Ok, here’s a crazy idea: if you’re an airline, and you have a form with room to list two adults who are authorized to pick up an unaccompanied minor, wouldn’t it make sense to have room for both names in your computer system? Because whoever is running Frontier Airline’s system doesn’t seem to think so! Kayla’s mother spent a frantic hour, IDs in hand, trying to prove that she was authorized to meet her 13-year-old daughter at the gate. The form accompanying her daughter clearly had both her and Kayla’s father listed, but the computer listed only the father’s name. While Frontier sorted out the confusion, Kayla spent an hour waiting in Denver Airport’s security room.
mistakes
HP Ruins Yet Another Laptop Repair—Three Times And Counting
By 6.23.09
Tyler needs his laptop repaired, but he’s got the bad luck to own an HP product. If you read Consumerist regularly you know that Hewlett-Packard has one of the worst track records for taking care of its customers. The last time we posted a complaint, the person who reached out to us from the corporate side was a third party at a PR firm hired by HP, if that tells you anything about how little they care about doing a good job. Read Tyler’s recap below and remember it the next time you’re in the market for a computer.
This Harry Potter Blu-Ray Set Requires A HD-DVD Player
By 6.21.09
Best Buy is still selling a defective Harry Potter Blu-Ray set that contains a HD-DVD version of the Goblet of Fire. The bumbled bundles were first discovered in 2007, but reader Bill found one sitting on a Best Buy shelf in Grand Junction, CO.
Utility Claims 99-Year-Old Used 139,876 Gallons Of Water In 1 Month
By 6.20.09
Meet 99-year-old Jeanette Cohen, a Washington resident who either lives in her shower or is the recipient of the more bizarre bills spat out by the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority. Cohen normally pays $30 to use about 3,000 gallons per month, but the utility insists that she used 139,876 gallons of water last month and now owes almost $1,200.
Dell Offers You $310,000 – What Credit Crunch?
By 6.4.09
Travis is well aware that there’s a credit crunch on. That’s why he was surprised when, according to a mailing he received, Dell decided to increase his credit line. Not by a little, either. They increased it from $2,500 to $310,000. Wha? How does that happen? He’s just a regular consumer. Does anyone who isn’t an IT professional need a $310,000 Dell credit line?
Pinkberry Apologizes For Website Error By Offering To Shower Your Office With Freebies
By 5.9.09
To thank Kelly for pointing out an error on their website, Pinkberry offered to come to her office bearing “a few yogurts and toppings for some of the hard working people that you work with.” What error could prompt such an over-the-top apology? Kelly tried to visit two separate Pinkberry locations at 11:30 a.m., which Pinkberry’s website lists as the store’s opening time. But! The store’s don’t open until *gasp* noon!
Time Warner Gives You $1,271, Won't Take It Back
By 5.9.09
Melissa isn’t sure why she has a $1,271.25 credit from Time Warner Cable, but there it sits in her account, baiting her to order a slew of pricey extras. Melissa asked Time Warner to reverse the credit, figuring the random payout had to be a mistake. “We can’t fix it,” they told her. “It’s an error on our part. Enjoy!”
Better Bring Some Wire Clippers With You When You Shop At This Walmart
By 5.8.09
You’ll need them to cut off the right amount of penny at the cash register. Or, we suppose you could add something to your cart that includes 6/10 of a penny to even it all out—but that’s how they get you, with those “even penny” purchases. (Thanks to Amanda!)
Massachusetts CVS Stores Regularly Overcharge Customers
By 5.7.09
The number of overcharging violations – defined as charging more at the register than the price in an advertisement, on a shelf sign, or on the item itself – soared to 711, from 425.
T-Mobile Reinstates Useless $18 Handset Upgrade Fee
By 4.26.09
Sorry T-Mobile customers, buying a new phone will cost an extra $18 now that the telecom has resurrected the handset upgrade fee killed off last December. The telecom apparently couldn’t handle going months without the cash-generating but otherwise useless fee, which T-Mobile described as “a real customer dissatisfier.”
Disney Mistake Means Super Cheap Annual Passes For Some Lucky Customers
By 4.22.09
Disneyland mistakenly extended a special annual pass program to ineligible customers last December, but only realized it recently. At the time of the sale, residents of certain Southern California zip codes could buy an annual ticket on a 12-month installment plan, free from any interest rates or other fees. When they discovered that some customers weren’t in valid zip codes, they ended the payment agreement with them—but they’re letting them keep the annual passes.
Pepsi Yankees Promotion Leads To Fans Chanting "Pepsi Sucks!"
By 4.20.09
It’s probably never a good idea to offer Yankees fans free tickets for showing up and forming a crowd, because then you’ve got a crowd of Yankees fans with nothing to do, and that’s not going to end well. In this case, after the fans found out that Pepsi over-promised the number of free tickets it was giving out, they turned hostile.
This Best Buy Survey Seems Suspiciously Biased
By 4.18.09
Sidd tried to fill out a Best Buy post-purchase survey online, but he suspects it might be skewed toward specific ratings. We know, it’s just a glitch, but this would explain that report that Best Buy is demoting 8,000 senior sales associates.
Why Is Vonage Billing Domestic Calls At International Rates
By 4.12.09
Vonage charged J.R. $38.94 for a three-hour call transferred from Texas to Los Angeles because Vonage apparently thinks L.A. is somewhere in Algeria. After some digging, J.R. learned that if you transfer a call without adding +1 to the number, Vonage will mistake area codes for country codes and bill at the international rate, even though the calls are domestic.
CVS Gave Me The Wrong Pills! Is This Common?
By 4.6.09
Reader Pattie got the wrong pills from CVS and luckily, she noticed before taking them. She has no idea what they were, but is wondering if this sort of mistake is common.
By 4.2.09
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Forget all that spin about listening to customer complaints: it looks like the real reason Tropicana killed off its rebranding push after only two months is because sales dropped by 20% during that period, while some big competitors posted double-digit gains. We have a feeling Tropicana is going to end up in a lot of business and marketing textbooks in the future. [AdAge] (Thanks to Ross!)
Movie Distributor Doesn't Care For Blogosphere, Says To Ignore It
By 4.1.09
Magnolia Pictures, the company behind the botched US release of the DVD of Let The Right One In, isn’t backing down from its claim that the new simplified subtitles are just fine. In fact, this internal communication from a Magnolia rep to a Canadian distributor shows just how little they care about how their core fans feel.
This Subway Sub To Salad Conversion Is Pretty Expensive
By 3.27.09
Reader Will sent us the above picture and asked why we thought it would cost so much more to substitute a plastic bowl for a piece of bread.
