A strange gas station scam in Minnesota didn’t hurt customers, exactly: it benefited customers. The scam victim was the owner of the gas station, who thought that they had sold the place to credible new owners. Instead, after a glorious one-day sale with everything in the convenience store half off and gas about forty cents per gallon below the local market price, the sale collapsed. The owner says that the down payment check bounced, the buyers disappeared, and $50,000 in cash was missing…along with the gas and merchandise that local customers pounced on during that too-good-to-be-true sale. [More]
Comcast, Time Warner Cable Bring Up Rear In Cable Customer Satisfaction
By May 21, 2013
Comcast and Time Warner Cable may be two of the largest cable and Internet providers in the country, but they’re also the two worst, according to the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index. [More]
Where’s The Beef From?: U.S. Regulators To Propose New Meat Label Requirements
By May 21, 2013
Because not knowing where your food comes from means that your food could’ve come from an unsavory source (horsemeat, anyone?), the United States is supposed to propose new rules this week that would require any meat products to be labeled with the basics: Where an animal was born, what it was fed and where it was slaughtered. [More]
“Halfway To Cyber Monday” Countdown Ushers In New Era Of Holiday Shopping Creep
By May 21, 2013
First of all, don’t be fooled by that 00:00:00 countdown in the photo accompanying this post — it’s part of an email forwarded by Consumerist reader Kaleb, and presumably the ticking clock works in the offers sent to customers on the OfficeMax mailing list. But let’s not lose sight of what it really is, at its essence, which is a countdown clock to a “halfway to Cyber Monday” sale. Yes, holiday shopping creep is a thing now and we’ll all have to deal with it. [More]
Amy’s Baking Company Cancels Press Conference Under Lawsuit Threat From Gordon Ramsay’s Production Company
By May 21, 2013
Operating on the sound principle of “if you can’t say anything nice, shut your trap,” the couple who own Amy’s Baking Company, the famed self-immolating bistro in Arizona, have canceled this afternoon’s press conference. Why is that? Did they decide to dedicate the afternoon to training their new staff and revamping the menu instead? Have too many Yelpers threatened to show up? Well, no–the production company behind Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares” sent them a letter reminding them that if they “disparage the show, the host, or its producers,” they’ll owe “liquidated damages of $100,000.” Keeping this in mind, they just went ahead and canceled the press conference. [More]
Printing Error Turns Pixar Kiddie Pool Into Informational Image On Bad Touching
By May 20, 2013
What should be a happy photo of a mom hanging out in the yard with her two boys in their cool new Pixar-themed pool is horribly, terribly, tragically transformed into something much darker, all thanks to an apparent error at the printing press that managed to slip through unnoticed. [More]
Servers Sue Wolfgang Puck Catering Company Claiming It’s Skimmed Tips Since 2008
By May 20, 2013
If you’ve got the bucks, you can get celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck’s food at your private event. The Wolfgang Puck Catering & Events company bears a famous name, and now it’s being blamed for adding services charges to its customers’ bills without then handing over gratuities to its servers. [More]
Owners Of Amy’s Baking Company Say Yelpers Are Endangering Their Lives
By May 20, 2013
After their appearance on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares catapulted them from being the cranky owners of a Scottsdale, AZ, restaurant to worldwide infamy, the owners of Amy’s Baking Company haven’t really been talking to the media, except to occasionally shout at the cameras that they can’t talk to the media. Then this morning Amy and husband Samy sat down for a local radio interview with another person who has Gordon to thank for her few minutes of fame. [More]
Google Thinking About How To Let Users Cherry-Pick App Permissions
By May 20, 2013
When you download an app from the Google Play store — or when an update to an already downloaded app includes a change in permissions — users are required to accept those permissions before downloading. But there is no way to say no to any single permission, so users are either begrudgingly downloading apps with permissions they don’t want or not downloading otherwise acceptable apps because they are concerned about these permissions. But one Google engineer says there may be some hope. [More]
Man Leaves $1,000 Tip On $60 Bill So Waitress Can Finally Take Dream Trip To Italy
By May 20, 2013
There must be something in the water lately and if there is, we need to get ourselves a big ol’ glass of it: Just last week a customer left a $446 tip on a $6 Steak ‘N Shake bill, and now another generous patron has splashed out with a $1,000 tip on a $60 restaurant tab so the waitress can finally go on that trip to Italy she’s been hoping for. [More]
Silly Me, Expecting My Mail-Order Pharmacy To Pay Attention To My Meds
By May 20, 2013
Don’t expect your mail-order pharmacy to look out for you or for your health. That’s what reader Kathleen learned when her auto-refill prescription got auto-refilled, in spite of her new and exciting prescription for the same medication in a higher dose. Isn’t the point to having everything run by benevolent computers that they’re smarter than we are, and don’t make silly human errors? [More]
Warranty On My Sears Air-Conditioning Might Be Voided Because Sears Won’t Call Me Back
By May 20, 2013
A year ago, Sears installed a new air-conditioning system for Consumerist reader Donna. The system also includes a warranty that requires someone come out once a year to do a maintenance check, but after two months of trying to get someone out to her house, Donna was looking that the possibility of her warranty being voided because no one would return her calls. [More]
Team Of ‘Robin Hoods’ Feeds Parking Meters, Gets Sued
By May 20, 2013
The city of Keene, New Hampshire claims that the problem isn’t the “Robin Hood” brigade of people who feed parking meters in the city in order to save drivers from tickets. No, they can fill meters with coins all day long and the city government claims that it won’t mind. The problem, claims the city, is that the merry band of meter-feeders are harassing and stressing out all three parking enforcement officers and being nuisances while they save residents from tickets. So the city has sued them. [More]
Microsoft To Announce New Xbox Tomorrow; Sony Teases Video Of Playstation 4 Today
By May 20, 2013
It’s been three full months since Sony announced — but did not unveil — the Playstation 4 videogame console. And with Microsoft about to announce its follow-up to the Xbox 360 tomorrow, Sony must have figured today was as good a day as any to finally show a glimpse of the PS4. [More]
FDA’s New Sunscreen Labeling Rules Go Into Effect, But Without A Cap On SPF Ratings
By May 20, 2013
We’ve heard the Food and Drug Administration say it once, and we’ll reiterate it again: buying a sunscreen with an SPF of over 50 doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get extra protection from the sun’s rays. The FDA’s new rules regarding sunscreen labels have been in the works for a while and are going into effect this summer, but despite concerns, many products will still showcase an SPF rating over over 50. [More]
AT&T Customers Will Probably Have To Wait Before Using Google Hangouts Over Cellular
By May 20, 2013
If you’ve got an Android phone, you might have noticed that your pre-loaded Google Talk app has recently been updated and is now “Hangouts,” the name of Google’s video chat service. But if you’re an AT&T customer, you might have to wait a while before you’re allowed to use that app over the carrier’s wireless network. [More]
The Funny Thing About Bangladesh Is That It’s Not Where Africa-Bound Couple Was Heading
By May 20, 2013
A couple that recently flew from Los Angeles to Dhaka, Bangladesh was pretty peeved with their vacation. Not because they forgot to back sunscreen or had a bad flight — it’s just that they were actually trying to go to Dakar, Senegal. That’s what happens with a quick slip of the keyboard and an incorrect destination code, an apparent “oops” moment on the part of Turkish Airlines. [More]
Before House Fire Flames Are Out, Contractors And Adjusters Drum Up Business
By May 20, 2013
When a house catches fire, there can be more than one type of first responder. There are the life-saving fire department and emergency medical services…and then there are the businesspeople selling repair and cleanup services, who sometimes arrive at the scene at the same time as the official first responders. Instead of hoses, axes, and ladders, these crews carry clipboards, contracts, and business cards. [More]
