Consumer Affairs

Kmart settles: refunds gift-card fees

CNNMoney.com has announced that Kmart has finally reached a settlement in the gift-card lawsuit. And that could be very good news for you if you had a gift-card issued between May 1st 2004 and the present day.

Why the refund? Well, since 2003 Kmart failed to disclose sufficiently the $2.10 per month dormancy fee that would be charged RETROACTIVELY after 24 months. Basically, your entire gift card could be wiped out if you tried to use it for the first time after 24 months and it was worth about $50 or less.

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Best Buy scamming customers with Intranet - UPDATED!

George Gombossy, consumer watchdog for The Courant , broke this story on March 2nd of this month. It's a great story, and I apologise to George for not stating him as the source in my original post, my bad entirely. Anyway, other sites like The Consumerist have also covered it, but I wanted to do a follow-up of my own on the story. But first up, what is the story, if you don't already know? Well, read on...

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How to complain and get a good result.

As a professional advertising copywriter I’ve learned a thing or too over the years about persuasive writing. I’ve used that knowledge in my personal life on many occasions, but the place where it’s really paid off is in letters and emails to customer service departments. I’ve put together a little guide for writing a letter of complaint that will hopefully get you further along than a typical rant and rave.

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NAACP's Corporate Report Cards Fails Target, Kohl's Dillard's, Sears and Excel

The NAACP's Economic Reciprocity Initiative (ERI) is a survey of how large companies treat consumers of color. In the latest report, the majority of the companies scored Cs or below. Companies like Target, Kohl's, Dillard's, Sears, and Excel were given Fs for failing to take the survey.

NAACP President Brusce Gordon called on blacks to stop shopping at Target, in particular, until they answer the NAACP's questions.

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The Protein Water Scam: Kellog's Special K2O Can Do Anything!

According to a recent ad for Kellog's Special K2O protein water: "Losing up to 6 lbs in 2 weeks just got easier!"

This extraordinary claim caught the attention of the consumer advocates at Mouseprint.com. They point us to the fine print at the bottom of the ad:

*Average weight loss when replacing meals with two cereal meals is 5 pounds. Weight loss may vary.

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Customer Service Nightmares - What's a Good Consumerist to Do?

I love the web site Consumerist.com (motto: Shoppers Bite Back). They provide some great money-saving ideas, funny advice on how to get away with things that you didn't even know you could, and good commentary on consumerist culture.

In addition, Consumerist offers some great customer-provided stories about companies jilting customers, and they offer the customer the best revenge - public venting of their experience. Better than a rant/rave on craigslist.org, the stories at Consumerist are mind-boggling. The kind of bullying that goes down at retailers both big and small, online and brick-and-mortar, are often laugh-out-loud funny.

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Top 10 scams of 2006

After examining roughly 50,000 consumer complaints last year, Consumer Affairs picked out the ten most insidious scams people fell for in 2006.

1. Fake Lottery Scam

Scam: Scammers convince victims that they've won a foreign lottery and that they need to pay a few fees and taxes to clear the award money.

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UCLA security breach affects 800,000 people (not just students)

LA Times reported this morning that "hackers have gained access to a UCLA database containing personal information on about 800,000 of the university's current and former students, faculty and staff members, among others."

The personal information stolen include names, birth dates, social security numbers, home addresses, and other contact information.

There are two things you have to know that are not widely reported by the media:

Breach Also Affects Applicants and Parents

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