Arnie and his wife have a fever, and the only cure is more iPhones. A shiny new iPhone 3G S to replace the clunky old 3G iPhones they’ve been forced to use, to be precise. Frustrated that the cell phone business insists on subsidizing the gadgets by only offering a sane price to new customers, or customers willing to upgrade, Arnie called AT&T. That’s when he stumbled on a solution that’s almost hilarious in its simplicity.
gadgets
Beware The Radioactive Cheese Graters
By 6.8.09
Ever feel like everything gives people cancer these days? Well, you might not be too far from the truth. A Scripps News investigation found that “radioactive waste is being mixed with other metals in scrap yards and recycling facilities, often overseas, and then shipped into the U.S. in a range of consumer products.” The products include household cheese graters, recliners, handbags and forks and knives, along with fences, shovels, elevator buttons, airline components and building steel. [Yahoo! Green] (Thanks to Liz!) (Photo: Richard Faulder)
Leaked Pix Of iPhone's New Firmware Upgrades
By 6.3.09
Leaked photos have surfaced showing off the iPhone’s new firmware upgrades, which include:
- multimedia messaging
- horizontal typing
- compass
- video and voice recording an
- a camera autofocus that lets you select your point of focus by tapping your finger on the touch screen
More photos at the Apple 2.0. blog.
HP Calls About Pants Burnin' Laptop
By 5.21.09
HP called Consumerist about our inquiry about Jillian’s sparking and flaming HP dv2845se laptop adapter that she says burned a hole in her pants and caused a welt on her leg. Jillian had also alleged that HP customer service, regular and escalated, was both unresponsive and rude. HP told us….
Linksys, LinkSucks
By 5.4.09
Christoff knew the dangers, but he went ahead anyway. He bought a Linksys router. And lo, it broke. The day had come for him to deal with their outsourced tech support. Over four hours of conversation and hold time, mainly hold time, later, he has a 2nd replacement router. Both replacement routers had the same problem as the first. Read of his trials and tribulations, inside…
Radio Shack Punches Customer In Face
By 4.29.09
Instead of getting his money back, one Radio Shack customer got a sock in the jaw when he tried to return something. According to the police report, the employee wouldn’t let the customer return the item. When the customer asked to speak to a manager – kapow! And you thought the worst thing you had to worry about was if you kept your receipt!
Best Buy Gives Reader $30 Gift Card For Selling Her "New" DVD Player Preloaded With XXX Movie
By 4.7.09
After Lisa’s story of how she bought an ostensibly new DVD player from Best Buy only to find an adult DVD already in it went up on Consumerist, the retailer contacted her and sent her a $30 gift card. The original DVD player cost $29.99. That was nice of them, as Lisa was more amused than bothered at the situation in the first place. She wrote, “It was pretty funny! At first my husband was thinking, “Sweet!!! Score…” when we opened it up. We got a good laugh, but then I started thinking, “Wait a second, we bought it as a regular item, not open boxed. Why is there a DVD in there then?”
Best Buy Goes Above And Beyond To Make Up For Selling Busted Camera As New
By 3.11.09
Michael is happy to report that he got a really great resolution from Best Buy, who had sold his grandma a broken camera as new and then accused them of breaking it themselves. The shots of Best Buy employees Michael found on the camera, and the repugnant attitude he encountered when they tried to return it and disinterest when he complained to corporate multiple times, only made the story that much juicier. After Micheal’s story went up on Consumerist and hit Digg, Best Buy contacted him. Here’s what they did to make nice:
By 3.5.09
../../../..//2009/03/05/save-360-by-turning/
Save $360 by turning your iPhone into a Kindle? Less than a month after the debut of its much-anticipated Amazon Kindle2 e-book reader, Amazon opened its formidable e-book library to a much larger potential audience: Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users. [CR]
Use Potato Chips To Report Bad Best Buy Employees
By 2.3.09
An insider tells us the best way to get back at a bad Best Buy employee is a bag of potato chips:
Seagate Censoring Posts About Barrucada 7200.11 500GB Drive Failures
By 1.29.09
A number of consumers are complaining about their Seagate Barrucada 7200.11 500GB hard drive failures, and the company is censoring them. While Seagate has issued a firmware upgrade, it doesn’t work if your drive has already been affected, like reader Danny, who just lost all his research material and papers for school. According to some posts on MSFN, moderators on the official Seagate forums are deleting user posts about the issue, and even going so far as to disabling links made on the Seagate forums to posts on other forums about the issue. Danny’s letter, inside…
Don't Buy 1080p HDTVs For The SuperBowl
By 1.29.09
For those of you thinking about buying an HDTV for the SuperBowl, just remember that you don’t need to be springing for that 1080p. This game will not be broadcast in 1080p and no SuperBowl ever has. For The Big Game viewing purposes, a 1080i or 720p will do just fine. It’s just an unconfirmed rumor at this point, but I’ve also heard that analog sets will be able to receive the SuperBowl signal as well.
Update: HP Laptop Runs 200°F, Support Says "Buy A Cooling Mat"
By 1.29.09
The boy whose HP was running 200°F and was told by tech support to “buy a cooling mat” used some of the higher-up phone numbers readers posted in the comment on the original post to get in touch with a Senior Case Manager. Despite being out of warranty, they reopened the case and had him send in his laptop. Lo and behold, they fixed it! “It is running great now,” writes Travis. Huzzah!
Panasonic Solves Gadget Problem Sent Through Generic Email Address!
By 1.28.09
Emailing a company about a product problem via their front-facing email address usually has about as much effect as wishing your way out of debt (just don’t tell the producers of The Secret). But Steve emailed Panasonic and instead of getting nothing or a generic response back, he actually ended up sending a series of emails back and forth with a product engineer who solved his consumer conundrum. Amazing! Here’s his story.
Circuit City Puts The Source Up For Sale
By 1.22.09
With the demise of Circuit City, several of you wondered what’s going to happen to The Source (that’s how you say Circuit City in Canadian). The answer is that they’re on the auction block. [Canoe.Money] (Thanks to Mario Pants!)
