⛑️Consumer Rescue presents🛟
Tales from Consumer Advocacy Land
Real stories. Real rescues. Real advice.
Hello friends! Happy Thursday
As I just explained to my editors here at Consumer Rescue, I’ve just recovered from a short bout of writer’s block brought on by an overwhelming number of boxes to pack and unpack during the past two weeks. The good news is that my “condition” didn’t extend to our primary mission: consumer advocacy and fiasco-fixing.
There’s been plenty going on here in Consumer Advocacy Land.
In fact, the past several weeks have been some of the most productive this year in terms of consumer wins.
But now I’m looking forward to getting back to my second love: writing the tales that spin out of my advocacy files.
So let’s jump right into what has been happening in Consumer Advocacy Land this week.
You might have heard about the terrible Ebola outbreak this summer in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The doctor at the heart of our first featured article today leads a team of surgeons on a volunteer mission in Uganda every July, where they perform crucial spinal surgeries for people in need there.
Understandably, this year, after the World Health Organization announced the outbreak, they decided to delay the trip. KLM suspended all flights to Uganda in June. Unfortunately, our good doctor canceled his nonrefundable $9,188 business-class ticket a week earlier.
He says he canceled his ticket only after a KLM agent told him he would receive a full refund under the circumstances. KLM says his full refund is just $146 in taxes.
So what’s going on here? Find out today — spoiler alert: the call center recordings have a story to tell.
Also, I have two other all-new articles today. First, because I’ve received so many requests, I’ve created a template for the perfect consumer complaint letter, if I do say so myself. 😛
Then, over at The Points Guy, I will tell you about a frustrating phenomenon I’ve encountered in my advocacy work over the past year: consumers who want my help but also bring along their AI agent, which almost always gives terrible advice.
I’ve also got a few other articles you may have missed, and the latest edition of Life, Lately is at the bottom of the newsletter. Enjoy! ❤️
This Week’s Fiascos and Fixes 🔍
When Ebola broke out last May in Uganda, Isador Lieberman immediately canceled his upcoming KLM flight to Entebbe. He says a KLM agent assured him that, under the circumstances, the airline would refund his nonrefundable $9,188 ticket.
But two months later, KLM gave Lieberman a new assurance — it only owed him $146 for the flight he canceled.
📝As a consumer advocate who has reviewed, investigated, and resolved thousands of problems during the past decade, I know there is a right way — and a wrong way — to write an effective complaint letter. The most effective way to get the outcome you’re hoping for is to keep your message cordial, concise, and clear.
To help you do that on your next problem-solving mission, I’ve created a free letter-writing template for you — and some sample letters so you can see this methodology in action.
You're welcome. 😉
🤖I've observed a distinct change in the help requests that cross my desk. Troubled travelers are using AI to navigate customer service problems — and the results aren't pretty.
💰Something went terribly wrong with Catherine Duffin’s last Expedia booking. She used the online travel agency to plan her family’s New Year’s getaway to the all-inclusive Xcaret Resort in Mexico. Assuming the cost displayed on her Expedia confirmation would indeed include everything, she was shocked at check-in. That’s when hotel management asked for not only the over $16,000 she expected to pay — but also an additional $8,000.
⛴️If a cruise line makes a huge pricing mistake, must it honor that fare?
This passenger thinks so. He found an incredible deal for a suite on a 10-night cruise through the Mediterranean on Azamara’s Pursuit. So he quickly booked and paid for not one, but two suites. But the cruise line soon slammed him back into reality — the deal was a $30,000 pricing mistake. And Azamara had no intention of honoring the erroneous rate.
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Life, Lately 🏡
The wildlife in my new backyard
Hello from Consumer Rescue’s new headquarters!
I wondered what it would be like to suddenly live in a resort-style townhouse community after spending the past 27 years on a country road on three acres. The main thing I knew I would miss is the random wildlife that would show up in my backyard… deer, turtles, rabbits, groundhogs, and turkeys, among others.
My other regret was that I wouldn't have a garden anymore. For years, I loved growing Jersey tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. I tried my hand at blueberries for a few summers, but the rabbits and deer always destroyed my plans.
If you’ve been following this newsletter for at least two months, you know I picked this place a bit impulsively after waking up in the middle of the night and realizing my house sold in less than three weeks. Google had previously told me to expect to sell my house in two to four months, then close a month after that.
Google lied. 😉
I didn’t want to buy and sell a house at the same time, so I planned to have an interim place to take a breath. When I finally faced the reality that it was time to pack up and go, I picked the first place I found. The agent who put me in this particular unit told me that I would love the “backyard.”
First, the truth: I don’t have a backyard. 😝 That was a giant exaggeration. But I do have a little patio facing a woodland area. I already planted tomatoes and peppers in garden pots. I also have tons of flowers that I found at Home Depot even though it was late July.
Then, on my first full night here, as I was sitting quietly on my little patio in my favorite porch chair I brought from my previous home, the universe showed me that I wouldn’t be missing anything here. A mother deer with her three babies came out of the woods (see photo above).
In the morning, as I was looking out my bedroom window with my coffee, a giant groundhog dragged himself along the grass while two rabbits hopped around him.
I have a lot more to share, but for tonight, I just want to tell everyone it is all going well here; I’m over my temporary writer’s block, and I appreciate all your emails of support.
I’ve got a lot of new plans for Consumer Rescue, and I’m super excited to share this next phase with you.
❤️ And that’s Life, Lately.
Until next time 😃
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Your friend and loyal consumer advocate,
Michelle Couch-Friedman
Founder/CFF (Chief Fiasco Fixer) 😛
917-841-0583
The Consumer Rescue newsletter and the articles you read on the site are fine-tuned by a team of absolutely wonderful editors (and my friends): Art Ellis, Karen Roberts, Irene Rawlings, Wendie Feinberg, Tanya Anticevic, Jennifer Finger, Robyn Whittingham, Teri Bergin, Dwayne Coward, and Chip Elam. ❤️ |
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