What Is This Debt You Speak Of? Study Says Many Students Are Clueless About Student Loans
By Mary Beth Quirk on May 17, 2012 5:00 PM
58 Comments
Student loan debt is the cause of plenty of headaches in this country, from aspiring nuns to the families of those straddled with a deceased loved one's payments. So it's a bit unsettling that a new study says many students are underestimating how much they owe — and some don't even know they have debt in the first place. Shudder. More »
Verizon CFO Probably Wasn't Supposed To Say That Thing About Killing Grandfathered Unlimited Plans
By Chris Morran on May 17, 2012 4:30 PM
28 Comments
Yesterday, the CFO of Verizon Wireless kicked the hornet's nest that is the Internet by unofficially announcing that VZW would be killing off currently grandfathered unlimited data plans as customers made the shift from 3G to 4G LTE. Judging by the company's response since then, he probably wasn't supposed to let that particular cat out of the bag just yet. More »
Comcast To Remove 250GB Data Cap. Don't Celebrate Just Yet
By Chris Morran on May 17, 2012 4:12 PM
30 Comments
Following the recent news that Comcast would not count any of its own Xfinity streaming video services against Internet customers' 250GB data cap, the folks at Kabletown have announced they is doing away with that cap — and replacing it with tiered data plans. More »
(Cobby17)
FTC Applauds Twitter For Signing On With "Do Not Track" Firefox Feature
By Mary Beth Quirk on May 17, 2012 4:00 PM
1 Comment
Twitter is joining the ranks of other websites that allow users to control who is checking out their online doings, announcing today that it is all set to support Do Not Track. For those not in the know, Do Not Track is a feature in Firefox that allows Internet surfers to tell participating websites that they don't want their activity tracked. More »
Are You A Customer Service Saboteur? If So, What Kind?
By Chris Morran on May 17, 2012 3:48 PM
102 Comments
The idea of the bad consumer — the person whose antics make products and services more expensive or cause stores to enact anti-consumer policies — is nothing new to Consumerist readers. But a college student in Washington recently undertook an effort to identify seven categories of what he calls "Customer Service Saboteurs." More »
Man Commits Suicide After Years Of Fighting Wachovia & Wells Fargo Over Mortgage Mess-Up
By Chris Morran on May 17, 2012 3:00 PM
95 Comments
We've written some incredibly sad stories about homeowners trapped in the mortgage meltdown maze, and this one certainly ranks up there among the most depressing. Not just because a man is dead, but because it could have all been prevented more than three years ago. More »
Arby's Is Really Sorry That Piece Of Finger Ended Up In A Sandwich
By Mary Beth Quirk on May 17, 2012 2:30 PM
31 Comments
Tip to fast food workers: If you lose part of your finger while on the job, let your coworkers know so they don't just pick up making that sandwich where you left off. A 14-year-old boy in Michigan ended up with the "fingerprint portion" of an employee's finger in his sandwich recently after a trip to the drive-through. More »
Study Links Popular Antibiotic Zithromax To Rare But Deadly Heart Risk
By Mary Beth Quirk on May 17, 2012 2:00 PM
32 Comments
Many people use the antibiotic Zithromax, or azithromycin, to treat bronchitis and other common infections. Some surprising results of a 14-year study might turn some off the antibiotic, as it found the risk of sudden deadly heart problems increased with use of Zithromax. More »
(smcgee)
What The Facebook IPO Could Mean To Consumers
By Chris Morran on May 17, 2012 1:45 PM
38 Comments
Tomorrow, a very small group of people — many of them already incredibly wealthy — will be super incredibly wealthy when shares of Facebook start trading on Nasdaq. But while only a few folks will reap a direct, immediate benefit from the IPO, the decision to take Facebook public with such huge dollar amounts attached to the deal will definitely have a long-term impact on consumers. More »
Spammers Using Pinterest Pics To Hide Scammy Links
By Chris Morran on May 17, 2012 1:15 PM
11 Comments
Through the evolution of e-mail, the Internet and social media, most of the rules for identifying spam remained the same. The text of a scam e-mail sent on old school AOL isn't that different from the spam links posted today on Twitter or Facebook. But photo-based social sites like Pinterest are giving nogoodniks a less-familiar way to trick people into clicking. More »
(dooley)
U.S. Postal Service Set To Close Or Combine 229 Mail Processing Sites
By Mary Beth Quirk on May 17, 2012 1:00 PM
28 Comments
The U.S. Postal Service has announced its next step in the belt-tightening process of trying to cut down on its costs. It will close or consolidate operations at 140 mail processing sites through February 2013, said a postal official. More »
(DasPope)
Wendy's Offer Of A Small, Hot Redhead Confuses Those Out Of The Coffee Loop
By Mary Beth Quirk on May 17, 2012 12:45 PM
43 Comments
The Internet world is in a buzz of confusion. Or at least some of its denizens are, after a Wendy's coupon offered up a "Free Small Hot Original Redhead" with any purchase. Sounds like a good deal — or it sounds like you could get a small ginger person, if you aren't aware that Redhead Roasters is Wendy's newish moniker for its coffee. More »
Lenovo Has My Defective Computer, Isn't Returning My Calls
By Laura Northrup on May 17, 2012 12:30 PM
20 Comments
Bethany's Lenovo laptop computer is pretty nice. At least, it is when it's around. It keeps taking extended vacations at Lenovo's repair depot, to the point that she had to buy another computer in order to get through finals and computerless life in general. After they held on to her machine for three weeks, she finally asked for a refund instead of getting the evidently defective computer back. That's when they stopped returning her calls. More »
Should Domino's Be Held Accountable For Franchisee's Robocalls?
By Chris Morran on May 17, 2012 11:45 AM
32 Comments
Where do you place the invisible line of responsibility that separates a national fast food company from the actions of its franchisees? That was the question facing a judge in Washington state, who found that Domino's Pizza should not be held liable for the questionable telephone marketing employed by one of its franchisees. More »
Flying While Fat: Research And Self-Awareness Mean Smooth Travel
By Laura Northrup on May 17, 2012 11:33 AM
105 Comments
Reader Mechpaul is a large man. He used to avoid flying, afraid of what would happen if he was too big for his seat, encroaching on his neighbors' space and potentially being humiliated and marched off the plane. Instead of approaching his flight with fear, he armed himself with two essential tools: a measuring tape and the Internet. He used these to find out whether he would fit in a United Airlines seat, and to plan accordingly. More »
Survey Finds Best & Worst Airlines For Redeeming Rewards Miles
By Chris Morran on May 17, 2012 11:15 AM
23 Comments
It's incredibly easy to pile up airline miles. I think I just earned 400 miles for merely mentioning this fact. But as you may have already discovered, it's not always so simple to actually redeem those miles. A new survey looked at dozens of domestic and international carriers to find which ones were more likely to have seats available for rewards travel. More »
Jam Band Fights The Ticketmaster Man By Scalping Its Own Tickets
By Mary Beth Quirk on May 17, 2012 11:00 AM
40 Comments
You're not the only one who's sick and tired of all the fees levied on event tickets sold through Ticketmaster. Members of jam band String Cheese Incident are so fed up with fans having to shell out extra cash, that they're taking a stand by buying up bunches of tickets and reselling those to concertgoers, sans fees. So sort of a reverse scalp, maybe? More »
No More Plastic Bags Anywhere In Hawaii
By Laura Northrup on May 17, 2012 10:36 AM
82 Comments
Quite a few municipalities have managed to ban the practice of giving out non-biodegradeable plastic bags at checkout, including three of Hawaii's four counties. Last month, the Honolulu County Council passed its own ban, making Hawaii the first state where single-use plastic bags in stores are verboten. More »
