i'm consumerer investigator chris chmura. i'll explain how this case is so urgent and how nbc bay area responds. south bya man -- who had issues= consumer investigator chris c >>> nbc bay area responds to a south bay man who had issues with his debit card. >> consumer investigator chris chmura helped him to unfreeze his card. >> reporter: manny uses a popular reloadable card called a green dot card. he says he deposited $500 to it and made purchases just fine. sudden lit card was declined at starbucks with 107 bucks left on it. manny moved fast. card holders can be charged fees when there's no account activity. he says customer service didn't answer so he called us. we called green dot which quickly unfroze his $107. a spokesman explained systems flagged manny's card as potentially stolen but it wasn't. it linked it to a tech outage. green dot's number one source of income includes fees, a fact we found in its annual report. the company spokesman suggested that card holders actively monitor their accounts to avoid unnecessary

chris chmura, nbc bay area news. >>> mixed martial artist kevin ferguson better known as kimbo slide died. he was hospitalized yesterday for undisclosed reasons. he became famous in the mid 2000s thanks to a series of backyard fights that went viral. he was scheduled to fight next july 16th. he was only 42 years old. >>> dignitaries from around the world are making their way to muhammed ali's hometown to pay their final respects to the man who transcended sports and influenced the lives of millions. >> tracie potts is live in washington, d.c. former president bill clinton is expected to give the eulogy on friday. >> he will. we'll hear from billy crystal and bryant gumbel, ali's wife and oldest daughter, the president of turkey expected to be here with other celebrities and dignitaries. will smith who played ali in the movie by his name, and we are going to see a number of different ministers from different faiths. this is something muhammed ali wanted. the plan very specific to his needs signed off by him years ago. the fact that it's in his hometown of louisville, the procession th

i'm consumer investigator chris chmura. nbc bay area responds next. one woman asks if amazon can ba? >>> nbc bay area responds when one woman asks if amazon can actually ban her from the site for life. >> consumer investigative reporter chris chmura has the answer to this squha unusual question. >> reporter: never heard this one before. it doesn't seem amazon can ban you. jenn, right there, she's proof. she says amazon closed her prime account without warning. >> i was shocked. i said what do you mean i'm banned from amazon? how is that even possible? >> reporter: too many returns. that's how. jenn says amazon blind-sided her with this e-mail that reads "we have closed this account because you have consistently returned a large number of your orders. jenn admits she returned merchandise weekly. >> i did send a lot of stuff back. i'm not going to argue about that. i mean, i did. >> reporter: but she had no idea what the limit was. amazon said it sent her a notice 30 days before her lifetime ban. jenn says it never arrived. >> because e-mail is apparent

consumer investigator chris chmura is here with her story. what exactly happened, chris? >> how many times did you delete an e-mail from a company you didn't recognize thinking it was spam. >> that's what jocelyn did and it shut down her website. bay area responded and we helped get that website back up and running. >> our dog's name is tuco. we call heim boo-boo. he looks like he was just born to do that, to jump and get that ball. >> reporter: tugo is the inspiration behind boo-boo's best. jocelyn counts on her e-commerce website to drive business. >> anybody who i approach, they always will use the website as a reference. that's the first place people go to use the product, to use the company. >> reporter: but recently jocelyn's website was taken down. a message on the site read, temporarily unavailable. she didn't know how or why it happened, but she did know one thing. >> it means we don't get sales so i don't make money. >> reporter: scrambling to get her site back up, jocelyn called blue host, her hosting site. she was recommended to site lock, a security company.

i'm consumer investigator chris chmura. nbc bay area responds, next. to a san jose woman who neded help after a vacation. >>> nbc bay area responds to a san jose woman who needed help after a vacation. >> consumer investigator chris chmura with her story. how did you help? >> we got her some money back. michelle jackson took a driving trip to mexico in january. knowing things can easily go wrong when traveling, she bought travel insurance and ended up needing it. while out on a boat, michelle says her belongings got water logged, ruining among other things her camera. she reported the loss to her travel insurance company, tripmate. five months after the trip, she still wasn't reimbursed. so we contacted tripmate. it quickly paid her $637. michelle says that doesn't cover all of her losses. tripmate points out through the policy, it's limited per each item to the actual cash value, the cost of the repair or replacement, or $300. whichever is lowest. tripmate said all of this was disclosed to michelle when she bought the insurance. so a lesson for all of

. >> chris chmura, what went wrong? >> the guy told us the white paint on his brand new car suddenly started to change colors. >> oliver nicholas logs close to 100 miles a day. he splunged on this 2013 toyota hybrid. >> it's something i want to be comfortable in. that's why i chose this car. >> reporter: recently he noticed the white paint is yellowing near the doors. our lens doesn't perfectly capture the color shift and oliver concedes it's probably difficult for you to see, too. what matters to him is he can see it. >> i see it, that's correct. it bugs me. how am i going to get rid of this. >> reporter: his camry is still covered under toyota's 36-month number to bumper warrantee. >> i called toyota and they're like, that's not part of our workmanship, that's not a manufacturer defect. i saw a manufacturer rep twice. the whole time they claimed it was not their fault. >> reporter: oliver wondered why toyota paint isn't covered under a toyota warrantee. he contacted us and we contacted toyota. >> next thing you know,

our consumer investigator chris chmura joins us to explain how. >> when your car is recalled, you take it to the shop. that's what we do. we take it to the shop. some rental car companies are not doing that. they are not taking them to the shop. the federal government says that needs to change and it will change beginning today. the agencies must fix all of their fleet before renting those cars out. the new regulation kicks in today. it begins right now. a tragic california case has prompted this change. two sisters were driving north from near los angeles when their car, a rental, veered off the road. they ended up dead. that car was recalled and it should have been fixed, but it was not. you can look up any vehicle, your car or raental car on safercar.gov. that's the federal government website. it's easy. enter the vehicle identification number and you'll get a response almost immediately. rental agencies caught representing recalled cars, they will be punished where companies feel it the most. fined upwards of thousands of dollars a day. raj? >> chris, thank you. can we handle all t

consumer reporter chris chmura is here with her story. chris? >> ann lives on a partial dirt road. her local ups driver refuses to deliver packages saying the road is bumpy. instead they leave the packages at the end of the road or at a ups store nearly an hour away. she has been trying to get ups to deliver to her doors for years. we fixed the problem within hours. ups promised ann all of her packages will be delivered to her home. ups apologized and said our promise to our customers is to serve them regardless remote locations or distance to main roads. ups even delivered flowers, they a florist delivered them. have a great evening. >> thank you, chris. >>> sweetener coming back to diet pepsi. they ditched asartme last year. they will have pepsi zero sugar. which will have aspartame. diet pepsi and pepsi will not. >> 4 3 /* 3 million americans plan ton travel. that's a million more than last year's record breaking number. increased disposal hable income with just about 4 million people expected on california highways. speaking of which we might have the worst commute in the count

. >> consumer investigative reporter chris chmura is here with more. >> he signed up for a special promotions package with comcast that cost $99 for two years. he later tried to add phone service, the package price jumped by $65 a month. he felt that was too much. we contacted comcast and it gave him a new rate of $137 a month. that should save him about $648 over the life of his contract. comcast refused to comment and in full disclosure, comcast owns nbc bay area. >> call us at 888996 tips or log on to our website. i like that avenue best you can add photos and documents and really make your case so we can get to it. >> that's good, people have been doing that. >> it's great, we always have room for more. >> chris is the busiest guy in our newsroom. >> we have a team, it's not just me. >>> a new experimental zika vaccine is in the works. a dna based vaccine okayed by the fda. many develop antibodies that attack zika. 40 people were chosen to test the drug beginning in the next few weeks. >>> the suv that killed the star track actor was recalled because the gearshifts are confusing. los ange

=sam/2 shot= chris chmura (kuh-more-uh ds more tha rs experience to our team. wcome to this morning, we'd love to introduce our new investigator. >> let's give a big welcome >> nbc respond is all about you. we solve disputes, get refund and bring about change. case in point, rose, aaa refused to tow her van, she wasn't with it when it broke down. crews couldn't get to it. she had disability. aaa wouldn't budge. rose contacted us. we contacted aaa. guess what happened, they gave her a free year of service it is changing its policy for members with disability. so tonight we pose a question, is your child safe when the dentist poses anesthesia? one says no, some dentists say the stat to quo is safe. week ago explain why. we will ask state regulators serious questions they can't answer after the 11:00. these stories begin with you. so please, either call us at 888-996 items, or visit nbc bay area.com slash respond. >> which is great. i love these stories. they make a difference in people's lives. >> unfortunately, there are so very many of them. >> you are talking

details on that we turn to new consumer investigator, chris chmura. how is it going? >> we are making a difference. the good news. some of the topics we are look into, billing disputes. questionable contest, club dues, landlords, dental work. this week we have helped rose who reached out for help fighting triple a, the auto club made her extra to add a driver to her plan, a driver she is required to have because of casability. triple a aapproximately jietzed gave her a refund and now changing its policy. every friday we are going to recap what we have been hearing through the week. track trends like these. and we will report our response right here. but, we can't do that without you. so, please call us at -- we'll respond to every call. every e-mail. i give you a glimpse of what is happening. bunch in the works right now. within the next couple weeks we will save people in the bay area thousand of dollars soon as we close the cases we'll bring them. >> we may be calling you ourselves. something clicked in my mind. ooh, i got information on this. >> thought about that.

chris chmura, nbc bay area news. >>> coming up next, a mountain lion spotted at a busy south bay park. it's what the big cat did to kids that prompted officials to evacuate the area. >>> a personal fouler breaks into two rooms on the stanford campus and still on the loose. details coming up. >>> a demand for answers after last week's protests outside a trump speech turned violent. >>> a very good morning to you. thank you for joining us. i'm naái garcia-cannon. >> i'm sam brock. here to greet you on a monday morning with a big smile. >> the fog will help us out with cooler temperatures. inland areas only a minor relief from the heat we had over the past few days. look at those clouds over the north bay. 53 degrees. highs reaching low 80s. 86 in the south bay. also 80s for the tri-valley. we'll have 70s for thor in bay and san francisco today. 66. we'll talk about a cooler trend coming in for the next several days. mike has an update on a crash heading towards santa clara. >> looking at northbound 2800 towards the santa clara area. a live look at 101. we are circling the one at lawre

consumer investigator chris chmura has updates. >> reporter: our consumer investigative center has been busy this week. we helped manny in san jose unfreeze a frozen debit card when it still had $107 on it to spend. and alexis quarante paid $50 for a flea medication she says didn't work on her cats. alexis told us the company promises a money-back guarantee but wouldn't give her a refund. so we called the company and alexis is now getting her 50 bucks back. we also helped greg in fremont get $133. he got tangled up in a billing problem after some medical tests. we helped him sort it all out. we'd also like to help you. share your complaints with us. call us, 888-996-tips or visit our web site, nbcbayarea.com/responds. >> have a great evening. >> thank you, chris. >>> checking in one more time with jeff rainieri. a lot of people are out tonight, friday night. >> they definitely are all across the bay area. of course in san francisco where you can see back here behind me plenty of blue sky right now. not much in the way of fog. let's get you to that microclimate forecast on this friday ni

i'm nbc bay area chris chmura. the response for anyone who still has a checkbook next. viewer who's having trouble wit old movies to video. >>> nbc bay area responds to a viewer who is having trouble with a service that converts old movies to video. >> he asked consumer investigator chris ca mhmura tot his money back. >> reporter: he told us he paid a professional audio visual guy 617 bucks to digitize the 16 millimeter movie he made in 1976 while a senior at sf state. that film is old but not old enough to be silent. and yet that's how it came back, sile silent. bill said it's useless to him. he said he put a hold on the check and asked me, am i liable for payment? that's a great question, bill. stopping payment on a check might get a problem business's attention, but that hold is no guarantee. because it's only temporary. the american bankers association told us placing a hold on a check only stops payment for six months. after that the check can be cashed. if you stop payment it's imperative that you work with the business to return your check, refund your money, or

as consumer investigators chris chmura reports it has sparked a lawsuit. >> reporter: carrie walton booked to those on vrbo paying them $1,200 for a one-year platinum membership, a subscription designed to boost her home's ranking in search results on vrbo's site. >> ten pages of homes and this way with platinum you'll be on the first page, most like ly at the top. we thought it was worth the cost. it was an investment in marketing. >> reporter: an investment that paid off. she said rent iing her home was breeze, at first. but three months ago vrbo started charging travelers a service fee, 4% to 9% of the total cost of the rental a cost vrbo pockets not carrie. show says this wasn't part of her agreement with vrbo and now because of it travelers aren't renting her home. it's too expensive. >> we didn't pay a platinum subscription to have vrbo service this way. >> reporter: her listing fell way down on vrbo's search results. she says vrbo told her it may get another change, this one to its algorithm and her platinum membership alone no longer guaranteed high search results. show says her $1

. >> chris chmura helps him unfreeze it. >> good morning. this man deposited $500 to his debit card and made purchases just fine. but suddenly the card was declined with $107 left on it. he moved fast, because card holders can be charged fees when there's no county activiaccount. but customer service didn't respond so he called us. a spokesman explains their systems linked the call center backlog to a tech outage. their number one source of income includes fees. a company spokesman suggests card holders actively monitor their accounts. if you have a problem, we'll respond. call 888-996-tips or share your story on nbcbayarea.com/responds. tomorrow at 6:20, the woman banned from a major online retailer. have a great day. >> glad it worked out for him. >>> next on "today in the bay," keeping celebrations safe at pride this weekend. the extra steps the city is taking following the deadliest mass shooting in u.s. history. >>> and a billboard here behind me along highway 92 in hayward will be a visible reminder of a recall effort under way to benc

. >> consumer investigator chris chmura is here with her story. >> knowing things can easily go wrong when abroad she bought travel insurance and needed it. while out on a boat michelle says water leaked into her camera and ruined it. some other gear was damaged as well. she reported the loss to her travel insurance company tripmate. five months after filing a claim she still hadn't been reimbursed. so we contacted tripmate for her and it quickly reimbursed michelle $637. michelle says that doesn't cover her losses, but tripmate pointed to its coverage which says it will cover the lesser of the actual cash value of the item, the cost prorepair it or replace it or $300. tripmate said this was disclosed to michelle when she bought the insurance so a lesson, before buying insurance read the limitations and exclusion, calculate whether it's worth the premium they charge. if you have a consumer problem we'd love to help us, call us 1-88-996-tips or find us on the web nbcbayarea.com/responds. tomorrow at 6:0, imagine no home mail delivery for six weeks. we respond. have a great day. >> than