One story where help came from several directions was the one from a reader who could not get PriceGrabber.com or PayPal to get her purchase delivered or her money back. Shortly after that story was published, I was contacted by a PriceGrabber spokesperson who said the deductible should not have been applied in a case like this and offered to arrange a refund. Health issues however had kept the reader from taking PriceGrabber up on this offer when out of the blue she received an e-mail from PayPal informing her that the unrecoverable funds had now been recovered from the miscreant seller and were being credited to her PayPal account. What happened? " My guess is that the seller has decided to go back into business and wants his PayPal account back again," the reader wrote. "I looked at my PayPal account balance and it shows the full refund as listed in the e-mail. I'll never hear the details from PayPal but feel sorry for anyone who tries to do business with this guy in the future."

I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that Google's IP map of the universe no longer has a whole Texas school district located in Canada. I heard from several Google representatives shortly after that story was published who, along with offering to help, also pointed to the instructions on Google's site for the procedure to follow in such cases. "I feel a little sheepish that I did not find the link, but I Googled the problem for hours and never was presented with a hit for that page!" the reader wrote. It still required several more weeks for the changes to take effect, but eventually he was able to report that "We're back in the USSA, we don't know how lucky you are, eh ... Back in the US, Back in the US, Back in the USSA! Thanks, we really appreciate the help."

Adobe was also commendably quick to respond to the story about one reader's painful struggle with Acrobat activation. "They sent me some more files and it looks like it's now going to keep working," the reader wrote after Adobe got in touch with him. But it's still not clear what was causing Adobe's DRM to balk, and the reader remains profoundly unhappy about the whole experience. "I wish they could explain why it took so long, why they did nothing until you got involved, and why they kept acting like it was my fault. The person at Adobe that selected this type of copy protection should be removed from the company instead of protecting egos and the not-invented-here syndrome. Also they should clean up customer service to make sure nobody else goes what I went through."

Sometimes readers will finally get their problem resolved without us ever being sure why and how, and the story about the missing Gateway/eMachines system is one such case. While I never heard from Gateway about it, I had published the reader's service request number with the story in the hopes that someone at Gateway/eMachines would take pity on her plight. But weeks later, she had still heard nothing concrete even concerning the whereabouts of her system, so she decided to follow the suggestion several readers had posted and file a complaint with the consumer affairs department of her state attorney general's office.

"Well, here is how the story ends," the reader wrote a week after filing her complaint. "Today I received a refurbished Gateway GT5032 computer with a 90-day warranty. There was no note or explanation with the computer as to what had happened. Doing the math on the warranty, I am really getting screwed since the original computer was to have had a one-year warranty and I was only in possession of it for 2 months, but the replacement was a nice machine. I guess that is supposed to be my consolation. Gateway really sucks. So, the machine is now for sale on EBay. I am so fed up with Gateway I don't even want it in the house. Thanks for your help and I would really appreciate you sharing how inconsiderate and unresponsive Gateway was in this situation. I strongly encourage everyone to stay far away from Gateway."

So what finally spurred Gateway to action - my story, the state attorney general, or just the sheer weight of the reader's own complaints? Who knows, but if you face a similar problem, my suggestion is you try all of the above. Write me at Foster@gripe2ed.com or phone the Gripe Line voice mail at 1 888 875-7916.