Do you enjoy product reviews from our sibling publication Consumer Reports, but wish that there were more smashing? Do you love the classic “Will it Blend?” YouTube videos, but want to see items destroyed in more realistic situations? You’re in luck. The hard-working experts at extended warranty/protection plan provider SquareTrade conducted a publicity stunt series of tests on current top-of-the-line smartphones to see which was most likely to survive being dropped on a corner from shoulder height, dunked in water, and slid across a table. That last one is kind of anticlimactic. [More]
SquareTrade Hurls Samsung Galaxy S4 At The Ground, Probably Denies Own Claim
By April 30, 2013
Why Rechargeable Batteries And Durable Water Piks Don’t Mix
By March 28, 2013
The Waterpik Cordless Plus Water Flosser is a great product, which lists for $50 and usually costs about $40. For that price, though, you aren’t buying it: you’re renting it. That’s what Jeff found out when he bought one. The rechargeable battery stopped working just past the warranty expiration date. He bought another: maybe that was a fluke. The new toothbrush lasted a whole 13 months. [More]
Samsung: If You Want Us To Fix Your MP3 Player, You Have To Fly To Hong Kong
By March 25, 2013
The beauty of shopping online is that it’s easy to bring products from all over the world into our homes with a little bit of typing and a major credit card. The problem with buying from abroad, though, is that products for different markets don’t come with the same consumer protections. And sometimes you don’t know that you’re buying a product destined for a different market at all. That’s where Cassi’s cautionary tale comes in. From a small discount site, Cassi bought a Samsung MP3 player. Samsung tells her that it was made for the Chinese market and that if she wants them to honor her warranty, she has to fly to Hong Kong. Being a sensible person, Cassi does not want to fly to Hong Kong over a $200 MP3 player. [More]
Samsung Wants To Patch Up My Defective Phone So It Can Break Again
By March 18, 2013
Alex has a Samsung Galaxy SII on AT&T, and his phone has one of the common defects of that model: it likes to randomly shut itself down for no reason. Instead of casting him into smartphone replacement purgatory, AT&T and Samsung are instead trying to divert him into repair purgatory. His phone will be totally fine after their repair, AT&T assured him. It wasn’t. He turned to Samsung and made his case to them. They were willing to repair his phone, but not replace it. [More]
Toshiba Sends Contractor To My House To Break My TV Even More, Shrugs
By March 11, 2013
Chad is getting surgery soon: a spinal fusion. He’d like to be able to lie around and stare at his TV while he recovers from the operation, but his TV isn’t working so well. Audio from the coaxial connection went fuzzy, and now doesn’t work at all. A technician came to repair the TV, which was under warranty, and just went ahead and drilled through the screen. Now Chad is stuck between the service company and Toshiba, and they just keep passing him back and forth. [More]
Time Doesn’t Really Fly When Repair Shop Keeps Your Clock For More Than 22 Years
By February 27, 2013
We’ve heard some horror stories about customer service here at Consumerist HQ, but the examples coming from customers of a clock shop in New York are totally taking the cake. One woman dropped off her timepiece for repairs 22 years ago… and hasn’t seen it since.
If Whirlpool Wants To Go Over Every Wire In My Fridge, They Can Do It Somewhere Else
By February 19, 2013
Edward bought a new Kitchenaid refrigerator back in September, and it lasted for four whole months. He had expected it to last a little longer than that. It all began with the water and ice dispenser breaking down. When a technician came to fix that and replaced the whole user interface, the appliance lost its ability to keep food cold. Now Edward’s family is using their crappy backup garage fridge while the repairwoman goes over the refrigerator wire by wire, trying to find the original problem. [More]
Bissell’s Warranty Replacement For Our Vacuum Is Just Terrible
By February 14, 2013
When they got married, Tim and his wife picked out their new Bissell vacuum cleaner from Consumer Reports’ list of top vacs. It was the most reliable for the money (around $250) and their first few years with it were glorious. Then it developed an inconvenient problem: part of the canister door fell off, and the entire door would always fall into the trash. It was a minor annoyance, but something they shouldn’t have to bother with for an appliance that’s under warranty. Right? [More]
Are Over-The-Stove Microwaves Just For Decoration?
