Enterprise Car Rental charged Mike $560 for a scratch on the bumper he felt was unfair, but after he followed The Consumerist’s instructions on sending an Executive Email Carpet Bomb (EECB), all that changed. “Long story short,” he writes, “Within ONE DAY, that email was forward with highlights , such as URGENT -PLEASE RESOLVE, and ultimately reached the northeast manager, who called me and apologized profusely for their poor handling of the situation, and WAIVED ALL charges ($560 for repairs). done..all wiped… GONE!!! THANK you for publishing that thread.. it absolutely positively works!!!”
success stories
FedEx Rep Steps Up, Makes Buying Car 1000% Easier
By 11.6.08
Jeff has a big sweaty hug to give FedEx after their customer service rep Leslie personaly intervened and saved his car-buying transaction from getting 1000% harder. Read his happy tale, and another addition to the “ABOVE AND BEYOND” files, inside…
Threatening To Cancel Saves Man $65.52 On AT&T Phone Bill
By 11.6.08
Here’s how with a little patience, persistence and pricematching, reader Scott is saving $65.52 on his phone and internet service with AT&T:
Man Finally Gets His $130 Back From Circuit City
By 11.4.08
In an update and conclusion, reader Sean let us know he finally got satisfaction regarding his story that we posted, “Circuit City Credits Wrong Card For $130 Return, Sends You Away With Nothing.”
Opposite Of EECB Gets Delayed Lenovo Laptop Order Expedited, Plus $5000 Loaner
By 10.31.08
When the Lenovo laptop Rick ordered for his college-bound daughter was super-duper delayed in arriving and he hadn’t heard anything from the company, he did the opposite of an EECB (executive email carpet bomb). Instead of blasting his complaint to every single executive he could find, he wrote a well-crafted letter laser-targeted at a single individual, the SVP of operations. The result? An email from the Chief of Staff in the CEO’s office. His order was expedited, and, in the meantime, they got a $5000 “Reserve Edition” leather-wrapped laptop as a loaner. Here’s his letter that got him the fix:
Casio Stops Claiming Fingerprint Found Inside New Camera, Repairs Fully
By 10.30.08
Update on “Casio Voids Warranty, Claims There’s A Fingerprint Inside New Camera“: After Sam’s story went live on Consumerist and he got escalated at Casio, they repaired his camera fully under warranty, acknowledged their mistake, and gave him a free 8 Gig Class III SD card. Sam writes, “Once the right people found out things moved around quickly.”
Letter To Bank of America CEO Results In Waived Overdraft Fees, Joy
By 10.16.08
Luisa accidentally overdrafted her checking account with Bank of America, but found that no matter how much money she put in — it was being eaten up by the fee monster that lurks at the bottom of her account. It has big yellow teeth and glowing eyes and only the CEO can control it… Rrraaawwwrrrr……..
Threatening To Cancel Comcast Saves Man $238.92 Per Year
By 9.24.08
David used the classic Threaten To Cancel method to save big time on his cable bill, $238.92 per year. Better yet, he did it in the face of Comcast trying to raise his bill. Granted, it was by less than a dollar. But why pay more if you don’t have to? Here’s how he did it.
EECB Gets Credit Union To Pay Up $125
By 9.17.08
Rick has been trying for months to get his his credit union, Opportunities Credit Union of Vermont, to pay up for a $125 home inspection, and now, a week after sending his EECB, he prevailed. As we wrote last week, his credit union was supposed to pay for a home inspection but said they didn’t have to because the bill was never sent. However, the home inspector uses an electronic billing system and it showed that the credit union rep had in fact read the sent bill. Emails and phone calls between Rick and his credit union rep led to a stalemate. Then Jim sent off an executive email carpet bomb and got the following back from the credit union president:
Nintendo Repairs Out-Of-Warranty Wii In One Day, For Free
By 9.12.08
I have a first generation Nintendo Wii and I recently bought the game Boom Blox for it. When I put the game in to start playing it would often lock up at the health warning screen and I would have to restart my Wii by unplugging it since no other method would work.
FSA Ombudsman Solves Your Federal Student Aid Crises
By 9.10.08
Got a problem with your federal student loan? The Federal Student Aid Ombudsman specialists are here to help. First they’ve got a bunch of tips for you to fix your problem on your own. If all those don’t work, contact them by phone, fax, or mail and they will help you out. For reals. This is reader Trey’s great experience with them:
Office Max Apologizes, Actually Apologizes, For Snooty Manager
By 9.9.08
The condescending store-manager, irked that your request for them to fulfill their contractual agreement has forced them away from a high-scoring session of Snood. Long have consumers suffered under his reign of caprice and indifference. No longer. A weakness has been discovered. The EECB, a modern version of “taking it to the top.” Jim used it and got not only the rare and magnificent personal apology, but a $30 gift card and he was allowed to make the return he wanted to do in the first place. His story follows.
EECB Scores $100 Direct Hit On United Airlines
By 8.26.08
It took a little negotiating but reader Noah was able to get United Airlines to honor the agreement that their CSR made, despite the fact that it was a violation of some kind of deeply sacred policy.
Check Your Own Receipt Before You Leave The Store
By 8.22.08
Although stores often claim they employ receipt checkers to make sure you got everything you paid for, you still might get ripped off. This past weekend, three stores tried to sell us items that did not match their price tag or description. Each time, we politely pointed out the difference to a manager, and each time, we were rewarded for doing so, either with a reduced price or a better item than the original one we wanted. Let us tell you about our exciting weekend, inside.
How To: Locate Someone Competent At Comcast
By 8.19.08
Reader Jeff writes in to let us know that Comcast Frank and the Twitter team swooped in and rescued him from Comcast tech hell.
CompUSA Repairs Laptop After New TAP Company Refuses
By 8.7.08
Assurant Solutions, the company that’s supposed to be honoring any outstanding TAP agreements with former CompUSA customers, likes to refuse service for arbitrary reasons. Luckily for TAP-holders, CompUSA has said it will honor any TAP agreements if Assurant doesn’t. The guy with the broken laptop wrote back to let us know that CompUSA indeed came through for him after every attempt he made with Assurant ended in rejection.
It Takes 40 Verizon Reps To Fix Your Address
By 8.6.08
You know those Verizon ads where someone is trying to make a call and like 100 Verizon people show up to help them do it? Arelene’s story is sort of like that. Except they all showed up to help her change her address. And they were one at a time. And it was over the phone. And it took several days. Here’s her tale, and how she eventually won…
I Can't Get A Loan, Sears Says I'm Dead
By 8.6.08
Claudia’s father couldn’t get a loan because Sears reported to the credit bureaus that he was dead. In fact, it was her mother who had died. After complaints, Sears credit cards, run by Citibank said they fixed the problem. Then Claudia’s dad tried to get a loan but couldn’t. His credit score was zero.
