A few weeks ago, we ran reader Stephen’s sad tale of iPhone warranty replacements and reached out to our readers to see whether anyone else had gone through similar cycles of endless replacements. We’re sad to report that yes, some iPhone users have ended up trapped in smartphone replacement purgatory. When a phone only has four buttons, we suppose things are pretty awful hen one of them stops working. [More]
Too Bad You Missed This Amazing Members-Only Sale At Safeway
By June 10, 2013
“Man oh man, I’m sure glad that we have a Safeway Club Member loyalty card!” writes reader Richard. Even if you have a card, dearest readers, you’re going to miss out: the sale ended on Saturday. [More]
Letter To President Gets Samsung’s Attention, Repaired Microwave
By June 7, 2013
Laurence was disappointed that he dropped a few hundred dollars on a microwave, and didn’t get to enjoy it for very long. He isn’t sure exactly how long a microwave that cost a few hundred bucks should last, but figures it’s somewhere between “two years” and “forever.” Right? [More]
DirecTV Wants To Sell You A Home Security System
By June 7, 2013
DirecTV’s terrestrial-cable competitors like Comcast and Time Warner offer home security systems, a logical extension of a business that’s already running wires through and piping information back and forth from customers’ homes. DirecTV decided to get a piece of that very profitable action, and bought an existing alarm company, LifeShield Home Security. [More]
Whole Foods Says Employees Were Not Suspended For Speaking Spanish At Work
By June 7, 2013
Whole Foods is quickly working to smooth over a recent controversy over its policy on speaking languages other than English on the job. Two employees at New Mexico store claimed their pay was docked for speaking to each other in Spanish while on breaks, but Whole Foods says they were reprimanded for rude behavior, not for Spanish. [More]
Facebook Finally Ditching Those “Sponsored Stories” We All Love So Very Much
By June 7, 2013
Remember all that brouhaha over Facebook’s “Sponsored Stories,” the ads that are supposed to be cleverly disguised as simple recommendations from friends? We kind of can’t believe it’s taken this long for Facebook to realize that users are onto their little ruse, but the social network announced yesterday that it’s ditching the ads in favor of a brand new approach toward advertising. [More]
OnTrac Claims They Delivered Another Phantom Package
By June 6, 2013
Our readers generally love Amazon Prime, but complain about the regional delivery services that Amazon contracts with in some areas in order to make that fabulous free two-day delivery possible. Carriers that include Ontrac and Ensenda seem to get the job done okay most of the time. When things go wrong, though, customers who had the wacky assumption that “out for delivery” meant their packages would actually be delivered get upset. [More]
You Should Probably Check Your Facebook Privacy Settings Right Now
By June 6, 2013
If you’re like most Consumerist readers, you’re probably Internet-savvy enough to carefully screen what you say on Facebook, and to use filters when you have something more colorful and interesting to post. Now that everyone from your grandmother to your niece’s cat are on using Facebook, though, everyone could use a reminder of how to set up your privacy settings, how to change who sees a given post, and how to make sure those settings are still arranged how you want them. [More]
Sacramento Airport Car Rental Counters Charged Extra .5% Sales Tax For 2 Months
By June 6, 2013
Half of one percent is a very small amount, to state the extremely obvious. It can make a big difference in an annual budget, though, for a city that raises sales tax rates by half a percent. That’s fine, as long as merchants don’t do anything silly like charge higher city tax rates outside of the city limits. Like, for example, the car rental counters at the airport in Sacramento, California. [More]
Reminder: Know What You’re Getting Into With Gray-Market Electronics
By June 5, 2013
Ruby bought the international version of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. She thought it was great…right until it abruptly died. Samsung tech support wouldn’t help her, so she sent a plea to the mailbox of Samsung USA president Y.K. Kim. The office of the president couldn’t support a product that Samsung USA didn’t sell, either. [More]
eBay Gets Literal With Window Shopping In The Form Of Touchscreen Storefronts
By June 5, 2013
The thing about the phrase “window shopping” as we know it, is it really should be called “window browsing.” Because unless you’re in the market for new fenestration, you’re not really window shopping. But now eBay is making that literal move to turn the term into a truthy one, with virtual stores called “shoppable windows at storefronts in New York City. [More]
Net10 Cuts Off My Access, Won’t Pick Up The Phone
By June 5, 2013
Andrew is worried about his mobile carrier, Net10. He was very happy with the company’s “bring your own device” service on AT&T’s network until he learned that he wasn’t able to send picture messages. Well, no problem: tech support should be able to resolve that easily. Right? [More]
What If Blackberry Customer Service Ran Other Things?
By June 5, 2013
Alex uses a Blackberry Bold, and isn’t very happy with Blackberry right now. He was just minding his own business when the phone decided to over-the-air update itself, the update failed, and his phone just went ahead and wiped itself. When he called to complain, he says Blackberry virtually shrugged and told him that he should have uninstalled the app that caused the update problems. Even though it was an app that shipped with the phone. Alex wondered: what if other businesses ran things the same way? [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Branch Out, Visit 7-Eleven And Barnes & Noble
By June 5, 2013
The retail archaeologists known as the Raiders of the Lost Walmart tirelessly search the world’s retail outlets for the finest and longest-buried antiquities. What kind of ancient wonders did they turn up this week? Well, good news if you’re a time-traveling hockey scout. [More]
Domino’s Would Have Us Believe It’s Working On Pizza Delivery Drones — The DomiCopter
By June 5, 2013
Is this the world we live in now? Fast food chains spitting out PR stunts like hands-free Whopper holders just to get our atten– oh my gosh, what? A pizza delivery drone? That’s gotta be real, right? Maybe not? In any case, darnit, we’ve fallen for it yet again with Domino’s new “DomiCopter,” capable of delivering two pizzas at a time via unmanned aircraft. [More]
Verizon Store Still Won’t Sell Me A Smartphone Without A Contract
By June 4, 2013
Greg recently fought a new battle in his ongoing war with Verizon. His war is in defense of a noble goal: over and over, he just wants to buy a phone for the full retail price without signing a new two-year contract. If this seems like it should be pretty straightforward, you don’t work at a Verizon corporate store. [More]
JCPenney Continues To Modernize Stores, Gradually And Cheaply
By June 4, 2013
JCPenney’s new housewares department is like a colorful oasis of hipness and color plopped in the middle of, well, a JCPenney store. Can it draw the younger and more affluent shoppers that JCPenney needs to survive, now that all of the Hitler teakettles have sold out? [More]
Target Employees Need To Learn Their Own Price-Matching Policy
By June 4, 2013
We don’t want to sit here and lecture Target on how to run its stores, but maybe some people at Jared’s local store could use remedial price-matching policy lessons. Jared wanted them to match an advertised price on something dear to the Consumerist community: cat food. Yes, the store running the sale is Pet Supplies Plus, and the sale price requires a loyalty card, but the card is free. We’re not talking about Costco here. Yet the store refused to budge, even though Target’s written price match policy contradicted what they were saying. [More]
