Fox Twin Cities says:

They asked the clerk if they should they come back the next day, he said no, they made the purchase, and headed for the exit.

They looked around and saw no one. Anthony, already in pain, went upstairs looking for the clerk.

They tried calling out from a store phone, while Anthony tried Sears on his cell phone, but then the lights went out.

Finally, they reached Maplewood police...

Eventually police arrived and sorted everything out.

Police checked the Brown family's IDs and receipts, and the Sears representative eventually let them out.

Hey, it's too bad Anthony was scheduled to have hip surgery the next morning — it might have been fun to spend the night inside a Sears.

Customers Accidentally Locked in Maplewood Sears After Hours [MyFox Twin Cities]

AdFreak reports:

"Our intent is to get learning in an open way, not necessarily to 'roll out' anything in that store," Best Buy CMO Barry Judge writes on his blog. "I need to emphasize that we have not decided to iterate our logo."

The font is apparently modified from something called Klavika.

What do you think? Better than the gigantic yellow price tag? Will this give Best Buy a fresh new image? Or is this the same annoying ex-girlfriend with a new haircut?

In case you're wondering what it looks like in action, you can find photos of the Mall of America store here, here and here.

Best Buy's New Tag [Brand New]
Best Buy tests new logo at Mall of America [AdFreak]

Ashley writes:

My husband works in downtown Minneapolis and has the annoying habit of putting small purchases on his credit card (under $5.00). He patronizes a chain here called PotBelly Sandwich Works, never spending more than $4.50 a pop. Last week I was paying our credit card bill online and noticed we had pending charges of $858,432.06. Yes—almost a million dollars. Needless to say, our credit limit is about $825,000 less than that. We called Chase and were told that the pending charges were indeed correct but that the charge had been rejected. When the rep told us the charge was made by PotBelly, I couldn't help but laugh. There was a charge that same day from PotBelly for $4.23 because my husband had purchased a sandwich, but that was it. The fraud rep said that because the charge was rejected, not to worry about it, but that it wouldn't disappear from our pending column unless PotBelly reversed the charge. There was no mention from the fraud department of canceling our cards and issuing us new ones. When my husband went to PotBelly the next day, they could give us no information. I can't imagine them reversing an $858,000 charge anyway, especially without a receipt (given this was done after my husband had left the premises.) My husband works in IT for a large corporation and thinks this is nothing but a system glitch and doesn't think it's worth pursuing because the charge was rejected.

My question is: what is our next step and what should we be worried about? It sounds as if someone didn't close out a ticket and just kept charging my husband's card. However, there's no way in hell this Potbelly does $858,000 in business in a day—or even a year, I imagine. Anyone who wanted to commit fraud wouldn't, I presume, be so dumb as to charge nearly a million bucks on a personal credit card. The charge is bound to be rejected. I am also disturbed that we did not receive a call from Chase when this charge was put through, but that's a minor quibble at this point. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Ashley is covered under the Fair Credit Billing Act, which protects against incorrect charges. The FTC has instructions for formally disputing the charge, but we wouldn't fret. Chase rejected the charge, and even if they hadn't, it wouldn't be a tough charge to reverse. Sure, her husband may have eaten the sandwich, but PotBelly's still hasn't delivered the pool, tennis court, or the several cars that had to have been promised as side dishes.

Attorneys for Winthrop & Weinstine recently convinced Monster Cable that a product called "Monster Deer Block" would not cause confusion in the marketplace with its cable products.

There is a considerable difference, Winthrop attorneys argued, between a flavored salt and mineral lick designed to attract wild deer and Monster Cable's electric cable and connectors for wiring household electronics.

We're not so sure. They're just so similar. We'd like to thank Monster from keeping silly consumers from trying to plug vitamins for wild animals into their home theater systems. Imagine the mess.

Inside Track: A Monster dispute is licked
[Star-Tribune](Thanks, Tom!)

The article says,

Dakota County Judge Robert King Jr. on Monday ordered Wal-Mart to pay $6.5 million in compensatory damages, but Wal-Mart could end up paying more than $2 billion after a jury in October considers civil penalties and punitive damages.

The judge said Wal-Mart should have known the employees were working off the clock while at computer-based training terminals and "willfully allowed" it to continue. The company also failed to provide employees with rest breaks more than 1.5 million times and shortened employees' breaks more than 44,000 times, according to the order.

Wal-Mart was also found in violation of statutes relating to making and keeping employee time records and failing to let employees have any time for a meal break. While the plaintiffs won't receive compensatory damages for those violations, Wal-Mart is subject to a $1,000 civil penalty for each incident.

The ruling, which was given to the parties Monday evening, comes after judgments against Wal-Mart in Pennsylvania and California found similar violations.

In Pennsylvania, workers won a $78.5 million judgment in 2006 for working off the clock and through rest breaks. A $172 million verdict against Wal-Mart in 2005 found the company illegally denied lunch breaks in California. Wal-Mart is appealing those rulings.

May justice be fair and swift.

Minn. judge rules against Wal-Mart on work breaks [AP] (Thanks to Erik!)
(Photo: chasingfun)

I would like to make you aware of an incident that occurred in your Burnsville, MN Circuit City yesterday. I read about your Unbeatable Price Guarantee on your website. I had an ad from Costco for a Magellan GPS that was significantly less than the Circuit City price. Before driving 20 miles in a snow storm, I called your Burnsville store and spoke with Tom. Tom told me that because Costco is a local retailer, I would be eligible for the Unbeatable Price Guarantee...

So I drove down to the store, brought the GPS and the Costco ad to the checkout. The teller called for a manager to override the price. The manager declined to do so. So I asked to speak with the store manager. I was introduced to Brad, who later refused to give his last name. I explained the situation to Brad, and he said he would not match the Costco price because it was a club. I told him that I looked on the CC website and that it didn't say club prices were not eligible; and I reminded him that one of his employees ensured me that the price would be matched. Brad said there are more limitations to the policy in a pamphlet. I asked to see the pamphlet and he refused. He then said it didn't matter what the pamphlet stated, because he made the rules in “his store” I persisted. I asked again to see in writing where club prices wouldn't be matched. He told me there was no way he was going to match the price and that I should leave. I said I would gladly leave once he proved to me that the club portion of the policy existed. He response: he called the police! I was there with my 5 year old son, who became very scared by Brad's irrational behavior. Of course, out of concern for my child, we left immediately.

I hope you are as outraged by Brad's irrational and arrogant behavior as I am. I have always been treated well by your employees in the past. I am interested in the true policy about price matching clubs. Does CC match Costco ads? If so, I would still be interested in purchasing the GPS from Circuit City.

Thank you for your attention to this matter,

Emmett

Don't ever let stores bully you around by conjuring up nonexistent policies. When a store denies a reasonable request, whip out your phone and call the corporate office. Even if the manager was correct, he should have known that calling the cops is the worst possibly way to resolve a customer service issue.

At the very least, Circuit City should honor the price match and apologize to both Emmett and his son for their manager's egregious behavior.

(Photo: Xurble)

"Ohmigod," Adams said as she recalled police breaking down her door and flashing the search warrant. "I just kept saying to them, 'you've got the wrong house.' "
 
Roehl said the drug task force was acting on a tip from a subcontractor for CenterPoint Energy, who had been in the home Friday to install a hot water heater.
 
"He got hit with a chemical smell that he said made him light headed, feel kind of nauseous," Roehl said.
 
The smell was vinegar, and maybe pickling lime, which were clearly marked in a bathroom Mr. Adams uses to mix chemicals for his salt water fish tank.
 
"I said, 'I call it his laboratory for his fish tanks,' " Mrs. Adams said, recalling her conversation with the CenterPoint technician. "I'm looking at the fish tank talking to this guy."
 
Police say there was no extended investigation, just an interview with the subcontractor.

From the Star-Tribune:

The couple and their three children, ages 2, 3 and 5, were living in a crowded trailer park in Blaine, when Bradley saw a newspaper advertisement touting real estate as the next quick way to make money.

"I didn't want to paint the rest of my life, and the trailer park scene was about as bad as parts of north Minneapolis," Bradley said.

Over a steak dinner at a Perkins restaurant, the couple met with two salesmen from Executive Premier Management Inc., a firm in Wayzata that described itself as a "property management company."

With no money down, they could buy properties in a fast-growing new subdivision in Otsego known as Otsego Preserve, near Interstate 94 and the Albertville outlet mall. They would get $5,000 in upfront cash for each house they purchased.

The Collins were also told that home values in Wright County were appreciating at 8 percent a year, much faster than the national average. At that rate, the Collins could make $24,000 a year for every $300,0000 house they bought in the county. They were told that rental income would cover their mortgage payments until the houses were sold.

Collin said the management company helped him apply for four mortgages within days of each other. The firm used a different lender each time, a way to hide from the banks the debt he was taking on and wouldn't be able to afford on his net income as a contractor, which averages about $60,000 a year. The "no documentation" and "no down payment" loans carried a much higher interest rate than conventional mortgages.

The couple purchased four houses — each for about $300,000 — hoping to quadruple their profits. The Collins received a $5,000 check after each closing. The cash payments were not disclosed on the mortgage statements sent to the bank, which Collin says he has since learned is illegal.

Executive Premier Management is not registered with the state, and the telephone number given to Collin no longer works. The two salespeople, Nathan Nordvik and Jonathan Matheson, do not have listed telephone numbers and could not be reached for comment.

Housing Bets Gone Bad [Star-Tribune] (Thanks, Rob!)
(Photo:Glen Stubbe, Star Tribune )

My father grew up in Ottawa, a small Midwest town in Illinois. For the majority of his life, he had 2 full-time jobs. He was the receiving clerk for a hardware store and he was also a house painter. He went to work between 3 to 5 AM and rarely got home until after dark, 6 days a week. He was very active and self-sufficient so when in 1992 he was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive case of multiple sclerosis, he was devastated as was my entire family. His MS never went into regression and within 5 years he was wheelchair bound, in a nursing home, and very reliant on others.

In 2006, my mother and I moved to Owatonna, Minnesota so she could be near her family because she too developed major medial condition and needed familial support. Of course, my father also moved here to support her. He was placed in a local nursing home and was fairly content, with one large exception. After living 60+ year in the same town and becoming a something of a local fixture, it's only natural that he wanted to keep in touch with his friends and family there. Obvious answer, get a phone.

So enters QWest

With the permission and encouragement of the nursing home staff, he had a phone line put in that was independent of the building systems, so he could call out and people could call him without having to go through an operator. The very same day the line was put in, which had been done while he was in the dining room having lunch, he found he could not receive calls. Within a week, a technician checked his line and said everything was working perfectly. He was wrong. My father still could not receive calls. After yet another technician checked and failed to actually do anything about it, my father canceled his service.

The next month he received a bill. A bill for services not rendered.

Quickly, he called Qwest and explained that he never had service and did not think he should be required pay for nothing. The next month, received another bill. He called, again, and explained the situation, again, and said he was refusing to pay the bill. He was told that, according to their records, complete service ha been rendered and if he did not pay, they would send his account to collections. Since then, my father, mother and I have contacted Qwest numerous times trying to explain that, indeed, the line didn't operate correctly. We have been stonewalled and now my mother, who is retired and has large medical bills, has to pay the bill or her credit rating will drop. Of course, I have offered many times to pay the bill for them, but as I am not on the account and my parents won't accept the money or even tell me how much they must pay, I cannot.

Evidently Qwest's policy is that all customers are liars and that they themselves are infallible. They must need every single penny, as my father's bill cannot exceed $200. I understand, as it's also a lot of money to my parents.

I now know Qwest spells their name that way. Firstly, for the geographic allusion. Secondly, because U don't matter to them.

Sean

Another way to get Qwest's attention is to file an official complaint with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. They'll forward your complaint to Qwest and follow up on it to make sure it gets resolved. Finally, you can also complain to the Minnesota Attorney General, Lori Swanson.

If you do end up having to pay the bill, make sure you get a copy of your phone records showing that no calls came through, then take Qwest to small claims court to recover the money you paid for the non-working phone. It's easier than it sounds and they might not even show up to argue, in which case you'll get a default judgment.

The email format for qwest is FirstName.LastName@qwest.com, and a list of their top executives can be found here. For more information about how to learn to launch an EECB, click here.

So today, 24 hours later and I'm still unable to make outgoing calls on my phone, I grow more frustrated and call customer service. While the rep was friendly and acknowledged that there was a problem throughout the state, she had no idea how long it would take (Hours? Days? Weeks?) and also was unsure if they would offer compensation for lost time.

The specifics of the problem are this: I can send and receive text messages and I can take incoming calls, but whenever I make an outgoing call the phone rings once and says "The number or code you have dialed is incorrect. Please check the number or code and try again. Message 357." Pretty frustrating when I'm just trying to call my voicemail, let alone anyone else. What should I do, Consumerist?

John

(Photo:szlea)

The one for $2.39 looks richer, but the one for $1.99 seems bigger. Tough choice. Is a 44 oz drink worth $0.88 or $1.28?

Turns out that mercury sometimes finds its way into mascara and other products used around your eye, says the AP.

"Mercury does cause neurological damage to people even in tiny quantities," said Sen. John Marty, the Democrat from Roseville who sponsored the ban. "Every source of mercury adds to it. We wanted to make sure it wasn't here."

Most makeup manufacturers have phased out the use of mercury, but it's still added legally to some eye products as a preservative and germ-killer, said John Bailey, chief scientist with the Personal Care Products Council in Washington. That group doesn't track mercury in beauty products and favors a national approach to regulating cosmetics, instead of laws that vary from state to state.

Federal law allows eye products to contain up to 65 parts per million of mercury. The exposure a person would get from a product used in small quantities around the eyes would not cause a problem, Bailey said.

"It's added at very low levels, and for good reason," he said.

Mercury in mascara? Minn. law bans it [Yahoo!] (Thanks, Dan!)
(Photo:Getty)

"I bawled for three days after I got fired," she says. "I was the most loyal, dedicated employee they could have. In 30 years, I never called in sick or was late to work. Not once! And I was good at my job. Damn good."

Shilson started at the Zantigo on W. 7th Street in St. Paul in 1977 (Taco Bell later bought Zantigo). Her pay was $2.85 an hour, not enough to make her husband, a truck driver (now retired), think that it was worth the inconvenience of having his wife, and mother of their four kids, take a job.

"He wouldn't even look at my paycheck the first two years," she says. "Then one day, I said, 'We need a new clothes washer' and he said, 'We can't afford one.' That's when I said, 'Well, I can!' That changed his mind."

Shilson rose rapidly, working 60-hour weeks and becoming general manager at the W. 7th Street store and, later, at the Richfield Taco Bell. She was robbed at gunpoint twice, including the time she was shot while opening the W. 7th restaurant one morning in 1998.

Nick Coleman: After 30 years, Taco Bell didn't even offer her any hot sauce [StarTribune]
(Photo:thicket23)

Dunce Dunn Bros Coffee is celebrating their newest location at the University of Minnesota by offering a coupon for a free medium coffee. For the price of a small.

What? No, it's either free, or it's the price of a small. Not difficult. Patrons attempting to redeem the offer need to bring in the coupon, and possibly a dictionary.

"This is what can happen if you don't settle," RIAA attorney Richard Gabriel told reporters outside the courthouse, according to Wired. "I think we have sent a message we are willing to go to trial."

RIAA Jury Finds Minnesota Woman Liable for Piracy, Awards $222,000 [Wired Threat Level]

Here's the bad news, those of you who reside in states that prohibit stores from selling prescription drugs as loss leaders are not getting the $9 birth control:

Laws in Minnesota, Wisconsin and seven other states prevent pharmacies from selling drugs below their true cost. As a result, Wal-Mart will charge more to consumers here for nine of the 24 drugs being added to its generic discount program.

In the case of a generic birth control pill called Tri-Sprintec, two Wal-Mart pharmacies in the Twin Cities on Friday were selling a one-month supply for $26.88.

"We cannot provide the $9 for the three women's health drugs in those states," said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Deisha Galberth, referring to Tri-Sprintec as well as a second birth control drug and a fertility treatment.

Your patootie is not safe in Minnesota!

They want to kick it, according to Kare11:

"I'm livid on the way they've handled this," says Dave Peterson, one of several Sprint Nextel customers who addressed reporters Thursday at a capitol news conference. "I'd like to give their CEO a big kick right in the patootie."

"When you receive complaints across the board, from firefighters to lawyers, from retirees to construction workers, all of whom feel they were unfairly manipulated by their cell phone company, you have a problem," Swanson said.

The AG's decision was prompted in part by the fact that the BBB says it has received over 30,000 complaints against Sprint Nextel in the 36 months leading up to this July.

"In a normal transaction, you have two parties coming together and making an agreement about a purchase. For these consumers, there was no real meeting of the minds. Rather, the company has tricked consumers into unknowingly extending their contract simply because they made a basic change to their plan," Swanson said.

The state is alleging that Sprint "violated Minnesota's Consumer Fraud Act and Deceptive Trade Practices Act" and "seeks to enjoin the company from further violations of the Acts. The suit also seeks civil penalties and restitution for Minnesota consumers injured by the company's practices."

Oh no, Sprint. Minnesota is on to your wicked ways and they are having none of it.

Attorney General Swanson Files Lawsuit Against Sprint Nextel [Minnesota AG]
Attorney General sues Sprint Nextel over consumer complaints [KARE11] (Thanks, David!)

Mara Humphrey, a lobbyist for the Minnesota Credit Union Network, which pushed for the law, said too many retailers still keep information they shouldn't for too long. Credit unions feel the bite if there's a breach involving members' credit-card data, through the cost of issuing new cards.

"We wanted to create an incentive [for businesses] to do the right thing and create consequences to prevent breaches from happening in the first place," Humphrey said.

But Buzz Anderson of the Minnesota Retailers Association considers the law a boldly "anti-retail bill" that came about without enough input from the major credit-card companies and law enforcement officials. He vows to push for changes next year.

"There's already a punishment process in place from the credit card companies if we allow our systems to be compromised," Anderson said. "It would be better to find a way to resolve this without having to go through the courts. I don't want retailers to be punished again when they've already been the victims of identity theft."

Law may make credit-card users feel a bit more secure [Star-Tribune]
(Photo: powerbooktrance)

The dispatcher heard, "gun," not "done," and called 911. From the Savage Pacer (emphasis ours):

Information contained in court documents indicates that a Scott County dispatcher spoke directly with one of the technicians prior to police arriving at Pyle's home and the man said, "We are not being held hostage by the customer, we were held, being held hostage by DirecTV." The other installer told the police dispatcher, "I think there's a major misconstrued statement going right now. Maybe they heard in the background the statement quote unquote to my manager that I am stuck [here]."

In a statement issued shortly after the incident occurred, a representative of DirecTV stated the company's first priority is the safety of its customers and its employees. "We take threats very seriously and have trained our customer service team on how to respond to emergency situations ... We sincerely apologize for any embarrassment or other duress that the customer and installers experienced as a result of this incident."

DirecTV 'hostage' case filed in federal court [Savage Pacer] (Thanks, Mike!)
(Photo: Meghann Marco)

Now the 6 arrested passengers are suing their accusers. Boy, there was sure a whole lot of nasty racism going on that day. It's hard to figure out who should sue who, isn't it? Psst, the airline probably has more money. —MEGHANN MARCO

The Today Show

A large number of taxi drivers in the area of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are Muslim Somali immigrants. Many say they feel the faith's ban on alcohol consumption includes transporting anyone carrying it.

Some also have refused to transport dogs, both pets and guide dogs, saying they are unclean.

The new rules cover any driver who refuses a ride for unwarranted reasons, including those who refuse to take short-haul passengers in favor of more lucrative longer trips. They can still refuse fares for certain reasons, including threats to their safety.

Under the new regulations a first offense would result in a 30-day cab license suspension and a second in a two-year taxi license revocation.

The current penalty only requires that cab drivers who refuse a fare to go back to the end of the taxi queue, costing them time and money.

Since January 2002, the commission said in announcing the new rules, there have been about 4,800 instances where cab drivers refused to pick up people with alcohol in their possession. Travelers arriving from international destinations often bring back duty-free alcoholic beverages many in easily identifiable packages.

Minnesota's Muslim cab drivers face crackdown [Reuters] (Thanks Acambras!)
(Photo: bluhousworker)

More shopping, of course, but also hotels, a theater, and a skating rink. The amusement park in the center will remain.

I first walked through the mall back in 1996. There were three different Gaps. Apparently that's insufficient. Clearly, we need six in the same mall. — MARK ASHLEY

Mall of America to double in size [Chicago Sun-Times]
(Photo: pianoforte)

So we were poking around Flickr, as we sometimes do, when we spotted this receipt. It reads:

10 second rule? [Flickr]