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Where did the money go? (Illustration by Dustin Elliott)
💳 Ever overpaid a bill by accident? — One of our readers sent Comcast $4,762 that she meant for her credit card. It refunded her on a prepaid debit card, and when she checked the balance the card showed $82. You can read the full story today.
On Backchannel, Sara Marion wanted a Delta Air Lines phone number she could trust, and ran into a problem. Don’t worry, we’ll fix it.
For Members Only: The FTC says Amazon spent seven years charging advertisers for a bidder that never existed, and that shoppers covered the difference. What the complaint shows about the top of your search page. — Christopher Elliott
FEATURED STORY
How to find $4,762 when Comcast says it’s gone
Adriana Gores meant to pay her credit card and sent $4,762 to Comcast instead. It refunded her on a prepaid debit card that came with an expiration date, and she moved $1,000 of it to her bank before the system cut her off. When she checked the balance again, the card showed $82, and nobody at Xfinity could tell her where the rest went. Can she get her money back?
OUR UNDERWRITER
Southwest Airlines is dedicated to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit. We are committed to providing our employees with a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth.
📌 Here’s what you missed this week
Catch up on the latest stories from the Elliott Report
How to find $4,762 when Comcast says it’s gone
A San Francisco reader meant to pay her credit card and sent $4,762 to Comcast by mistake. The refund came back on a prepaid debit card, and by the time she checked the balance it read $82, with no transaction list anyone could produce to explain it.
Banned by JetBlue after booking through the wrong website
A caregiver who flies Hartford to Fort Lauderdale twice a month paid $468 through a site called Farehub. JetBlue’s records show the ticket was bought with someone else’s travel voucher, and an agent stopped her at the gate.
Do you have a high travel IQ? Here’s how you can tell
A behavioral researcher watched one traveler come apart over a gate change in Tokyo while another passenger walked away and solved it. Travel IQ is the gap between what you think you know and how the world works, and there are seven signs yours needs work.
Americans are tearing down surveillance cameras. Then they’re lining up for one at the airport.
Americans spent the summer packing city council meetings and cutting down license plate cameras, and last week the company behind them rewrote its privacy rules. A lot of those same people drove to the airport, walked up to a checkpoint and let a machine photograph their face.
Can you turn tourists into conservationists? How one tour operator is trying to close the “say-do” gap
RealNZ raised $270,000 for predator control and replaced invasive pines with about 30,000 native trees across the lake from Queenstown. Its chief executive says the hard part is getting visitors to care once they start comparing prices.
The Bruno Mars ticket glitch that only affected fans with disabilities
A Chicago reader filtered Ticketmaster for ADA seating and watched every seat he selected come back unavailable. The next day the same seats were available through resellers, at a markup.
Avis charged her for returning a car early. Then things got complicated
A medic working in the North Sea cut a rental in Spain short after a family emergency, and the bill nearly doubled. Avis called the extra charge an error, refunded most of it and kept about $130.
OUR UNDERWRITER
Surf Air Mobility is a California-based air mobility platform. With its AI-enabled SurfOS software and electrification programs, Surf Air Mobility provides technology designed to support the modernization of air operations and the adoption of next-generation aircraft. Surf Air Mobility currently operates one of the largest commuter airlines in the United States by scheduled departures, which provides operational scale and real-world operating data to validate and deploy its software.
💬 What you’re saying
How do you get in touch with Delta Air Lines?
Delta, where are you? Delta?
Sara Marion joined Backchannel this week looking for a Delta Air Lines customer service number she could trust, after reading that the help lines sitting at the top of a search result often belong to somebody else. Do you know how to tell a verified airline contact from a planted one? See what I told her.
OUR UNDERWRITER
Travel Leaders Group is transforming travel through its progressive approach toward each unique travel experience. Travel Leaders Group assists millions of travelers through its leisure, business and network travel operations under a variety of diversified divisions and brands, including All Aboard Travel, Andrew Harper Travel, Colletts Travel, Corporate Travel Services, CruCon Cruise Outlet, Cruise Specialists, Nexion, Protravel International, SinglesCruise.com, Travel Leaders Corporate, Travel Leaders Network and Tzell Travel Group, and its merger with ALTOUR. With more than 7,000 agency locations and 52,000 travel advisors, Travel Leaders Group ranks as one of the industry’s largest retail travel agency companies.
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