Consumerist
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Here are 5 personal finance podcasts to subscribe to, download, and argue with during your commute or workout. [Automatic Finances] (Photo: uhuru1701)
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text to speech
Amazon Begins Selling Kindle Books With Text To Speech Disabled
As promised, Amazon has begun to implement the text to speech (TTS) flag that lets authors and their publishers turn off the "read it to me" feature of books on the Kindle. MobileRead members note that Toni Morrison's A Mercy and Stephen King's The Stand both have TTS disabled, and it seems to be on an author-by-author basis instead of by publisher or imprint. More » -
monster cable
MonsterCable Offers Wilted Olive Branch To MonsterMiniGolf
With the launch of monsterminigolftruth.com MonsterCable has offered a wilted olive branch to Monster Mini Golf. In summary: More » -
monster cable
Tell Monster Cable To Stop Suing A Monster-Themed MiniGolf Park
If you would like to tell Monster Cable that they're jerks for trying to shut down the family owned and operated Monster MiniGolf... More » -
monster cable
Monster Cable Sues Monster MiniGolf For Trademark Infringement
Monster Cable has decided to sue Monster MiniGolf for trademark infringement. Monster MiniGolf is a family startup by Patrick & Christina Vitagliano glow-in-the-dark monster-themed minigolf franchise with 23 locations. Monster Cable, which has an illustrious history of suing anything and everything with Monster in its name, makes the expensive cables that Best Buy is always trying to upsell you on that are no better than coat hangers. More » -
to the point
Ben Popken On "To The Point" (And A Debate Over Personal Finance Advice)
Here's the clip of the To The Point radio program I was on yesterday. There was a bunch of people on, you can hear me at 23:30 talking about the Grocery Shrink Ray and 37:30 talking about the customer service hotline Sprint set up for Consumerist readers. It's a great show and I love Warren Onley's voice, but I have some issues with the advice some of the other guests gave on the show that I need to address. Here's what I would have said had I been asked some of their questions... More »
6:14 PM on Fri Jul 25 2008
By Ben Popken
0 views, 18 commentsLatest by JustThatGuy3: @Ben Popken: Ben, you're not understanding the note. The note shows that, if you have $15,000 today, you should just more »
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slurs
EBoost Media Calls Rogier A "Faggot" And A "Queer"
Note: There's been some confusion over company names, and Johnny Chan with eBoost Consulting wants you to know that his company is not involved in this story.
If a company promises to increase your Google PageRank, run! Rogier fell for eBoost Media's sweet words—they promised an increase in Google popularity "within about a week, at least for people entering specific search terms such as 'Maine photographer' and the like." But after three and a half weeks of no results, Rogier decided to cancel the service, which is when eBoost Media's dark side emerged.
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audio
The Best Personal Finance Podcasts
If you're a podcast sort of person, Get Rich Slowly has a list of 12 personal finance podcasts that they say are the best of the bunch—informative, entertaining, well-produced, and unique. "Money Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for a Richer Life" is their top choice:
More »The episodes are succinct but informative, and offer practical tips for dealing with money: how to improve your credit score, good debt versus bad debt, how to adjust your withholding, and wealth secret number one.
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recordings
T Mobile: Listen To The Most Pointless Customer Service Call Ever
Kapil's brand new Blackberry arrived with a battery that won't charge. He wants T-Mobile to exchange it, but he says T-Mobile wants to replace it with a refurbished Blackberry instead of a new model. Kapil is fighting back, but even at the executive support level all he's found are rude, uncooperative T-Mobile employees who keep saying there's a process, and that someone will call him back—which never happens. Kapil refused to hang up on the fourth day and demanded to know what happens next after nobody calls back, which seemed to confuse and anger the T-Mobile rep he was speaking with. And for those of you who can't listen in, we've transcribed some of the juiciest parts. More » -
complaints
DirecTV Makes You Pay Termination Fee Even If You Can't Use Their Service
DirecTV is a lying pack of liars. They told Ian that if he moved to a place where he couldn't use his dish, then they would let him out of contract without early termination fee (ETF). Well guess what? He moved to a place without a balcony or roof access. Double guess what: Now DirecTV says he has to pay an ETF and they say there's no record of all those reps telling him that, and that that's not part of their policy. Triple guess what: Ian called up DirecTV sales and recorded their sales rep telling him that they DO let you out of contract if you move to a new place where you can't use DirecTV. Are DirecTV retention reps just not versed on company policy, or are they a pack of scumbags? I dunno, but you know what they say, never trust a company run by a man in a mustache. Ian's audio recording and letter to the CEO of DirecTV is inside... More » -
ask the consumerists
How To Design A Monster Vs Coat Hanger Experiment?
One of our readers is an enterprising psych major and he would really like to recreate the Monster Cable vs Coat Hanger test with laboratory-grade methodology, controls, and statistical measures. However, Adam needs your help. What is the minimum equipment he should buy, both audio equipment and coat-hanger-wise? -
experiments
Do Coat Hangers Sound As Good Monster Cables?
Can you tell the difference between music that passed through a pricey Monster stereo Cable, and a coat hanger? A reader forwarded us a post from the Audioholics Home Theater Forum and its author says no. He says his brother ran an experiment on him and four other audio aficionados listening to a new CD from a new group blindfolded. Seven different songs were played, each time heard with the speaker hooked up to Monster Cables, and the other time, hooked up to coat hanger wire. Nobody could determine which was the Monster Cable and which was the coat hanger. The kicker? None of the subjects even knew that coat hangers were going to be used. This is, of course, "nothing new," a Google of "monster cables vs coat hangers" shows that some users have been saying this for a while. Still, this is an experiment begging to be recreated under controlled conditions (say, for instance, a double-blind test). Science fair project! Read how it went down, inside... More » -
reviews
In MP3 Showdown, Winners Are iPod Touch And Sansa View
Okay, so it's not like there aren't 15,000 MP3-player reviews already on the web, but SmartMoney decided to jump on the bandwagon and rate five 8-gigabyte MP3 players. Instead of hard stats and lab tests, they handed the devices to an NYU music instructor and audiophile and asked him to walk around the city playing with them. The Apple iPod Touch—at $300, the most expensive of the lot—came out on top, which probably doesn't surprise anyone, but the SanDisk Sansa View performed well too. More » -
music
Last.fm Offers Free Streaming Albums And Tracks
The popular music site Last.fm announced today that beginning immediately, you can listen to entire music tracks and full-length albums for free. Previously, you could only hear excerpts of most tracks, which made Last.fm a great place for discovering new artists but a rotten one for actually listening to them. The site is taking a Flickr-style approach to its new service, offering a free version—you can listen to a track up to three times—and a forthcoming subscription service which will allow for unlimited streaming. This sounds good, but we're curious about the three-listen limit, and how frequently that count is reset, if ever. More » -
audio
Recording Of A Pathetic Debt Collector
In this audio recording with subtitles, American Credit Collections (ACC) tries unsuccessfully to scare an informed consumer into paying a debt that had already been charged off and was past the statute of limitations. ACC threatens to send a sheriff to the guy's work to arrest him, and says they'll, "go to any lengths to embarrass you." When he sends them letters requesting verification of the debt, they feign incomprehension and say, "the verification of your debt is that you paid it for two years." (hint: that's not what the law says). He asks if their company, based in Pennsylvania, has a license to operate in North Carolina. The rep unconvincingly says that she's sure their attorneys have taken care of everything. If they don't have such a license, it's a first class felony. Take a shot every time they violate the FDCPA! [via Caveat Emptor]
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audio
Ira Glass Rescues Coworker From MCI Hell
One of the producers over at the lovely This American Life radio show was overbilled by MCI (which has since merged with Verizon) for $946.36 and was sent to collections and told lie after lie that they were going to fix the problem. It's not until host Ira Glass gets involved and starts recording the customer service calls that her issue is finally resolved. The account is credited, the company apologizes, and the Senior VP of Customer Service send her a gift basket of cheese chocolates and crackers. Aw. You can listen to the story here, it's the second act, about 30 minutes into the show.
It's clear, sometimes the only way to get a company to not screw you over is to become a threat. Luckily, you don't have to work on a national radio show to get leverage, you can employ many of the wonderful techniques described in The Ultimate Consumerist Guide To Fighting Back.
253: The Middle of Nowhere [This American Life] (Thanks to Mike!)
audio
New York, 12:05 AM
Sat Jul 4
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