Can a tour guide cancel your trip and refuse your refund request, too?
What would you do if a belligerent tour guide canceled your trip and then refused to refund your deposit? It happened to this photographer. Here’s her frustrating story.
CONSUMER ADVOCACY
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.
What are these Medicare charges and do these readers really have to pay?
Have you received an unexpected bill from Medicare? Luckily, Consumer Rescue’s special features columnist is also a certified Medicare counselor. Today, he answers some questions posed by our readers.
Help! Hampton Inn accused me of damaging the mattress in my hotel room
What would you do if a hotel accused you of causing damage to your room’s mattress in the most embarrassing way?
Norwegian Cruise Line sent my refund to my enemy. How can I get it back?
Lynette Hampton was looking forward to a trip aboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s Viva with her friend Gloria. That is until the two had an irreversible falling out, which caused Hampton to cancel her part of the cruise. Things only got worse between them when NCL mistakenly sent a portion of Hampton’s refund to her newly minted enemy — and she refuses to give it back. Now what?
Help! I’m stuck in a $6,079 international roaming charge disaster
International travelers beware: Taking your cell phone on vacation can lead to sky-high roaming charges if you’re not careful. This Spectrum customer wishes someone had warned him before his recent business trip to Asia.
Agoda charged me $5,886 for three nights in a budget hotel. Help!
Two weeks after Robert Perry’s recent stay at a $54-per-night budget hotel in Thailand, he got an unpleasant surprise. That’s when he discovered that Agoda, his third-party booking agent, had made a mistake and charged him $5,886 instead of $162.
Can United Airlines really refuse to refund my canceled flight?
When United Airlines canceled part of Brian Ostenso’s flight to Australia, he responded with a request for a refund. But then, just as swiftly, the airline sent him a $6,824 future flight credit for the missed trip instead.
But Ostenso didn’t want a future flight credit. He wanted a refund for the entire flight that United Airlines canceled.
So what went wrong?
What if your child was banned from taking a Carnival cruise forever?
Would Carnival Cruise Line really ban a nine-year-old child from cruising for the rest of his life? The answer for one family is “absolutely.” Does the punishment fit the crime? You decide.
Why did American Airlines call me a no-show for a flight it canceled?
How could American Airlines consider a passenger a no show for a flight it canceled? The answer to that question is, of course, it can’t. Yet that seems to be precisely what happened to Sherri Gleason – and at the worst possible time for the grandmother-to-be.
Feeling trapped by your Medicare Advantage plan? You’re not alone
Imagine needing a medical procedure only to find that your Medicare Advantage plan is denying coverage. Unfortunately, that’s not an imaginary scenario. In fact, it’s very real and happens millions of times a year for seniors in Medicare Advantage plans. The problem of unfair coverage denials is finally getting more national attention. But it’s too late for those who were wrongly denied care.
