We’ve received a slew of e-mails from irate readers who had placed pre-orders on Walmart.com for the Blu-ray/Standard DVD combo pack of Iron Man 2 for $15. Yesterday, they received e-mails from Walmart telling them their orders were canceled “due to limited availability.” And yet, Walmart.com still lists the product as being available; you just have to pay $10 more if you want to buy it. [More]
Retail Services
Chase Bank's Website Crashes, Is Being Bailed Out By Tech Support
By 9.14.10
UPDATE: Chase.com has finally come back from the dead. [More]
Law Enforcement Group: Legalize Pot So Cops Have Time To Fight Real Crime
By 9.14.10
In November, California voters will have their say on Proposition 19, which would make it legal to grow, possess and use up to an ounce of marijuana for personal use. And as that decision day draws near, a group of law enforcement insiders has come out in support of the proposition, saying it would free up the police to focus its efforts on more serious crimes. [More]
Walmart's New Cellphone Plans Are Great If You Skip The Data
By 9.14.10
Yesterday, Walmart announced that starting next week it will offer a new wireless plan under its own brand, but running on T-Mobile’s network. The rates are good compared to national carriers: $45 per month for unlimited texting and minutes, and $25 per month for each additional line. There’s also no contract, and you pay the bill at the end of each month instead of loading up a pre-pay account. It’s one of the better family-style deals available, except for one thing: the data plans are actually more expensive than AT&T or T-Mobile. [More]
You Can Get Any 42" Samsung Plasma TV From Target, As Long As It's Smashed
By 9.14.10
Steve’s TV buying experience with Target has not gone well. If he wants to try this a third time, the store is more than willing to let him, but they say he has to pay full price now and there’s still no guarantee a broken TV won’t show up on his doorstep. [More]
Bank Of America Wants Customer To Travel 1,500 Miles To Close His Mother's Account
By 9.14.10
It hasn’t even been a month since our last dead Bank of America customer story, but here the bank is at it again, refusing to let a woman’s son close her checking account no matter what he does. Although she lived and banked in Tennessee and he lives in Pennsylvania, the latest nonsense has the bank demanding that he visit Texas in person to get a document notarized. [More]
What's Wrong With This Walmart Sign?
By 9.13.10
A reader over at AZfamily.com was driving by this Walmart in Scottsdale, AZ, the other day when something caught her eye. [More]
Companies Can Forbid You To Resell Your Software, Court Rules
By 9.13.10
A California court has ruled that software makers can forbid buyers from reselling a copy of a program they bought. This is not about people making illegal copies of games, this is about buying a CD with a program on it and not being able to resell that CD. Expect this to go to appeal, but watch out, Gamestop. [More]
Consumer Reports Puts Pledge Fabric Sweeper To The Test
By 9.10.10
It’s the problem that has vexed cat and dog owners for centuries: How the hell do I get all this damn fur off everything. There have been countless inventions that promise to lift animal hair off your furniture and carpet, but do they work? [More]
Are The Glasses A Dealbreaker For Buying 3D TVs?
By 9.10.10
Whether or not it will last, 3D is still a growing trend at the movies and with TV manufacturers. However, a new survey shows that most people won’t buy a 3D TV just because they have to wear the required glasses. [More]
Brownsville, Texas, The Latest Place To Ban Plastic Bags
By 9.10.10
Shoppers in Brownsville, TX, should start investing in reusable shopping bags. Starting Jan. 5, most stores will be banned from using plastic bags and people will be charged an extra dollar for every transaction in which they use plastic bags. [More]
Buy The Two-Pack And Save -$.53!
By 9.10.10
Jared spotted this dubious deal at his local Walmart. You can get a bottle of Old Spice high endurance body wash for $2.97, or the two-pack for $6.47. There should be a bulk discount, right? Nope, you’ll actually pay $.53 more if you buy the bundle instead of the two individually. Hey, that plastic wrap is really, um, convenient, and there’s a convenience premium. Yeah, that’s the ticket. [More]
How 5 Different Companies Treated Us After My Father's Death
By 9.10.10
Everyone deals with death at some point, and everyone grieves differently. The major corporations our lives are intertwined with often don’t want to let us go–or create unneeded problems for our survivors. Dan’s father recently died, and he wrote up a comparison of his family’s experiences with a variety of large companies. Out of Bank of America, American Express, Fidelity, AT&T Wireless, and Comcast, which companies do you think were the easiest to deal with under the circumstances? [More]
USAA And Mastercard Turn Celebrity Librarian Into Unwitting Consumer Scofflaw
By 9.10.10 — Updated: 9.8.16
K.G. writes that she used her Mastercard to pay for a car rental from Avis. The card issuer, Consumerist darling USAA, assured her that the card provided insurance coverage for rental cars. Good to know! Except for how the insurance claim was denied, possibly because she used a coupon for the car rental. No one is entirely sure. The bill went straight to a collection agency without ever giving K.G. an opportunity to, um, actually pay it. Now she’s being penalized for ducking a bill she was never sent, and still can’t get a straight answer out of any of the companies involved. [More]
Walmart Robber Swings Newborn Baby At Security To Escape Store
By 9.9.10
Some idiots try to profit off their babies by attempting to sell them outside of Walmart. And now there’s the woman in Syracuse who stands accused of using her baby to ward off Walmart loss prevention officers while she and her two alleged accomplices made off with their purloined loot. [More]
Which Technological Advance Of The Last 20 Years Has Most Made Your Life Easier?
By 9.9.10
In 1990, the internet was something used by fantasy baseball fanatics on CompuServe and mobile phones were the size of toddlers — a luxury for those who could afford to not use pay phones. Satellite TV meant having a massive dish on your property; millions struggled with programming their VCRs to tape L.A. Law; bills were paid by check… in the mail. [More]
Times Square Pop-Tart Emporium Doesn't Open Until After Breakfast
By 9.9.10
When do you eat Pop-Tarts? They’re supposed to be a breakfast food, aren’t they? So why does the new Pop-Tarts World store in Manhattan’s Times Square not open until 11:00? That’s lunchtime, people! [More]
Samsung's Kafkaesque Refrigerator Executive Customer Service Runaround
By 9.9.10
Jason’s story about his Samsung refrigerator seems, for the first few paragraphs, to be a relatively mundane incident involving a customer who is (justifiably) annoyed when some relatively small features of his $2,700 refrigerator kept breaking, requiring repairs. But when the icemaker and the entire freezer began to fail, Jason’s story took a different turn. A repairman encouraged him to seek a replacement for the frequently failing fridge, which he did. Now his quest for a new fridge looks more like a part-time job, and Samsung’s executive customer service is beginning to look like … regular customer service. [More]
