FTC Applauds Twitter For Signing On With "Do Not Track" Firefox Feature
Twitter is joining the ranks of other websites that allow users to control who is checking out their online doings, announcing today that it is all set to support Do Not Track. For those not in the know, Do Not Track is a feature in Firefox that allows Internet surfers to tell participating websites that they don't want their activity tracked.
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People Tweet Stupid Things To Companies
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.
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Twitter's Decision To Block Content In Specific Countries Sparks Protests From Users
Twitter announced yesterday that they'll be enforcing a new policy that will allow for reactive blocking of content on a country-by-country basis, and already today some users are vowing to stop using the social media site on Saturday in protest.
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If You Think Suze Orman's Prepaid Debit Card Is A Bad Idea, You're An 'Idiot'
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.
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Best Buy Manager Dismisses Best Buy Twitter Customer Service, Says "It Could Be Anybody"
Consumerist reader Jonathan recently received a box set of CDs from his brother for Christmas. Unfortunately, one of the CDs that was supposed to be in the box was nowhere to be found. Compounding the problem, his brother had lost the receipt. Oh, and did we mention he made the mistake of buying the box set at Best Buy?
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Steps To Stop Social Media From Sucking Away All Your Time
Not that this has happened to us, but our friends say that they've found themselves wasting away entire days at work not having accomplished much of anything other than getting sucked into an endless vortex of status updates, instant messages and YouTube videos. Social media is a powerful tool that can actually increase your efficiency, but it can also dominate those who lack the discipline to compartmentalize it.
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Spirit Airlines Fined $50K For Misleading Tweets
The Dept. of Transportation rules about airfare transparency don't just apply to carriers' websites and ads, but also to their Twitter feed. Just ask Spirit Airlines, which was slapped with a $50,000 fine for Tweets touting its $9 airfares.
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After Struggle, Salman Rushdie Gets Facebook To Let Him Use His Own Name
Facebook can be quite the stickler when it comes to enforcing its real name policy. Celebrity writer Salman Rushdie took to Twitter complaining that Facebook deactivated his account because it thought it was a fake. After he proved his identity, the powers that be reactivated his page in his given name, Ahmed. Only after taking his problem public via Twitter did he get Facebook to back down and let him use Salman.
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Introduce Yourself To The Internet Without Embarrassment
Even more than in real life, snap judgments people make about one another online forever shape the way they see one another. A one or two-sentence bio you post about yourself on Twitter or elsewhere can make you seem intriguing, irritating or boring. And the latter two groups probably always assume they fall into the former.
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'Hunger Games' Viral Site Requires You To Give Marketers Control Of Your Facebook Or Twitter Account
The Hunger Games is a wildly popular series of books about a dystopian future where the government spies on your every move and teenagers square off in a to-the-death tournament for the amusement of the upper-class residents of the capitol city. The books are soon to become a big-time Hollywood franchise and as part of the much-hyped countdown to that release, millions of people are getting in on the viral marketing by logging onto a website that creates a unique badge for each user. But are these people looking at the permissions they're signing away when they log in?
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Twitter Will Give You Advertweets From Accounts You Don't Follow
Corporations get to tweet all day at customers who follow them on Twitter, but have had trouble reaching those who don't sign up to be spammed by their 140-character offers. Twitter has solved the problem by pledging to push ad-generated tweets to accounts that don't follow the advertiser, targeting users based on an "interest graph" generated from the list of accounts they do follow.
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If You Followed @Irene On Twitter, You Reached An Ad Agency
If you're one of the 11,000 people who decided to follow @Irene on Twitter to keep up with hurricane news, you may want to unfollow, now that the account has reverted to its pre-hurricane status as an "agency soapbox" for a product strategist (named Irene, of course) at marketing agency Huge Inc.
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Insulting Restaurant Staff On Twitter While You're Still In The Restaurant Might Get You Kicked Out Of Restaurant
Think of this as the counter-point to the earlier
Twitter-related post. A diner at a Houston restaurant was given the boot after she decided to Tweet her opinion of the staff while she was still at the eatery.
