uAlabama Restaurant Owners Claim Wells Fargo Won’t Fix Issue That Cost Workers $30K In Tipsr

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  (TheTruthAbout)
  

  An Alabama restaurant has plastered signs around a Mobile neighborhood accusing Wells Fargo of being run by liars, after the bank reportedly cost employees of the establishment tens of thousands of dollars in tips and refused to remedy the situation.

  AL.com reports that in an attempt to make others aware of what he claims is “corporate bullying,” a local business owner hung signs declaring “Wells Fargo: LIARS” on several establishments in the Mobile area.

  The man says the signs were created after the bank refused to fix a mistake in its system that cost his employees $29,400 in tips.

  The issue began four years ago, when the man and his brother – who own several businesses in the area – moved their credit card processing system to Wells Fargo.

  The man claims that during the transfer process Wells Fargo incorrectly entered the business into the system as retail, rather than tip service.

  As a result, the tips customers left on their credit card bills were not going to the business’ servers.

  “By the time they caught the mistake, it had accumulated to a large sum,” the man tells WPMI. “After going back and forth with the bank for a while, they essentially told us that nothing was ever going to happen.”

  The business owner says the company has only received about $600 of the $29,400 it’s owed.

  But the owners’ issues with the bank don’t end there, AL.com reports.

  Last May, the two men decided to purchase another property in the area using money from an inheritance they’d received. The men say they were given cashier’s checks for more than $20,000 each from Wells Fargo and then deposited them into their accounts.

  When the men withdrew the funds to complete the transaction, the checks from the bank allegedly bounced.

  The owner says, in that situation, the bank made up the difference by draining the holdings in all of their accounts and issuing them credit cards that were maxed out. He says this essentially left them penniless.

  According to the brothers, it took 20 days for Wells Fargo to fix the situation.

  And so the men decided to voice their frustrations with the bank in a very public manner.

  “We’ve gotten a lot of positive response and a lot of people got behind us on it, for sure,” he says.

  A spokesperson for Wells Fargo tells AL.com that the company has repeatedly reviewed the credit card processing situation.

  “We believe we have acted appropriately to resolve this situation. Wells Fargo worked with [the owners] in the spring of 2011 to resolve issues involving his credit card processing,” the spokesperson says. “While the underlying error that led to this issue was not caused by Wells Fargo, we worked diligently to assist [the owner] and his business in the resolution of this situation. We take customer privacy seriously and therefore cannot discuss further details of his account.”

  ‘Wells Fargo LIARS’: Fed up with service, Mobile bar owner sticks it to big bank [AL.com]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uHostess Makes Candy Corn-Themed Cupcakes For Some Reasonr

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  (The Impulsive Buy)

  It’s not clear whether there’s any flavoring or indeed anything else at all that makes these Hostess Cupcakes more candy corn-ish than any other random yellow cupcake with frosting and sprinkles. What we do know is that they exist, they are orange, yellow, and white, and they are a “limited edition.” Which means that you should stock up or something.

  Candy Corn Oreos, after all, just tasted like sugar. We don’t expect much more out of Hostess. Actually, it’s sort of nice to see candy corn staying around in Halloween, instead of selling out to other holidays like Easter and Independence Day.

  Marvo over at The Impulsive Buy wonders when we will inevitably see the other Official Flavors of Fall appear in pre-packaged cupcake form: where are the orange-colored pumpkin spice cakes, or the green and tan Caramel Apple cupcakes? Will Pecan Pie cupcakes ever become a thing?

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uHundreds Of Local Channels Go Dark For Millions Of Dish Subscribers In Latest TV Blackout Fightr

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  (Zachary Rupert)

  
  Dish Network subscribers may have a hard time getting their local news and weather today along with some of their favorite network programming. A contract dispute between the satellite TV company and one of the biggest network owners in the country has resulted in one of the biggest TV blackouts to date, with 5 million viewers losing access to nearly 130 channels.

  The fight is between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Dish Network. Every three years, broadcast networks, like the channels Sinclair owns, have to re-up retransmission agreements they have with pay-TV companies like dish, if they have them. This time around, the negotiations broke down and consumers are left in the dark.

  The original deadline for the two companies to come to an agreement was August 15. However, Sinclair and Dish agreed to a last-minute short-term contract extension in order to get details hammered out and avoid a blackout.

  However, that deadline too has now come and gone, and Sinclair pulled the plug on Dish overnight.

  In a statement, Warren Schlichting, SVP of programming at Dish, that they and Sinclair had actually come to terms on rates and fees, but that Sinclair is “blacking out 129 local stations in an effort to negotiate a carriage agreement for an unrelated cable channel that it hopes to acquire, but does not own today.” He added, “Sinclair rejected our extension offer and has chosen to use innocent consumers as pawns to gain leverage for the economic benefit of Sinclair, while causing substantial harm and disruption to the lives of consumers.”

  Sinclair, of course, entirely blames Dish. Barry Faber, EVP and general counsel for Sinclair, pointed out that Dish has had more blackouts in recent times than any other pay-TV company, and said that Dish is, “simply trying to spin the facts in an apparent effort to make a political statement.”

  Faber also called out Dish for sending press statements overnight, adding, “While Sinclair, unlike Dish, is not interested in negotiating this transaction in the press, Sinclair remains willing to negotiate a fair deal with Dish. In addition, we would be open to doing an extension if Dish was not simply asserting take it or leave it positions. In the end, this is simply a commercial business transaction in which the parties unfortunately were not able to agree on terms.”

  Sinclair’s dig does have some merits: at this point, Dish subscribers are probably used to their channels vanishing without notice. The satellite company has faced a number of high-profile protracted blackouts over the past year, including three weeks without Fox News in January and a month-long dispute with Turner in 2014 that took CNN and Cartoon Network (among many others) off the air.

  This fight is a little different than those, though. Sinclair is not a cable network operator, like Turner or Discovery or Scripps. They are, instead, a media conglomerate that owns and operates a huge number of local broadcast stations. They own over 150 TV stations in over 80 media markets, from small and medium cities to big-time markets like Washington, DC.

  That means Dish users in those areas — spread across 36 states plus DC — are now not just going without their cable news, but without their local news. And that’s not good news for anyone.

  This is exactly the kind of dispute the FCC recently proposed new rules for, but those rules haven’t been adopted yet. The change to the rules would let the FCC take a broader look at the circumstances around the dispute to determine if the businesses are both negotiating in good faith, as required by law.

  Dish argues that Sinclair is not negotiating in good faith, and that Sinclair’s posture is already unlawful. Dish filed a complaint about Sinclair with the FCC (PDF) on August 15, right before the first negotiation deadline expired. When Sinclair stations went dark on Dish last night, Dish filed a new, amended complaint (PDF) against Sinclair, asking the FCC to intervene.

  Regardless of the details in every retransmission fight, though, one theme rings true: while companies fight over who gets which money, consumers always lose.

  
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by Kate Cox via Consumerist

uWe Live In A World Where An Internet Company Can Charge $14 To Put A Message On A Potator

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  (via Potato Parcel)

  I am not here to tell you how to spend your money, let’s just get that right out there. But hey, if you’re willing to spend $14 to send someone a message on a potato, I’ve got to hope that that potato can then be mashed/fried/roasted and eaten afterward.

  Today’s entry in, “Yeah, This Is A Thing” comes by way of a company called Potato Parcel, which will slap a message on a root vegetable and throw it in the mail for you, reports MarketWatch.

  For $7.99 you get a medium-sized potato with a message of up to 100 characters, or for $9.99, the company will package a larger potato with a 140-character limit and send it to your intended recipient for about a $4 shipping fee.

  The potato packages result in feelings at first of “surprise and delight” for those on the receiving end, Alex Craig, founder of Potato Parcel told MarketWatch, which turns to confusion when they open the package to find a potato with an anonymous message. Sure, you could include your name, but that goes against the word count.

  But… why? Well, because people are trying to back to their pre-Internet roots, and are looking for something real and physical, perhaps.

  “I wanted to create a brand new way of sending a message outside of apps and technology by allowing anyone to send an anonymous message…on a potato,” Craig explains.

  His company has received 3,500 orders since going into business in May, and it’s not the only food-as-message business out there competing for the novelty factor we consumers so enjoy, if only briefly: A Brooklyn-based company called Mail a Spud has been sending “thousands” of orders since January, with $9.99 potatoes sent directly through the mail, with the stamps and addresses plastered right on them.

  “I don’t suggest that you consume them,” founder Sean Din told MarketWatch. “They’ve been through a lot.”

  People are spending $14 to send message-bearing potatoes [MarketWatch]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uTarget Won’t Face SEC Charges Over Breachr

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  (Mike Mozart)

  Nearly two years after a massive data breach at Target left millions of consumers’ personal information at risk, the company announced it won’t face enforcement action from at least one government agency.

  The Securities and Exchange Commission – just one government entity to investigate Target’s breach – won’t penalize the retailer, according to the company’s quarterly filing [PDF].

  “The SEC’s Enforcement Division concluded its investigation during the second quarter of 2015 and does not intend to recommend an enforcement action against us,” the company says in the filing.

  While the closure of the SEC investigation relieves one possible liability for the retailer, other agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and various State Attorneys General, continue to investigate the data breach.

  “Given the varying stages of claims and related proceedings, and the inherent uncertainty surrounding them, our estimates involve significant judgment and are based on currently available information, historical precedents and an assessment of the validity of certain claims,” the company states. “We are not able to estimate the amount of such reasonably possible excess loss exposure at this time because many of the matters are in the early stages, alleged damages have not been specified, and there are significant factual and legal issues to be resolved.”

  Target goes on to detail its costs so far related to the data breach, noting it has incurred $264 million in cumulative expenses. That figure is partially offset by expected insurance recoveries of $90 million, for a net cumulative expenses of $174 million.

  The company’s announcement Wednesday comes just a week after it reached a deal with Visa to give about $67 million back to consumers affected by the breach.

  While the figure was attributed to “people familiar with the situation,” the company confirmed the payment amount in the new SEC filing.

  “In August 2015, we entered into a settlement agreement with Visa under which we will pay up to $67 million to eligible Visa card issuers worldwide that issued cards that Visa claimed to have been affected by the data breach,” the filing reveals.

  In the wake of the massive hack, which went on for weeks before being detected in late 2013, card issuers say they spent hundreds of millions of dollars issuing replacement cards and dealing with fraudulent charges tied to the breach.

  Target says it will continue to dispute claims filed by the three other major payment networks.

  “We expect to dispute the remaining unsettled claims regarding the data breach that have been or may be made against us by the payment card networks,” the company says. “With respect to the three major payment card networks other than Visa, we think it is probable that our disputes would lead to settlement negotiations.”

  The company previously settled a class-action case from consumers in March by agreeing to pay $10 million. The settlement was believed to potentially pay individual victims up to $10,000 in damages.

  [via The Star Tribune]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uRegulators Open Investigation Into Jeeps That Just Roll Away When Parkedr

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  (Van Swearington)

  When putting your vehicle in the “park” position, you probably have the expectation that your car won’t be moving. That’s apparently not the case for more than 400,000 Jeeps now under investigation by federal regulators because they have a tendency to simply roll away after being parked.

  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a probe into 408,000 model year 2014 and 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokees after receiving 14 consumer complaints about the vehicles rolling away from their parked position.

  According to a notice [PDF] posted by NHTSA, the Jeeps are equipped with an electronic gear selector. The gear selection is made by pressing the shifter-paddle forward or backwards; the shifter does not move along a gate path as with conventional gear selectors.

  Of the complaints received by NHTSA, five have included crashes, resulting in three injuries.

  “The vehicle was put in park while running,” one complaint reads. “The vehicle then started to roll backwards while still in park and then collided into another parked vehicle… three occupants proceeded to evacuate the vehicle before it collided with the parked car. The two children and adult passenger evacuated the vehicles as they thought it might roll into street traffic and be struck. A child was injured exiting the vehicle as the vehicle collided with another parked vehicle and then continued on rolling into a ditch.”

  “I was backing my Jeep into my yard with a utility trailer attached,” another complaint filed in February states. “I heard a noise and I pushed the gear shift up into park and opened my door to step out of the vehicle and make sure I had not hit something. As I stepped out the vehicle started moving backwards and the driver door struck me knocking me to the ground on my back. The left front tire rolled over my pelvic area causing serious injury.”

  NHTSA says its Office of Defects Investigation opened the probe into the Jeeps to determine the scope, frequency and consequences of the potential defect.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uNYC Cereal Bar Selling $6 Servings Of Cereal You Can Buy For $5 A Box At The Storer

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  (frankieleon)

  Yes yes, we know — Trix is for kids. But it — and other sweet cereals — is also for adults who are willing to pay $6 a serving for it in Brooklyn rather than going to a corner bodega store to buy a box of their own for about $5. A new cereal bar has just opened up in Brooklyn (where else?) offering a slew of cold cereals served in a celebrity-designed shoe box. But hey, there are toppings, so…

  But this is Brooklyn, and the novelty of the thing will likely be part of the allure for customers: the bar is located inside a clothing and sneaker store, and features an express window that opens in the morning before the store so folks can get their cereal before the rest of the store is open for business.

  The cereal itself comes packaged in single-serving Mylar bags that fit inside small shoes boxes designed by sports celebs like Andre Agassi. Those boxes can then be used as bowls to eat breakfast (or lunch, or dinner, no judgment!) from, reports the New York Times. There are also toppings available, as well as milk, coffee and cereal-flavored soft-serve.

  Like many folks with a dream, the inspiration for the cereal bar came from the owner’s childhood, when he wasn’t allowed to gorge on sweet cereal.

  This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a dedicated cereal bar: back in December 2014 we heard about a London bar that only served cereal and milk, at about $4 a bowl.

  My big idea: selling white bread, bologna, American cheese and mayo sandwiches with the crusts cut off to people from my stoop, in honor of the lunch I coveted most in the elementary school cafeteria. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, but it was a different time then, folks. It was a different time.

  A Childhood Obsession Leads to a Cereal Bar at Kith [New York Times]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist