When Consumerist reader Andy canceled his Time Warner Cable service back in November he expected to get a small refund. But he got more than he bargained for: a bounced check fee, followed several months later by bills for service he no longer had. [More]
customer service
Cable Company Sends Refund Check That Bounces, Bills Customer Twice For Service He Doesn’t Have
By 3.13.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Nexus 5X Owners Say Device Boot-Looping Kills Phones; Getting Runaround From LG
By 1.27.17
Even in an age where you’re expected to regularly shell out hundreds of dollars on a new smartphone, you expect each new pricey device to last at least a year before becoming worthless. Yet, some owners of relatively new Nexus 5X phones tell Consumerist that their smartphones have unexpectedly been rendered useless. Making matters worse, the manufacturer is allegedly giving them the runaround, leaving them without a phone for months. [More]
Verizon Sending All Non-Emergency Calls Made On Recalled Note 7s To Customer Service
By 1.18.17
Even though Verizon recently pushed out a software update that deliberately disables the recalled Samsung Galaxy Note 7, the company says thousands of subscribers continue to use their potentially dangerous devices. Now Verizon is deploying another tactic to block these Note 7 owners from using their phone — rerouting all non-emergency calls to customer service. [More]
Wells Fargo Overhauls Teller Pay System After Fake Account Fiasco
By 1.11.17 — Updated: 1.23.17
Shortly after federal regulators fined Wells Fargo $185 million for its decades-long fake account fiasco perpetrated by employees who opened more than two million unauthorized accounts in order to meet high-pressure sales goals, the company said it would ditch the incentive system. Now, the bank has finally outlined its new approach to compensating employees that shifts the focus away from upselling add-on products and toward improved customer satisfaction. [More]
Domino’s Worker Fired For Writing Racist Joke Inside Pizza Box
By 1.11.17
It’s one thing to ask for a funny joke to go along with your dinner delivery, but when one customer received a pizza box with a very unfunny racist comment written inside, a franchise owner in Massachusetts says he fired the worker responsible. [More]
Calling Customer Service? An AI Is Picking The Agent That’s “Best” For You
By 1.6.17
Think back to the last time you had to call a real, live person in order to complete a purchase or have a problem resolved. How did it go? Did you and the customer service representative you spoke to have trouble understanding one another in some fundamental way? Or was it a smooth interaction, almost as if the CSR you spoke with was carefully hand-picked for you by robots?
If it’s the latter, it might be because the CSR you spoke with was in fact carefully hand-picked for you by robots. [More]
Hatchimals, This Holiday’s Hot Toy, Leaves Many Parents Disappointed
By 12.28.16
If you have a child of a certain age — or you just keep up with the latest trends — then you’ve probably heard of Hatchimals. The interactive toy was amongst the hottest, in-demand products this holiday season. But for some who were able to score the coveted plaything it left a lot to be desired. [More]
Uber Passenger: Driver Stranded Her Halfway Through 150-Mile Trip Home From Hospital
By 12.28.16
An Arizona woman says she was left stranded at a gas station in the desert on Christmas when her Uber driver decided he didn’t want to continue the second half of the 150-mile trip. [More]
Attacking A Cashier, Order Screens Because You’re Unhappy With Your Food Joins Long List Of Customer Overreactions
By 12.19.16
Another day, another extreme overreaction: police in Dayton, OH say a McDonald’s drive-thru customer who was unhappy with her food went on a rampage in the restaurant, overturning ordering screens and attacking the cashier. [More]
Best Buy Workers Give Wii U To Teen Who Visited Nearly Every Day To Play Video Games
By 12.12.16
’Tis the season when we’re happy to hear stories of big-hearted folks out there among all the Grinches, people who take it upon themselves to make a stranger’s holiday merry and bright. Like the Best Buy employees in New York who bought a Wii U for a teenager who visited almost every day to play Smash Bros. at the store. [More]
Chipotle CEO “Not Satisfied” With Quality Of Customer “Experience” In Some Restaurants
By 12.6.16
As Chipotle closes the books on its second consecutive year of bad headlines and sagging sales, the company’s founder and co-CEO Steve Ells says the burrito chain still has “a long way to go” to recover from its food-safety crisis. In particular, he notes that Chipotle has forgotten about providing the best customer service. [More]
Burning Down The Mall Because You Can’t Find A Shopping Cart Joins Long List Of Customer Overreactions
By 11.18.16
When you’ve been wronged by a business — or believe you have been — there are two ways you can try to resolve the situation: one, you can take a deep breath and calmly address the issue at hand by using your words; or, you can go the opposite route and overreact completely, and woe betide the poor mortals caught in your way. [More]
Woman Drives To Uber HQ To Get Account Issue Resolved Instead Of Waiting For Emailed Responses
By 11.14.16
When you’ve got a problem that needs fixing and it’s not getting fixed fast enough, what’s an intrepid consumer to do? One woman who had an issue with her family’s Uber account was tired of waiting for customer service to email her back, so she hopped in her car and took a trip — actually, two trips — to visit Uber in person. [More]
Twitter Launching Direct Message Bot Feature To Help Companies With Customer Service
By 11.1.16
There are some customer service situations where you might want to talk to a human about your problem in detail, but in others, communicating with a preprogrammed robot may resolve an issue more quickly. For those cases, Twitter is introducing a chatbot that companies can use to talk to customers via the platforms Direct Messages feature. [More]
Expedia Apologizes After Customer Says Employee Left “F—k You” Message In Her Itinerary
By 10.19.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
An Expedia customer in Los Angeles was surprised to find that her New Year’s travel reservation had suddenly been canceled — and, adding insult to injury, a nasty message from an employee on her itinerary. [More]
Google Needs To Step Up Support To Sell Its Own Smartphones
By 10.5.16
Google’s customer support has come a long way since it first began selling Nexus mobile phones and Google Voice number ports to customers. However, the success of its new suite of devices depends on how well it’s able to provide customer and technical support for those devices. [More]
Twitter Study Unsurprisingly Finds Using Twitter Is Good For Business
By 10.5.16
Weeks after Twitter rolled out a suite of new customer service tools for businesses using the social network to connect with clients, the company has come out with a not-at-all-shocking report that interacting with customers on Twitter is good for business. Flabbergasted? Probably not. [More]
Burger King Customers Upset To Find Nasty Messages Written On Food Wrappers
By 10.4.16
We get it: everyone can have a bad day at work. But if you work in a consumer-facing industry, taking out those frustrations on your customers could cost you your job. [More]
