A Phillies fan, Loretta signed up for MLB.com so she could follow her team after moving to Florida. She did not want to renew but found MLB.com had courteously done that for her, without asking or warning. She called customer service who kept saying they would refund it, but then changed their story and said her grace period was up.
complaints
Delta Plays Hide the Phone
By 6.22.06
After his flight was canceled due to a mechanical failure, Delta told David and his fellow passengers to “proceed” to the phones directly across from the gate to rebook their travels. However, upon exiting the plane, no phones were to be found.
T-Mobile Hopes You Forget Your Security Deposit
By 6.22.06
Shh, no one must know we have their deposits…
Gold’s Gym Won’t Let Dead Cancel
By 6.22.06
It’s not just AOL that is reluctant to let you cancel an account when someone dies. So too, the church of the body. Barry writes:
Delta Tells Ze Frank Off
By 6.21.06
Videoblogger Ze Frank was promised $600 in remuneration from Delta after some abysmally bad customer service had him not flying and staying in a hotel room with a total stranger. He got a letter in the mail today and instead of a check, he got a big fat go f*** yourself letter. The best part is Ze Frank in an adult diaper. The second best part is that in the letter, Delta refers to an online policy that outlines their responsibilities in these matters (none), and the link is dead upon arrival.
Consumer Writes, Consumerist Criticizes
By 6.21.06
We definitely love you guys, but it’s not all snuggles all the time here at The Consumerist. If you send us something, we’re not afraid to post it and say when you’re being a jerk. We don’t want to lose you as a reader… and as much of a jerk as you may or may not have been, we can nine times out of ten understand your frustration. But we also want you guys to be reasonable, polite, responsible consumers, and that means the occasional light slap.
American Airlines: A Big Bucket of Suck
By 6.20.06
Somehow sensing that things were not going to go well, a Livejournaler by the name of Ovid liveblogged his travails in trying to go from JFK to the emerald isles. His travels are undercut by American Airlines’ inability to change a tire, which causes a chain reaction of unfortunate events not unlike a butterfly flapping its wings in Tokyo and causing global warming.
AOL Listens to BBB and CC, not You
By 6.20.06
Don writes that he had a very similar experience to Vincent in getting AOL to cancel his account. AOL wouldn’t listen. He claims he was forced to have his credit card company do a chargeback and got the Better Business Bureau to investigate.
Inflammatory Macbooks
By 6.19.06
Sometimes Apples have worms in them. Appledefects.com is a new blog dedicated to dissecting these worms. A recent one takes the cake. When the blog’s author complained about his Macbook running at 203 degrees fahrenheit, Apple told him, “the Macbook is a notebook, not a laptop, refer to your manual.” Which means that according to official documentation,
Nice-Guy Consumer Tries To Fix LaCie For Them, Gets Burned
By 6.19.06
There’s such a thing as being too good a consumer. Troubleshooting problems for which the company should be responsible, thoughtfully trying to save the company the expense of a return and repair when it’s their duty to replace your broken item under warranty. It sure is nice of you to go through all that trouble, Charlie, but companies aren’t going to give you the same thoughtful consideration you gave them. Any undue consideration on behalf of that faceless billion dollar corporate empire is likely to get you screwed; better just to return the broken bugger.
GE Ice Makers Dispense Cool, Refreshing Razor Blades
By 6.19.06
It’s a sultry June, so what better time to have a nice, refreshing glass of ice to quench your summer thirst? But if you’ve got a GE refrigerator with built-in ice dispenser, watch out! You may find yourself with a throat full of jagged metal shards, your thirst to be quenched not by water’s magical solid state but instead by the copper gore bubbling from your esophagus’s shredded plush lining.
OvernightPrints Staffed by Cads
By 6.16.06
When you name your flyer and business card print shop “Overnightprints” there’s a certain standard that you need to live up to. Namely, that you ship overnight, a limbo bar that Overnightprints.com just can’t help hitting with its three-boobed chest.
Telemarketers Target Homeland Security
By 6.16.06
Maybe now they’ll crack down on the telemarketers. After all that’s the hotline, the hotline for the Department of Homeland Security. Gotta secure the homeland from the Space Invaders and the Centipedes. Not a moment to waste for time-share condominiums.
Another Skeptical Musing on AOL CSR Firing
By 6.16.06
Chooki brings up a great point in the comments, which is how do we know that John was actually fired? There’s no proof, just a statement from the PR department.
Some Skeptical Musings on the AOL CSR Statement
By 6.16.06
When AOL said that part of their zero tolerance asshole employee policy was “swiftly honoring [customer] requests,” we all pretty much rolled our eyes into the back of our head and spent a few minutes scrutinizing our snarky, sarcastic brains.
AOL Fires Infamous CSR
By 6.15.06
The AOL customer service rep who tried so very hard to prevent Vincent Ferrai from cancelling his service has been fired.
