NEW YORK, 5:24 AM, SAT JUL 19 | 19 POSTS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS | tips@consumerist.com | RSS
Posts Tagged “

damage

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hp

HP Offers To Fix Your Defective Laptop For Free, Then Changes Its Mind. Twice.

Reader Amy's HP laptop is defective and HP offered to fix it for free—then changed its mind and wanted $800. Amy asked them to return the laptop, and when she got it back, she found that it was even more broken than when she sent it in. She contacted HP again and again they offered to fix it for free. This time, they let the laptop sit around for 3 weeks before calling her to let her know that they were voiding her warranty because of "liquid damage." Amy says the first repair ticket has no mention of this mysterious liquid damage... More »

12:38 PM on Tue Jul 8 2008
By Meg Marco
8,443 views, 38 comments

Latest by n/a: @legwork: Carly's got her nose out of screwing up HP, and now it's up John McCain's colon: [business.timesonline.co.uk] Hopefully she can screw up his campaign worse than she did HP. more »

Don't Be Stupid

No, You Should Not Save Money By Filling Your Rental Truck's Gas Tank With Water

Look, we know gas is expensive, but don't save a couple bucks by topping off your U-Haul's gas tank with water. We won't pretend to care about U-Haul—not even U-Haul cares about their vehicles—but the next renter will want to bludgeon you with a rusty ice pick when their truck breaks down because you hosed the engine. More »

9:25 AM on Sat Jun 28 2008
By Carey
15,429 views, 55 comments

executive email carpet bomb

Home Depot's Extraordinary Service Leads To Free $800 Appliance Upgrade

Michael launched an Executive Email Carpet Bomb after Home Depot twice failed to deliver an undamaged washer and dryer. Home Depot's CEO Frank Blake quickly thanked Michael for his even-handed letter, and promised that the local store manager would make him a happy customer... More »

11:20 AM on Sun May 25 2008
By Carey
10,284 views, 21 comments

damage

Best Buy: Only $1700 For This Awesome Broken Computer

Reader Scott says:
I was wandering around Best Buy yesterday here in Missouri when we came across this. Essentially, the back of this "open box" tagged computer was completely broken off. I realize that this may indeed be the nature of "open box" product, but seriously... 1700 dollars for a computer with this kind of blatant damage?
More »

9:24 AM on Mon Apr 14 2008
By Meg Marco
12,791 views, 50 comments

repairs

Circuit City Tries To Install Navigation System, Causes $12,119 Of Damage To Your Car

Circuit City caused $12,119 worth of damage to VTECnical's 2007 Honda Civic while trying to install a Pioneer AVIC Z2 navigation system. Honda later declared VTECnical's car a fire hazard and told him it was unsafe to drive. Despite destroying the car's heater ducts, stock wiring harness, and dashboard, Circuit City has refunded only $3,190, and insists that VTECnical speak exclusively to their third-party insurer. Hit the jump for Honda's damning condemnation of Circuit City's shoddy workmanship and a video of the damage.
More »

8:00 PM on Sun Mar 30 2008
By Carey
136,561 views, 140 comments

Latest by n/a: You need to sue Curcuit City if they are not going to handle it. They say it's not their problem anymore??!! Huh, I'd make it their damn problem. more »

extortion

Budget Demands $2,080.93 To Repair Preexisting Damage

Kevin noted on his Budget rental forms that his truck was covered with graffiti and other nicks and scratches before driving off the lot. As soon as he returned the truck, the lot agent pointed out a slew of damage and invited him inside. He said that Kevin had two options: pay $670 in cash immediately, or pay several thousand dollars to corporate later. Kevin paid the extortion fee, but now Budget's corporate office wants $2,080 to repair, among other things, graffiti damage. More »

9:17 AM on Sun Mar 9 2008
By Carey
12,427 views, 51 comments

Latest by painfullyblunt: just another reason to get a cameraphone, use it to document any and all damage before driving off the lot. more »

pests

Orkin "Lifetime Guarantee" Costs $214 A Year?

Chris writes,
Last year we had Orkin come and get rid of a termite problem in our 60 year old house. It is a small three bedroom house and we were putting concrete siding on and discovered some termite trails. We spent around $1,700 for what we were told by the sales man and his supervisor was a life time guarantee. Its been a year and I just got a bill for $214 including tax for the yearly Orkin termite service. I was told by customer service and my local Orkin office that in order to keep my lifetime guarantee I need to pay the $214 for as long as I live in the house.

More »

10:40 AM on Mon Feb 11 2008
By Chris Walters
4,622 views, 14 comments

Latest by GZA: Yup what you paid for was for the initial treatment. In order for them to cover any damages after the treatment you have to pay the annual inspection fee. As others have said it really should say "Lifetime more »

damage

Time Warner: A Tornado Destroyed Your House Our Cable Boxes? That'll Be $2,000

Ann Beam's Wheatland, WI home was destroyed by a tornado earlier this month. Then a snow storm hit and made clean up difficult. To top it off, she opened her Time Warner Cable bill and saw a $2,000 charge for the 5 (9-year-old) cable boxes and remotes that were destroyed in the tornado. More »

5:13 PM on Thu Jan 31 2008
By Meg Marco
11,415 views, 66 comments

bad install

DirecTV Installer Crashes Through Your Ceiling, Won't Repair The Damage

In April of 2006, Deborah replaced her daughter's DirecTV receiver. When the technician was installing the line to her daughter's bedroom, he accidentally shoved his foot through the Deborah's ceiling. More »

8:36 AM on Wed Jan 16 2008
By Meg Marco
11,769 views, 67 comments

Canadian telecommunications giant Bell Canada is pulling down over 50 ads placed around parts of Toronto and Vancouver, because they show a woman wearing a button that reads "Belsen was a gas," the title of a Sex Pistols song and a reference to the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. The button is one of many the model wears, and the company says it was impossible to read during approval and proofing, and only became legible when blown up to billboard-size proportions. [Reuters and Free Republic]

7 comments

bad install

DirecTV Installer Needs Electrical Tape, Prefers Coke To Water, Is Concerned About Your Parenting

Christy is having the best time getting DirecTV installed in her home. Highlights of her hilariously tragic email include: More »

12:56 PM on Mon Jun 25 2007
By Meg Marco
12,227 views, 70 comments

comcast

Squirrels 1, Comcast 0: Comcast Would Rather Let You Cancel Than Investigate Damage

Reader Rex knows that it's likely squirrels chewed into his cable because it's happened before, but Comcast doesn't seem to care. They'd rather keep sending technicians to swap out his modem. Over. And Over. And Over. Rex writes:
I've told them either they are throttling the bandwidth for my neighborhood or it's a problem on the pole going to my house. They had found a problem there previously; apparently it looked like squirrels chewed through the box and severed components. Squirrels are apparently bad-asses when it comes to taking down infrastructures.
We suppose Comcast could have kept Rex as a customer if they'd bothered to just take a look at his potential squirrel damage. Comcast even promised that they would. They didn't. Now Rex has Speakeasy. Sadly, when we told him that they'd just been purchased by Best Buy he said a word that nice ladies don't type on the internet. More »

9:58 PM on Tue Mar 27 2007
By Meg Marco
2,476 views, 27 comments

Latest by nequam: @bradg33: "learn a little bit about property law" ... leaving their shit there (40 ft chunk of cable) is a trespass despite the easement. But you are right that setting up ladders to reach and work on the cables more »

ipod

iTunes 7 Breaks Your iPod

It seems that iTunes 7 breaks older iPods, and no one at Apple believes it. We believe it. Here's the deal. You have a slightly older iPod, a Nano, or a Shuffle. You update iTunes. Your hardware stops working. Apple doesn't give a shit, and they tell you it's time to buy a new iPod. The general feeling seems to be that if your iPod is sort of old, it broke on its own. Very suspicious. More »

9:25 AM on Thu Nov 2 2006
By Meg Marco
3,753 views, 46 comments

complaints

Buy.com's Packaging Sucks!

Jerry writes in with a photo of the totally fucked up book he received from Buy.com. He realizes that it's the USPS's fault for messing up the book... but is wondering if Buy.com's packaging needs to be quite as flimsy as it is. More »

4:25 PM on Wed Nov 1 2006
By Meg Marco
275 views, 10 comments

cellphones

Cellphone Water Damage Is A Design Flaw

Dan Lockton's Architectures of Control in Design has a neat riff on our Save A Wet Cellphone post. More »

12:17 PM on Tue Oct 31 2006
By Ben Popken
1,990 views, 12 comments

consumerist kit

Tape On Your Wet Cellphone Won't Help You At All

In response to our post on Saving A Wet Cellphone, and specifically the advice we for some reason gave about trying to trick companies to pay for dropping the blasted phone in the sink by taping over the water damage sticker, an anonymous tipster wrote: More »

6:53 AM on Wed Oct 18 2006
By consumerist.com
734 views, 8 comments

cellphones

Save A Wet Cellphone

There was a time when the best place to charge our cellphone was near an open window in our apartment. One day, it stopped working and we took it into the Verizon store to get it fixed. The first thing they did was open up the battery case. On top of the Verizon LG phone battery was a small dot, normally white, that changes color when the battery has been exposed to water. As such, they phone was no longer covered under warranty and we ended up signing a new contract just so we didn't have to pay full retail for their phone. We wished that instead we had known about these neat tips (again, at WikiHow) on saving your wet cell phone. More »

6:25 PM on Mon Oct 16 2006
By Ben Popken
4,210 views, 21 comments

Latest by phill_nz: this is a design farce driven by marketing and sales .. i fish a lot .. which means boats and water .. im also a rural / bush fire fighter .. these activities cause the destruction of many phones … more »

irs

The Taxman Is Really, Really, Wet

Boon for those who filed their returns in used lunch sacks? More »