uSears Leadership Still Convinced That Rewards Program Will Save The Companyr

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  (petekraynak)

  Shop Your Way Rewards is not a difficult program to join. The process consists of giving your e-mail address to a cashier at Sears or Kmart, and…that’s pretty much it. It doesn’t cost anything. Yet the leadership of Sears Holdings Corporation remains fixed on the program and the idea of having “members” rather than customers, and we still can’t figure out why.

  The company announced its second-quarter results today. While we don’t normally share the details of every quarterly earnings report, we do read them over for nuggets of information that may be of interest to consumers. Sears is now going through what’s either a transformation or a slow-motion demise, and the company’s sales in “comparable stores” fell 7% for Kmart and 14% for Sears.

  A few years ago, inside sources told Bloomberg Businessweek that the manifesto-writing CEO of Sears Holdings, Eddie Lampert, 10 Things We Learned This Week About Why Sears Is So Terrible. That may be why Sears Holdings always refers to “members” rather than customers in official communications, and why the company points out in the earnings report that 75% of sales are to people who have signed up for the Shop Your Way program as if this is some kind of coup.

  It’s not: even having detailed purchase data on each customer tied to their e-mail address isn’t much of an accomplishment for a company that came to national prominence as a catalog. Is Shop Your Way a good program? Sure, you can cash in tiny amounts of points on your next purchase, and leverage promotions to earn piles of extra points, but that doesn’t seem to be enough to draw more customers in to buy their appliances from Sears yet.

  Yet company communications mention the rewards program as if it’s revolutionary. In Lampert’s prepared quote in the earnings statement, he says:

  During the first quarter, we made significant progress in our transformation from a traditional, store-network based retail business model to a more asset-light, member-centric integrated retailer leveraging our Shop Your Way platform.

  What does that mean? It means that they’re selling off their store real estate to an affiliated real estate investment trust, and that the company sees its massive database of customer contact information and shopping habits as some kind of salvation.

  Sears Holdings Reports First Quarter 2015 Results [Sears Holdings]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uShowtime’s New Streaming Service Will Be Available On Roku, PlayStation Vuer

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• With Apple’s big developer conference getting underway this morning, we expect to hear more news of Apple exclusives. But fans of Penny Dreadful and Homeland who aren’t into the whole Apple ecosystem thing get a nice bonus this morning, as we find out that something isn’t actually locked only to Apple’s world.

  We already knew that the streaming Showtime option would cost $11 and launch in July, but it seemed, like HBO Now before it, to be a timed Apple TV exclusive.

  But no! It turns out that Showtime — that’s the internet one, not the cable one — will launch simultaneously not only on Apple TV but also on Roku platforms and Sony’s PlayStation Vue service.

  “We are thrilled that Roku and Sony have come on board for our launch in early July,” Showtime CEO Matthew Blank said in a statement. “Both platforms have distinct and loyal audiences and together they will build on our service and greatly expand the number of homes that will have access to the SHOWTIME service over the internet. This is fundamental to Showtime’s strategy of putting the choice in the hands of the consumers regarding how, when and on what unique devices they watch our programming.”

  Going to where the viewers are is indeed not only a good strategy for the future, but likely the only successful one. Pay TV subscriber rates are dropping, but everyone still likes to binge-watch prestige dramas. They just do it over the internet, instead.

  You can’t add Showtime (or any other premium channel) onto a cable or satellite package you don’t have, but if you’ve got shows people like to watch, and an internet service that’s easy and affordable for them to use, audiences may well follow.

  
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by Kate Cox via Consumerist

uNet Neutrality Hasn’t Stopped Charter From Investingr

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  (Tony Crescibene)

  In the heated lead-up to the FCC’s vote on new net neutrality rules, the cable and telecom industry repeatedly made claims that the new regulations would harm investment and curb innovation. But yet another top cable CEO is now saying that no, net neutrality isn’t having a negative effect on its network investments.

  Charter Communications is currently being bought by Time Warner Cable in a deal worth around $55 billion, and Charter CEO Tom Rutledge recently met with FCC Chair Tom Wheeler to chat about the merger.

  The neutrality rules, which don’t actually go into effect until later this month, reclassify broadband services as a Title II common carrier, making them subject to the same regulatory control as telephone services. Opponents of the change argue that affected companies will be forced to reduce their investments in new technologies and the building out and improvement of their communications networks.

  But according to Reuters, Rutledge told Wheeler that “the commission’s decision to reclassify broadband Internet access under Title II has not altered Charter’s approach of investing significantly in its network to deliver cutting edge services.”

  Rutledge’s comment is in line with that of other cable CEOs who have also stated that reclassification won’t stop them from investing and innovating.

  Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit recently told a group of analysts that Title II reclassification “hasn’t affected the way we have been doing our business or will do our business.”

  Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus similarly stated about Title II that “I think you won’t see a change in the way we do business.”

  While there are numerous lawsuits currently trying to neuter the neutrality changes, most of them have been filed by industry trade groups — like the NCTA, the CTIA, USTelecom, and the American Cable Association — rather than by the big telecom players directly affected.

  One of the few marquee companies to involve itself in this slate of suits is AT&T. CEO Randall Stephenson recently explained that his company isn’t making good on its pre-neutrality-vote threat to stop investing because it believes the rules will be overturned by the courts.

  “Based on our reading of the Title II order that came out, we’re operating and we’re investing under the scenario that these rules will probably be changed,” Stephenson explained. “We don’t think this rulemaking is sustainable from a legal standpoint, but the courts will decide that.”

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uHawaii-Bound Flight Diverted To L.A. After Half The Plane’s Toilets Stop Workingr

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  (RickDrew)

  Because we all know how quickly a travel experience can turn from good to bad when there’s limited access to working toilets, the crew of an American Airlines flight from Dallas to Honolulu decided to make an unscheduled pit stop after three of the plane’s six lavatories malfunctioned.

  The Boeing 767 jet heading to Hawaii on Sunday landed with an unusually heavy load fuel, reports the Orange County Register. Planes don’t have any methods for dumping extra fuel, pilots say, making this kind of emergency touchdown out of the ordinary.

  But the Los Angeles Fire Department says despite having five hours worth of fuel in the aircraft, the plane’s flaps and brakes functioned normally and it came to a safe, proper stop on the runway.

  A spokeswoman for the airline confirmed to the Associated Press that the plane landed in L.A. because of the broken toilets, and that it took off about 2.5 hours later after maintenance fixed the restrooms.

  Can we just take a moment to recognize the poor souls who have to be the ones to discover/report that the toilets aren’t working? It might be an awkward job, but someone has to do it.

  Plane with malfunctioning toilets makes unplanned pit stop [Orange County Register]
  Broken toilets cause Honolulu-bound jet to divert to LAX [Associated Press]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uHow Recalls Work (And Don’t) And Why They’re All So Differentr

uPirate A 20-Year-Old Friends Episode, Get Hit With A $20 Bill From Warner Bros.r

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  This is probably the face the user made when he realized he was being asked to pay $20 for pirating a single Friends episode that’s probably airing on a half-dozen stations this week.

  A quick search on our TV menu hear in the Consumerist Cave finds that there are more than 150 episodes of Friends set to air on various channels — both cable and broadcast — over the next couple of weeks. Not bad for a show that’s been off the air for over a decade and which is also streaming in its entirety on Netflix. Given this ready availability, we don’t know why one would download a pirated copy of a Friends episode, but if you do, prepare to be slapped with a bill for $20 from Warner Bros.

  TorrentFreak.com reports on notices being sent from Warner Bros. through Internet service providers to users alleged to have illegally downloaded episodes of the show that made Jennifer Aniston’s hair a star.

  “Although WB understands and appreciates that you are a fan of its content,” reads one notice set to a supposed pirate, “the unauthorized uploading and downloading of its copyrighted content is a serious matter.”

  The notice in question calls the user out for illegally sharing the Friends episode “The One With Five Steaks And An Eggplant,” from the second season of the show which aired in Oct. 1995.

  The notice includes a link to an automated settlement page where the accused pirate can make it all go away by paying $20, while also qualifying “to receive future digital content offers from WB.”

  Even though you can get the DVD set of the entire second of Friends for less than $10 on Amazon (the Blu-ray is around $14), and the 22-ish minutes you’d spend watching that episode on Netflix is worth only a few cents of your monthly subscription, Warner insists that “The damage to WB from your conduct substantially exceeds $20, but in the interest of having you stop your infringement of WB content permanently, WB is prepared to make you this settlement offer.”

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uLovelorn Man Claims Fortune Teller Scammed Him Out Of $700,000r

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  Not the psychic involved. (Ron Dauphin)

  While many of us would love a glimpse into the future, one man says he was scammed out of a hefty sum of money in his attempt to find out what was keeping him from finding romantic bliss, saying he forked over $700,000 to a fortune teller only to find that his expensive efforts were all in vain.

  A 32-year-old Brooklyn man seeking to be reunited with his long lost love is now accusing a fortune teller of wheedling a literal fortune out of him over 20 months, leading to her arrest last month, reports the New York Times.

  What was he paying for? Special crystals, diamonds, a time machine, an 80-mile bridge made of gold in another realm, a reincarnation portal and diamonds to attract the energy of a woman he’d met in Arizona who didn’t return his affections. He told his story to a private detective which was then passed on to police last month.

  “The girl didn’t want to be with me, and the girl had categorically made that clear,” he wrote in a written statement for the police.

  So he started paying a psychic he’d found who said he and the woman he sought were “twin flames” and she could help move the spirits to help dispel the negativity that separated them.

  He even shelled out $40,064 on a diamond engagement ring from Tiffany’s and gave it to the fortune teller, he says, who reportedly promised he’d be using it as an engagement ring for his love someday.

  He traveled to visit the object of his affections, but she backed out of meeting up with him, saying he’d been acting weird. The fortune teller said a nasty spirit was stalking him, and she could get rid of it for $28,000… And then another $28,000, the man claims.

  More big payouts followed he said, including a fake funeral ritual to trick the bad spirit into thinking he was dead for $40,000 and a trip in a time machine — really a rose gold Rolex that cost $30,000, the man claims, and a bridge to another realm made of gold for $80,000.

  He says she promised to return most of the money he’d paid when the job was done, but he kept paying out until he made a horrible discovery — the women he loved had passed away. The fortune teller told him the evil spirits had killed her, and that she would reincarnate his love, putting her spirit into the body of another woman.

  He kept paying, borrowing money from a colleague and selling his car, until he finally ran out of money. The new woman he met that the psychic claimed was his lost love didn’t seem to be the same woman, and he was still alone. Alone, and broke.

  Finally, he sought out the private detective and together they went to the police. The fortune teller was arrested late in May with a partner, and charged with grand larceny.

  Her lawyer denies the allegations.

  Remember folks, if it sounds too good to be true… it probably is, especially if it involves building infrastructure from precious metals in another dimension.

  A Manhattan Fortuneteller Cost Him Fortune After Fortune [New York Times]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist