leaks

Out of the shadows steps a dark figure, sporting wrinkled khakis, a retractable namebadge, and a headset dangling from his ear. It's the telermarketing insider, and he's going to confess to you how his industry really works and how you can resist and even fight back:  More »

A reader sent us a letter that AT&T sent to its employees asking them to tell the FCC they oppose net neutrality. This comes after the FCC announced plans to investigate and enact net neutrality rules that will ensure that internet service providers (like AT&T) treat all content equally. The letter and a rebuttal are inside.  More »

An anonymous RadioShack employee sent us what he considers unethical talking points distributed by the corporate office to help employees upsell the RadioShack Replacement Service Plan. According to our tipster, "each example encourages lying." Read the deceptive talking points, inside...  More »

As studies continue to link bisphenol-A (BPA) with all sorts of health problems, states and cities are banning the chemical from baby bottles and sippy cups and Congress is considering a ban in all food containers. This worries industry groups, who last week held a private meeting to devise strategy to protect the use of BPA. Someone sent the notes to the Washington Post.  More »

Did you know there isn't a formal way to report a Charter cable outage, and that you're entitled to a $20 credit if your tech is a single minute late for your appointment? These, and other fantastic tips to get faster, cheaper service from Charter, as told by a former customer service representative, inside...  More »

A retail insider tells us why Webloyalty/Reservation Rewards stays in business, and how you can stop them by cutting off their juice at the source:  More »

Traditionally, AmEx will send you a replacement credit card via overnight, but an insider tells us that as a cost-saving move, they've been trying to cut back on this. If you have low-balance, low-usage or are not an annual fee payer, they might not offer the overnight right off the bat, or may even deny it. Our tipster says there are some key phrases you can use to make sure you get your card lickity-split:  More »

Via Gawker: Considering the profound social unrest surrounding just about every aspect of their entire existence, AIG disseminated the following memo to their staffers to help them avoid getting hoisted by their necktie the nearest lamppost.  More »

An anonymous Office Depot employee sent us this internal reminder from HQ that addresses this week's allegations that associates and managers lie about inventory depending on the customer. Now the next time you're told by an Office Depot associate that the laptop you want is out of stock, you can say, "Are you absolutely sure? Because I know you had a Sales Practices Reminder on March 12th about lying to customers." And if a manager tries to get all up in, uhm, your grill area, you can say, "Don't you have some tasks to go check off in your Task Manager?"  More »

Looks like March 8th will be the last day on earth for many Circuit City stores. A reader saw a sign in a liquidated Circuit City that said the final day would be March 8th. Also, an insider saw a memo that indicated the "bulk" of the stores, 500 or so, would be closed on March 8th. The memo said stores are closing so early because "sales are ahead of schedule." At this point in the liquidation cycle, "It looks like whatever hasn't been picked through is starting to be actually decent prices" writes reader Will. "I scored an XM radio unit for 85 vs. about 110-130 on the net, and a Harmony One remote for 125 vs. 170 on the net." However, he noted, "TV prices were still not cheaper than the internet." So, it's now safe to shop at Circuit City, just make sure to bring your internet price-checking devices.  More »

RyanAir's toilet tax may not be the company's worst idea after all, as reader Geoffrey reminds us with this mockup showing several potential fees the budget Irish carrier may well be considering.  More »

From the archives, Aug 29, 2007 : In today's go-go economy, savvy companies know it's important to draft official policies for a variety of circumstances and surprises that can crop up in the middle of a busy workday, and ensure they are clearly communicated and readily available.  More »

According to tipster Rich Piotrowski, a former Quiznos franchise owner who won a counter-suit against the company, the big reason why some Quiznos were being jerks about taking the free sandwich coupon is that at first corporate was making the franchises pay for all the sandwiches. (Quiznos mandates franchises buy all their ingredients from HQ, often at above-market rates...). Then it looks like they decided to reimburse up to 400 coupons, then bumped that up to 700 to meet the demand, and now they're going to reimburse all coupons. Don't give away free stuff in these times unless you're ready for an onslaught of interest, at the outset. Corporate seems to have realized this and contacted us to say that if you have any problems redeeming coupons you can email millionsubs@quiznos.com. Tipster's comment, and an internal Quiznos memo, inside...  More »

Here's an internal AmEx doc with what customer service reps should say when people call up asking about the $300 to pay off and close your account program, or, as they term it, the "Balance Down Initiative." The sheet was obtained exclusively by creditcarforum.com. My favorite part is the answer for if people who weren't chosen to participate ask if they can join. The correct response is, "We apologize, but we can only honor this offer for selected cardmembers. However, if you're interested in paying down your balance, I can help you with that." Full doc inside...  More »

How much would someone have to pay you to have your kids watch a penis? Comcast answers that question by giving a $5 one-time discount to every subscriber in Tucson, AZ who had their cerebellum gelatinized by seeing the porno movie that accidentally cut into the Super Bowl last night, according to a rumor a reporter we know overheard in their newsroom.  More »

Sprint is closing a call center we posted ex-employee accounts about that alleged on-the-scene drug use, sex, and theft of customer credit card numbers, among other infractions.   More »

"Thank you for holding, your call will be answered in the order it was received by an incompetent drug-addict whose training consisted of watching funny stuff on YouTube." That's the substance of this insider confession from a former trainer at Teleperformance USA, one of those outsourced call centers that turns your customer service call into the modern-day version of The Trial. Hear about the restroom sex, drugs sold on-site, and employees getting away with writing down and running off with customer's credit card numbers, inside...  More »

Wanna know why your call to customer service went so poorly? Maybe because it was routed to an outsourced call center run by Teleperformance USA where, according to an insider, customer service goes to die...  More »