Wells Fargo had a nice phone call this afternoon with the Goth homeowner who “foreclosed” on one of their local branches. “The sheriff’s sale will not be happening,” the Wells Fargo spokesperson told me with a laugh. “We are working with him towards a resolution that works for everyone.” She acknowledged that it should have never gotten to this point. “We should have called him before this.” UPDATE: Here’s what homeowner Patrick said of the conversation: [More]
success stories
Letter To Michael Dell Frees College Student From Dell Hell
By 1.10.11
At the end of last semester, Alex experienced one of the great college student nightmares of our time: his Dell laptop fried itself shortly after the warranty expired. While he Fortunately, he had a few things going for him: his father had originally purchased the computer on a credit card (American Express) that extended his warranty protection, and Alex knew enough to research the specific problem. AmEx’s repair offer didn’t satisfy Alex, so he summarized the situation in a letter to Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell. [More]
Home Depot Cancels Sale, Overnights Free Tool To Customer After EECB
By 12.30.10
SgtBeavis ordered a clearance item from Home Depot last week. The site claimed that the item was on backorder, and let him place the order. Then they canceled it. Fortunately, the good sergeant reads Consumerist, and decided to write to the CEO of Home Depot to get the situation fixed. It worked: Home Depot overnighted the item to his house for free. He and his woodworking buddies were stunned, [More]
Reader Crafts Effective Complaint Letter, Scores 50% Refund From CVS
By 12.29.10
Reader CMM was able to score a partial refund from CVS after they flubbed up her gift photobook order. Instead of bound and ready books, they handed her husband a pile of loose pages and covers and said “go to town.” Some of the pages had minor ink spots on them too. [More]
Laptop Borked By Dell Tech Gets Replaced After Consumerist Post
By 12.15.10
Angel is happy to report that after his story went up on Consumerist, Dell reached out to him and will be replacing his laptop. [More]
EECB Gets HP To Replace Laptop They Tried To Pass Off As Water-Damaged
By 12.15.10
Charlie sent in his HP Mini for repair after the keyboard and mouse stopped working. They denied his warranty repair by saying that a loose tape was caused by water damage, which, while not only unlikely on the face of it, seemed impossible to Charlie as he babies his computers like they were Fabergé eggs. So he launched his campaign on HP upper management… [More]
Man Dares Bank To Foreclose Unless They Reverse Bad Fees, Wins
By 12.15.10
About a month ago we brought you the story of a man who was willing to risk his house going into foreclosure unless the bank refunded a $25 fee it had wrongfully charged. He crossed his arms and stopped paying his mortgage. Fees mounted. The bank ignored his letters. His house was scheduled for foreclosure. It was the ultimate in real estate brinkmanship. Now, four days before the auction, the bank has blinked. [More]
HP's Idea Of Fixing A Coupon Is For You To Buy A 2nd Laptop
By 12.3.10
Talk about buyer’s remorse. Hours after David bought a new laptop from HP with a $150 off coupon, they rolled out a $200 off coupon. HP’s first suggestion to solve this was that David should buy a second laptop at the reduced price and then return it. Excuuuuuse me? [More]
Polite Complaint Letter Frees Customer From Capital One's Hassle-Filled Rewards Trap
By 11.4.10
It seems that you can’t turn on a television without hearing about Capital One’s “no-hassle” credit card rewards. Haim learned that these rewards actually are, um, sort of a hassle. He wanted to use his rewards points to pay for part of his vacation, and pay for the rest himself. This concept was too much for the nice folks at Capital one, and he hit a customer service roadblock. Haim then used his finely honed consumer skills to send an executive e-mail carpet bomb emphasizing what a great customer he’s been. It worked. [More]
Reader's New CEO Pen Pal Comes Through, Gets Him $200 Service Credit
By 10.29.10
DirecTV President and CEO Mike White made good on his promise to help reader Daniel. We published Daniel’s Saturday evening e-mail exchange with Mr. White yesterday, and received an update on the situation. He received a full credit for the NFL Sunday Ticket package that was renewed this season without his permission. [More]
DirecTV CEO Answers Customer E-mail On A Saturday Evening, Promises Help
By 10.28.10
Daniel’s problem was very simple. He is a DirecTV customer, and subscribed to the satellite provider’s NFL Sunday Ticket package of football awesomeness. He decided not to renew this year, then discovered that DirecTV had already helpfully renewed the package for him. He wasn’t happy, and sent out an executive e-mail carpet bomb to a nice selection of executives. Who answered him, within an hour and a half on a Saturday? President and CEO Mike White. [More]
Verizon Fixes Billing Quagmire, Overnights Refund Check After Consumerist Post
By 10.15.10
On Wednesday, we shared Mike’s Verizon billing horror story. Instead of putting all of his Verizon and Verizon Wireless services on one bill as they were supposed to, the company pummeled Mike with a half-dozen different bills that added up to $1,100 for about a month and a half of service. He spent hours on the phone trying to fix this mess before writing to Consumerist. Then a higher power interceded: Verizon’s Executive Support and Media Relations departments, who we had passed Mike’s story on to in addition to publishing it. [More]
Man Gets $126 In Fees Refunded After Bar Charged Him Twice For One Drink
By 10.5.10
Freddy was furious. $126 in overdraft fees? Even though his balance is sometimes down to the wire, he is careful to make sure he has enough funds in his account. Ah yes, but this doesn’t account for when they mess up. [More]
Man Gets 87,000 Rewards Points Back
By 10.4.10
Andy and his wife were saving up for a trip for Hawaii. They had 87,000 points, which represented $87,000 they had spent accumulating these points. Out of nowhere, Citibank closed his account and gave him no chance to get his points. [More]
Executive E-Mail Carpet Bomb Resolves Travelocity Error, Preserves Awesome Price
By 9.23.10
Gail writes that when things went awry with her hotel and car package reservation on Travelocity, regular customer service wasn’t able to resolve the error. Representatives told her to give up and reserve them separately, or to leave Travelocity staff alone and use another service. As a Consumerist reader and loyal Travelocity customer, she knew that she deserved better. She found an e-mail for the company’s VP of Sales and Customer Care, which didn’t get her the package deal she wanted–she got her hotel stay for free instead.. [More]
Man Gets Time Warner Bill Lowered More Than He Even Thought He Could
By 9.7.10
Nathan was paying $48.99 for Time Warner Cable internet and saw they were advertising the same service at $43.99. It wasn’t very hard to find, they put it right on his bill! When he called up to ask to get the same rate, they told him he could only get it if he bundled it with cable TV. So he hung up and called back again, using a different Time Warner Cable number. [More]
Contacting Chase Executive Customer Service Saves Reader $240/Year In Fees
By 9.2.10
How can executive customer service help you? JP Morgan Chase gobbled up Jon’s bank, Washington Mutual, and his high-yield savings account along with it. He writes that when the bank eventually changed his account over to a different type, one that came with a $20/month fee for customers who didn’t keep a $15,000 balance. Instead of rolling over and paying $240 in extra fees or taking his money to another bank, Jon tried something different: he reached out to executive customer service. [More]
Firestone Fixes Broken Axle For Free, Blames "Miscommunication"
By 8.5.10
Remember Greg? The front axle of his car broke as he tried to drive it out of a Firestone Complete Auto Care shop, and the shop wouldn’t take responsibility for the incident. We heard back from Greg. He reports that the regional manager declared the situation a “miscommunication.” He now has a repaired axle and a word of thanks for the readers of Consumerist. [More]
