Samsung Gear Fit Wristband Causes Rash, Must Be Returned With All Accessories

There are currently a lot of wearable fitness trackers on the market, locked in a battle for wrist domination. Reader Rob bought Samsung’s cool-looking Gear Fit a few months ago, and really likes it. Except for how some of the coating wore off the wristband clasp and he’s developed a mysterious rash on his wrist.

Wearable wristband? Mysterious rash? This should sound familiar, because in the early days of the itchy problems that the Fitbit Force caused for supposedly fewer than 2% of wearers, itchy consumers assumed that they were the only ones, too.

“Luckily I caught it in time, and took the Gear Fit off before it was full blown annoying itch fest,” he wrote to Consumerist. “I contacted Samsung, and in their own awful form of rude customer service they eventually said I have to send in my Gear Fit, the band, charging cradle, and charging cord if I want to have this looked at, and that takes at least 12 days.”

Here’s the thing: Rob assumes that the problem is with this particular Gear Fit, and wants Samsung to just replace the wristband. Meanwhile, Samsung wants the wristband, the device, and all of its accessories back. This makes sense if Samsung is working from the assumption that they probably won’t be sending the device and its many accessories back.

He escalated his issue to the great and powerful Office of the President, and the executive customer service staffers there told him… he had to send the device and all of its accessories back, and wait twelve days or so for Samsung to evaluate it and maybe send it back.

“They won’t send a replacement band or allow me to send just the band in. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do,” he wrote to Consumerist. “I like the product, but it upsets me that my almost new product has a band I can no longer wear.”

We hope that this isn’t a widespread problem, but we have to ask: if anyone else out there has a rash caused by the Gear Fit’s wristband, please drop us a line at tips@consumerist.com.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Kohl’s Shopper Sues Store For Bugging Her About $20 Debt

(Daniel Oines)

While most of the complaints we hear about debt collection involve consumers who don’t owe the money they are being hassled to pay. But what often goes undiscussed is the fact that the anti-harassment rules still apply to collectors regardless of whether or not they are trying to collect a bona fide debt.

That’s a point that a Michigan woman is trying to make with Kohl’s, alleging in a lawsuit that the retailer violated federal law by calling her about a $20 debt when it wasn’t allowed to and continuing to contact her even after she told the store to stop.

If she proves her case, Kohl’s attempts to collect $20 could end up costing the company as much as $1,500 per collections call.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act [PDF] restricts businesses’ use of robocalling while the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act limits the ways in which a debt collector can attempt to contact an alleged debtor.

Starting last November, the plaintiff says that Kohl’s began contacting her about a $20 balance she had on her store credit account. She claims that the calls only got worse after she asked the store to stop contacting her. According to the customer, she received 22 calls from Kohl’s in a single week.

The plaintiff claims that she never gave her express permission for Kohl’s to robocall her, which she says is a violation of the TCPA. If she can prove the store knowingly called her without permission, the retailer could face a substantial penalty of up to $1,500 per call.

Additionally, collections calls came as early as 6 a.m. and as late as after midnight. The FDCPA states that debt collectors can not call supposed debtors 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., unless the debtor has specifically asked them to. Generally speaking, the FDCPA governs third-party debt collectors; its relevance to this case would depend on whether or not Kohl’s employees were making these calls or if they were made by a contracted collections agency.

“People believe that unless (collectors) are swearing at them or being utterly abusive, calling 20 times a day, that they should just take it, when in fact the standard is much less,” her lawyer tells the Detroit Free Press. “(Consumers) need to understand their level of tolerance doesn’t have to be as high as it’s perceived.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Walmart Bananas Now Come With Pinching Scorpions

(SHOTbySUSAN)

When you examine the bananas in the produce aisle of your local Walmart, one is usually looking at the ripeness of the fruit. But one man found out the hard way, you should probably look for scorpions (and deadly Brazilian spiders), too.

The Pennsylvania man was shopping with his two- and three-year-old children at a local Walmart when he grabbed a bunch of bananas from a display box and felt a pinching sensation, CBS Pittsburgh reports.

“I yanked my arm out and flung it, and this scorpion flopped to the ground,” he said. “I was standing there in disbelief looking and there was another shopper there and people started to converge, and sure enough it was a scorpion.”

After standing in a state of disbelief for a moment (who wouldn’t?), the man jumped into action – covering the scorpion with a lid and killing it.

The man wasn’t seriously hurt, just a bit shaken-up (and rightfully so). However, he did visit a doctor as a precaution.

So, just how could a scorpion show up in a box of bananas in the middle of Pennsylvania? We don’t know for sure, but it may have hitched a ride all the way from the grower.

The man says a Walmart representative told him that even the fruit company was surprised the scorpion was able to survive the long journey in the box. Walmart did not return a request for comment to CBS Pittsburgh.

In all, the man says the experience has taught him to think twice before reaching into a box of bananas.

Man Pinched By Scorpion In Box Of Bananas At South Hills Wal-Mart (CBS Pittsburgh)

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

People Around The World Forced To Live Through 30-Minute Facebook Outage

Where were you when it went down? In bed, probably.

While you were sweetly slumbering last night, tucked in your bed and snoring delicately like the little angel you no doubt are, people around the world were apparently freaking out because Facebook had a global outage. Status messages went un-updated, photos of babies couldn’t be quickly scrolled past, and birthday wishes… well, they foundered, useless.

Instead of the usual hum and whir of the social media site, which touts its unsinkability and rare outages, users from England to New Zealand saw generic error messages for about half an hour, starting at about 4 a.m. ET, reports the Wall Street Journal.

This disruption has the distinction of going global, affecting users trying to get to the site from desktop computers and mobile devices all over the world.

And of course, in times of need, the Internet turned to one of its other social platforms so everyone could complain together about the temporary apocalypse. The hashtag #Facebookbodwn trended across the globe as people came together as one voice to yak about not being able to Like anything. Ever again. For half an hour.

A Facebook spokeswoman for the Asia-Pacific region acknowledged the hiccup in a statement: “Earlier today, we experienced an issue that prevented people from posting to Facebook for a brief period of time. We resolved the issue quickly, and we are now back to 100%. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

This seems to be one of the biggest outages in the last few years, with the last big breakdown in 2010, when the site was down for about 2.5 hours.

But again, you were probably asleep when this all happened, so be grateful for that. You survived with nary a grumble to show for it.

Status Update: Facebook Back Online After World-Wide Outage [Wall Street Journal]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Times Square Spider-Man Convicted Of Harassment In Showdown With Tourist

Not the Spidey in question. (donbuciak)

While it surely can’t be easy out there for a costumed character on the streets of New York City, one Spider-Man landed in hot legal water after a kerfuffle with a tourist in the winter of 2013. While he said she started it by throwing snow in his face, a judge convicted him yesterday of harassment.

Things could be worse — the judge didn’t hit him with the more serious charge of attempted assault, reports CBS News. Instead he’s got a non-criminal violation and will pay a fine of $250 or spend seven days in jail.

According to the Spidey — likely one of many at any given time in the Times Square area — things got “ugly” in February 2013 when he got mad and cursed at a woman after she refused to tip him for taking a photo of him with her kids.

She walked away but then came back an hour later, yelled at another Spidey, and then tossed a handful of snow at the defendant. She claims he punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground, while he said he swung at her in self-defense when a chunk of snow hit his head.

This isn’t the first time a costumed character has had trouble with tourists — at least three others have been arrested for similar incidents in the last two years. While tourists might think the characters are just people there to have fun and amuse others for the sheer joy it brings them, the reality is they’re usually working and looking to make a few bucks in tips from taking pics with giddy passersby.

Remember, everyone: In these situations, throw money, not punches or snow.

Costumed Spider-Man convicted of harassment in NYC [CBS News]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Dr. Oz: I Thought I Could Call Diet Drugs “Miracles” Because I Wasn’t Actually Selling Them

Dr. Oz testifying on Tuesday morning before a Senate consumer protection subcommittee.

Oprah’s favorite alternative medicine mouthpiece Dr. Oz got little love during Tuesday’s Senate subcommittee hearing on the misleading marketing of diet products, with the TV personality admitting that his use of terms like “miracle” for unproven treatments had provided fodder to scammers out to make a quick buck off people desperate to shed pounds. Last night, the Doc went on Facebook to give his fans his perspective on the issue.

“For years I felt that because I did not sell any products that I could be enthusiastic in my coverage,” wrote Doc Oz, who was chastised — most notably by Missouri Senator Clair McCaskill — for shows where he called certain weight-loss products “the number one miracle in a bottle” or “the magic weight-loss solution for every body type,” in spite of little to no peer-reviewed scientific evidence to back up such claims.

“I believe the research surrounding the products I cover has value,” writes Oz, without naming any particular studies. “I took part in the hearing because I am accountable for my role in the proliferation of these scams and I recognize that my enthusiastic language has made the problem worse at times.”

As he stated during the hearing, Dr. Oz defended his choice to air programs about these unproven products by saying that the discussion is going to happen anyway so it should happen on his show.

“To not have the conversation about supplements at all, however, would be a disservice to the viewer,” he explains. “In addition to exercising an abundance of caution in discussing promising research and products in the future, I look forward to working with all those present yesterday in finding a way to deal with the problems of weight loss scams.”

The problem isn’t that Oz mentions these alternative treatments on his show. It’s that he’s often talked about such products with minimal questioning, and those caveats tend to only come later in the segment after he’s finished talking up a treatment’s purported benefits.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

T-Mobile Won’t Count Streaming Music Against Data Caps; Offering Loaner Phones

If you’re constantly streaming songs from Pandora, Rhapsody, Spotify or other services on your phone, it can eat away at your monthly data cap pretty quickly. In an attempt to lure music-lovers to its wireless service T-Mobile announced last night that it will no longer count data from these and other services against users’ 4G LTE allotments.

In addition to the three services mentioned above, T-Mobile lists iHeartRadio, Slacker, and iTunes Radio as services users can enjoy without having to worry about having their monthly data dinged. The company is taking an online poll to let users vote on what streaming service(s) — like Amazon Prime, Google Access, Rdio, Beats, etc. — should be added to the list. People can also vote on Twitter by using the #musicfreedom hashtag.

“As a committed music freak, I’m personally outraged at the way the other guys are using the music you love to lure you into over-priced plans with sweet ‘promotional offers’ that quickly roll into higher prices or trigger those absurd overage charges,” said T-Mobile CEO and President John Legere. “Music should be free of all that. Music should have no limits.”

Existing T-Mobile customers apparently don’t need to do anything to activate this option. The only condition is that you must have a data plan worth at least $50/month, meaning the bargain Simple Starter plan is not eligible.

Earlier this year, AT&T launched a Subsidized Data program, where certain content companies agreed to foot the bill for users’ data when accessing their online services, though none of the companies involved in that offer anything as bandwidth heavy as streaming audio.

It’s unclear whether the streaming services in the T-Mobile announcement are subsidizing the data or if T-Mobile is just eating that data itself in the hopes of signing up more customers. In the end, the effect for the consumer is the same regardless of who is paying for the data.

It does, however, bring up the question of potentially unfair competition. One could argue that T-Mobile is effectively pushing its customers to use these services and discouraging users from using services not involved in the discount.

In addition to the streaming music news, T-Mobile announced on Tuesday that it is offering 7-day loaner phones to potential new customers so they can test the service out without having to leave their current provider.

It works like this. You sign up for the Test Drive program online. T-Mobile sends you a new iPhone 5S to try out for 7 days with an unlimited data plan. If you don’t like it, return it within 7 days to a T-Mobile store.

BUT, be cautioned that T-Mobile puts a $700 (plus tax) hold on your credit/debit card when you sign up for the program, so if you miss that 7-day deadline, your card will be charged the full retail price.

Additionally, if the iPhone is returned with a cracked screen, damaged screen display, water damage, active Find My iPhone feature, or can’t be powered on, you’ll be hit with a $100 fee.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

American Apparel Founder Dov Charney Vows To Fight To Keep His Job

(Tom Simpson)

American Apparel founder and CEO Dov Charney is the cockroach of the U.S. garment industry; reviled by many but seemingly impossible to get rid of. He’s weathered numerous sexual harassment lawsuits and countless stories of obnoxious behavior, all while occasionally teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. Most other CEOs would have been shown the door long ago, but not Charney. That is until yesterday, when the American Apparel board unanimously voted to remove the divisive figure.

The board notified Charney on Tuesday of their intent “to terminate his employment as President and CEO for cause,” meaning he’s got 30 days left at AA before he’s officially out.

However, he won’t be able to do anything during that month as the board has suspended Charney and appointed CFO John Luttrell as Interim CEO until Charney’s replacement is found.

The board did not give a specific reason for the ouster, but stated that the decision “grew out of an ongoing investigation into alleged misconduct.”

“We take no joy in this, but the Board felt it was the right thing to do,” explains AA board member Allan Mayer, who will serve as co-chair. “Dov Charney created American Apparel, but the Company has grown much larger than any one individual and we are confident that its greatest days are still ahead.”

A source close to Charney tells the L.A. Times that the exiled CEO isn’t taking his dismissal lightly.

“He was totally taken by surprise, which is part of the problem,” the source said. “He’s going to fight like hell to get this company back, but he won’t succeed.”

In 2011, American Apparel lashed out when four female former employees filed a sexual harassment suit. At the time, the company told The Times that the four women were friends who were colluding to “shake down” Charney and the company for money and that it had “voluminous evidence” to prove that the allegations were false.

Through all the previous harassment and wrongful dismissal claims, American Apparel leadership had backed Charney, labeling the lawsuits filed by employees as extortionate.

AA has also taken a lot of flack for its highly sexualized advertising, often featuring young models who appear, to some, to be underage. Most recently, the company was criticized for a window display of mannequins in see-through undergarments complete with visible pubic hair.

While Charney and AA have long marketed their clothing as being made in non-sweatshop conditions, the company has had to fire thousands of workers who were not legally allowed to work in the U.S.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Cómo conocer Jávea/Xabia y sus gentes #xabia365 #blogtrip #tourism

Hola:

Del 20 al 24 de junio de 2014 se celebra en Jávea/Xabia un blogtrip llamado #xabia365 en el que 7 blogueros (con la inestimable ayuda de las instituciones, organización y patrocinadores) van a darnos a conocer esta localidad a fondo. Nos describirán sus lugares más destacados, cómo podemos vivir en un viaje de vacaciones a Xabia, su gastronomía, sus comercios, sus playas, su mar y sus gentes. Además de vivir en primera línea de fuego (y nunca mejor dicho)uno de los eventos más importantes de Jávea, su famosa Nit del Foc.

Si quieres acompañarnos en este viaje lo puedes hacer a través de Internet de las siguientes maneras:

En Twitter siguiendo el hashtag #xabia365

En la cuenta de Twitter del blogtrip

En su página de FaceBook

Asistiendo a la mesa redonda que se celebrará el día 23 a las 11 horas en el parado de Jávea

Y por supuesto en las cuentas de los blogueros: Mario (por parte de la organización), Fátima, Verónica, Diego, Álvaro, Lasse, Jesús y Alfredo.

Por supuesto esperamos vuestras preguntas y vuestro feedback.

10 razones por las que organizar un funtrip como #xabia365

Archivado en: Infografía Tagged: Turismo



from TICs y Formación http://ift.tt/1uFh8rb

via Alfredo Vela Posteado por www.bscformacion.com

Survey: Over Half The Country Thinks The Comcast-Time Warner Cable Merger Is A Terrible Idea

(Knight725)

We here at Consumerist are skeptical at best about Comcast’s bid to merge with Time Warner Cable. From where we sit, the deal looks distinctly anticompetitive and likely to harm consumers. Plenty of other folks agree, but not just lawmakers and advocacy organizations. It turns out, over half the country thinks this is a bad idea.

Our colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports ran a nationally representative survey to see what ordinary people think about Comcast and its plan to buy out Time Warner Cable, and the responses weren’t pretty. A full 56% of Americans oppose the merger, and only 11% of respondents were in favor of it.

But even though a third of respondents didn’t have a strong opinion on whether Comcast and TWC should be able to merge, they still think the resulting corporate marriage will be harmful for consumers on every front.

About three quarters of respondents — 74% — believe that the merger will increase cable and internet prices for everyone. That same number also agreed that the merger will leave consumers with even fewer choices for providers, because smaller companies will not be able to compete.

As for customer service? The most-hated providers in the most-hated industry aren’t likely to win themselves any new fans with this move. A solid two thirds (66%) believe that the lack of competition will leave Comcast with no reason to bother improving their customer service — which 54% predicted will get even worse.

But above all else — customer service, costs, and monopolistic tendencies — consumers are concerned about their very ability to access the content of their choosing. With net neutrality regulations up in the air and peering disputes affecting content companies nationwide, it’s no surprise that a full 81% of respondents are afraid that Comcast’s post-merger market share would give them the leverage to favor their own programming and scuttle their competitors’.

Comcast’s claims about how beneficial their plan to buy TWC is, on the other hand, don’t seem to fly at all. Just 16% agreed that the merger would increase Comcast’s operating efficiency and lower consumer prices, and only a third agreed that the combination of the two companies would allow for more innovative products and services to reach consumers.

Delara Derakhshani, policy counsel for Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, said, “Most Americans don’t have time to follow complicated corporate mergers but this deal has definitely captured the public’s attention. Consumers are tired of rising monthly bills and lousy customer service for cable and Internet and have little faith that this mega merger will make things any better.”

Maybe that’s why Comcast earned itself a shiny golden poo this year. Meanwhile, the survey respondents have already proven to be prescient: 61% felt that if the merger were to be go forward, it would be seen as a green light for other companies to make the same move.

The survey was conducted in April; AT&T and DirecTV announced their plan to merge — for the sake of competing with Comcast, they claim — in May.

by Kate Cox via Consumerist