ATLANTA — A local family ran into a nasty surprise while on vacation. And when they struggled to get their money back, they turned to the 11Alive Help Desk and Help Desk Veteran Bill Liss for assistance.
The Boyd family was looking forward to their vacation in a condo they rented through Vrbo in St. Augustine during the July Fourth week.
But when Rachel and Brandon Boyd went to unpack, they were in for a shock: they found bedbugs.
They found them in a bedroom dresser drawer and a bedbug egg under the mattress, and they didn’t know what to think.
“Bedbugs are bad. They can get in your luggage... take them home with you,” Boyd said.
And he quickly added that his first thought was to “get out of here!!”
The Boyds were sure that after discovering bedbugs, it would be easy and quick to get all of their money back from Vrbo, but it did not quite turn out that way.
The Boyd family spent hours on the phone with Vrbo. Their struggle to get a full refund turned into days, then weeks
“Almost a month before we even had any kind of - we were told that nothing could be done and basically left with nothing,” Boyd said.
Getting nowhere, they reached out to the 11Alive Help Desk, and we started making calls and sending countless emails.
“You started reaching out to Vrbo, reaching out to various people and we started finally started getting some type of response from Vrbo. They were really willing to help, whereas before just no luck,” Boyd said.
So far, the Boyds have received a third of the $2,575 they paid to Vrbo, and Boyd enthusiastically added that “they assured us they were going to refund the money.”
We will stay on top of this one until we know the Boyds have secured their full refund.
If you've exhausted all of your options to resolve an important issue that affects you, your family or your community, write to our 11Alive Help Desk to see if Bill can lend a hand. Email us at 11alivehelpdesk@11Alive.com.