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Mon Sep 8
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Unlike prospective homebuyers, this pair of bobcats went absolutely wild over a foreclosed Lake Elsinore home. According to the L.A. Times, the bobcats were likely attracted by an outdoor koi pond, which isn't just decorative, but serves as a fabulous source of drinking water. Like any suburban couple, the pair is expected to stay until the kids are old enough to leave.
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Oh dear, all that talk about Freddie and Fannie being "adequately capitalized" was utter bullshit and the government has now announced plans to place the failed government sponsored enterprises into conservatorship. That means the fate of the housing market and the global economy rest squarely on the shoulders of U.S. taxpayers.
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Priceline won't let deal-hating weathermen keep you from the amazing savings churned up by Tropical Storm Hanna. Rooms in Hilton Head are now going for the low, low price of $64 per night, but act fast because the deal is only valid while Hanna pummels the dream destination's shores with 70 mph winds!
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Here are five special photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, chosen because they're both neat and could possibly be used in a Consumerist post. Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers go and upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click "Join Group?" up on the top right, and start hitting "send to group" on your individual photos you want to add to the pool.
Title: "[Day 5] Making It Up"
By: Cavale
Starbucks delivered their new "healthy choices" breakfast menu to The Consumerist this morning, and, falling blindly into their free breakfast trap, we all tried it out. A taste review will follow, but for now, just know that for some reason, my cat, Captain Duvel Moneycat, loves Starbucks new "Perfect Oatmeal." Seriously,he was freakin' on this bowl, it was disturbing. I took it away shortly after taking this exploitative photo.
There's four things we say over and over to readers writing in with problems who have gotten their legitimate claims spurned by regular customer service. They just keep working! They're EECB, Executive Customer Service, Chargeback and Small Claims Court. Inside, what these tools mean and how to get started using one.
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Disney, inventors of childhood itself, told Daniel they would foot the bill after he got injured on their California Adventure ride. Then when Daniel and his wife Jane tried to collect, they got strung along for months by Garth Steever in guest claims. When they finally locked him down 11 months after the incident, Garth told them Disney changed its mind. By this time, the medical bills had already been sent to collections. Then Jane read about how to send an EECB on The Consumerist, and stormed the ramparts of Cinderella Castle. Here's her letter, and success story...
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UPDATE: Prompted by this post, Woot did their own post analyzing their internal data much more thoroughly.
It will take some time for the economic impact of Hurricane Gustav on New Orleans to be calculated, unless the journalist or statistician in question is a fan of daily gadget deal site Woot! As part of the forums area, the site throws out various data, like how many units did people buy, percentage of sales per hour, and a Woots per capita map. The map clearly shows that basically no one in Louisiana is buying jack from Woot right now, and, no doubt, from any else. How will we know when people have returned to Louisiana and are buying again? By watching the delta on the Woots per capita map!
The number of credit card offers clogging mailboxes took a nosedive in this year's second quarter, 1.54 billion vs 1.8 billion for the same period last year. An aftershock of the credit crunch and sub-prime meltdown, the decrease reflects a shift in the banking industries thinking, trending towards higher standards from its borrowers than merely the fact that they are carbon-based lifeforms. A good way to take that number even lower is to register with OptOutPrescreen.com and stop the tide of credit card offers almost entirely.
A Mailbox With Fewer Credit Offers [NYT] (Photo: largeprime. p.s. the cc#'s are photoshopped)
Electronic Arts immediately forwards all pre-orders to a secretive processing facility, so if you happy to change your address after ordering a game eight months in advance, well, tough. At least that's what Electronic Arts told Micah when he asked to update his pre-order for the now sold-out limited-run collector's edition of Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. When Micah pointed out that it might not be the best idea to sell games eight months in advance without a way to update addresses, Electronic Arts canceled his order altogether and told him to find another copy somewhere else.
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The Bluebird Cafe in Culver City sold Seth a grasshopper home gussied up us a tuna melt. A waitress deftly handled the very-live and confused grasshopper by picking him up and tossing him on the ground. That's it. No apology, no replacement sandwich.
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Mike's friend gave Best Buy $200 to install anti-virus software and an HDMI input, but Best Buy somehow sent him home with the wrong power adapter. Mike works in IT and knows how to feed and bathe himself, but Best Buy insisted that he had the right adapter and that Mike had to be "doing something wrong." Guess how this ends...
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Here are five special photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, chosen because they're both neat and could possibly be used in a Consumerist post. Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers go and upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click "Join Group?" up on the top right, and start hitting "send to group" on your individual photos you want to add to the pool.
Title: "08-16-08 The Damselles 11"
By: CharlieChu
Can there be any sadder indication of our toilet-water economy than a dollar store that references its own happier, cheaper past? This New York City dollar store has pulled down its old sign, "Everything 99¢ Or Less," and rebranded.
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The central bank of Iceland has increased overnight borrowing rates to 15.5%, meaning you can get some damn high yields investing in their currency. Those numbers piqued my interest.
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Once upon a time, Peter Finch won an Oscar for telling us to go to our window, open it, and yell, "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore!" Now thousands and thousands of consumers are doing just that, but instead of yelling out their windows, they're yelling at the Federal Reserve in the form of a record breaking number of public comments about some proposed credit card reforms. Not as sexy as yelling like a madman, but far, far more effective.
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According to reader Caleb, Wells Fargo seems to have recently crippled their loan repayment system in a way that makes it impossible for borrowers to pay off loans the way they want to. That is, unless you prefer to let your highest-interest loans ride for as long as possible while you pay off your lower-interest loans...
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We thought Hobby Lobby's August Christmas trees might be the height of this season's Christmas Creep, but wow were we wrong. Garden Ridge is striving to be a one-stop panacea for all your summer Christmas needs. They're already stocking Christmas trees, ornaments, lights, snowy yard inflatables, and what looks like a snow toboggan complete with Tigger, Winnie The Pooh, and everybody's favorite Christmas downer, Eeyore!
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