The Consumer Complaints Blog

This complaint was removed at the original poster’s request. The company apparently resolved the issue in exchange for removal of the post. We would like to congratulate Junk Van for taking care of the issue and their customer. It is a sign of what all businesses should do. It’s better to take care of a customer than create a mess to be cleaned up later on. Nice work Junk Van and congratulations to the customer that had their customer service complaint resolved. We wish both parties the best of luck moving forward.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

Since I can’t find any other appropriate place to air my grievances, I thought I’d do it here. Thanks for the opportunity!

I recently learned that the satellite phone industry is like a pyramid scheme, with no accountability. I rented a sat. phone for 6 weeks for a remote field work contract. I am in BC and dealt with a company in Alberta. They had good prices and could supply the phone on short notice. I purchased 50 minutes of calling time with the intention of just using it for emergencies and texting. I was told that I shouldn’t worry about using up the minutes, as “they usually give you extra minutes above what you pay for”.

I should have listened to my gut right from the start, because it was hard to get information about the phone from the guy. He either didn’t know what he was doing or, as I now believe was deliberately misleading me and making me feel like everything was straight forward and easy.

So, I agreed to the deal, gave them a credit card # for a $500 deposit, and they sent me the phone. I got the phone in good time. I was happy with the response. However, there was no contract, no paperwork at all, not even a user manual. I had no time to deal with it, and so headed out on my trip. I discovered after testing it out, that the messaging system wasn’t set up. I then spent several hour making playing phone tag on a payphone trying to get the right #s to put into the phone. The guy didn’t know the numbers and had to contact the service provider. The numbers (“It’s either this one or this other one.”) didn’t work. I found what I thought was the right number on the service companies’ website, but that didn’t work either. So, I never was able use the messaging system.

The sat service was great and helped me out of some jams. It was also a good life-line while out it in the bush. When my work was over, I was to mail the phone back to the company. I wasn’t given any instructions on how to do this, and as it took me over a week to get a hold of anybody, I know had an extra 2 weeks of rental time, when I never used or even needed the phone! I had to pay about $25 for insurance to cover the cost of the phone if it got lost, and I had to buy the packaging to mail it.

That was it…for awhile. No response at all from the company that they received the phone. No bill for the rental. Nothing.

I was busy and couldn’t follow up until I got home, and I figured, hey, if they don’t want to bill me, fine, I’ll take a free rental any day!

2 months later…I remembered the credit card deposit and got worried. I checked, and indeed the $500 was taken out! After a week, and them not returning my messages, I finally got a hold of Mr. Clueless (AKA Mr. Scam), and asked him what was up. Why no bill? Why take the $500 that was just a deposit?

Here’s the stupefying answer…”Well, there are over $700 in call charges, so we figured we do you a favour and just keep the $500 and call it even.”

That’s pretty weird. You told me that the card had extra minutes, not that it was open ended. I purposefully bought low minutes time to keep the expense low. I know I was careful with my usage, and (I thought) the phone’s counter was telling me that I was within an acceptable usage. Regardless, why isn’t there a bill?

“If we send you a bill, we’ll have to charge you the over $700.” (huh??!!! A does not just equal C…there’s something missing and it’s called logic.)

I think it’s my right as a consumer to receive a bill. Can’t you just send me a bill for $500? Anyway, I need to see the details. I need to verify that what you are telling me is correct.
“Well, we’d have to get a call record from Iridium, and they charge like $200 or something. It’s pretty expensive, but we could go ahead and do that.”

Woah, woah…c’mon! how can a call record cost anything at all? That’s like the phone company charging me for my bill that shows me all the calls that I made including the duration!!
“Tell you what, we could look into our records and get the start and finish times on the phone for that period. It’ll take a few days, but we could do that for you.”

Wow, could you? I mean, that would be great to actually see the information that leads to a bill that is over double what I agreed to in the first place. Did I say “bill”, oops, I meant verbal charge. I hung up, confused and starting to feel (once again in my life) like an industry-raped consumer. Couldn’t they just come up with numbers that fit what they are telling me? How can I trust this guy and anything that he sends me now?

Not being satisfied with anything anybody tells me, I called Iridium. They were quite nice and agreed that what I was told wasn’t right. They were only able to tell me who the service provider was that the dealer buys from. I contacted the service provider too. They have said that they could help me if I had a SIM card…well, that’s nice, but it’s a rental; the dealer has the SIM card, not me. What I have learned quite quickly is that companies like Iridium own the satellites and sell service to service providers, who in turn sell direct to consumers (usually large companies) and to dealers (such as losers in Alberta like the one that I am dealing with). Their are no policies or guidelines that the consumer is allowed to access, and the /dealer/ can charge whatever they want for call logs. In fact, it’s the /service provider/ that provides call logs, not Iridium, as I was told, and that it’s up to the dealer how much one is charged for. ( I smell a scam. I’m beginning to think that the dealer is deliberately misleading me.)

My mistake (and theirs) from the start was to go ahead without a contract; without signing anything actually! So, neither of us has a leg to stand on. How can I fight any charge at all without a written agreement, /but/…how can I be responsible for charges, when I didn’t sign anything stating so?

I’m in the middle of this process, so it remains to be seen where it goes from here. All I can say is NEVER use Canada Satellite!

I’ll post again when there is an update.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

Penciltrick Team:

I do believe the pen is mighty. So I wrote a complaint letter to Direct Energy about my ordeal hoping to deal with this privately. However, the response I received motivated me to make this issue public. Please refer to the attached letter.
I got a call September 21, 2011 from Donna, who made the following comments regarding my letter:

– Donna said there were two departments at that location, one that worked until 4 pm and the other until 6 pm supposedly to process tank returns. I can confirm there was NO ONE THERE after those two employees left. I banged on the back door and the front doors were all locked and lights were out.
– Donna said she would forward the letter along with an email to the Brampton office. So the Brampton office doesn’t even know about this, and she did not mention anything about what will happen to those two employees in question.
– Donna said it was my choice to hire someone to help me with the tank so there will be no reimbursement. I would have gladly paid the $50 out of pocket, but because Direct Energy failed to processed my tank return, I paid $50 for someone to do NOTHING. The task was not completed and it was not the fault of myself nor my hired help.

So needless to say, Donna did not call to provide any resolution to my concerns, but rather to make excuses and confirm that Direct Energy’s customer service can be just as bad at head office.

Can you help?

ATTACHED LETTER

August 28, 2011

Direct Energy Home Services
Customer Care
80 Allstate Parkway
Markham, Ontario
L3R 6H3

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing with regards to my recent experience returning a water heater tank.

I had a new water heater installed in my home on Saturday August 27, 2011 and on the same day decided to return my old tank to Direct Energy Home Services. I had called your company beforehand to obtain details of the drop off location, hours of operation and the return process. I also hired someone to assist me with carrying the bulky and heavy tank. We arrived at the Brampton Direct Energy Home Services location just before 4 p.m. and found all the doors to the store were locked and the lights out. I was confused, because I was positive that the customer service (CS) agent had told me that the location was open on Saturdays until 6 p.m. and the sign outside the store confirmed this. I called the CS line to inquire and was assured that the location should be open for business. While I was on the phone, I saw a woman rush out of the store. I quickly intercepted her and asked her if the store was open and she replied “no”, I then asked if it would still be possible to process a water heater tank return. She brushed me off telling me that there is still someone at the back of the building that will process my return and then rushed into her vehicle and left. We drove to the back of the building to find a man getting into a Direct Energy branded van. I walked up to his moving van and tapped on his window signalling him to lower his window so that I could speak to him. Not only did he refuse to lower his window, he waved me off and sped away while I was only a mere inches of his vehicle. We also knocked at the back doors and rang a doorbell to see if there may still be anyone else inside the store, but we received no answer. I called CS immediately and related the entire incident to Erin and also to Bob at Customer Care. While Bob was kind enough to arrange complimentary pick up of the water heater tank, I feel that the issue has not been totally resolved:

First, I ask that the two employees at the store be severely reprimanded if not terminated. Their actions were absolutely unacceptable as front line employees. Neither employee I saw that day wanted to take ownership of a simple water heater tank return, and just passed the buck or refused to even hear me out. I may add that I was not under any impression that either of them were leaving due to any emergency, but rather seemed eager only to leave work. If they are so unwilling to do the work they are hired to do, then they really should not be hired at all.

I do not have the names of the two employees but I can describe the woman as Caucasian, with reddish-brown curly shoulder length hair and drives a Jeep Grand Cherokee. The man is South Asian, bald with a mustache. As far as I know, those two were the only employees at the Brampton location until 4 p.m. that day.

Secondly, the management of that location must be thoroughly reviewed. My tank return should have been processed as I arrived well within operating hours. I trusted the information that was provided by your company and based on that I made arrangements to return the tank. Clearly, the employees at the Brampton location do not respect the stated operating hours, and failed to deliver on customer service. I can tell that customer service training is apparent at the call centre, but somehow the training is sorely lacking at the store. The disconnect needs to remedied, as it only takes one bad customer experience to taint further dealings with a company. I also question if the managers at the store are aware that they have employees who claim to work all day only to shirk their working hours yet still expect to be paid in full. I am sure you can agree that an inefficiently-run store wastes resources and ultimately impacts the bottom line of the entire company.

Lastly, I had mentioned at the beginning of my letter that I had hired someone to help me return the tank. Obviously, the task was not completed as intended and his time was wasted with the added exercise of having to unload the tank back into my garage for pick up. I was required to pay him $50 regardless for his time and effort. I kindly request reimbursement for the said amount, which has been an inconvenient ordeal for both him and myself.

Your attention to my concerns would greatly appreciated. I would also like to hear from you soon regarding the resolution of the aforementioned issues. If you would like to discuss this further, I can be reached at (NUMBER REMOVED).

Sincerely,

Helen (last name and address removed)

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

CUSTOMERS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO BE LURED BY THE DAILY PROMO ADVTS BY INDIATIMES SHOPPING IN TOI/ET.

Disgusting to note that a group like Times is resorting to cheating customers.
Brief recap of my experience during last 5 months.

1. Purchased a Blackberry Storm handset for Rs 11389 from Indiatimes shopping vide order 112891297 dt 17/3/11.
2. Faulty product delivered in end march for which complained lodged vide no 738842. After repeated phone calls and emails, I was asked to take replacement from their vendor as per their attached mail. Took physical replacement from their vendor in april during my visit to Mumbai.
3. Handset again broke down in early may and complaint lodged with Indiatimes. Handset was picked up by their courier agency and replaced after appx 3 weeks in may thru yr courier.
4. handset again stopped working in august and complaint lodged. Considering the frequent breakdowns with this product, Indiatimes was asked to cancel order and refund. Faulty product picked up by their courier on 26/8/11 and confirmation of order cancelled given vide no 301428. Refund promised after 2 working days.
5. The above details alongwith AWB no confirmed to Indiatimes customer care on 27/8/11 who promised refund in 2 working days after receipt of handset by vendor.Repeated follow ups with Indiatimes during this period. Followed up again on 19/7/11 for refund when I was shocked to hear from one Viren of cancellation deptt that this order cannot be cancelled because they do not have details of the replacement done in May in #3 above. This replacement was done thru Indiatimes and confirmed by them on 26/8/11, but am surprised to be told that this record does not exist in their system on 19/9/11!

It is shocking to see that a respected brand like Times has stooped to cheating customers by providing substandard products, fudging internal records and being completely insensitive to customers problems. The staff is insolent and possibly well trained in furthering these ulterior motives.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I purchased a piece of Atlantic luggage for longer duration travels. I selected a hardside case for more resilience to rough handling. The suitcase performed well for the first 3 years and then were not used for a while. When next used, two of the three latches failed. The latch mechanism failed where the pivot hinge connects to the case. By nature, this should be a robust design. Both hinges failed in the same manner and failed so as to be non-repairable. Analysis reveals the manufacturing process was flawed and did not inject the plastic sufficiently for a consistent hinge.

I contacted the manufacturer – TravelPro and was instructed to take the bag to a service depot. I was told that parts were not available but the service depot may be able to restore the bag. It was stated that if they could not repair it, TravelPro would honor the warranty. I dutifully carried the bag to the service depot and we reviewed the conditions. Their observation was same as mine – defect in manufacturing.

Next, I called TravelPro and secured a RMA (return materials authorzation). After query about shipping, I was told that they would call back. To their credit, they did call, but they advised me the warranty was out of date…to much time had elapsed – regardless that this was within the 10-year warranty period. When we discussed the matter further, I was told that TravelPro has adopted a position that “all defects occur or identified in the first uses” and for that reason, “TravelPro never honors manufacturing issues after 7 years”. I was incredulous. When I challenged that position, the Claims Manager hung up on me! So much for ‘customer service’

CAVEAT EMPTOR – let the buyer beware…
TravelPro / Atlantic / Austin House makes warranty statements, but fails to honor them under the guise of ‘wear and tear’. The factory authorized agent inspected and agreed the defect, but the corporate office refuses to honor the warranty.

I find the quality of a company is based on how well they resolve claims. Since TravelPro’s warranty claim manager hung up on me while I was asking a question, I will state the quality of this organization is poor… If you decide to select a TravelPro / Atlantic / Austin House bag, be prepared to be on your own!

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.