Consumerist
damage control
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verizon
Verizon, NYPD Don't Care About Fires
Once again, Verizon has been caught leaving its vans parked in front of fire hydrants.
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caught in the act
VIDEO: Toyota Employees Taped Stealing From, Watching Porn In Customer's Truck
UPDATE: Dealership Video-Responds To Customer's Hidden Camera Expose
The first two times Jason brought his truck in to his local Toyota dealership for service, he noticed that someone had taken quarters from his change compartment. He complained both times, but was ignored. So the third time he brought his truck in, he placed a video camera on the passenger side. The dealership didn't ignore him this time. More »
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bad company
Direct Express Auto Transport Responds To Bad Reviews By Posting Reviewers' Personal Information Online
We write often about companies' sleazy approaches to online reviews. Some companies bribe users for positive feedback. Others sue over negative reviews. Direct Express Auto Transport, however, is the first company we've seen that responds to bad reviews by sharing users' personal information. More » -
canon
Canon's Rebate Program Is Blurry And Poorly Lit
Brett has now been the victim of two failed rebate attempts through Canon. They ignored the first one, and rejected the second one with a claim that he can clearly disprove. He's trying again. Unfortunately, it looks like Brett's experience with Canon isn't unique. More » -
bad company
Company Bills Customer For Chargeback
After Ilan successfully filed a chargeback on a company, the company decided to bill him directly for the amount that was refunded. What's even sneakier is the company (which Ilan didn't name) waited until after they reported the matter resolved to the Better Business Bureau. Now Ilan's wondering what options he has to fight back. More » -
bad company
This Online Pet Store Has Rabies
On the surface, Hands-N-Paws caters to owners-n-their-dogs, but the company's real stock in trade is being hilariously rude to its customers. When someone asked them to cancel an order immediately, they wrote back, "No..not immediately, when we can get round to it." When another person threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau, they wrote back, "File it. Blackmail gets you nowhere, honey." They even have a "Hall of Shame" on their website where they list the email addresses of customers they hate most of all. This is why we make all of our cats' clothing out of old newspaper. More » -
bad company
Royal Flowers Hikes Price After You Order Flowers For Mother's Day
Ian in Pennsylvania says Royal Flowers tried to scam him on a recent bouquet purchase:
More »With it being Mothers Day, I was shopping around for flowers to send to my mother. I checked the normal big sites since she lives in another state, like 1-800 flowers. I decided to check the local company I use, since they are always cheap and service is great. So I found a great piece significantly cheaper than the other sites. I place the order and everything is going great.
Then I received the following email.
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living wages
Burger King Investigating Email Shenanigans In Tomato Price War
Last week a Florida journalist busted Burger King VP Stephen Grover for using his tween-aged daughter's email account to slam a farm workers group—but that wasn't the only weird email event related to this story. Now Burger King is taking steps to officially distance itself from Grover's actions and the other internal emails by announcing it's launched an "internal investigation" into all three. More » -
bad company
Dunkin' Donuts Suing Its Own Small Franchisees Out Of Existence
If your favorite Dunkin' Donuts shop is an individually-owned franchise and not part of a large group of stores, don't grow too attached to it, warns Cindy Gluck, a DD owner in Brooklyn. She claims DD corporate waits patiently for smaller franchisees to make any mistake at all, then strong-arms them out of business at a huge financial loss. The sheer number of lawsuits DD has aimed at small-time owners recently indicates that something unusual is going on:Dunkin' Donuts has sued other franchise owners 154 times since 2006. Over the same stretch of time, McDonald's was involved in five lawsuits. And Subway, a company that has four times the number of locations as Dunkin' Donuts, sued its franchises 12 times.
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living wages
Burger King Exec Hides Behind Daughter's Email Account To Trash Talk Opponents
The next time Burger King VP Stephen Grover goes online to spread FUD about labor advocates, he should probably leave his daughter out of it. For one thing, she's a horrible accomplice and will spill her guts to the first reporter who calls. For another thing, this forthrightness clearly makes her too ethical to smear a group that's trying to bring pay for tomato pickers up to living wage levels.
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bad company
EMI Says You Can't Store Your Music Files Online
Today, MP3tunes' CEO Michael Robertson sent out an email to all users of the online music backup and place-shifting service MP3tunes.com, asking them to help publicize EMI's ridiculous and ignorant lawsuit against the company. EMI believes that consumers aren't allowed to store their music files online, and that MP3tunes is violating copyright law by providing a backup service. (And we're not using a euphemism here—it really is a backup/place-shifting service and not a file sharing site in disguise.) More » -
follow-up
Follow-Up: Citibank Steps In, Forces Sears To Remove The $1070 Charge
Tom just sent us a follow-up to yesterday's post, and it's good news:Score another one for The Consumerist!
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fraud
Sears Refuses To Refund $1070 For TV They Never Delivered
Update: one day after being posted here, the issue has been resolved. Sears strikes again! They sold Tom a TV for $1,070 on Black Friday last November. "Of course, it wasn't in stock but they assured me that they could order it," he writes. They were never able to deliver it, however, so finally Tom arranged for a similar discount on another TV and bought that one instead. More » -
bad company
Bally Cashes Cancellation Check, Continues To Bill For 15 More Months, And Now Demands "Past Due" Payment
Ashoka just found out that Bally never canceled his membership, even though they cashed his $50 cancellation check a mere 5 days after he mailed it to them last year. They've said there was no date on the paperwork, but Ashoka has a printout that proves otherwise. And they said they tried to contact him last year about the "problem," but not by phone—even though they called him promptly this month when he changed his credit card info and the automatic billing didn't go through. Bally, just admit it: nobody gets out, ever. More » -
bad company
New Shooter Video Game Charges Gamers For Better Weapons
UPDATE: EA has backed off, and has decided to offer the weapons at no charge. Kotaku has more. This is what I get for leaving a post in Movable Type purgatory for a week. More » -
bait and switch
Qwest Sells Woman "Cheaper" Package That Costs More, Has Unmentioned 2-Year Commitment, And Requires New Modem
Matt's mom, a longtime Qwest customer, called up the company to switch her long distance over from AT&T. The CSR suggested she switch over to a bundled package that would save her $11 a month and offer faster Internet connection speeds. What the CSR didn't mention was that the new package required a 2-year commitment, that it wouldn't work with her current DSL modem, and that it actually came out to about $3 more per month. More » -
wal-mart
Wal-Mart's Katrina Heroism: "Above All, Do The Right Thing," CEO Told Managers Before Katrina Struck
A paper written by Steven Horwitz, an Austrian-school economist (we're still not quite sure what that means, other than it's considered slightly controversial), recounts Wal-Mart's relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina (PDF) and points out that private businesses, along with the Coast Guard, did far more than any "official" government agency in providing immediate, on-the-ground assistance to victims. His argument is that something as complex as a relief effort is more efficient when it's decentralized and involves private businesses. Horwitz has also, separately, supported the idea that Wal-Mart should win the Nobel Peace Price. Hey, we told you his school of economics was controversial. More »
