Please see attached photos. We recently went to a first birthday party, and received a thank-you card in the mail today. Unfortunately, the sender used a $0.41 stamp and did not write in their return address (see 'envelope.png'). As a result, our mail carrier took the time to fill out 'invoice.png'.

Let's do the math, shall we?

Entry level mail carrier salary is $40,000 per year. That's $769.23 per week, or $153.85 per day. Let's give them 10 hour days on average, and that's $15.38 per hour. 60 minutes in an hour, and that's $0.26 per minute. So assuming it only took one minute to stamp the envelope with the 'POSTAGE DUE' stamp, write in the number one, take out the 'carrier's statement' envelope, write in our address, our last name, his name, our town, and our zip code...he just cost the US Government $0.25. And that doesn't include the gas he burned idling at the top of my driveway.

And we thought that the paperboys who wanted their $2 were batshit crazy. However, if we literally interpret the postman's invoice (.01¢), you actually owe just one-one-hundredths of a penny. (The correct notation would have been $.01) Loyal Consumerists know that many people are confused about dollars and decimals.

On July 4, 2008, my guy and I decided some KFC extra crispy was in order, so we visited our local store. Now, every time we'd tried to order there in the past, there was always something wrong. Either they didn't have any extra crispy at all or they were out of biscuits— lack of preparation it seems to me. I convinced my guy that this time it would be error-free. I was so, so wrong.

After ordering our meal and driving to the window, we were informed that lo and behold, they were out of certain cuts of extra crispy (thighs and legs I think). But, the manager on duty was quick to supply extra pieces of original as compensation. Cool. At home we discovered there were no biscuits. We were both starving, but since we lived so close to the joint I thought we could just drive though with our receipt, get what we paid for, then go and eat.

At any other establishment, we could have done just that, but this guy was unprofessional and irrational and would not give us the biscuits. At no time did he ever concede that his crew could have made a mistake. He insisted they "remembered" our order and had given us the biscuits. He was rude and tried to make sarcastic comments like, "Your chicken's getting cold." What does that even mean?! Of course I would rather be at home eating it, you jerk. He told us we could have other people at home that we're trying to get biscuits for and that we would be surprised at how many people come through there looking for freebies. Proper customer service does not include telling irate customers they are wrong, simply because others are liars. Besides, the way we were treated those people were most likely telling the truth! Anyway, we refused to leave without what we paid for, he ignored us, customers were leaving the drive thru, we were yelling, "We want our biscuits"— it was ridiculous, man.

Finally, after at least twenty minutes, he shoved the biscuits at us saying, "Here. This is just so you'll get the fuck outta here."

I was livid. And my question to you is: What sort of chain-of-command exists in franchises? Are the owners the end of the line? This manager was the owner's son, so I'm thinking there's really no punitive action there. What kind of supervision do these franchises have, or can they just operate in whichever neglectful manner they please?

I would appreciate some help with this, Consumerist, because this was unacceptable, and I just want someone with authority to help them understand that.
Thank you.

If you can directly contact the owner, that would be a good first step, but there's no telling if he would blindly support his son or be extra-tough with him. Occasionally, we've noticed that when some customers go up the chain-of-command at food joints, there is sometimes a person who actually seems to care a little. If this happens, consider yourself lucky. You can also fill out a customer comment on KFC's website here. Additionally, they list their "Customer Satisfaction Number"—perhaps, it should be the customer dissatisfaction number: 1-800-225-5532. Good luck!

(Photo: kevindean)

Last January I purchased two tickets from Kansas to Sri Lanka from a travel agent to go on a vacation in May to June. When I went to the airport with two paper tickets in hand I was informed that my tickets were canceled by the Travel Agent. This was due to the negligence of the travel agent. So I had to spend two nights in a hotel while they book me on another flight which was a much difficult route than the route that I was intended to fly.

So after getting back from my vacation I wrote them an e-mail asking for a partial refund of the tickets for all my expenses, trouble and lost two paid vacation days. This was about 2 weeks ago and after that I have given them 14 calls but they have been avoiding me. Telephone operator always tell me that currently the agents are unavailable and that they would get back to me.

This is a small travel agency based in NY, http://topholidaystravel.com, (not a big name like Orbitz or anything). They mainly cater to Sri Lankans who lives in USA and goes to Sri Lanka for vacation.

1. Is there anyway that I can persuade them to get a partial refund?
2. If that didn't work out I'm filing a complain with BBB in NY. Any advice?
3. Is there a Travel agent association or something like that which I can report to?
4. Since it's located in NY and I'm located in Kansas, I don't think that I could go to Small Claim Court. Any advice o this too.
5. I'm planning on creating a web page with the whole story (in my web site) and e-mail the link to all the Sri Lankans I know and ask them to forward it to their friends as well. Am I doing anything wrong here? Can they take any action against me for doing this?

Normally I would just advise doing a chargeback. Unfortunately, Dhanushka paid by check. So then, to answer his questions:

1. Find somehow to get past the customer service line and reach an actual decision maker and pitch them your case. Don't settle for a call-back. Demand to speak to a supervisor or manager immediately.

2. It's a pretty straightforward process and you just fill in a few fields online. The complaint, beyond the satisfaction of warning other people, will only be effective if the place cares about its BBB reputation. Since it's so small, I checked and it doesn't even look like they're BBB members. So this may be wasting your keystrokes.

3. Dunno, but I do know it would depend on whether they actually belong to one.

4. You can go to small claims, but you'll have to take a trip to New York and file there, and then either hang around until or come back when you get your court date.

5. 100% protection against libel or getting sued is the truth. As long as you tell the 100% truth, you are fine. Here is an article I wrote about fighting back against companies by making a complaint webpage. You do, however, take a chance that it will blow all your chances of getting money back from the company (without an outside agency forcing them to). You might be better off finding a way to leapfrog over the customer service people to the real people in charge (either by phone or by letter) and tell them that if you don't get your money back, then you will launch the webpage. A threat is much more effective if you tell them about it before deploying it.

Lastly, not to kick you while you're down, but I checked out the travel agency's webpage, and it was just a stock image and their contact information. To me, that screams sketchy. If a company doesn't represent themselves professionally, it's a pretty good sign that other parts of their business aren't going to be professional either.

Good luck!

(Photo: Getty)

UPDATE: A former Air Force flight safety officer chimes in with some points to clarify about what our Air Force pilot had to say...

Jon writes:

We were about 20 minutes into the flight when the plane made a very sharp (~30 degree) bank to the right and went nose down. A few seconds after the maneuver began the plane began to shake violently. We eventually leveled off and went back to our original altitude. The pilot came on the PA and said that air traffic had given another plane a route to altitude in our path and that we had gone through it's jetwash. He then stated that basically we got too close. Later in the flight he was announcing our descent and must have hit a pocket of turbulence mid-sentence and we could all hear his voice shaking and he was taken by surprise. After talking to folks on the other side of the airplane (I was in the left side window), they saw the plane and said it was ridiculously close.

I asked my Air Force pilot buddy, Stephen Migala. He was able to explain what probably happened, and how the best way for you to take action is to lobby your reps for more funding for modernizing our current air traffic control system. His response:

The term the pilot used for the jetwash was probably wake turbulence. What your reader experienced is actually quite common, unfortunately.

Envision the skies as you would the U.S. Interstate system, a series of highways that come together around major cities/airports. The amount of traffic dramatically increases the closer you are to these places. Because of noise abatement procedures and what are known as departure and approach corridors (feeder ramps to align you with a runway) there is a very limited way to transition out of these airports and busy airspaces onto these sky highways literally called "jet routes." Consequently there are a lot of planes in a small amount of space. The FAA does its best to secure and divide the spaces into airspace that air traffic controllers regulate. Obviously it is impractical and difficult to control and talk to everyone flying around, especially smaller commuter or single engine prop planes, so procedures are in place to allow them to fly in certain areas without talking to controllers. The thought is that it is their responsibility to see and avoid other aircraft, meanwhile the larger planes in contact with air traffic control share a responsibility for avoidance with most of the impetus resting with the controllers that rely on passive radar signatures and hopefully working radar beacons equipped on all of these planes. It was these very beacons which likely caused the abrupt maneuver. It was what is known in the field as a Resolution Advisory (RA) from a traffic collision avoidance system. (Ref Wikipedia for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCAS) A computer on board each equipped airplane searches for other signals and beacons, analysis their position and movement relative to itself and if it is projected to or does get close enough it advises the aircrew of an impending threat. It is only in this case of an computer-advised threat that pilots are authorized to deviate from their assigned air traffic control instructions. Because it is so last minute the maneuvers have to be aggressive to avoid a collision. The aforementioned wake turbulence would then likely describe the violent shaking as the maneuvering plane probably passed the air that the threatening plane disturbed as it flew through creating vortises and unstable air that disrupt normal airflow around the wings producing lift and even into the engines for combustion.

I cannot knowledgeably speak to the consequences for controllers. I know it is not good. A repeated amount will have them in trouble and if the offended planes file what is known as a HATR (Hazardous Air Traffic Report) there could be a mini investigation to find out why such a dangerous situation developed. The FAA does track these and there is accountability. Not to try to take away any empowerment from the consumer but there is an inherent problem in allowing people/passengers to report such incidents. The when, where, how, and why would be unknown as would the circumstances resulting in more paperwork and money and no results. Most of the pilots flying around have thousands upon thousands of hours of experience and training and they cannot sometimes avoid it or figure out how it happened. Tracking this down other than through the filed paperwork by experts in the field and through quality assurance at the air traffic control centers is fiscally impractical at the level that these incidents currently occur. I currently know of no system in place to report such events by the flying public. I would however think that it is public domain to know the frequency of such occurrences and I 'm pretty sure there are statistics available about this but it would require a lot of digging.

Not to lessen the trauma of such an incident for the helpless passengers but it is unfortunately an increasing commonality as the US national airspace system designed decades ago struggles to accommodate far more planes and passengers than it ever planned for. These incidents are obviously not a result of the airline but of a series of minor lapses and oversights that occur daily by controllers and even pilots which happen to snowball into an event like this.
One of the best ways to take action is to demand from your representatives more funding and a restructuring of the national airspace system to modernize itself. The FAA has also cut back on controllers and many of them are overworked and underpaid for their unnoticed work in helping millions commute safely everyday, more of a voice and public backing for them would surely be appreciated.

Flying is still by far the safest mode of transportation but being the best doesn't excuse not striving for perfection, especially when lives are at stake. I hope this helps some. While you're at it maybe a few disgruntled comments about the TSA would help too, the complacency generated by the appearance of security and ironically fear mongering is just as great of a danger.

Here's a great post Carey wrote about how to most effectively write a letter to Congress.

(Photo: Getty)

UPDATE: Reader Brian, a former Flight Safety Officer at the Moody Air Force Base, has a few points he wants to clear up about Stephen's response:

Your Air Force friend is looking at this from the Air Force's point of view, not the civilian point of view. I was a Flight Safety Officer in the Air Force at Moody AFB, and have investigated the Hazardous Air Traffic Reports (HATRs) he mentioned. However, civilians do not file that form normally, that HATR is strictly an Air Force Form 651. Civilians normally file the NASA Aviation Reporting System form (http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/) , and this in most cases will protect the pilot filing the form of any punishment as it is used to improve safety in aviation system. The only time a HATR is filled out by a civilian is when someone calls the base because of an incident (near miss usually) with a military aircraft. Only the Air Force investigates and tracks HATRs. The FAA does not get involved with HATRs unless it directly involves an FAA resource such as a radar, published procedure, FAA-owned navigational aid, or an FAA controller action.

Also, he is only partially correct on the departure and arrival corridors. Some are for noise abatement, but all are for giving aircraft a way to transition to/from the airways. He said "Obviously it is impractical and difficult to control and talk to everyone flying around, especially smaller commuter or single engine prop planes, so procedures are in place to allow them to fly in certain areas without talking to controllers" is incorrect and misleading. Of course small planes can fly around at low altitudes without talking to controllers, but not commuter planes. They have different routes to fly at the lower altitudes, but they still talk to controllers. Also, when the president visits a city, everyone within 30 nautical miles is required to talk to an air traffic controller, or they get a personal airshow from an F-16 until they land.

His quote "most of the impetus resting with the controllers that rely on passive radar signatures and hopefully working radar beacons equipped on all of these planes" is also misleading. If the radar beacons are not working, they are not allowed into airspace above 10,000 feet and will get a very non-efficient route until it is working. ATC radar is actually active in nature by sending out a signal and getting a return. Passive is where a system just listens for information instead of sending out a "request," in this case the radar signal. TCAS is actually a passive system relying on the ATC radar to generate a return from other aircraft's' beacon, and then it is shown on the pilot's display. The rest is correct about TCAS.

"..is unfortunately an increasing commonality as the US national airspace system designed decades ago struggles to accommodate far more planes and passengers than it ever planned for," is not an accurate quote. The National Airspace System can handle the amount of airplanes in it now and more in the future. In fact, the number of cruising altitudes was doubled in 2005, going from 2000 foot separation to 1000 foot separation above 29,000 feet to 41,000 feet. Yet delays were not reduced. The largest problem is the lack of runways built to handle the traffic. The true on ramp and off ramps to the highways in the sky are runways, and until the laws of physics change, only on airplane can land or takeoff on a runway at a time.

As a somewhat recent hire into the field of Air Traffic Control, I appreciate his appreciation of our hard work in the field despite the current relationship with those who are making it harder for us to do our jobs. The FAA didn't exactly cutback on the number of controllers, they just failed to hire replacements in a timely manner in an effort to reduce payroll for the demanding, high stress job that is air traffic control.

Thanks,
Brian

Brrr! I called a leading HVAC company to come fix it, not wanting to risk fixing it myself (gas leaks scare me). The repairman spent 3 hours trying 6 different circuit boards, and finally said he must have gotten a fully defective batch, he’d have to come back the next day with parts from the warehouse. He then spent 30 minutes trying to force me to pay him for his time, despite not having actually repaired my furnace. I told him he’d better leave or I’d call the police. He left.

I broke out my trusty old multimeter and started testing things by reading the handy-dandy electrical schematic glued to the inside of the access panel. Within 15 minutes I found it was a “heat trip sensor” – basically a “fuse” that trips when it detects heat in the wrong place. This one was “downwind” of the chimney flue, where hot natural gas fumes normally rise upwards. A visit to the roof determined a chimney lining tile had fallen over and blocked the chimney.

Thus, the hot exhaust blew back down the furnace, and the furnace’s safety system kicked into gear. Banging on the tile in the chimney with a broomstick made it break and fall to the bottom of the chimney. A trip to an HVAC supplier resulted in a $4 replacement heat sensor. I installed the part, and just like that! My furnace started working just fine.

The next day, the HVAC company threatened to report me to collection agencies, sue me, and even threatened to put a lien on my condo. A few weeks later, I filed a small claims court complaint contending that I never agreed to pay a dime unless the repair was completed, and to boot, they were incompetent. Rather than appear before a judge, they settled by reimbursing me the filing fees and drop the collection attempt

How did I know to do things with the small claims court?… Consumerist. THANKS!

Going to small claims court is a lot easier than you might think. You don't need a lawyer and filing fees are minimal. Here's how to take a case to small claims court, stories and advice from a guy who makes frequent use of small claims court, and a success story from a reader who won after suing a subcontractor in small claims.

