Charity Application Problems Leave Tots Without Their Toys

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(Karen Chappell)

Here’s an important lesson on following up with paperwork: nonprofit organizations near Pittsburgh (and possibly in other regions as well) learned that when they celebrate Christmas with disadvantaged children this year, there will be no toys supplied by Toys for Tots for Santa to hand out. Why? Toys for Tots and the local organizations point their fingers at each other.

The organizations say that they followed the instructions and did everything exactly the same as every year. One group has obtained the toys for their Christmas parties through Toys for Tots for 18 years, until now. What’s different this year? Toys for Tots has fewer toys available than in past years, it’s true, but the three organizations that talked to TV station WPXI claim that they did everything exactly the same as in past years.

“[W]e called Toys for Tots, and they said you didn’t submit your paperwork and you’re basically out,” the head of one organization told WPXI. “But we haven’t done anything differently than we’ve done in years past.”

Toys for Tots responded after the story aired, and explained that they haven’t “denied” toys to any groups: anyone who has received no toys and no response at this point didn’t finish the application process.

In the past 24 hours it has been reported that some non-profits have been denied toys this year. After reviewing the Toys for Tots online system there is no record of any completed request having been submitted by the agencies in question. Agencies with incomplete online applications were notified that there was insufficient information input to the system concerning their orders and toys would be provided if available. In this same communication, agencies were urged to send their clients to the Open House, where individuals in need could access toys directly.

That has left groups with planned holiday parties scrambling for toy donations from the community at the last minute.

Pittsburgh organizations in bind after learning they won’t get toys for kids [WPXI]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

UPS Drives Forklift Into Valuable Sculpture, Shrugs

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(Morton Fox)

Current ad campaigns for UPS brag about the carrier’s abilities at logistics: getting a thing from one place to another is their specialty. Unless you’re one family in Michigan who used UPS Freight to ship a valuable sculpture across the country, which the carrier drove a forklift into. The company wouldn’t pay out an insurance claim on the artwork because the customer failed to fill in the statue’s declared value on the bill of lading that went with the shipment.

The family took their problem to the Haggler column in the New York Times , We don’t know how much the sculpture was worth, but the shipper paid an extra $1,869 to insure it while shipping it to his son’s home. While the Haggler was able to get back the freight charges and insurance paid, he doesn’t have the $11,000 that an expert estimated it would cost to repair the 60-year-old sculpture.

The Times’ Ron Lieber doesn’t want to blame UPS entirely for this, but it’s troubling that UPS staff knew they were dealing with a first-time freight shipper, yet didn’t check the customer’s work and make sure that he had filled everything out correctly, including everything that he needed to do in order to file an insurance claim. You’d think that paying almost $3,000, as the customer did for the shipment, would at least get you a second read-over by UPS staff at the airport.

In the meantime, the son has zip-tied the sculpture together and displayed it in his home, which makes it some kind of sophisticated commentary on the state of modern consumerism. Or something.

The Sculpture That Fell Through a System’s Cracks

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Skip Stores And Middlemen: Shop Directly From Chinese Wholesalers

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*kevin dean)

Instead of buying inexpensive, mass-produced junk from China at your local big-box store, why not save time, avoid human interaction, and go right to the source? You can eliminate layers of middlemen by giong right to the source and buying from a wholesaler in China. It’s easy and affordable to do so online for everything from phone cases to wedding gowns, but should you?

The Wall Street Journal is very fond of the idea, citing the example of a nice-looking parka that they were able to buy for only $68. When it comes to clothing, one problem is with sizing, since people in China are generally smaller than people in the U.S. One of our readers had a problem with this last year when buying a bathing suit on Amazon: the Marketplace seller he used was in China, and the suit’s sizing not consistent with what he was used to.

Another problem that you take on is a lack of product support and many of the consumer protections that you’d get buying similar junk at a local store. (Example: I bought a small FM modulator for my car that suddenly died after a few weeks of use. Not only do I lack consumer protections or a warranty, but the Alibaba seller I bought it from has since disappeared.) The company that the WSJ used probably isn’t goig anywhere: they’re called LightintheBox and even have stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Who Needs Amazon or Wal-Mart? China Cuts Out the Middleman [Wall Street Journal]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Starbucks Ditches Square, Will Cease Accepting Wallet Mobile Payments In Coming Months

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(Adam Fagen)

The two-year long partnership between Starbucks and mobile payment system Square is coming to an end, as the coffee company had decided to ditch the mobile payment company’s upcoming new system in favor of its own mobile ordering solution.

ReadWrite reports the end of the partnership was revealed when Square sent an email to users this week announcing plans to retire its current Wallet app, which is used at Starbucks.

