Elliott Advocacy is a nonprofit organization that mediates cases between consumers and businesses. These are commentary articles that detail our efforts and provide educational information for consumers.
Before something goes wrong on your next trip, consider taking a little expert travel advice from a guy who specializes in something-goes-wrong scenarios. That guy is Curt Richardson, who founded OtterBox, a manufacturer of protective cases for phones and tablet computers.
Airline tickets are more complicated and confusing than ever. Do they also need warning labels? Maybe.
When Lynn Culver stays at a hotel, she helps herself to the soaps and shampoos in her room. If housekeeping replaces the items, she takes the new ones, too.
Culver, a retired attorney from Lumberton, N.J., believes her room rate covers the amenities.
“But some of my fellow travelers consider this stealing,” she says. “Can you please settle a dispute among friends?”
Businesses lie to customers. And in an anything-goes, laissez-faire regulatory environment such as this one, the falsehoods are starting to pile up.
Fuel is expensive, but the tricks travelers use to find the cheapest gas have remained constant for years. They include favorite apps such as GasBuddy, plus common-sense strategies like avoiding service stations on busy highways.
If you’re in the market for a car, you’re probably also in the market for some car buying legal advice.
Consider my recent purchase of a Honda CRV. The sales contracts my dealership put in front of me made my head spin. Like the 17 million other Americans who bought a car, truck or SUV last year, I felt broadsided by paperwork.
Car rental mistakes can be avoided. But you need to know what to watch out for.
Before you click the “book” button on your next car rental, consider what happened to Elizabeth Thorp on a recent trip from Washington to Denver.
Before she boarded her flight from Santiago, Chile, to Buenos Aires, the unthinkable happened to Barbara Rowan: a security screener tried to confiscate her needles.
Rowan, who is a diabetic, needs to carry hypodermic needles with her for medical reasons. So she struck a deal with the Chilean airport officials: The chief purser would hold the packaged needles until the plane landed in Argentina.
Sean Cummings helped put New Orleans back on the map after Hurricane Katrina. As one of the thousands of small business owners in the city, he faced a difficult choice in the storm’s wake: rebuild his hotel, the iconic International House in the financial district, at a price that exceeded its value or leave.
If you think you’ve seen it all when it comes to shady debt collectors, move to Jackson County, Miss. That’s where criminals have been calling residents with fake power bills and threatening to turn off their electricity if they don’t immediately pay them. Talk about a debt collection scam.
