Meet Stacy. Stacy moved into a new apartment. The person who moved out of the apartment had Comcast. Her neighbors all have Comcast. Stacy, however, cannot have Comcast. Why? A clerical error. And another one. And after that, still another. [More]
internet
Why Won't Time Warner Fix The "Old, Overtaxed" Wiring In This Neighborhood?
By 2.1.10
Alex from Rochester, NY, says every year around this time his Road Runner high speed access slows to a crawl, and stays that way until April. It occasionally happens at other times throughout the year, too. Unfortunately, Time Warner won’t fix the problem. Alex says one technician who came out to look at the issue told him, “The wires were installed when Adelphia provided service, and they haven’t been upgraded since.” Another one told him, “The problem has been going on for years, and management knows about it, but enough people don’t complain.” [More]
EBay Says It Will Remove Listing Fees For Low-Priced Items
By 1.26.10
EBay needs more people to buy and sell stuff on its site, so it will change its listing fees at the end of March, says Reuters. Once it goes into effect, auction items with a starting price of 99 cents can be listed for free, and eBay will take 9% of the final price or $50, whichever is less. [More]
Can't Find A Company's Physical Address? Check Their Privacy Policy
By 1.25.10
Some websites make it nearly impossible to find any kind of contact information for reaching a real human. In that case, you can click over to a link that all are required to have but few customers ever read: their privacy policy. [More]
Ask The Consumerists: Is It Good Or Bad To Complain Loudly About A Small Company?
By 1.21.10
Reader Kent would like to know what you, the Consumerist Readers, think about complaining about a very small firm. Are you just giving them free publicity by complaining loudly? Or is it better to warn others? [More]
Facebook Founder Says People Don't Even Want Privacy
By 1.11.10
Mark Zuckerberg thinks you don’t even really care about your privacy anymore because the “social norm” has changed. This makes it OK for his company to change the privacy settings of 350 million users. [More]
Company Introduces Bridal-Style Registry For Paying Off Bills
By 1.8.10
BillPayRegistry is a new website where customers can create a list of bills they need paid off, and then have friends and family members make “gift” payments via the website to be applied to said bills. The site takes 5.9% off the gift amount and sets aside the rest in a fund that the registrant can only apply to the accounts listed–there’s no way to cash out the funds, in other words. [More]
Do Not Use "Twitter" As Your Twitter Password
By 12.30.09
Twitter is looking out for you. When you register, in addition to telling you how strong or weak your password is, there are also certain passwords that are forbidden. These include “computer,” “twitter,” and “vagina.” [More]
Everything You Wanted To Know About BestBuy.com
By 12.28.09
Someone who says he’s worked with BestBuy.com for a couple of years now sent us an exhaustive list of topics related to buying from the website. Learn about the Satisfaction Matrix that determines how a CSR treats you! Discover the best way to ensure a new shipping address is accepted into the system! Exciting stuff like that follows. [More]
ISPs Trying To Scare You Into Buying More Internets
By 12.26.09
How much bandwidth does the average consumer need? Well, according to the totally unbiased folks at America’s major Internet service providers, more than they’re probably using now. According to Time Warner, Grandma needs Roadrunner with PowerBoost in order for you to send her photos. And AT&T thinks you need at least 3 mpbs to use Facebook. What? [More]
Shoes.com Website Doesn't Want To Ship To Lora
By 12.21.09
Shoes.com doesn’t seem to like Lora. Not the people at Shoes.com, who were helpful enough, but the website itself. Each time Lora places an order, the system cancels it–and naturally, owing to its hatred of this woman, it won’t tell anyone why. Whatever Lora did to hurt Shoes.com’s feelings, it worked.
(Okay, it may have something to do with billing addresses, but nobody is sure.)
It's Hard To Do Your Christmas Shopping Online When The Items Arrive In Their Retail Boxes
By 12.16.09
Newegg wants everyone who lives near our reader Deaf Mute to know that he just bought a Sony Blu-ray player. It arrived from their warehouse last week in its bright blue retail packaging, with a shipping label slapped on it. “If I lived in a worse neighborhood and/or my father didn’t see it,” he writes, “Someone could have stolen it. Not only that, but the gift recipient may have had their gift spoiled.” [More]
Facebook Will Let You Determine Privacy Levels For Each Update
By 12.9.09
The next time you don’t get that job because someone in HR saw your Facebook pics of you at the weekend cosplay orgy, you’ll have only yourself to blame. (But not for the orgy, which sounded like a really good idea at the time.) Starting soonish–it’s being rolled out now–you’ll have the ability to set privacy levels for each status update. That sound you hear is the collective wail of moms everywhere who are about to be shut out of the more salacious aspects of their kids’ lives. [More]
Apple Buys Lala
By 12.7.09
Lala, the music streaming/backup service that’s also a reasonably priced mp3 store, has been purchased by Apple. Does this mean Apple may introduce some sort of streaming service in the future? On Lala, you can pay 10 cents per song to stream it as much as you want, or $.99-1.29 to own it outright. At any rate, if you buy from Lala now, you’re buying from Apple. [More]
Why A Comcast/NBC Merger Is Bad News
By 12.3.09
As the Comcast/NBC mergepocalypse draws near, we wanted to remind readers of the ways that this is going to harm consumers (beyond the obvious things like 30 Rock being promised to come on between 6 and 10 pm and actually airing at 11:30). Join us for a sad look into the future. [More]
Robots Play Trick On McDonald's Advertisement
By 11.27.09
This is what happens when you let robots select up-and-coming stories for your banner ad on Digg. Although now that I think about it, I’m not sure I’d ever let a Digg story be assigned to my brand, automatically or otherwise, without looking at it first. (Thanks to Jeff!) [More]
Google Offering Temporary Free WiFi Access At 47 Airports
By 11.10.09
From now until January 15th, 2010, Google will offer free WiFi access at 47 airports around the country. As part of the promotion, they’ll be collecting donations through Google Checkout for three non-profit organizations and will provide matching funds up to $250,000. But whether you donate or not, there’s a much better chance now that you’ll be able to go online while waiting for your flight. Imagine all the airline tips you can send to us!
Hilton Complimentary Internet Access In Lobby Costs $10 A Day
By 11.2.09
At Hilton Washington Dulles Airport hotel, everything is complimentary! That’s because to them “complimentary” actually means “for a price.” Last week, a linguistics professor tried to take advantage of their “Complimentary High-speed Internet access on the lobby level,” which is how they describe the service on their website. He quickly discovered that he’d have to agree to a $9.99 charge in order to get the free service.
