ajlei says:

I had a billing issue with Earthlink DSL: they were charging me a $2.95/month fee (pittance, but it's really the principle of the matter) for something called 'PCC Pro' which seems to be some antivirus/spyware etc. program which I never opted for upon signing up.

For what it's worth, when signing up, as any good Consumerist would, I asked what, if any extra charges, extra packages, extra anything would be cropping up, and I was told 'none'. However, the page for the PCC Pro says it's a free 30 day trial, $2.95/month after that, so maybe it's added automatically upon signing up, but I told the rep when signing up that I didn't want anything extra (and believe me, he asked if I wanted just about every extra they have to offer).

Anyway, I called about canceling the PCC Pro in June and they said they would remedy the situation. However, my July bill reflected the same issue so I decided to try their live chat to solve the problem. 'Krystal Z' seemed capable of helping me with my billing issue. She told me she'd be issuing me a credit for the last two months (more than fair) and just as I was about to close the window, she started to ask about my computer problems:

Krystal Z: Does your computer ever run slowly when you have a couple of programs running?
ajlei: Nope, my computer works fine
Krystal Z: Okay.
Krystal Z: As you might be aware that Security threat is increasing day by day for all the Internet users. So, a security program is advisable to have on your computer. We have a very good service called Norton 360 which has the Anti Virus, Firewall and tools to improve the computer performance and speed up the computer.
Krystal Z: This service will make sure that the computer is free from viruses, spyware, spam, registry errors cookies, etc.
Krystal Z: Norton security provides advanced protection for everything you care about on your PC. All-in-One Security features includes: 1. PC Security & PC Tune-Up 2. Advanced Phishing and Spyware Protection 3. Blocks Hackers and Unknown Threats 4. Online Identity Protection 5. Automated Backup and Restore * If you subscribed to all of these sites individually, you would pay more than $12 per month, but with EarthLink’s Norton 360 Online Bundle, we offer all of these for just $6.95 a month. * We are currently offering a free 30 day trial of this package, which will continue at a low monthly rate of $6.95 with no commitment!
ajlei: Thanks, but I already have virus protection on my computer
Krystal Z: We are currently offering a free 30 day trial of this package, which will continue at a low monthly rate of $6.95 with no commitment! (It should be noted that this second mention of their security package was bolded in the chat, as if to intimidate me into signing up for something more expensive than the similar service that she just un-signed me up for.)
ajlei: No thank you
Krystal Z: Okay. Not a problem.

At this point, I thought she was done. But, she kept going:

Krystal Z: How many computers do you have?
ajlei: um.. why?
Krystal Z: If you have more than one computer in your home, EarthLink’s Home Networking service lets you have all your computers linked to your high speed connection wirelessly, allowing them all to be online at the same time.
ajlei: Yep, I have all of my computers hooked up already.
Krystal Z: Okay.
Krystal Z: Is there anything else I can help you with?
ajlei: That's all, thanks
Krystal Z: Okay.
Krystal Z: Take Care!
Krystal Z: Bye!

I know everything came out fine in the end (well, I'll wait til next month's bill before I swear on it) but it just amused me how after I deactivated the virus protection, she tried to get me to sign up for a more expensive alternative, and then started asking about things unrelated to billing. The wireless question was one I was asked at initial sign-up, at which point I assured the rep that I was fully capable of setting up wireless in my household, no I did not need a wireless router, or wireless cards for my computer, or a tech to come install it.

Earthlink is great price-wise, and my only other option is Comcast, so I'm fine with them, but they might want to take some Give It a Rest 101.

Thanks for listening!
Ashley

Before we get to the typical bad-company shenanigans—in this case, Dell's $599 discount mysteriously shrank to $400 between when he placed it in his shopping cart and when he reached the confirmation screen—we want to share this bit of ridiculousness. Dell's CSR Vanessa gives us the scoop on Dell's sophisticated order fulfillment system:

Jack: Can you look at sales history today and verify whether you sold this system at $599 off today? This was to be my third dell purchase, now I will not purchase again!
ATG Vanessa: There isn't a cart history unfortunately.
Jack: Sales history! Actual people who purchased this system today!
ATG Vanessa: We don't keep record of that.
Jack: You're telling me dell does not know what it has sold today?
ATG Vanessa: Remember this is done online and there's some confidential information we usually erase to protect customers.
Jack: Like what computers you have to build?
ATG Vanessa: So no, there isn't a record where you can see how much have been sold.
Jack: How do you know what you have to ship?
ATG Vanessa: It depends on what we have available at the moment.

Aside from that nonsense, the problem here is that Dell enticed Jack with a weird bait-and-switch, and worse still, they snuck it in at the very last moment before he hit submit.

I had found a link for an XPS system that had a $599 instant savings. I configured my system and added it to the cart and the $599 savings still was applied. I chose to then apply for financing beacuse there was no payments for 12 months. Once I was approved, i proceeded to checkout. Once I reached the confirmation page to submit my order I saw that the price had risen by $200.00 when I went back to check what happened the instant savings had dropped to $400. Confused I then initiated a live chat which led to nothing.

---

ATG Vanessa: Thanks for holding, I have checked and the instant savings changed. Please be aware that configuration, pricing, tax, shipping & handling and monthly payment information that appears in your cart is estimated and presented for your convenience only, and is subject to change without notice.

Not only was Vanessa less than helpful, but she was pretty apathetic at the end, too:

Jack: Well dell just lost a customer.
ATG Vanessa: Is there anything else I can help you with at this time?

Umm, no.

(Photo of computers: Extra Ketchup)

Score another one for The Consumerist!
 
This morning I contacted Sears' Executive Customer Service Department. They attempted to contact the store manager on my behalf. I stress "attempted" because they were hung up on too.

Nothing is more satisfying than witnessing Executive Customer Service being treated as crappy (crappily?) as the rest of the world. From what I could gather, they were forced to submit a company e-mail to the manager...you know, the manager that doesn't have voicemail.
 
Just a few minutes ago I was contacted by gentleman from CitiBank (which runs Sears Card). His name was Mark Ennis. He informed me that he called the store and was blown off just like everyone else. It wasn't until he told them that he was with the Presidential Offices for CitiBank that people started jumping through hoops.
 
Mark saw the story on Consumerist (he mentioned it by name). Since he saw the article on your site, he didn't know my last name or address. So he had the store pull every TV purchase on Black Friday that was made by anyone named Tom. (This is like "Law & Order" for retail.) From there he was able to find my contact info and, more importantly, figure out what happened.
 
Apparently after they refunded my first TV, they immediately re-rang it. The prevailing theory is that when I called the store to complain they looked up the transaction, saw the initial refund and stopped looking thereby missing the fact that it was re-rang moments later. Once they saw the refund, they assumed everything was ok and stopped looking.
 
Mark also noticed that in CitiBank's notes it showed that they had asked me to prove that I didn't receive the TV. He seemed genuinely shocked by that because, as those of us that are NOT Tier 1 support can tell you, it's pretty much impossible to prove a negative.
 
I also informed him about the fact that their Dispute Department doesn't have a hold queue. He seemed pretty embarrassed about that fact. So, either Mark was an awesome actor or he was actually "taking this matter seriously".
 
The store has contacted me and it seems that they're actually refunding me the money this time. They were asking me questions that they hadn't before (like my address). So I think I'm finally getting this matter rectified.
 
Oh, and it sounds like Juan and Tanaka might have an awkward conversation with the Presidential Offices of CitiBank in their not to distant futures.
 
Thanks to Mark, Sears customer service and especially The Consumerist. You guys are better than the BBB when it comes to getting stuff like this fixed.
 
Oh, and thanks to the Sears in Chesterfield. I can't tell you how grateful I am that you treated the big wigs at Sears and CitiBank in the same shitty manner that you've been treating me for the last 4 1/2 months. I was afraid that these people would think I was crackpot. But thanks to your consistent substandard job performance you quickly established my legitimacy.
 
Thanks again,
Tom

I would like to inform you of a problem that I'm having with Sears. I purchased a TV from Sears on Black Friday. They had a TV with a steep discount and I bought it. Of course, it wasn't in stock but they assured me that they could order it. As I was leaving town in a few days for a week of vacation, this was not a major concern.
 
Upon returning from vacation, I contacted Sears and my TV was still not in. I waited another week and the TV was still not in. So, I complained to the manager and after several terse conversations they agreed to offer a similar discount on a different television. I purchased the new TV and left happy.
 
However, as of Monday, April 14, 2008 this TV still has not been refunded from my Sears Card. I have called the Sears location and Sears Cardmember Services numerous times. I have been consistently met with what can only be described as a systemic and calculated effort to prevent me from resolving this matter. Letters have been ignored or claimed to have been lost. I have been disconnected and/or hung up on repeatedly.
 
Did you know that Sears Cardmember Services dispute department doesn't have a hold queue? Yes, you read that right. If you get transferred to "Disputes" and they don't have an available operator, you get hung up on. But I'm sure they're taking this matter seriously. I've spoken with two people (Juan and Tanaka) that flat out refused to let me speak to their supervisor.
 
I've repeatedly contacted the Sears at Chesterfield Mall where I purchased the television. When you ask for the manager her extension rings repeatedly with no answer and then hangs up on you. Apparently Sears retail frowns on voicemail as much Sears Card does.
 
I've spoken with someone claiming to be the Manager On Duty named Rob. He told me a month ago that he had refunded my money. So imagine my surprise when I received a letter on Friday, April 11 stating that Sears Card had rejected my dispute.
 
I would challenge Sears to produced one piece of evidence that shows that I picked up this television. Personally, I don't think the TV ever shipped to the store. When I went in to buy the TV that ended up with, I inquired about the original model since it was still prominently displayed on the floor with a sale price. I was told that it wasn't in stock. Having a steeply discounted television displayed that is unavailable for purchase sounds dangerously close to "bait and switch" to me, but I'm not a lawyer.
 
All I want is for Sears to refund my $1,070.74 plus any interest and/or late fees that have accumulated and they refuse to do it. I never picked up this TV as it never arrived.
 
Any help you could give me in rectifying this matter would be greatly appreciated.

I'm a former Sprint CSR (left in February this year) and I thought I'd shed some light on how things work in that company. Feel free to post this, but I'd appreciate it if you did not use my name.
 
Agents are trained NOT to escalate calls - Ever been frustrated when you repeatedly ask for a Supervisor but do not get one? Call center agents at Sprint are trained to try and de-escalate calls and only get a Supervisor for you if absolutely necessary. Some agents will do this to the extreme and either transfer you away or disconnect your call rather than actually get a supervisor for you. Also, the chances of being directly transferred to a supervisor are slim, you almost always have to go through an agent first.
 
Also, if you do get speaking to a "Supervisor" you may not be speaking to a supervisor at all but rather a team lead, a senior agent who is not a supervisor but does take escalated calls and is authorized to identify him or herself as a supervisor when doing so.
 
Agents can be punished for giving credits - We are expected to give credits at a rate of no more than around $2.50/call. That means if I take 50 calls I'm expected to give no more than $125 in credits TOTAL. I've seen instances where over $400 in credits were required ON A SINGLE CALL. If our adjustment rate is too high, we are first blocked from being allowed to do ANY credits or straight out fired if there is a pattern of us being too generous.
 
As a result of these controls, you might notice that a call you're on will magically be transferred or disconnected if a large credit is involved. Anything over $200 will likely have to be called in about multiple times.
 
Also we are prohibited from giving out courtesy credits for ANYTHING. The most we can give is 100 bonus minutes. Yep, that's it. I was once punished by a Supervisor and written up because I was giving too many courtesy credits. Apparently Sprint doesn't feel that being transferred 7 times and then hung up on is worth $10 in return.
 
We can't give you any deals on phones - Standard Sprint Care reps are prohibited from offering any extra discounts on phones or free phones when you are not eligible for upgrade. We can be severely punished or fired if we give unauthorized discounts or credits on phones.
 
If you want a deal on a phone, call up and threaten to cancel. You'll get to our account services department. They have more power than any other department to make deals for phones.
 
As long as our coverage maps show you have coverage, you have coverage - Even if you drop calls constantly and can barely get a signal in your own home, good luck trying to escape an Early Termination Fee due to this. If the coverage maps show you have coverage, that's good enough for Sprint, regardless of what the actual situation is.
 
A while back a customer called in with the situation above (virtually no coverage) and asked the supervisor if he could waive the ETF. The supervisor asked if the man had coverage according to our maps. Agent said he did. Supervisor's reply "he's out of luck then, he has to pay the fee."
 
If it's not in the notes, it didn't happen - VERY few calls are actually recorded, and of those that are, reps don't have access to them. Only supervisors do. The calls are organized by length of call and the ID number of the agent who took the call, not by the phone number it was regarding or the account number accessed.
 
The only thing agents have to go on are the typed notes in the system. Even if the notes are blatant lies. For example, a rep can give you a credit that results in a contract extension without you knowing. Then he notes in the account "customer agreed to extend contract", you call in to dispute said extension, having never agreed to it and unfortunately you are screwed since the notes say you did agree to it and even Supervisors are required to follow what they say.
 
You can also get screwed if there are no notes (something VERY common). Let's say you get offered anything outside the ordinary (i.e. free internet on your phone for a year), but it doesn't show on your next bill. If you call and say you were supposed to get it for free but there are no notes, do not expect Care to honor what you were promised. As far as they are concerned, you were promised nothing because nothing is in the notes. If you want to know what's contained in your account notes, good luck. Reps may relay certain details of certain notes on the call. Sprint considers this confidential information and will not release them unless required to under a subpoena.
 
Also the reps may be saying nasty things about you, I've seen the following opinionated notes:
 
"BEWARE! This customer is racist!"
"Customer is pathetic."
"Customer is very rude, kept cussing me out and didn't give me a chance to talk."
"Customer is a credit junkie! He just keeps calling up for more and more."
 
Officially agents are not supposed to put these kinds of notes in accounts, but it happens all the time.
 
Most agents don't care much about their jobs - At the center I worked at, the only qualifications you needed for employment were a high school diploma and the ability to speak decent English. Call center agents are frequently under trained, under paid and over worked. The reason you get transferred, treated rudely and disconnected so many times is that there are simply a lot of agents who don't give a crap about the customers AND keep their jobs simply because they are willing to sit at a desk and take calls for 8 hours a day.
 
Another reason is the turnover is so high there's a large percentage of lesser trained agents working the phones.
 
It's not always easy to get transferred back - We can't give out the number for our tech support department (as well as certain other departments) so if you get transferred there and your call drops, you have to call back to be transferred again. HOWEVER, we can't just simply transfer you back. We must verify your account again, find out what the issue is and determine that it is something that we can transfer you back there for.
 
It seems unbelievably stupid, but I once got a FAIL on a quality assurance review because a customer asked to be transferred to a certain department and I transferred him, without taking any of the steps mentioned above.
 
Agents can get away with hanging up on customers - Officially, hanging up on a customer is a fireable offense, however it's shockingly easy to get away with if you know what you are doing and many agents do it frequently and never get caught. I admit I did it too on several occasions (for example when I was already 20 minutes late leaving and the customer was driving me crazy). At my center there were agents terminated for swearing at a customer, but I don't know of anyone who was ever fired for hanging up on one.
 
Quality Assurance is NOT the customers friend - QA is not a tool to ensure agents are providing good customer service so much as a mechanism to ensure employees are following policy. Let's say you were promised a $50 credit but it wasn't noted and you never got it so you called back in to make sure it was done. I refuse to do it because it's not noted and you can't prove you were offered it. Even if that call gets escalated to a Supervisor, I can still get a perfect QA score on it because I followed policy. Conversely, I can FAIL that same call if I just give you the credit when according to policy you are not deserving of it.
 
Final Note
The items above are based on my experiences as a CSR and do not always ring true. There are agents who will never hang up on customers and do care about their jobs, there are reasonable Supervisors who will sometimes go against the notes and we are sometimes permitted to offer extra discounts and specials, but these instances only happen I would say on a 1:5 ratio where the 5 represents the number of customers who get trapped by the issue.

RELATED
"10 Confessions Of A Telephone Tech Support Quality Assurance Guy"

In the past year, my Macy*s store account credit limit has adjusted four times without my knowledge. Each time the credit limit has dropped from $1,500 to $1,200 to $1,000 to $800. Each time the drop occurred I only found out because I was in Macy*s and the cashier rudely told me my card declined. Rather than helping me with the situation they sent me up to their 'courtesy' phones that are linked straight to their credit department. Each time was equally embarrassing and felt like I was being sent to the principal's office for my due punishment. Each time I called I got the bad news.

So when I called the credit department in store today they told me my limit had be downgraded again and that they'd transfer me to the credit department (I thought I was already speaking to them) to see if I could have an increase. The man rudely advised me no I could not - not like I exactly asked considering I was simply transfered away from the original agent. So that was that, I left the store head hung low without a purchase in hand. I will not buy their merchandise without their coupons because its simply overpriced otherwise and you can only use the coupons with their stupid credit card.

Well, today I was fed up with this ever moving credit line that leads only to in store embarrassment. As I headed to the parking lot my temper boiled. I made a special trip out to the mall and spent a lot of time, that I did not have, finding the items I wanted to purchase. Having been the fourth time this happened to me was enough! As soon as I got in the car I called the credit department on my own cell phone and went into a tirade. I lit into them for not advising me of my credit limit decrease, especially considering just three days before I received a brand new Macy*s platinum card in the mail, where they had the perfect opportunity to let me know it was now only $800. The women on the other end became insta-defensive of Macy*s inane and unpublished procedures on not letting their customers know their credit limit. I said that I was sick of being embarrassed by rude customer services associates and like a well trained robot she read from her 'Customer Service 101" script of platitudes and fake apologies. I was then extremely angry and screamed you can be as "nice" as you think you are being, but shove it - cancel my account! I won't be embarrassed in your store again!" She then replied off of her script again "If I issue you a 15% off shopping pass, is their anyway I can prevent you from closing your account today?" I said "No! I already have about 20 stupid coupons at home that all have about a 112 exclusions anyway - plus my card doesn't work!" She then retorted angrily "Well the account is closed!" I then hung up.

They do not publish your credit limit on there website where you can check your account activity, nor when they issue you a new card. I know this for a fact because in the past year I got upgraded from their basic card to a gold card and then last week to a platinum card. So as I ascended their credit ladder of customer proof of purchase I was downgraded in credit limit (each upgrade corresponds with a dollar amount spent during the past year). I do not receive paper statements so I have no idea if they publish the credit limit there; I rely on my online statements as I do not like crap clogging up my mailbox.

Macy*s and I are friends off! I spent ungodly amounts of money at that store in my life especially considering what I earn per year as a student! Nothing makes me instantly pissed like a customer service person reading a script like a robot. They have no compassion for people and their problems. I have worked countless jobs in customer service from being a bagger at a grocer to one of those people on the other end of the phone in a call in center and it takes not an ounce of effort to show a person compassion for the misgivings of the company - might I add without giving the company an admitted black eye either. From the original customer associate in the store that sent me away to the courtesy phones to the three other people I spoke along the rocky road to account closure they could have easily assuaged the situation. Anything from a mere "I'm sorry about that, I'll certainly let my supervisor know of your concerns regarding our policy on advising customers of their credit limits - can I have you contact information so we can get back to you?" Or, "You had a rude associate in the store? Do you know their name so we can address this so you or any other customer never gets embarrassed again!"

Oh well, just another bad customer service experience and another store that will lose my business. I didn't really need the extra debt anyway!

(Photo: Getty)

We've bolded the dumb "go look on PepsiStuff.com" responses from Amazon:

After amassing a lot of PepsiStuff.com points, I decided to try and redeem them to get a Sony Alarm clock as a gift for my parents. Upon visiting PepsiStuff.com, you can easily login with your Amazon ID, and then click on the category for the prize that you wish to redeem. I clicked on "Electronics" and then on the "Sony ICF-CD815 AM/FM Stereo CD Clock Radio" link to try and redeem my points for the clock radio. However, there is no link anywhere on that page for redeeming my Pepsi Stuff points for the item. In fact, Amazon.com doesn't even sell the item itself, and its being sold entirely through third party resellers.

Note that if I click on the Coby CD player instead, I do get a nice "Redeem with 125 Pepsi Stuff points" section:

So, I e-mailed Amazon and the first response came in at 1:46 AM almost copying the Pepsi Stuff FAQs verbatim. That wasn't the answer I wanted. I e-mailed them back asking them again how to order it, and I received a reply at 11:34 and was asked for the ASIN. (Never mind that I already gave him the verbatim link to the product, as well as how to get to the product from the PepsiStuff.com home page.) I replied back and received another e-mail at 12:43 PM (wow - quick response), however the answer was this:

Thank you for contacting us at Amazon.com. First, please allow me to express my sincere apologies for any frustration that has been caused. The item "Sony ICF-CD815 AM/FM Stereo CD Clock Radio with Dual Alarm" you're inquiring about is offered by one of our Amazon Merchants. Right now, all of the information we have on this item is on the product description page. Our information is limited to what the Merchants supply to us; this information appears on our Web site. If you'd like to know more about this particular item, we encourage you to contact the Merchant's customer service team with your inquiry. Merchant customer service contact information is available through a link at the bottom of each item's product detail page. 1. Click the "(Seller name) Returns & Exchanges" link. 2. Click the "At A Glance" tab and look for contact information in the bottom right corner of the page. Thanks for asking about the possibility of using your Points from the Pepsi Stuff promotion in order to get "Sony ICF-CD815 AM/FM Stereo CD Clock Radio with Dual Alarm". I'm sorry to say that item isn't eligible for the promotion, but thousands of other items are. You also can find links to eligible products on PepsiStuff.com. Only designated items from our MP3 Music Downloads, Unbox Video, Apparel, and Electronics stores are available with Pepsi Stuff Points. To read more about the eligibility and promotion rules, please visit the Pepsi Stuff Promotion Rules on PepsiStuff.com.Thank you for contacting us at Amazon.com. I hope that this will help you find the information you need. Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com.

Well, that wasn't the answer I was looking for. I e-mailed Amazon.com again and tried to be as clear as possible, stating that the item was on the PepsiStuff.com website, and linked directly to that page, so how wasn't this an orderable item? I received another e-mail at 5:28 PM today, and nothing has changed.

Greetings from Amazon.com, Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this issue has caused you. As mentioned by our previous colleague the item "Sony ICF-CD815 AM/FM Stereo CD Clock Radio with Dual Alarm" you're inquiring about is offered by one of our Amazon Merchants. Please note that this item cannot be bought using Pepsi Stuff Points. Your understanding is highly appreciable in this regard. But thousands of other items are. You also can find links to eligible products on PepsiStuff.com. Only designated items from our MP3 Music Downloads, Unbox Video, Apparel, and Electronics stores are available with Pepsi Stuff Points. To read more about the eligibility and promotion rules, please visit the Pepsi Stuff Promotion Rules on PepsiStuff.com. Please do understand if there was any possibility we would have done it for you when you have contacted us earlier. Thank you for contacting us at Amazon.com.

I seem to be caught in an infinite "we can't help you" customer service loop. I asked in my fourth e-mail to get a supervisor's help, because the representatives (all with Indian names) cannot seem to understand that 1) This is a Pepsi Promotion that they are servicing and 2) The product is listed as an eligible product, so 3) Find out why I cannot order it and please fix it so that I can. Note that he completely ignored my request to escalate the matter.

I have been extremely polite and clear/to the point the entire time, but after four e-mails like this, I'm wondering if Amazon even knows what "Customer Service" is. Is there anything that you suggest that I do that I'm not doing?

Thanks,
Jon

This is what I got back when I wrote Pepsi. I'm still not getting anywhere. You would expect someone to help or volunteer to find a resolution, but nothing seems to be happening.

A Message from Consumer Relations XXXXXXXXXX Dear Jon, Thank you for your thoughtful response to our e-mail. We appreciate you taking the time to follow up with us. Please be assured that we will share your sentiments here at headquarters. We value your feedback and the constructive manner in which it was shared. All the best, XXXXXXXXXXXX Consumer Relations

Amazon: "Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We will investigate and remove the merchandise from the PepsiStuff site if it is no longer being offered for redemption."

Pepsi: "Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We will contact Amazon about removing this item from our redemption list."

Good luck with those PepsiPoints, Jon. We hope your parents enjoy COBY. (The alarm clock probably had a rootkit in it anyway.)

I ordered a new 50 inch plasma tv on Sunday march 2nd from Newegg.com. We decided to get a PS3 to go with it so we could watch Blu-Ray movies. The PS3 was listed as SONY PlayStation 3 w/Spider Man 3 40 GB Black - Retail [link] [Ed. note: the current product listing does not mention Spiderman 3, but it may have been updated since this customer's order was placed.*]

I recieved the PS3 and TV on Wed March 5th. When I went through the package I noticed there was no Spiderman 3 Blu-Ray disk. I called NewEgg to see what they would do for me.

The lady their said it should have been in the box, and stressed that they do not OPEN that packages. I stated that in addition to their being no movie in the box, the box I recieved was also different than the one advertised on thir site. The box on the website shows a Spiderman 3 Blu-Ray disk on the box, and the one I recieved does not.

I have attached pictures of the 2 boxes.

What he ordered.

What he got.

She said that it is not her problem if Sony does not include the movie anymore. I responded that I did not order a PS3 from Sony I ordered one from NEWEGG.COM and that NEWEGG says i'm getting Spiderman 3. Also, as the box I recieved is different from the box pictured, they should have known that the movie was not included, and not advertised it as such.

She ended with, "Not our problem, call SONY" I ended with "I will call Sony, but it is not thier job to resolve this, and if they do not, I will be calling back and you WILL be making this right!" (At this point I have not yet booted the PS3 and was not 100% certain that the movie was not on the pack-in disk of trailers and such)

I called Sony, and after a 10 minute hold I got a nice guy who listened to the compliant and said "No Problem, I can resolve this for you" So I had to fax Sony my reciept, name, address..... and an Authorization # he gave me, and they said they would mail the movie within 2 days of recieving the info.

I do not believe Newegg.com will be changing their listing to reflect that Spiderman 3 is no longer included (in their inventory anyways), they will just wait for people to call, then say screw you. [Ed. note: well, actually it looks like they already have—see link above.*]

I called Newegg back to let them know that even though they screwed me over, Sony has stepped in to make it right, and that they are false advertising their PS3 w/ Spiderman 3 and that I was letting the Consumerist.com know about it. Her response was to tell me that they could only talk to the account holder (My wife) and goodbye. Funny they didn't mention having to talk to her last time I called, and before there were complain notes in my case.

*Note: Since I began writing this post around 7pm EST, the link referenced above has stopped working. Before 7pm it led to a product page for an ordinary 40 gb PS3 with no mention of Spiderman 3. It now returns the following message: "We apologize for the inconvenience, but the item you are looking for has been deactivated."

(Thanks to Terry!)

Mr. Dotson,

Although I'm sure you get many e-mails on a daily basis from customers that are less than pleased with the service that your company provides I'd like to give you some idea of my recent dealings with t-mobile customer care.

I am a SmartAccess customer with a 1000 minutes family plan for two lines. On January 22nd I paid my balance in full of $220.00 online. This balance included several dollars in overages related to txt messages in excess of my plan. After paying my balance I attempted to change my text messaging bundle on the t-mobile website. It stated that "due to the status of my account" I couldn't make any changes. Not wanting to incur more charges in the future I contacted customer support by dialing 611 on my blackberry and asking customer care to make the changes to my account.

Two days ago I received a text from t-mobile stating that I was nearing my spending limit. A bit taken aback that I'd be anywhere near the limit I logged in and checked my balance. There were in excess of $75 in text messaging fees on my account. I e-mailed customer support online to get the issue cleared up.

Tonight at 11pm EST a telephone call that I was on got disconnected and my service suspended. Not having received any reply from t-mobile support by e-mail I attempted to call customer care to get the issue resolved.

Apparently (and this isn't the first time I've encountered this) the call center agent that I spoke with on the 22nd not only didn't make the changes to my account, didn't place any notes on my account but also failed to even pull my account up to look at it. I can only assume that he takes the responsibilities of his job about as seriously as a cat with a ball of yarn.

Due to your customer call agent's pure incompetence my account is suspended. Had your employee done his job I wouldn't have incurred the over $75 in text messaging charges that put my account over it's limit. I find that unacceptable.

I'll be the first to admit that I got a bit short with your call agents tonight. That might have something to do with their absolutely infuriating habit of cutting a customer off in midsentence and interrupting at every possible opportunity. You customer call agents are not only incompetent, they're immensely rude. I don't like being told that nothing can be done to remedy an error on the part of your company. According to your agents my only option is paying off these charges. The sheer idea of offering me "bonus text messages" as a remedy for my "inconvenience" is nothing more than an insult.

Although I may be a SmartAccess customer I'm also a governmental customer and a customer with a long standing clean record with your company. As such I expect, no I demand, that something be done about your company's complete lack of customer service. The whole point in having customer care and billing agents is to provide your customers with resolution to service problems. The fact that your call agents have no way to bring remedy to a situation is absolutely assinine, what is it exactly you pay them for?

Cordially,

Ric

(Photo: gumuz)

So the first thing I did was call in to Tiger Direct and ask what was up with my order - since I had not received it and it showed both SHIPPED and CANCELLED.

I was told that they ran out of stock and the best thing they could do was give me free shipping on a comparable model (40-50$ more expensive). I explained my entire scenario and asked why it stated shipped and then later cancelled and he admitted it made no sense. I also asked him why I was never notified if my order was cancelled and after stuttering he said, "It shows up here that you were notified - by mail." I explained that I checked my email regularly and never received anything and he said it was by REGULAR MAIL. Are you kidding me? They send out order cancellations by REGULAR MAIL when someone orders online? I'm calling lies on that one. By the way, I never received an order cancellation in the mail either to this day. He said I'd have to speak to a manager to escalate the issue - told me to call back at 9:30am.

I called back at 9:30am and waited on hold for 3 minutes and no PERSON even picked up (never mind a manager) so I resorted to email to follow up.

I asked for a comparable model at the same price in email and explained the inconvenience that was caused because I spent time returning a different model at Best Buy once the order was shown as shipped.

The response I received 6 days later:

"We apologize for any inconvenience. The reason this order was canceled was because we longer had this item in stock. Unfortunately we can not go below our cost for the replacement camera that you want.

TigerDirect.com and TigerDirect.ca are part of the same parent corporation but they operate individually and as separate companies. TigerDirect.com is U.S. based with U.S. offices, employees and warehouse facilities. TigerDirect.ca is a Canadian company with Canadian offices, Canadian employees and a warehouse which accepts returns from customers in Canada. As separate companies each has its own unique and specific costs of doing business. In many cases similar or even identical products are procured from different distributors, suppliers or vendors under different terms and costs. Delivery costs, duties, taxes, returns costs and provisions for warranty coverage all play a part in determining sales price as do operational costs ranging from employees salaries to facilities leases and overhead. Each of these costs varies by market and these variances may result in different sales prices for similar or even identical products. Sales prices may differ but Tigerdirect.com and TigerDirect.ca both exist to bring value to all our customers in each of the markets in which we operate."

Nowhere did they acknowledge the fact that they messed up with the shipped/cancelled and explain why that happened. Nor did the tell me why I was never notified that my order had been cancelled - had they done this, I would have kept the camera from best buy.

Matt wrote back and explained again how he felt they should honor the original price, since they told him it was in stock when he placed the order, then told him it had shipped, and without those two pieces of information he would have never returned the other camera (which was no longer on sale) to Best Buy.

The is the brief reply I received from them where they quote me:

"I spent my time and money returning another camera to bestbuy which is no longer available on sale."

thisd was a choice issued by you as we have no involvement in the transaction between you and Best Buy

Dear Peter,

Thank you for your reply.

I apologize for the inconvenience that you have faced due to discount on the sero plan.

The provided information in the previous interaction is correct that sero is already a discounted plan so, no discount can be added with this plan.

However I have forwarded your concern to the concerned department. If some resolution will be there then we will be happy to inform you.

Vicky R.
E-Care
Sprint

My name is Marianne Maestas and I am with the Executive Customer Relations department of T-Mobile. I am contacting you on behalf of Mr. Robert Dotson in regards to the email that you sent him yesterday evening.

In your email, you express concerns, as you are not able to use your service for Twitter. As you have been advised, Twitter is not an authorized third-party service provider, and therefore you are not able to utilize service from this provide any longer. You indicate your feeling that this is a violation of the Net Neutrality.

T-Mobile would like to bring to your attention that the Terms and Conditions of service, to which you agreed at activation, indicate "... some Services are not available on third-party networks or while roaming. We may impose credit, usage, or other limits to Service, cancel or suspend Service, or block certain types of calls, messages, or sessions (such as international, 900, or 976 calls) at our discretion." Therefore, T-Mobile is not in violation of any agreement by not providing service to Twitter. T-Mobile regrets any inconvenience, however please note that if you remain under contract and choose to cancel service, you will be responsible for the $200 early termination fee that would be assessed to the account at cancellation.

The arguments are relevant to the issue at hand, because text messaging is not the Internet. Until your communication hits the TPC/IP layer, it's subject to all the corporate crap that phone messages are. The phone companies are more balkanized than you realize, clearly. Specifically, phone service providers are allowed to block any short code they want. Read the policies for using a short code to provide service.
http://www.usshortcodes.com/csc_obtainPol.html
T-Mobile already has the contractual right to pick and choose which short codes it supports.

"Net Neutrality outrage: reports of T-Mobile blocking Twitter" [ZDNet]
"Twitter, Tweeters, And T-Mobile: Everyone Loses" [Silicon Alley Insider]
"T-Mobile Attacks Net Neutrality Unnecessarily: Twitter Problem Not Its Fault" [Wired]

A loyal Howard Stern fan, Marc followed Stern to Sirius in January of 2006. He bought a $500 lifetime subscription—which, like Tivo's old "lifetime" subscriptions, refers more to the lifespan of the devices than to your own. Still, Marc quickly grew to love what Sirius has to offer, and bought additional products, each with their own monthly subscriptions. He was and is, in short, the perfect customer. And then the credit card number they had on file expired, and Sirius canceled all of his accounts at the same time.

The nice Sirius customer service agent explains that my entire account has been closed. All four service plans. But, there is Good News, because she can turn my radios back on. When I get home, I find that none of the home radios are working. I also get an email confirming a $399 purchase of another lifetime subscription. And, I can not log into my account.

What surprises us most about this is how little regard Sirius has for someone who's clearly an ideal customer: loyal, an advocate of the product, does repeat business. Why ruin that? Shouldn't their customer management software be flashing a big red alarm at Sirius HQ right about now?

Sirius' corporate number is 212-584-5100, and their President of Sales & Operations is James E. Meyer. We suggest you "kick this up to Corporate" on your side and stop waiting for their day-to-day reps to deal with it. Also check out our "Be a Customer Service Ninja" post on how to seek executive-level assistance when customer service falls short.

Read this if you are thinking about buying a Sirius Lifetime Subscription [Sirius Canceled My Lifetime]

After you read his letter inside, you can tell us whether Circuit Shitty is able to process and ship an order within 19 minutes, or they're total liars...

Sheridan writes:

Nodlen is never going to call back. He's just getting you off the phone. Get on the phone again and press your case, from supervisor to supervisor, until you get that order canceled. — BEN POPKEN

• Identify a high-priced recurring service you subscribe to.
• Research the competition and find the best deal cheaper than yours.
• Call up your service and threaten to switch.
• Revel in the price matching

Call up full of vim and spunk. Doing battle with retention consultants is not for the milquetoast of heart!

Trey used this technique to make Comcast cut his cable bill by more than half, plus they threw in some free premium channels. His letter, inside.

Of course, using this method assumes you live in an area where there is actual competition, damn you, Time Warner. — BEN POPKEN

Related: Reduce Credit Card APR: It Never Hurts To Ask

So let me be totally clear: my Mommy, not Ben's, wrote us, praising T-Mobile, for god's sakes. You might know my mother as the unofficial Consumerist mascot, so when she says T-Mobile treated her right, you should listen. On the other hand, T-Mobile ever treating any customer right is so improbable that we should all probably remember my mother once had a stroke. But we should also remember my mother is charming, even to faceless corporations.

But it sounds on the up and up. After my mother ended up getting locked out of her phone and somehow ended up calling the State Police by accident, she called T-Mobile and got "a very nice young man" named Jeff. Jeff helped her out and even told her that "T-Mobile doesn't have any stupid customers."

That's a bit of a stretch, Jeff, but kudos! Old Ma Brownlee's email, after the jump.

Amazingly I have had very little trouble with my T-Mobile cellphone since buying it last March. I don't use it much, but I didn't intend it for anything but a backup, and emergency phone. Tonight I broke it, not break - broke, but I managed to mess up a PIN and then a PUK, forgot what SOS stands for, and ended up talking to the State Police 911. I really should have read the manual, and written things down last March.

I was mortified about accidently calling the State E911, but the operator wasn't annoyed (I apologized profusely, and the SOS that T uses causes many such calls), even told me something that might have fixed the problem had I not already punched too many buttons. I was going to have to call the dreaded Customer Care line.

Visions of a 2 hour hold, surly CSRs, "ring around the rosy" computer dialing choices, digital voices, and that awful, awful music only interupted by "All our representative are busy right now, please hold for the first available representative"; I almost caved in to procrastinating. I am very good at procrastinating. But I called the 800 number.

Guess what? I was talking to a CSR within 3 minutes, and that's counting getting through the "push 1 for english,...." list. Jeff was very nice, I pulled the battery, gave him some numbers, and in 30 seconds he was giving me the PUK number to input, and after choosing a PIN the phone was working (yes John, I wrote it all down). I was delighted, thanked him profusely, told him that I wouldn't be so stupid again (his response was that "T-Mobile didn't have stupid customers"), and also that I was happy with the service, phone, and his help. When he asked if I would mind telling same to supervisor, I said "Sure". Sad to say it took longer to be transfered to his supervisor than it had for the whole repair call (although even that wasn't too long).

I still hate Express-Scripts Customer Care line (unhelpful rude jerks), but I'm giving T-Mobile a thumbs up, and a good job.

David G. wrote us with a weird little attempted scam he found himself embroiled in with an anonymous Bell Canada sales rep. Apparently, he was called by the rep and congratulated for his years of prompt bill paying: as a reward, they'd just love to give him one year's free Internet service. "I just need your authorization to send it out!"

The only problem? David hasn't been a Bell Canada customer for five years. It was a transparent attempt to get him to "authorize" a contract to sign up for their Internet service. David smartly demanded to talk to the supervisor, but the sales rep proceeded to argue with him for twenty minutes that this was impossible.

You know the maxim: nothing in life is free. David's dialogue with Bell Canada, after the jump.

I'm not sure if this quite falls within the realm of your interest, but I thought this scam by Bell Canada was funny and could catch a lot of unwary people.

At about 11:00 am this morning I got a call on my cell phone from Bell Canada. Now I haven't had a Bell home phone for years and my cell is with Rogers, my internet is Rogers and TV hookup is Rogers. I haven't sent Bell a dime in at least 5 years. And the conversation goes like this:

Bell: Mr. *****? This is Bell Canada calling. From what I can see from your phone bill records, you've been doing an excellent job of paying your bills on time, and we'd like to thank you by giving you one months free internet service. If you can confirm your address I'll send out the Internet Setup Kit today.

Me: Really? Can you just confirm what my (umm hmm) Bell billing address is?

Bell: Yes, it's *** *** ***. So I'd like to send out the kit today. I just need your authorization.

Me: And my Bell phone number is *** *** ****?

Bell: Yes it is. So I'd like to send out the kit today. I just need your authorization

Me: And this is all because I've been paying my Bell phone bills on time? Can you tell me the amount of my last phone bill?

Bell: Well, I don't have that information, so I'd like to send out the kit today. I just need your authorization.

Me: Whoa. You just said "you see from my phone records I've been paying on time", can't you see what I've been paying?

Bell: No, I don't have that information. So, what I'd like to do is send out the startup kit today.

Me: Ok, buddy, I'd like to talk to your supervisor please.

Bell: I can do that, but I'm just doing my job, so I'd like to send out the kit today. I just need your authorization.

Me: Well, I'd like to speak with your supervisor.

Bell: Why?

Me: Because you're fraudulently trying to sell services to me. The premise that I'm getting this great deal based on my bill payment history is false. I'd like to speak to your supervisor now.

Bell: But you have an excellent payment history, that's why we're extending this offer to you. So I'd like to send out the kit today. I just need your authorization.

Me: I'd like to speak with your supervisor please.

Bell: My supervisor is very busy and won't have time to talk with you

Me: Fine, I'd like to talk to a Level 3 supervisor.

Bell: Sir, I'm just doing my job, now if I can send out that kit to you today..

Me: Tell you what, how about you send me that startup kit, and I'd like every service you've got, internet, digital cable, send me one of those PVR boxes and hell, I could use a new cell phone with the best plan you've got. Is that ok? And you can bill it all to my "Bell" phone number, right?

Bell: No, I can't bill to your Bell number, it has to be a separate account. So I'd like to send out the startup kit...

And on, and on for about another 20 minutes until he hung up in frustration. Every attempt to speak with a supervisor was denied, he refused to identify himself in any manner (name, employee number or any kind of identification) and over and over he kept telling me this is based on my payment history with Bell, when I haven't sent them a dime in years! Bloody fraudulent! Now I'm wondering if the CRTC (Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission) would be interested in ma Bell's scam.

Thanks!

Outside of the gaggle of shiny faced cretins obsequiously smirking behind the Genius Bar, we love Apple. But do we love them enough to be reassured when they respond to a complaint by leaning back in their chair and sigh "Trust me?" Yeah, uh.... no.

Justin P. has an old Powerbook, which he purchased in 2003 along with a 3-year Applecare Warranty. Apple has no record of this, despite repairing this laptop under the same warranty.

Now Justin's got another hiccup in his system that needs to be repaired. Unfortunately, as far as Apple's concerned, he never bought a warranty. He's only got a few days left before the warranty expires. A CSR has promised him that he'll "look into it" and get back to Justin. "Trust me," he soothes.

Justin wants to know if he should trust Apple at their word, or if he needs to escalate the issue. 'No' to the former, 'hell yes!' to the latter. You just don't sit waiting by the phone when you've only got a day left to get a warranty issue resolved.

Justin's email, after the jump.

So I bought a G4 Powerbook on September 20th, 2003, and purchashed the 3-year Applecare warranty with it. I made a call into Apple about a year and a half ago with a RAM issue, phone support walked me through it. They clearly had record of my Applecare agreement. I was having the bright white spot issue with my display that seems to have been well known to everyone else (I honestly didn't look it up, thought I may have done something) and was pointed out to me at the end of last week as being a commonly known and warranty covered problem.

I call up Applecare on Saturday, with 4 days remaining on my coverage, and they tell me they have no record of my ever having purchased Applecare. They have no record of my call a year and a half earlier either. I get my receipt, give them the info off the paperwork, and they come back saying it must have been an internal error that it wasn't applied. Still no comment on why my previous call didn't exist in their records, but ok. They tell me it will take 24 hours to be active in their system, call back in a day or two and they'll set up the return process.

I check the website on Sunday, enter my serial number, it still doesn't show my computer as being covered. I figured it might just be a weekend thing, so I waited til Monday to try again...still no dice. I call up last night, get a VERY rude guy who tells me that I would only have a few days left on my coverage anyway, do I still want to try to do something about this? I told him yes, especially since it was an Apple mistake that didn't auto-enroll me when I purchased both at an apple store.

He proceeds to tell me that it will take up to a week to have the Applecare agreement tied to my computer, and that I will have to call back in a week or so (my 3-year Applecare agreement expires at end of day today) to get it taken care of. He says that since a ticket has been opened before the Applecare would have expired I'll be fine, but that he can't send me an email or fax verifying that. I just need to "trust him" and call back in a week.

I've seen some rough stories about Applecare, and I don't want to get run around for a few days til the warranty is up and "whoops! sorry for you" gets said to me.

Does this sound legit to you guys? Or do I need to worry/call someone higher up?

They mean...

The billing has been cancelled, not the account, which is still yours and active. Which means you're still ours.

They say....

"First, your free service is active. This new service, which takes effect immediately, includes..."

They mean...

Just so you know, you're tacitly agreeing to this "service."

This is the same as local newspapers giving away free subscriptions to boost circulation numbers. Except in that case, they need your okay to start delivery, whereas in this, they're just tricking you into staying on the roster.

Previously: AOL's Guide To Just A Super Fun World-Class MRM Call

Previously: AOL's Guide To Just A Super Fun World-Class MRM Call

Click to expand.

OLD

NEW

Digg this story.

Our anonymous AOL call center insider mailed us again, this time with a scan of the Rosetta Stone that AOL's CSRs use to translate your strange gibberish asking for account cancellation into a language that they can understand: "Keep me signed up!"

Click on it to enlarge. The most important thing to notice here when trying to cancel your AOL account is the "Cancel Billing Close", located at the bottom of the scan. It reads:

Okay, I'm canceling billing on your account as of today. Keep in mind you can continue to use your AOL Mail and Software for free as long as you'd like to use them. Since we are no longer providing your Internet connection, we still want you to be able to enjoy AOL. You'll no longer be charged a monthly membership fee! for AOL. Does that take care of everything?

Most people at this point say "Yes!" but our correspondent warns us that, really, what you want to do is emphatically say "No. I want to be completely cancelled, not migrated to the free service." AOL's free service, after all, is a slippery slope. Our correspondent says: "If you say NO to the Cancellation Close - only then can we cancel and give a cancellation number."

Why you don't want AOL Free: "Even if the member completely cancels their account, they can go online to AOL.com and log in with their old/existing user name and password and their account will work just as the free account does, except they don't have an active billing account just a free unattached email service."

Of course, this AOL CSR "Guide to a World-Class MRM Call" script flow should only really have two branches. "If member says he wants to cancel, CANCEL immediately. Otherwise, try to retain."

There's just way too much observation in our correspondent's email to summarize. Specifically, there's a fascinating look at how AOL internally reacted to Vincent Ferrari, how the service got better for a time, but the introduction of AOL Free led to 7 out of 10 calls being cancellations, which just sent the customer service spiraling again into frustrating obfuscation.

The full email of our AOL insider, after the jump.

I have enclosed AOL's cancel script/flow. It's a 16x12 paper that is placed on our pods. I had to scan it in 3 sections and then use photoshop to stitch it. The original scan in photoshop (psd) extension is 63MB so I had to image size it several times to bring it down to 2 MB.

The script you are looking for is towards the bottom of the scan. It's called the "Cancel billing close"

Cancel billing close

Okay, I'm canceling billing on your account as of today. Keep in mind you can continue to use your AOL Mail and Software for free as long as you'd like to use them. Since we are no longer providing your Internet connection, we still want
you to be able to enjoy AOL. You'll no longer be charged a monthly membership fee! for AOL. Does that take care of everything?

After reading this script, almost all members say "YES". In their mind they think AOL is now closed and AOL is just being nice by offering courtesy services.

When they say YES, we have to read a second legal disclosure that makes the free service legal.

Free services disclosure.

"First, your free service is active. This new service, which takes effect immediately, includes unlimited access to AOL via a high-speed Internet connection or a different dial-up ISP purchased separately from your local cable or telephone
company.

This service plan does not include dial-up Internet access and does not include live customer support. Due to the immediate update in your account status you are agreeing to waive any prepaid dial-up time remaining in your current bill cycle.

Although you will no long! er be charged any monthly membership fee, you will be responsible f or any other charges you might have incurred since your last billing date as well as any outstanding balance on your account and any premium services to which you have separately subscribed. An additional $5 monthly
charge will still apply if premium services or additional fees are paid through your checking account or telephone bill.

If you need further assistance or have any questions about your current services, please visit KW: My Account.

Thank you for calling today. "

Also take note of the highlighted part at the bottom. This is what gets me. If the member is irate or frustrated with AOL service and they want their service canceled, we are to read the cancel billing close. If they say NO - only then can we cancel
and give a cancellation number.

If they say YES, then when we read the "free services disclosure", when we say " your free service is active" then th! ey start yelling again at which point we will read
the cancellation disclosure. It is honestly the most ridiculous script I have had to read in all my years here. We are making an already frustrated member even more frustrated.

Anyhow you can draw your own conclusions from the member connect call flow.

I was also reading some of the post-replys of your readers. One of them mentioned "It is illegal, he didn't think AOL can do that - he is right. The FTC regulates this however when we read the second disclosure, where we say "your free services is now active" the member has now given permission to AOL to keep his account open and active.

The next one showed her account being debited a penny. This is proof positive that AOL has kept her account open and never closed it. Closed accounts show "Account closed" or "Account terminated"

The only way ! to show "account closed" is to close down the account. Tell you r readers to get a cancellation number.

Here is a secret:

Even if the member completely cancels their account, they can go online to AOL.com and log in with their old/existing user name and password and their account will work just as the free account does, except they don't have an active billing account just a free unattached email service.

The only way to make sure an AOL account has been canceled is to have the consultant give you a cancellation number. Canceled accounts don't originate billing or marketing and their emails and other services can still be used. If I
didn't get AOL for free and I had to use it, this is exactly what I
would do.

Believe me when I tell you, my piers are not too thrilled about what we have to read. Many consultants including myself have appealed to our supervisors and their managers but AOL corporate truly believes this action can turn t! he tide of
cancels. After the Vincent Ferrari scandal, AOL took a huge PR hit and told all consultants to be nice and cancel accounts on demand. They even changed our pay, we no longer get paid by saving accounts. It was all about helping the member whether canceling or otherwise. Then the free service was announced and 7 of 10 calls were cancels. After a couple of weeks of this, AOL corp introduced the new script which basically turns 90% of those canceling into free services.

Sorry about the long email. There is so much I can tell you about AOL but my goal here is simply to raise eyebrows at AOL corp, enough to change the script flow to a script that is not duplicitous.

What they are having consultants do is shady at best, illegal at worst. Either way - wrong.

It sure the hell is.

Chris' email tells us many things. It tells us that people in foreign countries with non-American accents simply can not be named "James." But it also tells us a lot about the wiseness of not buying ASUS laptops, especially when this is the caliber of tech support email you receive:

Hi: Plz be informed that we don't have dot free LCD in stock ,so we can't replace dot free LCd for you , Sorry for inconvenience caused!

Thanks.
Sincerely,
James (ACI)

Hi! Plz continue to Chris' email, after the jump.

Hi Consumerist,

I recently purchased an ASUS W3J laptop for $1,800. Considering ASUS only sells through distributors I was a little hesitant about purchasing online, considering my chances of getting a unit with dead or stuck pixels on the screen.

After waiting about a week for my shipment to arrive, low-and-behold, a stuck pixel was indeed present on my shiny new laptop.

Normal people probably wouldn't be bothered by this, but I'm a perfectionist type so I was pretty upset. Every time I looked at the screen my eye would immediately be drawn to the constantly green lit pixel.

Having no other choice, I called up ASUS 'Notebook Tech Support' to see what they could do. I got a hold of 'James', who, I can only theorize, does not use his real name when answering the phone. He had a heavy accent and was difficult to understand, but told me ASUS has no dead/stuck pixel policy for the W3J model I had purchased. I asked if I could pay out of pocket to have the screen replaced, and he instructed me a technician would be in touch with me soon via email to facilitate my request.

After not hearing back from ASUS for two days, I call them up again and receive James again. I tell him my story again and again, he repeats they'll be in touch with me soon. I hang up, but get the feeling I'm not getting anywhere, so I call the RMA department listed on the ASUS website. A very polite woman answered (who did not have a accent) and I explained to her my problem. She said they do not replace screens because they cannot guarantee all pixels will work (conflicting information from their Notebook Tech Support Department). After inquiring why, she said Toshiba (who is the manufacturer of the screen) would not make the arrangement for the model.

Feeling like I exhausted about every possible avenue for getting my laptop picture perfect, I've been forcing myself to live with this single stuck pixel — that is — until today.

Below is the email I just received from an ASUS engineer who James (apparently there is a James in Notebook Support and a James in Repair, maybe all these guys are named James?) said would contact me to replace my screen. I cannot believe how unprofessional this guy sounds. Not only is his writing atrocious, he gives completely different information from the RMA department's 'no screen replacement' stance.

In short, fuck ASUS. I love their motherboards, but I'll never buy another laptop from them again. For a company of their size to have such conflicting information, such terribly trained employees and service, I'm feeling buyers remorse for not looking into them further before making my purchase decision for a new laptop.

Anytoodles, someone else has sent the phone numbers to us again. He reveals how they fell into the "wrong" (we, the customers) hands in the first place.

Brett says, "I was just going though the things on my desktop and found a spreadsheet that might interest you... The guy who installed my cable logged in to get the number and firefox dumped the file on my desktop."

Call us shenanigans, but just don't call us late to dinner.

What was S.K. expecting when he called up Time Warner? "Some kind of Bullshitting-Assholism," he pricelessly explains. And he was not disappointed: the CSR wasted no time in asking S.K. for his secret security question. But note: she didn't ask for his secret security answer. In order to access his account, she wanted him to guess not only the question he was to be asked, but all possible permutations of answers.

Priceless, casual incompetence from Time Warner. S.K.'s email after the jump.

2005: So I had this TimeWarner Road Runner internet connection. I used to pay my bills online for that service using their PayXpress service. Email ID is required for an online profile and bill payments, right? Right! So everything went fine until I had to cancel the service a few months back when I moved out. All gold unto here.

2006: New apartment, new Road Runner connection, new bill to pay. Logged in to my old PayXpress account. Good news: it's still operational. Bad news: It doesn't allow me to delete the old RoadRunner account and/or add a new one to that user profile. Doesn't allow me to create a new profile with old ID for the new account. Called up tech-support. Given past experience with TW's extremely painful cust-support and the gold points they've been earning on Consumerist lately, I was fully expecting to meet what was coming my way. Some kind of Bullshitting-Assholism.

I was not entirely wrong.

It seems the CSR can't handle it herself. She has to file a request to delete(release) my email-ID from that old account and send it somewhere higher-up who would then complete the job. Fine, I gave her my ID to be released. She asks for my "secret question" which was used while creating the account. Well, I politely told her the service is supposed to let me know the "secret question", in response to which I would give my "secret answer", not to a human, and that's how "secret handshakes" work all over the web. Apparently not in its-head-twisted-up-its-hernia'ed-ass TW.

She says I should remember the secret question. Obviously I don't remember what secret question I had selected a year back. Doh! me. So I asked her "okay, what all secret questions you have?"

CSR: "Name of pet", "place of birth", "mother's maiden name".

(Me thinking: Never owned a pet. But apparently I was born, and I ain't birthed from a m**f**king gay father.. Yes, it was definitely a mother).

Me: Secret question could be either of the last two. I don't remember.
CSR: Ok, and what are your answers to these questions?
Me: Excuse me?
CSR: Your answers to these two secret questions?

At this point, I knew arguing with CSR was not an option, coz she was clearly doing her job of serving some bullshit MBA type who didn't even bother to verify from whatever cheap-ass third-party outsourced firm they got the online account system made, that these basic webby thinglings were taken care of.

Anyways, since it's an ID I use only for all online services and spam, I gave the answers to both the questions. All the while the CSR — which I must add to their credit and to my surprise, was polite and not incoherent — was dutifuly rattling off keystrokes @90 wpm a la the airport scene in Meet The Parents where Ben Stiller is taking in all frustru from the airlines staff.

And to their credit, they did resolve my problem and the next day I received a personal response, (would you believe that?) with direct email/phone numbers from an actual human flesh-n-bones employee confirming the same. Oh and the wait time on phone was only around 15 mins compared to the 30 mins+ wait time in all earlier calls.

Part two of our former Hewlett-Packard CSR heart spilling describes the stressful call center conditions. He wishes HP had on-site counsellors round the clock. If you lasted over 6 months, you were considered a veteran.

Sorry to hear your job was so stinky. Here's three letters for you: G...E...D.

His letter, inside.

"ps.. make this anon. I'm going to have to delete this email in a bit. I don't want my informants to get in deep doggy doo over leaking this info. My NDA died last week between me and the call centre so I don't care, but theirs is still supposedly in force. But, as I was told in training, they don't really care if "spouses, family and significant others" find out the inside information. They can't force their techs to stay quiet, especially with the high stress job with low pay. They need a way to vent somehow and family and friends are the main way. They supposedly have access to "free counselling" but that's hit or miss. They really need on site councillors available 24/7, but there's no way the company would ever pay for it.

So, we get the worst of it. I could tell you stories about customers, procedures, faulty service manuals and more. There are certain printers that the CSRs cringe when they hear about them coming in. Or about how the outsourced company's policy of calling back customers for no less than 6 days was described by HP as akin to stalking. The CSRs are very happy that now all they have to do is tell the customer to call back if there are problems. They were spending all their time calling customers instead of letting calls come in and their "service levels" dropped.

Burn/drop out for the company is easily 70% or more. If you can last there 6 months, you are a veteran of the company and you might have a chance of getting "off the floor" which is the goal of every CSR there. I lasted 3 weeks.

Others in my training class lasted between 1 day and several months. I saw one there after a year. It is almost a rite of passage in this town to be fired from the outsourced company at least once. To say that you were fired from there is not a mark of shame on your resume - it shows that you had the guts to do the McJob they offer. Doesn't matter if you were there one day or one year. You were there."

Want to get back at AOL? Publish the existence of keyword Change Plan. That AOL keyword makes it extremely easy to change to the free price plan or the new $9.95 per month dialup plan. The good news about this? No need to argue with a retention guy on the phone. Just hit the button and, boom, you're free or on a much cheaper dialup plan.

Of course, I had no idea what he was talking about. But Google to the rescue. Going free on AOL, or switching to the $9.95 monthly plan, is as easy as it gets. Just log-in to AOL (the application, not the website). Click on the "AOL Keyword" button at the top left of the AOL screen, then type in "Change Plan". A dialogue box will then present you with two buttons: one to go free, the other to go dial-up for $9.95.

Easy! And no obnoxious retention monkeys to jibber-jabber with. Thanks, John!