Earlier this week, the Dept. of Health And Human Services announced that consumers had saved $1 billion thanks to a condition of the Affordable Care Act that requires state insurance authorities to review health insurance premium increases of at least 10%. But in some states, those reviews are merely a formality that have no ability to rein in insurance premiums. More »
No one is entitled to a free cannoli. But perhaps a polite request for such a treat would be a better way to go than demanding one at knifepoint in the wee hours of the morning. A man visiting Boston from Ireland celebrated his very recent arrival on our country's shores by holding up a bakery to get his hands on a cannoli. More »
For all the customer complaints we post here at Consumerist, it's not often that we hear from someone on the customer service side of the retail equation. So it was a pleasant surprise to receive a message from Bill, a CSR for an online retailer, who wrote in to share his perspective on things. More »
If the rest of my family was taking off for a vacation to Disney World and I wasn't allowed to go, I'd be terribly put out. But I am not a cat, and so unlike one Bob-bob of Ohio, I can't climb inside my owner's suitcase and show up in Florida anyway. Bob-bob's recent journey took 10 hours, at the end of which his owner was a bit surprised to see him pop out of the luggage. More »
The future is here, folks. Soon it'll be just like we imagined as kids — holodecks, computers as thin as thin can be and there better be some hovercrafts arriving soon. But even as technology marches on, there are certain things we might feel a little bit squirrelly about doing away with. Like our online passwords, which are pesky to remember but ultimately safeguard all our online information. Intel is banking on our annoyance with keeping track of passwords with its new tablet software that grants access via a biometric sensors. More »
If you've ever thought that being a celebrity entitles you to a hotline that instantly fixes all those annoying problems that bother the rest of us, Sir Patrick Stewart has news for you. The actor, best known for managing to look authoritative in that silly outfit from Star Trek: The Next Generation, says that his ordeal with Time Warner Cable has taken away his will to live. More »
During the past few years, a Philadelphia developer and business owner says he's been fined for un-shoveled snow, trash and other violations for a vacant lot (pictured, left) adjoining one of his properties -- a vacant lot he doesn't even own. But after he decided to spend his own money and time having 40 tons of debris removed from that same lot, the city claims he's a trespasser. More »
(Packmatt)
While there are many opponents of the lowly penny, including a store in Vermont and soon, the entire country of Canada, one musician was about to be punished by the Canadian mint for his love of the little guys. The folk singer featured a photo of pennies scattered on a counter as well as a large penny on the back, and the Mint warned him that he was violating the government's copyright on the currency. Say what now? More »
With movie ticket prices continuing to increase -- and the home theater experience getting less expensive and more immersive -- you can understand why consumers would get upset if their night out at the cinema is spoiled by some mouthy jerk, or by that person three seats over who can't seem to stop texting. But how best to handle these people -- Shaming? Violence? Ninjas? More »
After all the mislabeled, unfortunately worded, bad math-y and otherwise plain wrong signs we've seen, we're convinced that all retail establishments should hire an official Sign Executive dedicated to making sure these slip-ups don't happen. More »
Before snapping photos of her money order with Bank of America's mobile deposit app, April took the time to make sure that money orders were permitted. She lives 200 miles away from the nearest Bank of America (yes, there is such a place in this country) and can't go to a branch or ATM to deposit it. The app's "help" section said that money orders are totally allowed, so she went ahead with the deposit. They rejected it, and customer service told her that money orders can't be deposited with the mobile app. Well, fine. Maybe she'll just go ahead and deposit that money order at a bank that's local to her. More »
A California couple is finding out the hard way that the contract for the home equity line of credit they've had for decades with Wells Fargo isn't really what most people would consider a binding contract so much as an agreement that allows the bank to change the terms however it wants to and whenever it chooses to do so. More »
Google engineers are so good at their jobs, they apparently have plenty of time at work to tackle the really pressing problems facing the world today. For example — who wants to sit around and use their very own brains to try and figure out how far apart any given actor is from Kevin Bacon? More »
(jpghouse)
Police in Snellville, GA, are trying to recover a pile of recently stolen guns and ammunition, but rather than offer the usual cash reward, cops are offering Sony PlayStation 3 video game consoles. More »
The latest numbers on the government-backed Home Affordable Modification Program are in, and there's some good news in there for most of the homeowners who participated. About 77% of those who went through modification (and didn't have a mortgage tied to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac) in July enjoyed a nice little cut to the principal amount they owe. More »
Earlier this year, our upstairs neighbors in Canada decided to stop minting one cent pieces. Now that anti-penny sentiment has seeped across the border to the town of Morrisville, VT, where one sporting goods store has decided to just say no to copper coins. More »
Remember the movie "Office Space," where the conspiring co-workers wrote wrote a banking program to take a fraction of a cent here, a fraction of a cent there until they amassed a small fortune? Some employees of Sky Chef, the catering contractor for American Airlines, did that at New York's JFK Airport. Except instead of a massive ill-gotten fortune, the 18 current and former truck drivers ended up with hundreds of thousands of tiny liquor bottles. Which they sold, instead of just having a few really amazing parties. More »
