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Fiascos and Fixes
Credit card problems are not easy to tackle. These are the tales of the consumers who contact our team for assistance navigating battles with credit card companies: From how to correctly file a credit card chargeback, how to appeal a rejected dispute, to how a chargeback can actually backfire on you, we cover it all here.
Simon Khin is a victim of a scam aimed at international travelers. He’s sure of it. While touring a Balinese coffee plantation, he bought two small tins of fresh beans for $48. He didn’t think much about that purchase until several weeks later. That’s when his Capital One statement revealed that the merchant had actually charged his credit card $4,800.
But the worst was yet to come.
Consumer Rescue had a bonanza of wins for Vantage Travel customers as we sprinted to this year’s finish line. Since early November, our advocacy team has retrieved nearly $100,000 for victims of the Vantage Travel bankruptcy.
Here’s some good consumer news to end 2023.
There’s something very fishy going on with Eileen Whalen’s lost credit card chargeback against bankrupt tour operator Vantage Travel. It’s unclear who from the out-of-business company is fighting customer chargebacks for cruises it canceled, but someone is.
Whalen was plunged right into the middle of this bizarre mystery last month. That’s when a strange chargeback response allegedly from Vantage Travel caused Capital One to reject her valid credit card dispute.
In that rambling missive, the grammatically and factually challenged anonymous author claimed Vantage Travel hadn’t canceled any cruises in September. To add insult to injury, the letter implied Whalen was misusing the credit card dispute process. In summary, it asked Capital One to return the funds to the bankrupt tour operator.
And that’s what happened.
After Robbin Yeh’s last car rental, Alamo surprised him with a repair bill for mechanical damage to the vehicle. Despite Yeh’s protests that the rental car had pre-existing problems, Alamo continued to pursue him for $662 to fix it. Reluctantly, Yeh agreed to let Alamo file an insurance claim through his credit card company.
At least, that’s what he thought Alamo was doing to pay for the damage to the car.
It wasn’t until four months later that Yeh discovered that he was responsible for filing that insurance claim, not Alamo.
Now with the deadline for filing an insurance claim long since passed, Yeh is asking Consumer Rescue for help. He’s hoping we can convince Chase eClaims to make an exception and pay the repair bill for the rental car.
Can we do it?
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.
United Airlines canceled Eric Noderer’s flight to India and sent his refund to a closed credit card account. Since then, he’s been in an endless battle between the airline and Chase to locate the missing $2,217.
Now he’s hoping our advocacy team can provide the backup assistance he needs to find and retrieve his money.
Can we do it?
It’s never a good idea to close a credit card when you’ve used it to pay for upcoming flight or cruise. There are many reasons this is so, but Noderer’s struggle highlights the primary one. Here’s his frustrating tale.
Warning: Buyer’s remorse is never a valid reason to report a credit card charge as fraudulent. But that’s exactly what Philip Paul did when he came down with the post-purchase blues after he bought a vacation club membership. Now he wants to know if our advocacy team can help unravel this mess.
Many frustrated consumers file credit card disputes hoping to fast-track refunds from resistant companies. That’s often a mistake they end up regretting as it only digs them into a deeper problem.
Heather Steele just landed on the Do Not Rent list of her favorite car rental company — Hertz. She says she’s been a great customer of Hertz for many years and the banishment has her flabbergasted. But a dispute over a prepaid car rental refund sent her account to collections and earned her a spot on the blacklist.
Now Steele is asking our advocacy team to step in and clear her name. She wants to be removed from the Do Not Rent list and have Hertz return her account to good standing.
Can we do it?
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© 2025 Consumer Rescue / Michelle Couch-Friedman
