why god hates me

Those “new” tires of yours could be six-years old and ready to disintegrate on the highway. Tire rubber dries out after six years, but unlike in Europe and Asia, American companies are allowed to sell expired tires long after they turn into death donuts. A 20/20 investigation found that the “new” tires on sale at Sears and Walmart can be up to 12-years-old. Inside, how to tell when your tires were born…

All tires bear a Department of Transportation number hidden on the inner wheel wall. At the end of the number is a four-digit sequence that shows the week and year the tire was made. Tires with the notation 3502 were made in the 35th week of 2002. If you only see three digits, get new tires immediately; your tires are from the 90’s and are way past their effective lifespan.

Listen as the mustachioed John Stossel explains:

Check Your Tires [The Kim Komando Show]
Aged Tires: A Driving Hazard? [YouTube]
(Photo: zorilla)

Two Apple customer service representatives told reader Mark to blame his MacBook’s four hard drive crashes on GarageBand, professional-grade software that his puny consumer-grade laptop ‘can’t handle.’ Every MacBook comes with GarageBand pre-loaded as part of Apple’s iLife suite.

Mark writes:

Hello Consumerist,

Recently I went into an Apple Store with a broken hard drive on a black Macbook. This was my third hard drive crash on the machine in 18 months. Previously I had another apple notebook which had no problems in the four years I used it.

After the second hard drive crash I took the machine to the Genius bar for service and it was sent away to Apple in California. After getting it back about ten days later I was informed that they had replaced the DVD drive (?) in addition to the hard drive and was told if I had any trouble with this hard drive they would replace the machine.

This time when my hard drive crashed I took it into to be replaced again. After a few days I called Applecare and asked them whether I could request a replacement machine. They informed me I should contact my local Apple store that was doing the repair and speak to them about a replacement and if that didn’t work I should speak to Customer Relations.

When I called the Apple store I was put on the phone with an Apple Genius again who told me that he wouldn’t replace the machine. I asked him if it was unusual to go through four hard drives in a year and a half and he asked me what I used my machine for.

I told him I was a musician and I recorded using Garageband in addition to surfing the internet, etc. He told me that Macbooks are consumer level machines and that often they can’t handle writing big files like the kind Garageband uses. He said I should use an external hard drive for recording with Garageband.

He refused to replace the machine and when I asked for the number for customer relations, he game me a number which was actually the Apple Care hotline.

After I navigated the Apple Care menu, I spoke to a tech support person who connected me to someone at customer relations. He agreed to replace the machine and was much more polite than the Genius I spoke to on the phone.

He put me on hold and called the store to cancel the repair. After that had been arranged he warned me that since they were replacing the machine if I continued to experience the same behavior with my next machine it would be my fault.

He also told me that Macbooks were consumer level machines and they weren’t made to handle certain programs. I asked him if that included Garageband, which comes in the iLife suite (http://www.apple.com/ilife/) and is obviously targeted at average consumers as it comes with the operating system. He didn’t address that directly, but seemed to agree with me.

I was pleased with the service I got from customer relations and also pleased with Apple agreeing to send me a replacement computer. I can’t say I’m pleased with the Genius bar guy I talked to , though my previous experiences haven’t been so bad and the guy I actually met at the store was nice).

I have to say I’m completely perplexed with why a black (supposedly high-end) Macbook can’t run Garageband without crashing the hard drive. In all their Macbook ads online they show Garageband in the dock of the Macbooks and they include it with all their new computers. Surely it’s meant to be used. Maybe just occasionally?

There’s a world of difference between “can’t handle” and “runs better.” We expect better performance from better hardware, but Apple claims clunky old G4s can handle iLife, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that it will smoothly on Apple’s top-of-the-line consumer notebook. Right? Tell us in the comments if we’re missing something.

If you’re planning to fly with Alitalia, better call ahead before leaving for the airport. “Up to tomorrow (Sunday) we have guaranteed flights,” said special administrator Augusto Fantozzi, “but not on Monday because no-one will supply us with kerosene.” [AFP]

If you weren’t one of the 41 million Americans drinking water contaminated with sex hormones and pharmaceutical waste, welcome to the club! Testing prompted by the AP’s damning investigation has revealed that another five million people, including residents of Reno, Colorado Springs, and Chicago, now sip the potentially dangerous pharmaceutical soup.

The substances detected in the latest tests mirrored those cited in the earlier AP report.

Chicago, for example, found a cholesterol medication and a nicotine derivative. Many cities found the anti-convulsant carbamazepine. Officials in one of those communities, Colorado Springs, say they detected five pharmaceuticals in all, including a tranquilizer and a hormone.

“This is obviously an emerging issue and after the AP stories came out we felt it was the responsible thing for us to do, as a utility, to find out where we stand. We believe that at these levels, based on current science, that the water is completely safe for our customers,” said Colorado Springs spokesman Steve Berry. “We don’t want to create unnecessary alarm, but at the same time we have a responsibility as a municipal utility to communicate with our customers and let them know.”

Of the twenty-seven municipalities to test their water supply, seventeen returned positive results. The water in Boston, Phoenix and Seattle all turned up crystal-clear.

What about the country’s largest water provider, New York City?

The City Council called for an urgent-sounding emergency meeting in April to order the Department of Environmental Protection to test the city’s water supply. In response, the D.E.P. declared: “the testing of finished tap water is not warranted at this time.”

Drugs affect more drinking water [AP]
PREVIOUSLY: AP: 41 Million Americans Drink Water Contaminated With Antibiotics, Anti-Convulsants, Mood Stabilizers, And Sex Hormones
(Photo: mikelens)

Sorry 49-year-olds, you aren’t valid grandparents according to Toys”R”Us. The toy retailer and validator of family roles told 49-year-old Linda Peters that she wasn’t old enough to use a 20% off coupon for grandkid-spoiling grandparents.

“It’s discriminatory,” Peters said. “How do you put an age on a grandparent or a mother or a father, for that matter?”

Toys R Us tells 3 On Your side they always have to set guidelines when they have promotions and for this one, they say establishing an age requirement was appropriate.

But Peters disagrees and says Toys R Us may claim to love grandparents, but what they really mean is that they love “old” grandparents.

“To assume that someone over 50 is a grandparent and that someone under 50 is not a grandparent, it’s not fair,” Peters said.

We’re old fashioned—to us, anyone with a grandkid is a grandparent. What do you think?

Young grandmother feels shortchanged by toy store [AZFamily.com]
(Photo: ThatBeeGirl) (Thanks to Greg!)

Call it the welcome side of Christmas Creep; manufacturers are discounting LCD and plasma TVs ahead of the traditional year-end holiday sale cluster mess, but you won’t find the best deals in retail stores.

…if you’re in the market for a TV now, prices are already pretty compelling. Prices for L.C.D. and plasma sets have gotten so competitive, that the market for rear-projection sets has moved into only the biggest size screens, a trend that analysts predicted last year.

[...]

But for those looking for more down-to-earth sizes in thin form factors, LCD or plasma is the way to go. To get the best price, you may need to shop online. When I compared online prices for some L.C.D. and plasma models with prices at two of the top consumer-electronics “big box” retailers, Amazon and other online stores beat brick-and-mortar stores every time.

When you add in no shipping and no sales tax–often available from many sites–the cost difference can be substantial.

We snagged a decadently large Samsung set from Amazon two years ago. Not only did Amazon beat every retail store’s price, but the tax-free DLP was delivered straight up to our apartment by a shockingly professional delivery company. The experience was better than the usual retail nightmare in every possible way, something we’d gladly repeat.

For the Best TV Prices, Stay Online [Bits]
TVs & HDTVs [Amazon]
(Photo: fab4chiky)

For 80 minutes on October 1, more than 90 world-class hotels will offer up their gaudy rooms for only $19.28 per night. Starting at 8 a.m., the Leading Hotels of the World, a debonair batch of swanky hotels, will drop their prices in homage to their founding year, 1928.

Most of the posh hotels are in Europe but there are a handful of domestic gems on sale, including:

Enchantment Resort & Mii Amo Spa (Sedona, Arizona)
Bernardus Lodge (Carmel Valley, California)
The Hay-Adams (Washington, D.C.)
Biltmore, Miami (Coral Gables, Florida) - (pictured)
The James Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
Wheatleigh (Lenox, Massachusetts)
La Posada de Santa Fe Resort & Spa, A Rock Resort (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
The Alex Hotel (New York, New York)

GMail users might want to take advantage of plus-messaging when they register:

As part of the pre-registration for this promotion, The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. will be collecting email addresses. The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. reserves the right to use these emails for the purpose of communication regarding the 1928 offer as well as other promotional offers.

The offer is tempting, though we’re sure we’ll wake up at 8 a.m. to stare at 408 timeout errors. Still, twenty bucks for a midtown hotel…

Luxe travel deal: the Leading Hotels of the World on sale for $19.28 [Daily Travel & Deal Blog]
Celebrate LHW’s 80th with USD 19.28 [The Leading Hotels of the World]
(Photo: Getty) (Thanks to Sacha!)

Inquiring readers named Kurt want to know: If a buyer from Canada buys something from someone in America on eBay, pays for it, including shipping, and then it shows up with a $50 C.O.D. charge for imports and customs, is that kosher? Discuss…

Here are five special photos that readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, chosen because they’re both neat and could possibly be used in a Consumerist post. Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers go and upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right, and start hitting “send to group” on your individual photos you want to add to the pool.

By: Danno @ The Photo Collective

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Title: dolla
By: donbuciak

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Title: Cold Winter’s Mourning
By: jayRaz

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.
Title: Chevron Tanker
By: So Cal Metro

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.
By: bradym80

Add your shots to The Consumerist Flickr pool, and perhaps they’ll get featured in a future story, or even highlighted in a Friday Consumerist Flickr Pool Finds post. See previous winners of the Friday Consumerist Flickr Pool finds here.

Verizon and AT&T have jumped head-first into the shallow end of the social networking pool. The companies will charge consumers up to $35 per year to access unpopular social networking sites, a feature they’re respectively billing as “SocialLife” and “My Communities.” Not part of your social life or your community: Facebook.

Verizon will charge $17.88 per year for their service, a bargain compared to AT&T’s $35.88 fee.

Rob Hyatt, executive director of premium content for AT&T’s wireless division, said a service like “My Communities” would be helpful for novice users who are not as familiar navigating the mobile world as they are online. The new services also give much needed exposure to sites that might otherwise be overlooked, he added.

Translation: We’re going to overcharge ignorant people to access unpopular social networking services.

To us, it’s just another sad example of cellphone companies trying to beat cash out of consumers in exchange for half-baked features that kinda resembles what they want, but still manage to entirely miss the mark.

We’re not sure why anyone would pay to access services like AsiaAve, BlackPlanet and MiGente, Faithbase, or GLEE, when they could access more popular services through their web-enabled phones.

Be social and tell us what you think in the comments.

AT&T and Verizon Wireless Offer New Services for Friends [Bits]
(Photo: Getty)