Jos. A. Bank Tries And Fails To Wean Customers Off Deep Discounts

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Once your customers are used to receiving discounts, it’s really hard to wean them off. Just ask JCPenney, a company that conducted a spectacular nationwide failed experiment in misunderstanding one’s own customer base. This week, Men’s Wearhouse shared the news that their attempt to change the habits of Jos. A. Bank shoppers isn’t going so well: sales are way down.

When customers have been trained to come in and stock up on suits only when there’s a buy one, get three free sale, ending those sales entirely will hurt traffic. To be precise, the company says that comparable-store sales dropped 14.6% at Bank stores, while the same figure increased slightly at parent brand Men’s Wearhouse. They expect even more of a decrease in the next quarter, anticipating that sales will fall 20 to 25%.

However, the bushels of suits are not coming back out. The brand is standing firm. In the press release summarizing their quarterly report, the company predicts that sales will remain down while “customers adapt to the shift in the promotional strategy.” That’s an inherently sunny outlook, since it presumes that those customers are coming back.

Men’s Wearhouse CEO Doug Ewert explained in a statement that the company had anticipated that sales would fall, but had not anticipated that they would fall quite this much. “Despite these results, we continue to believe that transitioning away from the unsustainable promotional strategy we inherited from Jos. A. Bank and accelerating our new promotional strategy is the right thing to do for the long-term success of the Jos. A. Bank business,” he said. That strategy includes a rewards program and not marking their suits way up so they can be massively discounted.

Jos. A. Bank sales plunge, sending Men’s Wearhouse shares down 45% [Baltimore Business Journal]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Big Pharma Companies Also Being Questioned About Drug Prices

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Earlier this week, we told you how a Senate committee was investigating huge price hikes on a handful of niche-market prescription drugs. The companies involved in those probes are generally newer, smaller operations — but it looks like two much bigger names in the pharmaceuticals industry are also being asked about the prices of their drugs.

In a new quarterly filing [PDF] with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Merck discloses that it has received a civil investigative demand from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia, seeking information “relating to the Company’s contracting and pricing of Dulera Inhalation Aerosol with certain pharmacy benefit managers and Medicare Part D plans.”

Dumera is Merck’s name brand for an inhaled asthma medication that’s a combination of formoterol and mometasone. According to the Wall Street Journal, year-over-year sales for this drug were up nearly 17% for the nine months ended Sept. 30.

The journal also notes that another big pharma biggie, Eli Lilly, recently disclosed [PDF] that the same U.S. Attorney’s office is conducting an inquiry concerning Eli Lilly’s “treatment of certain distribution service agreements with wholesalers when calculating and reporting Average Manufacturer Prices in connection with the Medicaid drug rebate program.”

Under that program, drug manufacturers with products covered by the government-run low-income insurance plan agree to pay quarterly rebates that offset the overall cost of prescription drugs under Medicaid. The value of these rebates is calculated based on the average price a manufacturer charges to wholesalers.

Eli Lilly contends it did nothing wrong in calculating its rebates.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Truck Crash Strews Cranberries Across Bridge On Cape Cod

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I really enjoy cranberry sauce, but I have some serious doubts about how they go about making the stuff on Cape Cod. Well, that, or a truck accident that spilled cranberries across a bridge there early this morning was an unfortunate accident where no people were killed but one was seriously injured, and many berries were sacrificed.

A head-on crash has closed the Sagamore Bridge https://t.co/atPzGYe30n http://pic.twitter.com/MgEQsM6MEl

— Boston.com (@BostonDotCom) November 6, 2015

Around 6:30 this morning, there was a head-on collision between a truck full of cranberries and another vehicle on the Sagamore Bridge on Cape Cod. Two people were injured, presumably the drivers of both vehicles: one sustained serious injuries and was transported to a hospital in Rhode Island. The other had minor injuries and declined going to a hospital.

