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• Posted Revolutionary New Apple Service Bills Your AMEX Card For Nearly $50,000 In Music to The Consumerist
  I think we can all agree that Jobs and his crew at Apple are a bunch of visionaries when it comes to gadgets, online stores, and now getting really, really screwed by an iTunes purchase. Joel writes, "I just got a call from American Express stating that my recent purchase for iTunes plus for my entire library (cost $146) has been charged to my account over 300 times and is currently still being charged. I have called Apple to have them stop charging me and they told me the only thing I can do is cancel my card. There is...
• Posted Family Heirloom Wedding Bands Enter Kay Jeweler, Are Never Seen Again to The Consumerist
  Mistakes happen, and apparently there was a hole in the UPS box and all the rings fell out. No really, that's what this customer's wife was told when she asked for an explanation of where their rings were. Now the customer says Kay Jewelers won't give him any other information, or even show him photos of the rings after they were sent to the warehouse. They'll replace them with jewelry up to $500, but nothing higher, and if he wants to find out anything else he'll have to lawyer up. Here's his story. My wife and I and I live...
• Posted Ohio Strip Club Raises Money For Haiti to The Consumerist
  If you visited the strip club Marilyn's on Monroe in Toledo, Ohio, last weekend and paid the cover charge for their "Lap dances for Haiti" evening, congratulations, you helped the club raise nearly $1,000 for a local charity that's trying to send a container of relief supplies to Haiti. Oddly--as you already know if you attended--there were no actual lap dances because they're illegal in Ohio. The local charity says they need $5,000 to send the supplies, but luckily two other area strip clubs are staging their own fundraisers later this month. "Toledo strip club puts cover charge into quake...
• Posted Generation 2 Cribs Recalled After 3 Deaths to The Consumerist
  The Generation 2 crib, which was sold by ChildDESIGNS until the company folded in 2005, is being recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) after reports of three infant deaths and 28 other safety incidents. Usually in a recall like this, the manufacturer offers to send out repair kits or replacement parts, but as the manufacturer no longer exists the CPSC is urging consumers to stop using the crib for good, effective immediately. But that doesn't necessarily mean you're out the $60-160 dollars that it cost. The CPSC says you should contact the store where you bought the crib,...
• Posted Why People Stop Using Credit Cards to The Consumerist
  In yesterday's Money section, USA Today talked to some consumers who refuse to carry credit cards, and looked at the hidden costs. One 24-year-old says they make her uncomfortable; a guy working at a gas station to pay for college says he doesn't want to get accosted by endless junk mailings once his name enters the pool of potential customers. Then there's the bankruptcy lawyer who canceled his cards on principle 8 years ago, after seeing how lenders behaved when their customers suffered financial setbacks: "Any time there's even a hint of a financial issue in the consumer's life, the...
• Posted American Airlines To Charge $8 For Blanket And Pillow, If You're Lucky to The Consumerist
  Starting in May, American Airlines will sell blanket-and-inflatable-pillow packs for $8 each on domestic flights longer than 2 hours. If your flight is under 2 hours and you tend to get cold on a plane, relax: you can't shiver to death in under 2 hours, and by then you'll be at your destination. Or, okay, still on the runway at your departure spot, raiding your carry-on for snacks. You might want to bring a light jacket. The AA blanket and pillow come with a Bed Bath & Beyond coupon good for $10 off any purchase over $30. By comparison, discount...
• Posted Jack In The Box's Free Wi-Fi Experiment Ended. Did Anyone Notice? to The Consumerist
  Knowzy.com, the website that's been tracking which Jack in the Box stores were offering free Wi-Fi, reports that the restaurant chain has pulled the plug. The Wi-Fi offer came with the installation of HDTVs that displayed ads in the dining area, but those are gone too: "In mid-2009, the TVs and the Wi-Fi began disappearing. By the time McDonald's made their free Wi-Fi announcement in December, Jack had completely dismantled his Wi-Fi network." Knowzy says it spoke with a Jack in the Box employee who said the chain really was after the HDTVs, and the Wi-Fi was just an added...
