While Bank of America’s now-abandoned plan to charge debit card users $5 a month has received a halogen spotlight recently, far less attention has been paid to how it collects fees off the unemployed. In some states, unemployment benefits are issued via Bank of America debit cards. States save money by not using paper checks, but the unemployed lose out from all the fees hiding in the cards. [More]
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This Walmart Holiday Pop-Up Store Sort Of Isn't A Walmart At All
By 11.10.11
Eight months ago, we sarcastically predicted that the Walmart mini-store format, Walmart Express, would catch on and cause ever-tinier Walmarts to branch out and take over global commerce, splintering like enchanted brooms out of Mickey Mouse’s control. That hasn’t happened yet, but reader Ashi spotted something weird in San Diego. It’s a Walmart that isn’t a Walmart: a Walmart.com storefront where customers can go and…order things from Walmart online. [More]
Man Tries To Rob Burger King With A Sock
By 11.9.11
You know the economy is bad when crooks can’t even afford decent stick-up weapons. Police have arrested a man who tried to rob a Burger King, using a sock. [More]
New Wave Of Mortgage Defaults On Horizon
By 11.9.11
Some of the crappiest mortgages ever made were issued in 2006, and right now those 5-year introductory teaser periods are expiring. That’s leading to a 300% increase in monthly payments for already strapped borrowers, and it’s what’s driving the first increase in delinquent mortgages since 2009, a banking expert tells Credit.com. [More]
Artists Adds $0 Tags To Her Clothes, Reshelves Them
By 11.7.11
Artist Jess Dobkin takes her clothes, attaches realistic-looking tags that say “free” on them, and puts them back on the shelves at the original stores she bought them from. She calls the project, “Restored,” and made a cheery video about it. [More]
JCPenney's Black Friday Ad Is Out
By 11.7.11
If you want to see what kind of deals JCPenney is offering for the Black Friday sale this year, their entire 72-page ad just got uploaded. [More]
Can My Job Only Pay Me For 8 Hours Instead Of 9 Because Of Daylight Saving Time?
By 11.7.11
A man says that he worked on Sunday, and, because of daylight saving time, his boss only wants to pay him for 8 hours instead of the 9 he worked. Is this legal? [More]
Michael Dell Replaces High-End Laptop Previously "Fixed" With Black Marker, Crumbs
By 11.4.11
Jeremy’s 3D Alienware gaming laptop from Dell didn’t work right from its first bootup. It had blue screens of death and the video card needed swapping out. When he sent it in for repair, he got it back with crumbs in the keys, and a crack on the side someone tried to hide with black marker. When we posted his story on Consumerist, we gave him CEO Michael Dell’s email address to go tell his story. Now Jeremy writes that after he emailed Mr. Dell, the CEO intervened and made sure Jeremy got a brand-new laptop, along with a free memory and CPU upgrade. [More]
Paypal Links Account Missing $2,000 To Yours, Demands You Pay
By 11.3.11
Reader Ben awoke to a rude discovery. Somehow another account had been linked to his Paypal account, and the new account was $2,000 in the red. Paypal was knocking on Ben’s door, telling him to pay up, or else. They locked up his account and froze his cash. When he protested, they treated him like a criminal. [More]
Isn't It A Tad Early To Be Selling "Belated" Christmas Cards?
By 11.2.11
Seems to be jumping the gun a bit to already be selling “Belated Christmas” cards, don’t you think? [More]
Returned iPhone Within 30 Days, Still Charged $350 ETF
By 10.28.11
Justin’s and his wife live in a major metropolitan area, and therefore their phone service with AT&T Wireless is crappy. His wife upgraded to an iPhone 4, found it even more unusable than her previous phone, and returned it within the 30-day return period. This means that they shouldn’t have to pay an early termination fee on her contract. Yet she did, and now AT&T won’t refund the fee. [More]
TJ Maxx Subsidiary Kicks Out Girl With Service Dog, Apologizes, Then Kicks Her Out Again
By 10.28.11
After an autistic girl and her service dog were wrongly kicked out of a discount clothing store owned by TJ Maxx, the district manager profusely apologized and gave them a $25 gift card to pick out anything she liked. When she returned and tried to use the gift card, store staff kicked her out for having a service dog again. Looks like someone didn’t get the memo. [More]
Man Accused Of Tossing Molotov Cocktail At Taco Bell For Not Giving Him Enough Meat
By 10.28.11
There’s better ways to lodge a complaint against Taco Bell than by lofting a Molotov cocktail at the drive-thru window, but filling out a suggestion card wasn’t the one this incensed Georgia customer chose at 5am. [More]
Unfortunate Caller ID Foreshortening For The Original Honeybaked Ham Company
By 10.27.11
Probably should have thought that one through. [More]
Copper Traded For Crack
By 10.26.11
Some enterprising drug dealers are helping copper thieves cut out the middleman. They’re accepting copper pipe as legal tender in exchange for crack cocaine. [More]
Comcast Keeps Sending Same Guy Who Couldn't Fix Switch
By 10.26.11
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then you have to worry about the mental health of Comcast. They keep sending the same technician out to fix Brian’s switch, even though the tech doesn’t have the parts or competence to repair it. [More]
The Most Shoplifted Food In The World? That's Right, "Cheese."
By 10.26.11
The First WorldWide Shrinkage Survey is not about taking a scientific approach to a Seinfeld plot line. Instead, it measures shoplifting around the globe. “Shrinkage,” in retail parlance, is when people take things from stores without paying for them. And according to their study, the most shoplifted item in the world in 2011 was cheese. [More]
Top 10 States With Highest Debt Per Capita
By 10.25.11
Are you in a state that has saddled its citizens with a big debt load per person? This list tells you. It may surprise you that the state with the highest debt per capita is also the one with the most penny loafers per capita. [More]
