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good company
My daughter and I ordered a book as a Mother's Day gift, and I was disappointed to learn it would ship late and miss the big day. I had waited until the last day of the promotion (April 30th at about 9:00 PM EST), so I didn't want to complain. Then this landed in my inbox.More »
Paxton Holley submitted the above Storm-Troopers-go-shopping awesomeness to The Consumerist Flickr pool. They also bought Colt 45, and Amstel Light.
Anthony paid Circuit City $1,271 for a new 40" Samsung LN40A550, but what he received was a "scratched up, dinged to hell, beaten and abused FLOOR MODEL OPEN BOX" LN40A330. As a Circuit City employee, Anthony thought exchanging the TV or receiving a refund would be a cinch. Boy, was he wrong.
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Back in the glory days, when credit and food were cheap, it took a mere 2-liter bottle of Pepsi to bait customers into filling out a Walmart credit card application.
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polls
Despite my repeated requests via online form and phone, and even a few posts about it, including one where I made a photo spread of burning the offending items, Dell keeps sending me catalogs. So here is another post for the online pillory, but, in celebration of Earth Day, instead of burning these catalogs, I have recycled them (see above). Their inability/indifference is all the more stupid because two different Dell execs contacted me to say they would look into the issue. They even had me email them the cryptograms on my address label to help remove me from their mailing system. Dell, please, help me save the planet and take me off your stupid catalog lists. Otherwise I guess I'll just have to deem your material "pornographic" (hey, I know it when I see it, right?) and use USPS form 1500 to get you stop. When you decided to get people to lust after your XPS line, that probably isn't what you had in mind.
PREVIOUSLY: Dell Won't Stop Sending Me Catalogs So I'm Burning Them
mysteries
Bad Consumer Smith finally paid off her American Express Optima card after 14 years, but couldn't believe that Amex tacked on a $0.19 finance charge to her last bill. Smith summoned her lesser angels to work out a fitting response. Here's what she came up with:
I sent AmEx two checks for a penny each, one for two cents, two for three cents, one for four cents, and one for a nickel.Hit the jump for Amex's response. More »I didn't want them to accidentally drop one, and I was still in a bad mood, so I folded the first check up. Then the second. Then I realized I could fold them all up... around each other.
Topped off with the billing slip, with "stupid bill" written in green marker on it.
Sabrina bit into a rodent skull and cut her gums while eating a bowl of cereal. The 100% natural, premium gourmet nutty cranberry maple granola she was trying to enjoy was purchased at a Hannaford in Maine and manufactured by Bakery on Main. Aside from selling the rodent skull, both Hannaford and Bakery on Main are handling the situation well.
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Ticketmaster charged reader Keith $655 in convenience charges to for two tickets to tonight's Rangers/Devils playoff game. Of course, the tickets in section 118 cost nothing, but we still won't give them the benefit of the doubt. Ticketmaster boasts that special brand of evil that wouldn't object to levying several hundred dollars in convenience charges to a free Raffi concert.
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Dylan writes:I saw this today at the Toy"R"Us store in Elizabeth, New Jersey and though you folks would be interested. This Lego kit (the Exo Force Sentai Fortress Battle Set) has a sign that indicates its original price was $19.99 and that it is on sale for $69.98. The sign helpfully indicates that this is a savings of negative $49.We've seen fifty-cent adjustments in the wrong direction, but fifty dollars? That's pushing it.
I'm working on a Powerpoint to be delivered later this week about "the 5 things you can learn from a Consumerist" and I wanted to share this slide of with you guys. I think it expresses what we all sometimes think is underneath those shiny voices and looping musical medleys: a killbot army that wants to get you off the phone as soon as possible. "It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead."
I spotted a tote bag for Bear Stearns, the investment bank that recently nearly collapsed and JP Morgan Chase purchased, on sale outside a used goods store here in Brookyln. No doubt it was pawned off by one of the many recently liquidated Bear Stearns employees in the New York area (hey, that Tivo doesn't pay for itself). I didn't check the price tag, but it was probably more than $10, which is more than can be said for a share of Bear Stearns stock. Note the new Chase bank sign reflected into the store window.
(Photo: Ben Popken)
legal tender
That's the sign I saw at the Bath & Body Works store in a Tanger Outlet Mall in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. I didn't go inside to find out if my legal tender was no good there or what, but I'm a fan of the site and thought y'all would get a kick out of the pics.The U.S. Treasury says that's fine, stores don't have to accept cash. We're just worried the people in Pigeon Forge know something about the U.S. dollar that we don't. More »
Part of our job here as we incorporate The Conglomerist into the fold of Haberdasher Communications (tagline: let's keep it under our hat, shall we?) is to clean up some of the ethical missteps taken by The Consumerist, particularly with regards to its notoriously corrupt photo selection department. Dipping into the mailbag, Marc writes:An avid reader of your website, I was a little bit concerned by the choice of picture to illustrate the "IDT Energy Scamming Spreads Past New York City" story.More »
Granted, the picture shows an IDT building in the background, but in the foreground are catenary wires, which are quite distinctive from power distribution wires...
Reader Karen writes in:I bought a small but overpriced postal scale at Staples ($22). When I took it home and opened the box, there was a broken, not-for-sale scale in it. I took it back and exchanged it for another one without any problem. But it's a crappy scale even when it's functional: it's not set at 0 and I don't see a way to resetit.Seriously, Staples? Do you also send cardboard cutouts of computers to people? How could it possibly be any clearer that this should never have left the store? Commenters, any suggestions?
parking
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.
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