A new 19 cent Sprint roaming rate increase means customers can cancel contract without early termination fee, as long as they meet these conditions:
Retail Services
Bank Of America's Special New Amex For Rich People
By 6.11.07
Do you have over $100,000 on deposit at Bank of America? If you do, you might qualify for a special new Amex just for Bank of America’s wealthy customers. Oh my, the perks are fat!
Walmarts Tries To Become Your Bank With The "Walmart MoneyCard"
By 6.11.07
“Would you like to load your check onto a Wal-Mart MoneyCard?”
ITC Bans Import Of Cellphones With Qualcomm Chips
By 6.11.07
The U.S. International Trade Commission has banned Qualcomm from importing cellphone chips that infringe on a patent held by rival Broadcom. The chip in question, which is found in almost 80% of Verizon phones, uses a patented process to save power in the absence of cell coverage.
Value City Saves You $1,818,234.50
By 6.8.07
Flickr pool member Sassenach1 is the greatest shopper in the history of the planet. She saved $1,818,234.50 by shopping at Value City.
Phone Books Are Getting Thinner As Cellphones Take Over
By 6.8.07
One upon a time if you knew someone’s name, you could go to a thing called a “phone book” and look up their phone number and where they lived.
Walmart Pet Food Recalled Due To Salmonella Contamination
By 6.7.07
Only one specific lot of 55 pound bonus bags of Ol’ Roy Complete Nutrition dry dog food was affected. Pets who eat the food or people who handle it could be infected with salmonella, so if you’ve purchased this dog food you’re going to want to throw it out and return the empty bag to Walmart for a refund.
Walmart Nazi Tshirt Watch: Week 29
By 6.7.07
29 weeks after Walmart agreed to remove shirts bearing Nazi iconography from its shelves, and 17 weeks after getting a letter from Congress demanding the shirts removal, they’re still there. Adam writes:
So I’m at Wal Mart in Commerce City, CO looking for a gift for a friend and start rummaging through the T Shirt section not looking for anything in particular, just killing some time. Suddenly I notice this familiar looking skull peeking out at me. “Surely it can’t be…” I think to myself. Oh, it is…. I grab it and pull it out; there it is in all its glory. It’s like finding a piece of history. Nazi Wal Mart history.
We keep posting these to show you how some businesses manipulate the by-the-books media. A fracas erupts, the company send out a public statement apologizing and pledging to change their ways, the press publishes it, everyone feels goods, and we turn to a clip of Scrappy the Jet-skiing squirrel. Guess what, the company doesn’t always do what they said they were gonna do. — BEN POPKEN
Helio Call Centers Still Staffed By Nincompoops
By 6.7.07
Not only does virtual cellphone carrier Helio work by piggybacking off Sprint’s network, it seems to have leased their call centers’ famous dedication to customer service as well.
Best Buy Attorney Admits To Falsifying Emails In Racketeering Case
By 6.6.07
The racketeering case against Best Buy and Microsoft has taken an ugly turn. An attorney for Best Buy has admitted to altering emails that were to be used as evidence in the case. If you’re new to this class action lawsuit, Microsoft is accused of paying Best Buy to collect and use customer’s credit card information without their permission, signing them up for “free trials” of MSN that they didn’t want and or weren’t aware existed. When the free trial period was up, MSN began to bill them without their knowledge or consent. A former Best Buy employee wrote in to confess to pulling this sort of scheme on customers, if you’re looking for more detail on how it all worked.
Morning Deals
By 6.6.07
• Woot: Sharp SD-HX500 1-Bit Digital 500 Watt Flat Panel Home Theater System for $149
Home Depot Employees Fired For Helping Police Catch Shoplifters
By 6.5.07
“We saw them with the merchandise. We saw them run out of the store. I never kept my eyes off of them. Then when we asked them for a receipt, and that’s when they dropped the merchandise and they kept running. One guy still had a chainsaw while he was running, and that’s when the cops tackled him,” he said.
58 Out Of 60 Consumers Fell For Obviously Fake Bank of America Website
By 6.5.07
58 out of 60!? We knew people were vulnerable to phishing operations, but that number is just sad. Get to know your bank’s security features and, for heaven’s sake, look for them when you log in. There’s no reason 58 out of 60 people should be falling for an obviously fake site with incorrect security features. Looks like it might be back to the drawing board for Bank of America.—MEGHANN MARCO
Walmart Subsidy Watch: Why Do Public Officials Give Your Tax Money To Walmart?
By 6.5.07
Here’s something we don’t really understand. Why do public officials feel they need to give government subsidies to the nation’s largest employer? It’s sort of baffling.
