Nestor and his wife have been working for months to buy a house listed as being a short sale. They even bought new furniture and kitchen appliances for it in expectation, stowing the items in their garage. They had finally gotten approved and were making moving plans. Then at the last moment, Wells Fargo decided they’d rather not take Nestor’s money and would prefer to foreclose instead. [More]
complaints
Certified And Notarized Letter Gets Heat Turned Back On After 5 Days
By 3.3.11
Davya says that after showing her landlords she meant business with a notarized and certified letter, she finally got the heat in her apartment turned back after 5 days of no heat. [More]
Apartment Still Doesn't Have Heat After 4 Days But It Does Have Noxious Burning Smells
By 2.28.11
Dayva has written in an update about her landlord and heating issue. They don’t have heat yet, but they do have a power strip that’s been slowly melting itself into goo! [More]
No Heat, Apartment Has Smoke And Fumes, Landlord Is MIA
By 2.25.11
Dayva is fuming, almost as much as her apartment. She’s been without heat since yesterday after the cord on the heater her landlord installed melted. The landlord sent repair people who replaced the cord, but the heater still doesn’t work and its been emitting odd smells. Now she’s fighting through phone tree hell and getting hung up on by the landlord, unresponsive management company, and their minions. What’s a body to do? [More]
DirecTV Raises "Locked In" Rate
By 2.25.11
Brance writes in that he signed up with DirecTV who was advertising a rate that was “locked in” for 12 months. 3 months later, he noticed that his bill had gone up $10. When he called DirecTV to complain, the supervisor told him it didn’t matter, they still reserve the right to raise rates when they want. “In the world I grew up in, “locked in” means it will not change,” writes Brance. Well now we live in a world where every promise comes with an asterisk. [More]
Telemarketers Want Me To Sell My Timeshare. I Don't Own One.
By 2.14.11
Reader Deon is confused by all the telemarketers calling him and sending him letters, asking if he wants to sell his timeshare. The confusion largely stems from the fact that he doesn’t own a timeshare. He’s tried getting off their lists but it seems his name and number as a “hot lead” keep getting sold around. [More]
Each Of The 8 HP Laptops I've Bought Suffer From Blue Screen Of Death
By 2.10.11
Dan made a boo-boo and now he’s blue-blue. He broke his wife’s laptop and decided to replace it with a HP DV6t Special Edition laptop, picking one up for himself too. But he’s not the only one suffering from discoloration, so are his laptops’ screens. They’re continually afflicted by the dread “Blue Screen of Death.” He’s called and complained and exchanged the laptops several times, but each time, BSOD. They’re on laptops 7 & 8 now. What’s the deal? [More]
Google Voice Number Porting Stalled For 19 Days
By 2.8.11
Brandon has been waiting since Jan 20 for Google Voice to port his cellphone number. First he tried to port on Jan 20, then it said there was an error, so he tried again on Jan 30. He paid the $20 fee both times. The whole process is supposed to take 24 hours. He’s tried posting in their “Help Center,” as their welcome email suggests, but no luck. Just limbo. Hm. Maybe Google should stay out of businesses that require customer service. Have you tried getting in touch with your ex-wireless provider’s porting department and asking what the status is? UPDATE: Brandon reports his port over from AT&T has now gone through. Huzzah! [More]
Philadelphia Gas Works Turned Off Our Gas 4 Days Ago. Our House Is 48 Degrees.
By 2.7.11
Brrrr. Melanie and her housemate have no heat or gas after the Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) turned off the gas four days ago. She’s never missed a payment but they tell her they need to investigate “meter tampering” because they found two loose screws on her meter. It’s 48 degrees in her house and she has no way to cook anything. Customer service can’t tell her when the “meter investigation unit” will get around to checking it out and there’s no way she can get in contact with them. UPDATE: Melanie reports that after this post went up and we contacted PGW, they called her and said they’re coming to turn the heat back on this afternoon. [More]
Hotmail Sucks: The Rap Video!
By 2.3.11
Dan Bull has been using Hotmail for 10 years but he’s just about reached his breaking point. So the U.K. bedroom rhymesmith made a rap video open letter to Microsoft about how much their product sucks a giant brick. In the vocal style of The Streets, Dan takes aim at the emails that don’t arrive, their weak spam filters, and MSN’s wack way of adding extra steps when you try to make links. [More]
Chase Sends You New Credit Card, Then Cancels It Before It Arrives
By 2.2.11
Reader Danny writes in that he was approved for a new Chase Ink credit card, but by the time it showed up in his mailbox, it was already canceled. [More]
Sprint Also Making Upgrade Program Suck More
By 2.2.11
Not wanting to be left out of the party, Sprint became the latest carrier to announce it’s going to make it more expensive for customers to upgrade. [More]
This Is Why You Need To Double Check Your Statements After Prepaying Your Mortgage
By 1.28.11
For those who try to prepay their mortgages, here’s a cautionary tale from reader RM. Basically every single time that he’s prepaid his mortgage, there’s been a big problem. The bank keeps applying it to the future interest instead of the existing principal. The future interest is calculated based on the current principal, so that means they’re having him paying extra interest that would have never accrued if they had subtracted his payment correctly! [More]
Kaiser Permanente Makes Cancelling Hard, Then Sends Me To Collections
By 1.24.11
Tim has been stuck in a 7-month limbo with his ex-health insurer Kaiser Permanente that he is trying to break it off with. First he was told to write in a fax that said “I [name here] no longer want health care coverage by KP.” Then it turned out they gave him the wrong fax number, which he found out after he got a bill for missing payment. He called back and got the right fax number, was promised a refund and prorated payment, and sent in all his info. Instead, he got back a letter from the collections department. [More]
Verizon Good At Overbilling, Not So Much The Other Stuff
By 1.12.11
Elliot has been to heck and back with Verizon. His Samsung Rogue refused to charge, so he got them to replace it with a refurbished one. The “new” phone began randomly shutting off by itself. Elliot got Verizon to give him a full replacement, but they mailed it to his old address. After more shipping woes, he finally got a working phone. Then his bill arrives, about $1,000 higher than it’s supposed to be. [More]
Apocryphal And Hilarious "Letter A 98-Year Old Woman Wrote To Her Bank" Makes The Rounds Again
By 1.10.11
An amazing letter that a 98-year old woman wrote to her bank to protest a bounced check is making the rounds. She complains about a check getting bounced from her account because it occurred “three nanoseconds” before her pension got direct-deposited. She then says that going forward the bank will have to appoint a special rep to open her mortgage and loan payments, he has to use a 28-digit PIN to talk to her, and will have to go through a lengthy phone tree. It’s quite clever, but it’s not real. Not exactly. [More]
iPhone Alarm Bug Makes Couple Miss Fertility Treatment
By 1.3.11
On Jan 1 and 2 of 2011, tons of people overslept, not due to hangovers, but because of an iPhone glitch that made their alarms go off. For most people this was just an inconvenience, but for one couple it was disastrous. They missed a fertility treatment deadline. [More]
Police Reports Contradict ADT Rep's Warnings Of Local Break-Ins
By 12.30.10
Sarah says that last night an ADT sales rep came to her door trying to sell her an alarm system. He said that there were two break-ins “last week” and that whenever these occur ADT sends out a rep to “give away” two “free” alarm systems. [More]
