uFamily Finds Their Vacation Home Has Been Swiped Right Off Its Foundationr

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  (KHQ News)

  
  
  
  Imagine counting down the days, hours and minutes to vacation, that time where you can just relax and get away from it all… only to find your vacation home has somehow gotten away from you instead. That’s the unfortunate sight that greeted one Washington family who arrived at their cabin in the woods — or where it was supposed to be — and discovered someone had swiped it clean off its foundation.
  

  The family arrived on Tuesday and found that their entire 200 square-foot vacation home had been lifted from the foundation, with just cement blocks remaining, reports KHQ News.

  
  

  “We walked up to the gate and it had been cut. Drove up to (the cabin) expecting it to maybe be broken windows, maybe a little vandalism, something stolen from the front of it,” the owner told the station. “We walked up and it was gone.”

  
  

  Whoever yanked the $7,000 home from the family’s 20 acres apparently knew what they were doing, he says. The family reported to theft to the county sheriff’s office.

  
  

  “It’s frustrating when you work as hard as you do and get things you enjoy to have,” she said, “and someone comes in and steals it from you.”

  
  

  Oddly enough, this isn’t the first story we’ve heard about someone stealing a cabin without anyone noticing.

  
  

  Cabin Caper: Family has their cabin stolen near Springdale [KHQ News]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uJetBlue Reminds Passengers: Eating Tuna On A Plane Makes You A Horrible Personr

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  A recent survey found that 60% of people think it’s rude for passengers to bring stinky food onto a plane. Count the folks at JetBlue among them, as the airline has released an etiquette video calling out eaters of smelly foods.

  
  

  In the above PSA, a JetBlue passenger cracks open a can of tuna for a mid-flight snack, resulting in everyone around him wishing he would be sucked out through the emergency exit. Things only get worse with the involvement of chopped onions and sardines. The final straw occurs when the passenger busts out what appears to be a to-go container of kimchi.

  
  

  The video freeze-frames as his fellow passengers revolt, presumably because the bloody carnage that ensued would not be fit for most eyes.

  
  

  The clip reminds me of sitting behind a family on a flight from San Francisco to New York. Not only did they feed all their kids tuna salad sandwiches, but when their youngest got sick and vomited, they did nothing to clean it up; ultimately leaving the soiled baby seat behind for the cabin crew to deal with.

  
  

  I enjoy tuna just as much as the next person, and yes, you’re free to bring on any foods the TSA and airline rules allow. But it’s just bad form to assume that everyone on the plane wants to smell your lunch. You’ll be landing in a few hours; tuna can wait.

  
  

  Once again, this is all just an excuse to post this:
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uSprint Customers Can Now Make Phone Calls Over WiFi With Latest iPhone Updater

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  (JeepersMedia)

  
  
  
  Minutes? What are these “phone minutes” you speak of? The latest iPhone update is basically going to do away with the need to count voice minutes for Sprint customers, who’ll be able to make phone calls over WiFi soon.
  

  With the iOS 8.3 update, Sprint is joining T-Mobile on the list of U.S. wireless providers with voice-over-Wifi capability on the iPhone, the company announced yesterday, along with EE in the United Kingdom. Sprint has about 25 other handsets that can already make phone calls over WiFi.

  
  

  The new calling capabilities will be helpful for those time when you’re in an area with a low signal or running low on minutes to make phone calls, though many phone users these days have unlimited calling minutes.

  
  

  It’ll roll out to the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s owners who update their phones, and will be effective after Sprint updates its carrier settings.

  
  

  “Wi-Fi Calling is like a major expansion of our network, allowing Sprint customers to get coverage anywhere they have Wi-Fi connectivity,” said David Owens, senior vice president of product development for Sprint the press release. “Traditional wireless technology has some limitations in places like basements and high-rise office buildings. Wi-Fi expands our customer’s connectivity in a big way.”

  
  

  This also means users will be able to make free phone calls to the U.S. and Puerto Rico from more than 200 countries, though outgoing calls to other countries from the U.S. will still require an additional charge.

  
  

  Verizon Wireless and AT&T are both planning on introducing WiFi calling later this year.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uComcast Refused To Cancel Cable For Customer Whose House Went Up In Flamesr

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  (Steven Depolo)

  
  
  
  When your house burns down, the last thing you should be concerned about is having to make repeated calls to your cable provider to get them to cancel or suspend your service. And yet Comcast refused to cancel service for one Minnesota customer after his house was turned to ashes — all because he couldn’t provide his full account number.
  

  The Pioneer Press has the story of a man in St. Paul who lost everything in a fire on April 1, and who couldn’t get Comcast to care enough to believe him.

  
  

  The man’s daughter contacted Comcast to tell them about the fire and to request the service cancellation. The Comcast rep asked for the account number, which the homeowner couldn’t provide because that information had burned up with everything else.

  
  

  So the homeowner spoke to the rep and provided identifying information, like the last four digits of his Social Security number, and still no luck getting his service cut off.

  
  

  The daughter made a perfectly reasonable suggestion to the Comcast rep: “disconnect the service or send someone out to fix the cable, because it’s not working.”

  
  

  To which the rep replied, according to the daughter, “That doesn’t make sense, because the house burned down.”

  
  

  It took multiple calls and nearly a week for Comcast to finally come around to the notion that maybe they could have handled this better.

  
  

  The homeowner eventually heard from Comcast HQ, which said the cancelation had been processed and backdated to April 1, and that he wouldn’t be charged for equipment lost in the fire (at least Comcast learned that lesson from incidents like this one, and this one, and this one).

  
  

  “Comcast has safeguards in place to protect the privacy of our customers, including not allowing unauthorized users to make changes to a customer’s account,” a rep for the company tells the Pioneer Press. “We do provide the option for customers to designate others, such as family members, to make authorized account changes and verifying an account can normally be done either over the phone or in person with a driver’s license.”

  
  

  A neighbor family who also lost their house to the same fire had a much easier go of convincing Comcast. A family member and a friend went to a Comcast office and were able to cut off service by providing the name and phone number associated with the account.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uYouTube Will Let Viewers Watch Videos Ad-Free For A Monthly Feer

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  (Pixteca | Len & Pix【ツ】)

  
  
  
  If your dream is watch hours upon hours of animals from different species being best friends without the insistent interruption of ads, you are within reach of that reality — if you’re willing to cough up a payment every month to YouTube.
  

  As it was foretold back in October of 2014, the company is reportedly preparing to offer an ad-free subscription option. The video service sent a letter to its most popular content creators yesterday, according to the Associated Press, asking them to sign off on contract terms that will put the plan in motion.

  
  

  It’s still early days yet — there’s no information on when the option will be offered, how much users will have to pay to skip the ads or whether it will apply to all content or just some of the most popular providers.

  
  

  YouTube said in a statement that it’s “giving fans more choice to enjoy the content they love and creators more opportunity to earn revenue are always amongst our top priorities.” No specifics were given.

  
  

  Some YouTube users have already experienced ad-free videos, with a music service called Music Key offered to select participants last November that also skips the ads for a fee.

  
  

  YouTube To Go Ad-Free, For A Fee [Associated Press]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uWalgreens Closing 200 U.S.-Based Stores In Latest Cost-Cutting Measurer

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  (Mike Mozart)
  

  
  
  
  Walgreens isn’t just doing away with its “Be well” campaign, the drugstore now also plans to shutter 200 of its 8,232 stores in the U.S. over the next two years.
  

  Bloomberg reports that in addition to the store closures, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. will also reorganize its corporate and field operations and overhaul its technology in an attempt to cut $500 million in costs.

  
  

  The cost-cutting measures are just the latest in a long-term plan to revamp the U.S. locations. Last August, the company announced a $1 billion savings initiatives.

  
  

  Cutting back on expenses was one of the top priorities for interim CEO Stefano Pessina, who plans to transform the drugstore to be more like Boots drugstores in Europe, Bloomberg reports. Walgreens completed its purchase of Boots just last year.

  
  

  Walgreens to Close 200 U.S. Drugstores in Bid to Propel Profits [Bloomberg]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uSabra Recalling 30,000 Cases Of Classic Hummus Over Listeria Fearsr

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  Whether you like to dip pita chips or veggies, pretzels or just your fingers, check that hummus package before you go snacking: Sabra is recalling 30,000 cases of its classic flavor of hummus sold nationwide over fears that the product could be tainted with listeria.

  
  

  The potential for Listeria monocytogenes in several samples of hummus has prompted Sabra Dipping Co. to voluntary recall 30,000 cases of Classic Hummus, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

  
  

  Inspectors for the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development discovered the possible contamination after a routine inspection March 30 at a Kroger store in Port Huron.

  
  

  The recall only applies to five stock unit numbers (SKU) of Classic Hummus, with no other products included in the recall at this time. There have been no reported illnesses linked to the hummus products at this point.

  
  

  Check the top of your product for the following codes and discard any packages that match — consumers can also return them for a refund. Questions? Call Sabra at 888-957-2272 weekdays.

  
  

  RECALLED PRODUCTS:

  
  

  040822011143/300067 – Sabra Classic, 10 oz. – 3-059/Best before May 11

  
  

  040822011143/300067 – Sabra Classic 10 oz. – 3-060/Best before May 15

  
  

  040822014687/300074 – Sabra Classic, 30 oz. – 3-059/Best before May 11

  
  

  040822342049/301216 – Sabra Classic Without Garnish, 32 oz. – 3-059/Best before May 11

  
  

  040822017497/301290 – Sabra Classic, 17 oz. Six Pack – 3-058/Best before May 11

  
  

  040822017497/301290 – Sabra Classic, 17 oz. Six Pack – 3-059/Best before May 11

  
  

  040822342209/301283 – Hummus Dual Pack Classic/Garlic – 3-058/Best before May 11

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist