More than 100 help requests in a week, nearly all of them asking for the same $8.4 million. (Illustration by Dustin Elliott)
✉️ Where's the line? — Our help form gets 30 to 50 submissions a day, and we assume that every one is a real problem. But last week, one reader filed more than 100 requests, naming Apple, Chase, Equifax, Uber, Coca-Cola and FedEx. I still can’t believe what she said to us. When should an advocate say "no"? 🎙️ Check out our podcast about this crazy case we had to turn down.
On Backchannel, Deji documented his own denied boarding at the gate, minute by minute, and United has now paid him twice without saying what the second check was for.
Confidentially: A guest checked into a Kobe hotel, plugged a small computer into the room’s Wi-Fi and tucked it behind the refrigerator. Police say it sent 480,000 phishing emails before anyone at the property noticed. What else is on the network in your room? — Christopher Elliott
FEATURED ARTICLE
Where’s the line between a consumer complaint — and crazy?
Within about a week, one reader sent our advocacy team more than 100 help requests, aimed at Apple, Chase, Equifax, Uber, Coca-Cola and FedEx. Nearly every one asked for $8.4 million. The complaints looked credible at first glance, which is what makes a stack like that so hard to answer. Where’s the line?
ELLIOTT CONFIDENTIAL
Why We Had To Say "No" To This Crazy Case
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Why furnished apartments are winning the long-term stay for travelers
A survey of 1,000 travelers finds that nearly half would pick a managed furnished apartment over a hotel at comparable rates, though operators point out that the real test comes after something breaks. Here are the details.
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📌 Here’s what you missed this week
Catch up on the latest stories from the Elliott Report
Where’s the line between a consumer complaint — and crazy?
One reader filed more than 100 submissions on our help form in about a week, naming Apple, Chase, Equifax, Uber, Coca-Cola and FedEx, and asked for $8.4 million nearly every time. The form takes 30 to 50 requests a day, and sorting a frustrated customer from someone in distress turns out to be harder than three decades in this work would suggest.
“Debanked” by your frequent flier program? You should have rights
Ari and Shanna Nachison each held more than 550,000 American AAdvantage miles when the airline closed their accounts and cited only “the general AAdvantage program conditions,” without saying which ones. A bank that closes your account owes you a written reason within 30 days, while the Supreme Court has told frequent fliers their remedy is to go find a better program.
In Germany’s Black Forest, winter isn’t a sure thing anymore
Achim Laber has been a ranger at Feldberg Nature Reserve for 36 years, and the mountain has now gone four straight Christmas holidays without snow on slopes that used to hold it from November through April. Its lift operator is expanding snowmaking to buy more seasons, while a resort at similar elevation across the French border has already set a date to stop skiing altogether.
Is there a way out of this Amazon account recovery black hole?
Henry Dickson’s iPad was bricked during an update, and when he reinstalled the Amazon app, the login asked him to approve a notification on the device he couldn’t reach. Amazon’s identity recovery page required him to sign in before uploading a driver’s license, a dozen representatives sent him the same broken link, and he lost access to his Prime benefits and his entire Kindle library.
Help! A three-hour delay returning my rental car cost me $650!
George Meyer paid $670 for a 27-day Europcar rental in France on a voucher that promised unlimited mileage, then hit traffic on the way back to Charles de Gaulle and reached the counter three hours late. The delay pushed the rental to 28 days, which under EU rules puts it in a different category with a 3,750-kilometer cap, and Europcar billed him $650 for the extra distance.
An arson attack in France doubled her car rental bill. Does she have to pay?
Marianne Piepenburg booked a five-day car from National at the Avignon TGV station for $434, and arsonists attacked the French rail lines on the morning she was due to pick it up. She reached the counter a day late to find her reservation canceled and a comparable vehicle priced at $837 for four days, with National pointing at Enterprise, Enterprise pointing at a local franchise in Avignon and the franchise answering neither its phone nor its email.
The reverse packing list: What should you leave at home?
A first checked bag now costs $45 on most major U.S. airlines, and American charges basic economy passengers $55. Travel advisors who live out of a carry-on have cut themselves down to one pair of versatile shoes and a merino layer that handles a 40-degree morning without the bulk, and one of them nominates the full-size travel umbrella as the most useless item in anybody’s bag.
OUR UNDERWRITER
AirHelp helps travelers secure up to $650 compensation for flight delays and cancellations under international regulations. Check your flight for free to see if you qualify — and join over 3 million passengers who’ve already received compensation with AirHelp. Visit airhelp.com.
💬 What you’re saying on Backchannel
Denied boarding? Prove it.
Deji held a confirmed seat on a United flight from Seattle to Newark and reached the gate two minutes before boarding was supposed to close, in time for the surveillance camera to put him there at 10:43 p.m. The agent shut the door anyway. United later confirmed in writing that it had involuntarily denied him boarding, then approved a second payment of $1,083 after he complained to the Department of Transportation (DOT), without saying what that money covered. What can a DOT complaint get you? Here’s our team’s advice on Backchannel.
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Allianz Travel Insurance has built its reputation on partnering with agents all around the world to provide valuable travel insurance for their clients. Contact Allianz Travel Insurance for a valuable list of coverage.
CONFIDENTIALLY
Information and insights for Elliott Confidential PRO subscribers
What’s this behind my fridge?
Warning: There’s a computer behind your hotel fridge
Police say a couple used a hotel’s guest network to run a credit card scam. What that means for the Wi-Fi in your room.
Police in Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture have arrested and indicted a Chinese couple over a scheme that began with an ordinary hotel booking. Investigators say the husband checked into a Kobe hotel last year as a paying guest. Before he left, he connected a small computer to the room’s Wi-Fi and tucked it behind the refrigerator.
Then someone else took over. Police believe an accomplice controlled the device remotely and used it to send at least 480,000 phishing emails. The messages posed as notices from credit card companies and steered recipients to counterfeit sites built to collect card numbers. Investigators found about 2.4 million target addresses on the machine.
The hotel’s network gave the senders cover. Spam that appeared to originate from a property in Kobe told investigators nothing about where the people behind it were. The hotel eventually went to police, who searched the room and found the computer still plugged in and online. Prosecutors charged the couple with obstructing the hotel’s business by deception, along with computer fraud. Police are still working to identify the wider group behind the operation.
The rest of this exclusive report is for members only.
Behind this line: what else may be riding on the network in your room, and the fake bedbug complaints now arriving at Japanese front desks. Plus, the five things to do the next time you connect.
A Members Only story like this runs in every issue, along with Backchannel and the vault.