Fairmont Hotel Cancels Reservations After Receiving $13,000 Deposit
By Chris Morran on October 12, 2010 5:00 PM
89 Comments
128 students at Washington University in St. Louis are more than a little peeved after finding out their reservations at a Fairmont hotel in downtown Chicago had been canceled, even after the hotel had received their $13,000 deposit. More »
Old-School Personal Loans Make A Comeback
By Ben Popken on October 12, 2010 4:30 PM
35 Comments
Out of the soil of the post-apocalyptic credit graveyard shoots the skeletal hand of a forgotten lending practice. Banks are once again busting out "personal loans" to help finance what might otherwise be just out of reach for consumers. Here's how they work: More »
CEO Says He Will "Make Digg As Good As It Used To Be"
By Meg Marco on October 12, 2010 4:15 PM
59 Comments
Here's the latest dispatch from contrite-CEO-land. The social news site "Digg" has a new CEO and he started things off with an admission that the site isn't as good as it used to be, but promises that fixing things is his top priority. More »
Dept. Of Agriculture Wants To Trick Kids Into Eating Better
By Chris Morran on October 12, 2010 4:15 PM
111 Comments
The U.S. Department of Agriculture really wants kids to eat better, especially during school lunches where parents have a lesser impact on what their children shove down their gullets. To that extent, it is spending $2 million researching how to trick them into picking healthier meal options. More »
(TLFagan)
When Automatic Payments Won't Stop
By Ben Popken on October 12, 2010 4:00 PM
43 Comments
Here's what you need to do when a vendor won't stop billing your bank account automatically after you ask them to quit it. More »
Confessions Of A Department Store Credit Card Upseller
By Phil Villarreal on October 12, 2010 3:30 PM
73 Comments
J works at JC Penney and isn't comfortable with what he describes as the company's conniving ways of convincing customers to apply for awful credit cards they don't need. More »
Walmart Shopper Fakes Labor Pains To Avoid Shoplifting Arrest
By Chris Morran on October 12, 2010 3:15 PM
43 Comments
See if you can follow this: Two women were suspected of shoplifting at an Ohio Walmart. When confronted by Walmart security outside the store, it was determined that they hadn't left the building with the allegedly purloined merchandise. Security was about to let them go when the women called the cops to complain about being unlawfully detained. The cops arrived and determined the women actually could be arrested for shoplifting. That's when one woman faked labor pains to escape going to jail. More »
Reporter Lives For Month Without A Bank, Fee Orgy Ensues
By Ben Popken on October 12, 2010 3:00 PM
93 Comments
As an experiment, an AP reporter tried to live for a month without using a bank so she could get a taste of how people who can't get an account, or choose not to, live. She discovered fees and confusion galore, and found that it would end up costing her $1,100 a year just to spend her own money. That's not even counting the cost of standing in "Soviet-style" lines in grungy check-cashing places to cash her paycheck alongside the great unwashed, and unbanked. Overall, depressing, anxious, and time-consuming experience More »
(tjean314)
Help! My Gmail Account Was Hacked! How Do I Clean This Up?
By Meg Marco on October 12, 2010 2:45 PM
51 Comments
Reader Lisa would like to ask the Consumerist hive mind for advice on cleaning up her recently hacked Gmail account. Here's her story: More »
Bank Of America's Foreclosure Freeze Stuck Me In Limbo
By Phil Villarreal on October 12, 2010 2:30 PM
18 Comments
The Bank of America foreclosure freeze doesn't work out so well for those who were about to buy a foreclosed property. Andy finds himself spinning his wheels, having been zapped by the freeze ray just as he was about to close on a house. More »
How SimCity Teaches Us The Pinnacle Of Urban Planning Is A Totalitarian Death State
By Ben Popken on October 12, 2010 2:00 PM
69 Comments
Vincent Ocasla says that in fashioning the "Magnasanti" metropolis, he has "beaten" SimCity by creating the max stable population of six million. It consists of four grids of identical 12 x 12 grids with everyone's workplace within walking distance. There are no roads, the city runs entirely on subways. There's zero abandoned buildings zero congestion, and zero water pollution. It sounds like paradise, but it hides a dark core with a sinister message for would-be top-down urban planners. More »
PETA Ad Nixed By Airports & In-Flight Magazines
By Chris Morran on October 12, 2010 1:50 PM
85 Comments
On the heels of Scottevest CEO Scott Jordan's rant about Delta denying his ad in their in-flight literature comes news that PETA is having trouble finding airline magazines and airports that will run the ad seen here. More »
Walmart Puts Defective Scooter I Returned Back On Shelf
By Phil Villarreal on October 12, 2010 1:30 PM
50 Comments
After the electric scooter Eric bought for his son broke down three weeks after he bought it, he returned it to Walmart, only to see it pop back up on shelves for sale, ready to break another kid's heart. More »
KFC Expands On-Butt Ads For Double Down
By Chris Morran on October 12, 2010 1:15 PM
38 Comments
A few weeks ago, we wrote about KFC trying to add some sex appeal to their fried-chicken-as-bun Double Down by paying college coeds to advertise the sandwich on their butts. The guerilla marketing campaign must have had some success, because it is now widening. More »
Cocon Is A Sleeping Bag Chair
By Ben Popken on October 12, 2010 1:00 PM
32 Comments
Cocon is a chair with a built-in sleeping bag. I have not tested it, but I'm personally intrigued by the concept. It looks extra cozy. This would be awesome for when you are lazing around and realize you would really like to have a blanket or a sleeping bag, but don't want to have to get up and pull it out of the closet. Never fret, you're already sitting in it! Zip up and snuggle down for a long-winter's coma. More »
Bob Saget Disapproves Of Your Parenting Techniques
By Chris Morran on October 12, 2010 12:38 PM
109 Comments
Leave it to former sitcom dad Bob Saget to give air travelers even more of a reason to demand a families-only section of the airplane. More »
Seattle Residents Will Soon Be Able To Opt Out Of Getting Yellow Pages
By Chris Morran on October 12, 2010 12:25 PM
43 Comments
Back in May, we asked readers if they still used the White Pages and an overwhelming 87% of you said no. Soon, those of you in Seattle who no longer use the phone book will be able to opt out of receiving the annual doorstop. More »
Suss Out Fakers At Farmers Markets
By Ben Popken on October 12, 2010 12:00 PM
89 Comments
As an undercover hidden camera investigation recently revealed, not every bearded and overall-wearing guy behind the stand at farmers markets is selling food he grew himself. Some of them just load up a local produce warehouses and sell it to you at a feel-good-about-saving-the-earth premium. So how do you tell who's real and who's shoveling you fertilizer? More »
Gap Scraps Crap Logo
By Chris Morran on October 12, 2010 11:53 AM
40 Comments
This might be some kind of record. Only a few days after The Gap unleashed its spare new logo to a rousing chorus of boos, the clothing retailer has backtracked and ditched the updated branding entirely. More »
McRib Sandwich Returning From McExile On Nov. 2
By Chris Morran on October 12, 2010 11:12 AM
84 Comments
Nope, this isn't a hoax like those McRibble stories from early summer. Fans of McDonald's sorta-rib-like McRib sandwich will no longer have to drive hours out of their way to find a Golden Arches that carries the saucy delicacy; the fast food chain is bringing it back (for six weeks) nationwide on Nov. 2. More »
How The Current Foreclosure Fraud Crisis Works
By Ben Popken on October 12, 2010 11:00 AM
45 Comments
A simplified way to understand how the current foreclosure fraud crisis got started. It all became unwound when a foreclosure mill "robo signer" admitted in a deposition to signing more than 10,000 affidavits in one day, little lies on slips of paper that got people thrown out of their houses. More »
Pepsi Throwback Is Here To Stay... For Now
By Chris Morran on October 12, 2010 10:56 AM
99 Comments
While Coke swears there is no difference in taste between Coke made with High Fructose Corn Syrup and Coke made with cane sugar, Pepsi continues to give credence to the opposite side of that argument. The beverage company has announced that plans to sell its sugar-sweetened Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback sodas as long as people buy them. More »
Never Click On "Free Public Wifi"
By Ben Popken on October 12, 2010 10:00 AM
29 Comments
When you're cruising for a hotspot at a coffee shop, never click on the "Free Public Wifi" wireless network. "Free Public Wifi" is a Windows XP quirk; when a computer can't find any of its favorite networks it creates a network on-the-fly, but it doesn't go anywhere. At best, you'll never connect to the internet. At worst, you could be exposing your computer to hackers. More »
(T.M.Y.)
Survey: Nightlights Make You Fat
By Phil Villarreal on October 12, 2010 9:45 AM
41 Comments
An Ohio State University study found that exposure to light while you sleep can fatten you up. This is especially true if you happen to be a mouse. More »
