This summer Californians will be able to vote on Proposition 17, which if passed will allow insurers to bypass some legal restrictions on how much they can charge for auto insurance. Mercury Insurance Group is a big proponent of the proposition, but maybe that’s because it’s been possibly sidestepping the law in recent years anyway. Hey, making it legal will just prevent another state report like the one Carla Marinucci at the San Francisco Chronicle obtained, which contains findings that Mercury “has engaged in practices that may be illegal, including deceptive pricing and discrimination against consumers such as active members of the military and drivers of emergency vehicles.”

Here are just a few of the findings in the report, according to the paper:

In its reporting, the state found evidence that Mercury may have violated state laws by:

– Flagging some consumers for higher rates if they had been in an accident, even if it was not their fault.

– Not immediately granting coverage to applicants including military personnel on active duty, “artists,” those employed “in the entertainment industry as actors, dancers, etc.,” and emergency vehicle drivers.

– Raising insurance premiums after its sales agents quoted prices for discounts for which the consumer was not eligible. The department said this was the single largest category of complaints it received about the firm.

– Collecting higher premiums than allowed by law by requiring its brokers to return part of their fees to the company.

– Requesting information about customers’ “national origin,” a practice that the department said “could raise questions about the legality of Mercury’s personal automobile policy cancellation and non-renewal decisions” under state law. Mercury agreed to block such data after the state investigators raised concerns.

State officials said the report uncovered 25 issues or questionable practices by Mercury, seven of which remain unresolved.

“Insurer may have violated law, report reveals” [sfgate.com]

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The next time you stay at a bed and breakfast and you see a kindly old couple lingering in the common room after breakfast, be suspicious! The Wolffs have been scamming inns, hotels, rented homes, and bed & breakfasts since 2005, reports the Boston Globe. They offer to pay via check, and until recently–when they stayed in one place so long that they were still around when the check bounced–nobody ever thought they might be pulling a fast one. They’re due in court this month for defrauding several inns over the past summer.

“The Wolffs at the door” [Boston.com]

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A very smart person has cut out everything except the violence from the Super Bowl commercials. This way you can see Tim Tebow tackle his mom without worrying about boring controversy.

Enjoy.

[The Daily What]

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If record labels decided to pull some of their songs from the Zune Pass service in the past couple of weeks, they did a poor job telling Microsoft about it. The company seems to be as in the dark as Zune Pass subscribers about why songs, albums, or entire discographies have gone missing. Ars technica reports that a Microsoft employee wrote on a Zune forum, “We are investigating your reported missing albums indicated in this post—and will come back to you as soon as we understand why they’re missing.”

“Microsoft investigating disappearing music from Zune Pass” [Ars Technica]

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Yesterday’s Google super bowl ad was a cute story about a guy falling in love with a French lady told through his searches. The trouble is, they showed the autocomplete prompts and, as anyone who has ever used Google knows, the autocomplete suggestions can be, uh, kinda weird. So, of course, some the search suggestions have been edited out. Like one about making friends with black people.

From AdFreak:

If you look closely, you’ll notice that some of the search suggestions that appear while the person types (which can be notoriously bizarre) have been edited out. In this ad, for example, they’ve gotten rid of the “making friends with black people” option. Above, you can compare the suggestions from Google.com and from the ad. Hey, what’s wrong with making friends with black people?

Awkward! Oh, before you ask why we even care about this… We just wanted an excuse to point you to Autocomplete Me, which is a collection of awesome autocomplete suggestions. You’re welcome.

Google on fence about making black friends [AdFreak]

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When Rick’s 2-year-old laptop failed for the second time due, he did not roll over and buy a new laptop or pay $400 for the repairs. This particular model of laptop had been recalled due to this very flaw, and that was not acceptable to Rick. He fought back, and shares his tale of triumph.

I love my HP computers. Over the past 9 years, I’ve bought ten of them and all of them have worked wonderfully. With one exception.

I bought a heavily-customized dv6000 laptop from HP in 2007 for $1000. Fifteen months later, the motherboard failed. It was out of warranty but the dv6000 had some many overheating issues that HP had a special program to repair them. It took about 10 days start-to-finish, cost me nothing, and I was happy. Twelve months later the motherboard failed again.

This was when I found out that HP had not fixed the overheating problem, but merely replaced the failed parts. It was less of a repair than a delaying tactic, since the warranty on the replaced parts was only 90 days. This time HP Support said the special program had expired and now it would cost $400 to replace the motherboard. “But, wait! We’ll give you a special price of $259.” I declined, reasoning that it would just overheat again in another year, and pressed for another option. Support wouldn’t budge.

On December 7, I sent an EECB to 10 HP executives, outlining my dilemma and my long-time support of HP’s products. I requested, as an opening position, that I be given a refund or a credit for a replacement laptop due to the repeated problems. Multiple executives sent my email to the Executive Customer Response (ECR) group, but only one responded directly to me. His response was that ECR would contact me, but it was a personal response.

The next day, ECR made me the same offer of $259 that Peon Customer Response (PCR) made. They also tossed out the “there are no other options” line: a patently false statement, since HP has all kinds of options regarding its own products. They also seemed mystified as to why I thought a yearly $259-400 repair was excessive on a $1000 laptop. I declined their offer.

On December 9, I sent an mini-EECB to the VP who had emailed me. This time I expressed my regret that PCR and ECR would only offer one unacceptable resolution. I said I was sorry that HP and I couldn’t work out a solution and the following week I would file in magistrates court to see if a small claims judge would provide a better resolution.

ECR called me that afternoon to offer me a free repair (See — there were other options!). I said I would accept the repair if they would back it up with a longer warranty. If they really believed the repair would fix the problem, then the extra warranty would cost them nothing. I thought I’d be calling again the next year when the new motherboard overheated, so a 90-day warranty was useless. At this point, he stopped talking about repairs and offered me an HP gift card for the total purchase price of the computer. Not prorated, no strings attached — $1000. I picked my jaw up from the floor and immediately accepted. I got the gift card and ordered the replacement computer three days later.

This entire process occurred over one week and involved a half dozen phone calls and a dozen emails. Everyone I spoke with was polite and professional and I responded in kind. It just took time to reach the right person and convince them that I wasn’t going to left the issue drop. Persistence pays off.

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The Great American Apparel Diet is not, as it seems at first glance, what you have to follow in order to look good in a bizarre adult romper. No, it’s a pledge that a group of women have taken to not buy any new clothing for one year. What have they learned? That people tend to buy a lot more stuff than they really need.

As one participant noted, re-evaluating and fixing up what’s already in your wardrobe is something that few people bother with when the option to buy something shiny and new is there instead.

Stacya Silverman: What I have learned from this apparel diet is that a good tailor is so important. Back to the things we don’t wear because of some minor thing, like skirt length: It is so easy to have the hem on things changed, so I have been doing this for my clothes that are too big, too long, lousy buttons, easily repaired tears, or just poor fit. Two of my skirts were so boxy and plain, and made me look like I had no shape. So this great tailor in town, Sarah Harlett, took them both in to fit my shape perfectly. Now they are my favorite items and I wear them all the time, so I feel less wasteful of the money I spent on these things but never wore because of fit.

Most apparel diets tend to be involuntary and for financial reasons, but the Great American Apparel Diet participants are still inspiring in a way. It’s a nice reminder to ask yourself while shopping do you really need nine pair of jeans?

Great American Apparel Diet [Official Site]
Q&A: The Year of No Clothing Purchases [Time]

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Christopher writes about a promotion from Cox that sounded pretty great. The cable company and ISP offered a free Playstation 3 slim to customers who either signed up for a new account or upgraded to faster broadband. The problem with such a great offer? People tend to tell their friends. And those friends tend to call Cox to see if they can get in on the deal, too.

Cox in Arizona has had an offer out since January for a FREE Playstation 3 slim in exchange for either a) signup for a new broadband account or b) upgrade to the next higher tier of service (i.e., Basic to Preferred, Preferred to Premier) with a 12 month contract. That’s a pretty good deal. I learned about this Friday Feb 4th from a co-worker, who received a flyer in the mail, and responded. He had the exact same Cox service as me (Preferred). His PS3 is on its way and he was so tickled he was telling everybody he could find. I was thinking about upgrading, so I called. The CSR acknowledged the offer and that it is valid, but “Do I have the code from a flyer.” “No, I didn’t receive a flyer,” I reply. “You’re not eligible.”

Apparently this was set up as an offer to attract new subscribers, but due to an error by their marketing team, it went out to existing subscribers as well, and Cox is honoring those. A few threads have opened up on www.dslreports.com and a few other sites about this offer, and Cox is definitely honoring this selectively, even for people who didn’t receive the original mailing! As of Saturday, Feb 5th, they’ve really clamped down, I heard they’re running out of PS3s!

Unhappy about this, I called again, this time requesting to cancel. The loyalty rep I talked to knew all about the offer. I explained I did not have a code, but I was willing to upgrade and agree to the terms of the offer. She went on a 7 minute consult with her supervisor, and returned with bad news. Cox was not going to honor it. She admitted “some subscribers got it, and some didn’t”. She couldn’t explain why. I told her this was all leaving a very bad taste in my mouth, I could not understand why this was such a “lottery”, and it appeared their sales CSRs were making exceptions all over the place. She then told me that anyone not on the original marketing mailing list who was told they got the offer would have their PS3 shipment revoked! (I really feel sorry for Cox if that’s true.) I proceeded with the cancellation of my phone and broadband services. She offered the 10% off my bill, and kept upping the offer, but I made it crystal clear that it was because of the PS3. I’ve been a good customer for the last 11 years. Too bad for Cox.

I really have to hand it to Cox’ marketing department They came up with such a great promotion that it’s spreading via word-of-mouth, and they’ve succeeded in offending their current customers. They really know how to mobilize their installed base to move to Qwest. I’m so disappointed with Cox. I wish I had never found out about this in the first place.

Indeed, it’s poor customer service to allow some customers who never received the flyer in the first place to sign up for the PS3 deal. This is why making sure all of your customer service reps are on the same page is essential. But canceling an account because a CSR won’t perpetuate the mistake and bend the rules for you? That is an overreaction–but hey, the free market and competition are a beautiful thing, and you can cancel and switch providers any time you feel like it for any reason.

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On this, the holiest of all American TV-watching days, we’d like to share with you the horrific story of a Florida family whose Super Bowl viewing party will be a lot less intense than they had planned. The new, expensive HDTV they purchased from Best Buy was somehow shattered inside its box, and the retailer claims that it’s the family’s fault.

A Best Buy employee loaded the box in their vehicle, and they brought the TV home only to discover that its beautiful 50-inch screen was destroyed. The family says that Best Buy blames them for the damage, and they have now filed in small claims court.

Family’s New Big Screen Television In Pieces [First Coast News] (Thanks, Justin!)

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