Cranberries are everywhere after the truck carry them was in a crash on Sagamore Bridge. https://t.co/uWS8vwyJUT http://pic.twitter.com/H94oBdDaP6

— MassLive Food (@masslivefood) November 6, 2015

The state police announced two hours later that the fruit had been cleared and the bridge re-opened. From 6:30 to 8:30, the spill came just in time to disrupt rush hour, yet was too early for Thanksgiving.

All lanes now open on Sagamore Bridge. We thank motorists for their patience.

— Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) November 6, 2015

Food jokes aside, we hope that both injured people make a swift recovery, and that they aren’t tired of terrible cranberry jokes and puns yet. Or ever.

Photos: Truck carrying cranberries involved in crash on Cape Cod’s Sagamore Bridge [MassLive]
Cranberry spill snarls traffic on Cape Cod bridge [Associated Press]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Supreme Court To Hear Another Challenge To Affordable Care Act Contraception Rules

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Today, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear its fourth challenge to the five-year-old Affordable Care Act — and the second challenge involving the law’s requirement that employers provide insurance that includes coverage for female workers who choose to use birth control.

In creating the ACA, the Obama administration in an exception to the contraceptive mandate for strictly religious organizations like churches, but not for church-affiliated non-profit institutions like schools or hospitals.

Then in the wake of the 2014 Supreme Court ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, in which SCOTUS ruled that there needed to be a way to exempt the owners of closely held private companies who oppose the use of birth control, the administration created a process through which the federal government would take over responsibility for paying for the contraceptive coverage.

The idea was that, by having the government pay for any birth control, the employers were not in any way responsible for financing something to which they object. But eight different religious non-profit organizations — including Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma, Geneva College in Pennsylvania, and the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged — challenged this compromise in federal court, claiming, among other things, that the arrangement still made them complicit in their employees’ use of birth control.

In the Little Sisters case, the issue also involves whether or

Seven of these challenges failed to convince U.S. appeals courts, but in September the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Missouri sided with the non-profit groups.

This morning, SCOTUS agreed [PDF] to hear at least part of each of the remaining seven challenges, which will be consolidated when the court hears arguments in March 2016.

The groups allege that even the compromise violates the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which states that “Government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, except… if it demonstrates that application of the burden to the person is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.”

As ScotusBlog notes, the Little Sisters case will also look at the question of whether or not the group — a Catholic religious order of nuns that also runs homes for the elderly — is required to obey the contraceptive mandate even though its insurer would not take part because it has an exempt “church plan.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Lawmaker Urges Airlines To Drop Holiday Baggage Surcharges

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With two airlines set to show their bah humbug by increasing baggage fees just in time for the holidays, one lawmaker is asking them to rethink that plan, you know, in the spirit of the season and all. 

Florida Senator Bill Nelson urged Spirit Airlines, Frontier Airlines, and other U.S. carriers to put aside any plans to increase checked-bag fees during the peak holiday travel time.

Earlier this week, Consumerist reported that both Spirit and Frontier planned to add surcharges to checked and, in Frontier’s case, carry-on bag fees.

For Spirit the increase will be $2 for both legs of a flight, while Frontier’s extra charge varies between an additional $5 to $10.

“These increased surcharges fly in the face of declining fuel costs and appear focused on increasing profitability on the backs of American families,” Nelson wrote. “If your company does plan to impose holiday surcharges, I request that you rescind those plans immediately.”

In the letter, Nelson points to a Commerce Committee report released in August that found ancillary fees, such as change, cancellation and baggage fees, often keep consumers in the dark about the true cost of air travel.

“The report made a number of recommendations, including one requiring ancillary fees to have a clear connection between the cost incurred by the airline and the fee charged,” he writes.

Nelson says he hopes to include the fee recommendations in legislation reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration next year.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Google Maps & Search Results Now List Businesses’ Holiday Hours

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Google is once again revamping its Maps and Search platforms, adding functionality to make the services more useful for consumers – especially those doing a little holiday shopping. 

Google announced today that it would add holiday hours to Google Maps and Google Search results.

“When you search for a business and a major holiday is within the next seven days, you’ll see whether the business has a special holiday schedule,” the company said in a blog post. “Not only will you avoid showing up to find the doors locked, but you’ll save time by not having to call the business or check the website for hours.”

While the new information can no doubt be helpful for time-strapped shoppers, it’s not foolproof.

The results will only show times if the company already lists its holiday hours. If the company doesn’t post the time it is open during holidays, the Google Search and Maps results will include a warning message alerting you that the actual hours may be different.

To use the new function, individuals need to tap on the “Open Now” filter to see the open dates and times.

“Because holiday hours and warnings are available globally, if you happen to be celebrating Boxing Day in the UK or New Year’s Eve in Sweden, you’ll see info specific to the country you’re in,” the company said.

[via The Verge]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Sprint Giving Away 1 Year Of Amazon Prime With Pricier Samsung Phones

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When Amazon tried to sell the public on its Fire Phone, one of the inducements was that the phone, which originally cost $199 with a two-year AT&T contract, would come with a one-year membership to Amazon Prime. Sweet deal, since Prime costs $99 per year, and Amazon eventually sold the phones for a buck. The Fire Phone itself flopped, but te idea of giving away Prime subscriptions with phones may hold promise.

Customers have to buy a specific combination of phone and carrier to get the deal: they need to buy a newer Samsung phone from Sprint. Specifically, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge Galaxy S6 edge+ or a Note5. If those phones and their data plans don’t appeal to you, stick to cheaper phones o don’t get a smartphone at all.

After a long period of losing subscribers, Sprint is on an upswing. Now, though, by joining forces with the new owners of RadioShack, the company was able to
the company’s subscription service that provides access to streaming media, free shipping on Amazon-fulfilled orders, and discounted subscriptions to the Washington Post.

Amazon was rumored to be one of the bidders for shuttered RadioShack locations, but getting Prime subscriptions in the hands of new phone purchasers would have been one of the goals of tat deal: this way, they can simply concentrate on making phones that people want to buy instead, and on that new bookstore that they opened in Seattle.

Report: Amazon Wants To Buy Some RadioShack Stores, Too

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

You Can Record Movies Off Netflix, Or Music Off Spotify, But You’re Not Allowed To

Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds

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Here are five 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.

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

Federal Inquiry Probes TCF Bank’s Overdraft Practices

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Overdraft fees cost consumers an average of $32 billion each year. The hefty fees and their often less-than-transparent policies, which vary greatly between banks and financial products, have long garnered the ire of consumer advocates and federal regulators. Case in point: a Minnesota-based bank is now under investigation for possibly unfair and deceptive practices related to its overdraft program. 

TCF Financial, which operates 376 branches in Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado, Wisconsin, Arizona, South Dakota and Indiana, announced in a filing [PDF] with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it may face legal action from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

According to the letter, the Bureau’s enforcement office “is recommending that the CFPB take legal action against TCF related to compliance with laws relating to unfair, deceptive and abusive acts and practices … in connection with TCF’s practices in administering checking account overdraft program ‘opt-in’ requirements.”

Under federal law, banks are required to get a customer’s approval to process debit and ATM transaction that exceed the amount of funds currently available in an account. If a customer doesn’t opt-in to the overdraft program their transaction is simply declined.

While that requirement has been in the books since 2010, a Pew Charitable Trusts report and video released earlier this year found that many account holders were unaware of the opt-in rule and several were never given the option.

The letter, known as a Notice and Opportunity to Respond and Advise (NORA), gives the bank the opportunity to present its position on the program and why it should not face sanctions to the CFPB.

A spokesperson for TCF tells the Chicago Tribune that the bank plans to respond to the letter.

“We believe our overdraft ‘opt-in’ practices comply with all applicable laws and regulations,” the spokesperson said.

TCF Bank overdraft practices could trigger legal action [The Chicago Tribune]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

New Bud Light Deal Means Active NFL Players Can Be Used To Shill For Beer

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Bud Light has been an official beer-like drink of the National Football League for a few seasons now, and ads for Bud Light have long featured retired athletes, but the league had barred the use of any active players in beer commercials. That’s about to change thanks to a multi-year deal between the NFL and the popular beverage brand.

AdAge reports that the new agreement will allow Bud Light to feature actual in-game footage of real NFL games in its TV commercials. That’s a change of pace from either trotting out former players, or showing beer-loving fans cheering on from fake stadium stands, pre-gaming in generic parking lots, or watching a game at home.

But there is a catch. Don’t expect — at least not yet — to see Tom Brady telling you about the cold, refreshing blah blah of AB InBev’s low-cal beer-water product. As AdAge explains, the use of game footage has to be done so that individual players aren’t identified.

We have to wonder if that’s a concession to watchdogs who would be concerned about the use of famous, active athletes to sell kids a product they are already snatching from their parents’ garage refrigerator — or if it’s a way to prevent NFL players’ agents from demanding more cash for using their clients’ likenesses in ads that traditionally pay celebrities very well.

We’re just saying that if we were Peyton Manning’s agent — who has no doubt negotiated huge-dollar deals to have his client shill for Nationwide and others — and we saw his face being use to sell Bud Light, we’d be ticked.

Not just because Peyton isn’t seeing yet another truckload of cash back up to the underground Scrooge McDuck vault we assume he has constructed underneath his estate, but because associating Manning’s face with Bud Light might make it more difficult to secure him a sponsorship deal with a competing beer when he does retire.

But back to the league’s rationale for this deal.

“We are trying to help them sell beer,” explains the NFL’s Sr. VP in Charge of Shameless Cash Grabs (okay, we made up the title, but the quote is real). “And the way they can do that is to leverage the NFL to the most avid fans in sports.”

Speaking of shameless cash grabs, the AdAge story also explains why Bud Light’s new lineup of NFL team-branded cans doesn’t include all 32 teams. That’s because the use of those logos on the cans has to be negotiated with each individual team, and MillerCoors still holds exclusive deals with the Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Toyota Will Stop Using Takata’s Ammonium Nitrate Airbags

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The hits just keep coming for Japanese auto parts maker Takata. After being fined $70 million by regulators over the company’s failure to report airbag defects and losing its largest customer in Honda, Takata now has to say goodbye to some of Toyota’s business.

Toyota president Akio Toyoda says the company will stop using Takata’s ammonium nitrate airbags in its vehicles, The New York Times reports.

The company says it is placing “top priority on ensuring the safety and confidence of our customers.”

On Wednesday, Honda – which made up about 10% of the part maker’s global sales – said it would discontinue using Takata’s airbag inflators in any new models under development and accused the supplier of manipulating test data.

The carmaker said in a statement that it was “deeply troubled” by evidence that suggested Takata “misrepresented and manipulated test data for certain airbag inflators.”

Following Honda’s move, other automakers, including Fuji and Mitsubishi, announced they were considering dropping the part’s maker.

Carmakers’ decision to drop Takata’s products come just a day after the parts maker was fined $70 million by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for its failure to properly alert regulators to airbag issues.

The company has agreed to phase out the use of ammonium nitrate in its inflators by 2018 and faces an additional $130 million fine if it doesn’t comply with NHTSA orders or if new violations are found.

Toyota to Drop Takata as Supplier of Airbag Inflaters [The New York Times]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

After Less Than A Year, Verizon Pulls Plug On Affordable WiFi For Alabama Schools

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Not even a year has passed since the rollout of OmniLynx — an effort by the Huntsville, AL, school system to provide city residents with affordable WiFi access — and the school’s partner, Verizon is already pulling the plug.

For $47.75/month (without a contract), OmniLynx users got a free Verizon LTE hotspot and unlimited data access. At first, it was available to just Huntsville school system employees before being expanded to cover students and their families, then anyone in Huntsville. The school tells AL.com that around 1,900 people have signed up since OmniLynx launched in January, and that around 120 a day were signing up until last week, when Verizon brought down the hammer.

On Oct. 30, Verizon informed the school district that it had gone “beyond the terms of the agreement” and was canceling the partnership.

The school district informed OmniLynx customers of the bad news this week.

“We regret to inform you that your wireless service will terminate effective November 30, 2015,” reads the letter to customers, according to WHNT-TV. “This termination of service and any resulting inconvenience has resulted from the service provider, Verizon Wireless… and its decision to discontinue its support of the program. Needless to say, this circumstance is unfortunate and we are disappointed by Verizon’s decision – particularly in light of the fact that Verizon publicly endorsed and applauded the OmniLynx program less than one year ago.”

In response to the Verizon notice, Huntsville schools superintendent Dr. Casey Wardnyski told AL.com that Verizon’s “concern for education was dwarfed by some other concern.”

It appears that Big V wasn’t thrilled that OmniLynx use had expanded beyond the borders of the Huntsville area.

But Wardnyski says that view is “short-sighted” and that the intention was to always expand the program and offer unlimited data.

“Verizon had the capability to limit the service area,” he explains.

The school district tells WHNT that it will try to find another partner for the service.

For its part, all Verizon has said thus far, is that “Verizon has and will continue to discuss this situation directly with Huntsville City Schools.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Sugar Plum-Flavored Marshmallow Peeps Are An Actual Thing

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I have to admit, I’m not much of a candy historian, and I’ve always pictured “sugar plums,” when mentioned in the literary canon, as prunes covered with crunchy sugar. This is, of course, wrong, but in the case of a new holiday-themed Peeps brand product, at least the crunchy sugar part is correct.

The historical sugar plum, like the ones represented by a nice fairy in the ballet “The Nutcracker,” was a candy of hardened sugar around a nut or seed. Back when candy was handmade, the sugar plum was a difficult confection to make and a pricey treat to buy. Receiving some for Christmas would have been a special treat, then. Similar candies became cheaper to make in the era of culinary mass production, but classic Christmas literature has left us with the 17th-century term, and no candy to associate it with.

The scrambling of the historical candy name, the traditional association of sugar plums with Christmas, and our anachronistic tendency to insert the actual fruit where it never was has led to something weird: sugar plum marshmallow Peeps, which are purple, probably because Just Born didn’t feel like giving the world a lecture on candy history. That’s our job.

They are artificially flavored, which I assume means thy have a vaguely plum-like taste. They are covered with fudge and available only at Target this holiday season.

COMING SOON: Sugar Plum Delight Peeps [The Impulsive Buy]
Sugar Plums: They’re Not What You Think They Are [The Atlantic]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Target Believes Porn That Played Over California Store’s PA System Come From An Outside Source

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A few weeks ago, shoppers at a California Target received an unsettling surprise when the unmistakable sounds of professional coitus aired loud and clear over the store’s PA system. While an investigation into the incident continues, the retailer believes the pornographic audio originated from an outside source. 

The Minnesota-based company has so far determined that no employees were involved in the disturbing broadcast, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

A spokesperson for Target says that “there is absolutely no indication that any team members were involved” in the incident and that the company now believes the recording didn’t originate inside the store.

Although it’s still unclear just how someone infiltrated the store’s PA system in order for the raunchy recording to be heard.

“We’ve taken steps to prevent it from happening again,” the spokesperson tells the Star Tribune, noting that the investigation continues into finding the source.

The Oct. 14 incident was caught on video – and posted on YouTube and Facebook [warning: language NSFW] – by a woman shopping with her young twin sons when she realized there was something coming out of the store’s speakers that shouldn’t have been.

“What is going on at Target right now?” the woman asks in the video, as a female actress’ voice sighs “Oooh, yeah…” as well as what the shopper calls “very explicit foul language.”

The shopper wrote that the noises went on for about five minutes, while the store’s workers ran around trying to stop the recording.

The Star Tribune reports that the October incident isn’t the first time the retailer has run into issues with explicit recordings playing over the PA system.

Back in July, the same issue occurred at a store about 185 miles away from the most recent location, while two other episodes allegedly happened in the state in April and September.

Target believes audio porn played in Calif. store was from outside source [Minneapolis Star Tribune]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Leaked Comcast Doc Admits: Data Caps Have Nothing To Do With Congestion

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For years, as Comcast and others have rolled out data caps on home broadband usage, we’ve shown evidence that these artificial limitations on data are all about squeezing money out of consumers, and have nothing to do with congestion. Now, with Comcast prepping to make its first large-scale push of its “data thresholds,” we’re seeing how the company is telling its employees to spin the discussion.

In documents leaked online yesterday, Comcast explains to customer service staff the details of the data cap expansion we told you about earlier this week.

In addition to explaining the pricing plans and limitations for each of the affected markets (you can read the docs in full here: p.1; p.2; p.3; p.4; p.5; p.6), it contains a section on frontline customer service should and should not say about the caps:

You’ll notice a few things here. First, they’ve finally given up on the “data threshold” nonsense that Comcast has tried to force onto the media. Instead, reps are being told to just call them “Data Usage Plans.”

But the biggie is the last one, where reps are instructed to not use congestion as an excuse. As you can see in the document, it explicitly states:
Don’t Say: “The program is about congestion management.” (It is not.)

That parenthetical was not added by us. This is an admission by Comcast that its data cap has absolutely nothing to do with easing the load on its network.

Instead, it’s — according to the script — about “Fairness and providing a more flexible policy to our customers.”

We’ll give you a second to wipe off your screen from the spit-take you might have just done while reading that.

The reps are also told to not use the term “unlimited” to describe the access that Comcast customers in the rest of the country still enjoy. That’s because Comcast is now selling an “Unlimited” option to capped customers that lets them pay even more — upwards of $35/month on top of their existing bill — for broadband access.

Rather than label the not-yet-capped customers as “unlimited,” reps are told to explain that those lucky Comcast customer still have a 250GB/month data limit — but that “we are not currently enforcing this policy.”

The fact is that broadband is no longer about checking e-mail or watching YouTube clips. Walk into most homes in America and you’ll find multiple non-computer/phone connected devices — thermostats, lights, TVs, speakers, alarm systems, crockpots — and it’s a trend that isn’t going to reverse itself.

For years, Comcast and other ISPs could blame edge-case data hogs — video pirates, people who ran their own online gaming servers — and say “Why should you have to subsidize their use of your Internet?”

But between the increased use of connected devices and online video — and the higher quality of those video streams — a growing number of consumers are going to reach that monthly data limit, presenting Comcast and others with an opportunity to measure just how much these people will be willing to pay for unfettered access.

In 2013, former FCC Chair-turned-cable-industry-frontman Michael “Stop Asking Me About My Famous Dad” Powell exhorted cable providers to move with “some urgency and purpose” to introduce data caps before it was too late. It looks like Comcast has heeded this call.

[via DSLreports]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Lawmakers Open Inquiry Into College Accreditation Agencies

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One might assume that a college accreditation is an indicator the school has met high standards for education and financial security. But as the recent collapse of Corinthian Colleges demonstrated, this is not always true. In an effort to ensure that America’s students aren’t duped into racking up huge debts to pay for substandard schools, lawmakers are looking to improve the oversight of accrediting agencies.

Earlier this week, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations opened an inquiry into higher education accreditation by requesting records from several agencies, Insider Higher Ed reports.

The committee notes in a letter [PDF] sent to Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) – one of the largest national accrediting agencies – that it is “reviewing the role that accreditors play in assessing the quality and financial health of postsecondary institutions and programs.”

ACICS, which provided accreditation to CCI schools up until its collapse in April – has until Nov. 13 to provide the subcommittee with all documents and data about the colleges it has accredited in the past 10 years.

While the committee has yet to make its inquiry public, ACICS confirmed it had received the information request, Insider Higher Ed reports.

“ACICS will comply in a timely fashion,” he said. “The council looks forward to working with the subcommittee to improve and strengthen the accreditation process.”

The committee’s inquiry comes just weeks after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requested documents from ACICS related to its accreditation of for-profit colleges.

The Bureau’s request was part of its investigating into possible “unlawful acts and practices in connection with accrediting for-profit colleges,” according to Insider Higher Ed.

Senate Inquiry Into Accreditation [Inside Higher Ed]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Marketers Are Robbing ‘Black Friday’ Of Any Meaning That It Ever Had

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A few years ago, Consumerist looked around at the retail landscape and the nascent nationwide trend of stores opening up on Thanksgiving Day, and we wondered whether it was time to put a modern twist on an initiative from the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to move Thanksgiving up a week to lengthen the retail season, which didn’t catch on. Why can’t we just leave Thanksgiving where it is and move Black Friday up a week?

That proposal didn’t catch on in 2012. Not directly. Instead, marketers have decided to pick their own weekends to start blowout sales, or to just declare the entire month “Black November.”

No, really. Here’s an actual e-mail that we received from a deals site sending in a story pitch:

Can something “officially” begin if it doesn’t really exist? I don’t even know. What I do know is that big-box stores are getting into the Franksgiving spirit already. Best Buy is holding a pre-Black Friday sale at a few hundred of their stores tomorrow, and they are calling it exactly that. The deals aren’t doorbuster-quality, but they’re pretty impressive.

The following weekend, Walmart-owned warehouse club Sam’s Club is joining the fun, holding its own pre-Black Friday sale with some nice deals on TVs and other gadgets.

We’re not saying that these are bad sales and that you shouldn’t check them out if you’re in the market for a MacBook or a new TV, but pummeling consumers with the concept of “Black Friday” beginning after Halloween could very well backfire. The phrase “Black Friday” has become pretty much meaningless at this point, since it’s employed more or less monthly to describe other sales.

This Target mailer went out in July 2013:

There was a dark time when Home Depot was holding monthly Black Fridays.

One goal of spreading out sales is to avoid the early morning danger and mayhem that happens when people are desperate to get their hands on a cheap TV. That’s a nice thought, but probably not why marketers are out to rob America’s favorite soulless shopping frenzy of all meaning.

The only ever meaning that Black Friday really ever had was “CHEAP STUFF!” so this will eventually backfire.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Lufthansa Crew Strike Cancels 290 Flights, Affects 37,000 Passengers

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As expected the cabin crew union strike at Lufthansa began to disrupt the travel plans of tens of thousands of passengers early Friday morning, with the airline canceling nearly 300 flights. 

The week-long strike, the result of a failed pension talks between the union and airline, began with walkouts on flights from Frankfurt and Duesseldorf, Reuters reports.

So far, Lufthansa says it has cancelled 290 planned flights on Friday, affecting around 37,000 passengers.

The canceled flights included 15 long-haul departures, typically international hours-long flights. However, the airline said eight long-haul flights are expected to take off as expected.

More flight disruptions are expected on Saturday, according to the union. For now, the walkouts will not affect Lufthansa’s hub in Munich until after Sunday, Reuters reports.

Despite the hefty number of travelers affected by the hundreds of cancellations, Lufthansa estimates 90% of the flights it typically operates on a Friday will go on as planned.

The strike was a result of a breakdown in last-minute talks between Lufthansa and the union. According to the airline, the union rejected the latest proposal that would have met demand related to current employees but would have created different retirement benefits and pensions for future employees.

Reuters reports that if the airline doesn’t make concessions, the union will carry out the strike until Nov. 13.

“We regret this course of action, but we see no alternative,” union head Nicoley Baublies said.

Lufthansa flights hit as crew start longest-ever strike [Reuters]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

If Walgreens And Rite Aid Merge, Thousands Of Stores Might Close

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Last week, Walgreens Boots Alliance, the parent company of this country’s top drugstore chain, announced that pending antitrust approval, it would buy the #3 chain, Rite Aid, for $9.4 billion. That would create two massive national drugstore chains, and also leave a lot of empty stores. One estimate is that 3,000 stores would close… not necessarily for antitrust reasons, but because the stores are simply too close together.

The company could be required to sell some of those stores off to competitors, which would keep them open. Who would be left to take them over? Regional chains and CVS, or perhaps a new competitor could enter the market, then get gobbled by by Walgreens in a decade or so.

Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate services company, analyzed the situation and which stores the combined chain would be likely to close. Even if they chose to divest all stores where the two chians are literally across the street from each other now, that would still leave them with areas that are too dense with their own stores to make any sense.

The firm estimates that Walgreens might have to sell 1,000 stores, but ultimately close 2,000 more. That would still leave Walgreens as the drugstore with the most locations nationwide, of course.

In my hometown, for example, there’s a Rite Aid and a Walgreens half a mile apart. The current Rite Aid was built as an Eckerd, and when traveling between the two you pass the previous Rite Aid, which has been sitting empty since those two chains completed their merger in 2007.

Walgreens-Rite Aid merger will lead to store closings: Report [Shopping Centers Today] (via Fortune)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Cox Receives $595K Slap On Wrist For Failing To Prevent Data Breach

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In Aug. 2014, a hacker used a clever bit of social engineering to talk his way into accessing the personal information for an unknown number of Cox cable, Internet, and phone customers. For its failure to shield its system from this sort of outside invasion, the pay-TV company has agreed to pay $595,000 to the FCC.

In the FCC’s order and consent decree [PDF], investigators explain how the hacker contacted a third-party contractor for Cox, pretending to be a representative from the Cox IT department. The hacker convinced the contractor to enter her Cox user info and login via a bogus site made to look like the Cox site. A similar social engineering trick was used to get a Cox Tech Support staffer to enter his details into the fake site.

During the week that the hackers had access to the Cox network, they viewed the personal information — including names, mailing addresses, e-mail addresses, secret questions/answers, PINs, and partial Social Security and driver’s license numbers — for dozens of current and former customers. Eight Cox subscribers had their details posted online, while 28 others had their passwords changed by hackers.

With those credentials, the hacker gained unauthorized access to Cox customers’ personally identifiable information, which of Cox’s cable customers, as well as Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) of the company’s telephone customers. The hacker then posted some customers’ information on social media sites, changed some customers’ account passwords, and shared the compromised account credentials with another alleged member of the Lizard Squad.

While Cox did — six days after being made aware of the breach — bring in the FBI, leading to the arrest of the hacker believed to be responsible, the company didn’t exactly disclose the incident to the FCC as required by law.

And even though the number of customers openly affected by the breach was relatively small compared to the full list of Cox’s approximately 6 million subscribers, the company did not adequately inform these victims as quickly as it should have.

To close the FCC’s investigation, Cox has agreed to pay a $595,000 civil penalty to the FCC, identify all affected customers, notify them of the breach, and provide them one year of free credit monitoring.

The company must also adopt a comprehensive compliance plan, establish an information security program that includes annual system audits, internal threat monitoring, penetration testing, and additional breach notification systems and processes to protect customers’ personal information.

“Cable companies have a wealth of sensitive information about us, from our credit card numbers to our pay-per-view selections,” explains FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc. “This investigation shows the real harm that can be done by a digital identity thief with enough information to change your passwords, lock you out of your own accounts, post your personal data on the web, and harass you through social media. We appreciate that Cox will now take robust steps to keep their customers’ information safe online and off.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist