Staying at the Hilton for his first-year wedding anniversary, Brian and his wife had to suffer through two different groups of fellow guests prank-calling his room, excessive noise, and a non-working air-conditioner. They did give him one free night for his troubles, but that didn’t make his experience any less unpleasant. Here’s the letter he just shot off to the CEO of Hilton Hotels and other top-ranking executives to express his dissatisfaction. It got him his entire stay refunded, a voucher for two-nights stay at any Hilton, and, holiest of holies, an apology from the manager. [More]
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Walmart Manager Hates It When You Donate Loss Leaders To Homeless Shelters
By 4.27.10
At Walmart, no good deed goes unpunished. Lisa said she tried to buy up a bunch of health and beauty supplies at Walmart to donate to local homeless shelters, and instead got a lecture in economics from the shift supervisor. [More]
Blippy Revealing Users' Credit Card Numbers To Internet
By 4.23.10
UPDATE: Blippy is taking this seriously. [More]
Buncha Peoples' Droids Randomly Deleting All Their Text Messages
By 4.21.10
Maybe they are sentient after all, just like the commercials suggest, and they’ve decided it’s time for you to move on. A slew of Droid owners are reporting that their cellphones will sometimes randomly delete all of their text messages. That’s every picture of your baby your wife sent you, every hilarious exchange between you and your best friend, and every must-have address you’ve got stored as a text message. [More]
The $7,865.84 Verizon Bill
By 4.21.10
Yowza! David’s eyes popped out his head when he saw his $7,865.84 bill from Verizon. [More]
Reach PG&E Executive Customer Service
By 4.19.10
Got a longstanding PG&E customer service issue that’s getting you down because no one at regular customer service will fix it? Escalate to the top with these executive email addresses and phone numbers: [More]
Ticketmaster Charges You $2.50 To Print Your Own Ticket, $0 For Mail
By 4.16.10
Theoretically, companies charge you additional fees to offset costs of your more expensive choices. Or, to discourage or encourage certain behaviors. Ticketmaster, as usual, has a different idea. They charge you $2.50 for you to print your own ticket at home, and $0.00 to have them mail it to you. That’s a headscratcher, until you realize people printing their tickets at home are often last-minute people and if you’re in a rush you’re more likely to agree to additional fees if it gets the job done. [via Reddit] (Thanks to Bargaineering!) [More]
Wells Fargo Holds Your ATM Card Hostage In Portland. You Live In Bolivia.
By 4.15.10
John is in Bolivia. His money is not, thanks to Wells Fargo incompetence that has him making $10 phone calls to executive customer service and his friend wiring him thousands of dollars. [More]
McDonald's 10 Piece Nugget Box Shows 11 Nuggets
By 4.14.10
The picture on McDonald’s 10-piece chicken nugget box shows 11 nuggets. Obviously this is a careful piece of psychological chicanery so that consumers feel a subconscious longing for that “missing nugget,” sowing the seeds of future return trips to the Golden Arches. UPDATE: The mystery has been solved… one of the nuggets is cut in half, obviously to reveal its tender separated and recoagulated chicken meat goodness. [via Reddit] (Thanks to Bargaineering!) [More]
Reach Bank Of America's CEO
By 4.13.10
Got a squirrely Bank of America issue that no amount of calling and pleading with customer service can resolve? Try kicking it up the poop pile to CEO Brian Moynihan, or one of his trusted slaves: [More]
eBay Scammers Evolve, Use Live Chat "Customer Service Reps"
By 4.13.10
Grace almost got scammed on eBay. A fraudster cracked a high-value seller’s account and posted a fake listing for a camera and tried to make Grace pay for it using Western Union, a huge warning sign of a scam. That’s typical, but these criminals went the extra mile. “Above and beyond,” if you will. When she tried to ask some questions about the transaction, they directed her to a live online chat that was mocked up to look like a real eBay customer service chat and tried to assuage her concerns by telling her it was okay to use Western Union because she had “buyer protection!” Here’s her story and the chat transcript so you can learn and not get burned: [More]
Video: Too Weak To Move Your Arms? The Food Lift Feeds You!
By 4.9.10
We’ve all experienced the the age-old quandary, “I’m hungry, but I’m too weak/lazy to move my arms, whatever shall I do?” Enter the Food Lift! It’s a revolutionary new product that takes the work out of eating! Simply place the food in the trough and then the dynamo-screw lifts the meal through the tube into your mouth, “like a waiter climbing a staircase.” Try one today! [More]
Facts Replaced By Asterisks In Sprint Chat Transcripts
By 4.7.10
Sprint has an interesting new strategy: after you do an online chat with one of their customer service reps, they provide you with a transcript of the chat, but it’s missing a few important things. Namely, any specific numeric details like dollar amounts, dates, minutes, or months cited by the rep have been replaced with asterisks. Here is one such transcript: [More]
Customer "Damn," Your Order Is Ready
By 4.1.10
Dan’s name is Dan, but Panera seems to have heard differently, as evidenced by this receipt. “We all had a good laugh,” Damn, oh damn, I mean, Dan, writes. [More]
EECB Gets United Healthcare To Cough Up $1,100
By 3.29.10
Reader Monica used a trick she learned on Consumerist and got her health insurance company to pay her more than 11 big fat Benjamins. [More]
Make Your Disposable Razor Blade Last For 20 Months
By 3.26.10
Disposable razor blades can cost $4 a pop and last only a few weeks, but Terry has been going for 20 months on the same cartridge. And yes, he still has a face. How does he do it? [More]
Video: Kotex Apologizes For Years Of Euphemistic Ads
By 3.24.10
In this new Kotex ad, the 90-year old tampon company sends up, well, Kotex. “How do I feel about my period? I love it…Usually, by the third day, I really just want to dance,” says the actress as trio of women frolic and twirl. “The ads on TV are really helpful because they use that blue liquid, and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s what’s supposed to happen.’” It’s to launch their new line of feminine hygenie products called “U,” which pander to women’s desire to feel like they’re not being pandered to. [More]
