Author: Phil Villarreal

Jeff says he did what many dream about but few accomplish — he kept his receipt hidden from Walmart snoops at the expense despite stiff resistance.

He writes:

Returning from a camping trip that was cut short due to bad weather, I was driving through Nashville the weekend they had the nasty weather. It was evident I needed new wiper blades so I asked Garmina (my trusty Garmin) the location of the nearest Walmart on my path home.

It directed me to a location in north metro Nashville. I found 2 wiper blades and a gallon of washer fluid and proceeded to wait behind the two women that were somewhat rude to the very slow checkout girl (its not her fault Marlboro’s were 5.25 a pack) I purchased my items, said thank you (something the prior two customers didn’t do), and took my items without a bag to the entrance.

Being tired, weary and pretty grungy looking after 3 days of camping with cold and rain, I’m sure I didn’t look like the most upstanding citizen. This with the fact that I hadn’t shaved for 2 months in preperation for our annual “guys only” winter camping event. I was also in a foul mood having been in traffic for 4 hours and dodging kids in the store to find my items.

The lady saw me coming and told me she needed to see my receipt. I informed her I wasn’t required to do so and she told me otherwise. I asked her if she was accusing me of shoplifting, because if she was we could talk to her manager and see their evidence. She said she was not accusing me of anything so I told her have a nice day. This did not satisfy her one bit.

At this point another customer showed up and presented his receipt without asking and distracted her. She ordered me to wait right there until she could get a manager. I told her that the manager could find me in the parking lot putting on my wiper blades, and I left.

The manager never showed up, neither did any police cars, so I guess she ignored the challenge. My buddy, who bought some sunglasses and didn’t get checked at all, thought it was hilarious.

You’d think this sort of domineering, customer distrusting practice would tend to drive some Walmart customers away, but Jeff and his friend seemed to have enjoyed the experience so much that they’ll surely be back again and again, never, ever, ever showing their receipts.

Newly unemployed, credit card debt-carrying Lilgaladriel wants some advice on how to deal with the credit card companies. He writes:

So I’ve recently become unemployed, and I have 2 credit cards that I’m paying off — one with Chase and one with Discover. I’m already on special payment plans with both of them in which the APRs have been decreased to about 12% and and further purchases are blocked. (FYI, my balances are roughly $6,000 with one card, and $4,000 with the other.) I’m wondering what would happen if I called the companies and told them that I’m now unemployed? There’s no way I’m going to be able to make any more payments until I find a new job; I have absolutely no savings at the moment — saving hasn’t been at all possible for me to do. What do most people do in this situation? Are the CC companies going to tell me to suck it up?

Advice — solicited or otherwise — is what Consumerists do best, so have at it. What are Lilgaladriel’s wisest moves to avoid drowning in payments?

Cindy says TurboTax sped her through a filing session that ended with her paying about $30 to upgrade to the deluxe version, even though she didn’t realize she’d made such a purchase. These are the sorts of issues that make Tax Cat purr in quizzical contemplation.

She writes:

I just e filed my federal and state taxes today, and was a little miffed to see that TurboTax charged me $29.95 for “upgrading to their deluxe version” when I have absolutely no recollection of doing this. (I’m the cheapest person on earth; there’s no way I would do this!) They also tried to charge me another $29.95 fee just for taking the first $29.95 directly out of my refund, plus the $35 for my state return. (I got out of the second *29.95 fee when I chose “pay with a credit card” instead.) I tried to search on your site for similar issues, but I never found any….is anyone else out there having this issue? If this is a large issue, I will consider going to the Better Business Bureau or some other reputable agency to report this back handed practice. Thanks for your help!

If you’ve had a similar problem with TurboTax, please let us know.

Responding to last week’s post about a guy who couldn’t get IKEA to sell him a desk it had in plain view because the store does its restocking overnight, Ross writes in with a story of how he found himself in a similar situation. Only Ross came out a winner by guilting the staff into shipping the item to him for free.

He writes:

I read the article that Brian wrote to you on February 4th regarding an IKEA experience with his desired desk being “out of stock” but still in plain view. I too had a similar experience, but had a better outcome.

I went to IKEA in Palo Alto before Christmas 2009 to purchase a Poäng chair. They are the thin wood frames that you can choose the finish of the wood and then the type of cushion you want. My girlfriend and I had already found the perfect combination for us the last time we had visited. The last trip, they didn’t have the cushions we wanted so we left with some kitchen items, but no chair.

After walking around for a while and grabbing some other items we wanted, we went to the warehouse area to pick up the boxes for the chair. After searching for 15 minutes, we had found everything but the frame. The area looked a little disorganized like someone had come through and moved items around so I went to the customer service desk to ask for some assistance. This is where I started to get frustrated.

The man standing at the customer service desk came over and kindly helped us look for the missing box. After a minute, he stated that they looked like they were sold out and that we would have to come back tomorrow. I asked if her could check the stock in the computer. He said that it wouldn’t show anything useful because they are in inventory, just not accessible at this time. I had noticed a pallet of boxes with the right part number right above where we were standing. I asked him if he could bring some of those down. He told me that they restock at night and in the morning and that it was not possible for me to get any today for safety reasons. He then returned to his post and assisted some other customers.

At this point, I was pretty angry, but trying to keep my composure. My desired christmas gift to myself and girlfriend was just out of reach. It would have really brought the room together if we just had that chair! I fumed for a minute, thinking about what to do. I walked down the isle and saw a guy on a forklift moving some items around near the back of the warehouse. I walked over to the roped off section he was in and asked if he could bring something down for me. He said that they only do that at night and that he wasn’t allowed. After trying to ask in other ways, I gave up. I didn’t want to turn into the guy who uncomfortably wont let an issue go. I’ve worked in a demanding customer service environment and know how much of a pain it is when someone wont give up on trying to make you circumvent policy. I decided I would try the customer service rep one more time.

I asked the CSR if I could have some sort of assurance that it would be there tomorrow if I made the hour long drive in the morning. He said, rather fatalistically, that people come in and buy all of one particular item and that they could not predict the buying patterns of customers. I made some comment about not being happy, and he interjected randomly that he would not recommend me climbing up and getting them down myself. I thought that was kind of funny that he had a recommendation about something that seemed pretty dangerous. The boxes weighed maybe 45 pounds and are large enough to be be hard to cary. Getting that down from 8 feet up while balancing on structured, metal shelving, seemed kinda crazy.

I finally was so angry that I asked for the floor manager and was directed to the checkout area. This was the second trip I had made to IKEA in as many weeks and really wanted to finally get the chair. After speaking with another person, waiting 10 minutes, and cooling off, a nice lady came over to listen to our story. She re-stated that they could not get the items down for safety reasons, but told me she would ship the missing item free of charge direct to my door. She took my address, phone number, and called me the next day to process the order and send it out. I had it the following day on the front porch and happy about not having to spend another 2 hours in a car to and from IKEA or any money on shipping charges. I knew that there was a way to get what I wanted without being a jerk to the staff.

Kudos to Ross for the expert negotiation tactics. Have you ever pulled off a deal as sweet?

Anna says Dell sent a special offer on a laptop via text, and even though she acted on the sale immediately she hasn’t been able to bag the deal, and instead was offered a similar product for $150 more.

She writes:

Ok, here is the concise version of Dell “Bait and switch”. Dell sent out a deal via text alert on 2/1 – $329 for an Inspiron 1545 laptop via Fast Track (promised to arrive within 48 hours from the time order is placed). I placed the order on 2/1 with 2-day shipping, received a delay notification on 2/2/2010, another one on 2/3/2010. Kept calling Customer Care and every representative told me my order is delayed, but will ship today (2/3/2010) or at the latest 2/4/2010. On 2/4 I received an automated email saying that the order is delayed and that they need my authorization to continue processing it or it will be canceled. Reply with authorization via email and phone. They document my response and let me know that they will proceed with the order. A few minutes later I receive a cancellation email. Call back Customer Service, get bounced around from rep to rep and every single one of them tells me that my order has not been canceled and that the new estimated delivery date is now 2/9/2010. Online Order status shows “In Production” until about 2pm when it suddenly changed to “Cancelled”. Called back, was told that Dell was oversold and all out of inventory. Was transferred to order modification to order a new comparable system. Was offered a nearly identical system for $479, a whopping $150 more than the original order. Said, no thank you. The slickdeals.net board started receiving messages of people getting replacement orders placed with pricematch. Call back, go through 5 people, end up talking with someone from Nashville sales, who told me they could build a comparable system, but they don’t pricematch, only Customer Care Sales can pricematch. Get transferred to India for Customer care, where I am firmly told that Dell does not pricematch. Period. Ask to speak to supervisor. Speak to supervisor, same outcome. Ask to speak to his supervisor, receive a response that 1) he doesn’t have one; followed by 2) supervisor is not a call taking position. Ultimately, he offers to transfer me back to Sales where they can build me a comparable system at a much higher price. Thanks, but no thanks.

In the end, the customer gets the short end of the stick. I am a student, working full-time to get by, and thought I could get a decent computer at a price I could afford, instead I get lured into this deal (bait) and the only resolution I am offered is to order a much more expensive system which is ultimately the same computer I could have gotten had Dell not canceled my order.

Apparently, I am not alone in my ordeal as evidenced by a flood of message on the SlickDeals.net forum.

If you’ve ever felt baited and switched in a similar manner, please share your story in the comments.

Ben says he bought a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 with a 250GB hard drive so he could transfer saves and downloaded content from his full old hard drive to a new one.

He says he spoke with a CSR named Patrick who refused to let him purchase a data transfer kit because the registration info in Microsoft’s system didn’t match what Ben told him.

Ben writes:

After giving Patrick my information he informed me that the information that he had on file did not match the information that he had on the computer. This made no sense to me because, despite purchasing the console shortly after launch, I was certain that the information was correct. I’ve never moved, I’ve never changed my phone number so this did not make sense to me at all. I explained to him that anyone else registering my console was impossible because I’ve been the only owner of it and no one else in my household uses the console.

At this point I begin to get upset. Not only could Patrick offer me no explanation as to how this could happen he continued to tell me that he was not allowed to send me the transfer kit nor could he tell me what information was incorrect. Was it a simple misspelling or a typo, I don’t know. There was no way for me to try to correct the issue because I didn’t know what was wrong other than ‘the information doesn’t match’.

So not only does my console appear to be registered to someone else, but I can’t order the Xbox 360 data transfer kit because apparently they will only send them out to users with two consoles registered in the one name. I’ve now purchased two Xbox 360s in addition to an original Xbox and own somewhere between 65-85 games. I’ve been a loyal customer and am now being told that the additional money I spent to upgrade my system was a waste because I’m not allowed to have a transfer kit.

I honestly can’t understand this policy. In contrast if I was a Sony PlayStation user not only could I easily transfer my data from one console to another I wouldn’t have to go through this process to just try to port over my data. It’s ridiculous to think that this day in age the only way I can access my own game saves, downloadable content, Xbox live Arcade titles, etc. is to use the old hard drive.

I am severely disappointed in Microsoft and in the future will have to second guess my choice as to which console company I want to get behind. I’ve now spent in excess of $500 to upgrade my console to a larger hard drive with an HDMI slot and it was all worthless.

All I ask for is what I should have been given in the first place, a data transfer kit so that I can continue using my Xbox 360 with the larger hard drive. I don’t know why that is such an issue and I would gladly pay for it especially since I’ve already spent so much money into it.

If you have any advice for Ben to transfer his data on his new hard drive, please share.

Brian is dealing with a spell of terrible luck and/or incompetence in trying to get his HDTV fixed by Best Buy. He says a tech has caused him to take several days off of work, but has yet to repair his TV due to various bunglings.

He writes:

I have an LG 42 1080p LCD purchased from Best Buy in March of 2008. I also purchased the PSP to protect my investment for the next 4 years. The TV worked fine up until 12/26. After that point all of the HDMI ports started causing “digital noise”, flickering and audio static. I called Best Buy on Dec 28th to request service, and was scheduled an appointment for Jan 8th, between 12-4. They only offered M-F, 8-12 or 12-4 service windows, and I work M-F 8-5. I hade to take 1/2 vacation day on the 8th for the tech to come out. When the Tech called to confirm, he asked which port is having the issue, and I stated “all of them” He said he just needs to order a part, and there is no need for him to come over on the 8th. At this point I have had to take 4 hrs off of work.

The Tech called back the following week to schedule the appointment to install the board on Jan 18, so I had to take another 1/2 vacation day. Long story short, it was the wrong part. I understand, mistakes happen. At this point I have had to take 8 hrs off of work.

He ordered another part, and he came out on the 22nd to install…wrong part. At this point I have had to take 12 hrs off of work.

He ordered another part, and came to install on Jan 29th. It was the correct part, but defective. The tech stated that he would submit this as a lemon (3 repairs/attempts) to his supervisor for replacement. Also stated they would contact me in a day with details. At this point I have had to take 16 hrs off of work.

After a few days and follow up calls (29th, Feb 1st, Feb 2nd) to Best Buy, i was told I would need to wait until the end of the week to hear back. After I posted on the BB forum, they called today (2/3) and said another part was ordered and the tech will be there Friday morning. I now need to take another 4 hours off of work.

That’s where I am at now….still a defective TV, out 2 full days of vacation time (2/5 after Friday), and frustrated with Best Buy.

What’s the most vacation time a repairman has caused you to take?

UPDATE: ING Got Noah a new debit card.

Noah says he yanked his money out of his compromised ING Direct account after an unauthorized charge from the Middle East popped up. He reported the problem, found the CSRs unhelpful in freezing the charge to get the money back, then told them he needed his card to remain valid until he could pull out some money he needed. But when Noah tried to use an ATM, he discovered his card had been canceled.

He writes:

Although I am an avid reader of your site and know anything can happen to anyone, I fell into the “it’ll never happen to me” mind set. Well, after being with ING Direct for years, liking their quick customer service response time and actually liking the no paper check thing, I found out when it comes to real problems and issues, everyone touts the new company line, “there’s nothing we can do.”

It started with a $300+ charge showing up on my ING account from Reliance Mobile, some company based in the Middle East I believe. I have never done business with that company, have no idea how they got my bank info and charged me, and the only number I can find to ask them what’s going on is an international number. I live in the US and don’t really want to incur the high charges that would come with making such a call. (The whole Reliance Mobile thing is probably a separate issue for Consumerist!)

So, as I sat there wondering who this company was, I was comforted in the fact that I banked with ING. All other issues I have had with them were easily resolved, and I thought this encounter would be no different. Jokes on me I guess.

I first dealt with a CSR who said, “sorry, there’s nothing we can do,” until the money had actually been debited from my account. Due to the fact that it was pending and had not actually posted, which is ridiculous, they said, “there’s nothing we can do.” I then spoke with a supervisor that told me the same thing, and I soon came to realize that ING’s new company motto must be, “there’s nothing we can do.”

The only option was to cancel my debit card or my account. I told them that I didn’t want to do either because got paid the next day, and I needed access to my money. They assured me nothing would be canceled, and that as soon as the pending charge from Reliance Mobile posted, I could dispute it and they would handle the problem.

Ok ING, it was time to work and I didn’t have time for your shenanigans anymore. I planned on just withdrawing the money I needed the following day, and transferring the rest of my money into a savings account. Then about an hour later I get a call from 800-830-1925, which was a company who handled risk/fraud issues for MasterCard and ING. I call back, they ask about the charge from Reliance Mobile, and I ask if they will resolve the issue. They say no, that they just verify the charge and cancel cards if the customer wants. I told him I didn’t want my card canceled, and the issue is being handled directly with ING. They didn’t say the card was being canceled or anything like that. I ended the call and I thought that was the end of it.

Well fast forward to this afternoon. I make a transfer from my checking account with ING to my savings account, and leave just enough cash in my checking so I can stop at the ATM after work and go pay what needed to be paid. So, there I am, standing at an ATM and I get the dreaded message….”transaction not authorized.” I try again, and I get the same message. That’s where my hour and a half conversations took place with ING.

I was told my card was canceled because of the fraudulent activity I reported. I told the CSR that I had specifically told everyone under the sun that I spoke with to NOT cancel my card. Well I got the new company motto…..”there’s nothing we can do.” He didn’t know why they didn’t tell me my card was being canceled, so I asked for a supervisor. I was not surprised when I got the standard line of “there’s nothing we can do,” and they could send me a new card if I want. SO, not only did they cancel my card when I was assured it would not be, but they didn’t send me a new one right away? I mean REALLY?

After not being helped out by John the supervisor, I got transferred to Bonnie Florex, the “St. Cloud call center manager.” Same story from her about “there’s nothing we can do”, and she eventually just hung up on me. I wasn’t being nasty on the phone to anyone, I was simply just trying to figure out a way to get me the money I really needed.

I called back and spoke with a CSR who said…well you can guess…and got transferred to another supervisor. She just said the same old thing….I asked them to overnight a card to me, and they acted like I was crazy. It simply ended with her telling me the card would be sent tomorrow, regular mail, not expedited, just plain old regular mail. Gee, thanks a lot, I will just search the couch for some spare change I guess!

I was really surprised that ING, the company that is so highly regarded for their customer service, wouldn’t do anything to help me out, and canceled my card without telling me. If they would have simply told me on the very first call that my card was going to be canceled, I would have had time to figure something out regarding my important thing that needed taken care of today. Now I am suffering because of their mistakes, and here I sit, no way to access any money for several days. I don’t have any other options to get cash. HELP!

So Consumerist:

1. What the heck should I do about the Reliance Mobile issue, and has anyone else dealt with this issue?

2. Any ideas, solutions, comments about the ING issue?

If you have any answers for Noah, please leave them in the comments.

Brian says IKEA wouldn’t sell him one of the desks he wanted because it was “sold out,” despite the fact that he could look around and see a bunch of his desired desks stacked near the customer service area. The reason: A customer service dude told him they only restock at night and Brian would have to come back tomorrow.

He writes:

Hey Consumerist, thought I’d write in about one of the worst customer service experiences I’ve ever had. We have an IKEA here but it’s very far away so we don’t get out that way much. In fact today was the first time I’d ever purchased something there and I have absolutely no intention of EVER going back now.

What happened was we picked out a couple desks and things that we needed and proceeded to the pick up area. The first desk was no problem, loaded it up and away we go. The second desk, however, was “sold out”. I looked around and noticed a shrinkwrapped pallet of them above the usual pickup area. I went to the customer service counter and asked if they’d get them down so I could purchase one… no. They do not do that during the day, EVER. He said it would be restocked tonight and I could come back tomorrow. WHAT?

I went back and forth with him for a few minutes but it was pretty pointless to argue. I live over an hour away (one way), I refuse to waste the time and gas when I really should just be able to pick it up while I’m there.

I’m sure I know why they do it; forklifts are dangerous and with that many people in the store, it’s an accident waiting to happen. But why can’t they just rope off the section to get something down like Home Depot does? Honestly, I want to give them my money, but they won’t take it!

I’m sure this is one of those little nuances that the IKEA-loyal know all about, but I have to say as a new customer, I was very turned off by their so called customer service. I did pick up the first desk, but got a second one on the way home from a different retailer. I will NOT be returning to IKEA.

Have you ever had the same problem at IKEA? If any employees can confirm this is store policy, please comment.

There are some cases in which a suitcase can be worth $27,100: If the banker on Deal or No Deal offers you that amount, if it’s full of $27,100 worth of drugs and there are not snipers waiting for you to hand over the cash before they take you out (but there always are snipers there) or… yeah, that’s basically it. But CNN contributor Bob Greene found another suitcase that costs that much, although whether or not it’s actually worth the price is dubious.

He writes:

The $27,100 suitcase, the story said, was sold by Hermès, the luxury retailer, which has a store in Naples. The suitcase was called the Hector, and was “constructed of Officier canvas with Evercalf calfskin.”

I closed the magazine, but could not stop thinking about the suitcase. A suitcase is something that gets banged around. It sits out in the rain and snow on airport runways. Baggage handlers toss it roughly onto conveyer belts. Sometimes it gets lost on flights.

Why would anyone pay $27,100 for a suitcase?

I wouldn’t go a dime over 18,997 for the suitcase, but I’m a cheapskate. What’s the most you’ve ever paid for luggage?

The $27,000 Suitcase [CNN]
(Thanks, Ashi!)

Just like last year, Denny’s is hopping on the crazy train and giving out free Grand Slams Tuesday, Feb. 9, from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

There are no strings attached, save for the colossal lines and sure mayhem that always results from these types of free food promotions.

That said, I’ll be there, because I live for mass hysteria.

Super Bowl Instant Replay: Denny’s Feeds America Again [Denny’s]
(Thanks, Benjamin!)

Burger King has suffered two consecutive quarters of declining sales, and a Wall Street Journal says the drop is due to hard-core “super fan” Burger King eaters shying away from the chain in favor of, gulp, possibly healthier choices.

A vignette about reformed super fan Noah, from the WSJ story:

The 28-year-old Seattle man used to wolf down bacon cheeseburgers three or four nights a week at Burger King, Jack in the Box and local bars. But he and his fiancee started cutting back last year after both were laid off, then found jobs at lower pay.

Now they cook at home using organic vegetables and dine out only on weekends. Mr. Rubin figures he is saving more than $100 a week by eating fewer burgers. “I don’t think we’ll go back to eating out as often as we used to,” he says. “We always used to talk about eating at home more, and now that it’s happened, we’ve found that we really enjoy it.”

It’s hard to go from Burger King to Whole Foods, and dubious to pinpoint such a phenomenon as a trend, but Noah’s story can’t be too pleasing to Burger King execs. The story says the company stumbled by focusing too much on the super fans while neglecting other demographics.

If you’ve stopped going to Burger King in the past several months, let us know why in the comments.

As Sales Drop, Burger King Draws Critics for Courting ‘Super Fans’ [Wall Street Journal via Yahoo! Finance]

Things were looking up for Pedro. Not only have most people forgotten Napoleon Dynamite and thus stopped taking his name in vain in catch-phrase-employing jokes, but he had a Newegg gift card loaded with the exact amount of a pre-order-only item he wanted. Life was swell right until he was about to check out and discovered Newegg doesn’t let you use gift cards on pre-orders.

He writes:

If you need another reason to hate gift cards, Newegg doesn’t accept them for pre-orders, back-orders, and cell phone orders. That’s fantastic, especially since the only thing I want is a limited edition item that must be pre-ordered that costs exactly what my gift card is for!

The message I’ve attached only shows up once you’ve added a non pre-order item to your shopping cart, so it was pretty much hell trying to figure out why I couldn’t use my gift card. The gift card field doesn’t even come up unless you add something that isn’t a pre-order item.

I hate gift cards.

Whatever is the opposite of an ode is what Pedro just wrote to gift cards. Any suggestions for Pedro to circumvent the policy?

CBS told EA it can go to hell rather than use the “provocative” slogan for its upcoming game Dante’s Inferno on a Super Bowl commercial, AdAge reports. The game’s ad will instead inform viewers “Hell Awaits.”

From the AdAge story:

The company, which is making its Super Bowl debut, had to soften the tagline in order to get clearance from CBS. The network determined the “Go to hell” tag was too controversial for the broadcast. “It was deemed too provocative,” said Paulo Ribeiro, account director at Wieden, Portland, Ore. “The final verdict has yet to be rendered, but it is unlikely that we will get [it on the game.]”

This plays into the NFL’s squeaky-clean, post-wardrobe malfucntion Super Bowl imagery, giving the game’s potential players the option of descending to the virtual underworld rather than commanding them to go there. Children everywhere rejoiced at the news, for they remain protected.

Kotaku spotted this embed of the commercial as it was originally intended:

EA’s ‘Go to Hell’ Tag Could Be Cast Out [AdWeek via Destructoid]

The IRS doesn’t just draw potential audit victims out of a hat. There is actually a method to its cruel madness, as outlined in this 2006 IRS.gov post spotted by Jim Wang of Bargaineering.

Wang highlighted four of the chief audit-hunting processes:

* Computer Scoring – I listed this one first because it’s the most interesting of the four reasons. Tax returns are “scored” using two systems – Discriminant Function System (DIF) and Unreported Income DIF (UIDIF). The Discriminant Information Function System (DIF) score gives the IRS an indication of the potential for change in tax due, based on past IRS experience. The Unreported Income DIF (UIDIF), as you can imagine, scores the return on the potential for unreported income. The higher the score, for either, the more likely the return will be reviewed.

* Information Matching – This is an obvious reason because it’s the easiest to catch. The IRS receives the same W-2s and 1099s that you do, so it’s trivial for them to compare the two totals. If they don’t match, they investigate.

* Related Examinations – Beware who your friends/business contacts are! If their returns are audited and their return includes transactions with you, your return may be audited as well.

* Potential participants in abusive tax avoidance transactions – The IRS may get information about promoters of and participants in various schemes and select a return for audit based on that information.

Hey, tax experts — what potential audit-drawing red flags do you think readers should watch out for?

How Does the IRS Pick Tax Returns to Audit? [Bargaineering]

Best Buy and Walmart have backed off on their challenges to GameStop’s used game racket, both shelving their short-lived tests of trade-in kiosks, Industry Gamers reports:

The used game kiosks were provided by a company called E-play. Today, however, E-play suspended its operations, and consequently, both of the big box retailers have decided not to bother with the used business for now.

Analysts have repeatedly stated that the used games test at retailers like Wal-mart would basically have zero impact on GameStop.

Gamers, how do you dispose of your old video games?

Wal-mart, Best Buy Quit Short-Lived Used Games Test [Industry Gamers via Kotaku]

An anonymous reader says anonymous’s mail isn’t getting to Anonymous. Even though USPS’s delivery confirmation service clearly says Anonymous received the package.

Anonymous sorts it out here:

I moved to my current address 2 and a half years ago, and my family’s been having troubles with USPS from the start, but things only got bad recently.
I live in a development of townhouses, and over the years we’ve had envelopes delivered to our address that were meant for other houses. Typically, these envelopes are meant for our neighbors, 19 and 21, and since we’re 23, we didn’t really mind walking over and delivering their mail. Everyone chalked it up to having three Asian families living in a row, and the person responsible for sorting occasionally getting confused. (We also live in a college town, read: Ivy League school gets a lot of mail, and subsequently puts a lot of pressure on the post office.) We even got a Christmas card meant for 33, and let it go.

Note that UPS and FedEx have never had problems delivering packages to us, and Christmas gifts from family throughout the country have gotten to us without a hitch.

However, recently, I’ve been doing more online transactions (read: Using my new found (I’m 17) financial independence, with my debit card, I’ve been purchasing things online.) and the packages have been getting lost. I’m not talking about one package getting delivered to the wrong house, I’m talking about three, in a row. All were clearly labeled with my name and address.

When my first package got lost, I called Delivery Confirmation customer service immediately, since the DC number said it had been delivered 5 hours before. The representative was friendly and helpful, gave me a confirmation number and said someone would call me 24 hours later. They didn’t, but my package was returned by a neighbor that day, so I let it go. After I called USPS CS, my entire family ragged on me for doing that, saying our mailman would just mess up more deliveries.

A week later, my second and third packages finally arrived. One of them, had been “delivered” according to Delivery Confirmation five days before, and the shipper was irritated that I had not confirmed this. The other didn’t have delivery confirmation, but the postmark was from three weeks before it got to my door. I looked it up, it should have taken a week, at most, for the package to get to me.

I’ve also been waiting on two international packages, one from Asia and one from South America, since November, the shippers, both friends of mine, have assured me that they’ve sent them out. One of them even resent hers! And still, nothing, even though they both sent via their respective international express services.

I’m hoping I don’t have to wait 7-8 months until I move out (to college!) to fix this problem.
So, Consumerist, how can I solve this problem and what do you think?

Has anyone out there dealt with serial mis-deliveries and managed to set the Postal Service straight?

Marcus wants a Wii Fit Plus game that includes the balance board and retails for $100. Problem is, he can’t find it anywhere. Third-party sellers are charging $150 and more on Amazon for the exercise game, which was the second-best seller in December, and everywhere he checks seems to be out of stock.

He writes:

Just thought I would bring your attention to a potential story. Every since after Christmas the Wii Fit Plus w/ Balance Board has been almost impossible to find. When you do find one in stock online, it is priced at roughly 140% – 150% of the normal price of $99; and 200% – 214% of the cheapest sales price of $70 that Dell was selling it for before Christmas.

I don’t know what’s going on, but I wanted to buy one, but at those inflated prices I have no interest at being ripped off, just to find that some artificial shortage has driven up the prices.

Do you have any insight into what is going on with Wii Fit Plus stocks?

If you bought the game recently, where did you find it and how much did you have to pay?

Dave says he feels he was stuck with a hidden fee by E*Trade, which threatened to sell his stock to recover a $40 inactivity fee. So much for the buy and hold strategy.

He writes:

I wish I would have read your “E*Trade Sells Your Stock To Pay Inactivity Fee” article back in October of 2008 before opening an E*Trade brokerage account. Luckily E*Trade did not sell my stock but they did threaten to — I owed them $37.81 from a $40 inactivity fee. I have since changed brokers.

I could have avoided the fee by making a “less than $9.99” trade. E*Trade charged me $40 for inactivity. How could they possibly justify this, even if they tried?

Charging me four times more than what I would paid if I had been “active”? I can understand them charging me “less than $9.99” since they may plan for a certain revenue but multiplying that by four?

Why not buy me $30 worth of stock instead? Could the answer be as simple as “greed”?

I decided not to argue with E*Trade over it. I read your article which talks about Brice sending eight EECBs just to close his account. That along with E*Trade’s “Commissions & Fees” chart discouraged me.

E*Trade’s customer service had provided me with a hyperlink to that chart. I decided to try navigating there myself. I couldn’t figure it out. After over an hour I called E*Trade and was told I needed to type “fees” into the search box to find it. I asked if that was the only way and was told yes. No wonder why it was so difficult to find!

To make things more confusing, if you happen to find that chart the Account Service Fee is not displayed like other fees. Other fees are lined up neatly with a margin and the dollar amounts are shown in bold. The Account Service Fee is not in bold and the “$40” is written in the middle of a sentence at the beginning of a paragraph. You can see it here: https://us.etrade.com/e/t/estation/pricing?id=1206010000#AAF

I think consumers should be aware of banks doing the following, which are done to intentionally obfuscate things in my opinion:

1. Changing the well-known name “inactivity fee” to “account service fee.”

2. Hiding fee schedules. Try to hide the least ethical fees as much as possible on the schedule itself.

3. E*Trade in specific makes their “Forms & Applications” page daunting to look at — watch out for things like this. This is the page I am refering to: https://us.etrade.com/e/t/prospectestation/pricing?id=1201010000 There are 17 subsections of forms, each with a “more” link at the bottom. Clicking more takes you to a whole new page. There is no way to expand all subsections on a single page. If E*Trade’s entire site was presented this poorly I believe it would impact their bottom line in a negative way.

Online stock traders, which service do you prefer and why?

Catastrophegirl says Ziploc has made its bags thinner, smaller and generally less useful in an apparent attempt to cut down on materials costs. She’s concerned that the flimsier bags may not be able to handle her sandwiches as well as the old ones. She writes:

I went to make portion sizes out of a large cut of meat tonight and finished off a box of Ziploc sandwich sized bags that I purchased in a bulk package [Sam’s Club.] It’s been a few months since I bought the package. When I opened the new one the difference was immediately noticeable.

The new bags are smaller, thinner, less sturdy. There’s no attempt on the packaging to sell it as eco-friendly due to using less plastic [which I think I saw another baggie manufacturer advertise recently.] Mostly it was just a nasty surprise. The measurement of the bags IS listed on the outside of the main packaging as well as the 4 individual boxes inside but since the rest of the packaging is completely identical, including the item codes and suggested uses, I didn’t even think to look at the time of purchase. [Bad Consumer!]

Generally I have preferred Ziploc because their sandwich bags, while not freezer rated, are thicker than other brands/store brands I have tried and hold up well for a couple of months in the freezer. I’ll use up the 500 that I have but I’ll be watching to see how well they protect my food and keep it in mind when I decide what to buy next time.

If you’ve used the redesigned Ziplocs, let us know what you think in the comments.