uMoms Try To Snag Taylor Swift Tickets, Get Scammed Twicer

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  Two moms wanted to take their daughters to see Taylor Swift when she played in St. Louis recently, but didn’t have tickets. That’s fine: that’s what the underground ticket economy is for, right? In theory, but they managed to get scammed twice in one night by two different ticket sellers, and missed the concert.

  The night of the concert, they found a listing for tickets through Craigslist. Nothing raised any warning flags for them, until they sent off an online payment and waited for the e-mail notification that their tickets had been transferred. They kept waiting, but no tickets came.

  Fine: there should be plenty of people hawking tickets outside the stadium doors, right? They found a friendly neighborhood scalper outside venue and got to business. “They went back and forth with each other, made us feel like we were getting really a bargain,” the mom who didn’t negotiate said.

  Counterfeit tickets aren’t a bargain at any price, though, and that’s what they bought. (Negotiating on the price makes you feel more confident that the deal is real.)

  On the third try, they successfully bought real tickets and got to attend the concert, but not without losing money to scammers twice.

  Sometimes we all have to turn to the secondary market for tickets, but you can protect yourself while doing so. Deal with verified sellers when dealing in tickets. If you’re buying them right outside the door, and that’s legal in your area, have the seller walk you to the turnstile and take a picture of them: if they’re trying to sell you bogus tickets, they won’t do either of those things.

  Mothers scammed twice over Taylor Swift concert tickets [KTVI]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uCaffeinated Peanut Butter Now Exists Because Time Is Preciousr

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  If you have a tough time making it through lunch because your morning cup of coffee just isn’t enough, one Massachusetts company says it has the perfect product — caffeinated peanut butter that packs a punch equal to a cup of coffee in just one tablespoon. No more sleeping through that PB&J.

  Steem touts its product as all-natural, with its only ingredients peanuts, salt, peanut oil and agave nectar, reports the Boston Herald. The caffeine comes from green-coffee extract that’s mixed into the spread.

  “It’s a time-saver; your two favorite products in one jar,” Steem co-founder Chris Pettazzoni told the Herald.

  This is also great news for people known to live off caffeine and peanut butter for long stretches of time due to sheer laziness (yes, I am that person, and I have no regrets).

  Unsurprisingly, the idea came from a conversation between Steem’s business partners, who were trying to drum up new hangover cures. Because who hasn’t dug into a tub of peanut butter with a spoon after a particularly boozy Saturday night?

  “The unsaturated fats actually create bonds with the caffeine so the digestion process is slower and results in a steady release of energy,” Pettazzoni said.

  *Thanks to Consumerist reader Jenny for the tip!

  Caffeinated peanut butter is now being made in Massachusetts [Boston Herald]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uWhole Foods Says It Will Stop Selling Prisoner-Made Products Made By April 2016r

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  After a protest at one of its Texas stores, Whole Foods says it will no longer sell products made using a prison labor program. The company has sold tilapia and goat cheese produced through a Colorado inmate program at some stores since 2011, and now plans to have the products out of stores by April 2016 or sooner.

  A prison reform advocate who organized a protest at a Whole Foods store in Houston this past weekend said the company told him it’d be changing its policy. Though other companies sell products produced through inmate programs, he said it was hypocritical of Whole Foods to do so, due to how the company presents itself.

  “They say they care about the community, but they’re enhancing their profit off of poor people,” he told the Associated Press, adding that prisoners usually don’t make much money for their work.

  A Whole Foods spokesman said that the company had sourced prisoner-made products as a way to “help people get back on their feet and eventually become contributing members of society,” but that it chose to stop doing so because some customers were uncomfortable with it.

  Whole Foods to stop selling products made by prisoners [Associated Press]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uTwitter Expands Availability Of “Buy Now” Buttonsr

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  A year after Twitter began dipping its toes in the waters of e-commerce by testing “Buy Now” buttons,buttons, the company is expanding its foray into retail sales with new partnerships intended to give more businesses the ability to sell their wares directly through Twitter.

  According to the official Twitter blog, it has made deals with e-commerce platforms Bigcommerce, Demandware, and Shopify. These partnerships will enable retailers and brands like Best Buy, Adidas, and PacSun to sell their products straight to customers without requiring them to take their eyes off their Twitter feed.

  “Today, as we begin rolling out to a wider group of platforms and partners, people will have even more opportunities to discover and purchase products from the brands they love on Twitter,” Nathan Hubbard, Twitter’s head of commerce, writes in a blog post about the new expansion.

  While the buttons are, for now, a U.S.-only option, Twitter believes the step will open a larger revenue stream beyond advertising.

  “The goal for all our commerce initiatives on Twitter is simple: make it as easy as possible for businesses to connect directly with, and sell to, customers on Twitter,” Hubbard wrote. “With Buy Now, businesses can drive more conversions and remove much of the friction in the mobile purchasing process.”

  Twitter first began utilizing Buy Now buttons in Sept. 2014, in tests that included just 26 handpicked musical artists and nonprofit organizations at the start, and just two brands.

  The social network says it plans to continue growing its ecommerce business in coming months.

  “As we continue to develop new products and expand the ecosystem of platforms and partners in the social commerce space, we can help even more brands and customers connect on social and mobile,” Hubbard said.

  Wednesday’s announcement comes just two weeks after online payments company Stripe – one of the networks original ecommerce  partners – announced it would start letting  retailers sell their goods directly on the social media network through its new product Stripe Relay.

  According to Stripe, Relay lets merchants compose one buy button that can be placed on Twitter and other apps in as little as 30 seconds, streamlining a process that previously required customers to click through to retailer’s own websites — a task that can be complicated on smartphones.

   

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uVirgin America To Offer Free In-Flight WiFi For Netflix Subscribersr

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  Netflix customers who’ve wished they could download content to bring with them on their mobile devices when they fly still won’t be able to do that, but they will be able to stream video on some Virgin America planes by way of a new partnership that gives Netflix subscribers free WiFi.

  The offer will last until March 2, 2016, the two companies said in a press release, and is only available on those planes equipped with Virgin America’s new ViaSat WiFi, which the airline says delivers internet speeds that are typically eight to 10 times faster than any other in-flight WiFi system.

  “This advances our goal to bring Netflix to members wherever they are and whenever they want,” Bill Holmes, global head of business development at Netflix said. “For us, the future of streaming technology is about delivering an on-demand service that takes advantage of the expansion of Wi-Fi to public places, parks, and now airplanes.”

  To access free WiFi on Virgin planes included in the partnership, passengers will open a browser and sign into the ViaSat network. They’ll then be prompted to either log in to their existing Netflix accounts or create a new, free 30-day trial account (which is great for Netflix’s goal of gaining new subscribers). This of course means you’ll have to bring your own device to watch Netflix, though Virgin will also offer seasons 1-3 of the Netflix series House of Cards on all seat-back screens.

  The partnership is in line with Netflix’s anti-downloading stance — the company has said in the past that people shouldn’t have to download content if there’s quality WiFi service available.

  It’s also similar to a somewhat recent initiative from JetBlue and Amazon: in May, the airline started offering free streaming to Amazon Prime subscribers. Though customers might need even need to take advantage of that deal if they plan ahead, as Amazon now offers downloads for its Prime members to watch video offline on iOS and Android devices as well.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uAT&T Touts “Lower Prices” For Gigabit Internet; Still Charges $40 More If Google Fiber Isn’t Aroundr

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• If you have AT&T wireless service, your voice/data plan is going to cost you the same amount of money each month regardless of your home address. But AT&T’s broadband division isn’t taking this one-price-fits-all approach, and is continuing to sell broadband access that can range in price by $40/month, depending on where you live… and apparently whether Google Fiber is in the area.

  Yesterday, the Death Star touted GigaPower availability in more than a half-dozen new GigaPower markets, including Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville, Orlando, Miami, and San Antonio.

  We noticed that — rather than make a big splash about this news with one huge press release — AT&T broke down each market into its own statement. Why? One reason has to be that prices can vary so much from area to area.

  In Atlanta and Nashville, GigaPower starts at $70/month for 1Gbps data speeds.

  But in Chicago and Miami, where AT&T boasts of now offering “lower prices,” the monthly rate is $80, but for 300 Mbps data speeds.

  That’s correct: $10/month more for slower access. If you want the full gigabit access available from AT&T in these markets, you’ll have to pay $110/month, more than a 50% price increase from the other areas.

  The price difference can’t be attributed to AT&T’s questionable “Internet Preferences” program that offers a discount to users willing to let their online use be tracked and sold off by the company. The press releases make it clear that being part of this program is required for getting this advertised price.

  The obvious link between the cities with the lower rates is that they are all currently being built out by Google Fiber, which charges, you guessed it, $70/month for gigabit broadband.

  We pointed out this connection in the spring after noting that Austin, where Google had just begun to sell Fiber, was getting the $70 price while Cupertino, CA, an area that is merely under consideration by Google, was being charged the $110/month rate.

  The fact that AT&T believes it can charge $40/month more just because no one else in a market is offering a comparable service only underscores the need for increased competition in high-speed broadband service. When more companies are selling comparable services, no single operator can dictate what consumers should pay.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uLegislation Would Hold For-Profit College Leaders Accountable For Misrepresentationsr

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  Lawmakers on Tuesday continued their mission to protect consumers from unscrupulous players in the for-profit college industry by introducing legislation that would impose stiffer penalties and restrictions on the leaders of such institutions. 

  The Students Before Profit Act – introduced by Senators Chris Murphy, of Connecticut, Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, and Dick Durbin, of Illinois – aims to protect students from deceptive practices and bad actors in the for-profit college sector by better holding schools and their executives accountable for violations and poor performance.

  “For-profit colleges and their executives shouldn’t be able to get away with cheating students and leaving them with huge debt loads while these schools rake in big profits off of federal loans,” Senator Warren said in a statement. “This bill creates better tools to strengthen accountability and to protect both students and taxpayers when colleges and their executives break the law.”

  Under the Act, the Department of Education would receive broader discretion to require owners and executives of for-profit colleges to assume liability for financial losses associated with Title IV funds.

  The Dept. of Education can also pursue claims against these owners and executives after discharging borrowers’ student loans.

  Additionally, the Act would authorize enhanced civil penalties on institutions and their executive officers if it is determined that the college misrepresented its cost, admission requirements, completion rates, employment prospects or default rates.

  Fines paid by the schools, or its executives, for these issues would be filtered into a Student Relief Fund to help potentially defrauded students.

  The Students Before Profit Act also aims to improve oversight of any default rate manipulations. To do so, the Act requires the Secretary of Education to use corrected data to recalculate student loan cohort default rates for institutions of higher education that have engaged in default manipulation. The Secretary would then make determinations on whether an institution should be disqualified from participating in financial aid programs.

  Finally, the law would prevent “repeat offenders” – those who have once served in an executive position or on a board at a for-profit college that the Dept. of Education has brought an enforcement action upon – from holding leadership positions at another higher education institution.

  “Too many students looking for a quality college education have found themselves at for-profit institutions that are more concerned with profit margins than career readiness,” Brown said in a statement. “These bad actors have misled students about graduation rates, job prospects, and cost – leaving them battling debt and unable to find work in their fields. This legislation would help protect students while also holding for-profit educational institutions accountable to taxpayers.”

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist