Who pays for a six-piece McNugget with a $20 $50 bill? Counterfeiters, that’s who, and the McDonald’s near Madison Square Garden is ready for them. Sorry guys, you’re going to have to ask Wendy’s to anonymously break your shadily large bills.
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Breaking $20 $50 At McDonald's? Get Ready To Show Some ID
By 5.9.09
Time Warner Gives You $1,271, Won't Take It Back
By 5.9.09
Melissa isn’t sure why she has a $1,271.25 credit from Time Warner Cable, but there it sits in her account, baiting her to order a slew of pricey extras. Melissa asked Time Warner to reverse the credit, figuring the random payout had to be a mistake. “We can’t fix it,” they told her. “It’s an error on our part. Enjoy!”
Snake Head On T.G.I. Friday's Plate Wasn't Cooked With Broccoli
By 5.8.09
Lab tests are back on the side dish serpent an upstate New York man found on his plate at T.G.I. Friday’s (a story we broke, with pictures). The snake wasn’t cooked with the broccoli. It wasn’t cooked at all.
How To Deliver AIG's Golden Poo Trophy?
By 5.8.09
Here are three beauty shots of the “Lucky Golden Poo” trophy we shall bestow upon AIG, glorious 2009 victors in our Worst Company In America contest. Ain’t she purty? The big question now is… how should we deliver it? Plop your suggestions in the comments.
Consumerist Starts Taking It Seriously?
By 5.8.09
Why so serious? Can all these companies really be taking all of these incidents as seriously as they say? Or is “taking it seriously” really just “disaster ketchup,” an all-purpose phrase you can toss on any situation and mask the underlying bad taste it leaves in your mouth? We have no idea, we just know that as long as companies keep messing up, “taking it seriously” will still be with us. However, we have our own policy about “taking it seriously” on Consumerist, which you’ll have to watch this video of me inside the Consumers Union anechoic testing chamber to find out. And if it’s a policy you agree with, shove some bucks in our tipjar at donatetoconsumerist.com.
KFC Free Grilled Chicken Promotion is Over, Restaurants Will Issue Rainchecks
By 5.8.09
In a move that surprises absolutely no one, KFC has ended its free chicken promotion. If you still have a coupon, visit a participating restaurant for a raincheck.(Side note: The president of KFC is Australian South African?!)
College Student Calls Amex Executive Customer Service, Gets His Limit Reinstated
By 5.7.09
Jon, like many American Express customers, had his credit limit slashed without warning recently. What he did next makes us feel all warm and fuzzy about our jobs here, because he found the necessary contact info buried in a post from 2007. Here’s his story, proof that sometimes persistence pays off.
The Economy Is So Bad Now That Investors See Newspapers As A Growth Industry
By 5.7.09
In the face of News Corp. announcing profits fell 70 percent for the quarter that ended March 31, chairman Rupert Murdoch is cautiously optimistically about his papers, even though his rags, which include the Wall Street Journal, New York Post and Aussie and British periodicals, have dipped 28 percent in revenue.
Worst Company In America: AIG WINS!
By 5.7.09
Congratulations to AIG for beating Comcast in this year’s final.
Congratulations! You Just Won A Scam!
By 5.7.09
Is there anything scammers won’t try in their attempts to disguise advance fee fraud? Nope. Chelsea and her husband just found out that OMG THEY JUST WON 350K!!!1! from the Gaming Association of America. They’ll be receiving their check shortly, but in the meantime the GAA has sent them a much smaller check for about $5,000 to cover any fees associated with the prize. All they need to do is contact the “non-government service tax agent (GST)” to take care of cashing and handing over that $5k, and they’ll be swimming with hookers in champagne-filled pools.
Create Your Own Opt-Out When A Company Ignores Your Requests
By 5.6.09
Mark started getting promotional emails from Hilton over a year ago, and he’s tried all sorts of opt-out strategies:
Worst Company In America CHAMPIONSHIP: AIG VS Comcast
By 5.6.09
This is it, folks. The Final Deathmatch is here. To reach the final round AIG defeated #32 Target, #17 Peanut Corporation of America, #9 Walmart, and #5 Ticketmaster. Comcast had an equally impressive showing, waltzing past formidable opponents such as #30 DirecTV, #14 Capital One, #11 GM, and finally, last year’s returning champion #2 Bank of America (Countrywide, Merrill Lynch) went down in an upset last night.
Former Domino's YouTube Gross Out Girl Can't Get A Job Now
By 5.6.09
Kristy Hammonds, the woman who filmed her friend Michael doing inappropriate things to the food they were supposed to be preparing, needs a job to feed her two kids. She says she’s been trying to get work at other fast food restaurants, though, which might be part of the problem.
Top 10 Reasons Your Chargeback Will Be Denied
By 5.6.09
A reader who works in the chargeback section of a major credit card company has just about had enough with people tossing around “chargeback! chargeback!” as the solution to every customer service problem. While it is a great tool, you gotta make sure you use it right. To help you do that, here’s our credit card company insider’s guide to the top 10 reasons why your chargeback will get rejected.
Worst Company In America: FINAL FOUR Comcast VS Bank Of America
By 5.5.09
A big cable company vs a big bank. A repeat of our final match-up of 2008. Last year Countrywide (now part of Bank of America) prevailed. Which one will you choose?
Don't Buy Your Magazines From Door-To-Door Salesmen This Summer
By 5.5.09
A couple of years ago, the New York Times did a piece on the poor treatment of teens hired to travel the country and sell magazine subscriptions door-to-door, but they’re not the only ones getting the raw end of the deal.
Meg & Ben Dance-Fight The Shaky Machine
By 5.5.09
Ain’t no party like a shaky-machine party! Meg and I were cruising through the halls of Consumers Union, sporting our awesome lab coats, and then we came across this thing. It’s a machine whose whole purpose is to shake. Oh, and tap. That’s not a bad way to go through life. We tried to communicate with it through the universal language of dance. Not sure if what we were saying came out right, we were trying to tell it it should visit donatetoconsumerist.com and toss a few bucks in our tipjar, but I think what came out is that we all agreed to go on a bicycle tour of Europe together this summer.
