Kevin Hunt: Why Consumer Cellular Is Better Than Your Wireless Service
May 18, 2013
Consumer Cellular remains relatively unknown among wireless carriers despite giving its subscribers what every AT&T or Verizon (or cable television) customer desires: a no-contract, low-cost, buy-only-what-you-need option with basic service starting at $10 a month.
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Kevin Hunt: Sales Tax On Free-Item Coupon? A Supermarket Dustup
May 13, 2013
You're welcome to play along in today's edition of "Is It Just Me?," where no question is too small for The Bottom Line.
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Kevin Hunt: For Two Years, Tolland Woman Gets Notices, Bills For Hartford Property She Doesn't Own
May 11, 2013
For at least two years, says Debra Gebhardt of Tolland, she has received assessment notices, bills and statements for a property she doesn't own and knows nothing about other than its street address in Hartford.
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Kevin Hunt: Why Are Some New MDC Water Fees 'Astronomical'?
April 27, 2013
A glass of tap water, a cold shower and hosing down the car will cost every Metropolitan District Commission customer more this year. The reality of fee increases, following a vote of the MDC's member towns last November to fund the second phase of the Clean Water Project, finally arrived this month with the year's first quarterly bill.
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Kevin Hunt: Reader Questions Unit Pricing At Two Big-Box Stores
April 22, 2013
Confusion over unit pricing at local stores has left Leo Barrieau of West Hartford wondering, "Is it just me?"
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Kevin Hunt: Resort Drops Hotwire After Wallingford Woman's Hidden-Cost Complaint
April 20, 2013
The standard for hidden costs must have changed. Shouldn't a business at least make an effort to hide its hidden costs in the tiniest fine print instead of not disclosing them, anywhere, to the consumer.
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Kevin Hunt: Where's Money From Pinkberry For Hartt Frat's Fundraiser?
April 15, 2013
Music is the message for the Sigma Alpha Iota fraternity at the University of Hartford's Hartt School.
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Kevin Hunt: Stop & Shop Agrees To Gas Rewards Changes
April 13, 2013
Few topics have gotten The Bottom Line readers so worked up as a recent look at Stop & Shop's gas rewards program.
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Kevin Hunt: Is AT&T Now Hartford Area's Fastest Wireless Network?
April 6, 2013
Got AT&T LTE? If so, your wireless service is the fastest, most reliable in Greater Hartford.
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Kevin Hunt: Why Do Stop & Shop Gas Rewards Expire?
April 1, 2013
Gas rewards points, savings bonds and the common meaning of "scheme" in different parts of the world have found their way into today's edition of "Is It Just Me?", where no question is too small for The Bottom Line.
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Kevin Hunt: West Hartford Company Pumps Too Much Oil: Does Customer Pay?
March 30, 2013
When the home heating-oil pump doesn't stop pumping, someone has to pay.
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Kevin Hunt: Creepy Calls From 'Tech Support'
March 23, 2013
Don't let the giddiness of the March equinox weaken your consumer guard against these relentless scams:
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Kevin Hunt: Six Secret Credit Scores And How You Can Alter Them
March 16, 2013
When you sign up for a credit card, you're making the credit-card company a life partner. It knows where you shop, when, what you buy, whether you pay your debts on time and if you're a sucker for a balance-transfer offer that leads to high interest rates.
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Kevin Hunt: West Hartford Man Powerless In $5,000 Standby Generator Fight?
March 11, 2013
Any house with a standby generator should never lack two things: electricity and the envy of neighbors.
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Kevin Hunt: The Top Consumer Complaints, Scams Of 2012
March 4, 2013
Have you been duped, scammed or over charged for services? Have you hired no-show contractors or bought food already past its expiration date?
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Kevin Hunt: Really, How Much Snow Would It Take To Collapse Your Roof?
March 2, 2013
To those who sat through the recent blizzard wondering how much snow it would take to collapse their home's roof, here's an answer:
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Kevin Hunt: Self-Checkout Voice Tells Stunned Bristol Woman, 'No Bagels For You!'
February 25, 2013
Let's walk the aisles of Stop & Shop today for this edition of "Is It Just Me?," where no question is too small for The Bottom Line.
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Kevin Hunt: Carnival Triumph Fallout: What Are Cruise Passengers' Rights?
February 23, 2013
After five days adrift in the Gulf of Mexico with no working toilets, sewage oozing down walls and no air conditioning in their cabins, passengers on the Carnival Triumph cruise ship were offered a full refund, reimbursed on-board expenses, a free flight home, a free future cruise and a check for $500.
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Kevin Hunt: No Landline Service (Or 911) For 2 Weeks In No-Cell Zone: Was AT&T Out Of Touch?
February 18, 2013
In case of emergency, Joyce and Dennis Custer had few options last month after losing AT&T landline phone service in their West Granby home for more than two weeks.
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Kevin Hunt: Are You Prepared To Die? (A Legal Guide)
February 16, 2013
Are you ready to die?
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Kevin Hunt: The Blizzard And Blocked Gas-Furnace Vents, Insurance Claims And 'Nemo' vs. 'Charlotte'
February 11, 2013
Look what The Bottom Line just uncovered beneath several feet of drifting snow:
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Kevin Hunt: Why Mystery Shopping Is No. 1 Job Scam In State
February 9, 2013
It's no mystery when a mystery-shopping job offer asks the prospective shopper to cash a money order and wire most of the money to a third party. It's a scam.
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Kevin Hunt: A Surprise Package From FedEx?
February 4, 2013
Although she didn't realize it, a surprise package awaited Joriss MacKnight of Cheshire after she was notified last month by FedEx.
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Kevin Hunt: State Charges Glastonbury Man $626 Tax On Business He Closed In 2011 (Or Did He?)
February 2, 2013
Robert Mazzawy of South Glastonbury figured streamlined tax-reporting would be among the benefits of converting his consulting business from an S-corporation to a limited-liability company in 2011.
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Kevin Hunt: Can State Charge Tax On Shipping And Handling?
January 28, 2013
Are shipping and handling charges taxable in Connecticut? And can a consumer who feels she has been billed for unnecessary auto repairs file a complaint with the state Department of Motor Vehicles?
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Kevin Hunt: Dealer Can't Diagnose Lexus Engine Noise: Must Owner Reveal Problem In Private Sale?
January 26, 2013
Some days The Bottom Line is mediator, counselor or one-man help desk. Today, TBL is resident ethicist.
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Kevin Hunt: She Wants Money Back From Cox After $100 PC Troubleshooting
January 21, 2013
What's the difference between these two troubleshooting-request calls to your cable company's technical support line?
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Kevin Hunt: Cheap Money? The Rates Your Excellent Credit Will Get In 2013
January 19, 2013
With interest rates still pushing historical lows, borrowing money in 2013 looks golden for employed consumers with excellent credit scores.
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Kevin Hunt: Is This A Federal Reverse-Mortgage Offer Or A Scam?
January 14, 2013
The successful scam letter looks authentic. But what happens when an authentic offer looks like a scam?
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Kevin Hunt: D'oh! Manchester Man Still Paying Insurance On House Sold In 1995
January 12, 2013
What's more agonizing, reading a bank disclosure statement or an insurance declaration?
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Kevin Hunt: The Burning Question: What Is A 'PGE' Fee For Propane?
January 7, 2013
Despite what you may be thinking, no question is too small for The Bottom Line. To prove it, TBL today presents the first installment of "Is It Just Me?" — questions about issues that rate closer to curiosity than outrage.
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Kevin Hunt: How To Be A Less Wimpy (And Smarter) Consumer In 2013
January 5, 2013
It's too late for a 2012 makeover. Here are a few ways to make yourself a better, bolder consumer in 2013:
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Kevin Hunt: Is Berlin Turnpike Fitness Club Closing? Member Wants Billing Stopped
December 29, 2012
So maybe you're staying home for the holidays. Great. That leaves plenty of time to prepare for the guilt trip you're going on next month after a December of overeating, drinking and merriment.
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Kevin Hunt: Scam Artists Cloud Sandy Hook Donations
December 24, 2012
As the nation mourned for victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, scam artists who prey on human tragedy were cashing in already.
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Kevin Hunt: Uh-Oh: A Blue Back Square Jeweler And A Destroyed Irish Seashell
December 8, 2012
Putting a value on sentiment is always tricky business. What's a tiny seashell from the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland worth?
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Kevin Hunt: Guess What New Britain Woman Got For $299 Mortgage Audit?
December 3, 2012
Unsolicited letters, email and telephone calls are almost always best left unanswered. Let them go and they'll never amount to more than a nuisance.
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Kevin Hunt: A New State Driver's License For Vets: Already, A Conflict With Home Depot, Lowe's?
December 1, 2012
Home Depot lost a customer recently when it stopped honoring Tom Colapietro's Naval Reserve identification card for the retailer's 10 percent discount for veterans.
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Kevin Hunt: New Lowe's Carpet Going Bald, But Maker Said Tuft Luck
November 24, 2012
The last thing anyone should worry about with newly installed carpeting is premature baldness. Susan Stern never suspected it even after her rug starting shedding the day after the Lowe's installers left.
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Kevin Hunt: Why Did Home Depot Stop Honoring Bristol Veteran's Military Card For Discount?
November 19, 2012
Being a veteran has its privileges, like a 10 percent discount at local retailers. Tom Colapietro, a Navy veteran, has been using his Naval Reserve card for more than a year at his hometown Bristol Home Depot.
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Kevin Hunt: Winterizing Tips From A Historic-Home Expert
November 17, 2012
To some people, winterizing means buying a thermal-lined jacket and insulated socks. Excuse the interruption, but we're talking about preparing your house for the next Nor'easter.
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Kevin Hunt: How Risky Is It To File An Insurance Claim After Sandy?
November 3, 2012
Sandy hit Madison and several other Connecticut towns Monday with hurricane-force gusts, causing undetermined damage, but it would have cost homeowners across the state thousands of dollars each if it actually sustained those winds.
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Kevin Hunt: What You Should Know About Using A Portable Generator
October 29, 2012
Connecticut residents have become so accustomed to storm-related power outages that a portable generator is now a must-own piece of power equipment for many homeowners.
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Kevin Hunt: The Best $75 A Connecticut Homeowner Can Spend
October 27, 2012
Nothing like a little autumnal chill and diminished daylight to get people thinking about their home's inadequate insulation, leaky ducts and watt-guzzling incandescent bulbs.
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Kevin Hunt: Victims Say Former Moodus Contractor Deserves More Jail Time
October 22, 2012
The best deal Ted Diamond made in California the past year, aside from the bargain-basement bids he gave unsuspecting victims of his fencing-contractor scam, was the plea deal that reduced the charges against him to single felony counts of identity theft and grand theft felony counts and two counts of misdemeanor petty theft.
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Kevin Hunt: Who's Got The Concert Tickets? Ticketworld, But J. Geils Fan Didn't Know
October 20, 2012
John Carpenter, an infrequent rock concertgoer from Windsor, was simultaneously excited and dumbfounded after he searched for, and found, two tickets online to a J. Geils Band concert at Mohegan Sun the day before the Sept. 16 show.
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Kevin Hunt: Salesman Makes $1,000 Mistake, Marks Bill Paid. Do Homeowners Have To Pay Difference?
October 15, 2012
Here's the ethical/legal question of the week:
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Ready For The Next Power Outage? A Guide To Portable Generators
October 13, 2012
Candlelit dinners aren't just for romantics. They're for people without without power, and a portable generator, too.
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Kevin Hunt: $30 For AT&T Operator Assistance?
October 8, 2012
Remember the operator-assisted telephone call? Way before Skype, FaceTime and voice-over-Internet phone systems, people often used an operator for person-to-person, international and third-party calls — even calls made from pay phones.
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Kevin Hunt: Roto-Rooter Blamed For Unneeded Expense To Clear Sewage Drain
October 6, 2012
Roto-Rooter goes from one stinkin' mess to another. Karen Dunn called with one in mid-July, after sewage backed up into a basement shower in her Rocky Hill home each time the nearby toilet was flushed.
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Kevin Hunt: Refund For Woman, 83, Who Can No Longer Travel? A Voucher For More Travel
October 1, 2012
Irene Ettre didn't overlook anything, including travel insurance, when she paid $4,000 in March for an ambitious 10-day trip through Prague, Vienna and Budapest.
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Kevin Hunt: A Credit Card Quiz: What's Legal?
September 29, 2012
Readers of The Bottom Line pride themselves on their credit-card discipline (please say it's true), but how many of you watch the people watching you spend your money?
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Kevin Hunt: An Old Scam And An Older (94) Rocky Hill Man
September 24, 2012
The oldest scams never die. They just look for older victims.
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Kevin Hunt: Family Still Not Back In Home After Snow Damage Two Winters Ago
September 22, 2012
In the most optimistic scenario, Cristine and Ron Kern will move back into their Marlborough split-level ranch sometime in mid-October, the storm damage repaired.
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Kevin Hunt: Pelvic Ultrasound Fails, Woman Refuses To Pay
September 15, 2012
It's hard to tell sometimes who's more challenged by health care, the consumer or the health-care provider.
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Kevin Hunt: Why Is This Man In Jail? (A Snail Tale)
September 1, 2012
Ted Diamond was too fast to get caught last year when customers of his Moodus fencing company say he stole thousands of dollars from them before leaving his business, his family and Connecticut.
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Kevin Hunt: Customer Blames Verizon For Missed 4G Upgrade
August 27, 2012
Despite what you might read each week in The Bottom Line, the consumer isn't always right.
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Kevin Hunt: Don't Fall For It! (Or Have You Already?)
August 25, 2012
All rested up from a leisurely summer? Then let's expend some energy fighting off spammers, scammers, telemarketers and identity thieves. Here are a few basics every consumer should know:
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Kevin Hunt: Why A Vacuum Food Sealer Pays For Itself
August 20, 2012
How much meat, discolored and dehydrated, have you tossed from the freezer in the past year?
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Kevin Hunt: Sprint Charges $41 For Return Of Unused Phone In Unopened Box
August 18, 2012
Despite an assortment of iPhones, Android smartphones and even some nerdy clamshell models available at its local and online stores, Sprint actually sells only two types of phones — hot and cold.
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Kevin Hunt: CL&P Pays Cheshire Woman Billed 25 Years For Street Lights $10,000
August 13, 2012
Of all the secrets buried beneath the earth on Sir Walter Drive in Cheshire, the last thing Grace Edwards expected to find was an explanation for her unusually high electricity bills.
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Kevin Hunt: Was Pirating Patients Part Of $20 Million Medicaid Scam?
August 11, 2012
Josias Ortiz-Nelson didn't think it was unusual when he was told by telephone in April that his dentist's office was moving from Hartford to Cromwell and a shuttle service would pick him up for an upcoming appointment.
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Kevin Hunt: How Many Refrigerators Does It Take To Get An Icemaker That Works?
August 6, 2012
Barbara Coscia of Farmington has had four Electrolux refrigerators delivered to her house in the past two years, though she has paid for only one.
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Kevin Hunt: Target's 'Hidden' Return Policy
August 2, 2012
Target says it understands when people change their minds about a purchase. "No" and "problem" are among the first words of its return policy.
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Kevin Hunt: Furnace Leaks, Coventry Woman Fumes While Waiting Days For Promised Sears Repair
July 28, 2012
Do not count Catherine Nasin among those who welcomed the recent Fourth of July holiday. All it meant was one more day of cleaning up a furnace leak as she waited for Sears repair service to return to her Coventry home.
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Kevin Hunt: Why Rachel From Account Services Is Still So Hot
July 12, 2012
Rachel might be the most famous name in robocall history.
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Kevin Hunt: He Hits Wrong Button, Sends $263 To AT&T With No Account. Where's The Money?
July 9, 2012
Hit the wrong button and you might send an embarrassing email to a boss, friend or former love. Rep. Becky Carney, a five-term Democratic from North Carolina, hit the wrong button earlier this month and cast the deciding vote in approving Republican-backed hydraulic fracturing in the state.
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Kevin Hunt: The Best Credit Cards For Recent Grads
July 7, 2012
Every new graduate, high school or college, should have a credit card. Sure, it's convenient and a sign (sorry, an iPhone isn't enough) of adulthood. It's also a good time to start building a strong credit history and show financial responsibility.
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Kevin Hunt: Did Concert Pianist Lose $1,600 To Timeshare Reseller?
July 2, 2012
Madeleine Forte of Hamden now knows she's one of the thousands of people who handed money blindly to Global Resort Management to sell a timeshare.
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Kevin Hunt: Surprise $16.99 Monthly Charges After Ticketmaster.com Visit
June 30, 2012
Music fans can get a lot more than Carrie Underwood concert tickets at the Ticketmaster website. How about an offer for a rebate and surprising monthly $16.99 charges on their credit card bills?
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Kevin Hunt: Mother Pays Modeling Agency $595. Is It A Scam?
June 25, 2012
Like so many 16-year-olds, Angel Bloss of Waterloo, N.Y., dreams big.
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Kevin Hunt: He Wants Money Back (And More) For Home Depot Kitchen
June 23, 2012
Bob Deasy and his wife, Janet, have lived in the same Unionville house with the same kitchen for 44 years.
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Kevin Hunt: Did Verizon Charge Canton Woman $233 For 'Free' Phone?
June 18, 2012
When is a free phone not a free phone? Probably whenever you don't get the free-phone promise in writing first.
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Kevin Hunt: One Stolen Car, Four Years Of Fines, Police Stops, DMV Frustration
June 2, 2012
JoAnne Bauer’s life, at least the part requiring motor-vehicle transportation, has not been the same since her green 2001 Dodge Neon was stolen overnight from her West End residence on May 27, 2008.
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Kevin Hunt: West Hartford Doctor Challenges GE On `Sabbath Mode' Oven
May 29, 2012
A two-year-old gas oven sits, like new, in the kitchen of a residence retired pediatrician and neonatologist Robert Harris of West Hartford uses only on Friday nights and Saturdays for the Jewish Sabbath.
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TBL: Morris Man Pays $1,600 To Reseller In November, But Timeshare Unsold
May 26, 2012
With the possible exception of mold, mice and in-laws, nothing is more difficult to get rid of than a timeshare.
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TBL: Is Ticketworld Scalping Concert Tickets?
May 21, 2012
Consumers put up with a lot, but nothing torques them off quite like confusing, misleading or inequitable pricing, whether it's concert tickets, bagels or even a single banana.
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TBL: First Look At Hartford Restaurants' Health Inspection Results
March 31, 2012
Restaurants often post a menu in their front window to show potential diners what's cooking in their kitchen. In Hartford, a city ordinance now requires them to show how clean and orderly they keep that kitchen.
