It’s kind of like that song lyric, “Do a little dance, make a little love/get down tonight.” Except in this case the little dance is Amazon’s tricky runaround of Apple’s app restrictions, the love-making is a free sample of an e-book and getting down tonight is well, reading, I suppose. Amazon has pulled off a neat trick with its latest update to the Kindle iOS app in order to skirt Apple’s rules about in-app purchases.
Retail Services
Straight Talk Users Sue Walmart And TracFone Over Throttling Of Unlimited Data Plans
By 7.30.13
Once again, a lawsuit calls into question the definition of “unlimited” when it refers to smartphone data plans. This time, the plaintiff claims that Straight Talk Wireless (a partnership between TracFone and Walmart) is effectively putting monthly data caps in place by throttling data speeds for users once they use a certain amount of data. Furthermore, alleges the complaint, users aren’t being told about the throttling until it’s too late. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Find Surprisingly Recent Minidisc Player
By 7.30.13
Earlier this year, Sony discontinued their Minidisc format. We didn’t report on it at the time because the real news may have been that Minidisc players, the most portable music format of the ’90s, were still in production. The format never quite took off unless you like to record and bootleg concerts. [More]
Amazon And Overstock.com Face Off In Book-Discounting Battle. You Can Probably Guess Who’s Winning
By 7.29.13
Though no blood has been shed — yet — things could get ugly as two of the Internet’s deepest discounters try to undercut each other, with Overstock.com (or O.co, if you’re a marketing moron) announcing it would beat Amazon’s pricing on books, only to have Amazon strike back with price drops of its own. [More]
Walmart Employee Accused Of Helping Himself To $106K In Bogus Money Orders
By 7.29.13
An employee at a New Mexico Walmart apparently thought he’d found a loophole in the store’s MoneyGram service that would allow him to print out bogus money orders without being detected. He was wrong, though he did manage to scam the retailer out of $106,000 before being arrested. [More]
Best Buy Cancels My Black Tie Plan, Forgets To Tell Me
By 7.29.13
Reader L. had heard nightmare tales about Best Buy’s Black Tie Protection Plans, but they couldn’t possibly be true. Could they? Two years into a four-year protection plan on his TV, he found out the hard way. No, they didn’t refuse to cover his problem, or stall on sending a repair person over: they had canceled his plan back in 2011, but forgotten to tell him. [More]
Walmart: Sorry Your Glasses Got Scratched During Repair, But It’s Not Our Problem
By 7.26.13
Ronald’s wife needed to get her glasses repaired, so she took them to Walmart. Walmart is convenient and has an optical department, after all. Even though she just came in to have a screw replaced, she left with a large scratch on her glasses. Unfortunately for her, the store manager insists that they’re not responsible for any damage that might happen to your glasses while they’re being fixed. [More]
Wells Fargo Customer Explains How $500 Loan Resulted In $3,000 In Fees
By 7.26.13
Wells Fargo claims that its Direct Deposit Advance loans are not payday loans, in spite of the fact that they are short-term, high-interest loans that are supposed to be paid off at the borrower’s next payday. One California woman says she assumed that Wells Fargo wouldn’t be steering her into a sketchy payday-like product, but then she ended up going around the debt carousel 63 times in five years — and paying $3,000 in fees on a $500 loan. [More]
Google Has Already Ended Netflix/Chromecast Promotion
By 7.26.13
One of the major selling points for Google’s new Chromecast streaming video dongle was that it initially came with three months of free Netflix service, which saves the customer $21 in monthly fees. But only a day after beginning to take orders, Google has already put an end to that promotion. [More]
Best Buy Has Had My Returned Order For 11 Weeks But I’m Still Waiting On My Refund
By 7.25.13
Back in early May, Consumerist reader JR decided to buy a microwave off BestBuy.com, which should have been a simple process. Little did she expect that she’d end up paying for two microwaves and waiting nearly three months to get a refund. [More]
Lawsuit Accuses Walmart Of Overcharging Taxes On Coupon Purchases
By 7.25.13
A Pennsylvania man’s purchase of two cans of shaving cream at Walmart has ballooned into a lawsuits against the nation’s largest retailer, which stands accused of not taking coupons into account when calculating sales tax. [More]
Would You Buy A $33,000 Rolex Watch From Sears?
By 7.24.13
When you shop at Sears, what are you looking for, usually? Some kind of appliance, a set of tools, perhaps a lingering sense of dissatisfaction for the whole retail experience, that kind of thing. As for designer handbags and flashy watches that cost more than the annual salary of many Sears shoppers? That’s not the usual fare. Not anymore: Bring on the $33,000 Rolex watches and the $4,000 designer purses, says Sears CEO Eddie Lampert, issuing instructions from his Florida bastion. [More]
Bank Of America Won’t Listen? Name-Drop Consumerist
By 7.24.13
Kyle was having some problems with Bank of America. He decided that his Alaska Airlines credit card was no longer worth the annual fee, so he decided to cancel it. Bank of America didn’t want to let him go. Instead of shutting down the card immediately, they left it open long enough that he got charged the annual fee. It seemed hopeless…until he name-dropped his favorite consumer affairs blog. [More]
Banks Received $814 Million In Federal Incentives For Mortgages That Ended Up In Redefault
By 7.24.13
According to the latest report from the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (or the much-cooler SIGTARP), the nation’s mortgage servicers have received more than $800 million in incentives for making modifications on mortgages that have ultimately resulted in the homeowner redefaulting on the loan. [More]
Make Your Walmart Cashier’s Life Better: Wear Some Underwear
By 7.24.13
Sure, the People of Internet like to gawk at the site People of Walmart, but that’s probably because they don’t work at a Walmart store. Reader C. works as a Walmart cashier, and does. He wants us to know: he’s not going to bag our groceries with our rat poison, and for gosh sakes, wear ripped pants or go commando, but please not both. [More]
Don’t Notice Appliance Delivery Damage Within 48 Hours? Too Bad
By 7.24.13
Sometimes you buy a new appliance, but don’t use it right away. Maybe you just don’t have any dirty clothes or dishes for a while, or the room where the appliance goes just isn’t ready yet. That’s what happened to Russell when he bought a new washer from Home Depot: it was damaged during delivery, but he didn’t know it at the time. Since he didn’t report it within 48 hours, he’s stuck with the broken appliance, in a sad and desolate land between where Home Depot’s return policy ends and LG’s warranty begins. [More]
Best Buy Employee Reveals 3 Common Mistakes Customers Make When Picking Up Big-Screen TVs
By 7.23.13 — Updated: 5.23.17
Consumerist reader “A” works at Best Buy and sees a lot of customers buying large TVs. He also sees many of those TV-buying customers making the same mistakes when it comes time to take that new set home. [More]
Buy A Plan From Sears Home Services, Get Even Less Service Than Before
By 7.22.13
Doug was working from a false assumption. He thought that the entity called “Sears Home Services” actually had the ability to diagnose and repair home appliances. Maybe someone around the office does, but none of the technicians who came out to work on his Kenmore washer and dryer seemed to know how to fix it. They were happy to sell him a service plan to cover the expense of those fruitless visits, though. [More]
