If a store sells you something, and then fails to deliver the product, you should be entitled to a full refund, right? Not so at Furniture Bargains of Calumet City, IL. There, even when they don’t give you the furniture you ordered at all, they’ll take 20% off your refund, at “the manager’s discretion.” Which I guess is just a fancy way of saying, “we feel like robbing you today and the manager said it’s ok.” AJ’s story, inside…
ripoffs
The 43.5% APR Credit Card
By 7.16.08
Perhaps this British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card’s interest rate is in “metric” APR, but if not, no matter what side of the pond you’re on on, or road you drive on, you must agree that a 43.5% variable interest rate is bollocks. Who cares how many bonus miles you get, they’re just going to get devalued anyway.
Travel Agency Charges For Airline Tickets, Cancel Tickets, Can't Be Reached For Refund
By 7.14.08
Dhanushka is having some trouble getting money back from his travel agent. He writes,
NCIC Airport Payphones Are A Ripoff
By 6.30.08
Reader Victor wrote to alert us to NCIC payphones which are charging outrageous rates and fees in various airports across the country. At first, Victor used some spare change in an NCIC payphone and received a reasonable long distance rate of about $1 for 4 minutes. But Victor ran out of change and used his credit card to make 3 more quick calls. When Victor received his bill he discovered that he’d been charged $11 per call. He directed us over to ripoffreports.com and as far as we can tell, he got off easy. We read numerous reports of customers being charged exorbitant rates for local and long distance calls. The amounts that their customers are being charged vary so wildly that we’re not even sure what NCIC’s rates are supposed to be. Victor’s letter, inside…
United To Require Minimum Stays Starting In October
By 6.21.08
Sorry travelers, as expected, United Airlines will require minimum stays on all flights starting in October. Gone are the halcyon days of jetting away for a business meeting after breakfast with time to spare before returning for dinner. Most United fares will now require a three-night or weekend stay, but it “will depend on the destinations involved, the price of the ticket and the length of the flight.” And, yes, you will still be charged $15 to check your first bag.
Walgreens Pill-Flipping Scheme Costs Taxpayers Millions
By 6.16.08
Thanks to an anonymous whistle-blower, a Walgreens pill-flipping scheme has been blown wide open, according to CBS. “Pill-flipping” refers the practice of pharmacies that purposefully switch Medicaid patients to more expensive versions of certain drugs for the sole reason of collecting more money from the government. Naturally, when this happens, taxpayers pick up the bill. Athough, Walgreen’s officially denies any wrongdoing they have agreed to pay the government more than $35 million. Details, inside…
Airlines Revive Hated Minimum Stay Fares
By 6.2.08
Thanks to airlines bringing back a much-maligned ticket tariff, the minimum stay, business travelers can find that if you return on a Saturday, your ticket could be as much as three times as much as if you returned on Sunday. For instance, “A woman has a morning meeting in Norfolk, Va., on Thursday. On Continental, the round-trip fare from Newark is about $875. But if she stays through Saturday night, the fare is about $250,” NYT reports. Their excuse? Soaring oil prices. Luckily, there is a way around it: buy two back-to-back roundtrip tickets, one going to your destination on your preferred departure date, one coming back on your preferred return date. Toss two legs of the trip and it can end up being cheaper than the one original ticket.
UPDATE: Best Buy EECB Scores A Direct Hit
By 5.23.08
If you read yesterday’s article Best Buy’s “Same As Cash” Credit Card Conceals Major Hidden Fees, you should remember Jason who got socked with some serious fees on his Best Buy/HSBC credit card. Jason wrote back to us to say that within a mere 3 hours after the deployment of his EECB, Best Buy reversed all of his fees. Jason’s and Best Buy’s letter, inside…
Circuit City Denies Its In-Home TV Calibration Is A Total Scam
By 4.30.08
Speaking on behalf of Circuit City in regards to…
Insiders: Circuit City's In-Home TV Calibration Is A Total Scam
By 4.29.08
According to a Circuit City employee, their…
Kraft Stole Idea For "Bagelfuls" From "Bagelers"
By 4.8.08
As several readers have pointed out, Kraft’s new “Bagelfuls” (aka Bagel Twinkies) are not without precedent: A small New York company has been making the same thing, called “Bagelers,” since at least 2003. As depicted in the picture at left, (the company tried to make a splash at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards, scoring pictures and other stars on the red carpet holding boxes of Bagelers. Why it takes $100 million to steal someone’s idea is an answer best left to the masters of corporate America.
Wanna See The Red Sox Play The Reds? You Must Also Buy Tickets To Three Other Games
By 3.14.08
A Bostonian now living in Cincinnati, reader Patrick was excited to see that this year’s Major League Baseball schedule includes a Red Sox at Reds series. He went to the Reds’ ticket website to buy tickets for his family, friends, and himself. That’s where things got ridiculous.
Do Coat Hangers Sound As Good Monster Cables?
By 3.3.08 — Updated: 3.4.13
Can you tell the difference between music that passed through a pricey Monster stereo Cable, and a coat hanger? A reader forwarded us a post from the Audioholics Home Theater Forum and its author says no. He says his brother ran an experiment on him and four other audio aficionados listening to a new CD from a new group blindfolded. Seven different songs were played, each time heard with the speaker hooked up to Monster Cables, and the other time, hooked up to coat hanger wire. Nobody could determine which was the Monster Cable and which was the coat hanger. The kicker? None of the subjects even knew that coat hangers were going to be used. This is, of course, “nothing new,” a Google of “monster cables vs coat hangers” shows that some users have been saying this for a while. Still, this is an experiment begging to be recreated under controlled conditions (say, for instance, a double-blind test). Science fair project! Read how it went down, inside…
Walmart's Debit Card Has Lots Of Hidden Fees
By 1.17.08
Great idea, tap into the “unbanked,” and then rip them off. Here’s an even better idea for potential Walmart Debit Card users: cash! No fees!
What You Need To Know Before Buying A Timeshare
By 10.30.07
Alex Moskalyuk has a great post with all you need to know about timeshares. Timeshares are condos divied up among a pool of owners, each of which owns a slice of it for usually one week of the year. Alex is mainly of the hey, a discount weekend in Vegas ain’t bad for the price of listening to a salesman. He goes over how your basic timeshare presentation breaks down, and how there’s different kinds of timeshares. For instance, in some situations you actually save up and use “points” and the “point cost” of a timeshare varies based on “peak” or “non peak” times of the year. He sees just about only one time when they’re a good deal:
Sprint Charges Developmentally Disabled Girl $10,000 For Text Messages
By 10.30.07
Red Tape Chronicles has followed up on the Developmentally disabled 18-year old Amanda Clark who ran up $10,000 in premium text messages whom we told you about last week. The text messages were part of teenage text chat services advertised in the back of her teen mags. “Hook a hottie,” they said. Sprint agreed to cut the bill in half but won’t budge further. The UK-based text message company says that since she texted “Y” in response to the message, ‘Y’ to: ‘74447’ to start. 14+ textconnectusa.com Help?1-866-662-7132. Send STOP to end.100c per msg rcvd + std msg fees,” the girl should have been completely informed as to the service’s cost and the family is plumb out of luck. In all, 642 messages were received.
1/3 Of South Florida Gas Pumps Failed State Accuracy Tests
By 10.21.07
More than a third South Florida’s gas station pumps have failed the state’s accuracy test in the past three years. An analysis of state inspections reveals that slightly more than half of the broken pumps err in favor of the consumer. The state inspects all pumps every 12-18 months.
The Sun-Sentinel analyzed state inspection reports from 2004 to 2006. The analysis found 580 of more than 2,500 stations in South Florida had at least one pump dispensing more gas than customers paid to purchase, while 477 provided less fuel than they should.
How Much Would You Pay For This?
By 5.17.07
Thank you, Patrick and Stev. You are true Consumerists. —MEGHANN MARCO
