McDonalds charging for water

I was at the McDonalds at 7916 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati OH last night, and with my food order, I requested a small cup of water for myself and my dining companion. I was informed that water costs 25 cents.

I was very disappointed. Not only is the assumption that water is generally free at restaurants, but there was no sign indicating water cost money, nor was it on the posted menu. Additionally, the previous two times I had been recently to this same McDonalds (both within the past week), I was not charged for water.

It is certainly your prerogative to charge whatever you want for water or anything else, but I would just ask that if you are going to charge for water (again, something that is generally free in most restaurants), that you a) put it on the menu or indicate what it costs with a sign of some sort and b) enforce it consistently

Marriott

Guest complaint from my co-worker Jenny

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I will be attending a conference in that is being held at the Doubletree in Nashville, TN beginning on September 21, 2011. Since I am a loyal Marriott customer, I intended to stay at a local Marriott brand instead of the Doubletree. However, when I called the Courtyard downtown and asked them to match the conference rate, I was told they couldn't and the lowest rate available was $180 per night. Considering that both hotels are comparable in diamond and other similar rating systems, I have a hard time with Courtyard not matching Doubletree's rate. We will be staying at the Doubletree for these 4 nights & I'm not quite so loyal to Marriott anymore.

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Marriott's (underwhelming) response

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Thank you for contacting Marriott. We appreciate the opportunity to provide you with information.

Hotel pricing is based on a number of factors, including availability, demand, hotel location, and the amenities offered by a specific property. At Marriott, we strive to be competitive in the marketplace by providing our guests with the best value for their money. Marriott offers a wide variety of discount rates for senior citizens, government employees, and members of an association, such as AAA. Many of our hotels also offer special weekend rates, "Stay for Breakfast" rates, leisure packages, and advanced purchase rates. We encourage you to check Marriott.com for the latest packages and promotions at the following website:

http://www.marriott.com/specials/default.mi

We recommend using the Marriott.com reservation feature as a convenient way to check rates, availability, and room information for all of our hotels. On the following webpage you will find a guide to the online booking process:

https://www.marriott.com/suggest/faqs_reserve.mi#question1

If you need assistance, please feel free to reply to this email or contact an Internet Customer Care Associate by phone at 800-721-7033 (toll-free in the United States and Canada). We are available to help you 24 hours per day, 7 days a week.

For our international guests, a listing of international reservation offices is available at the following site:

https://www.marriott.com/reservation/worldnum.mi

If we can be of further assistance, we invite you to reply to this email.

Regards,
Steve P. McQuinn Jr.
Marriott Internet Customer Care

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Transformer that doesn't transform

A letter from my son to Hasbro

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Hello,

My name is . I went to the store to buy a toy for my birthday. I was very careful and took a long time to choose toy I wanted.

Finally, I picked out a Transformer. But when I got home, I realized that the transformer didn't transform. That made me feel very frustrated and sad. I went to my room for 10 minutes.

Then we went back to the store and exchanged that transformer for another transformer.

I think that you should not build transformers that don't transform.

Thank you for reading my email.


Age 9.

Silverton Midas

I am writing to express my displeasure with recent service at the Silverton Midas on Montgomery Road. I've been going to this Midas for several years now. I really enjoyed the work of one of the previous general managers, Don Saul. But unfortunately it seems that Midas likes to keep moving their folks around, as he left, then came back, then left again.

I took my van in for an oil change recently. When I came to pick it up, the manager showed me some things that he wanted to repair, costing over $1000. That in and of itself is not a problem - I expect that and it's fine. But when I explained that I did not have time to have him do those right now, I got "the look". If you've spent much time with folks who don't know much about cars, you know "the look" I'm talking about. The one that says "you are a complete idiot".

Then when I showed the things to one of my more car-knowledgeable friends, he scoffed at the recommendations of the Midas man, saying that while there might be a small leak of oil, a much better solution is to just put a quart of oil in again occasionally, and it would be fine. Let's see, a couple of bucks every month or two, or over $1000? The choice was obvious to me.

Ever since Mr. Saul left, I had been meaning to explore other car care centers, and this incident pushed me over the edge. Although this incident happened a few weeks ago, I only now remembered to write you about it, on my way from getting my other car's oil changed (at Meineke)

Thank you for your time

Clickinks.com

I have ordered several times in the past from Clickinks.com and went back this morning to try to order. I ordered 3 cartridges ($22) and used a coupon code that I have, which was for 10% Off and Free Shipping.

When I applied the coupon, your website alerted me that I had qualified for free shipping.

But when I went to the checkout page, it still charged shipping.

I called your 1-800 customer service number, and the lady told me that it was only if I spent $30 or more, which was not displayed or mentioned when I applied the coupon - in fact on the shopping cart page it showed Shipping: Free.

