uAirlines Testing Auctions For Seat Upgrades At Gatesr

4 4 4 9

• 

  Until recently, the only thing that auctions and airlines had in common were crowds of on-edge people in confined spaces. Some carriers are testing out the idea of turning their airport gates into auction houses, selling off premium seat upgrades to the highest bidders.

  The Wall Street Journal reports that more than 30 airlines around the world, including several domestic airlines, are dipping their toes in the auction world by pitting passengers against each other for the pleasure of buying upgrades for first-class, business-class or premium-economy seats.

  Auctions offer airlines an option to sell upgraded seats to passengers instead of offering the seats for free when it’s time to board.

  For the passenger, the WSJ reports, the winning bids are often less costly for travelers than buying a premium ticket in the first place.

  One traveler tells the WSJ that he’s taken advantage of the auction system with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, paying no more than $430 for a business-class upgrade.

  In all, he says keeping the bid below $500 makes his total trip cost about $1,600, less than half of what buying a business-class seat outright would set him back.

  In the U.S., Virgin America is currently testing the SeatBoost auction at gates in Las Vegas an hour before the flight departs.

  Under the system, bidding starts at $10, $30, or $50 depending on the length of the flight and whether passengers are bidding on extra legroom in coach or first-class. Passengers can see the bids via a leader board posted by the gate.

  Just before boarding the airline awards one upgrade to Main Cabin Select and one to first. The airline wouldn’t disclose how much winning bids average, but said the process is competitive.

  While the auctions provide another way for airlines to make a few bucks through upgrades, Virgin America tells the WSJ that it still provides top-level elite passengers with upgrades and sells upgrades through airport kiosks and its gate agents before the auction gets underway.

  For now, the airline says it’s too early to know if the auction option will continue after the testing phase in Las Vegas.

  American Airlines has also dabbled in the upgrade auction arena, but suspended the tests when the company integrated its reservation system with US Airways.

  “It is something we would like to revisit for further assessment,” a spokesman tells the WSJ.

  Reps for United Airlines and Delta say the companies are keeping an eye on the auction systems.

  Going Once, Going Twice: Airlines Auction Seat Upgrades [The Wall Street Journal]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uGeneral Motors Unveils 200-Mile Charge Chevrolet Bolt EVr

4 4 4 9

• The way people get around is changing, and General Motors thinks they have the answer in their new Bolt EV, a new 200-mile charge electric vehicle expected to be on the market next year. 

  GM CEO Mary Barra announced the Bolt EV during her keynote address at the CES International 2016 while taking liberal, but veiled digs at other electric carmakers during her introduction.

  “Societal trends are changing the way people interact with personal transportation,” Barra said after coming on stage, noting that the next five years in the automotive industry will see more change than the past 50 years.

  Barra compared the place for electric vehicles to that of smartphones, saying that just 12 years after Blackberry first entered the arena more than 1.2 billion smartphones were sold around the world.

  “Imagine that in an automobile at an affordable price,” she said as the 2017 Bolt EV was driven on the stage.

  The car, which Barra says comes with a 200-mile charge and will supposedly cost $30,000 after government incentives, will afford individuals the ability to upgrade with mobility and the transportation solutions they demand.

  “We believe strongly in the dealer model,” Barra said in her first direct dig at luxury EV maker Tesla. “Unlike others, our EV customers will never have to travel to another state for services. We understand the importance of giving people the conveniences they love.”

  In addition to a longer charge life, the Bolt EVs will have a DC fast-charging system that can charge to 80% of capacity in just an hour.

  It also comes equipped with a rear camera with wide views that streams to the rearview mirror, and a navigation system that can estimate EV-optimized routes, meaning you’ll see the most efficient path to your destination, not just the fast way to get there.

  Barra says the Bolt will be the first vehicle with both Apple’s CarPlay and Android Auto.

  “It’s more than a car, it’s a platform that enhances and personalized the driving experience,” Barra said.

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uID Thieves Hijacking Accounts To Cash In On Bogus Warrantiesr

4 4 4 9

• 
  In a pre-online era, when we made most purchases in person, getting a warranty replacement on a broken product often required taking the defective item back to where you bought it. But now that we’re all buying things online, a number of retailers are willing to ship you a replacement on the understanding that you’ll immediately return the original item. ID thieves are taking advantage of this goodwill, hijacking customers’ accounts and convincing companies to send them free replacements for items they never bought.

  Cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs recently looked into a spate of warranty fraud attempts involving Fitbit products.

  Toward the end of 2015, large amounts of Fitbit customer data was being posted online — the kind of data you’d need to make a warranty claim on a broken device.

  But this information apparently didn’t come from some sort of data breach at the fitness accessory company. Instead, it was gleaned from various sources — password-stealing malware, careless Fitbit customers who use common passwords or the same email/password combination across multiple accounts.

  Once an ID thief accesses a customer’s account, they can change its associated email address so that the customer isn’t alerted to future communications.

  “[A]t that point they are the customer,” explains Fitbit’s head of security, telling Krebs that the fraudster will then call up Fitbit to file a warranty complaint and get a replacement.

  “They’re mainly interested in the premium devices,” like the $250 Fitbit Surge, he says.

  Since ill-gotten electronics are often sold for significantly less than their retail price, it makes sense that scammers would go after the most expensive items.

  The Fitbit exec says that the company has put new systems in place and re-trained its warranty folks in an effort to end the hemorrhaging.

