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rate decreases
Michigan Utility Company Must Refund $39 Million To Overcharged Customers
In Michigan, utilities can increase rates without first getting approval, but that means the Michigan Public Service Commission can later reduce them. That's what happened on Monday, when the Commission ordered Consumers Energy to refund about $39.6 million to customers it overcharged since last May. More » -
privacy
Baby Too Boring? Watch The Neighbor's Baby With This Monitor
If you buy the Summer Infant Day and Night Video Monitor, you might want to make sure your neighbors haven't also got one, or else they'll have a secret window into your newborn's room. More » -
bank of america
BoA EECB Gets $525 In Overdrafts Refunded
Bank of America charged Kelsey 15 overdraft fees totaling $525. Which was weird, because Kelsey had overdraft protection on the account. A BoA customer service rep would to refund $140 as a "courtesy" but that's not very courteous when you're still out $385. That's when Kelsey decided to whip out the ol' EECB and kick some ass: More » -
inventors
Creator Of Baby Einstein Vids Admitted In 2005 She Didn't Know What She Was Doing
A website that focuses on female entrepreneurs interviewed the creator of the Baby Einstein video line back in 2005. As Boing Boing pointed out yesterday, her explanation of how she developed the videos is pretty funny. Well, Boing Boing calls it "damning," but it's funny that everyone—Disney included—took the product line so seriously. More » -
babies
Disney Offers Baby Einstein Refunds After Alleged False Advertising
If you've purchased Baby Einstein products, your tot is probably somehow—inexplicably—still not a genius. But you may be eligible for a refund of the purchase price, due to overzealous claims made about the products. More » -
text messaging
Customer Gets Payless To Compensate Him For Text Message Spam
Peter was pretty frustrated when Payless Shoesource ignored his two opt-out texts and continued to pester him with SMS spam. His complained via email and got taken off their list, but then he decided to see if he could get back the money those texts cost him. More » -
delays
Home Depot Drives Away Another Customer Forever
Two months ago, Mike and his wife decided to re-do their floors. They're expecting a child in November, so they made sure that they ordered the materials in plenty of time to get everything taken care of before the end of August. Mike even scheduled time off work and had family members come in from out of town to help out.
Home Depot promised delivery within 12 days. It ended up taking 63 days—and it turns out the coating on the material is defective. Mike writes, "I never want to buy another thing from Home Depot ever again." More »
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no service
AT&T Refuses To Give $3 Credit For Lack Of Service
AT&T loves your money and will not give up that money no matter what, even if it means making you waste nearly an hour of an AT&T employee's time, which surely must be worth more than three dollars. We guess it's the principal; as long as AT&T refuses to admit they've got problems, the problems don't exist. More » -
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officemax
OfficeMax Won't Send Customer A Refund Gift Card That Works
When Dave bought a monitor from OfficeMax he opted for the MaxAssurance insurance plan. His bet that the monitor would break paid off, but he's been unable to cash out because OfficeMax keeps sending him gift cards that won't work. He writes: More » -
happy endings
Woman Battles Neiman Marcus To Return Damaged Dress
You can understand Amy's disappointment when she ordered a belted dress from Neiman Marcus, but the dress arrived beltless. Starting in July, she tangled with customer service to get her money back. More » -
refunds
Laser-Guided E-Mail Bomb Scores Hit On T-Mobile
Sometimes, the executive e-mail carpet bomb, or EECB, is too blunt an instrument. When Joe had a problem with T-Mobile, he elected to send a LGEB, or laser-guided e-mail bomb, just to CEO Robert Dotson, with great results. More » -
fine print
GM's Money Back Guarantee Comes With Lots Of Fine Print
GM's new 60-day money back guarantee (good through November 30th, 2009) on new car purchases sounds pretty straightforward—if you don't want the car for any reason (it doesn't have to be a good reason), you can bring it back. But it has a few rules that you should be aware of before your purchase, notes the Associated Press. More » -
bad websites
DeadlyDeal Neither Deadly Nor A Deal, Just Lame
Brandon regrets having done business with DeadlyDeal.com earlier this year. He figured he "couldn't go wrong" with his mystery box purchase—"after all, my dealings with Woot.com had all been more than satisfactory so far." But DeadlyDeal is no Woot, friends. Well, except maybe in the creative writing department, because there's no way those DeadlyDeal customer testimonies ("Thanks for my free iPhone!") are legit. More » -
trapped
Bank Piles On Overdraft Fees Due To Merchant Error, Doesn't Seem Too Keen On Refunding Them
Here's a story from a reader about a bad bank practice that we hear about too frequently—a bank cascades hundreds of dollars worth of overdraft fees on an error that's beyond the customer's control, but then is unresponsive or uncooperative on refunding those fees. More » -
follow ups
Reader Uses BBB To Retrieve Gold From Classmates' Clutches
Remember Kelly, the one who couldn't get her money back from Classmates after she canceled her automatically renewed gold membership? More » -
success stories
EECB To Toys R Us Results In Refund, Personal Apology, Free Toy
Seth had what should have been a fairly simple problem. His son's radio control car broke after only a few weeks of use. The toy was purchased at and manufactured by Toys R Us, and an e-mail to the support address included with the toy bounced. No one in the company's usual customer service channels could resolve his problem, and the people whose job it was to help customers in this situation never managed to contact him.
With no other options, he researched the e-mail addresses of the company's executive board and fired off a carefully crafted executive e-mail carpet bomb. More »
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refunds
Is Verizon Randomly Charging You $1.99 Per Line For "Data Usage"?
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. More » -
follow ups
Ryder Refunds Customer $120 For Forcing Him Into U-Haul's Arms
Jesse, who wrote to us last week to complain about Ryder's broken guarantee, has contacted us again with a follow up. We also spoke with Ryder directly to ask how their "Guaranteed Availability" promise actually works, so that future customers know what to expect. More »


















