complaints
Mass Schadenfreude
• The thing about car dealers is that they can refi their soul at anytime. [Copyranter]
Bitchin’ Heard Round the Blogosphere
• Insert your blogged complaint here. Why should these folks get all the traffic?
Monday Morning Reminder: Another Gory Week of Consumerism
Over the last week, you told us about UPS deliveries that took over a year and Dell’s weekly promises to ship an imaginary product. You complained about McDonald’s breakfasts and lousy T-Mobile CSRs. The IRS sold all your personal records to the lowest bidder. Soho moved to American Warehouse. Bayer sold you a little bit of AIDS in your aspirin. Citibank lost your data again, Vonage fucked you, Office Depot gave you the run around. You found sexy home made porn on your friend’s hard drive and emailed to tell us about it. And there was a hell of a lot of crappy flying going down.
Apple ‘Genius’ Messes Up Customer Refund
As I wrote a few weeks ago, I recently bought myself a beautiful new MacBook Pro. I love the thing: it is the most beautiful computer I have ever owned. Nevertheless, Apple didn’t make it easy for me to give them two thousand dollars. Between that and the smug jackasses working the Genius Bars whom you practically have to beg to just try to fix your computers, I love my Apple just as much as I want to insert a catheter up one of those Geniuses’ urethras and then force him to jump up and down on a trampoline.
Everyday Hogwash Rolls in Mud
Back in January, we let you know about Everyday Hogwash, a place where people share “rants” about companies and customer service and hidden fees, yadda yadda, it’s like The Consumerist except with prizes.
And Hold the Hashbrowns!
In Cynthia’s letter we find that sometimes, a “Small Breakfast,” can be a big deal.
Office Depot Gives Man Runaround, Literally
Pure, unadulterated, Office Depot customer service failure:
Vonage Bleeds, Consumerist Feeds
The buzz this morning is that Vonage could be a sweet “acquisition target” i.e. dismembered whale lumbering through shark waters i.e. their recent stock drop could have takeover kids licking their mandibles. Maybe their new daddy is someone willing to give their call centers a hot beef injection? (We mean that in the best way possible…)
Expedia Closes Ticket Change Fee Loophole Around Customer’s Throat
All our best correspondents have alliterative names. Consumerist Grant G. decided to use Expedia to book a couple of round-trip flights from Denver to San Francisco. But when his plans changed and he needed to fly back a day later, he was told there would be a $200 extra charge to change the booking.
UPDATE: Trifecta of Crappy Airplane Stories, +1
Here’s a first, Justin writes about one of the very same extreme flight delays that another reader wrote in about!
Give Me A Large Hawaiian Stuffed Crust With Anchovies and Cockroaches
The best thing that one can say about this story — in which a pizza gourmand found a cockroach cooked into the cheese of his Pizza Hut pizza pie — is that Pizza Hut found the topping completely unacceptable. Domino’s, on the other hand, would have simply initiated a marketing push to define the topping as the unique ingredient of a new California style pizza.
T-Mobile Rep Parries Consumerist Complaint
Back in February, we ran Sam C’s complaint about a T-Mobile price increase for text messages, raising it from five cents to ten cents per message. On the page detailing the change a footnote remarked how long the “discounted” price would remain in effect. Our complainant compared it to the novel 1984, wherein, “Winston notes that people had demonstrated to thank Big Brother because their chocolate ration had been increased to 20 grams. (when it had actually be reduced to 20 from 30).”
UPDATE: Trifecta of Crappy Airplane Stories
After going through a ringer of horror with three different airlines on Friday, Sebastien and his family retreated home to try again the next day. On Saturday, he and his brood were “selectees” earmarked for special detention by TSA at the security checkpoint. Later, he noticed his ticket had “SSSS” printed in the lower right-hand corner. His return ticket, where he had no special inspeciton, had no such S’s.
DISH Runs Away With Spoon of Injustice
John has a right to be pissed, he worked in consumer electronics customer service after all, so it’s all the more galling when Dish Network treated him poorly this weekend, asking him to pay for shipping for a new tuner to replace the one he just replaced not a month ago.
