Author: Phil Villarreal

Southwest Airlines plans to add WiFi in the second quarter of this year, the Chicago Tribune reports:

Southwest will install equipment on about 15 aircraft per month initially and gradually increase that rate to 25 planes per month. It estimates that Wi-Fi will be available on the more than 540 planes in its fleet by early 2012.

In little more than two years, Internet service has become widely available on flights within the U.S. Itasca-based Aircell, the leading Wi-Fi provider, has installed its Gogo service on about 700 jetliners and earlier this month raised $176 million to further fuel its growth.

Pricing info hasn’t been released. How much would you be willing to play to websurf on a long flight?

Southwest to install Wi-Fi on planes [Chicago Tribune]

Omie Ismail at LiveCheap warns online shoppers to look out for discounts that disappear before you finalize purchases.

He writes about how he visited GNC and applied a discount that didn’t go through. He wouldn’t have noticed unless he had gone line by line through the order. He writes:

the problem is that the $39.99 Gold Card Savings that is itemized is never reflected in the Estimated Total and when you check out, it disappears entirely. If you do the math according to the cart it should be $114.98 (per the coupon it should be $126.98 since it is 20% after all other discounts) . So GNC offers you a discount but conveniently omits to subtract it from your total.

If you’ve suffered a similar vanishing discount, share your experience in the comments.

Online Shopping: Watch out for Phantom Discounts [LiveCheap]

It’s easy for companies to target non-tech savvy people to unload outdated products that pale in comparison to the stuff on the lower end of the market. Alvaro spotted this terrible deal, which offers a machine with 512MB of RAM, a Pentium IV processor and a 30GB hard drive for $400.

By comparison, it’s easy to find laptops with far superior processors and several times the RAM and hard drive for less than $300.

Laptop users, if you were shopping for a new machine for your folks, which specs and price would you shoot for?

A blogger had his iPhone swiped on a flight but managed to track it down in a saga worthy of a TV movie of the week, if those still existed. He’s not the first guy to do this, but the story is inspiring every time.

The blogger started off by tracking the phone via Apple’s MobileMe function, then systematically ran the phone down by keeping tabs on the calls placed from his phone.

Here’s the final exchange the writer had with the man who mailed his phone back to him (note: the post uses some coarse language at times):

Ramiro asked, “Who sold you the phone?”

“A friend of mine.”

“Well you have a very bad friend, maybe you should ask him to give you your money back.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think he can.”

“Okay, what we can do is, file a police report and have him fined and arrested, then he can pay you back too. We know the —- family that live in [redacted] in LA, the —- who live in Manteca and we know where the robber has been for the past five days. Should we file the report?”

“that’s okay. I’ll mail it.”

The man did mail the writer the device, giving him a happy ending.

iPhones are a bit like carrier pigeons. They’ll come back to you as long as you keep looking.

Busting an iPhone thief [How to catch an iPhone thief]
(Thanks, Alyssa!)

Coupon Sherpa put together a list of 23 ways restaurants cut costs.

Many of the techniques on the list are eye-openers on the shady side. Here are a few of them:

1. Reduced Portions
From bread baskets to entrees, portions have shrunk while some niceties have been eliminated altogether. That complimentary breadbasket may feature the cheaper breadsticks and a scant few pieces of bread. Some restaurants no longer automatically bring bread unless asked or charge extra. On the plus side, perhaps this is part of the reason the obesity epidemic is slowing down in America.

2. Disappearing Condiments and Fixings
Some sandwich joints have actually charge extra for more than the minimum of condiments and/or such basic fixings as lettuce, tomatoes, olives, etc. Apparently $5 only buys just the meat and bread.

3. Reconstituted Meats
We used to laugh that “parts was parts,” but fast food joints are no longer the only places inclined to feature unidentifiable parts. Reconstituted meats have been ground down and mixed with water and other by-products, then pressure assembled to look like real steak or chicken. For some time now the FDC has required processed cheese manufacturers label products containing less than 50-percent cheese as “cheese food.” Perhaps menus should start indicating when they’re serving “chicken food” and “beef food.”

Click on the link below for the full story. Restaurant workers, which cost-cutting techniques did Coupon Sherpa miss?

Recipe for Survival: 23 Ways Restaurants Save Money [Coupon Sherpa]
(Thanks, Jeff!)

If you’re looking to stock up on a bunch of good Xbox 360 games you always wanted to play but didn’t feel like shelling out $60 for, Newegg has got a deal for you.

The site is offering dozens of games for less than $10. I pulled the following list from NeoGAF and starred the ones that I think are must-plays:

Raiden Fighters Aces – $9.99

*Mirror’s Edge – $9.99

Bionic Commando – $9.99

Fracture – $9.99

Wanted: Weapons of Fate – $9.99

*Crackdown – $9.99

*Rock Band – $9.99

Blue Dragon – $9.99

Perfect Dark Zero – $9.99

Virtua Tennis 2009 – $9.99

Shadowrun – $9.99

*Project Gotham Racing 4 – $9.99

*Pure – $9.99

The Club – $7.99

Stranglehold – $7.99

*Condemned 2: Bloodshot – $8.99

Lost – $6.99

NBA Street Homecourt – $6.99

Monster Madness – $6.99

Kingdom Under Fire – Circle Of Doom – $7.99

Clive Barker Jericho – $7.99

Guilty Gear 2 Overture – $7.99

Viking Battle For Asgard – $7.99

Alone In The Dark – $7.99

Beowolf – $7.99

Zoids : Assault – $7.99

Nascar 09 – $8.99

Wall-E – $8.99

*Blitz The League 2 – $8.99

F.E.A.R. Files – $8.99

Project Sylpheed – $8.99

Operation Darkness – $8.99

Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball 2 – $8.99

Samurai Warriors 2: Empires – $8.99

Warhammer: Battle march – $8.99

Karaoke Rev American Idol Encore 2 Bundle – $9.99

Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground – $9.99

Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore Bundle – $9.99

Rock Revolution – $9.99

And yes, Blitz The League 2 is awesome. The reviewers can shove it.

Tons of Xbox 360 games for under $10 at Newegg.com [Newegg via Destructoid and NeoGAF]

Kevin says employees at a Brooklyn UPS Store keep shaking him down for $1 when he brings in packages with pre-paid labels. He has paid the fee in cash before, but when he asked to settle up by credit card the employees turned him away.

He writes:

I’ve twice dropped off packages with pre-paid postage at [a Brooklyn] UPS store.

And each time they’ve tried to charge me a fee of $1 for accepting the package.

On the first occasion I paid the fee in a haze of surprise and confusion.

When I dropped off a package earlier today I was again asked for $1. When I offered them my credit card to see if they would actually take it and provide a receipt they told me to pay them the next time I came in.

Seems like a scam by employees?

Sure does. As Kevin has realized, you don’t have to pay anything if you’ve drop off a prepaid package to a UPS store.

Has anyone encountered a similar low-stakes scheme?

Jay knows his tale of having gone through six Xbox 360s isn’t all that unusual, but he rightly expresses that it’s pathetic that stories like his are common. The poor guy even bought an Xbox 360 Elite in hopes that the redesign would be more reliable. But alas, his Elite and its replacements now broken as many times as his chain of launch consoles.

He writes:

I know Xbox 360 horror stories are pretty common now, but I’m still fuming and just want to get this out to anyone who may care. I’ve had a 360 since the console launch. I had my first red ring the week before they extended the warranty and refunded everyone’s money. They announced the refund literally 2 days after I’d paid over the phone. So, I got to wait several weeks for a check to come back. At least I got it back … but that’s where my frustration begins.

I’m definitely not a hardcore gamer. I’m a working professional who currently works 6 days a week for 50+ hours. So, I like to pop in a game every so often when I actually get some leisure time. So, the failure rate is just baffling to me. I’d really love to see a class action lawsuit at this point, and this is why:

1) Launch console died after about a year. My first replacement took about 3 weeks and I got the RROD within 30 minutes of hooking it up. So, it was immediately sent back …

2) Second replacement arrived and worked fine for over a year … until the Halo 3 release date. Imagine how angry I was to pick up the newest blockbuster game right after work just to have my system break. Now here’s the kicker: it didn’t get the RROD. It still functioned, but the graphics were completely distorted. I’ve worked on enough PCs to recognize and overheating GPU based on the video output. This is when I learned that Microsoft would only honor the extended warranty if it the system is suffering specifically from the RROD. So, I was basically told that I’d have to pay $120 and wait weeks before I could my new game.

3) I immediately went out and purchased an Xbox 360 Elite instead. I’d read all the rumors that the systems were “finally fixed” and wouldn’t break as easily. I assumed my original console would eventually RROD yet again and this would be a more permanent fix. So, over a year later, my original 360 fell out of warranty and only then finally gave a RROD error. Then, my Elite received the RROD.

4) I received a replacement Elite. While waiting on this, I bought one of those self-repair kits to attempt to fix my original white 360 … which actually worked.

5) Present day … Elite #2 and the original 360 died within 2 days of each other. Go figure, right? I successfully did a self-repair on the original again, and received my third 360 Elite yesterday.

6) My replacement Elite is now dead. It died about 24 hours after hooking it back up to my TV. I never even got to play it myself. My brother used it for a few hours last night no problem.

To summarize … I’ve gone through 3 Xbox Premium systems and 3 Xbox Elite systems… and probably sending out for Elite #4 soon. (Not counting the 2 failures I’ve repaired myself) All of these have had very light use in normal environments.. I think this is completely unacceptable. I’d really like to see a class action lawsuit at this point.

I, too, am on my 7th 360. But I’m sure there are people out there who can top me and Jay.

Sam is so elated with the way Amazon handled his broken Kindle complaint that he’s almost happy it broke in the first place. The CSR overnighted a new device to him and gave him 30 days to return the busted one.

Sam writes:

I wanted to share a wonderful experience I had with Amazon.com.

I received a Kindle as a gift last March. Always an avid reader, I have come to rely on and love my Kindle for school and travel.

This evening I took my Kindle out of my bag and found that the top two inches of the screen were not functioning – the “screen saver” image displayed when the Kindle is off was permanently stuck. I did some research on the internet and this seems to be a relatively common issue (usually due to pressure on the screen of the device). I keep my Kindle in a protective sleeve in my bag, so I was surprised to find the damage.

Hoping to avoid purchasing a new device I called Amazon’s Kindle support. By now it was 1am and I wasn’t expecting to even find the line staffed. To my delight I was answered with less than 30 seconds on hold by Mike.

Mike was courteous and personable. After taking my information he took me through some troubleshooting steps which failed to resolve the issue. Then, to my surprised, he told me he was overnighting a new Kindle and I would have 30 days to return my old one!

My issue was resolved in less than 5 minutes at 1am in the morning. Amazon.com had no reason to take me at my word about the damage – the issue is usually caused by mistreatment.

I just wanted to share this positive story. Amazon isn’t great with customer service for their online sales, but this experience left me happy, satisfied, and loyal.

In a related matter, does anyone think the unfortunately named iPad will make the Kindle obsolete?

Scott says his company is misusing customers’ phone numbers to subject them to unwanted promotions. He wants to tell the company honchos and would like some advice for how to proceed. He writes:

I work at a company that I feel is doing something we shouldn’t. We have started calling customers to offer a free promotion. I feel that we got these customers phone numbers for a different reason and that it is wrong to call them all to advertise with special promotions. I have taken a big risk by sending a survey out to all of our employees to see what they thought, and so far, everyone agrees with me. I plan on presenting my arguments in a speech to the corporate office which I believe I can arrange in a couple of weeks. I am seeking advice from those who stick up for the customer for a living. Anything you could tell me would be greatly appreciated.

If you’ve ever been a whistle blower, or heck, if you just want to play armchair tattletale, give Scott some advice in the comments.

Sagar bought an Xbox 360 wireless racing wheel, which didn’t rumble as it was supposed to. He called Microsoft customer service and says he was told he had to pay for shipping because his console — not the accessory — was out of warranty.

He writes:

I bought a Microsoft Wireless 360 Wheel ~October 27 from Amazon.

Upon opening it on Christmas weekend I discovered that wheel’s force feedback motor was dead.

I contacted Xbox support and after going back and forth with the support representative that just because my console was out of warranty, did not mean my wheel was out of warranty…he finally created an RMA for me. After asking the representative whether or not Microsoft felt that it was ok to allow for a consumer to pay for $30 return shipping on a $100 wheel after less than 3 hours of use, he stated he cannot talk to a customer if a call is being recorded and hung up on me.

I feel insulted by this sort of behavior and expect Microsoft’s call centers to be held to a higher level of quality.

It may be worth a try to return the wheel to the place where he bought it. Any other suggestions?

Will says his Gmail account disappeared on him, wiping out nearly a decade of email memories.

He writes:

My entire email backlog, about 9 years of email history, recently vanished. I have put multiple help requests, and forum posts in to google, but none have been acknoweldged. Can you guys help get me some bad press to fix this, and fix everyone’s whose accounts get compromised.

I thought gmail was reliable, but it ended up costing me 9 years of saved messages. This is ridiculous.

Lifehacker suggests using Thunderbird to back up your Gmail. If you’ve managed to re-open a deleted Gmail account or have some resurrection tips for Will, please share.

At least Ohio isn’t sitting on its stimulus funds. State senator Tim Grendell is raising a stink that the state is spending $1 million of stimulus money simply advertising the fact that it’s spending funds on road projects, CNN reports:

Some road projects have two signs, and some don’t have any at all, but the signs aren’t cheap.

The bigger signs can cost as much as $3,000 each, according to Grendell, who says this is just a big “thank you” to the Obama Administration.

He told CNN, “Send a fruit basket if you want to say ‘thank you.’ Don’t waste a million dollars saying ‘thank’ you to Washington for giving us back our tax money.”

The Ohio sign industry must appreciate the gesture.

Signs of waste? $1 million used to tout stimulus funds at work in Ohio [CNN]
(Thanks, Colette!)

Chris spotted this sign at a New Jersey supermarket. I’m a fan of the convenient placement of the religious candles, which are one of my favorite ingredients in chili along with rice, beans, potatoes and canned vegetables.

What’s your favorite religious candle recipe?

It almost seems like a bad joke from a Geico commercial: I lost my job, but the good news is I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance!

Personal finance blogger Well-Heeled says she found a silver lining in suffering a layoff — the lack of a need to commute reduced her annual mileage estimate and slashed her premium from $75 to $60 a month.

Her example proves how it’s smart to notify your insurance agent of life changes that make you less of a risk. She writes:

So, the lesson is this: if anything changes in your life that would affect your annual mileage estimate, tell your insurance agent! Some of these changes might be (of course, these changes might also increase your mileage):

* Change in job situation (ex: layoff, new job at a closer location)

* Change in relationship (ex: if you are in a long-distance relationship but you have now moved in with each other)

* Change in living location (ex: you used to live in a rural area but have moved in a city where more nearby amenities)

What do you do to trim insurance costs?

Annual Mileage Estimate Can Lower Car Insurance Premiums [Well-Heeled Blog]

Whole Foods is offering bigger discounts — from the current 20 percent to 30 percent — to employees with a low body mass index, as well as non-nicotine use, low cholesterol and blood pressure, Jezebel reports.

From a letter from Whole Foods CEO John Mackey:

We understand these aren’t perfect bio-markers to ensure overall health, but they do have the virtues of still being relatively good, easy to measure and not too expensive to monitor.

Translation: “Eat less, fatties.”

Weigh Less, Pay Less: Whole Foods Offers Discount Based On BMI [Jezebel]
(Thanks, Anna!)

The Justice Department ended months of a high-stakes, concert-dominating game of Mother May I by giving Live Nation and Ticketmaster the go-ahead to form a monolithic Voltron that will surely crush whatever life remains in the big-time live music scene.

DailyFinance reports:

Live Nation and Ticketmaster Entertainment on Monday reportedly received approval for their merger from the Justice Department. The move paves the way for Live Nation Ticketmaster, a titanic entertainment company that would handle ticketing, artist management, and live music. LNT would have managing interests in about 350 artists and exclusive booking and promotional deals with more than 125 venues around the country, and it would handle ticketing for events outside of music, like baseball games. Shares of both companies surged almost 10% on news of the merger’s approval.

So maybe the news isn’t all bad, that is if your 401(k)’s mutual funds have Ticketmaster or Live Nation stock.

Not so much for those hoping to see a concert sometime the rest of their life without being gouged to the highest possible degree due to a lack of realistic comeptition.

Ticketmaster, Live Nation’s Monster Merger Approved by U.S. [DailyFinance]
(Thanks, Richard and Gene!)

Back in November, Sears sent out an email that offered an amazing TV deal, which it recanted with a follow-up email that began with “WHOOPS!”

Christopher says Sears emailed him with another “WHOOPS!” email, this one regarding an electric range.

Here’s what Christopher says Sears sent him:

WHOOPS! The email we sent you earlier today had the wrong Home Appliance offers in it! The offer was worded incorrectly, showing the Range as being on sale for $279.99, which it is not.

The correct offer that you can shop is: 10-20% OFF ALL APPLIANCES AND FLOOR CARE It’s the Kenmore Electric Range Reg $769.99 Sale Price $599.99 and Kenmore Stainless Steel Micro-hood combo Reg $279.99 Sale Price $219.99.

Click here to shop these offers:
https://sears.rsys4.net/servlet/cc6?kLHjkQSCUCQCVJojpkohttHgKRUxnuHptQJhuV2VRVJmklhuLjXpKVUSBCYBAVhilXlPiLXJhKLV18V3vb86X86fy6bEvXb9VSRRRWWSVkpKV

We apologize for this mistake and assure you that we are taking every step to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

We apologize again and thank you for your business.

At least Sears admits its mistakes — that double apology at the end really sealed the deal. But it’s getting to the point where if you get an appealing sale email from Sears, you’re waiting for the other virtual shoe to drop.

Steffany snapped this example of target aisle labeling fail. She writes:

Hi! I’m a long time fan of the site, and always enjoy the Target hilarity posts. I don’t know if this exactly counts, as it isn’t a pricing error, but I laughed when I saw this last night and thought of you all and decided I should snap a pic and send it over. I even went to the frozen appetizer section to see if it was mislabeled too…

Perhaps it’s the Target team member’s brain that’s stuck in the frozen section.

Matthew says a firmware upgrade spelled game over for his PS3, then he started a weeks-long battle with Sony to repair it for free. He says Sony made an unauthorized charge on his credit card before finally relenting and taking the charge off, fixing the console and giving him a free game.

This is what he wrote last week, when the repair was still in limbo:

Like any PS3 user, I was forced to upgrade my firmware to continue to play games and watch Blu-Ray movies on my PS3 console. Unfortunately, the upgrade from 2.8 to 3.15 destroyed my Blu-Ray drive and is ability to play games and movies.

After contacting Sony support, I was informed by a customer service rep (call #1) that I would need to pay $150 for the repair of my console, because it was out of warranty. The cost of repair was not the issue that concerned me. I logged my original service call on 22 Dec 09. I was assured I would be overnighted a box to return my PS3 for service. It never arrived.

On 28 Dec 09, after not receiving a return service box, I logged another call to customer service (call #2) to request a box to return my PS3 for service. I was assured I would be sent out a box overnight.

On 30 Dec 09, I logged another service call (call #3), as I have yet to receive a box to return my PS3 for service. I was again assured that I would be receiving a box overnight for return shipping. That box arrived via 3 day select on 4 Jan 10.

Regardless, I packaged my PS3 up for its repair and sent it out on 5 Jan 10. I gave explicit instructions to contact me before any repairs or return shipping.

Regardless, Sony charged him $150 for a repair without his go-ahead. But Matthew kept fighting and won. He wrote yesterday:

I spoke to Ivon with Executive Customer Care. She contacted me last week, but I was out of town on business.

I spoke with her at length, and she was very apologetic about the experience I had with Sony Customer Service. The system was repaired and returned to me free of charge (the hold was taken off my credit card). She did admit that Sony dropped the ball, as my system was originally supposed to go to a Tier III service due to the firmware upgrade issue, but instead, was just diagnosed and repaired. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a firm status on the repair from the Foster City office, and also, I wasn’t contacted before repair and return as my instructions stated. Again, she was very apologetic about the whole ordeal, and offered me a game of my choice, which I graciously accepted. She also asked me to contact her directly with any other issues I have with my system, but hopefully I never have to take her up on that.

So, in the end, Sony did step up and right their wrongs, at least in my case.

It was a difficult struggle, but well worth it for Matthew since he stuck to his guns.