(Photo: beau-foto)

The article says,

Even though he knew the child was autistic, he said he did ask the Martins to leave.

Gail says she feels like Chief Rushton should have been more understanding about what was going on with her autistic daughter.

"We can't just lock them up, they have every right to be out in public like everyone else," Gail said.

Now Gail hopes her story will bring more awareness about autism.

Gail said, "I wasn't embarrassed of Alyssa's behavior, I was embarrassed of the way it was handled." Chief Rushton did not make a statement but did say that he thought Alyssa was being extremely loud and bothering other customers.

Since then, Rushton has agreed to go through training with the South Carolina Autism Society "to help him better understand the condition." Also, the Martins plan to meet with the police commissioner at City Hall.

Obviously, nobody wants to hear a screaming child while they are dining out, but has society become so intolerant that when a child cries we should expect the police to order them out of the building?

Family ordered to leave restaurant because of crying child [WIS10]
(Photo: Getty)

Hey, it’s Ashlee again. You can add to that story that the insurance company for Wal-mart has just called me to say they are not doing anything about it because I took it to a mechanic first, instead of going to Wal-mart… because this process “tampered with evidence.” Don’t you think any normal person would take a sick vehicle to the closest mechanic to try and get help?

Also, Wal-mart sent an older gentleman with a ponytail, and an unprofessional demeanor to the GMC dealership (where the car is supposed to be getting fixed) to assess the damage. He said he found no oil anywhere, no problems, and the engine ran great when he turned the car on. So I called the manager at the GMC dealership who immediately went out to look at the car himself…. He found “oil everywhere” and he heard severe “rod-knocking” when the engine was running, which he says is a sign of a serious engine problem. He seemed appalled at this, too—just as much as I was! Wal-mart killed my car, then denied it, and now I am hiring a lawyer. I have plenty of picture evidence, and plenty of witness accounts. And as for the condescending insurance rep that snickered at me over the phone when we asked for my date of birth, this is not the last time you will hear from this little 22 year old.

They won't pay because you decided to take your damaged Saturn to a non-Walmart mechanic? That is typical insurance company bullshit. What do you think would have happened if you had taken it to a Walmart mechanic? They would have denied everything and blamed it on something else—it's simply a catch-22. It sounds like you are handling the situation correctly so far. Make sure you gather and record every bit of information you can, doing so will provide your lawyer with the proper ammunition to fight your case. Hang in there, Ashlee and keep us updated.

PREVIOUSLY: Walmart's Botched Oil Change Destroys Your Engine

Long time reader; first time submitter. Going for greenlight! ;D

We ordered a pair of keyboard covers 'condoms' for one of our CNC machine PCs. The CNC has a habit of throwing aluminum strips around and getting stuck in the keyboard at the workstation next to it.

While Dell made with fast shipping from Texas in 2 days, they made the glaring mistake of excessively overpackaging the 2 items that weigh less than a few grams.

It bothers me to think of how many other items could have been shipped via Plane/UPS truck. With gas and the economy the way it is now, this is really over the top and quite unnecessary.

Edit: Items were 14.99 per - The shipping cost $16.00?!

Bravo Dell

Sixxtwo

The stupid shipping gang triumphs once again! Is there no stopping this wasteful bunch? Will common sense ever catch up to the stupid shipping gang? Stay tuned for more exciting episodes.

Stupid Shipping Gang: New Dell Version 7-10-08 [Consumerist Forums]

I needed an oil change. After all, I had driven across the country from Georgia to Colorado. Walmart seemed to be an obvious choice, be it that I was unfamiliar with the area, and a familiar name would just be easy and reliable—or so I thought.

Last Saturday I made a decision I would soon regret... I got my oil changed by "oil technicians" and Wally-World. Driving no more than a mile or two each day after that I noticed no problem and was relieved to have the oil changed and taken care of for the time being. Thursday afternoon Courtney and I were excited to be let out of work early, so we packed up the vehicle and hit the road toward Denver for the holiday weekend. No more than 30 minutes into the trip Courtney heard a strange noise and made me listen for it. It didn't sound normal so we pulled over as soon as the road permitted. Having just gotten the oil changed it was my first thought to check the dipstick. Empty. Nothing. A glance under the car lent a horrifying view of a filthy bottom covered in leaking oil and a smoking drive-train closer to the rear.

My next thought was to get On-Star. Push the button. Nothing. Empty rings into oblivion, then the automated operator informs me that she is unable to connect to On-Star. A lone biker-man stopped, and confirmed what we had already gathered... which was that we were pretty much out of luck. Then another car stopped, leant us a few drops of oil that was left in a bottle he had in his trunk. They advised us to coast back down the mountain and try to get back to Paonia, where we had come from. We made it back, barely. Coasted into the only mechanic in town. Bob the mechanic then informed me that the oil cap was put back on improperly when the oil was changed, causing the o-ring seal to bust and the oil to simultaneously leak out, leaving the engine to run metal on metal and in turn ruin my engine. $4000 was his initial estimate, and that was just a courtesy as he is not actually equipped to replace entire ENGINES!

Keep in mind that I own a 2006 Saturn Vue, which only has 54,000 on it. No prior mechanical problems to speak of, until Walmart's "technicians" got their hands on it. Currently trying to work with Walmart and their insurance company to see if they will pay for the replacement of my engine, parts & labor, the cost a rental car (since the GMC dealership told me it would take about 2 weeks for repair)... and I want quarts of oil for LIFE! Final estimate from GMC was $5,875!

BOOOOOOO Walmart for sure this time!! Don't get your oil changed there, go to a REAL mechanic! Just do not shop there, period.

We would like to see Walmart take responsibility for the botched job. Our thinking is that if they can't even do the retail store thing right, what chance to they have on a car with hundreds of moving parts? You would have actually been better off if Walmart didn't change your oil at all and just lied about it.

Wal-mart Automotive Center = DEATH & DESTRUCTION! [Ashlee's Blog]

The article says,

“It was like somebody decided ‘we’re going to send stuff to her, and she’ll pay for it,” [her son] Teddy Vail said.

Over five years, anywhere from 6 to 10 different agencies have asked his mother to pay for the unsolicited datebook, Teddy Vail said.

Vail said he must have explained the situation to collection agencies 30 times.

“They listen patiently. Then they say, ‘Well, can we work something out here to get this paid for?’ It’s like they’re not really listening. All they want is the money.” Teddy Vail said the amount the credit card company claims is owed has risen to about $130.

He paid $200 in fees just to file the lawsuit, he said.

“Yes, she could have paid for it a long time ago. But that’s not my ma. I know it sounds frivolous, but you’d have to be here, getting phone call after phone call after phone call, for five years. There’s a principal involved —- feeling like we’re being extorted and strong armed by these collection agencies,” he said.

Most people would just roll over and pay the money, but that's probably what Sears is banking on. Being harassed by debt collectors for five years is no way to live, especially for something you never ordered. We hope Margaret's lawsuit sends a message to shady companies that make a practice of pilfering our nickels and dimes.

Mansfield 80-year-old fights Sears with lawsuit over $6 datebook [Mansfield News Journal] (Thanks to Rachel!)

Huey writes:

In preparation for our family reunion

On June 21, 2008, the Tsao family was ready to board on the Carnival Glory at Port Canaveral, FL for our family reunion. The traveling party included: Fred Tsao (Grandfather), Alex Tsao(father), Huey Tsao (mother, 26 weeks pregnant at the time of voyage), and two very enthusiastic daughters (Elise 5 yrs. old, Natalie 3 yrs. old) We were ready to meet up with Byron Tsao (brother in law) and Tetsuko (sister in law) who were flying in from Nicaragua to meet us at the next port. All members of the Tsao party flew in from out of town: Virginia, California, and Nicaruaga.

Mommy Tsao (aka Huey Tsao) was prepared with the doctor's note declaring it was safe to travel and to confirm the gestational period of 26 weeks. According to the pregnancy policy from their "Welcome Aboard: Things to Know Before You Sail" document (which was sent along with their boarding passes) "Guests who are 27 weeks or more into their pregnancy at the time of the voyage will not be permitted to sail because of the risk of premature labor," (page 10.) Since we were at 26 weeks at the time of sailing, we thought we were within the Carnival pregnancy policy.

Denied at the terminal (misinformed by Carnival Cruise)

It was not until after we were given our boarding cards (Ship & Sail room card) that another Carnival agent, Patricia Lyons approached us to ask about my pregnancy. She asked how far along I was. I responded that I was within the "safe" 26 week travel period and handed her my doctor's note stating that I was at "26 weeks gestation without any complications permitted to go on cruise to leave on 6/21/08"

Ms. Lyons said that according to the Carnival website, their NEW policy was revised from 27 weeks to 24 since January 1 2008. She proceeded to talk with her supervisor, Kathy Bianchi, who reiterated to us that their policies have changed.

When we asked for written proof of this new policy, they were unable to show us any documentation of the new policy. When we asked to speak to the manager at the port, Ms. Lyons said that Ms. Bianchi was the highest authority—the supervisor at the terminal.

Ms. Bianchi claimed to have made a call to their corporate office in Miami to clarify their new policy. According to Ms Bianchi, "You have an obligation to check our website in case we change our policy. We cannot let you board the ship."

Carnival Unwilling to accommodate our requests (to document their decision)

We again asked for Carnival to show us this new policy in writing. However, Ms Bianchi they said they did not have the new policy in written form available, and that we should check online. Obviously, we thought that was unreasonable given that we were at the check-in counter and did not have any access to the Internet.

We asked to speak with the authority in Miami that Ms Bianchi allegedly spoke to. Again, that reasonable request was denied.

We asked for Carnival to document this incident so we can refer it to their corporate office. Again we were denied: Ms. Lyons said "I am not allowed to do that." Ms. Lyons only handed me a card with the Carnival Reservations Administration Research Department contact information and stated that she will be writing up an internal report regarding this decision.

I asked if I could have a copy of this internal report, and Ms. Lyons said "I am not able to do that."

I finally asked for a refund, they said that I needed to call the Miami office to settle that with their corporate office.

In short, Carnival changed their policy on pregnancy, but neglected to state the change in the Welcome Aboard document. If Carnival even sent an addendum to notify of this change policy, we would have made alternative arrangements such as booking an earlier cruise comply with the new policy.

Instead, they tell us we should have checked their website, a typically arrogant corporate remark. Then they refuse to show us the new policy in writing. They would not allow us to talk to their corporate office (to whom they allegedly talked to) to confirm the policy. Any they would not document this incident in any way for us. We cannot even prove they denied boarding.

When it became clear they would not let me board, I insisted that the family go on without me because I was concerned that the entire family would lose the tickets if they did not board. I stayed with Mike and Alison Lee, who were our good friends in Orlando.

Two days later, I was interviewed by Mary Nguyen of WFTV (ABC affiliate in Orlando) regarding this experience. CNN picked up the story, and we suspect the resulting bad publicity caused Carnival's PR department to issue a cruise credit to me.

It was Carnival's negligence in sending the incorrect outdated policy that lead to me getting literally stranded at the dock. I felt the cruise credit was the least they could do. (Also, they did not even include the fuel surcharge and the port taxes in the cruise credit, which we already paid but never used.) Considering their extremely unhelpful attitudes and the fact that the family reunion was ruined for everyone in the group, I believe it would be more appropriate for Carnival to issue cash refunds for everyone in the group.

We agree that Carnival should have done more to inform you of their policy change. Since you had a clean bill of health from you doctor, it would have been nice if they had made an exception for you, but they are not required to do so. Considering the rest of your family already took their cruise, we think that asking for a cash refund for the entire family is unrealistic. However, if you focus on trying to get a cash refund for just yourself, you may get better results.

Dear Sarah X XXXXXXXX

RE: Amazon order #XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX
Invoice #XXXXXXX
Item title: SAM M300... Car Charger

Thank you for your recent purchase with Eforcity on Amazon.com.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. We would like to offer you a refund, if the negative feedback is removed.

Please reply to this email directly and let us know. As soon as the feedback is removed, we will go ahead and process a refund.

Please follow the below instructions to remove feedback on Amazon:

1. Go to http://www.amazon.com/your-account.
2. Find the pull-down menu next to View by Order. Select ORDERS PLACED IN THE LAST 6 MONTHS, and hit the GO button.
3. After you sign in, you'll find a listing of your recent orders. Select the relevant order and click the VIEW ORDER button.
4. You will find a feedback section 2/3rds of the way down the page. To remove feedback, click on the REMOVE link in the feedback section of the order summary.
5. You may only remove feedback if it is 60 days or less since you left the feedback.

We appreciate your business, and again would like to extend our sincere apology. Please feel free to let us know how we may further assist you with your order.

Sincerely,

Salina

Customer Service Team

Getting good service shouldn't be contingent on the customer taking down reports of a product that doesn't work. This kind of quid pro quo approach to customer service is dishonest and shameful.

In March of 2007 our civil suit attorney contacted Dan Wolf. Dan Wolf owns Toyota of Naperville and other dealerships in the chicagoland area. Dan Wolf immediately fired Mr. James V Gentile in March 2007.... Toyota of Naperville has been served in November of 2007. Mr. James V Gentile aka Jim was hard to serve. Finally April of 2008 he got his papers...

Update on the criminal case... The states attorney has counted 19 blocked phone calls going to my cell phone from his home phone and his cell phone! Starting December 2005 and ending April 2006. Some how the jerk is having his attorney ( James Moore office of Rockford,IL) to pull off getting the case continued. The latest stunt they pulled was this... Court date in April was continued to June 12th because his attorney told the states attorney that he will take the plea. I was happy and I thought maybe there is some good in this man. But no, I get a call from the states attorney on June 12th to come down to the court house to testify! I could not believe it! So I went down to the court house and met with the States Attorney only to be told it will be continued due to the judge assigned to the case is on Vacation! The next court date is set for August 7th, but I am not going to count on it!

To the dealerships out in the Chicagoland area, if you have him as an employee, watch out, he maybe doing this to your customers! To the public, if he is your salesman, please beware of what kind of person he is!

The wheels of consumer justice grind slowly, and they grind exceedingly small.*

Read previous updates to this thread here.

(Photo: Beth and Christian)

* with hat tip to Friedrich von Logau(with hat tip to Friedrich von Logau

It's 8:30, and my good friend Omar is moving out of his apartment this week. His car is full of junk, and before we go out to dinner he asks if we can stop by his Public Storage locker to drop this stuff off.

"Of course," I said, "That seems harmless enough."

These things only happen to me, I swear.

We arrived at Public Storage around 8:40, and Omar enters in the code to open the automated gate. On the way in we pass by several signs stating that the complex closes at 9:00, and we make a point of hurrying so that we can leave before that.

Our transaction with the locker is completed swiftly enough, but upon trying to exit Public Storage we discover that the gate code we used to enter the complex isn't letting us leave. We're trapped.

My emotional state during this episode was not very different than the stages of grief. At first we could hardly believe that the gate was locked, and merely assumed that we entered the gate code incorrectly. After numerous failed attempts to re-enter the code it became clear that we were stuck. I was angry.

Several obscenities later Omar attempts to contact Public Storage directly. Of course, by 'directly' I mean 'He was put on hold for the better part of 20 minutes' (how many people could the Public Storage help line be talking to at this hour?!) When he was finally able to speak to a live human being they told him he had called the wrong number to handle this sort of situation. They transferred to a second number, and another lengthy hold while I tried calling the police*.

In my hometown emergency services and pizza delivery men have the magical power to open any automated gate in the city. I'm not sure if this is because they know a special code or what, but in 23 years I have never seen a paramedic or Pizza Hut man locked out of an apartment or storage complex. If for some reason the gate is broken, the police officers in my city take great pleasure in calling up the biggest tow truck they have, and ripping the gate from its' post.

This was not the case in Brea, California, where Public Storage seems to have some sort of control over the local township. Here is my conversation with the Brea Police.

"Brea Police Department."

"Yes, my friend and I are trapped in a Public Storage complex. We think the gate is broken."

"Oh, that's no good."

"...this is the police department, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay. Is there some way you could send someone down here to let us out."

"Where did you say you were again?"

"Public Storage."

"OH. Hold on."

Lengthy pause.

"No. We have no way of opening the gate."

"No way whatsoever."

"What if our cars were on fire?"

"Hold on."

At this point I seriously considered setting our cars on fire.

"No. There's nothing we could do."

"So you'd let this place burn down?"

"There's nothing we could do. You should try to park your cars and hop over a fence."

After a solid 30 minutes trying to escape the Public Storage complex Omar and I start to accept the possibility that we may be trapped there until morning. My house is fifty miles away, and the only competent person I know within driving distance is at my side. I decide to wander the complex aimlessly, hoping to find a second exit that we may have missed. Fire code be damned, there is one way in and out of this god forsaken storage complex, and that's it.

Several more minutes of searching pass before we discover a small trailer connected to Public Storage, but separated by a tiny wooden fence. Given that we're in an industrial park I become highly suspicious, and peer over the fence to discover a small family living living there!

We shout and scream, trying to get their attention. No response. In desperation I grab a pen from my pocket and throw it at their window. Bingo! A middle-age woman opens their back door and starts to yell at us for trespassing. I try to explain to her that we are locked in, but she immediately takes a rude tone with us. She is the alleged manager of the complex (why neither of the 1-800 numbers we called told us there was someone on-property, I don't know,) and bitterly tells us to park our cars and come back for them in the morning.

Multiple times we try to explain to her that we were locked into the complex prematurely. She suggests otherwise, but we know we're right. How do we know? Because Omar didn't try calling the 1-800 numbers until 9:01 (according to his phone's time stamp) a full 10-15 minutes after we discovered that the gate wasn't working! After a brief verbal struggled she decided to let us out, but said that she was going to put an extra charge on Omar's PS account because of the whole ordeal. This was around 10:20, well over an hour after we were locked in.

Yes, I realize the best job you could get was night watchman at a Public Storage complex, but you should at least make a point of setting your watch correctly. If for some reason we didn't notice the mobile home we might still be there.

Sigh..

* Of course I called the non-emregency lines. Some good that did me!

We always thought the Public Storage buildings were supposed to represent a lighthouse, not a prison guard tower. In case Omar receives a bill for this event, make sure you document who you spoke to and what time you called. It could be invaluable information if it becomes necessary to dispute the charges.

Reader Brad is fed up with junk mail from Comcast. He asked the company if it would be possible to be taken off the junk mail list to which Comcast replied, "We are unable to remove a non-active account from the mailing list. The reason being is, if or when you move out of this address, we would not be sending offers and possibly prevent the new owner from receiving a special offer," and that would be a crime against humanity, we suppose. Is there a way to get Comcast to stop sending junk mail? Brad's letter and our response, inside..

Dear Consumerist Editors and Readers,

I'd like to share my Comcastic experience with asking Comcast to stop sending me junk mail. I get more from them than any other source. They first told me it would be taken care of, but after some time of receiving more and more Comcast junk mail I called back, and they said, "No, we can't take you off our mailing list, (get this...) because you might move." !!!! (Documentation below)

A received no reply to my "feel-free-to-contact-us-if-you-have-any-more-questions" follow-up. I forwarded this Service Rep's email to Comcast's web persona, Mr. Frank Eliason. He seems very responsive in his twitter posts and in an interview I heard. But unfortunately, after about 10 days I have received no reply.

How can I stop receiving unwanted mail, if Comcast says, "We don't care what you don't want, we'll send it anyway in case you move"?

-Brad

Comcast's letter:====================

Hello Mr. Brad ********,

Holly was correct in stating we are unable to remove a non-active account from the mailing list.

The reason being is, if or when you move out of this address, we would not be sending offers and possibly prevent the new owner from receiving a special offer.

I hope this answers your inquiry. Please feel free to contact us if you have any more questions.

Thank you for choosing Comcast.

Sincerely,
Chenise
Comcast Customer Care

One approach to stop Comcast's junk mail is to submit a "prohibitory order against sender of pandering advertisement in the mails," also known as form 1500. This form was originally drafted to stop mail that customers found "erotically arousing or sexually provocative." Despite the non-sexual nature of Comcast's mail, this order can still be applied. Once this form is accepted by the USPS it would make any further junk mail a violation of this order. The major problem with this is that the USPS is notorious for not enforcing the orders, in which case you are back to square one.

Another avenue that might be worth investigating is Comcast's self-appointed go-to guy for unresolved issues. Scott Westerman, an area Vice President for Comcast, writes in his blog:

But at the base of it all is our desire to build great customer relationships, one at a time. That’s our common passion at Comcast.

If you have an unresolved issue, we want to hear about it. Our local teams are the first best resource. 1-800-Comcast will connect you with the office that serves your area. But if the chain of command isn’t working, you can directly connect with us, via email at we_can_help@cable.comcast.com or @comcastcares on twitter.

We’re listening.

Scott Westerman
Area Vice President - Comcast
scott.westerman@comcast.net
@comcastscott on Twitter

Additionally, our readers always have some tricks up their sleeves. What are some of your tricks for stopping junk mail?

(Photo: Getty)

Aaron writes to United Airlines:

On August 5th, 2007, I had a flight from Dulles Airport to Zurich. I was meeting my family there for an once-in-a-lifetime hiking trip. I boarded the plane without difficulties, when the plane experienced a series of mechanical difficulties. We were kept on the plane, during an especially hot D.C. summer day, without power, without air-conditioning for two hours. We were then told to de-board the plane. We sat at the airport for a while, then re-boarded the plane, sat on the plane for another two hours, then de-boarded again. We then waited again at the airport for an hour, when it became impossible to make the flight to Zurich without violating your union policies. So the flight was canceled six miserable hours after it was supposed to take-off. I completely understand how this could happen. I can only imagine how complicated those airplanes are and I certainly appreciate safety precautions taking precedence. Though I would have appreciated some more communication and coordination from the customer service agents, I understand that they had limited information.

When the flight was canceled though, that is when the proverbial shit hit the fan. All the customers on the August 5th flight became to clamor to reschedule their flight for the next day. There were only two agents to handle the entire flight. I waited in line for another two hours and they had barely made a dent in the line. So I called a travel agent and had her book me on the next flight. I consider myself lucky to get that one.

At the front of the line they were handing out taxi and hotel vouchers. I live in DC, but it is about a $70 taxi to the airport. I approached the front of the line to ask for my taxi voucher and was told, quite rudely, to stay in line. So I called United Customer Service. They told me that if I took a taxi and saved a receipt I would be refunded the next day when I returned. So I paid for the taxi out of pocket, returned home, and then returned to Dulles the next day. Upon arrival, I checked in, and tried to turn in my receipts. The agent at the counter told me that they would not reimburse me. After explaining what happened the day before, she eventually agreed to give me $200 voucher. I thought this was more than fair. I had only spent $140 on the taxis so this seemed more than fair.

I got on my flight and made it to Zurich. My family was waiting for me in Zurich, and because of the schedule we ended up having to cancel a major portion of our trip. I flew home without incident.

I know that airlines are required by law to compensate their customers when flights are canceled for mechanical problems. Upon returning home, I stopped at the United desk at the airport to ask how we were being compensated for the previous day's fiasco. At first I was told that I had received a $200 voucher, and that was my compensation. With much ado, I finally spoke to a manager who gave me a Systemwide Upgrade and another $100 voucher. I was thrilled with this deal. I was planning on a major international flight the next year and I couldn't wait to fly business class on the flight.

In September I had to fly to Chicago. I went online to buy my flight and found a great deal. Having never used a voucher before, I was surprised to find there was no place on the website to enter the voucher code. I called United Airlines once again. They told me that vouchers could only be redeemed at the time of purchase at the airport.

Let me just take a minute to explain to you how idiotic this is. No one buys paper tickets anymore. No one. The only reason to have paper vouchers that must be redeemed at the airport is to make them impossible to use. But the whole point of vouchers is to make unhappy customers happy. By making the vouchers impossible to redeem you only frustrate the unhappy customer more. This stirs up all the reasons they were unhappy in the first place. This is the internet age. There is NO logical reason not to offer vouchers that can be redeemed online.

Anyway, I went to the airport to buy my ticket. The ticket at the airport was $125 more than online, and then they had the nerve to charge $25 for booking in person. So my $200 (reimbursement) voucher became a $50 pain in my ass.

Fast-forward to early May 2008. As I said before, I've been planning a major trip to Kathmandu, Nepal in early August 2008. I was excited to use my upgrade and voucher on this flight. I started looking at tickets. The cheapest flight from another carrier was $2000. United's cheapest flight was $3000. But I was excited to use my upgrade and at the time I considered the $1000 premium worth it. I called United to book, and was told once again that I needed to go to the airport to redeem both vouchers and upgrades. Fine. So I traveled to the airport to book the flight. At the airport, I'm told that I actually have to mail in my upgrade. I argued for a while, but they were unsympathetic. I asked how long it would take to upload my upgrade to my account and they say a week.

I go home and mail the upgrade immediately to a P.O. Box in South Dakota. FedEX doesn't deliver to P.O. Boxes so I send it Priority Mail. A couple days later it arrives. I still have the tracking receipt. But the upgrade never posts. Meanwhile the cost of the flight keeps inching upward.

Three weeks later, I call Customer Service. I need to book this flight. I spend three hours being routed to different people at different agencies and different people. Much of the time is spent on hold. Your music is awful by the way. The answer I finally get from a manager is that they have no record that I was ever issued an upgrade, and that there is nothing they can do. I ask to be reissued the upgrade, but they refuse.

The only conclusion I can come to from this ordeal is that you have designed your customer service to piss off your customers. Rather than make travel bearable, you antagonize them at every step of the way. Agents lie in order to pass the buck to someone else in the hope that the customer eventually tires and goes somewhere else. Well that's exactly what I'm doing. I am tired of arguing with your agents. I'm tired of being passed from agent to agent. I would rather spend another six hours waiting on a hot tarmac in dark plane with no air-conditioning than deal with another minute of your customer service. That is why I am leaving United, and never coming back.

As a final note, I would like to remind you that I have yet to receive any compensation as required by law for the canceled flight on August 5, 2007. I expect this compensation to the address I have included below promptly. I will not accept vouchers or upgrades. Only cash or check will be accepted. Also, remember that I am concurrently filing this letter with various government agencies, so this letter should serve as notice.

Hopefully this letter will prompt some changes with customer service, but as you can imagine, I'm not holding my breath.

Sincerely,

Aaron

You probably are already aware of this, but because you were flying to Zurich, it's likely that you are entitled to more compensation that your typical hapless domestic traveler. The EU (of which Switzerland is not a member, but does participate in occasionally) has much better traveler's rights laws than we do. Check them out.

Be prepared, however, for airlines to try to weasel out of it.

(Photo: Zonaphoto )

Some construction work was ongoing in the neighborhood, and it disrupted the underground cable services. Verizon and the electric provider fixed their wires within a day. Cablevision couldn't figure out how to fix their underground wiring, so they proceeded to run a coaxial cable out of the pedestal on my front property, up a tree in my front yard, where it was tied on with some copper wire, thrown across the street, tied to a lamppost head again with copper wire, dropped back down the lamppost, into another pedestal. It sat like this for well over a month and Cablevision insisted there was nothing they could do about it...

I made three service appointments to fix it and each time I was told my picture quality was fine. I eventually got them to fix it by lying through my teeth that I was about to cut down my tree. There was absolutely no lighting protection, and in addition there were exposed conductors from the previous underground installation hanging out right in the open. But also, no one from Cablevision ever asked to use my tree as an ad-hoc telephone pole, and in fact, when they were installing the wire in the tree, one of the technicians gave us a hard time about accessing our own driveway. Am I surprised? Not at all. But I did promise Cablevision I was going to get them some press over it.

Happy to oblige.

Cul-de-sac’s Cut Cable Causes Cablevision Craziness

Did you know that Spirit Airlines is now charging their customers for making a seat reservation — middle seats are $5, Aisle and Window seats are $10 and the "exit row seats" are $15. I was shocked with this change. I didn't make a seat reservation because I already paid the airfare for the ticket, which entitles me to a seat. I know the gas prices are very high, however, this was too little information, not written int he small print (I checked) and only identified when you selected your seat. I tried to call customer service, but was connected to someone in the Far East (they didn't identify the country they were calling from) and their English was so poor I could not understand the person I was trying to communicate with...When I mentioned I lived in Michigan, I was repeatedly asked, "Where, where do you live?"

Then, when, I asked for a "customer service" number in the US and the number I was given connected me to a "pornographic" phone service — I was more than startled!

Do you want this airline to survive?

Please listen to you customers and please answer your telephones with American residents who speak and understand English and know American geography — this is where you customer base lives and supports you...

I called back and got a number for a "customer service" desk at an airport. When I called that number and talked to a very helpful ticket desk Spirit Air Representative named Karen, she gave me a 1-800 number that had me on hold for 35 minutes with no one answering the phone. I finally hung up.

I have been a customer of Spirit Airlines since they starting flying out of Detroit several years ago. What has happened to Spirit Airlines? They off-shored their customer service lines to people who do not know the geography of the US and are not able to provide answers to questions that relate to the United States, the airports here and the service provided.

I had already paid for my (non-refundable) ticket to NY from Detroit, so I couldn't cancel it, but I sure thought about it. I couldn't get information about the seat selection fees until after I had paid for my ticket. This information needs to be provided up front! The baggage information is also troublesome. If you tap the wrong number of bags you wish to "prepay", there is no way to "delete" a bag if you choose not to take 2 bags on the plane.

From information I have gathered on the web, their customer service has deteriorated considerably in the past few months. They are very good at sending e-mails with enticing fares, but their website does not work correctly, it sent me back to the beginning several times, even when I was ready to select and pay for my ticket. The air fare deals does not even connect with their reservation page.

I hope at least the flight that I paid for is safe and will allow me to travel when I scheduled my flights.

- Barbara in Detroit

Hey everyone, been on the road for two days now and I'm about to pull out of Idaho Falls, ID and head north and then east into Montana.

The drive has been beautiful so far. Eastern Oregon is incredible. I had driven through there in the past, but it was night time and I didn't know what I was missing, but wow, one of the most colorful places I've ever been.

My travel was delayed a bit, however, when I stopped to get my oil changed, and I thought the story was worth passing along.

Now, I ordinarily avoid Wal-Mart like the plague, but I needed a change and I was about to hit a piece of road with no services for over 100 miles, so I figured I better get it done while I had the chance.

Sadly, the ONLY place in town to change my oil was at the local Wal-Mart. So as sick as it made my stomach, I pulled up and did it.

The girl (yes, not a woman) who took my information seemed friendly at first. She politely inquired about the full car load of stuff and said "you must be going somewhere cool."

"Chicago" I said with a smile.

I handed her the keys to the car and stepped out. She told me it would be a 20-minute wait, so I grabbed the iPod and the paper I had and went into the waiting room.

By the way, the one thing I was happy about was that at least this oil change was going to be cheap. Under $25.

About 25 minutes later the girl came into the waiting room and told me the car was ready. I paid, took back my keys and jumped in, ready to hit the open road again.

But when I turned on my car the oil monitoring system said I was still at 10% of my oil's life.

That was weird.

I got out of the car and asked the girl if she was sure that the oil change had in fact been done. She said "Yep, I know it was, cause I did it myself."

"Can you explain why my car is telling me it hasn't been?"

"Well we don't reset the meter in any of those Japanese cars" was her response.

I thought maybe she was right. In all honesty, I wasn't sure if this was something that had to be reset myself or if the car automatically did it upon an oil change.

The only way to find out was to check for myself. So I headed back to the car, popped the hood, and stuck in the dipstick.

Sure enough, it was almost empty.

Unreal. They had just charged me $24 and told me they had changed the oil, but it was never done! They knew they were the only place for miles and miles, this could cause serious problems for people without the monitoring system to alert them it wasn't done.

If it wasn't for that I never would have thought to double check. In the future I will.

Anyhow, at this point I wasn't Wal-mart's happiest customer ever. So I went back in and told the girl what I found.

She called in the mechanic and IN FRONT OF ME said to him "why didn't you change the oil?" Clearly she either forgot, or just didn't care that she had already told me that SHE had done it.

His response was "You told me to just pull it into the lot, you didn't say anything about an oil change."

I was on the mechanic's side for a minute until he looked at me and said "When we get these foreign cars in here, sometimes it gets confusing."

Now I was just livid.

First of all, my car being foreign was 100%, fully and completely irrelevant to the fact that they had just charged me $24 to allow my car to sit in their garage for 24 minutes before pulling it into their parking lot. A dollar a minute. Wow.

On top of that, the disdain for my foreign car was becoming very apparent now. Which was also irritating. My bet is that neither of these people knew that while their own American cars were built by foreign workers for next-to-nothing wages, all of my Honda Civic (with the exception of the engine) was assembled in Ohio by well paid, and highly skilled Americans.

The parts were also produced in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, once again, by American workers.

Long story short, I thought about getting a manager and demanding my money back. And in retrospect, I should have. But I wanted to get back to the road and try to keep my blood pressure low. So I waited a few more minutes while the mechanic replaced the oil in my ever-so-complex Civic and instead of getting my money back I'll just blog about what a rotten, evil and horrible place Wal-Mart is.

I hate Wal-Mart. Ok, so now it's time for me to hit the road, so much for this being a quick note.

The lesson: When your gut says don't go to Wal-Mart, listen to your gut. Also, it is a good idea to check your engine's dipstick no matter where you get your oil changed.

A Quick Note From Idaho (And Why I Hate Wal-Mart) [Stonecipher]
(Photo: Getty)

I found myself in the airport waiting for a friend, and my cellphone ran out of battery. My friend couldn't catch the plane, so I had to make some calls from the payphones next to the baggage claim.

I dial the number in, and I am asked to enter $1 or swipe a card. I happened to have 4 quarters, and for $1 I got 4 minutes of long distance call. I had to do 3 more calls, so, instead of getting more change, I decided to swipe instead my credit card, that I thought it was more convenient.

So far it looks like something quite a normal scenario, one I am sure many other people have found themselves in.

Well, after swiping the card, I get instructions for entering my exp date, and that's all. I can call. No other message. 'Quite convenient', I thought, and I assumed that I would get the same 4min/$1 dollar rate, with maybe a charge fee of some cents for using the phone. I made three calls, of around 1 min and half each.

I just checked my credit card invoice: $11 each call.

This is simply put a scam. There is no visible notice of a $8 connection charge + $1.5/min – at least visible enough for me. Nobody charges $8 for using a credit card. I have used this credit card overseas and they charge me less than $1 for it, at most. And it's not a one time connection fee; each call incurs on it. Their business model is one time users, getting the most they can out of them.

I called them up. They say that they have to cover expenses, and that was all. Only after telling them that I was going to file a complaint, they said that they will give me 50% back. I've seen other people who complaint getting just $11 back.

This is a ripoff and even they know that, so they reimburse you some money just to make you think that they are sorry... They got $15 out of me for nothing! They claim to have 20,000 payphones in the US. I can't imagine the number of people that fall on this scam each day.

Victor
Seattle, Washington
U.S.A.

Like Victor, some of their other customers were credited a partial amount of their bill. The fact that so many customers were able to haggle over the questionable fees on their bill is evidence to us that this company is less than legit. In case you have been ripped off by NCIC and you're in the mood to haggle, their customer service number is 800-382-2887. We also learned of a customer who successfully disputed their NCIC bill with Chase, so don't forget about the chargeback.

Josh writes:

Hi guys...

My name is Josh, and a friend of mine suggested that I might come to you guys for some help. I've kind of engaged in some letter writing to the Krystal corporation all thanks to the restaurant down the road, and I seem to be being ignored. It's weird; I don't actually want anything from Krystal - all I want is an apology, or even an acknowledgment that someone's bothering to read the complaint letter department. Anyways, I've written about it on my own blog, and he suggested I might try you guys. So here goes nothing.

I live in Donelson, Tennessee (a suburb of Nashville), right down the street from a Krystal. I love Krystals - for those of you not from the South, they're very similar to White Castle burgers. Anyways, the Krystal down the street from me is pretty incompetent. Really, really incompetent. To the point where I finally did something I'd never done in my life, and I wrote a letter. Went to their website, found the complaint form, and wrote the following:

To whom it may concern:

I genuinely feel that you may be missing out on a magnificent opportunity to get some press for your Krystal restaurant in Donelson, Tennessee. It is rare that you see a fast food franchise attempt to take on such a massive challenge as this one, and even rarer to find them succeeding.

You see, there is an old phrase, "Even a broken clock is right twice a day." The idea is to show that every person or organization, no matter how incompetent, how wrong-headed, is not wrong 100% of the time. It's a noble, optimistic saying.

Your Donelson Krystal restaurant has taken on the considerable challenge of proving this saying wrong, and they seem to be succeeding (so to speak) magnificently. Of my last five trips to this Krystal, all but one of them have necessitated me returning to the store to fix my order. This is an impressive accomplishment. I have worked fast food, so I know that while mistakes are made, they are not as common as people feel, and most of the time they are the results of inattention or rushes. Yet, your fine employees have managed to bungle my orders at all times of the day, in any number of variations, no matter how busy or not they may be.

Adding to their style is the ridiculously slow speed with which they manage to bungle my orders. You would think that a restaurant so dedicated to such blunders would at least do so quickly, to have the pretext of being in a rush to keep the customers happy. However, this Krystal manages to take an eternity for even the simplest orders, rendering me not only late for whatever I was doing, but doubly late because I now have to go and get my order corrected.

You are thinking to yourself, "Surely this must be because your order is so complicated. Surely no restaurant could mangle orders so constantly unless they were complicated." But no. This Krystal manages to even make a mockery of a request for plain burgers. That's right. To get these orders right, all they have to do is to do nothing. And they still get it wrong. What commitment to their goal!

But to focus on their inability to follow simple directions is to sell the staff of this fine establishment far short. How could we not discuss their rude natures, their incivility, their lack of sympathy? On precisely no occasions that I have had to drive back from my house to correct my orders has anyone apologized, offered me a discount, or even asked if I wanted my drinks filled. Instead, I am greeted with withering stares and disdain, as if I am imposing by requesting that the food I paid for be correct. Especially with gas prices rapidly climbing, most people would succumb to regret or contrition, knowing that they have effectively raised the price of my meal by a decent percentage by making me waste gas. And yet your sterling staff crushes these human weaknesses, ignoring me for as long as possible before begrudgingly giving me what I asked for in the first place.

There are so, so many more issues I could discuss about this store. Could I discuss the time that they only had two employees at the store, but told no one, so the drive thru backed into the street, and people who walked in were greeted by a cook who politely inquired, "What do you want?" while rolling eyes? Or when a manager yelled obscenities at employees while coming in through the front door? Or their mysterious tendency to never have receipt paper, meaning that we have no way of confirming orders or what we paid?

But here is the most simple way to illustrate the impact this store has had on me: they have made me feel as though it is my job to check my order before I leave the store. Imagine being so successful at your incompetence that you have successfully made your customers feel that they are to blame for your mistakes, and that they bear the responsibility of making sure they get what they are asking for.

In the end, I am unsure if your restaurant is a massively successful performance art installation designed to prove how truly miserable a fast food experience could be. If so, bravo, good sirs. If not, then I can only applaud your employees and staff at their incredible incompetence, inhumanity, and miraculous consistency of ineptitude. Clearly they are wasted here; they should have themselves positions in the federal government. I think would fit in perfectly with the good people at FEMA, no doubt.

In conclusion, I find myself wondering tonight why I continue to frequent this Krystal. Yes, I love the food. Yes, it is close to my house. But with such incredible incompetence on display, you would think that I would have learned to stay away. Maybe I finally am.

Sincerely,

Josh

Now, that was on May 18th. I got nothing as a result of this letter. Not an acknowledgment, not even an automated "We thank you for writing to us" letter. I don't really want anything back; all I would like is some sort of comment that a) they listen to compaints and b) would like to apologize for how I was treated.

But nothing.

Now, this past Sunday, my wife ended up stopping at Krystal to pick me up some dinner. The resulting drive-thru trip took 30 minutes, over which period of time...well, here's the next letter I wrote.

To whom it may concern:

I have complained about the Donelson branch of Krystal twice in the past, and been ignored. I would have thought that a long, detailed letter expressing irritation at your restaurant would have been responded to, but apparently not. Perhaps it's because my letter was long. Here's a simple version of tonight's events for your apparently simple minds.

1. When we tried to order dinner, we were told that the restaurant had run out of fries. Then it turned out that they hadn't really - he just hadn't checked.

2. AFTER ordering, AFTER paying, my wife was told that it would take 7-9 minutes to get food. She was thus stuck in her car with a fussy child for ten minutes, rather than getting the quick dinner we were hoping for. And ten minutes for Krystals? RIDICULOUS.

3. Finally, they brought the Krystals, but told my wife that their heat lamp has broken. Did I still want cold fries?

4. We asked for our money back. SO THEY TOOK THE FOOD BACK WITH THEM.

5. There was no apology, no explanation.

6. It took FIFTEEN minutes to process a refund.

7. The manager chose to YELL at my wife for being interested in what was taking so long for the refund. His exact words were, "Bear with me. I'm working on it."

8. He STILL did not apologize.

9. We were there for THIRTY minutes. We received no apology whatsoever.

10. We gave up on getting our money back. We finally got our food again and left. But, they lost the receipt and had to find it.

To give the devil his due, there was a single employee who was kind and understanding to my wife during all of this. Although he did not apologize, he did give my wife a pack of cookies, telling her, "Give this to the little one for having to wait."

This is inexcusable, offensive, and disrespectful. This has managed to do what no amount of health talk or bad experience has done before - I will not return to a Krystal restaurant again until I have received either an apology, an explanation, or I have been assured that your entire moronic, pathetic staff at this restaurant has been replaced by someone more intelligent and sympathetic, like a dog or a cardboard box. I have eaten Krystal since I was a young boy, and I will miss it and the considerable amount of business I have done there, but I am sick of being treated with disrespect, disdain, and contempt by your corporation.

This time, I sent it through the complaint form, the question form, the suggestion form, AND the compliment form, just in the hopes of being read.

Nothing.

Look - I don't want much. All I want is an apology, someone to say "Hey, maybe we shouldn't treat our customers this way." But I have gotten nothing, and I would have thought that my wife being YELLED AT by the manager might have merited such. But no.

It just seems to me that it's disingenuous to have a complaint and feedback form if you're going to ignore it.

Do I have a valid issue? Or do I need to just let it go?

Josh is clearly passionate about his concerns, and while he invested more time pursuing his complaint than we would recommend, it's not unreasonable for him to expect some response.

C'mon Krystal, showing up is half the battle. Take a minute and crank out a form letter.

(Photo: Wikipedia)

Chelsea writes:

I've had Sprint service for seven years because I receive a state employee discount, and it's been pretty smooth sailing. Luckily when I renewed my plan in May, I was paired with a sales manager who seemed both friendly and efficient. Going through my first bill I noticed four incorrect charges, including mysterious internet usage and a late fee, despite the fact I've been on automatic payments for years. I emailed Sprint about these charges and promptly received a long and apologetic response from someone named Steffi. She credited all of the charges and informed me of a way to block internet access altogether. This all was great, so I wanted to express some gratitude:

Thank you for responding so quickly. I really appreciate your help with this invoice. If there's no charge in preventing internet access, I would like that to be applied.

You know, there's a lot of Sprint hatred out there, but I've never had a huge problem with anyone. Seeing weird charges on my bill had me worried, but I'm happy to see Sprint sticking to their word to provide good customer service.

Thanks again.

Soon after that email, I received this reply:

Thank you for contacting Sprint.

I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to write



regarding the excellent service you received. Our goal is to serve you



with world-class customer service, and feedback from customers like you



is a great source of motivation in our endeavor to achieve that goal.

I have added Sprint Vision Pack for $15.00 on the account effective June



20, 2008.

Now you can enjoy:

• Unlimited Web/Data Access on Handset
• Unlimited Picture Mail and Video Mail
• Multimedia - Sprint TV Channel 1

Have a nice day!

Sincerely,



Peter P.



Sprint

......Wha-? I re-read my email to make sure I didn't somehow authorize this, but no, I mentioned preventing internet access. What a fool I was, doting on Sprint before the job was done. Instead of calming down and being rational, I replied with a crazy email rife with superfluous exclamation marks and all caps. I pointed out that's the exact opposite of what I asked for and asked if anyone even read my email.

The response email from Gloria D. wasn't nice and certainly lacking any apology. But Vision has been removed, so oh well. A toast to Sprint and another glorious two years.

(AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)

Mark writes,

I sent in a complaint through the Arby's website and, shockingly, I got a really great, and fast, response. This may actually get me to eat at Arby's more than once every other month...

Well... Maybe not.

Response below:

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-——

Mark,

I want to apologize for the product you received at the Arby's on San Mateo location. I just spoke to the manager and supervisor in charge of this location and informed me they had a mechanical issue with the slicer. They should have explained to you they were having an issue with this piece of equipment. We now have another slicer that is working. I know this is not an excuse for providing this type of product, however I am be putting a couple of free meals in the mail as I am writing this email.

Again, I do apologize and we have taken care of this equipment issue. I hope you will return.

Sincerely,

Gary Chaves

Vice President – Operations

Never having operated a commercial meat slicer it's difficult to gauge the validity of this explanation which really leaves more questions than answers. How does a slicer go from "slice" to "puree?" Then again, maybe we don't want to know the awful truth behind the beef-confetti.

PREVIOUSLY: Arby's Roast Beef Sandwich, Now With Beef Confetti?

Long-time reader, first-time writer. Here we go:

Hello. I'm writing to let you and others know about my experience with the jewelry company Zales. I bought both mine and my wife's we