Latest news with #customerService
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Philadelphia woman says Greyhound gave her the runaround after discovering her $479 voucher had nothing on it
When Tanisha Bryant's Greyhound bus to Canada was canceled this winter, she says the company compensated her with a $479 voucher for future travel. She kept it and planned to use the credit when her schedule and budget aligned, according to NBC10 Philadelphia. In April, Bryant, who lives in Philadelphia, and a friend logged on to Greyhound's booking site to reserve a trip to Virginia Beach with Greyhound. To her shock, the digital voucher registered a balance of $0. 'I thought, maybe I made a mistake,' Bryant recalled. 'So I tried it again. Zero dollars.' I'm 49 years old and have nothing saved for retirement — what should I do? Don't panic. Here are 6 of the easiest ways you can catch up (and fast) Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's how Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says this 7-step plan 'works every single time' to kill debt, get rich in America — and that 'anyone' can do it Bryant says she immediately phoned customer service, only to be told, 'It looks like you've already used this voucher.' When she asked when and by whom, the agent had no record — and promptly hung up. 'I was speechless,' Bryant said. After multiple calls and emails, she filed a complaint with NBC10 Philadelphia. She shared her documentation — the original ticket, voucher details and correspondence — with NBC10. Three days later, Greyhound's customer service team reached out. Instead of reissuing a new voucher, Bryant was informed the carrier would refund her the full $479 in cash. 'I received an email that they decided… we're just gonna give you the money outright,' she said. When NBC10 asked for Greyhound's official response, the company declined to explain the initial error but issued this statement: 'We are committed to doing everything possible to ensure our customers have a positive travel experience. If they have questions or need help before, during, or after their trip, our dedicated customer service team can provide timely assistance by phone, chat, or email.' Read more: You don't have to be a millionaire to gain access to . In fact, you can get started with as little as $10 — here's how Many tourism companies offer travel vouchers to compensate consumers for failed trips. In 2020, GMA reported passengers had over $10 billion in untapped travel credits. Still, even legitimate vouchers can sometimes lead to unexpected complications. To safeguard yourself in the event of a failed voucher, it's wise to adopt a few best practices. Document the voucher immediately: Note the voucher number, issue date and expiration. Screenshot the digital voucher or save the email as a PDF to have a permanent record. Confirm usability before shelving it: Call customer service as soon as you receive the voucher. Ask the representative to verify the balance and expiration, and record their name, employee ID and call time. Use it promptly: Policy changes or system errors can render unused credits worthless. Booking your next trip as soon as possible helps you minimize the risk. Understand terms and conditions: Read restrictions such as blackout dates, transferability and refund policies. Many vouchers expire within a few months and may carry blackout or minimum-spend requirements. Protect with travel insurance: If you paid for the original ticket with a credit card or have separate travel insurance, verify whether it covers unused vouchers or additional out-of-pocket costs if the voucher fails. A good tip to remember is to capture every detail when you receive your voucher and confirm its value before it's too late. Acting swiftly not only protects your travel credit but also spares you the kind of ordeal Bryant experienced. This tiny hot Costco item has skyrocketed 74% in price in under 2 years — but now the retail giant is restricting purchases. Here's how to buy the coveted asset in bulk Robert Kiyosaki warns of a 'Greater Depression' coming to the US — with millions of Americans going poor. But he says these 2 'easy-money' assets will bring in 'great wealth'. How to get in now Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — here are the alternative assets they're banking on instead Here are 5 'must have' items that Americans (almost) always overpay for — and very quickly regret. How many are hurting you? Stay in the know. Join 200,000+ readers and get the best of Moneywise sent straight to your inbox every week for free. This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
Khaleej Times
9 hours ago
- Business
- Khaleej Times
Would you let an AI agent decide your crypto strategy?
As I've moved further into crypto, I've finally started to understand digi-currency humour. There's so much I don't grasp in this space that it's a noteworthy triumph. My favourite giggle of late comes from a meme featuring a therapist and patient, captioned: 'Is the AI agent in the room with us now?' People keep saying that artificial intelligence (AI) agents are one of the narratives of the upcoming — supposedly — crypto bull run. I'm still not sure I understand any of it, but I'm going to give it a try. So, what is an AI agent? In simple terms, AI agents are autonomous systems running on software that can perceive their environment, process information, make decisions, and take actions to achieve specific goals – often on behalf of a human, company, or industry. Unlike static, pre-programmed traditional software, AI agents are adaptive. Like humans — eek! — they evolve through learning and experience. Like clockwork Think Siri or Alexa, but on steroids. An AI agent doesn't just remind you to buy groceries — it actually orders them each week. It would go beyond suggesting investments to rebalancing your portfolio. I suppose one could manage that tiresome school WhatsApp chain for you too. In business, AI agents are already proving useful in everything from customer service and supply chain management to IT support and risk analysis. The next frontier? AI agents working with other AI agents. This emerging area — called multi-agent systems, agent-to-agent collaboration, or more dramatically, a swarm — involves coordinated networks of AI entities completing tasks together, often without human intervention. Yikes is right. And while most people are getting used to this new way of things through mainstream tools like Anthropic's Claude or Microsoft's Co-Pilot, radical innovation is happening in the decentralised world, too, away from traditional tech. And that's why I am starting to believe that when it comes investing in this new space, tokenised AI projects are where it's at. It's really interesting and, like everything in crypto, very speculative. Once you start exploring this space, you'll find everything from productivity agents to niche AI-driven trading bots. I've already experimented with (and immediately lost money) investing in transaction-based projects like SoloChain and The SWARM, from CryptoSlam. Projects like ai16z use agents to make real-time investment decisions. On Solana, Goatseus Maximus offers what is considered the first AI-managed venture capital platform. Virtuals Protocol provides a platform for developers to create and deploy AI agents across various Web3 applications. Bittensor offers an entire decentralised marketplace for AI models, built on its very own blockchain. One of the buzziest new players is a trading assistant called MIND of Pepe, which has been trained on more than 60,000 crypto tweets and 3,000 market insights, according to The Cryptonomist. Of course, aside from investing, we all still need to get over the biggest hurdle in adopting AI agents, especially for financial or high-stakes tasks. And that is trust. Will the agent do what it's supposed to? Safely and securely? What could go wrong with a swarm? I'm sure you are feeling a tonne of resistance. I am too. But the truth is, we are already using AI agents as they become integrated into almost everything we do. Over the past few weeks, I've been working with Underlord, a new AI tool from the editing platform Descript. It's been helping me produce the Hotflash inc podcast — removing filler words, laying music under ads, adding in sound effects as quickly as I can write 'add a whoosh sound here', and, when I get around to it, adding B-roll and graphics to video. I just have to type in what I need it to do, and it does it. I can refine and correct as needed. It's genuinely next-level. I'm already wondering how much more smoothly my platform would run, swarm-style, if Underlord could talk with a counterpart connected to my YouTube, Instagram, and Substack accounts. Market share One thing is for sure: there is not only a productivity leap here but also huge market potential. According to citing Bitget CEO Gracy Chen, tokens tied to AI agents are expected to grow from $15 billion to $60 billion (Dh55 billion to Dh220 billion) in market capitalisation this year alone. My take here is, feel the fear and do it anyway. Every generation has its technological reckoning. The printing press. The combustion engine. The telephone. The Internet. Smartphones. AI agents are just what's next. Like all that came before, they're arriving whether we're ready or not. I'm not here to tell you to invest. I'm suggesting that it's time to understand where this innovation is happening, who's building it — and how we might thoughtfully participate. If only there was an AI agent for that.
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Asos customers banned for being ‘serial returners' say it is ‘deeply concerning'
Shoppers using the online retailer Asos have complained about having their accounts closed and being accused of breaching a 'fair use' policy on returns. Asos updated its terms and conditions last September, introducing charges for shoppers who frequently returned large numbers of goods in attempts to crack down on 'serial returners'. In the past few days some customers have reported receiving emails saying their accounts would be deactivated. One shopper, Tskenya-Sarah Frazer, said she had been contacted to say her account had been closed because she had made too many returns. 'As a tall, plus-sized, neurodivergent customer I find Asos's decision to deactivate accounts without warning deeply concerning,' she said. 'For people like me, online shopping isn't just a preference, it's a necessity. The high street often doesn't cater to our body types or sensory needs, and the physical act of shopping can be overwhelming … We rely on online retailers to try clothes in the safety and comfort of our own homes.' Frazer, whose video sharing her experience has had 150,000 views on TikTok, said one of the reasons for the returns was inconsistent sizing. 'To now be penalised for returning items that don't fit after being forced to order multiple sizes due to inconsistent sizing is not only unfair, it's discriminatory,' she said. 'There was no explanation, no transparency, and no chance to appeal.' On X (formerly Twitter) another user posted a picture of two bodysuits which were both labelled as medium but appeared to be different sizes. I'm a size 8-10. I mostly wear a size S. The bodysuit on the left is M (too small). The bodysuit on the right is also M (too big). But ASOS are closing my account because I return things 😂 @ASOS_news They said: 'I'm a size eight to 10. I mostly wear a size small. The bodysuit on the left is a medium (too small). The body suit on the right is also medium (too big). But Asos are closing my account because I return things.' Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Asos said: 'We recently closed the accounts of a small group of customers whose shopping activity has consistently fallen outside our fair use policy. This helps us maintain our commitment to offering free returns to all customers across all core markets.' Gary Rycroft, a consumer lawyer at Joseph A Jones & Co solicitors, said it was lawful for a business to decide it did not wish to conduct business with a certain group of customers, as long as the decision was based on commercial data and not discriminatory. 'Asos have imposed a threshold on returns and that's fine for them to change their terms and conditions and as long as other statutory protections for consumers are not breached,' he said. Such a change in terms and conditions should not affect the right of consumers to return goods that are faulty or not as described, he matching a retailer's published measurements for particular sizes could be said to be 'not as described'.
Fox News
13 hours ago
- General
- Fox News
Man confronts woman with forbidden dog inside coffee shop, sparking heated debate
A coffee-shop patron who confronted another customer about having a dog inside the store said he was accused of acting improperly for questioning the woman about it. A Reddit user wrote about his recent coffee-shop experience on a popular subreddit page. "As soon as I open the door I'm hit with a dog looking at me at hip level sitting on a chair in this small shop," wrote the man, who said he was 33 years old. "The dog is indoors and the door had a clear 'no pets' sign. I watched for a second. This clearly wasn't a service animal, as she was letting it interact with several other guests." That's when the man said he decided to approach the woman about it. "I asked her why she ignored the 'no pets' sign? She ignores me," the man wrote. "I asked her, 'Did you miss the no pets sign?' She immediately says, 'I think you should stop harassing me' … This lady played the victim and called me an a--hole." The man said that another customer "stepped up for her" and then confronted him — asking him why it's an issue and telling him, "Don't be an a--hole and drop it." "I wave the guy off, tell him I care, and I don't like dogs," he said. "I say, 'It's not hard to not bring your dog to a coffee shop that doesn't allow dogs.'" The man writing on Reddit said he then complained to an employee at the stop, "who didn't seem interested in enforcing anything." Many commenters agreed with the man but felt he handled the situation poorly. "I love dogs. I love cafés. I hate people who bring their dogs to cafés." "The way you asked her why repeatedly was weird - she's not going to have an answer or respond well to that - but you weren't wrong for calling her out for having a dog in a restaurant that clearly doesn't allow them," one person wrote. "I'd personally have asked for the manager and pushed them to do something. I say this as a huge animal person: It's outrageous how many pet owners feel entitled to ignore rules because they think their pet is 'special.' I love dogs, but I don't want to find dog hair in my tea." Another person commented, "Annoying that the business would have 'no pets' policies posted and not enforce them, though." Someone else wrote, "I love dogs. I love cafés. I hate people who bring their dogs to cafés." Yet another person remarked that dogs "don't belong in coffee shops sitting on chairs meant for people, especially in shops that also serve food, as many coffee shops do." "You could have quietly brought it up to someone at the register or find the manager." Etiquette expert Diane Gottsman, founder and owner of the Protocol School of Texas in San Antonio, suggested that this sort of issue is best left for management to handle. "Unless the dog is vicious and you have to immediately move a child or yourself out of the way, remarking that you are in potential danger, allow the owner or manager of the establishment to handle the situation," Gottsman told Fox News Digital. Other Redditors agreed that it wasn't necessary for the man to get involved. "See, it's not your 'civil duty' to protect a company or spout the rules," one commenter wrote. "You could have quietly brought it up to someone at the register or find the manager." "What possible positive outcome could transpire by confronting the person?" The commenter also said, "The lady also sucks because clearly she thinks the rules aren't meant for her." Another commenter felt the man was instigating things. "Go complain to an employee or manager. What possible positive outcome could transpire by confronting the person?" the individual wrote. "Confronting the other patron directly only serves to fulfill some desire for engaging in conflict where you're 'justified,'" the person added. "Not your job." Gottsman added, "If the dog is sitting under the table, causing no harm, and you are just irritated because the [animal's owner] is breaking the rule, consider your motive. How important is it to you and how is the dog impacting you personally or other patrons?" She said it's important to consider that the woman might not have seen the "no pets" sign. "It's not necessary for a guest to be the pet enforcer but to politely point out the issue to the manager and allow them to make the final call," Gottsman noted. If the woman was "blatantly disrespecting a rule, it comes across as arrogant because everyone will feel like they can break the rule and all of a sudden there are no boundaries," Gottsman told Fox News Digital. However, she said, "perhaps she may not have known there was a pet policy, or there may be a reason she brought her pet in with her … It's never a good idea for a fellow guest to be on pet patrol for no good reason except to call someone else out. Let the manager handle the situation." Fox News Digital reached out to the original Reddit poster for additional information.
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I've been banned from Asos - and set up a petition to get its returns policy changed
Tskenya-Sarah Frazer used to be an avid Asos shopper, having started buying clothes on the online retailer's website 14 years ago while still at school. Fast-forward to 2025 and Tskenya-Sarah is now banned from shopping on the website. The 31-year-old, who lives in East London and works in broadcasting, has become one of a string of shoppers to allegedly fall foul of Asos' 'fair use' returns policy. Tskenya-Sarah used to shop online at Asos at least once a month, buying clothes, beauty products and gifts from the site. 'I was a loyal customer who used the platform as a go-to for essentials, self-care and gifting', she says. She told This is Money she spent 'hundreds of pounds' with Asos every year, having been drawn to a retailer offering both tall and plus-size ranges in one place. The demise of high-street shops over the years has reduced the number of shops Tskenya-Sarah feels suit her needs. She said: 'With the closures of high-street stores, people with specific needs and non-standard sizing are left with very few options. For me and many others, online shopping is not just a convenience, it is a necessity.' Earlier this month Tskenya-Sarah was informed by Asos that her account with the retailer had been suspended. She told This is Money: 'I went to make a return and realised I could not access my account properly. 'I received no warning, no explanation and there was no option to appeal. 'I contacted customer service repeatedly and was sent in circles. I spoke to online chat agents 11 times and was refused escalation every single time. 'Even after explaining the impact it was having on my mental health, I was dismissed. I felt shocked, humiliated and betrayed. As far as I know, I am still banned.' Before being banned, Tskenya-Sarah said she had been returning 'around 50 per cent' of her Asos orders, but 'sometimes more.' She added: 'This was never because I wanted to. It was because of inconsistent sizing. I often had to order multiple sizes of the same item to find something that fit. 'I have ordered a size 16 and a size 18 in the same item and the size 16 turned out to be bigger. These returns were necessary, not excessive.' Tskenya-Sarah does not believe Asos' fair use returns policy is fair, and last week set up a petition 'calling for transparency, a clear and fair returns policy, and proper accessibility protocols so that people can raise concerns without being ignored or shut out.' She said: 'I started it because I quickly realised this was not just about me. So many people have been affected by this. So far, over 1,200 people have signed the petition and it continues to grow.' Tskenya-Sarah said her concerns about the 'fair use' returns policy and the impact the ban had on her had not been adequately addressed by the retailer. A spokesperson for Asos told This is Money: 'We recently closed the accounts of a small group of customers whose shopping activity has consistently fallen outside our fair use policy. 'This helps us maintain our commitment to offering free returns to all customers across all core markets.' What is Asos' 'fair use' returns policy? Last year, Asos began charging a £3.95 fee if customers made too many returns and kept less than £40 of their order. On its website, Asos states: 'Our Fair Use Policy exists to ensure we can continue offering free returns to the vast majority of our customers.' 'For the small group of customers who consistently take actions that make providing them with free returns unsustainable, we deduct and retain £3.95 per returned parcel from their refund to help cover the cost of getting the goods back to us.' Asos' fair use policy states that it may shut down accounts that have 'unusual or suspicious activity', which it says includes 'unusual patterns of returns activity' and items being returned that look worn. The retailer first warned customers in 2019 that it might ban accounts displaying such patterns, but some customers have claimed a tougher crackdown started this month.
