This is a video of comedian Eugene Mirman doing a dramatic reading of his complaint letter to Time Warner Cable that he paid for to have published as a full-page ad in a couple of local papers in Brooklyn. In the preamble, he helps to explain why, as several of you pointed out, the letter came off as rambling and discursive, as opposed to the more straight-shooting approach we usually advocate here. “I could write them an angry letter and someone would get it and think I was crazy,” he tells the audience. “I didn’t want that. I wanted them to know I was crazy.” [More]
complaints
TWC Responds To Comedian Eugene Mirman's Complaint Letter
By 5.27.11
Time Warner Cable has responded to the complaint letter published by their customer, comedian Eugene Mirman, as a full page ad in several papers. [More]
Customer Takes Out Ad In Papers To Publish Complaint Letter To His Cable Company
By 5.27.11
A Time Warner Cable customer decided to express his frustration with the cable company in a unique way, by running his complaint letter as an ad in several papers. That man was Brooklyn comedian Eugene Mirman, who is also the voice of Gene Belcher on FOX’s Bob’s Burgers. Here is that letter: [More]
Match.com Thinks You Have 7-Year Itch
By 5.20.11
After years of happy marriage, Match.com has decided that one of our readers has probably had enough and emailed them a selection of potential mates. Our reader met the man they would eventually marry on Match.com in 2001 and both of them believed they deleted their profiles together in 2002. In 2005, they were married. But using sophisticated algorithms, Match.com has tried to hook our reader up again. Maybe there’s a built-in 7-Year Itch protocol that automatically detects when you’ve hit the 7-year mark and would potentially be interested in the dating site’s services again? [More]
Man Skips Around Dell Hell And Gets Free Repair
By 5.17.11
One of our reader’s Dell laptop had a defective NVIDIA chip and wouldn’t you know it, it was out of warranty and he had missed the window for getting it replaced as provided by a class action lawsuit by a month. It was dying for exactly the same reasons as defined in the lawsuit, but he just barely didn’t make the deadline. He didn’t let that stop him. [More]
Brands, This Is Not How You Do Twitter
By 5.17.11
After getting annoyed at how internet provider RCN kept tweeting about a Chicago-based promotion that he didn’t feel was relevant to people like himself who are outside Chicago, Mark sent a grumpy tweet to RCN. It was replied to with a robotic response that makes it look like the person didn’t even read his tweet, they just wanted him to take the conversation off Twitter. This is in the vein of what I talked about with “Twitter Company Reps Who Talk Big But Can’t Actually Do Anything” and it is a total Twitter fail. [More]
Despite No Service, AT&T Refuses To Waive ETF
By 5.17.11
Last week we brought you the story of Ross who had no AT&T service after the nearby cellphone tower went down and the other towers weren’t working. Even still, AT&T wouldn’t let him leave service without paying an early termination fee, despite the fact that it could be 4 months before the towers were repaired. That means 4 months more without service while still getting a monthly bill. I counseled Ross on how he might fight the power by going through the retentions department, and he wrote back with an update on his progress. [More]
BofA Loses Check That Would Have Saved House From Foreclosure
By 5.11.11
CBS 13 has the story of a man who fell behind on his mortgage payments who was told by Bank of America that unless he sent them $4,175 he would lose his house that he had spent years putting work into. So he managed to put together the money and sent it in as a cashier’s check. Then the bank lost his check. [More]
Mother's Day Flowers Vs Reality
By 5.11.11
On the left are the flowers Brian ordered from ProFlowers for Mother’s Day. On the right are the ones that were actually delivered, late, and found by the janitors at the university she works at unceremoniously left in the hallway. [More]
I Have No Bars But AT&T Won't Let Me Leave
By 5.10.11
Ross and his neighbors have had to drive a few miles down the road to get any bars on their cellphone after a nearby AT&T tower went down and the other two nearby weren’t working well either. Despite the fact that he has no service and there is no fix in sight for several months, AT&T won’t let him leave his contract. [More]
Honda Spokesman Gets Screwed By Honda Dealer
By 5.9.11
An actor who pitches Honda cars in their ads says he got screwed over by a Honda dealership when he tried to get the very same deal he helps sell on TV. [More]
Call Every Time To Make Sure Extra Payments Go To Paying Down Principal
By 5.3.11
People trying to get ahead on their car and house payments are sometimes shocked to discover the default way that banks handle their extra payments. Instead of paying down the existing principal, they apply it to the future interest. Not only that, but you can’t just call them up one time and ask for them to change how they handle your payments. You need to call them every month you make a payment. Here’s a tale from reader Katherine: [More]
Twitter Company Reps Who Talk Big But Can't Actually Do Anything
By 5.2.11
After a few bad experiences by their writers, TechCrunch is calling out this “scandal of toothless social media representatives” and demanding that it ends “now.” Seems some companies have figured out that rather than use Twitter to solve people’s customer service complaints, they can just use it to get you to shut up. Here’s how it works. [More]
Toshiba Won't Repair Faulty Hard Drive Because You Sharpied "Faulty" On It
By 4.25.11
Chris was fixing his neighbor’s Toshiba laptop when he discovered that the hard drive was defective. Just like how he does at his job where he is a professional computer technician, he wrote “FAULTY X” on it to indicate it shouldn’t be used again. When he sent the computer, which was still under its 1-year warranty period, in to Toshiba, he was dismayed by the reply he got back. They refused to replace the hard drive because “the label was written/torn” and “Toshiba does not cover the cost for this type of damage.” Now they $417.58 for the repair. [More]
1 EECB Does What 60 Hours, 40 Calls, And 7 Replacements Couldn't
By 4.8.11
Josh’s phone from Verizon kept crapping out and they kept giving him replacements, which also crapped out. After a year of dealing with this, a friend of his turned him on to the idea of sending an “EECB.” His letter grabbed the CEO of Verizon’s attention, and that’s when he got satisfaction. [More]
What Mailing Method Should I Use For The Best Paper Trail?
By 4.4.11
So you’re involved in a dispute and you want to make sure that your well-crafted complaint letter is mailed in a way so that it’s indisputable that your recipient got it. What’s the best way to shoot off your epistle? Certified? Signature delivery? Wrapped around a brick? Nay. [More]
Landlord Wouldn't Fix Leak For 5 Months. This Letter Got Him To Do It in 5 Days.
By 3.7.11
Raymond and his wife had a leak in their master bedroom ceiling that they begged their landlord to fix for five months, with no result. With a baby due in a month, they really needed full use of their bedroom. Then Raymond wrote a very good complaint letter specifically citing his state’s landlord-tenant law and proposing a retroactive rent reduction for all the months the leak wasn’t fixed. That got their attention. [More]
How Delta Made Enemies Of Standup Eugene Mirman
By 3.7.11
I stumbled across this clip of standup comedian Eugene Mirman describing how Delta Airlines became his enemy. It all started when they lost his bag and at the counter they looked at his ticket and asked him if his name was “Barbara Riddle.” He said no and then they proceeded to deliver Ms. Riddle’s bag to his house, twice, before finally giving up and telling him he’d have to file a claim for his luggage. Fast-forward to 5:57 to hear him tell the tale and read aloud the hate letter he wrote them as a result. [More]
