When Maura Ruzhnikov sends money to a stranger by mistake on Zelle, she tries to undo the transaction. That’s easier said than done. Will she ever get her money back?
If there’s a busy season for travel insurance claims, this is probably it. Summer vacations are over, some prematurely. Hundreds of thousands of claims are working their way through the system.
When Samantha Armstrong sees a $250 charge on her hotel bill, she’s told it’s because she smoked in her room. Just one small problem: Armstrong doesn’t smoke.
Arlene Verge’s theater tickets are for a performance in the wrong city. They’re also nonrefundable. Does she have any chance of getting her money back?
Travelers make mistakes every day of the year. Believe me, I know. I’m one of them.
It comes to us by way of Tracey Phillips. She had a problem with a hotel’s change policy. Specifically, every time she changed the date of her stay, the hotel insisted on charging her a fee, which is an increasingly common problem.
Instead of the grassroots approach to problem-solving, which I always recommend — in other words, starting with a real-time resolution at the lowest level, and working your way up — Tracey went straight to the top. She wrote an impassioned letter to the CEO, asking for a one-time exception to the hotel’s rules.
And, no surprise, she hasn’t received a response yet.
Somewhere in the attic of my old house in Key Largo, Fla., a reminder of my biggest consumer mistake ever is collecting dust. I’ve never told anyone about it. Until now.
It’s a profoundly embarrassing tale of negligence and naivete — my own negligence and naivete. By revealing it today, I hope that I can persuade you to share your stories, and allow others to learn from them.
Here goes.
In 2003, shortly after our first son was born, my family lived happily in remote South Florida outpost known for amazing scuba diving and recreational fishing. But since I used the second bedroom as an office, our small home was starting to feel a little crowded. A neighbor suggested we build an addition to our house instead of moving, which seemed like a great idea.
Much worse. The airline on which they had reservations, Bahamasair, didn’t even serve Richmond.
“We had non-refundable hotel reservations,” says Forbes, a homemaker who lives in McKenney, Va. “But we had no way to get there.”
Forbes had booked her vacation through an online travel agency called Hotwire, which offers customers steep discounts in exchange for not telling them the exact airline or hotel they’re booking until they’ve made their reservations. And all reservations are final and non-refundable.
