Here’s a nightmare scenario: your house is severely damaged in a rare storm, and you hire a legitimate-seeming contractor to repair it or to raise your house on stilts to prevent flooding the next time a storm comes. Instead, the contractor either never began the work or wandered off partway through, leaving you without the money or a livable house. That’s what the state of New Jersey has accused a duo of contractors who are also a couple of doing. [More]
hurricane sandy
Contractors Charged With Using Money From Hurricane Sandy Victims To Shop And Gamble
By 10.12.16 — Updated: 10.13.16
How Flood Insurance Failed Superstorm Sandy Victims When Their Homes Actually Flooded
By 5.24.16
It’s difficult to think of natural disasters as a business, but ultimately they are. More than three years ago, Superstorm/Hurricane Sandy hit heavily populated parts of the East Coast. We’re a wealthy country, though, with a robust national flood insurance program, plenty of disaster aid, and a can-do spirit. All of the people driven out of their homes have rebuilt or received settlements and moved on, right? No. [More]
Woman Spots Wedding Dress Given Up For Lost During Hurricane Sandy In Dry Cleaner’s Window
By 7.29.14
When Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast in the fall of 2012, a Staten Island woman who had her wedding dress at a local dry cleaners figured her gown was gone — the store was destroyed and has been closed for almost two years. But it turns out the only thing in the store that survived the storm was her dress — which she spotted in the window of the store when it finally reopened — in a new location. [More]
Verizon Decides To Not Force Sub-Par Service On New Yorkers Left Without Phones By Hurricane
By 9.10.13
Last fall, Hurricane Sandy tore through the Mid-Atlantic, leaving entire coastal towns in New York and New Jersey without landline service. Verizon only made it worse for some residents, choosing to test replacing the ruined copper-wire network with its craptastic Voice Link service. After months of complaints from residents businesses and concerns about public safety, Verizon has decided to abandon that test and replace the copper lines in Fire Island, NY, with fiber optic cable. [More]
Verizon’s Test Of Landline-Less Service Leaves Some Customers Out In Cold
By 7.10.13
Last fall, Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of the New York and New Jersey coastline and damaged some copper wire landline networks so badly that Verizon figures it makes more sense to try out a new system that doesn’t rely on landlines rather than repair lines that many people don’t use anyway. But for some who depended on that older system, Verizon’s test isn’t making the grade. [More]
3 Months After Sandy, Verizon Still Hasn’t Canceled Account Of Customer With Uninhabitable Home
By 2.12.13
In November, we told you about Roy, one of many people whose home on the coast was rendered uninhabitable by Hurricane Sandy. Roy’s displeasure with Verizon’s decision to repeatedly charge, and then re-credit, a monthly service suspension fee to storm-affected customers led him to cancel his service. Or so he thought. [More]
Con Ed Customer Suing Company For $500 Million, Wants It Banned From New York
By 1.15.13
What would going for 17 days without power be worth to you? The inconvenience of living without electricity for weeks after his neighbors had power restored has prompted a Staten Island man to sue Con Edison for $500 million, as well as ask the state to ban the company from operating in New York. In other words, he wants it to be lights out for Con Ed, too. [More]
Allstate Realizes It Should’ve Asked First, Pulls Image Of Sandy-Ravaged Home From Ad
By 1.7.13
Although Allstate originally maintained that it hadn’t done anything wrong by using the image of a home ravaged by Sandy in an ad without obtaining permission from the couple who owned it, the insurance company says it’ll pull the image of that house. Besides the fact that the couple had no idea their home was in the commercial —which touts Allstate’s great customer service — they say Allstate is low-balling them on their insurance claim. [More]
Couple Says Allstate Low-Balled Them On Sandy Insurance Claim, Then Used Their Home In An Ad
By 1.4.13 — Updated: 1.7.13
A Staten Island couple is already having more than a rough go of it after their house was devastated during Hurricane Sandy. But as they’re trying to pick up the pieces, they say their insurance company, Allstate, is not only low-balling their claim, but had the nerve to use their home in a TV ad bragging about its customer service. Oof. [More]
New Circle In Hell Opens Up For Scalpers Selling $60K Tickets To Sandy Benefit Concert
By 12.7.12
You want to go see the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Kanye West, Billy Joel and more? Sure you do, so do I. But to the scalpers that are trying to turn a profit by reselling tickets to a star-studded benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Sandy, I have one thing to say to you: You are slime. [More]
Secret Santa From Missouri Hands Out $100 Bills To Hurricane Sandy Victims
By 11.30.12
Winter chill is setting in across our fair land, so how’s about a little warming of the old blood pump? Here you go: A philanthropist from Missouri has popped up as a Secret Santa of sorts on the East Coast, and has been handing out $100 bills to victims of Hurricane Sandy in New York and New Jersey. Don’t fight it, just feel the goodwill spread. Ahh, there it is. [More]
Verizon Says Hurricane-Affected Customers Will Get Credit For “Vacation” Fees
By 11.29.12
Yesterday, we told you about Roy, a Verizon DSL customer who canceled his service after he discovered the company was charging him a “vacation” fee to suspend service to his hurricane-damaged house. This morning, a rep for the company reached out to Consumerist to offer an explanation. [More]
Verizon Loses Customer By Charging A ‘Vacation’ Fee To Suspend Service To His Storm-Damaged House
By 11.28.12 — Updated: 11.29.12
Hurricane Forces Bride & Groom To Celebrate Wedding In A Gym While They Lose $10K On Reception Hall
By 11.27.12
Among all the recent hurricane-related horror stories coming out of New Jersey, the tale of a young couple losing $10,000 and having to hold their reception in a school gymnasium is certainly not the absolute worst, but it didn’t have to happen that way. [More]
Long Island Power Authority Sends Estimated Bills To Customers Who Went Weeks Without Electricity
By 11.26.12
Following Hurricane Sandy’s stroll through the area, many people on New York’s Long Island were left without electricity for weeks. But that didn’t stop the Long Island Power Authority from generating estimated bills for an entire month’s worth of power usage. [More]
NY Atty. Gen. Calls Out Wells Fargo For Halting Loan Mods In Wake Of Hurricane Sandy
By 11.19.12
As portions of New York and New Jersey begin to rebuild following the path of destruction cut by Hurricane Sandy, there are a number of area homeowners whose loan modifications have become collateral damage, with Wells Fargo suspending decisions on these requests until further notice. [More]
Can’t Pay The Emergency Pricing Rate? We’ll Just Take Back That Generator Part You Need
By 11.12.12
It can be difficult to figure out the fine line between price-gouging and businesses trying to make up for expenses during tough times, like after a disaster. So is it wrong for a company to demand a customer pay “emergency pricing” for something like a generator part and then take back the part when that price is questioned, or just the down side of doing business? [More]
Man Stuck Without Power During Hurricane Sandy MacGyvers His Prius To Provide Power
By 11.12.12
Many people who lost power on the East Coast during Hurricane Sandy were lucky enough to have access to electric generators. But for those who weren’t so fortunate, it was either remain in the dark or, in the case of one MacGyver of a man, figure out how to power your home using a hybrid car. [More]
