines increase their prices through the use of fees instead of by raising fares. More »
An Insider Look At Comcast's Customer Service Boot Camp
By Laura Northrup on November 14, 2009 8:00 PM
50 Comments
—>Travel with Consumer Watch columnist Jon Yates of the Chicago Tribune to the training ground of our nation's elite. The few, the powerless, and the often berated: Comcast customer service representatives. Yates sat in on a training class for new reps, sat in on many live calls, and shared the secrets of agents' formation. Sort of. More »
Rubber And Steel Fragments Found Inside Medication
By Laura Northrup on November 14, 2009 6:00 PM
21 Comments
—>The FDA has sent a warning to biotech company Genzyme after particles of rubber, steel, and fibers were found in vials of five of their injectable medications. The contamination occurred during the manufacturing process, and the FDA is concerned because doctors could be, y'know, injecting garbage fragments into their patients. More »
Poll: What Caused The Great Eggo Waffle Shortage Of '09?
By Laura Northrup on November 14, 2009 4:00 PM
78 Comments
—>Clearly, our post about the Eggo waffle shortages struck some kind of nerve. We contacted Kellogg's about the real reason for the nationwide shortage, and they haven't gotten back to us yet. So we let our imaginations run wild. More »
AT&T Waives $645 In Early Termination Fees For Reader With No Service
By Laura Northrup on November 14, 2009 2:00 PM
29 Comments
—>Reader Y0himba was a loyal and happy customer of AT&T Wireless. But then the iPhone 3Gs became cheaper and proliferated, and he told both Consumerist and AT&T that his family's phones became completely non-functional. But this is not a complaint—it is a tale of victory. More »
Walmart Takes Steps To Prevent More Black Friday Chaos And Tragedy
By Laura Northrup on November 13, 2009 10:37 PM
64 Comments
—>Hoping to avoid anything even close to last year's tragic Black Friday human stampede, Walmart stores nationwide aren't opening at the crack of dawn. Instead of opening their doors at 5 A.M. and inviting sales-crazed frenzies, they will open at 6 A.M. on Thanksgiving Day, then remain open overnight. More »
How Epic Bureaucracy Led To GM's Doom
By Laura Northrup on November 13, 2009 9:20 PM
95 Comments
—>Have you ever wondered how a profit-seeking entity could have possibly produced the Pontiac Aztek? The answer lies in GM's century-old bureaucracy. Like all good bureaucracies, it helped to stifle innovation, squash dissent, and perpetuate bad ideas. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on November 13, 2009 7:00 PM
262 Comments
You Can Make Your Own Liquid Tamiflu At Home More »
Dollar Store Grand Opening Attracts Hundreds Of Shoppers
By Laura Northrup on November 13, 2009 5:10 PM
62 Comments
—>To promote the opening of a new store, ultra-discount chain 99 Cents Only stocked a few things they don't normally carry, and sold them for 99 cents. Things like iPods and scooters. When they opened a store in San Jose, Calif., this sale proved popular. Very popular. More »
Get A Refund If You Took Vytorin Or Zetia
By Laura Northrup on November 13, 2009 1:36 PM
6 Comments
—>If you or someone you know were prescribed the high cholesterol drugs Zetia or Vytorin and paid full price or a co-pay, you may be eligible for a refund as part of a recent class-action lawsuit. Manufacturers Merck and Schering-Plough are accused of violating consumer protection laws. While both drugs were marketed as superior to other, cheaper statins on the market, more recent studies showed that the drugs weren't significantly more effective than the older drugs, and could have more harmful side effects. More »
Litter Robot Replaces Box Destroyed By Cat's Poor Aim
By Laura Northrup on November 12, 2009 10:08 PM
51 Comments
—>Jon wants the readers of Consumerist to know about the excellent experience he has had with Automated Pet Care Products, makers of the super-cool Litter Robot, which looks like a space station but actually eliminates the need for cat owners to scoop litter. More »
Why Does The Federal Government Hate Truckasaurus?
By Laura Northrup on November 12, 2009 7:20 PM
33 Comments
—>Last night, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" addressed one of the crucial economic policy questions of our time: why do the Ivy League snobs in the Obama administration hate Truckasaurus so much? See, the Cash for Clunkers program thoughtlessly deprived demolition derbies and monster truck rallies of the elderly cars they need in order to remain totally awesome. More »
HP Returns Computer With Faulty Repair, Bonus Dust Bunnies
By Laura Northrup on November 12, 2009 6:59 PM
59 Comments
—>Marc thought he was being practical when be purchased a four-year warranty to go along with his HP desktop. After about a year, the computer failed. No problem. Just send the tower in for some of that stellar HP repair service. Except there's probably a reason why you rarely hear the words "stellar," "HP," and "repair" in the same sentence. More »
You Can Make Your Own Liquid Tamiflu At Home
By Laura Northrup on November 12, 2009 6:59 PM
116 Comments
—>G.'s young son was recently ill with H1N1, but no pharmacy in the city where he lives had liquid Tamiflu in stock. (Even the federal government released its stockpile not long ago.) He writes that nearly every pharmacy he called turned him down. Then he learned that the liquid can be made from Tamiflu capsules by pharmacists, or even by parents at home. Why didn't the pharmacy staff, or his doctor, tell him this? More »
What's Too Much Work For A Price Match?
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2009 11:11 PM
90 Comments
—>What do you do when you're unhappy with a transaction and the merchant wants to make things right, but you think their terms are unreasonable? That's what Raymond wants to know. He tells us that Aldo is willing to price match after sending him a marked down item that he paid full price for online, but thinks they want him to go too far to prove it. More »
Hey, Where Did All The Eggo Waffles Go?
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2009 10:59 PM
103 Comments
—>Kimberly's life just isn't the same. Something is missing. That something: Eggo waffles. She wants to know where they have gone, and whether they will ever return to her. More »
Bank of America Cancels Solo India Traveler's Debit Card, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2009 7:12 PM
124 Comments
—>Does "Bank of America" actually mean "Bank of America Only"? After pulling another reader's debit card access back in August even though she had explicitly notified the berbank about her travels, BoA has apparently done it again. Reader Bristol tells us that she has been penniless in India for the last week after the bank's mysterious computers canceled her debit card. More »
Toys R Us Advertises Zhu Zhu Pet Sale, Forgets To Stock Zhu Zhu Pets
By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2009 6:10 PM
62 Comments
—>Arnold was excited to receive an e-mail from Toys R Us advertising a special early-bird sale of Zhu Zhu Pets. The inexpensive little robot hamsters are in short supply, and the chain promised critters to the first fifty households who showed up at their local store on Sunday morning. Only Arnold reports that not only did his local store never have any of the battery-operated rodents in stock, it wasn't open at the advertised hour at all. More »
Social Network Games: Fake Mobsters, Real Racket
By Laura Northrup on November 9, 2009 1:00 AM
61 Comments
—>You might enjoy raking in money as a fake mobster in Mafia Wars, or collecting cotton subsidies in FarmVille, but TechCrunch's Michael Arrington argues that the real racket in virtual games is for the companies that run them, and for the social networking sites that host them. More »
Health Care Reform Bill Passes House - What's In It?
By Laura Northrup on November 8, 2009 11:00 PM
335 Comments
—>The House version of the health care reform bill passed the House on Saturday night. Now it needs to be merged with some sort fo Senate version of the bill and signed by the President to become law. So how does this reform bill actually affect consumers? More »
Verizon Wireless Relegates iPhone To Island Of Misfit Toys
By Laura Northrup on November 8, 2009 10:00 PM
54 Comments
—>As a whimsical follow-up to AT&T's lawsuit concerning their "There's a map for that" ads, Verizon Wireless released their Christmas-themed set of AT&T/iPhone bashing ads today. They're harsh, but also pretty funny. More »
The Dreamie: It's Like A Snuggie That You Sleep In
By Laura Northrup on November 8, 2009 7:00 PM
78 Comments
—>I often tell myself, "Self, I love to travel, but I hate forcing myself to sleep in places that don't have satin sheets." That's where the Dreamie comes in. It's like the secret hybrid of a sleeping bag and a Snuggie. Only in satin. And you, blessedly, can't walk around in it. More »
Homebuyer Tax Credit Extended To June 2010, Woot!
By Laura Northrup on November 8, 2009 5:00 PM
53 Comments
—>As anticipated, President Obama signed the 8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit extension into law on Friday. You can now collect the credit if your home purchase is complete by June 30, 2010. But wait, there's more! The extension also offers a tax credit for people who are purchasing a new residence, but aren't first-time homeowners. More »
$1.26 Billion Glorified Tap Water Judgment Against Pepsi Thrown Out
By Laura Northrup on November 8, 2009 4:00 PM
41 Comments
—>Good news for Pepsico: the lawsuit two Wisconsin men filed, accusing the company of stealing from them the idea that eventually became Aquafina, will have to be judged on its actual merits. The default judgment of $1.26 billion that they received when Pepsi failed to acknowledge the suit has been vacated. More »
Are Postcard-Sized Rebate Checks A Conspiracy?
By Laura Northrup on November 7, 2009 11:00 PM
119 Comments
—>So you've fought the mighty rebaterus and won, prying your hard-won mail-in rebate money from its claws. If your rebate isn't in the form of a prepaid debit card, it's probably a postcard-sized check—cheap to mail, simple, easy. For the rebate fulfillment company. For the consumer depositing checks via ATM as banks cut back on their hours, it's not so simple or easy. More »
Contact HSBC Bank USA's CEO
By Laura Northrup on November 7, 2009 7:00 PM
10 Comments
—>Having trouble with HSBC? Executive customer service no help? Here's where to contact the president and CEO of HSBC Bank USA. More »
Laundromats Enter Underfilled Recession Cycle
By Laura Northrup on November 7, 2009 6:00 PM
77 Comments
—>Are you doing laundry this weekend? Are you running fewer loads than you used to, going longer between washes, or even using a friend or relative's equipment in order to avoid unloading a pocketful of quarters at the laundromat? If so, you're not alone. Laundromats, once thought to be a recession-proof business, are surprisingly vulnerable to economic downturns. More »
Seattle Coffee Direct Decides You Need $40 Worth Of Coffee Per Day
By Laura Northrup on November 7, 2009 4:00 PM
64 Comments
—>If you've been tempted by Facebook ads promising cheap "introductory" offers from Seattle Coffee Direct or World Bean Cafe, located in the world coffee capital of Evanston, Illinois, readers Adam and Ivan say, "don't do it!" The ads promise t-shirts or a free coffee grinder as an incentive to sign up, or tempting introductory offers. But you're really signing up for a coffee delivery service for close to $80 per month. Or more, as reader Ivan learned. He says that the company accidentally billed him for, and sent, two bags of coffee per day. More »
Sears Declares Halloween "Black Friday"
By Laura Northrup on November 7, 2009 3:00 PM
34 Comments
—>Forget Christmas creep. How about Black Friday creep? Sears went ahead and declared last weekend, October 30 and 31st, the beginning of Black Friday, and told their mailing list so. More »
Bill Collector Accused Of Offering Debt Forgiveness For Sex
By Laura Northrup on November 7, 2009 2:00 PM
63 Comments
—>A Rent-A-Center employee near Detroit has allegedly found a new approach to helping consumers get out of debt: making their bills go away in exchange for sex. More »
Iowa Feline Catches Swine Flu
By Laura Northrup on November 6, 2009 8:15 PM
69 Comments
—>When you're home sick, snuggling with a pet can have tremendous healing powers. "Plus," you might say to yourself, "at least Fluffy can't catch this awful swine flu I have." Well....not so fast. It's not common, but a cat in Iowa has been diagnosed with, and recovered from, swine flu. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on November 6, 2009 7:30 PM
204 Comments
50 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do More »
Dell Will Overnight Your Replacement Laptop Within 18 Business Days
By Laura Northrup on November 5, 2009 3:41 PM
95 Comments
—>Rob tells us he ordered a Dell laptop from their outlet store, but received the wrong machine. He says he called up Dell and asked for them to send the computer that he actually ordered. "Sure," said the nice folks at Dell. "We'll overnight you the correct computer within eighteen business days." Rob was confused. More »
How Do You Explain Invisible Money To Your Kids?
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2009 8:56 PM
123 Comments
—>Learning about how money works is important for children. But today, when all of our transactions seem to take with the mysterious swipe of a card, or inside a computer. So how to teach children about money when nobody uses cash anymore? More »
Verizon Wireless To Hike ETFs On "Advanced" Devices
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2009 5:37 PM
47 Comments
—>Are you looking to get a smartphone on the Verizon network anytime soon? Make sure that you like it before you sign a contract, since starting November 15th, Verizon will be imposing a higher early termination fee—up to $350—on contracts for "advanced" devices. That means smartphones. More »
Selling Alarm Systems After Murders: Helpful Or Opportunist?
By Laura Northrup on November 4, 2009 4:11 PM
126 Comments
—>About a month ago, a mother and daughter were chosen at random and brutally attacked in their home in small-town New Hampshire. The daughter survived, but the mother did not. And within days of this tragedy, ADT sales reps began going door-to-door to sell alarm systems. More »
NeatReceipts Offers Extra Neat Customer Service
By Laura Northrup on November 1, 2009 10:00 PM
44 Comments
—>Christopher made a mistake when he ordered a NeatReceipts scanner from Woot. He made some incorrect assumptions and ordered the Windows version of the device when he uses a Mac. But even though he was the one who made the mistake, the neat people at NeatReceipts happily swapped scanners with him—for free. More »
EVT America Delivers Slow, Inaccurate Scooter, No Lemon Law Refund
By Laura Northrup on November 1, 2009 9:00 PM
117 Comments
—>Brett wants the EVT America electric scooter he was promised. A scooter that was supposed to have a top speed of 40-45 mph, and required a motorcycle license. Unfortunately, while at top speed the speedometer reads 45 mph, he claims that reality differs. More »
Radio Shack Sales Staff Unfazed By 2,400% Markup
By Laura Northrup on November 1, 2009 8:00 PM
214 Comments
—>No one goes to Radio Shack to take advantage of low prices. They go because they need an electronic component on short notice, and Radio Shack is pretty ubiquitous. That's how Chris and his fiance found themselves at a Wisconsin Radio Shack in search of a mini USB cable, but they encountered such high prices and high-pressure sales lies that they walked out and found what they needed...at the dollar store. More »
Mother And Child Kicked Off Southwest Flight Receive Apology, Free Travel
By Laura Northrup on November 1, 2009 4:00 PM
346 Comments
—>Earlier this week, a 2-year-old boy drowned out preflight announcements on a Southwest Airlines flight with his screams of "I want Daddy!" and "Go, plane, go!" So the airline kicked the child and his mother off the plane. More »
Facebook Nags You To Communicate With The Dead
By Laura Northrup on November 1, 2009 3:00 PM
93 Comments
—>If you've logged in to Facebook lately, you may have noticed the site's suggestions on the right-hand side telling you to write on the wall of someone you haven't communicated with in a while. This is merely annoying for most of us, but sort of a punch in the gut when the person you're being told to get back in touch with is dead. More »
Amazon.com Thinks Reader's Balls Are Splendid
By Laura Northrup on November 1, 2009 2:00 PM
71 Comments
—>Amazon's new PayPhrase service has its advantages and disadvantages, but one curious feature is that the system generates sample phrases for you. Usually these are pretty innocuous and uplifting—"Laura's Amazing Effort" and the like. But not for Gil. The PayPhrase system took the opportunity to comment on his private parts, and generated the phrase "Gil's Splendid Balls" for him. More »
Least Delicious Halloween Treat: H1N1 Virus
By Laura Northrup on October 31, 2009 8:00 PM
77 Comments
—>As trick-or-treating time looms, we'd like to take this opportunity to remind you: BOO!!! SWINE FLU! More »
Facebook Sues Spammer; Wins $711 Million
By Laura Northrup on October 31, 2009 7:00 PM
43 Comments
—>Facebook won $711 million in a lawsuit against a notorious spammer. Don't cheer too hard, though. The same spampresario owes MySpace $234 million for the same thing. More »
Recall Roundup: Extra Scary Edition
By Laura Northrup on October 31, 2009 5:00 PM
25 Comments
—>It's Halloween, and what's scarier than exploding DVD player batteries and killer flatware? Or dairy lurking in an innocent-looking tortilla? What about a zombie ATV that accelerates on its own? More »
Consumers Forgo Restaurants, Cook Fancy Steaks At Home
By Laura Northrup on October 31, 2009 3:00 PM
69 Comments
—>Americans love steak. Now, in a recession, we still love it, but we've shifted to buying and cooking delicious high-end steaks at home instead of eating them in restaurants, thanks to greater availability of fancy cuts of meat to consumers. More »
Database Bug At Woot Leaves Reader Wary Of Ordering
By Laura Northrup on October 31, 2009 2:00 PM
74 Comments
—>Robear wanted to order from shirt.woot, but something strange happened when he went to register. After choosing a username and entering his e-mail address, he noticed that all of the forms were pre-populated with another customer's information...including that user's credit card information. He contacted Woot to try to find out what could have happened, but Woot either hasn't figured it out yet, or just isn't responding. (UPDATE: Response from Woot below.) More »
Boston Market Posts $1 Meal Coupon Online: Guess What Happens Next
By Laura Northrup on October 31, 2009 1:00 PM
60 Comments
—>The trickster twins of free food and Internet coupons struck again this week. Well, nearly free food. Boston Market restaurants are experiencing chicken shortages after their coupon offering customers on their mailing list a full chicken meal for $1. The coupon went viral on deal sites, and we even included it in our Morning Deals on Tuesday. And as more people than planned took advantage of the deal, lines ran long and supplies ran low. More »
Letter To Target CEO Gets Newlyweds Registry Discount, Gift Card, Apology
By Laura Northrup on October 31, 2009 12:00 PM
67 Comments
—>After the wedding has passed and gifts are all opened, married couples who has registered at Target receives a coupon for 10% off any items on their registry that they didn't receive. It's a nice promotion that gives happy couples a break on that eighth place setting, and maybe the Kitchenaid mixer no one wanted to drag into the reception. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on October 30, 2009 6:30 PM
210 Comments
Iceland Is So Messed Up McDonald's Is Giving Up And Going Home More »
Edmunds.com Estimates Real Cash For Clunkers Cost, Gets White House Smackdown
By Laura Northrup on October 30, 2009 4:20 PM
92 Comments
—>Edmunds.com crunched some numbers, and came to the conclusion that the federal Cash for Clunkers program was not a terribly effective use of taxpayer money. They argue that the bulk of rebates went to consumers who were going to buy cars anyway. The White House, however, begs to differ. So how did the Obama administration respond? With a snarky blog post. More »
Misplaced Letter Costs PepsiCo $1.26 Billion In Bottled Water Lawsuit
By Laura Northrup on October 29, 2009 5:13 PM
17 Comments
—>It's easy to joke about PepsiCo's Aquafina. After all, it's purified municipal tap water, bottled and sold at prices comparable to juices and soda. But the product is no joke to two men in Wisconsin. In 1981, they discussed their idea to bottle and sell purified tap water with some of PepsiCo's regional bottlers. Allegedly, the idea made its way back to PepsiCo and eventually became Aquafina. More »
