Is using the word “consideration” in customer service interactions a magic incantation that opens up doors to a world of refunds, rebates, and discounts? [More]
refunds
Don't Buy A Digital Game And Expect To Return It For A Refund
By 6.24.10
Joshua heard you could play Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the PC with an Xbox 360 controller, so he downloaded it through Steam, a digital distribution service. He hasn’t been able to figure out how to use his controller and suspects it may not be possible, and Steam is ignoring his requests for a refund. [More]
Clusterfracas of Stove Delivery Incompetence Loses Best Buy a Customer
By 6.23.10
Add “delivering a stove” to the list of things Best Buy is not very good at. Heather bought one from them, then was subjected to various delays and bogus fees, and now has to wait for Best Buy to “trick” its system into giving her a refund for a fee she should never have been charged in the first place. Here is the email she sent CEO of Best Buy, Brian Dunn, explaining the series of events leading up to her decision to never shop at Best Buy again: [More]
How I Regulated When Walmart Botched My Expedited Delivery
By 6.15.10
When you pay $40 to make sure your product gets shipped overnight, it had damn well be delivered overnight. Reader and frequent commenter ilikemoney coughed up $40 to Walmart to make sure he’d be able to sleep on the futon he ordered the next day, but it took five days for the sweet dream factory to arrive. Instead of flipping out and declaring a national emergency, he stayed cool, sent Walmart a calm, direct letter and got his money back. [More]
Got A Shrek Drinking Glass? McDonald's Will Pay You $3 For It
By 6.8.10
McDonald’s is upping the ante in its recall of the not-so-collectible Shrek drinking glasses. Although the four glass designs were recalled officially on June 4th by the CPSC, McDonald’s has announced that starting tomorrow you’ll be able to bring them back to the restaurant, fill out a refund form, and get a $3 refund per glass. [More]
Delta Made Me Miss My Flight, Only Refunded $18
By 6.7.10
A layover on a three-leg flight forced Jon to rent a car in order to get to his destination on time. Delta promised him a refund on the part of his itinerary it botched, but it only gave him $18 because it based the refund on mileage rather than the cost of his ticket. [More]
Why Am I Punished For A Forever 21 Cashier's Mistake?
By 6.4.10
Kat tells Consumerist that she had an odd experience while shopping at Forever 21. The store accidentally charged her twice for an item that was on clearance–no returns. In most retail establishments, this isn’t a problem. But at Forever 21, based on Kat’s experience, all the chain can offer you is store credit instead of a refund of the overcharge. Kat wanted the money returned to her account. [More]
Soccer Team Gives "Refund" After Epic 4-0 Beatdown
By 5.11.10
The Seattle Sounders got beat 4-0 by the LA Galaxy, prompting one of the players to suggest that fans deserve a refund and apology from the team. It seem the ownership agrees. Sort of. They’re offering a one game credit to season ticket holders as compensation for the crappy play. It’s not a refund exactly, but its almost one. [More]
Take Your Recalled Drugs To Walgreens, CVS For Refund
By 5.7.10
Got recalled Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl? Want a refund? Don’t want to deal with the online form? CVS and Walgreens have told the media that consumers can bring recalled medicines to their stores for a refund. [More]
Delta Erroneously Charged My Credit Card, Won't Give Me Refund
By 3.25.10
John tried to use travel vouchers to pay for a flight, but the airline only accepted one of them and charged the rest to his credit card. Now he can’t get his money back no matter what he tries. [More]
Group Critical Of Baby Einstein DVDs Gets Evicted, Blames Disney
By 3.15.10
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) was the group responsible for pressuring Disney into offering refunds on Baby Einstein DVDs last October. Now the CCFC says Disney threatened the mental health center where the group had offices, and consequently the center booted them out in January. [More]
GameStop Let Me Return Opened Game It Sold Me As New
By 3.15.10
Chris, who says he was sold an opened video game that was robbed of its voucher for a free poster and passed off as “new” by GameStop, got a refund from the game retailer. Then he took his business to Walmart, bought the game new and unopened and got the poster voucher. [More]
Mercedes-Benz Ordered To Pay $482k Over Lemon Car
By 3.9.10
Wisconsin’s lemon law for cars is pretty strict. If a customer demands a refund on a newly bought car that won’t run and can’t be repaired, the manufacturer has to comply within 30 days or pay double the purchase price plus legal fees. Marco Marquez has been fighting Mercedes-Benz for 4 years now over a $56,000 E 320 he bought in 2005 that immediately stopped working. He says the company deliberately stalled on giving him the refund in time, and last week a judge awarded him $482,000. [More]
After 8 iPhones And 14 SIM Cards, AT&T Still Won't Waive ETF
By 2.15.10
AT&T seems determined to fix Mike’s problem. Only they can’t, apparently, because in the past 9 months he’s gone through 8 iPhones and 14 different SIM cards, and still can’t get a phone that does everything it’s supposed to do. (Like ring when someone calls.) Normally an 8-smartphone customer might sound like someone who’s being too hard to please, and maybe that’s Mike, but let’s face it: this is AT&T and it’s the iPhone, so most of the issues he lists below sounds completely plausible. [More]
T-Mobile Offers $100 Refund To Customers Who Weren't Offered Original Nexus One Upgrade Price
By 1.15.10
If you’re already a T-Mobile customer and you bought the new Google Nexus One phone recently, you know firsthand that you had to pay $100 more than new customers. Today T-Mobile announced that they’re dropping that heavily criticized price, and will be refunding $100 to customers who paid $379 for the phone before January 14th. [More]
A Priceline Email Address That Humans Sometimes Read
By 1.15.10
Priceline hates hates hates giving refunds. But if you need one, or some other aspect of their non-existent customer service fixed, you can email executive.services@priceline.com or OriginatesES@service.priceline.com. You will probably end up going to your bank to get the refund, but at least you know where to shove the cc. This information is also useful in case your 2-year old daughter is in the burn ward and you need to cancel a trip. [More]
Virgin Atlantic Refunds $220 Hidden Fee A Year Later
By 1.13.10
Priya complained to us back in November that Virgin Atlantic stuck her with a massive hidden fee for a flight to India in late 2008. [More]
Slim-Fast Thinks Its Shakes Are Worth About 29 Cents A Can
By 1.11.10
Daniel agreed to throw away 35 cans of Slim-Fast after the company announced a recall last month over fears of contamination. He called the number provided by Unilever and provided his address, and then waited for the full refund they promised. What he got was a check for $10.20. [More]
