It turns out there are still some good people left in this world. The Deseret News has the story of a man who was inspecting his family’s first home when a piece of cloth attached to the attic door grabbed his attention. Climbing up the ladder and through the hatch he pulled out a WW II ammo case. He opened the box and discovered inside an amazing treasure, which he ended up giving away that night. [More]
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Match.com Thinks You Have 7-Year Itch
By 5.20.11
After years of happy marriage, Match.com has decided that one of our readers has probably had enough and emailed them a selection of potential mates. Our reader met the man they would eventually marry on Match.com in 2001 and both of them believed they deleted their profiles together in 2002. In 2005, they were married. But using sophisticated algorithms, Match.com has tried to hook our reader up again. Maybe there’s a built-in 7-Year Itch protocol that automatically detects when you’ve hit the 7-year mark and would potentially be interested in the dating site’s services again? [More]
Zappos Saves Best Man From Going Barefoot At Wedding
By 5.19.11
Though he initially only chose them for being the cheapest, Zappos has won a customer for life out of reader Jay because they saved his butt, or rather, feet. He’s the best man in a wedding this Saturday and thanks to UPS routing his package to the wrong place, he wasn’t going to have the shoes he ordered in time for the big day. Then a call to Zappos got his problem solved in a way that far surpassed his expectations. [More]
Mother Wins $7,500 After Suing Debt Collector
By 5.19.11
Mayling, mother of two, says she was inspired by Consumerist stories and when a harassing debt collector wouldn’t stop calling her family, she took matters into her own hands. With a 6 month-old and a toddler in tow, she sued them in small claims court and won $7,500. This is her story. [More]
Facebook Is Number One Tool For Divorce Lawyers
By 5.18.11
The days of finding lipstick on a shirt collar are over. All you need now is to look on a cheating spouse’s Facebook wall, as one man in a 20-year long marriage learned. [More]
Cops Remove Nonstop Cellphone Talker From Amtrak
By 5.18.11
A woman boarded one of Amtrak’s “quiet cars” – special train cars set up where cellphone use and other loud noises are verboten – and proceeded to talk loudly for 16 hours on the moving train on her cellphone before police removed her. [More]
For Variety, Eater Of 25,000 Big Macs "Sometimes Eats Them Upside Down"
By 5.18.11
Yesterday Don Gorske set a new world record by eating his 25,000th Big Mac in his lifetime. The news reports are full of charming anecdotes surrounding this man and his accomplishment. My favorite is the one where his brother recounts how he once asked Don, doesn’t he ever get tired of eating the same thing over and over again? Don reportedly replied, “Sometimes I eat them upside down.” Turning the burger over 180 degrees is enough to rearrange the order in which the flavors enter his mouth. Here are some other fun facts about this story: [More]
MasterCard Fixes Merchant Violation Form
By 5.18.11
After a reader noticed that Mastercard’s Merchant Violation report form for consumers only let you put in 100 characters even though it said you had 5,000, we wrote a post about it (in addition to using the form itself to report the error). Now Mastercard has informed us that they fixed it, and indeed it passes our test. Finally, “As a point of reference, consumer questions and issues can be raised on our Twitter page at @MasterCard, as well as the web forms,” the MasterCard rep pointed out via email. That’s right, there’s now at least two ways to talk to MasterCard using over 100 characters. [More]
Cruise Ship Passengers Mutiny After Being Stranded For 3 Days
By 5.17.11
After the electricity failed, passengers on the MSC Opera luxury cruise ship found themselves stranded at sea for three days, reports The Daily Mail. The toilets stopped working, there were blackouts, water was in short supply and at one point, passengers were only given rolls to eat. Then they rebelled. [More]
Brands, This Is Not How You Do Twitter
By 5.17.11
After getting annoyed at how internet provider RCN kept tweeting about a Chicago-based promotion that he didn’t feel was relevant to people like himself who are outside Chicago, Mark sent a grumpy tweet to RCN. It was replied to with a robotic response that makes it look like the person didn’t even read his tweet, they just wanted him to take the conversation off Twitter. This is in the vein of what I talked about with “Twitter Company Reps Who Talk Big But Can’t Actually Do Anything” and it is a total Twitter fail. [More]
Man To Eat His 25,000th Big Mac Today
By 5.17.11
At 4pm Eastern, Don Gorske, 57, will have eaten his 25,000th Big Mac, reports Wisinfo. He has timed the event to coincide with the exact anniversary, down to the hour, of the very first time he ate, and fell in love with, Big Macs 39 years ago. Despite daily doses of Big Macs consisting of “90% of his solid food intake,” Gorske is not obese and he runs in races. How is this possible? [More]
Despite No Service, AT&T Refuses To Waive ETF
By 5.17.11
Last week we brought you the story of Ross who had no AT&T service after the nearby cellphone tower went down and the other towers weren’t working. Even still, AT&T wouldn’t let him leave service without paying an early termination fee, despite the fact that it could be 4 months before the towers were repaired. That means 4 months more without service while still getting a monthly bill. I counseled Ross on how he might fight the power by going through the retentions department, and he wrote back with an update on his progress. [More]
T-Mobile Adds Free WiFi Calling
By 5.17.11
T-Mobile just announced that WiFi calling is now gratis, reports GigaOm. That means that when T-Mobile customers make calls over WiFi networks and don’t use the cellular network, they are completely free. It’s a pretty nifty way to save money on your cellphone bill, so expect it to be yet another feature that gets dropped if AT&T gobbles up Big Magenta. [More]
Mastercard's Merchant Violation Form Only Accepts 100 Characters
By 5.16.11
I guess Mastercard has gotten tired of hearing long-winded consumer complaints about stores breaking their merchant agreement with them. The form on their website where you’re supposed to make complaints says that you can use a max of 5,000 characters, but when you actually go to type something in, it won’t let you enter in more than 100. Perhaps they would rather consumers tweet their complaints? [More]
Debt Collector Evaporates At First Sign Of Resistance
By 5.16.11
Ryan shares with us his consumer kicking booty story of how he got a debt collector to run off with their tail between their legs. It sounded like an amazing deal. He got a letter from a debt collector telling him that they represented AT&T and would cut him a special break and settle for only $69.30 instead of $693.30. Wowzers! Problem was, he didn’t owe AT&T any money at all. [More]
Drive-Thru Line For First In-N-Out In Texas Stretches Down Highway
By 5.13.11
YouTube user kylecorley captured on video the extremely long line at lunchtime for the drive-thru at the first In-N-Out burger in Texas on opening day this week. It goes way way way down the highway leading up to the joint. We’re sure that just like when Krispy Kreme places first opened out west, those lines are here to stay. [More]
Michaels Debit Card Breach Not Just In Chicago, But Across 20 States
By 5.12.11
Last week we told you about a debit card breach found in Chicago area Michaels arts and craft stores. This week, the Chicago Tribune says that the impact is much more widespread than thought, as it turns out that actually, thieves stole debit card info at Michaels in 20 different states. [More]
Mother's Day Flowers Vs Reality
By 5.11.11
On the left are the flowers Brian ordered from ProFlowers for Mother’s Day. On the right are the ones that were actually delivered, late, and found by the janitors at the university she works at unceremoniously left in the hallway. [More]
