uGoat Kicked Out Of Tim Hortons For Loitering Without Buying Anythingr

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• In defense of a loiterer who sought shelter in the vestibule of a Tim Hortons outlet in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, there is no sign that says, “No Goats Allowed.” They ban skateboarding and biking, but not seeking shelter in that area while being a goat. Yet store employees called the Mounties anyway, probably because the goat was loitering without even buying a coffee.

  The animal first entered the store through the automatic doors, since those don’t have any kind of species lock on them. Employees tried to encourage it to go back outside, but it wouldn’t stay. Police suspect that the animal was looking for a warm place to sleep.

  The officers finally brought the goat to their vehicle, but it resisted “arrest” and was unhappy to lose its donut-scented sleeping spot. The officers brought it to a local vet, where it stayed overnight until the officers finally located the farm where it belonged.

  The goat has returned home, probably to regale its barnyard friends with thrilling stories of automatic glass doors, double-doubles (that’s a coffee with two creams and two sugars) and frosted pastries.

  Stubborn goat ‘arrested’ after refusing to leave Saskatchewan Tim Hortons [CTV]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uAmerican Airlines Launches Real-Time Baggage Tracking Service For Travelersr

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  After a long day of traveling the last thing you want to deal with is lost baggage, but, unfortunately, that’s a very real situation for millions of consumers: over the last five years, the Transportation Security Administration paid out $3 million for lost, stolen and damaged baggage. American Airlines is trying to give travelers piece of mind that their bags are well within reach by launching a new bag tracking service.

  The carrier rolled out a free real-time online luggage tracking system for checked bags last month, allowing customers to see just where their bag is — from the time it’s handed off at the check-in counter to its arrival on the carousel at the destination airport — the Chicago Tribune reports.
  
  The airline quietly began the new customer-facing service in late August, but chose not to publicize it until employees were used to the new scanning procedures.

  “It’s something our customers have been asking for [for] a really long time, and we’re excited to make this available to them,” American Airlines spokeswoman Laura Nedbal tells the Tribune.

  The service was created as part of the merger between American and US Airways. American previously only scanned bags as they were loaded onto the aircraft, while US Airways, on the other hand, scanned bags as they were loaded and taken off planes.

  Baggage tracking data was previously used only internally, Nedbal said.

  Tracking is only available via American’s website for now, where users can click on the “track your bags” button and input their last name and record locator or bag-tag number.

  The site will then produce information on six bag-scan touch points, such as ticket counter check-in and loading on and off the aircraft.

  Using the service not only lets passengers keep an eye on their bags, it can also save them time. Instead of waiting for your bag to appear on a carousel, users can see right away when their luggage is in the wrong place and head straight to customer service.

  The new service won’t change American’s current tracing system where customers can track a lost bag after it’s been reported.

  American isn’t the only airline to offer a real-time tracking system for checked bags: Delta Air Lines currently employes a similar service.

  American Airlines secretly adds free real-time bag tracking [The Chicago Tribune]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uUSPS Says It Tried To Deliver My Package, But Home Security Video Shows Otherwiser

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  Anyone who’s ever been anxiously awaiting the arrival of a promised packaged might know the sheer frustration of waiting around at home all day, only to check the tracking later and find that a carrier attempted delivery when you finally left the house. That’s what happened to Consumerist reader Tony — only he had video to prove that no one from USPS ever showed up, despite what the tracking information said online.

  Tony put together a video chronicling his recent frustrating experience waiting for a package to get delivered, but here’s what happened if you don’t feel like watching: He waited at home all day for a package last Friday, finally leaving his home at 6:25 to get dinner. By the time he returned at 7:40 that night, still no package, and no notice left on the door… but the online tracking information said USPS had attempted delivery at 6:59 p.m.

  Someone who doesn’t have evidence to the contrary might believe they’d missed a delivery attempt, but Tony has a new home security camera on his front door, so he checked the footage of that time period — and no one turned up at 6:59, or ever. Not only that, but without a pink notice slip, he couldn’t reschedule delivery and would have to go the post office to pick his package up.

  The next day around 1 p.m., he checked the tracking info one more time before heading to the post office and was surprised to see a note that his packaged had been delivered… 15 minutes before. And yet, a quick search outside showed that the package had still not arrived. Just as he was about to finally leave for the post office at around 2:30, the mail carrier showed up and handed over his package — two hours after the tracking info says it was left on his front porch.

  “So now not only are they claiming they attempted delivery and left a notice they didn’t leave, but the next day they are also logging that they came back and specifically left it on my front porch when they haven’t, before finally hand delivering it,” Tony writes.

  This isn’t the first time it’s happened to Tony, and there are many others like him out there — including members of the Consumerist staff — but he says that when he calls the the main number for USPS (1-800-ASK-USPS) to find out what happened, the people on the other end are nice and seem to believe him, but tell him there’s nothing they can do.

  When he’s tried to sort it out with USPS staff at the post office, he’s been told to speak to a manager who he says is never there, or submit a complaint online. He’s tried that, too — he filed an official complaint with the postal service as well as with the USPS inspector general, but neither resulted in a response.

  We’ve reached out to USPS to find out how and why this happens, and what consumers should do in a similar situation when all complaints have apparently reached deaf ears, but we have yet to hear back as of this posting. If and when we do, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, there doesn’t seem to be much Tony can do, other than continuing to remain vigilant for invisible mail carriers attempting to deliver invisible packages.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uComcast Officially Launches Its “Watchable” YouTube Competitorr

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• Back in August, we mentioned that Comcast was working on something called “Watchable,” its attempt to cash in on the curated online video craze that all the marketing and advertising kids are talking about. We also hoped that “Watchable” was just a working title, because it’s not exactly an astounding endorsement of quality. Today, Comcast announced that it’s indeed launching Watchable, so-so brand name and all.

  Like other curated video services — all of which seem to promise the best of the Internet — Watchable posts video clips from a few dozen “digital partners,” like BuzzFeed and Vox, both of whom recently received substantial financial investments from Comcast.

  In addition to other Comcast/NBC products, there are also clips from a couple dozen others, including The Onion, Vice, Machinima, Mashable, POPSUGAR, Fast Company, and everyone’s favorite high-energy-beverage-cum-online-video-content-provider Red Bull.

  “We think Watchable can be a unique place that curates and distributes the best content from some of the most recognized brands and producers on the web,” writes Comcast Cable’s Chief Business Development Officer Sam Schwartz. “Plus, many of our Watchable partners have not traditionally had distribution on the TV and we can give them a path to reach new audiences and further monetize their content on the biggest screen in the home.”

  What’s not stated in there is the advertising money that Comcast stands to make from these videos — if it can get people to watch them.

  Online video ads command a nice bit of change — and unlike banners and all those other boxes you ignore when browsing the web — you can’t use an ad blocker to stop some 15-second commercial from playing before you get to that video you want to watch.

  Though Comcast is integrating Watchable into its X1 platform for its cable customers, the streaming service is available to anyone via Watchable.com. There is also an iOS app for iPhone and iPad users.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uIt’s Not Just You: Robots Are Also Bad At Assembling IKEA Furniturer

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  If you’re the kind of person who’s terribly afraid of the impending robot revolution as well as someone who struggles when it comes to putting together IKEA furniture, we’ve got some good news for you: robots are also pretty bad at it, so maybe that’ll delay the artificial intelligence uprising somewhat.

  Researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (h/t Gizmodo) wanted to see what a robot could do when facing messy situations –like when you accidentally empty all the parts you need to build furniture onto the floor — so they set it up to construct an IKEA chair… or rather, they gave it a chance to try to put together the chair.

  A robot was equipped with two grippers and force sensors to measure grip strengths, and set in front of six cameras so researchers could watch from every angle as it tried to stick a wooden dowel in a hole in one of the chair’s pieces. It’s a common task that even the most inept IKEA customers have managed, but it proved a bit tricky for the robot.

  The thing is, robots are pretty good when they’ve got a simple, straight forward task in front of them, like putting together the parts of a car on an assembly line. But when faced with the complicated task of hunting around for pieces, holding one part still while locating the right spot to stick another piece into it, the robot has a bit of a tough time before it finally finds its mark.

  Basically the robot has to try and try again, after failing to succeed the first time (I think I read that quote on Facebook somewhere, Mark Twain, right?). Can it build a whole chair? Not yet, but don’t be surprised
  if it figures things out eventually — who else is going to build all those thrones for our robot overlords?

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uVolkswagen To Announce Emissions Fix Plans In “Next Few Days”r

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  Since the Environmental Protection Agency revealed earlier this month that Volkswagen had rigged its so-called “clean diesel” vehicles to cheat on emissions tests, owners of the approximately 11 million cars affected by this trickery have been waiting to find out when they might hear something other than apologies from the German carmaker.

  According to Reuters, VW’s new CEO Matthias Mueller has declared that a proper plan for refitting this huge number of problem cars will reach out to affected owners “in the next few days” with information on having their vehicles’ software updated.

  These cars were rigged with “defeat device” programs that could detect when a car was undergoing an official emissions test. A car’s full emissions control system would only turn on during these tests, meaning the test results were not always indicative of the vehicle’s emissions during regular use. In fact, according to the EPA, some cars were emitting toxins at around 40 times the allowable level.

  Reuters reports that VW’s announcement did not provide details on exactly how the recall fix will work or what the end result will be for the fuel efficiency and emissions of the affected vehicles.

  Given that many owners of VW’s line of “clean diesel” cars bought them because they were both fuel efficient and environmentally friendly, they may not be pleased with a “fixed” car that gets worse mileage or puts the vehicle just on the compliant side of EPA emissions standards.

  VW has set aside around $7.3 billion to pay for the projected costs associated with this egg-on-face publicity disaster, but the costs could end up being even larger.

  First, the company faces potentially billions in penalties from U.S. regulators alone. If the EPA seeks the maximum fine for each violation of the Clean Air Act, VW could be on the hook for around $18 billion.

  There is also the possibility of multimillion, perhaps billion, dollar settlements to close federal criminal probes and state-level violations. Not to mention the class-action civil suits filed by owners of affected VWs.

  Beyond all that is the damage to the company’s reputation. Even though VW only rigged around 500,000 vehicles in the U.S., the fact that a carmaker would deliberately attempt to deceive consumers and regulators may cast a pall over the entire line of VW cars for some time to come.

  Investors have been dumping VW stock since the Sept. 18 EPA announcement. The share price for VW currently sits at around $97/share, down from nearly $170 two weeks ago. The company’s stock price hit had actually hit a record high of $262 in the spring of 2015.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uLL Bean Hired 100 New Duck Boot Makers, But They’re Still On Backorderr

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• If you’re looking forward to splashing around this winter in LL Bean’s aggressively unglamorous, USA-made duck boots, you’ll need to plan ahead: some styles and sizes are backordered by a month before there’s even a single snowflake in the sky. The duck boot factories are cranking them out as fast as they can, and simply can’t keep up with demand.

  Of course, this could all be backwards: the early demand could be from eBay flippers stocking up to sell the boots for double or triple the original sticker price to desperate people with wet feet. Last year, wait times stretched into the spring during December, and the only way to get a pair while it was still snowing was to turn to eBay.

  Or could it be that this very story is playing right into their strategy: creating a shortage to make people want the boots more, and creating desire through scarcity? You probably hadn’t even thought about which winter boots you’ll be wearing this year until you read this story.

  LL Bean reports that it has made changes to keep up with demand, short of outsourcing production to other companies, in the US or offshore. “We’re making them literally as fast as we can,” a company spokesperson told Bloomberg News, using the word “literally” correctly in a sentence. They purchased a new molding machine and hired and trained 100 more boot-makers. They thought that they were ready, and apparently customers are even more ready.

  Why Can’t L.L. Bean Keep the Darn Duck Boots in Stock? [Bloomberg News]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist