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Fiascos and Fixes
The Consumer Rescue advocacy team resolves problems between consumers and the businesses that they patronize. We do this via direct mediation with companies — always free of charge.
These articles are the highlighted tales of our efforts to defend, protect, and educate consumers. Michelle Couch-Friedman is a consumer advocate, reporter and ombudsman columnist. She is also the founder of Consumer Rescue.
Tom Suminski intended to redeem his stockpile of $7,762 American Airlines flight credit for a Hawaiian vacation. But he says an airline representative gave him faulty redemption instructions that led the vouchers to expire right under his nose.
The entire $7,762.
That put the family’s tropical dreams in jeopardy. Tom hopes we can convince American Airlines to reinstate his flight credit. But is this just a lost cause?
Have you ever found yourself stuck paying for a subscription you didn’t want after a company “gotcha” with an automatic renewal? I bet you have.
It happened to me recently. Here’s how I fought it and what you can do to protect yourself from this predatory business practice.
Yes, Jeff, there is a Santa Claus.
And Macy’s can prove it.
Editor’s note: I wrote nearly 400 articles to promote and support the nonprofit Elliott Advocacy for over half a decade. This is the very first article I wrote and published there in December 2016.
Home Depot sold Marcea Cazel a beautiful 7-foot pre-lit Christmas tree with an extended warranty two years ago. The family loved the tree’s realistic look and soft twinkling lights and hoped to enjoy it for years to come. Unfortunately, the tree turned out to be a dud.
Last year, the family spent hours placing sentimental ornaments on their tree and reminiscing about each one. After the decorating was complete, the family gathered around for the big reveal. To their great disappointment, when Marcea flipped the switch, the bottom of the pre-lit tree remained completely dark. Since that time, Marcea has repeatedly asked Home Depot to honor the warranty and replace the tree. But she still has a pre-lit tree that only lights up on top.
Airbnb host Nancy Isa recently got a terrible shock when she discovered hackers had broken into her payout account. Unfortunately, by the time she noticed something was wrong, Airbnb had been making regular payments to the scammers – for five months.
In total, the hackers stole $34,250 from Nancy’s Airbnb host account.
Then things went from bad to worse. With all that money on the line, Nancy contacted the listing giant in a panic. She was hoping for some calming reassurance that all was not lost. Instead, Airbnb immediately locked the host out of her own account and then went radio silent.
That’s when Nancy reached out to the Consumer Rescue team. She’s hoping we can convince Airbnb to give back her access to her host account – and her $34,250.
But after six months, is that possible?
United Airlines canceled many flights early in the pandemic and routinely shoved vouchers instead of refunds at its disgruntled passengers. This unorthodox (and illegal) practice continued until the Department of Transportation put the brakes on it in April 2020.
Earlier that month, United Airlines canceled Michelle Noppenberger’s flight and automatically issued her a voucher instead of a refund. Over two years later, she’s still fuming about the situation and wants the airline to give her money back. And she’s asking our advocacy team to help her get it.
But after all this time, will United Airlines take back this unwanted voucher and refund her $1,764?
Let’s find out.
What if Orbitz made a mistake and canceled your return flight home from vacation, leaving you stranded abroad?
Before her recent Lufthansa flight to Hamburg, Kate Griffin purchased a Platinum lost luggage protection plan from Blue Ribbon Bags. That plan provides a $1,500 lump payment if an insured bag goes missing and can’t be located within 96 hours.
So when she landed in Germany but her two suitcases didn’t, Kate figured she was covered. She quickly filed a lost luggage report with Lufthansa and Blue Ribbon Bags and then waited.
Those 96 hours came and went, but Lufthansa failed to locate her lost luggage. So why did Blue Ribbon reject her $3,000 claim for the two missing bags?
Shannon Mikus says Hertz made a big mistake during her recent car rental. She says the company charged her nearly $750 extra, and she can prove it. So why won’t anyone at Hertz acknowledge this outrageous error and refund her cash?
What happens if your travel agent cancels your cruise by mistake and then quits his job? Unfortunately, NCL passenger Margaret Prendergast knows very well — you can quickly lose thousands of your hard-earned dollars.
Margaret had been patiently waiting for Norwegian Cruise Line to process a refund for a cruise it canceled. But because her agent erroneously canceled her cruise several days before the cruise line, it’s a $5,587 refund NCL never intended to send.
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