Author: Phil Villarreal

Brantley says he bought an e-book from Barnes & Noble via his Nook device, but improper formatting gutted the content. He feels burned and asked for a refund, but B&N refuses.

He writes:

I purchased an ebook version of John Hodgman’s “The Areas Of My Expertise” from my Nook whilst traveling yesterday, and it just didn’t come through right. I emailed customer service:

“As I was traveling yesterday, I purchased John Hodgman’s book on my Nook, and started to read it on the plane. Unfortunately, a great deal of the book’s humor is through the comedic use of tables, graphs, and figures. Almost none of these rendered properly on the Nook, rendering up to half the tables unreadable. I understand it’s a relatively new medium, and I’ve loved my Nook so far. But this is just not working for me.

Is there a way to “return” the ebook and get a refund? Or at least a store credit (I’ll be buying a new ebook almost immediately, as I don’t like to not have one handy)? Again, love my Nook, but Hodgman’s book just didn’t transfer properly to the format.
Thanks,”

They responded with their “ebooks are unreturnable and unrefundable” email. I understand an All Sales Final policy to a point. But in this case, the product advertised is not the product I was able to purchase. The tables are a big way Hodgman brings the funny, but on the Nook, I can’t read them. I mean, were I to buy the physical book from B&N, only to find pages torn out, wouldn’t that necessitate at least an exchange? Of course, it’s the ebook file that doesn’t work here, so a straight up exchange wouldn’t work. Thoughts?

It seems unfair that Brantley didn’t receive the product he thought he was getting. What do you think he should try next?

In a savvy move that helps defray one of the big knocks on the Xbox 360 — that its storage options are limited — Microsoft will release a firmware update that allows gamers to store games and saves on portable devices, up to 16GB in size, that connect to the console via USB, Joystiq reports.

The move, due sometime this spring, adds an option the PS3 has always had to the 360, Joystiq writes:

It should be clear by now that Microsoft is simply pulling out of the Memory Unit business and not the highly lucrative Xbox hard drive business. With an artificial cap of 16 GB – still shy of the 20 GB hard drive that shipped with the original 2005 Xbox Pro and a fraction the size of the currently shipping 120 GB hard drive – USB storage support simply removes the onerous requirement for a Memory Unit on Xbox 360 Arcade units, and brings the Xbox 360 platform a feature that’s been present on the PlayStation 3 since that console’s 2006 launch.

Xbox 360 gamers, how will the new storage option change the way you operate?

Xbox 360 gaining USB storage support in 2010 update [Joystiq]

The photo here is an excerpt from the gambling site Bodog’s info graphic, which puts things pretty bluntly. The first round of the tournament is in effect today and tomorrow, capping off a week of water cooler bracket chatter.

Bosses nationwide can expect employees to call in sick from sudden illnesses today, which can only be cured by sitting at home and watching several consecutive hours of basketball.

To what lengths do you go to keep up with the tournament while pretending to work?

NCAA Basketball March Madness [Bodog]
(Thanks, Jeff!)

Back in November we learned the TSA suspected snow globes of being possible terrorist devices, possibly because of their overpoweringly wintry and hypnotic nature. Apparently the Universal Studios gift shop doesn’t have us on RSS, because an employee told John it was OK to bring on his globe on a flight.

Not OK. The TSA confiscated the offending globe and now John is souvenirless.

Here’s the message he sent to Universal, which went to Spencer’s and bounced back, saying Spencer’s no longer handles the gift shop:

was in the Universal Orlando store night before last and bought a Spider-Man mini snow globe for about 12 bucks. I asked the cashier about whether that was ok to take on the plane (since I only had a carry-on it was an important question, given the liquid) in the “liquids bag” that is permitted. He said “let me check” and asked
another cashier and what appeared to be a floor manager, and they assured me it would be fine.

I would not have gotten this item otherwise (I also got some very cool Spider-Man dog tags). The next morning the globe was confiscated by the TSA at Orlando airport. Their
rules is no snow globes on carry-ons at all ever. Having no checked bag I was forced to surrender my globe. The TSA rep admitted it was an arcane rule, but it was to be enforced nonetheless.

Your store surely sells a lot of these globes and it must have gotten back to your organization at some point that there’s a very great risk for the weekend traveler to Orlando if they want one. I am irked that I was assured this was fine. I would still very much like the Spider-Man snow globe. If you would see your way to sending me the globe I paid for, I would be most appreciative.

I haven’t finished my vacation blog report and would like to have a happier ending for it. If you see fit to send one, my address is John Thomas, [redacted] . Either way, please let your staff know what the limits are with snow globes. This can’t have been the first time this has happened.

If you have any insight as to how to deal with Universal Studios, please leave your advice in the comments.

RELATED:
When Traveling, Beware The Snow Globe Terrorist Menace

The Bedometer iPhone App tracks the amount of calories you burn during sex, according to The Sun. You just place it on the bed when things start to get freaky, try not to get so wild that the iPhone falls off or gets submerged in fluids and then check the device to see whether or not you burned off that bagel.

The $1 app even lets you post the results to Facebook, causing your friends to burn whatever amount of calories it takes to click the “hide” button to ignore your disturbing updates.

Any interest out there in the Bedometer? Perhaps it would be a mood breaker to say “Hold up one sec, babuh, I want to see how many calories we’re about to burn” in the heat of the moment.

Slap and tickle [The Sun via The Awl]

Larry says Sprint snookered him into a sucker bet, fleecing him into re-upping his contract, not making him aware that his bill would skyrocket.

His tale:

I’ve been a Sprint customer for 10 years, and with the exception of phone selection, I’ve never had complaints about the service or even the customer service. Until today. Two years ago, my wife and I were tempted by the iPhone and called Sprint to see what they would do to keep us as customers. They agreed to give us two new discounts, in addition to our USAA discount, to keep our bill low, and we resided to the Palm Centro instead of iPhones.

Fastward to November of last year, my Centro had been dead for about five months and my wife’s was falling apart. Sprint had just released the HTC Hero and the Droid was coming to Verizon. So, we decided to see what Sprint could do for us again. We still had two month on our contract, but qualified for the full discount on new phones. So, it was the Hero or wait two month for our contract to end and be free to shop around. The Sprint sales rep on the phone informed me that we couldn’t keep the same plan, because the Hero required a different network and thus a different plan. The new plan was much more than what we were paying, for essentially the same service – from unlimited data, unlimited text, and around 750 minutes a month to unlimited data, unlimited text, and 1500 minutes a month. Granted, it was twice the minutes a month, but in 10 years we had only gone over 750 minutes once. I told the service rep that it was too much for what was for us the equivalent service, as the extra minutes weren’t of value to us. We were about to give up on the Hero and wait two month to shop around.

But wait! The sales rep told us that he could transfer all the discounts we were receiving to the new plan and contract, and our bill would only go up about “$5 or $10” more a month for the next two years. We agreed to the deal, and renewed. The December-January bill was a little confusing, with all the changes, but the section listing what our new plan bill was in line with what the sales rep told us. January-February’s bill was about $8 more than our old plan, so that too was expected. Then came the February-March bill, which had with a 30% price increase and two of our discounts gone.

I called customer service, and was passed up the chain twice to a rep that refused to pass me higher. He claimed that the discounts had expired, that they had no record of the sales rep’s offer to extent the discounts to the new contract, and that the best thing he could do was give me one discount that was 1/3 the value of the previous two discount. I told him that I wanted what I was promised I would get, because that was the reason we renewed in November. He refused and stated that there was no one else there that could do so. He took my name and number and said that “someone” will give me a call in 72 hours.

So, apparently, Sprint isn’t above lying to get you to renew, reneging, and then “losing” any record of those promises. Trapping in to 22 months of higher bills or a huge termination of contract fee. Am I being unreasonable to ask for what I was told I would receive? Any suggestions on where to go or what to do if I ever get that call back?

Have you had a cell phone company pull a similar ruse on you? Please share any advice you have for Larry.

Kentin Waits doles out some effective-sounding negotiation tips on Wise Bread. Part common sense, part Sun Tzu, the advice can serve you well in any number of situations, be it working on a deal for a house or car or asking the boss for a raise.

Here are three of the seven tips:

1. Come prepared.

Never begin to negotiate on the price of an item that you haven’t researched and understand the value of. In order to get the best deal, it’s essential to know what the market supports for the item in your area. Ask yourself: is it a good deal to begin with? What have other items like it sold for recently? How is this one better or worse? What’s my ideal price and what’s my maximum price?

2. Be polite.

Negotiating should be less of a battle and more of a dance. Have a conversation with your seller, kick the dirt, and find some common ground. Realize that both parties have an investment in the outcome, and that a happy seller is as important as a happy buyer. Sellers who leave feeling like you drove a hard but fair deal will be more likely to “dance” with you again.

3. Don’t make the first move.

This is where a bit of psychology comes in. If you’re in a situation where the price of an item is not stated, let the seller toss out the first number. Whoever quotes this magic figure first takes the most risk in negotiation — is the price so outlandish that the seller has alienated the buyer? Is it so low that he could have gotten twice that amount? If you can’t avoid naming the first price, opt for a fair, if slightly low-ball offer. Remember, you can always increase your offer, but decreasing it is like trying to unlay an egg.

Which negotiation method works best for you?

The 7 Laws of Negotiation [Wise Bread]

BusinessWeek came out with a list of the most affordable places to retire, and my hometown of Tucson topped the rankings. This is a big deal for Tucson, given it normally doesn’t top any national statistical categories other than impoverished education systems and cholla stings.

The BusinessWeek explanation of the choices:

Tucson, home of the University of Arizona, is a scenic, affordable place to retire. It is surrounded by mountains and the dry beauty of the Sonoran desert. It has its own airport, just six miles from downtown Tucson, more than 100 parks, a good public transportation system, and plenty of public and private golf courses. The university and University Medical Center are among of the state’s largest employers.

Richmond, Virginia; Overland Park, Kansas; Apache Junction, Arizona and Jekyll Island, Georgia round out the top 5. But they all got dominated by Tucson, so those four cities can suck it. Especially you, Apache Junction.

America’s Best Affordable Places to Retire [BusinessWeek]

In case you are a DirecTV customer and missed NHL and Mountain West Conference college sports games that weren’t good enough to be picked up by ESPN, you’ll be glad to know that the sports channel Versus is once again available for your viewing pleasure.

The reconciliation marks the end of a feud that dates to September 1, when the sides couldn’t agree on a contract renewal. From the DirecTV press release:

“We are pleased that both sides were able to work out a satisfactory deal to bring this programming back to our customers,” said Derek Chang, executive vice president, Content Strategy and Development, DIRECTV.

“We’re excited that we were able to come to a fair agreement that puts VERSUS back in millions of homes with DIRECTV in time for our busy spring programming schedule,” said Jamie Davis, president of VERSUS. “We look forward to super-serving these fans with NHL regular-season and playoff coverage, our first live UFC event and much more.”

Translation: We beat you down, Versus, so don’t act the diva again or we’ll boot you off the system for several months again.

DirecTV And Versus Reach Carriage Agreement [DirecTV]
(Thanks DJ-DIGITAL!)

A Washington, D.C. law mandates shoppers shell out a nickel for each grocery bag they use, and the regulation has caused people to stop taking as many unnecessary bags and reduced waste, the Baltimore Sun reports.

Impressed, Baltimore’s city council is considering charging a quarter a bag. The trend seems to be catching on nationwide. From the Sun story:

Washington is the first major U.S. city to go through with a fee on disposable bags for food. Seattle adopted a 20 cent fee, only to have voters repeal it in a referendum. San Francisco is the only major municipality to have banned plastic merchandise bags, although they’re also outlawed on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Government fees or restrictions on disposable bags have had a tough time taking hold. Plastic bag manufacturers and anti-tax activists, among others, say that litter should be tackled through voluntary recycling. And bag fees, opponents contend, are ill-disguised revenue grabs that hurt the poor by making them pay more for groceries and food.

You could argue the laws work as regressive taxes that stick it harder to the poor, but it’s tough to dispute the environmental impact of the results.

Nickel fee on bags cutting use in Washington [Baltimore Sun]
(Thanks, William!)

Sony announced its strange-looking motion controller, the PlayStation Move, today at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The game will be compatible with Tiger Woods 11 (insert sex joke here), among other games.

Due out in the Fall, the controller will come bundled with the PS3 camera and an unnamed game for about $100.

Do you think the new controller will spark some life into sales of the third-place console, or is it too much of a copy of the Wii to draw interest?

‘PlayStation Move’ is official name of motion controller [Joystiq]

Credit Card Oultaw posts about an Expedia Las Vegas vacation ad for airfare and a stay at a 4-star hotel starting at $39, but clicked on it, went through the process and discovered the total cost of the cheapest trip was $2,000.

From the post:

They have quite the nerve shoving a Citi credit card offer in my face as they unveiljavascript:void(0); a price tag that is about 57 times greater than what the ad I clicked on promised.

Get your sh_t together, Expedia. What you did to me and thousands of other Web surfers tonight was either a) intentionally devious b) rather incompetent or c) a bit of both.

If an offer is too good to be true, it probably is.

Which travel site do you find gives you the best results?

Is Expedia.com Full Of It? [Credit Card Outlaw]
(Thanks, Sara!)

Lower prices are not always good things, as Walmart has discovered after pricing black Barbies at half the price of white ones, giving a new definition to the term “price discrimination.” Guanabee reports a shopper at a Louisiana Walmart discovered the price discrepancy.

Have you noticed this phenomenon at your own Walmart?

Blondes Have More Value [Guanabee via ABC News]

If you ever wanted to buy sex.com and have more than a million dollars sitting around, now is your chance. Head over to Maltz Auctions, submit your bid Thursday and watch the page views roll in.

Here are the prerequisites:

* All of Borrower’s interest in and to all right, title and interest in an undivided 100% interest in the internet domain name and related INTERNIC registration of the URL www.sex.com, and 100% of all cash proceeds, accounts receivable, licensing rights and intellectual property rights directly associated with or derived from the ownership of such URL.

* Please Download Attached Notice of Sale and Terms of Sale under “Documents” tab for Details

Auction Date & Time: Thursday, March 18th at 11:00 am.

Auction Location: Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP, 156 West 56th Street, New York, New York 10019.

Terms & Conditions of Sale: $1,000,000 bank certified check made payable to “Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP, as escrow agent” required to bid.

Since the Consumerist pays me in $1,000,000 bank certified checks, I’ll have no problem pulling one out to grab the domain name.

But should you beat me in the bidding war, what would you do with sex.com?

Domain Auction [Maltz Auctions via The Awl]

Thomas spotted this photo of a Desperate Housewives DVD price tag. Whoever typed it up chose an interesting place to break from the large type on the headline to the remainder of the title. He writes:

A friend took this picture and posted it on Facebook. Wal-mart or Target I didn’t ask, but whichever it was totally got it right.

If ABC ever decides its title for the nighttime soap is too lengthy, it could take this suggestion and run.

People stood up for themselves and went to the Business Bureau 10 percent more often in 2009 than they did in 2008, according to BBB’s figures, which also say complainers focused their ire on cell phone companies and banks.

From the BBB report:

“Amidst the housing crisis, high unemployment rate and the chaos on Wall Street, the last year has not been easy on consumers and the increase in complaints to BBB reflect this troubled economy,” said Stephen A. Cox, President and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. “Now more than ever, struggling families should rely on BBB to find businesses they can trust and to help their voice be heard in the marketplace.”

The cell phone industry received the largest number of complaints in 2009 with 37,477, a 2.1 percent increase over last year. The cable & satellite TV industry ranked second with 32,616 complaints, an 8.7 percent increase over the previous year. Rounding out the top three, banks received 29,920 complaints, a 42.3 percent increase over the previous year.

“For the second year in a row, banks experienced a significant increase in complaints coinciding with 140 bank failures in 2009,” said Cox. “Trust in the financial sector is already extremely low and the dramatic increase in BBB complaints against banks reflects the growing discord between consumers and the industry.”

What did you go to the BBB about last year, and how did the process work out for you?

Complaints to Better Business Bureau Up Nearly 10 percent in 2009 [Better Business Bureau]

After Mark made a purchase on Amazon, the site suggested a rather insulting PayPhrase: “Mark’s Unprofitable Existence.”

If his existence is indeed unprofitable, it stands to reason that Amazon isn’t helping the matter by tempting him with such a diverse array of click-to-own products.

Speaking of PayPhrase, if you use the passive identification system to buy stuff, let us know how that’s working out for you.

Danny had a run-in with one determined restaurateur. After the waitress bungled his credit card payment, the owner tracked him down on Facebook, asked him to become a fan of the restaurant, then came to his door to demand the money in person.

He writes:

I wanted to share a quick story with Consumerist about a weird encounter I experienced at a local Japanese/Korean restaurant, [redacted]. Earlier this week a friend and I went to lunch at a brand new mom-and-pop restaurant in Southeastern Arizona. Our tab came to about $40 with tip and I paid with a credit card. The food and service were average, but we talked about how we probably wouldn’t be returning.

Later that evening, around 8:30 my door bell rang. Thinking it was FedEx dropping off an order, I expected to look through the peephole to see a large truck driving away, however I noticed a middle-aged man who I didn’t recognize. When I opened the door the stranger asked if I was Danny and if I had eaten at the restaurant earlier in the day. I replied yes, and he went on to tell me that he was the owner of the restaurant and the waitress serving us voided the credit card transaction for our meal. He asked if I would pay for the transaction again. I asked to see proof of the voided transaction, so he provided me with the signed receipt and the voided transaction record. I didn’t have any cash so he requested the expiration date on my credit card so he could re-run the card. I ran to get my wallet in the other room when I hear him loudly explain to me how he couldn’t find me in the Yellow Pages, but he did successfully find me on Facebook, making it a point to ask me to become a fan of the restaurant. I gave him my expiration date, he thanked me and left.

I was so confused (and quite a bit creeped out) at this point as to why someone would show up at my house late in the evening asking me to pay for a mistake his employee made, then ask me to become one of their fans on Facebook. I ended up calling the friend I went to lunch with earlier and she agreed that it was quite creepy. The bottom line is that I didn’t mind paying for the lunch… after all I thought I already had, rather how weird the whole situation was. After spending the next 10 minutes looking online to see if my actual address came up (spoiler alert: it DID NOT), I decided to call the restaurant to explain just how weird this whole thing truly was.

The owner seemed very surprised that I felt weirded out by his visit. I told him that he should have taken the money out of the waitresses pay, and not gone out of his way to track down a customer. After telling him that I don’t have a problem paying, rather a problem with his unannounced visit, I informed him that I wouldn’t be returning to the restaurant. He didn’t seem to have a problem with that, and hung up. A couple minutes later, his wife called me back saying they were not going to charge my card.

I am sharing this story with consumerist to see if you or other readers would also be weirded out by the situation. Is this guy nuts… or is this normal for a restaurant to take this type of action?

It’s obvious that the restaurant guy is way over the line here. Has any business owner gone to such a great length to get your money?

A new iPhone App, Comcast Mobile, gives Comcast customers the same ability as DirecTV users to program their DVRs on the go, High-Def Digest reports:

It’s a free app, and it works with more than just your DVR, even though that might be the most attractive feature.

You can access your Comcast.net email, check your visual voice mail, sync your address book. and watch trailers. But let’s face it, the DVR scheduling it the only real reason to pick this up.

If you’ve tried out the app, let us know how effective it is. And if you’ve got an iPhone and DirecTV, how often do you find yourself using the DVR-programming connectivity?

Comcast Joins in with a DVR Scheduling iPhone App [High-Def Digest]

The High Definite spotted these signs in Baltimore. Since the device in question, the iPod Touch, costs $200 on the low end, there’s plenty of room for higher bidding.

If you’ve ever lost an expensive device and gotten it back, how did you pull it off?

Coffee Break [The High Definite via Gizmodo]