Fab was a company that you might remember seeing ads for everywhere around 2012, including TV commercials. It’s that heavy spending on marketing that helped doom the company, along with rapid expansion and other problems. The site still exists under new owners, but the company that started it was once a startup worth $1 billion. Two years later, it was dead. What happened? [More]
failure
Nissan Recalls 47,000 Leaf Electric Vehicles Over Braking Concerns
By 3.14.16
Less than month after Nissan found a security flaw in an app owners can use to control some aspects of its Leaf electric vehicles, the car company says it found another, more serious, issue: the brakes on the cars can malfunction, increasing the risk of crashes. [More]
NHTSA Investigating 250,000 Ford Trucks For Power Brake Failure
By 6.26.15
As we mentioned earlier today, brakes are one of the most essential components of a vehicle. When they don’t work as intended, it puts the safety of everyone on the road at risk. For that reason, federal regulators have opened a probe into 250,000 large Ford trucks. [More]
Nexus 4 And 10 Purchasers Just Want To Know Where Their Devices Are
By 11.19.12
Google announced a fresh assortment of Nexus mobile devices last week, so regular readers know what that means: a fresh assortment of reader complaints about the experience of ordering from Google. As we’ve noted pretty much every time the company releases a consumer-facing product, the company makes great products that consumers want, but still aren’t all that great at dealing with those customers. Tuesday’s release of the Nexus 4 (phone) and Nexus 10 (big tablet) worldwide were no different. Many customers whose orders got through before the Nexus 4 sold out (or did it?) aren’t sure when their phones are coming…if they’re coming at all. [More]
Bank Robber Scares Himself Silly By Shooting His Gun At The Ceiling, Flees Without Cash
By 12.9.11
It’s a bad day on the ol’ robbery job when you foil your own attempt to steal money. The FBI is on the lookout for a man who scared himself so badly while waiting for the money he was trying to rob, he fled the scene with nothing to show for it but a set of rattled nerves. [More]
GM Gives In To Good Taste, Closes Hummer Division
By 2.24.10
Auto decal makers and window-tinters of the world are in mourning this afternoon, following an announcement from General Motors that — after several months of trying to unload their Hummer brand of gas-guzzlers on the Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Company — they’re stopping production of the controversial phallic stand-ins. [More]
Sears Epic Pricing Error Leaves Hundreds With Canceled Snowblower Orders
By 1.5.10
A too-good-to-be-true deal that turned out to be a Sears pricing error got posted to Slickdeals.net — and you can imagine the hilarity that ensued as hundreds of people tried to order snowblowers (sometimes 5 at a time, to resell on craigslist), only to be turned away when they tried to pick them up. According to the 1000-some comments on the slickdeals thread, some people did manage to pick up their item before Sears caught on, but reader BJ was not one of them. In fact, instead of being honest and explaining the error, BJ says Sears lied to him. [More]
FDIC Low On Funds After Record Bank Failures In 2009
By 8.29.09
Given how many banks have failed and been taken over by the FDIC this year (84, including three yesterday), it’s not one bit surprising that the FDIC isn’t doing too well, funds-wise. It’s down to $22 billion, the lowest the failed bank fund has been since the savings and loan crisis of the early ’90s, when it needed to borrow money from the Treasury Department to keep going.
Share Your Car Battery Disasters With Consumer Reports
By 8.19.09
Our recent Zipcar electrical failure trilogy reminded us of a request from Consumer Reports Cars last week. For the November issue, they’re looking for your stories of car battery failure, epic and otherwise. Do you have one to share?
Colonial Bank Fails, Assets Bought By BB&T
By 8.15.09
Just when we though the financial crisis might be over…or starting to be over, at least…came two more bank failures today. The larger one was Colonial BancGroup of Montgomery, Alabama. Colonial is the sixth largest bank failure in American history. The FDIC swooped in to save the day, and competitor BB&T will buy the bank’s assets.
NY AG: Banks Paid Bonuses That Were Substantially Greater Than The Banks' Net Income
By 7.31.09
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s report on the bonus structures of the banking industry is out and — oh my— it’s damning. The AG says that 3 banks, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JP. Morgan Chase, paid out bonuses that ” were substantially greater than the banks’ net income.”
Company Offering Paid Security Lines For Special People Fails
By 6.23.09
Members of the service, called “Clear”, paid as much as $199 a year and underwent background checks in order to access awesome security lines at participating airports. These security lines apparently led to the same checkpoints as everyone else uses. The company claims to have signed up 260,000 travelers.
Obama Administration To Chrysler, GM: Sorry, You Failed.
By 3.30.09
In accordance with the March 31st deadline for evaluating the restructuring plans of the bailed out automakers, President Obama is expected to address the nation today to present his administration’s findings — and the news isn’t too sunny for the automakers.
Hey, Digital River, Try Reading Your Customer Service Email
By 3.28.09
Reader Lance emailed Digital River to opt-out of the automatic license renewal that came with his three-year subscription to BitDefender Antivirus. Rather than read Lance’s email, Digital River instead decided to cancel his entire purchase. After throwing several protest emails into Digital River’s customer service void, Lance decided to accept the refund so he could buy a different antivirus package. Except now, the refund is nowhere to be found…
Comcast Spends 3 Months, 26 Days Trying To Fix Your Cable, Fails
By 3.17.09
After spending almost 4 months trying to get Comcast to fix the signal problems with his cable, reader William, who lives in an apartment building that only allows Comcast, has decided to just cancel his his account and go without.
Outside Magazine Will Send Your Free 2009 Calendar When It's In The Discount Bin
By 3.3.09
Outside Magazine offered Tracey two free 2009 Calendars if she signed up for an annual subscription early last December. She thought her dad would enjoy the magazine and the calendar, so she accepted. Now it’s March and there’s still no calendar, and Tracey says every time she calls to complain, they tell her they’ll send it. In the meantime, her dad still has no idea what day it is.
The DTV Transition Has Been Delayed, But Some Stations Are Going Forward
By 2.17.09
Today was supposed to be the DTV transition day, were it not for the complete and utter disaster that was the coupon program. Now, the new transition day is June 12, but some stations, mostly in rural areas, are making the switch anyway.
WaMu To Close 299 Branches, Many In Chicago
By 1.21.09
Chase has announced that they will be closing 299 branches, 57 of them in the Chicago-area alone. The Daily Herald says that most of the branches are across the street or down the block from existing Chase branches and consolidation is necessary. The remaining WaMu branches will be converted to the Chase brand.
