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EECB To AT&T Succeeds Where Small Claims Court Fails
It depends on the state. I was told by a small claims specialist (attorney) that claims for specific performance in California small claims are unusual, but legitimate, and can be ordered by the judge if there's adequate justification in the circumstances of the case.
Priscilla Of Boston Spray-Paints Unsold Wedding Gowns To Keep Them From Grubby Poor People
Someone should fish the dresses out of the trash, buy a gallon of Goof-Off, treat the areas spray painted, and gently wash (or dryclean) the dresses. Problem solved.
Bank Of America Kicks Man Out Of Mortgage Modification Program Over 80 Cents
50 bucks says this isn't a small oversight in BofA's computer system, but an intentionally programmed "feature" so they can get 3 or 4 extra payments out of the hapless borrower before foreclosing anyway.
The occasional person smart enough to make a big enough stink in the blogosphere triggers the "Oh, we're so sorry, this never should have happened" response, but, of course, then business goes on as usual, no changes to the code that caused the "error" and thousands more lose their homes.
When will people wake up and insist their elected officials stop turning a blind eye to the shady behavior of BofA?
PayPal Continues War Against Regretsy, Freezes All Accounts & Halts Gift Exchange
Unfortunately, it sounds like Helen got some power-hungry customer service rep that thinks that someone appointed him or her Supreme Commander or something.
I can't count how many times I've had some ill-trained customer service supervisor insist there's no one with more authority than they have, that no one will *ever* override their decision, and so forth. I have yet to have a situation where I couldn't -- sometimes with some concerted effort -- get past the power monger and find someone that actually had a brain who was interested in solving the problem.
I suspect this is the beginning of a really awful PR nightmare for Paypal and even as godawful as Paypal is, I would be willing to wager that, once the PR storm hits, this will eventually have a satisfactory resolution, with somebody-or-another at Paypal falling all over themselves apologizing and claiming "misunderstanding" and so forth. And the piece of crap rep who caused the problem won't be fired or even disciplined, because that's customer service in 2011.
Your Epson All-In-One Will Arbitrarily Self-Destruct Once It Prints Enough Pages
Bought a Konica Minolta laser printer almost 10 years ago.
Got it home, read the manual, and realized that if I didn't buy genuine Konica Minolta replacement toner, it would go into "maintenance mode" and print at 1/3 speed. Absolutely no reason for that. Their support staff said they had "hundreds" of complaints.
I returned it and bought a Samsung which has served me reliably for years now.
I haven't bought a Konica Minolta product since and have posted everywhere I can so others would know about the scam.
I guess it's time to add Epson to the list, which is a shame, because they used to be known for their extraordinarily reliable and reasonably priced printers. (Anyone remember the MX-80?)
Rebecca Black Friday Kohl's Ad Annoys Pretty Much Everyone
Yeah I noticed her in one scene (where the person steals something out of her hand) and after you pointed it out I noticed it really is every scene. Hilarious!
Apparently, Any Transaction Can Be 'Foreign'
Bank of America is, (surprise), the king of this sort of fraud.
We recently made a purchase from a software company. This was the third such purchase from them in 6 months, and not inconsequential (about $900 each time)
The company has their main sales office in Texas. The home office is in Australia. Transactions and payments are made and settled in US dollars.
The first time, we paid with a BofA credit card. BofA charged us $27 as a "foreign transaction fee" even though the transaction wasn't foreign. I bitched loudly, and they removed the fee (only after a 20 minute argument.)
The second time, we paid with Paypal, which, in turn, funded the transaction from the same BofA card. No fee.
The third time, we again paid with Paypal, with funding from the BofA card. This time, in spite of the fact that BofA's transaction was with Paypal, not with the merchant, and the fact that the transaction took place in the US and settled in US funds, BofA charged $27 again.
It took an act of God, but eventually I got BofA to reverse this fee. When I asked them what possible excuse they had for charging $27 for a transaction that was done with a US company (Paypal), using US funds, where there was no foreign currency whatsoever, the woman in the "president's office" (which, of course, was some call center full of people trained to lie) had no answer at all other than "Our terms of service permit us to do this."
She eventually admitted that this was a recent change to their TOS and that, while customers were notified there was a TOS change, it was buried in with many other changes, and no actual notice of the changes was provided, only a mention that they'd changed and that people could go to the website to read the changes.
Asshats.
Update: Sprint Is Still Giving Me The iPhone Run Around
I once had a problem with Sprint that got up to the so-called "Executive Assistant to the CEO's" office. The so-called executive assistant even included a cc on her emails to the then-chairman. (Which I called her on and told her to quit insulting my intelligence.) Of course, all of this was complete BS... she was one of probably 100 such "executive assistant" reps in a call center 1000 miles away from the CEO and had never met the man. She insisted that she had no supervisor other than the CEO, that her word was final, and that nothing else could be done.
I tracked down the number for the corporate headquarters, found the name of the *real* assistant to the CEO, called and asked for her directly. I reached her and started by apologizing for wasting her time, that I was about to file suit against Sprint, and that this so-called Executive Assistant wasn't helping, and insisted that there was no one above her, and that I needed someone to help me. Entire call lasted about 45 seconds.
About 15 minutes later I got a call back from the (previously nonexistent) supervisor of the Executive-Assistant-with-no-supervisor. Within 24 hours, the problem that had taken over a month and dozens of phonecalls was completely resolved.
I would suggest a similar action.
I would also look into whether the OP's state has specific regulations, as does California, on cell return policies. If it does, then perhaps threatening Sprint with a complaint to the state AG's office might get some attention.
This is really a case of some numbnut customer service rep trying to show how powerful she is rather than a company unwilling to resolve the problem. It's just a matter of getting to the right person.
BofA Ending $5 Debit Card Fee
These shiftless bastards aren't doing anything. All they've done is remove the obvious and easy-to-spot $5 debit fee.
What they'll do instead is find a bunch of other deceptive and/or blatantly fraudulent ways to steal the same money they otherwise would have made by hiding it in fees and such.
Their latest scam? If you make a Paypal transaction where the money goes to a non-US entity, Bank of America charges you a 3% "currency conversion fee" *EVEN THOUGH* Paypal does the currency conversion, settles the funds with BofA in US dollars, and there is absolutely no interaction that BofA has whatsoever with foreign currency in that transaction. When questioned on it, their reps are trained to lie their asses off, change the subject, misdirect, and otherwise avoid.
Watch for a dozen more such scams from these asshats.
Comments from calchip
FedEx Seems To Think Any Front Door Will Do For Package Delivery
FedEx used to be extraordinary. I can remember several times when they had delayed or misrouted packages and they put them on commercial flights and had a special courier bring them to me. And Fred Smith (founder) was quoted years ago as saying "99% of our packages are delivered on time, and that's not acceptable. If we handle a million packages, it means 10,000 people didn't get what they paid for, and that isn't right. We're working for as close to 100% as we can get." More recently, he was quoted as saying something to the effect that "Well, 85% of our packages are delivered on time, and we think that's pretty good."
I don't know what happened, but my guess is they just got cheap and greedy and don't give a fuck any more.