John got a great deal on a floor-model washer and dryer unit at Best Buy. But he wasn’t the only one. After he completed the purchase, Best Buy sold the units out to another customer, delivering them to the other purchaser before reaching John. That’s a simple enough error that could have been easily fixed by, say, offering a significant discount on another set of the same model. But that’s not possible at this Best Buy. [More]
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Wells Fargo Admits To Sending Thousands Of Statements To Wrong Addresses
By 10.27.11
Need another reason to make the move to paperless bank statements? How about the fact that one of the nation’s biggest banks managed to send thousands of its customers’ statements to the wrong people? [More]
Time Warner Cable Admits To Screwing Up Thousands Of Bills This Summer
By 10.25.11
An Ohio woman was downright ticked-off when she picked up her cable bill in August, only to find that her invoice for the phone, internet and cable bundle had jumped from $89.95/month to $179. And it looks like she wasn’t the only one. [More]
Escrow Company Error Lands Home In Foreclosure
By 10.11.11
When you’re buying a home, you fork over some cash to pay for title insurance to cover your butt in case there are any existing liens on the property. But what do you do when your home ends up in foreclosure because the company that’s supposed to be providing that insurance screws up royally and then tells you not to file a claim? [More]
Someone At Cabela's Doesn't Know How To Use The Bcc Button, Exposes Hundreds Of E-Mail Addresses
By 9.20.11
Outdoorsy retailer Cabela’s managed to irk a number of its online customers twice in the last day. The first involves posting a product with a glaring pricing mistake; the second instance came when it e-mailed all the customers who had tried to take advantage of the error — and revealed all of their e-mail addresses to everyone else on the message. [More]
Pizza Place Learns To Not Call Customer "Dumbass" On Twitter
By 8.15.11
There are some very good reasons why many traditional publicists hate Twitter and other social media outlets that give businesses unfettered access to immediately address their customers. Because it’s amazing how quickly you can anger your entire customer base in 140 or fewer characters. [More]
Chase Regrets To Inform You, And The Credit Bureaus, That You Are Dead
By 7.12.11
It was so thoughtful of Chase to send a letter of condolence to the family of a recently deceased customer in Florida. Or at least it would have been had the woman actually been dead. [More]
Don't Bend Your iPod Back And Forth Until The Battery Explodes
By 6.22.11
Adolescence is a time for people to learn by doing, but here’s one bit of advice we’d like share with the future of America now: As tempting as it may be, don’t go bending your iPod — or really any electronic device — back and forth until it breaks, the battery explodes and the ambulances come. [More]
Southwest Pilot Suspended For Ranting Over The Radio That He Can't Date Gay, Old & Fat Flight Attendants
By 6.22.11
While Southwest Airlines might be tops in customer satisfaction, at least one of its pilots is dissatisfied with his employer’s lack of sexy stewardesses. And now that pilot has been suspended after his profanity-filled rant on the topic was broadcast from the cockpit. [More]
JetBlue Goofs On Rewards Points Offer, Decides To Honor It Anyway
By 6.16.11
Regular readers of Consumerist might remember a story from a few weeks back where US Airways sent out an e-mail telling customers they’d received 1,000 free airline miles, only to take them back a couple days later when the airline realized it was a mistake. Yesterday, JetBlue faced a similar problem, but decided to handle the situation slightly better. [More]
If Your Craigslist Ad Says "Everything's Free," Don't Be Shocked When People Start Stealing Your Stuff
By 6.10.11
A woman in Boulder, CO, has learned a tough lesson about being more precise with the wording of her Craigslist ads… and about locking her house, after her plan to give away some unwanted items devolved into looting. [More]
Candlewood Suites Pushes Back New Hotel Opening Date, Forgets To Tell Guest
By 6.2.11
David had this crazy, completely irrational idea in his head. He thought that just because he had a confirmed ten-night Candlewood Suites stay, made through the InterContinental Hotels web site, there might be a room waiting for him. The reservation went through just fine, and was in the system. The problem was that the grand opening of this new hotel in El Paso, Texas had been pushed back to a few months after David’s planned stay. His reservation was now invalid, but no one at the hotel chain bothered to notify him. Are other guests due for a rude surprise when they check in or call to confirm their reservations? [More]
United Reinstates, Quickly Withdraws, 9/11 Flight Numbers
By 5.18.11
An oversight by someone at United Airlines ruffled more than a few feathers this morning when it looked like the carrier was set to reinstate flight numbers UA093 and UA175, both of which had been out of use since jets associated with those flights were used in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. [More]
Drivers Line Up For Cheap Gas After Glitch Lowers Price To $1.10/Gallon
By 5.16.11
When people in the L.A. neighborhood of Wilmington began to get word that a Valero gas station was selling gas for the low, low price of $1.10 a gallon, there were soon cars lined up around the corner. But this wasn’t some crazy promotional discount; it was a computer glitch that lost the station’s owners thousands of dollars. [More]
Olive Garden Serves Sangria To Toddler In Sippy Cup
By 4.15.11
The past month has been a booze-fueled haze for the nation’s toddlers at chain restaurants. After a Michigan child received a cup full of alcoholic margarita mix instead of apple juice at an Applebee’s, a Florida Olive Garden filled a toddler’s cup with sangria instead of orange juice. The child was checked out at a local hospital and was unharmed. [More]
Condé Nast Pays $8 Million To E-Mail Scammer Instead Of Printer
By 4.5.11
If you’re one of those folks who thinks it’s only computer-illiterate grandparents that get taken by e-mail scams, you’re mistaken. In fact, even people at the most cultured and snooty of companies can get taken for millions by a craftily worded e-mail. [More]
TripAdvisor E-Mail List Hacked
By 3.24.11
A lot of TripAdvisor users have received a somewhat alarming message from the company’s CEO advising that part of its e-mail list was compromised over the weekend. [More]
Etsy Sort Of Listens To Internet, Changes Privacy Defaults
By 3.15.11
Whimsy emporium Etsy finally sort of listened to its sellers, customers, and the entire Internet this afternoon when they changed a controversial feature that users claimed was a privacy breach. Users’ feedback history on the site is now private, and they can change those settings to become less private. Why did this matter? [More]
