When selecting a set of knives for your kitchen, you can certainly go to any retail store and purchase an inexpensive set of knives made with plastic handles and low-grade steel. But, when you want something of higher quality, specialized design or materials, or you just want something a bit more personalized, custom is the way to go.
    
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We've always loved packing cubes for a well-organized suitcase, but they come at a cost of taking up added space in your suitcase. Eagle Creek decided to try and combat that problem by adding a compression zipper to their ultra-thin line of packing cubes. The result? You end up with vacuum-sealed-like package that takes up less space.
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We tend to be our worst critics. We should be doing more, performing better, and never missing a beat. Unfortunately for parents, in pushing and criticizing ourselves so hard, the people who tend to get hurt most from this "self-bullying" are our children.
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Every week, we feature customized desktops and home screens submitted by readers that show off great customization tools and UI tweaks. Sometimes they're fun, sometimes they're functional, and sometimes they're both, but 2013 was a great year for all of them. Here's a look back at the most popular customizations you sent us.
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Some people might be shocked to hear us say it, but sometimes the customer is wrong. When a customer posted an all-caps rant about the terrible customers service of Liberty Bottleworks on the company’s Facebook page, the company could have politely addressed her concerns. They could have deleted and ignored her message. They did not do either of those things.
Instead, the company’s founder and chief operating officer defended the company, cast the customer’s actions in a bad light, and defended his employees’ right to have lives outside of work. What kind of un-American madness is this?
An ex-employee posted the exchange to Reddit, redacting the name of the customer and some other information.
If the text is a little small, you can click to read. Here’s a key excerpt:
Your voicemail stated ‘it is the holidays, you should be working’ and your email stated, ‘Instead of doing my Christmas cards and enjoying the holiday spirit I was dealing with this.’ Perhaps you need to spend a bit more time embracing the holiday spirit. You see, my employees were home with their families doing their cards, baking cookies, etc. Family first, product second.
The customer was undeterred, and HappyPlace preserved her public response to the company.
Still, the company reports fantastic sales since the exchange first hit Reddit, striking a chord with anyone who has ever held a customer service job.
Source of Liberty Bottleworks’ viral image speaks up [Yakima Herald]
Awful customer gets shut down on Facebook by company founder. [HappyPlace]
In spite of a college education and decades of legally being a responsible adult, paying my bills, not getting arrested, keeping a job, occasionally shaving, I have yet to figure out how to properly insert a duvet into a duvet cover and then keep it from quickly turning into mangled mess. And judging by the response to this video, I’m not the only one who has been losing the battle of the bedcovers.
Through some mystical process that involves placing the duvet on top of the cover, rolling the two into a blanket burrito, and then abracadraba-ing the duvet through the cover.
To some of you, this may seem like known information, or maybe you know of an easier way. But for those of us whose duvet covers are sitting idle in the linen closet, this man may be a hero… or a witch.
[via Digg]
This holiday season, Best Buy is embracing their reputation as America’s Amazon showroom in their marketing. It’s not clear yet how well this strategy is working, but another retailer has an ad campaign based on the same concept: embracing and turning around what consumers make fun of them for. This commercial for Sears that’s currently on the air takes a perceived weakness (Sears has vast, empty parking lots) and turns it into a selling point. Kind of.
Best Buy’s plan is to embrace the “showroom” concept, then capture sales from customers who originally planned to make their actual purchase online through price-matching and great customer service.
In the Sears spot, two young women on their way to a mall to see a movie park at Sears, because “there’s always parking at Sears!” Ha ha! Their stores are abandoned!
Even the Sears Twitter account is playing along and pretending that this is a compliment.
@nikki_1103 Thanks for sharing your feedback.—
(@Sears) December 05, 2013
CLOTHING
The discounts we’ve already seen on clothing this holiday season will likely continue. But the folks at DealNews say that those looking to pay the absolute bottom-dollar on clothing may be better served to either waiting until the post-holiday sales, or giving a gift card for these retailers so that the recipient can take advantage of those sales themselves.
HOME GOODS
January is the real time to buy furnishings on the cheap, and small appliances do tend to drop in price in the days leading up to Christmas.
“If you simply must shop department stores and the like for these items, keep an eye out for at least mild discounts of 20% to 30% off; in some cases, you may encounter sales that take up to 60% off, which would be especially noteworthy during this time,” writes DealNews, which warns against buying climate control appliances, like heaters, humidifiers, and air purifiers, as the site has detected an uptick in prices at this time of year for those items.
TOYS AND GAMES
Toys is another category that historically sinks in price as the days tick off the calendar. DealNews says that it has seen a large number of really good discounts on both toys and video games during the weekends before Christmas in 2012 and 2011, so this year should be no different.
“The deals were especially good for PC video game purchases, but we’re betting that the recent release of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will lead to big discounts on Xbox 360 and PS3 games this year,” writes DealNews.
Last week, two women showed up with a van to pick up the donations from the Toys for Tots bin at the volunteer fire department in a Virginia town. There’s nothing sinister about that, except that the women weren’t affiliated with Toys For Tots. Who were they? No one knows.
Police certainly would like to know. The area’s actual coordinator told TV station WTKR that many of the stolen gifts were “big-ticket items” that would have been kids’ major gifts of the season. Monday night, she worried that the toys might run out before every family in need stopped by.
“All they needed to do was ask for them, and we would have given them toys to meet their needs,” she said of the thieves.
The organization suspects that toys might have been stolen from other bins in the area, too.
Toys for Tots donation box stolen from Smithfield fire station [WTKR]
Rainbow Loom has reportedly sold 3.5 million rubber band weaving kits, but it’s not enough. There’s never enough of the hot toy of the year. That’s why we were surprised–but not all that surprised–to learn that there’s a brisk trade in counterfeit Rainbow Looms out there.
If you don’t happen to know any kids under age 12 or so, the Rainbow Loom is the new hotness in the craft and toy world. Rather than the cotton potholders you might have loomed as a kid, the kit uses small rubber bands and a crochet-like hook to create designs that range from simple band bracelets to elaborate 3D sculptures and even accessories like cell phone cases and hats. All out of rubber bands.
One product that looks like a knockoff, Walmart’s Wonder Loom, really does come from the company. Others? Well, apparently they’ve proliferated so much that there’s a twelve-page PDF document on the Rainbow Loom web site that outline how to identify fakes. Consumers may not be able to tell the difference until they open up the kit…and maybe not even then.
One Consumerist reader reports buying what turned out to be a counterfeit Rainbow Loom at a mall kiosk, and learned that no one particularly cared: the patent holder is overwhelmed, and the mall management was indifferent. The kiosk did take the loom back for a refund, though. That was nice.
Rainbow Loom’s creator weaves success from playtime inspiration [Crain's Detroit Business]
Danger of counterfeits and how to spot them [Rainbow Loom]
Our colleagues at ShopSmart recently published an expansive round-up of the year’s best products, which is all really good and helpful information. But what picqued our interest was the magazine’s shorter list, covering everything from questionable infomercial products to big-name luxury brands, of the worst products on the market in 2013.
Some of the spotlighted “Losers” in the January issue of ShopSmart include:
The Grout Bully
You’ve probably seen the infomercial, where this product magically turns filthy tile grout bright white (or a number of other colors, if that’s your desire), but ShopSmart says it’s really nothing but “Wite-Out for gross grout” that’s just masking the filthy reality.
The Rollie Eggmaster (apparently also known as the Rollie Vertical Cooking System)
Cooking an egg is pretty easy and doesn’t really require much in the way of specialized cookware, but if you want to spend $30 on a heated tube that slowly turns a traditional breakfast food into egg-on-a-stick, then we guess this might be the device for you. Tip: Any product that talks about how simple it is to use, but also requires a special cleaning brush, maybe isn’t so simple to use.
The folks at Rollie know that you have secretly been craving warm egg on a stick for years.
Jay Glazer’s Perfect Punch
While we enjoy NFL reporter Jay Glazer’s inside info on pro football, his mixed martial arts training system, which is apparently just some gloves and tension bands, hasn’t gotten much love from the Consumer Reports family. First, CR testers found that Perfect Punch was repetitive, inadequate, and may have negatively affected users’ punching form. Now it’s made ShopSmart’s worst of the year list. While the product says you can get ripped in just 15 minutes a day, ShopSmart says “the only thing you’ll be ripping is your hair out.”
Lexus IS 250
So far, all the products we’ve mentioned from the worst-of list have been of the late-night infomercial variety, but here’s a car that isn’t just prime-time, but a well-known luxury sports sedan that will set you back around $36K. ShopSmart’s take on the car doesn’t exactly slap a red-ribbon on it, calling the IS 250 “a super-cramped, stiff-riding car without much get up and go.”
Some other products making the worst of the year round-up include, Sherwin-Williams Duration Home Interior Paint, Rust-Oleum NeverWet, the Sandra by Sandra Lee 53156 blender (which could “barely crush ice”), and the $150 EarHero earphones, which are marketed as the “world’s safest earphones,” but which scored an astoundingly low 6 out of 100 for “sound quality… so bad that all you’ll hear is your own voice screaming because you paid $150.”
You can check out the entire best and worst products list in the January issue of ShopSmart.
Sigh.
The only way to get through these ads without watching them silently is to scroll past them on your feed, writes Facebook in a post announcing the news. Once you can’t see the video anymore, it stops playing.
Right now there are three kinds of sources these videos will come from: “Individuals (personal Facebook accounts or verified Pages); Some Pages, like those of entertainers and sports organizations; Summit Entertainment’s content for Divergent.”
(For those not in the know, Divergent is the newest young-adult-book-turned-movie that entertainment honchos are just crossing their fingers is the next Hunger Games, so it’s not surprising that Summit is hyping it in any way it can.)
The autoplay is presented as a good thing by Facebook, natch — it saves you time! So convenient!
“Rather than having to click or tap on the content, videos will begin to play as they appear on screen — without sound — similar to how they behave when shared by friends now. If you don’t want to watch the video, you can simply scroll past it.”
Here’s what it’ll be like (click play below to watch because this, at least, doesn’t autoplay):
You might be one of the lucky ones, however, as Facebook says not all people will be seeing the ads in this “limited test.” One can only hope to be left out.
A family loses its beloved dog in a tornado. Now the family that adopted the pet will return him.
A mother was arrested and charged with child neglect after her 2-month-old was left at a hotel clerk desk, while she engaged in prostitution, police said.
Did the holidays creep up on you this year? And are you still searching
for that perfect gift? Look no further. We're counting down Christmas
with this last minute holiday gift guide.
The National Aquarium has set up a baby registry for a two-toed sloth born last month.
In an interview with Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal (audio is below), explains why Comcast is always at or near the bottom of most customer service and satisfaction surveys.
In fact, if you sort all of the companies ranked by the American Customer Satisfaction Index in 2013, Comcast is represented twice in the bottom 10; once for its Internet service (the lowest rank of all companies in that sector) and then again for its subscription TV service (the second-worst in that group of companies).
“That’s a very fair criticism that we’re working really hard to fix,” Roberts tells Marketplace, before getting into the numbers game:
“What unfortunately happens is we have about… 350 million interactions with consumers a year, between phone calls and truck calls. It may be over 400 million, and that doesn’t count any online interactions which are over, I think, a billion. You get one-tenth of one-percent bad experience, that’s a lot of people — unacceptable. We have to be the best service provider or in the end, this company won’t be what I want it to be.”
While we agree with him that this is completely unacceptable, we think Roberts doesn’t realize just how many bad experiences “one-tenth of one percent” of a billion interactions would be. That’s still 1 million times in a year when people are having bad Comcast customer service experiences!
What he’s also not mentioning is how many of those 1 billion interactions are times when the customer may have received decent customer service, but had to contact Comcast because their service was out or their bill was wrong. We’d love to see a truly transparent auditing of the actual reasons for customers contacting the company.
A few weeks back, the McDonald’s McResource employee hotline made headlines when a company rep “helped” a 10-year McDonald’s employee improve her lot in life by directing her to numerous welfare programs to supplement her income. What other gems of advice do the McResource people have for employees?
The video above, put together by the folks at Low Pay Is Not OK, a campaign seeking the ability to unionize fast food workers and increase their pay, highlights several pieces of sage advice from the McResource website, like:
Pack your bags: At least two vacations a year can cut heart attack risk by 50%.
Sing away stress: Singing along to your favorite songs can lower your blood pressure.
Break it up: Breaking food into pieces often results in eating less and still feeling full.
Quit complaining: Stress hormone levels rise by 15% after ten minutes of complaining.
And this one, in which McDonald’s suggests that employees get out from holiday debt by selling things they haven’t opened yet:
“You may also want to consider returning some of your unopened purchases that may not seem as appealing as they did. Selling some of your unwanted possessions on eBay or Craigslist could bring in some quick cash.”
A rep for McDonald’s says this is all much ado about nothing.
“This is an attempt by an outside organization to undermine a well-intended employee assistance resource website by taking isolated portions out of context,” a spokeswoman tells BusinessInsider. “The McResource website has helped countless employees by providing them with a variety of information and resources on topics ranging from health and wellness to stress and financial management.”
A recent study found that more than 50% of fast-food workers in the United States are receiving some sort of public benefits to supplement their wages. Some argue that this indicates that McDonald’s and others are using taxpayer money to subsidize the low wages they pay employees, while others contend that McDonald’s is giving these same people a place to work and a foot in the door toward a life without the need of public assistance.
(Photo: The Joy of the Mundane)
FINDING A HOME INSPECTOR
Start by hiring someone who is really qualified to do the job.
32 states require home inspectors to have some kind of license or registration. But even having a state license isn’t a guarantee you’ll find a qualified inspector because not every license requires education and training.
You can read more about the requirements for each state on the American Society of Home Inspectors’ website.
Because each state is different, and some states have no requirements at all, it’s hard for consumers to know if a potential inspector is qualified.
Narrow down your search by looking for a pro who is associated with a respected industry group. Check to see the requirement for membership because some groups will be happy to “certify” anyone willing to write a check.
Some related groups to consider:
The American Society of Home Inspectors is the nation’s oldest industry group. Members must pass two exams, and must complete more than 250 inspections before they can call themselves “certified.”
The National Association of Home Inspectors members must also pass a test and complete 250 verifiable inspections.
The National Institute of Building Inspectors requires continuing education for annual recertification.
Also be suspicious if your real estate agent is pushing one particular inspector. You’d be better served if the agent can give you a handful of names to consider.
Before you call the inspector, check out his or her reputation with your state to see if there are any complaints against the inspector. If your state offers licensing, make sure the inspector’s license is current.
If the inspector is a member of an industry association, give it a shout and ask if the member is in good standing.
While it’s no guarantee of quality, look up the inspector with the Better Business Bureau and do a simple Google search to see if the name comes up on any consumer complaint boards or in local newspaper articles.
When you finally call the inspector, ask:
What are your credentials? Training background?
Do you belong to any associations?
Are you licensed?
Do you carry insurance? (Not all states require this, but if the inspector has a policy, ask for a copy.)
Do you offer a guarantee?
What can you do, and what can’t you do, in an inspection?
What will you offer in writing when the inspection is complete?
How long will the inspection take? (Most inspections should take at least three hours.)
Can I be there? (During an inspection, the inspector should teach you about the home and point out what he sees. If he doesn’t want you there, beware.)
Remember that no home inspector has X-ray vision, and no one is going to see every flaw in a home. Still, a qualified inspector will check all the usual suspects and point out areas that you need to know about, or ask more about. You can always negotiate with the home seller to correct items before you take possession of the home, or you negotiate a better price for the home.
WHAT TO EXPECT AT THE INSPECTION
When you join your inspector for the check of your wannabe home, be prepared to get your hands dirty.
As the inspector goes through the home, he should point out potential problems and show you how the home’s systems work
A standard home inspection will include:
The exterior: The inspector will examine the outside of the home, including the foundation, frame, joists, siding, windows, doors, steps and other outside areas. The inspector will also look at the roof, gutters and drainage systems, chimney and any skylights.
The electrical system: You want to make sure a home’s electrical system has kept up with the times, won’t zap you or cause a fire, and that there’s enough juice to keep your family’s electronic needs running. The inspector will check out the electrical box, wires, breakers and fuses. He should also turn on every light and test the outlets to make sure they all work.
The plumbing: The inspector will check out the home’s pipes for corrosion or leaks, and he will look at your hot water heater. And yes, you should flush every toilet and turn on every faucet and shower head.
Heating and cooling systems: The inspector should blast the heat and make sure all systems are go, including the thermostats, chimney and any fireplace the home sports. Same goes for central air conditioning units.
Appliances: The inspector should check all the appliances to make sure they’re working, including the refrigerator/freezer, stove, dishwasher, washer and dryer. Make sure the smoke detectors are operational, too.
The guts: The inspector should take a look at insulation wherever accessible, including attics, crawl spaces and basements.
Mold: Basements and attics, especially areas that may be damp or leaky, should be examined for mold. You may need to order extra testing to see how serious a problem may be.
The cosmetic stuff: Walls, paint, carpets and flooring, grout, water stains and similar cosmetic issues (or, we hope they’re only cosmetic) should be examined.
Extra systems: If you have a septic system or a well, you will probably need to pay extra to have the systems properly tested. And it’s worth it: you don’t want your family drinking bacteria-laden water or, um, have a septic system meltdown or overflow. Yuck.
Termites and radon: These tests will also cost extra, but it’s not the place to save a few bucks.
Also check this DIY inspection checklist for areas you want to make sure the inspector examines, courtesy of Popular Mechanics.
AFTER THE INSPECTION
The inspector should get you a written report of her findings within a few days. Problems are unavoidable in most homes, but that doesn’t mean they’re not fixable.
Use the report to negotiate with the seller for fixes or compensation (usually in the form of a reduction in the sale price of the house or an increase in the amount of closing costs covered by the seller) so you can get the work done yourself.
No home inspection story is complete without a few horror stories. Take a look at these DIY home improvement nightmares. If you see anything like this, run. But first, take a photo and send it notsuck@consumerist.com.
Have a topic you’d like to see covered in How To Not Suck? Or maybe you’re an expert who would like to share your insight with Consumerist readers? Send us a note at notsuck@consumerist.com.
You can read Karin Price Mueller’s stories for The Star-Ledger at NJ.com, follow her on Facebook, and on Twitter @kpmueller.
PREVIOUSLY ON HOW TO NOT SUCK:
How To Not Suck… At Understanding Credit Card Rewards
How To Not Suck… At Getting Ready For Tax Season
How To Not Suck… At Picking A Retirement Plan
How To Not Suck… At Deciding When To DIY
How To Not Suck… At Getting Out Of Debt
How To Not Suck… At First Year College Budgets
DISCLAIMER: Any websites, services, retailers, or brands mentioned in the story above are only intended as some of many options available to consumers, and do not constitute an endorsement by Consumerist, Consumerist Media LLC (CML) or its staff. Per Consumerist’s No Commercial Use Policy, such information may not be used by others in advertising or to promote a company’s product or service. In addition, this policy precludes any commercial use of any of CML’s published information in any form, or of the names of Consumers Union®, Consumer Media, Consumer Reports®, The Consumerist, consumerist.com or any other of CU or CML’s publications or services without CU or CML’s express written permission.
(WBZ-TV)
Save your life or keep your job? A gas station clerk in New Hampshire says he can find another job, but that he had to pull a gun on an armed robber wielding a knife shortly after midnight on Monday morning to protect himself, despite company policy against firearms in the workplace. He was fired a few hours after the incident.
According to The Nashua Telegraph, the clerk had finished helping a customer when the robber entered the store, walked behind the counter and brandished a knife.
“He had the knife cocked back. It looked like he was going to stab me,” he said. “I took several steps back, produced my sidearm, and informed him it was a bad idea and he didn’t want to do it, and he left.”
After the would-be robber fled, the cashier, who has a permit to carry a handgun in New Hampshire, called the police. He was also asked to file a report with his employers, and was fired hours after doing so, he says, despite two managers who tried to intercede on his behalf.
Nouria Energy, the company that owns and operates the gas station where the clerk worked, said in a statement to WBZ-TV that employees aren’t allowed to have firearms in the workplace for their own safety, and that they are instructed to give intruders what they ask for “in an attempt to resolve the conflict peacefully and as soon as possible.”
“We do respect the constitutional right to bear arms. However, we believe the best way to keep our employees and customers safe is to prohibit weapons in the workplace,” the statement adds. “Our training and policies are aligned with what is customary in the retail/conveniences store industries and is consistent with advice offered by security and police organizations.”
A police lieutenant says it appears the clerk took appropriate action, and encouraged anyone who carries a gun to undergo safety training.
“The first thing that we want to make sure is that people are safe,” he said. “In this situation, the clerk was presented with a deadly weapon. He was in close proximity to the suspect when the deadly weapon was displayed to him. The clerk, from the information I have, took the appropriate action in terms of how he felt threatened, in presenting the firearm.”
The cashier says that with a grandson on the way, he has no regrets.
“I can find another job,” the clerk said. “A paycheck’s a paycheck. I don’t really care where it comes from. I cannot justify in my mind trying to save my job at the risk of not ever seeing my family and friends again.”
Nashua gas station clerk halts robbery with handgun, gets fired hours later; police still looking for suspect [Nashua Telegraph]
NH Clerk Fired After Pulling Gun On Armed Robber [WBZ-TV]
A federal judge says the NSA's bulk collection of phone records violates the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches.