By February 13, 2013
Maybe, when it comes to over-the-stove microwaves, you have two choices: you can use your stove a lot, or you can have a working microwave. Or, as reader Kyle’s wife puts it, you can have a kitchen built for looks or a kitchen built for cooks, but not both. Kyle wrote in about yesterday’s post regarding GE over-the-stove microwaves, and agrees with tipster JLP that perhaps the real problem is that over-the-stove microwaves aren’t designed to actually be used over stoves. [More]
I’m Stuck Without A Vacuum When My Dyson Gets Sucked Into A Black Hole
By February 12, 2013
Dyson vacuum cleaners have so much cachet that they’re a hot item with shoplifters. Reader Peter isn’t so thrilled with his Dyson, though. He was somehow under the impression that spending $400 on a device with a famously good warranty meant that getting his vacuum fixed or replaced would be a swift and simple process. It was not, but to be fair: the problems weren’t entirely Dyson’s fault. [More]
This Isn’t Your Grandma’s Pyrex, But The Customer Service Is Still Pretty Good
By February 8, 2013
The humble Pyrex dish seems like one of the few household items still made in the United States. Sure, they have some shattering issues due to a change in the composition of the glass, but are still relatively inexpensive kitchen workhorses. Jill is a big fan, and has a lot of Pyrex items in her kitchen. When one of her storage containers had a small crack in the middle of the side, she was ready to just toss it out, but called Pyrex on a whim. She had no receipt or other warranty information, but she gave them a call anyway. They had a surprise for her: a new container! [More]
Westinghouse Digital Offers Two Little TVs Instead Of Replacing My Big One
By February 6, 2013
Joe has followed our posts about Westinghouse Digital TVs with interest. When his 46″ set broke after only eight months, he used consumer ninja methods to get a refund, and went nuclear on the company. He wanted to warn other consumers not to do business with the company. [More]
Skullcandy Won’t Honor Earbud Warranty Because I Used Logic When Mailing Them Back
By February 5, 2013
Stephen goes through a lot of headphones, apparently. He had three defective pair of Skullcandy earbuds to return, so he complained about them and got return authorizations for all three. He sent them back using the mailing labels Skullcandy had given him. Unfortunately, he didn’t stick all three mailing labels on the outside of the box, and now Skullcandy says that means they’ll only replace one of them. [More]
How To Get Your Westinghouse Digital TV Repaired Or Replaced: Buy It At Costco
By February 5, 2013
Great news and terrible news for reader Mark, who can’t get Westinghouse Digital to repair his TV that broke after only three months. Heck, they won’t even pick up the phone. The great news is that another reader wrote in to tell us how he successfully got his Westinghouse TV first repaired, then replaced. The terrible news is that he accomplished this by buying the TV at Costco. [More]
My TV Breaks After 3 Weeks, Westinghouse Digital Really Doesn’t Care
By February 4, 2013
Mark’s wife is a Target employee and got them a pretty sweet discount on a Westinghouse Digital TV. That doesn’t mean that they got any special treatment when the TV broke down, though. He got the same, evidently crappy, treatment as everyone else whose relatively new TV has failed within the first month. [More]
Samsung’s Anti-Repair Depot Still In Business, Still Not Repairing Things
By January 29, 2013
Fortunately for Todd, his experience with Samsung’s anti-repair depot isn’t as bad as some we’ve heard. He just keeps sending his wife’s Chromebook in to get fixed, and they don’t repair it. He’d like to get it back so he can return it to Amazon and get a computer that actually boots up, but the anti-repair staff can’t figure out how to authorize sending him his own computer back. [More]
My Epson All-In-One Needs Ink To Scan To A USB Drive
By January 22, 2013
Imagine that you have one of those combination toaster oven-coffee machines that exist for some reason. You don’t have any more coffee in the house, but that’s okay, because you can still use it to make toast. Right? All-in-one printers don’t work on that principle. Venkat’s Epson Workforce 610 could still work as a perfectly serviceable scanner, but it can’t. Because Epson has made sure that if it doesn’t have a full inkjet cartridge in it right this minute, he can’t scan. [More]
Nintendo Scratches My 3DS And Loses Data During Repair, Shrugs
By January 15, 2013
Initially, Shawn thought that Nintendo had done a really great job repairing his 3DS. The control pad was working nicely. Only something wasn’t right: the pouch was missing where the SD memory card should have been. There was also a scratch on the device that hadn’t been there before. Cards themselves are cheap: it’s the data that’s irreplaceable, and that’s already gone. So what’s Shawn so upset about? Mostly that no one at Nintendo will admit that anything went wrong. [More]