U.S. Postal Service Tests Post Office Greeting Card Sales
By Laura Northrup on October 29, 2009 3:40 PM
19 Comments
—>One of the few things that people still use the U.S. Postal Service to do is send greeting cards. Americans receive an average of 20 greeting cards per year, and they have to come from somewhere. So why not save a trip and buy those cards right at your local post office? More »
Even In Death, You Can Still Shop At Walmart
By Laura Northrup on October 29, 2009 3:39 PM
34 Comments
—>Walmart now provides for their customers from cradle to grave. Quite literally—since you can not only purchase cribs there, you can now order caskets and funerary urns from the mega-retailer's Web site. More »
SIGG Responds: Yes, The $50,000 Gift Certificate Was Intentional
By Laura Northrup on October 29, 2009 3:27 PM
31 Comments
—>Last week, we posted the experience of a SIGG customer who received a $50,000 gift certificate credit for the BPA-riddled water bottles she mailed back to SIGG as part of their massive exchange program. SIGG contacted us to clarify what was going on. To sum up: it's intentional and meant to expedite customers' exchanges. And they'll catch you if you try to abuse it, you jerks. More »
Create Your Own Holiday Tableau With This Lighted Ceramic Walmart
By Laura Northrup on October 29, 2009 3:24 PM
16 Comments
—>Ah, lighted ceramic Christmas villages. They're so sweet and timeless. The old-fashioned houses and shops on a surface of sparkling fake snow. The quaint figurines on the town square. The... Walmart SuperCenter?! More »
Jobs With The Highest Stress For The Lowest Pay
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2009 3:55 PM
264 Comments
—>Are you feeling underworked and overpaid? You very well may be, compared to people in the top 15 most stressful, lowest-paying careers, according to Payscale.com. CNN Money rounded these jobs up, and explained why they made the list. More »
Citibank Shocks Reader With Consumer-Friendly Policy
By Laura Northrup on October 28, 2009 3:53 PM
37 Comments
—>Anthony received a Newegg rebate in the form of a prepaid debit card. When he went to use the $15 card for a $15.93 purchase, he received an unexpected and wonderful surprise. More »
Price Match Fraud Lawsuit Filed Against Best Buy
By Laura Northrup on October 25, 2009 10:00 PM
86 Comments
—>A class action lawsuit has been filed in Illinois against Best Buy. The suit's claims? That the company has an official policy against price-matching their own web site. You don't say. That claim of a special Intranet site to prevent price-matching against the chain's Web site sounds familiar. So do most of the suit's allegations, for loyal readers of Consumerist. More »
We Have No Comment About This Exercise Device, Either
By Laura Northrup on October 25, 2009 9:00 PM
67 Comments
—>Not content with their stranglehold on the creepily suggestive fitness equipment market for women, the people behind the Shake Weight are now marketing the same product...for men. More »
Chase Thinks Reader Has Amazing Bilocating Credit Card
By Laura Northrup on October 25, 2009 8:00 PM
99 Comments
—>Chase's fraud department apparently thinks that Jake is lying. A few weeks ago, they called him about some suspicious activity on his credit card. Jake and his wife verified that the transactions were neither his nor his wife's, the Chase representative instructed them to destroy their cards, and that was that. Until a week and a half later, when a fraud specialist called them back to deny their fraud claim, claiming repeatedly that his story "doesn't jive." More »
Cook Your Own Delicious Food At Home, On A Budget
By Laura Northrup on October 25, 2009 6:00 PM
122 Comments
—>Do you want to save money by making your own meals at home, but aren't sure where to start? Let the blog Budget Bytes help you. It contains not only frugal but delicious recipes (including vegetarian ones) broken down by total cost and cost per serving, but a guide to stocking your pantry when you first live on your own or learn to cook. More »
VIDEO: Derivatives Are Sort Of Like A Pre-Ordered Turkey
By Laura Northrup on October 25, 2009 5:00 PM
25 Comments
—>The business and financial news are full of something called "derivatives." But, okay, what is that? You're not the only one who's wondering. That's why Paddy Hirsch from the public radio program Marketplace put together a whiteboard, some stick figures, and a bunch of metaphorical turkeys to explain it all to us. More »
Disney Offers Baby Einstein Refunds After Alleged False Advertising
By Laura Northrup on October 25, 2009 2:00 PM
120 Comments
—>If you've purchased Baby Einstein products, your tot is probably somehow—inexplicably—still not a genius. But you may be eligible for a refund of the purchase price, due to overzealous claims made about the products. More »
Vaginal Mints Are A Very, Very Bad Idea
By Laura Northrup on October 24, 2009 8:00 PM
193 Comments
—>Jen Philips over at Mother Jones received a sample of an exciting new candy from a PR rep. Called Linger, it bills itself as "the intimate mint." Or "feminine flavoring system." Because you're supposed to put it in your vagina. More »
Super Bowl Ads From Cash4Gold And GE: Where Are They Now?
By Laura Northrup on October 24, 2009 6:00 PM
32 Comments
—>Sure, Super Bowl ads are a great way to generate a lot of buzz for your company or product. But how do you fare in the long term? Consumer Reports Home took a look at two stars of Super Ad Bowl 2009: Cash4Gold and General Electric. More »
Televised Sports Battle: Who Is Astroturfing Whom?
