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I can't argue with you on any of those points. Whole Foods used to have a great selection, and now it does NOT.
 
See the two star review average.
 
Take a look at this thread..
 
  Another debate
 
  Business Insider gripes about it.
 
You see, you have an angry mob of people now because Bezos bought a healthy business and then drained it of all its blood like a swarm of giant Alaskan mosquitoes attacking a large cow. He destroyed the brand that everyone trusted and now wants US to come crawling back to him? No thank you.

That theory seems reasonable to me.

Lenovo Laptops Common Problems

1009 Lenovo Consumer Reviews and Complaints Quote: "Let me begin by saying I will never buy anything from Lenovo ever again. The only reason I bother to write this review is so that Lenovo can hopefully address some of the many problems within the company, which might help other customers avoid the same ordeal that I have experienced."

However, it seems reasonable that Microsoft would try all updates with commonly-sold hardware before releasing the updates. In this case, perhaps Microsoft did, but didn't have one of the Lenovo models that failed.

Just like it would be a PR nightmare to slow down an older phone without asking? Just like it would be a PR nightmare to put a keyboard prone to failure in one of the most expensive laptops available? Yeah, you're right that would be a big mistake. People might create class action lawsuits.

I don't know, nvidia is hit with giant class action lawsuits all the time and everyone still buys every new $800 nvidia gpu as soon as it hits the store shelf. But I was happy to replace my $2,000 dead gpu gaming laptop with the $100 netbook Nvidia offered. Thanks class action lawsuit!
https://arstechnica.com/tech-p...
https://www.consumeraffairs.co...

https://consumerist.com/2011/06/10/9-confessions-of-a-former-geek-squad-geek/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek_Squad#Controversy

https://geek-squad.pissedconsumer.com/review.html

https://www.bbb.org/washington-dc-eastern-pa/business-reviews/computer-repair/geek-squad-in-quakertown-pa-160210889/reviews-and-complaints

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/retail/best_buy_geek_squad.html

Tempted to mod you funny, but instead I wanted to say no. I just hire programmers, graphic designers and musicians around the world. And yes, paypal really does freeze accounts for no reason. Just read reviews, and you'll see thousands and thousands of people have had the same problem. https://www.consumeraffairs.co...

The big issue is where do I draw the line between generating e-waste and using older energy hungry hardware instead of something more efficient?

Where the question of longevity comes in. Compare stuff made 40-50 years ago to what's made today, including some of the stuff that has "planned obsolescence" built in or really shady shit like with video cards(see where nvidia degraded performance on cards when new models come out). My parents are still using the same refrigerator that they bought when they got married in the mid 1970's. Is it inefficient? Yep. Does the damn thing weigh an assload? Yep. But it's also built like a tank and keeps going. Where as the new fridge that they bought to replace it because "it was more efficient" and it failed. In fact it failed so badly and there were so many of them that there was multiple class action lawsuits(see Samsung refrigerators).

Top 976 Complaints and Reviews about Geek Squad Quote: "I feel that they're a scam. They get people to buy their support and anytime they help it costs more money."

9 Confessions Of A Former Geek Squad Geek Quote: "A high percentage of Geek Squad employees lack basic troubleshooting skills such as correctly identifying malfunctioning components."

Geek Squad Complaints and Reviews Quote: "$430 Average loss"

Yelp Reviews for Geek Squad in San Francisco Quote: "Dealing with Geek Squad has been an absolute nightmare!! And judging by the hundreds of other reviews here, im guessing most of you feel the same way."

Geek Squad Consumer Reviews Quote: ""Cheat Squad," Not Geek Squad"

Yes, feature phones can explode.

Many smart phones can have a much stronger password to unlock than a four digit pin. Of course one has to balance convenience with security when considering how strong a password to use for their device, but that is ultimately up to the user.

It would be a nice feature for TouchID to distinguish between your thumb rolled a little to the left vs a little to the right; simply link one gesture to unlock the phone and the other to duress mode.

Is what is told here

https://www.consumeraffairs.co...

Self-drive means to rent a car in some parts of the world.

"Are they hitting a wall of unmanageable complexity?" No, my view is that Microsoft has hit a wall built of many years of technically incompetent top management.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was called "Monkey Boy". The January 16, 2013 issue of BusinessWeek magazine has a large photo of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (now replaced by Satya Nadella) with the headline calling him "Monkey Boy". See the BusinessWeek cover in this article: Steve Ballmer Is No Longer A Monkey Boy, Says Bloomberg BusinessWeek. The BusinessWeek cover says "No More" and "Mr.", but that doesn't take much away from the fact that the magazine called Ballmer "Monkey Boy" -- on its cover.

Worst CEO in the United States: Quote from an article in Forbes Magazine about Steve Ballmer: "Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today."

Another quote: "The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value -- and jobs." (May 12, 2012)

Who would want to work for "Monkey Boy"? Microsoft is apparently not able to hire socially competent people. Apparently Satya Nadella was chosen because he was the least annoying person. However, he does not seem to me to be the kind of person who can handle the enormous conflicts inside Microsoft.

This is my guess: Someone at Microsoft said, "Google and Facebook are collecting data about customers and selling it; let's do that also." So Windows 8 was designed to try to sell "Apps", as though Windows was a particularly trashy cell phone operating system. I was shocked when I first saw the Windows 8.1 GUI. Utterly incompetent. Now Windows 10 is apparently trying to imitate Google Android, which has become more and more invasive.

People who have work to do have already learned the GUIs they need. Even if the design is imperfect, that's what they know. They don't want wild changes.

It's scary. In the last few months, Windows 10 has been shown again and again to be sloppily designed and implemented, as well as being spyware.

Judging from comments on Slashdot, people try to find some technical reason for Microsoft's policies. They apparently have difficulty imagining that Microsoft managers are as incompetent as they are.

Some links:

Windows 8: NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered (Aug. 22, 2013)

Windows: NSA "backdoor" mandates lead to a computer-security FREAK show Quote: "Microsoft Windows OS vulnerable to hackers, thanks to National Security Agency requirements." (March 6, 2015)

Windows: NSA Built Back Door In All Windows Software by 1999 (June 7, 2013)

Windows 10, Microsoft hiding what it is doing: Microsoft has no plans to tell us what's in Windows patches. Quote: "Each update is a black box, and it's going to stay that way." (Aug 21, 2015)

Windows 10, Microsoft takes even more control: Windows 10 is spying on almost everything you do -- here's how to opt out (July 31, 2015) But, of course, Microsoft can change the spyware to a

It appears to me that Microsoft is selling itself to secret U.S. government agencies. Who tried to kill the excellent TrueCrypt? The old original TrueCrypt web site pushes people toward a Microsoft product.

Can Microsoft be trusted? Here are some articles:

Windows 8: NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered (Aug. 22, 2013)

Windows: NSA "backdoor" mandates lead to a computer-security FREAK show Quote: "Microsoft Windows OS vulnerable to hackers, thanks to National Security Agency requirements." (March 6, 2015)

Windows: NSA Built Back Door In All Windows Software by 1999 (June 7, 2013)

Windows 10, Microsoft hiding what it is doing: Microsoft has no plans to tell us what's in Windows patches. Quote: "Each update is a black box, and it's going to stay that way." (Aug 21, 2015)

Windows 10, Microsoft takes even more control: Windows 10 is spying on almost everything you do -- here's how to opt out But, of course, Microsoft can change the spyware to avoid blocking. (July 31, 2015)

Microsoft can't be trusted: How Can Any Company Ever Trust Microsoft Again? (June 17, 2013)

Microsoft releases EXTREMELY buggy software: Microsoft Kills Many Critical Flaws, Some 0-Days, Un-Trusts One Wildcard Cert It is likely that there are many bugs Microsoft hasn't yet found. Are Microsoft products intentionally made insecure? (December 9, 2015)

You said, 'You obviously have no idea what the word "spyware" means.'

You obviously haven't been reading the many, many, many stories. Here are links to just 7 of the stories about insecurity and links to 2 stories about bad management:

Windows 8: NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered (Aug. 22, 2013)

Windows: NSA "backdoor" mandates lead to a computer-security FREAK show Quote: "Microsoft Windows OS vulnerable to hackers, thanks to National Security Agency requirements." (March 6, 2015)

Windows: NSA Built Back Door In All Windows Software by 1999 (June 7, 2013)

Windows 10, Microsoft hiding what it is doing: Microsoft has no plans to tell us what's in Windows patches. Each update is a black box, and it's going to stay that way. (Aug 21, 2015)

Windows 10, Microsoft takes even more control: Windows 10 is spying on almost everything you do -- here's how to opt out (July 31, 2015) But, of course, Microsoft can change the spyware to avoid blocking.

Microsoft can't be trusted: How Can Any Company Ever Trust Microsoft Again? (June 17, 2013)

Microsoft releases EXTREMELY buggy software: Microsoft Kills Many Critical Flaws, Some 0-Days, Un-Trusts One Wildcard Cert (December 9, 2015) It is likely that there are many bugs Microsoft hasn't yet found.

Badly managed companies don't produce good products:

Microsoft has extremely bad management: The January 16, 2013 issue of BusinessWeek magazine has a large photo of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (now replaced) with the headline calling him "Monkey Boy". See the BusinessWeek cover in this article: Steve Ballmer Is No Longer A Monkey Boy, Says Bloomberg BusinessWeek. The BusinessWeek cover says "No More" and "Mr.", but that doesn't take much away from the fact that the magazine called Ballmer Monkey Boy -- on its cover.

Worst CEO in the United States: Quote from an article in Forbes Magazine about Steve Ballmer: "Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today."

Another quote: "The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value -- and jobs." (May 12, 2012)

A few of the many stories about backdoors in U.S. hardware:

D-Link: Reverse Engineering a D-Link Backdoor (Oct. 12, 2013)

Arris: 600,000 Arris cable modems have 'backdoors in backdoors', researcher claims (Nov. 20, 2015)

Juniper Networks: Juniper drops NSA-developed code following new backdoor revelations (Jan. 10, 2016)

Cisco: Snowden: The NSA planted backdoors in Cisco products (May 15, 2014)

Netgear: Netgear Patch Said to Leave Backdoor Problem in Router (April 23, 2014)

Windows 8: NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered (Aug. 22, 2013)

Windows: NSA "backdoor" mandates lead to a computer-security FREAK show Quote: "Microsoft Windows OS vulnerable to hackers, thanks to National Security Agency requirements." (March 6, 2015)

Windows: NSA Built Back Door In All Windows Software by 1999 (June 7, 2013)

Hard drives: Breaking: Kaspersky Exposes NSA's Worldwide, Backdoor Hacking of Virtually All Hard-Drive Firmware (Feb. 17, 2015)

Is every backdoor the work of the NSA? There is no way of knowing.

A few of the many stories about backdoors in U.S. hardware (Copied from another comment.):

D-Link: Reverse Engineering a D-Link Backdoor (Oct. 12, 2013)

Arris: 600,000 Arris cable modems have 'backdoors in backdoors', researcher claims (Nov. 20, 2015)

Juniper Networks: Juniper drops NSA-developed code following new backdoor revelations (Jan. 10, 2016)

Cisco: Snowden: The NSA planted backdoors in Cisco products (May 15, 2014)

Netgear: Netgear Patch Said to Leave Backdoor Problem in Router (April 23, 2014)

Windows 8: NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered (Aug. 22, 2013)

Windows: NSA "backdoor" mandates lead to a computer-security FREAK show Quote: "Microsoft Windows OS vulnerable to hackers, thanks to National Security Agency requirements." (March 6, 2015)

Windows: NSA Built Back Door In All Windows Software by 1999 (June 7, 2013)

Hard drives: Breaking: Kaspersky Exposes NSA's Worldwide, Backdoor Hacking of Virtually All Hard-Drive Firmware (Feb. 17, 2015)

Is every backdoor the work of the NSA? There is no way of knowing.

This bug has been known for a year or so. Possibly more.

I love how people say artificial sweeteners are harmless, but whenever I accidentally ingest one I get a headache, become nauseous, a sharpness around my heart, and almost vomit.

What terrible thing did I eat to make me feel so sick? A can of PEACHES. That's right, it had sugar but was also laced Sucralose.

Thanks to a complete failure of the media, I didn't know Sucralose could make me sick until after it happened and I started doing some digging. Tons of people apparently have similar reactions:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com...

Most of it gets used by agriculture, or gets sprinkled on those neatly trimmed HOA regulated lawns.

Ha. California actually had to pass a law preventing HOAs from fining homeowners for not watering their lawns during a drought:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com...

Of course, cities will still fine homeowners for not watering their lawns during a drought:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com...

Most of it gets used by agriculture, or gets sprinkled on those neatly trimmed HOA regulated lawns.

Ha. California actually had to pass a law preventing HOAs from fining homeowners for not watering their lawns during a drought:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com...

Of course, cities will still fine homeowners for not watering their lawns during a drought:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com...

... for your fuckups and lack of revenues?

Gee, here's an idea .. about you stop with the crappy customer service .. so you know, you actually can *acquire* customers for the long term.

Apparently, they are using a propietary ink: http://www.consumeraffairs.com... rather than RFID.

Neither a fan of the most valuable company (Apple) nor the 2nd, but had to be said before Microsoft bashing commences: http://www.betawired.com/micro...

So they must be doing something right!

That's a great point. Most everyone I know looks at market capitalization when trying to choose a desktop or mobile operating system. Damn straight I do! How else can I know if the quality of the user interfaces, ISV models, required hardware footprints or device support are what I need?

I used to research the products, test them out to see if I liked the look and feel, confirm that the hardware I wished to use was supported and that I had good choices of software. What a waste of time. Now I just look at the stock prices and market cap and I'm done.

What a dork I was! Usability. pfft! Access to applications of my choice. Who needs it? Support for my hardware? Throw that crap out!

Focusing on Market Cap makes me feel almost as good as after I used MYCleanPC and it made my PC 4000 times faster!

I doubt there is any field where one percent of laymen aren't vastly superior to the majority of professionals. ... This is statistically normal.

Fine, but just like the quatrains of Nostradamus: can you identify them correctly beforehand? Counting the perfect hits after the fact isn't fair. (But then again I guess it worked for Miss Cleo for a while)

BTW: 16th century Mr. N. is an idiot. But he's better than the current sales-people paying attention to him with 5 centuries more experience. Oh, and multiple Blood Moons are soon arriving -- buy your Tarot cards and ticket to safety now, before it's too late!

Date of article: 08/04/2007

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/08/ford_massive_recall.html

Ford Motor Co. is recalling as many as 3.6 million cars, truck, and vans because a switch that deactivates the speed control can overheat and catch fire according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The agency warns in its recall notice that the switch problem can cause a fire under the hood.

The latest recall covers 16 brands of cars, sport utility vehicles and trucks from model years 1992 to 2004.

The models include the Ford Ranger, Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis, Lincoln Town Car, Lincoln Mark VIII, Ford Taurus SHO, Mercury Capri, Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer, Ford Explorer Sport and Explorer Sport Trac, Ford E-150-350, Ford E-450, Ford Bronco, Ford F-150 Lightning, some models of F-Series trucks and Ford F53 Motor Home chassis.

Well sir I expect you to eat some crow. You may proceed immediately.

Why? That doesn't disprove my contention, you know.

"Might catch fire" != "caught fire"

Ford Motor Co. is recalling as many as 3.6 million cars, truck, and vans because a switch that deactivates the speed control can overheat and catch fire according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency warns in its recall notice that the switch problem can cause a fire under the hood. The latest recall covers 16 brands of cars, sport utility vehicles and trucks from model years 1992 to 2004. The models include the Ford Ranger, Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis, Lincoln Town Car, Lincoln Mark VIII, Ford Taurus SHO, Mercury Capri, Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer, Ford Explorer Sport and Explorer Sport Trac, Ford E-150-350, Ford E-450, Ford Bronco, Ford F-150 Lightning, some models of F-Series trucks and Ford F53 Motor Home chassis.

Well sir I expect you to eat some crow. You may proceed immediately.

It's the Vime's Boots Paradox - you have to spend money to save money, but if you don't have the money you can't. It's more expensive being poor.

I got sick of buying cheap dress shoes for around the £40 mark because I'm a big guy (with small feet, so extra pressure on the soles) and walk hard, so the soles wear through in about 6 months. Even if you have them resoled, that costs around £20 depending on where you get it done. But I need a pair of smart shoes for the office.

So I finally went back to what I used to do in my youth when I was a medical student walking the wards ; bought a pair of high quality military boots from a domestic bootmaker. They're smart enough to wear to the office, much more comfortable than dress shoes, keep my feet dry regardless of the conditions, and I expect them to last me at least 5 years. They cost £130, so they're a significant outlay, but I'm going to save money by the end of the second year, and they are just all round better than dress shoes. The only disadvantage is that I can't tell when it's a wet day from the water seeping through the soles...

"free market principles" won't help here. On the contrary, just think of the money that would go into actual health care if the government came in guns-ablaze and forcefully said "no, United Health Care, you can't treat your customers like the deepest turd of a batch of untreated sewer sludge", or "no, big drugmaker, you can't throw millions of dollars on advertising niche products like fucking Restasis all over primetime tv instead of putting the money toward cutting the costs of life-saving meds".

Those are two cases where I'd actually be elated to see the NSA and TSA put into use: snoop on the moneyed fuckers involved and No-Fly 'em as soon as it's clear they want to take anything that resembles a business trip to plan their next splurge.

TFA asserts otherwise. Apparently onstar and integrated infotainment systems can obtain same access to CAN bus access as the OBD port.

Onstar can do many things to your car outside your control. Remember when they were bragging about how they could disable your car if someone stole it? It worked by disabling the throttle, forcing the vehicle to idle, so the perp would pull over to the side of the road. My guess is that if they can do that, they can controll a whole lot more. They can remote diagnose car issues, so that means they access things like timing, engine temps, vacuum lines, no doubt much more. And if they can read them? Who knows?

And you don't even need to subscribe! http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/gm-includes-free-remote-start-on-2014-models-060713.html

How about that? They can start your car remotely. Umm, that means they can stop it remotely.

How about this? They track you for free, and sell the data. Of course you are anonymized. Until you aren't.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/09/onstar-tracks-you/

CenturyLink is dog-shit steam rolled and left out in the sun: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/cell_phones/centurylink.html .

I'm sure even if I did want a powerful vacuum cleaner that there are other makes which can be purchased from a normal store which offer similar performance for a fixed and lower price. As it stands even my 60 euro bagless phillips is perfectly adequate for my needs and has lasted 3 years. I could stick 2000 euros in the bank (an amount which some people paid for their Kirby) and the interest alone would pay for replacement cleaners if and when they gave up the ghost.

I wonder how many of those complaints are about "HouseHold Bank" or the BestBuy MasterCard?

Issues:

- If you make certain payments (ie: more than 50% or balance due or pay in full or more than 1 payment every 30 days) they will place a 14 day hold on your funds

- Requireing "Rush Fees" even for online payments when made less within 4 days of due date

- $20.00 "cash advance fee" charged because some buisness is on their list as offering "cash transfers" even though the item was NOT for a cash transfer

- If you have a $1000.00 limit, but then end up with a credit (eg: $1200.00), and have a $300.00 hold, your availible balance is still only $700.00. Makes it hard to by a TV or even a 64gb cellular ipad.

BTW... some HSBC cards are being bought out by Capital One... so buyer beware

I hope that this site would allow people to realize what crooks HSBC really are...

I have had all the above happen with me, but it has also happened to MANY others:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/hsbc-payment-hold-anyone-experience-this/td-p/159048/page/1
http://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/BestBuy-Com/hsbc-14-day-hold/td-p/100368
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/hsbc-credit-card.html

No one was complaining about their warranty being voided

In October 2000, at about 42,000 miles, the engine failed because of a sludge problem. The RX 300 was still under warranty, and though Mr. Meckstroth had receipts showing he had made all the oil changes, Lexus refused to cover the $8,000 repair, asserting poor maintenance was to blame.

A Better Business Bureau arbitrator later ruled the car was properly maintained and that Lexus should repair it under warranty. But there were other expenses Lexus would not cover, and Mr. Meckstroth was angry about the way he was treated.

“Toyota knew they had a defect and didn’t want to admit it,” he said. “That’s when and why I sued.”

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/01/toyota_sludge_settlement.html

making us do your work for you.

Lazy-ass fucker. Or Lazy ass-fucker. Pick one, fucker. Or just admit you're wrong.

As they've grown to the world's largest car company, their quality has plummeted: The worst was when they had engines that failed after just ~25,000 miles and Toyota refused to replace them. They blamed the customers instead and voided the warranty (how convenient). Right now I would no more buy a Toyota than I would buy a GM car or Yugo.

LINK - http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/toyota.htm

I also mail letters with the US Postal Service, which is a nice example of how efficient a government organization can be without partisan politics interfering.

The USPS now faces a budget crisis because Congress dropped 75 years of employee benefit funding on the organization, due in a span of only 10 years

You see how these contradict and back up my point, don't you? Do you think any government program is going to be different?

Even after proposing to close 3,700 offices over the next year, the U.S. postal service has a $9.2 billion deficit and is near a default.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2011/09/do-we-need-the-postal-service/

But you blame it on the same government that you want to run insurance? You do see the hypocrisy in that, don't you? Are you trying to support my point that government run services are no better (in fact, in this case worse) than private sector? Politics can just as easily kill a business as a CEO. And don't even get started saying that Healthcare is failing in the private sector. It's arguably one of the most regulated (ie: ah, those politics again) sectors of industry today.

You can go back 10 years and find out why it's failing... hard. And of course, they don't consider themselves accountable for any of that. That's definitely what I want my life entrusted to... and since we are on the USPS: Why is it that UPS and FedEx are doing so well? Is it because the USPS cannot deliver packages? No. They deliver packages. What must it be then? Efficiency? Customer Service? Reliability? What is the USPS failing on so hard that it can't compete with these private companies? I think the CATO report sums it nicely: "the Postal Service decided to improve mail service by delaying letter delivery" They delay. So let's push our healthcare under that same "efficient" system. Let's just say, "Hold on sir, we'll get you that heart... when we are damn well ready."

Yeah, let's keep stamp prices artificially low. It makes them look good. (whopping 55%...)

So what about that USPS? Do we still need it?

“Heck, the only thing I need a physical mailing address for these days is to get physical packages from Amazon, UPS and FedEx do just fine and do it with lower labor costs (53% of its expenses for UPS, 32% for FedEx compared with 80% with the USPS)—the private delivery services just run more efficiently as a business,” Chan writes.

From 2008 to 2010, sales revenue in the mailing industry, which includes private mailers and printing companies, grew by 10 percent to $1.1 trillion and increased jobs by 16 percent.

Yes, spam ... spam is saving the USPS. Not efficiency.

So... why is it that:

Postal services in the Netherlands and Germany have been privatized...

And about those markups. Since you cherry picked a single (highly regulated) business that's failed you, let me point out a few government programs that have/are failing as well:
Cash for Clunkers
Fannie Mae
Freddie Mac
TARP
Heck, there was just an article the other day about Solar Energy in America and how it's being exploited by China ...

More devastating than direct efficiency comparisons is the tendency for government to eventually bankrupt everything it manages, including itself. Amtrak, the Postal Service, Social Security, Medicare, Fannie and Freddie, FHA, FDIC, FSLIC, Student Loans, etc. are some examples.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/government_gone_wild.html

Most people don't realize just how important the dealer is for a car company. When I bought my Chevy S10 in 2000, I did the negotiation online. Back then, GM had a program where you selected a car from the inventory your local dealer had, and they emailed you a quote. My quote was the invoice price and included all of the rebates and discounts. No pressure at all. When I went to the dealer to buy the S10, they offered financing at a lower interest rate than what I already had so I accepted it. I took a test drive and signed the forms at the exact price that I had been offered online. The entire process including the test drive took 1/2 hour.

Three years later I was having problems with brake pads. I took it to Midas and they said there was a problem with the calipers. I had 2 weeks left on my warranty. Midas said it was possible the dealer might still partially cover it, so I took it back. Not only did they cover it 100% with no questions, but the paid for a rental car too. Absolutely nothing but positive experiences with my local Chevy dealers

About the same time, my father purchased a new Toyota Corolla, which developed engine oil sludge at 15,000 miles. The following quote from the article pretty much summed up his experience with the Toyota dealer:

Charles in Arkansas said: "At 36,000 miles the engine gummed up and quit running. My wife had the oil changed at Wal-Mart and did not keep receipts for the oil changes. The North Little Rock dealer and the Toyota representative told us such problems were rare and that we had caused the problem but for $2,500 they could fix it. They inferred that my wife was a liar," he wrote.

"There is no reason to believe this is anything other than the simple burglary of a laptop, which the local police are investigating," said (VIP) founder CEO Steven Brill. "For it to be more than that, the thief would have to hack into two different passwords and even then would not get what identity thieves want mosta Social Security number and/or credit card information."

Brill was the CEO of the subcontractor that TSA/DHS selected to implement this security program, and I was less than reassured by his assessment of the problem. Yes, you need two passwords to access the data on the laptop. The article was light on technical details, but the first password, I presume, was to log in to the laptop at all. The second password is open to debate, but I would guess it is a password to the application that reads the data on the laptop. Nowhere does the article suggest that the hard drive was encrypted*. As I'm sure everyone reading this post knows, if you have physical access to an unencrypted hard drive, you own the data on it, even if you can't log in to the OS. It's trivial to mount a hard drive from another computer.

*It's possible that the second password was necessary to unencrypt a data partition on the laptop, but if so, you would think that Brill would have mentioned that as an additional reason that the loss of the laptop did not constitute a security breach. He didn't, and therefore, I suspect the hard drive was not encrypted.

OnStar is a GM brand. I'm told the Toyota/Lexus Enform/Safety-Connect system is run by OnStar. (on verizon's network.)

Duly noted.

If you're going to boost a car thusly equiped, you'd be wise to remove or disable the thing FIRST. When manufacturers get wise and link the module into the anti-theft logic -- meaning the car won't work without it -- simply disable the radio/antenna.

For the record (and the benefit of my fellow paranoids), you can actually request this equipment be disabled for you by the dealer prior to purchase, or by the owner if they know where to look. Of course, this is a moot point for those who actually intend to pay for and use the service, but personally I would never subscribe to a service that can arbitrarily disable my vehicle without my permission... among other, privacy related issues.

Not being able to start your car because it cannot see T-Mobile's network (for example) would never be accepted by customers.

Yea... I remember saying something similar when GPS devices started becoming ubiquitous in cell phones... 'surely no one will accept a phone with a built in tracking device!'

Ah, the naivety of youth..

Our, you know, OP could RTFM:

The retrieval of this data has been authorized by the vehicle's owner, or other legal authority such as a subpoena or search warrant...

I think the OP's point was that insurance companies could require access to the black box data as a part of an insurance policy. There are no clear laws over who owns the data and who can access it:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/02/black_boxes_states.html

What's not clear in this case is if the police had to request permission from Murray to access the data, or if they only had to have permission to release the data.

Those points and any card cash back has to come somewhere, and it comes from the cut that credit card companies take on every transaction.

Silly me, I thought those came from the interest they make from your charges? Obviously they stand to make money off of swipe fees and such, but I know very, very few people that pay their balance in full every month and a lot of people that pay minimum balances.

Target and Lowes give you a discount for the same reason credit cards exist at all: they want you to use their card because they get a piece of the interest you will more than likely be paying them on top of your purchase. That 5% off up front is very likely to turn into a fair profit on the back end in interest, statistically speaking. Read some of these complaints about the Home Depot "No Interest Financing" you hear in all of their commercials.

I highly doubt that Verizon is being charged $2 for every card they run. If they were, I'm sure they would be charging us $4 a month instead to cover their "expenses"

Mankind directly affects the climate, and we KNOW this - we can see the Ozone hole above the poles. It was directly created by aerospray cans we created.

I thought it was created by people with asthma

In the United States, it's clear that the government just doesn't care about false advertising any more

Wow, you are very misinformed. Example 1. Example 2. Example 3. Example 4. Example 5. All this year (most in the last month), all from the FTC, all just a small fraction of recent efforts. There are also several other federal agencies and at least 50 state agencies that go after false advertising.

In the United States, it's clear that the government just doesn't care about false advertising any more

Wow, you are very misinformed. Example 1. Example 2. Example 3. Example 4. Example 5. All this year (most in the last month), all from the FTC, all just a small fraction of recent efforts. There are also several other federal agencies and at least 50 state agencies that go after false advertising.

You're crazy. We've reversed transactions at ATMs with our bank where the ATM didn't spit out the money but marked it as a successful transaction

I am not a lawyer, but I believe legally the customer is liable for ATM transactions, except in a case where the card is stolen, AND the transactions happen no more than 72 hours before the report, and then I think your liability is capped at $50. Any reimbursements would be at the bank's discretion, so if you have a good, sympathetic bank(er), like it sounds like you have, you might get off the hook. I've had my fair share of disputes with banks that like to pin things on customers, and they're generally not as cooperative or polite about it.

If somebody, for example, does this or this, and you see it on your statement the next month; or even if you used your card soon after it happened (can't claim the card is stolen) but didn't check your statement online until later that night, you're stuck with it.

I didn't need to do "research" because I had personal experience to back it up, and no amount of research would have led me to your experience. Banks, in general, try to pin these things on the consumer instead of eating the loss, especially Bank of America.

Oh please, it's not only the government that is being defrauded all the time. Chances are you've been a target before too: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/02/ink_cartridges.html

There's a reason one of the longest running USENET groups is alt.aol.sucks.

AOL allows it's userbase unfettered access USENET: Eternal September
AOL merges with Time/Warner: Why it failed
AOL billing practices: Just reverse the charges
AOL layoffs: Keep your bags packed

Good luck HuffPost...you may need it.

Actually Toyota was drug before the US DOJ in a class-action lawsuit, and they eventually admitted their engines were overheating, so even if the customer changed his oil every 3000 miles it still turned to sludge.

Read more here:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/toyota_engine.html

Which, of course, completely explains why the violent crime rate is lower in the UK, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Canada, France, Germany, and a whole host of other countries where firearms are strictly regulated.

State your reference, please. I've often seen similar statements that try to correlate firearm ownership to violence without references. As far as I can tell US crime has been falling here the UK has a higher amount of total crimes per capita than the US here and the Australia ban caused an increase in crime here.

I'm sure you can find articles that show the reverse. Crime statistics fluctuate and there is no clear correlation to gun control laws.

In 2007 Verizon blocked text messages from Naral, an abortion rights group claiming they had the right to block “controversial or unsavory” text messages. They reversed position quickly but not before a significant media backlash:

The move by Verizon Wireless to block--and then unblock--text messages from abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America is being cited as a key example of why the principles of "net neutrality" should be codified into law.

ConsumerAffairs article: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/09/verizon_abortion.html

The basic issue here is people wanting to make use of a communications channel that is not public and does not belong to them. Matter of fact, it's the same thing with telemarketing, junk faxes and email ... it's all spam, all garbage, all a waste of time and money. Whatever particular flavor of garbage you spew forth, you are consuming resources for which someone else is paying in order to get your message out. Theft of service, whatever you want to call it, if I have to pay for it you damn well had better not be sending it to me. Furthermore, that's true even if receiving your oh so bloody important message doesn't cost me anything. You still wasted my time.

Parasites. Vampires. Bloodsucking leeches all of them.

The move by Verizon Wireless to block--and then unblock--text messages from abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America is being cited as a key example of why the principles of "net neutrality" should be codified into law.

ConsumerAffairs article: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/09/verizon_abortion.html

Sharp just built a new $4.6 billion LCD facility in Sakai, Japan that is capable of producing more, cheaper, and more advanced LCDs than anyone else in the world. This plant has helped them produce 10th generation glass substrates with UV2A technology that most other LCD companies will be purchasing from them. They are also going out on a whim and pioneering the new RGBY technology for an increased color gamut. I believe I've heard that Sony co-funded this research, so we're likely to see RGBY sets from Sony in the future, too.

Make no mistake, the Korean companies have "dominated" the LCD market, but that depends on your definition of dominate. Samsung has premiere floor space at about every major retailer, but I'm fairly certain that's more due to marketing and back-room deals than anything else. Sony has been making technically superior (white LED,lighting, for instance, and therefore costlier) TVs to Samsung for years, and I'm not the only one with Samsung quality issues (18 pages, the size of that page is unbelievable).

And in the field of professional displays, I don't think anyone would say that Korea is doing what we'd call, "dominate".

Here's a good starting point: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/toyota_engine.html

It's disingenuous to single out Toyota when so many other major car makers habve a similar track record.

Here's a primer to help anyone who thinks that the arrogance of car manufacturers is limted to Toyota.

Of note, check out numbers 1&2 on the list... exploding Fords again (albeit just spitting a spark plug, not a fuel tank explosion).