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.
service
Throwing $4 Drinks At Unfriendly Starbucks Managers Is Not Misdemeanor Harassment
By 5.31.08
A Portland jury recently found Latasha Curry not guilty of misdemeanor harassment for throwing a $4 venti iced mocha at a Starbucks manager who accused her of running a free drink scam. Curry was initially offered a free drink after she complained that her iced tea was too bitter. When she tried to redeem her freebie two days later, store manager Ryan Smith decided that Curry looked suspiciously like a woman who redeemed a free drink from a different store 11 months earlier. Smith accused Curry of running some elaborate drink scam, prompting Curry to serve Smith a free venti shower.
18-Year-Old Says He Hacked Comcast Because He's "Tired Of Their Shitty Service"
By 5.30.08
Here’s a technique we’ll not be adding to our list of fun ways to escalate your complaint: The 18-year-old who recently hacked Comcast and took down the company’s homepage and webmail told Wired that it was Comcast’s own fault… The hacker, known as EBK, called Comcast to let them know they’d been hacked. The manager scoffed and hung up:
By 5.29.08
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Are waiters trying to inflate your wine bill by popping in and topping off everyone’s glass? Or is it just attentive service? [Slate via Dr.Vino]
Progressive Responds To Question About Using Recent Military Service To Determine Rates And Eligibility
By 4.22.08
The Progressive auto insurance company saw our post “Why Is Progressive Using “Recent Military Service” To Determine Rates And Eligibility?” and responded to let us know that it’s just to make sure that service members aren’t penalized for having a lapse in their coverage due to the fact that they’ve been deployed overseas. They’ve apologized for the confusing wording on the website and have pledged to rewrite it for clarity. Full official statement, inside…
AT&T Fails To Provide Service, Holds $750 Deposit Hostage For Two Months
By 4.19.08
AT&T demanded a $750 deposit from Richard before selling him an iPhone, but couldn’t provide service because they improperly entered his address. Richard spent hours at the AT&T store trying to fix the mistake before deciding to cut his losses and recover the deposit. AT&T promised to refund his money in 7-10 days. That was two months ago. Why the hold-up? AT&T can’t issue the refund because they don’t have Richard’s proper address.
Why Is Progressive Using "Recent Military Service" To Determine Rates And Eligibility?
By 4.19.08
[Update: Progressive responded and clarified that the fine print does NOT mean they will use military service to give you a higher rate.] We got this email tonight from Ceaser, who wants to know why his military service would negatively affect his car insurance:
While searching for new car insurance on progressive and sadly other insurance carriers, figuring what the rate check would be I answered a few questions. Some questions asked were if I was currently in the military and in college, I am both. As an Iraq war Army vet I am currently going to school with the GI bill, and tuition assistance from the Air national guard, so I put that I am both a student and national guard.
General Outage Hits GrandCentral
By 4.13.08
Google’s telephone service GrandCentral has been down all morning. The service’s first general outage affects all customers; any calls to GrandCentral numbers are immediately disconnected.
United Flight Attendant Says Call Button Is For Emergencies Only
By 2.19.08
Christine learned an interesting bit of in-flight trivia on her recent United flight: those little call buttons are for emergencies only. What’s more, the flight attendants can psychically sense when it’s an emergency and when you’re just foolin’ with them, and they’ll ignore you if they suspect you’re just going to ask for water. And no, needing to take sinus medicine to prevent clusters of needle-explosions going off in your skull during descent is not an emergency, so go back to your seat.
55 Support Tickets Later And Your Verizon FiOS TV Service Still Doesn't Work
By 2.9.08
Andrew writes: “I had been a satisfied customer of Verizon for several years – I have had phone service with them since the days of Bell Atlantic and have had their fiber-optic internet service (FiOS) since March 2005. In March 2007, I decided to switch cable providers and signed up for Verizon’s FiOS TV service as it was cheaper than Comcast and supposedly provided superior picture quality. As the saying goes, “you get what you pay for.”
By 2.1.08
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An AT&T spokesman says yesterday’s data network outages across the U.S. were the result of the cut undersea cable in the Mediterranean that’s caused Internet and phone disruptions across Northern Africa, India and the Middle East. The cable will take 12-15 days to fix, although AT&T’s U.S. network was back up by the end of the day yesterday. [The Seattle Times]
Best Buy Switches Laptop Cover, Then Accuses Customer Of Fraud
By 2.1.08
Jed’s Gateway MX6030 laptop worked pretty well for a couple of years, then the problems started—faulty power adapter, kaput motherboard, dead hard drive. Luckily, he’d bought a 3-year extended service plan. Unluckily, when his motherboard was replaced, the bottom of the laptop—where the serial and model numbers are located—was swapped out with one from a different model, so that when he brought it back for the hard drive repair, the store manager accused him of fraud.
Attention AT&T: Don't Lie About "Massive Outages," Reporters Have Phones Too
By 11.12.07
When Stephanie the AT&T “escalation affairs administrator” lied to Jan about why her phone couldn’t be repaired for several days, she probably didn’t know what Jan did for a living.
AirlineMeals.Net Takes The Guesswork Out Of In-Flight Food Service
By 10.14.07
AirlineMeals.net has thousands of pictures of in-flight meals categorized by airline to help you decide whether or not to pack a snack for your next flight. Really, thousands of pictures of airline trays covered with whatever passes for a meal. Thanks to the site, we now know that a flight on Yangon Air from Rangoon to Mandalay came with two rolls and cup of coffee, and that Hindu meals don’t stack up well against their vegetarian counterparts.
