Jonathan wanted to opt out everyone in his family from direct marketing campaigns, something the DMA promises is possible via their website. Surprise! It turns out the DMA doesn’t really care so much about whether or not you want to be taken off any mailing lists, and they have a rotten website and poor security protocols to prove it.
Direct Marketing Association's Opt Out Website Is A Joke
By September 24, 2009
Sprint Yanks $100 Credit Offer On Palm Pre, Says Oops
By September 9, 2009
Earlier today, Sprint made news by effectively cutting the price of a Palm Pre to $99 for new Sprint customers, after a $100 credit. Now Sprint is saying it was a publishing error and not a valid offer.
DirecTV Double Bills 75-Year-Old Widow, Won't Fix It, Then Debits Huge Cancellation Fee
By August 31, 2009
Here’s a lovely story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A unnamed 75-year-old widow says AT&T called her to offer their new U-Verse service with bundled TV, Internet and phone. She signed up, only to receive a phone call letting her know that the TV service wasn’t available in her area yet, but would she like to sign up with DirecTV instead? She agreed, but DirecTV started doublebilling her as soon as her service started. After a few months of the runaround from DirecTV she called to cancel.
Is Verizon Randomly Charging You $1.99 Per Line For "Data Usage"?
By August 27, 2009
On August 14, the Cleveland Plain Dealer printed a column by a business writer who described her 6-month-long ordeal with Verizon concerning a mysterious $1.99 charge for “data usage.” The paper says that over 400 Plain Dealer readers responded with complaints similar to the one in the column. Now the paper says they have a promise from Verizon to refund these mysterious and erroneous charges.
Reader Wants To Convert Retailer's Billing Mistake Into Charitable Act
By August 19, 2009
Here’s a good rule of thumb for determining whether something is a charitable act: if you have to steal money to do it, and you’re not Robin Hood, it’s probably not gonna count as a good deed.
American Airlines Misplaces Your Grandmother, Twice
By August 13, 2009
Every once in awhile we post a sad story about someone’s 85-year-old grandmother being left at the gate because nobody came to push the wheelchair. This is one of those stories. The difference, however, is that in this case American Airlines left the woman at the gate, apologized, got her a hotel, brought her back, and left her with a Skycap. She missed the second flight too.
Domino's Uses Pizza Tracker To Track You, Deliver Forgotten Soda
By August 13, 2009
Do you ever wonder whether post-transaction customer satisfaction or feedback surveys get lost somewhere in the ether, and have no impact on the local branch of the company you’re dealing with? Thomas didn’t think that his feedback mattered all that much, but his local Domino’s surprised him with a nearly instant response to their Web feedback.
Quick, Grab This $10 HDTV Before It's— Oh Never Mind
By August 12, 2009
It looks like Best Buy‘s servers decided to call in sick this morning—Casey writes, “This was on their site this morning for about 45 minutes before they corrected the ad.” We have a feeling Best Buy isn’t going to pull a neat “just keep it, our bad” maneuver like ThinkGeek, however.
Target Charges You More For Free Bonus
By August 11, 2009
Reader Michael sent us this picture of a 16-ounce bottle of Crest whitening rinse and a 32-ounce bottle that says “BONUS 100% MORE FREE.” Turns out by “FREE” they mean “$1.15 more.”
Company Apologizes, Hilariously, For Mail Merge Screwup
By July 29, 2009
Everyone knows that the “personal touch” of using your name in an email, printed letter, or CSR call is powered by a database and a computer, and not really personal at all. Still, when a company gets it wrong it can be annoying. When a company gets it wrong, then apologizes by sending a follow-up message that makes you smile, all can be forgiven.
Get A Palm Pre For Only $99 At Best Buy…No, Wait, Never Mind
By July 28, 2009
For a brief, shining moment, in-store ads at Best Buy stores advertised a Palm Pre for $99 with a new two-year Sprint contract. Potential Pre customers were stoked. Recent Pre purchasers were incensed. And today, Best Buy was scrambling to fix the situation, since the price drop was really due to an error in the system. Oops.
Craftsman Doesn't Have The Ability To Cancel A Duplicate Order
By July 23, 2009
Reader C.W. is wondering why Craftsman (which is part of Sears) doesn’t have the ability to cancel a duplicate order. Especially since there appears to be a “cancel” button on the website.
UPS Sends Your Monitor To "Gladys" In Wichita, Dell Tells You To Pick It Up. You Live In Boston.
By July 23, 2009
Reader Bret doesn’t particularly feel like buying a monitor for Gladys, a random woman who lives in Wichita, KS. Explaining this to Dell and UPS, however, is about as fun as you think it would be.
Capital One: Your Account Is 0 Months Past Due, But Don't Worry — It Can Happen To Anyone
By July 15, 2009
A Capital One robot has been calling reader Catherine but she’s been ignoring their calls. Then, today, she checked her account and found out that she was “0 payments past due.”
Unruly Teen Charges $23 Quadrillion At Drugstore
By July 14, 2009
Kids these days! Hawkins writes, “My lectures about financial responsibility appear to have failed: yesterday [my teenaged daughter] charged $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 at the drug store.” You would think Visa would have caught the error and addressed it, if you were high. What Visa actually did was slap a $20 “negative balance” fee on it, of course. Update: Here’s what happened!
Banned Bank Of America Customer Says His Credit Is Clear
By July 8, 2009
Earlier this week we wrote about how BoA told Jesse he could never have an account with them, but they wouldn’t give a specific reason. A lot of readers and tipsters suggested ChexSystems was the culprit, so we asked Jesse if there was something in his credit past causing the problem.
Bank Of America: "That's Why You Don't Open New Accounts Online"
By July 8, 2009
After reading about how Jesse was banned for life from Bank of America for no clear reason, other readers wrote in with similarly bizarre BoA stories. Wayne was locked out of his new account after he opened it and charged a $75 overdraft fee. Chris was sent checks linked to a duplicate account and then charged penalties when the checks bounced. Edward’s new account was closed but the CSR refused to tell him why, and he was charged a $60 “research fee” for the closing. When Edward went to a BoA branch to clear things up, he says the employee there told him, “That’s why you don’t open up accounts online.”
Macbook Pro Owner Caught In Warranty Catch-22 Thanks To Apple's Mistake
By July 7, 2009
Because of an Apple technician’s mistake, Gennadiy had two options for repairing his 2009 Macbook Pro: either pay $1240+tax to replace the logic board because Apple said water damage voided the warranty, or push the unseated cable back into place and prove that there was no water damage—which would void the warranty. Gennadiy took the second option and saved himself over $1300, but now has no warranty should something actually happen to the logic board that should be covered.
