Consumerist

State Investigators Find All Sorts Of Dirty Tricks At Mercury Insurance

Date: 2010-02-08T23:12:46Z

This summer Californians will be able to vote on Proposition 17, which if passed will allow insurers to bypass some legal restrictions on how much they can charge for auto insurance. Mercury Insurance Group is a big proponent of the proposition, but maybe that's because it's been possibly sidestepping the law in recent years anyway. Hey, making it legal will just prevent another state report like the one Carla Marinucci at the San Francisco Chronicle obtained, which contains findings that Mercury "has engaged in practices that may be illegal, including deceptive pricing and discrimination against consumers such as active members of the military and drivers of emergency vehicles."

Here are just a few of the findings in the report, according to the paper:

In its reporting, the state found evidence that Mercury may have violated state laws by:

-- Flagging some consumers for higher rates if they had been in an accident, even if it was not their fault.

-- Not immediately granting coverage to applicants including military personnel on active duty, "artists," those employed "in the entertainment industry as actors, dancers, etc.," and emergency vehicle drivers.

-- Raising insurance premiums after its sales agents quoted prices for discounts for which the consumer was not eligible. The department said this was the single largest category of complaints it received about the firm.

-- Collecting higher premiums than allowed by law by requiring its brokers to return part of their fees to the company.

-- Requesting information about customers' "national origin," a practice that the department said "could raise questions about the legality of Mercury's personal automobile policy cancellation and non-renewal decisions" under state law. Mercury agreed to block such data after the state investigators raised concerns.

State officials said the report uncovered 25 issues or questionable practices by Mercury, seven of which remain unresolved.

"Insurer may have violated law, report reveals" [sfgate.com]

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Septuagenarian Couple Scammed Inns And Hotels For Four Years

Date: 2010-02-08T22:47:31Z

The next time you stay at a bed and breakfast and you see a kindly old couple lingering in the common room after breakfast, be suspicious! The Wolffs have been scamming inns, hotels, rented homes, and bed & breakfasts since 2005, reports the Boston Globe. They offer to pay via check, and until recently--when they stayed in one place so long that they were still around when the check bounced--nobody ever thought they might be pulling a fast one. They're due in court this month for defrauding several inns over the past summer.

"The Wolffs at the door" [Boston.com]

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Just The Violence From The Super Bowl Commercials

Date: 2010-02-08T22:31:44Z

A very smart person has cut out everything except the violence from the Super Bowl commercials. This way you can see Tim Tebow tackle his mom without worrying about boring controversy.

Enjoy.

[The Daily What]

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Microsoft Investigating Why Songs Are Disappearing From Zune Pass

Date: 2010-02-08T22:27:39Z

If record labels decided to pull some of their songs from the Zune Pass service in the past couple of weeks, they did a poor job telling Microsoft about it. The company seems to be as in the dark as Zune Pass subscribers about why songs, albums, or entire discographies have gone missing. Ars technica reports that a Microsoft employee wrote on a Zune forum, "We are investigating your reported missing albums indicated in this post—and will come back to you as soon as we understand why they're missing."

"Microsoft investigating disappearing music from Zune Pass" [Ars Technica]

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Google Doesn't Want To Know How To Make Friends With Black People

Date: 2010-02-08T22:11:06Z

Yesterday's Google super bowl ad was a cute story about a guy falling in love with a French lady told through his searches. The trouble is, they showed the autocomplete prompts and, as anyone who has ever used Google knows, the autocomplete suggestions can be, uh, kinda weird. So, of course, some the search suggestions have been edited out. Like one about making friends with black people.

From AdFreak:

If you look closely, you'll notice that some of the search suggestions that appear while the person types (which can be notoriously bizarre) have been edited out. In this ad, for example, they've gotten rid of the "making friends with black people" option. Above, you can compare the suggestions from Google.com and from the ad. Hey, what's wrong with making friends with black people?

Awkward! Oh, before you ask why we even care about this... We just wanted an excuse to point you to Autocomplete Me, which is a collection of awesome autocomplete suggestions. You're welcome.

Google on fence about making black friends [AdFreak]

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