Consumerist
Videos
- Insure the full value of your home.
- Remember to separately insure the contents of your home;
- When filing a claim, don't sign any documents that you don't understand.
Consider yourself lucky if you never need to use your insurance; or, as the Today Show put it: "Purchasing flood insurance can be a roll of the dice, but it may just be worth investigating."
The Today Show
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Misunderstandings
What Part Of "Do-Not-Call" Do Skeezy Telemarketers Not Understand?
Meet Bluegreen, a Florida time-share company that regularly skirts the Do-Not-Call Lista by offering a $50,000 raffle. By entering the raffle, unsuspecting consumers give Bluegreen - and over a dozen of their affiliates - permission to contact them, even if they subscribe to the Do-Not-Call List. We explain how this is technically legal, after the jump. More » -
Belated Honesty
AT&T Stops Pretending To Be The Network With The "Fewest Dropped Calls"
AT&T is no longer claiming to be the network with the "fewest dropped calls," according to a company insider. The assertion was widely panned as a lie:
The ad campaign, which launched last March, was based on a Telephia report that actually noted AT&T Wireless (then Cingular) did not have the most reliable network in New York, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles. A recent JD Power report gives that honor to T-Mobile in most markets. Similarly, a report from Consumer Reports placed Cingular/AT&T at the bottom of their rankings for reliability and satisfaction.
AT&T will instead boast that they have: "more bars in more places."AT&T Yanks 'Fewest Dropped Calls' Campaign [DSL Reports]
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success stories
Executive Email Carpet Bomb Also Effective Against Cell Phone Spammers
I want to share a recent experience that involves a cell phone spammer. I would never think I'd be writing to tell you a positive story, but in the light of what happened I think it would be worth sharing. Last week, on 8/16 to be exact, I was spammed with an unsolicited text message to my cell phone. I recall reading a post on Consumerist about the Attorney General for Illinois along with Cingular would be suing a cell phone spammer. I also recall your Executive Email Carpet Bomb postings and decided to try it out.
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Torquemada Spawn
Comcast Tries To Sterilize, Decapitate BitTorrent
Comcast is reportedly stabbing at the heart of the file transfer protocol BitTorrent by preventing users from seeding torrent files. Seeds are completed BitTorrent downloads shared with other users; without seeders, the BitTorrent protocol does not work, much the way a garden can't grow without seeds. Comcast's draconian throttling solution utilizes a program from Sandvine that affects all files distributed through BitTorrent, regardless of whether the shared file is an illegally downloaded movie, or a legal distribution of Linux. From TorrentFreak: The throttling works like this... More » -
Americone Dreams
Stephen Colbert Interviews Michael Jacobson, Executive Director Of The CSPI
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In an attempt to mitigate the negative PR fallout from having one of its planes explode on the tarmac seconds after the last of its passengers scrambled off it, China Airlines painted over the ruined plane's logo. [MSN]
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nonstop flight to the blogosphere
Delta Starts A Blog!
Delta Airlines has started blogging! You should check it out, if only for the excellent comments from Delta's real-life actual customers. More » -
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freedom, sorta
iPhone Unlocked For Use With Other GSM Carriers
Ars Technica is reporting that the iPhone has been unlocked. Good news for those of you who wanted to use it with T-Mobile or a foreign GSM carrier. More » -
subprime meltdown
Mortgages Are Disappearing But The Advertising Isn't
Even as lenders face bankruptcy and banks are closing down their mortgage divisions and cutting jobs, the advertising for subprime and non-conforming loans is still going strong. What's the deal? More » -
Followups
TigerDirect Apologizes For Unlawfully Detaining Customer For Refusing To Show Receipt
The manager of the TigerDirect that unlawfully detained reader Shaneal Manek for his refusal to show a receipt called him this afternoon and apologized for his store's behavior. Shaneal told The Consumerist by phone that Tony, the store manager, pledged to retrain his staff on proper procedures and that they wouldn't retain the services of the security guard involved in the dispute.
Earlier, we spoke with Tiger Direct Executive Vice President Richard Wallet, who confirmed the receipt dispute incident did occur, and cast doubts on Shaneal's version of the events. More »
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Videos
Get What You Paid For
Consumer advocate Ron Burley describes the reasons the state of customer service is in such disrepair, and the basic gist on how consumers can get what they paid for when things go wrong. More » -
college is expensive
Are "Customized" Textbooks A Scam?
NPR takes a look at the growing popularity of "customized" college textbooks—textbooks that have pieces from different books sewn together, usually with a chapter or two by the professor teaching the class. More » -
Advertising
Facebook's New Ad System Will Target Users Based On Personal Information From Profiles
Like to tell the world your business on Facebook? Get ready for some heavily targeted ads. According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is working on a system that will use all of your personal information to target its ads. Currently, Facebooks advertisers are only allowed to target ads based on age, gender and location. The new system will consider things like favorite activities and preferred music, without exposing the data to advertisers. More » -
Schadenfreude
Will Jessica Simpson, Donald Trump and Martha Stewart Convince You To Shop At Macy's?
Macy's is launching a new ad campaign that will feature "celebrities" tending their respective sections of Macy's. Martha will be arranging her housewares, Jessica Simpson will be folding clothes, and Donald Trump... We're not sure what Donald Trump will be doing. Maybe he'll fire Jessica Simpson. Anyway, from the Chicago Tribune: More » -
Douchebags
Progressive Insurance Lies Its Way Into Church Support Group To Dig Up Lawsuit Dirt
Just when you thought insurance companies couldn't get any sleazier, Progressive Insurance got caught sending private eyes to infiltrate and secretly record an Atlanta area church support group in hopes of digging up dirt to discredit a church couple involved in a car accident lawsuit, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. More » -
Deadly Toy Soldiers
Walmart To Test 20% More Toys
According to the Washington Post, Walmart will test 20% more toys in an effort to crack down on toy safety. Nu Wexler from Walmart Watch accused them of missing the point:"Wal-Mart's not addressing the larger problem of why Chinese toy suppliers are cutting corners with lead paint and melamine," spokesman Nu Wexler said, referring to a harmful additive found in pet food made in China. "It's because they're under enormous pressure from buyers like Wal-Mart, and they're sacrificing child safety to keep costs low."
Walmart has hired three firms to help it ramp up the testing. Walmart says:"We know this is an issue at the top of mind with our customers, and we know we can play a role to reassure them that we have great, safe toys in our stores," said Laura Phillips, Wal-Mart's merchandise manager overseeing toys."
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