payments
If you dislike handing your credit or debit card over to restaurant employees and letting them wander off with it for a while, you're not alone, and that's why some
restaurants are experimenting with mobile pay-at-the-table technology.
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accolades
Emailing a company about a product problem via their front-facing email address usually has about as much effect as wishing your way out of debt (just don't tell the producers of The Secret). But Steve emailed
Panasonic and instead of getting nothing or a generic response back, he actually ended up sending a series of emails back and forth with a product engineer who solved his consumer conundrum. Amazing! Here's his story.
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sales
- Amazon: 3 months of Amazon Prime free with $100 worth of textbooks in cart (No actual purchase necessary)
- Froobi: Refurbished SanDisk Sansa e270 6GB MP3 Media Player w/ FM/Voice Recorder for $55.95
- Amazon: "Narrow Stairs" by Death Cab For Cutie, $5 DRM-free MP3 album
Highlights From Dealhack- REI: Summer Sale: Up to 40% or More off Apparel, Footwear, & Gear
- Staples: Envision 22-inch Widescreen Dual Input LCD $200 Shipped
- Design Within Reach: Save 15% off Upholstered Furniture & Free Shipping
Highlights From Bargainist- Headsets.com: Free Bluetooth headset if you get cited driving while on phone (a promotion that incentivizes breaking the law, um ok)
- Yves Rocher: 50% off select beauty products
- Busted Tees: After Christmas in July Sale: Select shirts $10
price match guarantee
The
Best Buy in Secaucus, NJ refused to match J&R's price for a Bluetooth headset, claiming that J&R was not covered by Best Buy's price match guarantee. Best Buy employees first called J&R—a large New York electronics retailer—a wholesaler. A manager later insisted that J&R was a Mom & Pop store and refused to match the lower price. When reader Steven attempted to cut through the absurdity by calling corporate, he was told that the price match is provided at each store's discretion. Read his full story, inside.
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advertising
Marketers in France are planning
to beam location-specific ads to your phone via Bluetooth, the common short-range wireless transfer technology that's now included in nearly every new cellphone, reports Reuters. Currently under consideration is just what sort of ad would be compelling enough to tempt consumers to opt in on such messages, since there's no way advertisers can force you to accept
Bluetooth communications.
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complaints
Buy.com sold Chris two Jabra BT350
bluetooth headsets advertised as OEM, but one arrived with a broken charger and headset. When Chris contacted Jabra, as per Buy.com's instructions, he was told that because the headset was refurbished, its warranty was void. According to Jabra, many of their service requests have come from misled Buy.com customers. Chris writes:
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above and beyond
Kensington customer service is nice. George searched all up in the internet's biznatch but could nay find another trackball just like the one he had.
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readers
By insisting on his consumer rights, Sandar got
Best Buy to sell him a $1999 plasma HDTV for $1499.
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rick
Rick needed a replacement earbud gel on his Jabra
Bluetooth headset. He's a Cingular customer so he went into a Cingular store to buy one. They told him he would have to buy an entirely new headset.
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deals
• Today's
Woot! is a pair of fancy-schmancy
Bluetooth phones for $65, which integrate with your PC, PDA, or cellphone to do...things. Marvelous things, like unto a regular cell phone. In fact, why do you still have a landline?
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complaints
Business as usual for Verizon Customer Service Representative #1: a customer writes in, frustrated but polite, with a cogent complaint. When shopping for their phone, they were misleaded and/or lied to about the phone's functionality by a Verizon employee. While the customer does not demand a refund, they are looking for some sort of acknowledgment that they have been wronged and want to know what Verizon is going to do in the future to prevent their sales reps from selling products based upon misleading and dishonest claims.
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deals
• Pick up one of two Motorola
Bluetooth headsets on the cheap: the
HS805 for $25 or the
MS815 for $30. Use the coupon code
RAZRREWARDS for an additional 10% off. These should work fine with non-Motorola but Bluetooth-equipped phones.
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Consumerist
stick it in your ear
