Two men are being sentenced for cutting off another man’s beard and demanding at knife and gunpoint that he eat it because they thought he was cheating them in a used lawnmower sale. [More]
contracts
Tmobile Throttles Unlimited Data Plans, Forbids Tethering
By 10.22.10
Tmobile is going after technically inclined customers who use their cellphones as a cheap wireless modem with a two-pronged approach. [More]
7 Clauses To Beware Of In Your Cruise Contract
By 8.23.10
Cruise line contracts are drafted by the company’s lawyers and contain nothing in the way of consumer protection. For instance, if you get sick and the ship’s doctor treats you and you die, your family can’t sue the cruise line for malpractice. [More]
Why Can't All Credit Card Agreements Look Like This One-Page Piece Of Beauty?
By 8.16.10
Branding expert Alan Siegel has designed a model credit card agreement that is only one page long, is written in English, and communicates everything you need to know about your credit card. It therefore has no chance of coming to life. So let’s gaze upon it and dream about a better tomorrow that will never come: [More]
Mr. Rooter Plumbing Job Quoted At $300 But Ends Up Costing $25,000
By 8.9.10
Dave and his wife came into some money and decided it was time to get a professional out to solve their slow draining toilet problems once and for all. Mr. Rooter showed up, and in less than a week the company managed to also solve Dave’s “I just came into some money” problem, by taking all of it. The problem is, Dave isn’t sure that any of the expensive extra work was necessary now that he can see the pipes. [More]
Verizon Stuck Me With Early Termination Fee Because I Moved
By 7.28.10
Robert wanted out of his Verizon FIOS contract when he made a move and made sure his new home was not in the coverage area. Despite his reasonable assumption that he would avoid an early termination fee, Verizon stuck him with an ETF specifically because he’s moving to a non-Verizon area. [More]
Hyundai Changed My Rebate Terms After I Bought The Car
By 7.6.10
Jeremy says Hyundai is trying to pull a fast one on him by making it tougher to get his rebate after he bought a car. He said the company is denying him a $2,400 recent college grad rebate he was assured he’d get when he made the purchase. The reason: He doesn’t make enough money. [More]
T-Mobile Fixes Broken Arbitration Opt-Out Site Our Reader Spotted
By 6.29.10
A little over two weeks ago, tipped by reader Chan, we told you about how buried in T-Mobile’s online terms and conditions is a way to opt-out of their mandatory binding arbitration clause, but unfortunately the website where you were supposed to do it was down. We gave their PR guy a heads up and now the site, www.t-mobiledisputeresolution.com, is online. [More]
Hunt Down Your Credit Card Contract Online
By 6.22.10
Hey, you can now look up your credit card contract online. There’s a searchable database over at the Federal Reserve that lets you check them out in both text and PDF form. [More]
You Could Opt Out Of T-Mobile's Arbitration Clause… If Their Site Wasn't Broken
By 6.14.10
Consumerist is no fan of mandatory binding arbitration, a clause in many consumer contracts that forces you to give up your right to sue in small claims court and have all disputes resolved by a professional arbitration firm that gets paid directly by the companies. So when I saw that there was an way to opt-out of T-Mobile’s arbitration clause online, I was stoked. Then I tried to go there, and the site was broken. Fail phone! UPDATE: T-Mobile Fixes Broken Arbitration Opt-Out Site [More]
Hey AT&T, Can I Upgrade From An EDGE Data Plan And Still Get The Unlimited Option?
By 6.8.10
Say you’ve got one of the 1st gen iPhones that operates on the EDGE network, and you want to upgrade to that fancy new model that was just announced. Can your unlimited data plan be grandfathered even though it was never 3G? That’s what Consumerist reader and 1st gen iPhone owner thecrazypnut wanted to know, so he contacted AT&T for an answer. [More]
Our Smartphones Don't Work, But Verizon Plays Dumb And Won't Let Us Switch Them
By 6.8.10
Sophia and her husband are loyal Verizon customers who feel burned by the company because it won’t let them replace lemon smart phones with anything but refurbished versions of the devices they’ve come to despise. [More]
AT&T Capping Data On New iPhone, iPad Plans
By 6.2.10
AT&T has officially delivered on the threats made by its consumer business director Ralph de la Vega last December: it’s switching to usage-based pricing on data plans for smartphones and the iPad. Starting Monday, all new AT&T customers who buy an iPad, iPhone, Blackberry or other smartphone and purchase the necessary data plan will have two options: $25 for 2 gigabytes, or $15 for 200 megabytes. [More]
Verizon Kept Giving Me Worse DSL Service, Charging Me More
By 6.2.10
Joshua signed up for what seemed like a solid introductory deal for Verizon DSL, but the service was poor and the more he called for suggestions on how to fix it, the worse and deal he got. Verizon kept extending his contract while downgrading his service, insisting there was nothing else it could do to help him out. [More]
To Settle Lawsuit, AT&T Lets You Unlock Anything That's Not An iPhone
By 5.24.10
AT&T has settled a class action suit by providing codes that unlock any phones that were bound to AT&T. That includes any phones but that pesky iPhone, which is bound by an exclusivity agreement that lasts til 2012 but may or may not have already been renegotiated. [More]
AT&T Raising iPhone Early Termination Fee To $325
By 5.21.10
Having cold feet with your iPhone will cost you $325 starting June 1. AT&T is increasing the fee for breaking early two-year smartphone contracts from $199. The carrier is also decreasing the early termination fee for “dumb” phones by $25 to $150. [ [More]
Verizon FIOS Pulled The Old Switcharoo On Me
By 5.6.10
Dave says he was lured in by the promise of a low rate when he switched from Cablevision to Verizon FIOS, but the bills have been much higher than expected and when he called to complain he was told the promotion he signed up for didn’t fit anything Verizon offers. [More]
