Jewel-Osco, a Chicago-area grocery chain, implemented some much-publicized price cuts a few weeks ago. Let’s see how they’re doing with that.
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Costco Fixes Customer's Botched Electronic Prescription
By 5.1.09
If you get your prescriptions filled electronically, always double-check the dosage. Kimberly’s prescription was recently screwed up somewhere between the physician filling out the order online and Costco’s pharmacist receiving it. Luckily for her, the Costco pharmacist was incredibly helpful and fixed the problem for her, so Kimberly didn’t have to waste her copay or deal with the issue on her own. He also explained, however, that the current state of electronic prescriptions is a big mess.
Disney Mistake Means Super Cheap Annual Passes For Some Lucky Customers
By 4.22.09
Disneyland mistakenly extended a special annual pass program to ineligible customers last December, but only realized it recently. At the time of the sale, residents of certain Southern California zip codes could buy an annual ticket on a 12-month installment plan, free from any interest rates or other fees. When they discovered that some customers weren’t in valid zip codes, they ended the payment agreement with them—but they’re letting them keep the annual passes.
CVS Gave Me The Wrong Pills! Is This Common?
By 4.6.09
Reader Pattie got the wrong pills from CVS and luckily, she noticed before taking them. She has no idea what they were, but is wondering if this sort of mistake is common.
Yum! Wants Feedback Only From Ancient Ones, Mummies, Civil War Veterans
By 3.30.09
Want to provide some feedback to Yum! Brands, the company behind KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s, and A&W Restaurants? No matter how old you are—they go back as far as Jan 1st, 1906—they’ll tell you that you’re too young to use the “Contact Us” part of their website. Yum! is in it for the long haul, and they don’t need a bunch of jibber-jabber from hooligans like you.
Everything At This Supermarket Tastes Just Like Chocolate!
By 3.25.09
Justin sent us this photo of his neighborhood Associated Supermarket in NYC, where a printing error on the latest sales posters didn’t stand in the way of putting them up. We guess it was cheaper to just run around throwing handfuls of cocoa powder on everything than to reprint them.
AT&T Might Charge You For "Free" Mobile-To-Mobile Calls Unless You Notice
By 3.24.09
Jeff canceled one of the two lines on his AT&T Mobility family plan, and on his next bill he noticed the remaining line had been charged for mobile-to-mobile calls on the AT&T network—even though those minutes are supposed to be free.
Energy Company Debits $1.28 Million From Your Bank Account
By 3.11.09
Guess what happens when you don’t look closely at your bill? Your energy company debits $1.28 million dollars from your bank account — leaving you a million dollars overdrawn.
Thanks For Giving My Tax Refund To Someone Else, H & R Block
By 3.6.09
Q:What happens when HR Block copies your bank information incorrectly and deposits your tax refund into someone else’s account? A:The other person spends it and H & R Block shrugs and tells you to call the police.
E-Harmony Gives You 58 Dimensions Of Suck By Billing You For Two Accounts
By 3.3.09
Update: eHarmony has returned the money.
AT&T Charges $27,788.93 To Watch A Bears Game On Your Laptop
By 2.24.09
Wayne has an AT&T wireless card that he uses in combination with his Slingbox to watch TV while he travels. It’s normally a good system, but he recently got a shockingly huge bill after watching about 2 1/2 hours of a Bears game while waiting for his cruise to depart Miami.
Is This Gas Company Lying About Reading Meters? Nope!
By 2.16.09
Update: As several readers have pointed out, there’s a simpler explanation for the confusion: both the OP and I were misreading the meter. The first digit should be rounded “down” to 9, so the meter in the photo actually reads 997.4 MCF—which is more in line with the previous bill. Thanks to everyone who caught this and wrote in or commented! We hope this helps you out, Michael.
Carbonmade Quickly Responds To Error, Fixes It In Less Than 4 Hours
By 1.23.09
As the economy tanks, we keep seeing examples of companies cutting more corners on customer service, and especially becoming less cooperative when it comes to resolving a problem that involves billing. That’s why it’s nice to see a business not only respond quickly, but in favor of the customer. (It’s probably no surprise to you that it’s a small business and not a corporation.)
By 1.16.09
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Macy’s now admits that it was an in-house software glitch that caused them to charge in-store debit card users twice on the Saturday before Christmas. [StorefrontBacktalk] (Thanks to Evan!)
Village Sends Woman $3600 Water Bill
By 1.13.09
Here’s another good reason to monitor your utility bills. A woman in Illinois saw her quarterly water bill shoot from $150 on average to $3600, after the village where she lives finally fixed a broken outside meter that for 25 years misreported her home’s water usage.
Utility Bill Surprisingly High? Check Whether It's 'Estimated'
By 1.12.09
Paul wants to know how his gas company can get away with estimated meter readings instead of actual numbers, especially since they lead to much higher bills. “This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of,” he writes, “And we are hoping that The Consumerist will be able to help us out.” It’s pretty common practice, actually, and the solution is to call the company and request a real reading as soon as possible.
Quest Says Nearly 10% Of Its Vitamin D Tests Were Inaccurate
By 1.9.09
Last October, Quest Diagnostics contacted “thousands of doctors” around the country to notify them that one or more of their patients might have received “questionable” results on vitamin D tests performed over the past two years. It’s offering free retests to anyone who was affected.
