The Wearing Of The Green Starts Two Months Before St. Patrick’s Day At Big Lots

Oh Paddy dear, and did you hear the news that’s going round? The shamrock is already thick on the ground at Big Lots, a full two and a half months before St. Patrick’s Day. Or maybe this store just has a really loyal Irish customer base.

While it’s not like we’re super worried that Valentine’s Day won’t get its due attention (read: not worried at all because we know the hearts and mushy cards will coat the country in a blanket of buyable affection) it’s still way, way too early to decorate for St. Patrick’s Day.

At least reader Leigh thinks so when she submitted the above and below pics in Maryland yesterday, writing: “This is worse than Target setting up for Valentine’s the day after Christmas.”

via Consumerist http://consumerist.com/2014/01/02/the-wearing-of-the-green-starts-two-months-before-st-patricks-day-at-big-lots/

Flight Canceled Due To Toilet Clog: Allegedly A Diaper

(The Joy Of The Mundane)

Let’s get the public service announcement out of the way: if you’re taking care of someone who is very young or very old and uses diapers, there are many ways to dispose of them. Flushing them down the toilet should not be on your list of options. Allegedly, a United Airlines flight from Phoenix to Cleveland was delayed, then canceled because a passenger did just that.

Officially, a United spokesperson told reporters that a toilet clog was to blame. One passenger told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that wasn’t quite it: a modern jet was grounded because of a disposable diaper sent down the toilet.

“After six hours of giving us diaper updates, they finally just cancelled the flight,” he told the newspaper. Sounds enthralling.

Sure, the plane could have taken off with the clog, but a flight with no working bathroom might be the only thing worse than using an airplane bathroom.

Toilet clog cancels United flight to Cleveland from Phoenix [Cleveland Plain Dealer]

via Consumerist http://consumerist.com/2014/01/02/flight-canceled-due-to-toilet-clog-allegedly-a-diaper/

Comcast Fails To Stop Scammers From Opening 15 Accounts Using Same Stolen Social Security Number

(frankieleon)

A California woman recently found out she couldn’t open a Comcast account in her name because she owed the cable company a lot of money… even though she’d never been a customer before. She eventually found out that Comcast had allowed people to use her social security number to open up more than a dozen accounts, and then sent a collection agency after her to make her pay for the company’s failure to catch these scammers.

The woman, named Marjorie, tells KGO-TV’s Michael Finney, that other people began illegally using her Social Security number, along with variations on her first name — Marge, Margie, Margaret — to open Comcast accounts all around Northern California.

“I know that two addresses in Oakland were used and the first time I talked to Comcast they said that accounts had been opened in Dublin and Pleasanton and Berkeley and kind of all over the East Bay,” she recalls.

Somehow, the repeated use of the SSN did nothing to trip off alarm bells at Comcast, but when the actual Marjorie used her actual info to open her first Comcast account, she was told she owed $1,500.

Even after she explained to Comcast that these were fraudulent accounts the cable company demanded payment and sent a collection agency after her for money she didn’t owe.

“I got really nervous and scared,” she tells Finney. “I had heard things happening with debt collection agencies that follow you for the rest of your life.”

As happens, once Finney and his 7 On Your Side team contacted Comcast, the cable company was suddenly apologetic and said it would call off the debt collector dogs.

So why could so many accounts — Marjorie claims it was 15; Comcast says it was fewer, but won’t give a number — be opened using the same SSN?

According to the Comcast brain trust, its system didn’t catch the multiple uses of the same Social Security number because customers sometimes open multiple accounts. However, it claims to have put something in place (I think it’s called “common sense”) to help prevent this from happening in the future.

via Consumerist http://consumerist.com/2014/01/02/comcast-fails-to-stop-scammers-from-opening-15-accounts-using-same-stolen-social-security-number/

Legal Recreational Marijuana Sales Start In Colorado With “Bubba Kush” Description

(YouTube)

Now that you can legally buy marijuana for recreational use in Colorado, many potential customers might be wondering: What exactly am I buying? Never fear, there are apparently very knowledgeable sales people ready to help and explain the finer points of Bubba Kush and any other strains of cannabis you may be interested in.

Cameras were a’clicking and reporters were very clear about which shots they wanted to see yesterday during the first legal purchase of recreational marijuana was marked with a bit of a ceremony at a store in Denver, reports the Denver Post.

In an event arranged by activists, a veteran of the Iraq war who uses pot to ease the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder was the first customer to make a marijuana purchase at about 8 a.m. Anyone 21 or older will be able to do the same thing in the state as of yesterday.

The store’s owner stood in a scrum of a reporters yelling requests at her to hold up the pot a bit higher so the cameras could see it, and explain the finer points of the items for sale.

“I’m holding an indic a strain of cannabis called Bubba Kush,” she said, after also showing off some chocolate truffles infused with pot.

“It’s a huge honor, to say the least,” the first customer added, saying that he uses marijuana for his symptoms because he’d rather use it than other drugs to combat his PTSD. When a reporter asks how long that eighth will last him, he laughs and says he might just keep it in a frame in his home as a memento.

It seemed for the most part like sales went smoothly, with customers lined up to patiently wait for their turns to buy pot.

“It’s kind of a relief, frankly,” said Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown of the “peacefulness of the crowd.” “This could have gone a lot of different ways. So far, so good.”

World’s first legal recreational marijuana sales begin in Colorado [Denver Post]

via Consumerist http://consumerist.com/2014/01/02/legal-recreational-marijuana-sales-start-in-colorado-with-bubba-kush-description/

Why Does Pine-Sol No Longer Smell Like Pine?

What would happen if one of your favorite products changed the feature that made it your favorite in the first place? That’s the frustration that users of Pine-Sol face now that the company has changed the product’s fragrance. The company blames a pine oil shortage and promises to offer the original scent online.

“It was a tough decision, but we did have to change the formula of our Original Pine-Sol due to a lower amount of pine oil available,” explains a company representative on the Pine-Sol Facebook page.

If you thought that a cleaning solution couldn’t inspire this level of devotion…well, you’re wrong. Complaints are a regular fixture on the Pine-Sol Facebook page, and a Change.org petition reveals consumers’ devotion to the product.

This whole world changes, nothing is perfect. EXCEPT ORIGINAL PINE-SOL! I DO NOT GET MAD EASY, THINGS HAPPEN FOR REASON, AND WE CAN’T CHANGE EVERYTHING. I’M 37 AND HAVE BEEN A FAITHFUL, ADDICTED CUSTOMER TO ORIGINAL SCENT PINE-SOL, I USE IT EVERYWHERE, FOR EVERYTHING…

I WILL FIGHT,THIS STUPID MOVE YOU GUYS DID TILL I’M TO [sic] OLD TO MOVE, THEN I’LL DIE, AND COMEBACK AND HAUNT YOUR ASS, AND KEEP FIGHTING FROM MY GRACE [sic]. IT’S BULLSHIT YOU KNOW IT, NOW CHSNGE [sic] IT BACK.

Now, that, Clorox, is what you’d call a loyal customer.

Pine Sol: Change the original scent back [Change.org] (Thanks, Scorpio!)

via Consumerist http://consumerist.com/2014/01/02/why-does-pine-sol-no-longer-smell-like-pine/

Target Will Honor Gift Cards It Failed To Activate During Holiday Season

(Tom Fassbender)

Hot on the heels of a massive data breach that compromised credit and debit card information for some 40 million U.S. customers, Target has confirmed reports that some gift cards sold during the recent holiday shopping season were not activated properly by the retailer.

Target won’t give a specific number, confirmed the slip-up to both Reuters and the AP. The store says it will honor these cards and that anyone with a faulty card can bring it to any Target service desk or call 800-544-2943.

This is certainly not how Target wanted to end its 2013 holiday shopping season.

“It’s another black eye that makes you question the internal operating procedures of Target,” Brian Sozzi, CEO of Belus Capital Advisors tells the AP. “Target needs to be doing everything perfectly. It can’t afford to lose any more confidence among its guests.”

Target confirms some shoppers’ gift cards were not properly activated [AP]

Target faces problems with gift cards sold over holidays [Reuters]

via Consumerist http://consumerist.com/2014/01/02/target-will-honor-gift-cards-it-failed-to-activate-during-holiday-season/

Don’t Buy Those Brains For Sale On eBay — They’re Probably Stolen

(Mike Rollerson)

Are you in the market for some nice braaaaaaains? Er, brains? If you see some jars of human brains for sale on eBay, it’s probably best not to purchase them. Police in Indianapolis say a man had been breaking into the Indiana Medical History Museum and boosting brains and other preserved body parts and selling them, because apparently there’s a market for such a thing.

While we’re not sure pickled brains would even be attractive to zombies, at least one person forked over hundreds of dollars on eBay and then reported the exchange to the authorities, says the Indy Star.

Police claim the 21-year-old broke into the museum multiples times this year to boost the brains of dead mental patients. The museum used to be the Central State Hospital, which treated patients with psychiatric and mental disorders between 1848 and 1994.

The tipster told cops he’d snagged six jars of human brains on eBay for the tidy sum of $600 — plus shipping, natch — but had gotten suspicious when he saw labels on the containers that indicated the brains might not be on the up and up.

Police used that eBay transaction to track down the seller and subsequently set up a sting earlier this month, pretending that someone wanted to meet in the parking lot of a Dairy Queen and buy some brains from the man. He’d allegedly stolen 60 jars of human tissue from the museum just the day before.

Cops busted the suspect during the parking lot deal and has been charged with theft, marijuana possession and paraphernalia possession. No word on whether he was hawking the brains as some kind of Wizard of Oz but the museum’s executive director is mightily displeased that anyone would boost such items.

“It’s horrid anytime a museum collection is robbed,” she said. “A museum’s mission is to hold these materials as cultural and scientific objects in the public interest. To have that disturbed — to have that broken — is extraordinarily disturbing to those of us in the museum field.”

As for the man who was in the market for the brains in the first place, she adds that he said he just liked to collect “odd things.” Or he was secretly a scarecrow.

Police: Indy man stole brains from museum, sold them for cash [Indy Star]

via Consumerist http://consumerist.com/2014/01/02/dont-buy-those-brains-for-sale-on-ebay-theyre-probably-stolen/