These tales are from our consumer advocacy files. If you’re a consumer with a problem with a company, you can contact us for help as well.
John Curtin had 20 years of his life in his Microsoft account: banking records, mortgage papers, a visa application. He paid $84 a year for it. Then Microsoft flagged unusual activity and locked him out. The bots would not budge.
Jerry Auer checked StubHub’s seating map, saw his section next to the stage, and paid $506 for concert tickets. The map was flipped. He had bought seats behind the stage. He reported it, and a representative hung up on him.
Robert Boisvert, a police officer with a credit score above 800, froze his Experian report for safety. Equifax and TransUnion thawed on request. Experian did not. Two certified letters, calls, an email to the CEO, three months later, still frozen.
Robert Logan paid $489 on StubHub for concert tickets. The artist canceled the show and never rescheduled. Logan called six times for his refund. Each time he heard the same line: we will escalate, give us four to five days.
Benjamin Khoury measured his backpack before his Frontier flight and it fit the airline’s own sizer. The gate agent charged him $99 for an oversized item anyway. Khoury photographed the bag sitting inside the box. Frontier’s customer care said no.
Ray and Denise Oswald returned their Budget rental at O’Hare and got a clean receipt for $312. Five days later came a $450 charge for smoke cleaning, backed by blurry photos of a generic white car. None of them smoke
Athena Smith flies JetBlue twice a month to care for her 95-year-old mother. At the gate, an agent stopped her. Pay $468 or be banned for life. She had booked through a site called Farehub and paid by credit card.
The resort publishes a clear rule: pets up to 40 pounds, two per room. Terry Reilly counted German shepherds, collies and pointers. Then things got worse.
Avis billed Tasha Huebner $450 to deep clean a car she says she returned in pristine condition. The charge was for smoking. She does not smoke. Neither does her passenger. Rental agreements leave odor claims entirely to the company’s judgment.
Michael Huang thought he had found a reliable and clean place to stay when he reserved a studio apartment in Penang, Malaysia, through Booking.com. Instead, he walked into something that looked like a crime scene.
There were stains on the surfaces that appeared to be blood. There was mold on the walls. The bedding was crumpled and smelly, carrying hair that did not belong to anyone in his family. Clumps of hair on the floor, spiderwebs through the property, a stained mattress, a dirty couch. In his words, it was a health hazard.
