Thanks to their site being down for maintenance, you can get 30% off at Borders.com until midnight PST tonight, 7/12/10. [More]
readers
Macmillan Publishing Writes Happy Ending For Damaged Thrift Shop Book
By 7.10.10
An anonymous reader picked up a copy of Ben Bova’s Mars Life from the Salvation Army without realizing that it was missing thirty-two pages. Books don’t come with warranties, but our reader wanted to know how the story ended. Would the New Morality conservatives stop people from examining that eerie Martian fossil? Would the U.S. government ever solve the pressing environmental crisis? How would our reader know without the missing pages?! Macmillan publishing had the answer. [More]
Chase Freezes Long-Time Customer's Accounts With $9.9 Million Overdraft Fee
By 7.10.10
Chase froze Micah’s checking accounts with a $9.9 million overdraft fee after he took the ultra-suspicious step of opening a joint checking account with his girlfriend. Rather than merely freeze the joint checking account, Chase decided to freeze all of Micah’s assets until they could verify that their customer of thirteen years was really whom he said he was. Not even a letter from the Social Security Administration, handed to the local Chase branch and sent to Chase’s fraud unit could stop Micah’s debit card from being canceled. Now Micah has no access to his cash, a $9.9 million charge to his name, and still no joint checking account with his girlfriend. [More]
iPhone 4 Catches Fire, Burns Hand
By 7.9.10
An AT&T insider sent Boy Genius Report these pictures of an iPhone 4 that burst into flames after a customer tried to hook it up to his computer. [More]
Meet The KFC Double Down Krispy Kreme Cheerwine Doughnut Sandwich
By 7.9.10
Consumerist commenter tgrwillki has created an unholy gastronomical monstrosity, a KFC Double Down sandwiched between two Krispy Kreme Cheerwine Doughnuts. It’s like a delicious meme sandwich in my mouth! Because it is one. [More]
"New" Sprint Phone Pre-Loaded With Porn
By 7.8.10
A Detroit woman is saying “What?!” after buying a supposedly new Sprint phone that had an unwanted free feature: it already had several X-rated porno videos on it. [More]
Passport Fees Rising On July 13
By 7.7.10
If you have apply or renew passport on your to-do list, better put it on your “done” list this week if you want to save money. Starting July 13, new higher passport fees go into effect. [More]
American Airlines Loses Netanyahu Bodyguard's Guns
By 7.7.10
World leaders are people just like the rest of us. They have dreams and flaws, put their pants on one leg at a time, and they’re not even immune to having their luggage lost or stolen while traveling by air. Not even when that luggage is the four Glock 9mms belonging to their personal bodyguard. UPDATE: The luggage has been found, but the guns are gone. [More]
Google Store View Cameraman Spotted In The Wild
By 7.6.10
Reader Yankees368 was dining at Breeze NY when a Google employee tromped in and started taking pictures of the restaurant’s interior, including the food he was about to eat, for the Google Store View project. [More]
7 Things Ex-Geek Squad Employee Wishes Every Computer Novice Knew
By 7.2.10
Not all Geek Squad technicians are ex-Domino’s delivery guys trying to siphon porn from your computer, some of them actually have a heart. This guy gal does, and it keeps breaking over and over again as he she sees clueless consumers queuing up to pay for service for mundane computer issues they could have prevented with just a teensy bit of know-how. Perhaps that is why she no longer works there. In any event, he she sent us a list of 7 different money-saving tips he she wished every computer owner knew. Most Consumerist readers probably know them, and most Best Buy customers don’t, so send this on to your Aunt Gretchen and lose Geek Squad some business: [More]
Costner's Waterworldian Devices To Clean Up BP Oil Spill
By 7.1.10
From the fell through the cracks file, Kevin Costner is going to save us all from the BP oil spill, using technology inspired by the urine-drinking opening sequence to Waterworld. Except this time the noxious substance extracted from the water will be oil and no one will drink it. [More]
HOA Board Member Says They're Not All Money Grubbing Scumbags
By 7.1.10
Yesterday we wrote about how in Texas, there’s been a bit of a spree of homeowner’s associations (HOAs) foreclosing on people’s houses over just a few hundred in late dues, then selling the house to themselves and turning it around for a juicy profit. And now, the other side of the story. Robert is an HOA board member in Texas and while his association does sometimes foreclose in order to collect, there’s more to the situation than meets the eye. Here’s his take: [More]
Amazon Buys Woot
By 6.30.10
Woot, frequent denizen of Consumerist’s Morning Deals, just got bought by Amazon, frequent purveyor of nearly everything imaginable. [More]
HOAs Foreclose On Homes Over $500 In Late Dues Then Flip For Personal Profit
By 6.30.10
In Texas, Homeowner’s Associations (HOAs) are on a foreclosing spree, selling members’ homes on the courthouse steps for just a few thousand dollars simply because they are a few hundred dollars behind on their homeowner’s dues. Sometimes they’re even selling it to HOA board members, who turn around and sell the house for half of what it’s worth, netting a tidy profit. [More]
Kid Finds Box Cutter In Peanut Bag
By 6.30.10
Anyone working in the Barcelona Nut Co. peanut factory lose a box cutter? A North Carolina teen has found it, blade extended, in his bag of nuts. [More]
Verizon Retreats From Charging Marine Widow $350 Early Termination Fee
By 6.30.10
After achieving “clarity,” Verizon has decided to not charge the widow of a Marine who died in Afghanistan a $350 early termination fee. The woman had moved back home following her husband’s death so as to be closer to family, and in the new area she had no cellphone reception. In announcing the situation’s resolution, Verizon Wireless also took the opportunity to take a jab at the media for sensationalizing their incompetence. [More]
Reader Nearly Gets Jacked By Fake ATM
By 6.29.10
Reader Paul was trying to enjoy fried pop tarts at an outdoor city festival in his hometown when his debit card was nearly stolen by a fake ATM. Someone had modified an arcade cabinet and placed it outside a bank where it had captured the overflow traffic spilling out of the bank lobby. [More]
T-Mobile Fixes Broken Arbitration Opt-Out Site Our Reader Spotted
By 6.29.10
A little over two weeks ago, tipped by reader Chan, we told you about how buried in T-Mobile’s online terms and conditions is a way to opt-out of their mandatory binding arbitration clause, but unfortunately the website where you were supposed to do it was down. We gave their PR guy a heads up and now the site, www.t-mobiledisputeresolution.com, is online. [More]
