Until recently, Israel was a happy and loyal T-Mobile customer of almost a decade. He’s also that person left who’s still using a BlackBerry. He sent his phone in for a warranty exchange, dutifully checking the liquid damage sensor first to make sure his phone hadn’t been dunked. But TMo charged him a fee for water damage anyway, because the real moisture sensor is buried inside the phone, and told a different story. Because Israel had dared…. to live in Miami. [More]
5 Bad Deals In Extended Warranties For Holiday Shoppers
By November 1, 2011
Extended warranty plans are generally known as being bad deals for consumers. But how specifically are they bad? An insider who works, begrudgingly, for an extended service plan company lays out some of the worst extended warranty deals to watch out for when shopping this holiday season. [More]
How To Beat HDTV "Customer Service"
By October 27, 2011
If your HDTV set is malfunctioning you follow the advice most HDTV manufacturers put on their website, you can actually end up screwing yourself. Surprise, surprise. Here’s what you should do instead. [More]
This Texas Instruments Calculator Can't Calculate Correctly
By September 29, 2011
There’s a basic assumption that consumers have about calculators: that you put numbers in, and the calculator spits answers out. Correct answers. Accurate answers. In the case of the Texas Instruments scientific calculator that John bought recently, he tells Consumerist that this is a false assumption. As false as the answers it gave him for the area of a circle. [More]
Man Wrests Free Repair From Acer's Claws
By July 21, 2011
Acer is infamous for its inferior or nearly non-existent customer service. Long are the annals of history filled with the tales of those who have thrown themselves against Acer’s ramparts and disintegrated on impact. But reader PW shares how he was able to get his 6 months out of warranty Acer laptop replaced after it died. The secret is to look for the email address with .tw after them. That’s right, email addresses leading back to the mothership in Taiwan. [More]
HP Will Keep Sort Of Fixing Your Computer Until Warranty Runs Out
By June 22, 2011
Terry is a graduate student, and doesn’t really need to be shipping his only computer off for repairs every few months. If the computer is unplugged while asleep, the display refuses to come back on. He paid extra for an “in-home” warranty, so why does he have to keep mailing his computer to HP so they can not really fix it? He tells Consumerist that HP really seems to want him to leave him alone, being consistently rude. Even the person who answered the phone at executive customer service called him an “angry person with a phone number.” Maybe he wouldn’t be so angry if he had a working computer. [More]
Dell MIght As Well Have Not Sold Me An Extended Warranty For This TV
By June 10, 2011
Tom normally doesn’t bother to buy extended warranties. Now he knows why. He did happen to purchase one for the Vizio TV that he bought from Dell last year, but the third-party warranty provider seems determined to ignore him at all costs. [More]
Man Uses Consumerist Tips To Gets Xbox Repaired For Free
By June 2, 2011
Reader Ben was sad. His Xbox was doing the ol’ Red Ring of Death. He thought that was quits for his trusted gaming companion but then he started doing some research on Consumerist. Perusing our archives, he realized from some of our old posts that included in the price of the repair to the machine he had done not too long ago was a one-year warranty extension. Huzzah! Here’s what he did next: [More]
Sorry, Your 3-Month-Old Starbucks Mug Is Out Of Warranty
By April 12, 2011
Mark has a warning: it’s fine if you want to hand over your money for a venti Java Chip Frappuccino, but don’t buy durable items at Starbucks if you expect them to be, well, durable. He bought a mug back in December, and the mug now has a defect that makes coffee drip on you while you drink. Not liking this feature, he contacted Starbucks and learned that their warranty on mugs lasts only 60 days. “I was shocked that Starbucks would only stand behind their products for 60 days,” Mark writes, “specifically because those same products come at a premium price and sold with overpriced coffee.” [More]
Busted Swingline Stapler Gets Replaced Without Hassle
By March 10, 2011
The other day I was talking to a cab driver who has an air-conditioner that’s still going strong after 18 years. Now when he buys new ones that are from the same brand, they only last four years. He blames it on the company switching manufacturing from Germany to China. Indeed, in this day and age of racing to the bottom of cheap, wherever you look on the shelves, it seems it’s a never-ending seas of “they don’t make ‘em like they used to.” But even still, reader Jospeh never expected his metal Swingline stapler to fracture outright. And he was likewise surprised, this time, pleasantly, when they replaced it for him swiftly and painlessly. [More]
Man Gets Pick Of Hyundais After Threatening To Write "LEMON" On His Rear Window
By March 4, 2011
Michael leased a 2010 Hyundai Genesis and found that none of the buttons on the steering wheel worked. No horn, no cruise control, no radio volume. It’s been in and out of the shop several times for steering wheel issues. When he called up the regional office to complain they seemed to take his issue a little more seriously after he said he was planning to get a windshield marker and write that he got a $40,000 lemon from Hyundai. Now he’s getting to pick a new Hyundai of his choice. Here’s the timeline: [More]
AT&T: Where Seven Months Equals Two Years
By January 27, 2011
AT&T is a powerful company, but we didn’t know that they were powerful enough to interfere with the passage of time. Yet they are! They used their magic to take Mark’s seven-month-old DSL modem, and transform it into a 2-year-old DSL modem. [More]
8 Year Old Snow Boots Crack, Columbia Replaces
By January 25, 2011
Most companies don’t even seem to care about you 8 weeks after you buy something from them, so Gabe and his mom were pleasantly surprised when Columbia agreed to replace a pair of cracked snow boots that were 8 years old. [More]
Laptop Borked By Dell Tech Gets Replaced After Consumerist Post
By December 15, 2010
Angel is happy to report that after his story went up on Consumerist, Dell reached out to him and will be replacing his laptop. [More]
EECB Gets HP To Replace Laptop They Tried To Pass Off As Water-Damaged
By December 15, 2010
Charlie sent in his HP Mini for repair after the keyboard and mouse stopped working. They denied his warranty repair by saying that a loose tape was caused by water damage, which, while not only unlikely on the face of it, seemed impossible to Charlie as he babies his computers like they were Fabergé eggs. So he launched his campaign on HP upper management… [More]
"On-Call" Dell Tech Takes Over 7 Hours To Screw Up Your Laptop, Makes You Miss Your Date
By December 14, 2010
Angel’s patience was worn down to the quick after waiting for a on-call Dell tech to come and fix his high-end laptop, only to have the guy bungle the repair, screw up his hardware, and make him miss his date. [More]
Can Only Return Mattresses If Lump Is Bigger Than 1.5"
By October 18, 2010
Buying a mattress is a confusing and dark art, but just try to return one. One family got a $2,500 Stearns and Foster mattress that had a hand-width-sized lump running from top to bottom. It was uncomfortable. Initially Sealy refused to accept the return, because the lump was not deeper than 1.5 inches. Their’s was only 1 and a quarter. What a weird rule, right? [More]
GM Voids Warranty On Used Truck, Blames It On Chip Owner Didn't Know Was Installed
By August 24, 2010
Ken is facing a $13,000 repair bill on his 2007 Chevy 2500 diesel truck, because the full factory warranty the dealership assured him it had was voided by GM. The reason: GM says at some point in the past, someone put a chip in the truck that doesn’t match the info GM has, so they don’t have to service it. The problem for Ken is that the dealership didn’t check for this chip before it sold the truck to Ken, and Ken didn’t know about this loophole when he bought it. In fact, he says he bought it about a year and a half before GM implemented this rule. [More]
