When the word “all” appears in an ad, are you supposed to take it literally? That’s a good question, and it’s an important question when it comes to how Walgreens advertises its Balance Rewards program. The store’s marketing claims that “all” prescriptions are part of Balance Rewards, but that is not true. [More]
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Walgreens Says That All Prescriptions Count For Balance Rewards Program, But Not Quite
By 1.30.17 — Updated: 1.31.17
In Sale Flyer, ‘Only At Macy’s’ Means ‘Not Necessarily At Macy’s’
By 10.19.15
One Boston shopper found what looked like an amazing deal on shirts at Macy’s, advertised in the weekly flyer. Unfortunately, Macy’s now seems to regard their flyer as a random assortment of product pictures and disclaimers. The item wasn’t available at his local Macy’s, and employees just sort of shrugged. [More]
What Exactly Can You Buy With This Circuit City Coupon?
By 8.6.08
Reader Michael wants to know what exactly he is expected to buy with this Circuit City coupon? It’s for 8% off purchases over $199, but it excludes, um, lots of stuff.
Modell's Beats Any Price, As Long As It's Not On Sale
By 7.22.08
Modell’s own peculiar definition of “low price guarantee, we will beat any ad” surprised reader Randy when he tried to get them to honor it on a baseball glove he bought, as it would even the most casual student of Logic or Semantics. He writes:
This JC Penney Coupon Is Very Versatile
By 3.7.08
As I recall, you did something on useless Sports Authority coupons. JC Penney is no slouch either. From one I got in the mail:
This Sports Authority Coupon For 20% Off Cannot Be Used For Anything
By 2.23.08
Sports Authority misses you so much that they sent out a 20% off coupon that doesn’t apply to sports equipment or 68 named brands. You might, might be able to get 20% off a pair of socks.
4 Awesomest AT&T Cellphone Contract Clauses
By 10.1.07
Mouseprint scanned through AT&T’s cellphone contract and found some very interesting clauses and restrictions:
Macy’s Issues Worst Coupon Ever
By 9.7.07 — Updated: 4.16.13
Reader David sends us what might be the worst coupon we’ve ever seen. Not because it’s a bad deal, ($10 bucks off regular, sale and clearance is cool; we’re not complaining) but because we broke our brain in two reading the exclusions and conditions.
Montgomery County Warns Its Residents About Comcast's Unfair Arbitration Clause
By 7.31.07
Montgomery County, MD, also known as the county that fined Comcast $12,281.84 for not answering the phone quickly enough, has issued a press release warning consumers to opt-out of Comcast’s unfair arbitration clause.
TiVO Tells You How To Defeat Their DRM To Keep You From Canceling
By 3.1.07
I explain to her that I know I can move the files over but raw TiVo files are encrypted and useless. She said you can just download an application to convert them yourself. I explained this would be illegal under the DMCA and TiVo somewhat agressevly tries to enforce the encryption. She said so there is no way you can get an application to convert the files. I told her that I could get such an application but that it is quite illegal and Tivo could sue me or worse. The total times she tryed to get me to do something illega so I would keep the TiVo service, about 4. If I wanted to be illegal I could just dump the cable too and friggin download everything DRM and commercial free, DUH.
TiVo2Go’s Terms and Conditions say:
The TiVoToGo feature includes security measures designed to prevent infringement of copyrighted works. You agree not to take any steps to defeat any TiVo security measures or to use any third party applications that may bypass any TiVo security measures.
It’s sad when your retention people have to talk customers into doing something against your Terms and Conditions in a desperate attempt to keep them. DRM gives The Consumerist a headache. DRM should be sponsored by Excedrin Migraine.—MEGHANN MARCO
Many Unhappy Returns
By 12.26.06
Mouse Print’s got a roundup of some of the stricter return policies.
Wells Fargo VISA Gift Card’s Hidden Fees
By 12.18.06
Wells Fargo touts its prepaid VISA gift cards as “the perfect gift” and has sold over a million, but perhaps they would sell a little less if people knew about these terms and conditions, flushed out by Mouse Print:
Delta, US Airways, Shorten Frequent Flyer Miles’ Halflife
By 10.23.06
With nary a peep, Delta and US Airways changed their rules on frequent flyer miles to make redeeming and keeping them even harder for consumers.
Maybe Worse Than WaMu Snookery
By 10.4.06
After showing “WaMu Snookers With Scary Letter” to consumer expert Edgar Dworsky, he told us something potentially more frightening than just the letter being a well-disguised solicitation.
WaMu Snookers With Scary Letter
By 10.4.06
For a direct marketer, nothing is infra dig as long as it gets a sale.
Helmann’s Spreads It Thin
By 9.11.06
Provoked by our post on the same, Derrick was enraged that Hellman’s has reduced the size of their mayo jars from 32 to 30 oz, while keeping the same price. He wrote them a letter and here’s how the sandwich Nazis responded:
