California Liquid Fertilizer has been spiking its fertilizer with ammonium sulfate for the last several years, affecting the organic status of many farms, including organic behemoth Earthbound Farms.
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Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Set Is Inappropriately Proud Of Its Materials
By 10.9.08
The person in charge of the Ben & Jerry’s gift shop in their Vermont factory might want to talk to someone about redesigning the packaging of this ice cream bowl and spoon set—”melamine” probably isn’t the kind of word you want to position so prominently these days.
By 9.23.08
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We interrupt our programming for a very special consumer alert: Be forewarned, this Krazy Glue’s “red” cap is not red. [My Permanent Record]
Verizon Junk Mail Advertises Phone Sex Hotline
By 9.8.08
The phone number in this Verizon mailer connects to “an exciting new way to go live with hot horny girls.” Can you hear me now, big boy?
United Even Messes Up When It Fixes Mistakes
By 7.25.08
John finally got United to pay for the car he had to rent when the airline flew him to the wrong airport over nine months ago. In classic fashion, their refund invoice has a big typographical error. Airlines, even when they get it right, they manage to get it wrong.
Doctors Remove Wrong Kidney
By 3.18.08
A surgical team at Park Nicollet Heath Services in Minnesota removed the healthy kidney from a patient last week, and left behind the possibly cancerous kidney.
Medical Records Sold As Scrap Paper
By 3.11.08
A fourth grade teacher in Salt Lake City, Utah, bought a box of scrap paper for $20 and discovered it was actually a box of medical records of 28 patients from Central Florida Regional Hospital. The hospital shipped the box via UPS to an audit company in Las Vegas last December. The hospital claims it had been tracking the box since February, but hadn’t told the patients. As for the teacher’s class, her next assignment for the students will be, “Apply for credit card offers using SSNs from the scrap paper box.”
Sallie Mae CEO Ends Conference Call With "Let's Get The Fuck Out Of Here"
By 12.20.07
Dodging tough questions about the student loan company’s fiscal well-being and strategy in the midst of the credit crunch, not to mention his recent sale of 97% of his company stock, Sallie Mae’s CEO ended a conference call yesterday with investors by cursing, reports WSJ:
In an apparent reference to investors’ anger, he said: “I can assure you, you will be going through a metal detector.” He ended the conference call by saying “Let’s go. There’s no questions. Let’s get the [expletive] out of here.”
By 9.21.07
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Zara, a Spanish fashion chain, pulled a $79 bicycle-and-flowers themed handbag from shelves because of a customer complaint that it also had green swastikas embroidered on it. The bags were made in India and the swastika is a commonly used Hindu symbol. Zara claims the design it originally approved did not have the swastikas. [Reuters]
Top 10 Biggest Business Debacles 2006
By 12.18.06
Welcome, New York Times readers. Here’s a bit of an intro to The Consumerist, if you’re curious and want to learn more.
Nominate The Top Ten Biggest Company Screwups Of 2006
By 11.27.06
Nominate your picks for the biggest company screwups of the year.
Walmart’s Website Is Down, Probably On Purpose
By 11.24.06
As of 1:36 this afternoon, Walmart’s online site is down, either due to “Scheduled Maintenance,” or “High Traffic Volume.” The site displayed different messages to us upon successive visits.
Cingular Removes Racist Ringtone
By 5.11.06
Ring ring! Who’s there? Cultural insensitivity, that’s who.
UPDATE: We Got Undone Over Threadless
By 5.2.06
We felt so bad about our Threadless behavior that we’re posted our apology twice so it gets full-time, front-page coverage.
Great Moments in Corporate Web Presence: Samsonite
By 4.27.06
After hours of pixel scraping and vector mapping, it seems some web developers of online shopping sites get a bit of a hardon. Wally writes:
Amazon.com Predicts NCAA Win
By 4.3.06
Jeff Bezos knows something about tonight’s NCAA basketball championship game the rest of us don’t.
