r/ConsumerAdvice

My friend bought a brand new Toyota Camry about 3 months ago, and the passenger side started smelling really bad. He brought the car back to the dealer where he bought it, but they refused to fix anything and blamed him for parking or driving through floods. We live in city Chicago, and the last real flood I remember was probably 5 years ago. However Just 20 days before this flooding happened, the exact same dealership performed a full multi-point inspection on my friend car and text me saying the vehicle was in "Great Condition."

We then took the car to another dealer, but they also refused to help and told us to take the car back or they would start charging daily parking fees. After my friend emailed Toyota corporate, they finally allowed the car to stay for diagnosis. They found that the AC drain was clogged, causing water to leak into the interior. Now they want to charge more than $8k to replace the floor and other damaged parts.

What’s crazy is that the car is only 3 months old, and he already had a few other issues before this, including brake and steering vibration problems.

Meanwhile, I’ve been driving a used 2016 Prius for almost 8 years with basically no major problems. During the pandemic, I even used it for food delivery for 2 years, doing constant stop-and-go city driving, and it still held up great. Honestly, I don’t even take care of my car as well as my friend takes care of his new Toyota (he bring his car to carwash every week)

So now I’m wondering: has Toyota quality and dealer service gotten worse recently, or is this just an unlucky case? I was actually thinking about buying a new Prius this year because I really love my current one, but this situation honestly scares me a bit.

And if anyone have any advice or similar case please share here. Thank you

Don't buy from Element Vape. They'll deny warranty coverage even though your product is still in it's warranty period.

My wife is looking to add a quality cordless vacuum to the arsenal and as a good husband I want to help her out. So I’m turning to Reddit 😂 cause I don’t know vacuums.

She’s done some research and has narrowed it down to Dyson, Shark, or Bissell. Looking for something with good battery life, strong suction, be good on carpeted floors, and be functional. Hoping to stay at or below $400.

Please let me know if you have a favorite brand or specific model that blew you away or you can’t live without. TYIA!!

Need some advice regarding a horrible experience with Air India today.

I had a return/onward Air India ticket from Kolkata. The inward sector of the booking had become a no-show, so before going to the airport I specifically called Air India customer care to confirm whether my Kolkata flight was still valid.

I spoke with a customer care executive named Ashwin. After a long discussion, he clearly told me that because the previous leg was a no-show, my remaining flight was no longer valid and I would not be allowed to board.

Since I had to travel urgently and there was no resolution provided, I ended up booking a last-minute Indigo ticket which cost me around ₹17,000 because of dynamic pricing.

Here’s the crazy part: when I reached the airport and spoke directly with Air India staff, they told me my original Air India ticket was actually VALID and I could have boarded the flight.
So basically:

Customer care gave me incorrect information
I relied on that information
I suffered a financial loss because of it

I have:
Case ID from Air India
Call details/time
Name of the executive
Indigo booking/payment proof
Original PNR

AVOID!! Please go to a privately owned Veterinary, for the sake of your precious pet! Blue Pearl is part of one the largest companies in the world, MARS, (the candy company). They own over 2000 vet hospitals in the world and their doctors are paid more if they bill you more! Here's part of our story.....

Our healthy 2.5-year-old dog Teddy was admitted to BluePearl Sarasota with seizures. Within an hour, while Teddy was alive in their hospital and we sat in the waiting room, BluePearl emailed us an iINVOICE FOR HIS CREMATION (I didn't see the email until 3 days later).

The next afternoon, 2 veterinary specialists were called on the phone and both gave the same advice: start antibiotics and steroids if we could not afford the $6000 MRI. The recommended treatment was affordable. We could have done it that afternoon.

But we were never told about the recommended treatment!

For the next 18 hours, Teddy suffered terribly, frantic, adverse reaction to the drug he was on. His fever climbed to 105.9 degrees. He hadn't slept in over a day. He was disoriented, drooling, hyper-sensitive to every sound and touch -- and the treatment that would have helped him sat in his medical chart, undelivered to us and un-acted on by the vet covering his care, as well as the vet on the overnight shift.

On Saturday morning, a different vet sat down, read the chart, saw what the specialists had recommended, and started the antibiotics and steroids. Within 90 minutes,Teddy fell asleep for the first time in 36 hours.
Read the shocking information I found out and more about Teddy's Story at TeddysStory.com and share your story.

https://preview.redd.it/7hhb1sgnci1h1.jpg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=056a21e48fb637f04b230e973154600705d77d4b

@Perfectioncreators_events based in Sector-27, Gurugram

I recently got married, and what should have been a beautiful experience turned into months of stress because of our wedding planners - Perfection Creators (Ujjwal Dawar & Aishwarya). I’m sharing this both as a warning and to seek legal advice.

We hired them in July (well in advance). The first month was supposed to be for vendor finalisation. We all sat in their office, finalised decor and budget, and everything seemed fine.

A few days later, they scheduled a meeting with a photographer and pressured us into booking them. They clearly said that if we chose any other photographer, they wouldn’t take responsibility for managing them or their logistics. Not wanting friction early on, we booked the suggested photographer.

That photographer later turned out to be a scam. We had to cancel and ended up losing our money.

After this incident, their behaviour completely changed.

From August to October, we kept asking for updates, but they showed zero interest in progressing work. During these months, I repeatedly asked them for recommendations for a mehendi artist, makeup artist, and hairstylist. They suggested one makeup artist who, upon checking, turned out to be a beginner and had not even done bridal work.

When I found a makeup artist myself, I asked them to negotiate and finalise her. Despite daily reminders, they contacted her a week later and by then she was already booked.

In November, we met them at their office. To our shock, they said: “Let’s finalise the decor.” We were confused because decor had already been finalised in July, and I had even called my family down specifically for budget discussions.

Then they said, “Ab to sab kuch double triple rates ho gaya hoga,” implying that now the decor would cost significantly more. It felt like we were being made to pay extra due to their negligence. At that point, we started suspecting that because we didn’t proceed with the photographer they pushed, they were trying to recover their lost commission through inflated decor costs.

After that, we decided we would book decorators ourselves and let them handle wedding logistics.

In December, they completely ghosted us.

On January 3rd, when they finally picked up our call, Ujjwal yelled at us, threatened us, and called us names, all because we were asking for updates on services we had already paid for. His final words before hanging up were:

“You’re spoiling my mood right now and this is beyond patience.”

All of this just a month away from our wedding and so they did not show up at the wedding.

We had to manage everything ourselves, which is absolutely not what we signed up for. They have also not refunded our money. We paid 45% of their wedding planning fee.

Now that the wedding is over, I am ready to take legal action to recover the money.

And to anyone planning their wedding? Please do not book ‘Perfection Creators’. When they reached out to me their tone was completely opposite of how they turned out. Months of stress during what should be the happiest time of your life is not worth it.

Same as title

Malta, comprei uma ram no OLX por 65€ com garantia, quando chegou parecia estar tudo bem mas ao fim de 2/3 dias começou a dar bluescreen 1 vez por dia, e era desconectado de jogos por "Corrupted memory", fiz um teste do windows a ram e deu 0 erros, mas como é obvio ela estava danificada entao enviei para a loja.
Agora a loja ta me a dizer que nao podem dar uma ram nova porque " o valor atual de reposição sofreu um aumento muito significativo face ao valor originalmente", opa do que sei isto nao é legal mas eles estão a argumentar que "Nos termos do artigo 15.º do Decreto-Lei n.º 84/2021, a substituição pode ser recusada quando implique custos desproporcionados para o profissional.". eu nao tenho culpa que o mercado tenha inflacionado e eles teem esta peça exatamente igual em stock, so nao me a querem dar para nao sairem a perder, Vale a pena avançar com um queixa na ASAE? É que pelo que li a ASAE tem a fama de se estar a cagar para pedidos como estes, é que como é obvio n vou iniciar um processo por uma ram de 35€, nao me compensa pelos 30€ perdidos.

Alguem tem alguma sugestão?

Medical alert systems are one of those recurring expenses that adds up way faster than anyone expects. Monthly monitoring fees range from $20 to over $50 depending on the provider, and that's before equipment costs or fall detection add ons which can run another $10 per month on top Some companies charge cancellation penalties between $50 and $175 for leaving early too. For anyone managing a budget around aging in place technology the question isn't just which medical alert system for seniors works its which one doesn't quietly drain a fixed income over time What's the actual floor price for something with reliable response times?

Hi everyone. I normally have sunglasses on most of the time I'm outside, the sunlight hurts my eyes and I like the look sunglasses have on me. Problem is I usually lose mine more often than not. As an outdoor and sunglasses lover i cant even begin to tell you the pain I felt after losing some of my Ray Bans and aviator sunglasses that cost me upwards of $170 on average. I'm also tired of the $10 sunglasses at convenience stores that break and scratch just by looking at them. I’m looking at alibaba and seen some affordable options where i can also buy a couple of them at once easily. My budget is slightly less than $30 as i know I'll probably buy more than one given how clumsy I can get by forgetting them here and there or breaking them. What are some cheapish but classy looking sunglasses you swear by? I am looking for sunglasses that also offer UV protection and decent polarized lenses.

After returning 2 new keurigs from Costco last month because they quit working, my husband ordered 1 off the website, older model we had before, after receiving it realized it was wrong one and wanted to return to order correct model , spent a hour on customer service where they were insisting we were unable to return because we did not have order number, after threating to file a complaint with my bank , they miraculously found the order number and sent instructions to return, after going to fedex, ups and usps I found it would cost around $51 for shipping ( price increases due to gas) so I guess we will keep it , but lesson learned not to buy from their website

I am based out of Saskatchewan.
So on Saturday, I made the decision to impulsively to sign a car dealership contract, and make a down payment.
I felt a bit rushed on everything, the dealer made me register the new vehicle so I did assuming I’d be walking out of the door with it… but they didn’t allow me to leave with it that day and instead gave me a loaner as said vehicle wasn’t “ready”.

So now, that I have sat and pondered/wondered. I no longer want the vehicle I signed for, but instead I would like a different vehicle from same dealership that does not cost more than current deal.

I am wondering if anyone has had any experience, signing a vehicle contract, NOT stepping foot in said vehicle, nor drove it off lot.
BUT has instead changed vehicles/contract with same dealer?
Is this a possibility at all???

I filed a compensation claim after a brutal delay on a flight from Barcelona to Toronto last month and the whole process felt designed to make people quit halfway through.

Original flight was supposed to leave at 11:20 in the morning. first they delayed boarding because of a technical inspection on the aircraft. then we sat at the gate another hour because apparently the replacement crew had not arrived yet. eventually took off almost 4 hours late and missed my connection in Montreal which turned the whole trip into an overnight airport disaster. At the airport the airline staff were already hinting people should file claims because the issue sounded operational. cool. figured straightforward process right? absolutely not.

Submitted the claim the next day with boarding passes, booking confirmation, delay screenshots, everything. within 48 hours i got the classic automated rejection email saying the disruption was caused by extraordinary weather conditions affecting operations. except there literally wasn't bad weather anywhere near Barcelona or Montreal that day. even the pilot told us onboard it was a maintenance and staffing issue.

So I replied politely explaining that their reason didn't match what passengers were told. attached more screenshots, airport data, receipts for food during the delay, all of it. Two weeks later? same rejection email again. almost word for word, then complete silence for over a month.

Followed up again and finally got another response which basically boiled down to “after further review we are unable to approve compensation.” no actual explanation. no human sounding response. just another template.

It feels like airlines have a churn strategy for this stuff:

Instant automated rejection no matter how complete your claim is then long delays between replies hoping you stop checking then another vague copy paste denial then silence until you either give up or escalate it legally and that's the part that annoys me most. for a claim worth maybe 400 to 600 euros depending on the route, most people aren't gonna spend months fighting lawyers or regulators over it. airlines know that. I've talked to friends since posting this and apparently this happens constantly with eu261 claims. people get worn down by the process before they ever reach a real person. Starting to understand why airlines save so much money on unclaimed compensation. its not even that people don't qualify. its that the process itself feels intentionally exhausting.