When you purchase a brand-new smartphone you don’t expect to wake up days later to a broken camera lens. Yet, that’s exactly what Consumerist reader Sean says happened to his new Samsung Galaxy S7, and he’s apparently not alone, as Samsung’s own forums are filled with similar stories. [More]
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Gamers Who Complained About Blizzard's Forum Privacy See Email Addresses Leaked
By 7.13.10
Let’s go ahead and assume that people who complain about having to use their true identities in forums care about their privacy. From there it’s no small leap to imagine that the 1,000 or so folks who sent angry emails about World of Warcraft-maker Blizzard’s policy were nonplussed that the Entertainment Software Rating Board has gone and leaked their addresses. [More]
Awesome Game Offer Removes All Incentives For Piracy, Gets Pirated Anyway
By 5.10.10
Wolfire Games is running a special sale called the Humble Bundle, where you can pay as little as one penny via PayPal, Google Checkout, or Amazon, for five cross-platform indie games that are completely free of DRM or even serial numbers. Despite that, says the company, it looks like over 25% of downloads are coming from “shared links from forums and other places without actually contributing anything.” That’s not counting anything happening over BitTorrent. [More]
"Buy.com" Is Apparently A Curse Word On Best Buy's Forums
By 4.14.09
Reader Andrew was trying to post a question on Best Buy‘s forums, but he made the horrible, offensive mistake of putting a space between “Best” and “Buy.com.”
Customer Service Not Working? Try GetSatisfaction
By 11.14.08
Here’s hoping for everyone’s sake that some Warbucks type buys up Consumerist, lavishes me with gifts, and allows this great blog to continue. But even so, it never hurts to know about other online services out there. GetSatisfaction.com is a kind of crowdsourced customer service forum where anyone can post about any product or company, and where companies are encouraged to join in. Since the content is grouped around those products and companies, it’s easy to drill down to relevant topics, or to find people who can help answer that customer service question you can’t seem to get resolved. Here’s a sample page on Comcast. That’s right, my first entry as a substitute Consumerist editor today and I’ve already mentioned Comcast.
Disagree With Walmart's Bike Policy? Take Off Your Clothes In Protest!
By 7.27.08
BikeForums member ReachHigher stripped down to her sports bra and spandex after Walmart refused to let her enter the store with her $600 bike. A manager explained that since Walmart sold bikes, bringing in an outside bike would obviously be too confusing to handle. ReachHigher asked if they also sold shirts. “She said yes so I took off my jersey and said well then I’d better not bring this in either…”
AT&T Shipped Me An Empty Plastic Bag Instead Of An iPhone!
By 6.2.08
David ordered a refurbished iPhone from AT&T. What he received was a brand new empty plastic bag. Apparently, AT&T has 500 backorders for refurbished iPhones, so for some completely unknown and nonsensical reason, they’ve decided to start shipping empty plastic bags. Let’s join David as he tries to track down the iPhone he ordered…
Creative Backs Down, Reinstates Spurned Developer
By 4.5.08
Creative Labs heard your chest-beating across the internet and decided to reinstate spurned developer Daniel_K less than a week after booting him from their forums. Unlike Creative, Daniel_K issued drivers that allowed Creative sound cards to work properly under Vista, and even enabled previously crippled features. The drivers were downloaded over 100,000 times. The company thanked the developer by accusing him of “enabling our technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it was not originally offered or intended, [in] effect, stealing our goods.” Even though he has been reinstated, Daniel_K is still pissed.
By 4.1.08
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Here’s how the Newegg email address was spoofed on the Creative forum over the weekend: Creative has a security protocol in place where you have to verify your email address before you can post. However, after you publish a post you can go back and change your address to anything you like. You won’t be able to verify the spoofed address and therefore won’t be able to post anything new—but anything you already posted will now display the spoofed address. Maybe you can get Daniel_K to fix your forum boards, Creative. (Thanks to Jawaad!)
Creative Sparks Customer Revolt When It Tries To Silence Third-Party Programmer
By 3.31.08
Creative’s executive team will be coming in to quite a mess Monday morning, thanks to its VP of Screw Ups, Phil O’Shaughnessy. Friday morning, he posted a warning on the Creative customer forums that told programmer Daniel_K to stop writing his own drivers for their X-Fi sound cards. The cards still won’t work on Vista over a year after the OS was released, because Creative hasn’t released drivers for them—but by Mr. O’Shaughnessy’s account, Daniel_K is “stealing” from Creative by making the cards work. Then the weekend happened.
Plastic Surgery Company Sues Consumer Site For Negative Customer Reviews
By 3.4.08
Lifestyle Lift claims it’s a “minor one-hour procedure with major results,” but a lot of customers who have paid for the procedure have been left unhappy, and they’ve consequently posted reviews about it on a plastic surgery review blog called RealSelf. Lifestyle Lift has sued RealSelf, claiming trademark infringement, and now RealSelf has countersued, claiming Lifestyle Lift padded RealSelf’s site with shill reviews.
Announcing The Consumerist Message Boards
By 4.20.07
Consumerist just got a message board system. Check out Consumeristforums.com.
Dell Upgrades Computer By Installing Vastly Inferior Processor
By 2.22.07
Over at TGForumz, rdguerrero writes that Dell replaced his computer’s x6800 processor with an extreme edition 955. That sounds about 7.12 times worse.
My dell computer has been giving trouble form the day i got it. finally they replaced the motherboard and processor however instead of replacing my x6800 they gave me a pentium extreme edition 955. the guy from Dell says this is an upgrade i think he id trying to pass off something on me which chip is better.
His hunch is right. One comparison declares, “Even the X6800 Core 2 Extreme which is clocked at just 2.93GHz is able to kill the 955 Extreme Edition processor pretty much all of the time.” Rdguerrero, taking the sage of advice of forum members calling bs, had a nice little chat with Dell.
The service rep has informed me that he has started the Exchange process and i will be informed by e-mail of updates, but should take approximately 19 labor days for the system to arrive.
19 days? Oh, Dell. Is there anything you can’t bumble? — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER
Select Dell Models Come With Free Electric Shock
By 2.11.07
Dude, you’re getting a shock. An electric shock. If you have a Dell 9400, e1705, m1710, m90, or 6400, and a two-pronged power adapter, Dell has a special hidden feature just for you:
Third-Party Text Packages Cost Subscriber $7,000 In One Month
By 2.11.07
TampaForums member Treysdad received a $7,243.29 bill after subscribing to numerous third-party text packages. By purchasing an unlimited text message plan from Nextel, Treysdad thought he could receive any texts for free.
Hearst Drops Banhammer On Disemvoweling
Hearst Corporation, a large print, television, and internet publisher, has notified one of its bloggers that he needs to stop removing the vowels from certain comments on his blog. Apparently Hearst’s lawyers have some concerns about the practice.