Hey world: Don’t leave yourself logged in to a display product at Best Buy! One Consumerist reader found someone logged in to a display iPad at Best Buy and emailed them and us from the logged in account. [More]
Retail Services
Bank of America Forecloses On, Then Auctions Off, Home With Paid-Up Mortgage
By 4.9.10
Imagine that you’re a homeowner who has managed to stay current on all your mortgage payments. And then you find out that the bank has not only foreclosed on your house, but they’ve also sold it at auction. That’s exactly what happened to to a couple in Georgia. [More]
If You Bring Your Gun To Walmart, Please Don't Play With It
By 4.9.10
An Arizona man (not Consumerist’s Phil Villareal, in case you were wondering) is under arrest after he discharged a handgun at his local Walmart. And no, he wasn’t robbing the place; he was just nervously fidgeting with his firearm. [More]
Smithsonian To Hock Pretend Jewelry On QVC
By 4.9.10
If you’ve always longed for a knockoff of the cursed Hope Diamond, the Smithsonian is about to fill your need by teaming with QVC to sell replicas of that and other historical treasures, the Washington Post reports: [More]
Customer Stunned When Routine Transaction Goes Smoothly
By 4.8.10
Reader Danielle has written in absolutely shocked that a basic return/exchange went smoothly. We think this says a lot about the state of things. [More]
Walgreens Takes Pity On You When You Get Mugged For Your Wallet And Prescriptions
By 4.8.10
Tabitha and her husband were part of a horrible chain of events. She was ill, and her husband was mugged on the way home from the pharmacy with her prescriptions. With his credit cards, cash, and his wife’s medicine all gone, her husband went back to the pharmacy…and received true above and beyond service. [More]
Slap-Happy Pappy Pleads Guilty To Punching Kids At Walmart
By 4.8.10
It seems like, oh about three weeks ago that we wrote about the grandfather who was arrested for punching kids in the head while their parents weren’t looking at an Ohio Walmart. In an update to that story, the slap-happy grandpappy has decided that, because it’s not a little kid, he won’t fight the legal system and has pleaded guilty. [More]
Blu-ray Not Only Here To Stay, But To Dominate
By 4.8.10
Bad news for those of you who were hoping Blu-ray would become a passing fad that vanished like Betamax, LaserDisc and HD DVD. The high-definition format only continues to pick up steam as giant HDTVs continue to infiltrate households and people decide plain ‘ol DVDs are no longer good enough. High-Def Digest, which admittedly has a horse in the race, reports the Blu-ray format is thriving. [More]
Consumerist Shames Best Buy Into Rebranding Optimization?
By 4.7.10
If you’re even a semi-regular reader of Consumerist, you probably remember back in January when we blew the lid off Best Buy’s overpriced and unnecessary computer “optimization” deal. Well, that report has caused Best Buy to make changes to their optimization offering — problem is, all they’ve changed is the name. [More]
Best Buy's "Mostly Free" Recycling Cost Me $20
By 4.7.10
Consumerist reader Jacqueline recently took a pair of old computers to be recycled at her local Best Buy in Virginia because, after close examination of the chain store’s recycling policy, she understood that it would be free. Alas, as she quickly found out — What Best Buy says in writing may not be true in reality. [More]
Chase Sued For Telling People To Stop Paying Mortgage, Then Foreclosing
By 4.7.10
We hear stories all the time about people who are having trouble paying their mortgage, call the bank for help, and are then told there’s nothing the bank can do unless they stop paying their mortgage. Well, one couple is suing Chase after they followed that advice, and then got foreclosed on. [More]
Watch Out For Drugstore Price Traps
By 4.7.10
I was at a Rite-Aid a couple of weeks back and went to pick up some cheap dish detergent, and the bottles that I remembered being less than $1.50 were all in the $3-4 range. I left and found sanely-priced soap at another store a few blocks away. Our reader Stan just wrote in with a similar example, where he caught his local CVS charging him three times as much as a nearby competitor. [More]
Home Depot Adding New Jobs For First Time Since 2006
By 4.7.10
Looking for a job? Then this might be a bit of good news — Home Depot is so hopeful about the economic rebound that they’re adding new in-store positions for the first time in four years. [More]
Lamps Plus Takes Deposit, Leaves Customer In The Dark
By 4.6.10
Erica and her fiance are tired of waiting for a lamp to arrive from Lamps Plus, especially now that it’s been three months and the company hasn’t kept any of its promises so far. She wants to know what to do next. [More]
Is Chase's Overdraft Fee "Opt-In" Purposefully Confusing?
By 4.6.10
Reader Victor, a former WaMu customer who wasn’t exactly pleased to end up with Chase, thinks the bank’s Federal Reserve mandated on-line overdraft fee “opt-in” form is purposefully confusing. He’s sent a screenshot so you can take a look for yourself. [More]
Spot Fake Online Reviews
By 4.6.10
Here are some warning signs that an online review is being left by a shill, or shills: [More]
Walmart Bomb Threat Suspect Already Waiting Trial For Similar Charge
By 4.6.10
Police in Oklahoma say that the man arrested over the weekend for phoning in a bomb threat to an Oklahoma City Walmart is currently awaiting trial for doing the same thing to an employment agency office only a few months earlier. [More]
Want To Design It Before You Buy It? Try These Retailers
By 4.5.10
Mass customization isn’t really that hard to pull off anymore, if a retailer is willing to invest the time building a good interface for customers. BusinessWeek has a slideshow of 10 retailers that let you customize the product before purchasing it. You can buy sneakers, purses, shirts, and even jewelry this way, or if you’re feeling really DIY you can go to a site like Ponoko or Shapeways and have product parts made to order. [More]