By Laura Northrup on October 24, 2009 5:00 PM
19 Comments
—>Front groups for cable and satellite companies pretending to represent the interest of sports fans? Mysterious "sources" and leaks? This is nothing new to Consumerist readers, but our estranged siblings at Deadspin have some great information on a lobbying and PR war between thinly disguised groups working on behalf of DirectTV and the big cable companies, and their battle over fans and fees. Or is it? More »
4 Money Conversations You Should Have Before You Commit
By Laura Northrup on October 24, 2009 4:00 PM
101 Comments
—>Before you tie your destiny and your credit rating to the person you love, there are some decidedly un-romantic conversations that you need to have in order to prevent discord and catastrophe later in life. More »
Flee Geocities Before It Closes Forever
By Laura Northrup on October 24, 2009 3:00 PM
85 Comments
—>Before Blogspot and Wordpress, and even before Google, there was Geocities. But no more. If you have files or content stored on Yahoo's GeoCities service, be sure to back up or move or it by Monday. That's when the service, an early free web host and nerd training ground, closes down forever. It's like part of my lonely, geeky adolescence is about to die. More »
Target's New Return Policy Might Be Better: We're Not Sure
By Laura Northrup on October 24, 2009 2:00 PM
63 Comments
—>Target recently changed their return policy. It's more consumer-friendly. We think. What we can tell you for sure is that it's more confusing. More »
Streaming Cable Content: For Comcast Subscribers Only
By Laura Northrup on October 24, 2009 12:04 AM
68 Comments
—>Yesterday's news that Hulu soon plans to start charging for its service actually came fresh on the heels of Comcast's announcement that it's about to officially launch online streaming video for subscribers to both their cable TV and Internet services. More »
Reader Receives $900 For Broken Laptop In Small Claims Court
By Laura Northrup on October 23, 2009 6:45 PM
106 Comments
—>Ryan in North Dakota bought a very nice HP laptop in 2007. This particular model, he DV6000, has a certain flaw, and HP extended the warranty to cover inevitable repairs. But when the computer broke down for the second time at the tender age of two and a half years, and HP wouldn't repair it for free, he was angry. He had expected to get at least four years' use out of the laptop. More »
Consumer Reporter Keeps Buying Things That Catch Fire
By Laura Northrup on October 23, 2009 6:27 PM
58 Comments
—>The Handy Switch, pitched in infomercials by the zombie late Billy Mays, is theoretically a cool product. It's a wireless light switch that you can install and plug in anywhere. It would be very useful were it not for its unfortunate tendency to burst into flames. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on October 23, 2009 5:00 PM
257 Comments
Fake Lottery Winner Enrages Burlington Coat Factory Shoppers More »
Blair Recalls More Flammable Clothing After Yet Another Fire
By Laura Northrup on October 23, 2009 4:30 PM
35 Comments
—>"Consumers Urged to Stop Use of Flammable Wearing Apparel," says the warning on the Consumer Product Safety Commission Web site. You would think so, wouldn't you? But Blair, the catalog where your grandmother probably gets all of her clothes, has expanded their recall of chenille sleepwear after nine deaths and another reported chenille fire. More »
Digital River: Easy To Download From, Impossible To Reach
By Laura Northrup on October 23, 2009 3:15 PM
75 Comments
—>Digital software downloads! Fast. Convenient. But sometimes, it can't compare with having a physical disc and a printed product key sitting in front of you. That's what Daniel's roommate learned when he tried to download Windows 7 from Digital River. More »
Hulu Will Start Charging For Content Soon
By Laura Northrup on October 23, 2009 1:55 AM
154 Comments
—>As board member Jon Miller forecasted a few months ago, streaming video powerhouse Hulu plans to start charging for content soon. Subscription-based? Pay per use? Nobody knows. What we do know is that the Consumerist community wasn't fond of the idea back in June. [Entertainment Weekly] More »
Verizon Won't Give Elderly Couple Their $600 Back
By Laura Northrup on October 23, 2009 12:00 AM
77 Comments
—>Bonnie's elderly parents switched from Verizon dial-up to Verizon DSL, but Verizon didn't turn off their dial-up account when switching them to DSL. They somehow failed to notice when they continued to be charged for dialup. For two years. More »
Government Orders Pay Cuts For Bailed-Out Firms
By Laura Northrup on October 22, 2009 11:00 PM
69 Comments
—>The huge salaries and bonuses paid to executives of banks and other firms that received government bailout funds have been the subject of a lot of taxpayer rage. The Obama administration listened, and will order pay cuts. More »
College Student Needs Personal Assistant To Help Him Be College Student
By Laura Northrup on October 22, 2009 10:00 PM
113 Comments
—>Oh, college. Remember how busy you were, between classes, activities, part-time work, and a social life? Instead of adjusting his schedule accordingly, a busy student at Georgetown University (the #7 most expensive college in America) is hiring a personal assistant. More »
Honor Your Favorite Deceased Infomercial Celebrity This Halloween
By Laura Northrup on October 22, 2009 8:00 PM
34 Comments
—>One of the inexpensive Halloween costume ideas suggested by readers was to dress in honor of the deceased and beloved infomercial pitchman Billy Mays. (This costume is especially simple if you already have dark hair and a beard.) Today, Billy Mays III announced a Billy Mays costume contest, sponsored and judged by his friends and colleagues at Sullivan Productions. More »
What You Know About Car Care Is Probably Wrong
By Laura Northrup on October 22, 2009 7:30 PM
187 Comments
—>Most Americans drive cars, but haven't the faintest idea how they work. Often we have car care axioms inherited from our parents or driving teachers that apply to cars from a generation or two ago. What are some commonly believed car care myths that simply aren't true? More »
Burger King Welcomes Windows 7 With Seven-Patty Whopper
By Laura Northrup on October 22, 2009 7:15 PM
113 Comments
—>What could be more American than celebrating the launch of a new product with an almost comically unhealthy fast-food product? Unfortunately, the seven-patty Windows 7 Whopper is only available in Japan. More »
Adorable Japanese Mascot Invades U.S. Convenience Stores
By Laura Northrup on October 22, 2009 1:15 PM
77 Comments
—>Would you like your morning coffee with a side of Domo-kun? In one of those odd twists of globalization and marketing synergy, the mascot of Japanese public television network NHK has found his way onto 99 cent cups of coffee and special Slurpee cups at 7-Eleven stores in the United States. More »
Lenovo Screws Up Every Part Of Computer Purchase
By Laura Northrup on October 22, 2009 1:00 PM
51 Comments
—>Dan and his roommate had a crazy plan. They would use Dan's credit card to purchase a laptop computer from Lenovo. The roommate would write Dan a check for the total amount the computer cost. Lenovo would ship a working computer to the roommate, thus completing a straightforward exchange of currency and consumer goods. Unfortunately, life is not that simple in the Land of Lenovo. More »
SIGG Gives Customer $50,000 Gift Card For Two Water Bottles
By Laura Northrup on October 22, 2009 12:45 PM
61 Comments
—>After SIGG USA announced that their metal water bottles contained plastic additive BPA, they offered to exchange consumers' offending bottles for new ones. Karen sent her BPA-riddled water bottles in for replacement, and received her gift certificate to buy two new ones for a total of $46.98. But something went horribly wrong, and now she has a store credit for just under $50,000. More »
Radio Shack Acts In Consumer's Best Interest, Hell Freezes Over
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2009 8:27 PM
45 Comments
—>The Shack Radio Shack is not known in these pages for its high level of customer service. That's why we were stunned and impressed with Chris's story, where Radio Shack salespeople were not only knowledgeable and immensely helpful, but sent him to a competitor. More »
ISPs Threaten Metered Broadband As Net Neutrality Looms
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2009 8:20 PM
204 Comments
—>Remember when you called up your ISP and, after an unholy modem screech, were billed for every minute you spent online? (Actually, it occurs to me that many Consumerist readers probably don't remember this.) If ISPs' current efforts pay off, we may all soon be paying for every little byte of Internet that we use. More »
Deadline To Ditch Your AT&T Smartphone Data Plan Extended To Oct 31
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2009 4:17 PM
58 Comments
—>Do you want to get rid of the data plan for your AT&T smartphone, but missed the September 6th deadline? You now have a second chance. The deadline to drop your plan has been extended until October 31st. More »
What Are The Most Expensive Colleges In America?
By Laura Northrup on October 21, 2009 12:36 PM
220 Comments
—>College is expensive, but the some colleges are more expensive than others. Collegegrotto.com rounded up the top 100 most expensive colleges in the United States, based on just tuition and room and board. The winner? Sarah Lawrence College, north of New York City. More »
Being Unemployed In A Downturn Will Damage Your Career Forever
By Laura Northrup on October 18, 2009 10:00 PM
216 Comments
—>If you're just starting out in your career, BusinessWeek has some sobering news for you. Statistics show that people who come of age and spend the early years of their careers un- or underemployed will fall behind their always-employed peers in both earnings and career status, and most will never recover the lost ground. More »
Be Sure To Miss This Great Deal At Target
By Laura Northrup on October 18, 2009 9:00 PM
50 Comments
—>We'd like to alert you to an exciting sale on iTunes gift cards at Target this week. All cards are $30, regardless of whether their face value is $15 or $25. (Thanks, Nick!) More »
Coming Soon: Family Guy Windows 7 Infomercial (Sort Of)
By Laura Northrup on October 18, 2009 8:00 PM
58 Comments
—>Is it s sponsored special? A glorified infomercial? We're not sure, but on November 8, the Griffins of "Family Guy" will be hosting their own Windows 7 launch party of sorts, in the form of a half-hour special sponsored by Microsoft. More »
Bear Wanders In Wisconsin Grocery Store, Chills In Beer Department
By Laura Northrup on October 18, 2009 7:00 PM
31 Comments
—>We know that it's not good for bears to be be too dependent on human food, but one black bear in Wisconsin took things even farther, wandering inside a grocery store, heading straight for the liquor department, and taking a leisurely nap on a shelf in the beer cooler. More »
Canon Replaces Lazy Reader's Printer 6 Months Out Of Warranty
By Laura Northrup on October 18, 2009 4:00 PM
23 Comments
—>Canon is apparently a very nice company. So nice, in fact, that they will apparently replace a product out of warranty even when it's the customer's own forgetfulness that led to the delay. That's what reader Chris reports happened when his Canon printer broke down. More »
HSBC Really, Really Doesn't Want Reader To Cancel Best Buy Credit Card
By Laura Northrup on October 18, 2009 3:00 PM
85 Comments
—>James applied for a Best Buy Mastercard from HSBC. The initial application was easy enough, but the three separate confusing calls from outsourced customer service reps, and the low limit and annual fee on the card he eventually received led him to cancel his account. This should have been a straightforward transaction, but company representatives tried to bully James into keeping the credit card. More »
Greenbacks For Green Bags At CVS
By Laura Northrup on October 17, 2009 10:00 PM
57 Comments
—>Many stores offer discounts to customers who bring their own reusable bags to shop. Now, CVS is integrating their customer loyalty program with a green initiative, and plans to reward customers with 25 cents every time they use reusable bags. More »
Lower Cost Of Living Means Less Income For Some
By Laura Northrup on October 17, 2009 9:00 PM
55 Comments
—>The good news: the cost of living is decreasing, or at least isn't increasing. The bad news: Colorado is the first state to actually decrease its minimum wage, from $7.28 to $7.24, and Social Security recipients will not be receiving their routine cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA for 2010. More »
How Can We Determine Who Gave Us This $250 Wedding Present?
