Consumerist
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consumerist hotline
Citibank: Transfer $5000 In Debt Onto This Card Or We'll Double Your APR
"It's the increased cost of doing business," was Citicard's constant refrain when Kent's husband called to complain about their latest pre-CARD act adverse action insanity: transfer $5000 in balances from other credit cards to this credit card or we'll double your interest rate. Listen to Kent's message left on the new Consumerist hotline and/or read the transcript: More » -
rumors
Google To Launch Music Search Service Next Week
You've probably seen Google Finance, where each company has its own page made up of content scraped from all over the web. Google is about to launch a similar service for musicians, says the Hollywood Reporter: "The music pages will package images of musicians and bands, album artwork, links to news, lyrics and song previews, along with a way to buy songs." More » -
audio
Debt Collector On Tape: "I'm Gonna F**** You Up"
"When I see you, I'm gonna f*** you up," says debt collector "Mickey," pictured at left, on the answering machine of a guy who bounced a check. WTSP obtained the messages, some of the worst debt collector recordings I've ever heard, and you can listen to them here. More » -
audio
Toyota: 911 Call Of Family's Fatal Lexus Crash Due To Gas Pedal Stuck On Floormats
Warning: This audio is graphic and shocking. Before Toyota could be bothered to recall 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus cars that they had known for two years had a problem, an off-duty state trooper and three members of his family had to die in fatal car crash when the gas pedal got stuck on the floormat. This is the recording of their 911 call moments before they crashed into the end of the freeway at 120 mph. More » -
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 » -
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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
3,636 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 »
audio
New York, 9:47 AM
Sun Nov 15
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