Search results for complaints
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Posted
Sep 30 2009, 10:03 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Has a charity ever pushed and annoyed you to the point that you've cut them off?
When do you draw the line at giving? When they've hired a telemarketing company that pesters you, or if they send you too much mail?
"FMF" of Free Money Finance raised the question in a recent post called "Off my giving list." He stopped giving to a group he had generously supported because a telemarketer who called his house wouldn't take no for an answer.
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Posted
Sep 25 2009, 03:28 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from "vh" at Funny about Money.
Why, when we're confronted, do we tend to blurt out the truth, even when it works to our disadvantage to do so? Chaucer had it right when he said that "truth is the highest thing that Man may keep." Sometimes we should keep it to ourselves.
Asked in the right way, we'll often reveal private, sensitive information that's strictly none of anyone's business, that's valuable to people trying to manipulate us into buying products and services, and that can be used to pester or even harass us. Warranty cards with long lists of personal questions are especially egregious: What about your favorite sporting event and the magazines you read is needed to guarantee a flashlight's performance? And how often do you give your phone number to companies that have no need to know it?
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Posted
Sep 02 2009, 03:23 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Cash4Gold has come out swinging against The Consumerist, which is investigating its pricing and other practices, but none of the punches have landed. In fact, so far all Cash4Gold has done is draw more attention to itself.
Boing Boing posted about the lawsuit Cash4Gold has filed against The Consumerist, a lively consumer advocate owned by the same organization that publishes Consumer Reports, and other blogs have too. Techdirt said that "we're left wondering why Cash4Gold would do this. All it's doing is drawing that much more attention to the claims against it." They're even writing about it in Great Britain.
You've likely heard of Cash4Gold, a company you send your scrap gold to and get a check in the mail. Several mainstream news outlets have reported about this company, including The Los Angeles Times, which said:
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Posted
Sep 01 2009, 05:13 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Jon Hood at partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.
Many of the prerecorded calls that seem to come just as you're sitting down to dinner are now illegal.
An amendment to the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule, announced more than a year ago, took effect today, Sept. 1. It includes prohibitions against a large number of robocalls.
There are a few catches, however. First, purely "informational" calls are exempt under the new rules. Thus, those calls from Orbitz announcing that your flight is departing two minutes later than expected will not be subject to a penalty.
Perhaps more annoyingly, public service announcements are exempt from the new rules, as are political calls. Political robocalls are especially common during election season, and aren't likely to stop anytime soon. Banks and telephone carriers are likewise exempt.
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Posted
Aug 20 2009, 02:44 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Mark Huffman at partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.
When talk show host Oprah Winfrey raved about the weight-loss properties of the acai berry, supplement makers were quick to cite her endorsement in advertising for all sorts of related products.
The only problem is, Winfrey was talking about the berry, not supplements. Now the talk queen is fighting back.
Chicago-based Harpo Inc., producer of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Dr. Oz," has joined forces with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to alert consumers to the numerous complaints about acai berry supplement marketers.
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Posted
Aug 12 2009, 06:20 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Some customers were likely breathless as they pushed the "add to cart" button at Best Buy's Web site. The big draw? A Samsung 52-inch HDTV that appeared on the chain's Web site for the unbelievably low sale price of $9.99.
Best Buy corrected the error hours later and announced that any orders processed at that price would not be honored. (You can find screen shots of the ad and an order placed by Augustine Fou at his go-Digital Blog.) But what's truly amazing about all this is that so many people are ticked off.
Bing: Best HDTVs
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Posted
Aug 10 2009, 11:50 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Nothing says deep recession like the number of people who are raising chickens in their own backyards.
Several publications have noted this trend in recent days, including The New York Times, which says that business at chicken hatcheries is brisk. The U.S. Postal Service shipped 1.2 million pounds of baby chicks, including packaging, in the first six months of the year.
"Chicken hatcheries say that it is typical in a recession for their business to do well," the NYT reports. "But some hatchery veterans say they have never seen a year like this one."
However, is this really the frugal choice, when eggs at the store cost $1.60 a dozen, give or take?
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Posted
Jul 27 2009, 01:36 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Amazon caused quite a stir when it deleted unauthorized copies of George Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm" from hundreds or thousands of Kindles. (Oh, the irony!) Customers were so outraged that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos issued a public apology and said the company would never do that again.
This tempest sparked our curiosity (we'd been only mildly interested in the Kindle before then) about what you're getting for the $299 asking price. Which is more to our liking: A Kindle or a book?
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Posted
Jul 23 2009, 10:13 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Are you familiar with those companies that get paid to enforce traffic lights? Their cameras snap a picture as you drive through a red light, and a ticket arrives in the mail.
Now one of them, American Traffic Solutions, has ventured into another type of enforcement in Baton Rouge, La., TheNewspaper.com reports:
Under first-of-its-kind initiative, city workers will drive around photographing neighborhoods with special cameras hooked into a global positioning system (GPS) satellite tracking device. The workers will be looking to capture homes that might have litter, weeds or trash on their lawn so that a hefty fine can be imposed.
Wait! There's even more: "Residents will also be ticketed for putting out garbage cans before 4 p.m. or failing to retrieve them before 6 a.m."
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Posted
Jul 22 2009, 10:10 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from Jason at Frugal Dad.
Recently my wife and I took the kids to a local department store for a little back-to-school shopping a couple months early. I had cashed in some very old credit card rewards from a card we paid off in exchange for a gift card to a well-known department store. Combined with a 30%-off store sales flier, we figured we could snag a couple deals before school starts.
I consider myself a fairly patient dad when it comes to shopping. During most shopping excursions my son and I take up our post outside the girls' dressing room and hold "buy" and "put back" merchandise as my wife scurries back and forth from the dressing room to the clothing racks.
During this particular visit I noticed a garbled announcement over the store's intercom system every few minutes followed by a rowdy cheer from store employees. By the fourth or fifth time, I was curious enough (and sufficiently annoyed by the irrational exuberance) to ask a nearby employee what the celebration was about. "We just signed up another credit card," she replied enthusiastically.
My sarcastic reply was, "And why are we celebrating?" She scowled and went back to folding new shirts to put on the store shelves.
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