Author: Chris Morran

We try not to be too paranoid about the cleanliness of things we purchase. We’ll purchase used books, buy vintage clothing, drive pre-owned cars. But the “Ick Factor,” as it’s known in the world of science, jumps off the charts when it comes to used undies. But that’s exactly what NBC claims to have discovered at several retail stores.

The reporters headed to New Jersey where they purchased dainties and unmentionables at Nordstrom, The Gap, Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret, Express, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales and J. Crew. They took their purchases home, removed all the tags so they would appear used and made a small identifying mark on each undergarment with a marker. They also stained some of the product with baby oil to see if those would be restocked by the stores.

A week later, it was back to the stores to try returning their purchases. Despite the removed tags, all 8 stores accepted the returns and offered full refunds. Even better, most of them retagged the underwear and placed it back on sale almost immediately.

And as for those baby oil stained items? NBC says the found them on sale again at The Gap, Victoria’s Secret, Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s.

It should be noted that the reporters found no evidence of this at J. Crew or Saks during their investigation.

Taking a page right out of the screenplay for the 1996 Tom Cruise hit Mission: Impossible, some nimble crooks managed to descend from the ceiling of a Best Buy in New Jersey and help themselves to a $26,000 jackpot of Apple laptops — without ever touching the floor.

According to the police, the burglars climbed a 3″ gas pipe to reach the roof of the store, where they proceeded to cut a 3-foot-by-3-foot hole through the entire roof. Authorities aren’t sure how exactly, but they believe the thieves used a suction device to keep the slab of roof from falling through and setting off alarms.

But they were just getting started.

They then dangled down through the hole in the roof 16 feet to the top of the racks inside the Best Buy. Police estimate the thieves were always about 10 feet off the ground throughout the operation.

Hiding behind Best Buy banners to avoid being caught on camera, they then broke into the cage containing the laptops, which they then somehow managed to get up onto the roof, all while not setting off a single motion sensor.

“It definitely appears that they had very good knowledge of the store,” said the police, stating the obvious.

We’re really hoping that the crooks were so brazen as to capture the entire operation on video, because we just have to know exactly how this caper went down.

Thieves pull off Hollywood-style break-in at store in South Brunswick [My Central Jersey]

We all know Craigslist can be great for finding an apartment, retrieving your stolen property and getting a law degree from Georgetown. And apparently, the site’s reputation is so solid that there are adult men in Michigan who thought it would be perfectly okay to arrange a circumcision through the online bazaar.

Authorities in Kent County, MI, have arrested a 56-year-old man and charged him with unauthorized practice as a health professional after he allegedly lied about being a doctor and performed at least three circumcisions in the bedroom of his home.

“He had a mini operating room type atmosphere set up at his house and he wore a laboratory coat, and he was even able to administer a local anesthetic before the procedure,” said Lt. Kevin Kelley. When questioned by police, the suspect claimed that he had formerly been a doctor in the military.

“He was a retired EMT or something,” one neighbor told reporters.

The suspect, who is also charged with performing body piercings and massages without a license, met the men through Craigslist and through gay social networking sites.

“Our concern is that there might be people out there that had a medical procedure done… and not realizing in fact that he is not a doctor,” said Lt. Kelley. Anyone with information regarding the case is encouraged to contact the Kent County Sheriff’s Office at (616) 632-6100.

Neighbors say they were completely unaware of anything illicit going on at the suspect’s home.

Recalled one neighbor, “We had Thanksgiving dinner with him about four years ago and everything was okay over there but obviously not.”

Ya think?

Grand Rapids area man charged with performing illegal circumcisions on adult males [WZZM]

Looks like the potential for Amazon’s mp3 store might have some at Apple’s iTunes store a little worried. A new report claims that iTunes has been using its leverage to keep the record labels from making potentially high-profile deals with Amazon.

According to Billboard, iTunes weren’t very happy when major artists started showing up in Amazon’s deeply discounted “Daily Deal,” which since its inception had grown from a bargain bin to, according to a source for the story, “something where the labels make arrangements to provide an exclusive selling window with Amazon for a big release expected to do a lot of business on street date.”

As the Daily Deal grew in importance, Amazon reportedly began requesting exclusive promotion and early release dates from the record labels. And iTunes was apparently unhappy about seeing Amazon making their money.

To combat any further losses to Amazon, the article claims that iTunes started telling the record companies that they would withdraw their promotion of any albums or artists made available through the Daily Deal.

In an effort to continue with Daily Deals, Amazon has reportedly been tweaking their promotions, no longer requesting early release dates.

Billboard points out that there may be a happy medium, with record companies utilizing Amazon’s Daily Deals for albums that wouldn’t receive the same priority placement on iTunes.

“The whole issue is a kind of interesting dynamic,” the story quotes a senior major-label distribution executive as saying. “Amazon is fighting a guerrilla war against iTunes, and now iTunes is getting frustrated because they work hard to set up and promote a release weeks in advance of the street date, and then lo and behold, Amazon jumps in there with this deal of the day and scrapes off some of the cream.”

APPLE AGONISTES [Billboard]

You’d think United Airlines would have learned a lesson from the whole “United Broke My Guitar” thing. But they’ve once again let a passenger’s problem go global. This time, it’s almost 6,000 Facebook users who think the airline charges too much to check your bike on their planes.

Attorney and triathlete Joe Lotus became outraged by United’s rate of $175 each way for checking bikes, especially since most airlines offer significantly cheaper rates. So he started the Facebook group United Airlines is Ridiculous to Charge $175 Each Way to Travel With a Bike on Feb. 10 to see who else was displeased with United’s pricing. And as of now, the group has thousands more followers than United’s own official Facebook page.

“Calling ALL cyclists, and people who realize a ridiculous business practice when they see one…. please join this group to show your support,” reads a statement on the group’s page.

A pretty big irony is that United is a corporate partner of USA Cycling, the official governing body of bicycle racing in the United States. In such, members of USA Cycling get a 10% discount on flights, but still have to pay the $175.

United mouthpiece Robin Urbansky didn’t really have much to say about the snowballing sentiment against her employer’s policy, saying only, “At the end of the day, that is what social media is for — to get feedback.”

Yes, Facebook is for feedback… and playing Farmville.

United Airlines bashed on Facebook over bicycle fee [Seattle Times]

If you’d asked us a while back what company would find itself at the center of a power struggle between anti-gun activists and gun-rights supporters, we probably would not have guessed caffeine powerhouse Starbucks. But as the news that the ‘Bucks is okay with customers carrying guns into their stores where it’s permitted by law, there’s been a backlash by those now asking the company to rethink its policy.

But in a statement released yesterday, Starbucks not only defended its position, it also asked to just be left out of it all.

Reads the statement in part:

We have examined this issue through the lens of partner (employee) and customer safety. Were we to adopt a policy different from local laws allowing open carry, we would be forced to require our partners to ask law abiding customers to leave our stores, putting our partners in an unfair and potentially unsafe position.

As the public debate continues, we are asking all interested parties to refrain from putting Starbucks or our partners into the middle of this divisive issue. As a company, we are extremely sensitive to the issue of gun violence in our society. Our Starbucks family knows all too well the dangers that exist when guns are used irresponsibly and illegally. Without minimizing this unfortunate reality, we believe that supporting local laws is the right way for us to ensure a safe environment for both partners and customers.

After the release of this statement, gun-control activists The Brady Campaign staged a rally in Seattle, where Starbucks calls home.

“Starbucks put out a statement today saying they don’t want to be in the middle of this fight. Well, they are. They are the middle,” said Brian Malte of the Brady Campaign. “Why are they in middle? Because they chose — they chose — not to bar guns, so far, in their stores.”

Heidi Yewman of Million Mom March also spoke at the rally. She said that by allowing customers to openly carry guns in their stores, Starbucks is “violating the public’s trust, they’re violating their customers’ trust, they’re violating their employees’ trust and their violating the community’s trust.”

Where do you come down on this topic?

Starbucks Sticks To Its Guns [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

Not only does AT&T give you service you can’t use and then continue to bill for it, they also apparently want you to pay the disability claim when one of their employees injures himself on your property.

A few weeks ago, an AT&T tech arrived at a customer’s Chicago-area home to hook up his new phone service. And in spite of the fact that it hadn’t snowed in several days and the owner hires a snow-removal service for the property, the tech slipped and broke his leg while walking down a paved path.

Two weeks later, the owner gets a letter from Sedgwick Claims Management Services, which administers AT&T’s workers’ compensation program.

“Our initial investigation indicates that you may be at fault for these damages,” read the letter. “The current extent of these damages to our client is currently being determined but to date, we have paid $2,761.07 in disability.”

Not surprisingly, the building’s owner was less than pleased.

“I never heard of such a thing where they would sue a customer,” He said. “You do everything you’re supposed to do and this still happened.”

The owner decided to contact WGN Radio’s Problem Solver program, who then attempted to contact a rep for AT&T.

Lo and behold, a few days later he gets another letter from Sedgwick. This one is much different in tone.

“After further investigation… we will discontinue our pursuit with regards to subrogation of this claim… Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Responding to the radio show, a rep for AT&T had this to say:
“AT&T has policies and procedures in place to address workers’ compensation and disability matters, and we work with all parties involved to review individual claims. In this particular instance, proper protocols were not followed.”

What do you think? Is the homeowner financially responsible for any injuries the tech might have suffered? If not, at what point — what kind of incident would have to occur — for you to hold the homeowner liable?

Snow shoveling rules confuse homeowner after AT&T threat [Chicago Tribune]

We haven’t yet mastered the technique shown in this video, but once we do, we figure this will save us a few hours of time at the laundromat over the course of a year.

It’s a 4-step process that looks like it should result in a knotted mess, but somehow ends up looking like something you’d see stacked proudly at The Gap. Head over to Instructables for more detailed info. Meanwhile, just enjoy this:

Fast way to fold a T-shirt [Instructables]

As if the poor fellas at Toyota didn’t have enough on their hands with this massive recall, hearings in Washington and cars that just won’t get fixed. Now the car company is giving away $250 million to workers at a soon-to-close plant in California.

The Fremont, Calif., plant, which employs 4,700 workers, had been a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors, but GM pulled out last summer as they struggled with bankruptcy and the Japanese car giant subsequently announced it would end operations there on April 1.

The $250 million is for bonuses to salaried and hourly workers at the plant, which manufactures Corolla cars and Tacoma trucks.

According to a recent study, the plant’s closure will have a ripple effect that will ultimately eliminate 25,000 jobs in California and lose the state $1 billion in revenue over the next decade.

Toyota to Pay California Plant Workers $250 Million [Business Week]

Usually, when customers try to change an Internet service provider, the ISP will do things like discount the rate or offer some benefit in an attempt to retain your business. But that’s not what’s happening to Consumerist reader Addie; AT&T loves her so much, they’ve continued to bill her for six months for a service she doesn’t even have.

Here’s the background. Addie had AT&T DSL service at her apartment, but when they upgraded her neighborhood to U-Verse service, the old phone lines in her building weren’t sufficient to carry it. Rather than paying a pricey hourly rate for a service tech to come out and tinker with her system, Addie decided to break up with AT&T for good:

I called to inform them I wished to cancel and they were very understanding about it. They told me the service would be disconnected in a couple of days but they would back-credit my account for the month of September when I wasn’t actually able to use the internet. Pleased with the resolution, I waited for the final bill.

When it came in the mail, I’d been charged for the entire month of September. I thought it would be easier to just pay the $35 bill than waste my time on hold arguing over the three weeks they were going to credit me for, so I just paid it.

Then I got a bill for October. So I called and sat on hold and got bounced from department to department. Just a clerical error, they assured me, no worries, they’d take the charge right off and place a disconnect order and it would all be taken care of.

When I got a bill for November, I was livid. Not wanting to waste my time with phone support, I tried my luck with their email support system. The credit for the incorrect bill immediately showed up in my online account, but whoever I was emailing didn’t bother trying to cancel anything and I got another bill in December.

It’s now March, and you can probably take a guess at what I got in the mail the other day. I’ve called month after month and no one has even bothered to take ownership of my problem to help resolve it. Each agent just issues another credit and another disconnect order which inevitably fails to actually cancel my service.

I’ve asked for supervisors, spoken to a half a dozen departments, and no one seems to be able to help. I’ve filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and am working on a complaint to my state’s Attorney General consumer complaints department.

My bill is now over $120 and has been past-due for quite some time. It’s to the point where I’m concerned about what affect this could have on my credit. They’ve charged me late fees on the bills they were supposed to credit. They’ve transferred me back to the voice prompt phone menu when I’ve asked for supervisors.

I spent an hour on the phone today and when I asked for a supervisor I was transferred to a ringing line which in turn connected me to the voicemail for someone who works for a natural gas company, but not an AT&T supervisor.

We’ve given Addie a list of executive e-mails to try. If she’s successful, we’ll share them with everyone. So stay tuned as this story develops.

While Barack Obama stresses out at night in the White House, he’s visited by former Presidents George and George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan… all of whom seem to have an opinion on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

Okay, so it’s not exactly true, but it is a good reason for Will Ferrell, Dana Carvey, Darrell Hammond, Chevy Chase, and Dan Aykroyd to trot out their best Presidential impersonations. Though watching this did make me miss Phil Hartman even more.

While armed robbers might not like the taste of Domino’s pizza, the rest of the non-thieving world appears to be taking a liking to Domino’s recently revamped recipe and drastically dropped pricing. Want proof? The company’s fourth-quarter profits were double what they were a year ago.

For the three months ending Jan. 3, Domino’s reported a profit of $23.6 million. That’s more than double the $11 million profit for the same quarter last year.

“We’ve proven our business model works, even in the toughest of times,” Chairman and CEO David Brandon told reporters. “Sales and traffic are up significantly.”

In recent months, Domino’s has embarked on a major overhaul of its pizza, which had formerly been drubbed as bland and cardboard-like. And while the redo isn’t winning any James Beard awards, it has generally been considered a vast improvement.

To get the word out, Domino’s has also been offering deep-dish discounts on their pies. For example, they offer 2 medium pies with 2 toppings each for $11.98 total.

But will Domino’s be able to continue at this level?

“When a restaurant company radically changes their menu, usually there’s a curiosity bump involved in the results,” said Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy.

Domino’s profit more than doubles on new recipes [The Detroit News]

In an announcement this morning, Continental Airlines said that, starting March 17, they will be offering passengers “a new option allowing you to purchase seat assignments for unreserved, Economy Class seats that feature extra legroom.” But instead of readjusting the seats on their planes to allow for more space, they’re really just charging for sitting in an exit row.

If you are willing to pay the premium for the extra 7-8 inches of legroom, you can do so when you check in, as early as 24 hours before scheduled take-off. You can not reserve these seats when you’re purchasing tickets (unless of course you’re buying tickets within 24 hours of take-off).

Continental is not naming a specific price for the legroom seats, saying that the rate will vary depending on “the length of your flight, the date, and route.” So basically, whatever they want to charge.

How much would you be willing to pay for these seats?

If you’ve got a Nokia Symbian phone and are planning to travel abroad, or maybe you’re just someone who makes a lot of calls overseas, Skype has announced that there’s now a free app that could save you a lot of money.

Skype for Symbian, which works over both a mobile data connection and WiFi, is now available for free through Nokia’s Ovi Store. It allows users to make free Skype-to-Skype calls to anyone in the world, along with instant messaging, text messaging, photo and video sharing and many other options.

So if, for example, you’re on vacation in London and you’re at a WiFi hot spot, you can call home using Skype and not come back to find crazy roaming charges on your bill.

Currently the Skype app will run on any of these Nokia phones: Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia X6, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 5530, Nokia E72, Nokia E71, Nokia E90, Nokia E63, Nokia E66, Nokia E51, Nokia N96, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N85, Nokia N82, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8 Gb, Nokia N79, 230603 , Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 5320.

Skype says the app will soon be available on Sony Ericsson phones as well.

Skype, Nokia Release Skype for Symbian [PCmag.com]

We know that JFK is woefully understaffed in the air traffic control tower, but this is downright silly. The FAA has confirmed that a newly uncovered audio file is indeed that of a young child controlling air traffic over the radio to planes waiting to depart the busy NYC airport.

Over the course of a few minutes, the child speaks to several different planes, including flights for JetBlue and Air Mexico. The pilots on the other end appear to be aware that they are speaking to a juvenile, and it sounds like he is being coached what to say by an actual air traffic controller.

Listen for yourself:

The FAA has released the following statement:
“Pending the outcome of our investigation, the employees involved in this incident are not controlling air traffic. This behavior is not acceptable and does not demonstrate the kind of professionalism expected from all FAA employees.”

And the union repping Air Traffic Controllers has this to say:
“We do not condone this type of behavior in any way, and it is not indicative of the highest professional standards that controllers set for themselves and exceed each and every day in the advancement of aviation safety.”

While this is obviously alarming and against regulation, does it impact your current feelings about the safety of air travel?

Child directs airplanes over radio transmissions at JFK airport [MyFox Boston]

No, this isn’t the story of a Martian lady of the night. A 47-year-old woman from Staten Island, NY, is suing her plastic surgeon for a cool $5 million over a breast augmentation procedure she says went so poorly she “came out of that operation with essentially four breasts.”

The patient, who had the surgery in 2003, isn’t just going after the doctor. She’s also named the surgeon’s staff and some web sites that she says referred her to him.

According to the plaintiff’s filing, her breasts now “appear flattened on the bottom with severe swells the size of a softball on top,” and that she suffers from “pain… disability, loss of self-esteem, humiliation and embarrassment.”

The patient even goes so far as to lay the blame for her divorce at the foot of the doctor, saying that she could no longer be intimate with her husband after the surgery.

She’s since had two corrective surgeries, including one with the doctor she’s now suing. But her lawyer claims that the end result was just “implants that slid downward, making her breasts appear even further deformed.”

In terms of a defense, the doctor’s lawyer would only say, “Plastic surgery is trivialized, but the reality is that plastic surgery is just that—surgery. There are no guarantees. What one person responds to, another does not.”

S.I. Mom Says Plastic Surgeon Gave Her Four Breasts [Gothamist]

A job fair in the South Carolina vacation town of Myrtle Beach was canceled this year because only 30% of the companies usually attending the expo had planned to return. But before you think this is a bleak sign that the recession is getting worse, there’s this fact: 70% of these companies say they are hiring. So why scrap the job fair if almost everyone is looking for employees?

It turns out that the reason isn’t lack of jobs. It’s that employers don’t really need to go out and look for potential hires.

“Anytime someone says they have jobs, they’re getting overwhelmed with applications,” Stephen Greene, President and CEO of the Myrtle Beach Area Hospitality Association, explained, adding that employers are going through their thick backlog of resumes instead of openly advertising open positions. “Why would I come to a job expo if I already have people to fill it?”

Experts expect this “buyer’s market” attitude to continue for the foreseeable future.

“As unemployment climbs from 5 to 10 to 15 percent, all of the power goes to businesses,” says Don Schunk, a research economist at Coastal Carolina University. “When it’s 5 percent, workers can pick and choose who they want to work for.”

There are some that go so far to say that canceling the job fair was ultimately a good thing for the morale of the unemployed.

“We’ve talked to a lot of people who have been unemployed for a long time and they get discouraged,” says Mary Nell Smith, director of the Coastal Workforce Center. “They go to a place like a small job fair and there’s like 100 people for a couple positions.”

Job fair cut in Myrtle Beach for lack of jobs [The Sun News]

We get a lot of readers asking us about the rights and wrongs of when you should and shouldn’t show your ID when making a purchase. But it’s a rare occasion when someone writes in to share a story of having an online retailer asking to see ID.

Consumerist reader Justin says he recently attempted to buy a Lenovo S-10 laptop from online electronics store Tiger Direct. But he ran into some trouble when he
A) tried to use PayPal for the transaction;
B) asked to have the computer sent to his college address.

Justin’s tale in his own words:

Within 2 hours I receive a call from PayPal. They wanted to know if I authorized the payment. I confirmed that I did, and they were satisfied. Since I don’t normally buy 200+ dollar items with my PayPal, I understood this as a precaution and It didn’t bother me.

Then this morning I received a phone call from Tiger Direct. They wanted to know if I lived at the shipping address. I told them I did, and verified the address that they had as correct and that I was the one placing the order. Then they said I would need to verify further that I indeed lived at that address, I would have to submit documentation (a photo ID and a utility bill) for my shipment address, or else I’d have to have the package sent to my billing address.

At this point the order crossed the line — I’m fine with verifying unusual transactions via phone. But I do not wish to submit a photo ID or utility bill (I have roommates, so most aren’t even in my name — the ones that are I receive electronically) to Tiger-Direct. This seems a greater privacy violation than a clerk asking to see photo ID for a credit card transaction, and a much greater hassle than any other online retailer has put me through.

We attempted to contact Tiger Direct by phone and e-mail to find out whether it was their policy to ask for further confirmation on all orders shipped to a non-billing address, or if this also had to do with PayPal. Here’s what they ultimately wrote back:

For the safety and security of our first time customers, our order verification department will require them to verify the billing information that they have submitted for their placed order on our website. Also, if an existing customer decides to use another card different from the one that we have on file, they will need to verify the billing information as well. This procedure is done to ensure that we can avoid fraudulent activities and unwanted purchases using the information of the original card/account holders.

Ultimately it didn’t matter to Justin, who canceled his order with Tiger Direct and bought the computer through Amazon, where he had an existing account.

Was Tiger Direct asking for too much in verifying the ID and address? Could there have been a less intrusive way for them to confirm the info?

A week after unveiling the White House version of the proposed National Health Care Plan, President Obama says he’s opened his ears up to a handful of suggestions from the Republicans.

In a letter sent to Congressional leaders today, Obama said he’s looking into four different GOP ideas bounced around at last Thursday’s televised health care summit:

1. Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn’s proposal to increase the use of undercover investigators posing as patients to expose abuse and fraud in federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

2. Bigger pilot programs on possible changes to the rules governing medical malpractice lawsuits.

3. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa’s suggestion that there be higher Medicaid reimbursements for doctors.

4. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso’s suggestion to expand use of health savings accounts.

“After decades of trying, we’re closer than we’ve ever been to making health insurance reform a reality,” writes Obama. “I also believe that piecemeal reform is not the best way to effectively reduce premiums, end the exclusion of people with pre-existing conditions or offer Americans the security of knowing that they will never lose coverage, even if they lose or change jobs.”

Obama explores Republican ideas for revised health care bill [USA Today]