Verizon FiOS has been advertising a great package price online for Internet, telephone, and FiOS TV — just $84.99 a month for a year. That is less than most competitors, and many consumers rave about FiOS.

Here is their online animated ad (for which you need Adobe Flash player to view). Click the replay button if the animation has ended.

Did you catch that pop-up disclaimer at the end that was on the screen for less than two seconds? (You can hover over the “legal” button with your mouse to freeze it in place — something we guess most consumers probably wouldn’t know to do.)

*MOUSE PRINT:

$109.99/month for months 13-24, two-yr agrmt req’d plus taxes and fees.

We would venture to say that most consumers didn’t catch the fact that you must sign a two year contract to get this deal, and that the bargain $84.99 price only lasts for the first year. The price then jumps up $25 a month to regular price (apparently) for the second year.

Imagine the customers’ shock when they open their Verizon bill in month 13! And, if they want to cancel at that point, they are in for a second expensive surprise. Also not disclosed in the ad is Verizon’s new $360 early termination penalty (which is evenly pro-rated over the life of the contract).

Mouse Print* invited Verizon to comment on this story, but as of publication time, they had not yet done so. This post will be updated should they respond this week.

As we have repeatedly said, companies need to be more upfront about their pricing in their advertising, so their customers are not hit with unexpected charges.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: The editor of Mouse Print* is a compensated member of Verizon’s Consumer Advisory Board, which advises the company on policy and public issues.

Detergents are sold in bottles that note the number of ounces inside as well as the number of loads of wash the bottle will do.  It turns out that manufacturers have a few tricks up their sleeve to virtually ensure that you don’t get the number of loads the bottles promise.

Trick #1: In the case of 100 ounce Tide, the front of the bottle indicates that you get 64 uses from this product.

 *MOUSE PRINT:

The 64 uses is based on a “medium load”, that is only filling the cap up to line 1, which is roughly one-third full:

Most consumers have big capacity washers and probably don’t do “medium loads” as their normal load, and thus will never get the claimed number of washes for the typical-size loads. Large loads require filling the cap to line 2, and who knows what line 3 is for. Filling the cap to line 2 will only yield approximately 50 uses, rather than 64. Interestingly, line three is the only line that goes completely around the entire inside of the cap, so it is the most visible from any angle, and possibly the one that most people might use.

Trick #2: Related to this, the cap is larger than any load size, so unthinking users who may have been used to products that required you to use a capful of product, will really deplete the bottle quickly. In fact, you will get fewer than 25 loads from the 64 load bottle if you do so. Think this is an accident?

“Take a cap and look at where the lines are—nowhere near the top,” says Adam Lowry, co-founder of San Francisco-based Method. “That’s not accidental. In an extremely mature market like laundry, for established players to grow they have to either steal share or get people to use more,” Mr. Lowry says. “They are trying to dupe people into using more product than they need.” – Wall Street Journal, January 25, 2010

P&G of course denies that its caps are designed to trick users.

Trick #3: Tide defines “load” differently depending on what they are trying to accomplish. Sample packages of Tide Ultra when it first came out were marked “1 Load” and probably did a good job on the average person’s large washload. Large washload? Yes, the amount of detergent in the packet was enough to almost fill their cap to line 2 (see picture below) — for large washloads. So P&G seems to say that one load should be enough to do a large wash when they are trying to impress their customers with a free sample, but they are not putting the equivalent amount of detergent per load in the bottles they sell.

According to the Wall Street Journal, P&G is about to introduce new caps on their various brands of liquid detergent, to make the markings clearer.

For now, just don’t expect to get the promised number of loads if you do normal-sized washes.

You cannot judge a book by its cover, and you cannot judge a granola by its name. That’s the lesson one learns when looking at a box of Trader Joe’s Trek Mix Granola called “Simply Almonds, Cashews & Cranberries.”

Based on the product’s name, one would think this was more of a trail mix, containing only almonds, cashews and cranberries. Yum.

*MOUSE PRINT:

It really has more oats and sugar than any other ingredient, as well as flour and oil. The key ingredients — almonds, cashews, and cranberries — are not even in the order of predominance suggested by the product’s name. In fact, they are in the opposite order, with more cranberries present than almonds.

Just as those old Freezer Queen two pound frozen entries used to be named “Gravy and Turkey” because there was more gravy than turkey in product, Trader Joe’s should simply rename their product more accurately.

Thanks to Willie L. for this submission.

You’ve heard of double coupons, right. And that’s a good thing. But you probably never heard of double terminations fees. And that’s a bad thing.

Google just introduced its first cell phone, the Nexus One. They sell for a lot of money: $529 if you just want to buy the phone, but only $179 if you buy it as part of a package deal with two years of service from T-Mobile.

If you cancel early, you would expect to pay an early termination fee to T-Mobile:

*MOUSE PRINT:

So, you would owe $200 to T-Mobile if you cancel within the first year and a half of your contract. What you might not expect is to pay a second early termination fee, this time to Google.

*MOUSE PRINT:

If you cancel your service within the first 120 days, you will owe Google an “equipment recovery fee.” That’s the difference between what you paid for the phone ($179) and the full retail price ($529). In other words, $350.

So let’s do the math. You pay $179 for the phone upfront. If you cancel, you pay T-Mobile $200 and Google $350. That totals $729 for a phone that would have cost you at most only $529. Seems like someone is profiting from your early cancellation.

And to add insult to injury, should you want to avail yourself of Google’s 14 day trial period where no early termination fees apply, you will have to pay a restocking fee of $45.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it is time to begin to think about doing your income taxes. For many people, that means looking for a deal on tax preparation software.

To get the best deal, you have to combine the various ways to save money: buy the item on sale, use a coupon, get a rebate, and do a price match. And that is exactly what you have to if you want to get a great price on TurboTax Deluxe (for federal and state returns, with “free” federal efiling).

TurboTax Deluxe is selling for $59.99 this year, but by using all the techniques mentioned above, you MAY be able to buy it for a net price of $29.99. We say “may” because doing a price match is always YMMV (your mileage may vary) depending on which store you go to and the temperament of the checkout person. And rebates can also be iffy.

This year, Costco is offering TT for $49.99 — a $10 savings to start with compared to most stores. But they just issued a $10 off coupon (good in-store or online until January 24, 2010) to bring down the price to $39.99. At the same time, Intuit has a $10 mail-in rebate on TT Deluxe which should bring the net price down to $29.99. [Rebate not valid in NY or ME retail locations.] But there is a catch on Intuit’s rebate site:

*MOUSE PRINT:

“TurboTax and Quicken products purchased at Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Costco or Target are not eligible for rebates, unless otherwise specified by Intuit.”

In addition, it is not currently good at Staples either because you must use their “easy rebate” website, and there are no rebates available for the purchase of TT alone.

So what’s a bargain hunter to do? Find a store that does price matches other than those stores excluded from the promotion above. So you well may be able to use Best Buy, OfficeMax or Office Depot. (Note some stores will balk at matching Costco’s prices because it is a “membership club”. So, you may have to fight a little. You can also ask if their computerized system for doing price matches has a list of stores for which they do honor price matches. If so, ask to see it. Costco may actually be listed!)

In a nutshell, here is how to get this deal: print the Costco webpage showing the $39.99 price (after the $10 coupon has been deducted). Bring along a copy of the $10 coupon (the link is above), just in case. Go to Best Buy or your favorite store that carries TT and has a price matching policy. Ask for the price match. Do the rebate. And if all goes well, you will have snared TurboTax Deluxe this year for just $29.99 net.