Consumerist: overcharging

Blockbuster Double Dips In PayPal Account; Naturally, PayPal Does Nothing

Chris Walters — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:51:03 EDT

Blockbuster debited Anthony's PayPal account two days in a row for the same monthly plan. PayPal won't help—they say it's between Blockbuster and Anthony, offering further proof that PayPal is a great service only as long as nothing goes wrong.

Anthony writes:

Called both Blockbuster and PayPal this morning and of course one pointed the finger at the other for the double subscription charge. So here I am with two charges and no way to resolve the issue since Blockbuster does not see both charges in their system and PayPal says I need to contact Blockbuster for resolution.

[Note: we edited the above screenshot for space, but we did not remove any figures.]

Has anyone else had this problem with Blockbuster's PayPal account agreement? It's a small amount in this case, but that's only because Anthony's plan is the cheapest Blockbuster offers; they charged him the full subscription fee both times.

350 Of New Jersey's Gas Stations Are Violating State Regulations. Here's A Map Of Them.

Alex Chasick — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:00:00 EDT

A recent sweep of New Jersey gas stations by state and local inspectors resulted in over a third of them receiving citations for posting the wrong gas prices on road signs, changing the price of gas too often, and other other violations. The New Jersey Star Ledger made a very helpful map of the violator stations, available inside.

New Jersey has 3,142 gas stations, according to the Star Ledger. Inspectors checked 1,023 of them, and issued citations to 350 owners. New Jersey's Attorney General encouraged consumers to report any violations they come across. A larger version of the map can be viewed here.
(Thanks to Ryan!)

Sprint Gouges Business Customer For Over $30,000 In Inflated Fees

Chris Walters — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:05:25 EDT

Allen Harkleroad of GMP Services writes, "A warning to all Sprint corporate customers that have dedicated access (T1's, etc.) if you are out of contract Sprint may be gouging you and claiming outrageously high local loop charges as the cause."

Harkleroad was told four times by Sprint reps that they had to pay over $950 per line in local loop costs—but it turns out local company Frontier Communications says they only get around $250 per connection from Sprint. So where does that other $700 go? Probably to help pay for that dead weight called Nextel. If you're a Sprint business customer you should know that you're possibly being gouged—and, if you were told the same thing as Harkleroad, lied to about the reason.

Harkleroad claims the amount he was overcharged comes up to $38,000 over two years, but we can't come up with that amount using our advanced math skills: 2 lines per month with overcharges of $700 for each one is $1400 per month, times 24 months is $33,600. It's still a huge amount, especially for a small company.

After he posted his story online, Harkleroad was contacted by Sprint over the weekend:

Update March 16, 2008 12:42pm. I got a call yesterday (Saturday 3/15) from Linda Moreno of Sprint's Executive and Regulatory Services. We had a pleasant and informative chat and was advised that she/they would get to the bottom of the issue. I agreed to give her and Sprint till Wednesday (March 19th) to resolve the issue to my satisfaction.

Sprint responded to this post with the following statement, "We are continuing discussions with Mr. Harkleroad and will work to address his concerns. But, because of Federal privacy laws and our company's privacy policies, Sprint will not publicly comment on specific customer's complaints, this includes those made by Mr. Harkleroad.

It's important to note that unlike our wireless offerings, which have national price plans in place, the prices for our wireline telecommunications and IP services vary depending on the bandwidth requirements between Sprint and the individual customer as well as the customer's physical location and proximity to Sprint's network facilities. The prices in our contracts for IP connections are negotiated, mutually agreed to and reflect an extremely competitive telecommunications market."

"Screwed by Sprint to the tune of $38,000.00 " [DesignerToday]
(Photo: Getty)

Walgreens Implements "Scanner Price Guarantee" (But Only In California)

Chris Walters — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:43:07 EST

For the next three years beginning this February, California Walgreens shoppers will enjoy a "Scanner Price Guarantee" that rewards customers who are overcharged at the register and bring it immediately to a cashier's attention. "If the item in question costs less than that amount, the customer will receive it free. Otherwise, $4 will be subtracted from the item's price or the customer can opt to take home a $4 gift card instead." The guarantee is part of a larger settlement Walgreens made with several California district attorney's offices regarding a lawsuit over price discrepancies at the register.

District attorneys' officials say audits performed in nearly two dozen counties showed that on several occasions, the electronic price scanners used at Walgreens checkout counters registered a higher price than the lowest posted or advertised price for the item scanned.

One deputy district attorney said she thought the overcharging was more "a question of negligence or carelessness"—"Often it's a question of old sales tags not being removed at the end of the sale." That doesn't really make us feel any better—why shouldn't we assume the same pricing errors occur at Walgreen's across the country, and at other retail chains as well?

In addition to the three-year-long $4 price guarantee, Walgreens agreed to the following terms:

Walgreens does not admit to any wrongdoing
It has to pay $767,000, of which about $349,000 will go to district attorney's offices ("which will go toward enforcement")
It's "required to begin regular, in-store price-check audits by employees and to keep records of the results."

"Settlement reached in price dispute" [Inside Bay Area] (Thanks to Kyle!)
(Photo: Payton Chung)