The New Jersey eighth grader who started a campaign for less girly Easy-Bake Ovens is headed straight to the top! And by that we mean she’s meeting with Hasbro’s Easy-Bake team (that team must have a lot of recipes for tiny cookies) to talk about her ideas concerning their product. [More]
Retail Services
Best Buy Sends Me Wrong Microwave, Promises To Come Swap It Out, Doesn’t Show
By 12.12.12
This is an exciting but stressful time for Terry’s family. His wife is pregnant, and they also just bought a new house. They ordered new appliances: matching stainless steel items for the kitchen, including one of those space-saving microwaves that goes over the stove. Best Buy technicians delivered and installed the bigger appliances, and the microwave arrived on the doorstep a few days later. It was the wrong color. That’s where Terry’s battle with Best Buy began. [More]
Man With Semiautomatic Rifle Kills 2 And Injures 6 At Mall, Then Kills Himself
By 12.12.12
On Tuesday afternoon around 3:30 PM, a man opened fire with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle at the Clackamas Town Center mall in Portland, Oregon. According to police, wo people were killed and as many as six injured, at least one of whom is hospitalized and in serious condition. Early reports indicated that the gunman may have been wearing body armor and/or camouflage, and was wearing the hockey mask associated with Jason in the Friday the 13th films. After firing up to 60 rounds, he killed himself. No law enforcement officers fired any shots inside the mall. [More]
Sears Demands Verification Of Order, Yells At You
By 12.11.12
Theresa is a regular Consumerist reader, and was aware of the complaints our readers frequently share about the retailer. Still, complaints like that are outliers, right? Satisfied customers don’t write to Consumerist. Neither do people who have extremely minor, easily resolved problems. (Usually.) She didn’t think that ordering luggage sets for her nieces would lead to any kind of problems, until her run-in with the very, very stressed out verification department. [More]
Abercrombie Kids Can’t Count To Three, Exists Outside Of Reality
By 12.11.12
David has a problem with clothing vendor Abercrombie Kids. They don’t know how to count to three. This would be an issue for many kindergarteners, but is especially problematic for a retailer that offers three-day shipping. Well, maybe someone there knows how to count to three, or even past three. It’s pretty hard to run a business otherwise. The problem is that the shirt that he ordered eight days ago, paying for three-day shipping, still isn’t here. It’s been shipped, but still wasn’t on its way. The shipment had been picked up, but the shirt hadn’t been shipped. It’s interesting that Abercrombie can exist outside of all normal rules of reality like that, but David just wants his daughter’s blouse already. [More]
Add Massachusetts To List Of States That Will Collect Sales Tax From Amazon
By 12.11.12
Residents of Massachusetts, your days of “tax-free” shopping on Amazon are numbered, as the state’s governor has announced that the e-tail giant will begin collecting sales tax on purchases made by Mass. residents starting next fall. [More]
Wells Fargo Being Sued (Again) Over Pick-A-Pay Loans
By 12.11.12
Wells Fargo continues to get kicked in the shins for the sins of Wachovia. Two years after agreeing to massive settlements with borrowers over that former bank’s Pick-A-Pay loans and hundreds of millions more in settlements to investors, new legal filings allege Wells Fargo hasn’t make good on promised mortgage reductions. [More]
Bank Of America Dead Last In Customer Satisfaction Study
By 12.11.12
The folks at the American Customer Satisfaction Index have released their latest report on the banking industry and for the sixth year in a row, credit unions and small banks have outscored all the large financial institutions. And for the second consecutive year, Bank of America is bringing up the rear. [More]
Pennsylvania Surplus Store Lets You Buy Back That Shake Weight The TSA Confiscated
By 12.11.12
You’ve just gone through airport security and you’re feeling bereft, after the Transportation Security Administration confiscated your pocket knife/Shake Weight (yes, really)/Play-Doh or anything that could be used as a weapon. It doesn’t just get dumped in a lost and found bin to collect dust or straight into the pockets of TSA agents, so where does it go? [More]
Target Stays Current In Literary World, Offers Book By “Emerging Author” Leo Tolstoy
By 12.10.12
Eagle-eyed Consumerist reader Len was shopping at Target over the weekend looking for a DVD, when he says something kinda funny caught his eye. No, it wasn’t just that there were two different prices under the same book ($12.95 and $12.76) which might’ve just been a case of a misplaced tome or two. It was the fact that this particular bit of fiction was in the “Emerging Authors” section: Anna Karenina, by that young upstart, Leo Tolstoy. [More]
Should Appliance Makers Pay To Replace Stainless Steel Appliances That Rust?
By 12.10.12
One of the more widely held beliefs about stainless steel appliances is that they will never rust. Alas, this isn’t necessarily true, as the alloy’s corrosion-resistance depends on its level of chromium and nickel. As the demand for stainless steel has risen in recent years, more customers are learning this the hard way. [More]
Hallmark UK: Sorry About That Card For 13-Year-Olds Equating Cleavage To Better Gifts
By 12.10.12
In the current social media environment, all it takes is one Twitter user tweeting one simple pic and a firestorm of controversy can be ignited. Such was the case when one Twitter user snapped a picture of a Hallmark UK greeting card telling 13-year-old girls they’ll get better presents when they get “bigger boobies,” and it got picked up by another Twitter user with a whole lot of followers. And cue media storm. [More]
Eight-Year-Old Donates 500 Presents From Birthday Benefit To Toys For Tots
By 12.10.12
There is no strict governing body presiding over exactly what form Santa Claus must come in, so why couldn’t he look like a generous eight-year-old boy? The young man from Owasso, Okla. was turning eight and decided he had enough toys. Instead, he opted to turn his birthday party into a benefit to bring in toys and give them away to those less fortunate. [More]
Entrepreneur Selling His Last Name To The Highest Bidder To Raise Funds For His Company
By 12.10.12
Sometimes all you have to trade on is your very own name, which is exactly the bait one man is setting in order to raise funds for his company. The Florida man has been wearing sponsored T-shirts for various companies for a fee, and now he’s offering up his last name to the highest bidder. [More]
Did My Home Depot Test These Shovels Before Putting Them Out For Sale?
By 12.7.12
Todd was at his local Home Depot when he noticed something weird about the shovels on display. They were rusted and had clearly been used. [More]
Wells Fargo Called Out For Continuing To Offer Payday Loans
By 12.7.12
The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 requires that FDIC-insured banks be examined and rated on whether or not they are meeting the banking needs in each of the communities in which they are chartered. But a pair of advocacy groups claim Wells Fargo deserves a lowered CRA rating because of loans that smell a lot like payday loans. [More]
What Kohl’s Does When It Ships An Extra Item: Charges Me For It, Denies A Refund
By 12.7.12
Consumerist reader Rebecca sounds like a reasonable person. Sure, she’s jealous of the people (this reader and then this reader, too)who get extra iPads sent to them by Best Buy, but she’s not expecting any kind of freebies from Kohl’s in the same situation with a different product. But instead of even a simple “Thanks for noticing we messed up!” she got punished for trying to do the right thing and return the extra item. [More]
Home Depot Employee’s Insider Tips On Price-Matching And Discounts
By 12.7.12
After seeing this 2010 post about a Home Depot customer who had to resort to the “I’m going to Lowe’s” threat in order to get the store to price-match its own website, Consumerist reader and Depot employee Dave wrote in to share his experiences with the company’s price-matching and discounting policies. [More]
