All Customer Service

Coldwater Creek Goes To Amazing Lengths To Get Discount For Tall Customer
Women's clothing retailer Coldwater Creek didn't have to do anything for Peri. She found a pair of pants that she liked in a retail store had the clerk order them in "tall" length for her. She couldn't use the 40% off coupon she had brought for the special order, since it wasn't considered an in-store purchase. Officially. She bought the pants anyway. Normally that would be the end of it, but then something really great happened. he sent a quick e-mail to the company, and received a response from corprorate...then a phone call from the manager of her local store, offering that 40% off retroactively. And a gift card. More »

How Amazon Was Amazing To Kindle Customer
Mike wasn't looking for a freebie. He just had a few cosmetic scratches on the touchscreen of his Kindle Fire and wanted to know if there was a way he could minimize them or buff them out. He called up Amazon to ask, and their solution wasn't a healing screen cover or a special polish. They shipped out a new device to him the very next day. More »

Someone At Mediacom Forged My Signature On A Service Contract
Stephen G. moved into a new apartment and decided to sign up for service for Mediacom Cable (not to be confused with the London-based media agency MediaCom). He called the local representative on an ad he'd been given, and was told he didn't have to sign a two-year contract, so he didn't. Later he found out his name was on a Mediacom contract anyway. Surprise! More »

Gold's Closes Your Gym, Traps You In Contract Anyway
There happens to be a Gold's Gym right inside the building where Cynthia works. How convenient! She took her employer up on an offer to subsidize part of her membership, and was happy with the arrangement. Three months later, the building Gold's announced that it was closing. Not to worry, though: Memberships limited to only that location would change so members could visit any local corporate-owned Gold's club. That's pretty standard when a branch of a chain gyms closes, but Cynthia is annoyed that she joined so close to the change and has to pay for a membership she's unlikely to use. Someone must have known that branch was doomed, but would the front-line and sales employees have known? More »

Is It Fair For Extreme Couponers To Take All The Mouthwash Just Because They Can?
We've all the seen the devastation an extreme couponer can wreak on a display of deodeoants, if not firsthand, then on the TLC show aptly named Extreme Couponing. Sure, it's awesome for the couponer, but what about the average customer who just wants to buy one shampoo, not 23, and there are none to be found? Stores have been adjusting their policies in certain regions as a result. More »

Overseas, Groupon Pockets Money From Unredeemed Vouchers
Oh, Groupon. Always offering to make life better with half of Middle Eastern fare or with a discount waxing, then turning around and getting all grabby and greedy. It's worse overseas, as apparently, Groupon gets to pocket the money from any unredeemed vouchers. More »

Canceling Verizon Without ETF Over Fee Increase Is Hard But Doable
Some readers have tried out the info from yesterday about using an increased regulatory fee Verizon is charging to get out of contract without paying an early termination fee (ETF). The most successful so far was commenter doogz, who got his ETF cut in half. Here is his story: More »

You Could Be Under Sidekick Contract Or Not, Depending On T-Mobile's Whim
Chad is a T-Mobile customer who used to be a Sidekick user. He also still is a Sidekick user, depending on which situation is more advantageous to T-Mobile. See, he signed a new contract and got a shiny new Sidekick last February. Earlier this year, that phone died and he bought an inexpensive Android phone to use while he waits out his contract. T-Mobile is ending Sidekick service soon, and has offered users still under contract the choice of leaving their contracts with no early termination fee, or switching to a different subsidized phone and sticking around. Chad is still under the original contract that he signed when he got his Sidekick last year, but at the same time is not under a Sidekick contract according to T-Mobile, so neither option is open to him. More »

Change Your Mind About NetZero Mobile Interwebs? Tough.
Yes, NetZero is back, offering cheap mobile broadband Internet access instead of ad-supported or cheap dial-up Internet. That's pretty cool, and the idea appealed to Rusty. The problem is that once he did some research and realized the deal wasn't all that appealing, he couldn't back out. Buying a NetZero hotspot is a sacred covenant, and you can't return it after placing your order unless it's actually defective. More »

Target Sells You A Vacuum Full Of Crud, Won't Take It Back
Isabelle's $300 Dyson vacuum from Target arrived on her doorstep without some of the parts, and filled with dirt from someone else's house. Wanting to receive the item she actually had ordered, she dragged it to the nearest Target in a taxi and was told that she was obviously trying to pull one over on Target by returning this vacuum when she so clearly had used it and kept the handle. Clearly. More »

Amazon Wants To Make Sure Your Tiny Purchase Has Lots Of Breathing Room During Shipping
Heaven forbid a four-pack of valve caps, weighing maybe about an ounce, not have enough room during shipping to spread out, breathe and generally feel the calming effects of roomy comfort. That must have been the thought process when Amazon decided to send Tara her purchase in a huge box instead of a more appropriately-sized conveyance. More »

Need Comically Oversized Boxes? Don't Worry, The Stupid Shipping Gang Is Here
It wastes resources, money, and shipping companies' resources. It generates extra trash and annoys customers. What is it? Companies' insistence on employing members of the Stupid Shipping Gang to send packages!
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One Man's Campaign To End Six Months Without A Working Haier TV
Andrew took advantage of a great Black Friday deal from Newegg to buy a nice large TV. At least, he assumes that it's nice. The first set he received never worked, and the second worked for only 48 hours. Stuck dealing with Haier, he still hasn't managed to extract a working TV out of them. More »

How To Lose A Customer Forever With Just One Faulty Router
Jessica is a network engineer, so she has some idea of when a piece of networking equipment isn't working properly. Her Netgear router isn't working properly, so she called up their tech support. She patiently sat through all of the normal troubleshooting procedures that are used for people who can barely tell a router from a toaster. Then she learned that they weren't going to accept the router for repair or replacement after only eight months. So she did the only sensible thing: went out and bought a router made by a different company after being loyal to Netgear for more than a decade. More »

Residents Of NJ Neighborhood Say Comcast Can't Fix Oft-Interrupted Service
Comcast may care, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's competent. A chronic, unidentified problem is reportedly wrecking customers' phone, cable and internet service in a Holiday City, New Jersey neighborhood, and the problems continue despite countless service calls. More »

Yes, There Is Such A Thing As Bad Publicity
This week, a massive customer service clusterfracas swept the gaming world, then the rest of the Internet. It involved a game console controller that was late in shipping, a a marketing firm in over its head, a popular webcomic, the unholy wrath of the Internet hate machine, and one humble customer who just wanted to know whether he was going to get his gadget by Christmas or not. What did we learn here? That there is such a thing as bad publicity, and that sometimes people on the Internet actually are who they claim to be. More »

Ally Bank Finds My Lifelong Nickname Totally Unacceptable For Depositing Checks
Some of us were born with one name, and whether through deliberate choice or the tendencies of friends and families, end up being known by a nickname. Our reader Nicholas found out recently that apparently some nicknames are just unacceptable — according to Ally Bank, "Cole," the name he's gone by his entire life, won't fly. More »

Sears Sent My Order To Another Company To Deal With & I Got A Cheap Product I Don't Want
Candy got quite a surprise when she ordered one product from Sears, and received something that wasn't what she wanted from another company, on behalf of Sears. The surprises kept on rolling, when she was told that Sears had wiped its hands of her transaction. More »