Consumerist
deep dish
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directtv
Televised Sports Battle: Who Is Astroturfing Whom?
Front groups for cable and satellite companies pretending to represent the interest of sports fans? Mysterious "sources" and leaks? This is nothing new to Consumerist readers, but our estranged siblings at Deadspin have some great information on a lobbying and PR war between thinly disguised groups working on behalf of DirectTV and the big cable companies, and their battle over fans and fees. Or is it? More » -
td bank
UPDATED: TD Bank's Statement On Resolving This Week's Meltdown
TD Bank sent us the following statement - UPDATE: and now a new, revised one - about all the transaction and fee snafus that happened this week after they became one with the Commerce Bank customer data: More » -
apologies
Amazon Offers $30 Credits To Orwell Kindle Swindle Victims
A post on Amazon's Kindle support forum yesterday says the company is sending out emails with offers of $30 to customers who had their George Orwell purchases erased from their devices earlier this summer. More » -
hindsight
The Pain (And Hilarity) Of Old Press Releases
Harry McCracken at Technologizer gathered a bunch of old press releases from technology companies and retailers and annotated them based on what we now know.
More »
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public relations
Did Dave Carroll's Broken Guitar Videos Cost United $180 Million?
The Times of London claims that public relations fallout from Dave Carroll's catchy videos panning United Airlines for breaking his beloved $3500 Taylor guitar and then denying his damage claim may have cost the airline's shareholders up to $180 million. More » -
follow-ups
Grin, Then Wear It: Benefit Cosmetics Responds To Consumerist
Last week, reader Brianna contacted Consumerist about her issues with the defective packaging of a Benefit Cosmetics products, as well as the treatment she received from their e-mail customer service rep. Benefit saw our post, and their PR department responded to Brianna's story. More » -
continental
Continental Takes 2nd Child To Wrong Airport
Yup, you read the title right. Continental has taken a second child, within a week, to the wrong airport. In both cases a subcontracted regional airline called Express Jet flying under the Continental brand was at fault. Houston Chronicle reports: More » -
drm
Netflix Can't Decide Whether Puerto Rico Is In The USA
Puerto Rico and other U.S. Territories are in sort of an awkward place. Are they part of America, or not? Sure, they can't vote in presidential elections, but they are on the back of a quarter. This confusion has led to problems for Netflix users in Puerto Rico. Netflix will provide them with DVDs-by-mail service at the same price as service in the 48 contiguous United States, but considerably slower. However, they won't let Puerto Rico customers stream movies over the Internet, which would be handy while they wait three or four days for their DVDs to show up. More » -
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fear, uncertainty, doubt
Bankers Say "Whoa There" To Credit Card Reform
Credit card reform is bad, says the American Bankers Association, an industry trade group. The ABA sent a letter around to Senators on Tuesday warning against credit card reform. They say that new regulation will mean credit card companies will have to cut off credit to some consumers completely "when they need it most." More » -
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metered broadband
Time Warner Cable Caps Metered Broadband Overage Fees At $75
Time Warner Cable, sensitive to the public outcry about metered broadband, has tweaked its policy — capping overage fines at $75. Does this make it all better? More » -
data breaches
Visa Covers Butt By 'Delisting' Breached Credit Card Payment Processors
Visa has removed Heartland Payment Systems and RBS WorldPay, the two huge payment processors that suffered recent data breaches, from its list of companies that are in compliance with Payment Card Industry (PCI) rules. It says they can get back on the list when they recertify that they have proper security in place. While this may sound like a significant change in the status of the companies, in reality it does little to change how the three companies do business with each other or with merchants. It's just a way for Visa to protect itself from any upcoming lawsuits by banks and credit unions against the payment processors. More » -
ryanair
RyanAir Employee Calls Blogger "Idiot," And Their Spokesperson Publicly Agrees
So blogger Jason Roe finds what he thinks is an error on the RyanAir site that would let you buy airfare from the zero-frills a-la-carte Irish airline for free. An employee decided t make nasty comments in Jason's comments section, calling him "idiot and a liar!" and saying that he probably can't get a date. Which was not that surprising. Nor was it surprising that a RyanAir PR rep responded to the situation. What was surprising was that the PR rep sided with the commenter and heaped further abuse on the blogger! More » -
muzak
Muzak Not Planning On Dying Anytime Soon
A Muzak PR rep would like you to know that their filing for Chapter 11 status is just so they can reorganize their debts and that they and their creditors expect Muzak to be in business for years to come (yay?). Also that they mainly sell music by original artists to retail stores (read: cleaned up for mass market appeal but tailored specifically to the stores' demo), as opposed to the elevator music their company name became synonymous with. For a more in-depth look, The New Yorker did an interesting feature on them back in 2006, in which we learn the company HQ has a fantastic sound system that goes to even their parking lot, but, "for deeply felt symbolic reasons," not their elevator.
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cash4gold
Cash4Gold Counters Critics With Super Polite Blog Posts
Cash4Gold has decided to counter a mounting stream of criticism - a Yahoo! tech article, a Red Tapes Chronicle MSNBC article, posts at Cockeyed and an insider confession at Complaintsboard - by putting up a series of debunking posts on their blog. I don't know about you but the more four-syllable words a questionable company uses and the more their pronouncements sound like an Intro to Rhetoric term paper, the more I trust them. [cash4gold.blogspot.com] (Thanks to Merck23!) -
taking it seriously
Comcast Gives $10 Coupon To Super Bowl Pecker Peepers
Comcast is giving a $10 service credit to every Tucson customer whose Super Bowl viewing was interrupted by a porno snippet, but you have to call in. The number to call is 1-888-315-8219. A thorough system review indicated there was no technical glitch, "suggesting someone deliberately seeking to interrupt the broadcast rather than a technical glitch," wrote WSJ. US Attorney General spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said, "We take this matter seriously." The pancake pupcake pile said, "You can call me nanerpus, nanerpus."
Super Bowl porn clip 'a malicious act' [Arizona Star]
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follow ups
Virgin Atlantic Asks Complaint Writer To Be Taste Tester
The man who wrote the long, funny complaint letter to Richard Branson about the level of suck on his recent Virgin Atlantic flight has been asked to "come to the airline’s catering house next month, to help select the food on future Virgin flights." Yeah, we know that it's a publicity stunt, but an entertaining one. We hope the customer agrees, and hates the new food just as much. In fact, we wish he'd replace Toby Young on Top Chef; the dead hamster line would be a pretty good put-down on that show. More » -
circuit city
Despite Addressing Reader Complaint In Front Of Staff, Circuit City CEO Still Wears Failpants
David wrote a very angry letter to Circuit City's CEO. The CEO responded, and used the letter as a learning point in his next staff Town Hall meeting, making David angrier than ever.
