Business

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Bing News Stories Not Always New Stories

Every week, MrConsumer skims thousands of news story headlines to find the three dozen or so he presents in Consumer World. Over the past month, however, he has noticed that some news stories that are presented as only a few hours old in Bing News are anything but.

For example, last week he saw this story headline about Kroger deciding to no longer accept Visa credit cards. Certainly a story like that would be of great interest to many Consumer World readers.

Bing News Kroger story

*MOUSE PRINT:

Clicking that headline link brings a big surprise.

Bing Kroger story

The Kroger story that Bing said was just an hour old was actually posted online in 2018 — eight years earlier!

Here are some other recent examples of news stories presented as hot off the press but which are actually anything but.

Old news presented as new on Bing News

We asked the PR agency for Microsoft last week to explain why this is happening, for how long, and what is the company going to do to correct it. Through the agency, a Microsoft spokesperson responded:

“A small number of older stories were inadvertently included in Bing News and appeared as newly published. Our teams have identified the issue and are working to implement a fix.”

Hats off to Microsoft for taking quick action to put the “new” back in Bing News, but as of today (April 20), old news is still presented as new.

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April Fools’ TV Ads: Whole Foods and Injury Lawyer Advertising

To celebrate April Fools’ Day, we honor some real TV commercials that might make you do a double take.

Whole Foods Low Prices

In a series of TV commercials, Whole Foods Market, whose nickname is “whole paycheck” because of its outrageously high prices, claims just the opposite here.


“With low prices storewide, eat well for less at Whole Foods Market.”

This claim brings to mind the title of one of Judge Judy’s books:

Don't Pee on my leg and tell me it is raining

Allied Injury Group – Gold Watch Offer

When MrConsumer saw the following TV commercial for a lawyer referral service, he couldn’t believe it.

When I was in law school we learned about the code of professional responsibility that required lawyers to advertise in a dignified and professional manner. Since this ad is for a lawyer referral service, perhaps they don’t have to follow these rules, but what does it say about the lawyers on whose behalf they are advertising?

Incidentally, the guy hawking the gold watch, is comic Shaun Jones.

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Homeaglow’s TrustPilot Ratings Not As Represented

You’ve probably seen the ads for Homeaglow — the home cleaning service that claims to charge just $19 for the first cleaning.

To add credibility to their company, their tout a very high 4.8 star rating from TrustPilot.

Homeaglow 4.8 stars

However, when eagle-eyed reader David B. checked the TrustPilot website, the real rating was revealed.

*Mouse Print:

Homeaglow's real trustpilot rating

It got only 1.3 stars, not the almost five stars claimed on the company’s website.

And a synopsis of those almost two thousand reviews (not the over six thousand that Homeaglow touted) suggests the company is not delivering what it promised.

Most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Customers express significant dissatisfaction with the service, frequently citing issues with pricing, subscriptions, and cancellations. Many consumers feel misled by hidden fees and unexpected charges, particularly concerning a recurring membership they were not aware of upon initial sign-up.

We asked the company for an explanation of how they could be claiming a near-perfect 4.8 rating from TrustPilot when the actual TrustPilot site gives them a failing grade. They did not respond.