Square says Wallet will be replaced by Square Order which will include a new feature called Tabs. That key feature will allow users to check into a store and pay by simply announcing their name to a cashier.

While the feature might sound perfect for a busy coffee shop, officials with Starbucks say it won’t be an option for customers.

“Starbucks is not adopting Square Order in our stores,” Maggie Jantzen, a spokesperson for Starbucks tells ReadWrite. “We opted to build our own mobile ordering solution, leveraging our own mobile app and world-class loyalty program.”

Starbucks’ mobile app with payment options has been in the works for several months and is currently being tested in the company’s Portland, OR stores, ReadWrite reports.

Back in 2012, Starbucks and Square announced a partnership that allowed customers to use Wallet at the shops. While the older version of Wallet was pulled from Google and Apple App stores earlier this year, users could still use the system at Starbucks.

Officials with Square hint in their email to users that a full retirement of Wallet could be coming soon, at which time use of the mobile payment provider at Starbucks will officially cease.

Starbucks To Square: It’s Over [ReadWrite]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Tesla Launching Battery Swap Pilot ProgramFor Some Model S Owners Next Week

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(Nicholas Eckhart)

While many electric car owners love being gas-free, the time-consuming process of recharging a vehicle can be a bit of a setback. So to cut down on that lengthy process, Tesla says it’ll be starting a pilot program next week that will allow some drivers to swap out their battery packs in just a few minutes.

Building off technology Tesla showed off in the past, the company says in a blog post today that starting next week it’ll start inviting certain drivers the chance to swap their Model S car’s battery at a facility built just for that purpose in Harris Ranch, CA, across the street from its Tesla Supercharger station.

Swaps are appointment-only at first, and though Tesla said previously that the technology could mean a fresh battery in just 90 seconds, the process actually takes about three minutes right now, with hopes for a one-minute process in the future. Tesla says. That’s what the pilot program is for, to “test technology and assess demand,” the company writes.

Unlike the Superchargers, the battery swap isn’t free — each one will cost “slightly less than a full tank of gasoline for a premium sedan.”

This is all part of Tesla’s even larger battery plans that goes beyond cars and into the home, plans that could end up being a huge threat to electric companies.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Flickr Stops Selling Prints Of Photos Licensed For Free Use

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(John Hanley)

Creative Commons licenses let people without expansive legal teams license their creative work for use in other creative projects: a piece of Creative Commons-licensed music could appear in a podcast or a video, for example, or a photo could be used to illustrate a blog post. The idea is to let people share their work and build on others’ creative work. Users of photo-sharing site Flickr were upset about the company’s sale of prints of their CC-licensed photos without giving them a cut of the proceeds.

In the Internet spirit of sharing, doing this is actually legal, but is seriously uncool. Now, Consumerist isn’t a totally disinterested party here: this site would look very dull without Flickr users granting us permission to use their photos, either through Creative Commons or by submitting their images to the Consumerist Flickr Pool. However, what we’re doing is creating a new article illustrated with the image, not re-selling the image without adding any value, in an environment where it’s impossible to click on the photographer’s name to learn more about them and see more of their work. While users have to opt in to make their work usable for commercial purposes, Flickr selling prints of their photos without asking for permission or offering them even a nominal cut of the proceeds was unacceptable.

In a public apology to all Flickr users, the vice-president of the company wrote:

Over the past few weeks, we’ve received a lot of feedback from the community and beyond — while some expressed their excitement about the new photography marketplace and the value it would bring, many felt that including Creative Commons-licensed work in this service wasn’t within the spirit of the Commons and our sharing community.

We hear and understand your concerns, and we always want to ensure that we’re acting within the spirit with which the community has contributed. Given the varied reactions, as a first step, we’ve decided to remove the pool of Creative Commons-licensed images from Flickr Wall Art, effective immediately. We’ll also be refunding all sales of Creative Commons-licensed images made to date through this service.

That’s nice, but will it be enough? Flickr users have stayed loyal to the service through years of benign neglect from parent company Yahoo, and here they’re upset about a blatant cash grab. While that makes an auspicious change, it makes many Flickr users wonder whether the company understands what the spirit of its own site is about. It’s also interesting that Flickr simply ended the Creative Commons-licensed photo program rather than having users opt in or arranging some kind of revenue sharing arrangement.

An Update on Flickr Wall Art [Flickr]

Flickr ends sale of prints uploaded under Creative Commons [CNET]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

CDC: Listeria Contaminated Pre-Packaged Caramel Apples Linked to Four Deaths, 28 Illnesses

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(Jason Childs)

The holidays are full of sweet treats and fresh-baked goods. But if your snacking plans included finishing off those prepackaged caramel apples from fall, you better come up with different plans. That’s because federal officials say the desserts may be the source of a multi-state listeria outbreak that has been linked to at least five deaths.

ABC News reports that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning consumers to avoid the caramel apples after at least 28 people in 10 states have been infected with Listeriosis due to Listeria monocytogenes – a bacteria that can cause life-threatening illness.

According to a notice from the CDC, investigators are working quickly to determine specific brands or types of commercially produced, prepackaged caramel apples that may be linked to illnesses and to identify the source of contamination.

Officials with the CDC say that of the five deaths, Listeriosis definitely contributed to at least four deaths.

The investigation into the contamination is ongoing, but out of an abundance of caution, the CDC warned all consumers today to avoid eating prepackaged caramel apples, including plain caramel apples as well as those containing nuts, sprinkles, chocolate, or other toppings, until more specific guidance can be provided.

In all, the outbreak has affected consumers ages 5 to 92 in all corners of the U.S. including Arizona, California, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.

CDC officials report that of the 28 people who have been infected, three were children between the ages of 5 and 15 who developed severe meningitis symptoms. Another nine cases involved pregnant women or a newborn infant.

Of the 18 sickened people interviewed by the CDC, 15 reported they ate prepackaged caramel apples before becoming ill.

Infectious disease experts tell ABC News that the number of people infected by Listeriosis will likely grow because of an incubation period ranging from three to 70 days.

ABC News reports that the outbreak was first reported by the Minnesota Department of Health, which found four people between the ages of 59 and 90 had been infected.

The Department reports that the patients had eaten caramel apples during the months of October and November and were all subsequently hospitalized. Two died from the infection.

The Minnesota patients reported purchasing the caramel apples from Cub Foods, Kwik Trip and Mike’s Discount Foods, which carried the Carnival and Kitchen Cravings brands of caramel apples, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

While the seasonal apples are no longer available for sale, Minnesota Dept. of Health officials say they fear consumers may still have tainted apples in their possession.

Director of food safety and quality assurance for Kwik Trip stores, says the pre-packaged treats have not been available at the stores for several weeks and that the company is working with state and federal officials “to make sure public health is protected,” ABC News reports.

A spokesperson for H. Brooks and Company, which releases the Carnival brand caramel apples, says the company is aware of the issue and working with officials during the investigation.

Officials with Cub Foods and Mike’s Discount Foods did not return requests for comment. Contact information for the second caramel apple brand producer, Kitchen Cravings, could not immediately be found, ABC News reports.

Caramel Apples Linked to 4 Deaths In Multi-State Listeria Outbreak [ABC News]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Obama: Sony “Made A Mistake” Pulling ‘The Interview’ From Theaters

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The FBI announced today, and President Obama confirmed during a press conference, that North Korea is indeed behind the attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. The President expressed his sympathy for Sony employees, but gave voice to what many in the United States are thinking: that hacks are inevitable, and in pulling their movie, Sony did the wrong thing.

The very first questioner at the press conference asked the President what a “proportional response” to the Sony hack would look like, and if he thought Sony did the right thing by pulling The Interview from theaters. The response was surprisingly honest.

“Sony is a corporation,” Obama began. “It suffered significant damage, there were threats against its employes. I am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced.”

“Having said that,” he continued, “Yes. I think they made a mistake.”

“In this interconnected, digital world,” he went on, “there are going to be opportunities for hackers to engage in cyber assaults both in the private sector and the public sector.” He added that the first order of business for both public and private entities is to “harden” their sites and prevent those attacks from taking place in the first place.

But, it seems, the President is a realist. “Even as we get better,” he continued, “the hackers are going to get better too. Some are going to be state actors. Some are going to be non-state actors. … All will be sophisticated,” and can do some real damage. But even though threats are inevitable and will always exist, Obama said, that can’t be a factor in choosing not to act:

We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship in the United States. … Imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary, or news reports, that they don’t like. Or even worse, imagine if producers and distributors and others start engaging in self-censorship because they don’t want to offend the sensibilities of someone whose sensibilities probably need to be offended.

That’s not who we are. That’s not what America’s about.

The President contrasted Sony’s pulling the movie from theaters to other decisions to advance in the face of attack, like Boston continuing to host and run its annual marathon in 2014 after attacks at the finish line killed three and wounded hundreds last year.

“Again,” he continued, “I’m sympathetic that Sony is a private company that’s worried about liabilities. But I wish they had spoken to me first. I would have told them: do not get into a pattern in which you are intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks.”

Obama also poked fun at the idea that actors James Franco and Seth Rogen, even in a pointedly satirical movie, could possibly be credible threats to the North Korean state.

The President also returned to the theme that since hack attacks are inevitable, American institutions — both public and private — desperately need to be better-prepared to handle them.

“We’ve been coordinating with the private sector,” he told reporters, “but a lot more needs to be done. We’re not even close to where we need to be.”

Obama twice emphasized the need for Congress to pass a bill in 2015 that “allows for the kind of information-sharing we need” to bridge public and private best practices and prevent more attacks from happening in the first place.

“If we don’t put in place the kind of architecture that can prevent these attacks from taking place, this isn’t just going to be about one movie but about our entire economy,” the President noted.

Meanwhile, the actual details of the Sony hack are murkier by the day. Today, two conflicting reports emerged about messages Sony executives had purportedly received from the hackers late last night.

One, Ars Technica reports, was posted publicly and said that Sony has “suffered enough” and can move forward with The Interview as long as it is heavily edited to remove any harm to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. The other, as reported by CNN, was sent privately and says the exact opposite: that the movie should never be “released, distributed, or leaked in any form” and that all materials related to it should be removed from the internet.

The combination of the two messages basically leaves Sony leadership exactly between the rock and hard place where they have been since the hack first became known in November.

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

NLRB: McDonald’s Retaliation Against Workers Who Participated In Protests Violates Their Rights

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(epicharmus)

McDonald’s and some of its franchisees retaliated against workers who participated in protests and other demonstrations over hours and working conditions, the National Labor Relations Board said today, in announcing several complaints it filed accusing the fast-food chain of violating workers’ rights with “discriminatory discipline.”

Regional offices of the NLRB filed 13 complaints today covering 78 specific charges, the organization said, though some of those complaints have been settled or to be found without merit since the investigation started in 2012.

And because the position of the NLRB is that McDonald’s HQ exerts such an influence over its franchisees that it should be treated as a joint employer alongside the franchisees, the chain is charged as a co-employer in addition to the franchise owners named in the complaints.

A spokeswoman for the company challenges that view, saying in a statement (via UPI) that McDonald’s is not, in fact, the employer of the workers involved, and that the charges “improperly and dramatically strike at the heart of the franchise system.”

“McDonald’s is disappointed with the board’s decision to overreach and move forward with these charges, and will contest the joint employer allegation as well as the unfair labor practice charges in the proper forums,” she said.

Among the charges: “discriminatory discipline, reductions in hours, discharges, and other coercive conduct directed at employees in response to union and protected concerted activity, including threats, surveillance, interrogations, promises of benefit, and overbroad restrictions on communicating with union representatives or with other employees about unions and the employees’ terms and conditions of employment.”

Three hearings have been scheduled in the eastern, midwestern and western regions of the United States for March, the NRLB says.

NLRB: McDonald’s and its franchisees violated employee rights [UPI.com]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Apple Condemns BBC Reports About Factory And Tin Supplier Conditions

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Earlier this week, the BBC aired an hourlong documentary program on conditions for workers in factories assembling Apple products in China, and conditions in tin mines in Indonesia that supply Apple. Factory footage showed iPhone assemblers begging for time off and dozing off on the assembly line, and an illegal tin mine in Indonesia that is purportedly part of Apple’s supply chain.

In a letter sent to UK-based employee of Apple who might have seen the documentary, Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice president of operations, explained that both he and CEO Tim Cook were “deeply offended” by the accusation that Apple isn’t doing enough to improve conditions for everyone along its supply line. In the letter, Williams said that Apple shared its perspective on these issues with the BBC, but all of that information was “clearly missing from their program.”

In the hidden-camera footage, employees assembling the iPhone 6 were falling asleep at their stations after apparently working 12-hour shifts with no days off. Even the undercover reporter wearing the hidden camera asked for a day off and the request was turned down. Apple counters that its own audits show that suppliers are keeping their workers’ hours down to 60 or less per week 93% of the time, and the company closely monitors how the companies it contracts with to assemble products treat their employees.

The situation with the tin mine is more complex. Apple freely acknowledges that it does buy tin from Indonesia that may have originated in mines that are illegal and that employ children in poor conditions, as the BBC program showed. However, Apple counters, its choices are either to keep sourcing tin from Indonesia and work to improve conditions there along with other technology companies, or to source from other countries and ignore the issues with “artisanal mines” in Indonesia.

Apple goes to war with the BBC [Telegraph]

Read: Apple’s letter to UK staff over Chinese factory conditions [Telegraph]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Lawsuit Claims Couple Died After Getting Food Poisoning From Bob Evans’ Meatloaf

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A new lawsuit claims that a “tainted meal” at Bob Evans lead to a couple’s death.

Contracting food poisoning after consuming a meal is never a pleasant experience. While many consumers recover after a few days of being ill, some aren’t so lucky. Such is the case, a new lawsuit claims, for a West Virginia couple who died after allegedly becoming ill following a meal at a Bob Evans restaurant.

CNN reports that the family of the couple filed a lawsuit against Bob Evans claiming that a meal shared at a local restaurant in 2012 ultimately led to their deaths.

According to the complaint, about nine hours after eating the meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli and a roll, the mother “fell violently ill.”

Shortly thereafter, the husband also became ill but was able to call for an ambulance.

CNN reports that the couple was told by local emergency room staff that they had suffered from food poisoning “from consuming the tainted meal from Bob Evans.”

The couple’s children say that the day after consuming the meal, their father suffered a stroke. As a result, both of their parents were moved to a rehabilitation facility.

The lawsuit states that about two months after the shared meal, the mother died while in hospice care. Her husband’s condition then deteriorated rapidly, the children say. He passed away a few months later.

The children are suing Bob Evans for $250,000 for medical expenses from the chain and an unspecified amount for the “pain, suffering, emotional distress, mental anguish and the loss of ability to enjoy life” that were caused by their parents’ deaths.

A spokesperson for the restaurant chain tells CNN they are committed to “serving the safest, highest-quality foods for our guests — that is our responsibility and our priority.”

The spokesperson says that while the company feels sympathy for the family and their loss, they have done a “thorough review of the alleged claims in this matter, and quite simply, there is no basis to the allegations contained in the complaint and the suit is entirely without merit.”

CNN reports that the case will be heard in federal court next year.

Killer meatloaf? Lawsuit claims couple died after tainted Bob Evans meal [CNN]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

The Organization That Coordinates All The Internet Domain Names In The World Got Hacked

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If the Internet was the Death Star, then the weak point hackers might be trying to aim at would be the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN (though I’d like to think the non-profit organization that administers and coordinates all the world’s Internet domain names wouldn’t be on the dark side). As it turns out, ICANN says it was hacked — though there will be no space explosions because of it.

ICANN said in a web post this week that its internal systems were breached starting in November as the result of a “spear phishing” attack where hackers send emails that look like company emails, giving them access to those systems after users are tricked into handing over their credentials.

Ironically enough for the organization that doles out IP addresses and domain names for the entire planet, the emails reportedly came from ICANN’s own domain, reports The Verge.

The damage appears to include access internal emails, a Wiki page that only had public information, a tool that’s used to look up if a domain name is registered called WHOIS and ICANN’s Centralized Zone Data System. Within that, user information including real names, addresses, emails, telephones, usernames and encrypted passwords were accessed, ICANN says.

It’s since deactivated all CZDS passwords as a precaution, it said in the post:

We have deactivated all CZDS passwords as a precaution. Users may request a new password at czds.icann.org. We suggest that CZDS users take appropriate steps to protect any other online accounts for which they might have used the same username and/or password. ICANN is providing notices to the CZDS users whose personal information may have been compromised.

But the part of the organization that keeps the Internet running smoothly, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority or IANA, and other systems weren’t hit, ICANN says:

“Based on our investigation to date, we are not aware of any other systems that have been compromised, and we have confirmed that this attack does not impact any IANA-related systems.”

The United States is in charge of running ICANN, making this episode yet another hacking incident among a plethora of hacking incidents in just the last year to bedevil the government.

Global internet authority ICANN has been hacked [The Verge]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Target Shoppers Get Go-Ahead To Sue Retail Giant Over 2013 Hack

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(Ben Schumin)

A year after Target discovered it was the, well, target of one of the largest retailer hacks ever, and a few weeks after banks got permission to sue the corporation, Target shoppers have now gotten the all-clear for their lawsuits, too.

Reuters reports that a U.S. District Court judge in Minnesota — Target corporation’s home state — has denied Target’s request to toss lawsuits from consumers affected by the hack, and the consumer lawsuits can now move forward.

Target had argued that the consumers lacked legal standing to sue because they could not establish that they had specifically suffered harm as a result of the massive data breach. The judge, however, disagreed, writing that, “Plaintiffs’ allegations plausibly allege that they suffered injuries that are ‘fairly traceable’ to Target’s conduct.”

Affected Target customers from some states had their complaints tossed, Reuters said — every state has different laws relating to consumer protection and data breach reporting — but for the most part, the judge permitted the proposed class-action suit to continue.

The judge is the same who gave the go-ahead for banks’ lawsuits seeking damages relating to the massive hack.

Target’s data breach, discovered almost exactly a year ago, affected 40 million credit and debit cards and included the release of some personal information for up to 110 million Target shoppers.

Consumers can sue Target Corp over data breach: judge [Reuters]

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

Shell Gas Stations Turn To Hot Dogs For Financial Comfort As The Price Of Fuel Drops

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(Great Beyond)

I’m no stranger to falling into the loving embrace of encased meats, but who knew that gas stations are also seeking comfort from hot dogs these days? While it’s good news for drivers that gas costs less, for oil companies those cheaper prices at the pump means sales that slump (sorry sorry I had to).

Royal Dutch Shell is betting on hot dogs and coffee sales at Shell stations to bring in money while oil is selling so cheaply, reports Bloomberg News.

And it’s a good bet, it seems — retail sales for Shell’s 45,000 gas stations around the world generated $6 billion in non-fuel revenue last year, a number that the company says will rise this year.

Some stations in Norway are especially hot dog happy, selling more than 1,000 wieners per day, Shell says, while the chain overall has sold about 100 million cups of coffee last year as well.

Shell has plans to expand and sell more things like smoothies, quiche, oatmeal and other “Deli2go” brand items.

“In the retail business, it’s far more predictable,” said Istvan Kapitany, the company’s executive vice president for retail. “If you do a good job, you can predict how you’re going to do.”

And if you sell hot dogs, the odds are someone will eat them.

What Do You Do If You’re Shell and Oil Is Plunging? Sell 1,000 Hot Dogs a Day [Bloomberg News]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Reminder: Don’t Buy Gift Cards From People Standing Outside Walmart

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(Ron Dauphin)

With just a few days remaining to finish your holiday shopping, you might feel compelled to buy a gift card and call it good. While that gifting idea might be suited for your needs, authorities are reminding consumers that you shouldn’t purchase the cards from a stranger standing outside a retailer — or a stranger walking around anywhere shilling gift cards, for that matter.

.

KHOU-TV reports (Warning: video auto-plays) that local authorities are reminding consumers that the holiday season can be rife with scammer, including those selling worthless gift cards.

Such a holiday scam occurred outside a local Walmart in northwest Houston and cost two people nearly $1,600: Authorities say a man dressed like a Walmart employee has approached several shoppers asking that they buy gift cards from him.

The man allegedly tells the shoppers that he’s a college student and that while his parents purchased the cards for him, he really needs money for transportation instead.

Police officials say that while only two shoppers have been confirmed to have fallen for the same, they believe more people have been conned.

Just last month, Consumerist reported on the number of reasons why gift cards might not be the safest holiday gift to give. Among reasons to reconsider the gifting option is the fact that people just don’t want them and that the funds aren’t protected.

Man scamming holiday shoppers at Houston-area Walmart [KHOU-TV]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

We’ll Be Waiting A Little Longer For A Dollar Store Merger

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(Ryan)

The fate of the long-running dollar store merger saga likely won’t be decided by the end of the year as once expected, now that Family Dollar has decided to delay an upcoming shareholder vote.

CNBC reports (Warning: auto-play video) that we shouldn’t expect a vote on the proposed merger of Family Dollar and Dollar Tree or the cash offer from Dollar General to acquire Family Dollar.

The shareholder meeting, which was scheduled for December 23, will start and then immediately be adjourned. Officials with Family Dollar could not provide immediate comment to CNBC.

News that Family Dollar would postpone any merger decisions comes two months after Dollar General said it would extend its deal deadline to give the smaller dollar store more time to come around.

As of October 30, the day before the original deal was set to expire, Dollar General had only received offers for about 4 million Family Dollar shares of the total 114 million shares currently outstanding.

Industry analysts told Reuters at the time that Dollar General’s decision to extend the offer deadline was made in order to give Family Dollar shareholders time to make a decision after a mid-December meeting.

The No. 1 dollar store turned hostile and took its pursuit for the smaller dollar store straight to shareholders back in September.

The sordid dollar store love triangle began back in July when Dollar Tree made an $8.5 billion bid for North Carolina-based Family Dollar. Not one to feel left out, Dollar General proceeded to provide an unsolicited bid of $8.95 billion for the smaller chain.

But Family Dollar wasn’t feeling the love and rejected the offer citing “significant antitrust issues” because the two chains have similar business models. Both Dollar General and Family Dollar sell items at different dollar price points, catering to low-income shoppers, while Dollar Tree caters to more middle-income shoppers and sells most items at $1.

Dollar General came back with a second bid of $9.1 billion and in an attempt to ease Family Dollars’ anti-trust review fears it proposed closing 1,500 of the potentially combined-companies 20,000 stores.

Yet, that still wasn’t enough and Family Dollar rejected the bid, choosing instead to stay with its true love, Dollar Tree.

Faber Report: Don’t expect Family Dollar vote [CNBC]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Online Shipping War: Amazon’s Shelf Robots Against Walmart’s Puny Humans

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(Ben Schumin)

Amazon and other e-commerce companies have vast order fulfillment warehouses filled with shelves full of goods. Traditional big-box retailers don’t have the same kind of operations, but are trying to compete with e-commerce companies in shipping items directly to customers’ homes and to stores for pickup. How can they compete without building fulfillment warehouses of their own? By turning their existing stores and employees into a vast online order fulfillment operation.

In the case of Macy’s and Walmart, this is very literal: employees are combing the same shelves and racks as customers, either before open hours or alongside customers. The Wall Street Journal tailed online order pickers at stores in both chains as they filled online orders. The Macy’s worker tried to figure out where a hat had run off to that the inventory insisted was there in the store, and the Walmart worker struggled with a box that was too small and helped customers who needed help in the store along her route, as she filled a cart full of black bins for e-commerce items.

Does this system have advantages? Sure. In-store pickup is popular with customers, even if research shows that it often takes more time to pick up an order than it would to find the item on the shelf oneself in the first place. Retailers like Walmart do have dedicated e-commerce warehouses, but filling orders from store inventory lets them expand how many items they offer online without building additional warehouses. With foot traffic down in Walmart stores, this actually makes sense.

In terms of speed, it’s hard for the in-store order pickers to compete with Amazon’s team of dedicated pickers and robotic shelves, but for now this whole “omnichannel” thing is working out okay.

Can Wal-Mart Clerks Ship as Fast as Amazon Robots? [Wall Street Journal]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Google Doesn’t Recognize Itself Anymore, Marks Own Email As Spam

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Google’s looking at the man in the mirror.

Though it’s usually the place where fake Rolex offers, male enhancement drugs and princes from Ghana go to die, it’s always a good idea to check your spam folder. Because even Google will keep its own emails out of your Gmail inbox.

Whether it’s because Google hasn’t taken a long, hard look at itself in the mirror lately to really get down to the nitty gritty of what makes it Google, or because its own spam filters have a thing against the company for some reason, Consumerist reader C.D. says an email from Google Play ended up in his Gmail spam.

“I got an email in my Gmail spam folder — from Google! Very funny to me!” he writes.

Perhaps it’s time for some self affirmations, Google: “I’m good enough, and I’m smart enough… not to call myself spam.”

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Who Should Foot The Bill For Millions Of Repairs Because Of Defective Takata Airbags?

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So far this year, 10 automakers have recalled more than 19 million vehicles for potentially defective Takata airbags. While there’s no doubt that those vehicles must be repaired, a raging debate is beginning to form regarding just who should foot the bill for the millions of replacement airbags and loaner cars provided to affected customers.

The Washington Post reports that the issue of who should pay to fix the vehicles recalled for airbags that can spew pieces of metal at drivers and passengers wouldn’t normally pose such a problem.

In most recall cases, car manufacturers are required to pay to fix their products. But the issues surrounding the Takata airbags are somewhat of a new phenomena.

The airbags, while found in a plethora of vehicles made by various automakers, were actually made by someone else – Japanese auto parts maker Takata Corp. – and just installed by the manufacturers.

Industry analysts tell the Post that costs should be determined by who is responsible for the recall in the first place.

“If a supplier produces a defective part that doesn’t meet the manufacturer’s requirements the supplier will be charged for the recall,” Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book tells the Post.

For its part, Takata – which makes one-in-five airbags worldwide – has maintained that the responsibly for the recall lies with the automakers. Additionally, Takata says that at this point, it’s not exactly sure what is causing the airbag explosions that have been linked to the deaths of five people and injuries of countless others.

Officials with Takata and the affected vehicle manufacturers declined to comment on the issue of footing the potentially massive bill which would include new parts, labor, inconvenience of the recall and any loaner cars borrowed by consumers while their cars are in the shop.

The Post reports that the crux of the issue could come to rest on the contracts put in place between Takata and automakers.

But if that’s not the case, University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias tells the Post, that the issue could come down to litigation.

“If Takata really bears the lion’s share of responsibility, it may be cheaper, better for its reputation, and better for its future relationship with manufacturers, to absorb the recall cost or pay for most of it,” he says.

But at the same time, lawyers specializing in dispute management tell the Post, that it might be in manufacturers’ best interest to bear responsibility.

“The automaker will want to be seen to be taking responsibility for its product, even if it is ultimately able to recover the cost of the recall from another party,” Peter Shervington, a London dispute management lawyer says.

Still, Jayne Conroy, a New York-based leading products liability lawyer, tells the Post that automakers could be further motivated to absorb some costs of the recall as they recognize they too bear legal liability for the issues.

““There’s no way a company like Takata is completely responsible,” Conroy said. “We will find out that those car manufacturers told Takata exactly the size of the air bag component that needed to be put into the car, exactly what it should weigh. We will find ways that the car manufacturers are actually dictating to Takata what that product ought to look like.”

Regardless of Takata and manufacturer’s current stance on responsibility and absorbing the costs of the recall, more could come to light in the next several months as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finishes its investigations into the deadly defect.

As defective air bags result in millions of auto recalls, who pays? [The Washington Post]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Chrysler Recalls 257,000 Dodge Ram Trucks Because Axle Failures Can Be Dangerous

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(Kenny Lannert)

We may not know everything there is to know about the inner-workings of automobiles, but we’ve covered enough recalls to know that a properly working driveshaft is a pretty important part of a car. For that reason, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced the recall of nearly 257,000 Dodge Ram pickups.

The Detroit News reports that the Auburn Hills unit of Fiat Chrysler said it would recall 256,956 Dodge Ram 1500 trucks build between January 2004 through August 2005.

According to a notice [PDF] filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a pinion nut in the trucks can loosen, causing the rear axle to seize. If that occurs the driveshaft can detach, which could lead to a crash.

Friday’s recall marks the third time Chrysler has had issues with the Dodge Ram’s rear axle.

Back in June, NHTSA opened an investigation into nearly 260,000 Rams trucks after receiving numerous consumers reports of rear axle lock-up or driveshaft detachment caused by pinion nuts.

Consumers reported there was little or no noise or other warnings prior to the lock-up and/or separation.

Of the 15 reports that regulators received, seven occurred at speeds of 50 miles per hour or greater, and two allege that the rear axle lockup caused the truck to go into a spin.

“While driving on interstate 195, I entered exit lane 28A and without warning at 60MPH my rear tires locked up, the driveshaft disconnected from rear and my truck went into an uncontrolled spin.”

The Detroit News reports that NHTSA opened a similar investigation in July 2012 concerning model year 2009 to 2010 Dodge Rams. That October, Chrysler recalled 48,058 of the Rams and Dodge Dakota trucks because the pinion could come lose resulting in issues with the rear axle.

However, that recall wasn’t enough. After NHTSA found 194 reports during its 2012 investigation, Chrysler was prompted to recall another 266,091 2009-12 Dodge Ram 1500 and 8,475 2009-10 Dodge Dakota trucks — along with about 3,500 2009 Chrysler Aspen and 2009 Dodge Durango vehicles.

Chrysler recalls 280,000 trucks in for axle failures [The Detroit News]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Uber Agrees To Suspend Service In Portland For 3 Months

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(Brian PDX)

Marking the first time the ride-sharing company has voluntarily agreed to suspend service in a city it’s already established in, Uber has agreed to pull its drivers from the road in Portland for three months as part of a deal with the mayor to work on new regulations.

The suspension is part of an agreement with Mayor Charlie Hales to get new taxi and ride-sharing regulations on the books as quickly as possibly, officials from the city and Uber tell Willamette Week.

Reaching this point after two weeks of bickering upon Uber’s entry into the Portland market on Dec. 5, despite rules in the city that clash with the service. Portland sued just days later to get Uber to go away, a position it appears to be reconsidering with this agreement.

“The city and Uber started off on the wrong foot,” Hales told WW, “but this agreement resets the clock. We will work with Uber moving forward, and we thank other sharing-economy companies, like Lyft, for working with the city to bring our policies up-to-date.”

Uber has agreed to stop picking people up starting Sunday, Dec. 21, at which point, “We have been informed that Uber will turn off its app for Portland at 11:59 p.m. Sunday,” a spokeswoman for the mayor says.

In those three months, Hales has promised to write up new regulations or grant Uber and other ride-share companies a temporary agreement to operate in the city by April 9.

“They have agreed to a three-month timeline,” a general manager for Uber told WW. “We will be stopping pickups in Portland for the duration of that time. This is a temporary pause. We will be back.”

In the meantime, Uber will still be able to pick up passengers in the Portland suburbs, and will give drivers a $5 bonus if they drop people off in Portland, as they won’t be able to grab a return fare.

“Portland is a very unique city,” Uber’s general manager added about the deal. “So we did something we haven’t done before. We have to do what’s best for our drivers, and getting permanent regulations is the best decision for them.”

Meanwhile, both Los Angeles and San Francisco (Uber’s home town, no less) still have active lawsuits against Uber for driver safety issues and other reasons.

Uber Will Leave Portland for Three Months, in Deal with City Hall for New Ride-Sharing Rules [Willamette Week]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds

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Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

(Kaua’i Dreams)

(.sanden.)

(Karen Chappell)

(Classic Film)

(Lana David Brooks)

(Willem Mugge)

(Byron Chin)

(.sanden.)

Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist