Last month, Daniel wrote in to complain that the Art Institute Online, which is part of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, had completely jacked up his final semester with them. When he wrote to us, he had no diploma, and he was being charged nearly $3,000 for undisclosed course requirements that the school had promised to comp. Fortunately, he’s written back with some good news. [More]
results
First Results Of Gov Study Of Chinese Drywall Inconclusive, But More Tests To Come
By 10.30.09
Yesterday the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced some findings from its study of the problematic Chinese drywall, which 1,900 Florida homeowners have complained stinks and makes people sick. The commission told the Associated Press that “no connections have been made yet,” but that they’re doing more tests—which means there’s still no definitive answer on who should be held financially responsible if the homes have to be gutted and repaired, which the Wall Street Journal says could cost as much as $25 billion dollars.
Poll Results: Our Significant Others Aren't Very Thrifty
By 9.10.09
Two weeks ago we mentioned that Cognitive Daily was running an informal poll about thriftiness. Here at Consumerist, we like to take polls. We bumped up their response rate to over 5,000, far higher than what they usually get, and now they’ve posted the results. Apparently we all think we’re thriftier than everyone around us, especially our significant others, and the world wants to shop at the GAP. We bet the GAP is happy to hear that—too bad (for them) the poll was informal.
Facebook Voting Has Ended; New Terms Being Considered Despite Small Turnout
By 4.24.09
When voting ended yesterday on the Facebook terms of service, around 600,000 people had voted, and about 70% of those votes were cast for the new documents drafted over the past couple of months. Although the voting total was nowhere near the 30% of active Facebook users that Facebook said would be required, the site is still considering validating the vote and implementing the new terms after the audit is complete.
Brian Manages To Replace His Rusty Craftsman Sockets At Sears
By 3.16.09
When we broke off from our Sears Craftsman warranty saga last Friday, Brian had been told there were no replacements on tools that have rust on them, which wasn’t what Sears told us the last time we had warranty questions. Over the weekend, Brian found more evidence that Sears can’t get its warranty language straight. But there’s some good news, too: he dressed up a little, cleaned off the sockets, and went back to Sears. This time he got a different associate who seemed to have no problem swapping out the tools, and who never mentioned the supposed “three per day” rule.
Missing iPhone Mystery Solved By Consumerist Readers In 55 Minutes
By 2.13.09
Wow, that was impressive! In less than one hour after we posted about Dino’s dad’s lost iPhone, Consumerist readers were able to locate his Facebook and Hi5 accounts, track down his name and home address, and even get him to respond via email—something Dino and his dad weren’t able to do yesterday. Dino just wrote us and said “Michael Smith/Emerson” contacted him and promised to return the phone tomorrow.
Update: the phone has been returned!
Complain About Tropicana's Shrinking Containers, Earn A Free Carton Of Juice
By 5.17.08
Joel loves his orange juice and is none too pleased with Tropicana’s recent decision to shrink their containers by 7 oz. He fired off a complaint through Tropicana’s website, and was pleasantly surprised when the company responded with a coupon for a free carton of shrunken sweetness.
Polite Letter Gets Bank Of America To Refund Overdraft Fees
By 5.15.08
Jenn’s checking account with Bank of America recently had a policy change designed to increase overdraft fees, and it worked: sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning she was hit with 6 NSF charges going back the previous 48 hours, because she was about 15 minutes late transferring funds into her account the day before. Technically she had broken the new policy, but Jenn hadn’t realized or remembered that there was a policy change and she was taken by surprise. She decided to try to reason with BoA’s corporate office about the fees, and explain why she thought they were unfair.
POLL RESULTS: Verizon FiOS Is Better Than Comcast!
By 12.6.07
We asked the readers to solve one of the great mysteries of life: Which is better Verizon FiOS or Comcast?
Most Of Our Readers Self-Identify More As Citizens Than Consumers
By 9.7.07
Happily, most of our poll’s respondents say they are citizens before they are consumers. Perhaps there is hope yet.
RESULTS: Blame Game Poll
By 5.8.06
Here’s the numbers from last week’s poll. Very interesting that customer ignorance rated so high.
Worst Company in America: Tier 1 Results
By 3.6.06
Ladies and Gentlemen, your Tier 1 champions! Some no-brainers, squeakers and absolute pummeling.
