Christopher Elliott

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers consumers to solve their problems and helps those who can't. He's the author of numerous books on consumer advocacy and writes three nationally syndicated columns. He also publishes the Elliott Report, a news site for consumers, and Elliott Confidential, a critically acclaimed newsletter about customer service. If you have a consumer problem you can't solve, contact him directly through his advocacy website. You can also follow him on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or sign up for his daily newsletter.

Will the long airport lines of spring break 2016 be back again this year?

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If you’re already bracing for a long airport security line during the spring break travel season, then you must remember last year.

You do, don’t you? That’s when Transportation Security Administration screening wait times doubled under the weight of tighter security and swelling crowds. On just one day in mid-March, 6,800 American Airlines customers reportedly missed their flights, thanks to the lengthy TSA lines.

How failure can make you a better customer

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When people say you learn more from your failures than your successes, William Seavey is the first to agree. He bought a Samsung top-loader washing machine, recommended by Consumer Reports, at Sears. “It turned out to be a lemon,” says Seavey, a consultant based in Cambria, Calif.

Why airline codesharing must die

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Although Shelley Jones’ complaint is common, I’ve never heard it from someone like her. Her problem: She’s done with airline “codesharing” — a marketing arrangement in which an airline places its designator code on a flight operated by another airline, and sells tickets for that flight. She’s seen too many passengers pull up to the wrong terminal because they thought they were flying on one carrier when, in fact, they were booked on another.

question, wonder, confuse, confused, confusing, ask, asking, answer, questioning, mark

I love a good mystery. You will too.

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Have you noticed the recent string of stories about cases that ended in a big question mark? Neither the consumer nor the company responded to repeated requests for an update or a resolution, so we were left to guess the outcome.

Would you share with your readers how you do this and your procedures and techniques? That way, we would have better tools to work with."

How I got a refund as a civilian (and how you can, too)

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How does a consumer advocate resolve his own dispute with a company? So glad you asked. If you’re a real advocate, you don’t flash your card. Oh no, that would be too easy. To measure your Advocate-Fu, you have to dress like a civilian and then use the strategies you’ve mastered to make things right.