I spend some time reading Consumerist.com every now and then.  It’s a tremendous resource for us retail-type shoppers, as well as extremely entertaining in the comments section.

The readers there have a few favorite targets, among them Best Buy, Circuit City, and Comcast.  This is not because people enjoy picking on them (ok, maybe a little); it’s because they deserve it.  They are among the worst for customer service.

I’ve read stories about Best Buy calling the police on customers, various gift ripoffs, different prices in-store than advertised, incorrect items in boxes, and the ubiquitous porn-snatching.

Care to share some of your worst retail nightmares?  I think if we get this stuff into the public eye, people will start to realize it’s fairly universal and demand better.

I’ll start (because I’m typing at the moment).

BEST BUY:

I love it when their highly-motivated, highly paid sales associates in the computer and parts departments try to tell me what I `need.’  Never mind that I’ve been in computers for longer than some of them have been alive….

Then there’s the Lefty Invisibility Factor<tm>, in which I can stand there, waving a pile of twenties, and not be seen.  YOO HOO… Customer Over Here…. Want to spend money…

CIRCUIT CITY:

I purchased a car stereo with free installation, which turned out to be worth what I paid for it.  It took over two hours but fortunately worked when I left (at store closing, in the dark).  It wasn’t til a few weeks later that I realized the apparent teenager working in the shop basically opened my dash with a crowbar and SCREWED it back together, where there were originally no screws.

To add insult to injury, the stereo, a Sony, developed some sort of auto-encephalitis and refuses to recognize the aux input anymore.  This is not a positive development, as I really only use the aux input of the stereo (to play music from my Treo).  Heaven knows there’s nothing to listen to on the radio.  Sony told me that yes, it was indeed broken and should be sent to service.

How can I send the stereo anywhere when to remove it from the dash will require hours of labor and a crane?  Now that it’s safely out of warranty, it will probably be cheaper to purchase a new stereo.  Of course if I do, I’ll have to deal with installation….

COMCAST:

I have had Comcast internet service ever since it was available in my neighborhood.  It has never failed me for any significant amount of time.  It has also never failed to go up in price without a corresponding increase in service.

One day I had no service.  I called Comcast on the second day and they couldn’t tell me what the problem was; only that I had to call a different number.   I called the number for three days, leaving my info, with no response.  Since I use my connection to monitor my network at work, this was killing me.

I called Executive Service in good old Philthydelphia, where I work.  They said they’d lean on Service for me.  Two days later, they got back to me.   Yes, I was one of the people who got shut down for `using too much bandwidth.’  I apologized for infringing on the Unwritten Law and asked what the limit was so I didn’t exceed it.

They wouldn’t tell me.

How, then, could I limit my usage if they couldn’t tell me what to limit it to?

They wouldn’t tell me.

And furthermore, if it happened again (what happened?) they’d cut off my service forever with no warning.

Yes, the benefits of Comcast Unlimited Service.

Your turn…..