jikMcDonald’s Introduces Table Service In Germany For Some Reasonde

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(Mike Mozart)

Imagine that you’re visiting a large restaurant at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. You take a seat and give your order to a roving server, who taps it into a tablet computer and takes payment. Then your food arrives, which is…Big Macs and fries? What is this? When did McDonald’s start offering table service?

It’s part of an experiment at the 500-seat McDonald’s at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, where the fast-foodery will try a bold new experiment in bringing food to people. They can either place their orders on a kiosk (like at their locations with fancy $8 burgers in Australia) and then sit and wait for their food to arrive. Easterbrook calls this set up the future of McDonald’s, which raises one inevitable question: would we be expected to tip here in the U.S.?

The job of new McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook is to figure out how to coax people all over the world back into the chain’s restaurants, away from quick-serve interlopers like Chipotle and Panera. Germany is one of the trouble spots, along with the United States.

McDonald’s starts table service in Germany [Reuters]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikDistracted Drivers Admit To Playing Guitar, Taking Selfies Behind The Wheelde

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(Great Beyond)

Texting while driving isn’t the only distracting activity drivers are partaking in behind the wheel while they should be paying attention to the road, according to a new survey. There are people primping, changing clothes, going to the bathroom, taking selfies and even strumming away on the guitar while driving, making the roads more dangerous for the rest of us.

In a survey conducted for Erie Insurance by Harris Poll of 2,019 adults to bring attention to National Distracted Driving Awareness Month in April, participants admitted to doing a wide variety of things behind the wheel that aren’t actually driving, reports the Chicago Tribune.

“A distraction is anything that causes a driver to take their eyes off the road, their hands off the wheel, or their mind off the primary task of driving safely,” Doug Smith, Erie Insurance senior vice president of personal lines, said in a statement. “Our survey found drivers unfortunately are engaging in a wide range of distracting and potentially dangerous behaviors.”

Some of the most popular distractions: Romantic encounters (15%); Combing or styling hair (15%); Changing clothes (9%); Applying makeup (8%); Brushing or flossing teeth (4%); Changing drivers (3%) and going to the bathroom (3%).

That in addition to the 30% of drivers who admitted to texting while driving. Others said they put in contact lenses, curled their eyelashes, scratching off lottery cards and playing the guitar.

Those most likely to engage in texting live in the South, are men and are between 18 and 34, while those in the Northeast, women and people 65 and older were least likely to admit to such behavior.

But the most dangerous distraction according to Erie’s review of police data? Daydreaming.

Distracted drivers admit making out, fixing hair, relieving themselves [Chicago Tribune]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikBest Buy Closes Future Shop Stores, Will Turn Half Into Best Buysde

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(Jamie McCaffrey)

Future Shop is the best name ever given to an electronics retailer, and also a chain in Canada that for the last 14 years has been owned by Best Buy. Best Buy also operates stores in Canada, which means that Future Shop has really been competing with itself. Until now. All of Future Shop’s current stores closed abruptly this weekend, and half will soon re-open as Best Buy stores.

Future Shop had 131 stores, and plans to keep 65 of them as Best Buy locations. The rest of them will close entirely, putting 500 full-time and 1,000 part-time employees out of work.

It may have been a terrible idea all along for Best Buy to keep all of Future Shop’s stores open in competition with its own stores, especially when both stores are similar big-box electronics formats. Some of their stores are even neighbo(u)rs in the same shopping plazas, as you can see in the photo illustrating this post.

Instead of withdrawing from the country entirely, as Target is currently doing, Best Buy plans to invest about $200 million (Canadian dollars) in the reorganization to stay competitive in Canada, which will include adding large appliance sales to its stores and improving its e-commerce operations.

Future Shop shutters Canadian stores, will rebrand as Best Buy [Globe and Mail]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jik“Bad Check” Debt Collector Deceptively Used Prosecutors’ Letterhead To Intimidate Consumers Into Paying High Feesde

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(David Goehring)

Late last year, Consumerist reported on a string of debt collectors paying to use prosecutors’ letterheads as a way to intimidate consumers into paying their debts. While the company facing the wrath of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today didn’t exactly pay to use the letterhead, they allegedly used the documents in a deceptive manner to get consumers to enroll in costly financial education programs.

According to the CFPB complaint [PDF], between 2009 and 2014 National Corrective Group masqueraded as prosecutors and used deceptive tactics to intimidate consumers into paying hundreds of dollars in fees to avoid supposed jail time.

The California-based operation, along with Victim Services Inc. and American Justice Solutions, Inc., make up the largest administrators of bad check diversion programs in the United States.

Check diversion programs are often offered by state and district attorneys’ office to consumers accused of writing bad checks as a way to avoid criminal prosecution.

National Corrective Group administered these programs on behalf of state and local prosecutors’ offices and collected check debt from consumers on behalf of retail merchants in Maryland, Colorado, California, Florida, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Pennsylvania.

Under the law, a company operating a bad check diversion program cannot contact a consumer about the program until a prosecutor’s office has reviewed the case and determined the consumer is eligible.

But, according to the CFPB complaint, that’s not how National Corrective Group operated.

Instead the company allegedly deceived consumers by sending them notices on prosecutors’ letterhead – creating the false impression that consumers may be prosecuted for writing bounced checks – before their cases were ever reviewed by the proper authorities.

“The CFPB alleges that less than one percent of consumers who received final warning letters stating that their case was being forwarded for possible criminal prosecution were ever even referred to the prosecutor’s office for possible prosecution,” the Bureau says in a statement. “The Bureau alleges that the company also threatened possible criminal prosecution where the amount of the debt was so low that criminal action would rarely or never occur.”

Additionally, National Corrective Group told consumers that to qualify for the diversion program and avoid prosecution they must pay the bounced check debts as well as enroll in the company’s financial education class for an additional fee, which typically cost about $200.

Under the proposed order, National Corrective Group must end its deceptive communications to consumers, stop using threats of intimidation or imprisonment, stop using district attorneys’ letterhead and must pay a $50,000 civil fine to the Bureau.

CFPB Takes Action Against “Bad Check” Debt Collector [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

jikTesla To Unveil Something “Major” April 30, But Not A New Carde

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That Elon sure does know how to tease… (via Twitter)

Earlier today, Tesla founder and Twitter tease Elon Musk announced that his company would be unveiling a “Major new product line” on April 3, while cautioning immediately that it’s “not a car.” So what could it be?

The biggest bet is something related to Tesla’s batteries. Last month, Musk revealed that Tesla was working on lithium-ion battery packs for home and business use.

“We are going to unveil the Tesla home battery, the consumer battery that would be for use in people’s houses or businesses fairly soon,” he told investors at the time.

These batteries could possibly be used with things like solar panels to collect and distribute electricity as needed, especially in developing parts of the world or in areas where it’s impractical to run electrical wiring or operate a gas-powered generator.

“A lot of utilities are working in this space and we are talking to almost all of them,” JB Straubel, chief technology officer for Tesla said at the time. “This is a business that is gaining an increasing amount of our attention.”

So far, aside from the fact that this new product line is not a car, the company isn’t giving any additional hints about what will be revealed on April 30.

Musk: Tesla Will Unveil Major New Product on April 30 [Bloomberg]

Tesla Motors to Unveil New Product April 30 [WSJ]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikSling TV Users Finding Some Shows Are Now Being Blocked From Streamingde

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(imgur)

TV production and distribution is a complicated entanglement of interests involving studios, distributors, networks, and pay-TV services, not to mention deals any of these people might have with other companies like home video or on-demand streaming sites. That’s been one of the huge impediments to getting live-streaming of all TV content — having to please all those parties who may not all agree. And that appears to be why Sling TV users are now finding that they can’t access every show on all of the networks.

Some Sling users have taken to this reddit thread to discuss why they unable to watch Criminal Minds reruns on A&E, or why certain movies are not available on Lifetime and other channels in the Sling lineup.

“Due to rights restrictions, this content cannot be streamed on Sling TV,” reads the message that users get when trying to watch these shows.

Even though Sling has only been widely available since early February, we’d heard no reports of rights restrictions until very recently, after A&E and its handful of channels joined the service.

This is most likely due to the fact that A&E and Lifetime allow Sling users to employ the service’s quasi-DVR function that lets you watch programming that has recently aired. Many of Sling’s biggest names, including ESPN, TNT, Disney, and TBS, only allow viewing of the live stream; no pausing or rewinding and no on-demand archive.

Some blame CBS and its history of antipathy toward Dish for keeping Criminal Minds off Sling, but the more likely reason is the show’s current deal with Netflix, which carries the first nine seasons of the show. It’s possible that allowing Sling users to rewind CI episodes might put them into a category that conflicts with the Netflix agreement.

Other shows that some users say are being blocked include some episodes of A&E’s Intervention and at least one Lifetime original movie. Again, Netflix currently airs a handful of Intervention episodes, and recently added a large number of Lifetime movies.

A rep for Sling confirmed the blackouts on A&E and Lifetime to TechHive, but said that “when possible, these channels will offer other programming in place of the restricted content.”

[via FierceCable]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikHave A RadioShack Gift Card? You Have One More Day To Use Itde

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(JeepersMedia)

We initially reported that people with RadioShack gift cards would have to use them up by March 5 or lose the entire balance. Great news if you happen to have found one buried in the far corner of your junk drawer: RadioShack has extended the period that they’re accepting gift cards to March 31.

The chain reportedly would like to wind things down tomorrow so they don’t have to pay April rent in their thousands of remaining stores, which is understandable. Whether they hand the keys over to designated auction winner Standard General or to a team of liquidators, another company will most likely be in charge as of April 1.

After that, we’re not even sure whether there will still be RadioShack brand stores around: one possible outcome of the bankruptcy auction is that the chain will be liquidated entirely, with only the remaining dealers and franchise stores maybe continuing to exist. Without a RadioShack supply chain, those stores could become something else.

People who dig up gift cards from defunct retailers can theoretically get something in exchange for the remaining value on the cards by filing as a creditor in the bankruptcy proceedings. After all, they do owe you money. However, you’d be very far down the list of creditors. In the case of RadioShack, even companies that lent the company millions of dollars to stay in business may not see much of the proceeds of this auction if Standard General wins, since most of the hedge fund’s bid for what’s left of the retailer is in the form of debt that RadioShack owes it.

RadioShack Customer FAQ [Radioshack]

Chapter 11 Gift Card Watchlist [Gift Card Girlfriend]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist