letters
Stroke? For Refund, Prove It
Khanh’s mother had a stroke, preventing her from her from using an AmericaWest ticket for a Las Vegas vacation. He’s trying to help her get a refund but it experiencing one of those key locked in the safe conundrums. His travel agent tells him to call AmericaWest. The airline tells him to call his travel agent. What to do, he asks?
Helmann’s Spreads It Thin
Provoked by our post on the same, Derrick was enraged that Hellman’s has reduced the size of their mayo jars from 32 to 30 oz, while keeping the same price. He wrote them a letter and here’s how the sandwich Nazis responded:
Go-Tarts Blithely Indifferent To Own Sucking
Dan loves Kellogg’s Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts. When he saw Kellogg’s had a new version, “Pop-Tarts Go-Tarts,” he gave them a shot and was promptly disgusted. “Bad as in “I ordered the filet and I got rump” bad,” he says.
What Is Up With These Horny Comcast Techs?
Remember that gal who had Comcast install her cable and then the tech proceeded to call her over and over again, trying to get a date? Reader Andrew reports that the tech got turned in by another Comcast tech. The first lovelorn tech left a message on her cellphone saying that he was wrong and would stop calling. However, the second Comcast tech may have just been trying to make elbow room . He too hit on our consumer and asked her out.
Adventures In Everyday Consumerism
Jennifer’s letter is perfectly ordinary. It’s the tale of one day in the life of a consumer, a mother, trying to run some errands. Her ToDo list reads: Send letter at post office, return grandma gifts at Walmart, shots at Kaiser. Of course, it’s not as easy as that, because nobody knows how to do their jobs anymore and the dang sauce pitchers exploding off the shelves and whatnot.
Happy Day of Labor!
Today is a bank holiday for the Gawker Media Network but that doesn’t mean that the fickle wheel of commerce stops keep spinning round. Here’s some updates on consumer’s stories we reported on last week.
GE Lethargic In Aiding Fiery Dishwasher Recall
Doug just wants his dishwasher to burn his house down. He adds an expletive before house in his letter, but this is a family blog, after all. The CPSC sent Doug a letter telling him to contact GE as he had a dishwasher affected by the recall. One case of the dishwasher catching on fire and causing minor property damage was reported, but GE didn’t seem to care much, submitting Doug to a byzantine maze of rotting phone trees and callous reps. It was only after Doug lied to the phone tree was he able to get traction on his issue.
UPDATE: Cancel Verizon By Moving to Cambodia
It’s raining and dreary, a perfect day for an indoor project. Like forgery. To escape our Verizon contract, we told them we’re moving to Cambodia to work in the US Embassy. The 30 days for us to send them proof of this is coming up. We know this really pissed a lot of people off when we first did this so let us explain. We were told that one way to break your cellphone contract was to tell them you’re moving to an area out their service range. Cambodia certainly fits the bill. Almost too well, it can be argued.
Why Target Kicks Walmart’s Ass
For some strange reason, “T” prefers clear and bright aisles filled with well-labeled merchandise, chipper employees who direct him to appropriate departments, and a well-running checkout line with open registers to match how many customers are in the store.
Please Copy 415 Serial Numbers To Complete Your Apple Battery Recall
Paul is the tech guy at an all-Mac private school and he’s more steaming than a self-immolating battery.
EXCLUSIVE: Giftassistant.com Scam, The Inside Scoop
After we talked about a bogus gift card site and mistakenly implied that the fellas listed as authors in the source code were involved with defrauding consumers, one of the came forward to clear up the facts.
Consumerist Investigates: Giftassistant.com Scam?
If it walks and talks like a duck, you probably need to lay off the acid. Likewise, Rikomatic’s experience with TheGiftAssistant.com quacks just like a fly-by-night scam.
Chase Pitches Imaginary Credit Card
Here’s a great new trick to get consumers to fall for your credit card offer. Smudge the outside of the envelope with the outline of a credit card so they think there’s one inside. Then when they open it, there isn’t one! But hey, you got them to open the envelope, right? And that’s half the battle when you’re pitching 29% APRs.
Orbitz Customer Cancels Reservation For Spite
Even with Orbitz’s notoriously inept customer service – behind that facade of campy commercials and flash games, there’s…more facade – this is a new one. Reader Missdona booked a room at the Bellagio hotel last week. Yesterday, the price dropped $20. She tried to lock in the lower rate but was unable to online and the phone people consistently put her on long hold only to disconnect her or refused to help. She decides to cancel and book with the hotel direct. A phone rep tells her that cancelling will cost $25.
UPDATE: Comcast Tech Fails Installing Cable to Customer’s Heart
Eager to prevent another snakesonablog style sleepy tech debacle, a Comcast rep contacted us about the unwelcomlingly amorous cable installer. She says:
Ask The Consumerists: When Is Hi-Def, Not?
Like many others, Andy’s not getting that amazing hi-def signal on his hi-def TV. His 42 inch, plasma, 2 grand plus, hi-def TV.
