broken-promises
—>Today the FTC lodged a contempt charge against scammy no-credit-needed electronics seller BlueHippo, saying that the company hasn't honored its prior agreement to stop scamming customers. BlueHippo agreed to pay back $3.5 million nearly two years ago to reimburse customers who never received the computers they pre-paid for, but the FTC says since then the company has sucked another $15 million out of customers. More »
—>David is trying to reach HP executive customer service. He wants to find out why they reversed the $100 cash back offer they'd originally extended through a promotion with Microsoft's new search engine Bing, and why the only reasons they're giving him are either inapplicable or demonstrably false. More »
—>Two months ago, Mike and his wife decided to re-do their floors. They're expecting a child in November, so they made sure that they ordered the materials in plenty of time to get everything taken care of before the end of August. Mike even scheduled time off work and had family members come in from out of town to help out. More »
—>No matter how awesome the iPhone is at multimedia, gaming, or taking money out of your wallet and mailing it to AT&T and Apple, it still doesn't let you use multimedia messaging service (MMS)—you know, that thing where you send a photo to a friend over text message. Earlier this year AT&T finally said it would happen by the end of summer, but now a group of customers in Louisiana are tired of waiting. More »
—>Matt and his family used the portable storage company PODS for their recent move. The company rents you a storage container, then stores it or moves it around on a truck for you. Their system sounded pretty great, but then things started to go wrong. Very, very wrong. What followed was a tale of broken promises, underestimations, and their belongings being held by the police (!) that would put fear into the heart of any person planning a move. More »
—>Jason hired a lawn company in Memphis, Tennessee, and then recommended them to a friend. He regrets that now, because they mowed down the friend's vegetable garden, and seven weeks later they still haven't replaced it and have stopped communicating with the garden's owner. More »
—>Ryan is stuck in a bad situation. His father is friends with a the guy who owns a local furniture store, and the store has failed to deliver some custom-made furniture that was fully paid for up front as a goodwill gesture. Now Ryan wants the order canceled, but the owner and his wife are refusing to cooperate. More »
—>Consumerist reader Dionicious and his brother tried to rent a trailer from U-Haul over the weekend. First they were faced with a closed location, then they had to ask before the company followed through on its $50 "Right Time, Right Location" guarantee. They hoped that was the end of the screw-ups, but the next day an angry employee called and threatened to file criminal charges against the brothers. Too bad there's not some sort of $50 "We Threaten You, We Pay" guarantee. More »
The clear vase had four sides and flared slightly, and the bottom quarter was filled with rocks, with water rising a few inches above them; 12 long-stemmed orange roses stood up straight from the rocks—the stems perpendicular to the water—and formed a flat, solid bed of rose blooms at exactly the height of the vase's mouth.
If that's hard to picture, remember the florist had an image to work with. Then take a look at what Erik's wife actually received.
(We fixed their website listing to provide a fourth order option. Now they're legit.)Erik writes:
This morning I was feeling like the honorable husband and looked at the local florist's website to find a unique flower arrangement to surprise my wife at work.I don't do this too often, so I figured I can get something pretty nice. I ordered this (pic attached) real unique item for almost $100 (like I said, I don't do this often).So because it's so unique, I call and order it over the phone, used my credit card, and gave the florist the number that was listed on the website for the arrangement. I even got nervous after I hung up the phone and called back to verify they got the right order number and it was indeed the orange roses with river rocks.At around 1:30, I get the "Thank you so much" phone call, and she was thrilled. I asked "Well what do they look like?" That's when the disappointment set in. I'm thinking to myself, do I tell her that's not right, or just go with the flow? I decided that it didn't sound anything like what I ordered and told her to go ahead and bring them home, I'd like to take a look at them too.I get home and find this. I was very dissatisfied, called the florist, and they went on about how "they thought it was pretty enough, and it was close to the picture and they didn't have a square vase." I asked them why they didn't call me and tell me they couldn't make it look the same...they said because it looked close enough and they thought it was close enough to what I ordered that it wouldn't be that big of a difference. They said they were willing to make me happy, so they're going to "call around and find a square vase", and let me know if they can find one.I guess the plan is for them to make another arrangement like the picture, but I'm not sure I like this... I know flowers are going to look a little different than the picture, but is this right?I blacked out their contact info because I don't want to shame them at this point, but what would you all do?We'd demand a refund. If you aren't willing to pursue that, then they should re-do the arrangement a second time at no cost to you.The one on the left looks nothing like the arrangement you ordered—and at that price, a florist doesn't get a lot of wiggle room to "interpret" the arrangement, especially if their excuse is that they just didn't have the proper materials to fulfill the order. As you noted, they should have called you to discuss such drastic changes. They're florists! Surely they know that you can't screw around with romantic gestures, because you don't know which details are important to the couple.Your third option is that they give you a credit for the value of the undelivered arrangement. Then you can use that in the future to surprise your wife. Just don't be too choosy about the arrangement if you use this florist again, because they're certainly not.Update: Erik spoke with the florist again, and they asked for the flowers back!
I just received a call from the owner of the shop and was told that since it was such an expensive piece, they were wondering if I could pay something on it.I simply said "No, I'd rather return the flowers." I was put on hold for a short while and was told that they now want the flowers back for them to issue a refund.This is unbelievable. So I called my wife at work (she's 30 minutes away, which makes this whole process quite complicated) and told her to pack up the flowers and return them.(Photo: fjordaan) More »
—>Christina decided to give the famed acai berry a try. What the heck, she must have thought, it won't cost me that much ($10) and the site's refund policy clearly indicates when I can return the product, cancel the "subscription," and move on. She knew the cancel-by date and was prepared to follow the rules. AcaiBerryUltimate.com had other plans, which are best summed up by this email they sent to her: "You can get your refund in hell. haahah." More »
—>C'mon Sears, rust isn't a magic brown fairy powder that you can sprinkle over any warranty issue to deny coverage. Brian was told he couldn't have his worn-out sockets replaced because they were rusty. He pointed out that he needed them replaced because they were worn out, not because of some cosmetic damage due to oxidation. Now Sears has officially told him that any rust on a Craftsman tool automatically voids the warranty—which is not what Sears told us two years ago. More »
—>Brian tried to trade in some old Craftsman tools, the ones that come with a lifetime, no-questions-asked replacement policy. Unfortunately, the Tool Associate at Sears deemed Brian unworthy of the Cratfsman guarantee and refused him. That's why he's the Tool Associate. More »
—>Jake couldn't place an order for an Xbox 360 deal on Black Friday—yes, we're talking about a failed transaction from two and half months ago—but he got surprisingly helpful customer service from Office Depot. Margaret at the Office of the Chairman even gave him her personal number and promised him a raincheck of sorts in the form of a gift card for a future purchase. Her offer sounded almost too good to be true, and maybe it was, because as of February he still hasn't seen a gift card. And Margaret won't return his voicemail messages, not even to say the deal is off. Update: Office Depot saw this post, and they contacted Jake. More »
—>Sirius Radio customer service reps are now telling subscribers that the rumored rate hike is indeed going to happen. This means, at the very least: More »
—>Hasbro promised to replace a Nerf product that broke within minutes of being removed from its package, but that was back in October and Ed still hasn't received anything. More »
