Here to help
Billing cycles can really mess with your head.
Don’t take my word for it. Consider what happened to Michael Dearing, a registered nurse from Chicago, when Comcast adjusted — or in his words “played with” — his billing cycles recently. Read more “What you don’t know about billing cycles will blow your mind”
Is it my imagination, or are travel companies getting pushier?
The come-ons include repeated invitations to return to a hotel or restaurant, high-pressure pitches to “like” a company’s Facebook account and urgent requests for positive online reviews. As summer vacations fade into memory, the aggressiveness has never been more obvious. Read more “Review this! Travelers fed up with solicitations”
Keith Johnson can’t seem to subscribe to Royal Caribbean’s promotional emails. Maybe he needs help from an advocate. Read more “I want to receive Royal Caribbean’s promotional emails. Why won’t they send them?”
What do you want for the holidays? If you’re Paulina Want, how about a little honesty? Read more “All I want for Christmas is a little honesty from the travel industry”
Travel bans. Shootings. Viral passenger videos.
No one will forget the past year in travel. How could they? But what does it all mean for your 2018 trips? Read more “It’s been a wild year for travel. What’s ahead for 2018?”
Government fines against airlines for consumer rule violations are on track to hit a six-year low as the U.S. Department of Transportation’s enforcement actions shift from punishment to preventing infractions. With only a few weeks left in 2014, the DOT has issued 23 consent orders that assess $2.6 million in penalties — $4.5 million less than last year. That’s the same number as in 2009.
Read more “Federal government wraps up quiet year for traveler protections”
What’s a consumer to do?
We’ve had a lively conversation about authenticity during the last two weeks, dissecting the problem of counterfeit electronics and phone cards. But as it turns out, the problem runs much deeper.
Fakes are everywhere.
Read more “Surrounded by impostors, what’s a consumer to do?”
When is an hour just 36 minutes? When you buy some phone cards, apparently. That’s the conclusion of a recent Federal Trade Commission investigation, which found certain pre-paid calling cards offered an average of just 40 percent of call minutes customers thought they were buying — and some, significantly less.
You should care about this if you travel outside your wireless company’s regular calling area, because that’s when you’re likely to buy one of these cards. If you don’t read the fine print on the agreement, you could end up getting shorted by close to a half hour of talk time, according to the FTC.
Read more “Is your phone card phony? 5 ways you can tell”
After Jane Hatch selected the room rate she wanted at the West Street Hotel in Bar Harbor, Maine, the hotel Web site delivered an unpleasant surprise on the next screen: The quoted price hadn’t included a $25-per-day “resort and club fee” that gave Hatch access to the hotel pool, hot tub and fitness center — whether she wanted it or not.
“They didn’t tell me until the end,” says Hatch, who lives in Montgomery Village, Md. “I still booked the room, but it was misleading and unbecoming, particularly for a new property looking to make its mark. Perhaps they don’t care in resort areas like Bar Harbor. But I care.”
Read more “Are hidden hotel fees about to check out?”
For the 12th year in a row, ID theft is the number-one complaint to the Federal Trade Commission, the agency announced recently. It’s followed by the usual shenanigans, including debt collection schemes, bogus sweepstakes, and bank fraud.
Read more “Who’s responsible for the scam epidemic?”
