uSouthwest Airlines To Pay $2.8M To Settle FAA Lawsuit Over Improper Repairsr

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  More than a year after the U.S. government sued Southwest Airlines over allegedly improper repairs to more than a dozen aircraft, the airline has agreed to settle the allegations to the tune of $2.8 million. 

  The Department of Justice on Monday announced that the Federal Aviation Administration settled a lawsuit filed in Nov. 2014 alleging that Southwest did not properly oversee a contractor hired to complete fuselage repairs on dozens of planes.

  According to the FAA’s suit, from 2006 to 2009 Southwest used 44 Boeing 737 planes that had undergone improper fuselage repairs.

  The contractor hired by Southwest – Aviation Technical Services – allegedly failed to follow required procedures regarding the placement of the airplanes on jacks and stabilizing them while replacing the fuselage skins on the aircraft. By not following the proper protocol, the airframe could shift and lead to problems with the new skin.

  The FAA claims it alerted Southwest of the issues in April 2009, but the airline continued to use the planes for at least six months before completing additional repairs.

  In a second incident, the contractor applied sealant beneath the new skin panels but failed to install fasteners to all the rivet holes while the sealant was effective. The omission could have resulted in gaps between the skin and the plane’s surface which could let moisture inside leading to corrosion.

  Additionally, the FAA alleged in the suit that Southwest failed to properly install a ground wire on water drain masts on two of its aircraft as required by the FAA Airworthiness Directive regarding lightning strikes. The airplanes were each operated on more than 20 passenger flights after Southwest Airlines became aware of the discrepancies but before the airline corrected the problem.

  Under the settlement, Southwest will pay $2.8 million in penalties, and has agreed to pay up to $5.5 million in deferred penalties if it does not implement operational changes, such as enhancing oversight and control of third-party maintenance contractors.

  A spokesperson for Southwest tells the Associated Press that the company is “committed to meeting or exceeding all applicable FAA regulations.”

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uRent The Runway’s ‘Exclusive’ Dresses Turn Up Much Cheaper In Retail Storesr

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• Rent the Runway, a company that lets customers rent pricey outfits for special events, now rents out their own brands alongside designer clothes and accessories. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there is something wrong with promoting those brands as if they’re from noted designers, assigning them made-up retail values. Even worse: some of those “exclusive” items can be found on department store websites, where you can buy them for less than it would cost to rent them.

  Observant customers pointed this out to Buzzfeed, and ultimately those complaints could lead you to question the entire nature of the industry that creates the clothes we wear. Or not.

  One customer noticed the same dress she had rented from Rent the Runway, which the company said retailed for $595, on a department store’s site for only $118. That’s the regular price, not a sale or clearance price.

  She complained to the company, and they offered her a refund. When a Buzzfeed reporter contacted Rent the Runway with the same questions about the discrepancy, the “retail” price on that item on the site mysteriously fell to $345.

  As we shared last week, Rent the Runway is getting into the house-brand business: they’ve created their own lines of clothing and accessories to rent out alongside the designer labels that they also carry. That’s cool. What is considerably less cool is that they don’t alert customers to the difference between dresses you might pay $500 for elsewhere, and items designed and produced just for Rent the Runway that were never available for retail sale anywhere.

  Instead, those items have prices that the company says they’ve made up based on the item’s workmanship and materials. “[W]e include the retail value to add context for our customers so they can make informed purchasing/renting decisions,” a spokesperson for the company told Buzzfeed.

  Customers will view a dress that they’re told costs $370 differently from one that costs $27.50, right? In the most extreme example, a dress that Rent the Runway has available for a $50 rental does have a “retail” value of $370, while the same dress in a different color was available for only $27.50 at Nordstrom Rack before it sold out.

  
  

  Things go on clearance, and fashion churns in and out of stores almost as quickly as rental gowns leave the dress-rental facility and come back. Yet the strangest thing started happening as Buzzfeed’s Sapna Maheshwari reported this story: the “retail” prices for these items on Rent the Runway’s site began to fall.

  Yet why are those dresses, which Rent the Runway is so proud to call their “exclusive” items, available from retail stores in the first place? The designs that Rent the Runway is using came from a company that has since been acquired, and that company is selling dresses using those designs to other retailers. The different versions use slightly different materials, and are produced in different quantities, which explains some of the price difference.

  Rent The Runway’s “Exclusive” Dresses Are Sold Cheaper Elsewhere [Buzzfeed]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uHere Are Some Last-Minute Gift Ideas For Last-Minute Gift-Giversr

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  It’s December 21, shipping deadlines are winding down, and you have gifts left to arrange. What do you do? “Panic” isn’t a valid option, so here are some ideas for what you can do instead.

  Note: we aren’t necessarily endorsing all of the companies and services named in this post: it’s an overview of ideas, and we haven’t checked out all of the companies listed. Also, we can’t guarantee that you’ll be able to make good fudge successfully on the first try.

  GO TO AN ACTUAL STORE

  Only the grocery store is open in your area? Our colleagues at Consumer Reports have some ideas for decent last-minute gifts that you can find in the supermarket aisles.

  Visit the gourmet aisles: you’ll find fancy bottled olive oil,

  Grocery and drugstores also have a handy standby when gift-shopping: gift card kiosks.

  GIFT CARDS

  Gift cards have a lot of problems: they may lose their value if a retailer goes out of business, fraud can happen at the point of sale, and not everything that appears to be a “gift card” has the consumer protections of a traditional gift card. Most of them ultimately go unredeemed.

  Still, they do have a few advantages: they let you earmark money for something fun or a specific purpose. A gift card in a specific amount can actually be a very personal and thoughtful gift… but then, ultimately, so can cash, if you package it thoughtfully enough.

  Lottery tickets might seem like a way to give someone cash without really giving cash, but here’s something to consider: would you be upset if the recipient won the top prize and didn’t share with you?

  SUBSCRIPTIONS

  Subscriptions to magazines, websites, and other periodicals can be tricky if you aren’t familiar with the recipient’s habits, but it’s also possible to extend a subscription that you know they enjoy. You can even buy Netflix gift cards in grocery and drugstores now, which would make a nice complement to a streaming device or smart TV if you know that they happen to be receiving one from someone other than you.

  One category that has really grown since the last time we covered last-minute gifts are subscription boxes, which now are available for everything from cosmetics to pet treats to snacks. Someone has probably developed a subscription box for subscription boxes.

  Boxes for pets are their own industry now: there’s BarkBox, MeowBox (of course), and KitNipBox, and many others. Confusingly, CatLadyBox offers cat-themed items for humans, but you can also add items for actual cats to your subscription. They’re good if you’re looking for a gift for a pet or a pet lover, and a gift subscription delivered on Christmas by e-mail is a good cover for waiting until the last minute.

  Meal-preparation kits are also growing in popularity: no gift says “I care about you, but you’re a terrible cook” quite like a subscription to Blue Apron or HelloFresh, services that send new recipes and all of the ingredients that you’ll need to make them.

  The site My Subscription Addiction has reviews and overviews of any kind of subscription box that you can or can’t think of, but remember that they use affiliate links to get a cut of anything you buy, and often receive the boxes that they review for free.

  One problem that we often hear about subscription boxes is that they’re hard to cancel, which is where giving someone a gift subscription instead of simply handing over a credit card number is an even more wonderful gift.

  HOMEMADE FOOD

  How about a lovely bouquet of chocolate-dipped bacon roses? There are a lot of edible things that seem like they take a lot more effort than they really do. My standby is peanut butter fudge, which you can put in a pretty box or toss in a plastic bag, and people will be happy either way because it’s fudge. Use your own strengths: maybe you can make other kinds of candy, cookies, brownies, or jerky.

  HOMEMADE STUFF

  You don’t need actual craft skills to put some basics together and end up with something worth more than the ingredients.

  Get respectable-looking frames at big-box, dollar, or craft stores: print out some digital photos at your local drugstore, frame them, and you have a meaningful and not terribly expensive gift.

  One idea from a Consumerist staffer is to buy clear glass ornaments and fill them with things. That could include photos or other keepsakes, glitter, sequins. Really, all you need to do is paint their name and the year on them, and you’ve created an instant heirloom with actual meaning. Maybe.

  FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE FAR AWAY

  Subscription boxes or other gifts delivered virtually work here, especially if you’ve already missed all of the shipping deadlines.

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uLactaid Blames Avian Flu For Lack Of Eggs In This Year’s Holiday Nogr

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  Reader Margaret has a holiday dilemma. She was ready to start guzzling her favorite Lactaid-brand lactose-free egg nog, and was delighted to find a carton. Then she opened it. She was horrified to discover that her beloved nog had changed. This year’s version is an egg-free “holiday nog,” which some fans like but Margaret can’t get into. “It tastes like sadness and chemicals,” she wrote to Consumerist. She did not clarify what sadness tastes like.

  Margaret wrote to us so we could warn others before their lactose-free holiday gatherings. “I’m going to dump it down the sink lest I go on a faux nog binge while softly moaning ‘whyyyyyyyy,'” she wrote to us in despair. We accepted the challenge, even though Margaret didn’t actually give us a challenge, and contacted Lactaid to find out whyyyyyyyyy they took the eggs out of their nog.

  They blame the change on avian flu, which humans can’t catch from chickens, turkeys, and other birds, but which created nationwide egg shortages and price hikes. The shortages and increases canceled each other out, since rising prices meant that people simply bought fewer eggs.

  Here’s the full statement that we received from Lactaid’s representatives. Specifically, Johnson & Johnson, which owns the Lactaid brand.

  With regard to the LACTAID® Holiday Nog, the recipe has changed for the 2015 holiday season. LACTAID® is committed to providing Consumers with their favorite festive seasonal beverage, however, Avian flu is affecting the supply of eggs nationally. Therefore, this year, the LACTAID® Brand is offering an egg-free version of eggnog, called “Holiday Nog.” LACTAID® Holiday Nog is a rich, lactose-free holiday treat made from real milk and cream.

  That probably isn’t how Margaret would describe it, but at least we’ve solved the mystery of the egg-free nog. That decision was probably made in the summer or fall, during the worst of the avian flu outbreak and egg shortage. Note that they haven’t ruled out adding the eggs back in when egg prices go back down.

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uHealth Officials Investigating Chipotle For Different E.Coli Strain, Five Illnessesr

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  While Chipotle CEO Steven Ells was busy riding the apology train, issuing regrets for a recent E.coli outbreak that sickened more than 50 people in nine states and a norovirus outbreak in Boston involving 140 students, the fast casual chain was being linked to five separate illnesses in three more states. 

  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday that it is investigating a link between Chipotle and five people infected with a different, rare strain DNA fingerprint strain of E.coli.

  According to the CDC, all five people became sick between Nov. 18 and Nov. 26 after eating at Chipotle restaurants in Kansas, North Dakota, and Oklahoma.

  All three people in Oklahoma who became ill ate at a single Chipotle location in the state. The North Dakotan traveled to Kansas during their exposure period and ate at the same Chipotle location as the Kansan who became ill.

  The CDC says it’s unclear if the new illnesses are related to the larger E.coli outbreak currently affecting 52 people in California, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

  A spokesperson for Chipotle tells Bloomberg that the company believes that the illnesses are related, and they are working with the DCD and FDA to investigate.

  Since Chipotle was linked to the larger outbreak in October, the company has undertaken additional food safety measures.

  Last week, Ells said the company is striving to get as close to perfect food safety as possible with new procedures and testing inside and outside their restaurants.

  Though Ells noted that the company will never know for sure which ingredient at Chipotle was tainted with E. coli, prompting this most recent outbreak, but that the company will be adding more testing, as well as cutting, washing and testing tomatoes at central commissaries to ensure they are as clean as possible.

  He then went on to make several public apologies for the outbreaks, taking out a full-age ad in several major U.S. newspapers including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.

  [via Bloomberg]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uHack Of Online Hello Kitty Community Exposes Info For 3.3M Parents, Possibly Childrenr

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  Just weeks after the hack of electronic toy maker VTech exposed the personal information for more than five million children and adults, another child-focused enterprise has suffered a similar breach. The interactive online community for Hello Kitty was recently breached, potentially compromising 3.3 million accounts. 

  The hack affected sanriotown.com, a community for parents and children who are fans of Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters, CSO Online reports.

  Information exposed in the breach includes first and last names, birthdays, gender, country of origin, email addresses, password hints and corresponding answers, and other information.

  While it’s unclear how the breach occurred, Chris Vickery, a researcher who first stumbled on the hack, said that exposed accounts were tied to several websites, including hellokitty.com; hellokitty.com.sg; hellokitty.com.my; hellokitty.in.th; and mymelody.com.

  In addition to the primary SanrioTown database being hacked, two backup servers were compromised, with the earliest exposure taking place Nov. 22.

  “The alleged security breach of the SanrioTown site is currently under investigation,” the company tells CSO. “Information will be made available once confirmed.”

  CSO online suggests parents that use sanriotown.com, or its related domains, make sure they aren’t using the same password for other sites, like those used for banking, email, or social media.

  This is the second hack to potentially expose the personal information of children. In late November, VTech confirmed that an “unauthorized party” accessed customer data housed in its Learning Lodge app store, which allows customers to download apps, games, e-books and other content for VTech products.

  While the company assured users that the Learning Lodge does not store credit card information or Social Security numbers, the database does include data like names, e-mail addresses, encrypted passwords, IP addresses, mailing addresses, download histories, and answers to password-retrieval questions.

  Database leak exposes 3.3 million Hello Kitty fans [CSO Online]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uPredictably, Crystal Pepsi Winners Are Already Selling Their Prizes On eBayr

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• There are a lot of people out there who want to try or rediscover Crystal Pepsi for some reason. Pepsi, however, knows how to keep our interest and drive fans crazy, which is why so far they’ve only made the clear cola available to 13,000 lucky winners through a sweepstakes. Naturally, those winners are selling it off on eBay.

  Single bottles of the uncolored high fructose corn syrup water are selling for $20 or so, for the person who simply must say that they have tried crystal Pepsi, or maybe who wants to show off the bottle for bragging rights. Whatever your motivation, sweepstakes winners have you covered. Some are even selling their whole six-pack.

  Is Pepsi gearing up to sell the soft drink for real, or not? They have an entire page of crystal Pepsi apparel and glassware, which is nice and all, but its existence is confusing. Do they plan to sell Pepsi Perfect eventually? Is PepsiCo promoting their brand, but a product that they don’t intend to sell? If that sounds wacky, note that they also sell Pepsi Perfect merch, and that was never a commercially available product, except for the brief promotion earlier this year with only a few thousand bottles.

  

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist