• 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 »

    Feature

    6:14 PM on Fri Jul 25 2008
    By Ben Popken
    3,598 views, 18 comments

    Latest 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 »

  • 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.

    More »

    5:32 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
    By Chris Walters
    12,860 views, 114 comments

  • badvertising

    California Ford Dealership Radio Ad Tells Non-Christians To "Sit Down And Shut Up"

    UPDATE: Kieffe & Sons apologized for the ad
    Kieffe and Sons, a California Ford dealership, decided for some reason to launch a radio ad attacking non-Christians and people who believe that prayer shouldn't be in public schools. Audio and transcript of the ad, inside. More »

    5:33 PM on Mon May 26 2008
    By Alex Chasick
    80,459 views, 313 comments

    Latest by Overheal: censuses are misrepresented anyway in this country. anyone who celebrates the commercial tradition of christmas considers themselves a christian. Well more »

  • 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:

    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.

    More »

    11:51 AM on Fri May 16 2008
    By Chris Walters
    2,764 views, 3 comments

    Latest by Fist-o™: Yeah, could be re-arranged to read, "Quick, Dirty Girl's Tips for a money Richer life", a guide to prostitution! more »

  • 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 »

    11:32 AM on Mon May 12 2008
    By Chris Walters
    16,510 views, 90 comments

    Latest by chadbailey: I am just happy someone else calls them more than I do. 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 »

    11:49 AM on Tue May 6 2008
    By Ben Popken
    7,270 views, 70 comments

    Latest by thatsme7039: are you guys out of your minds? listen to what this guy is saying. he was so paranoid about the 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?

    2:12 PM on Thu Mar 6 2008
    By Ben Popken
    4,009 views, 34 comments

    Latest by WylieCalidus: since you are a doing this for a psych project, don't think equipment at all. Think perception. Use what ever more »

  • 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 »

    12:00 PM on Mon Mar 3 2008
    By Ben Popken
    230,936 views, 95 comments

    Latest by LorenaJillion: Goes to show that Monster Cable products are crap. I've never read a review that said they were any good, 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 »

    2:02 PM on Thu Jan 24 2008
    By Chris Walters
    3,823 views, 35 comments

    Latest by Git Em SteveDave loves this guy->★: @ekthesy: I went on Ebay and got the "Otterbox" for my shuffle for dirt cheap because they updated the series. 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 »

    3:41 PM on Wed Jan 23 2008
    By Chris Walters
    2,244 views, 15 comments

    Latest by Smackdown: I'm telling you guys, Slacker is where's it at. I promise, I don't work for them, I just was more »