Erica, who writes Philadelphia Weekly’s Style blog, went to Target this past Saturday to purchase some new tank tops. She and her boyfriend filled their cart with a lot of other stuff too—”Ready to stimulate the economy?” she joked to him on their way to the register—and they agreed to split the cost equally. Now when I worked retail, that was an infrequent but not impossible task. When you ask a Target cashier to do that, get ready to have your debit card debited twice for the full amount of the bill, and then told two days later that the voided transactions will take 72 hours to clear.
Retail Services
Check Out The New Commercial For Citibank!
By 3.9.09
Here’s what you can expect from a nationalized Citibank, courtesy of Funny or Die. NSFW warning: this thing is full of f-bombs, and even an r-mine. (Full video after the jump.)
Toys R Us Bathroom Stall Falls On Child Safety Advocate
By 3.9.09
In 2006, Jennifer—the co-founder of popular parenting/consumer advocacy site Z Recommends—took her two-and-a-half-year-old to the bathroom at the local Toys R Us store. What she didn’t know was that this particular store featured the awesome striking power of the Action Toilet Stall with Collapsible Mom Trap! As she closed the door, the entire partition fell over on top of her and her daughter. Jennifer managed to protect her daughter from harm, but in the two years since the event, she’s developed chronic pain from the accident—and the response from Toys R Us has been “don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
Andrew Cuomo & Barney Frank Demand Names Of Million Dollar Bonus Execs
By 3.9.09
New York Attorney General and House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank have written a letter to Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis demanding the names of the nearly 700 executives who received bonuses in excess of one million dollars.
Are You Actually Paying More Than $3 A Minute To Use Your Cellphone?
By 3.9.09
The LA Times brings up an interesting point. You may think you are getting each cellphone minute for about $0.10… but are you really? Or are you paying for more minutes than you use?
Morning Deals
By 3.9.09
Highlights From Buxr
- Seattle’s Best: [Coffee] Buy a medium or large mocha or latte, great one free (Printable Coupon)
- Buy.com: [SD Card] Kingston 2GB microSD Secure Digital Card for $4.81 w/ Free shipping
- Blair.com: [Iron ]Toastmaster Iron for $8.99 after coupon YVF w/ Free shipping
Highlights From Buxr
- TiVo.com: [DVR] Save $100: High Definition TiVo HD DVR $200 Shipped
- Guitar Center: [Instruments] Green Tag Sale: 50% & More off Music Gear
- Expedia: [Travel] Free Night’s Stay with Hotel Bookings
Highlights From Dealnews
- mwave: [PC Part] ASUS M3A78 Socket AM2+ ATX Motherboard for AMD for $78 + $9 s&h
- Newegg: [Sound System] Pioneer 864W 5.1-Channel Home Theater System for $180 + free shipping
- BestBuy: [Laptop] Toshiba Satellite AMD Dual Core 2.1GHz 13″ Laptop for $585 + $25 s&h
Morning Deals are purely an informational service for the readers, Consumerist receives nothing in exchange for their posting.
Home Depot Provides Surprisingly Decent Service
By 3.8.09
Reader Jerry has shopped at the Home Depot in Van Nuys for over six years, but this weekend was the first time he feels he’s ever received good service. There was a helpful greeter at the door with a map of the store, and it seemed like everywhere he turned there was an employee willing to help. “It took a few minutes, but it finally dawned on me. Home Depot was trying to provide customer service!” Is this just a fluke or a part of a renewed effort to earn your business during the recession?
Best Buy Sells You Backup Plan, Fails To Backup Your Data, Then Replaces Your Hard Drive
By 3.7.09
Best Buy charged Nicole $99 to backup her data but then replaced her hard drive without backing up a single byte. Nicole’s service contract clearly stated that Best Buy would perform the backup before any other service. Now Best Buy is claiming that her old hard drive is their property and that she has no right to the data that they failed to backup or restore.
Sears' New 'Secret Eavesdropping' Phone Technique Improves Customer Service, But Totally Freaks Out Other Sears Employees
By 3.6.09
It looks like Sears has finally figured out a way to ensure good customer service for home deliveries. Unfortunately, this method induces extreme paranoia in other Sears employees. The woman referred to as “Delivery” in Jason’s retelling below will probably never trust another coworker again.
Refuse Unnecessary Tests
By 3.6.09
Today I went to the doctor. All I wanted was a prescription to continue to go to physical therapy for my pulled groin muscles. The assistant said that the doctor likes to give new patients a full physical, which includes blood tests, EKG, and a chest x-ray. I said I had a physical recently (true) and those tests sounded unnecessary. She seemed disappointed. Unless I have wheezing or chest pains, I don’t see the need for a chest x-ray. See, doctors are like Best Buy. If you go in informed knowing exactly what you need, you’re fine. Otherwise they’re like oh you need Monster Cables and an extended warranty for your heart.
Burlington Coat Factory Supplier Caught Gluing Designer Labels To Walmart Coats
By 3.6.09
A CBS investigation has uncovered some Walmart and Macy’s coats being sold at Burlington Coat Factor — disguised as more expensive designer brands. Apparently, some jackass at a coat supplier thought it would be a good idea to glue Perry Ellis labels on cheap coats. As you can imagine, both Burlington Coat Factory and the customers with the fake merchandise are not pleased.
Amazon Announces Game Trade-In Program To Compete With GameStop
By 3.6.09
If you don’t like GameStop, how about Amazon? On Thursday, they announced their new “Video Games Trade-In” program (www.amazon.com/tradeingames), where you send in your used games for Amazon gift card credit. What we like about this is you don’t have to spend the money on more games if you don’t want to, so you can convert old games into anything Amazon accepts gift cards for. What we don’t like is you can’t just get cash back—but hey, if you hate GameStop, here’s an option for you.
Morning Deals
By 3.6.09
Highlights From Buxr
- Steam: [Video Game] Unreal Tournament 3 Free Weekend
- PacSun: [Jeans] BUY 1 Pair of Jeans GET 1 Pair FREE + Extra 15% off Entire Order w/ coupon wel15em08
- Baskin-Robbins: [Ice Cream] Buy one Sundae, get one free coupon
Highlights From Dealhack
- Best Buy: [Notebook] Acer Aspire 14.1-inch Dual Core Notebook PC $400
- Eastbay: [Sports] Extra 20% to 30% off Sports Apparel, Shoes, & Gear
- Buy.com: [GPS] Sanyo NVM-4370 GPS Nav System with Bluetooth $100 Shipped
Highlights From Dealnews
- Amazon.com: [Bed Accessory] Sleep Studio ViscO2 Active 3″ Mattress Topper for $68 + free shipping
- Boscovs: [Art Supplies] 101-Piece Art Set for $9.99 + $10 s&h
- Amazon.com: [Glare Filter] Fellowes Premium Liteview Glare Filter for $30 + free shipping
Visa And Capcom Announce Street Fighter Hyper Fee Edition Card
By 3.5.09
Video game maker Capcom has partnered with Visa to offer a pre-paid debit card with so many fees that it will shrink your wallet from an E. Honda to a Dhalsim. The hurricane kick of fees, inside.
Gee, What's More Expensive Than A Share Of Citibank?
By 3.5.09
The Huffington Post (yeah, yeah) suggested: An episode of Family Guy on iTunes, Starbucks coffee, and a bag of peanut M&M’s. (Dead animal free, we hope.)
Who The Hell Are These People Calling My Cellphone About A Car Warranty?
By 3.5.09
We’ve been getting a lot of emails from people saying that a company is using a robocaller to call their cellphones and pretend that their car warranty is expiring. Too bad that some of these readers don’t even have a car. Has happened to you? Do you know who is behind it?
By 3.5.09
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Walmart continues to see its same store sales grow as people trade down from more expensive stores. Meanwhile, Macy’s, Kohl’s and Nordstrom are all hurting. [CNNMoney]
Morning Deals
By 3.5.09
- Skis.com: [Winter clothes] 50% off everything North Face
- Ann Taylor Loft: [Sweater] Petite Scoopneck Cable Sweater for $14.99
- Amazon: [Video Game] Fallout 3 for PS3 for $34.98 Shipped
Highlights From Buxr
- Fedex Kinkos: [Printing] FREE 25 Resumes Printed on High Quality Paper
- Amazon: [DVD] The Nightmare on Elm Street Collection for $24.99 + Shipping
- AT&T Wireless: [Cellphone] Nokia 2610 GoPhone® (Refurbished) for $9.99 w/ Free shipping
Highlights From Dealhack
- Old Navy: [Clothing] Apparel Basics up to 50%+ off
- Newegg: [DVD] Philips HD Upscaling DivX DVD Player $50 Shipped
- Meritline: [Lights] LED Bicycle Headlight & Tail Light Kit $5 Shipped
Highlights From Dealnews
- MacMall: [Computer] New Apple Mac mini Core 2 Duo 2GHz Desktops from $569 + $0 s&h after rebates
- Shop4Tech: [Gadget] iTheater Wireless Video Eyewear for $101 + free shipping
- JR: [Laptop] Toshiba Satellite Sempron 2GHz 15″ Laptop for $400 + free shipping
Morning Deals are purely an informational service for the readers, Consumerist receives nothing in exchange for their posting.
