Author: Laura Northrup

Kain tells Consumerist that he was searching the clearance section at his local Walmart for deals when he discovered something that was an unbelievably bad deal. Ten “collector’s edition” copies of the multiplayer game Tabula Rasa marked down to only $25! Too bad that the servers required to play the game shut down on Feburary 28, 2009.

The game Tabula Rasa was an MMORPG that connected to a server to play and required a monthly subscription, it came out in Nov 2007 and NCsoft pulled the plug on its servers in Feb of 09 citing too few players.

I was in Walmart in [redacted], Il looking through their clearance isle and found this little gem. Tabula Rasa Limited Collectors Edition. On the box it says “First month of play included” and it has all the stuff selling it as a game first and foremost. Nowhere did anything warn people that the game can no longer be played. If there was some sort of sign saying they are just selling the included artwork and misc items that might be acceptable but nope nothing.

So this is what will happen, person buys cheap game thinking oh sweet cheap collectors edition. Open it put it in the computer install it and go to make an account for the game as it instructs and OOPS sorry we closed down over a year ago. Ok lets return it then. SORRY, open videogames are not accepted sorry. Now you are out 25 bucks but you have a nice coaster and a book….

I personally believe this is straight up ripping people off and somewhere someone should know that this game is useless, what do you guys think?

Oh and just so you don’t think it is one random stray item they had something like 10 of them there.

Saying that Walmart is ripping people off is harsh. The $250 they would take in by selling these games is miniscule in comparison to even the daily gross from that store alone. We’re going to be generous and assume that this is a mistake on the part of Kain’s local store. He should have alerted a manager–even if the store didn’t listen to him, at least he would have done his part to protect other shoppers who might pick up the game.

By the way, you can still vote in the Walmart vs. Sears/Kmart round of our Worst Company in America tournament.

Does a game have to fail to have an ending? Tabula Rasa [Ars Technica]

For some reason that no one has been able to figure out yet, on Thursday night, all 911 calls that AT&T Wireless customers in the Salt Lake City, Utah made area ended up routed to dispatchers in Seattle.

Police were made aware of the problem around 7 p.m. and asked Seattle dispatchers to transfer all calls back to Salt Lake City. But Salt Lake police detective Dennis McGowan said the issue “did not impact us at all.”

“We didn’t have any 911 calls from the AT&T cell phones that we’re aware of,” he said. “We became aware of the problem, we called AT&T and confirmed that it was occurring, but it did not impact our operations whatsoever.”

We’re glad that the mixup didn’t hurt anyone or affect emergency services all that much, but it’s a frightening prospect that all emergency calls could just shift to another city and no one knows how or why.

AT&T 911 call glitch corrected; reason still a mystery [Deseret News]
(Thanks, Brian!)

If you hear a vaguely familiar voice screeching from your television set during a commercial break, fear not. It’s only actor, comedian, and ex-parrot Gilbert Gottfried’s voiceover for the Shoedini commercial. It’s hard to get across in mere words how much I wish I were kidding right now.

The version using audio outtakes, however, is amazing.

Gets your attention more than the Anthony Sullivan version ever did, doesn’t it?

Shoedini [Official Site] (Thanks, Jessica!)

Remember the animal head that a Houston family found inside a bag of frozen Pictsweet green beans? The family was convinced that the animal was a snake, though experts thought that it was a frog. Maybe they were right after all, and the animal was a snake…because a different part of a snake was found inside another bag of Pictsweet green beans in Wisconsin. What part? Well, it’s not the head, and it’s not the end, but it was conveniently cut to the same length as the green beans.

It was a section of garter snake, the same diameter as the beans and mechanically cut to about an inch in length like the rest of the bag’s contents.

The beans had been bought at a major chain store and packaged by the Bells, Tenn.-based Pictsweet Company.

A “grossed out” Guist searched the entire bag but found no other parts among the beans.

“Where did the rest of the snake go?” she wondered.

Open up your freezers, America: The search is on! Maybe Pictsweet should just start labeling the bags “Now with more protein!” and call the green beans a new health food.

Do you want pictures? Here’s your picture.

Part of snake found in bag of frozen green beans [LaCrosse Tribune] (Thanks, David!)

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Does an EnergyStar label change your perception of a product? Maybe it shouldn’t. Last year, an audit showed that Energy Star gave its rating to products that misrepresented their energy usage. This time, auditors posed as companies and submitted completely absurd appliances for EnergyStar ratings, like a gasoline-powered alarm clock the size of a portable generator, and a space heater with a feather duster on top claiming to be an “air purifier.” Is the study meaningless because no actual products were sold, or a warning that the program is sloppy and susceptible to fraud?

In a nine-month study, four fictitious companies invented by the accountability office also sought EnergyStar status for some conventional devices like dehumidifiers and heat pump models that existed only on paper. The fake companies submitted data indicating that the models consumed 20 percent less energy than even the most efficient ones on the market. Yet those applications were mostly approved without a challenge or even questions, the report said.

Auditors concluded that the EnergyStar program was highly vulnerable to fraud.

Audit Finds Vulnerability of EnergyStar Program [New York Times] (Thanks, Howard!)

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The 3G Microcell, the mini cell tower that AT&T has been threatening their customer base with since last fall are coming soon. AT&T Wireless customers remain underwhelmed. Why? Using technology similar to Consumerist’s own Megglefish, Tested’s Will Smith translated the press release from PR-speak to English for us, and teased out the precise reasons why this is a terrible, terrible idea. It’s all there. You just have to find it.

Here’s a sample:

$150!!!! Wow, I have to pay $150 because AT&T’s shitty network only works in my bathroom? Should a customer who has signed a 2 year contract worth about $100/month have to pay to extend AT&T’s network to cover someplace that they spend 12+ hours a day? That’s just insane.

Stick with MagicJack’s femtocell (if it ever comes out) and wi-fi if you have a smartphone, kids.

This Is Why People Hate the Phone Company, AT&T [Tested] (Thanks, Aron!)

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Paul Newman (who died in 2008) may have still been alive when this bottle of salad dressing was manufactured. Bridget in Minnesota told Consumerist that sge purchased it at her local Target. She got a refund from the store, but she’s still a little alarmed that they would sell her such a thing.

Bridget writes:

I am writing to expose Target Retail for stocking on their shelves
expired salad dressing – severely expired salad dressing. I purchased
a bottle of Newman’s Own Southwest Dressing, 16oz bottle on March
23rd. When I got back to work to use it, as I was opening it I
noticed the neck of the bottle had an expiration date, and at first I
thought I must be reading that incorrectly, because it said “20OCT09M”
I quickly got second and third opinions on the issue, and we all
decided it was from ’09. I called the Target store I had purchased it
and asked them to verify this, I spoke with the grocery department,
and when the employee came back to the phone she confirmed that it was
expired and she apologized.

It’s not even worth my time to return a $3 bottle of salad dressing
that expired 5 months ago. This dressing contains milk & egg, and
more attention should have been paid to expiration dates.

Let this serve as a reminder: expired food may not kill or even significantly harm you, but it’s still a good idea to check labels before buying.

What do you do when Subway has prepared your delicious sandwich, and then the only credit card you’re carrying with you doesn’t work in the machine? Do you leave the poor, innocent sandwich behind? Do you leave your poor, innocent credit card number behind? Or do you take this as a cautionary tale about always carrying emergency cash?

Reader Eric writes that this happened to him, and he now wonders whether this was wise, or he was the victim of an incredibly unsophisticated phishing scheme.

Today I went to Subway for lunch; I eat at this particular location a
few times each month and I always use my American Express card. Today
my Amex was the only form of payment I was carrying (no other cards,
no cash.) When I handed it to the cashier, she immediately asked if I
had a different card — even before swiping it. I said ‘no’, and she
swiped it. Apparently after two attempts in their credit card
machine, the cashier could not get the transaction to go through. I
use this card almost daily, and I’m nowhere near my credit limit.

The cashier was flummoxed that I had no other form of payment
available, and she had no recommendation for how to proceed. I
explained to her that their non-functional credit card machine wasn’t
my fault. Subway’s solution was to give me a piece of paper on which
to write down my credit card number, expiration date, 4-digit security
code and signature. This didn’t seem completely unreasonable, but I’m
now watching my credit card closely online to make sure that nothing
suspicious shows up.

Should I have just given the sandwich back to her and walked away?

First, Eric should take this as a life lesson to always carry a backup payment method. I only have one debit card, so I make sure that I’m always carrying enough cash to buy a few gallons of gas and/or my lunch in an emergency.

Back in the present, the best option would have been to ask the store to hold the sandwich for five or ten minutes, and check the neighborhood for an ATM. I would rather eat the fees than have all of that information floating around on a piece of paper that’s out of my control. It’s probably destined for the trash, not a cross-cut shredder, and could end up in anyone’s hands from there.

That’s what I’ve done in a similar situation. What would you do?

Thanks to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers have certain rights when it comes to funerals. Consumers have the right to purchase only the products or services they need, to use the services of a funeral home while declining embalming, to see written price lists before they begin to make decisions, and the right to purchase a casket or urn elsewhere. An undercover FTC investigation, however, discovered that in 30% of the funeral homes they visited, at least one part of the Funeral Rule of 1984 was violated.

What happens to offenders? According to Consumer Reports Money:

To avoid an FTC lawsuit, homes that violate the rule must attend a three-year Funeral Rule Offenders Program, which includes ongoing training, testing and monitoring for compliance. In place of a civil penalty, violators make a voluntary payment to the federal government and pay annual administrative fees to the National Funeral Directors Association, which operates the program.

To avoid overpaying, familiarize yourself with the FTC’s Consumer Guide to Funerals and know your rights.

More than 1/4 of funeral homes violate consumer rules, FTC finds [Consumer Reports]
FTC’s Consumer Guide to Funerals [FTC]

Brad is a customer of Fifth Third Bank. He’s annoyed at the bank’s marketing practices. He tells Consumerist that when he transferred a large amount of money from his account with a credit union, Fifth Third decided that he clearly had too much money, and they wanted to help him open a savings account to remedy that situation. Well, that’s not what they said, but close enough.

I would like to know if this is a common practice as this is quite annoying that Fifth Third is doing this. I am in the midst of a kitchen remodel and transferd a large sum of money from my credit union savings account to my Fifth/Third checking account to pay for the kitchen remodel.

I have received two calls from two different 5/3 employees asking me if I would like to open a savings account with them. Why are they calling me? I used to have a savings account with them many years ago but now keep it at a local credit union. I do not like the fact that they are watching the transactions on my account and using this information to cold call me…is this common practice among large banks?

Have you experienced this phenomenon (even once) with your bank? Does it make you feel like your bank is watching over you, or just watching you intently?

It’s logical that as airlines charge customers fees to check their luggage, passengers will carry on as much of their belongings as they possibly can. The logical consequence of that? Passengers and crew getting bonked on the head by bottles of liquor and carry-on toilets.

The Association of Flight Attendants union surveyed their membership, with some unsurprising results. 35% of flight attendants report that they personally have been struck by falling items from overhead bins in the past year, and 81% report pain or injuries from helping passengers with their carry-on items.

ABC News interviewed some AFA representatives about the issue:

Just over the past two months, the survey found that half of all flight attendants witnessed a carry-on item fall out of the bins, sometimes injuring passengers.

“As the plane was taking off the bin opened up and out of the bin a bottle of liquor fell, landed, and hit an unsuspecting man in the head,” Rene Foss, spokesperson for the AFA told “Good Morning America.” “He was injured and we had to give him first aid.”

Foss and fellow flight attendant Bill McGlashen said they’ve seen it all, from a carry-on toilet to a home brewing kit for beer.

The AFA’s proposed solution? Stricter laws limiting the maximum size of carry-on items. This may be a safety precaution, but we predict consumer revolts.

Carry-On Bags Survey Results [AFA]
Flight Attendants Battle ‘Carry-on Crunch’ [ABC News] (Thanks, Adam!)

Bad news if you like to sip a Red Stripe beer while snacking on Wheatables. Exported bottles of Red Stripe have been zapped by the Grocery Shrink Ray, shrinking from 12 fluid ounces to 11.2.

“I knew something felt different about the bottle on the right… poor Red Stripe!” wrote our tipster Matthew. Maybe Red Stripe drinkers can revolt and get that .8 ounces restored, like Cascade drinkers did in Australia last year.

Janna’s Dell laptop broke, but it was still under warranty. She tells Consumerist that she contacted their technical support by web chat, imagining that it would be simple and easy to get a computer under warranty repaired. Her journey through Dell’s tech support began with the chat rep encouraging her to grab a screwdriver and take her computer apart herself, and somehow got even more discouraging from there. When she finally got Dell to take the laptop in for repairs, Dell somehow helpfully cracked her LCD.

On December 7, 2009 I contacted Dell’s chat support, as my computer started giving the blue screen of death, randomly not booting up, and the CCFL’s were visible underneath the screen when looking at it from the side. My computer is still covered under warranty, so I figured it wouldn’t be much of a problem to get it repaired. Was I ever wrong…..

Chat support wasn’t any help, they basically asked me to ‘find a screwdriver’ and take my computer apart myself. I asked them about electrostatic discharge risks, and they asked me what I meant. The language barrier was extremely frustrating. Eventually, they ended up ‘accidentally disconnecting’ the chat once a so-called supervisor tried to assist me, then they called me later on….at a little past midnight my time.

Then I tried writing to Michael Dell’s so-called email address, which got me to some sort of escalation department, still obviously talking to someone in India. After another month or two, I was still waiting for the third-party technicians to call me. We had come to the conclusion that i likely needed a new hard drive, RAM, and bezel.

The technicians never actually contacted me, but they told Dell they had tried. The parts were then sent back to Dell and I had to start over again. In the meantime, I was still communicating with the guy in the India-based escalation department, who didn’t seem to have any way to communicate with the third-party technicians that were supposedly calling me.

One day, I got a call from someone who actually spoke English well, who asked if a technician could come to my workplace and fix my computer there, as my schedule didn’t seem to fit theirs, and to have service/someone from service call me past 5 pm required some extra-special service agreement I didn’t have. I explained to him, chuckling, that I worked for a rival computer company and that would be extremely awkward. He laughed also, and we agreed that they would send me a box, and I would send my computer in for repair.

Once I received the box, I filled out the paperwork, explaining the problems I was having and the parts I supposedly needed replaced, and sent it off to Dell. I received my computer fairly quickly from the repair center. The packaging in the box was very secure, so it is very likely that the damage done to my computer was done before it was even shipped to me, not while the machine was in transit.

I examined the paperwork- only the main logic board was replaced- and when I pressed the power button, the machine booted up to a “Windows did not shut down successfully” error screen, and my LCD was so badly cracked I could not read the majority of the screen.

I’m at my wit’s end with this company. Any advice, Consumerist (or Consumerist readers, if you publish this on the site)? All my calls and emails seem to get me nowhere. Mind you, it’s been a long time since December 7, and I still haven’t gotten anywhere with this repair.

It’s too late for this information to help Janna, but this is a good opportunity to remind everyone that when ordering from Dell, order from their Small Business site rather than their consumer site in order to get far superior technical support and customer service. Maybe a full-fledged Dell EECB is in order–Janna’s problem is an awful lot more serious than the $60 adapter in the EECB success story we posted this morning.

The recent fuss over Toyota’s recalls has brought a lot of attention to a previously rather boring car feature: brake override. It wasn’t a very sexy feature until we began reading about throttles gone rogue, taking drivers on a terrifying ride. Brake override, and its absence on the affected Toyota models, became very interesting all of a sudden. But how does it work? Does it really work? Our sister publication Consumer Reports has a test track and some Toyotas lying around, so they set out to find out.

How “Brake Override” Stops Runaway Cars [Consumer Reports]

Rob took this picture of a 15″ LCD television for sale at Walgreens in Virginia. It’s nice that they chose to highlight the price, but confusing that they also posted the unit price. If you’re wondering, TVs cost $8 per inch. I like this pricing scheme, and hope to see other retailers adopt it.

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You know what’s even less exciting than health insurance regulations? Homework! But as Congress prepares to vote on the huge and hugely controversial health care reform bill tonight, it’s a good time to familiarize yourself with what the proposed bill does–no matter what your opinion of it might be.

There are ways to do that to suit every citizen and every attention span. Here are some links, from Consumer Reports Health.

The full bill passed by the Senate late last year: that’s a 2,409-page PDF download. Make a pot of tea first.
The reconciliation bill: less exciting.
House Ways and Means Committee summaries: in less detailed and more detailed flavors.

And if you’re interested in what the nonpartisan, civil servant-filled Congressional Budget Officehas to say about the bill’s effects on the federal budget, you can get that right here.

Remember the Florida family whose sad story of a smashed TV we shared on Super Bowl Sunday? When they unboxed their 50-inch plasma screen HDTV, they found a cracked screen and a world of sadness. They took a page from the Consumerist playbook and sued Best Buy in small claims court. When the mega-retailer failed to send a representative, they won a default judgment.

When faced with impossible grammar problems, you too can take companies that refuse to budge to small claims court. Here’s how. But it’s also a good idea to check inside the box of your high-priced electronics to make sure that the item is intact, and not a paving stone.

Jacksonville Family Takes Best Buy to Court; No Show Equals a Win [First Coast news]

PREVIOUSLY:
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The Hump, a Santa Monica, Calif. sushi restaurant accused of illegally selling whale meat, closed yesterday. The reason given on the restaurant’s Web site? By closing, they hope to bring attention to the damage done by illegal whaling. Riiiight.

Here’s the announcement on their site:

After twelve years doing business in Santa Monica, The Hump will be closing its doors effective March 20th, 2010.

The Hump hopes that by closing its doors, it will help bring awareness to the detrimental effect that illegal whaling has on the preservation of our ocean ecosystems and species. Closing the restaurant is a self-imposed punishment on top of the fine that will be meted out by the court. The Owner of The Hump also will be taking additional action to save endangered species.

One such action will be to make a substantial contribution to one or more responsible organizations dedicated to the preservation of whales and other endangered species.

The Hump apologizes to our loyal customers, the community of Santa Monica, and the public at large for our illegal actions. While the current difficulties faced by The Hump overshadow the many friendships formed over the years, we want our customers and friends to know how much we thank you for your support.

Hump’s parent restaurant, Typhoon, remains in business.Typhoon and one of its sushi chefs are under federal charges of illegal sale of a marine mammal product for an unauthorized purpose, and could receive one year in federal prison and a $200,000 fine. Harpooning is not a sentencing option.

Sushi eatery accused of selling whale to close [CNN] (Thanks, Dennis!)
The Hump [Official site]

Is “Someday I’ll get trashed at prom” an appropriate slogan for a baby t-shirt or onesie? How about “future cougar?” Sure, we at Consumerist like over-the-top humor as much as more than anyone, but can kids’ shirts go too far? Or does it matter all that much when the wearer can’t even talk yet, let alone read? That’s what Brian wonders about this outfit from Wry Baby available at Babies ‘R’ Us.

Brian writes:

I’m all for funny shirts, but even this seems a little over the top, especially for such a mainstream store as Babies-R-Us.

The slogan makes a little more sense in context with the company’s other products, like onesies that declare “Someday I’ll Demand a Pony” and “Even My Poop Is Cute.”

Since I lack both children and mainstream sensibilities, I am probably a poor choice to pass judgment on this outfit. So what do you think?

Wry Baby Trashed At Prom 2 Piece Outfit (0-6 Months) [Babies R Us]
Someday I’ll Get Trashed at Prom Snapsuit [Wry Baby]

If you checked your bank account balance to see a mysterious $230,000 deposit, what would you do? If your answer is “contact the bank and make sure the money goes back to its rightful owner,” you are correct. If you said “buy a Camaro and a new wardrobe, check into a hotel, and brag about your windfall to a police officer,” you are incorrect. Unfortunately, an Alaska fisherman chose that second option, and now he’s in jail.

The Trident seafood company wired the $230,000 into the credit union account of the owner of a boat on which the man, Timothy Andrew Boles, had been a crew member. His bank account number was one digit off that of his employer. The Alaska State Troopers say that he noticed the deposit, promptly withdrew the money, went shopping, and checked into a hotel in Soldotna. That’s where his girlfriend got drunk and made enough noise to attract the attention of the police while he was out bar-hopping.
…

[Soldotna Police Officer Tobin] Brennan ran Boles’ name, found that troopers were looking for him and got in touch with an investigator who asked him to find out if Boles had a large amount of cash, he said. Brennan asked Boles if he’d be able to pay for the hotel bill, a cab and another room.

“He’s like, ‘Oh yeah,’ ” Brennan said. “He pulls out the cash and shows me the ($90,950) check. I never had to ask him anything. … He was bragging to me about his 2010 Chevy Camaro with all the options.”

“He just kept saying it was some kind of a settlement, 20 years in the coming.”

Remember, if the money isn’t yours, don’t withdraw it. And if you do, don’t brag to the police about it. But it’s probably easier just to not take off and spend money that isn’t yours in the first place.

Fisherman’s $230,000 windfall earns a trip to jail [Anchorage Daily News] (thanks, Ryan!)

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