(Thanks, Keith!)

According to Wired, the biologists visited 31 restaurants in Denver and Manhattan to evaluate technology that analyzes the DNA code of fish, and upload the info to a fish database called FISH-BOL.

Instead of tuna, they got escloar, a fish that causes "bizarre episodes of diarrhea, accompanied by a waxy intestinal discharge." Other restaurants misrepresented what fish they were serving, and a few even served endangered southern bluefin.

Sushi DNA Tests Reveal Fraud [Wired]
For the nerd-inclined, you can read their scientific report here.
(Photo: LC1331)

RELATED:
Fishy Selling Practices At Kansas City Restaurants: 85% Of The Fish On The Menu Is Not The Fish On The Menu
You Red Snapper Sushi Is Likely Fake

Chinese Drywall Linked to Corrosion in Homes [NYT]
Drywall Information Center [CPSC] (Photo: yugenro)

The Decline: Geography of a Recession, by Latoya Egwuekwe [American Observer via Boing Boing]

Orbitz sent me an email to remind me of an upcoming trip. What they and United Airlines failed to mention was that the flight had been rescheduled. It now departed 40 minutes prior to the originally scheduled time. I immediately called Orbitz to find my rights with United as far as getting to the airport in time.

I live outside of DC and do not have a car. As such, I booked the flight so I could take public transportation, rather than take a $50+ taxi ride. The 9:00 flight would the the very latest I could leave and still make it to the airport. Thus, those 40 minutes made the world of difference.

Orbitz said they could contact the airline for me to see what could happen. After being on hold for a few minutes, Orbitz informed me they could rebook me on another flight. This is where United decided to continue to make everything worse. They tried to book me on a flight that would change my air travel time from 2.5 hours (direct) to 6.5 hours (1 connection). I then suggested they give me a flight that leaves from the other airport in DC that would drop the time down to 5.5 hours. I will be carrying food so time is of the essence. It was a different initial flight, but the connecting flight would be the same. United said this change was not available to me. I kept insisting for a further explanation. After they refused to give it to me a few times, they finally caved in.

While in the process of trying to book me on the flight, the Orbitz representative kept coming back on the line saying they were still in the process. After being on the phone for 53 minutes, I asked her to just call me back. Oribtz was wonderful in calling me back promptly. The only problem is she came back saying United wanted $33 to change the flight since it would be leaving in a different airport. The reasoning was based on the change in the ticket price. I refused and suggested they pay for my taxi instead. Orbitz is still having trouble negotiating with United to even pay for the taxi. I will send an update as it becomes available.

In this whole ordeal, Carmela from Orbitz has been very patient and courteous. She has also been wonderful at calling me back. I hope she can help me work everything out.

A little while later, Alexandros wrote back in with an update:

United decided not to charge me the fee and gave me the flight. It is very strange to me that they would have tried in the first place. I was very patient with Orbitz in the whole process and was even willing to more than double my travel time. It would have been much easier for me if United just paid for my taxi. I was trying to be flexible to ensure I reached my destination. United made the whole process difficult and stressful.

The moral of this story: stay up-to-date on your flight information, and be prepared to spend some time fixing any problems the carrier might cause; with any luck, and a helpful CSR, your perseverance will pay off.

(Photo: Simon_sees)

The Northampton County District Attorney, John Morganelli, first found out about the arrests in the news, and made a recommendation last week that the charges be dropped. "I had recommended that the case be withdrawn, but that ultimately was a decision of the Bethlehem Police Department," he told the paper.

The manager of the pub sounded a bit surprised at the news:

Lehigh Pub manager William Sheehan said Monday it was "news to him" that the charges were being withdrawn.

He read a comment he said was written by the pub's attorney.

"We do not agree with the facts as presented in the press last week," Sheehan said. "This is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Bethlehem Police Department, not Lehigh Pub, and we will defer to them as the legal process plays out."

One issue that was brought up last week, and is mentioned in this article again, is that the gratuity worked out to about 22% of the bill, and not the 18% that the pub claimed. Whether that's explained by error, greed, or some detail that hasn't yet been revealed, it's a good example of why you should always calculate the tip yourself and make sure it matches what's on the final bill.

"DA: Police to withdraw theft charges against non-tippers" [The Morning Call] (Thanks to Jason!)

RELATED
"College Students Arrested For Refusing To Pay Tip"
(Photo: [puamelia])

• If you've got the money, it's pretty rotten to scale back your tips simply because times are tough. Etiquette author Mary Mitchell says, "Don't use it as an excuse to save money then buy some Prada boots."
• Mitchell also says to focus first on those you don't regularly tip, like housekeepers, personal trainers, babysitters, tutors, and doormen.
• If you're not sure, try to find out whether the person can accept cash; some teachers can't, for example, and postal workers can accept gift cards of $20 or less. In cases where cash is a bad idea, try something hand made or a gift of some sort.
• Don't go into debt to tip; set aside your total tipping amount before hand, then divide it up as necessary.
• Try tipping earlier in the season, since your recipients may also be worrying about who to tip.
• Try to pool your resources with others. For example, if you and your neighbors pitch in, you can give your doorman or building super a nicer tip.

"Cutting holiday tips seen as chance to really say thank you" [Reuters]
(Photo: caseywest)

Adam says:

On February 3, 2009 for 264.79 I purchased an open box Sony Blu-Ray S550 and have been more than satisfied with the player for over 10 months now. This past weekend I was making some adjustments to the sound settings and went to resync the player my TV when I noticed that the front of the player says S350. I checked the original box from the purchase and it says S550, I then checked the manual for the item and it too said S550. I was unable to check the original receipt since I could not locate it, but am willing to bet that it said S550 as well.

I went to the store to speak with them about the issue and see if there was anything that could be done, I fully realize it has been 10 months but figured it was worth a shot. The manager of the home electronics department told me that there is nothing he can or will do about this since so much time has passed. I explained to him that I have no problem with returning the item and using the money towards towards the player I thought I was buying originally and paying the difference along with any discount he would be willing to give me.
He again stated that there is no way for him to look into the matter because of the amount of time.

I then asked him since he is unwilling to do anything about it, how something like this could have happened. He told me that although it is possible for the mistake to have occurred each open box sale is inspected by the Geek Squad and things like this do not occur very often and he is not going to be able to check what happened. I stated to him that this is somewhat of a common occurrence from the Geek Squad and that in the consumer world they do not have a very high confidence rating from people. He disagreed with me and said that the Geek Squad is in fact well regarded and has the highest marks in the industry for the work they perform.

Realizing this was not going to go anywhere I asked him once more if there is anything that he can do, he once again said no. I finally told him there is something he can do, he can believe his customer and use some rational thought that since it was this long after I obviously did not become aware of the situation till now and I also did not take the player out and bring it with me, I only wanted to talk with them about what might be possible and that this is why Best Buy is losing customers to other stores because whether it is 1 day, 1 month, or 1 year after the fact, Best Buy should try to work with their customers to be sure they are fully satisfied with any purchase.

His final words to me were "if we believed every person that came into the store with stories like this we would be out of business, because I have no way of looking into it and am not going to do anything about it."

With that I left the store vowing to never purchase anything other than a DVD from Best Buy or a low cost item.

Should I have checked the purchase at the time, absolutely, but I had never run in to an issue like this before and had purchased many items open box. I also refuse to believe that Best Buy could not scan the barcode on the box and see its history of original purchase and then return dates to check if it was done in a matter of days before I purchased it but he refused to investigate the issue at all.

I ended up paying more for a used Blu-Ray than it was selling for new at the time.

The lesson as always, check what you buy from them open box or anytime it says it was inspected by Geek Squad. Just to make myself feel better I sent off an EECB to Best Buy because if nothing else I wanted them to be aware that the store was having problems with its inspection of open box items.

In all fairness, there's probably a limit to what they can do for you, but the idea that nothing can be done is a little silly. Our readers have gotten $50 gift certificates because someone at Best Buy was rude to them — so we're certain that they could have offered you something in order to keep your business.

At this point, however, so many months down the road, your best bet might be to discuss this with your credit card company. We're not sure what they'll tell you, but it's worth a shot.

Adam is absolutely right of course, that the moral of this story is to always carefully check your packages when shopping at Best Buy. Here's a post that will help keep this from happening to you.

(Photo:epicharmus)

"As the holiday travel season approaches, we cannot let airlines and credit card companies continue to fly off with hard-earned frequent flier miles," Schumer said in an announcement scheduled for Sunday. "When a consumer accumulates valuable frequent flier miles, they should not have to constantly worry that they are going to expire with little or no notification from the airline."

[...]

Frequent flier model programs began 20 years ago, most with no expiration dates for the benefits. In the last decade, airlines have created three-year windows for consumers to use the miles, Schumer said.

The Air Transport Group, a industry trade group, defended its member companies by pointing out that "the system hasn't been targeted by regulators." Well, yeah. That's probably why Senator Schumer is raising the issue.

"It's time to probe frequent-flier accounts, senator says" [USA Today]
(Photo: Kossy@FINEDAYS)

People are reluctant to pay a fee to keep others healthy. From CNN:

"When people come together, germs can come together too," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

"There are not that many studies about flu spreading on airplanes and trains, but anytime people are close together, there's a possibility of germs spreading."

So it may be unsettling to discover that 51 percent of respondents in a recent online poll by TripAdvisor.com would fly while sick with the flu rather than pay a flight rebooking fee. About 2,300 people took part in the survey.

Frequent fliers say the results are disturbing, but not surprising.

"I do think that's an unfortunate attitude, because the airplane is like a petri dish in the sky," said Rene Foss, a flight attendant for 25 years and the spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants.

"[But] people really are resistant to paying any extra fees."

Of the airlines CNN looked into, only Delta let people rebook non-changeable fares with a doctor's note.

Flying with the flu? Some may be tempted [CNN]
(Photo:The Consumerist)

C.R. writes,

I got my new Verizon Motorola Droid last week. But when I opened the box, the Droid fell to the floor. Apparently I had the box turned the wrong way. There is now a dent in my phone. It's not a major dent. The phone still works. But it's still not cool that because of a design flaw, I have to live with a damaged phone right from the get-go. I called Verizon to see if they would help, but they wouldn't do a thing. Since the phone is still in working condition, they would not replace it. I then inquired about that 30 day period where I could return the phone if I don't like it. She said that I could do that, but if the phone is physically damaged, I would be billed the full amount for the phone!!!

He also sent us a link to a Droid owners' forum, where he posted his story and found others who had experienced the same. Here are some sample comments from that thread.

This happened [to me] when the rep at the store opened it and I refused that one made him get me another.

*
This happened to me but the Verizon salesperson did it! It was Friday morning, her first droid sale ever and she opened the box upside down and the droid slammed into the side of the desk leaving little dents on each side of the screen.
*
This happened to me at the store when I bought it (actually before I bought it), and it hit the counter from about 2 inches high and proceeded towards the floor.
*
This happened to me too, but only 1-2" to my desk. Whoever put the box together is an idiot.
*
The customer rep did the same thing on mine!! luckily it just dropped on his keyboard

"WARNING for new Motorola Droid users!" [DroidForums.net]

She explains:

Just wondering if you've heard of this.

I bought a dishwasher from Sears. They agreed to reimburse the $75 delivery fee since the item was over a certain amount. They charged me $75 plus $6.19 tax. I received the $75 but not the tax. Where does this "tax" money go? Shouldn't I be reimbursed for the total amount?

Hope you can assist. I would like to escalate but I don't know how much time I can give this for $6.

Danielle should contact Sears customer service and straighten this out. Has anyone else been overcharged for a so-called free service?

(Photo: Meg Marco)

About a month ago I decided to upgrade my Toyota Camry 03 Speakers from stock to JBL speakers. To go about this was no easy task. After disconnecting and fitting the new tweeters (the speakers closest to the front windshield) and the door speakers. I go about taking out the back seats, rear sidings, and carpeting in order to reach the speakers in the rear. At first, I wonder about a strong mildew smell lingering back there as I go about this task.

As I reach for the harness on the right side I try to feel into some sort of insulation or stuffing in between the carpeting in the rear and plastic. Pulling out a chunk of stuffing to scour through feeling something like a harness, it made me question what I was holding. I see a dead mouse that I literally touched. I instantly dropped what I was holding and stood there in shock for a few minutes. You could say my heart raced and skipped as I grasp hold of what I just saw.

A dead mouse was the last thing I would expect to find in the rear of my car. The area the mouse was in could not be easily accessed and I believe there was no way it would have gotten in the years I have owned this car. The mouse was perfectly preserved, dried out, and hollow like one of those museum animals, yet it stunk. The area the mouse was in was more or less perfectly enclosed as no air circulation enters the area. Enclosed, I have images that are not for the faint of heart.

The odd thing is that the stuffing is only on the right side, there was none on the left side. I did remove all of the stuffing on the right side as it did not seem necessary to leave a putrid, foul pile of string and foam there. I still love my car despite this unfortunately find, the only explanation is from the Toyota factory in 2003 on the Toyota manufacturing line, a worker must have just grabbed a handful of insulation and stuck it in there not knowing there is a dead mouse among the stuffing. This has brought about the question whether in the future I should buy another Toyota Camry.

The fact that the stuffing is only on one side makes me wonder whether the mouse tried to build a nest, but the way the mouse is packed into the stuffing makes it look like they came pre-assembled. But then, why stuff only one side of the car?

Maybe you can ask Toyota to explain why the rear section would be stuffed that way, which will then at least help you determine whether the mouse was a factory add-on or an uninvited guest at some later point. Here's some contact info for Toyota:

Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America
25 Broadway, New York, NY
(212) 785-2447‎

Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc
19001 S Western Ave Torrance, CA 90501-1196
(310) 468-4000

I am contacting you regarding the order filled on 11/14/09. I am choosing to contact your company directly before deciding whether to report what happened to the Kentucky Attorney General, the Better Business Bureau, and Consumerist/Consumer Reports.

This morning I went into the store in Murray, Kentucky to purchase a car charger for my new cell phone. While ringing up my order, the salesman/assistant manager (I believe named Dave) asked me if I would be interested in purchasing the service plan on the product, which I declined saying "It's just a few resistors." As he is ringing up my order, nothing else is discussed. I pay with my credit card, leave the store, look at my receipt and discover that this assistant manager has decided to add a $1 donation to Livestrong to my order without my knowledge or consent.

Is this some sort of new policy, or is this individual simply trying to inflate his/his store's metrics by assuming that customers won't look at their receipt and/or won't complain about involuntarily donating money to charity?

I look forward to your response.

Ryan says corporate got back to him and said he'd get the $1 refunded, but a week has passed and Radio Shack still hasn't parted with the pilfered Washington. It's a frustrating story with frightening implications, but at least Ryan can take comfort that the alleged theft is going to a good cause.

Has anyone else inadvertently donated to a charity?

Freya's been documenting on her blog her attempts to get Volvo to pay for her transmission. After this video went up, Bill Casey, the Manager of Customer Care at Volvo North America in New Jersey called her. He said Volvo was committed to working with her and getting to the bottom of the problem with her car and finding a solution. Bill also said he liked her hat.

Just goes to show that being a little creative and using online self-publishing techniques you can get an unresponsive company to listen to you. Now let's see if they live up to their word. No doubt Freya will keep us posted on her blog, RusmackedVolvo.com.

(Thanks to Chris!)

We showed Wardell a forum that indicates Stardock was indeed selling a busted game, and he says he did some research, discovered the forum posters were correct, and now says the company will refund the purchases and make it sells the correct version.

He writes:

The publisher continues to maintain that this is the latest version of the game and that it is working as intended. However, it is our determination that the users are correct and that when the game was re-released without Securom years ago through various channels that it triggered this issue.

We followed up with Enlight this morning with the option of having the game pulled from Impulse and its customers refunded or allowing us to integrate the fan made update that addresses this issue. Enlight gave us the green light to update the game on Impulse and we will then contact all its users to make sure they are aware of the update.

Should the Impulse staff have taken the issue higher up the chain? In hindsight, I would say yes. However, the problem here is that there are thousands of games and every forum has users claiming that a given game is "broken." Does that mean that this isn't a big screwup? Obviously it is.

On the one hand, you have a publisher saying that we have the latest version of their award-winning game that is working as intended and on the other hand a handful of posts in the forum having problems and that the game is working.

Impulse, like other retailers, assumes that the titles it receives work as designed. We put them through QA to make sure they run.

My contention is the problem here is that someone at Impulse or Stardock could have simply loaded up the game on Windows XP and seen if this was a legitimate issue or not. The counter, however, is that with thousands of games available, the publisher insisting after multiple queries that the game is fine and very few complaints that it is the role of the publisher or game developer to follow-up, not the retailer.

As we have seen with incidents like this on other services, this is going to be an on-going challenge with older titles. My view is that this incident demonstrates the need for older titles to get more scrutiny.

Kudos to Wardell for admitting his company's fault here and doing the right thing, even though it took some prodding.

(Photo: frankieleon)

The setup worked out great for a former roomie who ordered an extra Comcast cable box without Dave's permission, then skipped out of town, taking the box with her. Now Comcast wants blood. He writes:

Hello! I'm a long-time reader and thought you may be interested in my problems with Comcast. Maybe you know of a good customer service contact within the company that can resolve this for me. Or you may wish to inform your readers about my story.

I rent in Seattle with other roommates and I handle the bills. I opened an account with Comcast when I moved in for cable and Internet. Payments are made automatically and I am not sent a bill in the mail (there is one online, of course). I just noticed that there has been a $6.10 monthly charge on my account for an additional box since September 2008. (It is my fault for not catching this sooner, but that is not the point of this story.)

It seems that an old roommate contacted Comcast last September and got an additional box on her own, without my knowledge or consent. This roommate has been gone since April and she took the box with her. She left this house with arguments, unpaid bills, etc and is not returning my calls today.

I called Comcast twice today. Both customer service reps refused to refund any of the monthly $6.10 charges. For the ongoing fee to be removed (or to cancel my account), I will need to return the box or face a fine of $300. I have no way of contacting the old roommate, and I never gave Comcast the permission for her to modify my account.

Dave was defrauded and shouldn't be responsible for the payment. In addition to disputing the charge with Comcast he should alert the police.

Also, he'll probably be the first guy to tell you that if your roommates aren't responsible enough to assume some of the bills, it's not a great idea to cover for them by putting everything in your name.

(Photo: kimaroo)

A Pizza Hut CSR asked us to forward her info to Dave, who contacted her and showed us the results:

We value you as a customer and appreciate your feedback about the website. We are extremely sorry that you had a bad experience with the website, and after looking into the issue, we found that there was a franchisee online menu problem. We immediately fixed this issue. We are currently in the process of making our website better for customers, and we thank you for bringing this issue to our attention.

If you would like to provide your mailing address, I would be happy to send you a $20 gift card in the hopes that you would try us again.

Please let me know if there is anything else that we can help you with.

Dave's go-round shows how enduring a trying situation can yield free pizza. Everyone wins here: Dave gets a gift card, Pizza Hut discovers a problem it didn't know about so it can fix it, and we get the email address of a hands-on CSR who gets things done (Alexa.Robinson@yum.com).

(Photo: frankieleon)

Verizon apparently took that to mean "I want a contract!" So now David's stuck with a weak phone, and can't get an upgrade discount until 2011. He tells his story:

I have been a happy Verizon Wireless customer for the last few years. That was until just a few months ago.

In my area verizon is by far the best service available. I run my own computer repair business in the city I live in. My business uses google apps for email, scheduling, and logging info on a day to day basis. I heard about the Motorola "sholes" earlier in the year. I knew my 2 year contract was coming up and planned to upgrade when that phone came out. On to my problem.

I was on vacation visiting friends and family in Kansas City in late August early September. When I was there my current phone stopped working. It was an HTC xv6800 which overall I was very happy with. The screen just stopped turning on but I could answer the phone when it rang. I figured I would go to a Verizon store and see if it could be repaired or if I could get a loner phone for the next month or two to get by until the droid launched. I talked to a rep at a Verizon store and he said they didn't do loners but I could get a new phone. I told him I didn't want to renew my contract at that time and would be fine just purchasing a phone for the time being. I made sure to stress the point I wanted to upgrade in a few months and he guaranteed me that I would be able to. He said the most comparable phone was the Samsung Omnia which I wasn't horribly excited about since it did not have a full keyboard. I agreed, figuring it would be OK for a couple months.

Apparently the rep went ahead and renewed my contract at this time without my signing or agreeing to anything. I have rechecked all the paperwork that I received and none of it said anything about renewing a contract. I've contacted Verizon support and they have essentially told me there is nothing they can do to remedy the problem and that I just have to wait until 2011 to switch phones. So now I have a phone I never wanted, and a contract that I didn't sign up for. I'm frustrated to say the least. Is there any course of action for me or am I just stuck with a less than ideal situation?

This definitely cause for an Executive Email Carpet Bomb. If you've managed to reset your cell phone contract, please tell us how you did it in comments.

(Photo: Louis Abate)

The image at top is one example. Below is another.

Reader Eric writes, "I logged into my mint.com account today and noticed a new alert. "It's been 6 months since you last updated your credit score." I thought to myself "That's funny, I don't remember mint providing a credit score." I click on the the link only to have it take me to freecreditreport.com."

The only place to get a free credit report is the site put together by the government, annualcreditreport.com. Sites like freecreditreport.com and creditreport.com are a befuddling system of of chutes and ladders that suck customers into signing up for paid services they may not need.

(Photo: XWRN)

Clothing
• Gap: [Clothing] Save Extra 25% off All On-Sale Apparel & Other Items
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• Bloomingdale's: [Apparel] Bloomingdale's Coupon Code Additional 20% off SALE4U
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Entertainment
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Food
• Amazon: [Food] Save an Extra $10 off Nestle Toll House Orders

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• Oneida : [Tableware] Free 20-Piece Flatware Set w/ Purchase of 45-piece Set + $10 Off w/ Coupon YEM10
• World Market : [Home and Garden] $5 Off $20 or $20 Off $50 Purchase - Printable Coupon (Thanks to John!)
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Misc
• REI Outlet: [Riding] 20% Off Scott Mountain and Hybrid Bikes
• vertex42: [Calendars] Free calendar and template downloads (Thanks to John!)

(If you came across this post looking for Priceline's executive customer service number, it's 1-866-966-7187.)

I had a much-better-than-expected experience with Priceline's Customer Support and I thought it would be worth passing on, especially in light of the company's bleak customer service as reported in previous Consumerist posts.

Basically, I forgot to use $50 in bonus cash I had waiting in an e-mail on a hotel reservation I made on Sunday night. I realized the snafu as I was falling asleep, and decided to call Priceline's customer service department in the morning. I did just that, but the helpful rep on the other end of the phone let me know that he couldn't do anything to help me over the phone, but that submitting a request through their online help would yield a response from their corporate HQ. Indeed it did. As I was drafting my request, I thought about fudging the truth to say that the bonus cash should have showed up but it hadn't, but I remembered what I've read on your site (as well as what I learned in Sunday school!) that being truthful and honest is always the best course.

My web form submission was as follows:

Hi, my wife and I are planning to visit Washington, DC, for my birthday
this weekend and I made our hotel booking last night. Using your site's
Name Your Own Price service, I secured a reservation at the Hyatt
Regency Bethesda (Itinerary #XXX-XXX-XXX-XX). I am a student and I was
in a hurry to book my reservation last night since I have class during
the weekdays, so I forgot to redeem the $50 bonus cash e-mail I received
on 4/30/09. I don't know how to prove that I have the bonus cash, but
the date stamp on the e-mail is 04/30/2009 @ 09:06:19 a.m, I received it
at [omitted], and the numbers at the bottom of the e-mail are
[omitted]. Please, I was wondering if there is any way I can have the
$50 credited toward this stay or have the amount credited to my credit
card. I called your toll-free number and spoke with Fernando
(#[redacted]) and he said you might be able to cancel and re-book the
reservation with the bonus cash. I've been waiting to use this bonus
cash for months and I thought my birthday would be the perfect
opportunity. Please note that I do NOT want to cancel my reservation, I
only want to have the bonus cash credited to my booking/credit card.
I'm sorry I forgot and I hope you can help me out. Please let me know
if you have any questions. I can be reached at (XXX) XXX-XXXX or
[omitted]. Thank you.

Their response:

Thank you for contacting our corporate office in regards to your concern
and feedback with the Hyatt Regency Bethesda for Request Number
XXXXXXXXXXX.

We are writing to let you know that we have received your email in our
Executive Offices.

We do understand that you forgot to use your bonus cash for your
reservation and would like to have it added to your current reservation.
We do apologize; however, we are not able to add bonus cash once a
reservation has been purchased. If you bonus cash has not expired you
can use it for your next purchase. Since we are not able to apply your
bonus cash to your current reservation we are sending you a coupon for
$10.00 off of your next hotel stay that can be worth up to $50.00 for a
five nights stay.

If you have further questions please reply by e-mail or call
1-866-966-7187 Monday through Friday between the hours of 9:00am and
6:00pm EST.

Please note that the number provided above is a United States phone
number, and you may incur toll charges when calling from outside the
United States or Canada.

We are sorry we did not provide you the answers you were looking for and
we thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Scott Weaver
Executive Offices

I thought this was quite flattering since after my web form submission, I didn't do anything to escalate my request, yet the response came from Priceline's Executive Offices. Am I bonkers, or was this really a much-better-than-should-have-been-expected response? Either way, this time, my props to Priceline!

It's an impressive response, even if the executive office staff were unable to undo Mohamed's mistake. Other Consumerist readers have learned in the past that Priceline sometimes responds well to polite, well-crafted letters.

(Photo: therichbrooks)

According to an affidavit sworn by Donnyell Harrison, "The washer to be hauled away was right beside the trash bin and the dryer that was taken was new and about 70 (feet) away, sitting on a concrete pad."

The new washing machine had been delivered and installed several days prior, Donyell said.

The dryer cost about $400, according to the affidavit.

Well, they were thorough, I guess you can give them that. The city is considering reimbursing the couple for the cost of the dryer.

Trash crew picks up couple's brand new dryer [Charleston Daily Mail] (Thanks, Charles!)

(Photo: samwilkinson)

I'm strangely reminded of the Hershey's chocolate syrup with extra calcium that provides no calcium.

Ecoense Brand [Ortho]

Thank you for your e-mail regarding the absence of closed captions from your Up rental DVD. The captions were inadvertently left off of the rental DVD. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused. We are working diligently to rectify this situation by shipping the corrected product to our accounts and creating a consumer program to address this matter. Since not all retailers will be able to participate in this program we will contact you once we have the specifics confirmed.

In the meantime, please save the receipt or shipping confirmation and mail it to us at WDSHE Consumer Relations, Attn: "UP Rental" , PO Box 3100, Neenah, WI 54957, with your contact information (full name, home mailing address, phone number, email address) and we will contact you.

Please let us know if you have any other questions or comments. You may contact us via email at DisneyInfo@DisneyHelp.com or via phone at 1-800-723-4763 Mondays 9:30-7:30 CST and Tuesday through Friday 9:30-6:30 CST.

We do appreciate your letting us try to assist you.

Regards,
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Consumer Relations
US and Canada

We'll be interested to see what Disney offers deaf, hard of hearing, and other affected consumers as compensation for renting a newly released DVD they weren't able to watch.

PREVIOUSLY:

Disney Removes Closed Captioning From "Up" Rental Release

Moore tweeted what she claims is the original, unretouched image, but looks suspiciously like the final cover shot. Citrano countered

I started this, so I'll (try to) finish it: $5k to charity if that's really the original.

Citrano also e-mailed Consumerist, with an extreme close-up of the relevant section of the image. He wrote:

To help support your point of view, and rebut these crazies who say it's just "the way she's standing" - I wanted to send you a zoom I did of the image. Her hip is clearly - and magically - "fused" to the sash. This doesn't happen organically; it happens digitally.

So now the challenge has been issued to... W's art department? We'll let you know if, and when, the errant hip is located.

PREVIOUSLY:
Somewhere, Out There, A Piece Of Demi Moore's Hip Is Looking For Its Home

Chadwick Matlin at The Big Money explains:

Up until now [Google] has taken action against ads, not advertisers. If an ad violated one of Google's terms of use, the search giant would take it out of circulation, but that's it. Google briefed TBM on its new policy: It will now ban the advertiser, not the ad, effectively neutering the advertiser's ability to shift from one ad and shell site to another. Think of it like the struggle between the police and a graffiti vandal. Up until now Google has only been erasing the tags after they've been put up. Going forward, they're going to take away his spray cans and put a GPS collar on him, making sure he never does it again. It would be a principled stand by any company, but especially by Google because of its position in the market.

The problem with permanent advertiser bans is that it can lead to false-positives, but this is a promising start on Google's part.

Google Does Non-Evil Thing: Bans White Teeth, Flat Stomachs [The Big Money]

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Unethical, Annoying, And Ubiquitous Ads: Internet Miracle Cures For Everything
Easy Weight Loss And Free Cash: A Dubious Product Online Marketing Empire Revealed
Free Trials Can Be Trojan Horses For Sketchy Companies

(Photo: evil robot 6)

I just wanted to alert you to another case of the Grocery Shrink Ray, but this time... at Cracker Barrel. When I eat French Toast at Cracker Barrel, I don't use the syrup because it comes with powdered sugar and that is sweet enough for me. So I make a habit of bringing the syrup bottle home with me because we use it later on other foods.

So tonight I went to Cracker Barrel and noticed that the syrup now says "100% Pure Natural Syrup" and while I was sitting there I could have sworn that it used to be 100% Maple Syrup, because, frankly, I wouldn't bother saving tiny bottles of non-maple syrup.

I used part of the syrup at the table tonight, but I cleaned it up and brought it home to make sure that I wasn't just seeing things or remembering wrong.

I brought out my little bottle from the pantry and we compared to the new bottle from tonight. The differences aren't just the level of maple syrup! Shockingly the size has also shrank!

The differences are:

Old: 100% Pure Maple Syrup 1.7oz
New: 100% Pure Natural Syrup 55% Pure Maple Syrup / 45% Cane Syrup 1.5oz

I remember from a about 6 months ago, we happened to catch a peek in the kitchen. A large sign was posted that said "REMEMBER: EACH SYRUP COSTS $1.50, GIVE ONLY ONE" or something similar to that. I guess they couldn't keep the syrup machine going without having to scale back in both quality and quantity.

Also, note that the word "Vermont" has been removed from the front label.

Having to scale back their syrup generosity is understandable, especially with rising syrup prices. At least they didn't switch to maple-flavored sugar syrup years ago.

Industry blog Auctionbytes has been watching the situation, and made the same observation:

UPDATE: 6:12 pm EST - eBay replaced its previous Systems Announcement posts with one at 2:59 pm PST that suggests a workaround:

If you use the Advanced Search option at the top of the page, and type in your search query and click the title and description box and then run the search, the results for the title and description search will be returned. Likewise, if you receive a 0 results page for title search and choose the title and description box and re-run the search, you'll see the appropriate results.

Does eBay think buyers are going to first of all, find this announcement, and second of all, follow these convoluted instructions? Surely eBay is not paving the way to get out of calling it an outage?

eBay's outage policy only covers auctions scheduled to end during or shortly after the outage, so the majority of current listings will not be included under this policy. Watch for eBay's reputation to take a major hit after this incident.

Major Search Outage Leaves eBay Shoppers Empty-Handed (Thanks, Dale!)

(Photo: erikg)

See, in federal prisons, where smoking has been banned since 2004, the underground economy needed to find a new currency to replace packs of cigarettes. That currency? Packets of mackerel. No, really.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mark Muntz, president of supplier Global Source, said his company unloaded about $1 million worth of mackerel to commissaries in federal penitentiaries last year, though it's not particularly popular elsewhere.

"We've even tried 99-cent stores," he said. "It never has done very well at all, regardless of the retailer, but it's very popular in the prisons."

Last year in Pennsylvania, some prisoners have filed grievances about the sudden and dramatic price increases of their favorite snacks.

The main beef, according to their complaint, which they mailed to the newspaper, is the cost of an Atkinson's Chick-O-Stick, an orange-colored, crunchy peanut butter and toasted coconut candy. It previously sold for 40 cents but the price was raised to "an unbelievable $0.90 overnight," the complaint says.

The other item specified in their complaint is the three-ounce package of Maruchan Ramen noodle soup. It sells for 18 cents in state prisons but is 95 cents in Bucks County jail, the inmates wrote. "Why and how is Keefe [Commissary Network] allowed to offer the same product, in the same region, with such a great price differential?" the complaint asks.

Unfortunately, we couldn't find the results of their complaint.

Low Inflation? Not in Prison [Minyanville] (Warning: sidebar video plays when page loads)
Prison inmates complain of snack 'scandal' [Bucks County Courier-Times]

(Photo: Podknox)

Diesel, True Religion, Ed Hardy and Lululemon Athletica are among a growing list of stores that don't accept personal checks.

Gap Inc. has tested the idea. Austin-based Whole Foods Market is trying it out at a few stores in California and Arizona. The organic grocer hasn't come to any conclusions yet, a spokeswoman said.

Check fraud is a costly problem for the retail industry, and stores just don't see many shoppers pulling out a checkbook anymore.

Predictably, the use of checks increases with age. Only 0.3 percent of shoppers between ages 18-24 predict that they will write any checks to retailers this holiday season, while 9.8 percent of senior citizens (people over 65) plan to.

Do you still use checks when shopping? Do you still write personal checks at all?

Personal checks becoming currency of holidays past [Dallas Morning News] (Thanks, Geoff!)

Correcting the mistake was an interstate nightmare that took the full-time attention of Howe's daughter in California. She sent letters, faxes, notarized explanations, long distance phone calls, but for months, she kept running into the same brick wall.

Howe's daughter, Julie Kerr, says everyone knew Howe was alive, but the bank wouldn't budge without a credit report from Experian.

"(They said) 'We don't care, we have to get a credit score and without that credit score, we can't make the loan and we can't get a credit score because you're deceased. Now we know you're not deceased, but they think you are. So we're not going to do this loan,'" Kerr said.

This woman's story eventually had a happy ending, as she managed to convince Experian that she remains alive, but her story serves as a reminder to check your free annual credit report from all three major bureaus regularly—and to watch them closely after major life events such as marriage, divorce, or death of a relative or spouse.

Woman denied credit, told she's dead [KOMO] (Thanks, Chuck!)

RELATED:
How Credit Bureaus Correct, Or Fail To Correct, Errors On Your Report
Really, Credit Bureaus, I'm Not Dead

(Photo: DominusVobiscum)

I think of money market accounts as a hybrid between a savings account and a checking account. They give you a higher interest rate than a checking account with the ability to write three to six checks a month. They usually will have higher minimum balance requirements and restrict the number of withdrawals per month. They are like a lower interest rated savings account with checkwriting previlieges. They are FDIC insured, principal protected, and give you the best of both worlds.

Money market accounts were really popular before the rise of online savings accounts and electronic transfer of funds. In the past, if you had a savings and checking, you would have to visit a branch to transfer funds between the two. It was more convenient to use a money market account to write checks than go to a branch, transfer money from savings to checking, and then write a check.

Nowadays, I don't see much value in money market accounts but they sure were popular in the 80's.

Do you have a money market account? If so, can you name any other benefits or drawbacks to them over alternatives?

Jim writes about money matters at his personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Photo: armydre2008)

What's the alleged conspiracy? The firm thinks that the bannination was conveniently timed to occur shortly after several major game releases, in order to sell more Xbox Live memberships before banning consoles for life. Um.

This "convenient" timing may have resulted in more Xbox Live subscription revenues for Microsoft than it would have generated had these Xbox console bans taken place at some time before the release of Halo 3: ODST and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Additionally, sales of both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (published by Activision) and Halo 3: ODST (published by Microsoft Game Studios) would likely have been greatly diminished had the Xbox console ban occurred prior to the release of these games.

That's taking things a bit far. But if you believe that your console was unfairly banned, let the firm know.

Xbox Live Class Action Investigation [Abington IP]

PREVIOUSLY:
Microsoft Says There Is No Recourse For Gamers Whose Consoles Were Banned
If You Don't Care About Online Gaming: Banned XBOX 360s Available
Xbox Gamer Says He Was Banned Online For No Reason

She writes:

I purchased a Kodak camera model M863 which came with a beach mode built into the camera for taking pictures. After going on a beach and taking picture the next time I used my camera I found that sand had been blown into my camera. This caused the camera to only allow me to zoom in so far before shutting off for a while. Now the camera turns on and shuts back off immediately.

I called Kodak customer support on 2 separate occasions and received the same response from 2 different customer service representatives. "Just because we put a beach mode on your camera does not mean we expect you to take your camera on a beach exposing it to the elements." The first call was placed on 10/25/2009 and the second call placed 11/19/2009. Both representative also told me I would either have to pay $60 to send the camera in for repairs or would have to purchase a new camera with 25% off. I just purchased my current camera on 2/4/2008, I should have to purchase a new camera or pay half of the price I paid for the camera in repairs.

Unfortunately, just because a camera has a "beach" mode, that doesn't mean you shouldn't take extra-special care not to get sand in it while taking photographs at the beach. That's what the customer service reps should have said.

Brandy doesn't have much of a case to get Kodak to cover her repairs, but her story should serve as a cautionary tale to other would-be beach photographers.

(Photo: joxur223)

The Independent points out that human fat is readily available from liposuction, should anyone want it, and that it doesn't really do anything special for your skin. Police however, maintain that they've busted just one of several "international criminal network[s] trafficking human fat".

"We have broken up a criminal organisation dedicated to trafficking bodily fluids and human fat," said local police commander Angel Toledo, on Thursday. The large containers of illicit fat were latter decanted into bottles for export, he added.

"Without a doubt [the gang] have committed various crimes like kidnapping and conspiring to commit criminal acts. [They] have spoken about how they committed crimes with the purpose of extracting their fat in rudimentary laboratories to later sell for the price of $15,000 (£9,000) per litre."

Whether or not they were actually able to sell said fat to mysterious evil Europeans has not been established. It does seem however, that they were actually harvesting it.

Regardless of their commercial success, the gang seems, at the very least, to have perfected the art of fat-extraction. Two of Col Meija's suspects, Serapio Marcos Veramendi and Enedina Estela were arrested at a bus stop in Huanuco province carrying soft-drink bottles filled with an amber liquidised substance that lab tests later showed was liquidised human fat.

The duo claim to have been en route to Lima, roughly 300 miles south, where the contents of the bottles were to be sold to intermediaries. A further six of their alleged accomplices, including two members of the Italian mafia, and the organisation's alleged leader, Hilario Cudena, 56, remain at large.

Peruvian gang 'killed peasant farmers for their fat' [Independent]