Consumerist: error in your favor

IRS Sends 15,000 Stimulus Checks To The Wrong Bank Accounts

Carey — Sat, 17 May 2008 08:45:50 EDT

That economic stimulus check you were expecting may have accidentally stimulated your neighbor's bank account. Newsday is reporting that 15,000 checks tumbled astray thanks to an IRS "computer programming glitch."

One local taxpayer, who asked not to be identified, reported that he had discovered an unexpected deposit of $1,800 in his bank account. He said a review of his bank records revealed that it was a deposit from the IRS bearing another taxpayer's Social Security number. He said he contacted the IRS and was told by an agent that the deposit was one of 15,000 misrouted checks sent out incorrectly as a result of a computer programming glitch.

[Internal Revenue Service spokesman Kevin McKeon] said he could not confirm that figure or that a computer problem was responsible.

The government will want its cash back, so don't giddily spend any unexpected stimulus money. Paper checks can be mailed back to the IRS, while those with direct deposit should report the error to their bank.

IRS: Some stimulus checks sent to wrong accounts [Newsday]
(Photo: Joe Shlabotnik)

This Sprint Plan Lets You Talk For 1.9 Years Per Month. What?

Carey — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:18:47 EDT

BG's Sprint plan lets him talk for 1,000,499 minutes per month and only costs $50. How did he find this stupefyingly amazing plan? Hit the jump for his story.

My two years on my initial Sprint contract was up in January of this year, so I worked through Retention and got them to agree to a plan I was happy with. This included free incoming calls (like I had on my old contract), 300 more minutes of other calls than I had before, and free text messaging. I got them to commit to the same price I was paying before - $50/month.
Naturally, because this is Sprint, my January, February and March bills have all been issued with enough errors to this custom-built plan that I have had to call Billing to get things squared away on each one. Surprisingly, they've been easy to deal with and have processed the fixes for me without any trouble at all.

So, I've grown to expect Sprint to screw up my bill a little bit. A *little* bit. I'm not sure a teenage girl in Prom season could use up all these minutes I was mysteriously granted...

$50 is a reasonable price for 1,000,499 minutes, but you can probably get a better deal by hopping down to the million minute per month plan.

(Photo: bg_poker)

Meijer Accidentally Marks Everything 50% Off, Doesn't Want The Money Back

Meg Marco — Thu, 24 May 2007 17:34:22 EDT

Midwest grocery giant Meijer experienced a computer glitch that marked nearly everything in their 179 stores (including their gas stations) 50% off for about 60 minutes. From the Palladium-Item:

"It happened at the end of the night," [Meijer Manager Sandi Wagenknecht] said. "So we weren't very busy. We caught it early and just rang things up differently to accommodate it."
A 50 percent discount intended for a style of oriental rug ended up being accidentally applied to nearly everything sold by the retailer, she said.

"We became aware of it pretty quickly," Behler [spokesperson] told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Wednesday. "We had lots of folks working on the problem, and within the hour it was fixed."

Several customers noticed the glitch when they got home, and offered to come back and pay the proper price. Meijer refused. "

It was our error, and there's nothing that we would require or expect back from our customers," Behler said.

Aww, Meijer. —MEGHANN MARCO

Local Meijer skirts 50% price glitch [Palladium-Item] (Thanks, Sarah!)
(Photo: merfam)