ConsumerAffairs.com says that the Texas Attorney General has gone after a couple of online price comparison companies. The sites all claim to offer unbiased comparisons of retailers, but in reality the companies have been accepting payments in exchange for preferential listings. The companies, Intercept LLC and Everyprice.com Inc, both operated multiple sites with names like Flyingprices, Diduprice, and Lowpricedigital. All the sites are currently offline. [More]
misleading
Why Is Sears Being So Sneaky On This Dishwasher Rebate?
By 12.4.09
On Black Friday, Sears offered free installation on select Kenmore dishwashers in the form of a rebate coupon. The coupon is pretty simple to understand as far as these things go–buy one of the listed models, and Sears will pay for the installation. According to William, however, the listed model that he wanted remained out of stock only for the duration of the coupon. When he asked Sears to honor it the next day, they agreed to–but then after he bought the dishwasher they told him he had broken a nonexistent rule and therefore had voided the coupon. [More]
Macy's Cheerfully Helps Customers Get Parking Tickets
By 11.27.09
The employees at the Macy’s in Washington, DC, sure were helpful earlier today! They showed customers where they could park for up to two hours while they shopped. Unfortunately, it turns out Macy’s employees are not well-versed on parking rules in DC, and the manager there doesn’t really think it’s Macy’s problem. [More]
Customer Finds Sears' Free Delivery Isn't So Free
By 11.23.09
Intrigued by a free delivery deal, Danielle ordered a dishwasher from Sears, but the retailer only reimbursed her $75 of the $81.19 fee.
FTC Files Contempt Charge Against BlueHippo For Continuing To Rip Off Customers
By 11.12.09
Today the FTC lodged a contempt charge against scammy no-credit-needed electronics seller BlueHippo, saying that the company hasn’t honored its prior agreement to stop scamming customers. BlueHippo agreed to pay back $3.5 million nearly two years ago to reimburse customers who never received the computers they pre-paid for, but the FTC says since then the company has sucked another $15 million out of customers.
Capital One Tricks Customer Into Not Activating Emergency Payment Protection Plan
By 11.3.09
Cory wrote in earlier to complain about Capital One‘s nasty habit of having their collection department call you to upsell you on other products. At almost the same time, Andon wrote to us to let us know that the company’s protection plan—the sort of thing they’re trying to sell to people like Cory—is useless unless you can manipulate time (Andon can’t).
QVC Tricks Thousands Into Overpaying For Wii and Accessories
By 11.2.09
Reader Joe/Mordecai spotted an awful QVC deal on a Wii, a crappy game and some accessories.
Smart Choices Campaign Goes Bye-Bye
By 10.26.09
The not-so-convincing marketing campaign Smart Choices, which tried to frame Froot Loops as part of a healthy breakfast, has been snuffed out, Change.org reports.
Amazing Curtains Block More Than 100% Of Light, Create Singularity
By 9.25.09 — Updated: 11.9.12
Geoffrey went to Target in search of light-blocking curtains but when he got there, he found more. Ever so much more. Target now gives customers the tools to create a singularity in their very own homes.
Organizations Start To Bail On Smart Choices Campaign
By 9.25.09
Smart Choices, the pseudo-science marketing campaign, seems to be circling the drain.
Don't Go Buying 'The Beatles: Rock Band' Expecting A Real Free T-Shirt
By 9.10.09
Those of you who get a glimpse of the sticker on the cover of the Xbox 360 version of The Beatles: Rock Band and rush out to buy the game in hopes of getting a free t-shirt will be sorely disappointed.
Data Recovery Corp Invents Terms To Convince You Your Hard Drive Is Broken
By 9.4.09
Fox 11 News in LA went undercover with an intentionally damaged hard drive to find out whether online complaints about Data Recovery Corp, Inc. were true. Can you guess what the result was?
Tricky Gap.com Plays 'Hide The Gift Receipt Policy'
By 9.4.09
G.C. had a rough outing while trying to navigate tricky Gap.com to find a gift receipt policy.
More Unemployed Alumni Sue Their College
By 8.29.09
Everyone (including us) snickered when an unemployed woman sued the college she had graduated from only months before, but the news story did help bring to light the overly optimistic or outright misleading claims made by some for-profit educational institutions. Now, thirteen former students of Everest College‘s Dallas campus have sued the school, claiming that they were misled about the transferability of the school’s credits and their prospects for employment.
$10 XSport Fitness Upgrade Really Costs $20
By 8.27.09
Cache asked about the $10 “Super Power Pass” add-on at his local XSport Fitness club today—the sign in the window says “work out where you want, when you want with a Super Power Pass for just $10 more*,” and lists “Chicago – New York – Washington” across the top. We don’t know what’s linked via that asterisk, because the fine print on the ad is so small that it’s unreadable in the photo Cache took, but as you might expect there’s no such thing as a $10 add-on that lets you use any XSport Fitness.
iReel.com Offers Free Trial, Downloads Your Money Instead
By 8.23.09
iReel.com seems like a pretty neat and reasonably priced service, which allows you to harness the power of the interweb to beam recently released movies directly to your home computing device. However, two Consumerist readers have contacted us about the company, and their misleading or just plain dishonest “free trial” billing practices.
Web Host Outsources Their "Office Of The President"?
By 7.24.09
Cyberguy had a weird experience with a web hosting company earlier this week. He tried to contact their office of the president, but the person from the “office” who called him back turned out to be an outsourced CSR with no power to do anything other than apologize. Update: The web host company was GoDaddy, and they’ve responded. (The short answer is no they don’t outsource it.)
Power Washer Company's Warranty Policy Sucks And Blows
By 7.24.09
Jim bought an industrial-strength Karcher power washer new on eBay a few months ago, didn’t open it until recently and found that the pump didn’t work.
