Once again, Verizon has been caught leaving its vans parked in front of fire hydrants.
bad company
Dealership Video-Responds To Customer's Hidden Camera Expose
By 7.10.09
Mark Hampton has posted a video response to his dealership getting totally snagged by a customer who stashed a hidden camera in his vehicle and caught mechanics doing some dirty deeds.
Direct Express Auto Transport Responds To Bad Reviews By Posting Reviewers' Personal Information Online
By 2.18.09
We write often about companies’ sleazy approaches to online reviews. Some companies bribe users for positive feedback. Others sue over negative reviews. Direct Express Auto Transport, however, is the first company we’ve seen that responds to bad reviews by sharing users’ personal information.
Canon's Rebate Program Is Blurry And Poorly Lit
By 9.22.08
Brett has now been the victim of two failed rebate attempts through Canon. They ignored the first one, and rejected the second one with a claim that he can clearly disprove. He’s trying again. Unfortunately, it looks like Brett’s experience with Canon isn’t unique.
Burger King Investigating Email Shenanigans In Tomato Price War
By 5.6.08
Last week a Florida journalist busted Burger King VP Stephen Grover for using his tween-aged daughter’s email account to slam a farm workers group—but that wasn’t the only weird email event related to this story. Now Burger King is taking steps to officially distance itself from Grover’s actions and the other internal emails by announcing it’s launched an “internal investigation” into all three.
Dunkin' Donuts Suing Its Own Small Franchisees Out Of Existence
By 5.1.08
If your favorite Dunkin’ Donuts shop is an…
Burger King Exec Hides Behind Daughter's Email Account To Trash Talk Opponents
By 4.29.08
The next time Burger King VP Stephen Grover goes online to spread FUD about labor advocates, he should probably leave his daughter out of it. For one thing, she’s a horrible accomplice and will spill her guts to the first reporter who calls. For another thing, this forthrightness clearly makes her too ethical to smear a group that’s trying to bring pay for tomato pickers up to living wage levels.
EMI Says You Can't Store Your Music Files Online
By 4.22.08
Today, MP3tunes’ CEO Michael Robertson sent out an email to all users of the online music backup and place-shifting service MP3tunes.com, asking them to help publicize EMI’s ridiculous and ignorant lawsuit against the company. EMI believes that consumers aren’t allowed to store their music files online, and that MP3tunes is violating copyright law by providing a backup service. (And we’re not using a euphemism here—it really is a backup/place-shifting service and not a file sharing site in disguise.)
Follow-Up: Citibank Steps In, Forces Sears To Remove The $1070 Charge
By 4.15.08
Tom just sent us a follow-up to yesterday’s post, and it’s good news:Score another one for The Consumerist! This morning I contacted Sears’ Executive Customer Service Department. They attempted to contact the store manager on my behalf. I stress “attempted” because they were hung up on too.
Sears Refuses To Refund $1070 For TV They Never Delivered
By 4.14.08
Update: one day after being posted here, the issue has been resolved. Sears strikes again! They sold Tom a TV for $1,070 on Black Friday last November. “Of course, it wasn’t in stock but they assured me that they could order it,” he writes.
Bally Cashes Cancellation Check, Continues To Bill For 15 More Months, And Now Demands "Past Due" Payment
By 4.12.08
Ashoka just found out that Bally never canceled his membership, even though they cashed his $50 cancellation check a mere 5 days after he mailed it to them last year. They’ve said there was no date on the paperwork, but Ashoka has a printout that proves otherwise. And they said they tried to contact him last year about the “problem,” but not by phone—even though they called him promptly this month when he changed his credit card info and the automatic billing didn’t go through. Bally, just admit it: nobody gets out, ever.
New Shooter Video Game Charges Gamers For Better Weapons
By 4.11.08
Electronic Arts’s “Battlefield: Bad Company” is aptly named: the new first-person shooter contains several locked weapons, the purchase of which disadvantages those who only pay for the game. Unlike most purchasable extra content, such as additional songs in Guitar Hero, the weapons for sale in Bad Company give the buyer a competitive advantage over other users, which sort of spoils multiplayer mode for gamers who only bought the standard version of the game.
Qwest Sells Woman "Cheaper" Package That Costs More, Has Unmentioned 2-Year Commitment, And Requires New Modem
By 4.7.08
Matt’s mom, a longtime Qwest customer, called up the company to switch her long distance over from AT&T. The CSR suggested she switch over to a bundled package that would save her $11 a month and offer faster Internet connection speeds. What the CSR didn’t mention was that the new package required a 2-year commitment, that it wouldn’t work with her current DSL modem, and that it actually came out to about $3 more per month.
Wal-Mart's Katrina Heroism: "Above All, Do The Right Thing," CEO Told Managers Before Katrina Struck
By 4.2.08
A paper written by Steven Horwitz, an Austrian-school economist (we’re still not quite sure what that means, other than it’s considered slightly controversial), recounts Wal-Mart’s relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina (PDF) and points out that private businesses, along with the Coast Guard, did far more than any “official” government agency in providing immediate, on-the-ground assistance to victims. His argument is that something as complex as a relief effort is more efficient when it’s decentralized and involves private businesses. Horwitz has also, separately, supported the idea that Wal-Mart should win the Nobel Peace Price. Hey, we told you his school of economics was controversial.
