The man who invested $2600 in winning an Xbox Kinect at a New Hampshire carnival is not as stupid as you think he is, okay? In a recent interview, he elaborated on the news reports on him, explaining that the nefarious carny who took his money had assured him that he would receive all of his money back in exchange for attracting a huge crowd around the game. It was only after he returned to the booth and only got $600 back that he realized something was wrong. [More]
happy endings
The EECB Gets T-Mobile Off My Back, $300 Refund
By 5.3.13
By harnessing the power of the executive e-mail carpet bomb, D. was able to end a nine-month “saga” with T-Mobile in less than 24 hours. “Go away,” they said (we’re paraphrasing.) “We didn’t take $297 from you without your permission.” Only they kinda did. [More]
Woman Told She Was Too Fat To Tan Given Refund, Free Tanning Elsewhere
By 4.24.13
After a lot of media attention, the Ohio tanning salon that sold a woman a month-long unlimited membership and then banned her from all but one of their pieces of equipment because of her weight has offered her a refund. A different salon has offered her a free month of tanning, as well. [KHOU] [More]
Game Of Thrones’ George R.R. Martin Buys Local Movie Theater Rather Than See It Go To Waste
By 4.22.13
It’s not exactly breaking the siege of Storm’s End or winning the Battle of the Trident, but A Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin is undertaking a small-scale heroic effort of his own, buying a beloved local theater that has been dark for years. [More]
Tracking Down An Executive Means I Get Actual Good Service From Time Warner Cable
By 4.3.13
In contrast to the post from earlier today about Time Warner Cable refusing to acknowledge that they’re giving a customer free cable, here’s a story about the cable giant that will makes them look much more warm, cuddly, and competent. LJ’s Tivo got stolen during her move, and Time Warner Cable charged her for the missing cable card, which she thought she had turned in with her TWC tuner. Of course, it was only after tracking down higher powers within Time Warner that she was able to actually get anything done. [More]
Is This Comped Olive Garden Receipt The Real Deal Or Just Viral Marketing?
By 3.27.13
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When a restaurant receipt story gets wildly popular online, it’s usually because a horrible customer leaves a rude message or because a restaurant staffer insults a diner, but occasionally it’s a happy story about an eatery doing something nice. Question is, are restaurants beginning to fake these stories for positive PR? [More]
Consumerist And Comcast Bring Blogger A ‘January Miracle’ Of Fast Internet
By 1.16.13
For the first time in thirteen months, Andrea can do something that seemed impossible only a few weeks ago. She can surf over to YouTube, select a video, and have it play.For most people, this wouldn’t be all that amazing, but Andrea has been fighting with Comcast to get the fast data speeds that she was promised and that she needs to do her job. After a yearlong saga, how did she finally catch the attention of someone at Kabletown? Lots of blogging, a mention on Consumerist, and the heroic efforts of the Comcast Cares team. [More]
Thief Feels Awfully Bad About Stealing Couple’s Tandem Bike, Returns It With Apology Note
By 1.11.13
When one of your possessions goes missing, often the feeling of personal loss over something you need and use in your life trumps the anger you might feel toward a thief. Like maybe the perp wouldn’t take your item if he or she knew what it meant to you, but it’s gone so that’s that. But in the case of a couple who needed their stolen tandem bike and counted on it to get around, it seems the thief actually did realize he’d done wrong. [More]
Some Thoughts From Red Robin Manager Who Gave Free Meal To Pregnant Customer
By 1.9.13
The other day, we posted a little story about a happy experience at a North Carolina Red Robin. Since then, we’ve made contact with the actual manager from the story who explains why this isn’t that big a deal — but why so many people are interested in the story. [More]
Southwest Helps Out Longtime Customer Even Though It Didn’t Have To
By 1.8.13
For more than 20 years, Consumerist reader Carl has been flying on Southwest Airlines, and he’s been a frequent customer of the carrier for around 15 years. [More]
8 Above-And-Beyond Customer Service Stories From Consumerist Readers
By 12.31.12
Not so long ago, in a fit of pleasantness, we asked readers to write in with stories of companies and employees who had gone above and beyond in providing customer service. We’re happy to say we drastically underestimated how many of you would respond. [More]
JetBlue Employee Saved Our Family Vacation After We Booked Tickets For The Wrong Month
By 12.21.12
Back in September, the K. family were planning their end-of-year getaway from New York to Florida. But only days before they were set to travel to warmer climes, the Ks realized they had made a huge goof that could cost them a lot of money. [More]
Kmart Tracks Down Reader After 2-Day Shipping Became 2-Week Shipping, Tries To Help
By 12.19.12 — Updated: 12.20.12
You may remember reader Linda, who ordered a computer from Kmart with 2-day shipping as a Christmas gift for her mother. Kmart’s idea of “2-day shipping” that they charge extra for turned out to be “2-week shipping” once they actually got around to shipping the computer. That wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t, you know, a Christmas gift, and if Kmart planned to ship it before December 24th. Based on the information in the post, the nice people at Kmart’s executive customer relations department tracked Linda down, which is impressive and only a little bit unnerving. [More]
Sam’s Club Reinstates Oversold Black Friday Orders, Makes Up To Sad Customers
By 12.6.12
Remember the Black Friday deal at Sam’s Club where too many orders came in for the best deals, and there wasn’t enough merchandise to fill them all? Well, Sam’s Club is doing the right thing for those customers, reinstating the canceled orders and even sending free memberships and gift cards to customers who went and found the same items elsewhere. [More]
ING Direct Customer Caught In Debit Card Fraud Gray Zone
By 12.6.12
Most cases of ID theft and credit/debit card fraud involve the thief going whole-hog on the victim’s account, spending as much as they can in a very short period of time. But what happens when that fraudulent activity isn’t enough to set off alarm bells at the bank? [More]
T-Mobile Saves The Day When Samsung Won’t
By 12.6.12
We often write about oddball, 1-in-1,000 customer service horror stories. For most consumers, their feelings about a company is often related to how it responds to everyday concerns and complaints. [More]
Bus Driver Finds Elderly Woman’s $500K Cash In A Shopping Bag & Turns It In
By 12.6.12
We’ve often mused about what we’d do if we were to stumble on a whole lot of cash, seemingly without any owner to claim it. Maybe sneak a few bills? Quietly tuck it all away and pretend like it never happened? We couldn’t, we just couldn’t. And when a bus driver in Vienna found a shopping bag filled with 390,000 euros ($509,700) in cash, he did the right thing, too. [More]
My Mom Ordered One iPad And Best Buy Sent Five
By 12.5.12 — Updated: 12.8.12
Alexa’s boyfriend got an iPad for Christmas from his mother. Well, that’s not quite true. His mother ordered one iPad, and had it shipped to him. What arrived on their doorstep was a very large and heavy box that was big enough to hold five iPads. Because it did. [More]
