Did Citi set up its “homeowner helper” site to comply with Obama’s mortgage assistance programs, but then not actually attach it to any humans that will help homeowners? After inputting his info on the site, Citi told reader CoarseLive to schedule an appointment with a representative. No one ever called him. When he tried calling Citi directly, multiple agents told him they had no idea what he was talking about, and they hung up on him, again and again. His story, inside…
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Markets Rally On Bernanke Comments, Citigroup Profits
By 3.10.09
Full Text of Bernake’s Speech [Federal Reserve] (Photo: AGRR 4059)
Toys R Us Bathroom Stall Falls On Child Safety Advocate
By 3.9.09
In 2006, Jennifer—the co-founder of popular parenting/consumer advocacy site Z Recommends—took her two-and-a-half-year-old to the bathroom at the local Toys R Us store. What she didn’t know was that this particular store featured the awesome striking power of the Action Toilet Stall with Collapsible Mom Trap! As she closed the door, the entire partition fell over on top of her and her daughter. Jennifer managed to protect her daughter from harm, but in the two years since the event, she’s developed chronic pain from the accident—and the response from Toys R Us has been “don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
Andrew Cuomo & Barney Frank Demand Names Of Million Dollar Bonus Execs
By 3.9.09
New York Attorney General and House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank have written a letter to Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis demanding the names of the nearly 700 executives who received bonuses in excess of one million dollars.
Sorry, Your XBOX 360 Isn't The Right Kind Of Broken
By 3.9.09
By now, most people know about the dreaded Red Ring of Death issue on the XBOX 360 — and the accompanying 3 year warranty. What many do not know is that that 3 year warranty only covers the “3 red lights” issue. If you get any other error code, you’re out of luck.
Why Is The AIG Bailout Money Being Given To Banks?
By 3.9.09
The Wall Street Journal recently unleashed a wave of anger by reporting that much of the $173 billion given to nationalized insurer AIG went to banks — including billions to European institutions like Societe Generale and Barclays.
More Business-Owners Accuse Yelp Of Review Extortion
By 3.9.09
The review website Yelp is being accused again of extorting small business owners — but this time the business owners say that Yelp used the guarantee of positive reviews to get free products for their events. The Chicago Tribune has a quote from the owner of a cupcake shop who says that Yelp “guaranteed us good reviews on the site if we catered one of their parties for free.”
Royal Caribbean Caught Infiltrating Review Sites With Viral Marketing Team
By 3.8.09
Meet the “Royal Caribbean Champions,” a group of fifty prolific posters to popular online communities that Royal Caribbean rewards with special access and free cruises in exchange for their frequent and positive commentary. The Champions were outed by their creators, the Customer Insight Group, which boasted on their company blog that the potent group is “regularly leveraged for ongoing marketing initiates. Members of the popular reviewing site Cruise Critic, one of the main targets of the program, are understandably pissed.
Apple, AT&T Won't Let You Buy A New iPhone For 18 Months, Even If You Pay Full Price
By 3.8.09
Ronny can’t buy a new iPhone for the next 18 months, even though he’s willing to fork over $499 for an unsubsidized model. Ronny swapped his original 8 GB iPhone for a 16 GB version within his first month of service, but recently lost the phone. Now, both Apple and AT&T are telling him that he’s a jailbreaker and he can’t have a new phone for 18 months—unless he’s willing to get a new phone number.
Private Food Safety Inspectors Routinely Give Seal Of Approval To Dangerous Food
By 3.8.09
Large companies routinely rely on private audits to prove that their food is safe even though private auditors are dangerously incompetent, according to a New York Times investigation. The private auditor who inspected the Peanut Corporation of America plant responsible for unleashing the massive salmonella contamination was trained to audit bakeries and repeatedly gave the plant a “SUPERIOR” rating, partly because he “never thought that [salmonella] would survive in the peanut butter type environment.”
Daylight Savings Can Save You Money
By 3.7.09
Congress will sneak into your bedroom tonight and steal a precious hour of sleep, but you don’t need to take the theft lying down. Get up tomorrow and use a few tips from Consumer Reports to steal back some hard-earned cash.
Best Buy Sells You Backup Plan, Fails To Backup Your Data, Then Replaces Your Hard Drive
By 3.7.09
Best Buy charged Nicole $99 to backup her data but then replaced her hard drive without backing up a single byte. Nicole’s service contract clearly stated that Best Buy would perform the backup before any other service. Now Best Buy is claiming that her old hard drive is their property and that she has no right to the data that they failed to backup or restore.
Disguised As Dishcloths Pile, Man Hides Inside IKEA
By 3.6.09
Some German’s art project is to engage in “urban camouflage” by creating three different ghillie suits made of bulk IKEA items: piles of dishcloths, boxes, and shopping bags. Then he goes and “hides” out in the open inside the IKEA, blending in with his surroundings and only disturbing shoppers when he moves. Hilarious, brilliant! Here are the videos so you get the full effect:
Beat An IRS Audit
By 3.6.09
Like a worst-case-scenario guide for taxes, tax attorney Fred Daly‘s Stand Up To The IRS helps you prepare for an IRS audit. Best of all, he’s released all the chapters online for free.
NYC Police Commish Says TD Bank Is Too Easy To Rob
By 3.6.09
The NYC police commissioner, Ray Kelly, is super annoyed at TD Bank because he says they’re just too easy to rob. In one example of this phenomenon, a robber was thwarted by three Chase branches before successfully robbing a TD Bank. And get this, 17% of this New York City’s bank robberies occurred at TD Bank branches.
Every Year Capital One Reopens My Account And XBOX Live Debits Money
By 3.6.09
Every year Erick gets a Christmas present from Capital One. They reopen the credit card he closed 4 or 5 years ago. At that point, Microsoft gets into the act and starts billing that account for XBOX Live service he canceled at about the same time.
Losing 32lbs In 6 Weeks. Just 68 To Go
By 3.6.09
Consumerist reader Tyler weighed 344 pounds and is trying to lose 100 of them. So far he’s lost 32 in 6 weeks. Here are some of his secrets:
Glaucoma Drug Might Grow Lashes, Or Turn Your Blue Eyes Brown
By 3.6.09
Latisse, a new drug that promises longer, fuller lashes, started out as Lumigan, a glaucoma drug. Now’s been approved by the FDA to treat “inadequate” eyelashes, but there are some pretty crazy possible side effects. Like permanent changes to your eye color.
