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.
Linda Takvorian paid $377 to have two ceramic flowerpots packed, insured and shipped from a UPS Store in Massachusetts. One arrived shattered. An employee promised a full refund. Then the employee was fired, and the promise apparently left with him.
On the morning Marianne Piepenburg was due to collect her rental car in Avignon, arsonists attacked the French rail lines and she could not reach the counter. National canceled her reservation, then charged her $403 more for a replacement car.
The listing called it quiet and peaceful five times. Instead, heavy impact noise from the unit above woke Tatsuyuki Morishita at 4 a.m. almost nightly in Toronto. An Airbnb agent promised a refund in writing. Then he returned the keys.
Zachary Scott, an active-duty servicemember, used his own modem and router for years. So when his internet provider billed him $252 for equipment he never rented, then sent it to collections, he faced one question: how to prove a negative?
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
