A big part of one’s psychological development is building an individual identity that is distinct from one’s parents. So it’s a bit of a setback for Yuriy when Amex has him confused with his mother. He has an Amex card that’s attached to his social security number, but somehow his mother is the legal name on the account and the statements are addressed to her. Dealing with customer service has been fruitless. Is Amex trying to induce a Psycho-esque syndrome in Norman, er, I mean, Yuriy? [More]
Landlord Suspected Of Releasing Thousands Of Scorpions To Get Tenants Out
By August 9, 2011
A man named Chen woke up recently to find a scorpion crawling over his body. Snapping on the bedroom light, he found his bedroom to be full of scorpions. He gathered his family and worked to capture several hundred of the arachnids. When they left the apartment, they found their neighbors had been battling the poison-tipped beasts, and their landlord, who wants them out to make way for a construction project, is suspected of letting them loose. [More]
Orville Redenbacher Uses New Fancy Bowl To Disguise Shrink Ray Effects
By August 9, 2011
Looks like old Orville Redenbacher has been working on his sleight of hand technique. He wants you to focus on how his kettle corn popcorn is in a new easier to use “pop up bowl,” and ignore how it’s been downsized to 2.9 oz per bag from 3.3 oz. Worse, writers tipster Derek, the popcorn doesn’t pop as well. [More]
TWC Is Surprisingly Cool About Cutting Monthly Cable Bill
By August 8, 2011
Reader Wonder_Kat is amazed at how TWC went out of its way to stop her from canceling cable service by letting her get it for only $15/month. [More]
"Foreclosure Factory" Draws Critics
By August 8, 2011
It’s a one-stop foreclosure shop. Under one roof is a law office, title company, and auction house. They act as their own notaries and can foreclose. Its owner and several of his top attorneys are even VPs at the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc (MERS) which gives them the ability to transfer mortgages from owner to the other. The Boston Globe profiles a local law firm that has attracted criticism from homeowners and consumer advocates for its vertically integrated approach to foreclosure that can speedily ride over homeowners who thought they were in the middle of working out a deal with the bank. [More]
Elderly Woman Dies From Heat After Her A/C Was Stolen
By August 5, 2011
Two days after she reported her central air conditioning had been stolen, a 79-year old woman in Texas died from heat-related causes. [More]
Judge Spices Up Order With Corn-Pone Comedy
By August 5, 2011
A Kentucky judge’s order in a tense malpractice suit went viral this week after folks were amused by the corn-pone humor and mixed metaphors that he used to enliven a normally straight-forward legal document. Among the colorful phrases, the judge wrote that he was glad the case was settled as he would have preferred to “have jumped naked off of a 12-foot step ladder into a 5 gallon bucket of porcupines” than to preside over it. [More]
Sirius Satellite Radio Won't Stop Calling Me, 2-3 Times A Day
By August 5, 2011
Some people, and companies, just don’t take a hint. Sirius has been calling Matthew two and three times a day trying to get him to resubscribe. No matter how many times he tells them no, they still keep coming around, trying to win him back. Ok, that’s not so much a problem with taking a hint as serious stalker behavior. [More]
Ryanair Treats Passenger For Cardiac Arrest With A Sandwich
By August 4, 2011
A Ryanair passenger’s family is angry with the airline because they say their father had a heart attack on the airplane and all the crew gave him was a sandwich. They also made him pay for the sandwich. [More]
Bank Tries To Foreclose On Gas Station Owner For Being One Day Late With Mortgage Payment
By August 4, 2011
A gas station owner in Florida’s monthly mortgage payment bounced on October 12th. The next day he put the money required into the bank account. In November and December he tried to make his mortgage payments as normal, but BB&T wouldn’t take his money. 10 months later, they still won’t take it. Instead, they want to foreclose on his gas station. All for being one day late. [More]
Restaurant Apologizes For Mistake With Free Chocolate Cake For New Mother
By August 3, 2011
A little bit of kindness will get you far. A little bit of chocolate cake will get you even farther, as one restaurant manager, a husband, and his wife who had just given birth found out. [More]
Govt. Rips Up $535 Ticket Mom Got After Daughter Saved Woodpecker
By August 2, 2011
The US Fish and Wildlife Service says that the mother who got mailed a $535 fine after her daughter saved a woodpecker and transported it, a potential violation of federal law meant to protect migratory birds, wasn’t supposed to have gotten ticketed. Here is their statement they mailed to us this afternoon: [More]
Mom Fined $535 After Daughter Saves Woodpecker
By August 2, 2011
A mother faces a $535 fine and possible jail time because her 11-year old daughter saved a baby woodpecker from the family cat. [More]
Guy Files Class Action Against Hilton For Charging Him 75 Cents For Newspaper He Didn't Ask For
By August 1, 2011
A man has decided to turn a minor annoyance, getting a newspaper at your hotel room door and getting charged for it, into a class action lawsuit. [More]
Elderly Couple Thought They Canceled The Insurance, End Up Overpaying Anthem $5,000
By August 1, 2011
By the time the couple in their 80′s noticed the monthly auto-billing on their bank account, they had overpaid Anthem $5,000 for insurance they thought they had canceled two years ago. That’s money these two living on pension could have been using to fix their crumbling front walkway. It was until they beseeched their local consumer reporter and he took an interest in their story did Anthem retroactively cancel their policy and refund their money. [More]
Man Gets $8k Bill For A Million Gallons Of Water That Never Reached His House
By July 29, 2011
When the water bill for $8,000 arrived, a New Jersey man quickly found out why his showers had been so weak over the past few months. It turns out that the pipes had burst in his yard, sending nearly a million gallons of water into the soil. He doesn’t think he should have to pay because when he called the water company to complain, they told him his pipes were probably just frozen and so he should just wait for warmer weather. “Like an idiot, I listened to them,” he told The Star Ledger. [More]
Should It Have To Be Disclosed If A Used Car Was Smoked In?
By July 28, 2011
You get into the seats, place your hands on the wheel and sniff. That’s not new car smell you’re getting, but the faint notes of incinerated tobacco leaves. Perhaps they’re peaking out from a cloying cloud of freshener, like a bra strap from a tank top. Dangit. You thought you found a good contender and wasted all this time to come out and check the car out, and now it turns out someone used to smoke in it. Reader Ethan wonders if this isn’t something that dealers should have to disclose, or at least something that should show up on CarFax. [More]
Philly Utility Goes The Distance So Your Car Doesn't Blow Up
By July 28, 2011
Claude has a cool story about how Philadelphia Gas Works went the extra mile to make sure his girlfriend’s car wouldn’t explode after a gas leak started nearby. [More]
