Train tracks, disgusting train ride.

Here’s the most disgusting train ride I’ve ever seen

Elaine Miller’s disgusting train ride from Illinois to California should have qualified her for a full Amtrak refund. But it didn’t. With an overflowing filthy toilet inside her accessible bedroom just feet from her pillow, how did Amtrak justify its refusal?

If you have an elderly grandmother or mother, you’ll likely share my outrage at Amtrak’s treatment of Miller. Her terrible two-day experience rides the fine line between lousy customer service and what I would consider elder abuse.

hotel room cleanup

My son got sick in our hotel room. Do I have to pay for the cleanup?

During a family trip, Anna Eardley’s son got sick in their hotel room. Really sick – all over the room. After spending the rest of the night cleaning up the mess, she left a hefty tip and drove home at dawn. So why did she later receive an angry call from the manager telling her that she must pay for the extensive damage to the room — including all new carpet?

LOT Airlines, an aircraft in flight with the words LOT Polish Airlines on the side.

LOT Airlines mistakenly denied boarding to us. How do we get our $2,249 back?

Yevgeniy and Artyom Yevtushenko flew LOT Airlines from Toronto to Astana, Kazakhstan, via Warsaw, Poland, last June without a hitch. But it was a different story when they tried to check in for their flight back to Canada in August. That’s when a stern LOT Airlines agent reviewed their passports and quickly denied boarding to the father and son. 

Confused by the employee’s announcement, Yevtushenko assumed there was some mistake that the airline could easily correct. That is until a supervisor appeared who promptly ended that assumption. He confirmed that LOT Airlines was required to deny boarding to the pair because they were missing Canadian visas. 

But the agents had some good news for the rejected passengers. Since their ultimate destination was Grand Rapids, Michigan, LOT could reroute the pair and avoid Canada altogether. However, there was bad news as well: the new itinerary would cost an additional $2,249. 

Given no other choice, a frustrated Yevtushenko paid the fee, and he and his son flew home to Michigan. 

Now, Yevtushenko is asking Consumer Rescue for help getting the money back. He hopes we can convince LOT Airlines that its employees mistakenly denied boarding to him and Artyom. They didn’t need Canadian visas, and he can prove it – if only someone would listen and look at the facts. 

If you’re familiar with our team, then you know he came to the right place to find someone willing to listen.

Taking a bus tour through Europe, cliffside in Spain,

If you get sick on a bus tour, can you get a refund?

If you get sick on a bus tour, should the operator give you a refund — even if you completed the entire trip? Gay Hackney believes so.

She says that two fellow travelers aboard her bus appeared ill during a 13-day tour through Spain and Portugal. The father and son’s constant coughing irritated her, but the last straw came at the end of the trip when she woke up sick herself.

Now that she’s home, she wants to know if Trafalgar owes her a refund for this unpleasant bus tour.

Red Mustang convertible rental car.

I returned my rental car to the wrong airport. Can Dollar charge me $2,081 extra?

Dollar Car Rental customer Kuno Zurkinden recently discovered how a surprisingly common mistake can end in a giant financial headache. At the end of an adventurous road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles, he made a navigational error: He returned the rental car to the wrong airport.

As a result of that miscalculation, Dollar voided the original contract Zurkinden had through a third-party provider. On the spot, the rental car company created a new contract with new charges – astronomically high charges.

Now, Zurkinden is asking Consumer Rescue for assistance. He wants to know if his “little” geographic mistake really allows the car rental company to charge him $2,081 extra.

Something tells me he isn’t going to like the answer.

A map of the world to illustrate an article about global Medicare coverage.

Will Medicare cover you on an international trip? (Don’t bet on it)

If you have Medicare as your primary insurance and get hit with a health-related emergency while traveling in another country or on a cruise ship, will your treatment be covered? That’s the question many of our readers are asking.  That’s the question many of our readers are asking. 

Read on to understand what your Medicare coverage will and won’t do if you face a medical problem during an international trip. And, of course, I’ll also tell you how to make sure you are protected.

An eBay thief came to this guy's house.

Here’s why you should never give an eBay buyer your home address!

An elaborate PayPal scam led an iPad thief directly to eBay seller Steven Sanderson’s front door. The brazen predator came disguised as a friendly eBay buyer willing to purchase the digital device from Sanderson for $650. And it was weeks before the fraudulent nature of this transaction became clear.

Now Sanderson’s iPad is gone and so is the money he made by “selling” it. He blames PayPal for this fiasco and wants our help getting his $650 back. But who really is responsible here?

Alamo rental car in the desert.

Alamo billed me $662 for rental car damage. Why won’t insurance pay?

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?

Palm Springs is the location of an Airbnb host who seems to have tried a bait and switch vacation rental scheme.

My Airbnb host pulled a $13,314 bait and switch on me. Help!

Isaac Chambers says an Airbnb host just hit him with an expensive bait and switch scam of sorts. After you hear his troubling story, you’ll likely agree.

Many months after Chambers booked the perfect vacation rental for his wedding party, his Airbnb host abruptly canceled the reservation. Citing “synchronization” issues as the cancellation reason, the management company suggested several undesirable replacement properties in Palm Springs. 

Now just two months before his wedding, Chambers’ group has nowhere to stay. That is unless they want to rent the exact same Airbnb vacation rental with this host – for an additional $13,341. 

So what are those “synchronization” issues that allowed the host to cancel this Airbnb and relist it at a much higher rate? That’s what Chambers is asking Consumer Rescue to find out.

Super 8 hotel

Surprise! The hotel says you broke a $500 TV. Now what?

A Canadian Super 8 hotel blindsided Mirko Dulic, accusing him and his boys of damaging the TV in their room. After checking out, the franchise helped itself to $500 from Dulic’s bank account without even a shred of documentation to support its accusations. When pressed to provide some concrete justification for the $500 charge, the management went silent.

And Dulic went straight to our advocacy team for help.