And now, a more cynical selection from the mailbag of Valentine’s Day Consumerist love stories. Gus plunked down a load of dough to buy up some fancy cookie dough products to try to impress a long-distance unrequited love, but reality failed to rise to meet his hopes. [More]
readers
If You're Going To Send Her A Bunch Of Expensive Cookies, Make Sure She Likes Cookies First
By 2.10.11
Each Of The 8 HP Laptops I've Bought Suffer From Blue Screen Of Death
By 2.10.11
Dan made a boo-boo and now he’s blue-blue. He broke his wife’s laptop and decided to replace it with a HP DV6t Special Edition laptop, picking one up for himself too. But he’s not the only one suffering from discoloration, so are his laptops’ screens. They’re continually afflicted by the dread “Blue Screen of Death.” He’s called and complained and exchanged the laptops several times, but each time, BSOD. They’re on laptops 7 & 8 now. What’s the deal? [More]
Our Most Romantic Valentine's Day Dinner Was At Arby's
By 2.10.11
A week ago we asked you to send in your best Consumerist love stories, tales of romance, love and heartbreak that centered around a specific product or service. While most of you took the opportunity to curbstomp the whole idea of Valentine’s Day as a made-up holiday designed to drain your money and make you sad, commenter infohound10 wrote in her touching recounting of how the best V-Day meal was the one her then boyfriend, now husband, bought her at Arby’s. [More]
DNA Links Grocery Clerk In Tainted Yogurt Case
By 2.10.11
Not only was there semen in the yogurt, but DNA testing has linked it with the same pushy grocery clerk who gave the free sample to the shopper who complained about it. [More]
Cabby Pleads Guilty To Ripping Passenger Off For $800k
By 2.9.11
The car service driver accused of ripping off a Hong Kong feng-shui master for over $800,000 on his credit card has plead guilty, New York Post reports. [More]
Woman Bites Into Razor In Walmart Brand Ice Cream
By 2.9.11
A woman has cut her lip on a razor that was at the bottom of her cup of Walmart brand Peanut Butter Stars. When she called to complain, the customer service rep told her, “I’m sorry, I hope your day gets better.” [More]
Wells Fargo ATMs Crash Across The Country
By 2.8.11
Most of Wells Fargo’s 12,000 ATMs crashed starting Monday afternoon and lasting several hours, reports the Star Tribune, and no one knows why. [More]
Google Voice Number Porting Stalled For 19 Days
By 2.8.11
Brandon has been waiting since Jan 20 for Google Voice to port his cellphone number. First he tried to port on Jan 20, then it said there was an error, so he tried again on Jan 30. He paid the $20 fee both times. The whole process is supposed to take 24 hours. He’s tried posting in their “Help Center,” as their welcome email suggests, but no luck. Just limbo. Hm. Maybe Google should stay out of businesses that require customer service. Have you tried getting in touch with your ex-wireless provider’s porting department and asking what the status is? UPDATE: Brandon reports his port over from AT&T has now gone through. Huzzah! [More]
Contractors Bill Old Man $4,800 For Snow-Clearing
By 2.8.11
A group of contractors is traveling around targeting the elderly and overcharging them for snow removal. Last week they charged a 78-year-old man $4,800 for clearing the snow off his roof. Cops intervened after his daughter reported the ripoff and made them return the money and charge a more reasonable rate, $250. [More]
Duracell Battery Pack Comes With Free Glue Stick. But Why?
By 2.8.11
Here’s an interesting cross-promo. Reader Ally spotted a pack of Duracells at her lokcal Hannaford that came with a FREE glue stick. It wasn’t something that the store had shrinkwrapped together, but the glue stick was actually in the package itself. What’s the marketing strategy here? Maybe because they’re both supplies you put in your desk drawer. Maybe the glue makes the electrons stick together better. Inquiring minds want to know. [More]
Yep, There Was Semen In The Yogurt
By 2.7.11
The woman who reported to police last week that the free yogurt sample she received tasted like it had semen in it? Turns out she was right. Police have confirmed that the sample of Greek yogurt was tainted with semen. Results from DNA sample taken from the employee who handed out the sample are still pending. There’s something fishy about the free sample story though, according to the police report it doesn’t sound like there was an official sampling going on that day. UPDATE: The Smoking Gun has copies of the search warrant affidavit, police report, and a hand-written witness statement. [More]
Philadelphia Gas Works Turned Off Our Gas 4 Days Ago. Our House Is 48 Degrees.
By 2.7.11
Brrrr. Melanie and her housemate have no heat or gas after the Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) turned off the gas four days ago. She’s never missed a payment but they tell her they need to investigate “meter tampering” because they found two loose screws on her meter. It’s 48 degrees in her house and she has no way to cook anything. Customer service can’t tell her when the “meter investigation unit” will get around to checking it out and there’s no way she can get in contact with them. UPDATE: Melanie reports that after this post went up and we contacted PGW, they called her and said they’re coming to turn the heat back on this afternoon. [More]
Tweeting Disney's President Over Missed BOGO Nets Free Gift Card
By 2.4.11
Jonathan was at first stoked to get two Oswald the Lucky Rabbit plushies for $28, usually $16.50 each. He was going to give one to his sister and keep the other one. Then a week later buyer’s remorse struck like a piano dropped from 30 stories above, squashing his hopes into the size of a quarter. There was a new deal – buy one get one free! So he reached out and Tweeted someone, Disney Store President Jim Fielding. [More]
Best Buy Officially Announces It Will Buy Back Your Old Gadgets
By 2.4.11
Like we told you in a Consumerist exclusive back in December, Best Buy is launching a new program that lets customers trade in their old gadgets for a gift card for a fraction of their value, good towards another Best Buy purchase. They say it “future-proofs” your technology. The announcement was emailed to customers last night and will also be publicized during the Super Bowl. [More]
O.B. Tampons Are Back
By 2.4.11
Johnson and Johnson say new shipments of o.b. tampons have started going out and they should start showing up in a few days or weeks, depending on your store’s restock schedule. You can also get them online at Amazon.com, drugstore.com and soap.com. o.b. Ultras will not be returning as they’ve been discontinued. [More]
Send Your Ideas To The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's New Website
By 2.3.11
ConsumerFinance.gov, the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new website, is live and in full effect. So is their Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. They want your suggestions and ideas so send ’em in! As they announced on their website their central role is “to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for America…The CFPB belongs to the people it serves. If you have suggestions, we want to hear them.” [More]
What's Your Best Consumerist Valentine's Day Story?
By 2.3.11
With Valentine’s around the corner, we’re looking for Consumerist love stories! Inspired by the touching tale of the husband who bought up 38 bottles of his wife’s favorite discontinued conditioner and then secretly refilled her bottle for 9 weeks, we want to hear your true tales of relationship romance, love and heartbreak that revolves around a product or service at its center. It doesn’t have to have happened around Valentine’s Day to count. Remember, what makes it good is the emotion, story and stakes, the product is just the medium or “MacGuffin” for the tale. Sound off in the comments or email ben@consumerist.com, subject line “I heart love.” [More]
Hotmail Sucks: The Rap Video!
By 2.3.11
Dan Bull has been using Hotmail for 10 years but he’s just about reached his breaking point. So the U.K. bedroom rhymesmith made a rap video open letter to Microsoft about how much their product sucks a giant brick. In the vocal style of The Streets, Dan takes aim at the emails that don’t arrive, their weak spam filters, and MSN’s wack way of adding extra steps when you try to make links. [More]
