In a contemporary version of the safe that’s locked by the key inside it, lundyncanada’s YouTube [NSFW, cursing] shows and us how Tmobile won’t let her speak to customer service until she pays the $25.65. What does she need to talk to them about? How they’re overcharged her by $25.65. Video inside…
clips
Monster Cable Drops Suit Against Monster Mini Golf
By 1.7.09
Monster Cable has decided to stop pursuing a trademark infringement against Monster Mini Golf. Judging by the post-settlement letter Noel sent the MiniGolf people, it seems that after both parties kicked their lawyers out of the room and talk directly, they were able to come to an amicable solution. Monster Cable will stop opposing the MiniGolf trademark and will cover MonsterMini Golf’s attorney fees. Noel’s letter, inside:
The Worst Target Ever Created: The One At The Atlantic Center Mall In Brooklyn
By 1.6.09
The FIPS blog, via undercover video (which contains NSFW curse words in textual format), attempts to uncover why the Target at the Atlantic Center Mall in Brooklyn is the absolute worst Target ever created. See, you people in the suburbs, with your nice Targets where products are arranged on the shelves in a sensible matter and the floors are clean and the lights are bright, probably don’t get it. This Target is like a Kmart that got too depressed to be physically able to put its shoes on in the morning. I know of this particular Target and speak from experience. So the FIPs people don’t get anywhere close to finding out why the Target is so bad, but they do approach its pathos. (The girl in the video blames the disarray on “the weekend” and “time of year.” Not true. It’s ALWAYS like that). Video inside…
What The Hell Is Leveraging?
By 12.9.08
Leverage leverage leverage. Everyone’s talking about it, but what does it mean?
Nestle Quik Flipbook Ad On DC Metro Walls Is Kinda Magical
By 12.2.08
As the DC red line train I rode last week shot through a tunnel, a happy brown bunny jumped up and down on the walls, lofting up a bottle of Nestle Quik. It wasn’t a video, it was a series of back-illuminated panels, each one a successive frame in the animated cartoon. It was like running through flipbook in real life. I found a clip of it on YouTube, posted inside, the cartoon starts at 15 seconds in.
Busted: Linen's N Things Liquidation Prices Actually Higher Than Original
By 11.25.08
A Good Morning America hidden camera investigation found that if you peel back the label on the “sale” items at Linen’s N Things, you’ll find the old label underneath, with a cheaper price. How do they get away with saying “10-20% off sale” then?
Motrin Retracts Ads After Babywearing Mamas Protest
By 11.18.08
So, Motrin made an ad trying to target babywearers, that is, parents, who wear their babies in a sling. The ad spoke with winking and jaded knowingness about how babywearing was a fashion statement and caused various back pains that could be alleviated with Motrin. Unfortunately, it seems they never tested the ads before actual babywearing parents. That knowingness? Yeah, it wasn’t actually based on knowing anything.
Video: JiffyLube Caught Upselling Car-Damaging Repair Services
By 11.13.08
KNBC undercover cameras caught local JiffyLubes and EZ-Lubes upselling customers to buy engine-flushing and fuel-injection cleaning services, services which have been forbidden by auto-manufacturers because they’re unnecessary and can severely damage your engine. One guy’s engine died while he was driving on the highway, and it cost him $5,000 to replace his engine.
Find The Lowest Price With BeatMyPrice.com
By 11.13.08
BeatMyPrice is a new great price-comparison site launched by the makers of retailmenot and bugmenot. Just type in the product name, the website where you found it, the price, and check if it can be found elsewhere, using both searchbots and the results entered by other users. If your price is the best one, then it becomes the new best price for that product. Nifty idea, and a very easy to use interface. The one thing is that you’ll probably want to check the lowest price retailers you find with resellerratings.com to check out their reputations first before finalizing your purchase. Inside, a video from the site founder to see the new tool in action:
Video: What Are Margin Calls?
By 11.10.08
What are margin calls? The term has been bandied about lately as being one of the reasons for the steep declines in the market. Basically, it’s when depositor’s margin account at a brokerage falls below minimum levels and the brokerage tells the depositor to either deposit more money or they have to sell off some of their holdings. And a spate of selling drives down stock prices because as supply increases, prices drop. But why are there margin accounts and why are brokerages making margin calls in the first place? Marketplace’s ever-salubrious Paddy Hirsch explains with girl scouts, girl scout cookies, a whiteboard, dry-erase markers, and stick figures, in the video inside…
Video: Ben Popken Investigates for CNBC's On The Money
By 11.8.08
Here’s the clip from my piece and appearance on CNBC’s On The Money on Friday night. I attended a Robert Allen Institute get rich in real estate seminar, interviewed some attendees, and gave tips on what to watch out for in “money-making opportunity” scams. Here are some red flags to beware:
- Promises of fast and easy money
- The person who brings you in gets a cut of your profits, and then you get a cut off new people you bring into the system
- Requires large upfront fees before you really understand what’s going on
As one interviewee told me, anyone who’s got a killer investing strategy is out there doing it, they’re not giving free seminars about it. Watch the video, inside…
How An Ex-Lehman Brothers ibanker Fills His Days
By 10.24.08
What does an ex-Lehman Brothers i-banker do now that he has no reason to live? This brilliant, amusing, well-put-together, and NSFW video explores the answer. “I’ve been waking up 5:40 every morning, not waking up for Lehman Brothers necessarily, but when I wake up, I put on a suit.” I know there’s a lot of so-called “funny videos” on the internet, but seriously, this is a good one. Watch it inside.
Circuit City: The Lost Years
By 10.23.08
This clip is a sort of medley of all of Circuit City’s dashed dreams and hopes, as told through their ads from nearly two decades ago. Look at the first one, the ad that announced their arrival to the New England area. What do the eager young bucks in it promise and how have those promises stood the test of time?
How Short Selling Works
By 10.23.08
A lot of people and pundits have been blaming short-selling for the recent stock market plummets, and even the SEC temporary banned it at one point recently. But what is short selling? Marketplace’s Patty Hirsch is back with another video and his whiteboard to give you the low-down.
What Turns A Shopping Crowd Into A Mob Frenzy?
By 10.14.08
If you’ve ever seen that video where all those customers stampede into Walmart, knocking people over and even knocking one woman’s weave off, you may have wondered what causes people to go bezerk like that. I’m reading Among The Thugs by Bill Buford, reporting on English soccer hooligans first-hand, and this passage gives insight:
