The Complaints Department
JetBlue's All You Can Jet Pass (2009)
$599 bought a month of unlimited flights. JetBlue's booking system was not built for what happened next.
L.L.Bean Ends Its 100-Year No-Questions-Asked Return Policy
The guarantee said 100% satisfactory, forever, no receipt required. It survived two world wars. It did not survive eBay.
MoviePass's $9.95 Unlimited Movie Plan (2017–2019)
It promised a movie a day for less than the price of one ticket. The people who signed up took that extremely literally.
Southwest Ends 'Bags Fly Free' After Nearly Five Decades
Two free bags and no assigned seats were the whole pitch for fifty years. An activist investor had other ideas.
Disney Replaces Free FastPass With a Paid Line-Skipping System
Skipping the line at Disney World used to be free. Now it's a per-person, per-day, per-ride line item.
Blockbuster's 'No Late Fees' Promise (2005)
The ads said no late fees. The fine print said Blockbuster would just charge your card for the whole movie instead.
Retailers Start Pulling the Plug on Self-Checkout
Retailers built self-checkout to cut labor costs. It turned out to also cut out the part where someone's watching.
New York Apartment Buildings Ban E-Bikes After a Record Year for Battery Fires
New York's delivery workers charge their batteries at home because there's nowhere else to do it. Now their buildings say they can't.
Baltimore's Docked Bike-Share Program (2016–2018)
It lasted under two years. Some cities lost half their fleets to theft and vandalism before the first winter was over.
Airport Lounges Restrict Guest Access After Visits Jump 31% in a Year
Everyone got a lounge access card. Nobody built more lounges. Do the math, then read the new rules.
'Unlimited' Data Plans Get an Asterisk for the Heaviest Users
Carriers still call it unlimited. They've just quietly agreed on how much unlimited actually means.
218 Bags of Stolen Potatoes and the Slow Death of the Honesty Box
A Lincolnshire farmer just wanted people to pay £2 a bag and trust each other. Then 218 bags disappeared.