Within 24 hours of our reader emailing the addresses after the jup about a bill Guardian Life Insurance Company was supposed to pay but never did, a charge our reader had been fighting for 2 years and had been sent to collections for, Guardian sent a $850 check to the hospital…
readers
T-Mobile C And D's Blog For Using Magenta
By 3.31.08
Citing trademark infringement concern, T-mobile is demanding that gadget blog site Engadget Mobile stop using magenta in its logo. In a letter posted sent to Engadget, T-Mobile pronounced, “Based on the different character of the goods and services offered by the Deusche Telekom Group and Weblogs, we assume that it is in the best interest of both of our entities to ensure that the particular services can be clearly separated and that consumers are not confused…” And it’s not an early April Fool’s joke, they say. It’s not totally unreasonable, there is precedent for this sort of thing. Like the time T-Mobile sued a small a book-on-demand-publisher for having magenta in its logo.
Dear Wachovia, My 78¢ Balance Is Not Your Take A Penny Tray
By 3.31.08
Two readers wrote in with similar complaints: each had left a small overpayment on his credit account, and instead of leaving the balance or issuing a check, the bank zeroed out the balance and pocketed the money. Apparently, banks are now treating small balances like tips.
TSA Freaks Over Speakers, Lets Knife Pass Through. Twice.
By 3.31.08
TSA throws away passenger’s toothpaste, freaks out over his JBL On Tour speaker system, and lets him pass through with a lock-knife keychain, twice. Couple this with that story a few weeks ago about the Apple Air trying to go through security (it doesn’t have a hard drive! there’s no ports!) and it seems that the TSA’s main concern is that the next terroristic attack will have incredibly attractive design.
$753 Airline Tickets End Up Costing Two Seniors Nearly $10,000
By 3.31.08
Two seniors who bought $753 roundtrip tickets to Rome ended up paying nearly $10,000, thanks to flight delays and airlines reneging on their promises. The Lopilatos had a flight on American Airlines from LAX to JFK, then continuing on to Rome on Alitalia. The flight was scheduled to arrive in New York three hours before their flight to Rome, but it didn’t and they missed the flight to Rome. At first, American got them seats on a plane to London and then on to Rome on British Airways, for free. But then all of a sudden the seats were gone and now the tickets were $2,065 each. Not wanting to miss their tour group, the couple agreed. Then when they went to come back from Rome, Alitalia canceled their return flight because they missed the outbound, another $2,000+ in return tickets. When they tried to get refunds, each airline blamed the other and denied liability. How to avoid the same thing happening to you? Fly nonstop.
Scam Watch: Credit Card Shaving
By 3.31.08
Have you heard of “credit card shaving?” In this version of credit card fraud, thieves try out 16-digit number sequences until hitting one that works. Then they take gift cards from stores and shave off the digits and glue them onto a credit card. They scratch the magnetic strip so the clerk has to enter the credit card number by hand. It’s apparently all the rage in Portland There’s no defense against it except to monitor your statement for suspicious charges.
Comcast Degrades HD Quality To Make Room For More Channels
By 3.31.08
When you order Hi-Def TV, you expect it to be on the shining Excalibur level, but it looks like Comcast is degrading the quality of some HD channels in order to make room for more channels. To test this theory out, Avsforum member bfdtv recorded the same shows from the same channel at the same time on both Comcast Hi-Def and Fios TV. The left is the FiOs. The right is the Comcast. As you can see, the Comcast signal looks like crap. The forum thread has more screenshots, a signal analysis, and some source videos. So far the Comcast channels receiving extra compression are: Discovery Channel, SciFi, USA, Food, NatGeo, UHD, A&E, HGTV, Starz, Cinemax, HBO, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery HD Theater, and History HD.
AT&T Lets You Close Your Account, But Not Stop Paying For It
By 3.31.08
Reader Steaming Pile is waiting, not so patiently, for AT&T to give him back his $160. He had an account set up with automatic bill pay, and when his contract was up in September he canceled the account. This should have been the end of his dealings with AT&T. A few months later, he was perusing his post-holiday credit card bill when he noticed a charge from AT&T. Reviewing his statements more closely, he noticed that while he was successful in terminating his service, he hadn’t convinced AT&T to stop taking his money every month. Thanks to automatic bill pay and (let’s admit it) his own negligence, AT&T had pocketed $160 for a closed account. In fact, when he called to terminate the automatic bill pay, not only did he have to argue for the credit, he’s still waiting for his money three months later. Check out his very angry email below.
Circuit City Designates Handicapped Parking Spots "Web Order Pickup" Zone
By 3.30.08
This Sprint Plan Lets You Talk For 1.9 Years Per Month. What?
By 3.29.08
BG’s Sprint plan lets him talk for 1,000,499 minutes per month and only costs $50. How did he find this stupefyingly amazing plan? Hit the jump for his story.
Friday Consumerist Flickr Pool Finds
By 3.28.08
Here are five special photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, chosen because they’re both neat and could possibly be used in a Consumerist post. Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers go and upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right, and start hitting “send to group” on your individual photos you want to add to the pool.
Identity Theft + Mortgage Fraud = Home Stealing
By 3.28.08
* From time to time, it’s also a good idea to check all information pertaining to your house through your county’s deeds office. If you see any paperwork you don’t recognize or any signature that is not yours, look into it.
Thankfully they also say that “home stealing” so far does not appear to be very common.
TSA Forces Woman To Remove Nipple Piercings
By 3.28.08
Woman Says TSA Forced Piercings Removal [AP] (Thanks to Benny!)
Cablevision Tries To Sell You Phone Service During Funeral
By 3.28.08
Cablevision tried to telemarket Greg Scoblete phone service during a funeral:
Two days ago I attended a wake. During the wake my cellphone rang…I couldn’t answer the first call, but shortly thereafter it rang again. “Must be important,” I thought, ducking out of the room.
It turned out to be a Cablevision telemarketer trying to rope me into the triple play. Fair enough. I told the rep that I wasn’t interested in the triple play and in any event, I was at a wake.
“I understand that,” he said, “but I’ll have you off the phone in five minutes saving money on your long-distance bills.”
Congratulations, Cablevision, you’ve taken the definition of shameless marketing to a whole new level.
Spirit Airlines Hold "Threesome Sale"
By 3.28.08
Spirit Airlines, holding a “Threesome Sale”, is apparently desperate for attention and I guess we’ll just have to give it to them. In this sale, members of the $9 Club get fares from $3 each way, seat upgrades for $3, and $33 for 33 hours. This comes on the heels of their last titillatingly titled marketing push, the “M.I.L.F sale,” which simply meant “Many Islands Low Fares,” and in no way, shape, or form, referenced American Pie. Now, before you get all outraged, remember that this is called “targeted marketing.” If you’re buying tickets for $3, classiness is probably not the first thing on your mind. I can’t wait for their next sale. I hear their marketing teams is busy coming up with clever acrostics for “gangbang.”
Geek Squad Laptop Comedy of Errors
By 3.27.08
Reader George is having serious trouble with Geek Squad. It started when he bought a laptop from Best Buy a few years ago. He sent it in to get a loose AC jack replaced. They replace it. Two months later, it’s loose again. It’s replaced again, but this time, when his picks it up, the door to the DVD/CD drive is warped and won’t open. George’s in a hurry, so he asked the Geek to make a note about the damage, and he’ll bring it back for repair. From here on out, nothing goes right. First they can’t find his account, then they can’t find the note, then they can’t find his computer, then they can’t work their own computers. His full story, inside.
By 3.27.08
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A test of 47 “natural” and “green” labeled soaps, shampoos and other consumer products show that they contain 1,4-dioxan, which has been shown to cause cancer in lab rats. [LAT]
Email Addresses For United Health Care Executives
By 3.27.08
Email addresses for reaching 5 executives at United Healthcare insurance company:
