Perennial Consumerist favorite banker and insurance company USAA announced yesterday that they’re expanding eligible membership to all honorably discharged vets, regardless of dates or lengths of service.
military
Apple Store Manager Gives iPod To Soldier Who Mangled His In Afghanistan
By 10.22.09
Remember Aaron, the Marine who wrecked his 120GB iPod Classic in Afghanistan by accidentally letting it get run over by a Humvee, then slamming it in a Humvee door?
Marine Declares War On iPod, Which Lives To Tell The Tale
By 10.14.09
If you thought it was impressive that an iPod could survive a nine-story fall into the Pittsburgh G20 riots, just wait until you hear about the perils that befell an iPod belonging to Aaron, a Marine deployed in Afghanistan.
Gold's Gym "Misplaces" Serviceman's Deployment Letter, Keeps Billing For Membership
By 6.13.09
Gold’s Gym in Oxnard, California won’t stop billing Molly’s brother for membership, even though both he and his mother have repeatedly sent the gym copies of his deployment orders to Afghanistan. Two months later, the gym claims that it has “misplaced” the deployment orders, and is still billing for services Molly’s brother can’t use.
JetBlue Offers $1 Military Fare Through Today, Although It Comes With A Surprising Number Of Restrictions
By 5.7.09
JetBlue is offering an amazing deal to members of our armed forces in honor of National Military Appreciation Month, but once you get past that jaw-dropping $1 fee, it starts to look like they outsourced the fine print to Macy’s. Here are the restrictions:
Sea World Honors Military By Not Seating Them
By 12.28.08
Reader Lynn and her family visited Sea World, which trumpets its support and free admission for military visitors, but discovered that support meant “not letting your active duty son sit with his family.”
By 11.10.08
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Flying somewhere to welcome home a family member in the military? Hope that the military doesn’t change the date, because as one mom found out — Travelocity’s insurance policy is only covers changes due to “death, illness and jury duty.” Don’t worry, there’s a happy ending. [MomLogic]
UPDATE: American Airlines Agrees To Waive Extra Bag Fees For Soldiers
By 8.13.08
Tired of taking heat for refusing to waive extra baggage fees for soldiers, American Airlines has finally caved.
Sprint: Military, Eh? Here's Your $500 Bill
By 5.24.08
Sprint thanked Ryan for his tour with the Navy by charging him $0.75 per minute for airtime, resulting in a $500 bill. When Ryan complained, Sprint’s customer service representatives called him irresponsible, and gently explained that they couldn’t care less about his problem.
AT&T Loses Your Phone Number While You're Serving In Iraq, Says No Upgrade For You
By 5.13.08
Reader Nicholas is in the military, and while he was serving in Iraq, AT&T decided to give his phone number to another customer. When he returned, he asked for the number back, but was refused. The rep then convinced him that he needed to sign a new 2 year contract in order to reactivate his number. Naturally, right after he did this, his phone broke, and now AT&T is telling him that he’ll have to wait until 2009 to get a decent upgrade.
Progressive Responds To Question About Using Recent Military Service To Determine Rates And Eligibility
By 4.22.08
The Progressive auto insurance company saw our post “Why Is Progressive Using “Recent Military Service” To Determine Rates And Eligibility?” and responded to let us know that it’s just to make sure that service members aren’t penalized for having a lapse in their coverage due to the fact that they’ve been deployed overseas. They’ve apologized for the confusing wording on the website and have pledged to rewrite it for clarity. Full official statement, inside…
Verizon Doesn't Care That Someone Hijacked Your Account While You Were Serving Overseas
By 4.21.08
While Barbie was in Greece serving in the US Military, her cellphone account was hijacked by a strange scammer in Texas. (Barbie is not from Texas.) Because her Verizon account is supposed to be on hold, it took her awhile to figure out what was going on with her her supposedly dormant account. Now Verizon Wireless doesn’t believe her case is really fraud, and she’s sent this letter of complaint to the FCC.
Why Is Progressive Using "Recent Military Service" To Determine Rates And Eligibility?
By 4.19.08
[Update: Progressive responded and clarified that the fine print does NOT mean they will use military service to give you a higher rate.] We got this email tonight from Ceaser, who wants to know why his military service would negatively affect his car insurance:
While searching for new car insurance on progressive and sadly other insurance carriers, figuring what the rate check would be I answered a few questions. Some questions asked were if I was currently in the military and in college, I am both. As an Iraq war Army vet I am currently going to school with the GI bill, and tuition assistance from the Air national guard, so I put that I am both a student and national guard.
Storage Company Disappears With Everything You Own
By 4.18.08
Kyle wrote in looking for advice after a storage company disappeared with everything they owned: Short story: We had 8160 pounds of personal items in storage with Wright Way Moving & Storage of Kent, Washington (not a self-storage place, a pallet-style warehouse storage place).
Soldier Requires Local Media To Get His Money Back From Sprint
By 4.16.08
While Jeff Cannizzaro was off fighting in Iraq, he was also fighting Sprint. Jeff suspended his phone while overseas, but left some money in the account. While he was away, Sprint kept deducting small amounts from his balance. His wife kept calling and writing emails, trying everything they could think of to get Sprint to stop deducting the money. Nothing worked.
AT&T Gives You The Runaround Over Your Military Discount
By 2.6.08
Now he’s launched an EECB on AT&T and has CC’d us so we can listen in.
Alltel Tells Father They Won't Waive ETF For Soldier Deployed To Iraq Unless He Is Deceased
By 1.26.08
Mark writes in,
My son recently was deployed to Iraq. His cell phone carrier is Alltel. Prior to leaving for Irag, he cancelled his cell phone coverage before the completion of his 2 year contract commitment. As his father, I telephoned Alltell, explained the situation and asked Alltel to have the $200 early termination fee waived. Alltel explained they only waive the $200 early termination fee if the party is DECEASED.
Seriously, that’s just messed up.
Defense Contractor Suffers Potential Data Breach
By 7.22.07
Defense contractor SAIC Inc. transmitted personal information about US Military personel over the internet without encrypting it first, according to the LA Times.
