Author: Laura Northrup

“Consumerist needs your help in order to alleviate our cat picture shortage!” we said.

“I’m broke,” a few readers replied. “But I have cat pictures!”

“Send ’em over,” we said. And thus the great Cat Picture Drive of 2010 was born. Donations poured in from all over the world. Readers submitted them to our Flickr pool, and e-mailed them to us. It was magical. So here it is: a very special Flickr Friday, featuring the greatest kitteh pics.

(asrusch)

(bvcphoto)

(Christine)

(Ari)

(felixthedeadcat)

(aaron8301)

(dooley)

Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers go and upload photos of cats, and of other things, for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right, and start hitting “send to group” on your individual photos you want to add to the pool.

D. has a warning for people who are attending college after a stint in the grown-up workforce. She tells Consumerist that if you had health insurance through Aetna at your job, and your university provides student insurance through Aetna, this change will confuse Aetna’s system so thoroughly that everything you do will be billed to your old account number, forever and ever.

She explains:

Here’s one that hits grad students pretty hard. We’re forced to purchase health insurance through school if we don’t already have it; Aetna is the biggest student health insurance provider. However, if you’ve been a working adult out in the work world with a (real) Aetna insurance account number ever, Aetna will be sure to deny about half of your claims on your student health insurance (in my experience) by trying to apply your claim to your old (work) insurance that is no longer valid, and tell you its no longer valid. They refuse to remove your old (work) account from their computer systems, and continue to deny your (student) claims even though the claims are filed under a real, working insurance policy #.

They’ve done this to me now with two different student health insurance policy accounts (one policy through the school where I got my masters, and one policy through a different school where i am now getting my PhD.) Last year I had to pay $270 out of pocket for a pap smear, which is the most basic thing an insurance policy should cover for women, because they kept denying my claim, even though i had paid the (NOT CHEAP) premiums for the student insurance for the year.

Its a switcheroo tactic used only on formerly working grad students. I know several other people this has happened to with Aetna.

Maybe this number for the company’s executive relations team could help you find someone who can fix the situation. But if it’s the mysterious “system” actually causing this issue, maybe no one has power to fix it at all.

Is Foxconn, the huge electronics company that manufactures for global brands such as HP, Dell, and Apple (yes, they make the iPad and iPhone) a towering fortress of secrecy where employees cower in fear, ten people to a dorm room, or a normal manufacturing outfit that has had a weird cluster of employee suicides recently?

Ten Foxconn employees have committed suicide in the last year, and five in the last month alone. The first that attracted major media attention in recent months was a 25-year-old man who claimed that company security officers accused him of stealing an iPhone prototype and beat him.

The company has responded to the damage to its image with promises to improve management techniques and working conditions, a rumored 20% raise for factory workers, and asking employees to sign a pledge not to kill themselves.

But is there another reason for the suicides–a demographic one, that has nothing to do with problems specific to Foxconn? One expert thinks so.

Jing Jun, a sociology professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing and one of the experts Foxconn invited here, dismissed the idea that the company’s labor practices were to blame. He said the victims were young people, ages 18 to 24, almost all of whom had recently moved to Shenzhen from rural areas. He said he believed they struggled with personal problems and the challenges of adjusting to factory life.

Professor Jing also offered a theory that widespread reports about the earlier suicides at Foxconn this year had created a contagion of copycats, particularly after rumors spread about the high compensation the company was paying some of the victims’ families. Some families had received about 100,000 renminbi, or a little more than $14,600, according to several Foxconn employees.

Keep in mind that a Foxconn worker can expect to earn the equivalent of $46 per week.
Have Foxconn’s labor practices been criticized before? Yes, even before the release of the iPhone.

To look at how Chinese media are dealing with the controversy through cartoons, check out this M.I.C. Gadget post.

Chinese factory asks for ‘no suicide’ vow [MSNBC]
Hon Hai May Raise China Wages 20% as Suicides Mount [Bloomberg]
Electronics Maker Promises Review After Suicides [NY Times]

PREVIOUSLY:
Your iPhone Comes From A Towering Fortress Of Secrecy And Paranoia
Foxconn Nukes iPod City Journalists From Orbit
iPod Factory Admits Breaking Chinese Labor Laws

Sure, we’ve explained the apparent insanity of Target’s prices, but the crazy just keeps on coming. Here are a few examples from our stuffed-full Target is Crazy mailbag.

Floyd found this instructive example of why it’s always better to buy in bulk… but not for the reason you’d think. Yes, that’s one pound for $1.74, and three pounds for $1.69.

Tracey found these cans of shaving cream that offer the opposite of bulk discounts.

We now know the reason for wacky “instant substitutes” at Target, but it’s still funny to imagine swapping your chair cushion for a bug zapper.

Finally, Dane wants to know what makes the 8-ounce bottle of French’s yellow mustard so special.

He writes:

I can’t see the difference between the smaller (8oz/1.17) and larger
(14oz/1.12) besides the chance to win $25,000 and a 5 cent discount
for buying more? Target’s lost it again…

Yes. Yes, they have.

Diaper commercials, much like commercials for menstrual products, have always sort of glossed over the actual function of the products. No more. A new Huggies ad for denim-patterned diapers (really) features a voice-over that says “I poo in blue,” and ends with the tagline, “The coolest you’ll look pooping your pants.”

The New York Times reports that this level of frankness did not go over well.

While the jeans diaper commercial, which is scheduled to run on May 31, was accepted by 13 networks, including NBC, TNT and E!, three others, ABC, ABC Family and Sprout, objected to screen text at the end of the spot that included the word “pooping,” according to Huggies. (The brand did not seek to advertise on either CBS or Fox.) For those networks, the text was changed to, “When you gotta go, go in style.”

Is this too much? Are “limited edition” denim-printed diapers themselves over the top? Here’s the ad.

Come on, Huggies, there are lots of pants that are much cooler to poop in than fake denim diapers.

Both Style and Substance in Diaper Advertising [NY TImes]

Kevin discovered something totally awesome about Nutella. Maybe they were being generous, maybe he sent them such a stack of seals that they couldn’t help but reward him. Or maybe this was all a massive Nutella Store mixup. Whatever the case, Kevin has a huge pile of Nutella merch and a renewed love of the company.

To make a long story short, I was eating breakfast a few months back (Nutella on toast of course) when I wondered if Nutella had T-shirts. You see, I am one of those lame guys who likes to buy different T-shirts, the geekier the better and what would be better than a Nutella T-Shirt (rhetorical question, please no suggestions, I already admit I am lame, ok?). Anyway, I jumped onto the InterWebs and found not only does the company offer T-Shirts, but they are FREE*. Free being that I had to send in the “gold seals” from each container but Shipping and Handling was covered by Nutella. Since I eat tons of the hazelnutty stuff, I considered this a great deal.

After some perusing of their site I decided to get a coffee mug and 2 “Nutella Spreaders” (read plastic Nutella knives) instead of the T-Shirt as they would last longer and are arguably much “cooler” (think Red Swingline). Anyway, after sticking my “gold seals” in the mail and anxiously awaiting the arrival of my x-ray glasses, I mean coffee mug/knives, the package arrived yesterday. But get this, not only did Nutella send my coffee mug and the two plastic utensils I ordered, but every other item they offered in the store as well!!!! That’s right, EVERY ITEM, including T-Shirts in every size (I can only assume because they had no idea what size would fit).

Anyway, I was TOTALLY amazed at this generosity and have repeated this story to family, friends, and coworkers all day. That in itself was worth it for Nutella, I only wish more corporations acted like this. I am a customer for life, there are no substitutes for the “Original Hazelnut Spread”…

Sounds like it’s not just Megabus drivers who need to invest in a GPS. Alphonzo tells Consumerist that his local UPS drivers are evidently unable to locate his house. It sounds like some of his local drivers have no sense of direction whatsoever.

I live in [redacted] SC and my UPS deliveries are like a box of chocolates, I never what I’m going to get! Several times UPS has called me asking for directions to my house or to drop by the UPS to get my package. The first time this was not a problem, but the 10th it had become excessive. One day ill get all of my packages, the next day UPS will call for directions.

Finally I decided to get a mailbox at the UPS store. Unfortunately UPS does not have directions to the UPS store, because they called me twice in one day for directions. At this point I’m fed up. Is there a way to get a PC or MAC with internet access into the hands of a UPS dispatcher so that I can get my packages in a timely manner? I know what Brown can do for me…buy GPS units for all of its drivers.

Maybe that’s the issue. Perhaps some drivers have GPS units or can read a map, and others can’t, and that’s the factor that determines whether or not you get your packages.

Brendan has a question for the Consumerist hive mind. He wants to buy a large-ish HDTV, but isn’t sure that his usual method of buying technology–buy the cheapest thing he can get his hands on, and count on it not to break for a year or two–will work at these price points.

I’m currently in the market for a cheap HDTV. Honestly, the real appeal to me is the space-saving feature of the flat screen. My usual practice with electronics is to buy the cheapest thing I can find and hope it lasts for a year or two. In the past, I’ve purchased the cheapest DVD player walmart offered and it turned out to be pretty good. I once bought a $35 Craig DVD player from the grocery store and I had to pause the movies halfway through to let the sound catch up to the video. More recently, I bought a KWorld media player which stopped working via coax output and is prone to overheating. I’m not too upset by pissing away less than $100 on something kind of crappy as long as it lasts for a while – even if that means some modifications or maintenance on my part. However, I’m not prepared to drop $800 on a 50″ plasma that won’t last until Christmas.

My question to you is this: Should I just go to Walmart or Best Buy or Stop and Shop and pick up the cheapest thing over 32″ that they have or should I spend the extra $100 on something that will outlast the technology with which it was built?

I did exactly the thing Brendan describes–I bought a Vizio on clearance at Walmart, of all places. I’m happy with my decision, but it’s only been a few weeks. Most of you have probably owned large, flat televisions for much longer, though, so share your wisdom with Brendan.

Older stairwells were apparently not designed to handle the massive boxsprings that come with today’s double beds. When Sarah ordered a mattress set from Hampton Inn, she didn’t realize this, and ran up against a no-return policy and an inexplicable $500 markup for a split boxspring.

I recently purchased a mattress and box spring set from Hampton Inn Home Collections, thinking “why not have as good night sleep in my own house as in hotels!” I read the website carefully, and understood the no return policy. What I didn’t understand was the inability of the box spring to fit up my home’s narrow 1920s stairwell.

The delivery men tried for about an hour, ripping into paint on the wall and doorframe, which I told them was acceptable because I was so bound and determined to get that box spring up the stairs. Finally, we all relented and I sent the box spring back with the delivery men, keeping only the mattress (and the old box spring we had which I guess was worn enough to have fit up the stairs).

I inquired about receiving a split or low profile queen box spring to the company through email. They called and said that, yes, they could offer a split box spring for $500. I already paid over $1000 for the set, so inquired whether the box spring I had just returned to them would count against that $500. No, was the response. So the cost of the mattress set just went up by 39%? I refused and said that I would like the split box spring at a lower cost. End of conversation. Oh, they did offer to send the original box spring back to me, but I would need to pay for shipping.

My husband is a diamond member of the Hilton chain, and has brought me along to his brand loyalty over the years. This has definitely set me back in terms of my views of their customer service though. Especially since the customer service person told me “well, you should have measured it before you bought it,” when there are no measurements available on their website.

This sounds like a ripe situation for an executive e-mail carpet bomb. Launch one, and remind the company of your husband’s loyalty. And, perhaps, that posting measurements on the site would be wise.

Greg has a question for the world travelers and expats who are part of the Consumerist hive mind. He writes that he has about $2,000 worth of Chinese yuan, in cash, from his first year as a teacher in China. He’s back visiting the US for a few weeks, and can’t figure out what to do with his giant pile o’yuan.

I just finished my first year teaching in China and I’m back in America for a few weeks of R&R. I managed to save about $2000 in yuan (all cash) during my time there and thought I’d have an easy time converting it at my bank, Wells Fargo, when I returned. Not so much. When I went the other day, the bank was selling at a rate of $1:6.35CNY and buying at a rate of $1:7.69. My credit union doesn’t convert foreign currency and Travelex offered an even worse rate.

I knew coming in that I’d have to pay some sort of premium (mostly for bill verification), but a 21% markup is excessive. The money I’m losing converting to dollars here could fund a nice inter-China trip with my ladyfriend. So, my question is: should I blow the money I saved on something epic like hiring the ingredients for a Bloomsday party bus (driver, wait staff, bus, monkey trainer, cases of Guinness), bite the bullet and drop it in my bank account at a loss or schlep it all back to China in search of a better exchange rate?

My vote: blow it all at Walmart.

I haven’t ordered from Domino’s since approximately 1988, so I wouldn’t know, but they apparently have a wonderful breadstick dipping sauce. Or, they used to. It’s been discontinued. Scott tells Consumerist that he was dismayed to learn this after placing his most recent order, but heartened to learn that his local franchise is urging customers to contact corporate and bring the precious sauce back.

Let me preface this letter by stating: I understand and respect the power your webpage has over the consumer market and appreciate what you do. I am a devout follower. That is why I am writing to you. I know a lot of other people will feel how I feel about this topic, and this may be the only way to provoke change. Change back to the way things used to and should be.

My girlfriend, her roommates, and college students in general are appalled. Dominos has decided to can their wonderful Parmesan Peppercorn sauce that comes with their breadsticks. We received this in our order instead.

hopefully you post this and at least other people will know not to expect it. In our eyes, this was the only reason to order cheesy bread.

Golden business opportunity, Domino’s: bottle the stuff and sell it in campus convenience stores. Apparently.

What is a meal at Panera Bread worth to you? A former Panera location in a prosperous St. Louis suburb has reopened as “St. Louis Bread Company Cares,” a restaurant where customers can select a meal, then pay what they think the meal is worth–or as much as they can afford. If customers can’t afford to pay anything, they can volunteer to work there. A not-for-profit foundation runs the restaurant, which opened this week.

The location has the same menu as regular Panera locations and is part of the chain’s distribution network, but the new business model seemed to make customers’ brains explode.

Dawn Frierdich, 52, came in to buy three loaves of bread an iced tea. She asked how much the drink would cost.

“About $1.85,” said the 21-year-old cashier, Michael Miller.

And the whole order?

“It would be, like, $12,” Miller told her, reminding her she didn’t have to pay if she didn’t want to. Frierdich tried to hand him $12 in cash, but he directed her to put it in the donation jar.

“This is a little hard. I just can’t wrap my head around this,” Frierdich said.

If the outlet can support itself, Panera hopes to expand the model across the country.

New Panera location says pay what you want [AP]
Panera: Pay what you can afford [St. Louis Business Journal]

1-800-Contacts is the rare company where an actual human picks up the phone when you call–no maze of phone menus. Peter tells Consumerist that he had a fantastic experience where a customer service rep went above and beyond in the service of the health of his eyes.

I just wanted to mention my love for 1-800-contacts, and how they go above and beyond as a usual part of their business. Besides having a direct-to-CSR phone line (no phone-menu’s to navigate through, a real person picks up the phone immediately), friendly CSR’s, quick service, and a great return policy, today they went above and beyond what I would expect them to do. Let me explain:

I recently was told by my eye care professional to take a month break from contacts. My glasses were really old and cracked — pretty much unwearable. I went to an in-the-mall-one-hour glasses place to get a new pair before work the next day. They tried to call my optometrist’s office to get a copy of my current prescription so that they could fill the order for new glasses. Well, it turns out my doctor was on vacation, and so nobody would be able to send my prescription for several days.

I knew that 800contacts had my prescription since I order contacts from them. I called their number, and a friendly CSR answered right away. After verifying my identity, the CSR was eager to help by faxing a copy of my prescription (which they had on file) to the glasses place at the mall. She even offered to look up the mall-store’s phone number and fax number. Sure enough, they faxed it over, and I was able to get a new pair of glasses this evening.

I find these responsible actions to be refreshing. 800-contacts didn’t need to fax my prescription (in some sense the glasses store in the mall is a competitor — they sell contact lenses too). But, they went ahead and did it since it was the right thing to do. I’m continuously impressed by their level of service.

If you’re saving up to buy an iPad, don’t do it by sticking your spare cash into an envelope. (Or a sock, for that matter.) As a woman in Palo Alto, Calif. learned, the same “credit or debit cards only” policy that Apple put in place to prevent rampant reselling of iPhones exists for iPads, and no stack of bills can be exchanged for the shiny gadget.

Being disabled and on a fixed income, Campbell held off on buying a computer until the Apple iPad came along. It was small, mobile and perfect for her needs. So, little by little she saved up the $600 she needed to get one.

“It took quite a long time for me to just save up this small amount of money to go down and purchase one,” she said. “I had my cash in the backpack and I went up proudly to the counter and told them, ‘I would like to purchase an iPad.’”

She was at the Apple store in Palo Alto, about to pull out the big wad of cash and take home her first computer. Instead, she received a terrible blow.

“They said, ‘Sorry, we don’t take cash.’ And, so I looked at her and I said, OK she’s kidding,” Campbell recalled.

Customers can purchase iPhones with Apple gift cards, but not their plus-sized cousins. Indeed, Apple’s policy makes it difficult for people without bank accounts to buy the iPad–no matter how carefully they saved up for them.

Cash not always welcome at Apple stores [KGO]

RELATED:
Apple Escorts You From The Store For Trying To Purchase An iPhone With Cash
Your Cash Isn’t Good Enough For Apple’s Precious iPhone

Holden, a longtime Comcast customer, recently replaced his decade-old cable box with two shiny new ones. Comcast, unable to let a happy customer be, sent equipment that won’t allow his household to watch high-definition channels without paying for an extra cable package. Customer service’s most helpful response: Hook up an antenna, and switch inputs whenever they want to watch something on broadcast TV! Not helping, Comcast. Not helping.

I’m a Comcast cable, phone, and internet customer in Jacksonville, FL. My family has been with Comcast since they acquired AT&T’s cable operations in the area back in 2002, and we’re still using the digital cable box that AT&T installed. Recently, it started acting up and dropping the picture every few minutes, so we called Comcast to ask for a new box. They said they’d send us two boxes at no cost, more than we expected.

What we received were two of the “DTA” boxes, the ones that convert a digital signal to an analog one for older televisions. We called back at they said we need one of those on every television in our house, even digital televisions, because they’re switching over to an encrypted signal in our area in June. That didn’t fix the original problem – they need to send someone out to “fix” the 12 year old digital box, but we installed them anyways. It made our picture quality worse and we lost all our QAM channels, meaning we couldn’t get any of our local stations in HD anymore.

I called Comcast today and was told that if I wanted to keep receiving local channels in HD, I would need to upgrade to a basic HD package and pay for HD receivers for each digital TV in the house. I told the rep that I was satisfied with that because without upgrading, we’ll be getting less channels for the same amount of money. I asked if there was any way we could still receive our local channels in HD without paying them more money, and I was told to “pick up an antenna and an AV switch.”

I never thought I’d hear a cable company advising me to buy an antenna! Comcast offered to waive the cost of the HD receivers for a year, but we don’t want free HD cable channels. We just want the local stations we’ve been getting in HD since we bought our HDTVs without having to unplug the cable and hook up the antenna every time we want to watch them.

Comcast is effectively taking away some of our channels and expecting us to pay the same amount of money. We wouldn’t have known about this if we didn’t call because they haven’t notified us of the switch, so I imagine this is going to happen to other Comcast customers too.

If you like to hide large amounts of cash around your house, make sure to remember where you put it. And if you do tend to forget, make sure to check the crevices and pockets of everything before you donate it to charity or throw it away. This goes triple when cleaning out the home of an elderly relative. A 96-year-old woman in Asheville, N.C. recently donated a blanket that contained more than $5,000 in cash–and the Goodwill store managed to locate her and return the money.

The money belonged to Stella Hoyle, and on Saturday, Garnace and others gave the money back to Hoyle’s family, who they tracked down through a Burke County Schools paycheck stub dated 1975 found with the items.

Hoyle is 96 and lives at Chunns Cove Assisted Living, said her niece Ruthie Browning, who also is Hoyle’s power of attorney. Browning said the family found roughly $65,000 in cash stashed around her great aunt’s home when they cleaned it out last month.

“She hid (money) in the hamper, under the mattress, in old purses, under the bed, in closets tied up in handkerchiefs, all over the house in anything and everything,” Browning said. “That’s how she saved her money.”

Not really a sound savings strategy, but she’s old enough to not trust banks.

Asheville Goodwill store sorter gives back senior’s $5,365 found in sock [Asheville Citizen-Times]

Kevin bought some Breyers cookies and cream ice cream, and he writes that he was disappointed to find an almost total lack of cookies in the container. Noooo!

I don’t know what’s going on with this Ice Cream but we bought two tubs of it about a week ago and were severely disappointed with the quality. For example my family bought cookies and cream but what we got was vanilla ice cream with some black specks of cookie. I’ve attached pictures of the two tubs we bought both the pictures on the outside and then how the inside looks absolutely nothing like the exterior. Now I realize they will never match exactly but seriously my 7 year old was even disappointed since it literally had ZERO cookies. They have a “guarantee” on quality but you must mail it into an address with a UPC – and I’m not wasting my forever stamps for something like that…so I figured I’d get some satisfaction out of you guys busting them on their quality.

Now, it could be that this was mislabeled French vanilla…but unlikely. Aww, come on, Kevin, what’s 44 cents compared to the cost of two containers of ice cream?

Consumer Reports Health medical adviser Orly Avitzur, M.D. has both a medical practice and a lovely set of manicured nails. It’s this combination that gave her unique insight into the possible problems with manicures that are purportedly fancy “gel manicures,” but are actually something else more dangerous entirely.

And there are plenty of other chemicals to be concerned about. A US Environmental Protection Agency guide, produced to warn nail salon workers, indicates twenty chemicals found in nail glue, polish, hardeners, additives, powders or removers. A medical literature search shows that, in general, several of them—ethyl cyanoacrylate, formalin, toluene, and MMA—have been shown to induce neuropathy and can cause one or more of the following: irritation of the eyes, skin, mucous membranes, respiratory tract, or damage the kidneys or liver.

…

Ten warning signs to watch out for:

• Your salon uses bottles in unmarked containers
• The technician cannot tell you what’s in the products
• The products smell unusually strong or have a strange odor
• Your skin is being abraded or cut
• The salon is not clean
• The instruments are not sterilized
• Licenses for the salon and individual operators are not visibly posted
• Your skin or nails hurt
• The gels do not soak off easily in solvents designed to remove acrylics
• You see swelling, redness or other signs of infection

Manicures: The price may be higher than it seems [Consumer Reports Health]

Jesse has turned to Consumerist for help because he is being haunted by a relic from his past. Specifically, he writes that a debt collector has contacted him, claiming that he owes them for having a gas service account that he never used–in an apartment where he thought all utilities were included. What should he do?

Here’s his email:

I’ve run into a small problem recently, and I’m not sure what to do about it. I got a call from a debt collector saying I owe a gas bill from a couple apartments ago. I’ve never heard of the company and certainly never opened an account with them.

The debt collector gave me a phone number and an account number, so I called the company to learn what I could. They said if I lived there, I owed the bill, which is comprised entirely of fees for even having an account (I was a single bachelor and NEVER ONCE used the stove in that apartment).

As far as I knew, gas was included in the rent for that place. I’m not confident I still have a copy of the lease agreement, though. If I’m mistaken about utilities being included, what are my options? I’m quitting my job in 6 weeks and moving across the country, so I’m a little strapped for cash just now (there’s no lucrative job on the other end of the move).

We’ll turn this over to the Consumerist hive mind in case any of you have been in similar situations, but here are some places to start: First, Jesse should get hold of that former landlord, whether it was an individual or a company, to see whether they have any idea what’s going on. It’s possible that the building just recently switched to having tenants pay gas–and former tenants like Jesse were caught up in some kind of crazy billing error.

If hecan turn up evidence that the debt is invalid (or if he’s really, really sure that the gas was included) dispute the debt after making sure that the zombie agency really does own the debt.

Check out the comments of this classic post from 2008 for more ideas. And the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities may also be able to help out in this situation–give them a call.

RELATED:
When Zombie Utility Bills Attack! 4 Years Later, You Owe $696.51
Update: Zombie Utility Bill Uprising Defeated!
Zombie Debt Collectors Find You At Grandma’s
Zombie Debt Collectors on Rampage

Good news: the large, fuzzy creature that an Ohio woman found nestled on the top of her can of Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs was not a rodent hoping to star in a “Ratatouille” sequel. It was just a fluffy, cuddly clump of mold.

ConAgra, the company that makes Chef Boyardee, released a statement last week about the pasta’s rodent-free status. Despite the family’s claims in their YouTube video that they saw tiny feet, they were mistaken.

“It’s not an animal of any kind, that it is most likely mold,” said Dave Jackson, spokesperson for ConAgra Foods. “We will confirm this with a series of tests we’ll be doing over the next two days.”

Those tests are expected to be concluded by Thursday.

Jackson says they believe the can was damaged on the way to the store.
“Sometimes a very small piece of damage to a can that would be very difficult for a customer to see, but we have the ability to test and determine, could lead to something like this,” said Jackson.

The company’s advice to consumers: Don’t buy dented cans.

Solid advice.

We contacted ConAgra for the final test results, and will update this post when we get them.

Can Mystery Solved, ConAgra Says It’s Mold [KY Post]

PREVIOUSLY:
VIDEO: Woman Says She Found Something Gross In Chef Boyardee Can

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Giant Mold Universe Found Inside Chef Boyardee Can
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Martinelli’s Apple Juice: Now With Mold!