ripoffs

During a recent stay at Starwood's W Hollywood hotel in Los Angeles, despite the fact I was paying $230 a night for my stay, I was denied access to the pool. It was listed among the amenities I was getting for my top dollar, but because the W makes money by contracting with a Vegas-style promoter...

Budget Travel magazine's Brad Tuttle unearthed a pricing snafu that proves, once and for all, that it's worth it to sign up for promotional e-mails from the big travel sellers.As a member of Alamo Rent A Car's e-mailed "Hot Deals" promotions, he got a notice a while back advertising weekend rentals...

We run into McDonald's because it's easy and cheap, and that keeps us from turning on the stove. But did you know that you've also probably been turning off your brain? The Golden Arches is pulling off a little sleight of hand in the way it prices its McNuggets. Like the best optical illusions, the...

It's microcharging gone too far. The European airline Ryanair is tearing out the check-in desks at 146 airports where it flies. As of October, if you want to check in for a Ryanair flight, you've got to do it in advance for £5 ($7.60) per flight, and if you forget, you'll be slapped with a...

If you care enough to check out a company before you do business, there are a couple of places to turn to get a flavor of whether the consumer experience is one to be avoided. You could look at the somewhat sterile but informative numbers that appear on the Better Business Bureau site. Or...

Cruise ships are big business. There's something about traveling on a giant tub that attracts us. The appeal is mostly in the fact that you simply don't have to turn on your brain if you don't want to. The food, the driving, the entertainment, the babysitting, the paperwork -- it's all taken care...

Former Merrill Lynch CEO, John Thain, gave out up to $4 billion in bonuses before Bank of America took the company over. Normally, bonuses are paid in January, but they were rushed to beat the Jan. 1 takeover by Bank of America. This came as Bank of America was getting $20 billion more in federal...

Back in June, consumers were puffed up with pride when Hertz announced it was ending its policy of overcharging customers for gas. If you returned the car without filling the tank all the way again, Hertz gave customers the option of pre-buying gas set according to the going rate at the pumps in...

Who wouldn't want to make up to $5,000 a week from home stuffing envelopes? You wouldn't, since you're more likely to lose money by signing on for such a scam.As the economy takes a turn for the much worse, those make-money-from-home schemes start to sound awfully appealing. Targeted to senior...

Have you been cheated, scammed, or otherwise disappointed by a company? WalletPop wants your real life stories about consumer scams and complaints. Email us with your story.... Did you receive horrible customer service? Did you pay for a product or service that you didn't receive? Did a company...