There are so many ways to express one’s outrage with a retail store’s policies. You can complain to the company, start a grassroots campaign, write to Consumerist, or just take your business elsewhere. But for one displeased Target shopper in Pennsylvania, the answer was clear: baseball bat. [More]
pennsylvania
Target Customer Uses Baseball Bat To Demonstrate Her Displeasure With Store's Return Policy
By 6.24.11
Pennsylvanians Still Paying Tax To Rebuild Town Flooded In 1936
By 6.7.11
It’s been 122 years since Johnstown, PA, was nearly wiped off the face of the planet by a flood that killed more than 2,000 people. And it’s been 75 years since even more damage was done to the down by the St. Patrick’s Day flood of 1936, spurring the commonwealth to enact a tax on alcohol sales to help rebuild the town. Luckily, that tax was only needed for a few years, so it’s obviously long since been repealed… right? [More]
Woman With Hand Stuck In ATM Freed By Firemen
By 6.2.11
ATMs are no longer satisfied with just nipping fees from you. Now they want your flesh. [More]
Woman Sues Target Over Credit Card Debt Collection Practices
By 4.21.11
A woman in Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit against the retail chain, alleging that it used false affidavits to collect debts on Target-issued credit card accounts. [More]
Cable Co. RCN Tried To Bill Fire Victims For Incinerated Cable Boxes
By 2.17.11
A family in Allentown, PA was lucky to escape with their lives after a natural gas explosion destroyed their block and took five of their neighbor’s souls. Then their cable company RCN told them they would have to pay $170 a pop for the cable boxes that were destroyed in the fire. [More]
Guilt-Burdened Shoplifter Pays For Stolen Hammer… 25 Years Later
By 12.24.10
Earlier this week, we asked you to opine on the situation of a Target customer who had inadvertently walked out of the store without paying for a DVD. Many of you said he should return the disc or contact Target to pay for it. Now comes the story of another shopper so burdened with guilt that he recently sent money to a hardware store from which he’d stolen a hammer decades earlier. [More]
Lawsuit: Capital One Sent Me Letter Demanding $286 Million
By 12.13.10
A woman in Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit against Capital One after a dispute over a few thousand in credit card debt spiraled out of control until, she alleges, it culminated in the credit card company sending her a letter demanding the immediate payment of more than $286 million. [More]
Man: I Assaulted Mom Because Costco Pepsi Machine Made Me Do It
By 12.1.10
A 33-year-old Pennsylvania man has been charged with with aggravated assault, simple assault and harassment after allegedly assaulting his 68-year-old mom. The reason: The Pepsi machine at their local Costco made him do it. [More]
Debt Collection Firm Accused Of Setting Up Phony Courtroom
By 10.29.10
Call it “theater of the real.” A debt collection firm is accused of setting up a fake courtroom, complete with a raised “bench” and judge in black and other decorations and furniture, to trick and holding bogus hearings to extract payment from debtors. [More]
Want To Be A Zombie In Harrisburg? That'll Be $450.00
By 9.27.10
Some economist eggheads might believe that the recession is over, but try telling that to the zombies of Harrisburg, PA, who had to move their march of the undead after the city tried to squeeze them for some fees. [More]
Our Water Is Totally Fracked Up
By 9.22.10
An independent lab found fracking chemicals in the well water of “almost everybody” living in one neighborhood in Pennsylvania. Fracking is not a typo or a joke or a TV reference, it refers to “hydrofracking,” in which chemicals are pumped into the ground to create cracks and fissures that increase the output of oil and gas wells. The neighbors point their fingers at nearby drilling company Cabot, who has countered that the chemicals, like methane, were in some of the wells already before they began fracking everything up. [More]
You Can Get Unemployment Payments On A Debit Card That No One Accepts
By 9.2.10
Many states no longer issue unemployment checks. You can receive your payments through direct deposit, or using a Visa or Mastercard-branded debit card. That’s the state of affairs in Pennsylvania, where reader Sam lives. He tells Consumerist that this method would be less of a racket for banks and more useful for people on unemployment if there were any places other than fee-happy ATMs that actually accepted the darn things. [More]
Get Your Wine From A Vending Machine In Pennsylvania
By 7.9.10
Having grown up in Pennsylvania, I always assumed you could only buy beer at a bar, restaurant or beer distributor and that wine and liquor had to be purchased at “state stores.” So it comes as a bit of a surprise to this kid from the Philly burbs that PA recently became the first state to begin selling wine out of large in-store “kiosks.” [More]
Burger King Employee Clocks Out, Then Clocks Customer
By 6.22.10
Here’s a lesson for all food service workers who intend on punching out a customer — be sure to clock out before you unleash your fists of fury in the parking lot. [More]
Do You Trust Gas Stations To Self-Inspect Their Pumps?
By 4.14.10
Pennsylvania is considering privatizing its Bureau of Weights and Measures to save money, reports CBS affiliate KDKA. This would mean gas stations would be responsible for making sure their pumps gave out the right amount of gas, and supermarkets would take over the certification for their deli scales. A consumer advocate calls this a “fox in the henhouse situation” that would make cheating far too easy. [More]
Bus Driver Told To Keep Making Stops Despite Dying Man On Board
By 4.13.10
The City of Brotherly Love certainly lived up to its name as a bus driver in Philadelphia was told by her dispatcher to keep on making stops, in spite of the man dying on her bus. [More]
Acme Sells Me Edy's Ice Cream, 8 Months Past Expiration
By 3.18.10
Last week, Consumerist reader Aaron went to his local Acme supermarket outside of Philadelphia to pick up some yummy, delicious, Edy’s ice cream. Except what he brought home was neither yummy nor delicious because it was 8 months past its sell-by date. [More]
Park Rules Prohibit "Unlicensed Guns" In State That Doesn't License Guns
Here’s a problem for the Lackawanna County park system: They’ve passed new rules that prohibit “unlicensed firearms.” Sounds reasonable until you notice that the park is in Pennsylvania where they apparently don’t license guns.
Awkward! [More]