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Pizza Place Learns To Not Call Customer "Dumbass" On Twitter
There are some very good reasons why many traditional publicists hate Twitter and other social media outlets that give businesses unfettered access to immediately address their customers. Because it's amazing how quickly you can anger your entire customer base in 140 or fewer characters.
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Rapper May Face Arrest After Tweeting Sheriff's Station Phone Number
Rap artist The Game pulled a Twitter prank Friday by posting the Compton sheriff's station phone number, encouraging his 580,000 followers to call the department if they wanted to apply for an internship. The station was bombarded with hundreds of phone calls for hours, and is now working on an official complaint it will file with prosecutors. Potential charges are "annoying or harassing phone calls via electronic device or the Internet whether or not a conversation ensues, delaying or obstructing a peace officer in the performance of their duties, and disrupting or impeding communication over a public safety radio frequency."
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Twitter Pushes Ad-Generated Tweets To Tops Of Feeds
In an effort to give sponsors more bang for their buck while somewhat disregarding the needs of its users, Twitter has started to push sponsored tweets up to the tops of feeds. The 140-characters-or-less ads only show up in feeds that you follow, scroll down in the normal way as newer Tweets appear and can be deleted with a click.
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Eating Mini-Donuts Is Like Child Murder, Tweets Entenmann's
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.
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FTC Investigates Twitter For The Way It Deals With Third-Party App Makers
Twitter has found itself in the Federal Trade Commission's cross hairs once again, this time over its treatment of companies that develop applications for the service. In March, Twitter
settled with the FTC following an investigation of privacy violation allegations.
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Twitter Faces "Super-Injunction" Challenge Over User Privacy
Thousands of Twitter users have posted comments about a rumored affair between a British soccer player and a reality-TV star, and have included the athlete's name, despite a British law that allows individuals to get a "super-injunction" blocking publication of their name. The player has now used that injunction to get a court order demanding that Twitter reveal the account information of users who've posted his name.
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Report: Twitter Takes TweetDeck Under Its Wing For $40-$50 Million
Twitter has apparently won the bidding war for TweetDeck, an app available on computers and smartphones that allows users more control over their Twitter accounts. The rising social networking giant will have to dip deep into its pockets to swallow up the supplementary service, paying between $40 million and $50 million, according to a report.
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DHS Ditches Color-Coded Terror Alert System, Joins The Facebook & Twitter Crowd
I know all of you have gotten used to checking to see if it was an orange, yellow, or red day according to the Department of Homeland Security's color-coded terror alert system. But now that's all gone, and you can check Facebook or Twitter to see whether or not the world is going to blow up today.
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Seattle Mariners Beer Guy Now Taking Orders Over Twitter
After five seasons of scaling the steps of Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners baseball team, selling beers to fans in their seats, one suds vendor is giving customers the chance to notify him directly of their beer needs via Twitter.
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NY Times Asks Twitter To Take Down Paywall-Subverting Account
As The New York Times puts the finishing touches on a
metered paywall system that goes up March 28, cheapskate devotees of the news source are finding workarounds that will allow them to continue to read the paper for free, even after they've surpassed their allotted 20 stories per month.
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Twitter: Google Isn't Trying To Buy Us For $10 Billion
It was recently reported that Google is
in the market to buy Twitter and that the price tag floating around for the company was somewhere in the $8-10 billion range. But today, Twitter's CEO denied those reports — sort of.
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Is Twitter Worth $10 Billion?
A lot of people expressed surprise at the
$315 million purchase of Huffington Post by AOL. But that's nothing compared to the figures Facebook and Google are reportedly considering ponying up to acquire Twitter.
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Tweeting Disney's President Over Missed BOGO Nets Free Gift Card
Jonathan was at first stoked to get two Oswald the Lucky Rabbit plushies for $28, usually $16.50 each. He was going to give one to his sister and keep the other one. Then a week later buyer's remorse struck like a piano dropped from 30 stories above, squashing his hopes into the size of a quarter. There was a new deal - buy one get one free! So he reached out and Tweeted someone, Disney Store President Jim Fielding.
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Kenneth Cole Thinks Egyptian Turmoil Is Hilarious Way To Sell Clothes
When you think of Kenneth Cole, you probably don't associate the apparel brand with edgy, topical humor. And you probably won't ever again, after the company stuck its shiny leather shoe in its mouth with a Tweet referencing the current political upheaval in Egypt.
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What It Costs To Whore Out Celebrities On Twitter
If you're a deep-pocketed advertiser who thinks all your product needs to get over the top is some Twitter love from Marlon Wayans, Khloe Kardashian or Lindsay Lohan, pull out your checkbook, because you're just a payment away from making it happen.
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FCC Tweets Baseball Updates To Blacked Out Cablevision Customers
While some lawmakers are calling for the
FCC to intervene in the Cablevision/Fox
pissing match over carriage fees, the FCC made some attempt last night to keep blacked-out Phillies fans informed.
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Twitter Closes Up Loophole That Sent Unwitting Users To Potentially Dangerous Sites
Twitter patched up a security gap that sent users to other sites when they moved their mouse cursors over links. Using a JavaScript function called onMouseOver, spammy marketers drew in unwitting customers to their sites without them having to click.
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Twitter Makeover Lets You Embed Pics, Videos On Site
A Twitter redesign that's rolling out incrementally alters the layout and lets users post pictures and videos directly on the site rather than just link to them.
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Coffee Shop Owner Uses Twitter To Ban Breastfeeding In His Store, Seems Surprised By Reaction
Yesterday, a coffee shop called
The DoubleShot in Tulsa, OK sent out a tweet announcing that breastfeeding was now banned on the premises: "Notice: No breastfeeding at the DoubleShot. Thank you." (The tweet has
since been removed, but a tipster saved it for us.) This set off a torrent of
angry reactions on Twitter, partly because everyone loves to fight about breastfeeding and partly because it's World Breastfeeding Week.
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I Used Twitter To Score Free Concert Tickets And Get Cruel Live Nation Security Guard Fired
Jess took her ailing mom to see an American Idol concert in Massachusetts but was mistreated by employees who were less than willing to accommodate her mom's special needs. The next day she took to Twitter, fired off a couple complaints and spurred Live Nation to make things right.
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Social Media Bigwigs Reveal Advertising Tactics
Back in the day, advertising was supposed to be kinda sneaky — yeah, we knew companies were directing ads at us consumers in an effort to get us to buy stuff, but no one talked about it. Now, social media heavies like Twitter, Zynga (makers of Farmville, Mafia Wars and other time leechers) and LinkedIn are being totally open about their efforts.
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FTC Makes Twitter Promise Not To Mislead Customers About Privacy
Twitter has settled a Federal Trade Commission investigation, which started after a hacker gained access to a number of Twitter accounts (including President Barack Obama's) and sent out fake tweets from those addresses. Under the terms of the settlement, Twitter "will be barred for 20 years from misleading consumers about the extent to which it maintains and protects the security, privacy and confidentiality of nonpublic consumer information." We don't know what happens in year 21.
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Consumers Have More Trust In Companies That Tweet
A new survey shows that
75% of consumers think companies that tweet or post Facebook updates are more deserving of their trust than companies that don't. The CEO of Fleishman-Hillard, which conducted the survey with Harris Interactive, says he thinks it shows that companies need to respond to crises much more openly and quickly than in years past: "Not in a 24-hours news cycle, but in minute-to-minute monitoring."
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Chinese Hack Government Twitter Block To Read Porn Star Tweets
As with many great technological advances, at the forefront of people's desire for unfettered access to the Internet lies... in porn. Just ask the thousands of Chinese web users who have networked together and shared their collective ingenuity in recent weeks, all in the name of accessing the Twitter page of a Japanese porn star.
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Library Of Congress Now Home To Complete Archive Of Inane Tweets
Remember that Tweet you wrote about Tiger Woods that seemed hilarious at the time? Or that night you shared your thoughts on your cousin Bob's lack of personal hygiene? Good news — all of the world's most trivial 140-character-or-less Tweets will soon be housed forever in the Library of Congress.
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Twitter Begins Rolling Out Advertiser-Sponsored Tweets Today
One of the last bastions of ad-free Internet space is about to disappear. Twitter has confirmed that starting today, they are rolling out an official ad program they call "Promoted Tweets."
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How Safe Is Your Facebook Info From The Feds?
Newly released documents under the Freedom of Information Act reveal not just the Justice Department's guidelines for how to use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter for investigative purposes, but which ones are the most friendly to their requests for access to user info.
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Yahoo And Twitter Announce Unholy Alliance Of Social Networking
Perhaps as a response to Google's monumentally successful launch (at least in terms of irritating Gmail users) of Google Buzz, Yahoo announced on Tuesday that they have entered into a partnership of sorts with social networking biggie Twitter, apparently in an attempt to bring Yahoo up to speed with the rest of the Internet.
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PleaseRobMe.com Lets The World Know No One's Home
The history of online social networking is rife with faux pas. From celebrities trolling hookup sites to people being fired for thinking they could blab about their boss on Facebook with impunity, there are countless tales of Internet lessons learned the hard way. And an ingenious — and some say dangerous — new site is out to demonstrate just how easy it is to find out when you're away from your home so people can steal your stuff.
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Now Your Dog Can Post Mindless Drivel To Twitter, Too
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.
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3 Essential Twitter-Enhancing Sites
This week I've stumbled upon three sites that made
Twitter a heck of a lot more usable. These add-ons, which require you to log in with your Twitter username and password, have boosted my virtual self-esteem with compliments on my Twitter style. They've allowed me to vengefully un-follow dozens of Twits who had either given up on the ADHD social networking service. And they've liberated me from tricky oppressors I'd been following only out of mistaken loyalty, assuming they were following me.
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Kill Off Your Online Identities With The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine
Supposedly the
most depressing day of the year is just a few weeks away, and that sucks. But if you off yourself, you can't drink, so it's a conundrum. What you
can do is
use the website suicidemachine.org to remove yourself from unnecessary social media sites that either you've stopped using or don't really enjoy anymore.
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Do Not Use "Twitter" As Your Twitter Password
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."
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Now Report Spammers On Twitter With A Single Click
—>It used to be that when you were followed by a spammer on Twitter, you had to go report them by sending a direct message to Twitter's official spam account. Now they've updated their reporting system, so all it takes is a single click. Have fun turning in the bots! More »
Great, Your Doctor Is Talking About You On Facebook
—>Apparently the new generation of med students aren't as concerned as you might like them to be about sharing your medical information on Facebook or Twitter, says Time. More »
10 Extinct Twitter-Types Thanks To New Terms Of Service
—>Instead of cranking out cumbersome terms of service Magna Cartas that only lawyers will actually read, Twitter should follow the lead of Mashable and just come out and say what types of users it's attempting to get rid of. More »
New Terms Of Service For Twitter
—>Twitter has just posted new terms of service clarifying a few points that have come up now that the service is popular and stuff. They've changed the terms to clarify a few points, such as advertising (they retain the right to advertise) ownership (you own your tweets) and rebroadcast (they can retweet you far and wide.) [Twitter Blog] More »
Funai Knows TV Broke Under Warranty, Hopes You Go Away
Back in February, Funai put a Consumerist reader
on hold for two and a half hours before telling him that there was nothing they could do about selling him the entirely wrong DTV converter box. Now Funai has decided to head those long hold times off at the pass, and their warranty division has stopped answering the phone entirely.
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Logitech Replaces Mouse Under Warranty When Tweeted At
—>Everyone is tired of hearing about Twitter. It's not the newest and shiniest communications tool anymore, and stories about its effectiveness in customer service aren't novel anymore. Reader Ryan is tired of hearing about Twitter, but he shared a story with Consumerist about how Logitech only replaced his mouse under warranty after he tweeted at them. More »
Tenant Sued After Using Twitter To Complain About Moldy Apartment
—>If the the puiblic didn't read Amanda Bonnen's Twitter feed before, they will now, thanks to a defamation lawsuit brought against her by Horizon Group Management in Chicago. More »
Complaining Via Twitter Works When Comfort Inn Won't Listen
—>Kristy and her husband were dissatisfied with their recent Comfort Inn stay while on vacation in southern Utah. The hotel manager resolved their cleanliness concerns, but then threatened to revoke their discount if they complained to corporate. Kristy tried to get her message across to the people in charge through the usual channels, and it seemed that nobody wanted to listen, Finally, she posted about the situation on Twitter and got the resolution she was looking for. More »
Best tweet of the day: "my bank was just held up- with me in it. HSBC 34 and 8. also my whole trackball is GONE!!! im locked in the bank still." [Gothamist] (Thanks to John!) More »
Usually, to follow someone on Twitter, you click "Follow." So why does Walmart have a 3,379-word terms of use specifically for their Twitter accounts posted on the company Web site? Seriously, we're asking, because no one has any idea. [BoingBoing] More »
Dave Carroll's "United Breaks Guitars" song and video EECB appears to be having the desired effect. Check out this tweet from United. [Twitter] (Thanks to Chris!) Update: Dave Carroll responds. More »
No, You Can't Get Rich Quick Via Twitter
—>The Better Business Bureau warns job-hunters and other money-seekers that no, you can't earn massive amounts of money through secretive Twitter tricks. More »
Free Food From Pizza Hut Via Twitter And Facebook
—>The new Pizza Hut social media intern has her first assignment, and it's to give out codes for free stuffed pizza rolls to the company's followers on Twitter and Facebook. Let's hope they've planned ahead better than KFC did. [Mashable] (Thanks, David!) More »
Furniture Store Habitat Caught Exploiting Iran Via Twitter
—>BBC News reports that the furniture chain Habitat is very, very sorry for using keywords such as "Iran" and "Mousavi" to drive sales via Twitter. The tweets were posted last week and have since been removed, but in case you missed the poetry of this particular brand of badvertising, here's one sample: #MOUSAVI Join the database for free to win a £1,000 gift card! More »
How To Use Twitter To Get A Company To Solve Your Problem
—>Here's a new trick for getting satisfaction from a reluctant company, using Twitter. We can call this one "tweet to power." More »
At Ease, Facebook, Twitter: Soldiers Can Access You On Base Now — MySpace? Not So Much
—>The Army's network administrators have stopped blocking base access to social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, as well as personal e-mail accounts, Wired reports. More »
Reach DirecTV On Twitter
—>DirecTV is on Twitter. Tell them your problems, or how awesome they are. Whichever comes to mind first. More »
Xbox 360 To Get Facebook And Twitter, Still Breaks
—>Good news for gamers, bad news for anyone who count the pixel-obsessed among their social media friends: This Fall Microsoft will bring Facebook and Twitter applications to the Xbox 360, allowing gamers to more easily stalk acquaintances from their couches and brag about their gaming accomplishments. Gaming blog Joystiq covered the announcement, which came at Microsoft's Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference in Los Angeles Monday: More »
Want to learn more about the Obama administration's new cybersecurity plans? @JeffreyFox of Consumer Reports is live-tweeting the press conference now. [Twitter] More »
Here Are 30 Money Saving Twitterers To Follow
—>Savings.com has put together a list of 30 of the most followed people on Twitter who offer tips on good deals. Of course, savings.com readers have already started adding alternates in the comments below the list. Feel free to make your own suggestions after the jump. More »
Boston Police Department: We Will Let You Know When The Zombies Come
—>The first surprising part of this story is that the Boston Police Department has a Twitter feed. They use it to post breaking police-type information that's useful to the public, such as roads closed due to car accidents, crime data, big arrests, etc. Sometimes they also reply to reader questions. And that is how TruTV learned that the Boston police will not hide the zombie invasion from the public. More »
Twitter Says No To Ads For Now
—>Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and his partners are some cool cats. Facebook tried to buy the company for half a billion and they turned it down. The fledgling social networking service also staved off Google from gobbling it up. More »
Comcast's Twitter Reps Save The Day (Again) From Ineffectual Customer Support
—>Comcast might want to slash the budget on its Live Chat service and devote more resources to Frank and Sherri over on the Twitter side of things. The only good stories we hear about Comcast customer service comes from encounters with them, it seems. More »
Having Problems With Skype Technical Or Customer Service? Use Twitter And, Well, Skype
—>A lot of Consumerist readers use Skype. (I mostly use it to call my cell phone when I can't find it, but I also use SkypeIn for my business line.) Many of said readers, such as George, have technical or billing problems with Skype, but can't get a response out of the Web-based customer support system. What should they do? More »
If You Use Twitter This Month, You Probably Won't Be Back Next Month
—>Oprah has given the world many discoveries: Dr. Phil, books and on April 17, when she devoted an entire show to it, Twitter. More »
El Pollo Loco Says It Will Honor Your Broken KFC Coupons On Mother's Day
—>Bill just emailed us with a link to this tweet from the El Pollo Loco rep on Twitter. Might be worth a shot if you were turned away by your local KFC yesterday and you think a free chicken meal is the perfect way to say "I love you" in motherese. More »
Qwest Has A Twitter Account, Wants To Hear From Customers With Problems
—>Monica, a Qwest representative, sent us an official declaration regarding yesterday's post; she says that Qwest absolutely does not do any throttling. She also points out that if you have problems you can't get resolved, try the Twitter route. Their official page is http://twitter.com/talktoqwest. More »
Follow (Most of) Your Favorite Consumerist Editors On Twitter Aside from Carey, who uses Tumblr because he's cool, you can find all your favorite Consumerist nerds, as well as the blog itself, on Twitter. More »
Blue Cross Blue Shields On Twitter
—>A few Blue Cross Blue Shield divisions recently started Twittering, talking about health issues, saying nice things about their company and proactively reaching out to patients complaining about their services: @BCBSIL, @BCBSNM, @BCBSTX, @BCBSOK. More »
Here's why you don't rely solely on Twitter for news about health scares. [xkcd] (Thanks to Rebecca!) More »
Helpful Service from Wachovia via Twitter
—>Reader Mike wrote to us about a problem he was experiencing with Wachovia (now part of Wells Fargo, but apparently keeping its own identity.) A day later, he he wrote back, informing us that the problem had resolved itself via Wachovia's Twitter account. (Customers, take note: that's http://twitter.com/Wachovia.) More »
Why Is Comcast Charging Spanish-Speaking Customers The Same Price For Slower Service?
—>UPDATE: We're bad at Spanish. See below. We came across a Twitter user who, while browsing Comcast's internet prices, discovered that the Spanish-language version of the site offers reduced speeds at the same prices as the higher speeds seen on the English version of the site. What the hell? More »
FiOS Installer Drills Through Wife's Wedding Dress
—>A Verizon FiOS installer showed up yesterday to install the service in Sam's house, but misjudged the location of the laundry room by 4 feet and drilled directly into the closet where his wife kept her wedding dress. More »
Amazon Apologizes For "Ham-Fisted" Catalog Error
—>Was it a hacker? Probably not. Was it a translation error? Who knows. Here's the official #Amazonfail apology email (again) for your reading pleasure. It is, apparently, the final word on the matter. More »
Former Employee Says AmazonFail Caused By The French (Well, By One Of Them At Least)
—>Mike Daisey, the monologist and former employee at Amazon.com, told the Seattle PI that the weekend's gay and feminist book fiasco was actually caused by an employee at Amazon.fr who confused the term "adult"—which refers to porn stuff in Amazon's system—with "erotic" and "sexuality." That sharp-toothed troll who claimed all the credit is going to be pretty miffed to find out about this. More »
TweetCongress Lets You Succinctly Shout At Your Congresspeople Online
—>Missouri Senator and prolific Twitterer Claire McCaskill called our attention to TweetCongress which lets you look up your representative and senators and talk to them. More »
Twittering With DISH Scores Free Local HD Channels
—>Like anything that's cool and people use to organically connect to one another, companies have rushed into Twittering. To take advantage of this, reader Justin says he's started following all the companies he gets service from on Twitter. When he saw @dishnetwork tweet about an area getting local HD channels, he asked in reply when Cincinnati would get them. @dishnetwork replied back that Cincinnati should have them and asked for his account for so they could check into it. Turned out he needed a different Dish and the rep agreed to have it installed at no cost instead of the usual $60. "The tech showed up this morning, and I have local HD channels for free," writes Justin. "I'm finding tracking companies on Twitter is useful because they people monitoring the accounts are ones who can actually do something." More »
How To Delete Your Online Accounts
—>PC Mag has assembled a list of instructions on how to wipe your account from a long list of websites, including Classmates.com (you'll have to call), Windows Live ID (it's complicated), and Friendster (ha ha ha). In many cases, canceling is as straightforward as clicking a link and authorizing the cancellation, but it's nice to see all the phone numbers and tips collected in one spot. More »
A Day In The Life Of Comcast's Frank Eliason
—>Ever wonder what it's like to be Comcast's resident Twitter wizard, Frank Eliason, for a day? BusinessWeek did, so they sent a reporter to watch Frank, described as a "maverick," spend a day responding to scorned customers. More »
UPS Gets A Twitter Monitor To Solve Your Problems
—>Looks like UPS has set a guy on Twitter to search for complaints and offer help as well as act as customer service ombudsman. If that package just never seems to be coming or you'd like the guy to just stop playing skeeball with it on your front porch, and regular customer service isn't of help, Thomas looks like your guy. In addition to being a web-dude at UPS, he's been blogging since '99 and founded a theater company in '06. Sounds like a cool cat to me. You need a real human being non-drone your face-fronting Twitter presence. He's ThomasAtUPS on Twitter. More »
The Place to Go For BofA Justice: Twitter
—>Reader Alex was at his wits end with Bank of America and their ever-present rate changing. After using every other resource, he turned to BofA's Twitter, and actually got some resolution. Full letter inside. More »
H&R Block now has a Twitter account. You can send your problems/mundane wisps of reality their way via @hrblock . More »
Twitter genius from badbanana: "They should make a Matlock reunion special where the plot fully explains the upcoming digital TV transition." [via BestAt] More »
Bank Of America On Twitter Solving Readers' Problems
—>Several readers have reported getting their problems solved after contacting Bank of America's new Twitter-based rep. Here are their stories... More »
Reach BoA Customer Service On Twitter
—>Bank of America is now on Twitter, user "BofA_help." They have a pretty boy named David Knapp who is here to solve your problems and answer your questions about Bank of America. He seems to be both handling inbound requests and scanning for people on Twitter with BofA problems and reaching out to them. Certainly faster than sending Ken Lewis a letter. (Thanks to Brandon Savage!) More »
Retail Management Re-defines Holiday $pirit
—>I'm sure many Consumerist readers either currently or previously had to work as a part-time wage-slave. Now that the holidays are over, what are the 'best' sickening sales creeds that management has ever given you? More »
Comcast Loves You So Much They Keep Billing You... 4 Months After You Canceled
—>Oh Comcast, you romantic. You were so sorry to see Michal leave that you pretended he didn't. We get it: he bikes, he blogs, he helps toddlers learn Polish. But after four months of him repeatedly asking you to stop billing him, when you still won't stop it begins to look a little stalker-ish. Your computers can't always be down. More »
Desperate Atlantans Use Twitter To Find Gas
—>There's a gas shortage in Atlanta, GA, so consumers are using Twitter to help each other find gas. They're tagging their posts #atlgas whenever they spot some and letting others know the price and location, as well as tossing out requests for information. The tag was created by Tessa Horehled who writes the DriveAFasterCar blog. More »
Comcast Admits Error In Requiring SSN Under "Patriot Act"
—>Comcast's customer service czar Frank responded to our post "Comcast: "The Patriot Act" Mandates We Need Your SSN" by saying it was an error on part of the agent. Via Twitter he said: More »
Comcast Frank Is Real And We Have Photographic Proof From The New York Times
—>Comcast's Twitter-jockey has his own New York Times story. Awww. We love Frank, even though we probably make his life really crappy by posting lots of Comcast complaints. Oh well! Sorry, Frank. More »
Comcast Threatens You With Termination Because You Use Too Much Internet
—>Dave Winer uses a lot of internet. Too much, it seems, for Comcast's tastes. They shut his connection down because he was clogging up the pipes. More »
Comcast Monitors Twitter For Angry Customers?
—>The brass at Comcast are keeping an eye on Twitter, according to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch. He spewed some bile about Comcast via Twitter and got an immediate response from their internet damage control team. More »
