🥹Extenuating circumstances forced my family to cancel our Vrbo. Where's my $3,497 refund?

 ⛑️Consumer Rescue presents🛟

Tales from Consumer Advocacy Land

Real stories. Real rescues. Real advice.

Happy Sunday, friends! 🌻

I don’t know what the weather is like where you are, but here in New Jersey, it is a beautiful spring day. As soon as I finish this newsletter, I intend to go out and soak up some sun. I hope you’re able to do the same.

But first, I want to tell you what’s new in Consumer Advocacy Land. And after that, I’ll share the newest edition of “Life, Lately” — my journey to prepare and sell my house after living in it for 26 ½ years.

Today, I’ll tell you about a family who picked the wrong spring break destination this year. Unfortunately, just before they were supposed to be enjoying a Vrbo on the beach in Kihei, Maui, historic storms hit the island, causing widespread flooding and devastation.

Although they were disappointed to have to cancel, they never imagined that Vrbo’s extenuating circumstances policy wouldn’t cover the $3,497 rental fee.

But it didn’t. Find out what happened next in our first featured article.

And here are a few more stories you may have missed previously:

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Well, last week I had to take a break from packing and decluttering to head into Philadelphia. My littlest daughter graduated from Temple University with a BA in psychology. And my oldest daughter just finished her first year of law school in New York City this week. I couldn’t be prouder!

All the festivities were a brief reprieve from the overwhelming task of decluttering and preparing my house to go on the market. I never really considered just how much stuff my family accumulated over the years.

Every time I take another load of things to the donation truck or pack more items into the PODS container outside, I come back inside the house, and I feel like I’m being punked. An image of a clown car comes to mind, where the never-ending parade of stuff keeps marching out, even though there is seemingly no way it could have all fit inside. I imagine my efforts being set to silly music as I keep popping out my front door with more stuff.

If you’ve been with me for a long time, then you know my dad died suddenly during the pandemic. It was a devastating time for me, and I still haven’t gone through all his things. But all of it is here in my house.

I thought this might be a good time to go through some of the boxes and maybe get rid of some of it. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t discarding anything of crucial importance. So when I found a folder labeled “tricks,” I figured it must be some household hacks or generational information to pass down from my dad to me and then to my daughters.

I pulled the folder out to find out what wisdom my dad wanted me to learn that he hadn’t had the chance to impart on me before his untimely death.

And…

When I opened the folder, I instantly burst out laughing. The tricks label on it was literal. It actually contained old-time sleight-of-hand magic tricks and “thumb tip magic.”

This sums up my dad perfectly. He was a goofy and caring guy who always wanted to make people laugh. He had a weird sense of humor, which we shared.

I think he planted this folder among the important stuff so that when the day came — and I had to go through it after his death — this folder of tricks would break the somber moment and make me laugh.

It did just that.

Until next time 😃

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