jikCourt Awards Pizza Hut Customer $2,400 For Denture Damaged While Eating “Excessively Hard Croutons”de

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(Not the Pizza Hut in question. SchuminWeb)

While the human mouth gets to have all the fun of tasting, chewing and eating delicious food in all its various incarnations, it can also be the portal to pain when something isn’t right. In the case of a man who said he broke a partial denture at Pizza Hut, the weapon of destruction came in the form of “excessively hard croutons.”

The Tennessee man was awarded a $2,400, interest and court costs in a judgment against Pizza Hut, reports Roane County News, after he sued the restaurant for his damaged denture.

His lawsuit claimed the restaurant caused personal injuries and damages to his specialized partial denture by “negligently serving at defendant’s restaurant excessively hard croutons.”

The customer’s attorney said they approached Pizza Hut to find a resolution before going ahead with the lawsuit, but nothing came of it.

“We tried to work it out with their insurance company, but they never wanted to talk,” his attorney said. “So we went ahead and filed.”

Dough for denture damage [Roane County News]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikStarbucks Finally Gets Around To Selling Yogurt-Based Cups, Smoothies, Parfaits After Two Yearsde

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The unlikely partnership between Starbucks and Dannon parent company Danone that Consumerist first reported on back in 2013 is finally coming to fruition with the launch of an exclusive line of yogurt-bases smoothies, parfaits and fruit cups at 4,300 of the company’s coffee shops.

Starbucks announced today that it will add a line of three Evolution Fresh Smoothies at select stores in Washington state, Oregon, Alaska, Northern California and Idaho.

The smoothies, which will come in flavors like Sweet Greens, Strawberry and Mango Carrot, were first piloted in select Starbucks stores last year.

The new menu offerings will consist of exclusive-to-Starbucks Dannon Greek yogurt and hand pressed juices from Starbucks-owned Evolution Fresh. Customers can customize the new drinks with add-ins like protein powder and kale.

Starbucks’ latest endeavor doesn’t end there, though. As it was suggested in 2013, the company plans to begin selling Evolution Fresh Greek yogurt parfaits in about half of its U.S. stores by early May.

Additionally, the company will start selling Greek yogurt cuts, complete with fruit on the bottom at actual grocery stores later this summer.

Cold Pressed HPP Juice and Traditional Greek Yogurt Smoothie Launches in 4,300 Starbucks Locations with Fresh Approach to $2.2 Billion Smoothie Market [Starbucks]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

jikMan Who Says Comcast Got Him Fired From Job Seeks $5M In Damages After Company Smeared Him Publiclyde

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(honeylamb)

Last fall, we were the first to tell you about Conal O’Rourke, the Comcast customer in California who spent more than a year dealing with consistent over-billing — including $1,820 worth of equipment he’d never ordered nor needed — and horrendous customer service who was fired from his job at Comcast-consulting accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers after he took his complaint to the office of the Comcast controller. Shortly after publishing that story, Conal sued Comcast over the incident, and now he’s amended that lawsuit to allege invasion of privacy and to put a higher dollar amount on the damages being sought.

The amended complaint [PDF] adds a seventh cause of action — invasion of privacy — to the original complaint, claiming that Comcast’s public statements about Conal’s customer service calls involve a public disclosure of private facts.

After Conal filed suit, Comcast released a statement to Consumerist and others, explaining that, “As part of this investigation, we have listened to recorded calls between Mr. O’Rourke and our customer service representatives and his treatment of them and his language is totally unspeakable.”

This statement and description of the customer service calls goes to far, says Conal in the revised lawsuit.

“The recorded customer service telephone calls between Mr. O’Rourke and Comcast are private, and are not the subjects of legitimate public concern,” reads the amended complaint. “Comcast’s public disclosure of the existence and nature of Mr. O’Rourke’s private calls to Comcast customer service – which disclosure falsely portrays Mr. O’Rourke as an individual lacking in decency, ethics and integrity – is offensive and objectionable to a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities.”

The lawsuit claims that “Comcast’s conduct towards Mr. O’Rourke was wanton, willful and intentional, and committed with malicious intent.”

The amended complaint now ups the original damages estimate from more than $1 million to more than $5 million.

In a statement to Ars Technica, Conal’s lawyer Harmeet K. Dhillon says it could be years before this lawsuit is resolved.

“That’s how long hard-fought federal lawsuits are taking in this district these days, and Comcast will be opposing it hard,” she explained to Ars. “I can’t say on the record why it didn’t settle, but you can see from Comcast’s public statements that they want to be ‘vindicated.’”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikDietitian Group’s “Kids Eat Right” Logo Won’t Be On Kraft Singles Packages After Allde

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(JeepersMedia)

Kraft Singles won’t come with a stamp from the Academy of Nutrition and Diatetics reading “Kids Eat Right” anymore, after a group of dietitians signed a petition calling to put an end to the partnership. The petition claims that having such a logo makes it seem like the group is endorsing the cheese product.

The two sides say the deal is over due to “misperceptions” that are “overshadowing the campaign,” reports the Associated Press. The petition also seeks transparency about the terms of the deal that allowed Kraft to slap the logo on its products.

Kraft and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics said the effort was supposed to raise awareness about kids not getting enough calcium and Vitamin D, but Kraft didn’t reveal how much money it forked over for the right to use the logo.

It was supposed to be a three-year deal, and would’ve included a website and, among other things. A Kraft spokeswoman says they’re still figuring out how to end the effort.

“That collaboration is not going to be happening,” she said.

Though the Academy of Nutrition and Diatetics didn’t offer a statement, in a letter sent to its 75,000 members yesterday, the academy’s president said the group “deeply regrets the circumstances that have led to the pending termination of this initiative.”

“This pilot initiative was never intended to be an official Academy endorsement of a particular product, which is strictly prohibited by our policy and is expressly included in all contracts,” the letter said.

As it stands, the logo is already set to appear on products this week, and will be around eat least until July because the packaging has already been manufactured.

Kraft Singles to drop ‘Kids Eat Right’ logo after ‘misperceptions’ [Associated Press]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikHigh-End Online Retailers Net-A-Porter, Yoox Officially Tie The Knotde

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It seems like just yesterday we were dreaming of a mega-luxury online retail platform where we could buy all the designer brands our wallets will never be able to afford. That’s probably because it was one day ago that reports began to swirl that online merchants Yoox and Net-A-Porter were thinking of merging to create one big high-end shopping destination on the interwebs.

Those talks appear to have escalated quickly, as Yoox confirmed this morning that it has clinched a deal with Net-A-Porter to create a “business combination.” The financial aspects of the deal were not made public.

The merger creates a new group to be known as Yoox Net-A-Porter Group with expected revenue of $1.4 billion. Under the deal, the new company is expected to attract nearly two million high-spending customers and over 24 million monthly visitors worldwide.

Both Yoox and Net-a-Porter – which is owned by Swiss company Richemont – launched in 2000 as a way to provide more upscale brands in one place.

However, the two companies took a decidedly different approach to doing so.

London-based Net-a-Porter showcases its products much like one might see while thumbing through a fashion magazine, while Yoox focuses on buying overstocked or unsold items from previous seasons from high-profile fashion designers and then selling those apparel products for a discounted price.

“This is a game-changing merger between two pioneering companies that have already radically transformed the marketplace since 2000 and will now shift the industry paradigm once again,” Federico Marchetti, founder of Italian-based Yoox Group and the new CEO of Yoox Net-a-Porter Group says in a statement. “Together, we plan to expand on our many combined successes and industry breadth to strengthen partnerships with the world’s leading luxury brands and harness a significant untapped growth potential.”

The quick turn around regarding Yoox and Net-a-Porter’s merger are a bit surprising, considering just last week it was reported that Amazon was in talks to purchase Net-a-Porter for a hefty $2 billion. However, officials with Richemont tell Fortune that those talks never occurred.

To Create a Leading Online Luxury Fashion Retailer Worldwide [Yoox]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

jikCharter Digs This Whole Cable Merger Thing, Plans To Buy Bright House For $10.4Bde

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In cable, merger mania isn’t just for the biggest players. The next tier down wants to play, too. And so we have the announcement this morning that Charter is planning to buy regional operator Bright House Networks for a cool $10.4 billion.

Bright House is, according to Charter’s press release, the sixth largest cable operator in the U.S., serving about 2 million customers in Florida, Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, and California. And Florida really seems to be Charter’s main target here: the company has no presence in that state at this time, nor will the Comcast/TWC merger land them customers there.

Charter is, of course, intimately involved in the pending Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger. If that trio gets its way with regulators, Charter will directly trade roughly a million and a half customers to/from Comcast, as well as own a significant stake in the new spin-off organization, GreatLand.

Charter has also indicated that should the Comcast/TWC deal for whatever reason not come to fruition, they’re still perfectly ready to go buy TWC themselves.

The planned Charter/Bright House merger will have to follow the same approval steps at the FCC as its bigger siblings, but is likely to face significantly less opposition as the companies involved are much, much smaller.

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

jikTicketmaster Says It Stands For “True Fan-Friendly Competition”de

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Over the weekend, StubHub filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, alleging that the team and the ticket company are forcing Warriors season-ticket subscribers to use Ticketmaster if they want to resell their seats to anyone. Ticketmaster is now defending itself and says that it is the one that’s on the side of sports fans.

“We are disappointed that StubHub has filed a baseless lawsuit that asks the courts to help prop up its business against true fan-friendly competition,” reads the statement from Ticketmaster about the StubHub lawsuit. “NBA teams like the Golden State Warriors have implemented ticket exchanges powered by Ticketmaster because they want ticket resale to be a secure experience, not an opportunity for scalping and fraud. The exchanges are growing in popularity because Ticketmaster and its partners have worked hard to make ticket resale much safer and more transparent, uniquely serving true fans. Ticketmaster does not force any customer to resell tickets on any particular platform and will vigorously defend these specious charges.”

Pay attention to the wording of that last sentence. “Ticketmaster does not force…” You’ll note that it doesn’t say anything in defense of the Warriors, who have allegedly threatened to take away postseason ticket offers and cancel future season ticket plans for fans who use StubHub to resell their tickets. This doesn’t mean that the allegations against the Warriors are true, but it is curious that Ticketmaster omits the team from this portion of its declaration.

As for Ticketmaster’s supposedly “fan-friendly” image of its arrangement with the Warriors, the folks at Fan Freedom don’t exactly see it this way.

“The Golden State Warriors are coercing season ticket holders, with the threat of ticket cancellations, to resell tickets exclusively on Ticketmaster’s NBATickets.com,” says Executive Director Chris Grimm in a statement. “NBATickets.com charges ticket buyers a 33% higher service fee than competing platforms and allows teams to set a hidden price floor, artificially inflating ticket prices.”

In its complaint [PDF], StubHub said that, in spite of the fact that the Warriors have been consistently selling out home games, the site’s inventory of secondary-market Warriors tickets dropped 80% between 2013 and 2014.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist