jikPolice: Man Called 9-1-1 A Dozen Times Claiming Bar Overcharged Him For Beerde

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(kevindean)

Will calling emergency services repeatedly about a bar bill summon the cops? Sure, but they won’t be helping to sort out whether or not you were overcharged for a beer, they’ll be charging you with abusing the 9-1-1 system, an offense that can bring up to a year in jail and a fine that is the equivalent of many, many beers.

Police say an Idaho man dialed up 9-1-1 a dozen times early Monday morning with an urgent non-emergency, reports KXLY.com: He claimed that the bar he’d just been booted from had overcharged him for his beers.

“He was demanding that the place he got kicked out of didn’t over charge him for him being down there,” the town’s police captain said.

According to the police report, the man was kicked out of a bar around 1:13 a.m. and an officer gave him a courtesy ride home. Apparently he felt close to the police at that point, and decided to give’em a few more rings.

“He had been intoxicated, so we gave him a ride home and shortly after we started receiving 911 calls from him,” the police captain said, noting that he then called 12 times total.

First he called to say he wanted officers to come back to his house to talk about his bar tab. Then he called back seven minutes later to ask when an officer would be showing up. He called twice and hung up, then called three times and put his phone up to the radio. Telling a dispatcher that she’s “just like his ex-wife,” he then hung up, police say.

Such antics are a drain on police resources and could prevent them from helping others with real emergencies, the captain says. And besides, receipts from the bar show he was only charged $30 for the 10 beers he’d had, which is a lot smaller bill than the $1,000 he could now be facing as the result of a misdemeanor citation for misusing 911.

Man calls 911 to report he was overcharged on his bar tab [KXLY.com]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikYou Can Now Turn Any Google Map Into A Pac-Man Gamede

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Pac-Man eats his way through the Gray’s Ferry section of Philadelphia.

Have you ever looked at a Google Map and thought to yourself, “It would be flippin’ awesome if I could play Pac-Man on this street grid”? Probably not, because that is not something that occurs to most people. But it did occur to some folks at Google who have incorporated, perhaps temporarily, a button that lets you Pac-Man-ize your Google Map.

It’s really simple, just go to maps.google.com, pick an area in which you would like to play Pac-Man, then click the button on the bottom-left of the screen (next to the one that switches between graphical maps and satellite maps).

Then you just play Pac-Man.

The functionality does limit the size of the street map maze. So if you’re zoomed out too far, or zoomed in too close, the screen will automatically adjust to a level that works with the game.

Two employee-friendly (but not employer-friendly) notes: It seems to default to muted sound, so you won’t have to worry about everyone in your office hearing you. And the game quickly aborts with a press of the Esc key, so you can get out quickly if needed.

[via The Independent]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikStudy: People Try Apple Pay Once, Don’t Go Backde

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(Colin)

The prospect of using our phones in place of wallets is exciting to absent-minded people everywhere, but how well is adoption of mobile payments going in the real world? A recent survey looking at adoption of Apple Pay a few months out from its introduction shows that consumers are enthused about it, but are having trouble finding retailers where they can use the service.

Near field communication chips and mobile payments are nothing new, but they were new to Apple’s lineup of smartphones. but making Apple Pay part of the iPhone 6 meant that the capability rolled out to millions of people all at once. According to a survey by Phoenix Marketing International, about two-thirds of people who own the new iPhones at least signed up for Apple Pay and added a credit card to their accounts, but the problem has been on retailers’ end.

88% of survey participants who set up Apple Pay went out into the world and tried to use it, Phoenix reports, but almost half of those users (47%) say that they tried to use the service in a store that advertised Apple Pay capability but didn’t actually have it. About two-thirds of people who tried to use Apple Pay out in the wild reported problems actually using it at checkout. The process was slow, the cashier didn’t know what they were doing, or they couldn’t resolve problems: they experienced a variety of issues with the service, but

Apple Pay Performance: The First Four Months [Phoenix Marketing International]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

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