Here’s our latest donation video installment in which I, sporting a lab-coat and situated inside CU’s anechoic testing chamber, ask the burning question: where are the dancing alien ads on Consumerist? The answer make shock and delight you, and prompt you to visit Donatetoconsumerist.com to stuff some bills in our tip jar of non-profitness. Remember folks, if you do a good job donating, we just might be able to get Consumer Reports to test the Snuggie. No joke.
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Take Your Tmobile Complaints To The Tippity-Top
By 4.21.09
Here’s a big sexy pile of escalated T-mobile contact info in case you have an intractable complaint that regular customer service can’t or won’t help out with. Besides the senior management and internal reporting division, It includes a way to figure out how to dial a whole mess of executive customer service reps, as well as which specific government bodies to file complaints with the situation warrant.
Video: IDT Energy Reps Won't Leave Until Customer Busts Out Camera, Calls Cops
By 4.21.09
Here’s a video a citizen took of some classy IDT energy resale reps that infested her building and refused to leave. After 25 minutes, she took out the camera. Check out the video to see the kinds of professionally trained individuals IDT Energy uses. Note how at one point of the girls says she’s “from he energy company.” Not so, IDT Energy is not “the energy company.” They’re an ESCO, an energy resale company. According to the notes on the video, the girls only left after the cops showed up and told them to vacate the premises.
Dell Breaks Customer's New Laptop Remotely, Won't Send Him Replacement
By 4.20.09
Anthony has been a long-time Dell customer and has shared his positive experiences with friends and family, but that’s come to an end thanks to Dell’s abysmal customer service. It’s been one month since he first received his new Studio 15 Laptop, which worked correctly for 4 days. Since then, he’s been on the phone with Dell for a total of 14 hours, he’s watched a Dell CSR remotely break his laptop by interrupting the BIOS flash, he’s been locked out of the data on his hard drive, and there’s still no replacement laptop on the way to him. When he copied us on this email, he added, “All I wanted was the computer that I paid for long ago.”
Worst Company In America: Bank of America VS Circuit City
By 4.20.09
A bittersweet goodbye to an incompetent electronics store? Or a kick in the butt to last years returning champion?
General Motors' Greatest Innovation? Not Cars, Credit
By 4.20.09
Sorry to disappoint all of you who think that the two-person Segway is the most innovative thing GM has produced in its long history — it seems that the company’s most important new idea was consumer credit. More specifically, convincing a nation of thrifty debt-averse tightwads that taking on debt was socially acceptable. Yes, it’s true. We weren’t always a bunch of debt junkies.
Here’s What A Card Skimmer Looks Like On An ATM
By 4.19.09
[protected-iframe id="9b6e89c2a2d363ebc95643d071c6468b-40783744-40309798" info="http://digg.com/api/diggthis.php?u=http://digg.com/hardware/Here_s_What_A_Card_Skimmer_Looks_Like_On_An_ATM" width="55" height="82" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"]A lot of you have been asking to see what a skimmer looks like before it’s yanked off an ATM. Are they easy to spot or virtually unnoticeable? Our reader Timeus works for a bank and deals with this sort of thing every day, and he sent in the following photos. Enjoy.
AIG Keeps Fighting Man Over Wheelchair, Glasses, And False Leg
By 4.18.09
AIG needs its money for its own problems, people, and doesn’t want to have to share with insurance claimants! That’s why they’ve fought every request from John Woodson, a man who lost a leg, an eye, and 70% of the vision in the remaining eye while working as a contractor in Iraq. He told ABC News, “You constantly are worried about who is going to pay these bills, who is going to take care of me? Because you can’t rely on AIG to come through for you. I don’t understand how a company of their size and their magnitude, with government bailouts and money and support, I don’t understand their not taking care of the individuals that were injured.”
New Tip Jar Video! Deep Research Tells Us How To Improve The Site
By 4.17.09
Ben consults the latest high-tech market research tools to find out what we really need to do to make this a better site. Tune in to our latest video, and see what he finds out. Then visit DonateToConsumerist.com for more exciting adventures in fundraising!
Report: Best Buy Demoting 8,000 Senior Sales Associates
By 4.17.09
A report from New York investment firm Sanford Bernstein says that Best Buy will be eliminating 1,000 assistant manager positions and demoting 8,000 senior sales associates to regular sales positions that would pay 25 percent to 50 percent less than their current salary — causing some to compare them to Circuit City.
Worst Company In America: eBay Vs Chrysler
By 4.17.09
An internet auction giant, payment processor and ticket broker? Or a troubled car company that used your bailout money to buy an ad thanking you for your bailout money? Which do you hate more?
FiOS Installer Drills Through Wife's Wedding Dress
By 4.17.09
A Verizon FiOS installer showed up yesterday to install the service in Sam’s house, but misjudged the location of the laundry room by 4 feet and drilled directly into the closet where his wife kept her wedding dress.
TWC Delays Metered Broadband Test So They Can "Educate" A "Vocal Minority"
By 4.16.09
Anti-metered broadband advocates are rejoicing today as TWC admitted defeat and delayed its plan to expand metered broadband to Rochester, NY.
Free iPhone App Improves Paypal And EBay Security
By 4.16.09
We’ve posted before about security keys—those little digital keyfobs that generate expiring security codes over and over and make it incredibly hard for someone to gain unauthorized access to your account. They’re a great idea, and now if you own an iPhone you can install a Verisign app that will work with Paypal and eBay, as well as about two dozen lesser known sites. It’s probably the easiest step you can take to vastly improve security on those accounts.
DonateToConsumerist.com Launches With Much Fanfare And Fantastic Video
By 4.16.09
Donatetoconsumerist.com is the place to go to stuff some bucks in our tip jar. To entice you to give, we have created a video, featuring myself and Meg in the CU TV labs discussing her need to wear a labcoat, and one of our favorite comments of all time. It ends in violence! I can’t wait till the next one!
Worst Company In America: GM VS Chase
By 4.16.09
The Chase/WaMu banking monster? Or a soon-to-maybe-be-bankrupt-and-or-bailed-out car company?
9 Legal Drugs With Extremely Disturbing Side Effects
By 4.16.09
We asked for it and you sent them in, a smorgasbord of drugs with extremely disturbing side effects. Here’s nine of the most disturbing we found. Jeez! Sometimes the cure really can be worse than the disease…
United: If You Can't Fit In One Seat You Need To Buy Two
By 4.15.09
Starting today, United Airlines has a new policy. If you can’t fit into a single seat, you need to buy another one or stay behind.
