Andrew tells Consumerist that he received a refund of $244.16 from Priceline.com after canceling a hotel reservation. That part isn’t the problem. The problem, from Andrew’s point of view, is that Priceline never charged him for the now-canceled hotel rooms in the first place. He doesn’t hate free money, but wonders whether Priceline will finally notice their mistake and sic a collection agency on him sometime in 2012. [More]
refunds
EA Won't Let Me Swap Failed Game For New One
By 10.5.10
Electronic Arts drew some friendly pats on the head for manning up and letting gamers substitute failed subscription fee-based game APB with a different title. Anthony discovered he was the victim of some fine print in the deal, though. Because he bought the game before July 16, EA says he had enough time to play the game before it shut down the servers, and thus isn’t entitled to a replacement. [More]
Verizon Will Refund False Data Charges To 15 Million Customers
By 10.4.10
It stings enough to pay inflated monthly charges to cell phone companies, but it’s far worse when your device doesn’t let you access the network you’re paying for. [More]
Webloyalty Settles With NY AG For $5.2 Mil
By 9.24.10
Online “marketing” company Webloyalty has settled with the New York AG for $5.2 mil. You know how when you buy movie tickets and at the end it says, “You won a free $10 gift certificate!” And then if you read the small print it says that if you accept the gift certificate you get signed up for a discount club that charges a monthly fee? Yeah, that was their game. [More]
Woman Finds Sleeping Pills In Beef Bought At Walmart
By 9.23.10
Butcher! There’s a sleeping pill in my beef! A woman is upset after buying meat at Walmart for stroganoff, only to crack open the beef and find two sleeping pills inside. [More]
Bank Of America Patents Method For Denying Refunds
By 9.21.10
Ah, innovation! Bank of America was just awarded a patent for a process that lets it make sure any teller at any branch will know not to give you a refund on a disputed overdraft fee. According to Techdirt, the idea is to prevent “refund shopping,” where a customer might visit multiple branches hoping to find a sympathetic ear. [More]
Charter To Customer With Five Failed Service Calls: "You Haven't Bugged Us Enough To Resolve Your Problem"
By 9.21.10
Charter tells it like it is: the problem with Eric’s incorrectly installed Internet service is that he hasn’t been trying hard enough to fix it. Here’s a copy of an email that Eric tried to send to Charter’s CEO last week, but it bounced back. Maybe someone at Charter can read it here? [More]
Best Buy Repairs Laptop With Fried Motherboard By Replacing Hard Drive, Removing Operating System
By 9.20.10
The Geek Squad service timeline for Stephen’s $1300 Asus laptop went something like this: ship it off for repairs, get it back in an even more broken state and missing all data, be forced to buy a $35 disk from Asus to prove to Best Buy that the problem is their responsibility, then finally find that something went missing during the first repair. Stephen eventually just asked for his money back on his ruined laptop, but the best he could get was store credit. [More]
Hobby Lobby's Return Policy: We Don't Have To Take Back Anything
By 9.14.10
Michael says the first bullet point on the Return Policy plaque at his local Hobby Lobby (and also online) reads, “If for any reason you need to return merchandise purchased at Hobby Lobby, please return the product with the original sales receipt within 60 days of purchase.” That sounds great–you can shop with confidence that they’ll handle returns without too much trouble–but the reality is that the store can and will refuse any return, with or without a receipt, if someone there thinks it might lose them money in the short term. [More]
Bank Screws Man For $900, He Tells Others, Ultimately Costing Bank $100,000 In Lost Business
By 9.8.10
Revenge is a dish best served cold, and when it comes to the bank who jacked him for $900, Justin is a master chef. [More]
Blockbuster Charges Me For Membership I Didn't Want, Won't Refund My Money
By 8.24.10
Chris tried Blockbuster’s rent-by-mail trial period and says he was mistakenly charged for the final three DVDs, which he had returned. He didn’t notice the screw-up for months, then once he finally got Blockbuster to reverse the charges he was billed $43 for months of a membership he never used. [More]
Help, Expedia Sold My Chargeback To A Collection Agency!
By 8.23.10
Ed and his wife successfully filed a chargeback against Expedia for a canceled trip earlier this year. Now he’s being dunned by a collection agency for the amount that Amex refunded him. [More]
Reader Gets $40 Per Month Knocked Off FiOS Bill
By 8.19.10
Reader Shelve says he was able to get Verizon to give him $40 per month off his FiOS bill. How? [More]
Acai Berry Company Temporarily Shut Down By FTC Over Billing Practices
By 8.17.10
Last summer, Central Coast Nutraceuticals settled a deceptive practices charge from Arizona’s Attorney General by promising to pay $1.4 million in fines. Now the company, which peddles acai berry and colon cleansing products, has been forced to temporarily stop selling or marketing its wonder products completely under an injunction obtained yesterday by the FTC. [More]
Got Refund After Comcast Charged Me $28 To Fix Their Mistake
By 8.13.10
Roger got Comcast to refund a $28 fee they charged him after they came out and fixed his lines that were not connected to his house properly. Even after they reversed the charge, they wanted to charge him a $1.99 monthly fee for a “protection plan” which would protect him from being charged $28 fees. Here’s how he defeated them: [More]
Expedia, Delta, And Bank Of America Team Up, Form Bad Customer Service Voltron
By 8.13.10
Paul tells Consumerist that he has a few problems. First, Expedia and Delta Airlines failed to correctly undo and reschedule a flight that his family took from Michigan to Florida. Second, his wife and children have gained the ability to bilocate. Or teleport. At least according to Delta and Expedia. Neither company seems fazed that the family flew the same route twice in a row both times. Sure, this trip might be physically possible, but it’s also completely insane. [More]
Mall Skin Care Kiosk Hustles Mentally Disabled Man For $300, Refuses To Refund
By 8.11.10
Audrey’s mentally disabled uncle was snookered by a mall skin care kiosk worker into buying $300 worth of product he doesn’t need. When his niece found out, the kiosk refused to do a refund saying it was “against policy.” Now her special needs uncle has only $40 left to live on for the week and the kiosk manager is ducking her calls. [More]
Help, Expedia Sicked Debt Collectors On Me After Botching My Hotel Reservation!
By 7.10.10
Poor Victoria, all she wanted was a queen sized bed. Expedia told her she had one, but when she arrived at the Mosser Hotel, what she found was a double bed and a moldy room. After both Expedia and the Mosser refused to issue either a credit or an apology, Victoria called American Express, which quickly issued a full refund. Now, Expedia has decided to get their money back by sicking debt collectors on Victoria. [More]
