Make the McKenzie Connection!
Make the McKenzie Connection!
Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 273
When William Houck returns his rental car to LAX, Budget tries to charge him a fee for refueling and cleaning. But he brought the car back with a full gas tank, and it was clean. How can he fight these charges? I rented a car from Budget at Los Angeles International Airport recently. I returned the vehicle with a full tank of gas after stopping at a station a few blocks away. After I dropped off the car, I received a receipt that indicated they would charge me a $90 fuel service fee. I...
Keith Cantrell's new refrigerator is making a loud buzzing sound. GE can't fix it, and Home Depot won't let him return it. What should he do? QI bought a GE refrigerator from Home Depot's website in February. I noticed a loud buzzing noise within an hour of the appliance being installed. While it isn't "hold your hands over your ears" loud, you can easily hear it from across the room. I called to complain within 48 hours of taking delivery that the fridge was making an unacceptable amount of...
Peter Holt prepays $66 for two checked bags on his Avianca flight from San Jose, Costa Rica, to Mexico City. Q: I booked two flights through GoToGate from San Jose, Costa Rica, to Mexico City and then Oaxaca. I ran into a problem on my flight from San Jose to Mexico City, which was on Avianca. I knew these were small planes, so I prepaid $33 for each checked bag. But when I checked in at San Jose, the agent had no record of my prepaid bags. I discussed it with them and showed my receipt. I even...
When Robert Preuss tries to buy a Fisher-Price Power Wheels Dune Racer from Amazon, he can't complete the purchase. Amazon offers to fix the problem but then reneges, leaving him with a $304 bill. I recently tried to order a Fisher-Price Power Wheels Dune Racer from Amazon. The advertised price was $89. I spent three hours trying to purchase it without success, but I was eventually able to buy the same battery-powered car, also on Amazon, for $393. An Amazon representative told me by phone that...
After Debbie Schembri's brother dies, she cancels her Alaska vacation. Can she get a refund for her airline tickets? I had tickets on United Airlines to fly from San Jose to Anchorage last summer. In August, my brother died unexpectedly, and we canceled our travel plans. I reserved my airline flights through Booking.com and followed all their instructions regarding a refund. I sent my brother's death certificate and obituary. Booking.com asked for more proof that we were related and finally,...
When Robertann Usher's home security company merges with ADT, he discovers he has a five-year contract with a higher price. Getting out will cost him $527. Is that legal? I have a problem with my ADT bill and was hoping you could help me. I had a home security system through Ackerman Security, which recently merged with ADT. I recently received my first bill with ADT and decided to discontinue my service. I paid $63 quarterly for security service with Ackerman Security. ADT's prices are higher....
When IcelandAir changes Patricia Boyle's flights from Baltimore to Washington Dulles, she asks for a refund from her tour operator, IcelandAir Holidays. Why isn't it responding? I recently booked a vacation package online through IcelandAir Holidays. Two months later, I received a text message that my airport had been changed from Baltimore/Washington International Airport to Dulles International Airport. I realized that traveling to Dulles would be inconvenient because it is a two-hour drive fr...
Joe Eckre has tickets to see Alan Parsons, but the artist has postponed the event. Can Eckre get a refund? I purchased a ticket to see Alan Parsons Live Project at Libbey Bowl in Ojai, Calif., in 2021. Just before the event, Ticketmaster notified me that the concert had been postponed but that my ticket was still good. I waited patiently but after 18 months and no news from Ticketmaster about a new date for the show, I finally checked the artist's website and found out that all shows except for...
Nicholas Butler gets charged $7,853 at a bar in Istanbul under shady circumstances. Will his bank step up and help him undo the charges? While I was on vacation in Istanbul last year, I fell victim to a scam by some local thugs. They ran a "club" where they persuaded single male tourists to come in. Then they coerced them into paying thousands of dollars for bogus drinks ("champagne" that was cider and water, for example). They made it impossible to leave without the threat of violence. Once I...
Sears promises to cover the cost of Wanda Warren's dishwasher installation. Then it offers her a check for $180 -- which isn't enough. Does it owe her more? I have a Sears protection agreement on a replacement dishwasher. The terms clearly state that replacement items include delivery and basic installation. But now Sears is telling me that I have to get the installation done myself, and they will send a check for $180 to cover the cost of installation. I can't find someone to install my...
Elizabeth Moeck has tickets to see David Foster in concert, but the show gets canceled during the pandemic. What happened to her refund? I bought tickets for the David Foster Hitman Tour in 2019. The performance date was May 14, 2020. On May 1, Ticketmaster emailed me that the concert had been rescheduled to Jan. 16, 2021. But in August, Ticketmaster sent an email that the concert would be canceled and my ticket refunded. I contacted Ticketmaster because I paid for the concert with a gift card,...
David Marsh's Allstate Rewards gift card doesn't work on his Princess cruise. Each side is blaming the other. Is there a way to make this right? We had $1,800 in prepaid gift cards on our Princess Cruise through Allstate Rewards. On the second day of our Princess cruise, my wife and I attempted to pay a portion of the bill with gift cards, but the cruise line would only accept $800. Princess representative tried multiple times over most of the remainder of the 14-day cruise to identify and...
May Youngclaus has been waiting for months for a refund from American Queen Voyages. Is her money lost at sea? I'm looking for a refund from American Queen Voyages. Our cruise from Memphis to New Orleans was scheduled for Nov. 27, 2022. On Sept. 20, we received an email informing us that American Queen had canceled the cruise. I requested a refund of our $6,396. American Queen said the refund would take up to 60 days. We emailed our sales representative two months after the cancellation to...
Olivier Kunckler orders a Chateau Pontet Canet 2019 from a Texas liquor store chain. The company cashes the check, but the bottle never arrives. What happened? I'm reaching out to you as a last resort. I ordered a bottle of Chateau Pontet Canet 2019 from Spec's Wine, Spirits & Finer Foods, a local chain of liquor stores. The bottle was a Bordeaux future, meaning that you buy it sight unseen, usually a couple of years before it is available. I paid by check. Spec's never confirmed my order, but...
Michelle Sprekelmeyer is chasing down a missing $1,632 Hotels.com refund from the early days of the pandemic. What's taking so long? We booked a room at the Oasis at Grace Bay Hotel & Lofts in Turks & Caicos through Hotels.com in January 2020 for accommodations in early April 2020. When we booked the reservation, we could not reserve the same room for our entire stay, so we made two separate reservations. We had to cancel because of the pandemic. I emailed the hotel numerous times to resolve...
Justin Carrier's GE Profile washing machine breaks, flooding his house. One month later, GE hasn't repaired the appliance or paid for the damages. What's going on? We bought a new GE Profile washing machine about seven months ago. We were awakened one night last month to a flooded laundry room, bathroom, foyer, family room, and office. The water valve in the washer failed and filled the machine, and eventually, our home, while it was not even on. A technician diagnosed the faulty valve, but the...
When the price of Lai Mun Yip's airline tickets doubles, she goes looking for a refund. But who has her money? I booked four airline tickets from Gotogate for AirAsia flights from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. The site displayed a price of $400. After I filled in my details, there was a lag in the website and a new price of $1,002 popped up through another window in my mobile browser. I do not want to make this booking anymore, but it wasn't immediately clear how to cancel. Gotogate charged my cred...
If a pharmacy gives you too much medication, can you get a partial refund? That's what one reader wants to know after he receives $13,000 worth of pills. While I was a patient at a nursing home in Grants Pass, Ore., I contracted Clostridioides difficile, a bacteria that causes diarrhea and colitis, an inflammation of the colon. C. diff. is a truly horrible intestinal infection that is potentially fatal. Since the treatment wasn't curing me, I found a gastroenterologist who prescribed 30 tablets...
Daryl DeCrow cancels his Tauck cruise after it imposes a COVID vaccine requirement. Does he deserve a refund? In early 2021, my girlfriend and I booked a fall foliage riverboat cruise with Tauck. At the time, there was no requirement for us to be vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus. A year later, just before our cruise, I received a "COVID-19 Policy Update For Your Upcoming Journey" email. It required all guests to be "up to date" with their vaccinations. We would have never booked this tour if...
When Airbnb bans Svitlana Marchenko from the site, it won't tell her why. Could it have something to do with her residence? The answer is complicated. Airbnb has suspended my account, but it won't tell me why. Now it won't even respond to me. I've used Airbnb frequently. The last time I rented a room in a hostel in Romania was in August when I left Ukraine. Everything went well, including the payment. In November, I again wanted to rent an apartment through Airbnb, but I could not log into my...
One of John Edmunds' new American Tourister bags is defective. Does he have to ship it to Texas at his expense, or can he get an exchange? Last summer, I bought two pieces of American Tourister luggage: a 24-inch and a 28-inch Pirouette NXT. On the second trip with the luggage, the stitching that holds the zipper mechanism to the luggage frame started pulling loose on the 24-inch piece of luggage. Suspecting this was a manufacturing defect, I went to the American Tourister website for a...
Krista O'Brien accidentally pays $449 extra for her checked luggage on an Aer Lingus flight. Why won't the airline help her undo the mistake? I recently booked tickets through the Aer Lingus website. When I did, the site only listed a carry-on as included with the fare rather than both a carry-on and one checked bag before the final purchase. I was confused, and I unknowingly added three extra checked bags, which was unnecessary. I overpaid Aer Lingus $449 because it included an additional...
When a U.S. Customs agent confiscates Adriana Cordero's passport, she tries to get it back. But government bureaucracy is standing between her and her ID. Last year, U.S. Customs confiscated my passport in Montreal as I was returning to the United States. The reason the officer gave me was that it had been reported as “lost or stolen.” It was neither because I was holding it in my hands! What I had reported as “lost or stolen” was my passport card. I applied for both a passport and a passpor...
Quest Diagnostics charged Ro Dobkin an extra $353 for services. Can she get it back or is it lost forever? I received two bills from Quest Diagnostics for tests that my insurance denied. I paid the bills myself, not knowing that my doctors had already recoded them and resubmitted them to Medicare. Quest used my payments and applied them to all services provided even though Medicare already covered them. Quest is also sending me a bill for services performed last spring, which Medicare denied....
Celeste Rubanick loses 80,000 Marriott Bonvoy points when she books a hotel in Scotland. Why won't the company restore the points? I made reservations at the Residence Inn, Edinburgh, Scotland, for two nights, using 80,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. I recently received a notification from Marriott claiming that I had used the points for a stay almost three weeks earlier. I called Marriott, and they assigned me a case number. I have been going back and forth with the company ever since. I was on the...
