uSome McDonald’s Locations Exchanging Free Egg McMuffins For Taco Bell Breakfast Receiptsr

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  (JeepersMedia)

  
  
  
  If you’re the kind of person for whom a second breakfast is a matter of course, you might want to consider moving to northeastern Pennsylvania in the next few days: Some McDonald’s locations there have been offering up free Egg McMuffins this month in exchange for Taco Bell breakfast receipts.
  

  The offer is only good once per person, per day at participating locations and seems to be limited to locations that are a part of the Northeastern Pennsylvania McDonald’s organization, which is a group of 20 McDonald’s owner/operators and 65 McDonald’s stores in the Wilkes Barre-Scranton area.

  
  

  The gimmick runs through April 17, and appears to have only started this month, judging by the @McDNEPA Twitter account.

  
  
  
  

  
  

  Bring in your Taco Bell breakfast receipt for a free Egg McMuffin at part. McD's. 1 per person, per day thru 4/17 http://pic.twitter.com/uFgjEj8p3Q

  
  

  — McDonald's of NEPA (@McDNEPA) April 10, 2015

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

  Could this promotion spread to other areas? It might — especially if McDonald’s is as worried about competition from the taco chain as it appears to be.

  
  

  “Clearly, at least some McDonald’s folks are concerned about the potential competition at breakfast that Taco Bell could provide over time — and maybe is providing right now,” Janney Capital Markets analyst Mark Kalinowski wrote in a research note reported by BusinessInsider.

  
  

  Or heck, maybe the company will find some other form of payment — it’s already tried the selfie/hug route, only making a minimal splash among consumers.

  
  

  In any case, this kind of move could be seen as driving customers straight into Taco Bell’s arms for breakfast, if only to get the chance for a second free meal at McDonald’s. People have been known to want free stuff.

  
  

  Some McDonald’s are now accepting Taco Bell receipts as payment [BusinessInsider]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uCash4iPhones Offers $75, Changes To $8 After Receiving Phoner

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  (Blake Patterson)

  
  
  
  You might remember the name Cash4iPhones: we shared one reader’s conflict with them around the time of the last iPhone release. Consumers have two main complaints about this company. They claim that it sends high initial offers that plummet once your device is in their hands, and they are impossible to reach.
  

  The same company does business under a few different names, which are variations on the same theme: CashForLaptops.com is another well-known site of theirs. The situation profiled in the New York Times this weekend follows the pattern we’ve seen before: a customer described his phone and mailed it in, and saw an initial offer of $75 fall to $8 once the company had his old phone. He tried to complain about the decrease in their offer, but found it impossible to reach a human being at the company.

  
  

  The New York Times’ Haggler columnist wasn’t any more successful at navigating the company’s phone tree, but he was able to find contact information for their outside counsel, who contacted the customer and sent a check for $45. That’s not the happiest ending, though, since there are literally thousands of Better Business Bureau complaints against sites in the Cash4(gadget) family. This is apparently a company that doesn’t count on any repeat business.

  
  

  The Shrinking Cellphone Offer You Can’t Refuse [New York Times]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uStudents Claim 11,327-Pound Rice Krispies Treat Holds New World Recordr

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  (ianqui)

  
  
  
  There are some endeavors so inherently delicious, it’s a wonder more people don’t undertake them. But alas, not everyone has the means to craft a ginormous 5.5-ton Rice Krispies treat and steal the world record for doing so.
  

  That’s where a team of students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison calling themselves Project 15,000 came in, reports Reuters, wrangling Rice Krispies cereal, butter and marshmallows into an 11,327-pound behemoth.

  
  

  Though their goal had been 15,000 pounds (7.5 tons), measuring in at 10 feet by 10 feet by 6.5 feet tall, the group’s huge treat is more than 1,000 pounds heavier than the reigning champ, a 10,314 pound treat made in California back in 2010 recognized by Guinness World Records.

  
  

  The students started mixing up the treat on Thursday with 9,000 pounds of donated marshmallows, 5,500 pounds of Rice Krispies and 900 pounds of butter, and finished the project on Sunday, using a huge wooden mold.

  
  

  Pieces of the treat will now be cut up and sold off to raise money for Wisconsin charities. Extra cereal will also be donated to food pantries.

  
  

  “We had an ambitious goal and we succeeded,” one of the project leaders said.

  
  

  Wisconsin students’ Rice Krispies treat a snap, crackle, colossus [Reuters]
  
  University of Wisconsin Students Say They Broke Record for Biggest Cereal Treat [NBC News]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uItalian Pizza Association Threatens To Sue McDonalds Over Happy Meal Commercialr

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  McDonald’s has drawn the ire of on of Italy’s pizza makers association for a recent commercial.

  
  
  
  There appears to be a bit of a war brewing between Italian pizza makers and McDonald’s after the fast food company aired a commercial depicting a child overjoyed to receive a Happy Meal over pizza at a local pizzeria.
  

  CNBC reports that the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) – also known as True Neapolitan Pizza Association – treatened to sue the Golden Arches, saying the commercial in question is an attack on the country’s cultural traditions.

  
  

  AVPN says in a statement that the commercial, which shows a family waiting at a local pizzeria being transported to a McDonald’s after the child exclaims that he wants a Happy Meal, is a “dishonorable attack against one of the symbols of the Mediterranean Diet.”

  
  

  The company further claims that the fast food chain’s commercial suggests children don’t like pizza, as well as indicates that McDonald’s promotes an unhealthy diet and unfairly targets children with advertisements.

  
  

  “It is obvious that the American colossus is trying to discredit its main competitor, but speculating on children’s health is just too much,” AVPN Vice President Massimo Di Porzio said in the press statement.

  
  

  A spokesperson for McDonald’s tells CNBC that they haven’t heard from AVPN personally. The commercial, which first aired on YouTube in February and on Italian TV in March, was taken off the air on Sunday as previously scheduled.

  
  

  Industry analysts say that McDonald’s latest ad was a fairly significant change from its traditional European marketing strategy that targets family dining and locally sourced products.

  
  

  “There could be a very real risk of a backlash here, as the local pizza trade association has come out with all guns blazing and a section of the Italian public seemingly don’t need much encouragement in terms of pushing back against McDonald’s,” Bryan Roberts, director of Kantar Retail EMEA’s Retail Insights, told CNBC.

  
  
  
  

  Italian pizza makers threaten McDonald’s over ‘attack’ [CNBC]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uSprint Set To Make House Calls With Launch Of “Direct 2 You” Servicer

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  Like doctors of yore carrying black bags filled with tools straight to an ailing person’s bedside, Sprint is rolling out its own version of the house call with a new service needlessly employing numerals instead of letters, “Direct 2 You.” Roving Sprint workers will be on the road to customers in need of help upgrading their phone, transferring information to a new device and recycling old phones.

  
  

  Because everyone hates going to phone stores in person and having to wait for what feels like eternity to finally get someone to help you, Sprint says in a press release it listened to customer frustrations about the -in-store experience and is responding with Direct 2 You, which rolls out initially only in its hometown of Kansas City before an eventual nationwide rollout.

  
  

  Sprint-trained experts will drive around in Sprint-branded cars for appointments with customers at the location of their choosing, and move all their stuff from one device to another, as well as show them how the new devices work.

  
  

  The company claims the new service will amount to 5,000 more stores in major metropolitan areas by the end of 2015.

  
  

  “With our new Sprint Direct 2 You fleet of cars, it’s as if we are adding 5,000 additional stores,” Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said. “However, these mobile stores will be continuously on the move based on customer demand.”

  
  

  Customers eligible for an upgrade will get an offer via text or email, and can then call Spring to schedule an appointment for the service, which is free. Then a Direct 2 You worker shows up, sets up and activates the new phone and all that, and will also take old phones for recycling if wanted.

  
  

  “We take for granted that it is easy to switch between different types of phones, but it actually is very complex,” Claure said. “By bringing the in-store experience directly to customers, we can make that change painless, worry-free and do it in the comfort of a location where the customer wants it.”

  
  

  Of course, as with other services designed for house calls, there’s plenty of opportunity for an annoying experience — what if your driver gets a flat? Or heck, what if you’re stuck waiting for hours on end in some kind of service window purgatory? If the cable service industry has taught us anything about house calls, it’s that they’re not always easier than just showing up somewhere in person.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uWhy Solar Panels Are Suddenly Sprouting On Everyone’s Roofsr

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  (Adam Fagen)

  
  
  
  Have you noticed a lot more solar panels on homes recently? While an increase in solar panel installations can partly be explained by pointing out that people are more aware of energy conservation issues and want to save money, there’s a much simpler reason why there are more panels on roofs all of a sudden: they’re now super cheap, and aspiring solar panel owners don’t have to pay for the panels or their installation up front anymore.
  

  One factor is that there’s a global glut of solar panels. The price has fallen significantly in recent years. During the last decade, industry and government in China realized that solar power would be important in the future, which it is. They responded to this prediction by building a huge number of solar panel factories and cranking them out. Factories began cranking out panels in 2009, leading to a massive oversupply. That cut prices worldwide, making it a lot cheaper to cover your roof with solar panels.

  
  

  Of course, “cheaper” is relative. If you haven’t looked into it, you might not realize how expensive having solar panels installed on your roof can be. NPR’s Planet Money team hung out at an installation site on Long Island where covering a home with 41 panels would cost about $25,000 including installation. What do homeowners who don’t have extra cash and who don’t want to take out a loan to save money on their power bills do? It turns out there are companies that will bear the cost of installing panels, in exchange for a monthly payment.

  
  

  This isn’t altruistic, of course: investors are putting up the money to put solar panels on roofs across the country. They’ll make that money back with interest. SolarCity gets to employ installers and sell panels, and homeowners get to pay slightly less for electricity over the next few decades while paying off the bill for their installation.

  
  

  Episode 616: How Solar Got Cheap [Planet Money]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

u19 Passengers Injured After Megabus Double-Decker Rear-Ends Stopped Truckr

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  (Marcellina)

  
  
  
  Taking a long bus ride can be uncomfortable enough without glass and people flying around everywhere inside. In the fourth Megabus crash in Indiana since October, 19 passengers were hurt when a double-decker bus driving to Chicago from Atlanta ran into a stopped semi-truck on the interstate.
  

  According to state police, the truck had stopped due to construction and the Megabus driver apparently didn’t stop quickly enough in response, reports RTV6, striking the back of the truck and pushing it into two passenger vehicles around 5:30 a.m.

  
  

  The unexpected wake-up bump sent some passengers flying, with one saying that the Megabus driver was “driving extremely too fast” when another car swerved in front of the bus at the last second, though the police say the cause of the crash is still under investigation.

  
  

  “When (the car) cut in front of us, the driver put on her brakes and hit the semi on its corner, swiping it and busting the window,” she told the station. “The glass was everywhere. My seat cushion threw me three seats to the front.”

  
  

  Out of the 63 passengers, 19 were taken to nearby hospitals, though were no obviously serious injuries reported, police said.

  
  

  Stranded passengers were put on an IndyGo bus that took them to a truck stop to catch another Megabus heading to Chicago.

  
  

  “Safety is our number one priority and Megabus is fully cooperating with the authorities with their investigation into the incident,” Megabus spokesman Sean Hughes said in a statement.

  
  

  Megabus crashes on I-65 SB in Johnson County near Edinburgh [RTV6]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist