Restaurant Accidentally Overcharges Customers Anywhere From $8K To $99K

Some Knoxville, TN, residents are fuming mad at a local chain restaurant after seeing that their debit and credit cards have been charged 1,000 times what they should have been for their meals, leaving people in the red for anywhere from $8,000 to $99,000.

WATE-TV in Knoxville spoke to several people who had been grossly overcharged, including one man who should have paid $26.94 for his order of chicken parm and a few beers, but who found out last Friday — weeks after eating at the restaurant — that he’d been charged $26,940.

“I was just kind of in shock of the whole thing,” he says. “I’ve never been in that situation or anything like that happening to me before.”

That $27,000 charge is nothing compared to the area woman who was hit with an $80,000 charge for her dinner at the restaurant on the same night.

The company’s CFO tells WATE that the cause of the overcharges was a glitch with the restaurant’s third-party card-processor, which inadvertently added three zeros to the end of every customer’s bill during the course of one evening. The CFO claims that about 80 people were affected.

And even though all of the overcharges occurred on the same evening — Oct. 21 — they didn’t hit customers’ accounts until Nov. 7.

The restaurant says it is in the process of reversing all charges and will handle any overdraft fees that customers may experience.

[via Eater]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Regulators Investigating Honda, Nissan For Loss Of Power Steering Issues

(chhipkali)

Here’s the thing about power steering –– it helps drivers keep control of their vehicles, and when the system fails the likelihood of an accident increases. For those reasons, and after receiving numerous consumer complaints, regulators have opened two separate investigations into Honda and Nissan-produced vehicles that lose power steering capabilities.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration inquiries revolve around 374,00 model year 2013 Honda Accord sedans and 17,000 model year 2008 Infiniti EX35 compact crossover vehicles.

According to a notice [PDF] from NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation, the inquiry into Honda was initiated after the office received 24 unique complaints alleging loss of power steering or a sudden increase in steering effort in the Accords.

Of the complaints, four alleged that the failures resulted in crashes; all of which occurred at speeds less than 30 miles-per-hour.

“While driving…at 40mph the EPS (electric power steering) light came on and the power steering failed,” one complaint states. “We pulled over to the nearest empty parking lot and read the manual. We hadn’t been doing any of the things the manual said would cause this. Over the next 10 miles this happened three more times.”

Another consumer complaint states the driver was attempting to turn left into his neighborhood when the power steering failed, causing the vehicle to go over a curb and crash into a fire hydrant.

In addition to the consumer complaints, regulators have identified information related to the power steering problem in Honda’s Early Warning Reporting field report data.

The inquiry into Honda comes less than two weeks after NHTSA announced it would investigate the car manufacture for its possible inaccuracies in reporting procedures.

That probe was a result of the company’s lack of reported information regarding injuries, deaths and crashes related to defective Takata airbags.

NHTSA’s inquiry [PDF] into the Infiniti crossover vehicles was initiated after two complaints alleging wheel shaft separation that led to loss of steering control.

In one complaint, the driver alleged experiencing issues with steering while driving 40 miles per hour. After slowing to a stop, the driver reported a complete loss of steering with the steering wheel rotating 360 degrees without turning the wheels.

The second complaint stated that the driver reported the steering became loose while driving home and completely separated after stopping in his driveway. A service invoice provided by the owner indicates the dealer replaced the steering column and shaft assembly after finding a failed steering shaft bearing.

Since the end of October, Nissan has issued three recalls related to Infiniti vehicles. None of the recalls included the EX35 crossover.

The newly opened preliminary investigations are the first step in a process that could lead to a recall of the vehicles, if regulators determine Honda and Nissan need to address safety issues.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Florida Couple Tips Waiter $1,500 And Buys A Few Cases Of Beer For The Staff

Not the actual people involved. (Cpt. Brick)

There are some stories we’re sick of hearing about frequently — consumers behaving badly, data breaches and scummy scammers — and then there are those that only increase in delight the more often we encounter them. In yet another example of the generosity of strangers, a Florida couple tipped their waiter $1,500 and bought a few cases of beer for the entire staff to share.

The 35-year-old server says he was hit with a rush of diners at the restaurant one afternoon, reports NewsNet5. The couple could tell he was busy, saying they were former restaurant workers and understood how it went.

They told him to take his time and ordered a bottle of expensive wine while they waited. When it was time to order, the man asked if the chef could make an off-menu veal marsala, and gave the waiter $20 to give to the chef along with his request.

Instead, the chef cooked the dish for no extra cost. The man then returned the favor by asking what the line cooks liked to drink.

As a thank you, the man asked what the line cooks’ favorite beer was of those available at the restaurant, which was Corona Light. So he put two cases on his tab, at a cost of about $240 for beers for the staff.

At the end of the meal, the man asked one more question: “What do you do for yourself?”

“I said, ‘Sir, I work two jobs. I don’t really have time,’ ” the waiter explained, to which the man added, “What would you do if you had some money?”

The waiter told him he’d fix his car, which had blown a gasket.

The man said not to worry about it.

“You’re going to fix your car tomorrow. I’m going to get you a $1,500 tip,’ ” the waiter recalled, and said he tried to refuse, to no avail.

“He has what we call the hospitality heart,” his manager said of the waiter. “He takes a lot of pride in his job. He’s definitely deserving of that kind of generosity.”

Previously: Diner Leaves Waitress $1,000 Tip On $15 Meal After Waiting For The Right Chance To Pay It Forward; College Students Pitch In To Tip Delivery Driver $1,268 For Two Pizzas; Diner Leaves Waitress $1,000 Tip On $15 Meal After Waiting For The Right Chance To Pay It Forward; Customer Leaves $1,000 Tip To Help Bartender Pay For Her Dog’s Emergency Surgery

Cha-ching! Florida waiter gets $1,500 tip, beer for staff of restaurant [NewsNet5]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Soccer Team Requires Fans To Scan Hands Before Entering Games

(Paula S)

If you think it’s a hassle getting a pat-down and walking through a metal detector at an NFL or baseball game, that’s nothing compared to what fans of one professional soccer team have to go through. In an effort to identify hooligans and cut down on hooliganism, the team now requires hand scans from all of its hometown fans before entering the stadium.

According to the Washington Post, if you’re a supporter of the Ferencvarosi Torna Club in the Hungarian League, you’ll need to visit the stadium before a game to have your hand scanned into the team’s database.

That scan is then linked to an ID card that you must have with you when you attend the game, where both the card and your hand will be scanned at security checkpoints.

Not only does it mean that you can’t sell your tickets — unless you’ve found some sort of Mission: Impossible method of quickly creating a replica of your hand that you can pass around to your buddies — but if you’ve had a little too much to drink and gotten so rowdy that you get ejected from the stadium, you won’t be allowed in again because the hand-scanner will know you’re that jerk who threw a punch during that match against Budapest Honvéd FC.

A group of Ferencvarosi fans have been boycotting home games in response to the invasive scans, which all ticket-holders over the age of 16 must provide. And supporters of Ferencvarosi were joined earlier this month by fans of other clubs in a protest against the technology outside of Hungary’s parliament.

A rep for the stadium operator tells the Post that it’s understandable why people are skeptical about the scans, but says, “we believe those skeptics will come to understand soon that this move serves only one purpose: we can identify whether the cardholder who [is] entitled to access the stadium has the card.”

Meanwhile, supporters of visiting teams — who sit in a separate section that is partitioned off from home team fans — don’t need to have their hands scanned. They must, however, bring a “supporters” card supplied by their home team.

All Ferencvarosi fans over age 16 are required to have their hands scanned to buy tickets. Supporters of visiting teams don’t have to have their hands scanned, but they must bring their supporters card, which is issued by their home team. Ferencvarosi instituted these changes as it opened a new stadium this year, which was partitioned off to prevent home and away fans from intermixing and fighting.

The stadium operators say that they can scan 22,000 fans over the course of 90 minutes.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Consumer Reports Battles The Prerinsing Menace

(Anne Makaske)

Our colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports are fighting for a cause that might not seem all that important…especially not in comparison with pressing policy issues like antibiotics-laden meat or the looming merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Yet this issue does lead to the waste of large amounts of water, energy, and time. It doesn’t have to be this way.

We last addressed this issue two and a half years ago, but if your household prerinses dishes before putting them in a recently manufactured dishwasher, you have wasted as many as 15,000 gallons of water since then. No, really.

As part of their ongoing crusade against pre-rinsing, our colleagues have issued a Thanksgiving-season challenge to readers to stop rinsing their dishes “cold turkey” for one cycle. If you find that some dishes come out still soiled, then those are the ones you will have to pre-rinse in the future. Make sure that you’ve loaded and lined up everything correctly, make some adjustments next time, and then use the several minutes that you save by not pre-rinsing to … I don’t know, check your favorite blogs again after dinner, or something equally important.

Don’t waste time and money prerinsing your dishes [Consumer Reports]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Amazon Prime Won’t Charge Extra For Streaming Ultra HD Video

(Chris Rief)

With prices dropping — and some sets available for around $1,000 — Ultra HD or 4K TV is gradually grabbing a foothold in consumers’ homes. Yet there is still little native content available for these sets. That may change soon with Amazon confirming it will begin offering 4K video to Amazon Prime customers before the year is out, and it won’t charge extra.

The online giant tells the Wall Street Journal that 4K content will be streaming on Amazon by the end of this year, and that Prime subscribers will still pay the same $99/year for access.

This is in contrast to Netflix, which charges $12/month (three dollars more than the regular monthly rate) to customers wishing to access the small but growing 4K library.

Amazon says the first slate of content available in 4K will include a number of the retailer’s original shows, including Alpha House and Transparent.

Another big concern with 4K streaming involves consumers’ Internet connections. In general, you need a broadband connection of around 15Mbps downstream in order to enjoy the full image quality of a streamed 4K movie. Otherwise, you might as well just be watching a video on any other HD TV.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Just Because It’s Legal To Mail Live Birds Doesn’t Mean You Should Send 15 Baby Chicks To Your Ex

(Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary)

It might sound crazy to some that it’s actually legal to send live birds through the mail (with some strict conditions), but what sounds even nuttier is that a guy reportedly mailed his ex-girlfriend 15 baby chicks in some kind of prank/misguided statement about their break-up.

When the mailman showed up at the door of a Washington, D.C. woman’s home with the package from her ex, she found 15 fluffy, cheeping baby chickens, reports the New York Daily News.

A note reportedly read something along the lines of: “There are lots of chicks out there,” which I suppose could be his way of saying, “I’m over you, here are some actual chicks.” Sigh.

But when the woman told the mail carrier she was just going to throw the chicks out, possibly as a reaction to the weirdness of getting live animals in the mail, he offered to take them instead. That’s how they found their way to the Washington Humane Society, and from there to a nearby animal sanctuary in Maryland.

“One of the chicks has an injured leg, but is recovering. The rest are very active and healthy,”reads a post on the Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary’s Facebook page, featuring photos of the rescued chicks.

It’s true — the USPS has a long list of conditions that must be met to mail live birds, including day-old poultry, though it’s unclear if the sender followed all those rules, including shipping the birds in the “original unopened hatchery box from the hatchery of origin.”

All’s well that ends well, however, as six of the birds have found a permanent home at another sanctuary in Virginia, while the rest are staying in Maryland for now.

Man mails 15 live chicks to his ex-girlfriend in Washington, D.C. [New York Daily News]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Group Representing U.S. Airlines Sues To Block Planned Seattle Airport Workers’ Wage Increases

(nfarley)

An airline group, representing six major airlines and parcel services, filed a lawsuit aiming to block the Port of Seattle from implementing a pay increase that would make Seattle-Tacoma airport workers some of the highest paid in the country.

Reuters reports that Airlines for America filed the suit to prevent the Port commission, which runs Seattle-Tacoma airport, from increasing airport workers’ pay to $11.22 per hour in January and to $13 per hour in 2017.

The suit, which was filed in district court in Seattle, argues the wage hikes conflict with state and federal law and labor agreements.

“The rules, unless restrained, will cause irreparable harm to Airlines for America’s member air carriers,” the complaint states.

The industry group includes American Airlines Group, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines Inc. along with delivery services United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp. The suit was joined by Baggage Airline Guest Services, an airport contractor that provides luggage handling and wheelchair escorts to travelers.

The Port commission maintains that it acted within its authority when they passed the pay increase measure back in July, in part to reduce employee turnover rates.

“We have worked closely with tenants and operators to hear concerns and provide guidance on implementing the policy,” airport spokesman Perry Cooper tells Reuters.

Seattle is among a number of cities that have pushed for raise wages above the current federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.

In fact, voters in SeaTac, where the Seattle-Tacoma airport is located, approved an initiative last year that increased the minimum wage for many workers to $15 per hour. However, airport employees were later excluded from the increase by a court order.

U.S. airlines sue Port of Seattle over airport workers wage hikes [Reuters]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Man Stuck Inside Department Store Wall Freed After 3 Days

(The Longmont Times-Call]

Whenever I hear a plaintive voice calling to me from nowhere, I always just assume it’s ghosts. It’s a good thing I’m not a worker at Marshalls, where a man who was trapped inside the wall for up to three days was finally rescued after employees heard some odd noises. This, after the man apparently tried passing notes to the outside about his predicament.

Officials tell The Longmont Times-Call that the fire department spent a half hour yesterday morning freeing the man from a vacant space between interior and exterior walls at the Marshall store, after what may have been an attempted burglary gone very awry.

Employees said they’d heard a man yelling on Monday, but had no idea where he actually was. The next day they heard him again and figured out he was shouting through a hole in the wall, and sounded as if he was in pain.

After police rescued him, they said he had tried to push notes reading things like “help” under the interior wall, but had failed. One was dated Nov. 8, leading officials to think he’d been in there since Saturday.

“They were hard to read, but they definitely said ‘help,'” a police sergeant said, adding that one was written on his probation officer’s card.

“You can’t make this stuff up,” he said.

After he was freed from the wall he was taken to the hospital. Meanwhile the incident is being investigated as a possible burglary or trespassing, with charges pending, police said. It appears he fell about 20 feet after entering the building somehow through the roof, possibly by way of a vent.

Crews free man caught in wall of Longmont business [The Longmont Times-Call]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Old Navy Tries To Explain Why Women Pay Extra For Plus-Size Clothes But Men Don’t

On the Old Navy website, women’s plus-size bootcut jeans range from $30 to $50, while women’s regular bootcut jeans start at $22 and max out at $30.

When men go shopping at Old Navy, it doesn’t matter what size they buy; prices don’t vary. But that’s not the same for women, who may have to pay extra if they purchase plus-size items. In just a few days, nearly 19,000 people have petitioned the retailer asking it to end this policy, but Old Navy claims there is a reason that it charges more for larger female sizes.

The Change.org petition was started late last week after its creator noticed that plus-size jeans at Old Navy were selling for upwards of $15 more per pair than the smaller sizes. Meanwhile, men’s jeans were the same price regardless of size.

“I was fine paying the extra money as a plus-sized woman, because, you know, more fabric equals higher cost of manufacture,” writes the petitioner. “However, selling jeans to larger-sized men at the same cost as they sell to smaller men not only negates the cost of manufacture argument, but indicates that Old Navy is participating in both sexism and sizeism, directed only at women.”

Additionally, the petition points out that there is a “Women’s Plus” section at Old Navy but no equivalent in men’s apparel.

We reached out to Old Navy parent company Gap Inc., where a rep for the company told us the retail giant has a reason for charging more for the plus-size women’s items.

The rep explains that while men’s bigger sizes are merely larger versions of the same clothing, Old Navy puts in additional work behind the scenes for women’s clothing.

“They are created by a team of designers who are experts in creating the most flattering and on-trend plus styles,” says the rep in an e-mail to Consumerist, “which includes curve-enhancing and curve-flattering elements such as four-way stretch materials and contoured waistbands, which most men’s garments do not include. This higher price point reflects the selection of unique fabrics and design elements.”

We’ve reached out to the petitioner to see if she has any response to the Gap Inc. statement. If we hear back, we’ll update this story.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist