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Why I Won't Be Buying Another Vizio
Jeremy won't be buying any more Vizio TVs. He bought an HD one for $650 , then after 18 months of use, it began flickering on and off and then wouldn't turn it on. The CSR told him it would cost him ~$300 to send it in to repair the power supply, nearly half the purchase price, as the warranty expired. Jeremy thinks a TV should last longer than a year and a half, and so he wrote an open letter on his blog to William Wang, CEO of Vizio TV. More »
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How Do You Get A Neighbor To Stop Parking In Front Of Your House?
(ret0dd)
Amy's neighbors won't stop parking in front of her house. They say that parking in front of their own house "spoils their view." Problem is, they live on the corner and there's shrubs so the cars also spoil Amy and her husband's view of oncoming traffic when they pull out. They've tried various tactics ranging from the passive aggressive to accidentally knocking the neighbor's bumper off, but they still plop their cars park in front of Amy's abode. Dear readers, what can she do to get them to stop? More »
Rat Planter Pleads Guilty To Restaurant Extortion
(ArtBrom)
Finding frogs in your weight watchers food or snakes in your TGIF or mice in your Pepsi is one thing and alerting the authorities for infomational purposes is one thing, but please don't plant rats in your soup in the hopes of extorting a half-million. Because you will be caught, like Debbie Miller of Wisconsin. Here brilliant scheme was defeated by a microwave. More »
Bank of America Screws Even Ex-Employees Of 21 Years On Mortgages
How many different ways can you screw a man? Vince couldn't make his Bank of America mortgage, because they fired him after 21 years of service in the due diligence department. Even after he did a short sale 5 months ago, Bank of America still hasn't cleared it off their books. Now the illegal debt collection calls start. Is new CEO Brian Moynihan powerless to stop his own company from shaking down its own employees? Let's find out! More »
Landing Gear Not Good Place For Discount Airfare, Dead Man Finds
(nateOne)
A man was found dead inside the landing gear of Delta airplane landing in Tokyo enroute from New York. Doctors speculated that he froze to death and had a shortage of oxygen when the plane reached over 30,000 feet. Sheesh, we know the seats are cramped but this is ridiculous. What happens when you climb into an airplane's fuselage and it takes off? This clip from "1000 Ways To Die" explains: More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
Here are seven wonderful photos readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Also, be sure to check out our new Photo Gallery to see the latest additions all week long! More »
Ripoff Video Maker "Vision Media Television" Renames As "Great America HD"
"Vision Media Television," after getting exposed in a NY Times story as a ripoff production company, has changed its name to "GreatAmericaHD" and is back to its same tricks. The way it works is they call up non-profit organizations with an alluring pitch: a chance to be featured in a nationally-broadcast PBS show anchored by established broadcaster. In this case, Hugh Downs. What they don't tell you is that you'll have to front upwards of $20,000 in production costs, and the "program" they shoot will never see the light of day. More »
Energy Co Fills House With Oil, Endangering Family
(wcbstv)
A Long Island family was nearly incapacitated after a local energy company mistakenly delivered oil into a disconnected pipe on the front of their house, dumping nearly 50 gallons of heating oil into their basement. More »
Took Matter Into Own Hands After RoboCaller Spoofed Cell
A scammy robocaller had spoofed Rodger's phone number and angry recipients of the calls were calling him incessantly, but now it's over. With AT&T's help, he realized that the autodialer had spoofed his new work number, which was being forwarded to his cellphone. So he disabled the call forwarding, kept his cellphone number, and just had his new work number changed. Victory. More »
Will A Human At BofA Finally Please Modify My $160,000 Underwater Mortgage
Jim and Susan's mortgage is underwater by $160,000. They want to live up to their obligations, they want to keep their home, but they can't do it with a $370,000 mortgage on a house that's only worth $210,000. An attorney told them to send some "jingle mail," just pop the house keys in an envelope, mail it to the bank, and move away. What they really want is a modification so they can stay in their house, but Bank of America has been jerking them around and they don't have faith that this last hurdle will actually get them a mod. Isn't there a decision-making human at BofA that can finalize this deal for them?
RoboCaller Spoofed My Cell, Now Angry People Call Me Nonstop
(psd)
Rodger is screwed. A telephonic bot is using his cellphone number as the caller ID as it spam calls thousands of people. It's probably a scam, too, because the message it leaves tells people that if they've had their credit card canceled recently, to press "1" and then enter their credit card number. Rodger knows exactly the message that's left because loads of these people are angrily calling back his cellphone.
UPDATE: Took Matter Into Own Hands After RoboCaller Spoofed Cell More »
UPDATE: Took Matter Into Own Hands After RoboCaller Spoofed Cell More »
Delta Gives $50 To Apologize For Overcharging By $700
A young girl, trying to make it to her dying father's bedside. An old airline that can't find your reservation. A $1200 ticket that is now a $2000 ticket. A prefabricated apology for only $50. These, are the Delta chronicles...
UPS Promises To Stop Catapulting Your Packages
UPS has pledged to fix the problem with their drivers lofting Ryan's packages through the air and over the fence to smash on the concrete. After Ryan's complaint went up, UPS contacted Consumerist, and we put them in touch with Ryan. They are also apparently going to work on the whole leaving packages to soak in the rain thing. Hurray. More »
United Stewards' "TMI" Session Nets Traveler $250 Coupon
(Photo: Save vs Death)
Bucky Turco got a $250 credit for his next United Express flight after he complained about the two-hour gab fest between two United stewards he endured on a recent trip from SLC to ORD. In that time he learned from the two women such factoids as: Hispanics, Blacks and Asians shouldn't go blonde, a type of birth control gave one of the stewards' sister menstrual spots, how getting spit on is the ultimate disrespect, right up there with getting a shoe thrown at you like George Bush did, and more. Too much information! More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
Here are eight photos readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Also, be sure to check out our new Photo Gallery to see the latest additions all week long! More »
Every Time VW Fixes My Car, They Break Something Else
Amy's '06 VW Passat has been in the shop 106 of the past 141 days. After the engine broke down on a road trip and needed replacing, VW replaced it, but broke the transmission. When they replaced the transmission, they broke an axle. When they fixed the axle, the car started leaking oil worse than the Valdez. All Amy and her family want to be able to do is drive their car around like normal. So far, that's not happening, and VW's only offer of contrition has been to waive one car payment and $250 in services. So Amy launched her EECB, complete with a graph of how long VW has held her car hostage: More »
Kiefer Sutherland Roped Into $869k Bovine Ponzi Scheme
(Photo: tyger_lyllie)
Actor Kiefer Sutherland has lost $869,000 to a con-man who roped him into a bum cow investing scheme. Shyster Michael Wayne Carr had a plan to buy cows in Mexico and sell them in the US for a profit, but allegedly never bought the cows and sold cows that weren't his. More »
Passenger And Steward Fight Over Cup Of Ice
(Photo: ineffable_pulchritude)
There's dark clouds brewing in the friendly skies and sometimes it's the passengers fault. George Hobica writes, "I was on a plane recently, first class, on American, where the guy sitting next to me shook his glass as the flight attendant was passing by and said "More ice"--the FA said, "What's the magic word" and the guy said, "Oh, you mean I'm supposed to say please? I just want more ice" ... and she said, "You want more ice, it's up in the galley. Go get it yourself."
The Debtor Debt Collectors Hate To Call
Craig Cunningham has made $20,000 from 18 lawsuits he's filed against debt collectors for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). In fact, it's something a part-time job/hobby for him. To ensnare his first FDCPA-violating collector, with voice recorder running, he called back the number they left on his answering machine, and asked: More »
Happy Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day!
Today is bubble wrap appreciation day, or "BWAD." Celebrated the last Monday of every January, it's the day to celebrate your love of everyone's favorite packaging helper. Some partake in the festivities by making bubble wrap animals, bubble wrap dresses, or simply grabbing a piece of bubble wrap and popping all the pockets. And if you don't have any lying around, you can always play the online bubble wrap popping game. Hooray for bubble wrap! You've filled our hearts almost as much as you've filled our landfills. More »
