jikBest Buy Closes Future Shop Stores, Will Turn Half Into Best Buysde

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(Jamie McCaffrey)

Future Shop is the best name ever given to an electronics retailer, and also a chain in Canada that for the last 14 years has been owned by Best Buy. Best Buy also operates stores in Canada, which means that Future Shop has really been competing with itself. Until now. All of Future Shop’s current stores closed abruptly this weekend, and half will soon re-open as Best Buy stores.

Future Shop had 131 stores, and plans to keep 65 of them as Best Buy locations. The rest of them will close entirely, putting 500 full-time and 1,000 part-time employees out of work.

It may have been a terrible idea all along for Best Buy to keep all of Future Shop’s stores open in competition with its own stores, especially when both stores are similar big-box electronics formats. Some of their stores are even neighbo(u)rs in the same shopping plazas, as you can see in the photo illustrating this post.

Instead of withdrawing from the country entirely, as Target is currently doing, Best Buy plans to invest about $200 million (Canadian dollars) in the reorganization to stay competitive in Canada, which will include adding large appliance sales to its stores and improving its e-commerce operations.

Future Shop shutters Canadian stores, will rebrand as Best Buy [Globe and Mail]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jik“Bad Check” Debt Collector Deceptively Used Prosecutors’ Letterhead To Intimidate Consumers Into Paying High Feesde

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(David Goehring)

Late last year, Consumerist reported on a string of debt collectors paying to use prosecutors’ letterheads as a way to intimidate consumers into paying their debts. While the company facing the wrath of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today didn’t exactly pay to use the letterhead, they allegedly used the documents in a deceptive manner to get consumers to enroll in costly financial education programs.

According to the CFPB complaint [PDF], between 2009 and 2014 National Corrective Group masqueraded as prosecutors and used deceptive tactics to intimidate consumers into paying hundreds of dollars in fees to avoid supposed jail time.

The California-based operation, along with Victim Services Inc. and American Justice Solutions, Inc., make up the largest administrators of bad check diversion programs in the United States.

Check diversion programs are often offered by state and district attorneys’ office to consumers accused of writing bad checks as a way to avoid criminal prosecution.

National Corrective Group administered these programs on behalf of state and local prosecutors’ offices and collected check debt from consumers on behalf of retail merchants in Maryland, Colorado, California, Florida, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Pennsylvania.

Under the law, a company operating a bad check diversion program cannot contact a consumer about the program until a prosecutor’s office has reviewed the case and determined the consumer is eligible.

But, according to the CFPB complaint, that’s not how National Corrective Group operated.

Instead the company allegedly deceived consumers by sending them notices on prosecutors’ letterhead – creating the false impression that consumers may be prosecuted for writing bounced checks – before their cases were ever reviewed by the proper authorities.

“The CFPB alleges that less than one percent of consumers who received final warning letters stating that their case was being forwarded for possible criminal prosecution were ever even referred to the prosecutor’s office for possible prosecution,” the Bureau says in a statement. “The Bureau alleges that the company also threatened possible criminal prosecution where the amount of the debt was so low that criminal action would rarely or never occur.”

Additionally, National Corrective Group told consumers that to qualify for the diversion program and avoid prosecution they must pay the bounced check debts as well as enroll in the company’s financial education class for an additional fee, which typically cost about $200.

Under the proposed order, National Corrective Group must end its deceptive communications to consumers, stop using threats of intimidation or imprisonment, stop using district attorneys’ letterhead and must pay a $50,000 civil fine to the Bureau.

CFPB Takes Action Against “Bad Check” Debt Collector [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

jikTesla To Unveil Something “Major” April 30, But Not A New Carde

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That Elon sure does know how to tease… (via Twitter)

Earlier today, Tesla founder and Twitter tease Elon Musk announced that his company would be unveiling a “Major new product line” on April 3, while cautioning immediately that it’s “not a car.” So what could it be?

The biggest bet is something related to Tesla’s batteries. Last month, Musk revealed that Tesla was working on lithium-ion battery packs for home and business use.

“We are going to unveil the Tesla home battery, the consumer battery that would be for use in people’s houses or businesses fairly soon,” he told investors at the time.

These batteries could possibly be used with things like solar panels to collect and distribute electricity as needed, especially in developing parts of the world or in areas where it’s impractical to run electrical wiring or operate a gas-powered generator.

“A lot of utilities are working in this space and we are talking to almost all of them,” JB Straubel, chief technology officer for Tesla said at the time. “This is a business that is gaining an increasing amount of our attention.”

So far, aside from the fact that this new product line is not a car, the company isn’t giving any additional hints about what will be revealed on April 30.

Musk: Tesla Will Unveil Major New Product on April 30 [Bloomberg]

Tesla Motors to Unveil New Product April 30 [WSJ]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikSling TV Users Finding Some Shows Are Now Being Blocked From Streamingde

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(imgur)

TV production and distribution is a complicated entanglement of interests involving studios, distributors, networks, and pay-TV services, not to mention deals any of these people might have with other companies like home video or on-demand streaming sites. That’s been one of the huge impediments to getting live-streaming of all TV content — having to please all those parties who may not all agree. And that appears to be why Sling TV users are now finding that they can’t access every show on all of the networks.

Some Sling users have taken to this reddit thread to discuss why they unable to watch Criminal Minds reruns on A&E, or why certain movies are not available on Lifetime and other channels in the Sling lineup.

“Due to rights restrictions, this content cannot be streamed on Sling TV,” reads the message that users get when trying to watch these shows.

Even though Sling has only been widely available since early February, we’d heard no reports of rights restrictions until very recently, after A&E and its handful of channels joined the service.

This is most likely due to the fact that A&E and Lifetime allow Sling users to employ the service’s quasi-DVR function that lets you watch programming that has recently aired. Many of Sling’s biggest names, including ESPN, TNT, Disney, and TBS, only allow viewing of the live stream; no pausing or rewinding and no on-demand archive.

Some blame CBS and its history of antipathy toward Dish for keeping Criminal Minds off Sling, but the more likely reason is the show’s current deal with Netflix, which carries the first nine seasons of the show. It’s possible that allowing Sling users to rewind CI episodes might put them into a category that conflicts with the Netflix agreement.

Other shows that some users say are being blocked include some episodes of A&E’s Intervention and at least one Lifetime original movie. Again, Netflix currently airs a handful of Intervention episodes, and recently added a large number of Lifetime movies.

A rep for Sling confirmed the blackouts on A&E and Lifetime to TechHive, but said that “when possible, these channels will offer other programming in place of the restricted content.”

[via FierceCable]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikHave A RadioShack Gift Card? You Have One More Day To Use Itde

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(JeepersMedia)

We initially reported that people with RadioShack gift cards would have to use them up by March 5 or lose the entire balance. Great news if you happen to have found one buried in the far corner of your junk drawer: RadioShack has extended the period that they’re accepting gift cards to March 31.

The chain reportedly would like to wind things down tomorrow so they don’t have to pay April rent in their thousands of remaining stores, which is understandable. Whether they hand the keys over to designated auction winner Standard General or to a team of liquidators, another company will most likely be in charge as of April 1.

After that, we’re not even sure whether there will still be RadioShack brand stores around: one possible outcome of the bankruptcy auction is that the chain will be liquidated entirely, with only the remaining dealers and franchise stores maybe continuing to exist. Without a RadioShack supply chain, those stores could become something else.

People who dig up gift cards from defunct retailers can theoretically get something in exchange for the remaining value on the cards by filing as a creditor in the bankruptcy proceedings. After all, they do owe you money. However, you’d be very far down the list of creditors. In the case of RadioShack, even companies that lent the company millions of dollars to stay in business may not see much of the proceeds of this auction if Standard General wins, since most of the hedge fund’s bid for what’s left of the retailer is in the form of debt that RadioShack owes it.

RadioShack Customer FAQ [Radioshack]

Chapter 11 Gift Card Watchlist [Gift Card Girlfriend]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikUtah Restaurant Owner Removes Over-Sized Genitalia From Bull Sign After Uproarde

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(pjseeger)

The owner of a steakhouse who added an extra-large genital enhancement to the bull on the restaurant’s sign says he’s removing the nether bits that caused a slew of complaints from residents, but he’s not doing it because of the controversy.

He says he woke up one day and realized that the bull would be just as effective on the sign if it didn’t have the long cone-shaped phallus it originally included, reports The Spectrum.

But it’s not because of all the naysayers out there he says, adding that he called up the city to explain himself first.

“I told them I am not removing the penis for you or because of your complaints. I don’t like you. I’m doing it for me,” he said. “I just decided it would look better without the weenie. And oh my God! It’s beautiful.”

City officials say that though a stream of complaints have come in from people about the restaurant since it opened in 2009, there’s no cause to revoke its business license.

The owner says he filed all the proper paperwork to get the sign approved, which the City Manager admits, but added that “the dimensions of certain parts of the animal don’t seem to be built the same way as in the plan that came to us.”

The bull’s bits caused a controversy recently when the animal showed up atop a stack of signs for the restaurant, but it’s not like the owner planned it that way, he claims.

“I didn’t put it up to piss them off; I put it up because it’s an amazing piece, and I bought it as-is, but I am having fun with all the attention, and it’s brought in more customers,” he said.

At the same time, he admits that the cone shape didn’t feel quite… right.

“But I don’t know what a weenie on a bull is supposed to look like,” he says.

Owner alters Barista’s infamous bull [The Spectrum]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikDunkin’ Donuts Considering Using Only Cage-Free Eggsde

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(JeepersMedia)

Leaning into the growing consumer demand for products that are sourced from animals who aren’t contained as strictly as in the past, Dunkin’ Donuts announced today that it’s looking into using eggs only from uncaged hens in all its restaurants. It’s also planning on buying pork in the U.S. only from suppliers that don’t put animals in gestation crates by 2022.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, by the end of next year 10% of all eggs for breakfast sandwiches at the chain’s U.S. locations will be from cage-free hens.

This, after Dunkin’ Donuts had pledged to reach a goal of getting 5% of its eggs from cage-free sources by the end of 2013, according to the company’s senior director of corporate social responsibility, Christine Miller.

Revised rules for the U.S. egg industry aimed at improving conditions for the 305 million egg-laying hens in the country discourage the kind of cramped cages that have been used for decades.

California already requires every egg-in-shell sold in the state to come from hens that have enuogh room to sit down, turn in a circle and spread their wings. Washington, Oregon, Michigan and Ohio have passed hen-cage laws that are taking effect in the next few years, and other states have proposed bills on the docket as well.

Dunkin’ Donuts Considers All Cage-Free Eggs [Wall Street Journal]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist