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Black Friday’s (not so fine) Fine Print

Some people ran out of the house at 3am last Friday for the big Black Friday sales without checking the mouse print in some of the sale advertising. Here, then, are some of the dirty little secrets they may have missed.

*MOUSE PRINT: Quantities were very limited.

searswasher

Only four washer/dryers for the entire community served by each Sears store?!

Sears was not alone in this. Staples had just a minimum of five of their $299 laptops. Kmart had but a minimum of two Nintendo DS bundles per store. And Best Buy had just a minimum of three 40″ Sony Bravias for $662.99.

*MOUSE PRINT: Want a raincheck? Forget it!

walmartnorain

And it wasn’t only Wal-mart that was not giving rainchecks, it was true for most items in Best Buy’s circular, and for most doorbusters at Sears, Target, Toys R Us, Kmart, and other stores.

*MOUSE PRINT: We won’t honor our price guarantee.

bestbuypriceg

meijerpricematch

So if you thought you could buy a Black Friday item in advance to avoid the crowds and then get back the difference, forget it. Informally, other stores simply refused to honor their price guarantees too. Wal-mart was a notable exception.

*MOUSE PRINT: Some of our doorbusters will be available online too.

bestbuyonline

Best Buy does that, as does Wal-mart, Staples, Sears, Kohl’s, and many other sellers. The trouble is, they generally don’t tell you which ones will be available online, and which ones won’t. If you knew that that 40″ Sony Bravia for $598 would be available online at Walmart.com (and it was), you might not have ventured out in the middle of the night and waited for it with all the other “crazies.” Why don’t retailers tell you about specific online availability so you can stay home and order those items while still in your pajamas?

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How Cheesy Can You Get?

MrConsumer found a lactose-free parmesan cheese substitute at his local supermarket, and decided to try it.

gratedcheese1

Beside bearing more resemblance to sawdust in flavor than grated cheese, the package contained another surprise. Had MrConsumer been Superman, he could have used his x-ray vision at the store and discovered that the container was only about 60% filled.

*MOUSE PRINT x-ray:

gratedcheese2

Regulations of the Food and Drug Administration call this “slack-fill.”

*MOUSE PRINT:

Subpart F–Misbranding for Reasons Other Than Labeling

Sec. 100.100 Misleading containers.

In accordance with section 403(d) of the act, a food shall be deemed to be misbranded if its container is so made, formed, or filled as to be misleading.
(a) A container that does not allow the consumer to fully view its contents shall be considered to be filled as to be misleading if it contains nonfunctional slack-fill. Slack-fill is the difference between the actual capacity of a container and the volume of product contained therein. Nonfunctional slack-fill is the empty space in a package that is filled to less than its capacity for reasons other than:
(1) Protection of the contents of the package;
(2) The requirements of the machines used for enclosing the contents in such package;
(3) Unavoidable product settling during shipping and handling;
(4) The need for the package to perform a specific function (e.g., where packaging plays a role in the preparation or consumption of a food), where such function is inherent to the nature of the food and is clearly communicated to consumers; [(5-6) omitted; 21 CFR 100.100]

A check of another container revealed a similar slack fill. It is unclear whether the contents did or did not weigh the labeled eight ounces. Without more facts, one cannot determine whether this package violates the law, but it sure might annoy most purchasers.

[Note: The next new Mouse Print* story will be published on Monday, November 30.]

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The Limits of Unlimited Cell Service

More and more cell companies are advertising unlimited service packages these days. Here’s one from a company you have never heard of:

unlimited

Their “unlimited” plans range in price from $39.99 to $69.99. So do they really give you “unlimited” service?

*MOUSE PRINT:

From their FAQ:

Q: Is there a cap on the unlimited program. A: Yes, the unlimited Local & LD Plans are capped at 10,000 minutes per month.

Q: How many text messages can I send per month? A: Unlimited Text Messaging is capped at 30,000 per month.

Q: How much data can I use on the unlimited program? A: Unlimited MMS, Internet & Data is capped at 5 Gig

Ten thousand minutes of talk time sounds like a lot, but it really is only about 5.5 hours a day.  Some business people may in fact be on their phone longer than that.  At least they disclose the actual limits of their “unlimited” service, unlike most of the big brand name cell companies that make you hunt through their terms and conditions to find out that their unlimited service is subject to (sometimes unstated) limits. 

Realistically, while most users won’t go over these limits, that should not give a company the right to call a service unlimited when it is not.  From a consumer protection standpoint, no company should advertise “unlimited” service unless it actually is that.

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