Turo rental gone wrong, fraudulent car repair bill, pre-existing damages to a vehicle, Consumer Rescue guidance and direct help, consumer advocates, Consumer Rescue, Michelle Couch-Friedman can help

I got hit with a fraudulent $640 car repair bill after a Turo rental!

Fraudulent repair bills aren’t just sent to customers of traditional rental car companies. Heidi Schiller found this out recently after a 24-hour car-sharing experience with Turo. Her vehicle host, Ken, acknowledged multiple pre-existing scratches on his Tesla before Heidi took the wheel. 

Ken assured his renter that the damage to the car wasn’t her problem to worry about. So Heidi didn’t worry. That is, until a few days later when Turo sent her a $640 repair bill for the vehicle.

Carnival Cruise Line's Dream, cruise ship at sunset, Carnival Dream

Cruise ship passengers beware: No, you don’t have an Enhanced ID!

Carnival Cruise Line passengers John Harrison and his family of eleven recently learned a harsh lesson about Enhanced ID. They showed up at the cruise port in Galveston, Texas, expecting to quickly “get to the fun.” But the fun never happened for Harrison and his elderly parents. They were denied boarding Carnival Dream after presenting what they presumed to be EDLs.

Carnival employees told the surprised would-be passengers that their driver’s licenses were insufficient to take the cruise. The stunned trio was soon left behind as Dream sailed away with their other eight passport-carrying family members on board.

Celebrity Cruises denied boarding pregnant passenger, Celebrity Reflection, cruise ship on the ocean, Cruise ship at sunset.

Celebrity Cruises denied boarding to a pregnant would-be cruise passenger. Here’s why

First-time cruise passengers Marisa Vacca, her husband, and toddler couldn’t wait to board Celebrity Cruises Reflection last December. The family arrived in Ft. Lauderdale the night before embarkation and excitedly settled into their hotel. 

But then a heavily pregnant Marisa began skimming the Celebrity Cruises pre-boarding instructions, and her heart sank.

Timeshare chaos in Cabo, Cabo San Lucas, blue sky and sea,

My timeshare company offered a $2,500 buyback but never paid me!

You’ve probably heard about the couple jailed in Mexico after filing numerous credit card chargebacks over timeshare fees. They reversed nearly $120,000 in charges from their timeshare company and advised others how to do it too.

Publicly.

The couple gave their awful exit advice on a Facebook group for disgruntled timeshare owners. However, they weren’t the only ones lurking in that community.

Bad behavior on cruise, Passengers misbehaving on cruise ship, Avoid poorly behavior passengers on your cruise, ruined cruise

Will your cruise be ruined by the bad behavior of fellow passengers?

You’ve likely seen the video of the Carnival passengers brawling in the Galveston, Texas, cruise port this week. Sadly, that footage, which shows a large group of cruisers assaulting each other as they disembarked from Jubilee, is not particularly shocking in 2025. Unfortunately, egregiously bad behavior among cruise ship passengers is becoming more commonplace. Should you be worried that the bad behavior of fellow passengers will ruin your next cruise?

Celebrity cruise, Celebrity Equinox, cruise ship on the ocean, Celebrity cruise passenger forgot passport

A Celebrity cruise passenger forgot her passport. FedEx made things even worse

As Sherry Warren and her husband prepared for their upcoming Celebrity cruise, she bought a colorful passport case. The little wallet was stylish and protective, with Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) blocking features. It would be the perfect way to carry their passports, Warren thought. 

And it surely would have – had she not forgotten the wallet with their passports inside when they left for the cruise.