Cory and his girlfriend moved from New York to North Carolina this summer. They hired Quality Van Lines out of Clifton, NJ to handle the move, but soon regretted the choice: they overcharged him, failed to deliver on promises, and damaged not only his belongings but his car. Cory wants to know what his options are now—and we want readers to know how to avoid hiring companies like Quality Van Lines in the future.
complaints
Canon's Rebate Program Is Blurry And Poorly Lit
By 9.22.08
Brett has now been the victim of two failed rebate attempts through Canon. They ignored the first one, and rejected the second one with a claim that he can clearly disprove. He’s trying again. Unfortunately, it looks like Brett’s experience with Canon isn’t unique.
Purina Isn't Bothered By Dog Food Infested With Fly Larvae, Maggots
By 9.20.08
Christina’s two dogs fell ill after eating Purina Beneful infested with maggots and fly larvae. After taking her dogs to the vet, Christina called Purina for an explanation, only to be told: “As soon as our food leaves our factory, it is no longer our responsibility.”
Indoo Ships Your Textbooks To You When They Feel Like It
By 9.19.08
Don’t order textbooks from Indoo.com if you need them right away, because they’re a little casual with their shipping. Joe ordered two textbooks on September 5th. Four days later on September 9th, they sent him an email saying they’d been shipped via USPS Priority mail. They hadn’t arrived by the 16th, so Joe emailed to ask what was going on. They responded that actually the books had been shipped on September 11th via USPS Priority and that “the arrival expectation is 4 to 5 business days.” Joe received one of the two books yesterday, on September 17th, which would have been 5 business days after the 11th. Still no sign of the other book.
EECB Gets Credit Union To Pay Up $125
By 9.17.08
Rick has been trying for months to get his his credit union, Opportunities Credit Union of Vermont, to pay up for a $125 home inspection, and now, a week after sending his EECB, he prevailed. As we wrote last week, his credit union was supposed to pay for a home inspection but said they didn’t have to because the bill was never sent. However, the home inspector uses an electronic billing system and it showed that the credit union rep had in fact read the sent bill. Emails and phone calls between Rick and his credit union rep led to a stalemate. Then Jim sent off an executive email carpet bomb and got the following back from the credit union president:
Video: Whoopi Wants Her DirecTV Fixed, And Sherri Wants To Speak To Your Supervisor
By 9.16.08
If you’ve ever wanted to see the rants from angry Consumerist tipsters brought to life by the woman who played Patrick Swayze in “Ghost,” here ya go—although Sherri Shephard is actually a bit funnier, describing how the Time Warner CSR makes her go to an evil place. Seen here is Shephard letting out the evil because of the CSR who tells her, “Well my supervisor is going to say the same thing.” Video clip below.
Verizon's OneBill Service Is A Nightmare
By 9.16.08
Reader Laurynn wants to warn Verizon customers to stay away from “OneBill,” because according to several of the 7 different CSRs she talked to today, it’s “not ready yet.”
Steve Jackson Disses Lameo Free Credit Report Monitoring Service
By 9.16.08
Steve Jackson, a well-known game designer, got an offer for free credit report monitoring from his bank. When he called up the monitoring company, Intersections Inc, the customer service rep rattled off a boilerplate agreement and asked for his assent. When he asked if they would send him a copy, she said they don’t send out copies. When he asked then how he would have a record of what they agreed to, she got huffy and said, “This is free. You don’t need to worry about it.”
DirecTV Install Imbroglio Makes Longtime Customer Want To Destroy Furniture
By 9.16.08
While we’re waiting on our video boys to harvest the clip of Whoopie’s rant against DirecTV on The View this morning, here’s a little reader-submitted DirecTV install nightmare to tide you over. Andy used to think DirecTV was pretty good, but his experience trying to get them to hook up an HD/DVR to his TV has felt him feeling like he is “going to explode, or destroy pieces of furniture.”
Stop Whining About Hurricane Ike, You're Scheduled To Work At Walgreens
By 9.15.08
Nearly all of Houston has no power and most has no water. Even though my upstairs ceiling caved in, my manager at Walgreens said “you’re scheduled to work and are expected to be here.”
Charter Publishes Unlisted Numbers In The Phone Book
By 9.14.08
Tim enjoyed his unlisted phone number for over thirty years until Charter published it in the local phone book. Now he has two options: ditch his long-time number, or lose his cherished anonymity. Inside, Charter’s apology letter.
Apple: MacBooks Can't Handle GarageBand
By 9.13.08
Two Apple customer service representatives told reader Mark to blame his MacBook’s four hard drive crashes on GarageBand, professional-grade software that his puny consumer-grade laptop ‘can’t handle.’ Every MacBook comes with GarageBand pre-loaded as part of Apple’s iLife suite.
Charges Filed Against Bed, Bath & Beyond Manager Who Refused To Allow 911 Call
By 9.11.08
Police have charged Elizabeth Miller, the manager of the Bed, Bath & Beyond in Lexington, Kentucky, who refused to let a couple use the store’s phone to call 911 to report a three-year-old locked in a van, and refused to make an announcement over the store’s PA system. The charge is “failure to report dependency, neglect and abuse, a Class B misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of 90 days and a maximum fine of $250.”
Why I Quit Staples Easy Tech
By 9.11.08
Sick of seeing customers screwed over and billed for unnecessary repairs by undertrained technicians, a Staples tech writes in to tell the incident that made him quit. See this picture? This is the floor model computer where he was told to copy all of a customer’s hard drive data as part of their diagnostic process, then he had to leave the area and leave all the data up on the screen for any customer to see or snag with a thumb drive. The full story, inside…
FSA Ombudsman Solves Your Federal Student Aid Crises
By 9.10.08
Got a problem with your federal student loan? The Federal Student Aid Ombudsman specialists are here to help. First they’ve got a bunch of tips for you to fix your problem on your own. If all those don’t work, contact them by phone, fax, or mail and they will help you out. For reals. This is reader Trey’s great experience with them:
CVS Employee Calls Customer A 'Fucking AIDS Freak'
By 9.10.08
His response was “Whatever, somebody needs to come deal with this because I’m about to go off…”
