Chrysler Recalls 230,000 Dodge And Jeep SUVs Because Vehicles Aren’t Supposed To Just Shut Off

(Ralph Krawczyk Jr)

The purpose of a motor vehicle is to transport you from one place to another. Apparently, that doesn’t always happen with some Chrysler-produced SUVs, so the car manufacturer issued a recall of some 230,000 Jeeps and Durangos.

According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration notice [PDF], Chrysler issued a recall of approximately 230,760 model year 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokees and Dodge Durangos because an issue with the fuel pump relay could cause the SUVs to stall or not start.

Heat caused by contact power and temperatures around the fuel pump relay and battery voltage have been found to lead to premature fuel pump delay. The fuel pump delay can occur without warning, increasing the risk of a crash.

Consumer complaints to NHTSA regarding the issue include instances where the vehicle won’t start, won’t start on the first attempt, stalls or won’t stay running.

“Jeep will not start on first try. I removed the push start button and began starting with the key,” reads one gripe. “That worked fine for about a month then it required multiple tries to get it started.”

“While driving…the vehicle decided to shut the 4×4 system off and lower suspension completely, all while driving,” writes another unhappy owner. “Paid for towing and after towed the vehicle goes back to normal with no maintenance. Upon returning home vehicle randomly shuts off while in motion, will not start or fuel pump randomly runs and no way to shut off.”

Officials with Chrysler say they are unaware of any accidents or injuries related to the recall. Chrysler will notify affected car owners and dealers will replace the fuel pump relay.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Apple Sold More Than 10 Million New iPhones In Three Days

This guy is for sale.

Have you heard of this iPhone thing? It’s the sixth of its kind, and one of them is really big and apparently, people are buying them: Apple says that in the first three days the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were on sale, the company sold more than 10 million of the new devices.

That’s the company’s best opening weekend, despite the fact that regulations have prevented the iPhone 6 from going on sale in China yet, notes the Wall Street Journal.

“Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn’t be happier,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said.

To put things into perspective: in the first weekend of iPhone 5s and 5C sales last year, Apple sold nine million phones; in 2012 it sold more than 5 million of the iPhone 5.

The company said the four million preorders it received within 24 hours of accepting them is a record, and that if there were just more iPhones ready to ship, they could’ve sold even more.

“While our team managed the manufacturing ramp better than ever before, we could have sold many more iPhones with greater supply, and we are working hard to fill orders as quickly as possible,” Cook added.

More phones are on the way, with sales opening up in 20 more countries by Friday, and 115 by the end of 2014.

Apple Sells More Than 10 Million New iPhones on First Weekend [Wall Street Journal]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

T-Mobile, Where Being #1 Means Being Newest Item On A List

Boom, indeed.

Once again, T-Mobile is tooting its own horn, declaring a victory when there wasn’t even a fight to begin with.

Over the weekend, T-Mobile CEO John Legere apparently skimmed over this CNET article on the “Top five home routers for Wi-Fi Calling,” saw that his company’s Personal CellSpot router was at the top of that list and declared his company the winner in the Tweet shown above.

But, as some tried to point out to Mr. Legere, he must have skipped over the part where the CNET article clearly states, “These routers are listed in the order in which they were reviewed, with the most recent review first.”

While the CNET article does say nice things about the router, there is nothing to indicate that it’s the best of the bunch. The author doesn’t even put a “1” next to the item in the story.

This is at least the second time in two months that T-Mobile has exaggerated a story from CNET. In early August, the company sent out a press release claiming that a CNET test of 4G LTE data speeds proved that T-Mobile held “the undisputed title of America’s fastest nationwide 4G LTE network,” even though it actually came in a close second to AT&T on both upload and download speeds.

What’s so irritating about these exaggerations is that, once again, they aren’t necessary. Rather than quote the CNET article where it states that the T-Mobile device is a “top-tier router with great features and excellent Wi-Fi performance,” Legere goes for the cheap “We’re #1.”

And Legere could have cheered about how his company, which barely had a 4G network a couple years ago, now has an LTE network that is just as fast as competitors with several times the number of users and significantly more resources at their disposal. Instead, T-Mobile chose to claim that it was the fastest, as if saying it enough times will just make it the truth.

We want T-Mobile to succeed, and we often appreciate Legere’s brashness when it comes to staring down his much bigger opponents. But saying you’ve won a race when no one else was running is just bad form.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Starbucks Testing Drink that Tastes Like Guinness, Tastebuds Don’t Know What Time Of Day It Is

(Steve)

Consumers who don’t like their coffee to taste like coffee now have another option when it comes to their morning beverages. Although the newest drink at Starbucks may make you think it’s five o’clock somewhere, because it reportedly tastes like beer.

The Dark Barrel Latte features syrup flavored like dark stout beers, such as Guinness, The Boston Globe reports.

The new drink, which is being tested in markets including Columbus, OH, and several areas of Florida, is topped with whipped cream and dark caramel sauce to counteract the strong stout flavor.

Consumers who have dared to try the new concoction say it does, in fact, taste remarkably like a stout beer. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, well, most aren’t quite sure yet.

Starbucks is Testing Out a Latte That Tastes Like Beer [Boston Globe]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Baltimore Ravens Exchange 5,595 Ray Rice Jerseys, Run Out Of Replacements

(Keith Allison)

To say that the Ray Rice jersey exchange held by the Baltimore Ravens this weekend was popular with fans is perhaps an understatement. After all, with a line half a mile long to turn in Rice jerseys in exchange for jerseys bearing the names of other Ravens players, it’s no surprise that the team ran out of replacement jerseys at around 5,595 exchanges.

The team reportedly spent somewhere in the “six figures” on the trade-ins, reports CNNMoney, and had to hand out vouchers for replacement jerseys to 2,400 fans who went home otherwise empty-handed (for the time being, because that’s how vouchers work).

All told, more than 7,000 people showed up to the M&T Bank Stadium during the trade-ins on Friday and Saturday, a team spokesman said.

Rice was dropped by the Ravens after new footage surfaced of him striking his then-fiancee in an elevator in an Atlantic City Casino.

So what will happen to all those Rice jerseys? The team spokesman says the jerseys will be donated to a company that deals with scrap material.

Ravens spend ‘six figures’ on Ray Rice jersey swap [CNNMoney]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

4 Of 5 Restaurant Twitter Complaints Made Mid-Meal

(mytoenailcameoff)

If you’re looking at someone’s Twitter feed and seeing Tweets like “The soup at Joe’s Soup Shack and Hat Store is the worst!” or “I didn’t order a dead fly with my turkey pot pie! #worstdayever” (because you can’t complain on Twitter without a hashtag), chances are that these Tweets were written before the person even left the restaurant about which they are griping.

Twitter’s Eimear Lambe was speaking in London last week and revealed that more than half of the platform’s users get info on restaurants from others on Twitter.

The good news for restaurants is that it’s mostly positive PR, with 72% of eatery-related Tweets leaving thumbs-up feedback.

But when customers are unhappy about their meals, they use Twitter to complain about it — right now.

According to Lambe, “78% of those who leave a negative comment are still in the restaurant while doing so.”

While this could cause some awkward tension if the server is also checking Tweets and seeing that you’ve insulted him or his workplace, it’s also an opportunity to be proactive.

“This means that if you are monitoring your Twitter feed, you have the opportunity to nip it in the bud and actually go over and solve the customer’s problems and turn it into a positive interaction,” explains Lambe.

[via Eater]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Town Completes Its Quest To Successfully Grill A 200-Foot Bratwurst

Unrelated bratwurst is much shorter. (Coyoty)

Remember the town that was preparing to cook 200 feet of unbroken bratwurst by first grilling 100 feet of sausage? Of course you do, how could you forget such a meat feat? You’ll be happy to know, then, that the proud folks of that Illinois town can now say they’ve grilled a 200-foot bratwurst without breaking it.

In Belleville, IL, the home of the World’s Largest Bottle of Catsup, is turning 200 years old this year, and the town wanted to really kick up its heels and celebrate. So what better way than with a very long tube of meat?

After months of planning, hundreds of townsfolk attending the bicentennial events this weekend watched as volunteers completed their quest to grill the 200-foot brat, using teamwork to make sure the entire thing was rotated at the same pace.

The brat proved popular.

“I think it’s the highlight of the whole thing,” one lifelong resident told the Belleville News-Democrat, our source for all things in the large ketchup bottle/brat news world. “It takes a lot for me to get out at 88 years old, but I’m impressed.”

There was also of course, the 200-foot bun, baked in town and hand-delivered to the bratwurst event by local athletes.

Against, while the organizers wanted to break a world record for the longest grilled bratwurst, they instead took the money that would’ve gone toward paying a fee to have that feat signed off by record keepers and put it back into the town.

“Everyone got really excited,” said one athlete involved in the hand rolling of the bratwurst. “We got it done right.”

Success: Belleville grills 200-foot bratwurst to commemorate city’s 200th birthday [Belleville News-Democrat]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

GM Recalls 220,000 Cadillacs And Impalas Over Potential Brake Fires

(Chris Rief)

Less than two weeks ago General Motor’s CEO Mary Barra said the company was kinda, sorta, almost done with all those recalls. Good thing she wasn’t definitive, because the car manufacturer recalled more than 220,000 vehicles this weekend for potential fire risks.

According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration notice [PDF], GM recalled 221,558 model year 2013-2015 Cadillac XTS and model year 2014-2015 Chevrolet Impalas over a defect in the parking brake that could cause a fire.

The electronic brake piston actuation arm may not fully retract causing the brake pads to stay partially engaged. If that occurs excessive heat from the brakes may result in fire. And in some instances the parking brake indicator may not illuminate even though the parking brake is engaged.

“If the brake drag is significant or if the vehicle is operated for an extended period of time in this condition, there is a potential for the rear brakes to generate significant heat, smoke, and sparks,” NHTSA reported in the notice.

Drivers may also experience poor acceleration, undesired deceleration and premature wear to some brake components.

GM reports there have been no injuries or accidents related to the defect. Owners of affected vehicles will be notified by GM and dealers will update the electronic parking brake software.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Did Home Depot Ignore Hack Warnings From Employees?

(Nicholas Eckhart)

While the millions of us who shopped at Home Depot during the five months in which hackers were siphoning off customers’ credit/debit card data from in-store payment systems are keeping our eyes on our accounts and credit reports, former employees at the nation’s largest home improvement retailer claim they warned the company about the possibility of a breach years ago.

According to a report in the NY Times, computer experts at the Depot told the retailer of the risk as far back as 2008, but the company failed to respond in a timely manner, resulting in the theft of at least 56 million card numbers.

The former Depot employees say the company used malware detection software from 2007 and failed to continuously monitor all the company’s systems for signs of odd activity. They claim that vulnerability scans were done irregularly and often on only a small number of the 2,200 Home Depot stores in the U.S.

Some say they quit their jobs when managers ignored their concerns, with a common dismissive response from management being, “We sell hammers.” One former employee for the company says they told their friends to use cash when paying at the Depot.

Home Depot counters the employees’ claims by pointing out that the strain of malware used to infiltrate the in-store payment system had not been seen before (though other reports claim it was a variant on the strain used to attack Target stores in 2013). The company also says that it has been compliant with retail industry standards for network scanning since 2009.

“Our guiding principle is to do what’s right by our customers,” a rep for the company said, while putting on an orange apron and directing you to free credit monitoring.

Speaking of which, over the weekend, Home Depot wrote those customers for whom it had e-mail addresses, restating many of the same things it’s already said to the media — that the malware has been contained, that debit card PINs don’t appear to have been stolen, and that anyone who used a card at Home Depot from April 2014 on is now eligible for a free 12 months of identity protection services from the store.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

10 usos alternativos de Twitter #infografia #infographic #socialmedia

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10 usos alternativos de Twitter

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