"At this point, due to financial reasons, I am going to have to go back to my now 11 year old television and use that, until I can afford to purchase a new LCD TV," writes Jeremy, "Which, given my understandable disappointment with Vizio, will be another brand."
They don't make 'em like they used to.
An Open Letter to William Wang, CEO of Vizio TV [Somewhat Daily Words]
]]>Matt says:
As a long time reader of the Consumerist, I have seen a lot of posts about the annoyances of Walmart greeters insisting on checking receipts. I have detested this practice as well, and Consumerist articles are what started me on my road to refusing to show receipts. I have learned a few tips from experience that I thought I’d pass on.What do you think of Matt's method? ]]>
First, is that your significant other probably won’t be pleased. My wife always pretends she doesn’t know me whenever I refuse to show my receipt. She thinks it’s kind of funny, but she won’t back me up ever. She just keeps walking as if I were a stranger.
Second, and most important, is to be polite. I’ve found that being confrontational or refusing on almost any grounds turns it into a messy experience. I’ve found that what works best is when someone asks to see my receipt, I just smile cheerfully and say “No Thanks”, and keep walking. A majority of the time the greeter will just get a befuddled expression on their face as they try to figure out what to do. After all, they haven’t been trained to handle this situation, and because you aren’t really confronting them or doing anything to get their hackles up, they aren’t very likely to really stop you. Besides, how can you stop someone and be rude to them when they just smiled at you and were polite?
The other thing is to just keep on walking. Don’t try to avoid the greeter, don’t speed up, don’t slow down. Don’t do anything you wouldn’t do if the greeter hadn’t been there. If you don’t do anything to trigger basic responses in them, then the confusion over your courteous refusal will have you out the door before they know what to do about it. After all, confrontation doesn’t accomplish anything and the wasted time of a confrontation defeats the purpose of not showing your receipt in the first place.
I’ve found that it is far more satisfying to be super polite when refusing to show a receipt. Once you start to be at all rude, the greeters will become far more confrontational and things can spiral out of hand. The only time I have ever had a confrontation was one of the first times I ever refused to show my receipt. I hadn’t learned any of these tricks, and it wasn’t a very enjoyable experience, even though I did win out and didn’t show my receipt.
According to a report from Kantar Media that documents all of the ads and advertisers from Sunday evening, CBS ran just under 48 minutes of commercials (not counting their own promo pieces) during the game, several minutes more than last year's record-setting telecast.
While some might argue this exhibits a willingness on the part of advertisers to once again spend big bucks on high-profile TV spots, Kantar also points out that Super Bowl XLIV featured the highest number of cheaper, shorter 15-second ads in almost a decade.
Additionally, this year saw the top four ad buyers (Anheuser-Busch InBev, Hyundai, Coca Cola, PepsiCo) dominate the night, accounting for 25% of all purchased ad time. Of note, though PepsiCo was a top-4 advertiser, none of their Super Bowl ads were for Pepsi beverages. The company ceded the floor to Coke and opted instead to spend their cash on pushing Doritos to the munching audience.
Also worth mentioning from the Kantar report is that 63% of the Super Bowl XLIV advertisers are not currently listed as Top 200 ad buyers, a 5% increase over last year and nearly double the 2001-2005 average, meaning that smaller companies chose to take advantage of the visibility the Super Bowl affords while the bigger names decided to stay home and watch the game (and the ads) on TV like the rest of us.
Kantar Media Provides Full Analysis of 2010 Super Bowl Advertising [Kantar Media]
]]>In a statement released by Netflix, the company clarified that is does indeed intend to bring customers HD movies (at 720p) in glorious 5.1 surround sometime this year, there is no definite plan to unleash 1080p Watch It Now films in 2010.
Xbox 360 users hungry for a taste of streaming 1080p movies can currently feed their HD beast through Microsoft's Zune store, which uses Microsoft's Silverlight player.
]]>Unlike your usual hour of House, this week's show focused on his much-put-upon boss, Dr. Lisa Cuddy, as she tried to negotiate the hurdles of her gig as the hospital's dean of medicine.
One subplot featured a carpenter, Mr. Acevedo, who was attempting to sue the hospital because they had done too good of a job sewing his thumb back on after he severed it in an accident. The patient's lawyer explained that his client had asked the docs to do only the small amount of surgery covered by his insurance. But the surgeon, Dr. Chase, decided to go ahead and reattach the thumb anyway.
According to PoliteDissent.com, a blog that exists to pick apart the medical facts and fictions on House, the patient might have a pretty good case:
Both Cuddy and the lawyer are glossing over the key fact that the treatment Mr. Acevedo received was not covered by the informed consent he signed. Chase may have done what he thought was best for the patient, but he did it through lying and dishonesty. Sure, Mr. Acevedo kept his thumb, and this will probably restrain the jury’s and judge’s enthusiasm for a large payout, but there is clear written evidence that Chase was deceitful in his treatment of the patient. The hospital’s insurance company will pay this off long before it sees a courtroom. And as for Chase, skipping informed consent or lying on it is a good way to lose a medical license.
Now to the guy trying to get a scrip for mother's milk. A cancer patient had heard that breast milk could be used as a treatment for his disease but could not afford to pay for it himself, so he went to Cuddy with the misguided notion that his insurance will pay for anything, so long as there's a prescription. Unfortunately, as Scott from Polite Dissent confirms, "the insurance company will not pay for it, even with a prescription — they’ll consider it an experimental treatment."
So the moral of this story? Don't get your medical or insurance advice from TV. That's what the Internet is for.
Episode 13 (Season 6): “5 to 9″ [Polite Dissent]
]]>The WaPo breaks it down for us:
Google's "equipment recovery fee" applies to customers who break their two-year T-Mobile contract after a 14-day trial period and before 120 days. A $350 fee that applied to new T-Mobile customers was lowered to $150, while a $250 fee for existing T-Mobile customers upgrading to the Nexus One was cut to $50.Don't worry, this has "nothing to do" with the investigation, says T-Mobile. The companies are just doing it randomly on their own because they are awesome. Or at least... that's their story:Customers would still have to pay a separate early termination fee to T-Mobile USA Inc. That fee is $200 for customers who break a contract after the 14-day trial period and before 120 days. After that, it is prorated.
"We have been looking for ways to improve our customers' experience, so we were able to work with T-Mobile to find a better solution for our customers," Google said in a statement.
In other news, Google now has phone support for their phone -- sort of. You can now inquire about that status of your order at +1-888-48-NEXUS (63987) between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., Eastern Standard Time. Technical support questions should go to HTC.
Google reduces fee to break Nexus One contract [Washington Post]
]]>In a recently filed lawsuit, the good folks at Summit Entertainment, the folks behind the Twilight Saga, are sinking their legal fangs into the neck of a company called Topics Entertainment, claiming that Topics violated their trademark by producing and advertising a documentary about Fork that is too similar to a doc Summit plans on releasing later this year.
Topics has reportedly been attempting to get DVDs of their film, Forks: Bitten by Twilight, into stores like Best Buy and Target, but Summit has sought an injunction against any future sales of the documentary — along with damages — alleging that they used trademarked artwork and that their box design is too close to cover of Summit's movie, Twilight in Forks: The Saga of the Real Town.
Twilight and its sequel New Moon have already grossed over $1.8 billion in theaters. The third film, Eclipse, is due out this summer.
]]>"Any time there's even a hint of a financial issue in the consumer's life, the credit card company will raise the interest rate to the high 20s, or 30%," he says. "They'll do anything they can to make life as difficult as possible."
Of course, there are some drawbacks, for instance the loss of extended warranty and purchase protection that comes with most credit cards. The most significant cost is that it makes it much harder to build up a good credit profile, although the 24-year-old managed to still get a car loan by combining her income with her fiancé's credit history.
"More consumers just say no to credit cards" [USAToday]
]]>Your character, Commander Shepard, asks the shopkeeper why he's there if you don't actually buy anything from him. (It's all automated through a kiosk.) He replies:
"Customer Service. Sweeping up the store. Carefully explaining things to the technologically illiterate. It's stunning how many people think light moves faster through expensive fiber optic cables than it does through cheap ones."
]]>The FBI says it's not interested in actual content; they just want to know who you are, where you've been and what you did while you were there. Oh, goody.
"The question at least for the bureau has been about non-content transactional data to be preserved: transmission records, non-content records...addressing, routing, signaling of the communication," [Greg] Motta [of the FBI's digital evidence team] said. Director Mueller recognizes, he added "there's going to be a balance of what industry can bear...He recommends origin and destination information for non-content data."Motta pointed to a 2006 resolution from the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which called for the "retention of customer subscriber information, and source and destination information for a minimum specified reasonable period of time so that it will be available to the law enforcement community."
Telcos are balking, at least for now, mainly because they're worried about the resources required to keep that much data (what, you thought they were worried about your privacy?). They'll inevitably come around, though, since the government can, you know, make them do it -- and they've already been told they can do whatever they want with your personal data.
We assume the FBI will eventually get its way, just as the NSA did last year. Then again, if it snows a little more in DC, Congress may just shut down until spring, delaying the inevitable just a little longer.
]]>The AA blanket and pillow come with a Bed Bath & Beyond coupon good for $10 off any purchase over $30. By comparison, discount airline JetBlue sells its blankets for $7, and includes a $5 off coupon for BB&B with no minimum purchase.
"American Airlines to charge $8 for blanket, pillow" [Dallas Morning News]
]]>He writes:
Returning from a camping trip that was cut short due to bad weather, I was driving through Nashville the weekend they had the nasty weather. It was evident I needed new wiper blades so I asked Garmina (my trusty Garmin) the location of the nearest Walmart on my path home.It directed me to a location in north metro Nashville. I found 2 wiper blades and a gallon of washer fluid and proceeded to wait behind the two women that were somewhat rude to the very slow checkout girl (its not her fault Marlboro's were 5.25 a pack) I purchased my items, said thank you (something the prior two customers didn't do), and took my items without a bag to the entrance.
Being tired, weary and pretty grungy looking after 3 days of camping with cold and rain, I'm sure I didn't look like the most upstanding citizen. This with the fact that I hadn't shaved for 2 months in preperation for our annual "guys only" winter camping event. I was also in a foul mood having been in traffic for 4 hours and dodging kids in the store to find my items.
The lady saw me coming and told me she needed to see my receipt. I informed her I wasn't required to do so and she told me otherwise. I asked her if she was accusing me of shoplifting, because if she was we could talk to her manager and see their evidence. She said she was not accusing me of anything so I told her have a nice day. This did not satisfy her one bit.
At this point another customer showed up and presented his receipt without asking and distracted her. She ordered me to wait right there until she could get a manager. I told her that the manager could find me in the parking lot putting on my wiper blades, and I left.
The manager never showed up, neither did any police cars, so I guess she ignored the challenge. My buddy, who bought some sunglasses and didn't get checked at all, thought it was hilarious.
You'd think this sort of domineering, customer distrusting practice would tend to drive some Walmart customers away, but Jeff and his friend seemed to have enjoyed the experience so much that they'll surely be back again and again, never, ever, ever showing their receipts.
]]>So I've recently become unemployed, and I have 2 credit cards that I'm paying off -- one with Chase and one with Discover. I'm already on special payment plans with both of them in which the APRs have been decreased to about 12% and and further purchases are blocked. (FYI, my balances are roughly $6,000 with one card, and $4,000 with the other.) I'm wondering what would happen if I called the companies and told them that I'm now unemployed? There's no way I'm going to be able to make any more payments until I find a new job; I have absolutely no savings at the moment -- saving hasn't been at all possible for me to do. What do most people do in this situation? Are the CC companies going to tell me to suck it up?
Advice -- solicited or otherwise -- is what Consumerists do best, so have at it. What are Lilgaladriel's wisest moves to avoid drowning in payments?
]]>She writes:
I just e filed my federal and state taxes today, and was a little miffed to see that TurboTax charged me $29.95 for "upgrading to their deluxe version" when I have absolutely no recollection of doing this. (I'm the cheapest person on earth; there's no way I would do this!) They also tried to charge me another $29.95 fee just for taking the first $29.95 directly out of my refund, plus the $35 for my state return. (I got out of the second *29.95 fee when I chose "pay with a credit card" instead.) I tried to search on your site for similar issues, but I never found any....is anyone else out there having this issue? If this is a large issue, I will consider going to the Better Business Bureau or some other reputable agency to report this back handed practice. Thanks for your help!
If you've had a similar problem with TurboTax, please let us know.
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