Consumerist
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creepy
Bill Collector Accused Of Offering Debt Forgiveness For Sex
A Rent-A-Center employee near Detroit has allegedly found a new approach to helping consumers get out of debt: making their bills go away in exchange for sex. More » -
mashups
Radio Shack Opening Mobile Phone Kiosks In Target Stores
One problem I've always had when shopping for jacked-up prices is I can't find enough crazy to go along with it. Same thing for the crazy: I know where to go to get cart-loads of that, but I can't find the 2400% markup! What I need, clearly, is for Radio Shack to open up specialty kiosks inside Target stores, so then— oh hey! It's the Bullseye Mobile Solution! More » -
badvertising
Woman Sues Toyota For Convincing Her She Was Being Stalked
It's probably a bad idea to market to consumers by tricking them with practical jokes. It's definitely a bad idea to make a consumer fear for her safety over a five day period because she thinks a stalker is coming after her. That's why a woman in Los Angeles is suing Toyota for $10 million after being on the receiving end of a Punk'd-style stunt to promote the Toyota Matrix. More » -
what could go wrong?
Update: Tire Lights Actually Still Exist, Are Completely Absurd
After reading our post on dumb inventions from the last century, many commenters declared that lighted tires were actually a great idea and wondered why they haven't caught on (especially among rappers). So we did some more research. More » -
ctrl-alt-delete
Microsoft Wants You To Host Your Own Windows 7 Launch Party, Really
Everyone likes hosting launch parties, right?! What? No one likes them? They're not real parties—just promotional events dreamed up to move units? But Microsoft told me that it's okay to host my own launch party! It'll be cool! Just look at these two married couples hanging out and gabbing like a box of birds about how much they love Windows 7. More » -
bad ideas
Honegar And 29 Other Dumb Inventions From The Mid-1900s
LIFE magazine has published a list of 30 dumb inventions from the middle of the 20th century. There are some profoundly stupid ideas on display here (baby cage, anyone?). More » -
dumb
Citgo Employees Smoke Cigarettes At Gas Station, Are Apparently Fireproof
Maybe these guys know something about the risks of combining fire and gasoline that we don't, but we're pretty sure that you're not supposed to smoke at a gas station. Reader Chris didn't think so either, and he sent us these pics of employees taking a smoke break at his local Citgo. More » -
marketing
Sams Club Giving Kids Candy In Pill Bottles
The Sam's Club in Salisbury, Maryland, is promoting its pharmacy by handing out pill bottles filled with candy to kids. I guess that's better than filling Dots boxes with Vicodin. Or handing out gallon-sized jugs of Nerds. Update: Sam's Club has ended the promotion and apologized for it. More » -
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bad ideas
Banks Want Taxpayer Aid To Buy Toxic Assets From Themselves
This is one of those news stories that leave sensible people scratching their heads and wondering what our financial system has come to. The Wall Street Journal article about this is behind a pay wall, but James Kwak at Seeking Alpha lays out the situation and why it's such a horrible idea.
...The Public-Private Investment Program provides subsidies to private investors to encourage them to buy legacy loans from banks. The goal is to encourage buyers to bid more than they are currently willing to pay, and hopefully close the gap with the prices at which the banks are willing to sell.
Allowing banks to buy their own assets under the PPIP is a terrible idea. In short, it allows a bank to sell half of its toxic loans to Treasury – at a price set by the bank.
Banks Aiming to Play Both Sides of Coin [WSJ - subscribers only]
Banks Want to Use Government Money to Buy Assets from Themselves [Seeking Alpha](Photo: columbuscameraop)
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I love the '90s
Beanie Baby Futures: Slightly Better Investment Than Bernie Madoff
Last year, I visited my parents to help clear out the house we had lived in since 1984. One of my more cuddly tasks was to sort the three garbage bags full of Beanie Babies hanging out in the closet of my childhood bedroom. Most of them found new homes in the garage sale, or were donated to charity.
Far too many other American families and businesses have similar stashes. For some, they're a forgotten childhood relic. For others, it's an investment that never quite paid off. More »
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Please Stop Texting While Driving Two recent incidents with conductors of public transit vehicles getting into accidents while texting have magnified the consequences of using cell phones while operating a vehicle. Surprisingly, there are few complaints about other drivers sexting while driving. [Consumer Reports Cars]
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strange
Bear Grylls Loves Post Trail Mix, When He Can't Grab A Handful Of Goat Balls And Spiders
-Let's get a real rough and tumble adventure guy to push our trail mix!
-Yeah, trail mix is all about roughing it! And being green! And nature!
-How about Bear Grylls?
-...isn't he the guy who eats bugs and testicles and rotten zebras on TV?
-That's why you're a junior account manager, Chuck. You don't think outside the box. More » -
bad ideas
No, You Should Not Sell Your Five-Month-Old To Raise Money For A New Apartment
19-year-old West Virginian Rebecca Sue Taylor is facing felony charges after trying to sell her five-month-old son for $10,000 to raise money for a new apartment. Taylor was in talks to act as a surrogate mother for Leigh Burr, but then realized she could skip a few steps and still turn a buck. When it looked like negotiations weren't going well, Taylor, who claimed she had been "unable to bond with the infant," dropped the price of her son to $5,000. More » -
crime
Bad Idea: Confessing To Your $100,000 A Year Shoplifting Habit On National TV
All the clever shoplifting tricks in the world won't save you from yourself if you decide to reveal your secrets on Dr. Phil. Last week a fraud task force raided the home of Laura and Matthew Eaton, who appeared on an episode in November to show the audience how they did it and to say they were going straight. More » -
dirty tricks
Desperate Chrysler Dealership Resorts To Stupid Scare Tactics To Drum Up Business
Apparently the people at Integrity (!) Chrysler Jeep Dodge in Las Vegas don't read our blog, or they would have seen this post last year. Then they would have known what a bad idea it is to trick people into thinking you've hit their vehicle just to get them to call you about a trade-in offer. More » -
3m
3M Steals Viral Image Idea To Avoid Licensing It
There is probably nothing more pathetic in the world of marketing than watching a big corporation try to do something "viral"—usually they end up looking like Elaine dancing. But sometimes, they're so cynical and soulless about it that they don't just come across as incompetent, but as exploitative cheapskates as well. In 3M's case, they wouldn't pay $2,000 to license a well-known photo with its own viral history, and instead recreated a fake version of it to save a grand. We guess they're just hoping none of the sites and communities that made the photo popular in the first place will notice. Oh wait, this is supposed to be viral or something... More » -
verizon
Verizon Tech Made 5,000 Sex Chat Calls On Customer Accounts
The next time you're disputing a 900 number call to a sex hotline and the CSR tells you nobody else could have made that call, remind them of this story. Over the past 10 months, a Verizon technician made 5,000 calls to sex chat hotlines, totaling 45,000 minutes of dirty talk at a cost of $220,000. He placed the calls from over 950 tapped residential and commercial accounts throughout Bergen county in New Jersey. He has since resigned, and been charged with theft by deception and theft of services. More » -
sears
Sears Offer To Mail Customer Missing Key To Floor Model Snowblower
Aaron visited Sears to pick up a new Craftsman snowblower he bought for 10% off on Sears.com, but the store only had one floor model in stock. Aaron agreed to take the unit after staff assured him that it came with a warranty, manuals, and all the things normally bundled with new snowblowers. Of course, Sears couldn't find either the manual or the keys. A salesman promised that "Ray from Lawn & Garden" would mail the key whenever he returned, an offer Aaron refused. The salesman then offered a key from another snowblower, promising "the keys are basically universal." That key didn't work because, as a different associate later discovered, the unit was missing its electric start socket. More »
bad ideas
New York, 10:44 AM
Sat Nov 14
20 posts in the last 24 hours
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