When authorities in the San Francisco area enacted congestion-based pricing on the Bay Bridge, charging higher rates before 10 a.m., they didn’t imagine that so many people would risk up to $200 in fines just to save two dollars at the toll plaza. [More]
san francisco
San Francisco Restaurant Ordered To Fork Over $525,000 In Back Pay To Employees
By 2.13.13
Employees at a restaurant in San Francisco were working up to 14 hours a day, six days a week for only $4/hour. But now, in the largest settlement of its kind in the city, the restaurant owners will pay out $525,000 in back wages and penalties. [More]
More Than 50 San Francisco Restaurants Accused Of Scamming Customers & Employees By Pocketing Health Care Surcharge
By 1.25.13
For more than four years, dozens of restaurants in San Francisco have been tacking on surcharges to diners’ bills, claiming that the money was to go toward health care costs. But it turns out that millions of those dollars were just going into restaurant owners’ pockets. [More]
CBS Station Sends Intern To Try Out $350 Face-Slapping Massage
By 10.25.12
So you’re a reporter for the CBS station in San Francisco and you get assigned to do a story about some local massage parlor that charges $350/session to slap customers’ faces into shape. Meanwhile, there’s an intern who is probably dying for some on-camera time. It’s like peanut butter meeting chocolate… and then getting slapped. [More]
TSA Flags Man With World’s Largest Penis For Additional Crotch Screening
By 7.17.12
Jonah Falcon of New York City is an actor and hosts a public-access show about the Yankees, but he isn’t famous for that. He’s famous for a quirk of nature: he has the largest recorded penis in the world. He’s appeared on lots of talk shows and even in a documentary, but evidently his fame hasn’t reached the TSA workers at San Francisco International Airport. There, the large bulge in his pants caught the notice of a guard, who presumed it was some kind of weapon. He was subjected to a (brisk and professional) extra patdown and tested for explosive residue. [More]
SF Muni Workers Don’t Know Their Own Rules, Fine Man $100 For Being $.05 Short
By 7.11.12
While many public transit systems have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to having the required fare, San Francisco commuters who use the Clipper Card system to pay for their Muni bus and rail rides can actually complete their trip; the uncollected fare will just be subtracted the next time the user adds money to their card. Unfortunately for one man, no one at Muni seems to know this, and he’s now out $125. [More]
Tecate Decides That Pro-Public Urination Billboard Was Maybe Not A Good Idea
By 6.29.12
UPDATE: Looks like the San Francisco billboard was not an isolated incident. Consumerist reader Matt spotted one on the corner of Indiana and Union Pacific Ave. in East L.A. and sent us the photo at the bottom of the post.
— [More]
San Francisco Airport Opens Free Yoga Room For Tense Travelers
By 1.25.12
For many travelers, the idea of just going to the airport — and finding a place to park, checking your bags, picking up your ticket, waiting at security, hoping you don’t get the extra-special touchy-feely pat-down, putting all your stuff back together after going through the checkpoint, finding your gate, paying $5 for a bottle of water — is a bit of a stressful situation. So the folks at San Francisco International are opening a yoga room for you to work out all that tension while waiting for your connecting flight. [More]
Anti-SOPA Protests Planned Around The Country Today
By 1.18.12
Even though the House Judiciary Committee has moved its planned hearing on the Stop Internet Piracy Act from today until February — perhaps hoping that we’ll all be too hungover from Super Bowl beer and wings to care — that’s not going to stop people who are peeved about SOPA and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act, from taking to the streets to have their say. [More]
San Francisco Begins Roll-Out Of Pay-By-Phone Parking Meters
By 12.15.11
Because apparently paying by cash or credit card is too old-school for some folks, the city of San Francisco has begun rolling out parking meters that allow smartphone users to feed the meter with a wave of their handheld mobile communications device. [More]
San Francisco Becomes First U.S. City To Cross $10 Minimum Wage Line
By 12.12.11
When the calendar flips over to 2012, minimum wage workers in San Francisco will be making a bit more, as the city becomes the first local in the U.S. with a bottom-line pay rate of more than $10/hour. [More]
San Francisco Scammer Posing As Bank Manager To Fleece Old Women
By 12.8.11
Police in San Francisco say a seedy character has scammed elderly women, ranging from 83 to 92 years old, out of thousands of dollars by pretending to be a bank manager. [More]
San Francisco Burger Kings Also Charging $.10 To Get Around Kids' Meal Toy Ban
By 12.1.11
Today, San Francisco’s dreaded ban on including free toys in fast food kids’ meals kicks in. McDonald’s has already announced that it will get around the regulation by charging an additional $.10 for the definitely-not-covered-in-lead-paint-and-cadmium toys. And because everyone loves a loophole, the royal court of the Burger King has ruled that it will also follow suit. [More]
McDonald's Gets Around San Francisco Happy Meal Ban By Charging You For The Toy
By 11.30.11
After a seemingly endless amount of debating, various votes, a mayoral veto and whatnot, the San Francisco that puts an end to the practice of including toys and other giveaway gimmicks in Happy Meals (and many other fast food kids’ meals with similar freebies) kicks in later this week. But the folks at McDonald’s have devised a clever plan to get those Shrek movie promo toys in your little ones’ hands — by simply charging for them. [More]
Allstate Denied Man's Insurance Claim Because He Went To The Hospital 5 Hours Too Early
By 11.10.11
Usually you’re rewarded for showing up early. How could showing up 5 hours early cost you $10,000? [More]
Hundreds Of People's Tax Returns Found Dumped In Front Of Jackson Hewitt Office Because They Were "So Heavy"
By 11.4.11
A soggy pile of hundreds of old tax returns was found in front of an abandoned Jackson Hewitt tax prep office in San Francisco in late October. The papers had social security numbers, names, addresses, and phone numbers, a potential goldmine for any identity thief who got their hands on them. [More]
Are San Francisco Restaurants Actually Pushing To Make 25% The Standard Tip?
By 10.14.11
Earlier this week, a writer for the San Jose Mercury News posted a story claiming that wait staff and high-end restaurants in San Francisco are behind a move to make 25% tips standard across the city. But is this actually true or just hype? [More]
SF Giants, MLB Sued Over "San Francisco" Logo
By 10.12.11
If you’ve ever visited San Francisco, you’ve likely seen — and perhaps purchased — a coat or sweatshirt emblazoned with the city name in a distinctive script font, much like the “San Francisco” on jackets and other gear worn by the San Francisco Giants baseball team. Well, now the team, along with Major League Baseball, finds itself in a legal battle with the apparel company that says it owns the trademark. [More]
