Greetings O exalted ones!
success stories
Man Gets Comcast To Honor 16mbps For $52.95 Price
By 3.14.08
Comcast wanted to charge Daniel $69.99 for 16mbps internet access, or “Blast” level service, but he knew that he should only be paying $52.95, as he already had TV service with Comcast. No amount of wrangling could convince the customer service reps otherwise. The deal also couldn’t be found when going through the main Comcast pages and price plans. But then, after searching on the Comcast site, Daniel found documentation of the price and forced Comcast to honor it. Now he shares the PDF with us so others can get this deal as well. He was also able to get a $79.99 credit on his account to buy a new cable modem since the 16mbps service needs Docsis 1.5 or higher technology in the modem, so that’s something to shoot for as well. Note, Blast is only available if you’re in one of Comcast’s the “select” “competitive” markets, i.e. wherever Verizon FiOS is. Inside, the full contents of the PDF splayed out…
Man Escapes Verizon ETF Via EECB
By 3.13.08
Talyor was able to leave his Verizon contract without paying an early termination fee by launching an executive email carpet bomb loaded with a polite email. In it, he says that customer service reps have refused to transfer him to a supervisor and now he needs some help. In the ensuing email exchange with the executive customer service rep who helps him, he tells her how he wants to leave because of the raise in text message rates. Frequent readers of The Consumerist will remember that when a cellphone company raises its text message rates, it’s a material change to the contract, meaning that the original contract is void and the other party can walk away from the contract without penalty. Taylor wins because he’s polite, professional, persistent, and acts like he’s conducting a business transactions, which is exactly what he’s doing. Read his blow by blow exchange, inside…
UPDATE: Apple Will Sell You A Computer If You've Got Too Many Gift Cards
By 3.13.08
Here we go again! Rhys wrote back let us know that Apple says that its system can handle 7 gift cards in one transaction. It just took a little effort.
Polite Letter Results In $700 Priceline.com Refund
By 3.10.08
Dear Ben, Meghann, Chris, Carey, Alex and Theresa,
EECB Scores Direct Hit On United Health Care
By 3.6.08
Alexis, who had been fighting for 10.5 months to get United Health Care to pay for her checkup that should have been covered, finally found success after launching an EECB (executive email carpet bomb) with information that we provided her.
A Consumer Advocate named April from the Executive Office left me a message. She said my claim had been “reprocessed appropriately” and that a check was sent to my doctor’s office, OB-GYN Associates of Pittsburgh, yesterday with the remaining balance. She said that the doctor I saw was indeed a UHC contracted doctor (no kidding!), and that my only responsibility was the $10 co-pay that I paid at the time of the visit.
EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile
By 3.5.08
Reader Rob got some bad information from a T-Mobile sales rep and it resulted in a huge text messaging bill. He launched an EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) and got a very pleasant response:
ING Decides To Care You Never Got Your $1400
By 3.3.08
Last week we told you about Rob who never got a $1400 wire transfer when he was a Netbank customer, and then after ING acquired the bank when it failed, their customer service never fixed the transfer despite 8-months of calls assurances. We gave Rob the phone number for ING executive customer service (302-255-3005) and now he happily reports:
Within a few hours of my initial contact, Laura got back to me via phone to let me know exactly what happened. It appears that the initial wire transfer paperwork was filled out incorrectly by the sender and the money hadn’t ever made it to Netbank or Ing Direct but only got to American Express Bank (who as acting as an intermediary in this transfer.) I contacted American Express Bank and in a few minutes they were able to confirm that the wire was incorrectly setup and the funds had been returned to the sending back on August 10th…
Case Closed: HSBC Won't Tell You Someone In Bulgaria Is Stealing $2,000 From You
By 2.29.08
Last week reader Keith told us how scammers in Bulgaria siphoned $2,000 from his account, and his story snowballed into an entire HSBC class breach. Now Keith tells us that he has all the money back. He writes:
Once I was able to get in touch with Robert Olejniczak of corporate security he was extremely helpful, concerned and empathetic. The missing money was credited back to my account on 2/25, 6 business days after it went missing. I just received a letter in the mail stating that the “investigation is complete.” I guess they figured they didn’t need to do much investigating to determine that I couldn’t be swiping my card at a diner in Manhattan and in Bulgaria withdrawing large sums from an ATM at the same time.
They even gave him $.02 in interest, how nice.
Update: Zombie Utility Bill Uprising Defeated!
By 2.27.08
Mike, the subject of the post “When Zombie Utility Bills Attack!,” has an update for us:
Happy Resolution To Very Strange Circuit City iPod Touch Bait And Switch
By 2.26.08
Circuit City lied to Ian about giving him a discounted iPod Touch, but now he has a satisfactory resolution. He writes:
After writing a number of emails to Circuit City and after a making few more (fruitless) calls, I tried something new and posted my story to their public online customer service forums. The forum manager responded very quickly and promised that someone would call me back to resolve things. I received two calls last Thursday from Circuit City staff who wanted to help fix the situation;
Email To BoA Exec Reduces APR In Face Of Rude CSRs
By 2.25.08
Donald writes:
First and foremost i would like to thank you for the wonderful site. The information found here has been extremely useful. With that said i just want to share with you a success story i had with getting Bank Of America to lower the interest rate on my Apple GoldReserve Line of Credit. This story does not start out so nicely though.
Man Gets $35 Service Credit From Comcast By Doing Math In His Head
By 2.25.08
Shaw writes:
I am one of the early adopters of Comcast’s new TiVo service that is being rolled (see: rushed before ready) out in Massachusetts.
By 2.24.08
../../../..//2008/02/24/remember-rachel-sur-la-table/
Remember Rachel? Sur La Table took $100 from her debit card that should have come from a gift card. Rachel let us know that Sur La Table finally corrected the mistake and restored the money to her bank account. To apologize, Sur La Table issued a gift card, giving them the perfect opportunity to show that the same mistake won’t happen twice.
Telemarketers Weep As President Signs Do Not Call Improvement Act
By 2.20.08
Never again will you have to worry about renewing your Do Not Call List registration thanks to Public Laws 110-187 and 110-188. Our newest laws provide a permanent stream of funding for the Do Not Call List and guarantee that registrations will never expire. Read the White House’s ebullient press release, after jump.
