Update: The owner of the website PerfectPitch.com has apologized for the takedown notice, and says it was an accident on his end. Here’s his email.
abuse
Banks Cling To Overdraft Fees Because They Need Them To Survive
By 9.10.09
Banks now make more on debit card overdraft fees than credit card penalties—they’ll rake in about $27 billion in 2009 alone, according to the New York Times. They obviously have zero incentive to curb the practice. In fact, one economist told the paper that “45 percent of the nation’s banks and credit unions collect more from overdraft services than they make in profits.”
Mom Drags Kid Through Verizon Store On Leash
By 8.3.09
Dear kid of abusive mom: yes, this is what it feels like for us when we deal with cell phone retailers, too. At least your mom was arrested. Video below.
Debt Collectors Will Stop Calling If You Sue Them
By 5.30.09 — Updated: 11.1.12
“Litigant Alert” from WebRecon promises to help debt collection companies ferret out “overly-litigious debtors” with “a history of suing collection agencies.” It’s basically a Do Not Call list of troublemakers who had the nerve to fight aggressive collection practices with the law. Debt collectors are apparently willing to pay $1,595 to figure out who they should leave alone.
Tennessee Pushes Back Against Late Fees By Credit Card Companies
By 4.8.09
Although it has yet to pass into law, the Tennessee Senate Commerce Committee has approved a bill that requires creditors to count the postmark date of a payment as the payment date, not the day they say they receive it.
IRS Fires Private Debt Collectors, Plans To Pursue Deadbeats On Its Own
By 3.7.09
The IRS has ended a controversial program that allowed private debt collectors to pursue individual debts owed to the government. The private debt collectors, described as “bounty hunters who collect taxes from vulnerable people for profit,” were allowed to keep 25% of any collected debts for themselves. Before we celebrate, let’s all take a moment to join Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa in thinking about those poor private debt collectors who no longer have jobs harassing and abusing people…
Walmart Employee Hates New Trash Cans, Will Throw Yours If You Set It Near Him
By 10.17.08
Ricky had a bizarre run-in with “Larry” at his local Walmart, where he was shopping recently with his mother, who needed a new trash can. While Ricky browsed the automotive accessories counter, his mom did mom things in the silk flower department, and she left her new trash can next to Ricky’s leg while she wandered off. It turns out, you do not leave trash cans anywhere in Larry’s line of sight if you know what’s good for you.
Delta Makes Woman With Muscular Dystrophy Crawl Off Plane
By 7.29.08
On July 20th, Julianna’s (delayed) Delta flight landed in Atlanta at 7:30pm, with a connecting flight scheduled for 8:05pm. Julianna, who has muscular dystrophy, missed the connecting flight because nobody came with a wheelchair until 8:05—the same time the connecting flight took off. To make matters worse, the plane crew told Julianna she might make the flight anyway if she stopped waiting for help and got off the plane right now, so she crawled down the stairs on her own. When the wheelchair came she was “wheeled into a back room and advised” that her plane had taken off. But that was just the first half of her ordeal, and the next eight hours only got worse.
Wal-Mart & Local Police Detain Man, Threaten Arrest Over 4 Bags Of Sugar
By 6.14.08
This guy was trying to make strawberry jam this morning, and he had to go buy 4 bags of sugar. The cashier threw away the original receipt but put the sugar in a couple of Wal-Mart shopping bags, so Ben left the store thinking everything was, you know, normal for a Saturday morning. Then he was stopped by a security guard, a store manager, and an off-duty police officer, all of whom went batshit crazy on Ben over his 4 bags of sugar and lack of receipt. Before it was over one of the shopping bags was ripped open, a bag of sugar lay broken open on the parking lot, the guard had threatened to kick Ben’s ass, and the police officer said, “you’d better not be lying to me.” Ben was marched back into the store so they could verify with his cashier that he wasn’t a sugar thief. Welcome to Wal-Mart, the police-state superstore where prices are low and civil rights don’t exist.
Meet The Coupon-Throwing Papa John's Owner From Hell
By 6.8.08
Papa John’s wouldn’t let reader Adi redeem her coupon for a $9.99 extra-large pizza online, so she trekked over to the nearest store in Weymouth, Massachusetts, where she met the franchise owner from hell. The owner insisted that the coupon didn’t apply to online orders, so Adi asked to cancel her online order and re-order her pizza in person to get the discount. This prompted the owner to angrily throw the coupon at Adi, before throwing away her ready-made pizza. And was just the start of the fun…
JetBlue Forces Passenger To Sit On Toilet For Flight
By 5.13.08
Talk about crappy service! JetBlue is the number 1 and the number 2 airline! A man from NYC is suing JetBlue “for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California,” reports CBS News. We’re not going to judge the airline too harshly until more of the story comes out, just in case it turns out to be another upset passenger overstating the situation—but if it’s true, it’s going to be hard for JetBlue to wipe this story from the public’s memory for a while. Especially with all the joke opportunities.
Company Sued For Waterboarding Salesman
By 4.15.08
“We’re not the mean waterboarding company that people think we are,” says the general counsel for Prosper Inc., a company that sells “coaching packages” over the telephone. They’re being sued by a former employee who says he was held down as his boss emptied a gallon jug of water into his mouth and nose as part of a team-building exercise. Our tipster Rachael writes that it’s like “an episode of The Office gone horribly wrong.”
GMAC And Car Dealership Scam Old Lady For Nearly $8,000
By 4.2.08
A volunteer in Chicago claims that her client, a 65-year-old woman with dementia, was given a GMAC auto loan for a new 2007 Pontiac, even though she only makes $900 a month and has no driver’s license. Now the car has been repossessed and the car lot is saying she owes them nearly $8,000.
Dog Fur Coats Sold By Dillards, Caché, ELUXURY, And DrJays
By 3.20.08
The Humane Society has just released the results from another round of tests on fur-trimmed products from national U.S. retailers, and in four cases they found that the advertised “raccoon” fur was actually “raccoon dog,” a canine indigenous to Asia. This is one case where the FTC is squarely to blame for creating the problem in the first place, because in 1951 they decided that trade trumps scientific classification and declared “that this animal should be referred to as ‘Asiatic raccoon’ in advertising and labeling.”
Cow Abuse Meatpacking Boss Reluctantly Admits To Tainting The Food Supply
By 3.13.08
The president of a slaughterhouse at the heart of the largest meat recall denied under oath on Wednesday, but then changed his mind, that his company introduced sick cows into the food supply, says the NYT.
How Often Do Companies Check On Overseas Manufacturers?
By 11.1.07
With the Gap embarrassed this week by reports that Indian children as young as 10 were making Gap Kids clothing, a lot of people are asking, just how frequently and to what degree do large U.S. companies like Gap and Wal-Mart monitor their foreign manufacturers? According to Slate, “anywhere from six months to once every several years.” Unfortunately, because the visits are usually announced ahead of time, factories can hide violations, coach employees on what to say, get rid of the child workers, and forge records. In China, there are consultants who will prepare a factory for inspection, going so far as to fake missing records.
FedEx Could Have Kicked This Package Once More
By 7.22.07
[Utica, Michigan, July 20. Image via Nuxx.net]
Daughter Stuck with Comatose Mom's Debt?
By 6.8.07
For those of you who enjoyed today’s post on the woman who committed suicide after her husband was threatened with debtor’s prison, here’s another one up your bleak alley.
