jikForgot Where You Crashed Your Rental Lamborghini? Police In Texas Would Like A Wordde

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(WFAA-TV)

Ever have that nagging feeling like you left something somewhere, but you can’t remember what it is or where you last saw it? Someone apparently suffering a memory glitch has abandoned a rented Lamborghini after crashing it in Texas.

The yellow Italian luxury sports car — which could be worth up to $200,000 — was abandoned on the Dallas North Tollway over the weekend, reports WFAA-TV, after an accident where the driver apparently hit the wall and then abandoned the vehicle.

Nothing inside the car has lead to identifying the driver, so police called a tow truck to bring the damaged car to the police impound lot.

On Sunday night, after police spent the day searching for the owners, a luxury car rental company came forward as the owners, and said that someone else had rented it. No word on whether that customer purchased the additional insurance that covers things like ramming into a wall and running away.

Rented Lamborghini wrecked, left on Dallas North Tollway [WFAA-TV]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jik5 Reasons Restaurants Should Think Twice About Shaming Bad Customersde

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(R.)

Running a restaurant — which is often a narrow-profit, high-risk operation with frequent staff turnover — is not easy, and those employees and owners who do work hard sometimes feel like they only hear complaints from customers. So it’s not entirely surprising that some restaurant folks choose to use social media to shame bad customers, especially those who don’t tip well.

But on his Server Not Servant blog, industry vet Patrick Maguire gives an extensive list of reasons why this sort of shaming might not be the best idea.

Here are just a sampling:

1. The satisfaction is usually temporary, and often not worth it.

The Internet offers users multiple platforms on which to vent immediately for free. So when you’ve been wronged, it can feel so good to share that righteous fury with the world.

But it can backfire on you, as we saw last year when a Philadelphia restaurant posted a receipt from then-Eagles running back LeSean McCoy online because he’d left a $.20 tip on a $61.56 tab. This compelled McCoy to publicly explain that he’d received bad and rude service at the restaurant, and many people ultimately sided with him.

2. Potentially being accused of staging the incident for PR purposes.

This sort of accusation is normally made against “happy customer” stories shared online, like the reddit users who claimed, with little evidence, that this sunshine-y Warby Parker post was just viral marketing. But that door can swing both ways, with people accusing businesses of social-shaming bad customers just to make headlines. While that might improve your search results on Google, wouldn’t you rather have people think first about your food and service?

3. Huge distraction for FOH staff when future customers repeatedly ask about the incident.

When these stories go viral, a lot of people who come into the restaurant will want to ask, “So how bad was it really?” or make half-jokey comments like “I’m going to be nice to you so you don’t write about me on Facebook!” These are distractions that take away from regular service and an annoyance, especially to employees who weren’t involved in the shaming-related incident.

Speaking of which…

4. Inciting ex-employees with a legitimate ax to grind to unearth ugly truths. (Wrongful termination, etc.)

Any time a business puts itself out to the public as some sort of pillar of righteousness, there will undoubtedly be former employees who disagree. Even if those ex-workers were indeed fired for being incompetent or lazy, a headline-hungry media may be willing to give public voice to their opinions, putting the restaurant on the defensive.

5. The longer-term implications for the shamed could ultimately be more severe than their improprieties warrant.

What you may not realize when you post that receipt with the customer’s name on it — or when online detectives figure out the alleged bad customer’s true identity — is that you could be making this person the target of a nasty harassment campaign that goes much longer and to a much greater extent than you could have ever imagined. Should someone be bombarded with threatening e-mails or be put at risk of losing their job because they under-tipped or because they were rude?

“We all wish we could have moments back and could have handled things differently,” writes Maguire, who acknowledges that he’s not entirely innocent when it comes to shaming people through his blog. “As business owners, employees and customers, we can all learn from this recent spate of public shamings, and reflect on how we might respond the next time we’re tempted.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikTourists Suspected Of Adding Their Initials To Walls Of Rome’s Colosseum, Taking A Selfiede

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(BentonJ)

What is it about a 2,000-year-old famous structure that makes tourists think it isn’t yet complete without their initials joining the blood, sweat and tears of gladiators past on the walls? After a Russian tourist was fined $25,000 for carving his initial in the wall of Rome’s Colosseum last fall, two American visitors have been accused of leaving their initials behind — and of course, taking a selfie to capture the moment of vandalism.

The two Californians, ages 21 and 25, are suspected of defacing a wall by carving a “J” and an “N” into a wall with a coin, reports The Guardian, after sneaking away from their tour group. They then reportedly took a selfie (#defacingancientruinsiskewl? #tbt?).

Police managed to nab the twosome and report them for damaging the ruins. They could face a penalty if they go before a judge.

For those who need reminding that graffiti on ancient buildings is banned, there are signs posted in both English and Italian warning visitors — so why would anyone blatantly disregard such a ban or get it into their heads that it’s okay?

There seems to be a kind of disconnect for some tourists, a spokesman for the Special Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Rome told The Guardian.

“There’s a difference in perception. Museums are treated like churches, sacred places where there are things of great value. Whereas the Colosseum is an incomplete building which has already been robbed,” the spokesman said.

He’s referring to restoration work done on the Colosseum, which fell into disrepair after it was no longer trendy to put humans into a pit with lions while 73,000 people watched. The piece of the wall that was carved up by the American tourists was put in place in the 1800s during restoration work.

“It’s not an original wall but it’s nevertheless antique,” the spokesman said.

Here’s a good rule: Wherever you’re visiting, if it’s not yours and you haven’t been told to touch it — don’t touch it. And not touching it means, no carving your name anywhere, because no one cares that you were there ruining things for everyone else.

Previously in consumers behaving badly in treasured places: Feds Searching For Graffiti Artist Vandalizing National Parks And Leaving An Instagram Handle Behind

US tourists caught carving names into Rome’s Colosseum [The Guardian]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikPolice: Former Amazon Employee Siphoned Off $18,000 In Gift Card Balancesde

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(bradleyolin)

When you send someone a gift card, you do so under the assumption that no one with access to the card has been draining any of the balance. That’s what we assume when having a card sent to the recipient, or when mailing it ourselves: why check to make sure the whole balance is there? Police say that a woman fulfilling Amazon gift card orders took advantage of this for a few years, draining $18,000 in Amazon gift card balances to her own cards.

The employee worked at a store in Pennsylvania that shipped chocolate gifts and did order fulfillment for Amazon. Officially, she was an Amazon employee. She claims to have been told by a colleague that transferring balances to her own card couldn’t be traced. “I have been taking gift cards since around Christmas time two years ago when it was brought to my attention that they were untraceable by another associate,” she wrote in a signed statement for police.

No, that doesn’t make any sense when you consider Amazon’s obsession with efficiency and data, but the employee assumed that what she had been told was correct. Maybe customers wouldn’t have noticed if she took only a small amount from many cards over time, but that is not what she did. Investigators say that she took $18,259 from 315 gift cards between September 2013 and February 2014. That’s an average of about $58 from each card.

She was caught under the exact scenario that her co-worker had told her wouldn’t happen: customers complained to Amazon that their gift cards were empty or missing part of their balance, and Amazon was able to trace those gift cards back to the store in Pennsylvania and to orders that she personally had processed. Oops.

Police: Former Amazon employee stole from customers’ gift cards, thought thefts were untraceable [Times-Leader] (Thanks, Mark!)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikMaine Innkeeper Who Won 210-Year-Old Inn With An Essay Is Offering Potential Owners The Same Chancede

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(FlyinAce2000)

If you’ve ever dreamed of owning your own country inn, tucked away somewhere in Maine with all that entails, you don’t need a huge bank account or a surprise inheritance from a distant relative to make that dream come true: The owner of a 210-year-old inn in Maine is offering up the place for just $125 — to the person who submits a winning essay.

That’s how she came to own the inn 22 years ago, reports the Boston Globe. She saw a contest advertised on the Phil Donahue show, sent in $100 and her essay on why she should become the new owner and bam, three weeks later she was on her way to running the inn and all the headaches (and happy moments) that entails.

She says she’s ready to retire from 17-hour days working to cook and clean for guests year round, not to mention all the upkeep required in such an old house, and bringing in an estimated $900,000 from the $125-per-entry contest (she’s expecting about 7,500 entries) is a good way to do it.

Essays will be limited to about 200 words, and should be grammatically correct and show passion for the work. And it’s not like potential owners can read her winning essay from 22 years ago, as it’s the property of the previous owner and she can’t disclose its contents.

“Unless you raise 14 kids, you’re not going to be used to this,” she said, referring to the seven rooms that need servicing, seven days a week in the high season. “Look, this is something you start when you’re young. It takes a lot of stamina.”

She’s planning on reading all 7,500 or so essays by May 17, which is when she’ll pick the top 20 and pass those entries without names or addresses on to two anonymous people from the area to pick a final winner.

The judges are expected to pick a winner by May 21, with the transfer occurring within 30 days of that.

Beyond the entree fee, there are other requirement for the new owner: Whoever wins must agree to maintain the property as a country inn and restaurant for at least one year after taking possession; keep the building painted white; maintain the roofing in shutters in forest green, hunter green or black. And then there’s the day-to-day things that will come from maintaining the old building.

The winner will get $20,000 to start with, as well as the furnishings and equipment the inn has right now.

As for the owner, she’ll likely stay nearby (which could be a boon for anyone who finds themselves in over their head).

“I call her my grande-dame, my big old grande-dame,” the owner says of the inn. “I tell her when I’m painting that if she didn’t clean up so well, I wouldn’t do this.”

“I’ll miss it for all the good reasons,” she added. “I’ve loved it.”

Want a Maine inn? You’re just an essay contest away [The Boston Globe]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikIn Spite Of All That Lovin’, McDonald’s Sales Still Sinkingde

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Even though McDonald’s made a huge media push with its G-droppin’ apostrophe-lovin’ hug-acceptin’ Super Bowl-centered marketing campaign, the latest sales data from the world’s largest fast food chain shows that it’s going to take more than a few ads to turn this burger business around.

According to McDonald’s comparable sales report for February, business in the U.S. was down 4% last month, in spite of the month-long advertising campaign intended to generate more interest in the brand and get people in the doors with the promise of possibly only having to pay for their McNuggets with a hug or a call to mom.

“Creating consistently relevant and satisfying customer experiences have been hallmarks of McDonald’s business and historic success,” reads the report. “However, consumer needs and preferences have changed, and McDonald’s current performance reflects the urgent need to evolve with today’s consumers, reset strategic priorities and restore business momentum.”

Even while the campaign was running, we could see it wasn’t exactly the game-changer McDonald’s hoped it would be. Consumer attitude surveys showed that while the ads had made people think more about the fast food company, their feelings about McDonald’s remained entirely neutral.

McDonald’s says its goal is to somehow transform into a “modern, progressive burger company” and that it kicked off this month with a “Turnaround Summit designed to deliver renewed energy and focus around the elements of the restaurant experience that matter most to customers – relevant, high-quality food and beverage offerings, compelling value and outstanding service from a trustworthy brand.”

In addition to the “lovin'” campaign, McDonald’s has recently replaced CEO Don Thompson with Steve Easterbrook, who announced on his first week at the helm that the chain would stop sourcing chicken from farmers who fatten up their birds with antibiotics that are medically necessary to humans.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikHaving Your Laptop Picked Up By Someone Else At The Airport Is No Fun — Unless That Person Is An NFL Playerde

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(frankieleon)

There are many bad or just plain annoying things that can happen when your belongings are mixed up with someone else’s in the airport security line — someone else could be going through your private information, or trying to sell your electronic equipment. But when is it kind of cool that a total stranger has your stuff? When that stranger happens to be a professional football player.

The principal of an elementary school in Utah was traveling last week to see her son in Minnesota with her husband, when she accidentally picked up another person’s laptop after going through airport security early in the morning, reports the Herald Extra.

She and the man behind her had accidentally switched laptops, which the stranger discovered while on his way to Miami. He opened the laptop to see her email was open, and then contacted the secretary at the school where she works after doing a little investigative Googling.

Meanwhile, when she arrived in Minnesota, the secretary sent her a text message telling her that she didn’t have her laptop, that another traveler did. She was worried, thinking that the man was going through her life and reading her email.

She was sitting with her husband worrying about the laptop, and mentioned that she knew the man’s name who had it.

“I just happened to say, ‘What would some stranger named Kyle Van Noy do with my laptop?'” she said. “Greg’s eyes got huge. It was a good thing I said his name. He just started laughing and told me he was a professional football player.”

Van Noy was drafted as the 40th pick overall in the 2014 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions, but before that he was at Brigham Young University. Through a parent at her school who also used to play at BYU, the principal got in touch with the NFL player and texted about a place to switch their laptops back.

When one date didn’t work out, Van Noy ended up coming to the elementary school and took the time to visit 35 classrooms and take photos with about 1,000 students.

“He started going from class to class,” the principal said. “He was here an hour and a half to two hours. He just took time in every class, giving high-fives, taking questions. He was just a sweetheart. The kids just loved it.”

Kyle Van Noy returns switched laptop to Lehi principal [Herald Extra]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist