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Michelle Couch-Friedman

Michelle Couch-Friedman is the founder and CEO of Consumer Rescue. She is a consumer advocate, ombudsman columnist, mediator, writer, and licensed psychotherapist. Michelle is a public speaker, and her expert guidance has been cited in Consumer Reports, Travel & Leisure, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Popular Science, CNN, CNBC, National Geographic, Travel Weekly, Reader's Digest and more. You might even catch Michelle on tv helping fix a situation. :) Michelle is also the travel ombudsman columnist for The Points Guy and is the former executive director of the nonprofit Elliott Advocacy. During her six years in that position, she resolved thousands of cases for troubled travelers and other consumers. You can read hundreds of 5-star reviews Michelle earned during her service to the nonprofit since 2016 here on Great Nonprofits. Today, she continues to spend as much time as possible fiercely defending consumers and traveling the world with her family. Contact her at Michelle Couch-Friedman or on Linkedin, Twitter or Facebook.
Vantage Travel is bankrupt, Vantage Ocean Explorer and Odyssey are tied up side by side in France.

Vantage Travel is bankrupt. Here’s what customers need to know

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Vantage Deluxe World Travel finally pulled the plug on itself and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 29. This move was no surprise to anyone following the troubling situation at the once well-respected tour operator. 

What did come as a surprise was the true debt the company amassed before increasing negative publicity about its operations forced it to shut down. The legal team of Vantage Travel revealed that shocking figure in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proposal.

All told, Vantage Travel owes customers, vendors, contractors, and other creditors over 170 million dollars.

Super 8 hotel

Surprise! The hotel says you broke a $500 TV. Now what?

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A Canadian Super 8 hotel blindsided Mirko Dulic, accusing him and his boys of damaging the TV in their room. After checking out, the franchise helped itself to $500 from Dulic’s bank account without even a shred of documentation to support its accusations. When pressed to provide some concrete justification for the $500 charge, the management went silent.

And Dulic went straight to our advocacy team for help.

Hotel room, bed, light, softly lit hotel room

If your hotel price drops by $1,000, this is how to get a refund

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What happens if your hotel price drops after booking your room — by $1,000? That’s what Jackie Ng wants to know.

She booked a hotel in Singapore that dramatically reduced its rates after Ng prepaid for her nonrefundable stay. Ng thought that the Hotels com best rate guarantee would protect her. But the online booking agent swiftly rejected her $1,000 price reduction refund request.

The surprising reason why might leave you as bewildered as Ng.

car rental nightmare mistake, Thrifty, Hertz car rental counter

How did this $145 car rental turn into a $4,320 nightmare?

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Rishabh Gupta expected to pay approximately $145 for his recent one-day Thrifty car rental. So imagine his surprise when the final bill rang in at just under $5,000. 

Gupta’s surprise turned to shock when he asked the car rental company to correct the outrageous billing error. 

That’s when Thrifty explained that the super-sized invoice wasn’t a mistake at all. The car rental giant informed Gupta that he had returned the vehicle to a competing agency, where it remained undetected for a month. 

Now with Thrifty’s parent company, Hertz, confirming that Gupta owes the $4,320 tab, he’s asking for help. He hopes Consumer Rescue can investigate and prove he returned the rental car to the correct location. 

But with no evidence to support his claim, will he remain stuck with this nightmare car rental bill?

Vantage Travel River Splendor ship, colorful countryside, long passenger river boat, Letter V in the middle of the boat for Vantage.

How buying travel insurance from a tour operator could be a $20,000 mistake

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For years, legions of Vantage Deluxe World Travel customers eagerly purchased their trip insurance directly from the luxury tour operator. They loved the ease and convenience of having a one-stop shop for their travel planning. Unfortunately, many, if not most of these unsuspecting consumers neither read nor understood the trip protection they were buying. 

That was a mistake.

Now with Vantage Travel seemingly unable to pay its bills or operate its tours, a giant light is shining on its pricey waiver product. Thousands of desperate customers are finally reading the details of the trip protection Vantage sold them. Far too late, they’re discovering the policy provides virtually no protection at all if the company runs out of money.

Vantage Travel Ocean Explorer, a cruise ship on the ocean at sunset.

Help! Vantage Travel canceled my cruise. What should I do now?

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In the past month, pleas for help from distressed customers, vendors and even employees of Vantage Deluxe World Travel have flooded my inbox at an alarming rate. That’s the Boston-based company that announced bad guys had hit it with ransomware at the end of April. At that time, the tour operator’s website went offline, as did its call center – for an entire week.

Since then, it’s been all downhill for the customers of the once well-respected and beloved operator of luxury tours. Today Vantage Travel appears to be in a state of suspended animation. It has officially canceled all its cruises and land tours through June 10. 

Although Vantage Travel has not publicly announced that it will continue to cancel more cruises, it is inevitable. In fact, a Vantage Travel employee sent me an internal memo yesterday that announces that it will cancel all tours through Aug. 28.

The once-lively vessels of Vantage Travel are turning into immobile ghost ships without passengers or crews.

The Maldives, blue ocean, blue sky, tropical trees.

A roaming charge nightmare: waking up to a $2,452 cell phone bill!

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Vacationing in the Maldives was a dream come true for Marilyn and Terry Thomas. That is until they got hit with a $2,452 roaming charge nightmare from Spectrum, their cell phone service provider.

The couple says they were soundly asleep as Terry’s phone racked up this shocking roaming charge after the hotel’s internet went down. 

Now, as the due date for this giant bill is rapidly approaching, they’re asking Consumer Rescue for help. The couple finds it hard to believe an idle phone could accrue $2,452 in roaming charges over several hours. 

But Spectrum says that phone did incur those roaming charges, and it expects the Thomases to pay the bill.

Can we rescue these consumers from their roaming charge nightmare? Let’s find out.