Almost a year after Reebok settled with the Federal Trade Commission for $25 million over allegations that it had deceptively advertised its EasyTone sneakers, those checks are finally going out to around 315,000 consumers who registered for refunds. [More]
Government Policy
Sears Recalls Dehumidifiers Because Fire Is Not A Safe Dehumidification Method
By 8.6.12
Yes, it’s a story about a Sears appliance, but not about its misdelivery or problems with getting it repaired. Well, sort of. If you bought a Kenmore-branded dehumidifier from Sears or from Kmart between 2003 or 2009, unplug it right away and get in touch with the company. More than a hundred overheating units have been reported to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, and some have caught fire or melted. [More]
Debt Collectors Real & Fake Top List Of Most-Blocked Phone Numbers
By 8.6.12
According to a new list of most-blocked telephone numbers, the only people more tenacious than debt collectors about making non-stop calls to consumers are bogus debt collectors possibly looking to steal your information or trick you into making a payment. [More]
FTC Warns Against Scammers Pretending To Be From The FTC
By 8.3.12
While the Federal Trade Commission is working to protect American consumers from scam artists, badvertisers, robocallers, and other unseemly types, the agency is not handing out $250,000 sweepstakes prizes. [More]
The Maker Of Buckyballs Embarks On Impassioned Campaign To "Save Our Balls" From CPSC
By 8.3.12
The maker of Buckyballs, those powerful tiny magnet desktop toys that can be harmful if swallowed, isn’t going down without fighting the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Last week the CPSC convinced 11 retailers, including Amazon, to pull the toys from sale and sued Buckyballs’ company, Maxfield & Oberton, to get it to stop selling them. But instead, the head of the company is embarking on a media blitz to “save our balls.” [More]
New Law Would Forbid Rental Car Companies From Renting Recalled Cars
By 8.2.12 — Updated: 9.8.16
For years, consumer advocates have been calling for legislation that would make it illegal for rental car companies to rent out or sell vehicles that are currently under a safety recall. That notion is inching closer to becoming a reality with the introduction of the Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act. [More]
SEC Investigates Sprint Over Allegations It Failed To Properly Collect Sales Tax
By 8.2.12
Back in April, the New York Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuit against Sprint, alleging the wireless provider deliberately under-collected sales tax in an effort to remain competitive. Now, Sprint has revealed that it is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission over these same allegations. [More]
Court To TSA: It's About Time You Held Those Hearings On Nude Body Scanners, Don't Ya Think?
By 8.2.12
Just last month we reported on a petition from Jim Cato of the Harper Institute, urging the White House to put the heat on the Transportation Security Administration for its delay in holding hearings on nude body scanners, and now it seems the courts have listened. [More]
Shouldn't We Be Able To Negotiate On College Tuition?
By 8.2.12
If someone offers to sell you a life-changing product ranging in price anywhere from $10,000 to $250,000 — maybe more — chances are that most of you will at least attempt to negotiate that price down; only suckers pay sticker price. And yet, when it comes to a college education, it’s unheard of to call up competing institutes of higher learning to see if you can knock a few bucks off the MSRP. [More]
Video Game Publisher/Seller Valve Now Forcing Customers Into Mandatory Binding Arbitration
By 8.1.12
Valve, the makers of popular video game series like Portal, Left 4 Dead, Half-Life, and Team Fortress, as well as the operators of the Steam online marketplace for games, have surprised fans this week by changing the Steam terms of service to effectively pre-empt any class-action lawsuits by forcing customers into mandatory binding arbitration. [More]
Verizon Must Pay FCC $1.25 Million Fine, Let Android Users Tether For Free
By 8.1.12
Good news for people who enjoy tethering their smartphones, but dislike having to pay their phone company extra for the privilege. Well, as long as those people are customers of Verizon. Who have Android devices. And aren’t grandfathered onto an unlimited data plan. Yesterday, the Federal Communication Commission announced that Verizon Wireless has to allow customers access to third-party tethering applications. Verizon insists that they totally never told Google to withhold tethering apps from their customers in the Android Market/Google Play. But they’re “voluntarily” paying a $1.25 million fine as a result of the investigation, and have agreed to train all employees on why they can’t block users from downloading any (legal) apps. [More]
Why Do Student Loan Borrowers Default?
By 8.1.12
On Monday, we shared the results of a two-year Senate investigation into how much federal money is going to for-profit colleges, and what kind of return students and society as a whole are getting on that investment. (Answers: $32 billion, and a pretty terrible return on that investment.) A study that the National Consumer Law Center released yesterday shows the college bubble from a different perspective: that of student loan borrowers who have gone into default. It’s not pleasant. [More]
FHFA Says No To Cutting Amount Homeowners Owe On Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Mortgages
By 7.31.12
Saying Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have already cost taxpayers more than $188 billion, the acting chief of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates those lenders, says he has concluded that those firms won’t participate in the Obama administration’s program to cut the amount struggling homeowners owe. [More]
PokerStars Settles Online Gambling Lawsuit For $731 Million & Buys Its Rival To Boot
By 7.31.12
First there were three online poker companies facing charges of illegal internet gambling, and now there are only two, after the Department of Justice announced it’d brokered a deal worth $731 million in customer reimbursements. To settle the civil charges of money laundering and bank fraud, PokerStars says it will buy out the assets of its rival, Full Tilt and pay the government. [More]
Print & E-Book Copies Of Bestseller Pulled After Author Admits To Making Up Bob Dylan Quotes
By 7.31.12
Making up quotes from say, one of the most admired, researched and beloved American music icons might’ve seemed like a good idea to New Yorker magazine staff writer Jonah Lehrer when he was writing his book Imagine: How Creativity Works, but those fabricated words are going to cost his publishers a pretty penny. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt said it’ll pull the book entirely from the market after Lehrer admitted to putting words in Bob Dylan’s mouth that he never said. [More]
Advice To Aspiring Counterfeiters: Print The Correct President On Your Bills
By 7.31.12
We’re not normally in the business of giving advice to criminals, but some aspiring counterfeiters in Arizona might want to study up on their American history. They allegedly tried to pass fake $100 bills with the image of Benjamin Franklin on the note, but a watermark of Abraham Lincoln. Oh, those Founding Fathers all look alike. [More]
13-Year-Old Aspiring Hot Dog Vendor Shut Down By City, Sells Cart At A Profit
By 7.31.12
A Michigan teen’s hot dog cart is a more complex operation than your garden-variety lemonade stand. Wanting to earn some money to help out his disabled parents, the 13-year-old saved up to purchase a hot dog cart, then set up business in downtown Holland. The city promptly shut him down. Thanks to zoning laws designed to protect downtown eateries, food carts can’t set up in the city unless they’re part of an existing restaurant operation. The young entrepreneur is too young for a street vendor’s license, which could have kept the business running. So what did he do next? After attracting national media attention, he sold the cart to a local business, but retains the right to borrow it back for special events that might require hot dogs. [More]
Letter About 7-Cent Student Loan Bill Seems Like Efficient Use Of Government Resources
By 7.30.12
It was really thoughtful of the U.S. Department of Education’s Direct Loans program to let Puck know that his student loan payments, which he starts making in August, are too low to cover interest payments, and that some of that interest was about to be capitalized and become part of the loan’s total. It wasn’t all that thoughtful toward the environment or the program’s bottom line, though, because they printed and mailed a letter inviting him to use a forty-four cent stamp to pay off seven cents in accrued interest. [More]
