Consumer Thoughts

Don’t miss these great customer service story websites:
Not Always Right
Customers Suck
Acts of Gord (an owner of a video game store)

“Satisfaction Guaranteed.” That’s the traditional merchant’s pledge to customers, a promise that if you aren’t happy, they’ll make things right. Such promises used to be an integral part of the shopping experience.
Now, however, some e-tailers are offering that kind of guarantee as a checkout extra–a service that you pay for, like extended warranties. And like [...]

If you enjoy funny customer service stories, you’ll love Dear Valued Customer. It has tons of stories, from banks crediting random accounts with millions of dollars, to embarrassing e-mails sent around the world. Click to check it out.
Also, right now Amazon has a 4-for-3 deal going on. Add any 4 items to [...]

Disclaimer: I do not work for Arby’s!
So we went to Arby’s yesterday and saw huge posters plastered all over, advertising their new strawberry & banana swirl shake. We ordered 2, only to be told they were out, so we got their orange dream shakes instead. Now, I understand it is probably a popular [...]

The ISP (internet service provider) Redmoon, from Texas, is a normal paid ISP - I’d like to emphasize this isn’t one of those free ISPs that makes all its money by advertising. It has implemented the dubious practice of inserting its own ads on every website. Your own website could have sloppy, irrelevant [...]

I entered CrunchGear’s Laptop Horror Stories contest which clearly states here that entries are to be 200 words maximum. (Here is a list of all entries - mine is #4, Rock and Crunch.)
One of the entries was clearly much longer, so I e-mailed CrunchGear stating that it was unfair. At that time only 2 [...]

I signed up for Site 24×7 when it was still in beta.  It’s a simple site that monitors your URL(s) and e-mails you when they are down and back up. Today, they concluded their beta and went live.  Because I was a beta tester, they granted me $200 worth of services in my account.  My [...]

eBay is going to improve their feedback system:
Feedback 2.0 will the the redesigned system that will still include the positive and negative options, but now it expands and will give buyers the chance to rate sellers on other aspects of the purchase. The additional ratings will be done using a 5–star system rating on the [...]

Shopping is not always pleasant for me at this time of year.  The cold makes my nose stuff up and run at the same time - don’t ask me how it’s possible - and stores insist on putting out tons of potpourri.  I guess it’s supposed to bring back pleasant holiday memories, but it just [...]

Looks like I get one more year of Total Access at the old Complete price:
Dear Total Access Subscriber, Effective December 7, 2006, all GameSpot Total Access subscribers will automatically be renewed at the current subscription price of $5.95 monthly or $39.95 annually. Annual Total Access subscribers whose renewal dates fall before December 7, 2006 [...]