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Posts Tagged “

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bad customers

Bad Customers And The Stupid Things They Say

Our reader Eyebrows McGee pointed us to a fun, albeit slightly depressing (if you're concerned about the future of the human race) website called NotAlwaysRight.com, where retail veterans post transcripts of their worst customer interactions. Read for fun, but also for examples of how not to behave as a consumer.

Me: “Can I help you?”
Customer:“I’m looking for non-fiction.”
Me:“What kind?”
Customer: “Just non-fiction.”
Me: “Okay…do you want history? Or science? Psychology?
Business?”
Customer: “No, just NON-FICTION!”

More »

1:52 PM on Mon May 19 2008
By Chris Walters
24,136 views, 144 comments

paranoia

CenterPoint Energy Thinks Your Fish Tank Is A Meth Lab, So Police Kick In Your Door

You'd think between the reactionary CenterPoint Energy subcontractor who smelled vinegar and got worried, the police officer who asked for a search warrant, and the new-to-the-bench judge who signed the warrant, someone would have stopped to say, "Wait, what exactly did you smell? Something vinegary, huh? Yeah, that's not a meth lab." (After all, we were able to find two decent descriptions of what a meth lab smells like in less than a minute.) Instead, a 54-year-old former nurse and her 49-year-old husband were handcuffed and told to sit in their living room and not speak to each other while the warrant was executed. More »

2:13 PM on Wed Apr 30 2008
By Chris Walters
15,595 views, 117 comments

Latest by Craysh: @blackmage439 Do people like you blame all the faults of the US on Bush? When something happens, do you always close your comments with "I hate this administration" ? In this case, it would be more appropriate to say "I hate the more »

bribes

Kmart Will Trade You A Bottle Of Coke Or Free Candy For A Sears Credit Card App

Dan sent us this pic he snapped in a local Kmart and writes, "I remember a previous post on a Wal-Mart card that offered a 2-liter bottle, but I guess inflation caught up with big K as they are only offering 20-oz." More »

5:13 PM on Tue Apr 8 2008
By Chris Walters
5,205 views, 61 comments

Latest by hevensxj: it should be a 2 litter not a 20 ounce i work at a kmart more »

funny

Ridiculous Tech Support Calls

In his Circuits column this week, David Pogue shares some of the most absurd calls he listened to when he toured a tech support center.
I learned that when they say, "Your call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes," that's only partly true. They also record your calls so they can pass around recordings of the funniest ones.
More »

7:49 PM on Thu Mar 6 2008
By Chris Walters
18,334 views, 69 comments

identity theft

Gas Station Attendant Busted For Re-Using Customers' Credit Card Numbers

A 23-year-old gas station attendant in Massachusetts has been charged with identity theft after a customer noticed that her card was used to make additional purchases a few hours after she'd been at the station. The attendant told his employers that the customer had come back to buy gift cards for her nephew, but police say the employee wrote down the card number and expiration date.
More »

9:43 PM on Fri Feb 15 2008
By Chris Walters
5,050 views, 38 comments

identity theft

Mann Free Movie Tickets Settlement Requires Your Credit Card Number

Between December 2006 and January 2007, Mann Theatres in Southern California printed the expiration dates of credit cards on receipts. If you were one of the lucky suckers who saw a movie there during this period and paid via credit card, Mann's lawyers want to make things right by giving you two free movie tickets and some free popcorn. However, to qualify for the free tickets, you have to provide your credit card number. This is like the end of "The Lion King" where the new cub is held aloft—the circle of life continues. More »

11:02 AM on Tue Jan 22 2008
By Chris Walters
1,481 views, 16 comments

Latest by Erasmus Darwin: @Buran: The problem with that is that a newly generated one-time number wouldn't match the number from the incident, which is presumably what they're comparing against. @mac-phisto: I think you're reading too much into it, and given them your CC # more »

stupid shipping gang

What's Inside This Big Box From IBM?

Ooo, what could be inside this box that IBM shipped to a reader—retail-packaged software? Peripherals? Maybe a hard drive with air padding? A logo-emblazoned hoodie? Monogrammed pencils? A kitten? More »

1:14 PM on Mon Jan 21 2008
By Chris Walters
14,310 views, 53 comments

complaints

Worst Business Reply Postcard Ever

Can you spot what's wrong with this Business Reply postcard? That's right, The Huntsville Times wants you to write down your full contact information and credit card number on a postcard and send it through the mail where anyone can see it. Hellooooo, identity theft. More »

12:16 PM on Wed Jan 16 2008
By Ben Popken
4,125 views, 49 comments

packaging

Wal-Mart Joins The Stupid Shipping Gang

A reader writes, "As part of our Christmas shopping; we ordered several DVD's, video games, and a phone card from Wal-Mart's website." The items trickled in over several days, then "this showed up. A 10X11X5 inch box, an air-filled air bubble, and one thin phone card taped to the bottom of the box."

Companies, this has got to stop! It's wasteful and annoying. It's stupid. It can't cost that much to hire someone to put together a shipping program that uses different package sizes for different types of products. More »

12:22 PM on Wed Dec 26 2007
By Chris Walters
14,383 views, 30 comments

Latest by superqueen23: For work, I once had to order a bunch of staples supplies. Two days after my order was scheduled to arrive, I finally receive one small box containing only packing material and a catalogue. I was not pleased, but after more »

dumb

Amazon Is Unable To Ship A Hard Drive In Proper Packaging

Amazon should take a closer look at how they're shipping hard drives, because the current plan just isn't working. More »

1:29 PM on Wed Dec 19 2007
By Meg Marco
11,196 views, 56 comments

children's television

Early Sesame Street DVDs Have "Adults Only" Warnings

The producers of Sesame Street have slapped volumes 1 & 2 of the eternally running children's show with the following warning: "These early 'Sesame Street' episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child." Why? Cookie Monster carries a pipe in one recurring parody—and then eats it. Oscar the Grouch is too grouchy and mean. And in the first episode, a grown man—Gordon—asks a little girl to come home with him for milk and cookies... and she does! More »

8:19 AM on Mon Nov 19 2007
By Chris Walters
10,527 views, 61 comments

Latest by RvLeshrac: @Rectilinear Propagation: "Mommy, the priest is touching me in a bad way.""He couldn't possibly be doing that, he's a good christian man!" @dotorg greg: Uh, the "accumulated body of child behavior research that has informed changes to the show over the years" is more »

bad consumer

LoJack Foils Customer's Car Theft Scam

If you're going to report your vehicle has been stolen and then hide it in a friend's backyard with license plates you grabbed from your boyfriend's house, then make sure it doesn't have a LoJack system installed first. A woman in San Diego did just that in an attempt to prevent it from being repossessed, but as soon as she filed the report with the police, they activated the system and traced the vehicle. More »

4:25 PM on Fri Nov 2 2007
By Chris Walters
6,072 views, 26 comments

retail

Bed Bath & Beyond Forbids Cell Phone Cameras

Bed Bath & Beyond tries to prevent shoppers from doing any online comparisons or research, because it has a "no photos" policy in its store. I discovered this yesterday when I used my cellphone to take a no-flash, silent photo of a coffee grinder. A store associate walked up and said, "You can't take photos of merchandise. It's store policy."

We proceeded to have a conversation about this policy, where I explained that there are good reasons to let customers take quick snapshots of products, and he explained that "every store has a policy like this" and that "it's been around for forty years," and if I wanted a photo I could go to their website. He also said the policy was to prevent spies from stealing trade secrets. (He actually just said "You could be a spy," but I'm assuming he meant the retail kind, and not the Polonium-210 kind.)
More »

11:00 AM on Wed Oct 17 2007
By Chris Walters
8,874 views, 105 comments

Latest by n/a: BTW- writing it down may cause a stir some places, but there is no policy of this at bed bath & beyond. I mean i stick notes of upc numbers in my pockets and forget about them until i get more »

all i want for xmas is a psp

Sony PSP Flog Removed

Sony stripped the PSP flog from the internet this afternoon. More »
all i want for xmas is a psp

PSP Flog Not Greg Meyerkord's Fault

Greg Meyerkord, the man whose name appears on the PSP flog domain registration, has put up a website to debunk all the haters. More »

8:59 AM on Fri Dec 15 2006
By Ben Popken
275 views, 17 comments

all i want for xmas is a psp

Greg Meyerkord Interviewed-ish

Reader Nolen decided to harass/contact Greg Meyerkord , the guy whose name appears on the PSP flog domain registration.... More »

9:26 AM on Thu Dec 14 2006
By Ben Popken
213 views, 9 comments

clips

We Reupload Heinous PSP Flog Videos Sony Removed

UPDATE: The 807 comments that were on the Dancing Petey video, after the jump. More »
all i want for xmas is a psp

Meet The Douchebags Behind The Sony PSP Flog

We found the Myspace profiles for most of the the marketing douchebags who appear on the PSP flog, pretending that they are kids who want their parents to buy them a PSP for Christmas. More »

4:10 PM on Wed Dec 13 2006
By Ben Popken
1,774 views, 11 comments

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