When RadioShack went bankrupt for the second time in two years and decided to close hundreds of stores, it forgot to do one important thing: Make sure the employees it fired didn’t have access to their stores’ social media accounts.
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RadioShack Stops Caring, Brushes Off Profane Posts By Rogue Closed Store
By 4.19.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Business At Uber In Germany Is Booming, Thanks To Publicity From Ban
By 9.3.14
Yesterday, we shared the news that ride-sharing service Uber had been banned in Germany. The company’s service that lets people summon a limo with a smartphone was fine, but the peer-to-peer, lower-cost UberPop service had to stop accepting passengers under a temporary injunction. A strange thing happened when this story hit the news, though: people in Germany thought that this UberPop thing sounded like a great idea, and started hailing rides. [More]
Coffee Shop Owner Uses Twitter To Ban Breastfeeding In His Store, Seems Surprised By Reaction
By 8.3.10
Yesterday, a coffee shop called The DoubleShot in Tulsa, OK sent out a tweet announcing that breastfeeding was now banned on the premises: “Notice: No breastfeeding at the DoubleShot. Thank you.” (The tweet has since been removed, but a tipster saved it for us.) This set off a torrent of angry reactions on Twitter, partly because everyone loves to fight about breastfeeding and partly because it’s World Breastfeeding Week. [More]
Food Tampering Craze Hits Calgary As Copycats Join In
By 4.5.10
Maybe Calgary’s residents didn’t like being eclipsed by the Olympics, or maybe there’s just an awfully high number of bored crooks living there. Either way, the city has now reported 11 cases of food tampering, mostly involving shards of metal inserted into food items, in grocery stores across the city since January. [More]
2009 Second Safest Year For Western-Built Jets In Aviation History
By 2.22.10
According to a new report by the trade group International Air Transport Association, 2009 comes in just behind 2006 as the safest year on record (kept since 1964), with an average of 1 accident for every 1.4 million flights on a Western-built jet. CNN notes, “If you were to take a flight every day, odds are you could go 3,859 years without an accident.” With delays and cancellations it would actually take nearly 6,000 years to complete all those flights, but it’s still a good statistic to tell yourself the next time you get nervous about flying. [More]
12 Ads That Didn't Make It To The Super Bowl
By 2.3.10
If you can’t actually manage to get an ad placed during the Super Bowl, the next best thing is to get it rejected by the network so you can make a big deal about it online. The Daily Beast has put together a list of 12 ads that were rejected for a variety of reasons. Well, actually in most cases it comes down to gay stuff, cussing, or sex. One thing you’ll notice, though, is that most of the rejected spots aren’t very well-made to begin with–I’d be happy if they were banned just for that. [More]
Sears Driver Runs Over Customers' Dog, Inspires Website
By 12.11.09
What do you do when a Sears delivery driver runs over one of your dogs and kills it, but all Sears will tell you is that it’s your fault for letting your dog out of the house? You start a website called searskilledmydog.com. Update: There has been a reconciliation between the owners and Sears. I’ve included a statement from Sears below. [More]
Ameriprise Bans "Customer Advisor" For Posting Link To Consumerist
By 9.21.09
Hey, we helped get an Ameriprise customer banned from the financial company’s consumer advisory panel! Sorry about that, Brendan.
Kellogg's Brand Reputation Takes A Hit After Dumping Phelps?
By 2.24.09
Supposedly, Kellogg’s “brand reputation” is in the gutter after canning Phelps over the pot photo, slipping from #9 to #83 in a list of 5,600 companies. We’d believe it more if this “reputation index” chart from Vanno, a brand index company, didn’t look like someone was given PowerPoint and 3 minutes and told to produce some convincing evidence for a press release.
Virgin Atlantic Asks Complaint Writer To Be Taste Tester
By 1.28.09
The man who wrote the long, funny complaint letter to Richard Branson about the level of suck on his recent Virgin Atlantic flight has been asked to “come to the airline’s catering house next month, to help select the food on future Virgin flights.” Yeah, we know that it’s a publicity stunt, but an entertaining one. We hope the customer agrees, and hates the new food just as much. In fact, we wish he’d replace Toby Young on Top Chef; the dead hamster line would be a pretty good put-down on that show.
How To Not Get Sued For What You Said On Yelp
By 1.23.09
Recently, angry chiropractors and dentists have sued Yelp reviewers for defamation, loosely defined as “publicly telling mean lies that hurt more than feelings.” Apparently, no one takes the internet seriously, until all of a sudden someone does. Here’s what anyone who leaves comments online should know about defamation.
