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There’s a new free app for the iPhone called Audiobooks that connects you to 1800 public domain recordings, mostly of classic books. [TUAW]
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There’s a new free app for the iPhone called Audiobooks that connects you to 1800 public domain recordings, mostly of classic books. [TUAW]
Here’s a little something that sums up the state of air travel in our nation. Reader Drew was checking in to his Delta flight yesterday when he noticed that not checking any bags was described as “free.”
If you bought your cellphone from US Cellular in the past 18 months, as of this week you can get your phone’s battery replaced for free. We’ve contacted US Cellular to ask them to answer a couple of questions, namely whether the replacement battery is brand new and whether a customer can swap more than once. If they get back to us, we’ll post an update. In the meantime, if you’re a customer of theirs and your phone’s battery is dying, just stop by any US Cellular store to make the exchange.
You just can’t win if you’re a gamer these days. Sure, you may like the console you’ve got, but you know your jealous of the exclusive games and features on the systems you don’t have. Even if you own all three current-gen home consoles you feel guilty about neglecting one or two of them.
Bill just emailed us with a link to this tweet from the El Pollo Loco rep on Twitter. Might be worth a shot if you were turned away by your local KFC yesterday and you think a free chicken meal is the perfect way to say “I love you” in motherese.
Some PR person just sent us a notice about a new wallet-sized iPhone stand, which reminded us that there’s an easy and free alternative, and it most probably works for a lot of other (fairly thin) media devices as well.
We sort of figured today’s grilled chicken giveaway at participating KFC’s would be approximately meal-sized—if you could stand the crowd and make it to the counter before they ran out, you’d have a free lunch in your belly. Apparently we were wrong. Here, for your freebie-craving pleasure, is a virtual KFC chicken piece just like what reader BlazerUnit received earlier today.
We’ve posted before about security keys—those little digital keyfobs that generate expiring security codes over and over and make it incredibly hard for someone to gain unauthorized access to your account. They’re a great idea, and now if you own an iPhone you can install a Verisign app that will work with Paypal and eBay, as well as about two dozen lesser known sites. It’s probably the easiest step you can take to vastly improve security on those accounts.
If you bring a friend with you to Denny’s April 8 between 6am and 2pm and order a Grand Slam, your friend will get a free Grand Slamwich. Not quite the same as their totally free breakfast promo after the Superbowl, but there’s still free food involved. Besides, going to Denny’s by yourself is a little depressing.
Walgreen has announced that if you’re willing to provide proof of unemployment and sign a form that says you lost your health benefits along with your job, you and your uninsured family members can receive free treatment at any of their 300+ in-store health clinics. What’s covered: “respiratory problems, allergies, infections and skin conditions, among other ailments.” What’s not: checkups, vaccinations or other injections, and prescriptions.
Readers who had problems with the Quiznos million free sub campaign and wrote in to the email address the sandwichery supplied to Consumerist report they’re receiving $5 gift card in the mail along with a letter of apology from the marketing director. One reader reports that on the back of the card it says that a $1 service charge gets applied to it each month you don’t use it. To see what some franchisees are saying are the *real* reasons for the problems, check out the comments section on this post at UnhappyFranchisee. Quiznos’ letter is posted inside.
Walgreens charges a hefty $7.99 for passport photos. Is it because they’re super fancy, or technically challenging to create, or the paper is strawberry scented? The answer to all of these questions is no. It’s because it’s an easy way to make a quick buck. That’s why they hate it when you find a cheaper online solution and try to print out your own 4×6 layout of passport photos via their stores.
Stephanie writes, “I’m guessing I’m not the only Consumerist reader to ever get a sewing machine hand-me-down or buy one from a garage sale sans operating manual.” In fact, there are all sorts of devices that require some level of instruction before you can get the maximal use out of them. The problem is, people lose manuals, and companies don’t always make them available for download once they’ve been pulled off the market. Stephanie almost paid $35 for a digital copy when she decided she’d try asking the company directly.
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Today only, FedEx Office (formerly FedEx Kinko’s) will print up to 25 copies of your resume for free. You can submit as a digital file or in person, but must pick up the resumes at a FedEx Office location. [FedEx] (Thanks to ingaraundquist !)
Sometimes”‘free” means “wow what a great bargain,” and sometimes it just mean worthless. CareerBuilder offers a free resume review on their site—enter your email address, upload your resume, and “we’ll email you the results of your free evaluation, including tips on writing a resume that will help you land the interview.” All it really does is collect your address so it can send you unsolicited email (we got spammed 30 minutes later), and your “review” is just a boilerplate page of generic advice.
Mike used an Office Depot Visa card issued through Chase to take advantage of a pay-no-interest deal through 2008. He paid off the remaining balance a couple of days before the offer period ended, but Chase still slapped him with a nearly $40 interest charge. Why? Because they’ve been “having problems like that” with Office Depot cards.
I posted recently about how I like HypeMachine, a reader/player/finder of free mp3s on music blogs and some readers chimed in with their favorite ways to find free mp3s on blogs:
According to tipster Rich Piotrowski, a former Quiznos franchise owner who won a counter-suit against the company, the big reason why some Quiznos were being jerks about taking the free sandwich coupon is that at first corporate was making the franchises pay for all the sandwiches. (Quiznos mandates franchises buy all their ingredients from HQ, often at above-market rates…). Then it looks like they decided to reimburse up to 400 coupons, then bumped that up to 700 to meet the demand, and now they’re going to reimburse all coupons. Don’t give away free stuff in these times unless you’re ready for an onslaught of interest, at the outset. Corporate seems to have realized this and contacted us to say that if you have any problems redeeming coupons you can email millionsubs@quiznos.com. Tipster’s comment, and an internal Quiznos memo, inside…
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