• lawsuits

    How To File A Lawsuit

    Consumerist empowers consumers to take on bad companies, but sometimes even the negative PR that Consumerist can bring to bear is not enough to persuade companies to behave. When that happens, you might have to sue in order to get what you want. Here is a brief guide to your options when you decide you need to escalate your complaint to the courts. More »

    2:57 PM on Mon Dec 1 2008
    By Sam Glover
    6,257 views, 29 comments

    Most discussed Eyebrows McGee: Make sure you check the fees (often available online). I live in a county where filing a small claims case more »

  • ask the consumerists

    Where Do I Turn For Help With My Mortgage?

    Reader Mike is in a "challenging mortgage situation" and wants to know where he should turn for help. More »

    12:12 PM on Tue Nov 25 2008
    By Meg Marco
    5,637 views, 18 comments

  • customer service

    Customer Service Not Working? Try GetSatisfaction

    Here's hoping for everyone's sake that some Warbucks type buys up Consumerist, lavishes me with gifts, and allows this great blog to continue. But even so, it never hurts to know about other online services out there. GetSatisfaction.com is a kind of crowdsourced customer service forum where anyone can post about any product or company, and where companies are encouraged to join in. Since the content is grouped around those products and companies, it's easy to drill down to relevant topics, or to find people who can help answer that customer service question you can't seem to get resolved. Here's a sample page on Comcast. That's right, my first entry as a substitute Consumerist editor today and I've already mentioned Comcast. More »

    8:30 AM on Fri Nov 14 2008
    By Chris Walters
    2,549 views, 17 comments

    Most discussed vladthepaler: Here's hoping that whoever buys Consumerist fixes your web pages so they're not so damned wide. All this horizontal scrolling more »

  • home

    3 Ways To Get Help With Paying For Heat

    If your wallet is naked and shivering this winter when it comes to paying your heating bill, here's 3 ways to get help.

    1. Low-Income Housing and Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Direct funding for heating bills
    2. The Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) Funds homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient
    3. Check with your electrical company for winter assistant plans.

    6 Ways to Give or Get Help Paying for Heat This Winter [Furnace Compare] (Photo: Getty)

    12:53 PM on Thu Oct 23 2008
    By Ben Popken
    1,946 views, 49 comments

  • netflix

    Maximize Your Netflix Membership With FeedFlix

    We first discovered the very useful FeedFlix back in May, and since then the site's been updated to present more data on how well you utilize your Netflix membership. By pasting in any of your private Netflix RSS feeds, you'll see a breakdown of your activity stats, like how long on average you keep titles and your average cost-per-rental. A handy new feature is the "email alerts" function, where you'll receive a weekly reminder if you've kept a title past a certain number of days. We've included a screenshot below. More »

    11:51 AM on Fri Oct 10 2008
    By Chris Walters
    7,912 views, 42 comments

    Most discussed Thanatos: I used to have movies 1 day at most and had unlimited 3 at a time plan after i got more »

  • verizon

    Verizon Refuses To Help Locate Body Of Missing Woman For Four Days

    Verizon, which has no problem helping the government spy on its customers, suddenly turned stupid in June when a police department asked them for help finding the body of a woman who had been abducted on camera. Despite pleas from the woman's parents, the police, and the FBI, it was four days before a technician was sent out to the appropriate cell tower. When that technician gave the police the location info, they found Kelsey Smith's body within 45 minutes. Verizon won't respond to requests for an explanation of why they couldn't help sooner. More »

    4:18 PM on Wed Sep 17 2008
    By Chris Walters
    47,200 views, 77 comments

    Most discussed Jonbo298: Don't you need a subpoena for cell tower tracking/call records? I could see why Verizon would be stingy if they more »

  • personal finance

    'Rudder' Provides Your Daily Financial Status Via Email

    Rudder is a new personal finance service that differs from the dozens of other ones now available in two key ways: it presents a simplified overview of your available funds, which it calls "What's Left," and it delivers it (along with bill reminders and balance notifications) to your email inbox instead of requiring you to visit a website. Think of it as a highly customized "Very Short List" or "Daily Candy," only the topic is always your current financial health. More »

    5:29 PM on Fri Sep 12 2008
    By Chris Walters
    6,030 views, 10 comments

    Most discussed wellcum: Great, most Americans are just too stupid and too lazy to check their finance online. more »

  • apple

    This Apple CSR Wants You To Learn By Doing

    This chat transcript from "Yet Another Girl"'s blog is an example of how sometimes you can find exactly the answer you're looking for on a customer service chat. Unfortunately, in this case, you'll do all of the work yourself while the chat agent stares numbly at the screen, wondering how did I end up here? I don't even know what this "apple" thing is! More »

    5:14 PM on Wed Sep 10 2008
    By Chris Walters
    15,306 views, 64 comments

    Most discussed shadowkahn: I'm sorry. If your first line is " I need a new doohickey; TSA lost my old one." the CSR more »

  • qwest

    Qwest Updates Contact Page To Explain Why They Don't Accept Emails

    Yesterday we noted that Qwest has done away with their "email us" option on their contact page, and in a comical example of corporate doublespeak they'd printed, "Your questions and concerns are very important to us, however we are no longer able to respond to email." Today it looks like Qwest has changed that pop-up window to provide a little more information. More »

    8:44 PM on Wed Sep 3 2008
    By Chris Walters
    7,438 views, 16 comments

    Most discussed MyTQuinn: Forcing customers to wait (and wait, and wait... and wait) to "speak" with a live person via voice call or more »

  • qwest

    Qwest Does Away With Support Via Email

    Update: Qwest has updated their contact page to provide (slightly) more information.

    Justin tried to contact Qwest last week to resolve a problem with their service. He clicked the "E-mail Us" link under "Residential" and a window popped up with the following message:

    Your questions and concerns are very important to us, however we are no longer able to respond to email. Please consider the other contact options available.

    The "Small Business" email option has been disabled, too. More »

    12:37 PM on Tue Sep 2 2008
    By Chris Walters
    3,465 views, 17 comments