A Washington state couple with tens of thousands of dollars in their Chase checking, savings and retirement accounts recently came home to find a letter from the bank telling them that, oh, by the way, your accounts are now frozen. [More]
Retail Services
Moody's: Feds Less Likely To Bail Out Bank Of America If Needed
By 9.21.11
Earlier today, the folks at Moody’s Investors Service cut Bank of America’s credit ratings after it came to the decision that, should the nation’s largest bank fail, it would be less likely to receive bailout support from the federal government. [More]
Walmart Still Short-Changing Customers On Gift Receipt Returns
By 9.20.11
Back in May, an investigation by CBS Sacramento found that a number of Walmart stores were short-changing customers with gift receipts when they tried to make returns or exchanges. And though the nation’s largest retailer said at the time that this was not store policy and it would “be communicating with our store associates to reinforce our practice,” it appears as if this message hasn’t gotten through. [More]
Protesters Take Trash From Foreclosed House To Bank Of America Branch
By 9.20.11
Protesters chanting, “Bank of America, bad for America” tried to dump ten plump black garbage bags of trash in a BofA branch in Malden, Massachusetts. The bags contained refuse collected from the yard of a house the bank foreclosed on and let fall into disrepair, becoming a blight in the neighborhood and threatening to drag down property values. [More]
A Best Buy Flyer From '96
By 9.20.11
A Best Buy flyer from 1996 has resurfaced and it’s full of hilarious old technology and high prices. Gotta snag me a copy of Muppet Treasure Island for $34.99! [More]
Buying Sears Refrigerator Ends In Gnashed Teeth
By 9.19.11
Remember when stuff just worked? You bought it, brought it home, and it diligently performed its advertised function? Me neither, but suposedly there was a bygone era where products were made to last, instead made to break. In any event, we’re certainly not in those times now, and Jeff’s tale of trying to buy a simple refrigerator from Sears is proof positive. [More]
Christmas Creep Pops Up Down Under
By 9.19.11
Even though Australia feels so very far away for must of us in the U.S. (kangaroos!) Christmas Creep exists even Down Under, where, as our reader Natalie notes, it’s about 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 hot hot degrees, at Christmas. [More]
Best Buy Employees Test Out Your Phone, Flip You The Bird, Before You Even Enter Store
By 9.19.11
Over the years, we’ve posted stories about Best Buy staffers monkeying around with customers’ property when dropped off for service, but here’s a story about a man who went to pick up his new phone at BB, only to find that store employees had been testing it out by taking photos of each other flipping off the camera. [More]
Workers At Amazon Warehouse Complain Of Sweltering Heat
By 9.19.11
When most of us make a purchase from Amazon.com or some other e-tailer, we rarely give much thought to the folks behind the scenes responsible for fulfilling your order at the warehouse. But several employees at an Amazon warehouse in Pennsylvania are trying to make people aware of the humans behind all those cardboard boxes after a summer of working through stifling heat. [More]
Citi "Simplifies" Banking By Raising Monthly Service Fee
By 9.16.11
Citi customers with the bank’s “Basic Banking” package currently pay an $8/month service fee that can be waived if the customer makes five qualified transactions per month. The good news is that they are reducing that requirement; the not-so-good news is that Citi is raising the monthly fee for people who don’t make the necessary number of transactions. [More]
Shoplifter Sentenced To Life In Prison After Walmart Worker Dies
By 9.16.11
Last June, while attempting to heist a $348 TV from a Texas Walmart, a shoplifter knocked over a Walmart staffer, sending him to the hospital where he would die nine days later. Now that shoplifter has been sentenced to life in prison, even though he was never charged with the worker’s death and the medical examiner determined the actual cause of death was end-stage liver cirrhosis. [More]
How To Spot An Awful Restaurant In Seconds
By 9.16.11
The worst time to realize you’ve chosen a bad restaurant is after you’ve placed your drink order. You’re locked in to a financial commitment, so it’s tough to justify uprooting and heading somewhere else. If you’re careful to spot the signs of a bad dining establishment before you sit down, you won’t find yourself in that predicament. [More]
Taiwanese Animation's Take On The Star Wars Blu-rays
By 9.16.11
The controversial new Star Wars Blu-rays hit shelves today, with bonus, George Lucas-led digital revisions that rile some vocal fans. To best understand the situation, it’s necessary to turn to Taiwanese animators. [More]
When You Hard Sell Customers Too Much, They Sort Of Leave
By 9.15.11
Aggressive sales pitches are a delicate balance between selling customers on what you have to offer and pissing them off so much that they never return. When AMC theaters recently changed their loyalty program from free to paid, employees began to sell memberships too aggressively for AgentG2’s taste. He found the experience off-putting enough that he doesn’t plan to return to AMC. He wonders: did he overreact? [More]
Slew Of Foreclosed Homes To Hit The Market In Early 2012
By 9.15.11
Last year, several of the country’s largest mortgage servicers — Bank of America, GMAC/Ally, JPMorgan Chase, among others — were forced to hit the pause button on foreclosure procedures after it was revealed that many foreclosure documents were being rubber stamped by untrained, ill-informed “robo-signers.” This delay caused a bottleneck of foreclosure-worthy properties waiting to be reviewed. But now it looks like those homes are starting to trickle out into what could be a flood in early 2012. [More]
This Craft Store Really Doesn't Trust Its Customers
By 9.15.11
When A. saw that a local craft store had a “no bags” policy, she assumed that meant that the store didn’t allow shopping bags from other stores. No, it refers to purses and other personal bags. It’s not a huge hardship to lock one’s purse up and carry one’s wallet around in order to browse a store, but it is awfully annoying. [More]
What Walmart Wants To Do To Be Nicer To Women By 2016
By 9.15.11
Walmart’s corporate types are apparently aware that the company doesn’t have the most chivalrous reputation when it comes to business dealings with females. The company revealed a plan to make itself appear more friendly to women in the next four years and change. [More]
Private Colleges Starting To Offer Four-Year Degree Guarantees
By 9.15.11
Battling concerns from parents and students that they’ll toil in school for a half-decade or more without landing a degree, several private colleges are offering four-year degree guarantees. As long as students agree to meet with advisers and succeed in class, the colleges will waive tuition for any additional years it takes to finish up. [More]
