Consumerist
funny
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in your wallet
Capital One Calls To Dun For Payment Before It's Even Due
Cory says Capital One's Collection Department called his mother-in-law the other day in an attempt to reach him, which was weird because his account is in good standing. Their reason? They just wanted to remind him that his credit card payment was due soon. Oh, and to try to upsell him. More » -
badvertising
Bumblebee Tuna Tricks You Into Watching Commercials At The Grocery Store
Must we put video screens everywhere? Reader Grey says that he was fooled into pressing a button above a tiny video screen at his local Safeway — only to be subjected to a very low-res commercial for Bumblebee Tuna. More » -
att
AT&T Keeps Calling To Say I Qualify For Free Upgrade From My iPhone 3GS?
AT&T has called me repeatedly over the past few weeks and months for some mysterious reason. More » -
how to
Shut Out The Worst Ad Offenders With These Firefox Tricks
If advertisers and websites would play fair with their readers, we wouldn't need to apply various filters and blocks to them. But when you're trying to read an article and every sixth word is hotlinked with a pop-up ad, while the FavIcon in the browser window blinks at you like a traffic light, while loud video clips start auto-playing when the page loads—well, it's time to shut it all down. Lifehacker has put together a great list of all the ways to reclaim your sanity when you're online.
"Use Firefox to Fix the Web's Biggest Annoyances" [Lifehacker]
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relentless
Post Cereal, Please Stop Spamming Anthony
Anthony has tried every means possible to get Post to stop spamming him, but Post laughs in the face of reason. And at customer requests. The only thing Anthony feels he has left to try is contacting the FTC, but he adds "I get the feeling that won't help." More » -
fail
New York State Provides Car Inspection Stickers That Lack One Important Feature
Stickers need to stick to things. That's why they call them stickers. Someone should have explained this to the State of New York. More » -
robocallers
Meet The People Behind The Car Warranty Robocallers
We know how much you just loooove those car warranty robocallers, so we couldn't pass up an opportunity to introduce you to the folks the FTC says is behind the robot army. More » -
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microsoft
Microsoft E-mails You as a Reminder That You Opted Out of Receiving E-mails
Taking a page from the grossly overpriced playbook of Barnes & Noble college bookstores, earlier this week MIcrosoft sent an e-mail to users of the myriad Windows Live and MSN services reminding them that they...had opted not to receive e-mail from Microsoft. Um, thanks? More » -
travel
In Other Magical Lands Hotels Charge You The Price They Quote
Christopher Elliott, travel guru, has got to be a liar. In his latest blog entry he posts a story from an American who stayed in a hotel in Vienna... and was charged the room rate times the number of days he stayed. Can this magical hotel really exist? More » -
marketing
Barnes & Noble College Bookstores Sends Email Reminder That You Don't Want Them To Send You Email
Gosh, this is really thoughtful of the Barnes & Noble bookstore on the Georgia Tech campus. They sent Steve an email reminder that at some point in the past, he explicitly opted out of receiving any email communications from them in the future. See, he may have forgotten that he didn't want to be contacted, and how else would he remember it if B&N didn't contact him to let him know? Update: Shane at Mississippi State University received the same helpful reminder from his campus bookstore, also run by B&N.
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comcatastrophe
I Canceled Comcast Now The Phone Won't Stop Ringing
Reader Evan canceled Comcast — which seems to have lead to a barrage of annoying phone calls that simply will not stop. A little Googling turned up others with the same problem... More » -
frustrating
Every Year Capital One Reopens My Account And XBOX Live Debits Money
Every year Erick gets a Christmas present from Capital One. They reopen the credit card he closed 4 or 5 years ago. At that point, Microsoft gets into the act and starts billing that account for XBOX Live service he canceled at about the same time. More » -
annoying
The Annoying Sound Stores Use To Drive Youngins Away
Here's an example of that annoying noise that's supposedly being used to drive teenagers away from stores and other places where they tend to gather and formulate their plans for world domination. It has also been used in commercials. Supposedly, only people under 25 can hear the noise. For the record, our staff can hear it and we think it sounds like that ringing in your ears that happens when people are "talking about you." Annoying. [Teenager Audio Test via BuzzFeed] (Photo: Karl O'Brien) -
You want to know why some restaurants charge a fee to cancel a reservation? Because of jerks like this, who makes reservations at up to 10 restaurants at a time so that he can choose which one he wants on that special night. Don't be this guy. [Des Moines Register] (Thanks to David!)
(Photo: wili hybrid) MORE » -
christmas creep
Christmas Creep: Radio Stations Are In Full Holiday Mode
If you thought that you could avoid Christmas Creep by staying out of stores — think again. It's annoying you on the radio as well. More » -
christmas creep
Christmas Creep Confessions: We Played Christmas Music On Halloween
An anonymous reader, who works at a certain bookstore, says that her manager started playing Christmas music a week before Halloween... and on Halloween itself. More » -
Some electronics didn't get the news that Daylight Saving Time ends Nov 2 — and automatically "fell back" this Sunday. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed both the starting and ending dates of Daylight Saving, “springing” the first date forward to the second Sunday in March and pushing the closing back until the first Sunday in November. [WZVN]
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