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Fiascos and Fixes
Consumer reporter and ombudsman columnist
An Airbnb host sent Janet Reel a surprise $790 damage bill… three weeks after checking out of her vacation rental. Reel says she left the property in perfect condition and considers the accusation outrageous.
After sending Ronald Brown a broken television, Walmart promised him a full refund as soon as he returned it. But months later, the retail giant adjusted its offer in a way Brown never expected. Instead of $1,297 cash, Walmart sent him a $10 online coupon and called it even.
Fraudulent repair bills aren’t just sent to customers of traditional rental car companies. Heidi Schiller found this out recently after a 24-hour car-sharing experience with Turo. Her vehicle host, Ken, acknowledged multiple pre-existing scratches on his Tesla before Heidi took the wheel.
Ken assured his renter that the damage to the car wasn’t her problem to worry about. So Heidi didn’t worry. That is, until a few days later when Turo sent her a $640 repair bill for the vehicle.
Carnival Cruise Line passengers John Harrison and his family of eleven recently learned a harsh lesson about Enhanced ID. They showed up at the cruise port in Galveston, Texas, expecting to quickly “get to the fun.” But the fun never happened for Harrison and his elderly parents. They were denied boarding Carnival Dream after presenting what they presumed to be EDLs.
Carnival employees told the surprised would-be passengers that their driver’s licenses were insufficient to take the cruise. The stunned trio was soon left behind as Dream sailed away with their other eight passport-carrying family members on board.
A vacation rental management company in Nashville charged guests $1,000 for damaging a mattress after a one-night stay. Even more frustrating, the agency told the shocked travelers it didn’t need proof that they had caused the damage.
Can our advocacy team come to the rescue of these consumers?
Let’s find out.
First-time cruise passengers Marisa Vacca, her husband, and toddler couldn’t wait to board Celebrity Cruises Reflection last December. The family arrived in Ft. Lauderdale the night before embarkation and excitedly settled into their hotel.
But then a heavily pregnant Marisa began skimming the Celebrity Cruises pre-boarding instructions, and her heart sank.
You’ve probably heard about the couple jailed in Mexico after filing numerous credit card chargebacks over timeshare fees. They reversed nearly $120,000 in charges from their timeshare company and advised others how to do it too.
Publicly.
The couple gave their awful exit advice on a Facebook group for disgruntled timeshare owners. However, they weren’t the only ones lurking in that community.
A Frontier Airlines passenger says his family was wrongly denied boarding their recent flight and he’s demanding compensation. But what really happened, and does the airline owe him anything?
Let’s find out.
Travelers beware: Sometimes a travel insurance mistake isn’t fixable – no matter how much money is at stake. But what about this one?
You’ve likely seen the video of the Carnival passengers brawling in the Galveston, Texas, cruise port this week. Sadly, that footage, which shows a large group of cruisers assaulting each other as they disembarked from Jubilee, is not particularly shocking in 2025. Unfortunately, egregiously bad behavior among cruise ship passengers is becoming more commonplace. Should you be worried that the bad behavior of fellow passengers will ruin your next cruise?
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© 2025 Consumer Rescue / Michelle Couch-Friedman
