leaks

Leaks: How Geek Squad Investigated Its Own Porn Thieves

Leaks: How Geek Squad Investigated Its Own Porn Thieves

Best Buy launched a nation-wide internal investigation after we published a video sting op capturing one of their techs stealing porn from our computer. A fired Geek Squad supervisor tells how it all went down…Innocents fired… Liars kept jobs… Store hard drives seized… Pants shat…

The start of the internal Geek Squad investigation began this summer as all of the locations throughout the country were entered through remote connection and scanned for violations. The Geek Squad “precincts” that had bench machines containing serious violations had their hard drives removed and shipped to the corporate office. All of this was done rapidly and under the watchful eye of salary managers who had their jobs threatened if this was not executed properly. My store was lucky enough to have scored well enough on the remote scans to keep our hard drives. I knew at this point that there was serious cause for concern if Best Buy was willing to spend the kind of cash necessary to execute remote scans throughout ALL of its stores in one day.

Shhh! Let's All Get AT&T's Secret Naked DSL

Shhh! Let's All Get AT&T's Secret Naked DSL

Back in September we gave you some instructions for grabbing AT&T’s secret “naked” DSL, but to be honest, it’s not really that secret anymore, and it seems that people all around the country have been able to get it.

Call Center Supervisors Are Sometimes Fake

Call Center Supervisors Are Sometimes Fake

We all know in our heart of hearts, but sometimes when you call customer service and ask for a supervisor the person who comes on isn’t really a supervisor. We spotted these comments over at an online call center magazine where agents admit that they routinely have other agents pose as supervisors instead of actually escalating the call…

45 Direct Phone Numbers For Comcast Departments

45 Direct Phone Numbers For Comcast Departments

Here’s 45 direct-to-department phone numbers for Comcast, because sometimes reaching the right person at Comcast is so maddening you want to start swinging a hammer in the local branch office. This isn’t to say these people will magically fix your problem, but at least they can leapfrog you past the three-headed watchdog of low-level customer service reps (the heads’ names are Incompetence, Sloth, and Apathy). The escalation and retention numbers, which might be of particular interest for people with big complaints, are marked with an asterix. We tested about 1/3 of these, let us know in the comments if any disconnect….

Tmobile Introduces $18 Phone Upgrade Fee

Tmobile Introduces $18 Phone Upgrade Fee

Starting today, Tmobile will charge existing customers $18 when they buy a new phone. In an email shared with The Consumerist by an inside source, Tmobile told dealers that the new fee will help underwrite the cost of selling subsidized phones to new customers. Tmobile told dealers that acting positive when mentioning the fee would help to discourage customers from raising objections. Oddly enough, if an existing customer upgrades their phone without extending their contract, the fee will not be assessed.

Email Addresses For 19 Dell Executives

Email Addresses For 19 Dell Executives

Computer on fire? Video card ruined? Don’t let Dell’s Indian CSRs tell you it’s your fault. When escalating fails and all normal channels of recourse are exhausted, send an email to Dell’s top executives. After the jump, 19 email addresses for Dell executives that you can use to launch the mighty and feared Executive Email Carpet Bomb. [More]

Comcast Mole Starts Blog

Comcast Mole Starts Blog

The Comcast insider who leaked the BitTorrent memo promises to tell all of Comcast’s dark secrets at Shortnamenowitsgettinglong.com.

Comcast Hunts BitTorrent Memo Leaker

Comcast Hunts BitTorrent Memo Leaker

According to an inside source, Comcast is trying to hunt down who leaked the internal BitTorrent memo to us last week. The rumor is that they’re interrogating supervisors and then customer service representatives. Memos regarding the dire consequences of providing internal information to the press are being distributed.

Comcast's "We Don't Throttle BitTorrent" Internal Talking Points Memo

Comcast's "We Don't Throttle BitTorrent" Internal Talking Points Memo

You may get customers who are contacting us with regard to several articles which were published recently, accusing Comcast of blocking or otherwise filtering customers’ Internet traffic. An in-depth AP story suggests Comcast is hindering our customers’ ability to use BitTorrent, a peer to peer file sharing program. If a customer contacts us to inquire about this, please use the following talking points.

US Bank Courtesy Overdraft Protection Demystified

US Bank Courtesy Overdraft Protection Demystified

The insider who tipped us off about US Bank allowing customers to opt-out of courtesy overdraft protection wrote in again. He further describe how overdrafts and courtesy overdraft protection works, and why he thinks you should avoid them both and their stupid fees too…

Comcast Law Enforcement Handbook Leaked

Comcast Law Enforcement Handbook Leaked

Comcast’s Law Enforcement Handbook (PDF) was leaked today and posted on Secrecy News.

US Bank To Let You Opt-Out Of Courtesy Overdraft Protection

US Bank To Let You Opt-Out Of Courtesy Overdraft Protection

An insider tells us the US Bank will let customer opt-out of courtesy overdraft protection. This would mean that if you bounce a charge, you just get charged an NSF fee instead of your account going negative, incurring additional fees, and increasing the likelihood of more checks and charges bouncing. Other banks may offer this already, call to find out.

Comcast's Official Angry Customer Policy

Comcast's Official Angry Customer Policy

This is an internal Comcast document entitled, “So you have an angry customer?” It’s a guide for technical support and customer service representatives for when unhappy customers call. It’s actually very good, full of plain talk and ways to think about the situation to help solve and defuse it. Apparently none of the Comcast customer service reps our readers complain about have ever read it.

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  • 302 Phone Numbers To Reach A Human At Paypal

    302 Phone Numbers To Reach A Human At Paypal

    Paypal is not known for being friendly or easy to reach, so we’ll help you out with a whole bunch of unpublished internal phone numbers. Tons of people trying to scam them probably turned them off the whole friendly customer service bit , but why should us regular customers be subjected to the same treatment as a 419 scammer?

    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.