Blog dedicado a la formación en todos sus ámbitos: presencial, online, a distancia
You might remember the most recent bid that Men’s Wearhouse made for the smaller company. The board of Jos. A. Bank refuses to discuss the offer, and the leadership of Eminence thinks that it should.
A merger would make sense, with two similar retailers that serve similar markets joining forces. The CEO of Eminence Capital estimates that a merger could save about $2 billion per year, though it would be less great for competitors and consumers. It would be pretty great for shareholders, though. Like Eminence Capital. That’s why the firm filed suit against the Jos. A. Bank board for refusing to discuss the bid, and for making changes to make it harder for one investor to take control of the company.
Jos. A. Bank Board Sued for Rebuffing Men’s Wearhouse Offer [Bloomberg Businessweek]
“They’re already delivering amazing products you can buy right now,” Google CEO Larry Page said of the acquisition. “We are excited to bring great experiences to more homes in more countries and fulfill their dreams!”
In an FAQ on the Nest blog, the company deals with possible concerns about its new owners.
For example, Nest says its products will still continue to work with iOS and they will continue to develop the iOS apps tied to its products. And Nest says there will be no change to the warranties on its products.
Given how much information Nest products may have about your home, it makes sense that some would be concerned about this information being shared with the data-mining folks at Google.
“Our privacy policy clearly limits the use of customer information to providing and improving Nest’s products and services,” explains Nest. “We’ve always taken privacy seriously and this will not change.”
When you hear the word “Vermont,” perhaps images of snowy peaks, crackling, cozy fires and maple syrup spring to mind. It’s a winter wonderland! Everything from there smells of snow and touch of roasting marshmallows! But just because you want people to associate your product with the wintry northern state doesn’t mean you can just slap a “Made In Vermont” Label on it and call it a day.
That’s the chilly lesson a Massachusetts-based mints-maker is learning after it reached a settlement with its northerly neighbor, after mislabeling its VerMints tins as Vermont products, reports the Associated Press.
The state attorney general’s office sued the company in 2012, saying that the metal tins sold between 2006 and 2011 shouldn’t have borne the label: “Vermont’s All Natural Mints.” That’s because they were actually manufactured in Canada with ingredients mostly not from Vermont.
And just because you know customers would maybe have a soft spot for Vermont, well, you can’t mislabel things without violating consumer protection rules.
VerMints has agreed to make amends and settle by donating $35,000 to the Vermont Foodbank, pay the state $30,000 and correct its products’ labels.
“Use of the term ‘Vermont’ has great economic value,” said Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, “and many businesses go to the expense of sourcing their ingredients and processing within the state in order to market their products as Vermont products. We need to maintain a level playing field when it comes to claims of geographic origin, and to ensure that consumers who care about where their food comes from get accurate information in the marketplace.”
Vermont Settles With Maker of Mislabeled VerMints [Associated Press]
Sad news out of Tampa Bay, Fla. this afternoon: Local news outlets there are reporting that two people were shot inside a movie theater today during a screening of Lone Survivor. It appears there was some kind of dispute between two couples, with at least one report saying that a man was upset at the noise made by the victims while texting during the previews.
While thus far it appears that the dispute involved texting, it’s unclear whether or not it’s been confirmed that the victims, who were seated in front of the male suspect and his companion, were texting during the previews or the movie itself.
MyFoxTampaBay.com is one outlet reporting on the incident, and one if its reporters has tweeted that the shooting took place before the movie started:
Shooting happened during Lone Survivor previews for 120 showing. Suspect was sitting behind victim. Didn't like noise from cell phone.—
Evan Axelbank Fox13 (@EvanAxelbank) January 13, 2014
According to the sheriff, the suspect and his wife got into an argument over noise and texting. An “altercation” took place and the man took out a pistol, shooting both the other man and his partner.
The male victim has died of his injuries, while the woman has been hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. Someone inside the theater reportedly managed to detain the suspect until police arrived and arrested him.
“It’s absolutely crazy it would rise to this level,” the sheriff said.
Two shot after dispute over noise in theater [MyFoxTampaBay.com]
Target is one of my favorite stores. It’s where you can find all of life’s essentials at deeply confusing prices. You might as well just ignore the price tags, since unit prices are really the only thing that matters.
In the case of this Diaper Genie refill that Tamar found, to be fair, the two packages aren’t just different quantities of the same thing. In the case of the two-pack of refills on the bottom, you have to buy two, but they come in a box. That is apparently a bonus item that costs eighty cents, because your baby is going to like playing with this box better than any of the toys you’ve bought in the last three months anyway.
There’s no similar explanation for these batteries that Matt found. “And I did check the tags,” he notes. “They’re under the correct quantity.”
Well, this is Target: we wouldn’t expect anything else.
(Warning: there are large, mildly gross wrist rash photos in this post.)
Reader Kevin was one of these people. He was an early adopter of the new device, starting to wear it in mid-November and noticing a problem at the end of December. He writes that it started with “a red blotch under the device where the battery and charging port sits.” It grew over time. He swapped which wrist he wore the band on: a red spot began to grow there, too.
He sought medical attention, and the nurse practitioner diagnosed the spot as contact dermatitis. When the spot eventually blistered and scabbed over, it became infected. He believes that he may be left with a permanent scar.
It would be easy to write Kevin off as one guy with a weird allergy if he were the only one with this problem, but he’s not. There’s an entire thread on Fitbit’s forums (login required) dedicated to the issue. The thread is a veritable parade of rash photos.
Here’s the progression of Kevin’s wrist:
Fitbit’s solution is to simply exchange the Force for one of their other devices. They admitted in a statement to Consumerist that some customers are having problems: “we already have been taking steps to make this right with any customers who feel that they have an allergy related to their Fitbit device.” Those steps include issuing a refund or exchanging the tracker for a different one. The company points to possible material sensitivity to the charging port or battery metal, allergy to the elastomer material, or bacteria caught in the charging port as the cause of customers’ skin irritation.
They aren’t about to admit a problem with the device, and we don’t know what proportion of customers have reported contact dermatitis or other skin problems on their wrists.
One customer solved the problem on a black wristband by covering the metal bits with electrical tape. Yes, because Fitbit customers are paying $130, plus any applicable sales tax, for a device that they have to tape up in order to avoid a big ugly rash.
“I really wanted to buy into the Fitbit ecosystem and I loved the device — before the injury,” writes Kevin. “Considering I have medical expenses resulting from treatment, and the fact that healing is slow-going and may scar me, Fitbit has done nothing to show me that they care for their customers’ loyalty.”
Here’s the full statement from Fitbit:
We are aware that some of our customers have reported a skin irritation from wearing their Force device. We conduct testing in order to satisfy a variety of internationally accepted standards relating to the safety of the materials in our devices. Fitbit wristbands are made of an elastomer material similar to many sports watches and do not contain latex. The Fitbit Force clasps and casing are made with a surgical-grade stainless steel, which is commonly used in watches, jewelry and other products in contact with the skin.
As with any jewelry or watch, numerous factors could cause a skin irritation, such as nickel sensitivity (surgical stainless steel is an alloy containing traces of nickel), reactions to bacteria that can accumulate in wristbands, or a sensitivity to the material of the band elastomer.
However, our customers are our top priority, so we already have been taking steps to make this right with any customers who feel that they have an allergy related to their Fitbit device including offering a refund or a choice of a replacement tracker. Fitbit will handle all shipping costs and will provide a refund in any difference in price.
Have you had a slew of new “friend” requests in your Snapchat queue? Accepting any of those might lead to a spam avalanche in your feed, as many users have been piping up about a recent wellspring of spammy spammers hitting the photo service. But it’s not because of any recent username leaks, at least according to Snapchat.
While the company’s blog post about this spam fiesta doesn’t flatly deny that the surge in spam is related to the hack that listed usernames alongside phone numbers recently, but instead says it’s unrelated, “as far as we know.
At the same time, it sure is making it seem like it’s just because Snapchat is such an upwardly mobile app.
Although can choose to ignore snaps that aren’t from your friends, it still feels a bit creepy to know that spammers are probably skimming through that list of phone numbers in order to send out
We’ve heard some complaints over the weekend about an increase in Snap Spam on our service. We want to apologize for any unwanted Snaps and let you know our team is working on resolving the issue. As far as we know, this is unrelated to the Find Friends issue we experienced over the holidays.
While we expect to minimize spam, it is the consequence of a quickly growing service. To help prevent spam from entering your feed, you can adjust your settings to determine who can send you Snaps. We recommend “Only My Friends” :)
We appreciate your patience and we’ll keep you posted.
The staff of a campus bar at Notre Dame is now $10,000 richer, after American Express approved a mystery tipper’s generous tip from back in November. Everyone nearby should probably hurry over there soon in case they’re handing out free rounds to celebrate. [via WNDU.com]
If you want to sell people stuff, you should go where they are and understand how they engage with your product. That seems pretty intuitive, but maybe it wasn’t for Starbucks as they first began to expand into a global brand. Yes, the coffee is pretty much the same everywhere you go, but people approach coffee and transportation differently around the world.
Here in the United States, we’re most familiar with a Starbucks configuration that includes small tables for two or four people, along with a drive-thru window to accommodate the car-centered commuting and leisure travel style in most of this country. That’s not how it works in other places, though, so Starbucks has retooled stores in ways that aren’t as blindingly obvious as you might think.
Last November, for example, the chain partnered with the Swiss railroad system to open a double-decker store in a train car, so commuters and travelers can grab coffee even when they almost miss the train. Inside the store, designers of Starbucks stores in other parts of the world need to think about how they configure stores.
People in Mexico, for example, visit Starbucks the same way we in the U.S. visit a bar, with a large group of friends to socialize.
With Stunning New Stores, Starbucks Has a New Design Strategy: Act Local [Wired]
Getting married in an IKEA or a Walmart? So 2013. Instead, why not start your life with the man you love while a gameshow audience screams approval and Drew Carey observes from a distance like some sort of wise life guru?
On a recent episode of The Price Is Right, the final contestant bid her way to winning the Showcase, and was surprised with a bit of a bonus prize at the end.
Baby, I just want to say you already make me feel like the most lucky man in the world. I would be honored if you would have me as your husband,” her now fiancé said, while getting down on one knee and offering up a diamond ring.
A teary nod, an embrace, and Drew Carey just cannot saying “Wow. Wow. Wow!” as if he’s never seen a surprise engagement on a game show before. Get it together, Carey.
Meanwhile we’re sure at least one audience member was yelling, “A DOLLAR! SAY IT’S A DOLLAR!”
That’s exactly what happened to me and dozens of other early morning travelers last week at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. I’m not a member of PreCheck (which the TSA obnoxiously insists on writing as “Pre✓™”) and the line I’d been directed to after the initial, fleeting check of my boarding pass in no way indicated that this was a PreCheck line.
But as I approached the checkpoint to have my ID checked and my boarding pass scanned, a man who appeared to be a TSA supervisor stood and declared that my line and the one next to it are now PreCheck lanes.
The initial reaction from those around me was confusion — mutterings of “Why did they put me in the wrong line? What is PreCheck? Do I have to get in another line?” — but then the supervisor just continued telling us that we didn’t need to take off our shoes, remove laptops from their bags, and the other perks of being a PreCheck traveler.
And his promise held true, as I whizzed through security in a matter of seconds without the usual hassle of recombobulating afterward. But as grateful as I was to be done with the security checkpoint (especially after several days of being very ill while also trying to cover the Consumer Electronics Show), I was curious about whether what had just happened was within the TSA guidelines.
After all, what is the point of PreCheck if its benefits can just be bestowed upon random groups of unscreened travelers? Isn’t that really just an admission that the whole process is security theater?
I reached out to the TSA and described the situation, and received a semi-clarification.
“TSA also utilizes these lanes during certain times for other low-risk passengers who are identified through a real-time threat assessment process,” explained a TSA rep who then directed me to this TSA.gov page on what the agency calls “Managed Inclusion.”
Here it describes a way in which TSA can use other layers of security to include travelers in the PreCheck fun:
After the initial risk assessment by Passenger Screening Canines and Behavior Detection Officers as passengers move through the standard security checkpoint area, a TSA Officer will verify the traveler’s boarding pass and identification while the passenger steps onto an electronic mat with directional arrows. The mat randomly designates whether the passenger will experience standard or expedited screening through TSA Pre✓™.
Thing is, this doesn’t quite describe the scene I witnessed in Las Vegas. There were no canines sniffing around the lines in question, no electronic mat with directional arrows. What’s described in above and in the below video is a process wherein a decision is made at the checkpoint about each passenger, but the situation I was part of involved a supervisor simply declaring that two lines were now PreCheck.
In the short time during which I was waiting to be processed, I didn’t see anyone randomly assigned to go through the standard security check. Everyone I saw zipped through quickly with their shoes and belts on.
It is nice to know about Managed Inclusion, as it is a way to expedite one of the least-pleasant parts about air travel, but it would be even better if the TSA applied these rules consistently.
Remember Samantha West? That was the name of the most definitely recorded voice insisting that she was a real person on a telemarketing call about buying health insurance. And while there probably is no Ms. West sitting by the phone dialing up potential customers, she’s not exactly a robot, either.
On The Media wanted to find out who, exactly, this voice could be. It’s not like this is the only example of pre-recorded voices insisting that they’re live people. But they’re not exactly robots, either.
“Samantha West is not a robot. If we wanted to give Samantha West a catchy title, it’d be a cyborg,” The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal explains to OTM.
What she actually is is a person sitting at a call center somewhere, pushing buttons on a computer to play certain audio clips during the phone call to the recipients of telemarketing campaigns.
So for example, you pick up the phone and hear a perky human voice, but there’s another human operator hitting buttons like “L” to make the voice laugh, or another button to say the right phrase at the right time. If the operator is really good at his or her job, these conversational asides are meant to make things more natural.
And while critics might point to this kind of recording as a way to commit fraud, another argument is that it’s actually a tool to prevent any wrongdoing. After all, someone working at a call center might not have the incentives to always say the exact right thing, whereas a recorded voice will always read all the disclosures they’re supposed to, and make sure that the pitch includes every single thing the script wanted said.
We’re still kind of sad, however, that there’s a prerecorded “I’m a real person, I am, I am a real girl!” bit of audio. Tugs right at the ol’ heart strings. But hey, put Scarlet Johansson’s voice on the other end and maybe you’ll get a slew of Joaquin Phoenix types falling in love.
I Am A Real Person [On The Media]
Finders doesn’t always mean keepers: A judge has ruled that woman who picked up a painting by Renoir for $7 at a flea market must give it back to the Baltimore Museum. It turns out that the piece was stolen in 1951, and as such, still belongs to the museum. Hey, at least she has a story about owning a great work of art for a little while, at least. [via The Wire]
This is the lesson recently learned by a Taco Bell franchisee in Bellevue, WA, who recently pleaded guilty to charges that he fraudulently kept collecting his mother’s Social Security benefits long after her death in 1989. He’s also been accused of stealing $100,000 in pension benefits from the state of Ohio.
The man claims that he was in dire financial straits at the time of his mother’s death. Even though he’s since become a fast food entrepreneur and carved out a good life for himself — his net worth is reportedly around $4 million, including about $431,000 in cash — he says there was no way for him to stop receiving his mom’s benefits without making his fraud obvious.
“While none of this is offered to excuse or attempt to justify [the defendant's crime, it simply describes a desperate, but good man, who saw an opportunity to provide for his family’s health in 1989, when he was at his lowest point, and took it,” explains his attorney. “Like making a deal with the devil, however, once that decision was made there was no way out.”
The federal prosecutor in the case took particular issue with the fact that the defendant reaped in all these payments while earning millions through his Taco Bells.
“Social Security fraud cases often involve genuinely impoverished persons who steal to improve an otherwise desperate existence,” said the U.S. Attorney. “Here, however, [the defendant] has had a lucrative business career as the owner of fast food restaurants and real estate.”
The 70-year-old now faces six months in jail for his 23 years of illegally benefiting off his dead mother’s name.
Bellevue Taco Bell owner hid mom’s death for decades to steal benefits [SeattlePI.com]
Amazon is all about promoting its grocery business on the West Coast, but as Re/code points out, its choice of marketing tools is a bit odd.
Included in a bag of free groceries dropped off by Amazon Fresh: dry pasta, fish taco seasoning, a can of cream of mushroom soup and a can of Coke, as well as a jar of jam and an energy bar. Put those all together and what do you get? Perfect stuff for a bomb shelter in order to survive the looming zombie apocalypse.
Sure, it’s nice to get anything for free, and of course it might be tough to deliver fresh fish if the bag is going to be sitting out for who knows how long.
But then again, the service is called Fresh. And none of those things are, unless the Coke suddenly pipes up and says something sassy about your backside.
It’s only a matter of time before someone takes all of those items and combines them into a casserole just for Internet pleasing purposes. Mark my words.
Amazon Tries to Seduce You With Fish Taco Seasoning and Cream of Mushroom Soup [Re/code]
Here are the facts. John’s mom ordered a GoPro wearable/mountable digital camera for him directly from the company for Christmas. She didn’t know that he already owns one, but he decided that it was best not to tell her that. “My mother is a little bit sensitive to issues like displeasing her only son on Christmas,” he wrote to Consumerist. “I am empathetic to her sensitivity, so I feigned excitement about my new GoPro camera, and even forwarded her some videos that I shot with my original GoPro to show my appreciation.” He knows his own mother better than we do: maybe this was the wisest choice in the end.
John didn’t send this to us as a family problem, though. He sent this problem to us as a consumer issue. If everything had gone according to John’s plan, he would have returned the second camera directly to GoPro for store credit and used the money to buy some interesting accessories for the GoPro he already had. “I would really like to have a suction-cup mount, the extended battery, and maybe the wrist mount,” he wrote. These accessories would allow him to take even more exciting videos that he could them show to his mother, and everyone would be happy in the end. Only someone stood between John and that dream: GoPro.
Specifically, their return policy, which doesn’t allow exchanges for store credit. If he returns the camera, the amount that his mother spent will be credited back to his mother’s credit card. “Worst case, this course of action would out me as a liar to my mom,” John notes. Best case: his mom doesn’t notice the refund and doesn’t get upset, but John also doesn’t get a present.
We checked with GoPro to see whether this really is their return policy. Indeed, it is. They explained that the reason is to avoid credit card fraud.
“I would like to suggest that companies without Christmas-friendly return policies should not be allowed to sell products as Christmas gifts,” John suggested to Consumerist. That would be nice, but
Before the Seahawks even knew they would be playing the Niners, the team announced that tickets for the NFC Championship Game at CenturyLink Field would only be available for direct sale to people with billing addresses in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.
Likewise, the Denver Broncos are only making tickets to the AFC Championship Game available to people with a valid billing address in the “Rocky Mountain region, including Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, South Dakota and Western Kansas.”
So if you’re a football fan in Montana with money to spend, you might be in luck because you’re the only state in the country where people can buy tickets to both games. At the very least, you could resell the tickets for top-dollar to Niners and/or Patriots fans.
Obviously, the goal is to maximize the home-field advantage by restricting tickets to people in the immediate region. There will no doubt be New England and San Francisco fans at these games, some of whom are fortunate enough to live in the prescribed area, and some of whom will pay hundreds or thousands of dollars on sites like StubHub or Ticketmaster’s own secondary marketplace.
The 26-year-old Portland man was not only convicted of stomping on a man’s face who was trying to leave a hotel without paying the pimp’s prostitute in June 2012, but of also robbing the john and beating the woman he forced to work as his prostitute, reports The Oregonian.
And now he’s suing Nike for $100 million, claiming it’s somewhat the company’s fault that he used the shoes as weapons.
His three-page handwritten complaint claims that Nike, Chairman Phil Knight and other executives were remiss in not warning consumers that Jordans can be used as weapons that cause serious injury or death. Again, if you use them to stomp someone’s face to a bloody pulp instead of just you know, walking in them.
“Under product liability there is a certain standard of care that is required to be up-held by potentially dangerous product …” wrote the man, who is representing himself. “Do (sic) to the fact that these defendants named in this Tort claim failed to warn of risk or to provide an adequate warning or instruction it has caused personal injury in the likes of mental suffering.”
He asks that a judge order Nike to put warning labels on all their “potentially dangerous Nike and Jordan merchandise.”
Nike will now have an opportunity to respond.
Portland pimp sues Nike for $100 million for lack of warning label after beating victim with Jordans [The Oregonian]
Without naming names, Reuters reports that three “well-known U.S. retailers” also had their credit card information compromised, and that their might have been breaches that occurred earlier in 2013 that were never made public.
According to Reuters’ sources, the retailers involved in these alleged breaches have stores in malls, which doesn’t do much to narrow the list of possible retailers. If there is something to this story, we would expect additional leaks from the banks and credit card companies, as most news of the Target and Neiman Marcus breaches have come from these sources and not from the affected retailers.
In a post on the SimCity blog, the company confirmed that the next update to the game will finally allow players to enjoy the game without going online.
“When we launch it, all of your previously downloaded content will be available to you anytime, anywhere, without the need for an internet connection,” reads the blog post. “We are in the late phases of wrapping up its development and while we want to get it into your hands as soon as possible, our priority is to make sure that it’s as polished as possible before we release it.”
No specific timeframe is given for the release of the update. A group of volunteer testers will be getting hands-on with the new offline mode to make sure it works correctly. Because the worst thing EA could do at this point is to release an offline mode that doesn’t work correctly.
In the middle of the initial SimCity firestorm, an exec at the studio that produced the game said that the idea of offline play was rejected “because it didn’t fit with our vision.” Apparently that vision has been corrected.
What not everyone knows about donating vehicles is that you don’t get to deduct the Kelly Blue Book value of the car that you donated. What you get to deduct is the amount that your car really sells for at auction. That’s fair enough, unless your car gets stolen from the lot before auction. Then what happens?
When this happened to a California man who donated his 15-year-old car to the Breast Cancer Fund, no one could advise him on what to do. The charity’s advice? Check with a tax advisor. He turned to CBS Sacramento consumer reporter Kurtis Ming, who checked into the situation, but couldn’t help, either.
The good news? As long as the man kept his receipt, he can get at least a $500 deduction. Not much if he takes the standard deduction, but better than acting like the car had vanished.
Call Kurtis: What Happens If Your Donated Car Is Stolen Before It’s Sold? [CBS Sacramento]
Choices! They can be so hard to make, or perhaps just complicated and inexplicable. So much so that Southwest Airlines isn’t explaining why the crew of a flight from Chicago bound for one airport near Branson, Mo. airport decided to land at the other instead.
On Sunday night a Southwest spokesman confirmed that the flight from Midway landed safely at M. Graham Clark-Taney County Airport (airport code PLK), instead of as scheduled at Branson Airport (BKG), which is nearby, reports USA Today (warning: Link has autoplay video).
“Our ground crew from the Branson airport has arrived at the airport to take care of our customers and their baggage,” the spokesman said. “The landing was uneventful, and all customers and crew are safe.”
He didn’t give a reason as to why the plane landed at the airport that mostly serves charter, corporate and general aviation flights instead of at the other one, which has much longer runways. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said the agency is looking into the flight as well.
Passengers were bused to the correct airport and put on another aircraft for the second leg of the trip to Dallas.
One passenger says the plane was louder than others he’s been on, but he wasn’t worried.
“I wasn’t concerned about any danger. My dog perked up and I thought it was unusual,” he said. “Now it’s kind of scary. You don’t know what’s going on.”
This kind of switcheroo likely won’t happen again, it’s to be hoped, as Southwest announced last month it will discontinue service to the Branson Airport in June.
Southwest flight lands at wrong Branson airport [USA Today]
Sprint One Up: Sept. 2013 – Jan. 2014… We hardly knew ye.
GigaOm’s Alex Colon noticed that the Sprint.com page that had been dedicated to One Up now redirects to this FAQ page explaining that the service was shuttered on Jan. 9.
If you are enrolled in One Up, Sprint says you’ll continue to receive the $15/month discount until you either cash in your next upgrade or change to a new plan. The only way to continue making annual upgrades after that is if you switch to an unlimited data “Framily” plan.
Sprint introduced the new Framily (friends + family = framily, apparently) shared data plans last week. Rather than giving customers the option of a shared data plan or an early upgrade program, Sprint has chosen to go with the former.
The main difference between Sprint’s shared data plans and those offered by competitors is that it lets customers spread the total data usage out over multiple accounts.
