Over the weekend in Louisiana, some food stamp recipients realized that their EBT cards were suddenly showing up as having no limit, resulting in empty shelves and overflowing shopping carts as people tried to buy as much stuff as possible with their cards before the glitch was fixed. Now, Walmart and Xerox are playing the blame game over who’s at fault. [More]
Retail Services
Our Favorite Hot MP3 Player From 2005 Still On Walmart Shelves
By 10.10.13
In our recurring Raiders of the Lost Walmart series, we’ve become slightly obsessed with the MobiBLU MP3 player. That’s the tiny, cube-shaped music device that hit stores in 2005 and, for some reason, is still on the shelves at a comically high price. Every time a reader submits a new one, we wonder how this is even possible. [More]
This RAID Controller Looks Suspiciously Like A Sex Toy
By 10.9.13
Consumerist reader Ben was just minding his own business, shopping on Amazon for a RAID controller for his server when — what the holy heck, is that a huge pink plastic phallus? [More]
Target, Where Condoms Are A Suggested Substitute For Antacid
By 10.9.13
Is your unruly stomach keeping you up at night? How about some Trojan condoms to help you get some rest… You say that doesn’t make a lick of sense? Welcome to the wonderful world of Target’s inane suggested substitutions. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Still Have A PS2, Need Games For It
By 10.9.13
I still have a 25-year-old NES in my basement, ready at a moment’s notice in case I feel like playing Dr. Mario or Duck Hunt. At some point, still owning it passed from “uncool lady keeps old crap around” to “cool retro gaming.” Has the Playstation 2 passed that point yet? Walmart seems to hope so. [More]
Just-Fired NHL Coach Sues Bank Of America For $3 Million
By 10.7.13
Peter Laviolette is probably still stinging after being given the boot as coach of my Philadelphia Flyers this morning, but perhaps he’s now pinned his hopes not on a Stanley Cup, but on a $3 million lawsuit against Bank of America. [More]
Wells Fargo Fires Employees For Creating Bogus Accounts In Customers’ Names
By 10.7.13 — Updated: 10.13.16
Some people will do anything to meet sales and customer satisfaction goals, even if it means falsifying signatures, and opening bogus accounts. Which is why around 30 people in the Los Angeles area are now former Wells Fargo employees. [More]
Judge Orders Bank Of America To Pay $10K/Month If It Wants To Keep Hassling Couple
By 10.7.13
Here’s how inept Bank of America is. Not only did the bank ignore the fact that a couple’s mortgage debt had been discharged in bankruptcy, continuing to harass them for a debt they no longer owed, it also ignored messages from the bankruptcy court judge. That is until after the judge imposed a $10,000/month sanction on the bank. [More]
Woman Says Costco Didn’t Apologize For Locking Her Inside Store
By 10.7.13
While being inside a Costco after hours might seem like an awesome setting for a movie montage — binge eating in the candy/cookie/nut section, trying on every piece of clothing on the tables, offering free samples to yourself, chugging mayonnaise — a California woman was not so thrilled to find herself locked inside her local warehouse store. [More]
Retailers Realize Osama Bin Laden Costume Might Be Offensive, Stop Selling It
By 10.4.13
We have to wonder whether anyone pays attention at all to the Halloween costumes offered at major retailers. The “naughty leopard” incident was weird, but how is it even remotely okay to sell Osama bin Laden costumes to the public? After the Sikh Coalition pointed this out, so far Walmart, Amazon, Sears, and Rite Aid have pulled the outfit from their shelves. [More]
Is Hobby Lobby Deliberately Excluding Jewish Merchandise?
By 10.3.13
Hobby Lobby doesn’t really try to hide that their owners are very devout Christians. If the instrumental hymns on the store’s sound system didn’t clue you in, maybe the evangelical Easter newspaper ads, the company’s legal fight over health insurance reform, or stores being closed on Sunday would be a hint. But does that translate to deliberately excluding merchandise and holiday decorations for other religions? [More]
USAA No Longer Offering Bank Accounts To Everyone
By 10.3.13 — Updated: 10.4.13
Sad news, Consumerists. There was a brief, shining period beginning in 2009 when anyone, not just people affiliated with the military, could get checking and savings accounts from the almost-universally-beloved USAA. Now that dream is over. [More]
Bank Of America To Pay $32 Million Over Robocall Allegations
By 10.3.13
Two of our favorites kinds of stories — big bank badness and robocalling — all wrapped into one breakfast burrito. Earlier this week, Bank of America reached a $32 million deal to settle complaints, filed on behalf of 7.7 million customers, that BofA repeatedly violated federal regulations by robocalling consumers’ mobile phones without permission. [More]
Target To Offer Prepaid Wireless Service Starting Sunday
By 10.3.13
While competition in the postpaid wireless world has dwindled down to only a handful of players, the prepaid market appears to be getting more competitive. Target becomes the latest entrant into the prepaid horse race with the launch of its “Brightspot” service starting this weekend. [More]
New York To Sue Wells Fargo For Failure To Comply With $26B Mortgage Settlement
By 10.2.13
Last spring, New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman threatened to sue both Bank of America and Wells Fargo, alleging that the banks had repeatedly failed to comply with the 2012 $26 billion settlement between multiple states and the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers. Now the AG intends to make good on that threat by actually filing suit against Wells. [More]
Etsy Decides “Handmade” Has Flexible Meaning, Eases Restrictions On Factory-Produced Items
By 10.1.13
Online mega-storefront Etsy.com was intended to be a place where makers of handmade goods and vintage finds could sell their wares directly to customers. The site has had restrictions on the reselling of items made by someone else and on products manufactured in a factory. But today Etsy announced that it is putting new guidelines in place that will allow for some previously prohibited sellers to offer their products on the site. [More]
Grand Theft Auto Display At Best Buy Prevents Smaller Thefts Of Video Games
By 10.1.13
It’s not an unusual sight for the hottest new games at an electronics store to be in a secure place, making it harder for baddies to walk off with them. It is ironic, though, to see such a thing for the new game Grand Theft Auto V, a popular life-of-crime simulator. [More]
Marketers Make Black Friday A Monthly Occurrence
By 10.1.13
It seems like a very long time ago that the phrase “Black Friday” referred to the day after Thanksgiving, an important but scary day in the retail calendar that kicked off the Christmas shopping season. Isn’t that still supposed to be the case? Not according to marketers, who have now expanded Black Fridays to every month of the year, because why not? [More]
