According to a 2011 survey, there were 2.7 million used vehicles available for purchase that had at least one un-repaired safety recall. Now, California lawmakers want to require used-car sellers to make those repairs before the vehicles can be sold. [More]
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Should Used Car Sellers Have To Repair Recalled Cars Before Selling Them?
By 2.5.13 — Updated: 6.24.14
Ambitious Thief Walks Out Of Costco With 24 Bottles Of Motor Oil Wrapped Around His Body
By 2.4.13
If you’re going to shoplift from a warehouse store, you might as well do it in bulk, right? At least that seemed to be the thinking of one California man, who used bungee cords to secure 24 bottles of motor oil to his body and then headed for the doors. [More]
Couple Paying Mortgage On Fire-Ravaged Home Because FEMA Rules Won’t Let Them Rebuild
By 1.28.13
Last August, a family in California came home to find their house on fire. Five months later, they live in a rented house down the street while still paying their mortgage and flood insurance, but the house isn’t being rebuilt because there is no way they could afford to meet new FEMA flood zone standards. [More]
Is A Guarantee Really A Guarantee If It’s A “Gurantee”?
By 1.25.13
The operators of a company that claims, for an up-front fee of $395 and monthly payments of $395, it can keep foreclosed-upon folks in their homes for several more months may be confused about the meaning, and spelling, of the word “guarantee.” [More]
Californians Paying 115% More For AT&T Landline Service Than They Did Before Deregulation
By 1.18.13
Supporters of removing price caps on utility services claim that deregulation will ultimately result in lower prices and more competition. But a new report claims that when California ditched pricing regulations on landline phone service, it only led to huge bill increases for AT&T customers. [More]
Southern California To Finally Get Dunkin’ Donuts… In 2015
By 1.16.13
For those of us in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, Dunkin’ Donuts has been a part of the fast food landscape for decades. Meanwhile, to many folks in sunny Southern California, Dunkin’ was something you occasionally had while on a business trip to New Jersey. But that is going to change in the not-terribly-distant future. [More]
Court: Wells Fargo Misled Customers About Debit Card Transactions But Doesn’t Have To Pay Back $203 Million (Yet)
By 12.27.12
It was a good news/bad news day at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday, as the court set aside a $203 million judgement against Wells Fargo for the way it processed debit card transactions, but kept the door open to hope that consumers might see some of that money. [More]
Is 98% Price Accuracy Acceptable For Grocery Stores?
By 12.20.12
Odds are that you’ve been overcharged at some point in your life. Mistakes happen. The big question is: Is there any acceptable level of overcharging? [More]
Homeowner Says He Lost $250K In Equity To Foreclosure
By 12.5.12
When a property is sold at foreclosure for more than what is owed on the mortgage, the homeowner is supposed to receive that difference. But what happens when the bank sells the home for hundreds of thousands of dollars less than what it is worth? [More]
PETA Calls Cops, Files Suit Against L.A. Restaurant Serving Foie Gras
By 11.29.12
The foodies among you may remember back in July, when California’s ban on the sale of Foie Gras kicked in, some restaurants were continuing to sell the duck/goose livers by “gifting” them to customers as part of a larger meal. But the folks at PETA think it’s against the law to give away foie gras, and are willing to prove their case in court. [More]
Comcast (Eventually) Buys Customer New TV After Her Cable Box Goes BOOM!
By 11.27.12
A California woman says she was just watching TV one night when her Comcast cable box suddenly exploded, followed by her TV shutting itself off, never to turn on again. [More]
Woman Moves 10 Miles, Gets Hit With 25% Health Insurance Hike
By 11.14.12 — Updated: 11.15.12
Health insurance companies are allowed to charge different rates depending on where you live, but one would think that moving within the same region you’ve been in for more than a decade would not have a serious impact on your monthly rate. Try telling that to the woman in California who now faces an additional $1,272 in insurance premiums after moving 10 miles. [More]
Report: Safeway Overcharging Even After Court Order
By 11.2.12
Supermarket chain Safeway and its Vons stores have been sued twice in the last decade by the state of California for overcharging customers. Yet, in spite of a court order that penalizes the stores each time it’s caught overcharging, a new report says that customers say it’s still going on. [More]
Cancer Patient Says Wells Fargo Evicted Her In Spite Of Court Order; Wells Fargo Says It’s Not To Blame
By 11.1.12
According to a petition that now has more than 114,000 signatures, a breast cancer patient in California claims that Wells Fargo and the sheriff evicted her from her home of 20 years at gunpoint. Meanwhile, the bank says it wasn’t involved in the [More]
Homeowners Win Lawsuit Over Fraudulent Foreclosure But May Still Lose House
By 11.1.12
A California couple recently won a lawsuit claiming that their mortgage servicer fraudulently foreclosed on their home, but limits on the damages in the case mean that the homeowners can’t even cover their legal bills, let alone keep their house. [More]
State Goes After Man For Tax Bill From 1995
By 10.31.12
Did you pay your taxes in 1995? More importantly, can you prove it? That’s the problem facing a California man who insists he paid his taxes 17 years ago and is now being forced to prove it. [More]
Shop Owner Drives To Customer’s House After Bad Yelp Review
By 10.26.12
After receiving his first negative Yelp review, the owner of a California store made repeated attempts to contact the disgruntled customer in the hopes of turning him into a gruntled customer, and ultimately ended up at the Yelper’s doorstep. But before you go looking for the shop owner’s mug shot, this is actually a good thing. [More]
How Does Alarm Company Send Former Customer To Collections 4 Times For A Bill She Never Owed?
By 10.18.12
It’s bad enough when a company does such a bad job of keeping its books that it sends a customer to collections once for a bill she never owed. But it takes a special kind of stupid to pass that debt around like a hot potato until that customer has to prove her case four separate times. [More]
