complaints
Safeway Tries To Sell You Meat Substitute That Expired 37 Days Ago
Reader Daniel wrote to tell us about his potentially unsafe purchase from a Safeway store in Daly City, California. When Daniel arrived at the checkout counter, he quickly checked the expiration dates on his Yves vegetarian sandwich meat only to discover that one of the packages had expired April 18th, 37 days ago, while the others had expired 4 days ago. He even took a hostage-style photograph with the expired product next to a stack of current day newspapers to help substantiate his claim. We would expect that when confronted with this information that a Safeway employee would promptly be instructed to scour the shelves as to prevent other hapless shoppers from buying the expired imitation meat, but apparently we expect too much. Daniel’s letter and photos, inside…
Companies Don't Hate You… They Just Love Phone Trees More
Companies are slowly learning that those infuriating automated phone trees aren’t the answer to their customer service problems. Some experts even claim that automated systems anger customers. The New York Times decided to trace the history of the hated trees, while wondering if things will ever change.
Home Depot's Extraordinary Service Leads To Free $800 Appliance Upgrade
Michael launched an Executive Email Carpet Bomb after Home Depot twice failed to deliver an undamaged washer and dryer. Home Depot’s CEO Frank Blake quickly thanked Michael for his even-handed letter, and promised that the local store manager would make him a happy customer…
Circuit City Calls The Cops On Customer Who Requests A Price Match
Emmett writes: Dear Mr. Schoonover:
Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of No Audio
Reader Brenden went to see the new Indiana Jones movie last night, and spent the last 10 minutes of the movie watching it with no audio. Rather than stopping the movie and handing out free passes, the theater just let it play with no sound, then refused to rewind it.
Bank of America Calls Your Dad, Asks If He'd Like To Pay Your Bill For You
Reader Dan says Bank of America called his old address and gave out his account details to the person who answered the phone. Luckily, that person turned out to be his father, though Bank of America didn’t know that. Once they did know they were speaking to a relative, they asked Dan’s dad to pay his bill for him.
We're Not Kidding, BoA Really Closes Your Account Just For Asking About Your Interest Rate
Reader Todd decided to call Bank of America up to test whether our story “BoA Closes Your Credit Cards If You Ask Why They Increased Your APR” was really true or not. Turns out, it is.
Best Buy's "Same As Cash" Credit Card Conceals Major Hidden Fees
Reader Jason just finished paying off his 0% Best Buy/HSBC credit card, or so he thought, because this devilish card just sucker-punched him with a load of hidden fees. He did some research and found out he was entered into a program that makes him pay for “debt cancellation,” something Best Buy never discussed with him. He also discovered that there are many other people who feel tricked into joining this strange program. To make matters worse, HSBC, the card issuing bank, is giving Jason the runaround about reversing the fees. Jason’s letter, inside…
Comcast Digs Up Your Patio After You Asked Them Not To And Other Assorted Humiliations
Reader Shannon has been without a working phone in her home office for the past 16 days thanks to Comcast. This has her in a bad mood, but she’s also a little ticked off because they sent over a bunch of guys who didn’t understand her when she told them not to dig up her patio.
Banned For Life From Royal Caribbean For Complaining Too Loudly On The Internet
Brenda and Gerald Moran are what you might call “regulars” on Royal Caribbean — or they were — until they were banned for life after they complained too loudly on a cruise website. For the past 3 years, they took two cruises a year with Royal Caribbean, but according to the cruise line, they complained about almost all of them. Finally, after stirring up too much controversy on a popular cruise site, the company banned the Morans for life.
Incredibly Stupid And Wasteful Packing Job, Brought To You By AT&T And iPhone
Reader Nick’s wife recently ordered an iPhone and was surprised to find it came in two boxes. She was even more surprised when the second box contained only an AT&T plastic shopping bag. It was also packed with brown packing material around it. “I find it comical that the plastic bag had more packing material around it then the $250 iPhone did,” Nick writes.
Dell Formats Your External Backup Drive, Erases 3 Years Worth Of Data
Reader Robert’s Dell XPS died. Under warranty, a Dell technician came to his house and in the process of “fixing” his computer decided to hook up and format his backup external hard drive, thus deleting 3 years worth of his work. Dell admits that they formatted his external drive but all they have to say to Robert is “Welcome to Dell.” Robert’s letter and timeline, inside…
IHOP Serves You Nasty-Tasting Blueberry Pancakes
Reader Loren decided to get her midnight breakfast on with some pancakes at IHOP, but when she got home something tasted a bit off. She looked down and to her disgust, discovered what she thought to be a large area of mold engulfing the blueberries on the pancakes. Her letter and the not-safe-for-breakfast pictures, inside…
Dealing With Frontier's Bankruptcy
Now that the airline with the fuzzy animals on their planes has also declared bankruptcy, you might be in the same position as reader Scott. Scott had Frontier cancel his flight and send him an email with a link to get a refund. While it’s nice that Frontier made the refund option easy, a refund doesn’t get Scott any closer to his destination, and a second ticket would cost Scott a bit more than he initially paid. Thanks to a little bit of research and 35 minutes on the phone, Scott was able to get Frontier to rebook him on a different airline. Find out how, inside.
