Consumerist
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Usaa
Update: USAA Posts Notice On Website Regarding Technical Issues
Last week we raised the ire of plenty of USAA fans by posting a story about a woman's IRA that went missing for nearly a day. We were as surprised as many of you that she'd received such poor customer service from the first CSR she spoke with, considering USAA's usually stellar reputation. But the next day someone from USAA contacted Travis and his wife to find out what went wrong. Here's Travis' update. More » -
zombie debt
Judge Orders Credit Reporting Bureaus To Strike Forgiven Debts From Records
The three big credit reporting agencies—Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax—have been inaccurately reporting debts on millions of consumers' credit reports even after the debts have been forgiven during bankruptcy filings. Once forgiven, the debts are supposed to be removed from credit reports, but the agencies are continuing to report them as active. They have until October 1st to comply with Judge David O. Carter's order to "revamp their systems," writes Jane J. Kim on the Wall Street Journal's finance blog. Now if you're in debt trouble, you can look forward (?) to having either unpaid debts on your credit report, or a bankruptcy filing, but hopefully no longer both at the same time. More » -
Gas Shortage
Two More Weeks Of Gas Shortages In The South?
The New York Times has quoted an expert from Rice University who thinks that the gas shortages in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee could continue for two more weeks. More » -
Verizon
Verizon Told Me Their FiOS Gift Card Promotion Never Even Existed
Reader Jacob says that he's been getting the runaround for months after signing up with Verizon during their free $200 Circuit City gift card promotion, but he finally reached his breaking point when a Verizon rep told him that the promotion never even existed. Too bad it did exist, and we wrote about it. More » -
Comments
Two New Commenter Tools
Two new tweaks for the comments section:
1. The timestamp next to each thread now links to a permalink page with only that thread. This makes referencing specific conversations easier, or you could pass around the link to threads you've started and get your friends to reply.
2. The "Most popular" link at top of the comments is a shortcut sending you to a page showing the threads with the largest number of replies. The discussion with the most replies is on top.
(Photo: grendelkhan)
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Budget hero
Toy With A Budget More Depressing Than Your Own... The Federal Government's!
Think you'd do a better job at balancing the budget than Presidential Candidate X or Presidential Candidate Y? Now you can! American Public Media has put together the world's most depressing game. You are asked to meet certain goals (you decide what they are, so you can choose to be either candidate, or a treehugger, or a socialist, or a libertarian, or a pr person for Walmart, whatever it is that you actually are) by playing different budget-affecting cards (Example: You can end "No Child Left Behind" and save $110 B.) More » -
Most Popular Stories
- 10 Things To Expect From The New Post-Apocalyptic Economy (13,598 views, 72 comments)
- Hot Topic Likes Your Art So Much... They're Selling It! (12,681 views, 75 comments)
- Circuit City Is Hemorrhaging Money: How Would You Fix It? (6,549 views, 126 comments)
- Walmart Shuts Down Music Store, Deactivates DRM-Protected Songs (57 comments, 4,211 views)
- Comcast Loves You So Much They Keep Billing You... 4 Months After You Canceled (27 comments, 6,073 views)
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There's a pretty nasty e. coli outbreak going on in Michigan and Illinois — apparently "industrial" sized bags of lettuce from a Michigan company called "Aunt Mids" have been contaminated. Among those affected were students at Michigan State and the University of Michigan and some inmates at Lenawee County Jail. [Michigan Department Of Community Health & Progressive Grocer] (Thanks, Alex!)
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September madness
March Madness-Style Bracket Makes Bank Mergers Fun
TechCrunch has posted this "March Madness" style bracket of the recent financial meltdown. It was reportedly created by a general partner at Sansome Partners named Mark Slavonia, says TC. More » -
Circuit City
Circuit City Is Hemorrhaging Money: How Would You Fix It?
Somebody stop the bleeding! After losing $164.8 million in the first quarter, Circuit City has announced that they've taken it to the next level, and, not to be outdone by last quarter's disaster, have managed to lose $240 million dollars. More » -
Walmart just inked a deal to exclusively sell AC/DC's new album as well as the new Rock Band video game, "AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack." Why must you go to Walmart? “If you want to be a physical band, you better make an alliance with a strong physical retailer,” said Steve Barnett, chairman of Columbia Records. “It’s a great way to sell the new album, the catalog, the game, merchandise and DVDs.” [NYT]
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Hot Topic
Hot Topic Likes Your Art So Much... They're Selling It!
I'm glad I'm bad at everything so I never have to worry about anyone plagiarizing my work. Sadly, this is not the case for Nina Matsumoto. Whoever is in charge of "designing" Halloween merchandise for Hot Topic is apparently a big fan of Nina's. More » -
Wall street meltdown
10 Things To Expect From The New Post-Apocalyptic Economy
Kiplinger's has put together a list of 10 things that you, fair consumer, can expect from our new post-wall-street-apocalypse economy. Should you be scared? Maybe. More » -
Walmart
Walmart Shuts Down Music Store, Deactivates DRM-Protected Songs
Last week, Walmart sent out emails to its online music store customers letting them know that on October 9th, 2008, they will no longer be able to play any DRM-crippled tracks. Unlike Yahoo, which did the right thing by offering free replacement downloads of unprotected songs when they killed their DRM program, Walmart simply brags about its new unlicensed model and tells you to burn your protected tracks to CD if you really want to listen to them in the future. Good job, Walmart, there goes another betrayed consumer into the welcoming arms of digital piracy. And another. And another... More » -
Personal Finance
Citi Credit Card Cautions You Against Spending
Citi's been burned enough by its cardholders' profligate spending, apparently. Check out the message on this activation sticker on a new card. We like the inclusion of a sort of Yin-yang background, as if to remind us that debt and repayment are equal elements of the consumer credit world. A balance must be maintained! Just, you know, not so high a balance that you can't make your monthly payments.(Thanks to Jerry!) -
Money
Understanding The Money Meltdown In 10 Easy Links
After reading these 10 links, the I Will Teach You To Be Rich blog believes they will make you smarter than 99% of other people about the financial crisis, what it means, and what to do about it. [I Will Teach You To Be Rich] -
Sales
Morning Deals
Highlights From Buxr
- NewEgg: OCZ RALLY2 8GB High Performance Dual Channel Flash Drive for $11.99 after $12 rebate w/ Free shipping
- Amazon: Pyrex Smart Essentials 4-Quart 3-Piece Healthy Roaster Set for $13.50 + Shipping
- Amazon: Boss Audio BV8.5GA Flip-Down 8.5-Inch Monitor with Built-In DVD Player for $193.49 (discount appears in cart) w/ Free shipping
- 6pm.com: adidas shoes from $9 + $7 s&h
- Plaintronics: Plantronics Clearance Sale: Headsets from $5 + $8 s&h
- Sears: Craftsman Engraving Pen for $25 + $6 s&h
- Office Depot: AOC Envision 22-inch Widescreen LCD $180 & Free Shipping
- Vann's: Panasonic Lumix LZ7 7.2MP Camera $120 Shipped
- Amazon: Panasonic VDRD50 DVD Camcorder $287 Shipped
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Comcast
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 »
New York, 10:09 PM
Thu Nov 12
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