I just found out that after I canceled my account with Washington Sports Clubs last year, they created a new account and continued to deduct hundreds of dollars from my account. More than $700, actually. I should have noticed this, but the charges varied each month and didn’t say “Washington Sports Club” anywhere — so I missed it. After more than a week of phone haggling and bringing in documents, the club is refunding my money. I would also like them to grovel and send me on a trip to Paris.
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Washington Sports Clubs Sets Up New Account, Bills Ex-Member $700 More In Fees
By 1.8.09
US Airways Loses Your 83-Year-Old Mother
By 11.19.08
It’s bad enough when they lose your luggage, but what do you do when the airline loses your 83-year-old mother? File a claim? Poor Vera Kuemmel had to answer this very question as she waited in vain at the baggage claim of the Tampa airport.
Dallas School District Caught Using Random SSNs For Foreign Workers
By 11.14.08
The Dallas Independent School District has been making up fake Social Security Numbers for foreign hires for years, even after being told in 2004 by the state’s education board to stop because it’s illegal. The numbers were meant to “expedite” the hiring process and get the employees on payroll, but they found their way onto Department of Homeland Security and IRS forms (which are kept in-district but shared with feds upon request), were used for criminal background checks, and in at least 26 cases were numbers in use by real people.
Shopper Takes Walmart To Court Over $2 And Wins $100
By 11.10.08
The Pennsylvania woman who makes a hobby out of taking retailers to court over pricing errors has struck again. This time Walmart was ordered to pay Mary Bach $100 for repeatedly failing to correct a $2 error.
Man Finally Gets His $130 Back From Circuit City
By 11.4.08
In an update and conclusion, reader Sean let us know he finally got satisfaction regarding his story that we posted, “Circuit City Credits Wrong Card For $130 Return, Sends You Away With Nothing.”
McDonald's Forgets The Burger Part Of Your Cheeseburger
By 10.20.08
We know everyone makes mistakes, but this is just sad. Reader Jarrett lives out in the country, so it was pretty disappointing for him when he took a bite into his cheeseburger… only to find that there was no “burger” part of the sandwich.
Blizzard "Can't" Refund My Money For Downloads That Didn't Work
By 10.13.08
Reader Zach is having some trouble with Blizzard and is wondering what he should do. He tried to download a copy of Diablo II from their digital store, but the download didn’t work. Blizzard’s customer service then tried to download it again — which also didn’t work. Finally, they told him to buy it at an actual store — which he did. Now he’s bought the game three times and would like some money back.
AT&T Says Your Jesus Phone Can Be In Three Places At Once, So Pay Up
By 10.9.08
Wow, those iPhones really are amazing. Chris’ iPhone can make a call from Nicaragua the same time it’s incurring a data roaming charge in Mexico—all without leaving Chris’ side in the U.S. Some skeptics will probably just say there’s a problem with AT&T’s records, or the phone’s SIM card was cloned or something, but AT&T believes. That’s why they want Chris to pay that bill each month it keeps happening.
Gas Station Owner Accidentally Sells Gas For $0.35, But Is Glad To Have Made People Happy
By 10.2.08
Mimi Zidan owns the Lucky Mart in Pekin, IL, where a pricing mistake resulted in a mob of gas thirsty customers, rushing to take advantage of pumps that were dispensing gas for only $0.35 per gallon. You’d think she’d be upset about losing so much money, but she’s not.
Comcast Loves You So Much They Keep Billing You… 4 Months After You Canceled
By 9.30.08 — Updated: 3.25.13
Oh Comcast, you romantic. You were so sorry to see Michal leave that you pretended he didn’t. We get it: he bikes, he blogs, he helps toddlers learn Polish. But after four months of him repeatedly asking you to stop billing him, when you still won’t stop it begins to look a little stalker-ish. Your computers can’t always be down.
Pottery Barn Delivers 2/3 Of Your Couch, Then Gives You 2/3 Of Your Refund
By 9.26.08
Here’s a situation that sucks. Reader Joshua ordered a slip-covered sectional couch from Pottery Barn. It arrived with only one slipcover. When he called Pottery Barn to ask for the rest of his order, they told him that they’d run out of that fabric and asked if he would he like another color. He agreed and picked a color. They sent another slip-cover section. Not three sections. One section. Joshua called them back. They said they were sorry, but they’d run out of that color…
Equifax Double-Reports Student Loan, Still Hasn't Corrected It 12 Attempts Later
By 9.26.08
So what exactly is the problem? After 12 online (and phone) disputes to Equifax and 14 calls (and faxes) to the Direct Loan Servicing Center, each party seems to blame the other.
Netflix Mails "Do Not Rent" Screener Disc To Customer
By 9.24.08
I just got “The Rules Of Attraction” from Netflix and it’s a screener disc. As a matter of fact, 3 or 4 times through the movie, 5-10 minute sections of the movie have “This is the property of Lion’s Gate Films, This disc is not to be sold or rented”. Interestingly, it was a 2 sided DVD and when I watched the 2nd side, it was a test pattern. No extras, no subtitles, no language options. Just the movie with legal disclaimers overlaid throughout.
USAA Temporarily Deletes 14k Roth IRA, But Won't Explain Why
By 9.24.08
USAA just pulled a huge mindf#@k on Travis and his wife, and now he wants to talk to someone high enough up the chain to find out what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again. His wife “went online yesterday to check on some transactions and discovered her IRA balance was $0. Six hours prior to that, her balance was $14,000.” When she tried to find out what had happened, the first CSR she spoke with told her she had no IRA account, and the second CSR told her to refresh her browser. Yeah, you know how these newfangled browswers are always wiping out retirement accounts.
USPS Delivers Just The Cover Of Your Rolling Stone, But Is Very Sorry
By 9.19.08
Reader Dave says that he received just the cover of his copy of Rolling Stone, wrapped in a cute, apologetic plastic bag from the USPS.
Best Buy: We're Sorry We Accidentally Said You Were An "Elite" Customer
By 9.4.08
Not that it’s any big surprise, but Best Buy has now gotten around to taking back that “elite” status that they accidentally gave all of their Rewards Zone members yesterday. We knew that 45 day return policy was too good to be true… Best Buy’s “whoops” email inside:
