insiders

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If you’re drinking on the plane and tip your flight attendant, they’ll be extra attentive and maybe throw you a free round. But you have to keep insisting they take the money, they’re not allowed to accept it on the first attempt. [BudgetTravel]

5 Confessions Of A Comcast Customer Service Rep

5 Confessions Of A Comcast Customer Service Rep

“I am writing this because I feel more and more as I work there that I can’t sit back and watch Comcast fall flat on its ass when it comes to customer service. I hate to say it like that but Comcast’s customer service is amazing. I am going to tell you a few things that you may not believe happens in a call center but it does. I am leaking this information in hopes that Comcast will know that their customers are fully aware of what is going on and that their screwed up actions should be stopped in their tracks.”

Skorts Are Never Appropriate At Comcast

Skorts Are Never Appropriate At Comcast

This is the dress code policy for Comcast call centers. It strictly forbids the use of skorts.

How Tonya Should Go About Appealing Her "Elective" Miscarriage

I just read the story ‘Blue Cross Blue Shield Calls Miscarriage “Elective Abortion,” Denies Claim’, and I work for BCBS in NY. From what I’ve learned (and this is just from my experience working for a year there). The best thing for Tonya to do is appeal.

Contact Information For Directors Of Time Warner Cable, San Diego Division

Contact Information For Directors Of Time Warner Cable, San Diego Division

Here are the company contacts, phone numbers, and email addresses for the division directors of Time Warner Cable, San Diego division. If you’re a TWC subscriber in that area with a problem and not getting any traction through regular customer service, one of these people should be able to help you.

Get AT&T Dry Loop For $23.99

Get AT&T Dry Loop For $23.99

Thanks to the efforts of the Illinois Citizen’s Utility Board, people all across the Midwest, Southwest California, Nevada and Connecticut, can get AT&T dry loop DSL for only $23.99 (express) or $28.99 (pro), instead of $43.99 or $48.99. But they won’t tell you this through the regular customer service line, because AT&T would really rather you have a landline along with your DSL, and pay more for the privilege. A current AT&T retention rep tells us this is the way to do the discount dry loop dance:

Verizon's Style Book For Deploying "Can You Hear Me Now" Guy

Verizon's Style Book For Deploying "Can You Hear Me Now" Guy

You know the Verizon “Can you hear me now?” guy? Of course you do. Verizon has been pouring branding equity into the lil fella for years. You can’t leverage a character across a big company like that without developing a special “style guide” Verizon developed to govern how his likeness is used in various marketing campaigns. It’s quite hilarious, and a former company employee sent it to us to share with you.

Comcast's Download Cap Is 200 GB, But Only In Areas With Subpar Networks

Comcast's Download Cap Is 200 GB, But Only In Areas With Subpar Networks

Comcast’s download limit is 200 gigabytes, but the limit isn’t everywhere, a former Comcast employee told The Consumerist. Places where the network isn’t optimal, due to old hardware or too much traffic, like the Bay Area, will run into the limit. Places like Philadelphia will never run into the problem.

Why Stores Love To Force You To Show Your Receipts

Why Stores Love To Force You To Show Your Receipts

A former Best Buy employee and Consumerist tipster in good standing shared some insider insights about why store employees are so zealous in checking your receipt, and so zealously underinformed as to how they have no legal right to make you show it.

6 Tips From An Insurance Claims Adjuster

6 Tips From An Insurance Claims Adjuster

One of our readers is an insurance claims adjuster, the guy who comes out to inspect damages, and he sent in 6 tips to help consumers through the claims process.

Subway's Incorrect Use Of Isosceles Cheese Actually A Vast Conspiracy

Subway's Incorrect Use Of Isosceles Cheese Actually A Vast Conspiracy

Subway’s penchant for not using their triangle cheese correctly is actually part of a diabolical mind-control plan to get you to pay more. [More]

Mother Lode Of Comcast Escalation Phone Numbers For Every Region

Mother Lode Of Comcast Escalation Phone Numbers For Every Region

Looks like we got our hands on a big ol’ list of Comcast contacts for every single regional division. Names and numbers listed under “Sched Install,” “Complete Install,” “Reschedule Install,” “Billing Adjustments,” “Escalation Contact,” and “Retention “save” disco’s” would seem to be of particular interest to consumers trying to escalate issues through the notoriously unresponsive and uncaring cable company.

Best Buy's Geek Squad Scours Stores In Person For Stolen Porn N' Stuff

Best Buy's Geek Squad Scours Stores In Person For Stolen Porn N' Stuff

In addition to having Best Buy Geeks Squad locations hook up store computers to headquarters to check for porn and music stolen from customer’s computers, and pirated software, they’re also sending “audit teams” to investigate hard-drives at the stores in-person, reports an insider.

To Get Telemarketers To Stop, You Must Specifically Say "Put Me On Your Do Not Call List"

To Get Telemarketers To Stop, You Must Specifically Say "Put Me On Your Do Not Call List"

According to a reader who works as a telemarketer for a timeshare company, it’s not enough to say say, “Stop calling me,” to get yourself off a company’s calling list, you must unequivocally request the removal.

AT&T Stops Pretending To Be The Network With The "Fewest Dropped Calls"

AT&T Stops Pretending To Be The Network With The "Fewest Dropped Calls"

AT&T is no longer claiming to be the network with the “fewest dropped calls,” according to a company insider. The assertion was widely panned as a lie:

The ad campaign, which launched last March, was based on a Telephia report that actually noted AT&T Wireless (then Cingular) did not have the most reliable network in New York, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles. A recent JD Power report gives that honor to T-Mobile in most markets. Similarly, a report from Consumer Reports placed Cingular/AT&T at the bottom of their rankings for reliability and satisfaction.

AT&T will instead boast that they have: “more bars in more places.”

Secret Email Addresses For IKEA US Top Management

Secret Email Addresses For IKEA US Top Management

Turns out that for security purposes, the shiny brass at IKEA use email addresses that stray from the format we posted yesterday. If you’ve got an IKEA complaint that needs to go the top, use the addresses inside while the getting is good.

Updated: Reach Chase Card And Bank Executive Customer Service

Updated: Reach Chase Card And Bank Executive Customer Service

Even MORE numbers for reaching Chase Credit Card Executive Customer Service peeps:

Former Rep Kvetches About Sprint's Lax Identity Theft Protection

Former Rep Kvetches About Sprint's Lax Identity Theft Protection

“We took pride in shredding all information of the customers and being as mindful as possible to their security. Something that always blew my mind was that right on the computer screen, available for anyone to see (depending on the store layout), was the customer’s social security number, date of birth, license number and more. Incredible! I never understood that. My store had two registers in the front and two in the back. A customer could stand behind us at the front register and get a full peak at everything we were doing. Where is the protection?”