To be strictly accurate, the $8,000 award a man received last week was only half for pain and suffering. The other $4,000 was for a disability violation. In 2009, the ride “It’s a Small World” at Disneyland broke down, but the music didn’t stop. Most of the guests were able to escape this horror, except for one man, who is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. [More]
awards
Vote For Consumerist In The Bloggies!
By 2.1.11
The nominees for the 2011 Weblog Awards were announced this morning and we were delighted to find that we’d been nominated in two, count ’em, two categories! [More]
American Auto Manufacturers Sweep Awards At Show
By 1.11.11
Even though the 2011 Chevy Volt insisted it was an honor to just be nominated, you could just tell she had her eye on that shiny North American International Auto Show car of the year trophy. She had her acceptance speech ready in advance, kept shooting the evil eye at Nissans and Hyundais, and besides — could you believe that gown she wore? [More]
Southwest's New Frequent Flier Program Rewards Biz Travelers Over Hoi Polloi
By 1.10.11
If air travel was a multi-player video-game, you would call Southwest’s new “Rapid Rewards” frequent flier program “adjusting the game balance.” In this case, the “Pinstripe” class is getting favorably tweaked at “Joe Sixpack” class’s expense. [More]
Southwest Overhauls Frequent Flyer Mile Program
By 1.6.11
Southwest today announced a major revamp of its frequent flyer mile program. Under the new system, travelers will get points based on their airfare amount. There will also be no blackout dates or seat restrictions (existing members will get grandfathered in). The airline also introduced three new fare buckets, “wanna get away,” “anytime,” and “business select” with increasing points per dollar to redeem and total points required for a free flight. So not only are you getting from point A to point B, you’re also polishing valuable math skills. Southwest came out with 3 videos to explain it all: [More]
Consumerist Makes TIME's 25 Best Blogs of 2010
By 6.28.10
The results are in and Consumerist is gracing TIME’s 25 best blogs of 2010. I guess they’re using using a fiscal calendar year? In any event, we enjoy giving and receiving awards. In their writeup, TIME said of us: [More]
Consumerist Gets Awards, Makes Remarks
By 10.2.09
This week Meg and I received the National Consumers League’s Consumer Education and Leadership Award for our work on Consumerist. The award was given during the Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture. The annual event commemorates the work of pioneering media activist Everett C. Parker, notable for his work in getting a racist TV station’s FCC license revoked in 1971. We’d like to share the video and the remarks we gave:
Thomas Kinkade, Painter Of Crap, Must Pay $2.1 Million To Former Gallery Owners
By 6.19.09
Thomas Kinkade calls himself the “Painter of Light,” and allegedly uses his “faith” to lure in investors to his gallery business. Now two former gallery owners have won a judgment from Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that forces Kinkade to abide by a 2007 arbitration decision that awarded the former owners $860,000 in damages and more than $1.2 million in attorneys’ fees and arbitration expenses. Ouchy.
Consumerist Nominated For Best Blog
By 1.6.09
That’s right, despite having its budget slashed and being put up for sale, Consumerist still rocked 2008 with a bunch of cool and/or ridiculously awesome posts, and now we’re in the running for the Best Blog in the 2008 Weblog Awards. You can cast your vote here. Frankly, we haven’t even heard of some of the competitors. Gawk-er? What is that, a peeping tom site? Boing boing? Who names this stuff?
Totally Fake Restaurant Wins Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
By 8.20.08
Hey, did you know that with Microsoft Word, $250 and maybe a foreign language dictionary — your lemonade stand can get a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence? That’s what one enterprising fellow set out to prove.
The Consumerist's Top 10 Products Of 2007!
By 12.28.07
2007 was an amazing year for consumer products and we covered them all! From the hype of the iPhone to death-flavored pet food, if you buy it, we’ve probably got an opinion about it.
Sears' Eddie Lampert Is "Worst CEO of the Year"
By 12.7.07
The fact that Eddie Lampert isn’t even a CEO didn’t stop Herb Greenberg at Marketwatch from slapping the coveted “Worst CEO of the Year” award on him. Eddie beat out such unemployed luminaries as Chuck “Whoops” Prince, formerly of Citigroup, and Ed “I Hate My Customers” Zander, formerly of Motorola.
Sleeping Pills For Kids? The 2007 International Bad Product Awards
By 10.31.07
The Consumer’s International 2007 International Bad Product Awards are here, folks. Let’s have a big round of applause for:
RIAA 1, Single Mom 0: RIAA Defendant Loses, Must Pay $222,000 For Allegedly Sharing 24 Songs
By 10.5.07
The first RIAA jury trial has ended and the single mom accused of sharing 24 songs has been ordered to pay $222,000 by a jury of her peers.
Walmart Workers Win Additional $62 Million
By 10.4.07
Walmart workers who were forced to work through breaks won an additional $62 million Wednesday. Sounds like a ton of cash, but the AP says, “The payments for lost wages are expected to range from about $50 to a few thousand dollars, depending on employment history.”
101 Dumbest Moments In Business: Walmart Hiring Edelman
By 1.25.07
CNN has put together a list of the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business and Walmart’s choice to hire Edelman PR took home the golden dunce.
