(NEW YORK) — Mattel has brought back one of its most iconic dolls: Barbie Totally Hair.
Since initially debuting 30 years ago, the toymaker has released an updated version of the ’90s doll. The original launch was available in blond or brunette hair colors and came with an accompanying styling gel.
Barbie’s new take on the doll includes four dolls with their own unique hairstyles, textures, fashion looks and themes. Each doll also has a really long mane of 8.5 inches of hair — reaching down to its ankles.
Children also get to enjoy the doll’s vibrant pops of hair color, as well as more than 15 styling accessories that include everything from color-changing hair clips to scrunchies.
“Totally hot, totally cool! Totally Hair #Barbie is back for the ultimate throwback, with a look inspired by our original bestselling doll with extra-long hair and rockin’ accessories,” the brand captioned a video of the new assortment of dolls on Instagram.
The latest Totally Hair lineup features four dolls centered around star, heart, flower and butterfly themes — with each having its own fun flair.
“Thirty years ago, we made waves with Barbie Totally Hair, which would go on to become the bestselling Barbie doll of all time,” Mattel Executive Vice President and Global Head of Barbie & Dolls Lisa McKnight said in a statement.
She continued, “This year we’re headed back to our roots with the release of our 30th anniversary Totally Hair dolls, leaning into the nostalgia factor and bringing back all 8.5 inches of magical and playable hair for young kids to act out their most imaginative Totally Hair storylines. Hair has always been a huge part of Barbie’s identity, so it was a dream come true to add some 2022 flair on one of our most iconic dolls.”
The new Barbie Totally Hair Doll assortment is currently available at select online retailers and will be sold at more mass retailers later this fall.
(NEW YORK) — Wild swings in the share price of a largely unknown Hong Kong-based fintech company in recent days have reminded some analysts and traders of the “meme stock” craze, which grabbed headlines and stoked controversy early last year.
On Tuesday, the stock price of online financial services company AMTD Digital was more than 21,000% above the price at its initial public offering last month.
The price fell in recent days to end the week well below the earlier peak but still, as of market close Friday, the stock price stood at $721, which amounts to a 127% jump for the week and a 9,143% increase since its IPO. The stock debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on July 15 at $7.80 per share.
At the height of AMTD Digital’s stock rise on Tuesday, the company reached a valuation of $310 billion, making it larger than Coca-Cola and Bank of America, according to FactSet. The nearly 3-year-old company brought in just $25 million in revenue last year, according to a regulatory filing.
The dramatic rise in the company’s stock price owes to a targeted surge in online retail trading akin to that which sent shares skyrocketing in companies like GameStop and AMC early last year, Dan Ives, an equities analyst at Wedbush Securities, told ABC News.
Some observers, however, questioned the designation of AMTD Digital as a meme stock.
The phenomenon of a meme stock trade describes a trend in which retail investors see shares rise steeply as others back a firm, then more jump into the fray, pushing the stock price further upward and enticing another wave of investors. A surge of such trades last year prompted a congressional hearing and investigation.
AMTD Digital did not respond to a request for comment. But a statement released by the company on Tuesday expressed gratitude to investors for the support, while acknowledging the stock is “still undergoing our initial stabilization period.”
“During the period since our initial public offering, the Company noted significant volatility in our ADS price and also observed some very active trading volume,” AMTD Digital said.
“To our knowledge, there are no material circumstances, events nor other matters relating to our Company’s business and operating activities since the IPO date,” the company added.
Citron Research, an equity research firm, rebuked the designation of AMTD Digital as a meme stock, citing the relatively low trading volume of shares in the fintech company compared with the run-up last year of GameStop, which trades under the symbol GME.
“$HKD is NOT a meme stock,” Citron Research tweeted on Wednesday, referring to AMTD Digital by its stock ticker HKD. “Has not captured the imagination of retail traders like $GME.”
Citron Research said in the tweet that 339,000 shares of AMTD Digital were traded on Tuesday.
Almost 900,000 individual accounts traded shares of GameStop each day at the height of the trading frenzy last January, a dramatic rise from less than 10,000 accounts each day earlier that month, a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation found.
Still, the volatility in the price of AMTD Digital renewed a debate among some over meme stock trading.
“So we’re all just going to ignore the $400B meme stock in the room?” prominent short-seller Jim Chanos tweeted of AMTD Digital on Tuesday. “We literally had Congressional hearings over the $30B runs of $GME and $AMC, but just [crickets] today.”
Ives, of Wedbush, said the volatility of AMTD Digital in recent days shows that the emergence of a meme stock remains possible, even if it has become less common.
“This is more the rarity than the norm,” he said. “Most of that is in the rearview mirror.”
“But the situation brought to light that the meme era still has oxygen,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — An average of 38 children die every year in hot cars.
Tuesday marked the 14th hot car death in the U.S. this year, a number that is expected to rise as heat waves continue across the country.
These tragic deaths are 100% preventable “if we can use a little tech to help,” said Janette Fennell, the founder and president of Kids and Car Safety, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing injuries and death to children from vehicle-related incidents. Fennell has been ringing the alarm bell on hot car deaths for more than 15 years.
“We have begged the auto industry to do something,” she went on. “It’s an uphill battle. But we’re on the cusp of things that need to happen.”
To Fennell that means honking vehicles that flash lights and send text alerts to drivers — even nearby strangers — that a child has been accidentally forgotten in the back seat or has surreptitiously climbed inside a vehicle.
“Cars remind you to check your tire pressure, to shut off your lights, to take your key,” she argued. “To really end these terrible fatalities, we have to be able to detect when there’s a living being locked in a vehicle and alert anyone who can come to their aid.”
Automakers have been researching various technologies for decades. Ed Kim, president and chief analyst at automotive consulting firm AutoPacific, said General Motors deserves credit for being the first automaker to address the issue of rear seat warnings in 2001. The industry committed in 2019 to placing a back seat reminder in every new vehicle by 2025.
“Market research shows safety and security are some of the most important things for consumers when buying a vehicle,” Kim told ABC News.
Many vehicles now display safety alerts in the gauge cluster. Some of the tech can be manually disabled, prompting concerns that drivers may become indifferent to it.
Simon Roberts, a father of two small children and an engineer at Toyota Connected North America, said Toyota has been aggressively working toward a solution to the issue, one that’s becoming more perilous with each year as temperatures spike. In May, the Japanese automaker introduced its “Cabin Awareness” concept, which is currently undergoing real-world testing with May Mobility, an autonomous-vehicle company.
“We want to be an extra set of virtual eyes if you will,” Roberts told ABC News. “We don’t like the status quo and won’t accept it.”
The Cabin Awareness concept deploys millimeter-wave, high-resolution 4D imaging radar to determine if a person or pet has been left behind in a locked vehicle. The imaging radar sensor, located above the headliner, can detect a life form even after a driver exits, according to Toyota. If a child or pet is locked inside, warning signals will light up on the instrument cluster. The vehicle will make noise and the driver may get notifications via the Toyota app as well as text messages, the company said. Moreover, the technology can send alerts through smart home devices or send text messages to designated emergency contacts.
Roberts said the team is also currently exploring vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications to get the attention of passersby. The engineering team took inspiration from a microwave radar technology created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that was able to detect human breathing and heartbeats under more than 30 feet of rubble after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal in 2015.
“Good people make mistakes and this can happen to any of us,” Roberts said. “This is a big issue we need to solve.”
Roberts pointed out that opening windows in a locked car can still cause heat stroke and death for occupants inside. More than 900 children have died of heatstroke since 1998, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A child can die when his or her body temperature reaches 107 degrees and a child’s body temperature rises three to five times faster than an adult’s, NHTSA states on its website.
Korean automaker Hyundai first rolled out its Ultrasonic Rear Occupant Alert sensor in the Palisade SUV for model year 2020. The sophisticated sensing-based alert sets off blinking lights, honks the horn and sends a text message via Hyundai’s telematics Bluelink connected car system, directing the driver to immediately check the back seat. Though the Ultrasonic technology is only available in select models for now, a Hyundai spokesperson said a Rear Occupant Alert (ROA) system comes standard in 99% of the company’s vehicles. When the driver shut offs the vehicle, a reminder pops up on the instrument panel to check the rear seat.
“We’re trying to be pioneers in this space,” Brian Latouf, chief safety officer of Hyundai Motor North America, told ABC News. “We’re paying close attention to this issue and messaging and communication are important.”
Right now there are limitations to the Ultrasonic sensor, Latouf noted. The vehicle has to be locked for an alert to be sent via the Bluelink system and not all Hyundai drivers are connected to the Bluelink app. The ultrasonic sensor looks for motion so a sleeping child may not trigger the system, he added. The vehicle, however, will still honk and display the “check rear seat” message on the instrument panel dash.
“We’re learning from Ultrasonic to make it more accurate and we are considering finer-tuned systems like infrared technology,” Latouf said.
Electric carmaker Tesla launched its “Dog Mode” in 2019 so owners could keep their pets in an air-conditioned cabin while the vehicle was unattended. A message on the large screen says “My owner will be back soon” and displays the temperature inside.
Kim, like Fennell, said these alerts — while largely helpful — can cause drivers to become inured to the constant warnings. The current tech may also desensitize motorists to real emergencies and create liabilities for companies.
“Certainly there is a risk if a warning becomes such a part of the routine that you just start ignoring it. That’s definitely a concern,” Kim said. “There are people who will get so accustomed to the warning that it becomes meaningless and they don’t pay attention to it anymore.”
He added, “Having the alert is better than not having it and this feature doesn’t cost much for an automaker to implement.”
Brian Moody, executive editor of Kelley Blue Book, said these warning systems add an “extra level of sophistication” to the vehicle and are an important selling point. The larger debate may be whether automakers are liable if the alert technology fails in a car with children and pets inside, he said.
“At some level there has to be personal responsibility,” Moody told ABC News.
There are ways to prevent hot car deaths without technology: teaching children to honk the horn if they get stuck inside or placing an important item in the rear as a reminder. Fennell said she’ll keep pushing for more advancements until no child dies in a hot car. If Toyota’s Concept Cabin system becomes a reality, Roberts said the company would be open to sharing its technology with industry competitors.
“This is a social good initiative,” he said. “If we can help the industry move forward, why wouldn’t we do that?”
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. hiring saw a dramatic increase in July, as the economy added 528,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
The report defied expectations of a hiring slowdown as the Federal Reserve carries out a fight against inflation that aims to slash demand by cooling the economy but risks tipping the country into a recession.
Evidence of a softening labor market had mounted this week amid layoffs at high-profile companies like Walmart and Robinhood, as well as a government report that showed a steep decline in job openings in June.
The 528,000 jobs added in July marks a significant uptick from 372,000 jobs added in June. Moreover, the figures signals an improvement from the already-robust hiring sustained over the first half of 2022, during which the economy added an average of 461,000 jobs each month.
The overall robust hiring in recent months defies typical conditions for a recession, Daniel Zhao, a senior economist at the career site Glassdoor, told ABC News prior to the data release.
“It would be very unusual to have a recession when we’re still adding several hundred thousand jobs a month,” he said.
While a faster pace of hiring may cheer some economists and everyday Americans, the signal of strengthening labor demand may put more pressure on the Fed to sustain its aggressive interest rate hikes. At meetings in each of the past two months, the central bank has increased its benchmark interest rate 0.75% — dramatic hikes last matched in 1994.
Despite a series of borrowing cost increases meant to slash prices, inflation has not only persisted but worsened. Data released last month showed that prices jumped a staggering 9.1% in June, which amounts to the highest inflation rate in more than four decades.
Alarmingly, the price increases have coincided with shrinking economic output. Gross domestic product dropped at an annualized rate of 0.9% in the second quarter after falling 1.6% in the previous quarter.
The recent trend qualifies for the shorthand definition of a recession consisting of two consecutive quarters of GDP decline. But the formal designation of a recession depends on a wider range of metrics weighed by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
So far this year, the tight labor market has offered up a strong corner of the economy. But employment data indicated softening on Tuesday, when a report released by the government showed that job openings fell steeply in June to their lowest level in nine months. The 10.7 million job vacancies reported in June, however, remains an elevated figure.
Meanwhile, a slew of major companies in recent days have announced job cuts or hiring slowdowns. Walmart laid off nearly 200 corporate employees on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. A day before, Robinhood announced plans to cut 23% of its staff. Tech giants Apple, Amazon and Google-parent company Alphabet have recently announced they will slow hiring.
(NEW YORK) — Wall Street will be closely watching the new U.S. employment data on Friday, the latest sign of whether the U.S. economy is entering a recession as the Federal Reserve carries out a fight against inflation that aims to slash demand by slowing the economy.
Resilient hiring in recent months has so far withstood a series of borrowing cost increases from the Fed but economists expect that the employment data for July will reveal a marked slowdown.
Evidence of a softening labor market has mounted this week amid layoffs at high-profile companies like Walmart and Robinhood, as well as a government report that showed a steep decline in job openings in June.
The median of economic forecasters anticipate 250,000 nonfarm payrolls were added in July, according to Bloomberg. The figure would mark the lowest monthly gain since December and a significant drop from 372,000 jobs added in June. The unemployment rate stood at a near-historic low of 3.6% in June.
Moreover, the expected figure would signal a departure from the robust hiring sustained over the first half of 2022, during which the economy added an average of 461,000 jobs each month.
“The labor market has been a bright spot in the economy but there are signs that the labor market is clearly cooling,” Daniel Zhao, a senior economist at the career site Glassdoor, told ABC News. “It does seem like the labor market is healthy — even as demand slows, layoffs are still very slow.”
While a hiring slowdown may alarm economists and everyday Americans, the signal of weakening labor demand could relieve pressure on the Fed to sustain its aggressive interest rate hikes. At meetings in each of the past two months, the central bank has increased its benchmark interest rate 0.75% — dramatic hikes last matched in 1994.
Despite a series of borrowing cost increases meant to slash prices, inflation has not only persisted but worsened. Data released last month showed that prices jumped a staggering 9.1% in June, which amounts to the highest inflation rate in more than four decades.
Alarmingly, the price increases have coincided with shrinking economic output. Gross domestic product dropped at an annualized rate of 0.9% in the second quarter after falling 1.6% in the previous quarter.
The recent trend qualifies for the shorthand definition of a recession consisting of two consecutive quarters of GDP decline. But the formal designation of a recession depends on a wider range of metrics weighed by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
So far this year, the tight labor market has offered up a strong corner of the economy. But employment data indicated softening on Tuesday, when a report released by the government showed that job openings fell steeply in June to their lowest level in nine months. The 10.7 million job vacancies reported in June, however, remains an elevated figure.
Meanwhile, a slew of major companies in recent days have announced job cuts or hiring slowdowns. Walmart laid off nearly 200 corporate employees on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. A day before, Robinhood announced plans to cut 23% of its staff. Tech giants Apple, Amazon and Google-parent company Alphabet have recently announced they will slow hiring.
Still, the overall robust hiring in recent months defies typical conditions for a recession, said Zhao of Glassdoor.
“It would be very unusual to have a recession when we’re still adding several hundred thousand jobs a month,” he said. “Of course, if we have a surprisingly bad report where we see job losses this month, then that could change the picture.”
(NEW YORK) — Trae Bodge, smart shopping expert, shared her tips for saving on groceries with Good Morning America, to help consumers keep costs down at checkout.
Consumer prices on food experienced the largest annual increase in over four decades since February 1981, with costs skyrocketing 10.4% in the 12-month period ending June, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Within the “food at home” category — grocery store food products purchased for cooking or eating at home — prices rose 12.2% over the last year, the largest increase since 1979.
Top tips to stay on a budget in the grocery store:
Eat vegetarian
“You might find that poultry, meats, and fish have increased more in price than vegetables and other items, like rice and pasta,” Bodge said. “If that’s the case in your area, you could save a bundle by eating [vegetarian meals] a couple of nights a week.”
Use coupon sites to save
“You might think of coupon sites for clothing and tech, but not for food, when in fact coupon sites like CouponCabin.com have offers for grocery delivery, like $25 off $35 or more at Instacart or $55 off $99 or more,” she said of the simple at-your-fingertips savings option.
Don’t buy pre-cut produce
Buy fruits and vegetables whole and prepare them at home. “You’re paying for labor when you buy pre-cut,” she explained.
Look low and high on store shelves
“You’re more likely to find better deals on the lowest and highest shelves. Brands pay for prime real estate at eye level, but there are hidden gems in less visible spots,” Bodge suggested.
Read between the price tags
“You can determine whether or not an item is a good deal by comparing the cost-per-unit rather than the actual price,” she said, explaining that the sticker price doesn’t always reflect the total value.
Look out for “shrinkflation”
“Many brands are shrinking the size or weight of their products and charging the same price,” Bodge said, adding that shoppers should always check the unit prices when selecting items.
Join loyalty programs
Bodge advised using rewards programs — sticking to the stores where you shop most often — which may “offer a free way to earn points towards future purchases.”
“They offer exclusive deals and some will even allow you to qualify for free things, like a free turkey at Thanksgiving or a free gas card,” she said.
Credit cards with grocery perks
“Using the right credit card to buy your groceries could earn you some serious cash back. Cards with annual fees typically have more generous cash-back [offers], like 4% or more on food from American Express Gold, but there are some fee-free cards that offer this, including the Bread Cashback American Express from Bread Financial, which offers 2% cashback on all purchases,” she said. “Another good fee-free card is the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa, which allows you to earn 5% on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases.”
Buy frozen
“In certain cases,” Bodge said, this tactic “can be a big money-saver.”
“I find this especially with fish and certain vegetables,” she added. “Plus, frozen has a longer shelf life.”
Buy generic
“You can save 20% or more by doing this and you’ll find that many of the ingredient listings match the brand name word for word,” Bodge said. “In fact, store brands or generics are often made in the same factories as the name brand.”
Buy seasonal produce
“You will do much better on price, versus buying things that need to be imported,” Bodge said. “Also, check out your local CSA — community-supported agriculture is a food system for farmers and producers to connect directly with consumers. This is a great way to support local farmers and the pricing is often very good.”
Bodge, however, recommended against “buying at farmers markets if you’re on a tight budget.”
Only buy in bulk on most-used items
“If there are certain items that you go through quickly, like toilet paper, pastas, canned goods or snacks for your kids’ lunches, buy them in bulk if you have a Costco or Sam’s Club membership,” Bodge suggested. “You can also often buy in bulk on Amazon and on a site like Boxed.com.”
(NEW YORK) — Meta said it is focused on continuing to disrupt emerging cybersecurity threats, including “perception hacking” efforts that could attempt to create unjustified fears about the security of U.S. elections.
In its new “Quarterly Adversarial Threat Report” released Thursday, Meta details how it took action on two cyberespionage operations and removed three networks that were engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB) — campaigns that seek to manipulate public debate.
Since 2017, the company says it has been able to disrupt the activities of coordinated networks aimed at manipulating users with fake accounts using coordinated inauthentic behavior. The efforts have been successful at driving these networks off of Facebook and have made it harder for other entities to maintain access on the social media platform, Meta says.
Meta says in the report that cyberespionage actors tend to target individuals across the internet in an effort “to collect intelligence manipulate them into revealing information and compromise their devices and accounts.”
Meta’s Facebook took action on two separate cyberespionage operations from South Asia this past quarter, both of which used malware to infect users’ devices. One of the operations was from the hacker group known as Bitter APT, the report says.
The hacker group targeted users with malware in New Zealand, India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom, Meta’s report says.
The report also revealed the company had removed networks promoting misinformation and harassment in India, Indonesia, Greece and South Africa.
Additionally, Facebook removed three networks engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior, including one network linked to an Israeli public relations firm and two troll farms from Malaysia and Russia.
The Russian operation, the self-proclaimed CyberFront Z, focused on targeting global discourse on the war in Ukraine, the report says.
The pro-Russia operation attempted to mirror the anti-war communities defending Ukraine through the use of fake accounts run by paid posters, the report says. Despite the effort, pro-Ukraine and anti-war comments typically outnumbered the pro-Russia group’s comments.
Ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, a spokesperson for Meta told reporters the company has not seen any coordinated inauthentic behavior operations specifically targeting the November elections.
But the company warns of the idea of perception hacking — capitalizing on the public’s fear of influence operations by trying to create the false perception of widespread manipulation, even if there is no evidence.
David Agranovich, Meta’s director of threat disruption, told ABC News, “as we go into the midterm elections, I think the thing we’re particularly working to make sure we’re ready for is these perception hacking offers where the operations go anywhere where they tried to get eyeballs and amplification from other people talking about how effective they were.”
Agranovich said its important to counter these efforts.
“Make sure people understand that they’re just sometimes not that effective,” he said. “And yet, we’ll still be on high alert. We haven’t seen the CIB’s yet but we’re gonna keep watching.”
(NEW YORK) — Two of former President Donald Trump’s grown children have been deposed by the New York Attorney General’s Office as part of its civil investigation into the family real estate business, sources familiar with the testimony told ABC News.
Ivanka Trump sat for her deposition on Wednesday, while Donald Trump Jr. appeared last week, the sources said. Their depositions were postponed following the death of their mother, Ivana Trump, last month.
It was not immediately clear what questions they were asked or how they responded.
A spokeswoman for New York Attorney General Letitia James declined to comment.
Former President Trump, who has denied wrongdoing and called the investigation politically motivated, is expected to sit for a deposition with James’ investigators later this month after he and his children lost repeated attempts to avoid giving depositions in the case.
Trump argued unsuccessfully he should not have to sit for a deposition while the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was conducting a parallel criminal investigation. While the district attorney’s case remains active, two senior prosecutors who had been leading it resigned earlier this year over the lack of an indictment.
The Manhattan district attorney’s investigation did produce criminal charges for the Trump Organization and its longtime CFO, Allen Weisselberg. Both have pleaded not guilty. Trump himself has called those charges “shameful” and “a disgrace.”
James has said her office has uncovered evidence of potentially fraudulent conduct in the way the Trump Organization valued its real estate holdings, allegedly overvaluing properties like 40 Wall Street and even the former president’s Trump Tower apartment.
Her deputies have said in court the office is nearing a decision on an enforcement action.
ABC News’ John Santucci contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As summer break draws to a close, parents are hitting the ground running with back-to-school shopping.
Back-to-school essentials traditionally ranged from notebooks and pens to t-shirts and gym socks — but now these lists have grown to include pricey technology like cell phones, tablets, laptops and more. All of those things can really add up.
Refurbished tech is one way to help combat elevated costs. “Refurbished” in this case typically means items that were returned for repairs or were no longer wanted. Deals on refurbished tech are available on websites like Back Market (not the black market!), eBay Certified Refurbished, Apple, Bose, Microsoft, Samsung and Amazon.
ABC News’ Becky Worley shared tips with Good Morning America recently for parents looking to buy refurbished — and save a few dollars — this back-to-school season.
What should you buy refurbished and how much can you save?
Savings from purchasing refurbished items can range from 15% to 50% off retail prices.
Worley found a refurbished Apple Watch with cellular connection for calls and texts can be purchased from Apple for about $80 to $190 off, depending on the model. A Samsung Galaxy S20 sells for $499 new, but $299 on Back Market, while an iPhone 11 sells for $549 new, but costs $80 less if bought refurbished.
When buying refurbished through Apple, you typically can get a “new outer shell, new battery, new box, and you can get Apple Care insurance for it,” she said.
When it comes to buying cell phones, Worley recommends buying them no older than two years to ensure the hardware can handle the newer operating systems.
What about laptops?
Worley found a refurbished Chromebook for $356, 15% off its original price of $429. Despite this, she said there were not ample options for laptops if you are looking for something specific.
“It can be tough to find the exact specification you want because of limited quantities of refurbished [items],” Worley said.
What should you be cautious about when buying refurbished?
Make sure you are purchasing certified refurbished products and not items from resellers. Buyers should also look for a good warranty and return policy.
Worley does not recommend purchasing refurbished TVs due to the high possibility of the item getting damaged during shipping.
“It’s really difficult to protect TVs in packaging during shipping, so if it’s been shipped to the original consumer, shipped back to the vendor on the return, then shipped to the manufacturer for refurbishing and then shipped out to you. That’s four opportunities for the thing to get damaged,” Worley said.
Other items she does not recommend buying refurbished are printers and hard drives.
“People don’t return them for cosmetic defects or worn-out batteries. They were more likely to have a mechanical issue that caused them to be returned. I say buy those new or make sure they have really long warranties,” Worley said.
(WASHINGTON) — Travelers could soon have more rights if their flight is canceled or delayed, as the Department of Transportation looks to “strengthen” protections for consumers seeking refunds.
The agency proposed a rule Wednesday that, if enacted, would define the terms of a “significant” change and cancellation for the first time.
Currently, passengers are entitled to refunds if an airline has “made a significant schedule change and/or significantly delays a flight and the consumer chooses not to travel” — though the DOT has not yet defined what “significant” means.
Under the rule, the department would outline significant changes as:
Changes that affect the departure and/or arrival times by three hours or more for a domestic flight or six hours or more for an international flight
Changes to the departure or arrival airport
Changes that increase the number of connections in the itinerary; and
Changes to the type of aircraft flown if it causes a significant downgrade in the air travel experience or amenities available onboard the flight.
The move comes amid increased complaints against airlines — the majority of which concern refunds and flight service, according to data from the agency.
“I think the DOT has heard that passengers are fed up with some of the sleight of hand that airlines are pulling and some of the actions that are not consumer-friendly,” Henry Harteveldt, travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group, said in an interview with ABC News.
In addition, the rule would “codify the department’s longstanding interpretation that a failure to provide refunds when a carrier cancels or significantly changes a flight to, from or within the United States is an unfair practice,” the DOT said.
“The problem, I think, up until now has been that you as an individual traveler don’t necessarily know what is a significant delay on Delta, versus American, versus Southwest, versus Spirit is — It could be significantly different on each airline,” Scott Keyes, founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights, told ABC News. “And those airlines don’t even necessarily mention explicitly what they consider to be a significant delay.”
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. airlines have issued $21 billion in cash refunds, according to Airlines for America (A4A), the group that lobbies on behalf of all major U.S. airlines. Cash refunds accounted for 8% of passenger revenues in 2021 and 22.3% of passenger revenues in 2020, versus 4.3% in 2019, A4A said.
The public will have 90 days to comment on the proposed rule. Once that period ends, the DOT will review and analyze the comments, and then decide whether to proceed with a final rule as proposed or with modifications, issue a new or modified proposal, or withdraw the proposal altogether.
