Consumerist
bannings
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bannings
readers
Geek Squad Laptop Comedy of Errors
Reader George is having serious trouble with Geek Squad. It started when he bought a laptop from Best Buy a few years ago. He sent it in to get a loose AC jack replaced. They replace it. Two months later, it's loose again. It's replaced again, but this time, when his picks it up, the door to the DVD/CD drive is warped and won't open. George's in a hurry, so he asked the Geek to make a note about the damage, and he'll bring it back for repair. From here on out, nothing goes right. First they can't find his account, then they can't find the note, then they can't find his computer, then they can't work their own computers. His full story, inside. More »
tips
10 Things To Remember When Shopping At Best Buy
An employee of Best Buy apparently thinks too many days have gone without us posting something about the store, so he sent in his list of 10 things he thinks every customer should know when shopping there. Items 10 through 7 are all about warranties and service plans, so the usual caveats apply (make sure you know what's really covered, and that it's worth the extra cost to you). #4, however, is good to know: "Its pretty much pointless to call Corporate/Customer Service Hotline—they can not override a store's decision. Best bet is to call or email a District Manager or higher." More »
badvertising
The once-popular—surely it isn't still?—teenaged sexpot clothing store Abercrombie & Fitch is shelling out $10 million to build a new emergency room and trauma center at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Now a group is speaking out against the idea of prominently naming the kids' ER after the store, which the hospital has been hinting at in announcements. The reason the hospital is called "Nationwide Children's Hospital" is because Nationwide Insurance gave it $50 million. Up next: the Budweiser End Zone Birthing Center, and then the American Apparel Teenaged Pregnancy Wing.
More »
Would You Take Your (Really Hot) Kid To The Abercrombie & Fitch Emergency Department And Trauma Center?
The once-popular—surely it isn't still?—teenaged sexpot clothing store Abercrombie & Fitch is shelling out $10 million to build a new emergency room and trauma center at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Now a group is speaking out against the idea of prominently naming the kids' ER after the store, which the hospital has been hinting at in announcements. The reason the hospital is called "Nationwide Children's Hospital" is because Nationwide Insurance gave it $50 million. Up next: the Budweiser End Zone Birthing Center, and then the American Apparel Teenaged Pregnancy Wing.
More »
rankings
Latest ACSI Survey Is Out: You Really Like Dollar General
The American Customer Satisfaction Index has released its latest scores of retail businesses, so we thought we'd take a look at the department store rankings by constructing a handy graph. When it comes to customer satisfaction, apparently Dollar General is doing something right—and Wal-Mart, as usual, is doing lots of things wrong. More »
retailers
Recession Fears Bring "Mass Luxury Movement" To An End
The aspirational upper-middle-class customer who helped companies like Coach and Saks post double-digit growth in the past few years has disappeared due to the current rotten economy, writes BusinessWeek. The result: luxury goods companies that expanded their product lines to appeal to the not-quite-rich now have $150 purses and nobody to buy them. Coach went so far as to offer coupons recently "to drum up sales." More »
bizarre
Holiday Stress Drives Tim To Shout "Fuck Off!" At Customer
Here's the strange, sad tale of Short-Tempered Tim at New World Video Direct in Brooklyn, NY. When Nicholas called NWVDirect a week or so ago with questions about an extended warranty for his new plasma TV, he got terse answers from a generally unhelpful man on the other end. The call was abruptly disconnected. Undaunted, Nicholas called back and got the same man, so he asked to speak to a supervisor, which is when things started to spiral out of control at the NWVDirect call center. More »
tv
Best Buy CEO Admits They'll Probably Screw Up Digital TV Switchover
Well, at least he's being honest—Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson announced at CES today that the 2009 switchover from analog to digital television (still a year away) poses "one of the biggest risks our industry has," whatever that means. "The number of converter boxes that is going to be required could put tremendous pressure on us." Oh, you mean because you'll have to have them in stock? Interpretation: if you're going to need a converter box or two, you'd better plan on buying them elsewhere. More »
executive customer service
Reminder: We Have No Contact Info For Wal-Mart (Do You?)
A reader asks us, "I was wondering how I can contact WalMart Executive customer service. I am facing a return issue and have been completely unsuccessful with in store customer service, over the phone 1-800-WALMART, or the online submittal form." Sorry, Arin, the only other number we've been able to locate is the generic corporate offices number in Bentonville, Arkansas: 479-273-4000. The company also has executive offices in Times Square, New York, at 1372 Broadway—but no public contact information for that address. If anyone has anything, please send it in or post it, kthx. More »
toy safety
NJ Toy Inspectors Performing Spot-Checks At Retail Level
To pick up slack from the undersized/overwhelmed CPSC, states are stepping up to help increase toy safety locally. New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Illinois and California have been taking "aggressive measures," from suing manufacturers to escalating state recalls to the federal level. Newsday describes how New Jersey worked with charities and educators during toy drives to make them aware of recalled toys. The state also assigned 15 state inspectors to a toy safety task force, and over the past month, the inspectors "fanned out across the state with assistance from county health department workers to test products and check for recalled toys. More »
video games
Nintendo Officially Disapproves Of "Bundling"
Bundling may be a popular tactic retailers employ to force customers to spend more money, but Nintendo of America's celeb-President Reggie Fils-Aime has come out against it, finally: "Retailers have already been given feedback that we are not big fans of that," he told Reuters this week. Is the pre-purchase deal with GameStop one way Nintendo is preventing that from happening this December? If anyone actually buys one of those empty DVD cases, let us know if they try to upsell you to a bundle. More »
clothing
Sales Of Women's Clothing Drops, May Mean Steep Discounts Over The Next Week
Mastercard reported on Sunday that, after a slight bump around Black Friday, sales of women's clothing has dropped again, down 6% even while sales of men's clothing has gone up 4.5%. They think it has to do with an overall weak year for women's fashion, and the fact that mothers tend to cut back on new clothes for themselves first when faced with a tighter budget. The silver lining: there may be considerable discounts at women's clothing retailers in the immediate future as they try to bump up sales at the last minute. More »
"Shoppers who pay the full price of about $249 for an out-of-stock Wii on December 20 and 21 at retailer GameStop Corp will get a certificate promising a Wii 'sometime in January,'" sez Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime. Only at GameStop, urg. [Reuters]
permission marketing
JCPenney Emails You To Let You Know You Requested They Not Email You
If you buy something from the JCPenney website and uncheck the box for receiving email from them, guess what they do? They promptly send you an email in which they point out that you have asked them not to send you an email. And then they ask you to click on a link in the email and participate in a survey. And then, just in case you're not amused/annoyed yet, the comedy team in their marketing department points out that should you want to receive emails from them in the future, you can visit their site and sign up. They have a lot of emails they need to send to you, you see. More »
secrets
Retailers Exploit Natural Human Stupidity To Get You To Buy More
The Chicago Tribune recaps the findings of some recent consumer behavior studies—for instance, we're irrational buyers, prone to shoddy math and emotional decision making. The studies might be paid for by advertisers so they can better manipulate us, but as the Tribune notes, they're useful for us too because they "can help shoppers make better spending decisions if they understand themselves better." More »
christmas creep
Nordstrom Opposes Christmas Creep
Nordstrom has conquered the urge to celebrate Christmas before Thanksgiving. The retailer announced its decision to respect the calendar and common sense by hanging signs declaring that they will wait until the day after Thanksgiving, the earliest acceptable moment, to display their Christmas decorations. The vainglorious announcement is an important indicator that Nordstrom's competitors have overdone the unseasonable cheerfulness schtick.
[Image thanks to Celeste!]
shopping
Watch Out For Fees With Gift Cards
Like candy canes and drunken family dinners, gift cards have become a Christmas staple. Bankrate has reviewed a wide number of them and published the results to help you pick the best one for your needs. To avoid fees, you should stick with "closed-loop" cards—that is, a card issued by a specific retailer for use only with that retailer. Almost all retailers now offer cards that don't expire and don't charge maintenance fees, with the notable exceptions of Macy's and Bloomingdales, whose cards both expire two years after purchase. However, several retailers—CVS, for example—still charge "dormancy" fees on cards that have been inactive for anywhere from 6 to 24 months, so be sure to check the fine print to see how this is addressed. More »
security
