Archive for December, 2009

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SIGG CEO Contacts Customer, Restores Faith In Bottle Exchange

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

SIGG CEO Contacts Customer, Restores Faith In Bottle Exchange

A few months ago, SIGG USA announced that the plastic liners of their metal water bottles actually contain the dread plastic additive bisphenol-A (BPA.) Since avoiding BPA is the reason for the popularity of metal water bottles in the first place, SIGG offered to exchange the thousands of the offending bottles for shiny new ones. Many Consumerist readers have written in to share their tales of mixups, confusion, and mysterious $50,000 gift certificates in dealing with the replacement program, but Matt actually had a pleasant experience, and he shared it with Consumerist. I wanted to drop a short note about…

Thursday, December 31, 2009 8:35:53 PM – Link

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AT&T Drops Tiger Woods

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

AT&T Drops Tiger Woods

AT&T ended its sponsorship of Tiger Woods today. As a driving force for the ditch, company sources cited “increased fraudulent activity” inside his pants. [BBC]…

Thursday, December 31, 2009 6:18:06 PM – Link

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Science Toys “For Girls” Don’t Need As Much Power

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Science Toys “For Girls” Don’t Need As Much Power

Budding female science nerds of America, Toys R Us has an important message. This message is: “don’t worry your pretty little head with the most powerful science toys we have to offer.” Okay, maybe that’s not the actual message here. However, it’s easy to draw some rage-inducing conclusions from a catalog page showing three Edu-Science brand toy telescopes or microscopes, where the least powerful of the trio is always the pink one. What’s interesting about this grouping is that it doesn’t reflect all of the toys in this line. The least powerful microscope, which was not on sale, actually comes…

Thursday, December 31, 2009 6:30:23 PM – Link

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If Your Adult Child Dies, Do You Have To Pay His Credit Card Debt?

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

If Your Adult Child Dies, Do You Have To Pay His Credit Card Debt?

Reader Mat has a question. His uncle passed away a few days ago and his credit card company is telling his grandparents that if his bank account can’t pay the balance — they’ll have to. He’s wondering if this is true. Mat says: My uncle just pasted away a few days ago. My grandmother tried closing his Amazon Visa credit card account. When she was on the phone with the representative they informed her that if his bank account did not have the money to cover his debt, then my grandparents would become responsible for paying it all off. I…

Thursday, December 31, 2009 6:43:06 PM – Link

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Greatest Consumerist Posts Of 2009

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Greatest Consumerist Posts Of 2009

What a year! Consumerist got sold, sued, and dished scoop after scoop, we relaunched on a new platform with a new look and mascot, and held our first reader meetup, we became a non-profit, and started taking donations, got invited by the White House to interview top administration officials (several times), and were entered in as part of the Congressional record, hired new folks and bid adieu to dear friends, got some snazzy plaques, and for this first time had a story that we broke receive massive global pickup. We couldn’t be here without your support and story tips, or…

Thursday, December 31, 2009 7:56:47 PM – Link

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Customer Catches Cashier Stealing From Company, Wonders What To Do

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Customer Catches Cashier Stealing From Company, Wonders What To Do

In a timely coincidence to the New York Times’ story on employee theft, the following story arrived in our tipline about a day ago. The tipster wants to know who he should report this to: the store or the police? I went to the local sporting goods store, and was checked out by James* [*name changed]. I had about $140 worth of stuff, and he asked if I had cash, rather than credit card. I said no, and he said “if you had cash, you could walk out of here with all this for $100.” I said no again, and…

Thursday, December 31, 2009 7:02:23 PM – Link

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Americans Falling Behind On Credit Card Payments Again

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Americans Falling Behind On Credit Card Payments Again

As a country, we were doing pretty well paying down our credit card debt for most of 2009, but according to Moody’s Investor Services, the number of people who are behind on their payments rose slightly in November. The charge-off rate on U.S. credit cards, as measured by Moody’s Credit Card Index, rose to 10.56% last month after falling for the two previous months. October’s charge-off rate was 10.04%. The charge-off rate measures those credit card account balances written off as uncollectable, as an annualized percentage of total outstanding principal balance. The record-high of 10.76% was reached in June. The…

Thursday, December 31, 2009 7:45:52 PM – Link

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Fox And Time Warner Cable Threaten Football, Annoy John Kerry

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Fox And Time Warner Cable Threaten Football, Annoy John Kerry

Say what you will about John Kerry, but the man does not like the thought of missing football games. If that’s what you are looking for in a Senator — he’s your guy. For a while now, TWC and FOX have been embroiled in a dispute over what the TV network can change for its programming. Now FOX is threatening to pull its channels, including NFL games from TWC if it doesn’t get more money. John Kerry is like, omg you are so not doing that: “If Fox believes that withdrawing programming from 4 million households is its best negotiating…

Thursday, December 31, 2009 5:05:29 PM – Link

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How Long Until The Netbook Becomes Obsolete?

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

How Long Until The Netbook Becomes Obsolete?

Netbooks are currently very popular, and were a hot gift this holiday season. But are the tiny, stripped-down computers really the future of consumer laptops? According to the BBC, some technology experts think that the netbook may have already peaked–and most of what people seek out netbooks for today, they may use other devices, including tablets, in the future. Many contemporary netbook models run Windows XP or Windows 7 which has forced the specifications, and price, upwards. Many, he said, now cost at least [$550], a figure close to that for a more capable full-size laptop. What people are looking…

Thursday, December 31, 2009 4:30:39 PM – Link

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Hollywood Video Giving Away Free Kids

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Hollywood Video Giving Away Free Kids

I’m going to grab a bunch and resell adopt them out for extra money in 2010. Thanks to Kevin, who snapped the pic and who adds, “I know Hollywood Video isn’t probably doing that hot with the advent of Netflix, but I’m not sure if this is the way to go.”…

Thursday, December 31, 2009 5:01:04 PM – Link

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