c&d

Indie Music Retailer Wins Our Award For 'Most Delightful Shipping Confirmation'

Indie Music Retailer Wins Our Award For 'Most Delightful Shipping Confirmation'

A Consumerist reader (actually, several of you) e-mailed us the shipping confirmation message that is sent out by CDBaby, the ‘utopian’ online music site that promotes independent musicians (yet is partnered with Best Buy).

CD Rates May Not Be Honored in Bank Failure

CD Rates May Not Be Honored in Bank Failure

If you wanted to close your certificate of deposit early, you’d pay a penalty. Unless your CD were callable, your bank can’t close it early with one exception. Fortunately, it’s an exception all banks loathe.

Certificates Of Deposit Aren't Risk-Free

Certificates Of Deposit Aren't Risk-Free

With the stock market gyrating wilder than a dashboard hula doll, you probably want an investment that won’t depress you when you open the paper. Certificates of Deposit or “CDs,” an insured savings account with a guaranteed interest rate may sound like the antidote, but even they are not without risk.

Creative Backs Down, Reinstates Spurned Developer

Creative Backs Down, Reinstates Spurned Developer

Creative Labs heard your chest-beating across the internet and decided to reinstate spurned developer Daniel_K less than a week after booting him from their forums. Unlike Creative, Daniel_K issued drivers that allowed Creative sound cards to work properly under Vista, and even enabled previously crippled features. The drivers were downloaded over 100,000 times. The company thanked the developer by accusing him of “enabling our technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it was not originally offered or intended, [in] effect, stealing our goods.” Even though he has been reinstated, Daniel_K is still pissed.

Creative Sparks Customer Revolt When It Tries To Silence Third-Party Programmer

Creative Sparks Customer Revolt When It Tries To Silence Third-Party Programmer

Creative’s executive team will be coming in to quite a mess Monday morning, thanks to its VP of Screw Ups, Phil O’Shaughnessy. Friday morning, he posted a warning on the Creative customer forums that told programmer Daniel_K to stop writing his own drivers for their X-Fi sound cards. The cards still won’t work on Vista over a year after the OS was released, because Creative hasn’t released drivers for them—but by Mr. O’Shaughnessy’s account, Daniel_K is “stealing” from Creative by making the cards work. Then the weekend happened.

NONUPDATE: Cingular Wants to Yank Docs

NONUPDATE: Cingular Wants to Yank Docs

Since Cingular legal counsel sent us a note Friday demanding we call and take down some internal documents, nothing has happened. They told us to call. We didn’t call. Instead, we insulted their note. Other sites picked up and popularized the story. Nary a further Cingular peep. Not even a full cease and desist. Sigh. We feel a little left at the altar.

Cingular Wants To Yank Docs From Consumerist

Cingular Wants To Yank Docs From Consumerist

Here is the note Cingular’s legal counsel sent us to take down documents we posted. The items have info about how Cingular determines a customer’s “long term value” or “LTV.” This LTV is used to determine how many discounts they will give you to prevent you from cancelling your account.

Cingular Wants Us To Take Their Documents Down

Cingular Wants Us To Take Their Documents Down

We just received a note from Cingular’s legal department.

Consumers Speak: Half.com Reseller Issues

Reader Paul writes with this story of buying from a third-party through Half.com:

I’ve had no bad experiences buying from Half.com in the past, so when I spotted a great deal on two rare CDs I’ve been coveting, right in time for a nice birthday present to myself, I pounced. I noticed that the seller, tenone, was here in my home town, so first I emailed him/her to ask if I could pick up the CDs in person to save on shipping. When there was no response after a day or so, I just coughed up the postage and placed the order online anyway. He/she was a Power Seller or whatever. That was mid-October.