Newegg suggests you buy, among other things,a Hitachi Magic Wand for your Mom for Mother’s Day. Um.
I guess we shouldn’t judge. The reviews on Amazon are overall pretty positive… (possibly NSFW) We’re just glad Newegg didn’t suggest bundling some of those attachments.
(Thanks, madanthony!)
The Washington Post is reporting that the porn-lovin’ employees of the SEC have not been fired. Here’s the breakdown:
Of the 28 employees investigated for accessing inappropriate images and Web sites, eight resigned and six were suspended for periods lasting one to 14 days, the inspector general, H. David Kotz, said in an letter Tuesday to Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). Five were issued formal reprimands, six were issued informal counseling or warning letters, and three are facing disciplinary action.
Five contractors who were investigated were removed from their contracts, Kotz added.
The SEC comes up with different numbers, but they also add up to no firings.
The chairman of the SEC sent a memo to staffers Friday stating that anyone who violates the agency’s computer rules will be fired, but the world is still waiting to hear why people haven’t already been canned.
SEC says no staffers were fired in porn investigation [Washington Post]
At Walmart, the party never stops. Ever.
Stephen Wilkes – Time-Lapse: A Day at A Walmart Store from BERNSTEIN & ANDRIULLI on Vimeo.
[via BuzzFeed]
Steve Jobs has penned an open letter explaining why Apple doesn’t allow Flash on iPhones and all that. The reason? Flash is the past, HTML5 is the future. The letter comes after an Adobe evangelist told Apple to “go screw” itself.
Stevie-poo says:
Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.
The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.
New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.
Daaaaang.
What do you think? Is Flash the past?
Thoughts On Flash [Apple]
The always entertaining Center For Science in the Public Interest is attacking White Castle, Bob Evans, and Long John Silver’s for still using trans fats in their foods when other chains have eliminated it.
At Bob Evans the pancakes have up to 9 grams of trans fat, while at White Castle the French fries, onion chips and onion rings, have between 2 and 10 grams of trans fat per order.
From the press release:
CSPI said it was particularly disappointed to find that zombie trans fat still lurks at Long John Silver’s. That chain, owned by Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut, knows better, according to the group. KFC phased trans fat out of its fried foods in 2006, four months after CSPI filed a lawsuit against the chain. Taco Bell also phased out artificial trans fat several years ago. Nevertheless, at LJS, battered fish and shrimp has between 2.5 and 4.5 grams of trans fat; a side order of cryptic “Crumblies” has 4 grams; and every single meal on the chain’s Dollar Stretcher menu has artificial trans fat, ranging from the Small Golden Fries (2.5 grams) to the Two Jr. Fish and Fries (7 grams).
“The FDA has all the scientific evidence and legal authority it needs to send partially hydrogenated oil to the chemical boneyard quickly and permanently, but it has failed to do so,” Jacobson said. “Banning it would save thousands of lives annually.”
Recent and proposed changes to Facebook’s information sharing policies have Senators Franken (D-MN) and Schumer (D-NY) a little irritated. They’ve penned a letter, along with Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Mark Begich (D-AK), asking Facebook to reconsider their new opt-out procedure, and to take further steps to keep user’s personal details, such as their interests and friend lists, private unless they chose to share them.
In a statement, Senator Schumer warned that the interests lists opened the door for unwanted marketing efforts.
“I love baseball, but I don’t want to be grouped online with thousands of people who also like baseball unless I choose to join this kind of online group. Right now, this new Facebook policy does just that. No doubt, marketers peddling their wares will find this grouping a treasure trove and inundate users with solicitations and more,” said Schumer
Here’s the letter:
Dear Mr. Zuckerberg,
We are writing to express our concern regarding recent changes to the Facebook privacy policy and the use of personal data on third party websites. While Facebook provides a valuable service to users by keeping them connected with friends and family and reconnecting them with long-lost friends and colleagues, the expansion of Facebook – both in the number of users and applications – raises new concerns for users who want to maintain control over their information.
The following three changes have raised concerns:
1. Publicly available data. Facebook’s expansion of publicly available data to include a user’s current city, hometown, education, work, likes, interests, and friends has raised concerns for users who would like to have an opt-in option to share this profile information. Through the expanded use of “connections,” Facebook now obligates users to make publicly available certain parts of their profile that were previously private. If the user does not want to connect to a page with other users from their current town or university, the user will have that information deleted altogether from their profile. We appreciate that Facebook allows users to type this information into the “Bio” section of their profiles, and privatize it, but we believe that users should have more control over these very personal and very common data points. These personal details should remain private unless a user decides that he/she would like to make a connection and share this information with a community.
2. Third party data storage. Previously, Facebook allowed third-party advertisers to store profile data for 24 hours. We are concerned that recent changes allow that data to be stored indefinitely. We believe that Facebook should reverse this policy, or at a minimum require users to opt in to allowing third parties to store data for more than 24 hours.
3. Instant personalization. We appreciate that Facebook is attempting to integrate the functionality of several popular websites, and that Facebook has carefully selected its initial partners for its new “instant personalization” feature. We are concerned, however, that this feature will now allow certain third party partners to have access not only to a user’s publicly available profile information, but also to the user’s friend list and the publicly available information about those friends. As a result of the other changes noted above, this class of information now includes significant and personal data points that should be kept private unless the user chooses to share them. Although we are pleased that Facebook allows users to opt-out of sharing private data, many users are unaware of this option and, moreover, find it complicated and confusing to navigate. Facebook should offer users the ability to opt-in to sharing such information, instead of opting out, and should make the process for doing so more clear and coherent.
We hope that Facebook will stand by its goal of creating open and transparent communities by working to ensure that its policies protect the sensitive personal biographical data of its users and provide them with full control over their personal information. We look forward to the FTC examining this issue, but in the meantime we believe Facebook can take swift and productive steps to alleviate the concerns of its users. Providing opt-in mechanisms for information sharing instead of expecting users to go through long and complicated opt-out processes is a critical step towards maintaining clarity and transparency.
Jason went into GameStop to trade in his Xbox 360, and experienced something odd. He says they refused to take his trade-in unless he bought new non-HD cables so they could test the system with the non-HD TVs they had in the store.
Here’s the email Jason sent to us and to GameStop:
I am writing you regarding a concern that I have about the business practices of one of your stores.
I recently visited [redacted] on Saturday, April 24th; with the intent of trading in my Xbox 360 and several accompanying games and peripherals.
I was able to trade in my games and peripherals with no issue, although I hit a snag upon trying to trade in my Xbox 360. The cables that I traded in with the unit were HD composite cables, and I was informed that I would not be able to trade the system in unless I had the standard definition cables.
It seems that the only televisions that this GameStop has are standard definition 13” color CRTs, therefore there is no way they could plug in my HD cables and ensure that the system was in good working order.
The female employee suggested that I could buy a set of standard cables, and then trade them in with the system. I found that I had little choice but to do so. I purchased the cables.
The female employee then took my HD cables as a trade-in. This is the point that I really want to stress. She took my HD cables. Why? It was already made clear to me that they had no way of telling if the cables worked. Does GameStop make it policy to take in items without any knowledge of the item’s ability to work, and if so, why weren’t the cables accepted in the first place?
Does GameStop really need the extra $14 I had to pay in order to trade in my system? Did the employee feel that my trade-in value was too high and thought it best to try to shave a few dollars off by making me buy unnecessary cables? Did she need to fill some POP requirement that requires her to sell accessories with every purchase?
Why doesn’t the company keep an extra set of cables lying around for just this occasion? It’s obvious that GameStop will accept HD cables as a separate trade-in, so why not have a set of cables to test out systems that have HD components?
Also, why doesn’t GameStop have the ability to test out HD systems? Doesn’t GameStop sell HD systems? How do they test a PS3 when it gets traded in? The company does business in selling HD systems, you would think that GameStop would have the ability to capitalize off that fact and be equipped with the ability to test said systems.
I know there were other options for me in selling my Xbox 360. I know I could have used Craigslist or eBay and have made more from my sale, but I wanted to sell the system quickly, so I chose GameStop over Vintage Stock and GameCo. I now have credit with GameStop, and I will use that credit, but when that is used up and after what I experienced I do not know if I will continue to spend my money at GameStop.
There are several aspects of this story that seem weird to us, so we’re just going to throw it out there and see what you guys make of it.
Does this sound right to all of you? What should Jason have done differently? Is there a better way to unload an Xbox quickly? Why doesn’t GameStop have cables for testing things? Or do they?
Reader Nick would like to ask how Gap managed to design a pair of jeans that would fray and tear without unraveling, since that seems sort of impossible.
Thought you guys would appreciate this: I bought these jeans over the weekend from a Gap here in San Francisco. They were a great deal (marked down from almost $90 to about $30), but check out the dueling labels.
The top one says “they’re extra durable and designed to keep the fabric from unraveling.”
The bottom one says “they’re intentionally designed to fray and tear.”
Is it really possible to design a product to do BOTH those things?
Hmmm. Merriam-Webster:
Fray: 1 a : to wear (as an edge of cloth) by or as if by rubbing : fret b : to separate the threads at the edge of 2 : strain, irritate
Unravel: 1 a : to disengage or separate the threads of : disentangle b : to cause to come apart by or as if by separating the threads of
Sounds like a tall order. Glad I don’t design jeans.
Reader Dan writes in to let us know that Home Depot convinced him to shop at Sears. No easy feat, we assume.
Here’s Dan’s story:
I was rather disappointed and frustrated at a recent experience at your store in [redacted]. I went there on Sunday, April 25, in order to purchase a new Maytag Bravo series washer and dryer.
I had done my research and did some in-store price comparison at Home Depot, Sears, Best Buy and Fry’s. Sears happened to have the washer on sale, but your store had the best price on the dryer and included free delivery/installation/haul away.
I walked in and spoke with the associate in the appliances section and asked if he would price match the Sears price on the washer. He immediately brought up some unknown, nondescript website that displayed the Sears price as nearly $200 higher than it really was.
I had the phone number for the local Sears store and he spent about 15 seconds waiting for someone to answer the phone. He quickly gave up and told me that he could not match that price. He then showed me the inventory and told me that I wouldn’t be able to get delivery until approximately June 1.
He also mentioned that Sears probably didn’t have then in stock either. At that point, he seemed uninterested in working with me further and moved on to another customer who came into the department after I did.
I walked out, drove to Sears, negotiated down the price on the dryer and will have them delivered next week.
Next up is a new dishwasher, range and refrigerator. I have a pretty good idea of where I won’t be shopping for those.
Good work, Home Depot! Sears should send you a thank you card.
Has anyone else had trouble haggling with Home Depot?
If you’re doing something that is not as awesome as making your own Snickers bars, then we suggest you reconsider.
Instructables has a pretty easy recipe that you can use to make the homemade Snickers, and you can make it even easier by skipping the last step of dipping them in chocolate. Yes, they’ll look less like “real” Snickers bars, but we bet they’ll taste pretty good.
Homemade Snickers Candy Bar Recipe [Instructables via Lifehacker]
Reader Ed says he tried to buy an iPad from Best Buy, only to be told that someone was on the phone buying all of them, and that he could only get one if he bought the “black tie protection
plan” for $129. Ed told them to get lost and instead reported them to Consumerist and Best Buy.
Ed says:
At varying times I was told that they had either 2 or 4 left in stock, I’m not sure which number was correct, I never actually saw one except the display model.
They made clear that they could only sell one per person, which is fine… I only wanted one. The Best Buy employee went and had a used-car-salesman-worthy chat with his manager. Then, suddenly, I was informed that “someone on the phone” was buying ALL of the ones that they had left in stock.
I told them that I wasn’t aware you could arrange for the payment and purchase of items by phone with Best Buy. No response to that.
They then indicated that one of the iPads that was in the process of being purchased by someone on the phone at that VERY moment (who apparently gets to buy more than one?) could be sold to me instead, IF I would buy the black tie protection plan, which I was informed costs $129. On a $499 item that comes with a factory warranty. I was informed that Apple employees frequently come to Best Buy just to they can purchase their Apple items with Black Tie protection plans. They did not name any of these Apple employees, however.
I considered agreeing to buy the plan and then having it removed at the register, or coming back later to get a refund for the plan, but I was on my lunch break and didn’t feel like dealing with Best Buy customer service hell.
Ed cc’d this to Best Buy and to their credit they sprung into action. Ed says he found another iPad at a non-shady Best Buy and considers the matter resolved to his satisfaction.
Here’s Best Buy’s response to Ed:
I am writing in regards to your email below that was directed to the Consumerist; a copy of your correspondence was also sent to [redacted], who referred it to my attention to investigate and respond accordingly.
I’d like to apologize on behalf of Best Buy for the difficulties you encountered regarding this matter, but I appreciate the time you took to voice your concerns to allow us an opportunity to properly address them. Indeed, we value this sort of contact as it provides us with important feedback to make decisions regarding our future direction.
I’m sorry for the disappointment that surfaced from this incident, for the events you describe are both rare and unfortunate and not reflective of the optimal experience we strive to provide our customers. Please note that I’m currently investigating this issue in conjunction with the [redacted] store’s leadership team and will follow up with you again as soon as possible. In the meantime, please let me know if you have additional questions or concerns.
Good thing Ed is out there, keepin’ ’em honest.
Oh, and we snooped around to see if this protection plan is real and according to this chart, it is, and it does cost $129.00. Now excuse us while we mop up the milk that just shot through our nose.
The New York State Police do not think it is funny when you place a listing for your two sons on Craigslist.
A 24-year-old man was recently arrested and charged with “falsely reporting an incident” after posting a joke listing for his two sons, a two-year-old and a one-year-old. The man says he was “joking around.”
Police say that the listing for the children said they could be used as “child slaves” and “footstools.” They also pointed out how very not amused they are at having to investigate a joke.
“He didn’t actually sell is children, obviously. But he did cause enough annoyance or problems for three different agencies to get involved. And again, there’s some serious manpower and time that was wasted on something that he said was just a joke,” A State Trooper told WHAM in Rochester, NY. Police went on to note that the man actually clarified in the ad that he was only kidding, but that police took it seriously anyway because kids were involved.
The man says he is sure he will be found not guilty.
“I’m 100% positive this is going not going to be found guilty, because it’s completely ridiculous. It was 100% honest to God a joke, and everybody blew it way out of proportion.”
Brockport Man Says ‘Kids For Sale’ on Craigslist Was a ‘Joke’ [WHAM] (Thanks, Jarrod!)
Reader W. sends in an awkward sign that he saw behind the counter at Domino’s. It instructs delivery people on how to deal with a customer that thinks the “You Got 30 Minutes” slogan means that Domino’s has a delivery guarantee. They don’t, of course, because making pizza delivery people drive like crazy to make a deadline is unsafe. Instead, they explain that the slogan is a “challenge not for us, but for our CUSTOMERS. A challenge for them to be ready. A challenge for them to be hone in time. A challenge to be fully dressed.”
Here’s the sign. We would like to suggest that the idea that the phrase “You Got 30 Minutes” could be interpreted by anyone as instructions to make sure your pants are on in 30 minutes is a little silly, but we can also understand how important pants are in this situation:
Reader J was at the Giants game the other day and bought a seriously overpriced ballpark item from a vendor and was wondering if an additional tip was appropriate for a $6 hot chocolate.
J says:
So I went to a baseball game over the weekend, (Giants @ at&t park!) and I had a question. Now we all know food there is expensive, overpriced, but that’s how the stadium makes money, and we just buy it because we’re having a good time, so a little overpriced food for a day of fun isn’t a big deal.
My question is, with all those vendors walking around selling things like cotton candy, popcorn, coffee, hot chocolate, etc etc, are we suppose to tip them? I mean I’m already paying for overpriced food, and it’s their job to walk around selling food, but should we tip as well?
I was purchasing an overpriced cup of hot chocolate for $6, and I had a $10 bill, and the guy asked if I wanted my change. In another instance, when another vendor was selling a cup of hot chocolate (or coffee) to another customer, the customer paid $12, but only for one cup. The vendor confirmed either the guy wanted one or two cups (he wanted one), so the vendor gave back his change, but I swore he only gave back $5, so did he take $1 as a tip?
I also know there are these people that walk around with menus that let you order, and they bring the food to you, I assume you should tip them, since they’re more like waiters? I’m not sure but I don’t go to baseball games too much, so I was just wondering!
As a person who only buys beer at these kinds of things (Hey, I like beer,) it had never really occurred to me not to tip a vendor, but I can see how it would be hard to tip when buying a $6 cup of Swiss Miss. The last time I bought Swiss Miss it was, like, $0.75 for a whole box of little packets.
Even so, we’re pretty sure you should tip the vendor — because according to this article in Slate, they don’t get to pick what they sell. So if they get stuck selling King Midas’ Swiss Miss, it’s not really their fault.
From Slate:
Sellers get paid on commission, so expensive items that sell in high volume (i.e., beer) are the most coveted. On game day, each vendor buys a lot of their assigned product at the commissary; any beers that get stolen, lost, or given away as freebies come out of his pocket. After work, the cashier at the commissary pays him a certain sum for each beer (or other food item) sold. Commissions range from about 7 percent to 19 percent—up to $1.14 on a $6 beer. In some ballparks, commissions increase as a vendor meets sales goals.
In general, the best and the most-senior vendors choose to sell beer, while the rookies handle hot dogs and peanuts. To sell beer, you have to be 21 years old, and you’re supposed to undergo special training. ARAMARK, which manages concessions for 11 teams (including the Angels, Astros, Red Sox, and Braves), requires that all beer vendors study how to identify and deal with drunken fans.
Location also makes a difference in meeting your sales goals. Folks in the cheap seats tend to buy in bulk but give less in tips. If the sales manager doesn’t assign areas of the stadium, vendors work out informal systems to divvy up the sections based on seniority.
Being a stadium vendor is also something of an art form, MentalFloss has a list of 9 famous stadium vendors — one of them even has his own baseball card!
Here’s a particularly awesome guy who sells beer at Cleveland Indians games:
So, in short, yes a tip for good service is appropriate. The real problem here is that even for a baseball stadium, AT&T park is somewhat overpriced. Maybe next time skip the expensive hot chocolate and get some garlic fries and an Anchor Steam.
So, You Want to Be a Beer Vendor [Slate]
9 Famous Stadium Vendors [MentalFloss]
Hey, um, “Zoran,” if you owe money to Bank of America, can you give them a call because they seem to think you live at reader Kimber’s house and they are just not willing to accept that you don’t. Kimber says they call the house at “all hours of the day, during meal times and weekends” looking for you.
Kimber says:
For the past several months, we have been receiving phone calls from Bank of America. We get calls at all hours of the day, during meal times, and weekends. Sometimes when we pick up, there is no answer, but for the most part, when someone is on the other end of the line, the caller asks for “Zoran”.
I have explained numerous times to Bank of America that no one at this address has ever been a BoA customer, that there is no one at this address named “Zoran”, and that I would like my number to be placed on a do not call list.
Several times, I have been assured that my number was placed on such a list, but the calls continue. Once, my husband answered and was told that the phone numbers are not displayed to the callers, so there is no way that we could have been placed on a list at all.
This morning, after receiving one of the dead line calls, I just received another call looking for this Zoran character. This time, I demanded to be given to a supervisor to deal with the situation. After several minutes on hold, I explained the situation, gave my number…and then the supervisor hung up on me!
I am really at the end of my rope here! Is there anything I can do to get these calls to stop? I’m ready to sue these bozos if necessary.
Are these calls from a debt collection department? If so, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act forbids harassing telephone calls, including to third parties. Not allowed:
Causing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number.
If they’re looking for Zoran, this is the section that covers that behavior.
Any debt collector communicating with any person other than the consumer for the purpose of acquiring location information about the consumer shall—
(1) identify himself, state that he is confirming or correcting location information concerning the consumer, and, only if expressly requested, identify his employer;
(2) not state that such consumer owes any debt;
(3) not communicate with any such person more than once unless requested to do so by such person or unless the debt collector reasonably believes that the earlier response of such person is erroneous or incomplete and that such person now has correct or complete location information;
(4) not communicate by post card;
(5) not use any language or symbol on any envelope or in the contents of any communication effected by the mails or telegram that indicates that the debt collector is in the debt collection business or that the communi- cation relates to the collection of a debt; and
(6) after the debt collector knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with regard to the subject debt and has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, such attorney’s name and address, not communicate with any person other than that attorney, unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to the communication from the debt collector.
So, in short, they are not supposed to keep calling you (provided this is a debt collection attempt), after you tell them you do not have the information they are looking for.
NOLO has a good article about what to do if a debt collector is crossing these lines. In it they say that you can sue such a debt collector in small claims court.
If you’ve been subject to repeated abusive behavior and can document it, consider suing the collection agency. But if the illegal behavior was merely annoying, don’t bother. For example, if the collector called three times in one day but never again, you probably don’t have a case.
To sue the debt collector, you can represent yourself in small claims court or hire a lawyer and go to regular court. (The other side may have to pay your attorneys’ fees and court costs if you win.)
On the other hand if this is just a crazy marketing attempt, you can file a complaint with DoNotCall.gov.
Good luck!
FDCP Act (PDF) [FTC]
The New York Times has a soul-soothing calculator that lets you know whether you’d be better off renting or buying.
According to the calculator I’m making a good choice by renting in NYC rather than trying to buy here, so that makes me feel good about myself, but housing prices here in Crazy Town haven’t fallen as much as in other places.
The Times says its now quite likely that you’d be better off buying something, particularly if you have a family and need more room.
In some once bubbly markets, prices have fallen so far that buying a home appears to be a bargain, based on a New York Times analysis of prices and rents in 54 metropolitan areas. In South Florida, Phoenix and Las Vegas, house prices — relative to rents — are as low as in places that never experienced a bubble, like Indianapolis and St. Louis.
…The country’s two biggest metropolitan areas, New York and Los Angeles, are a microcosm of today’s more nuanced real estate market. Average house prices across both areas have fallen enough that buying may now be a good deal for many families. Yet there are still significant pockets where renting looks promising — including parts of Manhattan, the New York suburbs and Orange County, Calif.
I will now end this post before I impulse buy a house back home and live happily ever after munching delicious Italian Beef sammiches.
Check out the calculator here.
Readers have told us the best way to save money on your cable bill without the hassle of actually switching is to call them up and negotiate… but what should you actually say?
Pre-Game Warm-Up:
Research: The first thing you’ll want to do is look around and see what the other companies are offering. Don’t forget to include Dish Network and DirecTV, particularly if you enjoy sports and can speak intelligently about the superiority of DirecTV’s sports packages.
Locate Evidence: Gather a copy of your bill as well as any deals you’ve been offered by the competition so you can refer to them during the negotiation.
Kick-Off:
Call your cable company and get transferred to the retentions specialist. You don’t want to be negotiating with someone who isn’t authorized to help you. You can also try to go directly there by using the annoying phone tree robot and expressing intent to cancel or reduce services.
Once you get to the retention specialist, begin the negotiation. Remain calm, be firm but friendly, and try to relate to the person on the other end of the telephone. A friend who can save you money is a good friend indeed:
You: Hi, this is Captain Awesome III, [that is, your name, right?], and my cable bill has recently increased. I noticed that [competing cable/satellite company] has a promotion that would save me [amount of money.] I’m interested in lowering my cable bill.
They will likely argue with you, or offer you Free HBO. If you wanted Free HBO, fantastic! Take your Free HBO. If not, try saying stuff like:
You: I appreciate the offer, and I do like HBO, particularly when its free, but I really called to lower my bill. Is there anything you can do to bring your offer down to where the competition is?
If they are really giving you a hard time, try negotiating based on your value as a customer. From what we’ve heard, those of you who subscribe to expensive sports packages or get your telephone services from the cable company have the strongest negotiating positions.
You: Did you realize that I pay full price for a lot of services? I’d really like a discount on some of these [read all full price things from your bill, line by line.]
Remember, timing is everything. The best time to call and negotiate is after your “deal” expires. Once you’ve got a new one, be sure to lock in a time period. Some cable companies will want you to agree to a contract with a termination fee. It’s really up to you whether you want to do this, but there’s no harm in trying to avoid it.
Sudden Death Overtime: It’s possible that these tactics won’t work. Either this is because there isn’t sufficient competition in your area and thus not enough “churn” to warrant negotiating with customers, or it’s because your rep’s dog took a dump in her shoe that morning and she’s taking it out on you.
In order to make sure it’s not the dog’s fault you’re overpaying for cable, call back in a week and try again.
Did this script save you money? Did we miss something? Did you find something that worked better? Send us what you said to your cable company at [email protected] and we’ll share it with the world.
This is actually a happy story, despite my inability to write cheerful-sounding headlines, so pay attention if you’ve ever been told that your whole apartment complex can get cable/FiOS/whatever, but you can’t because you are special and not allowed to be happy. You’d be surprised at how many letters we get from people who have this problem. One such person, Andrew, Consumerist Reader, decided to email the CEO.
Here’s what happened:
Thanks to Consumerist, I was able to get Verizon FiOS installed in my apartment. You may be asking yourself, how is that possible? Well here’s how it happened…
I am moving apartments and currently have Verizon FiOS in my home. I love it and did not want to go back to Cablevision, so I went on Verizon.com to check if it was available and it was not (tear). After some research I found out that the my new apartment was the only apartment in the entire complex that Fios was not available for. I called Verizon and posed this question, and every service representative I spoke with said, “that is impossible, if your complex has Fios, you should have FiOS.” However, no one could figure out why my apartment did not have it. After countless calls and hours wasted, I finally got an answer saying the apartment “structure” was not conducive to FiOS and thus will not be able to get it.
I literally could not believe the service rep said my particular apartment “Structure” was different that every other apartment. But alas, I just gave up and ordered Cablevision.
Then yesterday (4/21), I was reading Consumerist and I opened an article about how a person contacted the CEO of Verizon to get his bill fixed. So I sat in my office thinking, maybe I should contact him; so I did. I did not think I would even get a response and if I did, it would be rather late.
However, sometimes you underestimate large corporations. I sent an email to Ivan Seidenberg (CEO of Verizon) at 11:01 AM EST yesterday and got a response from the President of the Mid-Atlantic Region of Verizon (Thomas) at 12:30 PM EST. I was literally in a state of shock at how quick the Verizon CEO delegated this minuscule issue to his subordinates. I was not signing up an entire company for internet use, I was signing up 1 apartment for cable and internet. The fact that a president of a region of Verizon, (the 13th largest corporation in America) took the time to email back and forth and then follow-up with a personal call to me really speaks to their customer oriented business model.
So after 1 email, Tom said we would be sending a manager to the apartment complex to check the apartment. He was not blowing smoke, within 1 hour Tom sent me an emails saying that FiOS manager went to the building and determined that Fios is available in my apartment, and that I will be able to sign up for Verizon and leave Cablevision (Thank GOD!). I signed up and got a window of installation from 12-5, however Verizon wanted to make sure I was happy and they said the technician will be at my apartment promptly at 12pm to install. Literally AMAZING!!
Due to reading Consumerist, not only was I able to get FiOS installed in my apartment, but as cliché as this sounds, it makes me feel like I am not just a number or a wallet, but that my issues matter.
I hope this makes it up on your website as I want your readers to know that Verizon is a corporation who cares about their customers and not only about the bottom line.
A new studyshows that choking deaths among children are really a more serious problem than was previously thought and that the death rate is quite high, even among kids who were considered “old enough” for more complicated toys.
The data shows that 2.7 million kids, with an average age of 3.5, were admitted to hospitals with airway obstructions caused by an object. 42% of the foreign bodies were food items, the rest were “inorganic” objects such as toys. This is apparently “weird.”
“Toys are affecting older kids, and that’s really weird to me,” Dr. Rahul Shah, a pediatric otolaryngologist at the Children’s National Medical Center and the study’s co-author, told AOL News.
The death rate is apparently quite shocking, says Dr. Shah.
“The death rate, to me, is unbelievable,” he told AOL News. “It just shows that choking is absolutely not a benign health issue, but an extremely serious one.”
In case you’d like to take some steps to prevent your child from dying, the article recommends paying particular care to the now-controversial hot dog, which is responsible for 17% of all choking emergency room visits.
If you were to take the best engineers in the world and try to design the perfect plug for a child’s airway, it would be a hot dog,” Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, wrote in a statement. “I’m a pediatric emergency doctor, and to try to get them out once they’re wedged in, it’s almost impossible.”
Kid Chokings Still ‘Extremely Serious’ Problem [AOLNews via Consumer Reports]
CNN Headline News is good at journalism. See if you notice anything different about the Lane Bryant ad they show in this clip vs the real one.
[Via Daily Wh.at]