From the St. Louis Business-Journal:

"The hospitality centers had pretty limited appeal because it was for patrons who were of legal drinking age who wanted beer," he said. "We were looking for something that had a broader age appeal."

Park goers who are of legal drinking age will still be able to buy beer at the parks.

The AB InBev is expected to sell the theme parks in an attempt to pay off its debt from the $52 billion acquisition of Anheuser-Busch.

No more free beer at Busch theme parks [Bizjournals via Fark ]
(Photo: Ken1973 )

Brooke was given the Zune brand new as a gift:

Each one of the 500 Limited Edition Joy Division Zune players are individually numbered and are pre-loaded with the documentary film Joy Division The back of this device is black, and the laser-etched image was created by Joy Division designer Peter Saville. This edition is packaged in a collectible box that, in addition to the 80 GB Zune, includes a Peter Saville-designed leather case and poster card, a pair of Zune Premium Headphones, and a sync cable.

When she plugged it into her computer for the first time, she was greeted with a popup announcing a firmware update. She allowed the update, at which point it erased the custom content and then (when she tried a reinstall) bricked the device.

My Zune now was now only showing the Zune logo display, and then directions like, number 5, go to support.

I was now trying to format it via instructions on the Zune website. I pressed back+left+center. First it came out please wait… then clearing content, then connect to the computer for installing firmware, I was trying to do that but the responce was an error that said I don’t have enough of space on my Zune, error code C00D124F. It suggested to go to the website but on the official website it said that a resolution for this problem is not found yet.

I called Zune zupport at 1.877.GET.ZUNE

Welcome To Zune Support Hell

• Sep 21 - Zune customer support had Brooke go through all the same button mashing routine she'd already tried, then sent her a box to ship the device back for repairs.
• Oct 7 - No box. Brooke calls, is told the "ticket was 'lost' en route to service center."
• Oct 21 - Still no box. "Carlos" at the service center tells her that the "ticket was 'lost' en route to service center"—hmm, that sounds kind of familiar...
• Oct 30 - No box. CJ transferred Brooke to Mark in "upper level repair 'escalation team'." Brooke received an email the next day saying they'd repair the device within 2 days once the received it—but they still didn't send a box.
• Nov 30 - Paula tells Brooke the "ticket was 'lost' en route to service center." Theo tells her to wait 3-5 days for the box.
• Dec 8 - Mike and Lindsey try to get a box sent out to Brooke. Lindsey seems to find the magic formula and the box gets a FedEx tracking number and is shown in transit. Hurrah!
• Dec 16 - Box arrives, Brooke ships in her broken Zune. She calls first to make sure she's following every instruction, and they offer to ship her a disc of the preloaded content for backup. They even give her a tracking number for this disc.

On January 5th, 2009, Brooke called to check on the status of the repair and was told that the Zune isn't in the system.

Mark couldn't 'find' it in his system after waiting on hold on and off for 30mins I was transfered to Rizza in upper level repair 'escalation team'.

She escalated the claim to find out the progress of the box which included my Zune. According to Rizza she didn't know what had happened. They just can't find it. Since it was broken maybe they tossed it. But don't worry We will send you a normal 80gb Zune worth 1/2 the value.

I told her no way FIND IT or cut me a check for the $400.

She replied with ' I have a meeting later in the day I'll bring it up and see what we can do, I'll call you back later'.

I asked her what service center I was calling and where is it? She told me she was not allowed to give that information out. I then asked to speak to a supervisor which she replied there were none.

We're not surprised Microsoft can't get this stuff straight. They seem to have a filing system straight out of "Brazil"—look at everything Brooke managed to collect over the past 14 weeks:

• 6 Service Request Numbers
• Zune Customer Support Service Request ID
• FedEx Tracking Number
• Preloaded Content Reference Number
• Internet Claim Number

Brooke, you might try emailing your story to Steve Ballmer. Obviously he won't ever see your email, but we hope someone on that end might be watching.

They claim to have sent out 41 million coupons — but of course it's likely that many of them have gone to people who don't even need them. A recent study by Consumers Union showed that 41% of consumers polled think that every TV in a house must have a new converter box, even those that are already connected to cable or satellite. (They don't. REALLY.)

The Washington Post says that if the program runs out of money, consumers will be put on a waiting list until more funds become available.

If you're wondering whether or not your TV will need a converter box, click here.
If your cable company has lied to you told you that you need to get digital cable "because of the transition", click here.

DTV Coupon Program Out of Money [WaPo]

It starts out, as so many things do, as a free trial offer — but when you try to cancel — you may find yourself locked in to the automatic delivery of more acai than you ever wanted.

“BBB can’t speak to the restorative or weight loss properties of acai-based products, but we are taking companies to task for their misleading sales and marketing practices,” said Steve Cox, BBB spokesperson. “Many businesses across the country are using the same selling model for their acai products: they lure customers in with celebrity endorsements and free trial offers, and then lock them in by making it extremely difficult to cancel the automatic delivery of more acai products every month.”

The BBB lists two companies that sell acai products on this business model:

FX Supplements: " The company offers a risk-free trial of their products for the cost of shipping and handling. However, if consumers do not cancel within the trial period they are sent additional bottles every month and are billed $85.90. Complaints show that the trial period fluctuates between 10 and 14 days from when the consumer requested the free trial—not from when they received the product."

Central Coast Nutraceuticals: "In the last 12 months, the BBB serving Central, Northern and Western Arizona has received more than 1,400 complaints for a company called Central Coast Nutraceuticals which operates several Web sites selling acai, hoodia and male enhancement products. The company uses Oprah-endorsements of the acai berry in ads touting its weight-loss benefits and offers a free trial of acai-related products including supplements and tea. Due to the company’s negative option, if, after the free-trial, the consumer no longer wishes to receive a monthly supply they must cancel their subscription or they will be billed $40 monthly.

The complaints against the company all tell a similar tale of how difficult it was to contact the company and cancel the subscription — including enduring 75 minutes on hold. Additionally, consumers complain of unauthorized charges on their credit card or bank accounts for products they did not order. Central Cost Nutraceuticals has earned an F grade from BBB for a large volume of unanswered and unresolved complaints."

If you're looking for fruit with lots of antioxidants, why not just go to the grocery store? There are plenty of fruit juice drinks with acai in them — and let's face it. Apples may not be some exotic miracle fruit — but they have plenty of antioxidants and are cheap!

Weight-loss Berry Claiming Oprah Endorsement Makes Wallets Slim and Consumers Angry Warns BBB [BBB]
(Photo: Marc Boudreu )

It can be easy to give in to their pitch if you're not wary; the "salesmen" are attractive young women, and they hold out badges as identification when they introduce themselves. Read more about IDT here.

You might also want to post a notice in your building so that non-Consumerist readers know what's going on.

It reads:

Double ended male "adapters" are illegal, dangerous, a fire hazard, and possible [sic] immoral.
If you have need of this "adapter" you have hung a string of lights backwards.

Reader Ben, who spotted the sign says:

I didn't realize that using the wrong adapter is "possible immoral." If the sign creator thinks those adapters are sinful, I'd hate to hear what he or she thinks of a Jenna Jameson movie.

We don't have anything to say about the morality of these "adapters," but we are having fun picturing the number of times this product was requested before the manager finally threw a fit and made this sign.

From Marketplace:

Herships: What is your grand total so far?

Brianna Humphrey: I know!

Daughter No. 1, Brianna.

Brianna Humphrey: It's at $1,013 and something cents. I can't remember the change.

Just to be clear this is money they've found — on the ground. It's sort of a hobby. They take a lot of long walks.

Barbara Humphrey (Mom): We're all looking around. You know, we have our glasses; we have our Purell bottles; we have our little change purses.

The family has a blog called ChangePot, where Barbara keeps a running tally of their findings.

Barbara Humphrey: 'Cause I figured it would be a nice way at the end of the day, kind of like a Doogie Howser thing. You know, at the end of the day how he'd write down things. We basically keep track of it that way.

Marketplace also talked to a guy named Scott who has collected $268.11 in St. Louis.

Do any of you collect change that you find on the street? Is it worth it?

Picking up loose change makes sense [Marketplace]
ChangePot
(Photo: theglasspeople )

1. Drugs are sold almost openly in the Fishers call-center. The keyword is 'almost' because the management that is aware of it wants to maintain a plausible deniability.

2. There have been multiple instance where agents have had sex in the restrooms.

3. Fortunately, our call-center was by the Fishers PD. Unfortunately, the officers pretty much knew all management by name.

4. Teleperformance is a giant cesspool for credit card fraud. Especially within the Sprint project. When it is caught, we are supposed to inform Sprint and the customer. That never happens. I was involved in catching an agent who committed credit card fraud. In ended up in a chase as the agent made a run for it to her car, the we filed a report with the Police, fire the agent and that was that. Even after we got the agent to admit they had written down a ton of CCN's and stashed them in their car.

5. The Fisher center HR manager is racist. I'm white and I'm not afraid to say she is racist. She parked her car in the front visitor lobby close to the door so she could get there as soon as possible because as she stated she "didn't want these hoodrats to mug me".

6. Major conflicts of interest. There are assistant call-center managers dating each other, therefore no matter whether one of them is wrong or not, they always have each other's back. The Call-Center Director fires employees who file complaints on other agents that are valid. Yet, when someone makes an outrageous claim with no solid proof, the person who had a complaint on them would be fired within minutes.

7. Agents, Trainers and Supervisors were hardly paid their overtime and commission-based-pay. For example, trainers were going to make a $1,400 commission for training and meeting metrics (Well those who did their jobs and actually trained). Teleperformance changed their metrics the day before the checks were going to be mailed to us and considered our commission invalid. http://tpclassaction.com/ is a good example of what we had to do.

8. Like in the Convergys post, "training" consisted mainly of of web-surfing and breaks...long breaks. A few months after I became trainer, I was more or less the Assistant Training Manager, meaning that my manager took vacations every other week and managed to have important personal matters on days during important teleconferences leaving me to take all the heat and backlash. On those days, if I didn't have a new-hire class to train, I would walk around and check in on classes, where I saw trainers sitting on YouTube showing everyone stupid stuff.

9. Because Trainers and Supervisors surfed, agents would as well. Yet it was a double standard. Agents though would e-mail their friends or themselves customer information. Surfing and Texting was supposed to be a warning then termination, but it never happened, because the agents who did that stuff were personal friends with the supervisors or other management.

10. Around I believe March of this year, HR decided to spend two full days running background checks. Within those two days, the call center became barren. Agents and supervisors were fired en-masse. They also called Fishers PD to pick them up and escort them off the premises.

11. Military Leave was a battle with the HR Manager. It got to a point once where I over heard a Colonel on the phone raising hell and had to re-educate her on Federal Law. That didn't deter her though in other Military based LOA's.

12. Agents who used their paid-time-off were called and forced to come in on one of their days off to make up for "Lost Hours." That started to disappear once I called my lawyer buddy and he gave me a run-down on some laws that I could shove on them.

13. The police was there daily. I worked there for four years and just before I resigned was when the police started making daily rounds in our parking lot.

There is so many things I could say about that place, but it would take days. I was one of the few "Veterans" of that center. There were six of us that remained that were there since the center opened and somehow none of us managed to make it to upper management. We all worked very hard and honestly. I still have some friends that work there and they still ask me for help with stuff. I find it disappointing that agents can't rely on the still-employed supervisors and management staff, and have to call and e-mail former trainers who actually helped.

Teleperformance is a cancer.

PREVIOUSLY: Teleperformance USA: Call Center Of Customer Service Nightmares
Convergys Call Center Sucks Because Agents Are Stabbing Each Other And Making Out In The Halls

SmartMoney did a little investigation and what they uncovered is downright magical — old state blue laws allow citizens of certain states to buy alcohol from "membership only" wholesale clubs — without a membership.

Here are the details:

Costco: Membership is not required for purchases of alcohol in the following states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Texas and Vermont.

BJ's Wholesale Club: Membership is not required for purchases of alcohol in the following states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Texas and Vermont.

Sam's Club: No membership required!

SmartMoney says that you shouldn't expect employees to actually know about this policy — so print their article and take it with you. Speak to a manager, and you'll be pouring drinks in no time. Keep in mind that not all locations carry alcohol, so make sure you go to one that does. Also, don't try to sneak other items through with your purchase— these laws apply to alcohol only.

UPDATE: Reader Tracy says she checked with the Vermont Department of Liquor Control and they claim that there is no such law in Vermont — so the SmartMoney article may be incorrect. However, the article claims to cite each store's individual policy, not necessarily the laws, so who knows. The article also says that the government officials they contacted had no idea that the laws even existed, and there's a quote from BJ's spokesperson confirming that the policy is real.

According to our Chief of Education, Licensing and Enforcement, Bill Goggins, there is no such law in Vermont. Liquor laws are very different from state to state; so, it very well could be that there are laws against requiring a membership to purchase alcohol in other states, but it appears that Vermont is not one of them.

Thank you,

Marcia
Marketing/Customer Service Supervisor
Vermont Department of Liquor Control

The Cheapest Way to Buy Booze [SmartMoney]
(Photo: greenwenvy08 )

Drywall complaints go up [news-press] (Thanks to Richard!) (Photo: The County Clerk)

• Catherines: Buy 2 plus-size bras get 1 free PLUS $10 off $25 with coupon code 776996258
• Belk: Columbia Men's Sportswear Bugaboo Parka Coat for $57 (down from $230)
• Harry & David: Tower of Treats Collection for $12.71

• IHOP: Free Pancakes on Feb. 24th
• Sears: Sharp 42" LCD 1080p TV + Sharp Blu Ray Player for $999.99 + Shipping
• Deal Extreme: Pregnancy Test Papers (10-Pack) for $1.88 w/ Free shipping

• Newegg Mall: Save Up to 80% off ESQ by Movado Watches
• Amazon: Top 50 Bestselling 2008 MP3 Albums $5 Each
• Old Navy: Online Only Clearance: Save up to 75% off Apparel

• BestBuy: Dell XPS M1330 Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz 13" Widescreen Laptop for $900 + $25 s&h
• Circuit City: LG 22" 720p Widescreen LCD HDTV Display for $300 + free shipping
• Geeks.com: Refurbished VuPoint Multifunction Digtal Camcorder for $50 + $9 s&h

The owner wrote the above message (which we've dramatically reenacted) on a dry erase board at the store.
Although one could argue that, as with a similar story, the workers are free to quit if they don't like the working conditions, we can probably agree that this is a really crappy way to treat your employees.

Pizza Employees Ordered to Work in Cold [King5 NBC]

Atif Irfan says he and his family had been discussing the safest place to sit on an airplane, without using the words "bomb" or "explosion," as they took their seats. Another passenger assumed this meant they were going to blow up the plane, so she alerted a flight attendant, who removed Irfan's family, and their friend, who was coincidentally on the same flight, for FBi interrogation.

After the FBI realized that there was no threat, they asked AirTrain to let them reboard, but AirTran refused, instead choosing to refund their money and make them find a new flight. Irfan says his family deserves an apology.

"Safest" Seat Remarks Get Muslim Family Kicked Off Plane [CNN]
(Photo: zonaphoto) Thanks, Bryan!

Straight from the tip:

A sticker claiming that my pie, already well into the secondary portion
of its digestive adventure, was good for eating well into the fifth day
of the week. Perfectly alright as this was only Wednesday in the
aforementioned week. But, alas, there seemed to be some sort of ruse
going on in my very own home. Underneath the sticker that assured me of
my delicious treat was well within the time allotted for its freshness,
was yet another sticker not bearing the same message of assurance.
Behold! A nearly identical sticker bearing a freshness date that was
already two days well before the current one! Which would mean the this
was scheduled for original consumption a possible full FOUR days in the
past! AND! They didn't even have the common sense to remove the ORIGINAL
STICKER!

That is some pretty obvious fraud, right there. I would have confronted someone about it at the store to see their reaction and gauge their response. Ask for a refund, because little sounds more disgusting than fast food pie after its expiration date. Past that, I think dropping the Better Business Bureau a line would be pertinent.

Rather than doing any actual negotiating, the two companies seem to have been hoping the threat of an angry, alienated customer base would resolve the issue. It hasn't.

Time Warner Cable finally blinked last night, but it didn't help:

Viacom has rejected Time Warner Cable's request for a 15- to 30-day extension on the 12:01 AM January 1st deadline when the cable programmer pulls its 19 channels off the 2nd largest cable system operator. I'm told Viacom and TWC had no contact throughout yesterday until news of the Big Media battle broke. Suddenly, at 8 PM, TWC came to Viacom with an increase offer and the extension request. But Viacom rejected both out of hand. "It was bogus. The low-ball offer was clearly an excuse to ask for an extension and then use that in their press acrtivity today," a Viacom source claimed to me. "After we've been trying to meet with them for several weeks, we won't consider an extension unless they're prepared to really negotiate and come across with a reasonable offer."

So who's to blame? Bloggers at the LA Times choose sides, but we were serious about that Hulu/BitTorrent comment—it's possible that in this economy neither side will come out ahead by shutting the doors on its customers. Notice how both bloggers draw the same "maybe I'll just find another way" conclusion:

Anti-TWC:

Time Warner's dangerous gamble [is] that people can learn to live without what it's selling. I already have, to some extent. When Time Warner pulled Turner Classic Movies from its basic cable lineup—in Hollywood, no less!—and substituted the Golf Channel, I didn't bite and upgrade to premium. I've ended up buying a lot of the black and white classic films I love, and can now watch them on my schedule, not Time Warner's.

Anti-Viacom:

[Viacom is making] the wrong demand at the wrong time. And the big loser here could be Viacom, which needs Time Warner more than Time Warner needs Nickelodeon, MTV, BET and the host of other Viacom cable networks.

You could argue that recessions are good for cable operators—people spend less on entertainment away from home, raising the value of packaged home-entertainment bundles such as cable and satellite. But as the jobless rate climbs, it's hard to imagine Time Warner extracting sizable rate increases from their subscribers in 2009. More important, as Patt notes, Viacom puts its shows online, free of charge. So while it's asking Time Warner for more money for its channels, it's flooding the market with a cheaper version of the same product.

"Blackout looms in Time Warner, Viacom standoff" [Reuters]
"Unhappy New Year!" [Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily]
(Photo: Getty)

Update: 'emailnamefinder.com' pulls up a 404. You have to add the 'www.' beforehand. Sorry for the confusion!

ArsTechnica says it seems to have affected all owners of the 30 gig model, and hit no matter what you were doing at the moment:

"i was on the computer my zune was hooked up charging all of the sudden it reset it self and froze on the zune loading logo screen !!!" said ISUZU RODEO on the Zune.net forums. "Same thing just happened to me!" replied momogirl. "Except mine wasn't hooked up to the computer, I was playing music and all of sudden the music stopped and it shut off. I turned the Zune back on and it loaded to 100% but then froze and none of the reset combinations are working."

Microsoft has been embarrassingly slow to respond to the story, but according to MSNBC they've now released the following statement:

“Customers with 30gb Zune devices may experience issues when booting their Zune hardware. We’re aware of the problem and are working to correct it. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience!”

We assume by "your patience" they mean "your many, many class action lawsuits."

We were going to make some pointless Skynet jokes, but the funny has already been exhaustively covered on Gizmodo's board as well as Zune's own forums (which are now offline for "maintenance"—maybe they were hosted on a Zune). We have a feeling that Shatner Zune pic, courtesy of Gizmodo reader Bill Bradski, is going to stick around for a while, though.

(Photo: Bill Bradski or Brasky, Gizmodo isn't sure) [Update: I didn't get that "Brasky" was an SNL reference, my apologies. - CW]

Personally: I'd like to eliminate my stagnant Credit Card debt. As an eager new adult some years ago, I was quick to test my independence by signing up for two credit cards, combined giving me a merciful 700 dollars to play with. of course, that 700 dollars was quickly spent, and just as I didn't have the money to simply buy 700 dollars worth of things before, I did not have the money to simply pay it back. And with school, insurance, food, cell phone, etc etc, every dollar counted. so for a few years, I've been on a terrible cycle of 'make a thirty dollar payment on one card, use it for thirty dollars sometime in the next week". My Goal is creating a basic system where I can pay off my debt entirely, despite holding on to every dollar like it is my last... which, in all cases, it might be. I'm eager to hearing yours in the comments!

It all started with TheCellShop.net, who was willing to give you $5 in credit if you left a 10/10 review (they later claimed it was a typo, and that all reviews, be they good or bad, would receive the $5 credit).


MyGearStore, a seller on Amazon.com, made the first real step into feedback bribery by offering a partial refund if a customer increased his otherwise neutral review of their product. After that, the rest seemed entirely based on negative feedback alone: Camenta Camera, Allen's Green Beans, and Eforcity all revealed their nefarious bribing souls. And it's not over yet, folks; at the cusp of the new year, a new (and more prominent) player walks into the world of the feedback bribe: Ritz Camera!

Reader Dan writes:

Several weeks ago, my girlfriend orders a digital frame from on Amazon to give as a Christmas present. The order is completed via Amazon to Ritz Camera. She gets a confirmation from both parties, and assumes everything is ok. A week later, she gets an email from Ritz saying that the frame she ordered is not in stock and would not be shipped. She immediately calls up customer service, explains what happened, and is told that in fact, the frame IS available. The CSR processes another order for the frame and a confirmation email follows shortly. Four days after that interaction, another email stating (surprise!) the frame is unavailable and wont be shipped. She again calls, this time they do say that it is out of stock and even worse, the model is discontinued. She says she wants a comperable frame for a comperable price (side note: frame was $50 and brand name - Kodak). They offer her a $100 off brand frame. Needless to say, she does not order the new frame and leaves the situation upset.

His girlfriend, mad as hell, reviews the order as follows:

"Seller waited more than a week to notify me that the item was not in stock. When I called customer service, they said that the item was in fact available and processed another order. Four days later, the company notified me again that the item was not available and refused to assist with the situation. Customer service was by far the worst I have ever experience. Will never order here again."

And Ritz's response:

Dear Melissa,

Thank you for providing an opportunity to be of assistance.

This is with regard to your order number 2229816.

We understand that you are quiet upset as the order was canceled. We just need another chance so that we can reinstate your confidence in us by providing a good customer service and excellent online shopping experience. We believe we will get it from your side.

We request you to remove the negative feedback posted on Amazon and we will be more than happy to offer a $20.00 Gift Certificate to you.

Your attention in this matter would be highly appreciated. We believe that you will contact us at the earliest.

Please feel free to contact us for further assistance.

Sincerely,
Brenda Jones,
Customer Service,
www.RitzCamera.com.

Aren't bribes supposed to be hush-hush? All subtlety and perception? I figured they were on the right track with "We believe we will get it from your side" (imagine that being said in a thick European accent by a man wearing a pinstripe suit) but they lose their cool when they spill it out on the table in the next line.

So what can we learn, Consumerists? Well, if one thing is to be sure, it is always to make sure to leave feedback where possible. It could actually end up being pretty lucrative for you! Of course, if it was a really interesting experience, I know of a website who might be interested in hearing about it...

[Thanks, Anonymous!]
Pic:[romulusnr]

What changes?

• Chris and Carey are back!
• Meghann Marco is promoted to co-executive editor and will reign supreme alongside Ben Popken.
• The only ads will be for Consumer Reports and Consumers Union-related stuff.
• There will be a new privacy policy and user agreement. We will let you know when they're up and you can check them out.

• Our voice, content, or independence.
• The blog stays free and open, no paid-subscription required.
• You keep your same commenter login and name.

Here is the press release:

CONSUMER REPORTS’ PUBLISHER ACQUIRES GAWKER MEDIA’S CONSUMERIST.COM

America’s most trusted consumer advocate bolsters new media offerings;
Purchase comes during period of organization’s continued growth

Yonkers, NY—Consumers Union (CU), the highly trusted, independent publisher of Consumer Reports magazine and ConsumerReports.org, has purchased Consumerist.com from Gawker Media. The popular consumer watchdog blog will operate independently of Consumer Reports publications and be the first property housed under a new non-profit entity called Consumer Media LLC. The change in ownership will be in effect as of January 1, 2009.

“We’re delighted to add this vibrant site to our portfolio of information products,” said Jim Guest, President and CEO of Consumers Union. “The Consumerist community is passionate about fair retail practices, truth in advertising, product safety, and other topics that Consumer Reports has championed for more than 70 years. The site is a perfect fit for advancing our mission of creating a fair, safe, and just marketplace.”

Gawker Media launched Consumerist.com three years ago. Its monthly traffic of more than 10 million page views exceeds the web sites operated by many daily newspapers. “We are thrilled to join the Consumers Union family, where Consumerist.com will benefit from an incredibly powerful and iconic brand, while maintaining autonomy housed under a separate division. Consumerist.com is now assured of a strong, healthy future,” said Ben Popken, Editor of Consumerist.com.

Consumer Reports was launched in 1936, and does not accept advertising so as to maintain its independence from the products and services it rates. Starting immediately Consumerist.com will no longer accept ads. “The continuous growth and success Consumer Reports enjoys is proof that there is strong appetite for high-quality, unbiased content,” said John Sateja, Executive Vice President of Consumers Union. “Consumerist.com, with its history of building community, shining a light on unfriendly consumer behavior, and having a little fun while they’re at it, is a natural complement to our growing organization.”

Despite current publishing industry challenges, Consumer Reports and ConsumerReports.org have experienced robust growth across print products and online during the last seven years. Monthly newsstand sales have more than doubled to 190,000 in 2008 from 83,845 in 2002. Subscriptions rose 12 percent to 4.3 million from 3.9 million during that period and continue to trend upward. There are 3.3 million paid Web subscribers to ConsumerReports.org, the largest paid-subscriber site in the world. According to a recently released Harris Poll, Consumer Reports is the most trusted organization in America.

About Consumers Union
Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers. To achieve this mission, CU tests, informs, and protects. To maintain independence and impartiality, CU accepts no outside advertising, no free test samples, and has no agenda other than the interests of consumers. CU supports itself through the sale of information products and services, individual contributions, and a few noncommercial grants. CU’s flagship publication, Consumer Reports magazine, has a circulation of 4.3 million and continues to expand, while the magazine’s Web site ConsumerReports.org has more than 3.3 million paid subscribers and is the largest subscription-based Web site in the industry. In addition, CU has successfully launched and expanded Consumer Reports on Health, Consumer Reports Money Adviser, and, most recently, ShopSmart magazine.

Consumers Union to Buy a Blog From Gawker [NYT]

(Photo: papalars)

Jason's tip:

I'm hoping you can help me with a issues I had this evening with Target. I work at a store in the same complex as target and we share a parking lot. This evening I had a fellow co worker come in and tell me that one of there shopping carts came flying through the parking lot and same into the back of my car. He was afraid to tell me because everyone I work with knows how particular I am about my car. Anyways, I calmed myself down enough to go in and speak with a manager. When I got there they call over their security guy and he did not know what to do so they called someone over who I assume was manager by the name of Lee. Lee told me that it was not there problem and once the cart leave s the front of the store their store they no longer came liability. Me being visibly upset said I want you to fix my car. He did nothing and said is there anything else I can help you with? I left and filled a report with the police who said I was out of luck.
I guess my big issue is that they will take no responsibility for there property damaging mine. They made no attempt to get the carts out of the parking lot until I came in and within minutes of me coming in they removed the carts .
Is there anything that you can suggest I do?.

That is a tough break, Jason. That is some crock logic on the part of the manger, though - just because the cart left the front of the store, it is still the store's property, and their responsibility to maintain. In fact, as mentioned, there are employees who corral carts on a regular basis to prevent this very thing, aren't there?

The police report was a good start, but if you want to take it further, I'd start with a full rundown of all damages to your car. Get it checked out, find out exactly how much money it would take to fix what happened. An EECB to Target could be in your future. In the event that doesn't work, there is always the tried-and-true small claims court. Best of luck, Jason!

Hi guys,
I've seen an increasing number of people hopping on the "let's jerk around the Satellite/Cable providers" bandwagon on your site, and others, and I don't believe the subject is shown in a correct light much of the time. Specifically, here, I'm talking about your recent article, http://consumerist.com/5119510/directtvs-free-professional-installation-neither-professional-nor-free#c ,

You can see some of my comments, [I'm tatertom] posted as replies to other's. Don't take this to mean I am endorsing providers' behavior such as hanging up on customers, rudeness of any sort, or charging for installed systems that don't work correctly. Those are exactly the types of things that should be frowned upon, and one of many reasons I enjoy your site. Bash that stuff until no end, please.

I have over five years in low-voltage electrical installs, including previous employment by ATT Broadband, MediaOne, Comcast [this was actually one job, but that's not helping my case here], as well as a contracting company for Dish Network AND DirecTV. As I visit friends houses, and even my own personal customers' homes [for a different purpose], I notice bad installations all over the place. There is no excuse for this type of behavior. I'm talking about wires ran over carpet. Wires through external walls with no sealant to keep bugs and water outside. Wires not secured neatly anywhere inside or outside, with the exception of behind the TV set and/or modem and/or telephone. The worst thing ever, and unfortunately the most prevalent, is when an installer doesn't crimp/compress/physically attach the fittings on the end of the wire. It's just plain absurd. I speculate this is usually a satellite installer, whom buys his own tools and supplies, and either purchases or steals equipment he doesn't have the capacity to install. This could use expansion:

There are two basic types of fitting for coax cabling intended for television signal, crimp [old] and compression/snap'n'seal.

Crimped connectors are exactly what they sound like. The installer strips the wire the same way as with any other fitting, even using the same tool to do so. The fitting is slid on the end of the cable, and secured there by means of pressing the outer shell of the wire-side of the fitting inward from all directions, resulting in a hexagonal shape. Easy, right? I think so, and don't understand how they're rarely done right.

The not-so-recent solution is the compression or snap'n'seal type fitting, these are subtly different, but work the same way, often with the same tool [different tool than the crimp type].
The installer strips the wire the same way, with the same tool as he would a crimp fitting, and slides the fitting on the same exact way, but the fitting itself doesn't collapse the same way. Instead, the wire-side metal or plastic ring is slid over a plastic bushing [usually black] that squeezes into the cable jacket, also making this type of connector water-tight. I won't mention the devices you can build with previously-emptied cables and thrown out splitters and such.

Back to the article. It was stated that the installer told the customer there was to be a charge of $250. This seems rather high, indeed, but this is NEGOTIABLE. Here's some inside info from a former contractor:
The 'free pro install' gives you a great deal of free stuff, and the installer must almost always offer a way to install it for free. That in no way means that it will be aesthetically pleasing. If you live in an apartment, you can almost always thank the apartment complexes' own regulations for additional charges. They don't want external holes drilled. They don't want people in the attic/crawlspace. They don't want you to interfere with their pricey cable tv pre-install. Let's be clear. Apartments are a royal pain in the ass for a satellite installer. Sometimes, even if given permission by the complex, offered extra money for equipment/labor, and bribed with pizza, beer, and something to put in your illicit, yet inventive device fashioned out of old cable parts, it just can't happen. That tree, the building itself, raw distance involved, and other factors make it flat-out annoying, because no install = no money for the installer.
Different companies differ in how they pay their contractors/employees, but for me, installing both satellite systems, the deal was simple:
$25 for the dish [it's perceived as $50 for the first receiver, zero for the dish sometimes]
$25 for each receiver
you negotiate 'custom' work with the customer, and keep every penny of it.

Cable companies often work completely different. An employee is paid hourly. A contractor is paid per piece, incremented right down to putting a new fitting on. We're focusing on the cable contractor here, which I've also been. There are things the customer pays for, and things they don't. For instance, running the line from street to house is almost always free for the customer, yet the installer makes money on that, and any additional work necessary to perform that run, usually to where your power hooks up. Once inside the house, there is usually a one-time $20 or so fee for each additional line installed. This includes an outlet on the inside of an exterior-facing wall, and the wire running through the wall to the outside, down first [to let water drip away from the hole, which should be sealed in all instances] then up to the eve of the house, and around to the ground block [main junction, again, usually near power]. That is unsightly. The alternative is to use additional professional skills to run the wires through the attic or crawlspace, and 'fishing' the wall. The price for this type of install usually STARTS at $25. If ever I had to fish two walls to run one line, I have always charged two wallfishes. You can see the installation charges starting to run high. Apartments usually encounter $10 and up carpet fishes, overpriced flat-lines [designed poorly to install in a window or door jamb where drilling is not allowed or not an option], and even a barrage of filters, diplexors, combiners, amplifiers, the list goes on.
This stuff just isn't that darn simple, that's why the pros are paid and TRAINED to install this stuff. Generally speaking, you just don't know what it involves, or how to do most of it properly. That in no way means that the particular installer that comes to your home has the same level of proficiency as I do. If you've read this admittedly long email from the start, I completely understand the state of many installers' skills, and they are not satisfactory. There's good ones and bad ones, and you'll never know without letting the man/woman work, unfortunately.

Fortunately, there are steps that can be taken to cover yourself:
1. Don't let a door-to-door salesman sell you these services. You can get the same deal by taking the flyer and calling the local install or provider's company.
2. When the installer arrives, get all their info. This includes their first and last name, their tech id number, YOUR information, including name, phone, address, and services ordered, and what company pays them. If they are reluctant to give you any of that information, close the door in their face. You do have the right to be rude to someone who is being shady, but wants you to let them in your house.
3. Have your friendly handyman acquaintance present to inspect their work before you sign anything.
4. Read everything you sign
5. Follow up with a call to the provider. Ask them specifically to walk you through how to check that you are receiving your full package by viewing a channel from each package ordered, and if it's satellite, a portion of each transponder [it pretty much just means each satellite you need to receive signal from]. You can usually ask for a different technician to come inspect the prior's work, at no cost, and any reputable provider or contracting company will send a manager or supervisor of some sort out for such an inspection at your request.
6. If these steps didn't work to your satisfaction, there are always consumerist's suggested methods, like my favorite, the EECB.

Now, here's how you can check your service, one provider at a time, starting with cable.
Look at all [analog, aka old style] channels numbered 13 and down. If you see any 'ghost' images, 'herringbone' patterns, fuzziness/graininess, or bars in the screen. The clarity is a little subjective, and you can't be too critical if you own a 1000" tv here. But the other interferences are always a problem that can be fixed. Wait, I lied. Your vcr or tv may actually just be that cheap. The described interferences [with the exception of fuzziness or a HORIZONTAL bar] usually come from what's called ingress. This means the local tv stations broadcasting over the air do so at the same frequencies as these certain channels, and if it's bad enough, you will see the locally broadcasted channel better than the cable one that's supposed to be there. Sometimes simply skipping the vcr will correct this. If you live in a place where there are local stations nearby, the problem may not be correctable by the provider, as it is happening in your equipment that you purchased elsewhere. Usually, the service tech can show you this with a portable tv they carry in their vehicle, which is better shielded. If this doesn't apply to you, or all the tv's do the same interference on the same channels, THEY likely can fix the problem. Usually the service techs are more advanced than the installers, but there are always exceptions.

Now, to test satellite. Navigate through the menus of the receiver until you find a section labeled 'signal strength' usually under installation. Refer to the manual you should have been provided. The two most common transponders are 110 and 119, depending on if you have HD, there may be more, or they may be completely different. Their signal strength can be determined good, if it says 'good' or the bar is green. Anything else, consult the manual to be sure. On the same screen as the test [usually], there is also an option something like 'check switch.' This tests that the little knobby thing[s] on the arm of the dish is working properly. You should also be able to consult the manual for a description of the results.

I want to reiterate that there are both good and bad techs working for all of these companies. When it comes to your services, especially digital and HD services, your mileage should NOT vary [much]. If you have the same specs on your tv as your friend, and the same channel from the same provider looks better on one of the tv's, the other's installation is likely to blame. Keep in mind, however long this message is, there are STILL other factors that can affect your service quality.

Knowledge is power. Not to mention, if I can help a dissatisfied friend [i.e. fellow consumerist reader] save some face with some simple information that I posses, than I will do so ASAP. If there are any proper, honest, knowledgeable technicians reading posts like the one I am referring to, they are cringing at the thought of meeting under-knowledged customers throwing fits about portions of a job done properly, such as negotiating for custom work. If I were to negotiate a price to sell you my technical writing services for this very message, I would undoubtedly start higher than I believe it is worth. That's how negotiating works.

Happy consumering,

tatertom

It should go without saying that some of these are really, really nasty. You've been warned.





15: Study: There Is All Kinds Of Nasty Crap In Your Bottled Water
Here are a few choice goodies found in the water: Coliform bacteria, caffeine, the pain reliever acetaminophen, fertilizer, solvents, plastic-making chemicals and the radioactive element strontium.

14: Mystery Of Strange Things Found In Vitamin Water Solved: Harmless Mold
The rep also told me that this is not the first time Vitamin Water has heard of/seen instances of these kinds of molds in their bottles. So, no hazard, beyond the gag factor of finding a harmless mold in your drink,and perhaps even the potential for a science fair project idea!

13: Scientific Study: Double Dipping Is As Gross As You Think It Is
The way I would put it is, before you have some dip at a party, look around and ask yourself, would I be willing to kiss everyone here? Because you don't know who might be double dipping, and those who do are sharing their saliva with you.

12: Purina Isn't Bothered By Dog Food Infested With Fly Larvae Maggots
I had already fed our two labs two meals of the infested food before realizing there were numerous maggots and fly larva. When I called to speak with Purina about this the response I got as..."as soon as our food leaves our factory, it's no longer our problem." ...disappointing.

11: Hey Air Travelers, You Are Extremely Disgusting People
Flight attendants often say that the biggest messes they have to deal with are dirty diapers left in seat-back pockets or worse, handed to them while they are serving beverages and snacks.

10: Man Finds Mouse Baked Into His Hot Dog Buns
I see the little ears. Clearly that's a tail. I don't know what that is, part of his leg or something," the man told NBC.

9: VIDEO: Maggots Found Squirming In Box Of Goobers
"My wife's box of Goobers was ALIVE and crawling with maggots...I peered inside the box and saw lumpen, misshapen Goobers with maggots or some kind of larvae crawling everywhere."

8: FDA: Pardon Me But Your Bakery Warehouse Is Full Of Rodent Excreta Pellets
[L]ive rodents observed along side a rodent trap, running under pallets containing finished food products and collapsed boxes used by your firm, and a live rodent that you brushed off of your shoulder onto the floor, and then kicked under a pallet holding finished food products.

7: American Airlines Forces Passenger To Ride In Urine Saturated Seat
[Your passenger] literally sat in a urine soaked seat (the seat belt was soaked also) for the duration of this 2 hour flight! [There] was offered no compensation, no alternative seating, nothing.

6: PHOTO: Dell Breaks Your Laptop, Sends Replacement Full Of Pubes
Not just any hairs - these could only be described as pubes. I hate to be so crude, but pubes are pubes. Not the incidental curly hair, but rather mini-tufts between the keys. My only guess is that Ron Jeremy was the previous owner.

5: Texas Roadhouse Steak Stuffed With Pubic Hair
According to the criminal complaint, later that night Kropp placed hair in a second steak, turned to a co-worker, and announced, "These are my pubes."

4: Why You Should Wash Your Old Navy Pants Before You Wear Them
Colleen is going to wash her clothes before she wears them from now on. Why? Well, she bought a pair of pants from Old Navy that were, well, soiled. You know. In the crotch region. By a female. The words "snail trail" were used.

3: Peeping Tom Sears Manager Sued For $27 Million
The young girl, whose age is described as "prepubescent," is said to have been traumatized when she suddenly noticed Lee leering from the ceiling while she and her mother were trying on bathing suits. Lee admitted his culpability. The lawsuit states, "During the search of the room, police officials recovered sexually explicit magazines and seminal fluids."

2: Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Refuses Bathroom Access To 5-Year-Old, Who Then Has Diarrhea In Front Of Them
I explained she had diarrhea and couldn't hold it and told them she was about to go on the floor. They refused again and never offered me any alternatives. I begged them to have a heart and that she was 5 but by that time she had lost it all over herself and me.

1: Woman Sues American Airlines Over Masturbating Passenger
When the woman opened her eyes, she saw that an unknown man had moved into the seat next to her and was staring at her as he masturbated, the suit states. The woman turned toward the window in embarrassment and in an act of nervousness began to run her fingers through her hair where she noticed "a substantial amount of an extremely sticky substance in her hair," the suit states.

With 6 stories, Meg is your grossest editor of 2008, followed closely by Ben with 4. Chris, Carey, and Jay each had 1 and your wholly unbiased author had 2.

He writes:

I received several $50 gift cards for Exxon Mobil this Christmas. The cards were payed for with cash (I asked my Aunt, who gave them to me), and the card clearly states on the back "This gift card is not a credit card". When I went to use it at my locall Mobil (Astoria Blvd in Queens, NY), they charged me the credit price! I went in to complain, but the clerk mumbled something that I couldn't understand and I was in a hurry. Just wanted to alert your readers... Exxon Mobil gift cards are a bad deal. Cash will go further.

PS. Is is even legal to have a credit price in New York?

Nope, it's not legal in New York, Rob. Check out this from Just Ask Asa:

Nine states in addition to New York prohibit merchants from adding surcharges to credit card transactions: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Texas. Credit card issuers, including Visa and MasterCard, generally forbid credit card surcharges too–although they allow cash discounts.

A lot of gas stations seem to be ignorant, willfully or accidentally, about the surcharge issue. If you live in a state that forbids them, you should report the station to your attorney general's office. If you live in another state but you think the sation is in violation of its credit card merchant agreement, you should contact the credit card company and the parent company of the gas station. And buy your gas elsewhere.

In this case, Rob, you should definitely report the station to the New York Attorney General—their consumer helpline is 1-800-771-7755.

RELATED
"Is This $0.10 Credit/Debit Surcharge On Gasoline Allowed?"
"NY Attorney General: 25% Of Gas Stations 'Engage In Deceptive Practices'"

The meat of the NYT article:

Perhaps the costs for the wireless portion at either end are high — spectrum is finite, after all, and carriers pay dearly for the rights to use it. But text messages are not just tiny; they are also free riders, tucked into what’s called a control channel, space reserved for operation of the wireless network.

That’s why a message is so limited in length: it must not exceed the length of the message used for internal communication between tower and handset to set up a call. The channel uses space whether or not a text message is inserted.

So, if text messaging is piggybacking on signals that get used anyway, why the hell do we pay for it? How many tweens have been grounded based on corporate greed? How many sidekicks shunned in the name of the almighty dollar? And how did they get the chutzpah to increase the going rate for a text message despite its complete lack of skin off of their back? Makes me (and my blackberry) kind of angry. Down with the Cellular Bourgeoisie! The Revolution will not be fit into 160 characters! Or, would a flash mob be more appropriate in this case?
[NYT]
Pic:[Jgodsey]

Insider E writes about confusion regarding the new (and seemingly overcomplicated) expiration 'codes'.

I work in a retail store with a pretty healthy-sized food section. It isn't a grocery, so that may be the problem. My big issue right now is the codes that a lot of food companies seem to be using instead of just printing an expiration date. Instead of 040510 (April 5, 2010) I see a lot of codes like 29B1348032, where 032 will be the processing plant code, 134 will be the Julian Date (134th day of the year), 8 will stand for 2008 and 29B is supposed to be ignored. Or even the dreaded "Produced On" date, where it gives a code for the date it was made on and then we have to figure the expiration date out of that. We have a huge book full of decoders for these products.

We recently got a new food-department supervisor, so a pretty thorough check of inventory was done and I had the opportunity/misfortune of being one of the team leaders checking dates. Here's what I found:

(1.) Food manufacturers will change these codes frequently and not update the vendors.
(2.) Consumers cannot read these codes and, most importantly
(3.) Employees cannot read these codes.

We don't have the training or the resources to determine if many of these products are out of date... therefore many of these products were ridiculously out of date (some by more than 2 years). As a result of the audit, I will not even consider purchasing food with a code instead of an expiration date. Maybe groceries have better lists than we do, but it seems like asking for trouble.

Have you ever encountered these archaic codes? If so, make sure you leave the address where we can all get our matching decoder rings.

Pic: [The Joy Of The Mundane]

Dimitriy's Tip:

After purchasing HDTV this Black Friday, I have been looking for a good TV service and frankly there is no company with deals such as DirecTV's. As much as I look, I can't find another company that would offer over 40 HD channels, plus 5 Russian channels for under $100. So, of course, when I saw the current promotions you're running, I jumped on the it and signed up momentarily. During online sign up process I was promised "No equipment to buy or startup costs" and "Professional installation included — free", however when installers arrived, they wanted me to pay additional fees of at least $250.

They explained that additional equipment is required for installation on our apartment building roof("flat roof") and that DirecTV was not going to cover it. So I canceled that order and went on to try to find another deal with another company. Well, as I wrote earlier, there are no other companies that offer any deals even remotely similar to DirectTV's, so I signed up again and decided to call customer service and explain my situation. When I called, I was met with a wall of misunderstanding. I was told that the "Professional installation included — free" was really just a standard installation, and that there were, possibly, many more charges I'll have to pay in order to get my service installed and whenever I asked the representative to transfer me to their supervisor, they simply hung up on me.

Sounds like some "clever" wordplay and fine-print-mining on the part of the CSR. Clever until they hung up on our tipster. Always make sure you get what you are paying - or, not paying - for, Consumerists.

Pic:[Maulleigh]

From Tipster Mike's Email:

I was at a Best Buy a few days ago and ran into a "Calibration" display. In the 1st picture you can see the top TV is "Calibrated", while the bottom TV is "Not Calibrated". Now I admit that the supposedly calibrated TV did look slightly better than its non-calibrated counterpart. I decided to see what cabling was hooked up to the TV's and saw that the calibrated TV had an HDMI cable hooked up to it (2nd picture), while the other had component cables hooked up to it (3rd picture). This disturbed me a bit because nowhere on the display did it mention this fact. The average consumer would look at the display, see the TV's and think that the only difference between the TV's was the calibration. I called over one of their oh-so-helpful employees and asked them to describe what calibration meant. His explanation involved someone who has some certifications messing with the color combo's till they feel that the TV "looks good".

At this point I pointed out to him the difference in cables (HDMI/Component) and asked him if this would contribute to the differences in visual quality between the two TV's. The Best Buy employee then told me that there is no difference between HDMI and Component. Which is downright not true for a variety of reasons.

So, is the salesperson incompetent, or an outright liar? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Photo:[Design Boner]

Hi,

Just wanted to write about an amazing customer service I had recently. I went to the Borders at the Providence Place mall (in Providence RI) on December 22nd, and it was crazy busy. I anticipated this, and had reserved a copy of the book I wanted for in-store pickup the night before. I got an email confirming the reservation the next morning. When I got there, the line was huge, so I went to the end and waited. While I was in line, an employee named John came by and asked if anyone had any reservations that they wanted him to go get for them. I wanted to look through the book before I bought it, so I gave him my last name and he went to find it.

After about ten minutes (I was about halfway through the line at this point) John came back and apologized, saying he was having some trouble finding it. I gave him the title and he went to see if it was still on the shelf in the store. After another ten minutes I was at the front of the line, but he was still searching for my book, so I stepped aside to let the cashier keep ringing up customers. Sue, another employee, started helping me (I think she was either a manager or some kind of customer service person or something) and looked up my reservation in their database. It turned out I had reserved the only copy, and that they had pulled it off the shelf for me, but they were so overwhelmed with reservations that it was most likely buried somewhere in the back room. She gave me a $5 coupon, and went to look some more.

Five minutes later, both employees come back empty-handed. They apologized, but it was so busy and there were so many books in back that they just couldn't find it. I was disappointed, but told them it was OK, and that I would find another book. John replied, "It's not OK. This isn't the way we like to do business," and Sue told me that to make up for not finding the book, she was going to give me a $50 gift card. I was shocked - I had only reserved a copy, not purchased it, but Sue told me that not being able to find it was unacceptable, and she wanted to compensate me for my time.

THEN, as if giving me $55 wasn't enough, Sue took down my number and told me that she would call me as soon as the book surfaced, and then I could pay for it with the gift card and use the rest however I wanted to.

This was at around 11:30am. At 2pm, I got a call - they had found my book. I went over, picked up some CDs, waited in line, and got $55 worth of gifts for free.

This whole thing absolutely floored me. Afterwards I went to the website where I reserved the book (http://www.borders.com/online/store/CustomerServiceView_shoppingatborders#reserveinstore) and looked, but nowhere does it guarantee that the book will be there if you request it. These two people went out of their way to help me on one of the busiest days of the year, not because it was required, but because they felt it was the right thing to do. Even with the 20-minute line, my trip to Borders was hands-down the absolute best customer service I have ever witnessed. I wrote them a nice thank-you letter as soon as I got home, and emailed a copy to the customer service email address online.

When I went back to the store at 2 the fire alarm went off and the employees evacuated everyone, so not only did they give me $55, they probably saved me from dying in a terrible inferno, which was also very nice of them.

So that's it!

Katie

A+, Sue and John. You are a shining example of great customer service — especially that whole 'terrible inferno' part.

First, a brief monetary policy overview. When the fed lowers the target federal funds rate, the rate banks charge each other for overnight lending, they don't just change a number on a board somewhere. They actually pump more money into the system so demand, and interest rates, for overnight lending goes down to hit their target. This worked in the past because cheaper money means more investments... but it hasn't been working lately (the actual federal funds rate has been under 0.20% since early December according to the NY Fed). The scary part of their announcement this week wasn't the range target of 0.00 - 0.25%, it was the part about how they'd be using "quantitative easing" to try to stimulate the economy. Quantitative easing is fancy Fed-speak for "they're going to run the printing presses at the Mint 24/7 and start force feeding dollar bills into our hunger striking economy." This means interest rates across the board will fall dramatically, as you may have read with mortgage rates.

If you're a saver, this sucks because you'll be earning less on your savings. Right now the best thing to do is to start locking in rates in certificates of deposit (CD). A CD is a product you can get at any bank, is FDIC insured, and returns a fixed rate over the term of the CD. With a CD, your principal is protected. I maintain a frequently updated list of the best CD rates of terms no greater than 18 months that currently has rates as high as 4.00% APY.

I would warn against getting a CD that is too long term (like five or ten years) because when the economy recovers, the Fed will have to deal with inflation. Whenever you start printing money, which we have been doing for the last few months, inflation is always a problem and when we have high inflation, your locked in CD will do more harm than good.

I recommend that you check with all the banks you already have accounts with first, because rates have already begun to fall so you'll want to act quickly. Like right now. Go!

Jim writes about personal finance at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

(Photo: mundane_joy)

Our tipster sent the following letter to the NFL, Buccaneers, and Tampa Sports Authority:

Good afternoon,

I apologize for the number of individuals included on this communication as I was unsure who to contact about this.

I had a very negative experience at Raymond James Stadium while attempting to attend the Buccaneers/Raider NFL football game. My day started poorly as I was forced to go to three different entrance gates because I was "wearing the wrong colors" before I could obtain admittance with my ticket to the game.

The game went without incident up until the first score of the game by the Raiders. I stood in celebration, and before the extra point was even kicked, I was being led away by stadium personnel. Once out of the stands, I was placed in handcuffs, although I was not resisting the stadium personnel's requests, or read my rights and placed under arrest. I was lead to a single person holding cell where my possessions were removed, and I was subjected to a full body frisking. After being detained for roughly 30 minutes, I was released outside of the stadium, and informed that I could not return to the stadium.

As a long time fan and supporter of the NFL, I am greatly disappointed by my treatment at today's game. I feel like I was personally singled out due to my team affiliation, and this was totally unwarranted. I was not intoxicated or found to be in possession of any illegal substances. I was not being verbally or physically abusive to any other fans or players. There were no requests to adjust my behavior prior to this either, which was not causing an issue as multiple witnesses can attest to.

I understand the stadium has the right to remove any attendees as stated on the ticket, but my treatment today was completely unacceptable. I came down to Tampa Bay from New Jersey specifically to see this game, and then was stripped of the ability to enjoy the game. I would like to know if there are any options by which I may file a formal complaint against the personnel at the stadium? I wish I could provide you with more information as to the individuals involved, but they would not provide me with that information prior to my removal.

Any assistance in this matter would be appreciated. Thank you and I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday.

Steve has promised to send along a picture of himself getting along just fine with the Bucs fans near him, and considering he wrote a polite, coherent complaint letter only a couple hours after the game ended, we're inclined to believe him when says he wasn't drunk or abusive. We hope Tampa is able to make it up to him, perhaps by paying for his tickets, and maybe his travel expenses.

(Photo: Getty)