Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer, and what does summer mean here at The Consumerist? Air conditioner horror stories, of course! Janet, a senior citizen with health problems living in Memphis, Tenn., tells Conumerist that Sears is dragging out the repair of her air conditioning unit in a way that’s unacceptable considering the current weather conditions. When Janet’s daughter explained to a Sears that she couldn’t leave her alone in a roasting house during her planned, non-refundable vacation, she says the rep helpfully suggested that she cancel the vacation. Not helping, Sears. Not helping. [More]
repair
Apple Sends You A Check For A HD You Replaced Yourself
By 3.30.10
Reader photoguy622 wants to let us know that our article helped him get some money from Apple for his broken hard drive. He’d fixed it himself, but Apple has a free repair program he didn’t know about. [More]
Office Depot Offers Refund For Computer Ruined With Glue
By 1.2.10
Last week, we shared the story of Scott, whose computer was not quite repaired by Office Depot’s Product Protection Plan. We’re pleased to report that Office Depot got in touch with Scott through Consumerist and has given him a full refund for the computer that hey slathered glue on and mailed back to him. [More]
Office Depot Repair Slathers Glue On Laptop, Says "Good Enough"
By 12.24.09
Scott’s Acer Extensa broke, but he had an Office Depot extended warranty plan. Hooray! However, he writes, Office Depot’s repair staff have a strange idea of what it means to repair a computer, and went right ahead and rendered his computer non-functional. [More]
Geek Squad Turns Your Laptop Into An XBOX 360?
By 11.17.09
Reader Taylor is a little concerned about his laptop. It died on Halloween and he took it in to Best Buy the next day. Two weeks later, he typed his order number into the Geek Squad website and found that a little Halloween magic had taken place. His laptop was now an XBOX 360.
The Tale Of Lowe's And The Refrigerator From Hell
By 10.7.09
Reader Buddy has a lemon of a fridge that he purchased from Lowe’s with an Extended Warranty. The store keeps sending people out to fix the appliance, but nothing seems to work.
Best Buy: All The Appliances In Your House Must Break 4 Times Before We Replace Them
By 10.5.09
James Lileks bought some fancy-ass Electrolux appliances from Best Buy. Unfortunately. they’ve turned out to be a bit of a headache. Mr. Lileks thought perhaps since he was a valuable customer who bought fancy-ass items, Best Buy would help him out and swap the problematic dishwasher for a more reliable cheaper brand (turns out that that the washer’s control panel is susceptible to moisture, of all things.) He was wrong. They’d rather keep fixing it. Over. And Over. And Over.
Sony And The Mystery Of The Missing Assassin's Creed Disc
By 8.11.09
Reader Martin sent his PS3 in to Sony because a game was stuck in the drive. When he got it back, the game was missing. Where did it go? Sony says there was nothing the drive when they received the unit. Martin is wondering why he would have sent his console in to Sony in the first place if it didn’t have a game stuck in it. It is a mystery.
V-Moda Replaces Headphones After Wear Leads To Static
By 7.24.09
Xavier bought a pair of nice quality headphones from V-Moda, and liked them so much that he carried them along everywhere he went. When he started having problems with the device, he inquired about repairing the earbuds, but V-Moda had a better idea.
Microsoft Deep-Sixes Red Ring Of Death Coffins, Makes Customers Supply Their Own Boxes
By 6.12.09
Although we received an indication in March that Microsoft was phasing out its Xbox 360 return policy of sending customers padded boxes with prepaid return envelopes, gaming blog Joystiq confirmed that Microsoft quietly made it official in late May.
Maytag Refers You To Sears Repair, Then Claims Sears Repair Isn't Authorized
By 6.4.09
Consumer affairs columnist (and my former colleague) Dan Higgins stumbled upon a well-guarded secret—the real reason the Maytag repairman has nothing to do. It isn’t because the appliances are so reliable. No, apparently it’s because Maytag dispatches Sears repairmen to make warranty repairs, then refuses to reimburse customers because Sears isn’t an authorized repair provider. At least that’s what happened to this nice elderly lady.
HP Overdrafts Your Checking Account After 4-Day-Old Laptop Breaks
By 6.4.09
The hard drive of Chris’s HP laptop failed within its warranty period. Technically, it was four days after he bought the brand-new computer, but who’s counting?
Sears Guy Doesn't Fix Your TV, Drives On Your Lawn, Runs Into Things
By 4.3.09
Reader Joel isn’t too happy with the service he got from Sears. He was looking to get an older TV fixed and, rather than make sure that they could fix it, Sears sent a guy to drive on Joel’s lawn.
Every Time Dell Touches My Laptop It Gets A Little More Broken
By 3.10.09
Reader tking says his laptop started out with a bad power jack — but has slowly escalated in brokenness with each Dell intervention.
Sad Email From Saturn Reassuring You That GM Will Still Make Parts For Your Car
By 2.19.09
Reader James forwarded us a sad email he got from Saturn, in which they admit that GM is probably going to give them the ax. In it, they emphasize that their warranties feature the “industry’s best overall coverage” and that no matter what “GM will support the continued availability of Saturn parts and service as needed.”
Fixing Your iPhone Requires 3 Visits To Apple Store And 3 Visits To AT&T
By 12.22.08
Whose problem is it when your iPhone needs to be activated? Nobody seems to know. It is a mystery.
Best Buy Refuses To Replace Your Defective TV Because You Followed Their Instructions
By 8.7.08
Umar bought a DLP in 2005 with a $400 Best Buy Performance Service Plan. The TV keeps blowing through expensive bulbs (Umar has replaced 7 $275 bulbs in 3 years,) and rather than wait 2 weeks for a technician every time this happens, Best Buy provided a telephone number and told him to order and replace the bulbs himself. Now, because he followed their directions, Best Buy is refusing to cover the TV under the “lemon” provision of the service agreement.
Demystify Car Repair Prices With RepairPal.com
By 8.4.08
Now you never have to wonder if the mechanic is scamming you on repairs. RepairPal.com lets you punch in your make, model, year zip, and repair and then they’ll tell you the normal range of prices for it are. A graph shows the range of costs, broken down to whether you are going to an independent shop or a dealer. The source data, which the site has never been publicly available before now, goes back to 1990. A good resource for getting general numbers for what you can expect to pay for basic auto repairs.
