jikAd Watchdog Says Sprint Should Stop Calling Itself ‘New’ And ‘Improved’de

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(Will Middelar)

Is Sprint really the U.S. carrier with an all-new network infrastructure and the most improved customer service in the industry? Their ads would have you think so, but competitor T-Mobile complained to the self-regulating watchdogs over at the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council. Here’s what they found out after investigating the claims that Sprint makes in its ads.

What are those claims? Here are a few that T-Mobile cited in their complaint:

• “[A network] that now delivers faster speeds, better call quality and fewer dropped calls.”


• “Now is the time to try America’s Newest Network. Why? Because at Sprint, when we say America’s Newest network, we mean a brand new network. We started from the ground up and built an all-new network that now delivers faster speeds and better call quality.”


• “Sprint is the most improved U.S. company in customer satisfaction, across all 43 industries, over the last six years.”

Of course, anyone who watches ads critically knows that “most improved U.S. company in customer satisfaction” probably means that company has gone from bad to merely mediocre. NAD’s analysis shows that even that isn’t true in the case of Sprint: while the company’s customer service ratings with the ACSI went up from 2008 to 2011, this figure conveniently ignores ratings since 2011. It will probably not surprise you that Sprint’s customer service rating has gone down during that period, which is conveniently left out of the statistic.

What about the claims that the network is new, though? While Sprint has been working hard to upgrade its network for the last few years, alienating current customers in the process, they’ve been upgrading it. Using words like “new” and “from the ground up” implies that Sprint tossed out the entire old network and started over from nothing. While Sprint’s LTE service has vastly improved, that doesn’t make it new.

In a statement, Sprint told NAD that it would take the group’s findings into consideration for future ads.

NAD Recommends Sprint Discontinue ‘New’ Network, Customer Satisfaction Claims, Following T-Mobile Challenge [ASRC]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikDick’s Sporting Goods Ditching Some Adidas Merchandise In Favor Of New Celebrity Linede

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Dick’s Sporting Goods wants you to show people your armpits just like Carrie.

The Adidas section at your local Dick’s Sporting Goods stores might seem a bit smaller soon, as the company has decided to hitch its apple wagon to a celebrity star and turn the spotlight on its new line of women’s workout gear.

Dick’s announced today that it’ll be cutting back on items from Adidas and Reebok (which is also owned by Adidas), to make room for a line of fitness clothing launching Thursday called Calia by Carrie Underwood, reports the Wall Street Journal.

(For those not in the know, Underwood is an American Idol winner and country singer/star famous person.)

Dick’s Chief Executive Ed Stack said Calia is going to be the main focus this spring season, as other apparel makers try to step up their women’s sportswear offerings as well.

Because anyone who’s ever worn yoga pants knows they’re not just for the workout — no way, soft pants (or any “athleisure” items) are for any time you darn well please. And retailers know this.

“This is a category that’s a terrific category right now,” Stack told the WSJ.

Adidas, which was passed by Under Armour last year for the No. 2 largest athletic gear maker by retail sales behind Nike, didn’t provide a comment regarding the section shrinkage to the WSJ.

Dick’s Kicks Adidas Off Shelves to Make Space for ‘Idol’ Ware [Wall Street Journal]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikChase Hit With $50 Million Settlement Over Robosigned Mortgage Documentsde

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(Dan Coulter)

The nation’s biggest banks have already been hit with billions of dollars in settlements over robosigning — the illegal process of signing and filing important mortgage documents without reviewing them for accuracy — so what’s a few million more? Today, the Justice Dept. announced a settlement with JPMorgan Chase that will require the bank to pay more than $50 million in cash, mortgage credits, and loan forgiveness, to over 25,000 currently and recently bankrupt homeowners.

As part of the deal, which requires court approval, Chase acknowledges more than 50,000 bankruptcy court filings that were signed, under penalty of perjury, by people who had not actually reviewed the documents for accuracy.

According to the DOJ, more than 25,000 of these payment change notices were signed with the names of former Chase employees or of employees who had nothing to do with reviewing the accuracy of the filings. The remaining notices were signed by employees of a third-party vendor unrelated to checking the accuracy of these filings.

“It is shocking that the conduct admitted to by Chase in this settlement, including the filing of tens of thousands of documents in court that never had been reviewed by the people who attested to their accuracy, continued as long as it did,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Stuart F. Delery in a statement.

The $50+ million breaks down as follows:

• $22.4 million in credits and second lien forgiveness to about 400 homeowners who received inaccurate payment increase notices during their bankruptcy cases.

• $10.8 million to more than 12,000 homeowners in bankruptcy through credits or refunds for payment increases or decreases that were not timely filed in bankruptcy court and noticed to the homeowners.

• $4.8 million to more than 18,000 homeowners who did not receive accurate and timely escrow statements. This includes credits for taxes and insurance owed by the homeowners and paid by Chase during periods covered by escrow statements that were not timely filed and transmitted to homeowners.

• $4.9 million, through payment of approximately $600 per loan, to more than 8,000 homeowners whose escrow payments Chase may have applied in a manner inconsistent with escrow statements it provided to the homeowners.

• $7.5 million contribution to the American Bankruptcy Institute’s endowment for financial education and support for the Credit Abuse Resistance Education Program.

Chase also agrees to make internal changes to its technology, policies, and procedures to prevent this from happening again.

An independent private-sector reviewer has been assigned to verify that Chase complies with the settlement order.

The settlement does not prohibit affected homeowners from taking legal actions or seeking additional relief from Chase.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikPolice In New Hampshire Town Issuing Tickets Good For Free Pizza And French Friesde

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This is what fries look like, sometimes. (Dyanna Hyde)

I’m halfway out the door already: Police in a New Hampshire town are rewarding residents for good behavior by issuing them with tickets that are good for free pizza and French fries. I repeat: FREE PIZZA AND FRENCH FRIES.

Winter has been tough in Farmington, N.H., so the police department thought it might be nice to make people happy for getting through the season, reports WMUR.com.

Cops are now roving the town, on the lookout for good citizens to reward with calorie-laden, delicious prizes.

“We’ll be looking not only for people in violation of our laws in the state of New Hampshire, but we’ll also be looking out for people that are following the law – using crosswalks, driving properly, using turn signals,” Chief John Drury of the Farmington Police Department told WMUR.

Residents won’t have to go through the dread of being pulled over with lights or sirens, however — cops will make sure to hand out gift cards safely. Those cards have been donated by a local restaurant, which saw the opportunity to bring people in adfer the chief offered to pay for them all.

“We’ll know that they’re good and they can get a free small fry or grab a slice of pizza – whatever the coupon entitles them to – and they can get on with their day,” a manager at the restaurant told the station. “It’s definitely the best ticket to be getting around here. That’s for sure.”

The original plan for the droolworthy tickets was limited to just March, but police said they might repeat the project in the future if all goes well this time around. What can go wrong when pizza and French fries get together? I’ll let you answer that yourself.

Farmington police awarding good behavior in town [WMUR.com]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikFab.com Brand Sold For Maybe $15 Million-ish, Spinoff Still Sells Furniturede

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You may remember Fab.com from when people were posting affiliate links from them to your Facebook feed almost constantly. The company was massively successful as part of the recession-era flash-sale boom, combining discounts with well-curated products. That model led the company to have hundreds of employees and a $1 billion valuation. Then that business collapsed. Now the Fab.com brand has been sold for…well, the companies involved aren’t disclosing how much the final sale price is.

That makes a simple and easily digestible story, doesn’t it? An e-commerce company had a quick rise, raised hundreds of millions of dollars in investments, and then collapsed, eventually selling the remnants of its business in a fire sale to another company before a quiet, dignified death. That’s not really what happened here, though. While we don’t know how much the Fab.com business sold for, the original figure agreed upon last year was $15 million. The part of the site that used to sell items with cool designs survives, and thats what has been sold to PCH, a custom manufacturing company.

Many of Fab’s resources and employees went to spinoff company Hem, a European-based furniture company that aims to be like, as far as we can tell, a higher-end IKEA.

Onetime Internet Darling Fab.com Sells for Paltry Sum [Bloomberg News]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikDentist Who Claimed Copyright Over Patient’s Yelp Review Must Pay $4,766 In Damagesde

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(catheroo)

Way back in 2011, we told you about a dental patient who said his dentist had gone too far with a “privacy agreement” that preempted patients from publicly complaining about the doctor and claimed copyright on patients’ reviews. After nearly four years of legal wrangling, the dentist has finally been ordered to pay the patient nearly $5,000 in damages, though he may never get it.

Some quick background: The patient complained on Yelp and elsewhere that the dentist had overcharged him and screwed up submitting his claims to his insurer.

The dentist, citing an agreement the patient had signed, demanded the reviews be removed because they “are not considered constructive commentaries but rather as personal attacks to the office’s well-being and reputation.”

The patient refused, resulting in invoices for $100 charges for each day the reviews remained online.

In an attempt to get the write-ups taken down, the dentist claimed copyright ownership of the content under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, but the patient countered that the reviews were protected fair use speech.

According to the default judgement [PDF] by a U.S. District Court in NYC last week, the judge concurs, saying that the prohibition against negative criticism, along with the use of copyright claims to prevent these reviews from being seen “constitute breaches of fiduciary duty and violations of dental ethics and are subject to the equitable defenses of unclean hands, and, as to such assignment and assertion, constitute copyright misuse.”

In the end, the court awarded the patient $4,766 in damages but he’s unlikely to ever see that money as the dentist apparently vanished into the ether in 2013.

[via GigaOm]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikTakata To Double Airbag Replacement Production To 900,000 Kits By Septemberde

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(Listener42)

After facing increased scrutiny by federal regulators in recent weeks regarding an investigation into the massive airbag recall and lack of new safety devices, Japanese auto parts maker Takata announced it will double production of replacement airbags in the next six months.

The Agence France-Presse reports that Takata began to ramp up production efforts in December, increasing replacement kit output from 350,000 to 450,000. By September, the company expects to produce 900,000 kits.

“Takata has dramatically increased the production of airbag replacement kits in support of automotive recalls and safety campaigns,” the company tells AFP. “Takata also is working with other suppliers to further increase the availability of replacement kits for its automotive customers.”

Takata’s move comes after automakers recalled more than 25 million vehicles in 2014 following reports that the Takata-produced airbags can spew pieces of shrapnel at passengers and drivers upon deployment.

So far, six deaths and hundreds of injuries have been linked to the defect.

Takata tells AFP that it is convening a meeting in Michigan this week to go over research related to the airbag defect. The company says preliminary testing supports the assertion that age and long-term exposure to high-heat, high-humidity climates were key factors in the accidents.

Takata has received significant scrutiny from federal regulators since the safety defect came to light.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into the issue back in June. In February, the agency began fining the company $14,000 per day for failing to turn over documents and answer questions.

Last week, NHTSA upgraded its probe to an engineering analysis. The regulators said the formal step intensifies the investigation and could help determine whether the company’s failure to quickly notify the agency of possible defects violated federal law or regulations.

Additionally, the company was issued an order requiring it to preserve airbag inflators for use as evidence in the agency’s probe and any subsequent lawsuits.

The Japanese parts maker is currently the center of a number of criminal investigations and lawsuits from families of victims.

Takata to double output of replacement airbags [Agence France-Presse]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist