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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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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.

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Are CapitalOne Shopping Rewards Too Good To Be True?

Almost daily MrConsumer has been receiving seemingly too-good-to-be-true offers from CapitalOne Shopping. Here are four recent ones.

CapitalOne Shopping TurboTax

Since TurboTax Deluxe was on sale at Sam’s Club for $44.99, getting $30 back on that purchase would make the net price only $14.99. That’s an unheard of deal.

CapitalOne Shopping Walgreens

Are they really going to give me $20 of free merchandise at Walgreens? Or is the offer just 20% off?

CapitalOne shopping Dollar Tree

Can you really get a $20 rebate on a $20+ purchase at Dollar Tree? Is it only for these cookies, or on any products?

CapitalOne shopping Shaws $50

Is CapitalOne Shopping really offering $50 off a $50 grocery purchase at Shaw’s supermarkets? The only stated exclusions are subscriptions and gift cards.

To some, CapitalOne Shopping makes it seem like you will get these dollars off on your purchases at these stores. Not so. What they do is let you accumulate “rewards” and then cash them in for e-gift cards (see list) from major retailers. They are not cash rebates nor credits that can be applied to your purchase or credit card balance.

There is absolutely no explanation of these offers in the emails or when you clickthrough to the retailers’ website to take advantage of them. There are some exclusions listed like for tobacco, pharmacy, and gift cards depending on the offer. The only relevant detailed disclosures are in their long terms statement and this link in the emails, but it does not explain specific offers:

*MOUSE PRINT:

CapitalOne Shopping fine print from email

Each offer says “Limit 1 email bonus per user.” Does that mean I can only use each offer once, or that of all the emailed offers I receive, I can only use one of them? Can I use any credit card or do I have to use a CapitalOne card? We asked the PR folks some pointed questions including why there is no explanation of how to participate in these offers in each email and what the real terms are. We got no answer to our multiple requests.

If you like the idea of getting savings in the form of gift cards from their limited selection, then this could be a great deal even if you are only allowed one of their super-duper email offers. (They offer an $80 bonus for new sign-ups with lots of strings, and there are some additional high-value offers on their homepage.)