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Your search for “unscrewed” produced “21” results

Locked In A Greyhound Bathroom For More Than An Hour
By Laura Northrup on August 25, 2011 12:09 PM  
What's worse than using the bathroom on a bus? Getting locked in there for an hour and a half. Barbara's mother decided to use facilities half an hour before her bus was due at its destination, but miscommunication meant that a mechanic was never summoned, and she remained trapped for an hour and fifteen minutes. More »

(Taoviet.vn)

Congratulations, Apple: You Lost Another Prototype iPhone?
By Meg Marco on May 12, 2010 11:40 AM  
The internet is all a flutter over pictures from Vietnamese forum Taoviet.vn that seem to show a new lost iPhone 4G prototype. This one is all "16GB", turns on, and once ripped apart, appears to contain an Apple-branded processor. More »

Super 8 In Pasadena Is Super Run Down
By Chris Walters on January 6, 2009 12:40 AM  

—>You know you're not in for a life-changing experience when you get a room at a Super 8 motel, but you at least expect that for $190 a night, there will be hot water and blankets big enough to cover both you and your girlfriend. And no plywood in the bathroom. And four legs holding up the bed. But not at the Super 8 in Pasadena, CA, according to Matt, who was just there for the Rose Bowl.  More »

EECB Cures Ikea Phone Loop, Induces Mass Customer Service
By Alex Jarvis on November 20, 2008 4:30 PM  

—>All reader Scott wanted to do was get his daughter a 'Big Girl Bed'. After a nearly 6-hour trek to a nearly empty Ikea, Scott had to grab the name of the bed and attempt to pick it up himself at the 'furniture pick-up'. However, when he arrived home, he was not happy to learn that it didn't come with all the pieces he needed to build it. Stuck in a robot-phone loop, Scott turned to the tried-and-true EECB. See Scott's letter, as well as Ikea's response, inside.   More »

7 Things You Should Never Say To A Customer Service Rep, And 7 Things You Should
By Chris Walters on August 11, 2008 1:15 PM  

—>Ron Burley, the man behind "Unscrewed: The Consumers� Guide to Getting What You Paid For," has published two articles on how to effectively deal with customer service reps. On the Do Not Want side, you shouldn't threaten legal action, because it will likely shut down any further communication as the company goes into automatic CYA mode. (You don't want to tip your hand about any legal action anyway.) What you should say is "Thank you," because being nice might help you stand out among the parade of complainers.  More »

Simplehuman's Excellent Customer Service Makes Other Companies Look Like Garbage
By Chris Walters on June 12, 2008 3:24 PM  

—>Pani just had an astoundingly good bit of customer service from aptly-named simplehuman—makers of those elegant-but-expensive trash cans—and wrote to let us know about it. Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, and every cable, cellular, and telephone company, you might want to print this out and pass it around your CSR executive offices.  More »

Interview With Ron Burley, Customer Service Avenger
By Ben Popken on March 12, 2008 4:00 PM  

—>"There's only one leverage any consumer has with a company. And that's financial." So says Ron Burley, author of UNSCREWED: The Consumer's Guide To Getting What You Paid For. I got to interview Ron Burley to plumb his brain about his customer satisfaction hacks, and the current state of affairs of customer service. His techniques are bold and make no apologies. We're not talking letters, and forms, and complaint departments. These are real methods for real people that work real fast. He also goes into the mindset that you need to develop if you're going to get results. Bookmark this post, it's an epic barnburner. Transcript, inside...  More »

Consumer's Revenge Against Restaurant Not Honoring Coupons
By consumerist.com on October 30, 2007 7:04 PM  

Alan writes:

Three co-workers and I went out to lunch. We brought a coupon that said, "Buy one entree, and receive 50% off a second entree of equal or lower price." Three of us ordered food from the Entree section of the menu, but one of us ordered something from the [cheap] Sandwich section.  More »

The Ultimate Consumerist Guide To Fighting Back (Revised Edition)
By Chris Walters on October 30, 2007 3:00 AM  

—> We've posted recently about how to fight back when a business screws you over, and we've posted a lot of executive contact info over the years. Now we're packaging the two together into one big mega-post of usefulness: a one-stop-stop for figuring out what you need to do to start a customer complaint, or how to escalate a stalled one so that it can be resolved.  More »

Top Posts Of The Week
By Ben Popken on October 12, 2007 11:43 AM  
""Have I got your attention now?" asked Mona Shaw of the Comcast payment center employees as she smashed their keyboard, monitor and telephone."  More »

Get Your Complaint Solved: Quick Beats Nice
By consumerist.com on October 11, 2007 3:57 PM  

—>Some of the tactics we recommend to consumers battling large and/or indifferent business are faster rather than nicer, and with good reason.  More »

The Ultimate Consumerist Guide To Fighting Back
By consumerist.com on October 8, 2007 8:19 PM  

—>If you have a legitimate grievance with a company that they're not helping you solve, here are 15 hand-picked articles of ours that will be your blueprint to kicking ass. They're arranged in 3 escalating tiers, depending on how far you want-to/have-to take it. If you're ready to stop getting mad and start getting results, check out the posts inside...  More »

My Mayo Exploded!
By consumerist.com on October 8, 2007 3:52 PM  

—>This jar of exploding mayonnaise serves as a reminder why one should pay attention to the "sell-by" dates on the sides of packages. Submitter Doug writes:

Yesterday my mother went to open a new jar of Stop and Shop light mayonnaise. After she unscrewed the cap the contents started bubbling out from under the seal. She removed the seal and the result is what you see here. We took it back to the store, where they apologized and replaced it with the non-exploding kind.
You can see in the picture that the jar is six months past its sell-by date. UPDATE: Oops, we're stupid, that's the year 2008. Damn, there's no reason for this mayo to go unless maybe that's a misprint. Why would it explode, though? Bacteria get inside and cause a gaseous buildup? We're betting heavy on "compromised seal." Full-size pics inside...  More »

Apple Store Says You "Must" Have Dropped Your Laptop - No I Didn't - Yes You Did - No I Didn't - Please Leave The Store
By consumerist.com on October 3, 2007 4:55 PM  

—>UPDATE: Apple Store Says You "Must" Have Dropped Your Laptop - No I Didn't - Yes You Did - No I Didn't - Please Leave The Store

Last Wendesday, I was sitting in my dorm room by myself, doing homework on my Macbook, which is less than two months old. After typing my essay for a while, I went on my bed to do some other homework. Nobody else was in the room at all during this time, just me. After about 10 minutes, I returned to my computer, opening it only to see that 1/3 of the screen was broken.  More »

Man Fights IKEA Customer Service Over Defective LILLBERG Couch, Loses
By Ben Popken on September 8, 2007 3:20 PM  

—>

A week after we moved and put the new covers on, our IKEA LILLBERG sofa broke. Right in half. The main support beam gave out right at the dovetail joint, and even split a board in the process. We were devastated, but figured that we'd be able to wrangle something out of it. Standard customer service would replace the couch, right?
  More »

How To Never Ever Get In Trouble For Recording Calls With Customer Service
By consumerist.com on August 27, 2007 5:30 PM  
Me: [Laugh] Thanks. Anyway, here's what's going on with me today...  More »

Get What You Paid For
By consumerist.com on August 24, 2007 6:00 PM  
Consumer advocate Ron Burley describes the reasons the state of customer service is in such disrepair, and the basic gist on how consumers can get what they paid for when things go wrong. More »

Can You Do Simple Math? Good, Then You'll Soon Realize Why You Need To Resolve My Complaint...
By consumerist.com on August 23, 2007 7:02 PM  

—>I'm continuing to read Unscrewed, and in this paragraph, author Ron Burley distills the basic premise behind forcing companies that have wronged you to give you what is due:

...one simple principle I have discovered that was extraordinarily effective in getting a fair resolution to a consumer problem: companies will act only in a manner that will benefit the bottom line. In other words, to get what you deserve, you must convince your opponent that helping you will be to his or her advantage.
Do the right thing? Corporate citizenship? Ethics? Plain ol' fairnes? These words and phrases mean little to many big companies for whom churn, the rate at which customers leave and take business elsewhere, is a basic part of their business model. But they do understand the simple equation of incurring the least costs. Make the company realize that it will cost more to ignore you than to help you and soon you may find the tables turning in your favor.  More »

Company Ignoring You? Fax 'Em To Death
By Ben Popken on August 21, 2007 8:14 PM  

—>Giant corporation ignoring your repeated and valid pleas? After exhausting traditional methods of complaint resolution, including, but not limited to, at least calling at least once and escalating to a supervisor, try "Faxing For Dollars," another get-em-by-the-balls technique described by Ron Burley in his book, Unscrewed: The Consumer's Guide To Getting What You Paid ForMore »

How To Kick A Scammy Car Dealer In The Nuts
By consumerist.com on August 20, 2007 3:11 PM  

—>While we spend a lot of time on this site talking about the importance of writing a good complaint letter, of finding the executive contact info, and cc'ing letters to appropriate regulatory bodies, sometimes the best way to win is to stop playing Mr. Nice Guy and start playing hardball. Demonstrate, in no uncertain terms, just how much more costly it would be for the business to ignore your complaint than to resolve it. That's the lesson learned from, Unscrewed: The Consumer's Guide To Getting What You Paid ForMore »