It’s Friday and we’re getting a little exhausted after a week of sour news, so here’s a small success story to get us through the afternoon. [More]
success stories
Mother Wins $7,500 After Suing Debt Collector
By 5.19.11
Mayling, mother of two, says she was inspired by Consumerist stories and when a harassing debt collector wouldn’t stop calling her family, she took matters into her own hands. With a 6 month-old and a toddler in tow, she sued them in small claims court and won $7,500. This is her story. [More]
Southwest Vacations Mysteriously Changes Mind About Ticket Cutoff After Consumerist Post
By 5.18.11
Luke experienced the strangest coincidence recently. He didn’t get the Vegas show tickets that were part of his vacation package because the transaction went through 23 minutes too late. One morning, he hung up after yet another fruitless phone call to the company. Later that day, Southwest Vacations called him up to let him know that they would be sending the tickets after all. Hooray! Victory! What happened in those few hours to change their minds? Well, you may remember that Luke’s story appeared on this site a few weeks ago. [More]
Man Skips Around Dell Hell And Gets Free Repair
By 5.17.11
One of our reader’s Dell laptop had a defective NVIDIA chip and wouldn’t you know it, it was out of warranty and he had missed the window for getting it replaced as provided by a class action lawsuit by a month. It was dying for exactly the same reasons as defined in the lawsuit, but he just barely didn’t make the deadline. He didn’t let that stop him. [More]
Debt Collector Evaporates At First Sign Of Resistance
By 5.16.11
Ryan shares with us his consumer kicking booty story of how he got a debt collector to run off with their tail between their legs. It sounded like an amazing deal. He got a letter from a debt collector telling him that they represented AT&T and would cut him a special break and settle for only $69.30 instead of $693.30. Wowzers! Problem was, he didn’t owe AT&T any money at all. [More]
E-mail To Sprint CEO Gets $400 Rebate Check Re-Issued
By 5.5.11
Sprint owed Sean and his wife $400 in rebates for their shiny new LG Optimus phones. They tried to be patient, but a few months passed and the rebates were clearly overdue or missing. A few days ago, Sean finally sat down and sent this brief but effective email to CEO Dan Hesse. [More]
1 EECB Does What 60 Hours, 40 Calls, And 7 Replacements Couldn't
By 4.8.11
Josh’s phone from Verizon kept crapping out and they kept giving him replacements, which also crapped out. After a year of dealing with this, a friend of his turned him on to the idea of sending an “EECB.” His letter grabbed the CEO of Verizon’s attention, and that’s when he got satisfaction. [More]
Where Are They Now? Adam And The Nonexistent Home Warranty
By 3.31.11
Back in November 2009, we featured the story of Adam and his wife, who bought a house and were under the impression that this house included a one-year warranty. You can’t blame them for having this impression, since it was included in the purchase and was supposed to be paid for by the listing agent. When the house’s heat pump broke and they actually needed the warranty, they learned that the paperwork was never filed, and the promised warranty didn’t exist. He asked the Consumerist Hive Mind for advice, and the Hive Mind delivered. But how did things turn out? [More]
EECB Gets Microsoft To Stop Dillydallying And Overnight Laptop
By 3.18.11
George was able to get Microsoft to pick up the pace and ship him a laptop he’d been waiting for for almost a month thanks to a well-crafted EECB. What I like about his is the little personal story he puts at the beginning that’s very much in line with the “praise with faint damn” approach we’ve advocated in the past. [More]
Busted Swingline Stapler Gets Replaced Without Hassle
By 3.10.11
The other day I was talking to a cab driver who has an air-conditioner that’s still going strong after 18 years. Now when he buys new ones that are from the same brand, they only last four years. He blames it on the company switching manufacturing from Germany to China. Indeed, in this day and age of racing to the bottom of cheap, wherever you look on the shelves, it seems it’s a never-ending seas of “they don’t make ’em like they used to.” But even still, reader Jospeh never expected his metal Swingline stapler to fracture outright. And he was likewise surprised, this time, pleasantly, when they replaced it for him swiftly and painlessly. [More]
How I Saved My Money From A Scammer
By 3.8.11
Justin fought the scammers and emerged victorious. When he saw fraudulent charges pending on his account, he dutifully called his bank, Chase. When the bank told them that there was nothing they could do until the charges went through and his money was gone, he took action. Here’s how he did it. [More]
Landlord Wouldn't Fix Leak For 5 Months. This Letter Got Him To Do It in 5 Days.
By 3.7.11
Raymond and his wife had a leak in their master bedroom ceiling that they begged their landlord to fix for five months, with no result. With a baby due in a month, they really needed full use of their bedroom. Then Raymond wrote a very good complaint letter specifically citing his state’s landlord-tenant law and proposing a retroactive rent reduction for all the months the leak wasn’t fixed. That got their attention. [More]
Man Gets Pick Of Hyundais After Threatening To Write "LEMON" On His Rear Window
By 3.4.11
Michael leased a 2010 Hyundai Genesis and found that none of the buttons on the steering wheel worked. No horn, no cruise control, no radio volume. It’s been in and out of the shop several times for steering wheel issues. When he called up the regional office to complain they seemed to take his issue a little more seriously after he said he was planning to get a windshield marker and write that he got a $40,000 lemon from Hyundai. Now he’s getting to pick a new Hyundai of his choice. Here’s the timeline: [More]
Clarks Stands Behind And Replaces Leaky Shoes
By 3.3.11
Keeping your feet dry is sort of a key feature of shoes, so Justin was disappointed when the sole of his Clarks boots cracked and leaked whenever he wore the boots in the rain. He contacted the company and learned that their shoe soles have a five-year warranty, and mailed out his broken shoes and had a replacement pair within just a few weeks. Hooray! [More]
Certified And Notarized Letter Gets Heat Turned Back On After 5 Days
By 3.3.11
Davya says that after showing her landlords she meant business with a notarized and certified letter, she finally got the heat in her apartment turned back after 5 days of no heat. [More]
Flying Wiimote Trashes TV, Discover Makes Loss Less Painful
By 3.2.11
Stephen broke his new LCD TV the old-fashioned way: his 6-year-old son flung a Wiimote into it. Oh, well, sucks to be him, right? He called around looking for some way out of paying to replace the set, a 46″ Sony Bravia that cost more than $900 with tax. Homeowner’s insurance? Nope. He didn’t buy a warranty from Best Buy when purchasing the TV, and a Geek Squad warranty wouldn’t have covered this damage. Time to just go buy a new TV? Not so fast! One of his Facebook friends was savvy enough to tell Stephen to check with his credit card company. [More]
Great Complaint Letter Leads To Replacement Pens, Loyalty
By 2.24.11
Christopher is an editor, and always needs to keep a red pen at the ready. He even has a preferred brand, the Pilot Precise V5. When he recently found that one of his pens was defective, he wrote a great letter to Pilot about the situation and was amply rewarded with…well, with more pens. [More]
