Welcome to Consumer Rescue
Your Fiasco Fixer
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.
When Ebola broke out last May in Uganda, Isador Lieberman immediately canceled his upcoming KLM flight to Entebbe. He says a KLM agent assured him that, under the circumstances, the airline would refund his nonrefundable $9,188 ticket.
But two months later, KLM gave Lieberman a new assurance — it only owed him $146 for the flight he canceled.
As a consumer advocate who has reviewed, investigated and resolved thousands of problems during the past decade, I know there is a right way — and a wrong way — to write an effective complaint letter. The most effective way to get the outcome you’re hoping for is to keep your message cordial, concise and clear.
To help you do that on your next problem-solving mission, I’ve created a free letter-writing template for you — and some sample letters so you can see this methodology in action.
You’re welcome. 😉
A common travel insurance mistake caused a reader’s entire $19,000 claim to be rejected. Here’s what Consumer Rescue did to help and what you need to know to avoid making the same error.
There’s no doubt that getting denied boarding a cruise you’ve been eagerly anticipating for months — maybe even years — is traumatic.
My case files are filled with the distraught pleas for help from cruisers who’ve experienced it firsthand. In nearly all cases, the situation could have been avoided had the traveler done some basic research.
Here are the top ways cruise passengers get denied boarding and what you can do to avoid the same
World Cup super fan Yoshua Quinones snagged a ticket to the final game. At least that’s what his $10,767 receipt from StubHub said. But three months later, with the big event quickly approaching, his FIFA account was still empty.
Two days before Lance Sathoff’s family was scheduled to leave for their Mexican vacation, they received a disturbing email. The message from Hilton informed the Sathoffs that the rate of their prepaid, all-inclusive hotel room had increased by $1,800. According to Hilton, they would need to pay that upcharge at check-in.
If you receive a Punchbowl invitation for a friend’s event, don’t rush out to buy a new party dress just yet. That festive invite could just be part of a dangerous phishing scam.
A Canadian couple say Costco Travel told them that they did not need visas to take a cruise to Brazil. But when they arrived at the pier in Buenos Aires on embarkation day, Celebrity crew members said otherwise. As a result the stunned husband and wife were denied boarding the cruise and left stranded in Argentina.
These would-be passengers say the disastrous travel fiasco cost them over $13,000 — no cruise included.
I’ve spent years writing about Zelle scams and how to recognize and avoid them. That’s what makes what happened to my daughter last week on the streets of Philadelphia so unusual.
If you accidentally put the wrong gas in a rental car, you’re most certainly headed for a giant repair bill. Mohit Govani recently discovered just how giant after Hertz accused him of destroying the engine of a Subaru Outback. The Vehicle Incident Report (VIR) says incorrect fuel caused an astounding $9,000 in damage to the rental car.
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