Could there actually be a secret program afoot to improve Best Buy’s customer service and make amends for their bad ways? Marjorie writes:
Something is going on at Best Buy. I noticed that the phone for the local store, which used to be maddening with it’s endless options that never seemed to route to a real live person, is actually answered by a real live person now. On top of that, I actually got good customer service from corporate. And it wasn’t a hassle!
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AT&T will begin selling phones and wireless service at Costco. [BusinessWeek]
Reader John tells us that he witnessed some Best Buy employees announcing “the very last Wii” over and over again. Oh those crafty kids at Best Buy!
Starting today, Tmobile will charge existing customers $18 when they buy a new phone. In an email shared with The Consumerist by an inside source, Tmobile told dealers that the new fee will help underwrite the cost of selling subsidized phones to new customers. Tmobile told dealers that acting positive when mentioning the fee would help to discourage customers from raising objections. Oddly enough, if an existing customer upgrades their phone without extending their contract, the fee will not be assessed.
Dan bought an Aquos LC-32D40U 32″ LCD TV’ and one month out of warranty it developed a thin black line on the right side of the screen. Sharp didn’t want to talk to him. Best Buy wanted to charge him $100 just to come out and look at it. Something had to be done. Dan writes:
Consumer Reports will take a full-page ad in the New York Times tomorrow to warn consumers about the pitfalls of giving and using gift cards. Their telephone survey found 27% of all gift cards go unused, and retailers took in an extra $8 billion because of unused, lost, and expired gift cards. Here’s their tips for making the most of the plastic:
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.
Black Friday is coming. That’s the day after Thanksgiving when retailers start their Christmas shopping price drops. The basic idea is to whip consumers into a buying frenzy with a few deals and specials and limited inventories, and use the ensuing madness to also offload crappy products they couldn’t otherwise move. You can come out with a deal, but you gotta know the tricks. Mike Elgin has got 10 of them, we like: [More]
“I talked to you briefly on 10-29-07 about my Chase credit card and having the late fee forced onto my account due to them changing the due date on my bill and an article was written about my success. I had spoken with a CSR and I had thought I got my late free removed, and my due date changed. Only to find out this months statement to have my due date again on the 26th but now my minimum payment was jacked up to over 3x the normal because THEY HAD NOT REMOVED THE LATE FEE.”
Walmart received an $89,705 fine after the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection found 280 weights and measures violations at nine Walmart stores. The gargantuan retailer failed to subtract the weight of packaging materials, or “tare weight,” when pricing bulk items like coffee, broccoli, and sweet potatoes.
Judy Cardin, section chief for weights and measures with the state, said that in the case of bulk coffee, the weight of the packaging materials was included when the price of the product was determined. The state had tested one-pound bags of Cameron brand coffee beans, which were found to be 3/100ths of a pound over the actual bagged content.
“Got a charge on my credit card from “Member Services” for $19.23. This is a card I use for 3 specific bills, and I pay them off the day after the charge shows. I know it’s coming so this stood out.
What Would Jesus Buy? is a new documentary from producer Morgan Spurlock, who made Supersize Me, and director Rob VanAlkemade, following Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir “on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse (the end of humankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt.)”
Another consumer confidence index has plummeted to its lowest post-Katrina level, and retailers are crying in dark corners of their bedrooms, waiting for the inevitable disastrous holiday season.
The FBI has released an unverified tip that those people who “hate freedom” are planning on attacking shopping malls in LA and Chicago this season. Before you buy more duct tape, the FBI emphasized that “there is no information to state this is a credible threat”—but they felt they needed to share it “out of an abundance of caution.”
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