Consumerist
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Flickr
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
Here are seven wonderful photos readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Check 'em out! More »
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warnings
You Can't Use A Barnes & Noble Gift Card For Ebooks
If you or someone you know is getting a nook, Barnes & Noble's version of the Kindle, this year and you want to use a gift card to fill it with books, forget it. For mysterious reasons, the retailer won't allow it. (By contrast, Amazon does.) More » -
Collection agencies
Am I Responsible For My Parents' Debt?
Jay's parents have gotten quite, uh, spendy with their retirement income, and now they've got a lot of debt they can't pay off. This has become Jay's problem not because he's a party to any of the debt, but because they've put him down as a reference and now bill collectors are harassing him. More » -
Delays
Customer Says OnTrac Is Ruining His Amazon Prime Membership
Brian paid for an Amazon Prime membership in order to expedite shipments. Unfortunately, the company contracted to deliver the goods to him doesn't seem up to the job. More » -
Credit Cards
Chase Raises Interest Rate On Closed Account
David closed his Chase credit card account instead of accepting a rate increase earlier this year. That should have been the end of it, but it turned out Chase later went ahead and increased the interest rate anyway. More » -
national mood
What Cheer? Consumers More Glum Than Ever
Retailers have been hoping that we'd enter the annual Festival of Shopping with higher spirits than last year, but it looks like that might not happen after all. The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index was updated today, and it shows a drop to 66.0, "well below October's reading of 70.6 and a sharp reversal of the 71.0 figure economists had expected." More » -
Sales
Morning Deals
- Kids
- Disney Store: [Gifts] Save an Extra 20% off Toys, Apparel, & More ($89 minimum purchase)
- Toys R Us : [Toys] $15 Off $100 Purchase w/ Coupon TOYSHOLIDAY + Multiple In-Store Coupons
- Trainz (via eBay): [Toys & Hobbies] Lionel Train Sets from $140 + free shipping: Thomas & Friends, Polar Express, more
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Participating locations
Burger King Restaurants Angry Over $1 Burger Promo, File Lawsuit
I've been wondering how some fast food chains can sell $1 cheeseburgers and still make a profit. Apparently they can't, which is why a group that represents about 80% of the restaurant's franchisees have sued the company over the promotion. More » -
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Theft
Store Theft In The US Jumped 8.8% Last Year
Maybe this is why stores seem to be getting more and more aggressive about shoplifting: CNN says that retail theft in the US jumped 8.8% over the past year, versus only 1.5% in the prior year. But you may be surprised (only if you've never worked retail) to see where most of the theft occurs. More » -
Scams
FTC Files Contempt Charge Against BlueHippo For Continuing To Rip Off Customers
Today the FTC lodged a contempt charge against scammy no-credit-needed electronics seller BlueHippo, saying that the company hasn't honored its prior agreement to stop scamming customers. BlueHippo agreed to pay back $3.5 million nearly two years ago to reimburse customers who never received the computers they pre-paid for, but the FTC says since then the company has sucked another $15 million out of customers. More » -
spending habits
Newly Frugal Behavior Is Permanent, Say Some Consumers
A new study says that 26% of US consumers "have no plans to return to their free-spending ways," which probably doesn't sound like good news to retailers. Even worse (for retailers), about a third say they've become less loyal. More » -
Acceptable risk
Stroller Company Maclaren Knew About Amputation Risk 5 Years Ago
The British company Maclaren knew that its recently recalled strollers could potentially lop off a tot's fingertips over five years ago, reports the New York Post, but it didn't bother to alert the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). More » -
Sales
Morning Deals
- Travel
- Delta: [In Flight WiFi] Free Wifi on your next Delta flight with coupon code DELTATRYGOGO (good through 12/31/09) (Thanks to catastrophegirl!)
- Liz Claiborne: [Apparel] Liz Claiborne Coupon Code 30% Off Storewide + Free Shipping $50+
- Joe's New Balance Outlet: [Shoes] Joe's New Balance Outlet sale: Up to 85% off
- Reebok : [Apparel] 25% Off Entire Purchase w/ Coupon FRIEND + Printable
- Original Penguin : [Apparel] 33% Off All Outerwear and Sweaters + One More Coupon OPG33
- Motorcycle Superstore: [Men's Apparel] Motorcycle Superstore sale: Up to 80% off
Clothing -
Don't buy a macpadd
MacPadd Inventor Drinks With Wife, Brags About Education, Curses, But Does Not Provide Tracking Number
Some people should never go the entrepreneur route. Meet David Free, the man behind QMS, a company that sells and sometimes even ships an aluminum mousepad called the MacPadd. When the guys at TomsHardware.com started asking why theirs hadn't arrived, they discovered that Free does business his own way. Or sometimes not at all:
More »Free then exclaimed, "Get out of my f***ing life!" And hung up on us. By now it was becoming clear to us that we weren't going to receive the product we paid for.
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savings accounts
Don't Let Maintenance Fees Ruin Your Automatic Savings Program
If you participate in an automatic savings program like Bank of America's Keep the Change service, where debit card purchases are rounded up and the difference is deposited into your savings account, keep an eye on maintenance fees. James says he was hit with a $5 charge last month because he hadn't met the minimum monthly deposit requirement of $25: "It turns out that I wasn't even accruing $5 worth of change per month, so I was losing more money due to the maintenance fee than I was saving via Keep the Change!" More » -
Telemarketers
Block Spam Callers From Your Blackberry With Call Control
You can always just not answer your phone, but if a telemarketer calling you on your Blackberry sends you into a rage, you might want to look at Call Control. The app relies on the telemarketer database at everycall.us to screen out known spammers. The free version screens out the top 100 telemarketers; an $8 version uses the entire database and includes updates.
Call Control for Blackberry [EveryCall]
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Ebooks
Sony's Ebook Store Prices Too High? Try Shortcovers
Michael bought a Sony Pocket Reader last month, but with the exception of $10 bestsellers, he's finding that other books he wants are priced higher than he's willing to pay. For example, Tad Friend's memoir Cheerful Money is $10 on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble, but $17.49 from Sony. Michael wants to know if we have any advice on how to get Sony to lower their prices. More » -
Lazy
Geek Squad Agent Doesn't Have Time To Look For Multimeter, Let's Just Send Off Laptop For 3 Weeks Instead
The usefulness of Best Buy's Geek Squad depends entirely on the competence of the employee you get when you go in for help, and unfortunately Scott landed one of the lazier ones. Here's his sales pitch to Scott over a laptop that wouldn't start: "It's going to take at least 10 minutes for me to get the multimeter or another adapter. It's going to be a problem inside the computer, let's just send it in." More »
New York, 8:53 AM
Sun Nov 15
6 posts in the last 24 hours
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