We get that people want to buy objects that either represent or remind them of their faith. We don’t get Stonemarkers, though.
ripoffs
Massachusetts CVS Stores Regularly Overcharge Customers
By 5.7.09
The number of overcharging violations – defined as charging more at the register than the price in an advertisement, on a shelf sign, or on the item itself – soared to 711, from 425.
"Box Of Rocks" Scam Caught On Walmart Security Camera
By 4.30.09
Here’s another “I bought a box of rocks!” story, only this time there’s proof that the victim wasn’t pulling a dirty trick on Walmart. Instead, it was someone before her who bought and then returned a Nintendo DS, only they swapped out the unit with rocks before making the return.
New Baseball Season, Same Bad Service From MLB.TV
By 4.8.09
For fans who don’t live in the same area as their favorite team, the glorious beginning of a new baseball season is tarnished by the flawed methods for keeping up with games. And once again MLB.TV, the official package from Major League Baseball, is making its case for the worst option.
IGN Says Capcom's "New Content" For Resident Evil 5 Is Already On The Disc
By 4.8.09
Update: Several commenters have pointed out that the size of the download seems to indicate that your $5 gets you new code, not just an unlock key. The original post is below.
How To Shut Webloyalty Down For Good
By 4.7.09
A retail insider tells us why Webloyalty/Reservation Rewards stays in business, and how you can stop them by cutting off their juice at the source:
Allerca, Where's My $4,000 Hypoallergenic Cat?
By 4.4.09
Would you pay $4,000 for a hypoallergenic cat? One reader did and he’s still waiting for his cat, or a refund, from the Allerca corporation. Allerca founder Simon Brodie garnered lots of press a few years ago after he claimed to be able to sell genetically engineered cats that wouldn’t trigger any allergies, a designer pussy called “Ashera.” Our reader isn’t alone, you can find a slew of complaints online from people who say they’ve that they’ve forked over thousands of dollars to Allerca, and never gotten a hypoallergenic cat, or a refund.
Webloyalty Reservation Rewards Under Investigation
By 4.1.09
The Connecticut Attorney General’s office is investigating the infamous Webloyalty “Reservation Rewards” program, reports WalletPop. Consumers have been complaining about unexpected charges on their credit card from this company for years…
EECB Against EZ Lube Gets $50 Returned To Hoodwinked Customer
By 3.30.09
An EZ Lube store in California overcharged Timothy for a new cabin filter when he went to get his oil changed. The mechanic managed to do this by quizzing Timothy on his knowledge of air filters, then using that info to make vague assurances that sounded good but didn’t convey the actual, final price. Timothy admits that he let his guard down, but when he was hit with the final bill, he regained his consumerist footing and began to take steps to remedy the situation—and he succeeded.
Google Checkout Just As Bad As PayPal
By 3.27.09
Web brokers Google and PayPal don’t believe in human-to-human communication, and one place where you really need that is when you’re troubleshooting financial transactions. An interface designer/developer who used Google Checkout to sell an ebook has just been given a huge serving of suck by the “don’t be evil” company—they closed her account on her without warning and refuse to tell her why the closed it. The $200 in earnings that hadn’t been paid out yet are unretrievable, and she can’t open a new one.
Bank Of America Charges You To Cash Its Own Checks If You're Not A Customer
By 3.27.09
Bank of America doesn’t think cashing checks drawn on its own accounts is a service that should be free to no-name people who come in off the streets—they want $6 for that privilege, one reader recently discovered.
Verizon Charges You For NOT Making Long-Distance Calls
By 3.18.09
Call it a “you’re not making us enough money” fee. If you don’t make at least 12.5 minutes of long-distance calls, Verizon is assessing some home phone customers a $3.49/month “shortfall charge.” If you want to get rid of the fee, you can, but you’ll have to pay a one-time $5.50 fee. Verizon told KING5, “that even if a person doesn’t make long-distance calls, they still have access to the phone network. The “shortfall charge” helps pay for maintenance of the network.” What a crock.
Vonage Silently Adds "Optional" Feature, Refuses To Refund Your Money
By 2.25.09
We’re having a hard time figuring out how Vonage can justify pulling their “Visual Voicemail” scam on customers without even offering the option of a refund, but that’s exactly what they’re doing to Daniel. They quietly turned on the feature over a year ago. You’d think in a year of logging onto the website, an observant customer would catch that sort of thing—only Vonage makes it actually look like it’s not enabled on your control panel, all the better to sneak it past you. Here’s how they pulled it off with Daniel’s account.
Obama Collector's Coins Turn Out To Be Stickers Stuck On Regular Coins
By 2.14.09
You may have seen the commercial where Montel Williams hawks some goofy collectible coins with President Obama’s face IN FULL COLOR OMG. If you were planning on ordering some, though, watch this video from KATU 2 TV in Portland, Oregon first.* A father and daughter bought the coins and discovered that they’re just regular money with color stickers applied. One of the news anchors even comments that she could see the face on the coin through the sticker when she looked at it from the side.
Student Loan Refund Debit Cards Laden With Hidden Fees
By 2.6.09
A City College of Chicago program that gives student-loan refunds the form of pre-paid debt cards is drawing heat due to its bevy of hidden fees.
Buy A Gift Certificate From Restaurant.com, Sign Up For A Recurring $14.95 Monthly 'Service"
By 1.28.09
Note: this post is about restaurant.com, not restaurants.com. The two websites are not related. Tracey emailed us today to let us know that she just found a mysterious $14.95 fee on her credit card. It turns out a company called Shopping Essentials is now billing her as a monthly subscriber, and all because she bought some gift certificates via restaurant.com in December. To make matters even more shady, Shopping Essentials never contacted Tracey to let her know she signed up for anything, or to send her information about their services, or to call attention in any way to the fact that she now pays them a monthly fee.
Gamestop Selling 'Not For Resale' Game Bundle, Overpriced Of Course
By 1.13.09
This Gamestop somehow ended up with extra bundles of the games that were supposed to be included in holiday Xbox 360 sets (the ones that shipped with Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda). So what do they do? Why, slap a $100 price tag on them and put them on the shelves, despite their “not for resale” labeling. You can buy both games brand new for less than $80 total, by the way.
