We may be years removed from the robo-signing, foreclosure free-for-all that ensued following the collapse of the housing market, but mortgage servicers continue to screw things up. Today, federal and state regulators sued one of the nation’s largest home loan companies, alleging widespread errors that caused borrowers to lose money, and in some cases their homes. [More]
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Federal, State Agencies Accuse Ocwen Of Mortgage Errors, Illegal Foreclosures
By 4.20.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Nearly 35% Of Consumers Have Never Checked Their Credit Reports
By 5.4.15
While consumers are often urged to take advantage of the free once-a-year opportunity to request a credit report and make sure they aren’t riddled with errors, a new survey suggests many Americans simply aren’t heeding the suggestion. [More]
Consumer Advocates Shine Spotlight On Too-Common Credit Reporting Errors
By 12.11.14
By now we know that credit reporting agencies are notoriously difficult to work with when it comes to fixing errors on one’s credit report. While legislators and consumers groups have long called upon credit reporting agencies to provide better service to disputing customers, little has been done to actually affect change. Now, advocates with Consumers Union are putting the spotlight on how devastating these errors can be for consumers. [More]
Bad Transcription Means 1-800-Flowers Card Implies Dead Grandma Had Diarrhea
By 9.30.14 — Updated: 2.14.17
Douglas, a reader of the New York Times’ “Haggler” column, decided to send flowers with a lighthearted message to his grandmother’s funeral instead of attending. He sent them through 1-800-Flowers, dictating his message for the card to the customer service representative who took his order over the phone: “FAR WELL GRANDMY YOU HAD A GOOD RUNS.” Wait, that doesn’t sound right. [More]
New Legislation Aims To Ensure Accurate Credit Reports, Provide Free Credit Scores
By 4.9.14
Even a small inaccuracy on a consumer’s credit report can have long-lasting negative affects. From the most simple computer error to mixing up individual’s data, credit reporting agencies have been known to be hard to work with when trying to fix incorrect data. But that could all change under legislation introduced today that aims to ensure issues like these don’t happen. [More]
Sears Chat Rep Orders Wrong Dishwasher: That’s Your Problem
By 12.16.13
It all seemed to go so well. When a California man saw a great Cyber Monday deal on a Kenmore dishwasher at Sears, he hopped right on that. $700 off a $1419 appliance? Yes, please. When he learned that the order was in error, though, and he could only have the great price for a dishwasher in the wrong color, who was at fault? Sears wanted him to pay the difference. [More]
Staples Offers 99 Cent Stamp With Free Shipping, Wants $10 Shipping After Orders Go Through
By 1.30.13
Oops. Staples offered a great deal on self-inking address stamps that seemed too good to be true: 99 cents for a stamp, with free shipping. By the time the transactions went through, the deal actually was too good to be true, making deal-hunters sad and upset with Staples. [More]
Best Buy Posts 50% Off Coupon On Internet, Forgets How Internet Works
By 1.22.13 — Updated: 7.15.15
It’s happened over and over again, and retailers never learn their lesson. A big-box store e-mails a coupon to their customers, then freaks out and backpedals when customers actually show up at the cash register and try to use it, withdrawing the coupon and accusing customers of trying to scam the store. This time, the retailer was Best Buy, which offered a coupon for $50 off a purchase of $100 or more as long as the customer used a Mastercard. The coupon excluded most of the items you’d expect it to exclude: prepaid cell phones, iPods, certain brands of TVs and cameras. One very key thing that it didn’t exclude: gift cards. [More]
How An EECB Rescued 120 Points On My Credit Score
By 6.27.12
Here’s what Matthew learned from his experience with Time Warner Cable: if you’re told not to return a piece of equipment that your cable company or ISP has issued you, don’t believe a word that they say. He was told that he didn’t need to return an aged cable modem, so he didn’t. TWC rewarded him with a collection notice and a huge hit to his credit score. How did he fix the problem so he could take out a loan and buy a house? The executive e-mail carpet bomb, of course. [More]
Before You Send Off Your Tax Return, Run It Through This Checklist
By 2.15.12
If you’ve got a tax refund coming and are eager to file your return to get the money flowing, your haste may end up causing errors that could hold things up. You should give your tax return a once-over before you send it off to make sure you haven’t screwed up some key areas. [More]
PayPal And Wells Fargo Promise To Get Your $400 Back, Don't Know How
By 12.22.11
Shannon made an error when transferring money out of her PayPal account, giving them an incorrect Wells Fargo account number that belonged to an actual person. PayPal assures her that the money will come back to her if she’s patient, but $400 is a lot of money to her, and she’s losing patience. She’s caught in a loop between PayPal and Wells Fargo, and neither company knows how to get her money back. [More]
If ASUS Installs Your Hard Drive Backwards, Your Computer Can't Overheat
By 11.30.11
Perhaps it was naive of reader A. to think that sending his overheating computer back to ASUS would end with him receiving a functional computer back. He did expect them to at least put the hard drive back facing in the right direction, though. Or maybe that was the outsourced repair depot’s idea of a fix for his problem. A computer that can’t boot can’t overheat. [More]
Time Warner Charges Guy $16.4 Million For Cable
By 3.25.11
If you thought your cable bill was outrageous, get a load of the $16.4 million Time Warner Cable charged an Ohio engineer. Unsurprisingly, his presumably automatic credit card payment for the bill was rejected due to insufficient funds. [More]
12-Year-Old Finds Unexpectedly Racy Valentine's Conversation Heart
By 2.4.11
As a literal-minded, sugar-crazed child, near Valentine’s Day I always wondered whether you could have an entire conversation with conversation hearts, the chalky seasonal candy. (You really can’t.) A 12-year-old California girl says that she recently found an unexpected dirty message in her bag of candy hearts, and her parents notified a local TV station just in case it might happen to other families, too. [More]
Guess Which Charter Envelope Has Important Billing Information?
By 9.29.10
Here’s an excellent example of how a company will put more effort into getting you to notice its junk mail than any important account related information. David says this happens to him all the time, and it’s usually a serious notice (as in “impending disconnection”) thanks to a recurring billing error. [More]
Sorry Rob Gronkowski, The NFL Shop Can't Spell Your Name
By 9.26.10
New England Patriots rookie Rob Gronkowski is reader Alison’s new favorite player. Unfortunately, the NFL Shop sent her a jersey with the man’s name spelled incorrectly. Now they say they’re out of female jerseys and suggest Alison just keep her chin up and wear the (free) misspelled jersey. [More]
Best Buy Register/Bank Error Leaves You Overdrafted And Cameraless
By 9.24.10
Reader Jeff is now in a situation that we find all too familiar, but most people have never even heard of: Electronic Funds Transfer Error Hell. You see, Jeff bought a camera at Best Buy and something went wrong — causing his debit card to be charged twice. This in turn caused him to overdraft. Now he’s shocked to learn that the process for reversing the charge isn’t as simple as it would be with a credit card. [More]
Time Warner Changes Customer's Phone Number, Forgets To Mention It
By 9.20.10
If there’s one thing you can depend on with Time Warner Cable, it’s that if you call for technical support, someone is going to ask you to reboot your modem–even when the problem is that TWC changed your phone number without warning. [More]
