Utah, that’s which state! Or so says Harvard researcher Ben Edelman, who “analyzed subscriber data from an unnamed ‘top 10 seller of online adult entertainment.'” When comparing broadband subscribers, Utah comes in first with an average of 5.47 per 1000. In second place is Alaska with just over 5.03 per 1000, and coming in third is Mississippi.
websites
E-Harmony Gives You 58 Dimensions Of Suck By Billing You For Two Accounts
By 3.3.09
Update: eHarmony has returned the money.
Companies Accuse Yelp Of Review Extortion, Yelp Says No Way
By 2.20.09
Some San Francisco companies have accused the review website Yelp of manipulating reviews, either in exchange for buying advertising or as punishment for refusing. Yelp flat out denies the charges. They say that the posting and removal of reviews are determined solely by an algorithm and that their sales staff has no access to the reviews. But in this detailed article published this week in the East Bay Express, several restaurants cite phone calls and emails that they say indicates otherwise.
Law Firm 'Jones Day' Usurps Monster Cable For Stupidest Trademark Lawsuit Ever
By 2.18.09
Monster Cable loves to sue companies that use “Monster” in their names, even if they don’t sell cables and even if they’ve been around as long as Monster Cable has. Jones Day is a law firm that doesn’t want anyone else to use standard, everyday formatting for links in news stories about its staff, and it succeeded in forcing a small start-up to cave in to its demands.
Facebook Clarifies Terms Of Service: "We Do Not Own Your Stuff Forever"
By 2.16.09
Well, yesterday’s Facebook post certainly blew up today, and it looks like Facebook is currently preparing an official response. In the meantime, a Facebook rep has written to the Industry Standard to emphasize that all rights are subject to your privacy settings, so even if they don’t expire when you close your account, they’ll still be subject to whatever restrictions you had when the account was active. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has also posted a more philosophical response on the Facebook blog saying that while the new Terms of Service are “overly formal,” they’re only meant to give Facebook the legal ability to enable content sharing among users.
Ticketmaster Redirects Woman To TicketsNow, Sells Tickets That Don't Exist For Over $800
By 2.13.09
Will the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger be good for customers? Why of course it will! Just take a look at this awesome purchasing experience Ticketmaster managed to provide recently:
US1Photo Pulls The 'Buy Accessories Or We'll Cancel Your Order' Scam
By 2.13.09
Nate has stumbled across yet another scammy online camera retailer, US1Photo, also known as US1Camera. Longtime Consumerist readers and photography enthusiasts who visit camera forums are familiar with the routine: offer a great deal on a camera, contact the customer later and try to hard-sell expensive accessories, and if the customer refuses simply cancel the order and blame it on inventory issues. Nate is actually thinking about placing the order a second time. Nate, do not order from US1Photo.com. Their bargain-basement prices lure you in, but companies like this are only out to cheat you.
Qchex Shut Down, Scammers Everywhere Weep
By 2.10.09
ArsTechnica reports that a judge has ordered Neovi, the company behind Qchex, to immediately stop offering their service, which allowed people to create and send checks drawn on any bank so long as they provided the account info. As you can imagine, this led to abuse by scammers who would use Qchex to create fraudulent checks.
By 2.7.09
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Fun weekend project: make your own homemade font for free. [CoolTools]
MySpace Kicks Off 90,000 Registered Sex Offenders
By 2.5.09
This revelation is totally appalling and unacceptable, and this shocking revelation, resulting from our subpoena, also provides compelling proof that social networking sites remain ripe with sexual predators.”
Office Depot Comes Through With Stellar Customer Service, But Then Doesn't Deliver On Promise
By 2.5.09
Jake couldn’t place an order for an Xbox 360 deal on Black Friday—yes, we’re talking about a failed transaction from two and half months ago—but he got surprisingly helpful customer service from Office Depot. Margaret at the Office of the Chairman even gave him her personal number and promised him a raincheck of sorts in the form of a gift card for a future purchase. Her offer sounded almost too good to be true, and maybe it was, because as of February he still hasn’t seen a gift card. And Margaret won’t return his voicemail messages, not even to say the deal is off. Update: Office Depot saw this post, and they contacted Jake.
Anti-Fraud Websites Emerging To Fight 'Massive Ignorance'
By 2.3.09
The website Scam Victims United warned its readers about last week’s arrested ponzi schemer, Nick Cosmo, nearly four months ago, based on a visit one of its forum members made to Cosmo’s office. Reuters points out that this site and others like it—Fraud Aid and Scam Warners, for example—are enjoying healthy traffic spikes right now, which is great news in the fight against fraud.
Subway Launches Text Message Ordering In NYC
By 1.29.09
Subway has launched a pilot program called SubwayNow where New York City residents (Manhattan only at the moment, it looks like) can register to place pick-up orders via text message. According to IntoMobile, after registering with your address and providing payment info, which they keep on file, you set up a list of sandwich orders that are saved as a personal menu. When you’re ready to use the service, you text “menu” to the Subway shortcode, and Subway sends back your pre-set menu. Then you text back the menu item you want, and Subway responds with a pick-up time.
NewCreditRules Asks, Which Of These Stores Will Get Your AMEX Card Reduced?
By 1.29.09
Last month we posted about Kevin Johnson, a 29-year-old self-employed businessman with excellent credit and an established history with American Express, who had his credit limit cut by 65% because AMEX said he was shopping at the wrong sorts of stores. Johnson has created a website called NewCreditRules.com to try to uncover what, exactly, he did wrong to fall under AMEX’s high risk category.
Buy A Gift Certificate From Restaurant.com, Sign Up For A Recurring $14.95 Monthly 'Service"
By 1.28.09
Note: this post is about restaurant.com, not restaurants.com. The two websites are not related. Tracey emailed us today to let us know that she just found a mysterious $14.95 fee on her credit card. It turns out a company called Shopping Essentials is now billing her as a monthly subscriber, and all because she bought some gift certificates via restaurant.com in December. To make matters even more shady, Shopping Essentials never contacted Tracey to let her know she signed up for anything, or to send her information about their services, or to call attention in any way to the fact that she now pays them a monthly fee.
Impoverished Consumers Overwhelm British Site That Sells Expired Food
By 1.24.09
Impoverished and hungry Britons can’t get enough of Approved Food, a site that sells expired but still edible food for up to half off. Even after shutting down for two days to grapple with a ten-fold rise in traffic, the site warns that they still have to process 12 days worth of backorders. But can’t expired food give you salmonella or herpes, you ask? Nope! FDA regulations don’t require most foods to carry expiration dates, and selling expired food isn’t a violation of federal law.
Carbonmade Quickly Responds To Error, Fixes It In Less Than 4 Hours
By 1.23.09
As the economy tanks, we keep seeing examples of companies cutting more corners on customer service, and especially becoming less cooperative when it comes to resolving a problem that involves billing. That’s why it’s nice to see a business not only respond quickly, but in favor of the customer. (It’s probably no surprise to you that it’s a small business and not a corporation.)
Amazon Loses Challenge On NY State Sales Tax
By 1.14.09
A New York state Supreme Court justice threw out Amazon’s sales tax lawsuit earlier today, opening the way for New York to begin collecting sales taxes on Amazon purchases.
