Please don’t pull the cord on Howard’s laptop or it will die. Best Buy‘s Geek Squad has failed five times to coax his laptop’s ailing battery into holding a charge, replacing both the battery and the hard drive, and shipping Howard the same incorrect replacement battery three times. Howard now wants Best Buy to honor their lemon policy by giving him a new laptop, but it seems like every Geek Squad agent has a different copy of the replacement policy, and none of them apply to Howard. It’s almost like he’s asking for a price match! Let’s read his story, inside…
complaints
H&R Block's Refund Anticipation Loan Card Eats Your Refund
By 3.28.09
Poor Sam didn’t take our advice. He let H&R Block do his taxes and then took out a refund anticipation loan. The money, which was deposited on an H&R Block Emerald Card, is now tied up by several inexplicable holds for transactions he didn’t make. The companies supposedly holding the funds have no clue who Sam is, or why they’d be holding his money. H&R Block’s only response is to charge Sam $2 whenever he calls their customer service line for help.
Nine West Overcharges You Because Calculating Taxes Is Hard
By 3.27.09
Nine West wasn’t sure how much tax to charge Jane for her online order so they have gave her a price that was $5.48 less than what they actually charged. When Jane wrote in to complain and to ask for her money back, Nine West explained that it was impossible to instantly calculate how much tax to charge because they use two highly-sophisticated tax gizmos that simply can’t interface with their online store. Jane wants to know if Nine West’s charges are ethical and whether it’s worth complaining over six bucks.
Target: For Want Of A Shoe, A Customer Service War Was Lost
By 3.26.09
Target sold Shawn a defective shoe, and then gave him defective customer service when he tried to get exchange it for a functional shoe. Here is his amusing story, which he was kind enough to submit already written in the third person.
Comcast Threatens To Cancel Your Service Over "Leaky Signal" That They Can't Understand Or Fix
By 3.22.09
Comcast keeps sending Andrew’s parents letters insisting that “there is a leak of our electronic signal into the air,” and that if it can’t be immediately fixed, their service will be disconnected. Andrew’s parents always immediately call Comcast to schedule a service visit, because nobody wants a signal leaking into the air, especially not one that “could interfere with aircraft and ship communications,” but each time they call, Comcast has no clue why they sent a letter, or how to plug the leaky plane-gobbling signal.
Is The Patriot Act Stopping Gateway From Fixing Your Laptop?
By 3.22.09
Gateway claims that the Patriot Act is holding up delivery of the part needed to fix Redwoodflyer’s laptop, which has been broken since October. Seems believable to us!
Sylvania Lights The Path To Good Service With Bulb Replacements
By 3.21.09
SJ replaced his Volkswagen’s bulbs with Sylvania Silverstar lights that were twice as expensive, only to watch them fail after three months of use. Disappointed, since the standard bulbs lasted for three years, SJ wrote to Sylvania telling them that he expected, at a minimum, a voucher for new bulbs. Sylvania’s response managed to brighten his day…
DirecTV Demands Nearly $500 For Canceled Service You Couldn't Use
By 3.21.09
DirecTV agreed to let Anthony cancel his service without an early termination fee because his signal would randomly fade away without explanation. What DirecTV really meant though was that they would let Anthony cancel if he paid a final bill of $446.69. After speaking with two agents who agreed that the fee should have been waived, DirecTV reduced Anthony’s bill to $445.42. A third agent told Anthony that he would need to negotiate any further deductions in writing with the dispute department…
New Jersey Sues Verizon Over "Free LCD TV" Disaster
By 3.20.09
The State of New Jersey has filed a lawsuit against Verizon, alleging that its marketing, sales, billing and customer service practices for its FiOS television, telephone and internet services are deceptive and misleading. The lawsuit is partly in response to the now-infamous “Free LCD” disaster.
Greyhound Accidentally Charges $1,000 For A $70 Bus Ticket
By 3.14.09
Greyhound tickets from Raleigh to Asheville cost $67.50, unless you’re Meg Stivison. Then they cost over $1,000. Greyhound repeatedly charged Stivison’s debit card while insisting that she didn’t know the address on her bank statement. Meg ended up driving down to the bus terminal to buy a ticket, but that was just the start of her nightmarish journey…
HP Makes Up For Sending Reader "Repaired" Laptop Filled With Viruses
By 3.13.09
Aaron is happy to report that he has gotten resolution with his complaint about HP’s repair center sending him back his laptop filled with viruses. Good thing for HP that Aaron is honest, otherwise he could probably have three laptops right now, as three different HP reps contacted him about his story. On March 9th he wrote us:
Sprint Lies To FCC About Ripping Off Consumer Reporter
By 3.13.09
Dan Hesse should be ashamed. Ripping off a consumer reporter and then lying to the FCC about it? Bad idea. Here’s what Sprint did to The Red Tape Chronicles reporter Bob Sullivan…
Local Mechanic Does For $52.27 What Belle Tire Said Cost $1000
By 3.12.09
Mechanics are like doctors – it often pays to get a second opinion. When Josh’s wife’s Jetta failed, Belle Tire said it would cost $1,000 to replace the transmission. When Josh checked it out himself, he saw that it probably just needed to have a cable reattached to the transmission. Belle refused to check it out and insisted that it would cost $1000. So Josh to it a local mechanic, Otto Khim, and they fixed everything for $52.27, a savings of $947.43. Then he drove back to Belle Tire and laughed in their face. His story, inside…
ComcastMustDie Declares Victory Overy Comcast
By 3.11.09
Bob Garfield, creator of ComcastMustDie.com, has declared victory. Comcast isn’t dead, but he says instead of being “a vast, greedy, blundering, tone-deaf corporate colossus,” it’s merely all of the above with the exception of tone-deaf. ComcastMustDie is one of the many online different outlets for customer rage that Comcast has tapped into to proactively respond to customer complaints. They still have a long way to go, but at least they’re listening. That is all Bob really wanted, it seems, as he’s moving on to a new project, CustomerCircus.net, that will solicit and broadcast consumer complaints against all kinds of companies. And yep, Comcast will still be one of them.
Upset With $350 Electrical Bill, Man Pays In Pennies
By 3.10.09
Not happy with the high cost of his $350 electrical bill, John Almany of Virginia decided to pay it entirely in pennies, all 35,000 and 170 pounds of them. It took two men with two large duffel bags transport them to the billing counter, and took Bristol Virginia Utilities two hours just to count up to $26. That’s certainly one way to go about it.
Citi "Homeowner Helper" Site Merely Potemkin Village?
By 3.10.09
Did Citi set up its “homeowner helper” site to comply with Obama’s mortgage assistance programs, but then not actually attach it to any humans that will help homeowners? After inputting his info on the site, Citi told reader CoarseLive to schedule an appointment with a representative. No one ever called him. When he tried calling Citi directly, multiple agents told him they had no idea what he was talking about, and they hung up on him, again and again. His story, inside…
Best Buy Sells You Backup Plan, Fails To Backup Your Data, Then Replaces Your Hard Drive
By 3.7.09
Best Buy charged Nicole $99 to backup her data but then replaced her hard drive without backing up a single byte. Nicole’s service contract clearly stated that Best Buy would perform the backup before any other service. Now Best Buy is claiming that her old hard drive is their property and that she has no right to the data that they failed to backup or restore.
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UPDATE: It’s getting worked on!
Comments still not functioning correctly for you? As Ben suggested, I’ve opened a complaint on GetSatisfaction.com to try to reach Gawker’s tech team. If the comment reply/preview feature is still broken for you (it seems to be working for some, not others), why not head over there and add your two cents to my complaint? [GetSatisfaction.com]