Would you give your right arm for a decent meal? If you’re in Florence, Italy you can keep all your limbs intact and just hand over some fruits and vegetables in exchange for a restaurant-quality meal. The restaurant is opening later this month, and is using the barter idea to help out customers who might be feeling like they can’t dine out in the current cranky economy. And yes, an economy can be cranky. [More]
Retail Services
Gas Station Owners Protest Lukoil Price Discrepancies By Ratcheting Fuel Up To $9.99 Per Gallon
By 9.13.12
If you’re pulling in to a gas station in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, don’t start filling up until you check the price: Over 50 franchise owners of Lukoil stations have hiked prices up to $9.99 to protest what they call unfair pricing by the Russian-owned oil company. At issue is how Lukoil sells its gasoline to stations that are near each other for different prices, which causes customers to choose, of course, the cheapest gas. [More]
Chase Customers: Did The Bank Ever Re-Open Your Closed Account?
By 9.13.12
Over the lifetime of Consumerist, we’ve written a number of stories about so-called zombie bank accounts, where a consumer finds out their closed account has been re-opened without their knowledge or approval, usually after some third party attempts to make a direct deposit or debit on the dead account. If you were a Chase bank customer and your account was resurrected from the grave, we’d like to hear from you. [More]
Robbers Must Not Care About Haul That Much If They're Throwing Cash Out Of The Window
By 9.13.12
What’s a bunch of suspected bank robbers to do when the cops are closing in during a high-speed chase in South Los Angeles? Apparently that is the perfect time to hurl your ill-gotten gains out of the window and make it rain cash. The up side for passersby — free cash! And if the ensuing melee gets in the way of the cops closing in, perhaps that makes for a good getaway tactic. But also, really dangerous to have people diving for free money in the streets. [More]
Sears Dishwasher Includes Free Live Snake, Customer Is Unhappy For Some Reason
By 9.13.12
I’ve shopped in enough pet stores to know that people will pay good money for snakes. One Sears customer in California got all upset yesterday when Sears came by her house to deliver a new Kenmore dishwasher from SearsOutlet.com. It was missing a few parts, which annoyed her. Oh, and there was a live snake taped to it. [More]
Banks Working On Linking Up Their Payment Systems To Make Person-To-Person Mobile Transfers Easier
By 9.12.12 — Updated: 9.8.16
The way younger generations are glued to their smartphones, there’s almost nothing they can’t do with the swipe of a touch screen. Old-fashioned things like writing checks or even paying a roommate with cash is such a bother to some, but yet transferring money to other people with apps hasn’t really caught on like the banking industry figured it would. That’s why the nation’s big four are discussing how they can link up their payment systems to make it easier for consumers to send money via mobile devices or even emails. [More]
At Amazon, 'Heavily Scratched' Is Subjective
By 9.12.12
Instead of fussing with selling their old iPad on eBay or to a local stranger on Craigslist, Heather and her husband tried trading it in through Amazon. The company offered the best price, and Amazon’s a reputable company that would offer them a fair trade. The device had too many scratches to be considered “like new,” in Amazon’s opinion, so they had Amazon send it back. They packed it back up to trade it in “good” condition, and Amazon downgraded its condition again. Even though they hadn’t exactly wrapped it in steel wool in the interim. [More]
Walmart Self-Checkout Shorts Customer $40, Manager Insists It Didn't
By 9.12.12
If we can all learn anything from the experience of Joe’s wife, it’s this: don’t use self-checkout lanes if you’re planning to get cash back from your debit card. There’s a slim chance that anything will go wrong, but if it does, you have a witness to the transaction in the cashier. In the case of Mrs. Joe, she asked the self-checkout for $40 that she didn’t receive. She ultimately went to the manager on duty, who reviewed the security video and supposedly found no evidence that the self-checkout shorted her $40. [More]
Study Says 800K Homeowners Should've Avoided Foreclosure But Big Banks Messed It All Up
By 9.11.12
