A new study says that really lifelike commercials are really good at tricking our brains into thinking that not only did they actually happen, but that they are scenes from our lives. [More]
readers
Dell Makes Good For Man Whose Life They Wasted 400 Minutes Of
By 6.1.11
After Bill’s story of spending 400 minutes in Dell Hell to get his dead laptop replaced went up on Consumerist, Dell gave him a call [More]
Did US Airways Use This Luggage As A Pinata?
By 6.1.11
Apparently some baggage handlers working for US Airways must have thought there was candy inside our reader’s luggage and went to town on it in a fun game on the tarmac involving blindfolds and bats. That’s the only possible explanation for the abused condition he got it back in. More beatings, of the psychic sort, ensued after he tried to seek recourse from US Airways before being finally told he would have to drive 45 miles back to the airport so they could inspect the bag. Fed up, our reader emailed this letter to the CEO of US Airways: [More]
Man's 400 Minutes In Dell Hell Could Cost Them Millions
By 6.1.11
By pissing off this one customer, Dell may have lost millions of dollars. Bill is a corporate account holder and a consultant who makes recommendations to Fortune 500 companies on how to spend their IT money. Usually he recommends Dell, but after his trip to Dell Hell, that will no longer be the case. [More]
F-16s Escort United Flight After Reclined Seat Leads To Slapfest
By 6.1.11
We’ve all gotten annoyed at a passenger in front of us who reclines his seat too far into our space, but most of the time it doesn’t lead to two fighter jets escorting the plane for an unscheduled landing. [More]
Eugene Mirman Reads His Letter To Time Warner Cable
By 6.1.11
This is a video of comedian Eugene Mirman doing a dramatic reading of his complaint letter to Time Warner Cable that he paid for to have published as a full-page ad in a couple of local papers in Brooklyn. In the preamble, he helps to explain why, as several of you pointed out, the letter came off as rambling and discursive, as opposed to the more straight-shooting approach we usually advocate here. “I could write them an angry letter and someone would get it and think I was crazy,” he tells the audience. “I didn’t want that. I wanted them to know I was crazy.” [More]
TWC Responds To Comedian Eugene Mirman's Complaint Letter
By 5.27.11
Time Warner Cable has responded to the complaint letter published by their customer, comedian Eugene Mirman, as a full page ad in several papers. [More]
Haggle Like A Rockstar
By 5.27.11
Earlier this week we brought you some tips on haggling from The Brooklyn Flea Market. In typical fashion, Consumerist readers replied with their own great tips on haggling, hard-won info tempered in the flames of many a flea market battle. Here’s the best of your best on how to haggle like a rockstar, Consumerist-reader style: [More]
Customer Takes Out Ad In Papers To Publish Complaint Letter To His Cable Company
By 5.27.11
A Time Warner Cable customer decided to express his frustration with the cable company in a unique way, by running his complaint letter as an ad in several papers. That man was Brooklyn comedian Eugene Mirman, who is also the voice of Gene Belcher on FOX’s Bob’s Burgers. Here is that letter: [More]
It Takes 12.5 Million Spams To Sell $100 Of Viagra
By 5.26.11
Considering how insistent and persistent the emails are, you would think there was big bucks in pushing pills that increase the flow of blood to one’s penis for an extended period of time. That may be true, but only because the costs of spam advertising are so low, as revealed by this nugget in a New York Times article that reveals it takes 12.5 million spam emails just to sell $100 worth of Viagra. [More]
Best Buy Store Flat Out Says They're Not Gonna Price Match Their Website
By 5.26.11
There’s no more pussyfooting around the bush. Reader Daniel snapped a picture of this sign on the front door of his local Best Buy of a sign that just comes right out and says, hey, if you want the price shown on the Best Buy website, we’ll be happy to sell you a computer that will connect to bestbuy.com so you can order it there and have it shipped to your house or held for in-store pickup. Ok, it doesn’t really say all that, but it does say that they’re not going to bother honoring the prices shown on the website within the store at all. [More]
Telemarketing Firm Busted For Pretending To Sound Disabled
By 5.26.11
A telemarketing firm that sold products put together by disabled persons has been busted. Police say they were making the people who worked the phone pretend to sound handicapped in order to get more money. “The telemarketers were acting pretty significantly disabled and using particular voice patterns and such that would make them sound disabled,” Riverside Police Det. Brian Money told KABC. The suspects were arrested for theft by false pretenses and false advertising. [More]
Shopping Bag Exhorting You To "Buy Local" Is Made In China
By 5.24.11
Reader Peter noticed an ironic disconnect between the message on the front of this reusable bag proclaiming, “Buy Fresh, Buy Local, Northern Virginia” and the country of origin listed on the label inside. Yep, it’s China. “Thought you’d enjoy the attached photo promoting our fine Northern Virginia products,” writes Peter. “Apparently though you have to travel overseas to get a good bag to put them in.” That’s right, these days, even our local pride is imported. [More]
Despite What This Sign Says, You Can't Get A Slice For $.0099
By 5.24.11
Looks like this pizza parlor has outsourced their accounting department to Verizon, advertising a cheese slice for ¢.99. Technically, that’s .99ths of a cent, or $.0099. Reader James of Massachusetts says, “I believe they have since taken down the sign, but I’m pretty sure I’m not welcomed in there anymore after my constant attempts to try to buy a whole pizza for a dime… and expecting change.” [More]
The Candwich Is Finally On Sale
By 5.24.11
Since I first wrote about this in July, 2010, I doubted that the Candwich, the sandwich in a can, would ever make it to market, but now I am forced to eat my words. [More]
Cheaper To Get Four 2-Slice Deals Than A Whole Pie
By 5.23.11
Math is all around us, in the leaves on the tree, inside the crystals of an icicle, and in a delicious slice of 4-cheese pizza served up by your favorite New York pizza parlor, 7-11. [More]
The McRice Burger Has Rice Cakes Instead Of Buns
By 5.23.11
In America we associate McDonald’s with three things, burgers, fries, and self-aggrandizing homogeneity. But the iconic chain is actually quite adaptable to local tastes, flavors and customs as it coats the globe with franchises. [More]
Amex Settles Case Alleging They Advertised BOGO, But Charged Double
By 5.23.11
How’s this for a bad deal? American Express Publishing Corp. had an offer for a “free” airline ticket when you bought a companion ticket and a subscription to Skyguide magazine. But a lawsuit brought by five Californian counties says that when consumers went to the website to buy their ticket, they were often charged double what the ticket would have cost them if they bought the ticket straight from the airline. Get it? [More]