• Posted Morning Deals to The Consumerist
  Clothing
  • Hand Held Items: [Clothing] LED Sound Activated Fire Skull T-Shirt $12.99
  • Old Navy : [Apparel] $5 Off $25 Purchase w/ Printable Coupon
  • 6pm.com: [Shoes & Clothing] Save 50% to 75% off All Puma Shoes & Clothing
  
  
  • Amazon: [Jeans] Men's & Women's Levi's Jeans from $30 Shipped
  • Graveyard Mall: [Sunglasses] 10 Pairs of Men's or Women's Sunglasses for $10 + $6 s&h
  • Amazon: [Footwear] 25% off Gold Toe Socks
• Posted State Investigators Find All Sorts Of Dirty Tricks At Mercury Insurance to The Consumerist
  This summer Californians will be able to vote on Proposition 17, which if passed will allow insurers to bypass some legal restrictions on how much they can charge for auto insurance. Mercury Insurance Group is a big proponent of the proposition, but maybe that's because it's been possibly sidestepping the law in recent years anyway. Hey, making it legal will just prevent another state report like the one Carla Marinucci at the San Francisco Chronicle obtained, which contains findings that Mercury "has engaged in practices that may be illegal, including deceptive pricing and discrimination against consumers such as active members...
• Posted Septuagenarian Couple Scammed Inns And Hotels For Four Years to The Consumerist
  The next time you stay at a bed and breakfast and you see a kindly old couple lingering in the common room after breakfast, be suspicious! The Wolffs have been scamming inns, hotels, rented homes, and bed & breakfasts since 2005, reports the Boston Globe. They offer to pay via check, and until recently--when they stayed in one place so long that they were still around when the check bounced--nobody ever thought they might be pulling a fast one. They're due in court this month for defrauding several inns over the past summer. "The Wolffs at the door" [Boston.com]...
• Posted Microsoft Investigating Why Songs Are Disappearing From Zune Pass to The Consumerist
  If record labels decided to pull some of their songs from the Zune Pass service in the past couple of weeks, they did a poor job telling Microsoft about it. The company seems to be as in the dark as Zune Pass subscribers about why songs, albums, or entire discographies have gone missing. Ars technica reports that a Microsoft employee wrote on a Zune forum, "We are investigating your reported missing albums indicated in this post—and will come back to you as soon as we understand why they're missing." "Microsoft investigating disappearing music from Zune Pass" [Ars Technica]...
• Posted Looking For A New Snack? Try Taquitos.net to The Consumerist
  The Daily Beast has published a short profile of Jeremy Selwyn, a web developer in Massachusetts who runs the snack food review website Taquitos.net. Selwyn started the site about ten years ago, and now he has nearly 4.5 thousand different entries on various chips, candies, pretzels, and whatever else can be combined with salt and flavored powder. Naturally I immediately checked out the "Worst Chips Ever" section, which includes an awful lot of sea creature flavored abominations. Apparently sour cream and clam isn't a good idea for a chip. "The Snack Critic" [The Daily Beast]...
• Posted Whistleblower Nurse On Trial For Reporting Doctor To State Board to The Consumerist
  Knowing about this crazy trial that starts today in Texas won't directly help you find a better doctor or get better health care, but it might give you some insight into why it's important to protect whistleblowers from people in power. In this case, a nurse in a small West Texas town is being prosecuted for "misuse of official information" and faces up to 10 years in prison, writes Kevin Sack at the New York Times, because she reported a doctor to the Texas Medical Board after feeling the hospital was too slow to take action. The nurse, Anne Mitchell,...
• Posted Quick, Someone Develop Adblock For Online TV Commercials to The Consumerist
  The ratings company Nielsen--the company you can blame for bad stunt-casting and stupid plot devices during sweeps week--is going to start rolling in data from online viewings of commercials this fall, which means networks will start using online viewing stats to help sell ads this time next year. What this means: if a network uses the new Nielsen rating system, "shows seen online will have to have the same group of commercials that run on TV," reports AdAge. Nielsen told AdAge that this method of measuring commercials is only one of several solutions it plans to offer. However, the article...
• Posted Morning Deals to The Consumerist
  Clothing
  • eBags : [Apparel] 25% Off One Item w/ Coupon EMRM72HOUR
  • Original Penguin: [Clothing] Save Extra 40% off All Sale Clothing & More with Coupon
  • Calvin Klein: [Clothing & Accessories] Calvin Klein Clearance: Up to 75% off
• Posted Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds to The Consumerist
  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! (ash™) more lumens please (ash™) (photographynatalia) (photographynatalia) (twoguns) (T.M.Y.) Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers go and upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click "Join Group?" up on the top right, and start hitting "send to group" on your individual photos you want to...
• Posted Judge Censured, Barred For Ordering Lawyer To Be Paid In Gift Certificates to The Consumerist
  A judicial commission for California judges censured and barred the recently retired judge Brett C. Klein for showing bias, abusing authority, and grandstanding to the press. At issue was his January 2009 alteration of a class action settlement, where he ordered everyone, including the attorneys, to be paid the same way: via $10 gift vouchers from a woman's clothing store. The suit was filed by a California woman against Windsor Fashions because the store demanded ID from customers who paid with a credit card. The store settled in November 2008, and agreed to pay the attorneys $125,000 and the woman...
• Posted Morning Deals to The Consumerist
  Clothing
  • ShopEcko: [Clothing] Ecko Halo 3: ODST Track Jacket $15 or Halo 3 Master Chief Hoodie $19.99
  • Shoes.com : [Shoes] 20% Off Sale & Clearance Purchase + Free Shipping w/ Coupon 20OFFSALE
  • Sierra Trading Post: [Apparel & Housewares] Extra 15% or 20% off Store-Wide Orders of $100+
  
  
  • Figleaves: [Clothing & Accessories] Figleaves Designer Outlet: Up to 70% off apparel, swimsuits, intimates, and more
• Posted Is Google Planning To Add Store Views To Google Maps? to The Consumerist
  A store in New York City called Oh Nuts, which apparently sells nuts and nut-based goods, told the blog Search Engine Land that someone from Google showed up and took a series of photos of the interior as part of an upcoming "Google Store Views" service. Google has officially said no comment, so I guess now it's a waiting game to see if this shows up as an offshoot of Google's street view offering, or if Oh Nuts reports in the next few days that they've had their entire inventory stolen by nut fiends who knew the layout suspiciously well....
• Posted Update On Woman Sent To Jail For Using Gift Cards At Best Buy to The Consumerist
  Last month, New York City's NY1 news channel produced a news segment on the woman who was arrested for paying with AMEX gift cards at a Best Buy. If you read our earlier post with Ilona's email, you already know most of the basics, but you can see the problematic gift cards and hear Ilona describe the experience in her own words. It turns out that after she was released, she went back to Best Buy for either a refund or the DVD player, but had to leave without either one--she was told she'd have to contact American Express to...
• Posted Maybe Homeowners Wouldn't Strategically Default If Lenders Cooperated to The Consumerist
  There's an interesting detail at the end of this New York Times article on borrowers who strategically default--that is, they choose to walk away from the home when its value is significantly less than the mortgage balance. It turns out that the homeowner mentioned at the start of the article applied last fall for a loan modification with Bank of America after his income level had dropped, and this was BofA's response: "The lender came back a few weeks ago with a plan that added more restrictive terms while keeping the payments about the same. 'That may have been the...
• Posted Nine Things That Are Overpriced to The Consumerist
  CNN Money has put together a slideshow (ugh) of nine of "America's biggest rip-offs," and I think we've covered all of them at one point or another on Consumerist. If you're looking for easy ways to plug leaks in your budget, consider these tips: don't send text messages, skip the movie concession stand, buy generic OTC painkillers, don't buy wine at the restaurant, don't pay for "super" gas, and avoid the mini bar and movie rentals at hotels. Oh, and for the love of money, stay away from freecreditreport.com--the only legitimately free service is offered by annualcreditreport.com. The one other...
• Posted Morning Deals to The Consumerist
  Clothing
  • Lids : [Hats] $5 Off $25 Purchase w/ Coupon LIDSFEB5
  • Shoebuy: [Footwear] Extra $5 off Any Order of $30+ when you pay with Google Checkout
  • Eastern Mountain Sports: [Clothing & Accessories] Eastern Mountain Sports: Up to 60% off + free shipping on The North Face items
  
  
  • Amazon: [Apparel] 50% off Quicksilver for Boys
  • JC Penney : [Apparel] $10 Off $50 or $15 Off $75 w/ Coupon DOUGH4U + Printable
  • macys: [Women's Apparel] Macy's Dress Sale: Deals from $12 + $6 s&h
• Posted Man Opens Fire At Farm King Store In Illinois to The Consumerist
  Update: Chicagobreakingnews is reporting that the standoff is over, and the gunman has been found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. No one else was harmed.
   
  Earlier today a man entered a Farm King farm supply store in Macomb, IL, and opened fire, although so far no deaths have been reported. He left five hostages go earlier--two women, two men and a small child, reports the Associated Press--and two other people left the store earlier in the day.
• Posted Here's The Repair Process For Toyota Accelerator Pedals to The Consumerist
  The Providence Journal of Rhode Island filmed a service director at a Toyota dealership fixing an accelerator pedal. If you own one of the recalled models, Consumer Reports' Cars blog recommends that you learn the warning signs of pedal trouble and get to a dealership as soon as possible if you notice any of them. "At Toyota in Warwick, the fix is in and it's not that hard" [projo.com] (Thanks to ElizabethD!) "DOT Secretary retracts advice to stop driving recalled Toyotas" [Consumer Reports]...
• Posted Guy Refuses To Return Insurer's Calls, So Insurer Says It Doesn't Have To Pay For The Car He Hit to The Consumerist
  A woman in Philadelphia says her neighbor just laughs every time he sees her now, because his insurance company refused to pay a claim on her car that he hit. The company told her that the man won't answer his phone, so there's nothing they can do. Update: Right after I posted this, the OP emailed with an update. See the bottom of the post. Here's her email: I live in Philadelphia where there is street parking. One morning, I was taking out the trash and I saw someone trying to parallel park his giant new Ford Expedition directly in...
• Posted Greyhound Kicks Passenger Out Of Bus Station For Complaining To Reporter to The Consumerist
  A Greyhound security guard threatened a stranded passenger in Memphis that if she spoke with a reporter from the local news, he'd kick her out of the bus station. The reporter was there to look at why a group of passengers had been left stranded for 2 to 4 days without any communication from Greyhound, and without any sort of meal or lodging help. When Action News 5 interviewed another stranded passenger, Cynthia Caponey, a security guard threatened to not let her back inside the station, claiming Greyhound "has that right." [...] Despite the security guard's threats, Caponey decided to...
• Posted 12 Ads That Didn't Make It To The Super Bowl to The Consumerist
  If you can't actually manage to get an ad placed during the Super Bowl, the next best thing is to get it rejected by the network so you can make a big deal about it online. The Daily Beast has put together a list of 12 ads that were rejected for a variety of reasons. Well, actually in most cases it comes down to gay stuff, cussing, or sex. One thing you'll notice, though, is that most of the rejected spots aren't very well-made to begin with--I'd be happy if they were banned just for that. "12 Banned Super Bowl...
• Posted Who Keeps Pooping In My Bags Of Salad?! to The Consumerist
  In my household, there's an ongoing argument about whether bagged salad can be eaten straight from the bag, or whether it should be washed first, or why did we buy this bag of salad instead of more beer. When not championing beer, I've always come down on the don't-bother-washing side, but I might finally agree to change my food prep habits after this recent Consumer Reports study that says 39% of bagged salads are contaminated with bacteria. The magazine recently tested 200 samples of pre-washed salad in bags and plastic clamshells, and found 39% of the samples contained coliform bacteria,...
• Posted Morning Deals to The Consumerist
  Clothing
  • Flirtcatalog.com: [Panties] Flirt! Catalog: 30% off 5 pairs of panties, from $18 + $4 s&h, more
  • Payless Shoes : [Shoes] 15% Off Entire Purchase w/ Coupon 30568 + Printable
  • Macy's : [Apparel] 20% Off Entire Purchase w/ Coupon WEARRED + Printable
  
  
  • 6pm.com: [Shoes] 75% off Dr. Scholl's Women's Shoes
  • Amazon: [Accessory] Kenneth Cole New York Men's Automatic Watch #KC1491 $127.94 + free shipping
  • EddieBauer: [Clothing & Accessories] Eddie Bauer Huge Outerwear Sale: Up to 70% off select items

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