Getting a mortgage modification has been hard enough for homeowners, what with disorganized big banks not having enough well-trained people on staff to deal with the necessary ins and outs of the process. But a new study says that things should’ve been easier under the Home Affordable Modification Program and resulted in 800,000 fewer foreclosures than we ended up with. [More]
Chase Is Now Surprising People With Mortgage Adjustments
By 9.11.12
While we’ve seen many a story during the last few years of people stuck chasing their tail in an attempt to get a mortgage modification from their lender, some Chase customers are now finding out they’ve gotten a loan adjustment without ever having to lift a finger. [More]
Oscar Mayer Figures Serving Up A PR Stunt With Bacon Will Get The Public To Bite
By 9.11.12
Here at Consumerist, we’ve seen more than our fair share of PR stunts designed to lure us in and think “Gee, that product really is great!” But when said promotion involves bacon we already know we love the product and so it works. Oscar Mayer is betting on the general public’s love of meat with its new promo featuring a comedian who’s trying to barter his way across the country with only a trailer full of bacon to get by. [More]
Consumer Credit Down For The First Time In A Year As We Try To Pay Off Debts
By 9.11.12
While we were busy focusing on doing something that makes sense given the lessons of the recession and pay off our credit card debt, that has caused a bit of a worry for the economy. Namely, U.S. consumer credit is down for the first time in a year partly because we’ve been trying to reduce credit card debt. [More]
Woman May Have Scored Renoir Painting For $60 In Lucky Flea Market Find
By 9.10.12
There’s always that hope among flea market shoppers and garage sale pickers — maybe I’ll get a really lucky score today and uncover something priceless no one else has noticed. Most of the time that feeling peters out when walking away with a gently used coffee maker, but one woman reportedly scored a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir for a paltry $60 at a flea market. [More]
Amazon To Allow Ad Opt-Out On New Kindle Fires… For $15 Fee
By 9.10.12
Just like the least-expensive versions of the current Kindle e-readers, Amazon’s recently announced updates to the Kindle Fire tablet line will have “special offer” ads as screen savers, as a way to subsidize the devices’ lower retail prices. But while the earlier e-readers were sold specifically as “Kindle with Special Offers” at the discounted price, allowing customers to purchase the slightly more expensive version if they chose, the only way to get around the new Kindle Fire special offers is to buy the device and then pay a fee. [More]
Restaurant Owner Gets Revenge On A Customer With A Fake Sex Site Profile, Hooks Up With Libel Conviction
By 9.7.12 — Updated: 11.19.12
We’re constantly amazed at businesses that just don’t know how to take criticism. No, it likely doesn’t feel good to read negative reviews about your establishment on the Internet, but getting revenge by posing as a customer on a site for adults looking to hook up is not only childish, it’s going to have some legal repercussions. Just ask the co-owner of two eateries who retaliated in this manner against a customer she felt she had maligned her. [More]
Everyone Is Either Aghast At Candy Corn Oreos Or Really, Really Into The Idea
By 9.7.12
I don’t know what to do with this feeling in the pit of my stomach. Is it disgust? Is it anticipation? Or is it just flat-out wonder that food companies keep coming up with weird flavor combinations to titillate the Internetz and work everyone into a lather? It might be wonder, but in any case, we’re probably going to have to get our hands on some of these golden candy corn Oreos for a Consumerist taste-testing in the near future. [More]
Wells Fargo Sends Crew To Foreclose On Home That Doesn’t Even Have A Mortgage, Shrugs
By 9.7.12 — Updated: 2.22.13
There isn’t really a great way to make it up to homeowners that don’t even hold a mortgage when you’ve sent a crew to break into their house and take everything out of it, but we suppose “sorry” is an okay, if lackluster, start. A California couple says Wells Fargo made a huge mistake by trying to take their home and now they’re not being very helpful in getting the family’s belongings back to them. [More]
Comment Of The Day: Won't Someone Think Of The Big Box Stores?
Harry Greek: You know, it’s times like this, that I realize we need a president that stands up for the abused businesses. [More]