Consumerist
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don't buy a macpadd
MacPadd Inventor Drinks With Wife, Brags About Education, Curses, But Does Not Provide Tracking Number
Some people should never go the entrepreneur route. Meet David Free, the man behind QMS, a company that sells and sometimes even ships an aluminum mousepad called the MacPadd. When the guys at TomsHardware.com started asking why theirs hadn't arrived, they discovered that Free does business his own way. Or sometimes not at all:
More »Free then exclaimed, "Get out of my f***ing life!" And hung up on us. By now it was becoming clear to us that we weren't going to receive the product we paid for.
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paranoid
Ulta Manager: "Take Your Pen To Your Car, You're Not Allowed To Write Anything Down"
In a world where smartphones can shoot video, snap photos, record audio, scan barcodes, and let you make price comparisons via text message, it's almost funny to run into a paranoid manager like the one at an Ulta makeup store in Seattle. Well, funny except for that petty tyrant part where she tells you that you'll have to take your old-school pen and papers out to the car and come back empty handed before she'll sell you any makeup. More » -
disabilities
Plaid Pantry Says Bathroom Off Limits, Lets Customer Poop Pants
One of the unfortunate things about Crohn's disease is it can make you need to use the bathroom pretty much immediately, without warning or fanfare. Of course, there's plenty of fanfare afterward if you can't find a bathroom, as one longtime customer of Plaid Pantry found out yesterday when she shat her pants in the parking lot after being denied emergency access to their employee toilet. More » -
bank of america
Bank Of America Asks Armless Man For Thumbprint
A Florida man was unable to cash a Bank of America check because the bank required a thumbprint, and he had no arms. More » -
go store yourself
U-Haul's New "U-Prison" Proves Unpopular With Customers
U-Haul apparently knows about Ryder's initiative to outdo it on suckage, so they've introduced a whole new class of customer abuse: false imprisonment. Best of all, the employee who was sent to let Jessica and her friend out of U-Haul Prison told them that if they hadn't wanted to get locked in after 5pm, they should have paid for 24 hour access. (They were taking advantage of a complimentary offer from the company.) More » -
honeymoons
Delta Doesn't Care About Your Honeymoon
[Note: Sandals has already responded to the post, expressed sympathy, and reached out to Autumn. We've removed their name from the headline to more accurately focus the blame on Delta, which is the company really behind the problems.] We get that Delta employees just flat out hate their jobs at this point—that would explain the surly flight attendants on my last Delta flight, at any rate—but why would you take that out on newlyweds, who have their whole lives to be disappointed and deserve that one week of happiness at the start? The least you could do, angry Delta employees, is try to help out after your employer utterly fails to deliver the passengers anywhere near their destination. No, a dingy one-night stay in a hotel room in NYC is not the same as a week in Antigua. More » -
not taking it too seriously
Crazy CSR Loves Spam, You, Hanging Up Abruptly
Megan sent us this transcript of a recent phone conversation she had with someone from a mysteriously generic "cardholder services" that called her.
More »CSR: Hi, how may I help you Ms. [redacted]?
Me: Please take my number off your list.
CSR: I love you.
Me: Um.
CSR: Do you like spam?
Me: No…
CSR: I love spam, fried up all crispy with maybe a little mayo.
Me: What is this?
CSR: *click* -
where have you gone, dave thomas?
Rude Wendy's Manager Yanks Customer's Pigtails
Everyone who's over the age of 3 and not a lifelong vegan has surely had a confrontation with a haughty fast-food manager. Danny and his family threw down with a Wendy's honcho who tried to get all Studio 54 with them — resulting in a hastily filled-out free burger coupon and a near denial of its redemption — but it looks as though Danny gave as good as he received. More » -
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rude
Urban Expressions Craft Store Calls Customer A Whore
The only thing crazier than people involved with wedding planning are people in the scrapbooking supply industry, it seems. Weddingbee reports that an online craft supply store called Urban Expressions (not to be confused with the handbag company) completely lost it when an angry customer wrote in asking why they had neither shipped the item she'd bought nor specified otherwise as promised. Their response makes us understand why they chose the name "Urban Expressions" for their store. More » -
updates
Banned Bank Of America Customer Says His Credit Is Clear
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. More » -
updates
Bank Of America: "That's Why You Don't Open New Accounts Online"
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." More » -
bureaucracy
Everyone Knows How To Handle A Stolen Checkbook Except For Verizon
Yesterday I was musing that Time Warner Cable was passing the cost of customer care off to other businesses, by requiring customers to take half-days or full days off of work just to wait for a cable repairman. Today I think I stumbled upon another hidden economic impact of bad customer service: it's responsible for generating a lot of the "free" content online. The next time you're reading an IMDB entry about "Damages" or "Big Love" for example, you can thank Verizon's collection of angry, confused, and possibly insane employees, and all the idle time they create for a customer who has to deal with them. More » -
laptops
HP Ruins Yet Another Laptop Repair—Three Times And Counting
Tyler needs his laptop repaired, but he's got the bad luck to own an HP product. If you read Consumerist regularly you know that Hewlett-Packard has one of the worst track records for taking care of its customers. The last time we posted a complaint, the person who reached out to us from the corporate side was a third party at a PR firm hired by HP, if that tells you anything about how little they care about doing a good job. Read Tyler's recap below and remember it the next time you're in the market for a computer. More » -
nicknames
Sprint Employee Changes Customer's Name To "Pain In The A$$"?
Update: Some of our readers who are Sprint customers say they don't think the screenshots are legit. We asked Sprint for an opinion, and they responded, "We had noticed the post on sprintusers.com earlier today and are tracking down the answer. I'll get back to you asap." We'll post further updates when they arrive. More » -
rude
Jansen Medical Does Not Appreciate You Having Questions, Goodbye
Courtney had some questions about an order she wanted to place with Jansen Medical Supply of Houston. Their website offers large discounts on medical equipment and chairs that automatically dump grandma on the floor when it's time for her to leave. What they don't offer, however, is answers. Courtney found out the hard way, and we're not sure but we think she's been banned from ordering from them. Well, unless she disguises her voice and calls back. More » -
nutritional advice
This Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant Is Really Concerned About Your Sugar Intake
Of all the weird encounters to have on an airplane, we never would have expected to have a flight attendant point out just how bad a full can of soda is for you. That's what happened to Laura, though. More » -
discrimination
Isis Bridal Tells Woman With MS To Get Out
Ooo, you nasty! With your service animal! Get out of here! That's the new informal slogan of Isis Bridal & Formal in Dallas after news broke that they kicked out a 62-year-old grandmother with multiple sclerosis, because they were worried her service dog would get service dog cooties all over the dresses. More » -
delta
Delta To Blind Woman: Can You Sit Somewhere Else? This Flight Attendant Doesn't Like Dogs
Natalie is pretty angry. Lately whenever her mother, who is blind, has to travel, she seems to run into trouble. As Natalie puts it, as far as airline regulations go a guide dog is equivalent to a wheelchair, and the appropriate accommodations should be made without hassle. It's too bad on her last flight, Natalie's mother had to sit in the bulkhead next to a Delta employee with a fear of dogs. More »
rude
New York, 1:29 AM
Thu Nov 12
19 posts in the last 24 hours
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