By Laura Northrup on October 17, 2009 8:00 PM
109 Comments
—>UPDATE: The gift-giver's identity has been discovered! Perhaps this is a better question for Miss Manners than Consumerist, but Chris needs help. See, a beautiful red KitchenAid mixer, an item on his Target wedding registry, arrived via FedEx with no clues as to who sent it. Adding to the confusion, the item doesn't appear to have come off the registry. Which seems to us to be the entire point of registries. More »
Testing Stuck Accelerator Survival Strategies
By Laura Northrup on October 17, 2009 7:00 PM
141 Comments
—>The recent recall of millions of Toyotas due to their floor mats' unfortunate tendency to trap the cars' accelerators, a flaw which has caused at least one confirmed horrific fatal accident, has caused people to wonder: if this happened to me, what would I do? Equipped with several different makes of cars and a test track, our colleagues at Consumer Reports Cars decided to play Mythbusters and put different stuck-accelerator survival strategies to the test. More »
USPS: No Stamp Price Increases In 2010
By Laura Northrup on October 17, 2009 6:00 PM
39 Comments
—>You can rest easy and stock up on booklets of Simpsons stamps instead of boring old Forever stamps. The United States Postal Service assures us that it is not planning any stamp price increases in 2010. More »
Fake Lottery Winner Enrages Burlington Coat Factory Shoppers
By Laura Northrup on October 17, 2009 5:00 PM
97 Comments
—>Earlier this week, a lottery winner pulled up her stretch Hummer in front of a Burlington Coat Factory store near Columbus, Ohio. In an Oprah-esque share of largesse, she promised to buy every shopper in the store $500 worth of merchandise. But she turned out to be no fairy godmother. She wasn't even a real lottery winner. When customers discovered the lie, they took their frustration out on the store, trashing it. More »
Keurig: Sorry, Your Coffeemaker Can't Break Until Tomorrow
By Laura Northrup on October 17, 2009 2:00 PM
52 Comments
—>Kyle recently bought a small Keurig coffeemaker. Very recently. He's fond of it, but when it started dispensing watered-down coffee, he knew something was wrong. So he called Keurig, who informed him that his machine wasn't allowed to break until he had owned it for 30 days. More »
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread
By Laura Northrup on October 16, 2009 5:00 PM
235 Comments
Tapwater Catches Fire After Natural Gas Drillers Move In More »
Energy-Efficient Appliance Rebate Program Still Lacks Catchy Name
By Laura Northrup on October 16, 2009 4:42 PM
19 Comments
—>The main problem with the energy-efficient rebate program the federal government has planned is that it just doesn't have a catchy enough name, editors' and bloggers' efforts notwithstanding. Dollars for Dishwashers? Cash for Kelvinators? Even its official acronym, SEEARP (State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program) isn't very mellifluous even if you belch it. More »
Insurers Drop Homeowners With Stinky Chinese Drywall
By Laura Northrup on October 16, 2009 4:38 PM
93 Comments
—>If you own a house made with poisonous Chinese drywall, you may soon have one fewer thing to worry about: paying your homeowner's insurance premiums. More »
Should We Tax Junk Food?
By Laura Northrup on October 16, 2009 4:36 PM
150 Comments
—>Should America tax junk food? Should we add a "fat tax" to the list of sin taxes? When most Americans eat fast food at least once a week, could we tax junk and subsidize healthy foods in the name of public health? Paul Michael of Wisebread thinks that it makes financial sense. More »
Microsoft: We May Have Recovered Sidekick Users' Lost Data
By Laura Northrup on October 15, 2009 6:26 PM
35 Comments
—>Maybe those lawsuits over the Sidekick data outage were a little premature. Microsoft, parent company of Sidekick maker Danger Inc, reports that they have recovered most, if not all, of users' lost data. Yay! More »
Make Your Own Haunted Gingerbread House
By Laura Northrup on October 15, 2009 6:22 PM
34 Comments
—>Are you decorating your house for Christmas Creep, and your Halloween tree just isn't enough? Williams-Sonoma has combined Christmas and Halloween traditions, and is selling a kit to make your very own haunted gingerbread house. Haunted gingerbread house? More »
Northern Hopes You Don't Notice Your Shrinking Toilet Paper
By Laura Northrup on October 15, 2009 4:06 PM
94 Comments
—>Many readers have reported the Grocery Shrink Ray strike on Northern toilet paper, but today Jack and Richard sent us photographic evidence, and even calculations of exactly how much paper consumers are losing out on. More »
1800Flowers Sends Order, Doesn't Notice Florist Is Closed
By Laura Northrup on October 15, 2009 1:59 PM
62 Comments