Author: Laura Northrup

According to various news sources in Canada, a man in New Brunswick has been banned for life from both of his local Tim Hortons coffee/donut shops after complaining a few times too many about the burnt taste of the chain’s decaf. Now he makes his own coffee at home, which is probably just as well for everyone involved.

By this standard, all Consumerist staff should have been banned from Starbucks years ago.

“It was like brown, burnt water,” said Craig. “I almost, you know, got sick in the sink.”

Craig said he voiced his concerns to the store manager and corporate office, then got a meeting with the owner, Edwin Dow.

That’s when Dow served Craig with a letter banning him under the province’s trespass act.

A representative of Tim Hortons defended the ban, claiming that the customer was a nuisance to shop employees, and they needed to put an end to the situation.

Despite free coffees, fresh pots and meetings with the corporate office, he was continually dissatisfied with the quality of the coffee and kept on complaining.

“He became increasingly aggressive with store staff and was impacting their ability to serve other customers,” said [Tim Hortons director of public affairs David] Morelli. “Our staff work long and hard to please each customer every day. But at some point, we have to respectfully agree to disagree, and suggest we go our separate ways.”

There’s definitely a line past which a complaining customer stops goes over the edge of reason and just becomes a nuisance to a business. Where is that line, though? How far can a consumer go before becoming a pest? And is there seriously no other place in St. Andrews, New Brunswick that serves decaf?

Tim Hortons bans complaining customer [CBC] (Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)
Tim Hortons defends N.B. ban [Edmonton Sun]

When Rick’s 2-year-old laptop failed for the second time due, he did not roll over and buy a new laptop or pay $400 for the repairs. This particular model of laptop had been recalled due to this very flaw, and that was not acceptable to Rick. He fought back, and shares his tale of triumph.

I love my HP computers. Over the past 9 years, I’ve bought ten of them and all of them have worked wonderfully. With one exception.

I bought a heavily-customized dv6000 laptop from HP in 2007 for $1000. Fifteen months later, the motherboard failed. It was out of warranty but the dv6000 had some many overheating issues that HP had a special program to repair them. It took about 10 days start-to-finish, cost me nothing, and I was happy. Twelve months later the motherboard failed again.

This was when I found out that HP had not fixed the overheating problem, but merely replaced the failed parts. It was less of a repair than a delaying tactic, since the warranty on the replaced parts was only 90 days. This time HP Support said the special program had expired and now it would cost $400 to replace the motherboard. “But, wait! We’ll give you a special price of $259.” I declined, reasoning that it would just overheat again in another year, and pressed for another option. Support wouldn’t budge.

On December 7, I sent an EECB to 10 HP executives, outlining my dilemma and my long-time support of HP’s products. I requested, as an opening position, that I be given a refund or a credit for a replacement laptop due to the repeated problems. Multiple executives sent my email to the Executive Customer Response (ECR) group, but only one responded directly to me. His response was that ECR would contact me, but it was a personal response.

The next day, ECR made me the same offer of $259 that Peon Customer Response (PCR) made. They also tossed out the “there are no other options” line: a patently false statement, since HP has all kinds of options regarding its own products. They also seemed mystified as to why I thought a yearly $259-400 repair was excessive on a $1000 laptop. I declined their offer.

On December 9, I sent an mini-EECB to the VP who had emailed me. This time I expressed my regret that PCR and ECR would only offer one unacceptable resolution. I said I was sorry that HP and I couldn’t work out a solution and the following week I would file in magistrates court to see if a small claims judge would provide a better resolution.

ECR called me that afternoon to offer me a free repair (See — there were other options!). I said I would accept the repair if they would back it up with a longer warranty. If they really believed the repair would fix the problem, then the extra warranty would cost them nothing. I thought I’d be calling again the next year when the new motherboard overheated, so a 90-day warranty was useless. At this point, he stopped talking about repairs and offered me an HP gift card for the total purchase price of the computer. Not prorated, no strings attached — $1000. I picked my jaw up from the floor and immediately accepted. I got the gift card and ordered the replacement computer three days later.

This entire process occurred over one week and involved a half dozen phone calls and a dozen emails. Everyone I spoke with was polite and professional and I responded in kind. It just took time to reach the right person and convince them that I wasn’t going to left the issue drop. Persistence pays off.

The Great American Apparel Diet is not, as it seems at first glance, what you have to follow in order to look good in a bizarre adult romper. No, it’s a pledge that a group of women have taken to not buy any new clothing for one year. What have they learned? That people tend to buy a lot more stuff than they really need.

As one participant noted, re-evaluating and fixing up what’s already in your wardrobe is something that few people bother with when the option to buy something shiny and new is there instead.

Stacya Silverman: What I have learned from this apparel diet is that a good tailor is so important. Back to the things we don’t wear because of some minor thing, like skirt length: It is so easy to have the hem on things changed, so I have been doing this for my clothes that are too big, too long, lousy buttons, easily repaired tears, or just poor fit. Two of my skirts were so boxy and plain, and made me look like I had no shape. So this great tailor in town, Sarah Harlett, took them both in to fit my shape perfectly. Now they are my favorite items and I wear them all the time, so I feel less wasteful of the money I spent on these things but never wore because of fit.

Most apparel diets tend to be involuntary and for financial reasons, but the Great American Apparel Diet participants are still inspiring in a way. It’s a nice reminder to ask yourself while shopping do you really need nine pair of jeans?

Great American Apparel Diet [Official Site]
Q&A: The Year of No Clothing Purchases [Time]

Christopher writes about a promotion from Cox that sounded pretty great. The cable company and ISP offered a free Playstation 3 slim to customers who either signed up for a new account or upgraded to faster broadband. The problem with such a great offer? People tend to tell their friends. And those friends tend to call Cox to see if they can get in on the deal, too.

Cox in Arizona has had an offer out since January for a FREE Playstation 3 slim in exchange for either a) signup for a new broadband account or b) upgrade to the next higher tier of service (i.e., Basic to Preferred, Preferred to Premier) with a 12 month contract. That’s a pretty good deal. I learned about this Friday Feb 4th from a co-worker, who received a flyer in the mail, and responded. He had the exact same Cox service as me (Preferred). His PS3 is on its way and he was so tickled he was telling everybody he could find. I was thinking about upgrading, so I called. The CSR acknowledged the offer and that it is valid, but “Do I have the code from a flyer.” “No, I didn’t receive a flyer,” I reply. “You’re not eligible.”

Apparently this was set up as an offer to attract new subscribers, but due to an error by their marketing team, it went out to existing subscribers as well, and Cox is honoring those. A few threads have opened up on www.dslreports.com and a few other sites about this offer, and Cox is definitely honoring this selectively, even for people who didn’t receive the original mailing! As of Saturday, Feb 5th, they’ve really clamped down, I heard they’re running out of PS3s!

Unhappy about this, I called again, this time requesting to cancel. The loyalty rep I talked to knew all about the offer. I explained I did not have a code, but I was willing to upgrade and agree to the terms of the offer. She went on a 7 minute consult with her supervisor, and returned with bad news. Cox was not going to honor it. She admitted “some subscribers got it, and some didn’t”. She couldn’t explain why. I told her this was all leaving a very bad taste in my mouth, I could not understand why this was such a “lottery”, and it appeared their sales CSRs were making exceptions all over the place. She then told me that anyone not on the original marketing mailing list who was told they got the offer would have their PS3 shipment revoked! (I really feel sorry for Cox if that’s true.) I proceeded with the cancellation of my phone and broadband services. She offered the 10% off my bill, and kept upping the offer, but I made it crystal clear that it was because of the PS3. I’ve been a good customer for the last 11 years. Too bad for Cox.

I really have to hand it to Cox’ marketing department They came up with such a great promotion that it’s spreading via word-of-mouth, and they’ve succeeded in offending their current customers. They really know how to mobilize their installed base to move to Qwest. I’m so disappointed with Cox. I wish I had never found out about this in the first place.

Indeed, it’s poor customer service to allow some customers who never received the flyer in the first place to sign up for the PS3 deal. This is why making sure all of your customer service reps are on the same page is essential. But canceling an account because a CSR won’t perpetuate the mistake and bend the rules for you? That is an overreaction–but hey, the free market and competition are a beautiful thing, and you can cancel and switch providers any time you feel like it for any reason.

On this, the holiest of all American TV-watching days, we’d like to share with you the horrific story of a Florida family whose Super Bowl viewing party will be a lot less intense than they had planned. The new, expensive HDTV they purchased from Best Buy was somehow shattered inside its box, and the retailer claims that it’s the family’s fault.

A Best Buy employee loaded the box in their vehicle, and they brought the TV home only to discover that its beautiful 50-inch screen was destroyed. The family says that Best Buy blames them for the damage, and they have now filed in small claims court.

Family’s New Big Screen Television In Pieces [First Coast News] (Thanks, Justin!)

Coca-Cola in China has been fined 2.05 yuan (30 cents) after a customer found a cockroach just over an inch long inside a bottle of Sprite. At least it wasn’t Coke or another cola, because then the customer wouldn’t have noticed until the bug was in his mouth.

A man surnamed Gao, who bought a box of soft drinks containing 24 bottles of Sprite on June 23, 2007 from a supermarket in Beijing, found a three cm long cockroach-like insect inside one bottle of the popular drink.

Gao took the company to Daxing court in 2008, asking for 5.1 yuan [75 cents]. The amount included 2.05 yuan for the bottle, 2.05 yuan as a penalty, and 1 yuan in psychological damage. He additionally requested an official apology from Coca Cola.

“I don’t want money. It’s a lawsuit concerning public interests,” Gao told the Beijing News, adding that all his family members have given up the famous brand’s products because they are “disgusting”.

The company has not issued an apology, and the case has been appealed to a higher court.

Coca-Cola fined for bottled insect in soft drink [China Daily]

There are lots of weird and amazing things that you can buy on the Internet. Cracked rounded twelve of the craziest things that you can order online. Most of them seem like things that someone might order if they are an aspiring supervillain. Or have so much money they don’t know what to do with it all. Or both.

We’d have to say that #8, the Water Walking Ball (pictured), provides the worst value for your money, costing $500 and providing you with only the ability to run around on the surface of water like some sort of deranged hamster messiah. Or maybe #4, the levitating hover scooter. It costs $17,000, but it’s a levitating hover scooter.

The best value, of course, is #10, the Cody Box Kite, which can theoretically lift a heavily armed man hundreds of feet off the ground to… I don’t know, shoot at birds or something. It costs $50 and promises hours of death-defying fun. Or #2, a military surplus tank. Tanks are always a solid investment, no matter how much they cost.

The 12 Most Insane Things You Can Buy on the Internet [Cracked] (Thanks, Dirk!)

A woman in Oregon has sued her local McDonald’s franchisee after spilling hot coffee from the drive-thru window on herself. She claims that the coffee was too hot and the lid too loose, and seeks $7,500 in damages.

According to the suit, “as it was being handed to her by an employee of the defendant, the plaintiff took the cup of coffee and the plastic top fell off and spilled very hot coffee on plaintiff’s upper right leg…”

She went into “nervous shock,” endured pain and has scarring. She seeks $7,182 for her pain and suffering, plus another $318 for lost wages and medical expenses.

Portland woman sues McDonald’s over spilled hot coffee [The Oregon]
Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurants [Wikipedia]

As anyone who has tried to carefully count calories knows, the serving sizes on food packages don’t have much to do with reality. The FDA has finally realized that putting accurate serving sizes on labels might have an effect on the amount of food Americans cram into our mouths in one sitting.

“If you put on a meaningful portion size, it would scare a lot of people,” said Barry Popkin, a nutrition professor at the University of North Carolina. “They would see, ‘I’m going to get 300 calories from that, or 500 calories.’ ”

The problem is important because the standard serving size shown on a package determines all the other nutritional values on the label, including calorie counts. If the serving size is smaller than what people really eat, unless they study the label carefully they may think they are getting fewer calories or other nutrients than they are.

Do you think that seeing realistic calorie counts on your favorite foods would help you with portion control? Food packaging works along with our tendency to underestimate how much we’ve eaten (or plan to eat.) Maybe a big sticker saying “If you eat half of this bag of potato chips, you will consume 1,200 calories” would work.

One Bowl = 2 Servings. F.D.A. May Fix That. [NY Times] (Thanks, Roger!)

Jeff is patiently waiting for the recently released movies in his Netflix queue, but his taste in films is evidently working against him. He says that the top ten discs in his queue all have long waits, and he is frustrated. Is he being throttled, a victim of having popular tastes, or both?

He writes:

It’s been a while since I’ve seen any of the dreaded “Netflix
throttling” reports here, so I thought I’d write in and share my
current experience with the DVD service. I have been a faithful
Netflix subscriber for about three years now, and for the better part
of the last year I feel like my account has been unfairly throttled,
especially when it comes to new releases. I have enclosed a screencap
of my current queue, and as you can see all of the movies are on
either “Long” or “Very Long Wait” status (The two that have gone to
“Short Wait” have only done so this morning). “Battlestar Galactica:
The Plan”, has been out since October!

I understand that new releases movies aren’t always immediately
available, but I am not exaggerating when I say that for a year now,
EVERY new release that I click on always has a “Long Wait” status at
the very least! I simply feel that this is unacceptable. I have the
three DVD plan (with $4 extra for Blu-ray access), and while I love
the streaming content, I’m paying this hard earned money to be able to
get the physical discs that I want to see, when I want to see them.
When I contacted customer service, the rep was pleasant, but gave me
the typical brush-off responses like “Well, newer customers and
customers that don’t rent often will get the new releases faster”, and
“Try to time getting your movies back before the Tuesday release dates
and you’ll have better luck”.

I know my account is being throttled.I’d think about canceling but I
don’t have cable and the streaming content is vital to my
entertainment needs. I’m kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Advice?

Jeff reports that requesting the DVD in place of the Blu-Ray for these films doesn’t speed the queue up any.

A few years ago, Kate made a horrible mistake. As the IT contact for her employer, she gave Dell her cell phone number. She tells Consumerist that apparently this gave the company license to give her status updates on the company’s Dell orders between 5 and 6 A.M. Pacific time. Even after she no longer worked in that position. Even after repeated phone calls and e-mails begging Dell to stop calling her. The worst part? Kate isn’t the only one.

Years ago, I was the contact for IT for the company I worked for. We ordered a bunch of computers from Dell one day, and I made the worst decision I’ve ever made – I gave them my cell phone number. About a year ago, I left the IT position, and called Dell and told them to remove me from their contact list – I even gave them the new guy’s information. Despite this, I still get the status calls on ever Dell order the company places – which seems to be fairly often. What’s worse is that Dell seems to have no sense of what acceptable hours are. Most of the calls are between 5:00AM and 6:00AM! I have to keep my cell phone on all night for other reasons, but being awoken at 5:30am by an overly-perky automated message from Dell telling me that the parts requested are backordered is awful.

I can barely count the number of emails and calls that I have sent/made in an attempt to get this to stop. But what worries me more is that I found countless postings in other forums about Dell doing the same thing to other people at horrific hours.

What I’d really like is Michael Dell’s cell and home numbers, so I can call him at 5am to tell him that his customer service is horrendous. But for now, I’ll turn to Consumerist and its readers. Advice? Other ways of getting through to Dell?

If it makes you feel better, you could try e-mailing Michael Dell at five in the morning Texas time. That’s [email protected]. You could also try the e-mail addresses that another reader used in her EECB, in a strangely similar situation:

Cc: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Good luck, Kate. Sleep well and dream of victory.

Dell Has Called Every Day For The Past Eight Months… And I’m Not A Customer!

Gawker shared photos of pillaged Safeway and Wegmans stores in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Maybe it’s my roots in upstate New York’s snow belt, but I have to ask: D.C., you do remember that snow melts, right?

See, this is the effect of mass weather-induced panic and, apparently, an area almost wholly dependent on takeout food.

Snowpocalypse ’10: Everybody Panic! [Gawker]

Tales of unacceptable food don’t just appeal to our more prurient interests. They do hit the “eww, can’t look away!” center of the brain quite squarely, but these stories do more than that. They give us an uncomfortable insight into the complexity of the Western food supply, how industrialized and automated food processing really is, and how underpaid restaurant staff can be really obnoxious sometimes. Fast-food employees in particular.

In that spirit of public education and outreach, here are 13 of the grossest food-related stories from the last four years and change of The Consumerist. Enjoy. Learn. Try not to vomit.

This post does contain pictures, but they’re tiny and it’s difficult to determine what’s in them. Well, mostly.

Customer Claims There Was Human Blood in Her Taco Bell
A customer of a Louisville KFC/Taco Bell is claiming that smears of human blood were all over her order. ” Briana Ralston says she and her 1-year-old daughter were already home, had already eaten part of their dinner by the time they discovered what looks like human blood on the bag and wrappers — even where the wrappers came into contact with the food.”

This Kmart Bacon Is Excellent, But Could Use Some More Fat
Your first instinct will be to say, “Simon, fat is the point of bacon.” Then you will look at the picture above and realize that your second instinct, to vomit, is in fact, the correct one.

Applebee’s Apple Walnut Chicken Salad, Now With Free Insect Leg
“You all know me. I am, in general, not one to complain and pretty much have a positive outlook on life. Well, something so disgusting happened to yours truly today that I just can’t keep it to myself and wanted you all to be aware…”

Reader Says He Found Brains In His KFC
This is probably deep-fried small intestine, according to commenters, for some of whom finding this in their KFC is apparently a common occurrence.

Dead Bugs Found In Health Valley Soup
We asked Elaine if she took it back to Publix and she said, ‘Honestly, I was so disgusted that I couldn’t fathom putting that thing in my car. I threw it away.” Ew.

Texas Roadhouse Steak Stuffed With Pubic Hair
According to the criminal complaint, later that night Kropp placed hair in a second steak, turned to a co-worker, and announced, “These are my pubes.” The cook was charged with a felony count of putting a foreign object in food, punishable by a max of 3.5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Customer Claims McDonald’s Gave Her Mucus-Filled Iced Tea
Say you’re driving along sipping your iced tea when you suddenly realize that your mouth is full of something slimy. You would probably freak out. One McDonald’s customer says this happened to her and she is definitely freaking out.

Snakehead Found In T.G.I.F. Sandwich
“I wasn’t too alarmed when I came across a gray mass under the broccoli. Many restaurants include mushrooms in their veggie selection. It was when I noticed the green spots, and then the mouth that I became alarmed.

It was a decomposed reptile head.”

Pardon Me, But There Is A Mouse In This Can Of Diet Pepsi Good News,That Dead Mouse In Your Diet Pepsi Was Actually A Toad

His wife told WFTV, “He made a face. I was sitting there and he said it tasted awful and something wasn’t right.” According to the couple, there was what appeared to be a mouse inside the can.

Here’s how they described it.

“We’re not sure what it is. It was pink. It looks like spaghetti. It’s really sick,” the wife said.

Man Claims To Have Found Condom In Soup
A man in Mission Viejo, California, says when he began eating his french onion soup over Easter brunch at the restaurant Claim Jumper, he bit into something rubbery. He “spit out the piece of cheese only to discover he had been chewing on what his wife claimed was a condom.”

Loaf Of Bread Comes With Baked-In Rodent Goodness
Back in 2007, a man in Northern Ireland opened up a loaf of bread and found a whole, mercifully dead, rat. (The BBC is reporting that it’s a mouse, but it’s either a giant mutant mouse or a rat.)

Walmart Frozen Green Beans Come With Free Frog
Mmm, delicious green beans! Oh wait, what’s that? Kermit, nooooooo!

A woman in Tyler, TX found a surprise waiting for her in the bottom of her “Great Value” green beans from Walmart— a frozen frog.

This Weight Watchers Meal Includes A Free Frozen Frog
Noreen tells Consumerist that she made an exciting discovery yesterday. Her Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen meal, a fettucine alfredo dish that is supposed to be meatless, included a free protein-rich side dish. A tiny frog!

The FTC has sent warning letters to 78 companies about clothing and household products marketed as being made from bamboo. Many of the products were were allegedly made out of rayon that may or may not have originally been derived from bamboo. The offenders include huge names like Walmart, Land’s End, Kohl’s, The Gap, and Target.

“But wait,” you might say, “isn’t rayon a synthetic fabric made out of oil or something?” Not quite. Rayon is derived from plants originally, but is so processed that it’s not as environmentally friendly as plain old bamboo. Here’s how the FTC’s press release explains the difference:

Rayon is a man-made fiber created from the cellulose found in plants and trees and processed with harsh chemicals that release hazardous air pollution. Any plant or tree – including bamboo – could be used as the cellulose source, but the fiber that is created is rayon.

In other words, these companies advertising their rayon wares as renewable, green, and cuddly bamboo is something akin to illustrating a package of cookies and cream ice cream with a picture of wheat fields and advertising its whole-grain content. Sure, there’s flour in there somewhere, but there’s been so much processing since then that touting the grain content is sort of beyond the point by now.

FTC Warns 78 Retailers, Including Wal-Mart, Target, and Kmart, to Stop Labeling and Advertising Rayon Textile Products as “Bamboo” [FTC] (Thanks, Mark!)
List of Companies [FTC] (PDF)

First, there was Pepsi Vanilla. Then there was Pepsi Lime. Now, exclusively at Walgreens, you can get the latest special flavor of Pepsi: Pepsi H1N1. It is also available in frozen pizza, Buffalo wing, and ice cream form.

Fortunately, if you’re not yet infected, Coke bottles offer the vaccine.

Yes, as if their outdoor billboards advertising “H1N1 NOW AVAILABLE” weren’t confusing enough, they’ve now apparently printed up stickers and started slapping them on every surface in the store with no sense whatsoever of how this could be just a bit incongruous. Nah.

Thanks to Dan for the photos.

Your suffering may finally be over, fast food fiends. No more awkwardly torn ketchup packets and tomato-soaked fingers. No more dipping your fries into a dollop of ketchup on a napkin or burger wrapper. NO. Heinz has introduced the ketchup packet 2.0, and the future looks…well, remarkably like the containers of McNugget dipping sauces McDonald’s has been using since the ’80s. But it’s still an improvement.

This bold technological breakthrough took a lot of research.

Heinz struggled for years to develop a container that lets diners dip or squeeze, and to produce it at a cost acceptable to its restaurant customers.

“The packet has long been the bane of our consumers,” said Dave Ciesinski, vice president of Heinz Ketchup. “The biggest complaint is there is no way to dip and eat it on-the-go.”

Designers found that what worked at a table didn’t work where many people use ketchup packets: in the car. So two years ago, Heinz bought a used minivan for the design team members so they could give their ideas a real road test.

The team studied what each passenger needed. The driver wanted something that could sit on the armrest. Passengers wanted the choice of squeezing or dunking. Moms everywhere wanted a packet that held enough ketchup for the meal and didn’t squirt onto clothes so easily.

Fun fact from the article: Heinz sells 11 billion packets per year. That’s an awful lot of fries, and that’s just Heinz.

New ketchup packet allows for dunking or squeezing [AP]
Heinz® Ketchup ‘Uncaps’ New Decade with Revolutionary Product and Packaging Innovations [Press Release]

The launch and early customer support of the Google’s Nexus One phone, manufactured by HTC, has been a bit problematic. But let’s try some optimism! Maybe now that the early hype has died down and HTC has had some time to get used to the situation, warranty replacements will take place in a timely fashion! Or…well, as reader Michael writes, evidently not. Update: Thanks to this post, Michael’s new phone is on its way.

I got a Nexus One at launch, and my experience was great for the first
couple of weeks. Google is great, and Android is fantastic, but my
experience with HTC over the last two weeks has been among the worst
customer service I have ever received.

On January 23, my touchscreen started having issues. When the phone
was on for more than a minute or so, it would register touches where
they weren’t, even when I wasn’t touching it. If I tried to touch
backspace, it would start typing spaces and Rs repeatedly, for
instance. Sleeping the phone and waking it would fix it for a few
seconds, but then it would go right back. It didn’t matter how I held
it or how much pressure I applied. I did a factory reset, and that
didn’t fix the problem; it took me quite a while to enter in my Google
account information to resync it with the keyboard going haywire.

So, on January 24, I called HTC for warranty support. I wasn’t on
hold for long at all, and the CSR seemed very helpful. My first
impressions were very positive. I was theirs to lose. So they
promptly went about losing me.

Since I need the phone for work, and couldn’t be without it for too
long, I elected to get a new phone sent to me, and I’d send the old
one back. This required a credit card from me, in case I didn’t send
in this nonworking one. Fine, no problem. I gave them my address and
credit card information. The CSR told me that the new phone would
ship two-day, within 48 hours, and I’d be given a tracking number as
soon as it was sent out. No problem; I don’t need text messaging for
work, and as long as I have that few-second window of touchscreen use,
I can make calls, so I’ll be all right for the next few days.

One week goes by, and I hear nothing. The touchscreen gets gradually
worse, failing just about as soon as I can slide to unlock. I can
still dial with the trackball, so it’s still useful as a phone, but
since the Back button is part of the touchscreen, it can be almost
impossible to even get out of menus. If I sleep it, then wake up and
quickly slide and press back, I can go back one screen… sometimes.

I emailed them again on January 31 (a Sunday), asking if I could get
my tracking number. I get an email the next day (Feb. 1, Monday)
saying that there’s something wrong, but the customer service
department doesn’t know what, and I should call the RMA department to
find out. I call them, and am told that the last four digits of my
credit card number didn’t save in my file, so they need it again. Why
they didn’t call me immediately to tell me this, I don’t know. I give
it. I then get a call at 5:40 (after close of business, of course)
saying that it STILL didn’t save, and they need it again. I give it,
and ask when I’ll get my new phone. They say, once again, that it’ll
go out soon, and I’ll get a tracking number as soon as it goes out.
For some reason, I still believe them.

Wednesday morning, February 3, I call and ask what’s up. They say
that my address didn’t save in their system, and they need it again.
I give it. They call back an hour later, saying that it STILL didn’t
save, and they need it again. I give it. They say that it will
definitely go out that day, no problem, and I’ll have the phone by
Friday. I then called back towards the end of the day, with no
tracking number, and say that I need the replacement shipped
overnight. My touchscreen is now all but useless; most of the time, I
can’t even slide it to unlock. Tim, the escalation supervisor, says
that if it didn’t go out that day, it would the next, and I would
definitely have a tracking number by noon the next day.

That brings us to today. I called at noon, asking where my tracking
number was. After waiting on hold for several minutes, I was told
that Tim was “on it,” and it will go out “today or tomorrow,” two-day
shipped, so I should have it by Monday. I no longer believe them. My
phone does not work. I’m paying T-Mobile for service that I cannot
use. I called in the problem a week and a half ago. I need this
phone for work, and I don’t have it. HTC doesn’t seem to care. They
already have my money; why bother?

Rumor has it that Google is staffing up to provide support themselves.
If anyone is planning on getting a Nexus One, I highly – HIGHLY –
recommend waiting for this. I’ve recommended the Nexus One to many of
my friends, but now I’m going to ask those in the two-week window to
return them while they can. I hope Google goes with a better
manufacturer for their next phone.

Depends. How’s Motorola’s warranty support?

Consumerist has contacted HTC about Michael’s situation specifically and Nexus One warranty returns in general. We’ll let you know what they have to say.

Update: We heard back from HTC’s PR firm. The issue with Michael’s replacement phone was resolved, and they’ve overnighted a new handset to him. Great news! Thanks for the quick response, Waggener Edstrom and HTC!

Now maybe they can help all of the other customers experiencing the exact same problem, too.

A man in Alabama has been charged with attempted murder and resisting arrest after allegedly driving his truck into a gas station. According to Jefferson County police, the suspect was angry that the only pump available was pre-pay only.

[Jefferson County Chief Deputy Randy] Christian said the service station had a pre-pay only system and Mayes’s pump had not been turned on because he hadn’t paid yet.

“You are going to die and go to hell,” the chief deputy quoted Mayes as telling the store clerk.

I didn’t think that prepay pumps were that hard to use.

Suspect angered by pre-pay gas pump [UPI] (Thanks, GitEmSteveDave!)

Gizmodo is reporting today that Apple is offering a 15% “refund bonus” to some customers who return one of the numerous 27″ iMacs with a nasty yellow tinge to their beautiful big screens. iMacs are not cheap, so that’s at least $250 depending on your computer’s configuration.

Still think that the widespread iMac problems don’t exist? After we reported Apple giving UK customers 15% refund bonuses with 27-inch iMac returns, we’ve heard from quite a few readers that Apple is doing the same thing in the US.

15%. Cash. So on a $2000 machine, we’re talking about a $300 apology straight from Apple customer support. From the handful of reader anecdotes we’ve received thus far, it sounds like you need to be a repeat iMac returner who’s dealt with multiple 27-inch iMacs that have been busted in some way (but they may accommodate first time buyers as well, we don’t know). One reader had multiple yellow screens, then received another new model with broken Bluetooth. He took the 15% and just returned it.

One of Gizmodo’s editors had the misfortune to buy one of the affected iMacs, and you can read the whole saga there. Drama! Intrigue! LCDs! Internal memos!

Have you received your own return bonus after an iMac saga? Let us know.

Apple Paying Out 15% On Broken 27-Inch iMacs [Gizmodo]
Faulty iMac Saga [Gizmodo]

PREVIOUSLY:
Apple Customers Growing Frustrated Over Defective 27-Inch iMacs
Apple Genius Insults Customer, But Apple Corporate Steps In To Fix Things

Rick bought a light bulb at Home Depot that turned into more of a geography test. The question it poses: is there anywhere in the world that has an average of three hours of darkness year-round? The answer: no. Which means that the claims on the front of this light bulb package contradict each other.

He wrote:

Hi, I purchased this Phillips CFL bulb at Home Depot. It says on the front, “Energy Saver Automatic Postlight” “Turns on at Dusk, off at Dawn” and “Last 7 Years (see back for details)”.

On the back it says “based on 3 hours average use per day/7 days per week”. I’d like Phillips to show me on a map a place where nighttime is an average of 3 hours per day. Please!

The 3 hours use claim is perfectly rational for an outdoor light that doesn’t use its awesome photosensor abilities as a selling point. Either the bulb lasts 7 years, or you’re supposed to leave it on all night. Pick a side, Philips.