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Fiascos and Fixes
Michelle Couch-Friedman is an author and consumer advocate. She is the founder of Consumer Rescue. Michelle has successfully mediated thousands of problems for troubled travelers and other consumers during her career as an advocate.
Verizon customers are being targeted by phone scammers pretending to be helpful agents of the wireless titan. The predators deliver troubling news to their unaware victims and then provide urgent solutions to “fix” the problem.
I know this firsthand because one of these crooks called my Verizon number and tried his scheme on me. As you can imagine, things didn’t go quite as this phone scammer had planned.
If you send your child on an international journey, you better ensure they are old enough to fly alone on all parts of the trip. One mom thought her son was finally old enough to fly as a solo young adult instead of an unaccompanied minor. Turns out she was only half right.
Cesar Resendiz and his wife thought a Carnival cruise would be the perfect way to celebrate their anniversary. What they didn’t think about was putting their mobile phones in airplane mode during their ten days onboard the ship. That oversight led to a shocking $2,349 roaming charge they discovered only after disembarking from Carnival’s Venezia. Â
United Airlines travel credit, like all airline credit, has a limited shelf life. Despite that fact, many passengers remain unaware of the expiration date of their future travel credit – and end up losing it all. Here’s one traveler’s unfortunate tale and what you need to know so this doesn’t happen to you.
Scam call centers are having a moment on the internet, bizarrely appearing in the top search results for many of your consumer questions. Here’s what you need to know about spotting and avoiding these World Wide Web predators.
This adventurous traveler assumed he was covered by his parent’s car insurance policy during his recent car rental. But if that’s true, why won’t the company pay this damage claim?
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.
What would you do if a hotel accused you of causing damage to your room’s mattress in the most embarrassing way?
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?
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.Â
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