The Leading Hotels of the World want you to know they are still committed to offering 6,000 five-star hotel rooms for $19.28. The contest, originally conceived as a way to honor the association’s 1928 formation, is proving ironically successful, fusing a modern giveaway with 1928 technology. That whole email do-over idea? Silly! Forget it even existed. The group has gone and hired themselves some internet sherpas to help run the contest, and here’s what they’ve come up with….
followups
Leading Hotels Do-Over Postponed
By 10.2.08
Don’t bother getting up early tomorrow to submit your Leading Hotels Of The World do-over app in the hopes of snagging a $19.28 hotel room. All the registrants just got an email saying it was postponed. Here’s their full email:
Do-Over Announced By Leading Hotels Of The World
By 10.1.08
Leading Hotels of The World is having a “do-over” for today’s botched $19.28 5-star hotel room promotion. You just need to fill out this document and email it to the email address listed inside it starting at 8am Eastern, tomorrow, Oct 2. The forms will only be accepted for 80 minutes. Orders will be handled on a first-come-first serve basis. The link was left in our comments section by a commenter reposting a message from Marshall Calder, SVP of Leading Hotels Of The World marketing. He also made an apology, posted inside…
$19.28 5-Star Hotel Room Promo Ends In Fiasco
By 10.1.08
“Leading Hotels Of The World” was supposed to have a sick deal today where you could get five-star hotel rooms for $19.28 per night, but the inevitable short supply and online stampede left many futilely clicking refresh for over two hours as the servers crashed. Instead of polite bellboys, many consumers were greeted by the message, “Just a moment, please…Due to the overwhelming number of consumers participating in this promotion. We regret to inform you due to technical difficulties beyond our control the 1928 promotion has been suspended indefintely. [sic]” Irate would-be customers left messages in various forums describing their experiences…
Update: USAA Posts Notice On Website Regarding Technical Issues
By 10.1.08
Last week we raised the ire of plenty of USAA fans by posting a story about a woman’s IRA that went missing for nearly a day. We were as surprised as many of you that she’d received such poor customer service from the first CSR she spoke with, considering USAA’s usually stellar reputation. But the next day someone from USAA contacted Travis and his wife to find out what went wrong. Here’s Travis’ update.
Readers Share Stories Of Trying To Save By Threatening To Cancel
By 9.25.08
Yesterday we told you about a man who saved $238.92 per year on his Comcast bill by threatening to cancel and getting a discount to keep him around. Numerous readers chimed in in the comments with their tales of victory using the same method, tales of failure, and a few company employees shared their insider perspective. Ive rounded up the comments and sorted them by the aforementioned categories so you may learn from their tips and tricks to save on your cable bill. Some of the same tactics can be applied to other services, like cellphone or credit cards, as well…
Guitar Center Corrects Prices On iPods, Gives Refunds Plus $10 Gift Cards
By 9.12.08
We received an email from Guitar Center’s Chief Marketing Officer this afternoon letting us know that the $100 markup on their iPods was a pricing mistake, and that they’re automatically refunding the difference to anyone who bought at the wrong price as well as giving them $10 gift cards.
BB&B Responds To Customer Complaint Over 911 Debacle
By 9.10.08
Appalled by the events described in, “Bed, Bath & Beyond Will Not Let You Use The Phone To Call 911,” one reader sent a chastising email to their public relations division. In particular, he took aim at their statement that they were using it as a “training opportunity,” which sounds pretty antiseptic and corporate considering that a child’s life could have been in danger. Their VP of customer service responded. Their correspondence follows.
Mythbusters Host Retracts RFID Censorship Comments
By 9.4.08
Mythbusters host Adam Savage is retracting comments he made at a hackers conference where he said an episode exposing security flaws in credit card RFID technology was squelched by credit card company lawyers. In a new statement Adam says, ” If I went into the detail of exactly why this story didn’t get filmed, it’s so bizarre and convoluted that no one would believe me, but suffice to say…the decision not to continue on with the RFID story was made by our production company, Beyond Productions, and had nothing to do with Discovery, or their ad sales department.”
Customer Battles Lowe's Online Over $3500 Fence, Wins
By 9.2.08
Last year, Lowe’s horribly botched Allen’s $3500 fence installation (see picture, left). When he complained, the installer and Lowes dodged responsibility, but still demanded $3500. Allen refused to pay and they sent his bill to collections. So Allen put up Lowes-sucks.com with pictures, correspondence and phone recordings of his customer service debacle. Instead of fixing Allen’s problem, Lowe’s sent him a cease-and-desist to get him to take down the website, claiming “trademark infringement.” That’s when our site picked it up, along with Ars Technica, Digg, and others, driving lots of traffic to Lowes-sucks.com That was a year ago. Now it seems Allen has won his fight.
Update: EEEPC Return A Recursive Hellhole
By 8.28.08
Mike writes in with an update on what he’s doing to get his Asus EEPC fixed. We think his number one way to solve the problem is to activate the extended warranty protection on his credit card. His reply to that is, “My credit card has an extended warranty but since it is still in warranty with Asus, that can’t help.” Not that we want to embarrass Mike, but since this can help other people, I need to point out that this isn’t true.
Mad Mag Reacts To Circuit City Ban
By 8.6.08
“We at MAD were shocked and confused by this entire incident — mainly because we had no idea that Circuit City even sells magazines. Nonetheless, we accept their apology but hold out hope that their gesture of a $20 gift card is only an opening offer.”
Circuit City Sorry For Commanding Employees To Destroy Mad Mag's "Sucker City" Parody
By 8.4.08
After a thin-skinned Circuit City exec ordered stores carrying Mad Magazine to search and destroy all copies of a recent issue featuring a 4-page parody of “Sucker City,” someone with a brain stopped the madness. Here’s the surprisingly classy message we just got from corporate:
Viacom Retracts Fraudulent Ownership Claims On Indie Filmmaker's YouTube Clip
By 7.30.08
Last week we told you about how Viacom was sending fraudulent ownership claims to indie filmmakers on YouTube. A few days after our post went up about how they were doing this to animator Joanna Davidovich, a Viacom executive got in touch with her to explain what happened.
Despite Bankruptcy, Olevia Says Warranties Good
By 7.28.08
Even though they filed for Chapter 11, the makers of Olevia brand TVs have pledged that they will continue to honor their warranties, reports Marketnews. The news should come as a relief to worried consumers. Olevia was known for making good HD-LCD tvs at a good price.
UPDATE: Bank Of America Has No Idea Whether It Treats Parking Meter Payments As A Cash Advance
By 7.16.08
Remember our reader who tried to use his Bank of America debit card on a parking meter and was charged a $10 cash advance fee? One of our commenters did a little investigation on our story and got two conflicting responses from Bank of America.
UPDATE: Consumer Takes Sleazy Prius Salesman To Court
By 7.7.08
23 months after we first posted her story, Angela Weigold writes in with the latest update about a Prius salesmen who left multiple harassing phone messages daily, calling Anela a “whore” and put her phone number on online escort websites.
UPDATE: Adobe Comes Through, Makes Dreamweaver Software Available To Customer Who Wants To Buy It
By 7.7.08
After we posted about a reader’s frustrated attempts to buy Adobe’s Dreamweaver, Adobe sent us an email, which we passed along to the reader. Over the weekend, she wrote in and said Adobe helped her solve her problems.
