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.
sneaky
How The "Velveteen Rabbit" Company Is Bypassing The Do Not Call List
By 2.20.09
We were wondering how Feature Films For Families, the company that’s randomly calling home lines and cellphones to sell a movie to people who are on the Do Not Call list, was able to get around federal and state telemarketing rules. It turns out they’re hiding behind a non-profit, and non-profits are exempt from following the Do Not Call list. Something similar happened in 2006 between Feature Films For Families and a different non-profit named the Dove Foundation, and the state of Missouri fined them $70,000. It might be time for you to start filing complaints with your state Attorney General and the FTC.
This Taco Bell Lies About Water In Order To Sell The Bottled Kind
By 1.29.09
Seriously, has it come to this? Now we have to resort to fountain drink station sleuthing to figure out whether our local fast food restaurant is lying to us? Nathan used his knowledge of drink machine buttonry to figure out that the machine does indeed offer up plain municipal water. The “water” button has been colored black with a marker, however, to help it blend in with the machine.
Computer Store Ad Uses Picture Of New MacBook Pro To Sell Old Ones
By 1.12.09
Andrew sent us this picture of a CampusTechShop ad that he says is all over his college campus. The ad trumpets reduced prices on the previous edition of MacBook Pro, then illustrates it with a picture of the new MacBook Pro.
"Free" SlyDial Service Sneaks Ads Into Your Voicemail Inbox
By 1.7.09
SlyDial lets you jump straight to voicemail to leave a message. You can pay a fee for the service, or agree to listen to an ad first before leaving a message. Glenn gave the service a trial run and it seemed to work as promised—he listened to an ad and then left a message. Today, however, the company “slydialed” him and left a second ad in his voicemail box. That’s certainly sly, but sounds to us like an abuse of the service as they’ve described it. You might want to avoid using them until we find out more about why they’re spamming previous customers, or check back on Glenn’s blog to see what develops.
Best Buy Signs Man Up For Magazines Against His Will
By 12.24.08
Buying something from Best Buy? Check your receipt, you may have been signed up for a magazine subscription and you didn’t even know it.
Don't Even Look At Your Hotel Room's Minibar Or You Might Get Charged
By 10.7.08
My wife and I are there right now. We opened the minibar last night to put a piece of pizza in there in a pizza box. This morning, there’s a $26.04 charge for food on the bill slid under our door. Why? My wife just called to ask and was told, “If you open the mini bar door, there’s a sensor in there and if you move anything in there… you get billed for it.” In our case, we must have jiggled a $20 bottle of wine.
Chase Shrinks Credit Due Dates Without Warning, Profiting Off Fees
By 6.23.08
Got a Chase credit card? Check your bill to see if the due date shrunk. For the past ten months, the due date on reader NDphoxylady’s four Chase credit card due date was the fifteenth. Then, without warning or notice, it became the tenth. NDphoxylady only noticed when she was charged a $39 late fee and a $20 finance charge. When she complained to Chase, they told her that simply changing the due date on the bill was adequate notice. Nu-uh
Discover's Speed-Reading Sales Technique Means You Can Get To "No" Faster
By 6.5.08
A zealous Discover rep tried to get Richard to sign up for a “protection program” by speeding through the details of the agreement as fast as possible—you know, the fine print part that makes it clear you’re agreeing to a paid service. When Richard made it clear that he wanted to hear the details again and that no, he hadn’t agreed to anything, the rep hung up on him. Discover, maybe you want to have a talk with your reps about their sales techniques.
Banana Republic Sends You A Mysterious Visa Credit Card After You Opted Out
By 5.16.08
Reader Tim says that Banana Republic sent him a Visa after he opted out of the program and that the card’s mailer was misleading (it looked like a replacement for his regular Banana Republic card, not a new “optional” Visa account) and didn’t disclose important details… like the card’s interest rate.
New Dairy Law In Ohio Designed To Strangle "rBGH-free" Labeling
By 4.22.08
Monsanto failed to get the FDA to ban “rBGH-free” labeling nationally, and it’s had mixed success at the state level. Now the company and its gang of ethics-free dairy farmers (those are the ones who use rBGH to increase profits, but want that truth kept out of the marketplace because it’s unpopular with consumers) have scored a significant win in Ohio this week. Yesterday the state passed a law that forces extra, rBGH-friendly fine print on every milk label that promotes itself as “rBGH-free.” The goal of the ruling: to require expensive label redesigns on competitors, and to crowd the label with unnecessary fine print in order to dilute the marketing power of the “rBGH-free” label.
Update: Westin Casuarina Refunds Extra Charges, Apologizes To Customers
By 4.11.08
Last week’s news that the Westin Casuarina hotel in Las Vegas was surreptitiously charging conference attendees for the organizer’s unpaid bill generated enough bad press that the Westin did an about-face this week, and sent out letters on Tuesday telling affected customers it is reversing the extra charges. A Westin spokesman said, “We’ve decided as a matter of customer relations to issue the refunds while continuing to pursue payment from The Coaching Center” in Austin, Texas. The Westin also says the refunds are an “effort to show our good faith,” which we assume means “please don’t sue us.”
Vegas Hotel Charges Attendees For Unpaid Convention Fees
By 4.3.08
The Westin Casuarina Hotel & Spa in Las Vegas has begun charging an unpaid $50,000 convention fee to the attendees who already paid before they attended back in October. The company that set up the event, Austin-based The Coaching Center, hasn’t paid its bill yet, and “president Suzanne Black said she was trying to arrange a payment plan when she was told by Westin management that the hotel would recoup the bill from attendees.” Now people are finding charges anywhere from $600 to $1200 on their credit card bills. Even the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has said this isn’t standard practice, but Westin says it’s got fine print that proves it can hold you liable for any charges left unpaid on your visit.
Sam's Club Charges More For Bulk Check Purchases
By 2.16.08
An alert reader noticed that something looked fishy on the Sam’s Club order screen when he was ordering new checks—if you decide to order double the number of checks, your price-per-box magically goes up the tiniest bit. We figure the amount is so small that most people don’t even notice it, or they notice it but figure they’ll still save time and shipping so it’s worth the 3-5 cents extra. Still, it’s a sneaky thing for a bulk discount store to do.
Smart Glass Of Denver Uses Sneaky Post-It Advertising
By 1.25.08
When Kristi went to her car the other day, she saw this mysterious note stuck to her mirror. “PLEASE CALL ME ABOUT YOUR CAR!” Immediately, she thought someone had run into her car—she walked all around it looking for damage, but couldn’t find anything.
