Search results for complaints
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Posted
Dec 04 2007, 09:36 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Joseph S. Enoch at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. After numerous complaints about Video Professor's sales tactics, ConsumerAffairs.com decided to try the lessons ourselves. For 20 years, John Scherer, otherwise known as the Video Professor, has advertised on cable TV the wonders of his educational software. "I am so confident that I'm going to give you one free disc," he says in his "limited-time- offer" advertisements. In actuality, it appears impossible to get just one free disc. Instead, it is a packaged bundle of three discs that costs $6.95 for shipping and handling. If the customer doesn't return one of the discs, at the customer's expense, within 10 days, that person will be enrolled in an automatic-renewal service that sends new three-disc bundles every month for $79.95.
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Posted
Dec 13 2007, 01:59 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from David Wood at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. While this year's Thanksgiving travel rush was less troublesome than expected, frustrations of all kinds await travelers not only during the holidays but year-round. Here's a holiday review of frequent mishaps and what you can do to avoid them. The epidemic of lost bags is the tip of the iceberg. Flight delays, canceled flights, overbooking and an assortment of other annoyances are common. Keeping your cool is only part of the equation. You also must be educated about your rights and the laws and regulations that govern airlines. For instance, it's no secret that airlines routinely overbook flights in anticipation of passengers not showing up, and there is nothing illegal about that. Part of the traveling life is the chance of being bumped, and minors are not exempt.
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Posted
Jan 03 2008, 05:21 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Linsey Knerl at partner blog Wise Bread. I couldn't believe that my 3M microfiber mop had cracked -- again. It was the third time in six months, and the thing wasn't exactly cheap. I was ready to cry. Not because the dumb thing broke, but because I had company coming over in a few hours, and I was now reduced to scrubbing on my hands and knees the way my mother did in the '80s. Days went by before I decided to e-mail the company to give it a rundown on what had happened with the mop. I wasn't expecting anything in return, but I needed to vent. I drafted a polite account of all the times the mop head broke, and how I was disappointed to the point of considering a lifetime ban of the company's cleaning products. The e-mail was sent; I felt better. I had almost let it go. A week later the postman came to my door with a large package containing a new mop, two replacement mop heads, coupons for a few free products, and a letter of apology. 3M had redeemed itself, and I was cleaning my floors again. What did I gain from this experience? At first glance it would seem a few free products. It really went deeper than that. 3M went on to redesign its mop head. I haven't had the problem of a breakage since. I may have been influential in changing the way a product was made, and it was simple to do.
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Posted
Jan 10 2008, 10:06 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from David Wood at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. While junk e-mail keeps us busy hitting the delete button, unsolicited advertisements and offers through old-fashioned snail mail also can sow the seeds of confusion. Not many do this better than a Nevada-based credit offer called First National Card. First National Card -- offered by both Consumer Credit Services Inc. and Capital Credit Alliance Inc. -- is one of the most confusing and complained-about credit offers anywhere. The two companies -- CCS and CCA -- reside in the same Las Vegas office building and offer the same products, but are owned by two different people. They generate numerous consumer complaints annually to consumer protection agencies, Web sites and just about anyone else willing to listen.
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Posted
Jan 15 2008, 07:01 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This is an amazing concept: A Web site called gethuman.com gives instructions for avoiding the interminable voice menus used by companies and government agencies -- and reaching a real customer-service person. We're bookmarking this baby. If the company you need to contact isn't listed, a tips page tells you how to find the phone number and gives some suggestions for reaching a person, like punching the zero on your phone repeatedly, mumbling when the machine tells you to speak, or asking for "account collections," which generally is quick to answer the phone. "When you do finally find a human, ask them how to connect directly the next time (in case your call gets disconnected, etc.), and be sure to tell us so we can then list their number here," the site says.
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Posted
Feb 19 2008, 08:38 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Mark Huffman of partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. Master marketer and infomercial maven Kevin Trudeau has a new book out, but he hasn't strayed far from his successful diet and health book formula, which critics say panders to consumer paranoia. His new book, coincidentally introduced during the current credit crisis, is "Debt Cures They Don't Want You To Know About." Consumers who called an 800 number to order a copy are reporting experiences similar to those relayed to ConsumerAffairs.com by people who called to order "Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About." They're finding it very hard to buy just the book. "I only wanted to order the book, but the young lady kept telling me about a trial for 30 days, and I kept telling her 'the book only, please,'" Cynthia, of Mexia, Texas, told ConsumerAffairs.com.
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Posted
Feb 25 2008, 04:20 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from David Wood at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. Waiting in line at the grocery store is a guaranteed way to see the covers of magazines targeting women. It's a real challenge to find a checkout tabloid that doesn't have blaring headlines about weight loss or the most recent diet sensation. "Better than gastric bypass!" "Kim lost 200 lbs in 11 months!" "Christin lost 100 lbs in 5 months!" Those very comments appeared on the cover of the June 12, 2007, issue of Woman's World magazine. The story was a fascinating look at a weight-loss diet known as Kimkins, created by Kim Drake, also known as "Kimmer." The Woman's World story begins by saying the magazine sent out spies to gather intelligence about Kimkins. The Kimkins Web site included numerous before-and-after pictures of not only Kimmer, but also happy members who had shed massive amounts of weight. Woman's World describes Kim as "smiling" when responding to questions. This implies that the Woman's World interviewer was personally watching the response of Drake. So, you would think that Woman's World would have noticed that "Kim" was in fact a 300-pound woman.
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Posted
Mar 18 2008, 08:37 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Ready for a dose of outrage? Credit Slips and others report that several ordinary citizens scheduled to testify at a congressional hearing on credit card companies' bad practices were told they had to first sign a waiver allowing the companies to publicly disclose every bit of financial information they had on these folks wherever or whenever the companies pleased. "The Republicans and Democrats had worked out a deal 'to be fair to the credit card lenders,'" wrote Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor and one of three Credit Slips bloggers who testified before a House Financial Services subcommittee last week. "These people couldn't say anything unless they were willing to let the credit card companies strip them naked in public." Four of the five citizen witnesses declined to sign and weren't allowed to testify. (To read the prepared remarks of one of those witnesses in a .pdf file, click here.)
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Posted
Mar 28 2008, 11:33 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Mark Huffman at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. Unauthorized charges and negative-option marketing traps continue to plague consumers, judging by the number of complaints received at ConsumerAffairs.com. One company in particular, Columbia House, seems to get under consumers' skin, producing 41 complaints in the last 30 days. Will, of Locust Grove, Ga., says he has no idea how he became a member of Columbia House, but now says he is receiving a steady stream of DVDs -- and bills. "I canceled my account, but nothing happens," he told us. "You can't call and talk to anyone. I fear they are going to ruin my good credit for something I never signed up for." Columbia House is one of the oldest "record of the month" clubs in the U.S., offering its members inexpensive CDs or DVDs in exchange for an ongoing commitment to keep buying its products. Book and record clubs like Columbia House pioneered "negative-option" marketing, where a lack of response from a consumer is taken as implied consent. But while some negative-option plans are well-run, many others are questionable.
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Posted
Apr 04 2008, 02:24 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Joseph S. Enoch at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. The National Collegiate Athletics Association has implemented a ticketing practice that requires consumers to pay money just for the opportunity enter a lottery for the much-coveted men's and women's basketball tournament tickets. The NCAA charges consumers a nonrefundable "service charge" that goes as high as $9 per ticket just to enter a competitive lottery, according to application forms for the 2009 men's and women's tournaments. Ticket applications for the early rounds for next year's men's basketball tournaments were due March 1 and required the consumer to pay about $200 plus a $9 service charge for each ticket. Consumers can apply for as many as eight tickets. The NCAA will sit on all that money before finally drawing applications in June. If a consumer's application is drawn, he or she will receive the tickets they paid for back in March. If not, they will receive a refund for the tickets while the NCAA keeps the service charge -- as much as $72 total -- and presumably all the interest earned in the meantime.
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