The War on Christmas has taken a sneaky left turn, with Coke and Wal-Mart mounting an entirely unanticipated attack on one of the world’s most beloved phrases! A reader, Josh, was shopping and/or protesting in his local Wal-Mart recently when he saw this in-store display for soda.
mistakes
Surgical Objects Accidentally Left Inside 1500 Patients A Year
By 12.11.07
“When there is significant bleeding and a sponge is placed in a patient, it can sometimes look indistinguishable from the tissue around it,” said Dr. Steven DeJong, vice chair, department of surgery, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, Ill. “Unintentional retained sponges and instruments is a devastating complication for patients and is a national problem affecting every hospital in the country that performs invasive and surgical procedures.”
Loyola has developed a new way to track sponges. It uses a bar code reader and a unique bar code on each sponge.
Del Monte Dog Treats Are Highly Inappropriate
By 12.10.07
Or as Alex put it so pithily in an email to us, “These dog treats are shaped like c*cks.” (Now you can’t tell what that word means!)
Microsoft Releases Dirty Santa Chatbot On Unsuspecting Children!
By 12.4.07
Oh noes! The children! Microsoft released a Santa bot on its Windows Messenger network that had a surprising predilection for swinging the conversation to oral sex.
Cycle Store Screws Up Giveaway, Now There Are Ten Winners
By 9.20.07
A cycle shop in Mississippi accidentally gave away an ATV ten times in a row during a promotional contest, when all ten of the people who were randomly selected from over a thousand turned out to have working copies of the same key. The store’s owner still doesn’t know how it happened, but he held firm to the intent of the original promotion and gave away only one ATV, which has angered at least one non-winning winner.
Google Is Sorry, Will Offer Full Refunds To Video Customers
By 8.22.07
Google has admitted to making a mistake with its poorly conceived (and received) plan to offer Google check out credits to customers who had purchased videos on its recently discontinued video download service.
Apple Debits Money From The Wrong Account, Now You Can't Pay Your Mortgage
By 8.6.07
Julie would really like to pay her mortgage, but she can’t. Why not? Because when she tried to help her son buy a MacBook, Apple decided to debit $1517.27 from her account without permission. When she called to tell them they’d pulled the money from the wrong card, causing her account to over draft, they apologized and told her they’d fix it. Instead, they debited another $186 from Julie’s account, and another $1517.27 from her son’s account.
Honda Dealer Sends Out Scratch-Off Tickets Where Everyone Is a Winner
By 7.20.07
Here’s a typo you don’t see every day. A Honda dealer contracted the services of a direct mail marketing and promotions agency. The agency was supposed to send out 50,000 scratch-off tickets, one of which was the grand prize winner—entitling the customer to a cash prize of $1,000.
The $8,648 Burger King Bill
By 5.10.07
Guadalupe Pequino of Fountain Inn, South Carolina bought $8.64 worth of food from Burger King with her Visa Check Card. Unfortunately for Guadalupe, the cashier typed in $8,648.54 as her total and the amount was debited from her account. The restaurant corrected the error, but it took 5 days for the money to find its way back into Guadalupe’s account. “It was an honest mistake, and the store has done everything it can to credit the account,” the Burger King general manage said.
Home Depot: This Faucet Costs $00.00
By 4.2.07
Sadly, the pricing mistake doesn’t carry over to the website, where the faucet is a cool $143.74. Maybe Tulsa has some sort of free faucet subsidy that we are unaware of. —MEGHANN MARCO
Cingular: Whoops, Here's Your $8,677.29 Cell Phone Bill
By 3.7.07
Poor Eddie. Eddie canceled his unlimited internet plan, then decided that not having the internet was completely lame, so he called up and added it again. Unfortunately for Eddie, Cingular didn’t put him on the same plan he used to be on. Eddie writes:
My current cell phone bill is $8,677.29. I had Cingular since 2003. In November of 2006 I purchased the Cingular 8125 Pocket PC. I loved it. I had a cell phone that could access the internet and my bills were about $100 a month. After 2 months I cancelled the internet option because I wanted a smaller cell phone bill. After about 3 weeks of not having my internet I requested that they turned it back on. They did.
Airline Rebooks, You Pay
By 12.12.06
Two weeks before our departure, American contacted me and said it needed to rebook me because of a scheduling change. My new itinerary had me flying on SN Brussels Airlines instead of Swiss. I asked if I needed new paper tickets and was told “no.”
H&R Block Leaves Guy With $3100 Bill
By 12.7.06
guarantee”, so Travis will be responsible for the bill. Whoops. H&R Block’s included “Accurate Calculations Guarantee” covers “penalties and interest caused by such error.”
The Consumerist’s Poor Customer Service
By 2.17.06
So as much as it pains me—Joel—to say this, I’ve got to tell you what I did, because it’s painfully ironic.