  “If we see an account that was used in a suspicious way, or a large number of login requests for accounts coming from a small group of Internet addresses, we’ll lock the account and have the customer reconfirm specific information,” he tells Krebs.

  Fitbit says it is planning to beef up protection against ID theft by offering two-factor authentication — which requires that the user not just enter a password, but also a unique code sent to their phone or other device — but the company’s security chief is realistic and doesn’t really expect less-savvy Fitbit users to take advantage of the improved security.

  “I’m not sure the type of user who is using the same password at every site is the great target for that,” he points out.

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uAmazon Won’t Say If Employee Added Unrequested Dildo To Customer’s Cartr

4 4 4 9

• 
  In the world of customer service, there are usually a few, easily predictable responses from companies that we encounter: either an issue gets resolved to the satisfaction of the customer, whether quickly or with a bit of effort, or it doesn’t. But one Amazon customer found himself in wholly unfamiliar territory after providing negative feedback, when, he claims, an employee of the e-commerce giant put an unrequested 10-inch dildo in his shopping basket.

  Ars Technica UK’s Sebastian Anthony has been in touch with a customer named Pedro, who lives in Ireland. Back in October, he’d ordered a specialized textbook he needed for an art class on Amazon.de, but was disappointed when it arrived to find that although the listing had been for the current edition, he’d received the previous edition.

  After he got in touch with customer service, he was told that Amazon couldn’t find the right version of the textbook and that he should instead return the book for a full refund. He was frustrated at that point, as he’d spent time looking for the right book and then more time waiting for Amazon to locate it in its warehouse, so he provided negative feedback on a customer satisfaction survey. End of story, or so he thought.

  He says that the next time he opened up Amazon.de — surprise! He found a giant dildo in his shopping basket. Because he hadn’t put “The Hulk 10.25-inch Huge Dong Black” to his cart, he immediately suspected an Amazon customer service rep had taken the negative feedback to heart and had retaliated with a sex toy.

  Kind of funny, sure, except that he wasn’t alone when he opened up the page.

  “The problem is, I was at the office, in an open space, with people behind me. A guy and two girls were sitting by me when I opened up Amazon and they saw the contents of my shopping basket,” Pedro told Ars UK’s Anthony.

  He took a screenshot and emailed Amazon to find out why he had an unsolicited dildo in his shopping basket. After a few emails from several customer service representatives, he spoke with a member of the Executive Customer Relations team at Amazon.de on Oct. 22. Pedro says the rep was very sympathetic and apologized profusely, assuring him that he’d been in touch with HR to make sure that such an incident wasn’t repeated.

  As a gesture of apology, the rep told Pedro he’d receive a €100 voucher on his Amazon.de account, which he then received. When Pedro explained how annoying the situation had been (Pedro sent us a screenshot of the €100 that was credited to his account, pictured right.)

  Later in the phone call, after Pedro explained how irritating the whole situation had been, the rep sympathized and said he couldn’t understand how an associate from customer service could’ve added the dildo, but that he unfortunately hadn’t been able to talk to the employee and couldn’t say what his intention had been.

  Pedro asked why the rep hadn’t been able to speak with the associate involved, wondering whether he’d been fired or put on paid leave. The rep replied that he wasn’t allowed to talk about “that internal process,” which might lead one to believe that he had indeed been let go.

  Ars UK’s Anthony wanted to figure out whether or not Pedro’s story was true, and spent a few months trying to nail down the details, using correspondence Pedro forwarded from Amazon’s customer service team. Ars believes the situation is authentic.

  Amazon, for its part, at first said it couldn’t comment on the case due to its privacy policy. Once Pedro gave his permission for the company to speak with Ars on his behalf, Anthony reached out repeatedly for either confirmation or a denial, and didn’t get any response. He also contacted the company and said he intended to write about the incident, and asked if Amazon wanted to provide a statement. Again, nothing.

  Pedro says he’s mostly mollified at this point, though still ticked off at the amount of time and energy he had to expend on dildo-gate.

  So why is it possible for Amazon associates to have access to your shopping cart? One big reason: if you’re not very Internet savvy and need help adding or removing things, a customer might ask for help from customer service while shopping.

  To that end, a commenter on the Ars Technica U.S. post explains that customer service reps have the ability to “spoof” a customer’s account — which means they can create “a temporary encryption key to use along with your e-mail address so that we can log into the website as you without having access to your password,” for exactly the kinds of instances where someone has issues using the Internet may need help. Again, it’s intended to be used as a tool for helping others, not pranks.

  In any case, Pedro adds in the comments, he’s not a fan of Amazon.de after this experience. And he wouldn’t trust their sex toy descriptions, to boot.

  “Anyway, the entry for ‘The Hulk’ is completely misleading,” he writes. “I would expect something called ‘The Hulk’ to be green. It’s picture is pink and the description says it is black. My whole issue with Amazon.de started because of incorrect description of items — and this entry does not help their case.”

  <a href="http://ift.tt/1MToD64” target=”_blank”>Amazon Won’t Say If Employee Added Unrequested Dildo To Customer’s Cart [Ars Technica UK]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uMacy’s, Bloomingdale’s Accused Of Inflating “Original” Prices To Make Discounts More Attractiver

4 4 4 9

• 

  Over the past several months, consumers have sued a number of retailers accusing them of advertising “false” original prices on discounted or outlet merchandise. Joining a list that includes Kohl’s and Kate Spade are Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s. 

  Two shoppers, one in Florida and one in California, filed a class-action seeking lawsuit [PDF] against Macy’s Inc. — parent company of both Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s — alleging that these department stores misled customers by boosting pre-sale prices.

  One plaintiff says she purchased a Lennox ornament for $17.99 after being enticed by the thought of saving significantly (about 70%) from the purported original price of $60. However, the suit claims that the ornament was never sold for $60 at Macy’s or other retailers.

  According to the lawsuit, the retailers regularly use deceptive and misleading labeling and marketing of merchandise they sell at their retail locations, including outlet stores across the U.S.

  The suit accuses the companies of misrepresenting the nature and amount of price discounts on products by “offering steep discounted off of fabricated, arbitrary, and false former or purported original, regular or ‘compare at’ prices.”

  

  Specifically, tags for merchandise sold at the stores included prices that were artificially inflated and did not represent the true price at which the products were previously sold, or the market price for the item.

  The merchandise also included tags or stickers on the labels, or signs above the display, that showed a purported discount off the false original, regular, or compare at price, the suit claims.

  “In some instances, [the retailers] represented that the listed or original price was two or more times the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (“MSRP”), and then offered the item at a purported 50% or more discount price which was in fact the original MSRP,” according to the complaint.

  In reality, the suit claims that the prices used by Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s were a sham.

  “In fact, such items were not generally sold at the ‘original’ or ‘compare at’ price listed on their labels, or at least not a substantial number of such items, including not within 90 days of the advertised or represented original or compare at price,” the suit states. “The original, regular or compare at price listed on [the retailers’] products were and are prices chosen by to enable them to engage in their phantom markdown scheme.”

  The suit seeks restitution and disgorgement, injunctive relief, and other costs that exceed $5 million.

  [via Cincinnati Business Journal]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uSorry, Person Named Chanel, You Can’t Use Your First Name As An Instagram Handler

4 4 4 9

• 
  When you’re an early adopter of a website, that means you have your pick of usernames. A young lady in Canada registered for Instagram early on, before Facebook acquired the company. Her username was her real first name: Chanel. Eventually, brands began to use the service, and that’s when the fashion house of the same name found that someone had already registered @chanel. Now no one is using that ID. Why?

  The most likely explanation, The Fashion Law reports, is that Chanel (the brand) made its case to Instagram, which recognized the company’s trademark and turned the username over to Chanel (the brand). Chanel (the brand) joined Instagram three years after Chanel (the person) did.

  “Chanel,” of course, was the actual last name of the woman who founded the company, and the fashionable Vancouverite was probably named after the brand. According to Fashion Law, she had 40,000 followers before her account disappeared, compared to the fashion brand’s 9.1 million.

  There is a precedent for this kind of thing when it comes to Chanel: a salon owner in Indiana with the same first name called her business, logically, Chanel’s Salon. After sending multiple cease and desist letters, the company won a 2014 lawsuit. You may think that you have the right to your own name, but you don’t if your name is a pre-existing trademark. Could someone assume that the salon is connected with the fashion brand? It’s possible.

  “Nothing herein may be read to prohibit Jones from using her personal name solely in a personal, non-commercial capacity, or to otherwise identify herself,” the judge wrote in the Indiana salon case, “provided that Ms. Jones does not use her name in any manner that suggests an affiliation or relationship with Chanel.”

  Chanel (the Instagramming human) told The Fashion Law that she has been advised not to talk about the situation by her lawyer, which indicates that the company probably took over the account.

  Chanel May Have Just Won a Battle for the Chanel Instagram Account [The Fashion Law] (via Racked)

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uMake Sure Your Computer Is Powerful Enough For The Oculus Rift Before You Spend $599 On Oner

4 4 4 9

• As expected, the consumer version of the Facebook-owned Oculus Rift virtual reality headset went on sale today, but at a higher price than some had predicted. But even if you don’t mind spending $599 for the device, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got a computer powerful enough to use it.

  Unlike the Samsung Gear VR, which uses Oculus technology but is powered by the phone you attach to the $99 headset, the Rift requires a connection to an external Windows PC.

  So if you’re on a Mac or other non-Windows computer — or if you’re one of the growing number of people who don’t have a personal PC anymore because their phone suffices for all things Internet — then you’re throwing your money away on the Rift.

  Thus, on the Oculus pre-order site, there’s a link to download an application that runs a quick check to see if your computer can handle the device.

  Not that we’re planning to spend $599 on a VR headset anytime soon, but out of curiosity we ran the test on a few PCs lying around the Consumerist compound — all failed.

  The above results came from a mid-range ASUS laptop purchased new only a few months ago. Neither its graphics card nor its processing power were found to be up to snuff.

  We also tried the test on a pair of gaming PCs that, while not exactly new, have had no issues playing new, graphics-heavy games. Neither had enough processing power or sufficient USB ports, and only one had a compatible graphics card.

  In short, your average consumer is not going to have the computing power to do anything with the Rift, making it a $599 paperweight.

  Speaking of the price, a number of prognosticators had predicted that the Rift would ultimately go for closer to $450, putting it in the ballpark of the cost for a new gaming console.

  The company had hinted at the price in previous statements, saying that it would cost $1,500 to have a Rift headset and a new Rift-worthy PC. Today’s price reveal bumps that total up a bit.

  After a PC fails the Rift pre-test, the app links to a place on the Oculus store where you can purchase PCs that will run the device. The least expensive of those is $949. So you’re talking closer to $1,600 for headset and a PC guaranteed to run it.

  The Wall Street Journal expresses skepticism about the price, wondering if it’s so high that it will keep the Rift from reaching enough consumers.

  We think that the problem is the need for such pricey external support. With so many people using their mobile devices as their main personal computing tools, it may be a hard sell to ask consumers to commit to spending that much money just for the novelty of virtual reality, no matter how immersive.

  It’s possible that Oculus is deliberately trying to limit the Rift’s availability to high-tech early adopters while it awaits the rollout of the next generation of devices, including the PlayStation VR headset.

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uDiet App Claims To Help You Watch Your Weight By Scanning The Molecules In Your Foodr

4 4 4 9

• 
  It’s a new year, and you know what that means: new diet plans — or at least, you might be promising yourself to stick to a new diet plan. But it isn’t easy, which you know if you’ve ever sat staring longingly at the last piece of cheese on the plate, wondering whether it will totally screw up your resolution to finally lose just five more pounds. A new app and its connected smart device claims it can do just that, scan your food and let you know whether or not it’ll lead you from your chosen diet path.

  Our friends at Consumer Reports are roaming the booths at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show and came across the DietSensor app, which purports help to help folks maintain their diets by way of a gadget that scans the molecules in food via an optical sensor. It then spits out information in the connected app with ratings on carbs, calories, protein, and fat, and tells you what you should eat for the rest of the day.

  Based on the food you’ve already scanned up to that point, the app may then ask, somewhat passive-aggressively, “Sure you need to eat more?” or tell you you’re good to go.

  The app will only work if you’re checking homogenous foods — so again, cheese, or a piece of bread, or a slab of honey-cured ham. If you want to find out what’s in your pizza and whether it’ll ruin your diet, you’ll have to add that information manually to your log.

  It’s also a bit pricy: the gadget itself is $249, while the app will cost $10-$20 per month when it becomes available.
  

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uBye Bye Puking Rainbows: Snapchat Shuttering Lens Storer

4 4 4 9

• Two months after Snapchat opened the Lens Store to offer users the option to jazz up their self-destructing messages, the company is shutting down the venture. 

  Snapchat announced the change in a support notice on its site Wednesday, noting that while the Lens Store would cease to exist starting Jan. 8 (this Friday), it’s not doing away with the so-called lenses — which add special effects and sounds to messages — completely.

  Instead, the company says it will still offer users about 10 free lenses each day, including some that are sponsored by movies, companies, and other organizations, Mashable reports.

  The Lens Store, which launched in November, allowed users to purchase special effects filled add-ons for $0.99 each.

  Snapchat says that some of the company’s most popular lenses – you might be familiar with the puking rainbow – will eventually be available through its free offerings.

  Still, the company warns that it plans to change the free offerings on a regular basis, and that users can’t actually save those options for later use.

  Snapchatters who previously purchased lenses through the Lens Store will continue to be able to use them.

  [via Mashable]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uNetflix Goes Live In More Than 130 New Countries (But Not China)r

4 4 4 9

• In the span of an hour this morning, Netflix more than tripled the number of countries in which it offers service, effectively serving everywhere in the world with one huge exception: China.

  When we woke up this morning, Netflix was available in around 60 countries, which is a pretty big feat for any company that has to deal with the insane logistics of streaming video to customers around the globe. There’s not just the technical issues of delivering the data, but also acquiring content and making sure it’s licensed correctly in each market.

  This morning, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings ended his keynote address at CES International by saying that the number one question he gets asked when traveling the world is “When is Netflix gonna come here?”

  Then, said Hastings, “While we have been here on stage at CES, we switched Netflix on in Azerbaijan, in Vietnam, in India, in Nigeria, in Poland, in Russia, in Saudi Arabia, in Singapore, in South Korea, in Turkey, in Indonesia, and in 130 new countries.”

  Hastings acknowledged the vast hole that is China, saying that “we hope to also be [there] in the future.”

  Netflix had been largely unavailable to the continents of Africa and Asia, but today’s additions mean that the company is now streaming to every continent — including Antarctica.

  Likewise, the previously omitted Central and Eastern portions of Europe are now included under the Netflix umbrella.

  Missing from the list of countries are Crimea, North Korea, and Syria. Federal restrictions prevent U.S. companies from doing business in these corners of the world.

  With new countries come new languages. Netflix was already available in 17 different languages around the world but today added support for Arabic, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

  “Today you are witnessing the birth of a new global Internet TV network,” said Hastings in a statement released after the keynote. “With this launch, consumers around the world — from Singapore to St. Petersburg, from San Francisco to Sao Paulo — will be able to enjoy TV shows and movies simultaneously — no more waiting. With the help of the Internet, we are putting power in consumers’ hands to watch whenever, wherever and on whatever device.”

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uWill This Biofeedback Sleep Hat Improve Your Slumber?r

4 4 4 9

• Nightcaps–as in hats that you wear while sleeping, not sipping booze before bedtime–have gone = out of style with the spread of central heating, but maybe it didn’t have to be that way. For $150, an actual product that’s on the market promises to use biofeedback to monitor your brain waves and lull you to sleep, which is apparently a thing that people really want in a device.

  The Sleep Shepherd was funded on Kickstarter back in 2014, and we’re glad to see a crowdfunded project successfully reach the market. Does the Sleep Shepherd actually work, though, and is it worth $150?

  The company itself uses studies on 20 adults and 15 adolescents to prove its efficacy, which isn’t a very large sample. Our hard-napping colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports put the cap on one tester, who found that it was cozy, but functioned pretty much as a personal white noise machine. You can get a nice white noise machine for less than $150, and tuning your radio to static is even free.

  

  Amazon reviews for the size “medium” hat are mixed, averaging three stars. “The night before anything significant, this device is no match for my racing brain and just adds to my misery while staring at the side of my eyelids,” writes one reviewer who gave the device only one star. “It’s possible it may have helped me achieve a deeper state of sleep when my mind wasn’t racing to begin with.”

  The Sleep Shepherd is not advertised as a medical device, and therefore not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. We have to question the company calling their product an “all-natural sleep aid” when it’s a hat with speakers and little electronic box on top of your head, since that is not a thing found in nature. That claim is apparently because the cap is meant to mimic the feeling of sleeping in a hammock without needing to hang hooks from your ceiling.

  Can the Sleep Shepherd Sleeping Cap Lull You Into Sweet Slumber? [Consumer Reports]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uReport Finds That As E-Cigarette Ad Spending Increases So Does Teens’ Use Of The Devicesr

4 4 4 9

• 

  About 2.4 million teens smoked e-cigarettes last year, and that number is poised to rise, thanks in part to the tens of millions of dollars device manufactures have poured into advertisements for the products, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

  The agency’s Vital Signs report found that more than 18 million young people see e-cigarette advertising in stores, online, in newspapers and magazines, or on television and in movies, increasing the likelihood they’ll eventually pick up one of the devices.

  In fact, the report, which is based on a 2014 survey of 22,000 children and teens, found a correlation between increased ad spending and the number of teens who are using e-cigarettes.

  The industry has rapidly increased marketing spending from $6.4 million in 2011 to $115 million in 2014, according to the CDC report.

  During that same time period, e-cigarette use in the past 30 days increased from less than 1% to almost 4% among middle school students and from less than 2% to 13% among high school students.

  “Exposure to e-cigarette advertisements may be contributing to increases in e-cigarette use among youth,” the CDC hypothesizes.

  According to the CDC, the continued uptick in advertising of e-cigarettes threatens to undo decades of campaigns that focused on keeping teens away from tobacco products.

  That’s because e-cigarette ads use many of the same themes – independence, rebellion, and sex – used to sell cigarettes and other conventional tobacco products.

  

  “The same advertising tactics the tobacco industry used years ago to get kids addicted to nicotine are now being used to entice a new generation of young people to use e-cigarettes,” CDC Director Tom Frieden, said in a statement. “Kids should not be using e-cigarettes and yet two-thirds of kids in this country are seeing e-cigarette ads.”

  In all, the CDC report found that 68.9% of middle and high school students see ads from one or more media sources.

  Most see e-cigarette ads in retail stores – about 54.8% – while about 39.8% view ads online. Similarly, nearly 36.5% of teens see the products on TV or in movies, and 30.4% reported viewing ads in newspapers and magazines in the last year.

  The CDC and health advocates warn that if advertising, and other aspects of the e-cigarette industry aren’t regulated soon, more and more young people will be drawn to the devices.

  “The irresponsible and indiscriminate marketing by the e-cigarette industry, coupled with a complete lack of government oversight, is putting the health of our nation’s kids at risk,” Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, tells NBC News. “It shouldn’t be a surprise that youth use of e-cigarettes has skyrocketed when kids are being inundated with marketing for these products.”

  E-cigarettes have become increasingly popular in recent years, while the Food & Drug Administration has been slow to implement federal regulations.

  While we wait for a final verdict on the FDA’s proposed regulations over e-cigarettes, the CDC suggests states and communities can do more to protect their youngest residents from the devices and the advertisements that go along with them. Those strategies include:

  • Limiting tobacco product sales to facilities that never admit youth,
  • Restricting the number of stores that sell tobacco and how close they can be to schools,
  • Requiring that e-cigarettes be sold only through face-to-face transactions, not on the Internet, and
  • Requiring age verification to enter e-cigarette vendor’s websites, make purchases, and accept deliveries of e-cigarettes.

  “States and communities can also help reduce youth tobacco use by funding tobacco prevention and control programs that address the diversity of tobacco products available on the market, including e-cigarettes,” Corinne Graffunder, director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said in a statement. “We know what works to effectively reduce youth tobacco use. If we were to fully invest in these proven strategies, we could significantly reduce the staggering toll that tobacco takes on our families and communities.”

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uFather Claims 10-Year-Old Daughter Experienced “Uncomfortable” Two-Minute TSA Pat-Downr

4 4 4 9

• 
  While it’s normal for travelers to undergo additional screening procedures from the Transportation Security Administration when there could be something amiss, the father of a 10-year-old girl says she was made uncomfortable by a two-minute pat-down after she left a juice pouch in her carry-on.

  The San Diego man says his daughter was thoroughly patted down by a female TSA agent for almost two minutes at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, an experience he said clearly made her feel uncomfortable.

  “She just had a completely blank stare on her face,” he told the Today show. “I could tell it was very uncomfortable for her.”

  Agents swabbed her bag after discovering the juice — which exceeds TSA limits for how much liquid can be brough on a plane — and got a false-positive reading for explosives on the bag. The pat-down followed.

  “What was going through my mind is, ‘This is annoying, I don’t like this, I want to run out of the door,'” the daughter told the show.

  According to TSA protocol, “Modified screening procedures are in place to reduce the likelihood of a pat-down.”

  “TSA screening procedures allow for the pat-down of a child under certain circumstances,” the agency said in a statement. The process by which the child was patted down followed approved procedures.”

  In this particular situation, TSA said the process was observed by her parent, and that a cell phone alarm sounding in her bag required additional checks.

  But her dad says the rules should be changed when it comes to young children. He’s contacted his congressman and will file a formal complaint against the agency, he says.

  “Maybe they need retraining. Maybe they did everything by the book. I don’t really know, but it was an uncomfortable situation,” he said.

  Father Outraged By ‘Uncomfortable’ TSA Pat-Down on 10-Year-Old Daughter [Today]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uESPN Admits: Tweets By Adam Schefter & Chris Mortensen Were Unmarked Ads For Domino’sr

4 4 4 9

• 
  Plenty of famous people post Tweets, Facebook updates, and Instagram photos where they mention a product or company name that they truly enjoy. But if those celebs are getting paid to slap their name on these messages, they need to be transparent about it. A pair of sportscasters at ESPN apparently missed that memo when they recently name-dropped Domino’s Pizza on Twitter.

  In the lead-up to New Year’s, during which ESPN aired a seemingly endless string of college football bowl games, both Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen appeared to have a hunger for the same brand of mega-chain pizza:

  There’s nothing better on NYE than some football and @Dominos #HomeOnNYE

  — Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) December 31, 2015

  New Years Eve means college football and @Dominos pizza.

  — Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 31, 2015

  What are the odds of both sportscasters feeling so overwhelmed by a need for Domino’s that they needed to mention it on Twitter within 24 hours of each other? Pretty slim, thought the folks at Deadspin, who checked with ESPN.

  Lo and behold, the network confirmed that these Tweets were indeed bought and paid for by Domino’s — they just happened to forget to mark the Tweets as advertisements, as required by the FTC Act.

  Celebrities are learning that if they get paid to shill a product on their social media channels, they are going to be held to the same standards as traditional ads.

  Earlier this year, Kim Kardashian was caught by the FDA blabbing about a prescription morning sickness medication without (A) revealing that it was a paid endorsement, and (B) providing any of the required disclosures about the drug’s effects. She ultimately had to post a lengthy mea culpa on Instagram with the information she’d omitted.

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uStar Wars Monopoly Game Getting Female Character After Allr

4 4 4 9

• 
  Hasbro recently explained that the reason it didn’t include the main character from Star Wars: The Force Awakens in its new Star Wars-themed Monopoly game wasn’t because she was a female, but because it didn’t want to spoil info about her character that was already quite obvious from the trailers. But now that everyone and their goldfish has done their mandatory 135-minute duty and watched the movie, Hasbro is going to add a woman to the Monopoly mix.

  “We love the passion fans have for Rey, and are happy to announce that we will be making a running change to include her in the Monopoly: Star Wars game available later this year,” a rep for Hasbro tells EW.

  Now that this is settled, perhaps Hasbro can do something about moving Des Moines back to Iowa?

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uHow Much Does This Bottle Of Stain Remover Cost?r

4 4 4 9

• Welcome to Target! The normal rules of logic do not apply here, and addition and subtraction also work differently, so you need to evaluate all price tags and signs that say “Sale” or even “Clearance” carefully. Are you up to the challenge? Then you can shop at Target. Congratulations. Here is your first assignment: help reader Bill figure out how much this bottle of Oxi Clean costs.

  

  He actually purchased the item, and it rang up at $2.76, the “sale” price. “The ‘regular’ price on the shelf says $2.49,” he wrote. That’s not what his receipt said, though. There’s another variable, and that’s what Target claims the “original” price is.

  “The ‘sale’ price this week is $2.76, based on a ‘regular’ price of $3.07. Which one is real?” he wrote to Consumerist. Did he overpay by 27¢, or did he save 31¢? Perhaps he should simply be grateful that he was allowed to escape unharmed.

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uThousands Of Chicago Comcast Customers Could Lose HD Service Because Of Old Boxesr

4 4 4 9

• 
  Comcast is just about ready to flip the switch on upgrades to its network in Chicago, but thousands of area customers could be left without HD service if they are still using older set-top cable boxes.

  According to the Chicago Tribune, Comcast began alerting affected customers in the fall of the need to trade in their old boxes for new ones that will work properly on the network. However, the notices did not provide customers with any specific deadline.

  Which is a bit of a problem now because Comcast could turn on the upgraded network as soon as… today, leaving those people who haven’t switched their boxes without the service they pay for.

  The company downplays the scope of the issue by noting that most people have made the switch while acknowledging that there are “only” a “few thousand left” who have not.

  Customers in Chicago who need to switch out their old set-top boxes can get self-install kits from Comcast either by mail or by going to a Comcast retail location. But if you need to have someone come out and do the install for you, that’ll be $50.

  The model numbers for the outdated boxes are: DCH3416, DCT6200, DCH3200, DCT6412, DCT3416, DCT6416, DCH6416, DCT5100, DCH6200, DCT3412 and DCT6208. If you’re not sure, the Tribune says you go to channel 1995 and follow the instructions there to see if your existing box is compatible.

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uPanera Says Its Entire Soup Menu Is Now Devoid Of All Artificial Ingredientsr

4 4 4 9

• 
  Panera Bread’s stand against artificial ingredients is marching ahead apace, with an announcement from the company that it’s eliminated artificial flavors, preservatives, colors, and flavors from its entire line of soups. It’s all part of the chain’s plan to go additive-free by the end of this year.

  The chain says its soup menu is “clean” now that its removed ingredients on its “No No List” of artificial additives.

  For example, Broccoli Cheddar Soup will no longer contain additives like hydrolyzed soy and corn protein and sodium phosphate, ingredients which are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, which you’ll find in many soup recipes from companies like Campbell’s and Progresso. Other ingredients that have been ditched include maltodextrin and sodium phosphate – no longer appear in any of the Company’s bakery-cafe soups.

  It took some work to go through each soup recipe: Panera says Broccoli Cheddar alone was revised 60 times.

  “I want to create soups that our guests will love” said Dan Kish, Panera Bread’s Head Chef in the company’s press release. “And equally important, I want them to understand and feel confident in the ingredients that go into those soups. We’ve long been advocates of transparency – providing full ingredient information online – and with these new recipes we have even more to be proud of today.”

  The items that have been removed haven’t been proven to be unhealthy, but Panera says they just weren’t needed. Companies like Campbell’s and Progresso that sell soup in stores need them to have a long shelf life, but because Panera serves a lot of soup in a short time period — about 200 million servings a year, the company estimates — preservatives aren’t as necessary.

  “Time and again, we’ve found that when you replace artificial additives with simpler ingredients, you achieve a better taste,” said Kish.

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uGrand Jury Subpoenas Chipotle Over California Norovirus Outbreakr

4 4 4 9

• 

  A grand jury is investigating the circumstances surrounding a norovirus outbreak at Chipotle. Not the recent one in Boston that sickened more than 150 people, but the August outbreak in California that left more than 100 employees and customers ill.

  Chipotle told investors in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing [PDF] on Wednesday that it had received a grand jury subpoena seeking documents related to the mid-August outbreak in Simi Valley, CA.

  “It is not possible at this time to determine whether we will incur, or to reasonably estimate the amount of, any fines, penalties or further liabilities in connection with the investigation pursuant to which the subpoena was issued,” the filing said.

  A spokesperson for Chipotle tells CNBC that “as a matter of policy” the company doesn’t comment on pending legal actions, but that it will offer “our full cooperation” to the investigation.

  In August, the Simi Valley Chipotle restaurant was closed for a short time after nearly 60 customers and 17 employees complained about feeling ill following visits to the restaurant.

  At the time, the cause of the outbreak, which sent several customers to the hospital, was unknown.

  Mike Byrne, Ventura County Environmental Health Division food safety supervisor, said that inspectors and specialists were following up with those who became sick to try to determine if the illnesses stemmed from a specific food problem or if changes are needed make sure food is safe.

  Customers and employees reported various symptoms following their visits, including fever, diarrhea and vomiting.

  One customer said that she and her sister became ill after eating at the restaurant on August. 18.

  “We were throwing up, going to the bathroom. We had really bad chills,” she said. “I just want to get the answer.”

  [via CNBC]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uMicrosoft Ends An Era: Support For Internet Explorer 8, 9, And 10 Stops Next Weekr

4 4 4 9

• The end is nigh: as of Tuesday, January 12, Microsoft will issue its final support patch for versions 8, 9, and 10 of its Internet Explorer browser, bringing one of the web’s clunkiest tools one step closer to vanishing.

  The Verge reports that the final security update will deliver the last few bug fixes the browser is going to get, as well as an “end of life” notification telling users to go upgrade to Microsoft Edge already.

  The move isn’t really a surprise; all three of the doomed versions of Internet Explorer have been living on borrowed time since 2014, when Microsoft announced its intention to stop support eventually. Still, anyone who was stuck using old, unpatched versions of Internet Explorer for years at work, or who ever once came face-to-face with a browser made unusable by toolbar add-ons at their parents’ or grandparents’ house, will likely not lament the end of this era.

  But of course, the end of support does not actually mean the end of use.

  Millions of users — maybe as many as 340 million, by one analysis — still have IE 8, 9, or 10 running on their computers right now, and an end to patches means that software will quickly become ever-more vulnerable. Hacker-types are always pushing against software, and regular patches are software’s way of pushing back. Without those patches, security holes will be left open… and that means the number of available pathways into a machine using IE will increase rapidly, much in the same way computers running Windows XP have been left out in the cold since 2014.

  So if you or someone you know is still relying on an outdated version of Microsoft’s web browser, now would be a really good time to go change that.

  Microsoft is pulling the plug on Internet Explorer 8, 9, and 10 next Tuesday [The Verge]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

uSprint Reportedly Ditching New 2-Year Contracts Starting This Fridayr

4 4 4 9

• 
  Nearly three years after T-Mobile became the first of the four major wireless carriers to ditch the two-year contract business model, Sprint is now the only of these companies to still offer these traditional plans to customers. But a company insider claims that Sprint will join the rest of the pack and ditch contracts later this week.

  This is according to a post from late last night by a verified employee on the Sprint subreddit.

  The employee writes that, starting Friday, Jan. 8, new Sprint customers will not be able to get two-year contracts and the cheaper, subsidized phones that come with them.

  Instead, customers will have to pay full price for their phones, either by purchasing them outright or by leasing through Sprint.

  Like the other carriers, Sprint has been offering this sort of contract-free plan for quite some time, but it has also continued to allow consumers to sign up for traditional contracts.

  Unlike AT&T, which is ditching new contracts altogether this week, the employee says that Sprint will allow existing contract customers to re-up their deals when their obligation expires.

  The employee also says that the change does not affect Sprint’s wireless plans for tablets, but that the company will soon begin offering incentives to nudge contract tablet customers into leasing their devices when their contracts expire.

  As the employee notes, wile contracts might offer you the cheaper sticker price on devices, customers may be able to save more by going contract-free and leasing their phones.

  We asked Sprint for comment on the reddit post and a rep for the company provided a statement that still lists contracts as an option, but doesn’t explain whether they will still be an option after Jan. 8:

  “Sprint continues to offer customers choices to obtain their new device in a way that best fits their budget,” reads the statement. “Customers can choose to lease a smartphone – the most cost effective way to obtain a new phone. Customers also have the choice to pay for their device through Sprint Easy Pay (installment bill), pay full retail price or sign a two-year agreement.”

  We’ve asked for further clarification on this issue and will update if we hear back.

  [via DSLreports]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uYahoo Hit With Class-Action Lawsuit Claiming Messenger Service Sent Spam Texts To Some Usersr

4 4 4 9

• 
  When you sign up for one kind of message service, you might not expect, or want, messages about that service elsewhere. As such, Yahoo is facing a class-action lawsuit that claims the company’s Messenger service spammed some Sprint cellphone customers with unwanted texts, which could put it on the line for costly fines if it loses in court.

  U.S. District Judge Manish Shah ordered that a lawsuit originally filed by an Illinois resident in 2014 now applies to all Sprint cellular customers in the U.S. who received a certain kind of text message from Yahoo in March 2013, reports the Wall Street Journal. That could mean more than 500,000 members, the judge wrote.

  The complaint claims Yahoo violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 by sending unsolicited text messages — or spam texts — from Yahoo Messenger. It essentially took instant messages and translated them into texts that could be sent to a cellphone, including a “welcome message” that urges the user to respond.

  The lawsuit wants Yahoo to pay at least $500 for every violation of the rule, which bars unsolicited automated texts, phone calls or fax messages, and allows the recipient to sue for damages of $500 to $1,500 per violation.

  Yahoo isn’t commenting on pending litigation, but says that the texts aren’t spam at all, they’re a good thing — because they’re “not the type of annoying, intrusive mass communication” barred by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Instead, they simply alert recipients that they’ve gotten a message from another user, say what that message is and gives them actions to take, one of which is blocking future messages.

  Yahoo Faces Class-Action Suit Over Spam Texts [Wall Street Journal]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uChick-fil-A’s “Mom’s Valet” Aims To Take The Stress Out Of Dining With Childrenr

4 4 4 9

• 

  A simple trip for fast food can become anxiety-inducing when you throw a carful of excited kids into the mix. In an attempt to quell this chaos, Chick fil-A is testing a new service dubbed “Mom’s Valet.”
  

  The service, Business Insider reports, enables parents with children to order their meals via the drive-thru, then come inside with their brood to eat.

  Once an order is placed and paid for at the drive-thru, a Chick-fil-A employee will prepare a table for them and bring their order to them.

  David Farmer, Chick-fil-A’s vice president of menu strategy and development, tells Business Insider that the idea for the service came about after employees noticed how hectic the ordering process could be for families.

  The service, which will be advertised on participating restaurants’ drive-thru signs, is part of the company’s focus on “taking the stress out,” and making the dining experience more relaxing for all customers.

  Chick-fil-A is making an unprecedented move to hook millennial moms [Business Insider]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uPay Tolls Directly When Renting A Car, Or Face Modest Yet Annoying Feesr

4 4 4 9

• 
  Last year, I rented a car while mine was off having damage fixed. The danger in renting a car and then going about your normal routine is that you may forget that the rental car doesn’t have a toll transponder, and breeze through the EZPass lane as you normally would. I knew what was coming: a $25 bill for my 60¢ toll. Reader Allen didn’t know, and had to pay $35 for a $1 toll. Let these experiences serve as cautionary tales.

  The good news is that you aren’t going to be hit with a substantial fine for zooming through an automated toll gate without paying. The booths instead charge the toll to the registered owner of the vehicle, or some rental companies will rent you the necessary local transponder. Either way, you’re going to pay an “administrative fee” for the service.

  Allen, for example, drove through a toll gate, but didn’t know that by using this toll service he would then activate PlatePass for his entire Hertz rental period. “I learned, much to my dismay, that Hertz now uses a service called PlatePass that will charge you a fee for each day in which you rent a car, even if you only use the service once,” he grumbled to Consumerist.

  Yes, even though he only used toll roads on one day of his rental, the daily service fee applied to each day that he had the car.

  Compared to the total bill when you rent a car, being charged $4.95 per day plus actual tolls isn’t so bad. Yet it’s frustrating to receive a bill for something that could have been prevented if you only had a dollar handy, or hadn’t chosen the automated lane out of habit.

  SEE ALSO:
  Watch Out For Car Rental Companies’ Convenient Service To Pay Tolls
  Hertz Alienates Longtime Customer With $10 Convenience Fee For 75 Cent Toll

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist