Reader Nicholas is in the military, and while he was serving in Iraq, AT&T decided to give his phone number to another customer. When he returned, he asked for the number back, but was refused. The rep then convinced him that he needed to sign a new 2 year contract in order to reactivate his number. Naturally, right after he did this, his phone broke, and now AT&T is telling him that he’ll have to wait until 2009 to get a decent upgrade.
Retail Services
Costco Is A Great Place For Cheap Drugs
By 5.12.08
Consumer Reports bought bought Plavix, Levoxyl, Detrol, and Alendronate at a whole bunch of different pharmacies, and Costco came out the cheapest overall. Here’s how the 13 places they tested rang up:
Sprint Loses 1.09 Million Customers In 3 Months
By 5.12.08
Sprint is hemorrhaging both money and customers as it searches for a way to stop the financial bleeding. The company lost $505 million in the first quarter alone, and watched helplessly as over a million of its customers defected to other wireless carriers.
T-Mobile: We Can't Help You, Sell Your Brand New Defective Phone On eBay
By 5.12.08
A link to the following letter to T-Mobile’s president just popped into our inbox. It seems that if you receive a T-Mobile Sidekick for Christmas and it’s defective… your options are fairly limited. T-Mobile’s best solution to your broken phone? Sell it on eBay.
Chargebacks Have Geographical Limitations
By 5.9.08
Longtime Consumerist reader TBT read the fine print for a credit card she recently opened with Bank of America, and discovered that buried in pages 13 and 14 is a section that limits your right to request a chargeback to your home state or within 100 miles of your home address, and only for purchases over $50. He found this shocking, but, actually, this is a limitation provided by the Fair Credit Billing Act. If you dislike it, here’s a great post of ours on writing effective letters to Congress.
Tmobile Call Center Bans Kleenex
By 5.9.08
Update on that outsourced Tmobile call center that banned paper and pens earlier this week: our insider reports that Kleenex is now verboten as well. He furthermore notes that, “paper and pens, if they are to be used, have to be signed out from a supervisor. When signed back in, the paper is shredded by the supervisor.” Any reps feeling the need to cry about their vaporizing dignity can use the back of their sleeve, after their request form is approved. A comment from our previous post explains why this might be a bad idea…
Thanks, Bank of America: "I Deposited A Check That Dosen't Exist, And I Have A Receipt."
By 5.7.08
It seems that everything isn’t going so swimmingly during the transition from LaSalle Bank to Bank of America. One reader says that a check he deposited and has a receipt for has mysteriously disappeared…
