⛑️Consumer Rescue presents🛟
Tales from Consumer Advocacy Land
Real stories. Real rescues. Real advice.
Happy Sunday, friends! 🤓
I’ve been in full-scale house-selling mode, and you can read about that in the Life, Lately section at the bottom of the newsletter. But first, of course, let’s see what’s new in Consumer Advocacy Land.
Today, I want to tell you about a scam that you are at risk of receiving. It comes as an invitation to a party. It looks like your friend is inviting you to a special event, but actually, their email account has been hacked, and you’re just being targeted in a phishing scam.
Then I have a few articles you may have missed the first time around:
Enjoy!
This Week’s Fiascos and Fixes 🔍
If you receive a Punchbowl invitation for a friend’s event, don’t rush out to buy a new party dress just yet. That festive invite could just be part of a dangerous phishing scam.
If you arrive in a foreign country without a valid passport in your hand, you’re going back home. That’s guaranteed. But sometimes, that’s not all that happens, unfortunately. This cautionary tale shows how a simple passport mistake landed one female solo traveler with vacation dreams in a Mexican jail nightmare.
For years, legions of Vantage Deluxe World Travel customers eagerly purchased their trip insurance directly from the luxury tour operator. They loved the ease and convenience of having a one-stop shop for their travel planning. Unfortunately, many, if not most, of these unsuspecting consumers neither read nor understood the trip protection they were buying.
Tom Suminski intended to redeem his stockpile of $7,762 American Airlines flight credit for a Hawaiian vacation. But he says an airline representative gave him faulty redemption instructions that led the vouchers to expire right under his nose.
💡 How to support Consumer Rescue’s mission
Consumer Rescue is an award-winning independent journalism and consumer advocacy site. It depends on display ads, sponsorships, and voluntary reader contributions/ subscriptions to keep this work going.
If you have the means and desire to support our mission, you can do that here. And if you don’t or can’t, that’s completely okay. This site will never have paywalls or hidden content. Everything here will always be free for everyone.
The comment section is open 💬🗣️
Do you have an opinion about today's articles? Want to share a suggestion? I love to hear from you.
Our site's comment section is open and ready for you to offer your thoughts. You can also add your comments under our articles on the Consumer Rescue Facebook page.
Or you can join our "Consumer Rescue: What's Your Problem?" Facebook group. It's a community where we can discuss consumer issues, solve real-time problems, chat about consumer news and our articles, and get quick answers to questions. Members can also share tips, guidance, and travel experiences.
It's a friendly, moderated, and private group, so only members can see what's inside. We hope to see you there!
Welcome, new friends! 🥰
🤗Welcome to all our new subscribers! We're delighted to have you here with us.
*Ps. If you've received this newsletter as a forward, here's how to subscribe.
Friends! Sharing our newsletter with other like-minded consumers is another great way to show your support for our mission!
Life, Lately 🏡
🐶Old man Bentley, almost 15 years old, is on his way to the vet
A while back, I read that the average house now stays on the market for around 40 to 90 days. That range is just how long it typically takes to get a house under contract and through the attorney review process. After that, there are other hurdles to jump before the closing date.
That article put me under the impression that I probably had at least all summer before I had to pack up and go — maybe longer.
It seems we are outliers and are on the fast track to closing. I’m very happy about that, but it has left me in an unusual situation: a quickly approaching closing date — and nowhere to live after that! 🤪
Because I’d been so busy working, I hadn’t spent much time thinking about what I would do if the house sold quickly.
But it did. Super quick.
Now I need to figure out where to go next — posthaste! I think that part is exciting, and now that I’ve downsized, I’ve got a lot of options. I no longer have a lot of things to drag around. That feels freeing.
What I don't know yet is exactly where we'll land — but for the first time in a long time, that uncertainty feels more exciting than scary.
However, I do have my old guy Bentley, who is almost 15 years old and is blind and deaf, and I need to keep him in mind. For the week or two when strangers were visiting our house for showings, it was tough on him. The good news is that because Consumer Rescue's headquarters are in my house, he could stay under my desk while I worked. Still, it’s been disturbing to the little guy.
I took him to the vet for a checkup. She prescribed a little anti-anxiety medicine and declared him remarkably healthy for an almost 15-year-old pup.
Back in March, I was faced with a daunting task: downsizing after 26 ½ years, putting the house on the market, selling it, and moving to a new abode. So far, I think I can check off 2 ½ of those goals. The last one is finding our next home.
I’m good with that.
❤️And that’s Life, Lately.
Until next time 😃
Don't forget! Consumer Rescue is just a click away. One of us is always here to answer your questions.
You can get direct consumer advocacy assistance here
What's your problem? Private Facebook group.
Ask Abe (Your registered Medicare counselor)
Of course, you can always reach me at [email protected]
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. ❤️ |