With prices of up to 20 cents to send and another 20 cents to receive text messages, free texting apps could be poised to take business away from cellular carriers charging customers to send their 160 characters of thoughts to friends and family. [More]
Retail Services
Barnes & Noble Won't Sell Physical Copies Of Kindle Exclusive Comics
By 10.10.11
After DC Comics gave exclusive digital rights to Amazon for a few of its comic book titles, Barnes & Noble is getting revenge by refusing to sell physical copies of those books in its stores. [More]
Bleach Battle At Baltimore Walmart Sends 19 To Hospital
By 10.10.11
After an altercation involving two women and bottles of bleach and ammonia at a Walmart Supercenter in Baltimore on Saturday, 19 people were sent to the hospital and the store was shut down temporarily. [More]
Banks Attempt To Woo Customers With Lower Credit Card Rates
By 10.10.11
Banks know consumers are angry at them for doing things like charging $5 a month for a checking account (not naming any names, but rhymes with Shank of Clamerica). So in order to lure back your business, banks are offering lower rates on their credit cards. [More]
How Bank Of America Picked $5 As The Debit Card Monthly Fee
By 10.7.11
The new $5 monthly fee Bank of America is charging debit card holders wasn’t just picked because the spreadsheet guys really like Subway $5 footlongs. There’s actually a calculation behind it. Here’s the math. [More]
Best Buy Customer Takes Laptop In For Hinge Fix, Has Hard Drive Replaced & Old Data Held Hostage For $59.99
By 10.7.11
A Best Buy customer in California needed to get the hinge on her laptop fixed. She’d paid $350 for an extended warranty from the electronics retailer so she thought there wouldn’t be any problem getting it fixed. We’re going to assume she’s never read Consumerist… [More]
Wells Fargo Forecloses On Home Because The Title Was Never Transferred
By 10.7.11
We’ve covered a number of stories of homeowners who weren’t behind on their mortgage payments but found themselves the subject of foreclosure because someone at the bank transposed a number or didn’t pay attention to the documents they were robo-signing. But here’s one about a Houston couple who find themselves facing foreclosure from Wells Fargo, all because someone never transferred the title. [More]
Bankers Association Defends Checking Rate Hikes: "We Don't Expect To Pay Nothing To Ride The Train"
By 10.7.11
Bankers are sure trotting out the appealing straight talk to defend the recent increase in rates on various consumer banking services. First it was Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan telling folks that adding a $5 monthly fee for debit cards was okay because they “have the right to make a profit.” Now an American Bankers Association has an interesting turn of phrase to defend the jackup in checking account costs, most recently done by Citibank. [More]
Report: Target.com Is A Glitchy Mess
By 10.6.11
After a decade under the Amazon.com roof, Target finally took over its own e-commerce site in late August. And while the retailer has made headlines ever since, they haven’t exactly been good news for Target. [More]
Best Buy Angers Internet By Accidentally Listing HTC Flyer At $99
By 10.6.11
In an incident reminiscent of the $69 iPad error, a number of people are upset with Best Buy after it refused to honor a $99 price for the HTC Flyer tablet that it claims was accidentally posted to the Best Buy website. [More]
Bank Of America CEO Defends $5 Fee Hike: We Have "Right To Make A Profit"
By 10.6.11
Bank of America has taken a lot of flack over the bank’s decision to levy a $5 monthly fee on debit card holders. Now the CEO is firing right back. [More]
A Precise Timeline Of How Sears Screwed Up Selling A Car Battery
By 10.6.11
Dennis found a $5 off code to purchase a new car battery from Sears, but assumed that ordering his item online and then picking it up at the store would not be a two-day odyssey involving a half-dozen employees and an order that somehow only materialized once it was canceled. He did things the old-fashioned way and just bought a battery at the physical Sears store. Now he has to wait seven to ten business days for his refund for the original order. [More]
Congressman Investigates Possible Drug Distributors' Price Gouging
By 10.6.11
Investigating allegations that several drug distributors are buying scarce drugs and reselling them at massive profit to hospitals, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has started an investigation. The congressman has requested documentation of what the distributors paid for the drugs and the amounts at which they’re reselling them. [More]
Watch Out For Petco's Fuzzy Kitty Litter Math
By 10.6.11
Just because something is on sale, even a sale only available to holders of a store’s discount card, that doesn’t mean it’s a good deal. Want a real-life example? Here, the sale price of a container of cat litter is higher than the sale price of a container that’s actually larger. Fuzzy math, or subtle bias against customers who aren’t able to carry a 31-pound box? [More]
Disney To Run 3D Re-Release Idea Into Ground
By 10.6.11
Never afraid to exploit a good idea for all its worth and more, the studio that brought you Bambi II announced it will capitalize on the success of its 3D theatrical re-release of The Lion King by using its cattle prod to jolt four more golden geese back to life. [More]
NewEgg Drops The Ball, Gamestop Saves The Day. Wait: Gamestop?
By 10.6.11
Two months ago, Nathan took advantage of a Newegg promotion for $10 off his pre-order of the collector’s edition of the game Dark Souls, which was released on Tuesday. Ordering ahead and getting a discount: points for planning and for shopping prowess. The day before the game was to be released, Newegg (and other retailers, Nathan later learned) had to cancel their pre-orders because they just didn’t have enough product. This left him without a collector’s edition on release day…unless he could find one in his city, in person. Was such a feat possible? Yes, as it turns out, with some luck and the help of a heroic Gamestop employee. [More]
It's About To Become A Bit More Expensive To Shop At Costco
By 10.5.11
Costco may be a favorite among bargain shoppers (and lovers of free samples), but the warehouse store chain isn’t doing as well as it had hoped, which means it’s time to raise membership fees by 10%. [More]
Target Won't Stop Charging My Debit Card For Purchase I Made Weeks Ago
By 10.5.11
Consumerist reader Lauren is caught in an ugly loop with the billing folks at Target.com. It seems she made a purchase a couple weeks back on the Target site and paid with her debit card. She eventually received everything, but now Lauren says that Target is continually authorizing her debit card for random amounts up to two times per week. [More]
