Current Events in October 2011

To the surprise of no one in the technology world, Apple today announced the release of its next generation smartphone, the iPhone 4S.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, who officially took over earlier this year for the ailing Steve Jobs, took the stage for the event at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California.

The new iPhone is called the iPhone 4S and perhaps one of the biggest improvements is in the processor, an A5 chip. Another is its voice recognition capabilities with a software called Siri. For example, by holding down the “home” button, you can ask your iPhone “what will the weather be like today?” The app responds “here is today's forecast.”

Siri will understand three languages to start but, oddly, Spanish isn't one of them. Apple says it will start with English, French and German.

Enhanced camera

Apple has also boosted the phone's optics. It comes with an eight magapixel camera and a video camera that can capture 1080p HD video with real time video image stabilization.

Pre-orders for the iPhone 4S start Friday, October 7 and will come in both black and white. Apple is maintaining its current price structure, selling the 16 GB model for $199, 32 GB for $300, $64 GB for $400, with a two year contract. The iPhone 3GS will now be available for free, and an 8 GB iPhone 4 will sell for $99.

It will be available on three U.S. carriers – AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint. By December it will be available in 70 countries.

Rolling

Cook says the future looks incredibly bright for the iPhone, noting that, while it has a significant profile in the smartphone universe, it currently only has five percent of the smartphone market. Apple's deal earlier this year with Verizon, ending its exclusivity agreement with AT&T, has opened up more potential iPhone customers.

Cook also took the time to provide updates on other Apple products. He said the iPod, which recently celebrating its 10th anniversary, has sold over 300 million worldwide.

He said the MacBook Pro and iMac are currently the No. 1 laptop and desktop in the country. Apple's computer market share is 23 percent, Cook said.

A year ago, when it was revealed that some large mortgage companies were violating the law by employing “robo-signers” to process mortgage documents, it was a huge scandal. The attorneys general of the 50 states are currently trying to reach a settlement with the major players involved in the scheme.

But the Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has issued a report saying the abuses began a lot earlier than previously thought and that Fannie Mae knew about it but didn't act.

In February, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) requested the Inspector General to examine “widespread allegations of abuse by ... law firms hired to process foreclosures as part of” the RAN, and Fannie Mae’s and FHFA’s efforts “to investigate these allegations and implement corrective action.”

The report found that FHFA did not schedule comprehensive examination coverage of foreclosure issues, including allegations of abuse by affiliated law firms until after news stories about alleged abuses surfaced in August 2010.

Indicators before 2010

The Inspector General said there were indicators prior to August 2010 that could have led FHFA to identify the heightened risk posed by foreclosure processing within Fannie Mae’s program to handle foreclosures. In fact, he said there is evidence a Fannie Mae knew as early as eight years ago that corners were being cut.

“In December of 2003, a Fannie Mae shareholder began alerting Fannie Mae to foreclosure abuse allegations, and in 2005 Fannie Mae hired an outside law firm to investigate a variety of allegations regarding purported foreclosure processing abuses,” the report states. “In May 2006, the law firm issued a report of investigation in which it found that:

“[F]oreclosure attorneys in Florida are routinely filing false pleadings and affidavits….The practice could be occurring elsewhere. It is axiomatic that the practice is improper and should be stopped. Fannie Mae has not authorized this unlawful conduct.”

Fannie failed to act

The report also said Fannie Mae did not take steps to ensure the quality of its foreclosure attorneys’ conduct, the legal positions taken in the attorneys’ pleadings, or the manner in which the attorneys processed foreclosures on the Enterprise’s behalf.

The robo-signing scandal broke when a foreclosure defense attorney in Florida obtained a deposition from a GMAC mortgage executive that he did not personally read and sign every foreclosure document, as was required under Florida law. Instead, it was later revealed that mortgage servicers hired people to sign thousands of documents they had not read.

You know that times are tough when parents cut back on diaper purchases.  There's really no substitute for a diaper, after all.  The need, as economists might say, remains constant.

Times must be tough then because, sure enough, diaper sales, like diapers themselves, are soft -- off by at least 1% in the four weeks ending Sept. 4  compared to a year earlier.  That might not sound like much but it follows a long series of declines.

Not only is there a decline in the number of diapers purchased, dollar volume is also down by 4% or so, which would indicate that parents are not only buying fewer diapers but also cheaper ones, although even sales of generic diapers are down, according to a study quoted by The Wall Street Journal. 

Now there are lots of variables here.  Counting diapers isn't rocket science, after all.  We don't know, for example, exactly how many babies there are at any given time.  Or what they're eating.  Or how fussy their parents are.  Or how many of them might be trying out cloth diapers (answer: not many, and not for long).

Price is certainly a factor, though, and a big one, according to a ConsumerAffairs.com analysis of about 110,000 comments on Facebook, Twitter and other blogs and social media.

Looking at a sample of 719 comments by diaper gripers, we found that fully 87% were peeved about the cost.  The others mostly complained about diaper rash; 2% didn't like the smell.

Price war

So if the price is an obstacle, why don't Kimberly-Clark and Proctor & Gamble simply drop the price of their Huggies, Pampers and Luvs?

Well, believe it or not, it's for the same reason the airlines have gotten so stingy with their peanuts.  Yep, diapers are made out of the stuff that make airplanes and cars go -- oil.

The reason diapers are so absorbent is that they're made of a super-absorbent polymer, which is a petroleum-based derivative.  Diapers also contain polypropylene and polyethylene -- also from oil.

Didn't know that oil was softer than a baby's bottom, did you?  

Major brands

There's not a startling difference in brand preference among the three big brands -- Kimberly-Clark's Huggies and Procter & Gamble's Pampers and Luvs.

Pampers

While some parents are still chafed at P&G's remarkably brutal handling of a still-unexplained outbreak of diaper rash among its Pampers-wearing clientele, the brand holds an enviable net positive sentiment that nears 80% in recent weeks, based on about 710,000 comments over the last year.

Pampers got fairly high marks from the moms we found browsing on Amazon, although there were some negative comments about pricing.

And in our very own complaint department, we found numerous complaints from parents blaming Pampers for their child's diaper rash.  Although P&G has dismissed the complaints and decreed the controversy is over, it appears doomed to live on in at least some corners of consumerdom.

Luvs

Luvs does nearly as well as Pampers in net sentiment, displaying no notable negatives, though there were far fewer mentions -- only about 31,000.  

Interestingly, the ConsumerAffairs.com database contains a basketful of Luvs complaints that are strikingly similar to those lodged by Pampers users.   A North Carolina mom complained that her 10-month-old suffered from painful diaper rash similar to those described by Pampers parents.

"Lately he had been so irritable and cranky as the rash continued to worsen no matter how much I air dried him and creamed the area. I was changing his diaper every 1-2 hours trying to alleviate the irritation when I discovered that the diapers had begun to explode at the leg gatherings," she said.

Huggies

We found about 250,000 comments about Huggies, displaying a very steady approval rating of about 60%.

Among the comments we studied, Huggies Overnights seemed to ring a positive chord with parents hoping for a few more minutes of shut-eye.

Not only that, but Huggies is virtually absent from the ConsumerAffairs.com complaint database, always a positive (if rare) sign. 

Oh and by the way, if you think that Twitter lends itself to short bleeps by moms stuck at home with the baby, think again.  We found diaper discussions almost exclusively on specialized parenting sites and on sites like Amazon.com, where consumers post reviews of products they purchased earlier.

We're not saying babies' parents don't Tweet but ... well, if they do it's about something other than diapers. 

Millions of people take a daily aspirin tablet to help reduce their risk of having a heart attack or stroke. But are they setting themselves up for the loss of their eyesight later in life?

European researchers followed 4,000 elderly subject and found that those who took a daily aspirin tablet were twice as likely to later be diagnosed with macular degeneration, a gradual loss of eyesight.

The researchers are quick to point out their study found nothing in aspirin that could be thought to cause macular degeneration. It was only the statistic correlation between those taking aspirin and those who suffered from the eyesight condition.

Possible explanation

It's possible, researchers say, that there is a link between macular degeneration and heart disease. People who take daily aspirin have either had a heart attack or are worried about having one, which could, researchers say, explain the connection between aspirin and the eye condition.

There are two types of macular degeneration – wet and dry. Research continues into the condition and its causes, which are not fully known. Previous studies have suggested links to diet and lifestyle.

Dry macular degeneration is a chronic eye disease that causes vision loss in the center of your field of vision.

The other type — wet macular degeneration — is characterized by swelling caused by leaky blood vessels in the back of the eye.

Aspirin therapy not for everyone

Doctors at the Mayo Clinic say daily aspirin therapy may be helpful for some people, but not everyone. They say you consider daily aspirin therapy only if you've had a heart attack or stroke, or you have a high risk of either. And then, only take aspirin with your doctor's approval.

Although taking an occasional aspirin or two is safe for most adults to use for headaches, body aches or fever, daily use of aspirin can have serious side effects, including internal bleeding.  

The marketers of Four Loko have agreed to re-label and repackage the supersized, high-alcohol, fruit-flavored, carbonated malt beverage, to resolve Federal Trade Commission charges of deceptive advertising.

“Deception about alcohol content is dangerous to consumers, and it’s a serious concern for the FTC,” said David Vladeck, Director of the agency’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.  “Four Loko contains as much alcohol as four or five beers, but it is marketed as a single-serving beverage.”

The FTC alleges that Phusion Projects, LLC and its principals falsely claimed that a 23.5-ounce, 11 or 12 percent alcohol by volume can of Four Loko contains alcohol equivalent to one or two regular 12-ounce beers, and that a consumer could drink one can safely in its entirety on a single occasion.

In fact, according to the FTC, one can of Four Loko contains as much alcohol as four to five 12-ounce cans of regular beer and is not safe to drink on a single occasion.  Consuming a single can of Four Loko on a single occasion constitutes “binge drinking,” which is defined by health officials as men drinking five (and women drinking four) or more standard alcoholic drinks in about two hours.

Drinking from the can

The 23.5-ounce Four Loko cans are the size of about two regular beer cans and are non-resealable. The FTC complaint alleged that on one company website, consumers were encouraged to enter a “photo contest” in which they posted many photos of people drinking directly from the 23.5-ounce Four Loko cans. In stocking instructions, Phusion urged merchants to place the cans where other refrigerated, single-serve alcoholic beverages are displayed.

The administrative settlement requires Phusion Projects to include disclosures on containers of Four Loko, or any other flavored malt beverage containing more  alcohol than two and-a-half regular beers, stating how much alcohol – compared to the amount of alcohol found in regular beer – is in the drink.  The order also specifies the location and appearance of the disclosure.  For example, the disclosure for a 23.5 ounce can of Four Loko with 12 percent alcohol by volume would state:  “This can has as much alcohol as 4.5 regular (12 oz. 5% alc/vol) beers.”

Starting six months after the settlement takes effect, Phusion Projects is required to use only resealable containers for flavored malt beverages that have more alcohol than the equivalent of two and a half regular beers.

Also, the settlement bars Phusion Projects from misrepresenting the alcohol content of any beverage, and from depicting people drinking directly from the container of any product containing more alcohol than that found in two and a half regular beers.

California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed the Reader Privacy Act, updating reader privacy law to cover new technologies like electronic books and online book services as well as local bookstores.

The Reader Privacy Act will become law on January 1, and will establish privacy protections for book purchases similar to long-established privacy laws for library records.

"This is great news for Californians, updating their privacy for the 21st Century," said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.  "The Reader Privacy Act will help Californians protect their personal information whether they use new digital book services or their corner bookstore."

Reading choices reveal intimate facts about our lives, from our political and religious beliefs to our health concerns. Digital books and book services can paint an even more detailed picture -- including books browsed but not read, particular pages viewed, how long spent on each page, and any electronic notes made by the reader.

Without strong privacy protections like the ones in the Reader Privacy Act, reading records can be too easily targeted by government scrutiny as well as exposed in legal proceedings like divorce cases and custody battles.

Downgraded privacy

"California should be a leader in ensuring that upgraded technology does not mean downgraded privacy," said Valerie Small Navarro, Legislative Advocate with the ACLU's California affiliates. "We should be able to read about anything from politics, to religion, to health without worrying that the government might be looking over our shoulder."

"California law was completely inadequate when it came to protecting one's privacy for book purchases, especially for online shopping and electronic books," said Yee. "Individuals should be free to buy books without fear of government intrusion and witch hunts. If law enforcement has reason to suspect wrongdoing, they should obtain a court order for such information."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) were sponsors of the bill, authored by California State Senator Leland Yee. It had support from Google, TechNet and the Consumer Federation of California, along with the Internet Archive, City Lights Bookstore, and award-winning authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman. 

The Michigan Court of Appeals has issued a decision that further limits the state's medical marijuana law.

The justices ruled that a caregiver's decision to supervise the growth of 88 medical marijuana plants in a single facility on behalf of other registered caregivers and patients, other than his own, violates the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act (MMMA).

The case arose from Kent County, Mich., prosecutor William Forsyth's filing of drug charges against caregiver Ryan Bylsma. The decision will stand as precedent for all other lower court cases, according to Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, who praised the decision.

"This law is narrowly tailored to help those with serious debilitating illnesses, but criminals are exploiting it to construct massive grow operations," said Schuette. "I applaud the Court's decision in this case because it echoes the concerns of the public and law enforcement by protecting public safety. Limits on possession are not optional."

A three judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals held Bylsma can be charged with manufacturing marijuana because he possessed 88 plants in one growing facility, in violation of the 12 plant per patient limit enshrined in the MMMA.

The Court concluded that:

• Caregivers may not possess plants grown for registered qualifying patients who are not officially connected to the caregiver through the State's registration process, or for other registered caregivers;
• Caregivers who do not comply with the 12 plant per patient limit are not entitled to assert an affirmative defense in Court; and,
• The State may file drug possession and manufacturing charges against registered patients and caregivers who do not adhere to the 12 plant per patient limit.

In June 2011, Schuette concluded in Attorney General Opinion 7259 that the MMMA does not permit the collective growing or sharing of marijuana plants between caregivers and unconnected patients or other caregivers. Schuette concluded the MMMA requires each patient's plants to be grown and maintained in a separate enclosed, locked facility that is only accessible to the registered patient or the patient's registered primary caregiver.

The law has been a source of concern to law enforcement since it was passed by the Michigan legislature. Schuett earlier this years announced plans to join with some members of the legislature to modify the statute.

If you sign up with Dish Network and the installation turns out to be a disaster, can you cancel without an early termination fee? Apparently not.

“The installation was botched and it was extremely unprofessional,” said Marc, of Murrells Inlet, S.C. “They damaged my home and left wiring and my entertainment center in unusable condition. The installer said he was going to Radio Shack for some parts and he would be right back. He never returned. Dish told me they were not responsible and charged me a $464.00 disconnect fee.

If Marc made photographs of the installation, he should be able to find someone at Dish Network that will address this issue. This also sounds like it could be an ideal case for small claims court. 

Alone without a loan

Edward, of Kennesaw, Ga., thinks Quicken Loans needs to get its story straight. He says he applied to refinance his first mortgage under the HARP program, which was developed to help underwater properties.

“I had already done my homework, so I knew my home's first mortgage was under the 125 percent LTV,” Edward told ConsumerAffairs.com. “Also, my wife and I have excellent credit.”

Edward says things started out okay in the beginning, but he had a harder and harder time reaching the person servicing his loans.

“Once, a representative from Quicken called me to ask how the process went, he thought I had closed on the loan,” Edward said. “When I informed him that I was still waiting on the person servicing my loan to give me a call regarding my options, he checked, and stated that he was surprised, because my loan was ready to go. When I contacted someone on their chat line to complain, the person servicing my loan called five minutes after I finished chatting and told me my loan was denied due to high LTV risk. This was definitely not the case, like I said earlier, I had already done my homework. I really hate to pull the 'race card' but I believe they detected that I was African American and blatantly discriminated against me.”

Or, it could be a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, as many others have complained about with a number of loan servicers. But if Edward believes he is a victim of racial discrimination, he needs to speak with someone at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Too much heat in the kitchen

Debbie, of Lowell, Ark., checked in this week to update us on the fire in her Frigidaire electric oven. She says Frigidaire has agreed to pay for parts, but not labor, since the unit was six months out of warranty.

“I have filed a complaint with Consumer Product Safety Commission and now two months later finally got the report to sign and send back,” Debbie told ConsumerAffairs.com.

Debbie also said she forgot to mention that her Frigidaire microwave glass exploded, cutting her severely enough to send her to the hospital. She says the two incidents happened a week apart.

It was just a few weeks ago that we wrote a rather mild little story headlined, "Forget Congress, Google Has Big Public Perception Problems."

We noted that the search engine once applauded for helping consumers find just what they're looking for faces not only an antitrust investigation but a growing public perception that it is using its dominant position to push its own products and squash competitors.

Late last Wednesday, Google implemented the latest update to its search algorithm and by the weekend, we were No. 2 on the latest Big Losers list, having lost more traffic than anyone but Myspace.com, according to statistics from Searchmetrics, which chronicles the ups and down of what's known as search engine optimization (SEO), the techniques sites use to try to stay on top of the search results returned by Google, Bing and the other search engines.

Now, no one is suggesting the trip to the woodshed was intentional but the industry watchers who write about SEO issues are finding it worrisome that while Google-owned properties rose in the latest algorithm update, sites that might be seen as competing with Google fell.

Losers

Here are the top ten losers, as compiled by Searchmetics:

Winners  

 And here are the top ten winners:

The biggest winner was none other than Google's very own YouTube.  Other sites that moved way up in the ratings were big corporate video sites -- Hulu, MTV, NBC, CBS and HBO.

Could it be that the new algorithm gives more weight to heavy video content?  Or might it be that Google is giving higher rankings to big corporate sites that get more "direct" visitors -- meaning visitors who find the site themselves, without using a search engine?

Might it be that Google thinks its previous rankings gave too much credence to text-heavy sites?  Maybe it thinks its users can't read very well and would rather just look at videos?

The answer, of course, is no one knows and Google certainly isn't saying. About all it shares are the internal working names of its various updates (we are currently in the "Panda" era).

"We're continuing to iterate on our Panda algorithm as part of our commitment to returning high-quality sites to Google users," a Google spokesperson told WebProNews Friday. "This most recent update is one of the roughly 500 changes we make to our ranking algorithms each year."

Google has always maintained a heavy veil of secrecy about just what goes into its searches, making the reasonable claim that if it went public with the information, everyone would rejigger their sites to serve up whatever Google was looking for.

Self-determination

On the other hand, maybe if the specifications were public, users could make their own decisions about which sites best met their needs instead of letting Google make that determination in advance?

Google's claim that it knows best begins to sound a bit hollow if one asks how it sounds when governments make the same claim.  Do we admire China for blocking content its rulers don't find helpful?

Not long ago, one of ConsumerAffairs.com's founders started a small local news site, planning to draw on his 50 years in journalism to light up a little corner of the world.  But when he applied to be included in Google News, the search giant responded that his site didn't meet certain standards.

Which ones? he asked.  Sorry, can't tell you, replied Big G.  Google seems to find it worthwhile to list every newspaper that carries an identical AP or Reuters story but seemingly finds no value in a small local site that actually has content not duplicated elsewhere, even though it has always maintained that "original content" is high on its list of positive factors.  

Whether ceding prior approval of which news sites should be revealed to public view bodes well for vigorous journalism might be a suitable topic for debate in the groves of academe.  

Others think all of this is irrelevant since the Internet, in their opinion, is a marketplace for goods and services, not ideas.  Some of Google's harshest critics have adopted this viewpoint.

A widely-watched video uses satire to cast aspersions Google's way. 

The American Bankers Association (ABA) is blaming what it calls “government price fixing” for new bank fees, manifested most recently by Bank of America's $5 a month charge for customers who make debit card purchases.

In response to a significant consumer outcry over the Bank of America fee, ABA President Frank Keating says new government rules that forced banks to lower the fee collected from merchants for each debit card “swipe” has fundamentally altered the economics of offering a debit card.

"One prime culprit is the so-called 'Durbin Amendment,' which capped debit card fees below industry costs,” Keating said. “This provided big-box retailers with $7 billion in windfall profits while forcing banks to lose money on every debit card transaction.”

The Durbin Amendment bears the name of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who authored the legislation. Durbin sees the issue a bit differently, and disputes the notion that banks are losing money on every debit card transaction. In fact, he called the old fee – 44 cents per transaction - “unreasonably high.”

Profit or loss?

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) agrees, citing Federal Reserve data that it said showed the old fee, which was 44 cents but is now 24 cents, netted banks a profit of 1100 percent on every transaction. RILA says it's still a pretty hefty profit.

“Crying poverty and adding fees, all while collecting a 600 percent profit on every transaction is one heck of a public relations strategy,”said RILA spokeswoman Katherine Lugar.

Keating also blames retailers for the new bank fees, saying part of the cost of the system is being transferred from retailers to consumers. But he made clear he thinks most of the blame lies in Washington.

"The Durbin Amendment and its consequences are symptomatic of a broader problem,” Keating said. Massive amounts of new regulation, government constraints on earning revenue and a tough economy constrain banks from helping our economy get back on track. Policymakers need to take a hard look at the real cause of higher consumer costs.

Durbin, however, indicated he isn't backing off.

“Bank of America showed us this week that some big banks and credit card companies care less about providing customer service than they care about squeezing customers for more fees,” Durbin said. “The best defense for American consumers and businesses against unfair fees is a transparent and competitive financial marketplace overseen by reasonable regulation.”

It may come as no surprise that after Bank of America's disclosure late last week that it will soon charge a $5 a month fee if you use a debit card to make purchases, a lot of consumers have Bank of America on their mind, and not in a good way. Elaine, of Conyers, Ga., contacted ConsumerAffairs.com over the weekend to say she was outraged.

“I went to the drive through window today to cash a check,” Elaine told ConsumerAffairs.com. “The teller has this happy voice telling me her name, sorry for the delay, etc. All I am doing is cashing a check. When she sends it back through the tube she uses my name, tells me that as a token of their appreciation for me being a customer they are giving me a gift. I open the container and it is a small brown plastic football with the BofA logo imprinted on it. Can they really be spending money on such garbage? What the heck am I suppose to do with this plastic football? How much money do you think they spent on the footballs?”

It sounds like Bank of America was prepared for a little consumer push-back on the new fee, hence the plastic footballs. But for millions of consumers sick to death of fees from banks and airlines, this may be one fee too many.

Not in the mood

Daniel, of Bradford Woods, Pa., had a serious beef with Hotels.com, booking a 10-night stay at a hotel he describes as very subpar. It was so bad, he says, that he checked out after one night, forfeiting the $500 he had already paid. He then fired off a lengthy and somewhat angry complaint to Hotels.com.

“Hotel.com sent me a reply to my complaint saying 'sorry, due to high volume we could not address your complaint, have a nice stay,' Daniel said. “It would be funny if I were in the mood.”

Daniel says, from now on he will use a search engine to book directly with hotels and not use third party travel sites. He may find that he can still find some pretty good deals that way, and have fewer nasty surprises.

Sparks

Frances, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., says heating up food and beverages in her Emerson microwave has been a challenge because the unit consistently powers down.

“I've had the MWG9115SL for sometime now and I thought there was just something wrong with the breaker, so I'd reset it and then use the microwave,” Frances told ConsumerAffairs.com. “Now not only the breaker is tripping but there are sparks coming from the microwave. I'm just thankful that it didn't catch on fire when my daughter was using it in the house alone.”

Frances, and other consumers who have experienced this problem, need to report it to the company and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Too many coupons?

Extreme couponing is more popular with consumers in this bad economy, but it's safe to say retail stores are not big fans. When consumers take advantage of every coupon offer they can find, it can cut into a store's profit margin. Anitra, of West Covina, Calif., says she does a major shopping trip to Target every six months, using coupons on many of those purchases. Anitra says on the last outing she was unaware that she was being followed as she moved about the store, filling her carts. At the checkout line, she said a store manager and two security guards refused to let her complete the purchases if she used coupons, limiting her to one item with one coupon per day.

“This was not only an embarrassing moment this was also degrading and humiliating,” Anitra said.

Normally, coupons come with an expiration date and a disclaimer, such as “not good with other offers.” If the coupons don't carry that kind of information, it's hard to see how a retailer can arbitrarily decline to accept them when a consumer uses what the retailer considers to be too many.