Tmobile Call Center Bans Kleenex

Update on that outsourced Tmobile call center that banned paper and pens earlier this week: our insider reports that Kleenex is now verboten as well. He furthermore notes that, "paper and pens, if they are to be used, have to be signed out from a supervisor. When signed back in, the paper is shredded by the supervisor." Any reps feeling the need to cry about their vaporizing dignity can use the back of their sleeve, after their request form is approved. A comment from our previous post explains why this might be a bad idea...

$54 Million Best Buy Lawsuit Over Lost Laptop Dismissed

Raelyn Campbell's $54 million pro se lawsuit against Best Buy over her lost laptop was dismissed on a procedural issue, thus showing the difficultly of suing a big company for a lot of money without a real lawyer. The trouble all started when she sent a laptop in for repairs to Best Buy, who lost it gave her the runaround for months, and then tried to buy her off with a $900 gift card. They later upped their offer to $1,100, but Raelyn decided to make 'em pay for all the lost photos and tax returns and the potential privacy invasion, and, to get big headlines, went for $54 million. She got some decent press, including a Today show appearance, but no money. In fact, she also had to pay the other side's legal fees, all two hours worth. I think she got what she was looking for, though: the satisfaction of getting Best Buy's name in the national spotlight for their tendency to let customers' laptops get lost and not really care about it. You can read the docket here.

$54 Million Lawsuit Against Best Buy? Poof, Gone [NAM] (Thanks to Wade!)
PREVIOUSLY: Woman Sues Best Buy For $54 Million Over Lost Laptop

ResellerRatings Cracks Down On TheCellShop.net's Review Bribing

The CEO of ResellerRatings, Scott Wainner, emailed us to say they're busting TheCellShop for bribing customers to submit perfect reviews on his site. He wrote:

ResellerRatings does not condone fake reviews. For the past 13 years, we have worked hard to develop anti-fraud tools, both automated and manual, and we disable fraudulent reviews every day. When we heard about the Cell Shop's actions, we immediately began contacting all Cell Shop reviewers to verify that they were not, in fact, offered money for their positive reviews, and to obtain proof of their valid transactions (order invoices, credit card statements, etc) and we have disabled reviews where money was offered for positive reviews.

Word up Steve-o, make them go outside and pick out their own switch from the hickory tree.

(Photo: Getty)

Circuit City Finally Refunds $169 Fraudulent Charge

The lady whom Circuit City charged an extra $169 for an HDTV installation will finally get her money back. The fee was because it was over a fireplace and fireplaces are usually made of brick. However, this fireplace was fake and the wall was drywall. When a local TV news investigation team started asking questions, Circuit City Spokeswoman Jackie Foreman just kept chirping, "It's resolved." Two days after the report aired, Jackie told the reporters, "Byrd's installation was not standard…due to a miscommunication; Ms. Byrd will receive a refund."

Woman gets refund of Firedog's extra fee [WRAL] (Thanks to Cheryl!)
PREVIOUSLY: Circuit City Will Not Refund Your $169 Even If The Local News Calls On Your Behalf

Netflix's Statement On "Are These Netflix DVDs Legit?"

Circuit City Denies Its In-Home TV Calibration Is A Total Scam

Geek Squad Replaces Soaked Computer For Free

Protesting Honda Civic SI Get Transmission TSB

Those Honda Civic SI owners who were holding protests in front of dealerships about the widespread transmission problem (where the 3rd gear kept grinding, popping out and randomly going into neutral), finally have their day. Honda issued a TSB (technical service bulletin) on the issue, so now owners experiencing the problem can go their dealership and get it repaired for free, provided they are still under warranty. It's not quite the recall owners were hoping for, but it's something. Guess Honda has now heard of the problem they previously said they "never heard of before." Must have been all that negative news coverage. Here's links to the TSB (for Honda dealers, for Acura dealers (PDF)) so you can print it out and bring with you. Inside, one of the original newscasts covering the uproar.

Progressive Responds To Question About Using Recent Military Service To Determine Rates And Eligibility

Comcast Fixes Problem Of Reader They Made Cry

Stephanie's internet is back after she used the contact info from our post "Comcast Trawling Blogs And Twitter For Customer Complaints" to email Comcast's problem solver, Frank Eliason. Stephanie writes, "Within an hour of my email to Frank he responded, saying that he forwarded my problem to Scott the local guy...they had a tech at my house within an hour." Score!

PREVIOUSLY: Comcast Skips 3 Appointments, Hangs Up On You 6 Times, Makes You Want To Cry
(Photo: u2acro)

Sprint's "Nucking Futs" "Jessica" Fired

Two more instances of Sprint's insecure online system:

1) Members of the Howards Forums cellphone message boards have discovered a URL hack that lets users add the "Unlimited Shared Night & Weekend Minutes at 5pm pack" for free to their account.

2) If you take this URL and replace the phone# at the end with the phone number of someone who hasn't set up the PIN on their account, you will see the last 4 digits of their social security number. Not a huge deal, we give out the last 4 of our social over the phone all the time, but it seems a bit odd to broadcast these numbers unnecessarily.

PREVIOUSLY: Flawed Sprint Security Worse Than We Thought
Flawed Security Lets Sprint Accounts Get Easily Hijacked

Drugs In The Water No Big Deal, Says NYC Official

In regards to a headline grabbing AP investigation that found the drinking water of major cities contained trace amounts of an array of pharmacopoeia, the deputy commissioner of New York City's Department of Environmental Protection, "A person would have to drink one million glasses of water to get the dose of even one over-the-counter ibuprofen tablet or the caffeine in one cup of coffee...Even at eight glasses of water per day, this would take the average person over 300 years to consume." So for those of you hoping to replace your medicine cabinet just by draining the Brita, sorry Charlie. However, there are no studies on the long-term effects to human of small exposure to a vast array of drugs, although, the Times notes, they have been shown to cause mutations in fish.

Council Considers Testing Water for Traces of Drugs [NYT]
PREVIOUSLY: AP: 41 Million Americans Drink Water Contaminated With Antibiotics, Anti-Convulsants, Mood Stabilizers, And Sex Hormones
(Photo: Getty)