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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
A Kiplinger reader shares his strategy for getting ridiculous rate increases on his three credit cards rolled back to their original rates. It's a technique that's probably familiar to a lot of Consumerist readers when negotiating for lower rates in general: be polite but unyielding, know where you stand as far as leverage (it helps to have a perfect history with the company), start with basic customer service, and then escalate as needed.
The plan, as always, is to give customer service one chance to provide they help they're supposed to provide, and then to manage the situation so that you end up in the hands of executive-level customer service--usually by calling a corporate number and trying to speak directly to an executive.
At that point, he's usually transferred to Escalated Customer Service. "Here you tone down your act and say you can't believe that the company treats consumers this way and that there are other companies that want my business," says Sweet. "Always remember to be nice here."The next step is the same every time. "They will say they need to look into it and will get back to you," he says. "They always do. I figure it's during this time that they look at your account and see how much money they will lose if you go elsewhere. That is why I assume that having perfect credit with them is important."
A 17-year-old student in New Zealand has discovered antibiotic resistant bacteria that could be difficult to treat in humans... in a bunch of grocery store chickens.
The key finding was that the bacteria have developed resistance to antibiotics not used in the poultry industry but important for treating serious infections in humans.The bacteria in two chickens proved to be resistant not only to antibiotics used in the poultry industry, but to antibiotics used to treat infections in humans. Ick.Scientists are calling for further investigation and the discovery is about to be published in the New Zealand Institute of Medical Laboratory Science's journal.
Millar's chicken experiment began as part of an International Baccalaurette Diploma during her Year 13 last year.
She bought six fresh chickens - free-range, barn-raised and organic - from a Christchurch supermarket. She took samples from each bird and grew bug colonies, which she used to test different antibiotics.
Student exposes bugs in chicken [Stuff via Fark]
(Photo:emuphoto)
TiVo says that you will soon have the privilege of paying Comcast an extra $2.95 a month for TiVo service (on top of what you already pay for a DVR).
"We are very excited by the emphasis that Comcast has placed on this product within its organization and their plans to aggressively market it at a $2.95 up-charge as well as through packaged bundles and win-back offers," Rogers said. "Further, we are pleased with Comcast's plans to promote and market the value of the TiVo experience, which will leverage many of their marketing assets including cross-channel TV."Are you excited?In the Boston area, Comcast's regular pricing for a high-definition DVR (the model that supports the TiVo software) is $16.94 per month, meaning TiVo service would be $19.89. Comcast confirmed that it will add the $2.95 up-charge for TiVo service
Comcast to Charge $2.95 Extra for TiVo DVR Service [Multichannel News]
Filed under: Storage
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Mary Bach, the woman who sued Kmart for charging tax on toilet paper, has won her lawsuit and $100. Kmart offered to settle with Bach, but she declined.
Mary Bach, of Murrysville, said Kmart offered to settle the case out of court before a Thursday hearing at which a Monroeville district judge sided with her. But the settlement required her to sign a confidentiality agreement, which would have defeated the purpose of her suit, Bach said.Good for Mary. Now many, many more people know that you can't tax toilet paper in Pennsylvania."I want consumers as they shop during the important holiday to be aware of what is and what isn't taxable," Bach said after the verdict. "I would lose my ability to spread that message if I were gagged."
"We don't want to fight with our customers," Kmart spokeswoman Kim Freely said. "We apologize for the inconvenience and the problem is being corrected."So true. Sorry, Kmart, Mary's message will be heard by all who'll listen.Bach said shoppers "need to look at every line" on sales receipts when they shop.
Pa. woman wins complaint against Kmart over tax on toilet paper [Philly]
(Photo:epicharmus)
PREVIOUSLY: K-Mart Illegally Taxes Toilet Paper
Filed under: Networking
Remember that blisteringly fast channel bonding modem Comcast showed off earlier this year? Turns out that the firm's CEO is apparently aiming to roll out internet services that can reach up to 160Mbps down / 120Mbps up sometime in 2008. As in, next year. In a recent interview with Fortune, Brian Roberts stated that service based on DOCSIS 3.0 technology would start "rolling out" sometime in 2008, and casually noted that it should provide "more than enough bandwidth to do multiplayer online gaming." Additionally, Cable Digital News explains that the firm has plans to cover some 20-percent of its footprint with the uber-quick service before 2009, and while we're left to guess what areas will be covered, we'd bet locales fetching FiOS could entertain some competition. Granted, we've still got aways to go before we can go toe-to-toe with a certain Swede, but we'll take any progress we can get.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Filed under: Portable Audio
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Two years after the Xbox 360 kick-started the next-gen console race on a Black Friday week, EA chief John Riccitello says this year's Black Friday completed the transition to the (now) current-gen consoles:
"It's been the longest, hardest transition in the history of the industry...Last Friday marked one of those points where you can say something's changed...Around the world, based on the data I've got, it was pretty clear that the transition is now over.
Really though, part of the reason the transition yawned into a two-year stretch is because Microsoft decided to jump the gun on everyone by about a year. It gave them an edge, true, but it also made the shift seem longer and more difficult than it really was because its own launch window was problem-ridden.
If you take last year's launch of the Wii and PS3 as the actual starting point, with all three on the market, the player with the most consistent difficulty since then has been Sony, but things are looking up for them post-$399 PS3 launch. (Nintendo and Microsoft have had their own share of problems, for sure.) Riccitello thinks it's all good now, anyway:
It looked like it might have been a two-horse race, but it's clearly a three-horse race...I think from this point, pleasantly for me, it's sort of fat city in the game industry.Anyone left out there that hasn't made the "transition" to what's now modern, civilized gaming? [Reuters via Games Radar via Kotaku, Flickr]
ABC News has an interview with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in which he says that the administration's plan to help subprime borrowers is nearing completion.
The plan is "industry sponsored" and would offer rate freezes to those homeowners who have the "capability" to own a home, but will lose theirs when the rates reset.
By innovation does he actually mean "corruption" or "incompetence?" We're not sure. Anyway:
"If there was ever a role for government, it's to help facilitate a solution when innovation has outrun the private sector's ability to deal with it," said Paulson. "And there's been a lot of innovation and complexity in the mortgage market, and we need to do everything we can to help get the industry ready to meet the growing number of resets that are going to be coming in the subprime mortgage market."
The plan would establish guidelines for lenders to freeze payments for homeowners who qualify for the program. Paulson said the program would be completely voluntary, and only some borrowers would qualify.He said homeowners who can handle an increase in payments and those who don't "have the financial capability to own a home" will not be offered an interest-rate "freeze."
"We're focused on those in the center -- the middle group -- that are going to have a problem meeting their payment, but it's in the industry's interest to come up with a solution to help them stay in their homes."
EXCLUSIVE: Treasury Secretary Paulson 'Optimistic' Mortgage Plan Will Be Finished Soon [ABCNEws]
