Best Buy Holds Discounted Netbook, Delights Customer
A story about a great customer service experience at Best Buy? On Black Friday? It doesn't seem possible. And yet, it happened to Brian and Briana when they shopped the early sale for Silver Reward Zone members. Brian tells us: It started when Best Buy announced "early" access to Black Friday prices for all Silver Reward Zone members. Since my wife and I just purchased new appliances for our house, we were recently upgraded to Silver status and decided we'd take advantage of a budget netbook sale price without having to face the crowds. We go into our store, ad in hand, which does clearly state that we must call a phone number to receive the special price. We only w

Delta Airlines: You Need To Pay A Fee To Pay This Fee
Martin's 5-year-old stepdaughter has had a very eventful holiday week. So has her family. Flying as an unaccompanied minor, she had to miss her original flight on AirTran and her family booked another at the last minute. The first reasonably priced flight available was on NWA/Delta, but her parents tell us that communication between different departments seems to have shut down--resulting in fees, hours of delays, and the child ultimately missing her flight because the airline didn't mark down that the unaccompanied minor fee had already been paid. Due to an unfortunate series of events [two major accidents on the way to the airport], my five-year-old step-daughter miss

Buy A Mattress, Get A Free Video Camera
A few weeks ago, Macy's ran this somewhat mystifying promotion. Simple enough: Buy a mattress, get a free video camera via mail-in rebate. It's interesting to see a department store modern enough to openly market to aspiring amateur porn stars. You know it's an authentic Macy's promotion because the fine print is much longer than the ad itself.

Duck Tape Determined To Make Up For Defective Roll
"Above and Beyond" stories can come from the most mundane sources. Such as this e-mail that reader MJ sent in praise of the customer service for Duck Tape brand duct tape. I recently had an issue with a roll of Duck Tape that ended up being bad. I bought a 2 pack of the better grade and it just wouldn't stick like I think it should. I looked up the number and called their customer service line, they agreed that it must be bad, took some info and shipped me out 2 new rolls for free. Once I received this, I noticed that the shipping alone was more then I paid for the tape. Alas, they had sent me a double roll back, but of the wrong grade, and about half the ya

Macy's Cheerfully Helps Customers Get Parking Tickets
The employees at the Macy's in Washington, DC, sure were helpful earlier today! They showed customers where they could park for up to two hours while they shopped. Unfortunately, it turns out Macy's employees are not well-versed on parking rules in DC, and the manager there doesn't really think it's Macy's problem. Here's what happened to Paul: We went to the Macy's at 12th & G in Washington, DC, this morning for the Black Friday morning specials. There was a short, dark-haired woman out front with a Macy's nametag instructing people pulling up the curb to park there. "Oh, yeah, no problem." So we parked and went shopping. An hour later, we come out t