She said that there was an asterisk next to the free shipping, which would show me that it was only for orders of $30 or more. There was in fact an asterisk, but it did not mention anything about $30 - instead it just said * - Continental US orders only.

Several hours later, I went back to your website, which has apparently been updated in the meantime to now display the $30 minimum order required, which I find fairly deceptive to switch the website on me and not honor what your website said at the time of my order.

But all is not lost, for I was able to visit compandsave.com and buy the same ink for 50% less.

Middletown Library

I am writing to complain about the complex and completely unnecessary qualifications for selecting a library PIN.

Shouldn't *I*, the account holder, be responsible for what kind of PIN I want?

Do you REALLY think that there are tons of people out there that are just DYING to hack into someone's library account and reserve or checkout books on it??!?! Seriously?

Cmon people throw me a bone here! It is highly frustrating that not only do I have to request a PIN reset every time I want to do something at the library because I can't possibly even remember the overly complex PIN I was required to submit, but then it takes me 3 times to even put a new one in (which I have already forgotten and it's only been 10 minutes). First it's not long enough, then it's not "secure" enough. Sheesh.

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I probably shouldn't have written that while I was still angry about it but I sent it anyways :-). Note too the correct usage of PIN instead of PIN "number"

Enterprise Rent-a-car

Hello,

I would like to let you know about my recent weekend car rental with your company. I was planning a weekend trip to Atlanta and was lured in by one of your promotional emails for a $9.99 per day. I went all the way through the process only to find, just before submitting the order, that it was a 300 mile limit, which obviously would not work for a 1000 mile trip.

But that's not a big deal - it was probably on me for not reading carefully and I caught it before submitting the order, so no harm done.

I drove to the rental car office Friday morning at 8:30 with my "free double upgrade" email (from a different promotional email you sent me). Even though I had this free upgrade, I kind of wanted to just stick with the compact. There were only 2 of us traveling, and not much luggage, so the better MPG was more attractive to me.

But when I got there, I was told that the only compact available had no cruise control! Seriously? In 2010?!?! So I went with a standard size (Dodge Avenger). The car itself was nice, but it smelled of cigarette smoke. It wasn't overpowering, but it was definitely noticable to me (a non-smoker).

I was confused since it was made abundantly clear to me upon checkout that smoking (and pets) were not allowed in the car, subject to a large fee. I don't know if this was a new policy, or if the person that checked this car in previously either did not notice or did not care, or maybe if they thought that it was "good enough" to re-rent. I know that different people have different tolerances for the smell of smoke (often depending on whether they themselves smoke or not)

In any case, it did not ruin the car or the weekend, but it was frustrating and I thought you should know.

Qfact

Despite the fact that the market research emails from you (though I realize they are automated) say

"If you qualify, you will receive a very brief phone call from Qfact, at which time we may confirm some additional information with you, and then hopefully invite you to participate in the study. "

and

"THIS “NEW PROCESS” WILL ALLOW US TO MINIMIZE THE NUMBER OF TIMES YOU RECEIVE A PHONE CALL FROM US.AND WHEN WE DO CALL YOU, THE CALL WILL BE MUCH SHORTER!"

Whenever I'm called from QFact, they proceed to ask me the same questions I just filled out online? It's extremely frustrating and nearly enough to make me want to resign my panel membership!!!

I just filled out an email survey about bathroom faucets. I apparently pre-qualified and was called by someone today, who took 15 minutes to ask me, WORD FOR WORD!, exactly the same questions I had emailed. No additional questions - just exactly the same ones I had emailed in last night. I got to the end, only to be told that ooh sorry I didn't qualify.

What is the point of that? Do you think people will lie online and so the phone call is to confirm it? Wouldn't they just lie again on the phone?

Help me understand!

Kroger crackers

Guest complaint from Carolyn!!

Last week I bought some Kroger brand Thin & Crispy Saltines Original Crackers. I am very disappointed with them. I've discovered that nearly every single cracker in all 4 sleeves is broken. And if the cracker wasn't already broken when I opened the package, several of them broken when I picked them up. Most of the box of crackers were in crumbs and completely useless. I bought these crackers because they cost less than the national brand, but seeing as I had to throw almost all of them away, I didn't save any money at all.

And the response
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Thank you for contacting The Kroger Co. I apologize that the Kroger Saltine Crackers were all broken. I can understand your disappointment.

I am forwarding your comments to quality control for review. I am also sending you a $4 coupon.

If you have any further concerns or comments please feel free to contact us at 800.632.6900.


Sincerely,

Duke Energy lightbulbs

You guys sent me coupons for a 6-pack of CFL 60 watt bulbs (value $11.97) a few weeks ago. I was excited to receive them, but they were only good at Walmart, and after going to 3 different Wal-Marts 5 different times, I was NEVER able to find any in-stock. In talking with store employees they said that they did not expect to get any in any time soon.

This was very disappointing and frustrating. What's the point of sending out these coupons if nobody is ever able to redeem them?