Consumerist

Food

Restaurant Gives 25% Discount To Birthday Diners, Writes "Bug On Food" For Reason On Check

A restaurant in Dubai gave a 25% discount to a party of birthday diners after they found four bugs in their food. Says a restaurant official, "The guys thought being friendly and having a joke about the environment would relax the diners because it was a birthday, but unfortunately it didn't." We sort of think after the second or third bug, you should probably just comp the meal—and then shut down the restaurant for fumigation. More »

Hotels

North Vancouver Comfort Inn's "100% Satisfaction Guarantee" Is More Like 10-15%

A man wrote in to travel writer Christopher Elliott to complain about the awful experience he and his wife had with Comfort Inn & Suites in North Vancouver, British Columbia. When they checked in, they were surprised with a "free upgrade," but found the room was unclean and lacked linens. They asked to be given the room they initially reserved, then discovered the water was lukewarm during their entire visit, and the coffee machine was broken. The hotel's ice machine was also broken. Richard said in each case he complained to the front desk but only got an apology—and when he contacted Choice Hotels to complain, they told him he should have brought the issues to the attention of the hotel, and consequently they would not honor their 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. More »

Travel

Federal Court Overturns NY Passenger Bill Of Rights

A sad day for air travelers:

A federal appeals court has rejected a law requiring airlines to provide food, water, clean toilets and fresh air to passengers trapped in a plane delayed on the ground.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that New York's new state law interferes with federal law governing the price, route or service of an air carrier. It was the first law in the nation of its kind.

The appeals court said the new law was laudable but only the federal government has the authority to enact such a regulation.

The law was challenged before the appeals court by the Air Transport Association of America, the industry trade group representing leading U.S. airlines.

Apparently the ATA thought providing "food, water, clean toilets and fresh air to passengers trapped in a plane delayed on the ground" was too onerous a requirement. New York is planning to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Court overturns passenger rights law [AP] (Thanks to Brandon Savage!)

Insurance

Teen Being Murdered By UnitedHealth Spreadsheet

UPDATE: UnitedHealth Will Cover Teen's Bone Cancer Procedure

Pacificare, owned by UnitedHeatlh, has decided to deny coverage for Nick Columbo, a 17-year-old dying from bone cancer. Nick has been unresponsive to chemo and his doctors recommend the "CyberKnife" treatment (read their letters here). Nick's family is holding a protest outside the Pacificare today to try to get the insurance company to change its mind. UnitedHealth is ranked as the worst insurance company in the nation, is being investigated by the state of California, and has been fined over $3.5 million for negligent claims practices. Inside, a plea for help from Nick's brother.

Pacificare denies 17-year-old cancer patient lifesaving treatment [DailyKos] (Thanks to Evan!) More »

Travel

Booking Reward Travel On Continental Airlines Will Give You High Blood Pressure

Reader Mike has lots of frequent flier miles that he'd like to cash in with Continental Airlines. As he found out, this is extremely difficult. Here's an email he sent to the CEO of Continental, Larry Kellner: More »

Complaints

FiOS Is Great, If Verizon Ever Manages To Actually Install It

Ben is getting some crappy customer service from Verizon in attempting to get FiOS installed. His phone is disconnected, they made a half-assed install, don't show up for installs, don't call, oh, and he still doens't have FiOS. He writes:

To file amongst other I hate Verizon articles. Typing and summarizing while on hold with Verizon for approximately the 8th time...

More »

Stupid

Microcenter Tries To Sell You A Replacement Plan For Thermal Adhesive

Reader Joe says: More »

Corrections

Customers Will Get FiOS Optical All The Way To Their Apartments, Verizon Plans

The AP made a major correction to a Verizon FiOS story we posted about yesterday. In that story, Verizon's head of FiOS stuff for apartments said that Verizon wouldn't be able to run optical cable up to all the apartments in two Manhattan apartment complexes and would use coaxial for the last leg. Verizon said not all apartments have the specs needed to install a necessary wall-mounted box. After the story came out, Verizon now says that it does plan to run optical to all the way up apartments that order FiOS. You may have to give up your medicine cabinent, but hey, you're blazing with the speed of FiOS, baby!

Correction: Verizon-FiOS Story [AP]
(Photo: Dana Spiegel)

Shopping

Morning Deals

• Adorama: Refurbished Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS SLR Lens for $149 + $7 s&h
• Linen's n' Things: Black & Decker Toaster Oven for $23.99 Shipped with coupon code 26620000008
• GoGamer: Rock Band Game for PS3 for $32.49 Shipped

Highlights From Dealhack

• Dell Business: Dell Vostro Core 2 Duo PC & 19-inch Widescreen LCD $449 Shipped
• Buy.com: Fantom Drives USB Dual Layer DVD Burner Drive with 100 Free Blank DVD-Rs $70 Shipped
• Buy.com: Samsung 2032NW 20-inch Widescreen LCD $210 & Free Shipping

Highlights From Bargainist

• Amazon: Motorola RAZR2 V9 Phone free AR with AT&T plan
• Old Navy: Spring Sale up to 40% off
• Shop Adidas: End of Season Sale up to 40% off

rude

Walmart Calls You An Idiot, Tells You To Shut Up And Never Come Back

Reader David writes: More »

Funny

Au Bon Pain Now Serves "Boobs" With Your Mediterranean Veggie Wrap

Reader Saurabh says: More »

Sprint

Sprint Offers Loyalty Discount To Customers Who Ask For It

Michael wrote in to let us know that in spite of Sprint's customer service shortcomings, the company is happy to give a discount to those customers who have remained with the beleaguered wireless provider. Here is the email exchange Michael had with Sprint... More »

Above and Beyond

Microsoft Sends Free Swag To The Gamer Whose XBox 360 Artwork They Destroyed

Remember that video game fan who sent in for repair an XBOX covered in all sorts of priceless art, along with the express instructions for it not to be washed? And then it was washed? Well, he already got a nice box of goodies from Bungie, but now Microsoft has stepped up and sent him their own prize package which includes a faceplate signed by Bill Gates. Nothing like a frag marathon officially endorsed by the second-wealthiest man in the world! Woohoo, game on!

Microsoft Finally Makes Things Right [hawtymcbloggy] (Thanks to Michael!)

Complaints

Citibank Uses Sneaky Way To Keep Sending You Junk Mail Even After You "Opt Out"

After he continued to receive mailings for months from his bank after he thought he opted out of their mailings, reader Perre asked Citibank if they had honored his request. They said, "yes you're opted out of Balance Transfer offers and Cash Convenience Checks." Then he cleverly thought to ask which mailing lists he was still opted in. Citibank told him he was still on "Sales and Marketing" and "Third Party Sharing." They explained this by saying when you call to opt-out, they only take you off "in-statement offers." We're not sure what that means, it sounds like they're just agreeing to not put additional marketing offers in your billing statement envelope, which is definitely not what any normal person would have in mind when they call to opt-out. Sneaky. When you call a company to opt-out of their mailings, be sure to also ask which lists you're opted in, and then ask to get off those as well.

(Photo: Spidra Webster)

phone numbers

Reach Helio Executives

Cellphone provider Helio's business line is 310-445-7000. Press 4 to reach the company directory and then you can pull up all sorts of people, like the executives found on this page. Good for when Helio's underwhelming and outsourced customer service droids fail.

(Photo: Maulleigh)