Year: 2012

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Would You Let a Company Impersonate You on Facebook?

Lowe’s just sent out an email to shoppers on its mailing list inviting them to participate in its “Black Friday Showdown.” Doing so will give you an opportunity to preview 16 Black Friday specials and win them if you “like” Lowe’s on Facebook.

Lowe's Black Friday

Sure, why not, thought MrConsumer.

Upon reaching their Facebook page, you discover that not only does Lowe’s want a “like” in exchange for your chance at winning all those prizes, they also want to install a Facebook app that will let them post messages as if they were you on Facebook.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Lowe's Facebook app

Excuse me? You want me to allow you to probably send advertisements about Lowe’s to my friends but make it seem like I wrote those messages? I don’t think so. You can keep your 16 prizes.

On closer scrutiny of their Facebook page, however, there is a way to have your cake and eat it too.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Lowe's posting exclusion

Many people may have overlooked it, as did MrConsumer, but there is an option to control to whom the Lowe’s app would send their advertisements. As shown above, it defaults to sending those incognito ads to all your friends. However, you can change the setting so that Lowe’s only sends them to just you.

Mouse Print* asked Lowe’s to comment on their use of this questionable means of advertising, and here their response:

Lowe’s is not posting on behalf of the user without the user taking action and opting to share information. If a customer chooses to not share, then the app will not post any information on behalf of the customer. It is completely user initiated.

Lowe’s Facebook app and its ability to communicate is done in the same format as many other apps like it and is compliant within Facebook’s terms and services. The app notifies a user before they install it that it will post on content. However, it is important to note that the customer at that point has the ability to adjust who within their network will see the post. For example, it can be adjusted by the consumer so that no one can see any posts from this app should they choose. Again – this is standard protocol used by many brands.

To be clear, the only time the app actually does post is when the user chooses to ‘share’ their winning product on their Facebook wall. It will not post automatically. — Public Relations Manager, Lowe’s

This type of advertising just seems like it is overreaching.

In fact, similar invasions are becoming commonplace not just on Facebook, but when you download free apps to your smartphone. See Exposing Your Personal Informatio​n – There’s An App for That .

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Choice Hotels: That Room Safe Could Cost You

A regular Mouse Print* reader, Bob, recently returned from a cross-country car trip and wrote to complain about what he calls the “hotel safe scam.” Here’s his story:

You check into a hotel, and you are asked to initial a registration form in several places and then sign it. You initial to accept the hotel’s rate. You initial to acknowledge the non-smoking policy. And again for the no-pets policy. Some hotels also ask you to initial the “optional” safe fee. Then you sign at the bottom.

People are tired, distracted, in a hurry, or perhaps their English isn’t so good. If you stay in enough hotels, it all becomes routine. Many consumers just do as they are asked without reading.

The safe fee is usually $1.50 per day, but sometimes a different amount. Supposedly, it’s for the use of the safe. In some cases, I found the safe locked and unusable, but that made no difference to the charge.

An “optional” fee is rather extraordinary. The hotel form often says that you can ask for the fee to be removed. Some say they will remove the fee up to 60 days later. If you ask up front that the fee be removed, some tell you to ask again at checkout. In every case, when I insisted that the fee be removed, it was, although I had to ask twice sometimes.

The safe fee is a hidden-in-plain-sight scam. The hotels expressly tell you about the fee and rely on inertia to get your money. The hotels know that most people won’t notice or won’t object. Checkout at most hotels doesn’t require any action by a consumer. The hotel often slips a bill under your door, and you can leave without stopping at the front desk.

Sure enough, some Choice hotels tack on a “safe with limited warranted” charge of $1.50 a day onto your bill:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Choice safe charge

Mouse Print* contacted the PR folks at Choice Hotels to ask for an explanation of this charge and why they chose a sneaky way to raise the cost of a hotel room. The company did not respond.

The lesson here is clear: don’t blindly initial all the Xs on that card when you first register at a hotel, and scrutinize your bill for “optional” charges that the hotel might tack onto it.

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T-Mobile’s “Unlimited?” 4G Service

Few services advertised as “unlimited” are truly unlimited. And T-Mobile continues to be a case in point.

When T-Mobile began advertising “unlimited” data on its cellphones in April 2011, the fine print indicated that only the first two gigabytes were truly unlimited. Any use beyond that would be slowed down or “throttled.” And of course, that fact was not as prominently disclosed as their unlimited claims.

Fast forward to September 2012. T-Mobile published full page ads with a new unlimited claim:

T-Mobile unlimited

However, at the bottom page in almost unreadable type was this:

*MOUSE PRINT:

T-Mobile unlimited fine print

Not obvious on its face, the new unlimited plan is not considered “Ultra” or “Premium” where customers’ data transmission speeds will be given priority when traffic is heavy. That could put those on the new unlimited plan in coach and thus they may not experience the same fast speeds.

Beyond that, on T-Mobile’s “test drive” website, the company seems to proclaim a list of benefits to those who select the new 4G unlimited service (note: graphic has been compressed to fit this page):

T-Mobile

The top-listed benefit is the ability to create a wi-fi hotspot so that data can be shared with other devices nearby such as a tablet. However, when clicking on that benefit, one discovers that this is NOT a benefit of the new unlimited 4G plan.

*MOUSE PRINT:

TM

NOTE: MrConsumer is a member of Verizon’s Consumer Advisory Board, and often criticizes that company for its advertising missteps.