जनता का आदमी

(funny strange or funny ha ha)

While running off to Sin City to get married by an Elvis impersonator used to evoke a certain spontaneous glamor and excitement, Las Vegas wedding chapels are more likely to be lonesome tonight than they have in the past, as those in the industry say quickie wedding customers just aren’t crowding their doors anymore.

The number of Vegas weddings has been dropping over the last decade: In 2014 there were 128,000 Vegas weddings, while this year there were only 81,000, reports the AFP. This, despite the fact that Clark County’s marriage license office is open until midnight every day, even on holidays.

“The wedding business here in Las Vegas has fallen off since 2004. We haven’t had ups and downs, and ups and downs — it’s just been a consistent drop every year,” says the pastor at the Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. “You know, people don’t have as much money anymore because the economy here isn’t that good.”

Kitschy and quick used to be the height of cool — from Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in the 1950s to Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie, or Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman somewhat more recently. And who could forget Britney Spears’ 55-hour wedding to whatsisface? Yes, we remember those people, but nowadays, we don’t really want to get married like them. Many of those Sin City celebrity unions didn’t end up lasting long, taking the shine off a quickie, kitschy Vegas wedding even more.

That, and movies like The Hangover — a madcap bro comedy involving multiple levels of intoxication with various substances and wildly impossible scenarios involving improbable characters and also Mike Tyson — which you might think would add to the city’s appeal for fans of Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and the gang, have given the city a wild reputation, one Clark County clerk told the AFP.

“One of the misconceptions over the past few years is that people only come here when they are drunk and they get married last-minute, and that’s just not true. That makes great movies but that’s just not true,” says Goya.

It’s not all bad news for you Elvis impersonators out there: Las Vegas is still the No. 1 destination for weddings in the U.S., and now that same-sex marriage is legal nationwide, it could see even more customers flocking to those quickie chapels.

To lure couples (and their money) back to the city, Las Vegas is launching a publicity campaign to put the shine back on the apple, with a focus on tourists coming in from out of the country. It could be a tough fight though, considering to make a splash in the wedding world these days you need to plan an elaborate song-and-dance worthy of a viral video, or at the very least, get hitched in the frozen food section at Costco.

Wedding bells growing quieter in Las Vegas [AFP]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(Brady O’Brien)

Over the weekend, a number of Consumerist readers wrote to us with the bad news that, like a growing number of companies, Dish Network is updating its terms of use to strip customers of their right to dispute legal claims in a court of law. There is a way for Dish subscribers to opt out of this restriction — but only if they do it right away.

The updated Dish “Residential Customer Agreement” [PDF] includes a new provision that requires that all customers settle their disputes through either mandatory binding arbitration or in small claims court. Both situations put severe limits on the damages that can be awarded.

Additionally, Dish customers are barred from joining other wronged customers in any sort of class action. So even if the company were to do something that negatively affected millions of customers, each individual subscriber would need to file his or her own dispute with the satellite service… and then have it heard by a third-party arbitrator, or in a small claims court without legal representation.

However, Dish is providing subscribers with the ability to opt out of this provision, but only if they do so within 30 days. So if you’re a Dish customer, check your e-mail inbox because you probably have a boring-sounding message from Dish with details of the new arbitration rules. Your 30-day countdown started whenever that e-mail was sent.

This form [PDF] must be filled out and returned to Dish within that time frame.

Make sure you send the form to the correct address:
DISH Network L.L.C.
Attn: Dispute Resolution
P.O. Box 9040
Littleton, CO
80120-9040

“Any opt-out not received within the thirty (30) day period set forth above will not be valid,” according to the terms.

For new Dish customers, the 30-day countdown clock starts the day your service goes active.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Kim Kardashian issued a corrected endorsement for morning sickness pill after the FDA took issue with a first post’s lack of acknowledgement of associated safety risks.

Weeks after federal regulators took issue with drug company Duchesnay for allowing mom-to-be Kim Kardashian to tout the benefits of its morning sickness pill on social media without properly disclosing the drug’s associated risk and limitations, the reality star posted updated endorsements, complete with acknowledgement of the pill’s side effects.

The new “#CorrectiveAd” posts – which were quickly pushed down the page thanks to Kardashian’s posts about the MTV Video Music Awards – were mandated by the FDA after the agency issued a warning letter to Duchesnay in early August saying the lack of safety information included in Kardashian’s original July posts put consumers at risk.

“I guess you saw the attention my last #morningsickness post received,” an Instagram post from the celebrity states. “The FDA has told Duchesnay, Inc., that my last post about Diclegis (doxylamine succinate and pyridoxine HCl) was incomplete because it did not include any risk information or important limitations of use for Diclegis. A link to this information accompanied the post, but this didn’t meet FDA requirements. So, I’m re-posting and sharing this important information about Diclegis.”

According to the FDA letter, a review of the first endorsements by Kardashian found the posts to be “false or misleading in that it presents efficacy claims for Diclegis, but fails to communicate any risk information associated with its use and it omits material facts.”

As a result, the FDA claims the post misbrands the pill, which makes its distribution a violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

Regulators told Duchesnay that the misleading messages – which were quickly deleted by Kardashian in August – be corrected in the same format they were originally posted – meaning on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

While the first posts included a link to the company’s website and Duchesnay sent out a press release providing more details about the partnership including information on Diclegis, the FDA claimed those steps weren’t enough to mitigate misinformation.

Kardashian addressed those issue in her corrected ads on Sunday. The rather lengthy post goes on to include limitations – “Diclegis has not been studied in women with hyperemesis gravidarum” – and important safety information including a number of other medications that shouldn’t be taken in conjunction with the pill.

Here’s the full text of the corrected ad:

#CorrectiveAd I guess you saw the attention my last #morningsickness post received. The FDA has told Duchesnay, Inc., that my last post about Diclegis (doxylamine succinate and pyridoxine HCl) was incomplete because it did not include any risk information or important limitations of use for Diclegis. A link to this information accompanied the post, but this didn’t meet FDA requirements. So, I’m re-posting and sharing this important information about Diclegis. For US Residents Only.

Diclegis is a prescription medicine used to treat nausea and vomiting of pregnancy in women who have not improved with change in diet or other non-medicine treatments.
Limitation of Use: Diclegis has not been studied in women with hyperemesis gravidarum.

Important Safety Information
Do not take Diclegis if you are allergic to doxylamine succinate, other ethanolamine derivative antihistamines, pyridoxine hydrochloride or any of the ingredients in Diclegis. You should also not take Diclegis in combination with medicines called monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), as these medicines can intensify and prolong the adverse CNS effects of Diclegis.

The most common side effect of Diclegis is drowsiness. Do not drive, operate heavy machinery, or other activities that need your full attention unless your healthcare provider says that you may do so. Do not drink alcohol, or take other central nervous system depressants such as cough and cold medicines, certain pain medicines, and medicines that help you sleep while you take Diclegis. Severe drowsiness can happen or become worse causing falls or accidents.

Tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, including if you are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Diclegis can pass into your breast milk and may harm your baby. You should not breastfeed while using Diclegis.

Additional safety information can be found at http://ift.tt/1DprUH2 or http://www.Diclegis.com. Duchesnay USA encourages you to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit http://ift.tt/xNUY9D or call 1-800-FDA-1088.”

[via Bloomberg]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(Lisa Brewster)

Here’s yet another story that’ll make you want to go out and buy a lottery ticket, even though let’s face it, this kind of thing will likely never happen to us: A guy who found $20 on the street and used it to buy a lottery ticket has won $1 million as a result of his lucky break.

The California Lottery says a San Francisco Bay Area man spotted a $20 bill on the street outside the airport last week, and decided to buy two scratch-off tickets with it. One of them yielded the top prize of $1 million.

“I scratched the ticket outside of the store,” he said, saying he was in shock when he won. “I told my friend who I was with that I didn’t know if it was real but, ‘I think I just won a million dollars.’ ”

The man works as a bartender, and says he’s planning on saving the money for now. The store where he purchased the ticket will also receive $5,000 from the lottery for selling the winning ticket.

Keep your eyes peeled for free money, as well: the winner joked that he might start leaving $20 bills on the street in random spots to spread his good fortune.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

As technology advances and our cars become more and more autonomous, they are also opened up more and more to a new danger that didn’t used to exist on the roads — hack attacks. To protect that new technology and reassure future customers that riding in self-driving cars can be safe, Uber has hired the same two vehicle security researchers who managed to remotely hack a Jeep earlier this summer.

Uber Technologies announced that Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek would be joining the company as of this week, reports Reuters. Miller had been employed at Twitter and Valasek was working at security firm IOActive.

They’ll be joining other autonomous vehicle experts hired away from Carnegie Mellon University at Uber’s Advanced Technologies Center, a research center the company opened in Pittsburg in February.

A spokeswoman said the duo will work with the company’s top security officers “to continue building out a world-class safety and security program at Uber.” It’s likely that their jobs will include figuring out how to protect the cars against attacks from people like themselves.

If Uber didn’t have to pay the hundreds and thousand of contract drivers ferrying passengers around every day, it would mean it could pocket a lot more money from each fare. To achieve this dream, Uber has been hiring experts from universities and research centers to stock its talent pool.

The company also announced a partnership last week with the University of Arizona that will put money toward research into the mapping and safety technology needed for autonomous vehicles. Uber will then test those prototypes on the streets of Tucson.

After Miller and Valasek hacked a Jeep Cherokee, exploiting the system’s cellular network to sneak in through the entertainment system and get control of the car’s engine, brakes and steering, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles recalled 1.4 million vehicles so users could install software to prevent hackers from replicating the attack.

Jeep Cherokee owners have since filed a lawsuit against FCA and Harman International, the makers of the UConnect infotainment system that was breached. The three plaintiffs are seeking class-action status, accusing FCA and Harman of fraud, negligence, unjust enrichment and breach of warranty.

Uber hires two security researchers to improve car technology [Reuters]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

If you only live in your condo part-time, you can imagine that the roommate who is there the rest of the time might get up to some hijinks while you’re away. But you probably didn’t think he would list your room on Airbnb without mentioning it.

This is what happened to a man who splits his time between California and Chicago, and who recently came back from the West Coast to find that two random people sleeping in his bed and drinking his booze.

“Your imagination goes crazy. What’s been going on?” The man, who owns the two-bedroom condo and sublets a room to another guy, tells CBS Chicago. “It could be everything from orgies to to drugs.”

Suspecting that his roommate had listed the room online, the homeowner looked on the Airbnb site and found his condo was indeed available for rent. The roommate had even used some of the owner’s personal photos of the condo for the listing.

Not surprisingly, that roommate has been given the heave-ho, while the homeowner looks for answers from Airbnb about how something like this could happen.

Unfortunately for him, the online rental platform is distancing itself from the bad roommate’s actions.

“Airbnb does not own, operate, manage or control accommodations, nor do we verify private contract terms or arbitrate complaints from third parties,” reads a statement from the company.

One could certainly see Airbnb’s side, as the company positions itself as just a listing service for people to publicize spaces available for guests. Services like Craigslist have long made similar claims that they are merely platforms through which third parties conduct business.

But you can also see how this “not our problem” stance would be incredibly frustrating to victims like this homeowner, who just wants to know how someone could list a room on Airbnb without showing that he owns the condo.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(Patrick)

Heads up, mobile data hogs: T-Mobile is on to your tethering shenanigans and your testing the limits of what “unlimited data” means. In a blog post, CEO John Legere says that the company plans to go after its biggest “network abusers,” and it will begin today. What’s “abuse,” according to Legere? Using as much as two terabytes of data per month.

It’s hard to use that much data in a month with just a phone, but this all goes back to the users violating the terms and conditions of their accounts, which T-Mobile coincidentally declared war on about a year ago. They didn’t end up carrying out the plan last year, but this year the warnings and account downgrades are happening.

Smartphones can be used as mobile wifi hotspots, which is useful, say, when you’re trying to put up a blog post in the waiting room at the dentist. While T-Mobile only lets its users with unlimited accounts use about 7 gigabytes of data on their phones as mobile hotspots every month, there are ways around that limit, using apps designed for the purpose of illicit tethering.

There’s a difference between sneaking a desktop Web browsing session and whatever the heaviest users are up to, though, and Legere is threatening to check up on the top 3,000 data users nationwide. T-Mobile claims to have developed technology to find these users and stop them.

Will T-Mobile follow through this time? Will people who aren’t abusing the network be swept up in this hunt for the perpetrators of alleged network abuse? We’ll find out soon, maybe.

Stopping Network Abusers: An Open Letter to T-Mobile Customers [T-Mobile]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(slgckgc)

After saying that “forced labor has no place in [their] supply chain” for Fancy Feast cat food, Swiss conglomerate Nestle SA is now addressing another supply chain area, saying KitKat will be the first global chocolate brand to make all its products with sustainably sourced cocoa. This, as the chocolate industry has come under fire for allegations of child labor.

All KitKat candy bars will contain cocoa made by independent third parties by the first quarter of 2016, the company said in a statement Monday.

Nestle already uses only sustainably sourced cocoa in certain markets, but this move extends the practice worldwide, including in the U.S., where Hershey Co. holds the license to make KitKat bars.

“We’re delighted to be a flag bearer for the industry, as the first global chocolate brand to announce such a move,” said Sandra Martinez, Head of Confectionery for Nestlé. “Sustainable cocoa sourcing helps safeguard the livelihoods of farming communities and delivers higher quality cocoa beans. This announcement will only strengthen consumer trust in KitKat as a responsible brand.”

Bloomberg notes that the chocolate industry has come under fire for years for the practice of producers using child labor in cocoa fields: in 2014, random visits to 200 farms in the Ivory Coast that supply Nestle found four children under 15 working in cocoa fields, according to a report by the Fair Labor Association.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

We can understand why people continued to shop at retailers that have been hit by data breaches. You still need to buy groceries, clothing, housewares, etc. But what about a website whose main selling point is privacy? Even though AshleyMadison.com — the dating website for cheaters — has been publicly embarrassed by the posting of millions of users’ personal data, it claims that people are still signing up… and that they’re not all just dudes.

A statement from Avid Life Media, the Canadian parent company of Ashley Madison, claims that “hundreds of thousands of new users signed up” with the site in the last week, including 87,596 women.

The company is making a point of this last figure after a Gizmodo analysis of the stolen Ashley Madison data concluded that not only was there an extraordinarily high ratio of male to female users on the site (even though it’s free for women to sign up), but that virtually none of the female accounts had communicated in any way with the men on the site.

READ MORE: Why The Stolen Ashley Madison Data Is (Legally) Fair Game For The Internet

Avid Life claims that assumptions made in this analysis were incorrect and contends that “Last week alone, women sent more than 2.8 million messages within our platform.”

The site also takes issue with reports of the male to female ratio. The stolen data shows that there are 31.3 million male users, compared to only 5.5 million females on Ashley Madison. Avid Life claims that when you look at the number male users who paid to communicate with women versus the number of female members who actively used their accounts, the ratio is actually 1.2:1.

What the Avid Life statement doesn’t make clear is how many of the recent sign-ups were legitimate, paying users and how many were free accounts set up by people curious to see what all the hubbub was about.

The company’s CEO Noel Biderman, whose e-mail inbox was the source for on 13GB data dump, stepped down last week, with Avid Life saying that the “change is in the best interest of the company and allows us to continue to provide support to our members and dedicated employees.”

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(БРАТСТВО)

When you’re a multibillion-dollar company that’s been under heavy scrutiny from federal regulators and you’ve been turned down by several potential suitors in the last year, you don’t simply give up on a possible merger. Or at least that seems to be the case for Fiat Chrysler when it comes to the automaker’s unrequited love for General Motors.

Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne once again expressed his desire to see the two car manufacturing heavyweights join forces in an interview published over the weekend on Automotive News.

Although Fiat Chrysler [FCA] was shot down by rival GM previously, Marchionne says he’s not backing away from a potentially lucrative deal, not without a fight, anyway.

After crunching the numbers, he tells Automotive News, that his board feels there really is no choice in the matter; they must put pressure on GM to begin talks.

“Look, the combined entity can make $30 billion a year in cash. Thirty. Just think about that [expletive] number,” he says.

Of course, Marchionne doesn’t think things have to be hostile just yet. Instead, he plans to ease GM into the talks, starting with a little nudge and working into a full on embrace. Wait, what?

“Not hostile,” he says. “There are varying degrees of hugs. I can hug you nicely, I can hug you tightly, I can hug you like a bear, I can really hug you. Everything starts with physical contact. Then it can degrade, but it starts with physical contact.”

Who knew that merger deals between major automakers could be so… physical?

Marchionne then goes on to say that he simply wants to present his case to GM CEO Mary Barra.

“I’m not trying to date Mary, for the record, but I tried to get to see her,” he says.

Despite the CEO’s clear love for a possible deal, insiders at GM tell Automotive News that the company feels a merger would be a bad idea.

“Why,” a GM executive asked Automotive News, “should [GM] bail out FCA?”

While Marchionne opines that the presumably billion-dollar deal would create a wealth of profit for a combined company, others express concern that it would mean the loss of thousands of jobs, plant closures, and the end of several vehicle models.

Marchionne denies these assertions, saying that the “doom and gloom of reductions, and headcounts, plant shutdowns” is nonsense.

Still, a spokesperson for GM tells Automotive News that the company and its shareholders believe they are better off on their own.

Marchionne puts the squeeze on GM; GM’s response: ‘Why bail out FCA?’ [Automotive News]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

You have until the end of September to see Katniss on Netflix.

While there’s always plenty of streaming content to watch on the Internet these days, if you’re a fan of Hunger Games or Transformers flicks, better watch them on Netflix now, while you still can: the subscription streaming service says it won’t be renewing its deal with Epix, the cable provider with domestic streaming rights to those movies in the U.S.

Hunger Games: Catching Fire, World War Z and Transformers: Age of Extinction will all expire at the end of September, Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer at Netflix announced in a blog post on Sunday.

Netflix says that it’s working on its own original movies so that members can have access to newer content, because studio licensing practices often mean a long wait to see theatrically released movies at home. In the meantime, the company says it won’t be renewing its deal in the U.S. with Netflix.

“While many of these movies are popular, they are also widely available on cable and other subscription platforms at the same time as they are on Netflix and subject to the same drawn out licensing periods,” Sarandos notes. Basically: we know you can see these elsewhere, so we’ll let you do that and instead focus on pushing our own content.

This isn’t the first time titles have vanished from Netflix after a deal with Epix ran its course: in May 2013, a slew of classic movies were yanked from the streaming service when it decided not to renew a different deal with Epix. At that time, Netflix soothed customers with the announcement that Hunger Games would be coming to the platform soon.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Google provided this example of what its new services ad function will look like.

Less than a year after Amazon took on the likes of Angie’s List, Yelp and other companies that can connect consumers to professional service providers like plumbers, locksmiths, electricians and others, Google announced it would join the fray by adding prescreened service providers to its sponsored search results.

The new service – which launched in the San Francisco Bay area on Friday – is part of Google’s paid app for small businesses called AdWords Express in which professional service providers pay to be within the top search results for a given word, like “plumber” or “clogged toilet.”

Service providers are screened and qualified by Google. They must be licensed, insured and complete a background check and mystery shopping review, a spokesperson for the company tells the Wall Street Journal.

After the qualifying process, Google says it will organize the information provided by the company into a business page.

“When someone in your service area searches for ‘house cleaners’ or other related terms, we’ll show your profile within an expandable listing at the top of Google search results,” the company says.

Customers can then read reviews, submit service requests or call businesses directly for more information.

So far, the company says that services are available for plumbers, handymen, locksmiths and house cleaners.

The new service will be direct competition for Amazon’s new Home Services platform, consumer review sites such as Yelp and Angie’s List, as well as traditional retailers Home Depot and Lowe’s, both of which have worked to link consumers with local service providers in the past.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(@marc_weiner)

People traveling through Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday were in for a bit of a wait, as authorities locked down Terminal C for more than two hours after a man breached security.

CBS New York reports that shortly before 7 p.m., a man illegally entered the terminal through a door in a secure hallway.

A passenger waiting in the terminal tells the Associated Press that he heard yelling and then saw several TSA agents chasing a man.

Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained the man and turned him over the Port Authority police.

The AP reports that the man had a ticket for a flight at the airport, but it was unclear why he entered the secure hallway.

Immediately after the man was detained, CBS New York reports, that per security protocol, the terminal was evacuated, put on lockdown and swept by authorities and K9 units. It reopened around 9:30 p.m.

Travelers at the airport took to Twitter during the lockdown, showing long lines of people waiting to re-enter the terminal.

Madhouse at Newark Airport. Security shut down. Crazy lines going in and out. http://pic.twitter.com/W40hHI2Bmv

— Marc Weiner (@marc_weiner) August 30, 2015

So a man got arrested and we had to evacuate the airport in #Newark last night. Interesting experience http://pic.twitter.com/GddGAjSyjQ

— Ross (@rosstyson) August 31, 2015

Man Enters Secure Hallway at Newark Liberty Airport [The Associated Press]
Newark Liberty Terminal C Reopens After Security Breach [CBS New York]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(frankieleon)

In recent months, Walmart increased pay for entry-level employees so that all workers were making at least $9/hour. At the same time, the retailer’s earnings have come up short of expectations, leading Walmart to instruct managers to curb spending by cutting hours for some workers.

Bloomberg News reports that Walmart HQ recently explained to store managers that if they have over-scheduled their staff — that is, if the store’s sales projections aren’t in line with its labor spending — they may need to do things like send people home early or direct them to take a longer, unpaid lunch break. Bloomberg says dozens of employees have confirmed these types of hour reductions in their stores have already begun to take place.

Walmart claims this won’t affect efforts to provide better customer service, cleaner stores, or properly stock shelves.

However, one Texas Walmart staffer says her store has cut 200 hours of worker pay per week from its ledger. In a single day, eight workers — including department managers — had been sent home by late afternoon. The employee says a customer had to wait 30 minutes for service because of the lack of staff.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(eren {sea+prairie})

After American consumers learned about horrible working conditions and trafficked workers on some fishing vessels out of Thailand, class action lawsuits began, accusing American, European, and Thai companies of benefiting from deplorable working conditions farther up their supply chain. One of the companies accused, the Swiss conglomerate Nestle, says that “forced labor has no place in [their] supply chain” for Fancy Feast cat food.

In an e-mail to the Associated Press, the company didn’t deny the allegations, but did explain that its suppliers are supposed to respect human rights, and the company has worked to eliminate all forced labor from its global supply chain.

The initial class action complaint points out that while cans of Fancy Feast do say that the fish comes from Thailand, it does not specify “Made in Thailand out of fish that may have been caught by men and boys trafficked from poorer neighboring countries and forced to work punishing hours while motivated by fear.” Cat food cans are small, so the print would have to be very tiny.

While the class actions are federal, they only accuse the companies that have allegedly benefited from slave labor of breaking the law in California, a state with strong consumer protection laws without equivalents in other states.

Nestle: Forced labor has no place in our food supply chain [AP]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(Liz Wise)

eBay and PayPal have now completed their divorce, and one of the terms that they agreed to is that eBay still has to process a large number of its payments using PayPal. That could be the reason why eBay is eliminating competitors ProPay and Skrill from the payment options for shoppers and for sellers.

eCommerceBytes points out that the timing is interesting, since PayPal also happened to raise fees for sellers who process more than $3,000 per month in payments using the service

In their e-mail to sellers about the change, eBay said that the two services had very few users, which means that perhaps letting buyers use them isn’t worth the bother for the company anymore. However, eBay does have an incentive to make sure that as many online payments as possible come from PayPal.

That’s part of the terms of the companies’ split: 80% of payments through the site must come through PayPal, or eBay will owe its former partner money. “eBay will be incentivized to grow new users and increase PayPal penetration rates through referral services and penetration rate payments,” the company explained in a statement earlier this year. eBay aso receives a bonus from PayPal if more than 80% of sales come through PayPal.

eBay Bans Sellers from Offering PayPal Rivals [eCommerceBytes]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Fast-food and coffee chains want to serve up drinks and desserts that are flavored like chocolate chip cookies, but these aren’t just any old chocolate chip cookies. No, chains including Dunkin’ Donuts, Dairy Queen, and now Burger King are selling Chips Ahoy-branded items in their restaurants, a confusing bit of cross-branding.

A new offering from Burger King is even stranger. It may be in the testing phase, and was spotted in Visalia, California. It combines two flavors to create the Chips Ahoy S’mores Milkshake. What is so s’morey about it isn’t entirely clear, unless the ice cream is supposed to be marshmallow-flavored. The reader who reported its existence to The Impulsive Buy says that it consists of…crumbled-up chocolate chip cookies and ice creamy goodness, with whipped topping.

There are no graham crackers in sight, and no chocolate other than the chips. On the other hand, now I want to try pressing a toasted marshmallow between two cookies. Someone find me a campfire.

FAST FOOD NEWS: Burger King Chips Ahoy S’mores Shake [The Impulsive Buy]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(Akira Ohgaki)

Amazon’s Prime program includes third-party merchants, whose shops let the online Everything Store expand its inventory without building more warehouse space. While the company is experimenting with making these merchants part of the Prime program for items that already have free shipping, However, some of these merchants get to limit how far they will ship an item for free.

This is logical for smaller companies that don’t have the same bargaining power with the U.S. Postal Service and private carriers as Amazon, and who simply don’t want to subsidize cross-country two-day shipping. The Wall Street Journal reports that sellers can define which geographic regions they’re willing to provide free Prime shipping for, and customers in other areas pay standard shipping fees.

Another Amazon shipping experiment that the WSJ learned about from an unnamed source is called “Amazon Day,” a service that would combine all of a household’s Amazon orders on the same day of the week. This would cut back on shipping costs for Amazon, which doesn’t really want to send multiple items in multiple packages to the same Prime-addicted house.

The Amazon Day (not to be confused with Prime Day) idea is still being “studied” though, and not in the testing phase yet.

In New Amazon Prime Program, Not All Goods Ship for Free [Wall Street Journal]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(benh57)

Unlike its fellow major carrier United Airlines, American Airlines says it will honor super cheap fares some lucky customers nabbed last week due to a glitch in its booking system.

Airline Reporter points to a post from Aug. 20 on Flyertalk that shared the workaround with fellow customers.

The fares were achieved in part by changing the country of origin to Brazil: One Flyertalk user posted a screenshot of a round-trip business class ticket on American from Sao Paulo to Hong Kong for R$1,255 Brazilian Reals (BRL), or approximately $350 U.S. dollars. Usually that fare would cost R$12,000 or about $3,350 in U.S. currency.

It’s thought that perhaps the error was caused by transposed currency values when the data was entered, causing the U.S. dollar to be highly overvalued against BRLs. Currently, R$1.00 is about $0.29 U.S. Switch those two around and bang, you’ve got a discount.

American apparently had a few mistake airfares squeak through on a variety of international routes with ridiculous discounts on tickets, though it’s unclear exactly how many customers got away with it. The airline caught the slip quickly, but those that managed to pull a fast one will be able to fly for a tenth of the price.

American confirmed in a statement to Airline Reproter that it “will honor mispriced fares that were booked last week,” adding that it hopes “customers enjoy their experience with American and book with us again in the future.”

This stands in stark contrast to United, which blamed a software glitch for allowing travelers to get cheap fares by setting the reservation site to Denmark and then refused to honor those fares. Its decision was backed by the Department of Transportation, which said United was off the hook because those fares weren’t meant for U.S. citizens in the first place.

The DOT said then that its policy is to not enforce the prohibition against post-purchase price increases “when the fare offer is not marketed to consumers in the United States.”

Even more reason to enjoy that flight, you lucky folks.

American Airlines Mistakenly Discounts Airfare by 90% – Then What? [Airline Reporter]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(J)

After several years of back-and-forth rulings, an appeals court in Washington, D.C. has ruled today that the NSA’s controversial bulk phone data collection program can indeed continue… at least until November, when it gets shut down anyway because Congress changed the law in June.

If you’re feeling a bit confused by what is or isn’t legal, there’s a good reason for that: this case has been going back and forth for years. And while it’s been doing so, the law itself has changed.

This particular legal saga began when the ACLU and others filed a lawsuit against the NSA. In December, 2013, a U.S. District Court judge dismissed the lawsuit, finding that the bulk phone data surveillance program did not violate any existing law.

The ACLU appealed. In May, 2015, an appellate court vacated the ruling from the first judge, reinstating the ACLU’s lawsuit and kicking it back down to the lower court. The appeals court found that the NSA’s actions did outstrip the scope permitted to it by law.

Today’s ruling is the third round in that same lawsuit. This time, an appeals court has once again kicked the suit back. The court found that, “unlike some others who have brought legal challenges to the bulk collection program, plaintiffs lack direct evidence that records involving their calls have actually been collected.” Without that evidence, the plaintiffs have no standing to sue, therefore, and the original injunction is lifted.

But between the second and third go-rounds in the lawsuit, the law itself changed. Congress passed the USA FREEDOM bill in June. The amended law does not end NSA surveillance programs, but it does curtail them a bit. The bulk phone data collection that the NSA has done under Sec. 215 of the Patriot Act is now ended… and replaced with a slightly different phone data collection program.

Or at least, it will be. The law changed only a matter of weeks ago, and the wheels of bureaucracy do not spin so fast. The transition away from the existing bulk phone data collection program isn’t scheduled to be complete until November. And so until then, the NSA can indeed continue the old program thanks to today’s ruling.

A D.C. appeals court has lifted an injunction against the NSA phone call records program [Washington Post]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(Mike Mozart)

After an offer to “settle the beef” in the name of raising awareness for Peace Day was unceremoniously shot down by McDonald’s with a rather passive-aggressive note, Burger King has received a proposal – or two – of its own to consider.

Would you consider ordering a Slampper or a Whipple Whipple next time you’re at Burger King? Those two collaborations could certainly be making an appearance on the menu board if the company accepts a proposal from either Denny’s or Wayback Burgers, respectively.

Fortune reports that just days after McDonald’s shot down The King’s call for a truce – and the creation of something called the McWhopper – smaller burger chain Wayback Burger made its love for Burger King known, offering to take over the Golden Arches’ spot in the proposed collaboration.

.@BurgerKing, we won't leave you hanging. #McWhopper #WhipleWhiple #SettleTheBeef http://pic.twitter.com/wCFiYuGOPO

— Wayback Burgers (@waybackburgers) August 26, 2015

The Connecticut-based chain – which operates around 100 locations in the U.S. and overseas – extended an olive branch to Burger King, while also taking a jab at McDonald’s rejection.

“Wayback Burgers would be happy to take Burger King up on its offer to partner to raise money for UNICEF surrounding International Day of Peace,” Wayback Burgers President John Eucalitto said in a company statement. “Our nine patty burger, The Triple Triple, could be a great vehicle to work with. Perhaps we could create the Whiple Whiple. Besides, wouldn’t Burger King prefer to partner with a fresh and innovative brand that is on the rise? Either way, we hope to hear from you.”

While Burger King’s first alternative proposal comes from a smaller burger chain, the second is from an entirely different genre of restaurant, Adweek reports.

Not one to shy away from a little fun on social media, national diner chain Denny’s quickly jumped into the collaboration fray suggesting several mash-ups of menu items with Burger King, including: the Slampper, the Whammper and the Whoppaslamus-rex.

hey @burgerking how about a Slampper© or a Whammper© or a Whoppaslamus-rex© or something? http://pic.twitter.com/zWHXfgIPYV

— Denny's (@DennysDiner) August 27, 2015

So far, Burger King hasn’t responded to the offers from either Wayback Burgers or Denny’s, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the fast food chain is taking its times deciding between its suitors.

Move over McDonald’s, Wayback Burgers wants to partner with Burger King [Fortune]
Denny’s Offers to Partner With Burger King, Since McDonald’s Is Being a McChicken [AdWeek]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(dbrooks125)

While cable companies’ investors might be shaking in their boots whenever the word “Netflix” pops up, the streaming video service isn’t the giant slayer it’s been made out to be — at least according to Time Warner Inc. Jeff Bewkes, who says his HBO is better than Netflix.

Bewkes spoke at a cable conference in Amsterdam yesterday, saying investors don’t need to freak out as customers continue cutting cords and leaving cable providers for services like Netflix, reports Bloomberg.

“Netflix is good, but not that good,” Bewkes said. “The pessimism in the market about the sector is overdone — our industry will figure out how to take content and sell it on demand.”

It’s true that they’re making an effort: traditional broadcast and cable networks like HBO, Showtime, Starz and CBS have all hopped on the streaming bandwagon recently. But most of the pay-TV competition isn’t coming from cable, it’s coming from Netflix (with 65 million subscribers) and the likes of PlayStation and Dish, both of which offer streaming content without a cable contract.

Bewkes’ reassurances come on the heels of a slew of disappointing second-quarter earnings reported earlier this month by companies like Time Warner, Discovery Communications, and the biggest player, Disney, which has continually had to defend its high-cost sports behemoth ESPN.

The Time Warner CEO says his company doesn’t need acquisitions to grow, and instead is just going to sit back and distribute its HBO’s video-on-demand service HBO Now, which has been thriving on the backs of popular shows like Game of Thrones and True Detective, as well as expanding the service to more countries.

These comments aren’t all that different from those made by Comcast’s David L. Cohen at an industry conference in July, who, while admitting that cord-cutting is partly the fault of cable companies who “have made video too expensive,” noted that traditional cable companies won’t ever entirely go away. In fact, Netflix relies on some of those same cable companies to beam its service to customers over the Internet.

“Remember, you can’t get Netflix without broadband service,” Cohen said, which is good for Comcast as it’s a broadband provider as well as a company.

Netflix also needs companies like Comcast and Time Warner, both which create original programming that could at some point, ostensibly, be licensed for viewing through Netflix.

Bewkes Says TV Can Withstand `Not That Good’ Netflix [Bloomberg]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

All year, we’ve been sharing information about a scam hitting companies all over the world, where very clever and resourceful scammers impersonate bosses and extract money on false pretenses. The best protection against this kind of fraud is education, and while law enforcement are doing their best to let people know about the scam, the number of victims is only increasing, and law enforcement estimates that the scammers have drained $1.2 billion worldwide from businesses’ bank accounts.

The scam itself is very simple: our fake e-mail up top sums up the basics. A scammer e-mails an employee, pretending to be the CEO, boss, or other person in charge. They ask for a certain amount to be transferred to an imaginary supplier.

While the return address will appear real, the actual domain name that the message comes from and that the user replies to will be a fake version that the scammer has registered: perhaps bossmeg@c0nsumerist.com or consumeri5t.com.

Scammers are becoming more sophisticated, and the FBI now warns companies to keep information like when your company’s bosses plan to travel off public websites and social media, since the premise of these e-mails is usually that the person requesting a wire transfer is out of town.

BUSINESS EMAIL COMPROMISE [FBI] (via Krebs on Security)

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(Adam Fagen)

When working a few extra hours, you have a reasonable expectation to be compensated for that time. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen, which was the case for nearly 400 employees of Bank of America who sued the company alleging it failed to pay them overtime. Now, the company has agreed to settle the case, providing $36 million to the wronged employees.

The San Francisco Business Times reports that a lawyer representing the 365 current and former employees announced the settlement just days before the case was set to go to trial on Aug. 31.

“Employers take grave risks by cutting corners, and not fairly compensating their employees in tune with state and federal law,” the lawyer says.

The settlement, which must still be approved by the court, stems from an April 2013 lawsuit that alleged Bank of America and its subsidiary Landsafe Appraisal Services incorrectly applied “administrative” and “professional” exemptions to residential staff appraisers.

According to the suit, employees – primarily based in Northern California – regularly worked form 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. without overtime compensation from either company.

The case illustrated how companies often use in-house overtime rules that differ from federal guidelines, the Business Times reports.

A portion of the nationwide, class action lawsuit was previously settled for $5.8 million.

Bank of America to pay $36 million in California overtime infraction case [San Francisco Business Times]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(twicepix)

If you’ve got a product named after you, should you be able to control how that item is made? Actress Jane Birkin is certainly trying to have her say, telling the company to take her name off the luxury handbag named after her because they’re made from crocodiles who are inhumanely slaughtered.

Hermès International SCA says it’s holding talks with Birkin, noting that it was also shocked by an animal-rights group’s video showing reptiles who were still alive and moving after being shot by a bolt gun at a Texas farm, Hermès Chief Executive Officer Axel Dumas said, according to a report from Bloomberg.

“We agree that the best international rules should be applied in our crocodile farms,” Dumas said at an earnings presentation in Paris. Hermès is making an effort to show Birkin that its practices are often better than others, though it’s unclear what that means.

Birkin demanded her name be removed from the bags, which sell for anywhere from $9,400 to $68,000, after watching the footage in July. She told Hermès to rename the bags until better practices replace the “cruel” methods used at some slaughtering facilities. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said some workers at the farm were told to cut into 500 conscious alligators with knives when the bolt gun didn’t work, among other alleged mistreatment.

Hermès has pledged to penalize any breach of its animal welfare code, and said it was investigating the farm and that the crocodile skins it receives from that supplier — which it does not own — aren’t used for Birkin bags.

Hermès Holds Talks With Actress Jane Birkin Following Complaint [Bloomberg]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

(Patrick)

A Texas woman who took her car to her local Walmart’s service center for a routine oil change says a technician totaled the vehicle and now the company isn’t offering her a fair settlement, leaving her stranded and her business suffering.

NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth Investigates took a look at the case this week after the woman claimed the company continues to give her the run-around nearly two weeks after the incident occurred.

The ordeal began last month when the woman brought her SUV to Walmart’s service center for an oil change. A technician for the company totaled the car when he drove it into a wall to avoid hitting another person after the throttle reportedly became stuck.

While the retailer’s insurance company offered to pay the woman $3,200 – the estimated value of her 1998 Ford Expedition – and cover costs for a rental car, the woman says the deal isn’t enough and the company has yet to cover rental fees, leaving her in a bind.

The woman says the $3,200 won’t be enough to cover the cost of a new, dependable used SUV and it doesn’t account for the money her company has lost while she’s been without a vehicle.

As a florist, the woman says she relies on her SUV to make 15 to 20 deliveries a day.

Because there’s been confusion regarding the retailer’s promise to cover the cost of a rental vehicle during the two-week investigation into the accident, the woman has had to hire someone else to make deliveries, or borrow a vehicle from a friend.

“I’ve had to turn away deliveries because I couldn’t go that far or send somebody that far to deliver,” she tells the station.

While Walmart’s insurer has completed its investigation, the woman says it’s far from over.

In fact, she said her conversation with the insurance rep made it seem as if the company still hadn’t come to a conclusion on why the incident happened.

Since the conclusion of the investigation, the woman says an insurer has agreed to pay $140 for a tow charge and a day’s rental fee. But the woman says that’s simply not enough as her costs continue to mount.

A rep for the company says he’d need to get approve for compensating her for additional costs.

“I just need to get a vehicle. I need for them to reimburse me for the time and money that I’m out of, you know, and just make it right,” the woman says.

When NBC 5 Investigates contacted Walmart about the rental car issues and the compensation offer, the company declined to answer questions, instead saying, “We always want to take care of our customers as quickly as possible and we’re pleased this has been resolved.”

According to NBC 5 Investigates the company’s insurer is now considering further compensation.

Wal-Mart Offers Woman $3,200 After Totaling Her Car [NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist