Author: Laura Northrup

Victor wants to warn Consumerist readers: no matter how much you love your TiVo, do not jump in and let yourself be an early adopter of the company’s new product, the Premiere (or series 4) box. He and other Premiere users have shared their tales of heartbreak and bugs with the Internet.

I’ve been a huge fan of TiVo, going all the way back to the Series 1 launch in 1999 when Prince was partying and no one understood the concept of a DVR-thingie. So when TiVo released the Series 4 (aka Premiere) earlier this month, I dutifully upgraded three of our four TiVos on the spot. Big mistake. The series 4 is, without a doubt, the buggiest, not-ready-for-primetime experience in the company’s history. The new high-def user interface is a sluggish, lockup-prone mess. Lockups are not something you want from your DVR appliance. It’s always a treat to find out your favorite show won’t be taped in its entirety because you had the nerve to navigate menus or see what else was on the box while it was recording, leading to a random lockup. There’s a TON of complaints about this in the TiVo community forums (www.tivocommunity.com). The solution seems to be just to turn the HD interface off and use the Series 4 with the SD menus only. Unfortunately that doesn’t guarantee a bug-free experience as the SD user interface still has lockups as well. TiVo pushed out an update last night, but in 12 hours of testing, the interface is still buggy and lockup-prone. This box should NOT have been released in this condition. It’s obvious that TiVo needed at LEAST 6 more months to give this the polish TiVo was formerly known for. In my experience with TiVo series 1-3 I’ve never had a box so unstable. Caveat Emptor.

Remember Bob? He had an extended warranty on his Kenmore dishwasher, and Sears decided that it would much rather send repairman after repairman to fix his defective dishwasher–and reimburse him to pay someone to wash his dishes. Between following Doug Moore, SVP and President of Appliances on Twitter and writing to Consumerist, Bob is getting a new dishwasher. A functioning dishwasher.

Well, I wanted to tell you that all’s well that ends well. Doug Moore, President of Sears Appliances did, in fact, “follow” me on Twitter which enabled me to send him a direct message. He replied back, asking for my cell phone number so that we could talk. Within 60 seconds of sending him my number, my phone rang. “Bob? Hello, this is Doug Moore….” I was pleasantly shocked that he called me himself, and was very pleased when he told me that he was going to have someone call me from their “Sears Cares” support group. Shortly thereafter, Robert from that group called me and he looked over the long list of items on that had been addressed. He told me – without me asking – that he would be getting me a replacement dishwasher and that he was very sorry for the inconvenience. So, thanks to Consumerist for providing the forum, and to Sears for listening. My faith in a great American institution has been restored, and our family can stop arguing who’s turn it is to wash the dishes!

Functioning appliances and family harmony: a happy ending indeed.

Citicorp posted a $4.4 billion profit this past quarter. Pretty fantastic, right? How are they rewarding their loyal customers? By jacking their interest rates and closing their credit card accounts, of course.

Reader Matt wrote to Consumerist for help:

I’ve been a Citibank cardholder for eight years now. I got my first card, a Citi Platinum Select, my freshman year of college in spring of 2002. Subsequently, over the intervening years, I’ve received three more cards: a Dividend rewards card, a Diamond Preferred card, and a Citi Professional card. Prior to this fracas, I maintained a FICO score above 700 on all three bureaus. My one major ding, however, was the balances to limit ratio…I fell into the trap of lots of college students. Going through grad school didn’t make things any easier. But I never missed a payment, was late only once in 8 years (and that only by 1 day), and I always made more than the minimum payment.

The problems started when, in preparation for the CARD act about six months ago, Citi sent me letters regarding my Dividend Rewards and Diamond Preferred cards, casually alerting me to the fact that they were changing the terms of my card. My rates would increase from 6.99% and 9.99%, respectively, to 29.99% each. (The former rates were not promotional rates, they were the result of consistently calling in every six months and slowly whittling down the rates over time.) The only way to I could retain my old rate on these cards was to cancel them. They explained the rate increase as the result of “increased lending costs”. I didn’t buy it, and immediately canceled the cards.

Since I carried balances on both cards, it immediately hurt the already bad situation in my debt ratios on my credit score. i.e. I had X amount of debt, with a $0 limit on the closed accounts. Kind of turned me upside-down.

Today I received another letter from Citi, notifying me that, “In our normal course of business, we review the standards we use to extend credit. We recently adjusted our credit standards and your account does not meet our new standards. As a result, your account will be closed on May 13, 2010.” So there goes my Platinum Select card, my longest held, most established revolving account. The only card remaining is my Citi Professional card, and I worry it’s only a matter of time before the other shoe drops.

To sum it up, Citi arbitrarily rate-jacked two of my cards, leaving me with no recourse other than to close them. Then, on the third card, they punished me even further for the problem that they helped cause, by randomly changing the requirements (which I failed to meet) and canceling the card. Color me surprised….I thought the CARD act was supposed to stop this kind of customer abuse?

I’m writing both as a cautionary tale (cut those cards up, PAY THEM OFF!) but also to ask for advice. Did I mention I’ve been unemployed since February 2009? Through all this time, yes, the balances crept up even further in relation to their limits, but I’ve never once gone over my limit, and I’ve still managed to scrape enough together each month to pay in excess of minimum, if even only $10 or $20. I deeply worry this will cause a cascading effect, further hurting my score and creditworthiness. I’d be glad to open another card and transfer balances, but that doesn’t seem like a very realistic option right now. I’d love to get rid of Citibank completely, but I don’t have any idea how.

There’s great advice from the Consumerist hive mind in the comments to this post from a reader who lost her job while carrying credit card debt. Also, try calling the secret backdoor numbers for Citibank to plead your case and try to get them to act in a civilized way. Good luck.

Sometimes the ads and trailers at the beginning of a DVD give you interesting information about upcoming releases you otherwise wouldn’t have heard of. Most of the time, though, they’re just annoying as all heck. Here are some not-so-secret remote control codes that can help you skip the ads and get right to the movie.

These should get you started:

Trick One – For DVD Players

When the first trailer on the DVD starts playing on your screen, press the STOP button of your DVD remote twice followed by the PLAY button. That’s STOP -> STOP -> PLAY and it should take you directly to the movie skipping all the trailers and ads.

Trick Two – For DVD Players

If the above trick doesn’t work for your DVD, try this sequence suggested by Richard Rider. Instead of pressing the STOP button on your DVD remote twice, press it three times followed by PLAY and it should skip all the trailers and previews. To repeat, the sequence becomes STOP -> STOP -> STOP -> PLAY.

These won’t work 100% of the time, but will keep you slightly more entertained while the computer beams ads at you.

Skip the DVD Trailers & Go Straight to the Movie [Digital Inspiration] (via Lifehacker)

Megabus is a bus service that goes from city to city, and is meant to compete with Amtrak and Greyhound. They offer decent prices, occasional great specials, and free wi-fi. On a trip during Easter weekend, Mark learned that the service offers another perk he didn’t exactly want: a 4-hour complimentary Megasauna. The air conditioning on his bus failed, and the passengers roasted down the East Coast.

He blogged about the experience, and also sent this e-mail (still unanswered) to Megabus.

April 4, 2010

Megabus Corporation
4400 S. Racine Ave.
Chicago, IL 60609

Dear Customer Service,

I must regretfully report an extremely uncomfortable experience aboard line M21, from New York to Washington, DC on April 4. My reservation number was [redacted], for two passengers. I am requesting a full refund of our fare.

As soon as we stepped on board, we noticed that the A/C wasn’t working. Shortly after leaving, the driver informed us that it indeed had failed and was blowing heat only. On Sunday, in New York city, the temperature reached a high of 75 degrees, and being seated on top of the bus made for a very uncomfortable experience.

During the trip to Washington, the temperature and conditions became so uncomfortable for us that a woman seated behind us proceeded to sleep with her shirt up, revealing her bra and plenty of skin. On Easter Sunday, this was unacceptable, but given the circumstances, and ignoring the offensive behavior temporarily, somewhat understandable.

At the half way point, with the conditions only moderately improved after the driver opened the top vents, he was authorized a stop, due to the “emergency” we were experiencing, so we could get some refreshments. We were thankful that basically we were “allowed” to drink water while sweltering. This treatment is nothing short of inhumane.

Although advertised, your wi-fi service didn’t work on much of the ride, either, presumably the server was being fried due to the extreme heat.

I was really looking forward to riding Megabus, as it was my first time for my fiancé and me, and what we thought was a viable alternative to the train. However, we will be reconsidering other options in the future.

Sincerely,

Mark

I’ve found that the Megabus Twitter account was quite responsive to problems in the past, and they’re worth contacting in this case. The service makes it clear to passengers that lack of wi-fi does not justify a refund, but does over 4 hours of severe discomfort?

Trip report: Megabus from New York City to Washington, DC [The Consumer’s Edge]

Netflix streaming is great. If you’re like me and most of your Netflix queue consists of TV series and independent movies, it’s the best deal in entertainment. One of its major flaws, though, is that video streams lack captions or closed-captioning. Netflix is starting to fix this problem…but only for a limited number of videos and only for users who stream on their Mac or Windows PCs.

From the official Netflix blog:

This is Neil Hunt, Chief Product Officer at Netflix. As I promised last year, I’m pleased to report that today we have enabled closed captioning for some TV episodes and movies that you can watch instantly on your PC or Mac. Although it’s a limited library of content with subtitles available – about 100 titles – we now have released the technology and we will be working to fill in the library over time.

We have similar technology working in the lab for some of our game console, Blu-ray, and DTV platforms, which will roll out in releases starting this fall, along with support for 5.1 audio.

Since I stream on a Roku, this seems to leave me behind, but it’s a start.

Subtitles Now Available for Some Titles for PC/Mac Viewing (Thanks, trixare4kids!)

Wes writes that he has discovered a previously unknown use for retail receipt checkers. They can help you to determine when a store is ripping you off, rather than the other way around.

He explains:

Yesterday, at Walmart I was complaining to my girlfriend about
annoying receipt checkers as a Walmart employee at the door went
through my cart and verified that every item appeared on my receipt.
I’m not sure if the employee heard me or not, but she interrupted my
conversation to point out a discrepancy.
“Where’s your other garden hose?” she asked.
“Huh? I only bought one.”
“Well you were charged $13.13 for ’50 ft garden hose’ twice. You can
take your receipt to customer support and the will refund one of the
charges.”

After thanking her I received my refund and left the store with a new
attitude toward Walmart receipt checkers.

Thank you, anonymous Walmart receipt checker, for looking out for a consumer! You should be cloned and stationed at every Walmart in the country.

As you struggle to repay your student loans, you can at least comfort yourself with the knowledge that your papers were graded by qualified professors and teaching assistants, and not by housewives in Bangalore. Students attending college today… may not be so lucky.

A company called EduMetry is here to help professors who want their students to have more detailed feedback on their writing than faculty or their TAs actually have time to give. Graders work in India, Singapore, Malaysia…but some are also based in the United States.

Company officials would not say how many colleges use the service, but Mr. Rajam acknowledges that the concept of anonymous and offshore grading is often difficult for colleges to swallow.

Those that have signed up are a mix of for-profit and nonprofit institutions, many of them business schools, both in the United States and overseas. Professors and administrators say they have been won over by on-the-job performance. “This is what they do for a living,” says Ms. Whisenant. “We’re working with professionals.”

Grading papers can be drudgery, but won’t someone please think of all the underemployed humanities majors right here in the United States?

Some Papers Are Uploaded to Bangalore to Be Graded (Thanks, Joanna!) [Chronicle of Higher Education]

What constitutes an appropriate swimsuit for elementary school-aged girls? Is a bikini inappropriate? How about a padded bikini? This summer, U.K. discounter Primark tried marketing a bikini with a padded top, aimed at girls as young as seven. It didn’t go well. The chain removed the suit from its racks only hours after tabloid The Sun declared the product a [pedophile] bikini.

The American Psychological Association, in a 2007 report on the sexualization of girls, raised concerns about other ad campaigns, such as Skechers’ “naughty and nice” ad in 2004 featuring Christina Aguilera dressed as a pigtailed, lollipop-licking schoolgirl. The association also fretted about thongs for 7- to 10-year-olds with slogans such as “wink wink.”

“If girls purchase — or ask their parents to purchase — products and clothes designed to make them look physically appealing and sexy, and if they style their identities after the sexy celebrities who populate their cultural landscape, they are, in effect, sexualizing themselves,” the report said.

Sure, bikinis for children (even for infants) have been available for a long time, but they weren’t padded. A push-up bra only makes sense when the wearer has something to push up. AND ISN’T SEVEN YEARS OLD.

UK retailer withdraws padded bikini bras for kids [AP]
Padded bikini for girls withdrawn [BBC]

RELATED:
The Bikini’s Tumultuous History
No Tween Girl Clothes Are “Sexy”
Dress Your Daughter As Pirate Wench For Halloween
Walmart “Junior” Panties Suggest That Your Genitals Are Better Than Credit Cards

The big box craft store Hobby Lobby famously places full-page, Christian-themed ads every Easter in newspapers in the markets where it has stores. They also make this message the centerpiece of their Web site during the period right before and after Easter.

Sarah tells Consumerist that she noticed this when she visited the chain’s site to print out a coupon, and wrote to the company to tell them that she was offended. A Hobby Lobby representative answered that he was sorry that she was offended, but the company believes that it would conversely be “truly insensitive” not to share their religious message with all customers, Christian or not.

I, a non-Christian, visited Hobby Lobby’s website to print off a coupon before visiting their store. But after seeing their home page (image attached), I felt maybe I ought to go someplace else. And after contacting them about it (thread to follow), I was sure of it. Enjoy!

[Sarah’s original e-mail:]

As a non-Christian customer of Hobby Lobby, I find these messages to be very exclusive and insensitive. I feel quite alienated and today I’m taking my business to Michael’s, where the staff isn’t concerned with my spirituality, but with my satisfaction as a customer.

Dear Sarah,

Thank you for your email. I am sorry that you felt our message was exclusive and insensitive. That is not our intention. We feel that we are being inclusive and very sensitive; let me explain why.

In John 14:6 Jesus says “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” There is only one way to Heaven and that is Christ alone. We would love for everyone to come to a saving knowledge of Christ; we do not want anyone excluded. That is why we share the hope that Christ freely gives.

Since we know that Christ is the only way to heaven; it would truly be insensitive for us not to share Christ with the world.

I am sorry that you feel alienated.

[V.]
Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

That was the most judgmental and closed-minded response I could have hoped for. I am taking my business away from Hobby Lobby entirely. Asking to be accepted for who we are shouldn’t be too much from a customer. You can’t have another dollar of my money and I hope for your sake, you can learn to open your hearts and be truly kind and loving people, not the preachy ignorant ones you’ve proven yourselves to be.

Sarah

Sarah,

I was hoping to be able to have a civil exchange with you and explain why we do what we do and answer your original email which you chose to send in. We do have “open hearts” and are “truly kind and loving people”; once again, that is why we do what we do. If we didn’t have open hearts and were kind and loving we would not tell anyone about Christ.

Let me use an analogy. Let’s say I am standing on a street corner and the person next to me (who I don’t know) steps out in to the street because they have the ‘walk’ signal. I see the walk signal BUT I also see a speeding car that is running the red light and headed right for the person next to me. Why would I not warn them? How much would I have to hate that person not to tell them of the danger they are stepping into?

We share Christ because we see the “speeding car” and want to warn people. Christ truly is the answer and he is Kind, Loving and has an open Heart. At no point in my emails have I had a closed heart, been unkind or loving in my answers to you. If you feel I have, I apologize.

If you ever in the future want to know more about Christ, please feel free to contact Need Him Ministries at 888-Need-Him. They are not affiliated with any denomination, They are people who truly Love Christ and love people.

[V.]
Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

The MLB.tv banner ads that brag, “NO BLACKOUTS!: Blackout and other restrictions apply” may be more accurate than we initially thought. Owen tells Consumerist that he was unable to watch a Cubs/Braves game, even though he was trying to watch well after the game was over, when blackouts should no longer apply.

He writes:

No one seems to have caught this story yet. Not even the 50+ tech blogs I subscribe to. Your article about Roku hinted at this issue, but didn’t cover it completely.

Opening day is an important time in the baseball season. Thousands of people logged in to try and watch their favorite teams and were faced with a message that they are living in a “blackout area.” I found this out because I received the same issue myself and spend almost 2 hours trying to fix it.

It was puzzling when I tried to watch a Cubs/Braves game that took place in Atlanta yesterday. I live in San Francisco, so I shouldn’t be blacked out of anything. Regardless, I was trying to watch the archived game after it had taken place, which should not be blacked out anywhere in the world.

If you check MLB’s support forum, there are more than a hundred comments of outraged customers facing the following issues:
1. Watching an archived game means getting a message that you are unable to because of blackout restrictions
2. If not blacked out, customers open a game and get a black, blank screen.
3. Calling customer service means (reportedly) getting no refund and being told to “keep trying.”
4. Checking the forum leads to a few comments from the moderator, drowned out by hundreds of replies from pissed off customers. The moderator suggestions do not fix the issue.’

Thus, thousands of customers are outraged that they spent $100 or more on a service that simply does not work.

Blackouts apply, to all games, home and away, in a given team’s market. Or any market in which their games might theoretically air. This is right in the service’s fine print. Being unable to access any games at all is not.

The economics of the restaurant business are strange and confusing. But Dave writes that he couldn’t help but find this deal at Ruby Tuesday amusing. You can have a nice salad bar lunch for $7.99…or some mini sandwiches or burgers and fries along with salad bar access for $7.99. After 3 p.m., the price for the salad bar goes up fifty cents…but the price of the sandwiches does not.

I noticed this strange pricing issue on the Ruby Tuesdays menu. Their new Pimento Cheese Sandwich minis item (available in the Combinations section) is $7.99 with the salad bar. The salad bar, itself, is $7.99 ($8.49 after 3 p.m.). So basically, you get the sandwiches for free until 3… and after 3 they PAY YOU fifty cents to take the sandwiches in addition to the salad bar!

If you go to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner just for the salad bar, order the Pimento Cheese Sandwich Minis combo and have them hold the sandwiches to save fifty cents.

(The item with just the salad bar is cut off of Dave’s picture, but it is on the menu.)

Asking them to hold the sandwiches will probably make your server’s brain explode, but I dare someone to try this and take the sandwiches home.

I remember having this argument with my parents in a Ponderosa restaurant circa 1995.

Mom: Order a steak. Steak with the salad bar is only $1 more than just the salad bar, which you always get.
Me: But I don’t eat steak.
Dad: I’ll eat the $1 steak.
Me: *exaggerated teenage sigh and eyeroll* FINE.

Citibank is so funny! They sent G. a prank collection letter for her student loan. Even though she doesn’t owe a balance. Hehe! April Fool!

Better send them a check for $0.00 just in case, though.

Tabitha and her husband were part of a horrible chain of events. She was ill, and her husband was mugged on the way home from the pharmacy with her prescriptions. With his credit cards, cash, and his wife’s medicine all gone, her husband went back to the pharmacy…and received true above and beyond service.

A while back I was very sick, and sent my husband to Walgreens to get my prescriptions. As he was getting out of the car back at our apartment he was mugged. They got everything. His phone, my prescriptions, our credit cards, and all our cash. (Not to mention my husband ID.) We called the police and filed a report, and then I called Walgreens to see if maybe since my medicine was stolen, if they could fill it again. They told me to send my husband up there with the police report and they would “See what they could do.” I sent him back, expecting the worst, and he came back with all of my prescriptions, and my Diet Coke, all free of charge.

Several alert readers sent us this advertisement that ran on the front page of CNN.com today. Wait–is the census going to steal my identity? Is my name, race, and birthdate all someone needs to open a credit card in my name? No. You do not need identity theft protection because of the census. Equifax has just mashed up some good information about how to avoid census scams with a sales pitch for credit monitoring services.

The banner ad’s destination, the Census Scam Awareness Center, is a little confusing. Its overall message seems to be that the census is good and you should participate (true), that identity theft is bad and you should take precautions and watch your credit reports (also true) and that bad people might be pretending to be census workers to steal your personal information (quite true.) However, Consumerist already told you all of these things for free. For example:

Is That Person At Your Door A Real Census Worker?
5 Ways To Prevent Identity Theft

Have you ever suspected that your city or town is trying too hard to catch traffic scofflaws in the pursuit of ticket revenue? A Florida woman received a ticket based on evidence from a red light camera, but believed the ticket was unfair because the yellow light was too short. The power of math proved that she was correct..

Her math tutor husband took a stopwatch to the intersection where she received the ticket, and set out to vindicate her. He discovered that yellow lights at that intersection are eight tenths of a second shorter than county guidelines require.

That doesn’t excuse every ticket issued for red-light violations, but it’s enough of a discrepancy to make county residents suspicious.

“I said, ‘If it’s really short, then you got short-changed and you got a ticket illegally,’” said [Mike] Mogil.

The speed limit on Collier Boulevard, where she was cited, is 45 mph. According to county guidelines, the yellow light should be 4.5 seconds.

Mogil said he tested it 15 times with an average of only 3.8 seconds.

The Collier County Transportation Department claims that the short yellow lights were an oversight, and that they are checking stoplights countywide in order to prevent more erroneous tickets.

Math tutor uses numbers to fight red light camera ticket [WBBH] (Thanks, Ryan!)

If you bought a TiVo with an extended warranty at Circuit City before the chain died and came back as a retail zombie, TiVo forum poster Mark has good news and bad news for you: It is still technically possible to use your warranty, but doing so requires superhuman levels of persistence.

He posted his experience for the benefit of other customers who might still be covered under a Circuit City warranty.

If you have a S3 or HD with an extended warranty from Circuit City, there’s good news and bad.

The good news – it is still valid. The insurance company behind it, Assurant is honoring them. You can call them at 800-555-4615 or http://www.cityassure.com. In fact, when I called from my home number, it even brought up the CC ticket number.

The bad news – it is a pain.

At the end of February, my HD (purchase 9/07) started to act up. Passed all kickstarts, but would still hang/stutter (if you’re here, you know the drill). So I took off the DVR Expander, went through the divorce page and rebooted. Up came the divorce page. A few more times and I reconnected the expander. No boot at all. Removed the external drive, divorce page endless loop, etc. Called TiVo, went through the drill again, this time with the cable disconnected. Conclusion, unit is bad, send in for exchange. Mentioned I wanted to pursue my extended warranty, case opened, transfer request noted.

Called the number above, was given an incident number and instructed to bring it to the nearest Radio Shack who would ship it for repair. They weren’t interested in the fact it was probably the hard drive or that TiVo would exchange it.

Waited a week, the online trackers at cityassure.com or radio shack had no record of the numbers. Went to Radio Shack. The new manager tells me it didn’t get shipped out until he arrived a few days ago. Check in a week. Wait a week, he calls depot, they tell him waiting for a part. Call Assurant, they tell me waiting for a part. Repeat second week.

Third week, same story from Radio Shack. Call Assurant, demand to talk to a supervisor. He admits that after 30 days they will either replace it or provide a check for the purchase price. Finally last Friday, after an unpleasant chat with the Radio Shack service depot, they admitted they couldn’t get the drive (never heard of the vendors here that I offered), and they told Assurant it was unrepairable. Called them Monday, said it would take their replacement department a few days to find a replacement (or make me an offer).

So today was 30 days, and I wasn’t going away. After hearing there was nothing the phone rep could do and there was no way they could call or connect me with this mysterious replacement department, I moved up the food chain to a fourth level (over the course of 75 minutes). I also sent an email to their head of PR saying I would be contacting the media and regulators about this stone walling. Finally, they agreed to send me a check for what I paid CC for the HD. I called TiVo, confirmed that since it was being replaced under a retailer warranty (provided claim number and documentation) and went to Best Buy and bought a Premiere XL.

So, if you are still covered under a CC plan, there is hope. I would suggest that you bypass Radio Shack, bite the bullet and ship it yourself to whatever depot they want. The middlemen only made it more difficult. Be sure to keep on top of these people.

Circuit City Extended Warranty – Good News/Bad News [TiVo Community Forum] (Thanks, Mike!)

If you buy a nook from Barnes & Noble and think there might be any possibility whatsoever that you could drop it, be sure to buy a protection plan for it. That’s because if the nook breaks and you didn’t buy an extended warranty, no one at Barnes and Noble can fix it. Not even if you offer to pay for the repairs.

My wife loves to read and pre-ordered the Nook in October of last year when Barnes & Noble first announced it. She finally received it sometime after the first of this year and despite the delay was genuinely excited about having one. She has purchased more books then ever before and uses it all of the time.

Yesterday she dropped it for the first time and the e-ink screen cracked. The device is now totally useless.

We’ve contacted Barnes & Noble through their 800-number and were told that there is nothing that can be done since we didn’t purchase the two-year protection plan when we bought the device.

I’m not asking for a hand out here. I know we didn’t purchase the insurance – we don’t on all consumer electronics we purchase. However, I don’t think that means we should now be stuck with a $270 (+ the cost of books purchased) paperweight.

What I need is a way to repair the device we already have. Ideally I would like to send it back to Barnes & Noble and have them fix it. Naturally we would pay any cost involved. Barnes & Noble refuses.

Third-party e-reader repair places do exist–we can’t make any specific recommendations, but an Internet search will turn some up. If readers have any suggestions, leave them in comments or e-mail them in, and we’ll pass them on. Otherwise, this sounds like a good candidate for some escalation–unless e-ink screens are that difficult to replace, suggesting that a customer willing to exchange money for a working appliance just go buy a new one seems short-sighted. Especially when that customer really likes buying e-books from Barnes & Noble.

Booking a hotel room through an airline’s web site can lead to a roach-infested, unacceptable hotel experience, as reader Bruce learned recently. Nick tells Consumerist that he had a similar Kafkaesque hotel booking experience booking a Super 8 reservation through Continental Airlines. He learned that no one at either the airline or the hotel had the power to change his reservation–even though he was trying to cancel the reservation months in advance.

I had a recent experience with booking hotels through an airline that
I wish to share. It involves Continental Airlines, Super 8 Hotels and
a concept I (and I suspect other Consumerist readers) had never
encountered before: The un-cancel-able hotel room.

I booked a flight from New York to LAX on Febuary 28th of this year,
for travel at the end of April (2 months early, for those counting).
I also needed a hotel, so I went to the “convenient” Continental
Airlines Hotel booking system and found a cheap Super 8 in [redacted],
California. The reviews were poor, but I didn’t need it for long and
it was very convenient to where I needed to be. I chose the special
“Continental.com Hotels Best Rate Guaranteed” fare, checked the
standard boilerplate and booked it.

The next day (still 2 months before my stay, for those counting), I
reconsidered the quality of the hotel and decided to upgrade for a
treat. I went back to the Continental website, canceled my hotel
reservation and found a Comfort Inn slightly farther away and slightly
more expensive but with better reviews. I thought I was ready for my
vacation.

I receive my next credit card bill a few weeks later and find the
Super 8 charge still on it (listed, of course, as a purchase at
Continental.com). I call up continental to inquire as to when I can
expect my money back, and am shocked to discover that I NEVER WILL.
Because the Super 8 hotel reservation CAN NOT BE CANCELED. That’s
right. I booked 2 months in advance, canceled THE NEXT DAY, and the
Continental will not refund my money because “the money has already
gone to the hotel, and the hotel does not allow cancellations”.
Continental, according to the nice man I’m talking to, is merely the
middleman. All they do is forward the money to the hotel. I called
the Super 8’s manager, and he reiterated that he would not return my
money and, in fact, since I had canceled I would not be able to stay
there either.

Now I consider myself a pretty aware consumer, and I actually read the
boilerplate before I purchase anything. What got me was the terribly
worded Continental.com website. Before you make your reservation,
they display in normal font the Cancellation Policy. That is where
the problem is.

Cancellation Policy of the Comfort Inn that I booked after canceling,
and 90% of ALL hotels on the site (I took a sample of 20 in the LA
area):

Cancellation And Changes:
If you change or cancel this reservation after 12 AM local hotel
time on Wednesday, April 28, 2010, you will be charged a penalty of 1
night(s) room rate plus tax.

Cancellation Policy of the Super 8 that has stolen my money:

Cancellation And Changes:
If you change or cancel this reservation before 12 AM local hotel
time on Thursday, April 29, 2010, you will be charged a penalty of 3
night(s) room rate plus tax.

Did you notice the difference? I certainly didn’t when I was booking
in the first place.

That’s right. They changed the word “after” to “before”. That is the
ONLY difference in the cancellation policies. I, of course, consider
that a sort of legal bait and switch, where the contract you always
sign is exactly the same except for the one tiny word that changes the
meaning entirely.

So watch out everyone, because some hotels do not let you cancel.

In the numerous phone calls I made, I learned:
1. Continental has no responsibility for this at all because they
don’t make money of the service and it’s just for convenience. The
cancellation policies are those of the hotel.
2. Super 8 Corporate has no responsibility, as these contracts are
negotiated individually between the website and the hotel.
3. The specific Super 8 [redacted] has no responsibility because the
website said I couldn’t cancel and the manager keeps hanging up on me.

The Continental supervisor I talked with was under the impression, by
the way, that I should feel no ill will towards Continental, as
they’re just providing a service for “convenience”. So even though I
booked the “Continental.com Hotels Best Rate Guaranteed” at the Hotel
I found through Continental.com, for which I could use or get
Continental frequent flier miles and the purchase of which was listed
as “Continental.com” on my credit card bill, if I am unhappy I have
“no right to blame them”, as the supervisor said. Of course, they
fully expect increased brand loyalty if everything goes well.

And in response to “Are Airlines responsible for Hotels Booked on
their site?” I say yes, though they are of course not legally
responsible. We’re expected to think better of the Airlines if we
have a great time, but not if we don’t? I will never fly Continental
again thanks to my experience with the Continental branded hotels
website, and that is all, in the end, I can do.

And a question for the crowd: If the Airlines aren’t responsible for
the hotels that you book on their site, and the hotels chains aren’t
responsible because you booked through the airline website, and the
hotel managers are only as responsible as they want to be, who always
ends up the responsible one?

It seems pretty inconvenient and a strange cancellation policy on Super 8’s part. It’s temporally impossible to cancel the reservation after April 28, so this is effectively a “no cancellations” policy. If the reservation can’t be canceled, why not just say so?

Frederick tells Consumerist that he had an interesting dilemma yesterday. Another member of his household ordered an iPad, which showed up yesterday due to an error on UPS’s part. He accepted the package, then gave it back when the driver returned 45 minutes later, explaining that the delivery was a mistake. Would you have given it back?

While this fits in with today’s theme of iPad fever on the internets, it also applies to other highly publicized items with strict release dates.

Yesterday April 2, we were surprised to look at the tracking of our iPad to see that it was on the truck for delivery. UPS pulled up around 9AM and I signed for it. It was for someone else in the house so I didn’t open it. About 45 minutes later the person who had ordered the iPad returned home shortly followed by the UPS truck back. The driver said he’d been contacted by his supervisor to retrieve the package as it was not to be delivered until April 3. We gave the package back. Tracking quickly changed to show that it was picked up for later delivery. Tracking now shows delivery for today April 3rd.

What shocked me was the response on Twitter that we shouldn’t have returned the package. Someone else making a mistake should not mean you always should take advantage of the mistake. Sure we would have had the iPad a day early but why is that such a big deal? Who knows what might have happened at the UPS facility? Another person out of a job? One week from now what would it matter?

When our iPad arrives today we’ll be unique just like everyone else.