is not giving you a fair shake. then-- peggy liu: i couldn't look at my butt on wedding photos without feeling that anger seething. announcer: when weddings go wrong, it can cost couples thousands. we'll show how to buy peace of mind and financial protection. here's consumer investigator chris chmura. chris: good evening, and welcome to our special. you know, we are entering our third year of "nbc bay area responds," defending consumers like you. our team works to help when you've been ripped off, ignored, or treated unfairly. more than 10,000 bay area residents have reached out to us with their consumer complaints, and we've helped viewers, like you, recover more than $1.8 million. tonight, we're sharing some of their stories and helping you be a smarter consumer to protect your family and your money.

as part of that, you'll often hear me say, "you should always with a five-figure price tag. they turned to us for help. keith duncan: it's a rental. chris: the duncan family condo needed some remodeling-- keith: it was linoleum, and it was painting. chris: after a tenant moved out last year. keith: the kitchen had to be, pretty much, redone. chris: the duncans did their homework and got several estimates, including a quote from carpets & more in vacaville. keith: and they have very good, sort of, reviews. chris: ultimately, the duncans chose a different company, but keith's mom, who's in her 80s, got confused. keith: she sent off a check to carpets & more for $24,000. chris: and how much work had they done? keith: they had not done anything 'cause we did not use them. chris: keith says he discovered the mistake a few weeks later after carpets & more had already cashed the check, and too late to stop payment. he asked carpets & more for a refund, and it responded with a check.

keith: the check was returned for insufficient funds. chri chris: keith says carpets & more then gave him a certified check, but not for 24 grand. it was for 12,000, half what his mom sent them by mistake. keith: she was quite upset. chris: keith says he repeatedly tried to collect the remaining $12,000, with no success. keith: they will not respond to me. chris: so he contacted us. we called carpets & more repeatedly over several months. we, too, did not get a response. mike alexander: how's it goin'? chris: how're ya doin'? chris: so we went to the showroom. fortunately, owner mike alexander was on hand to address the duncan family's concerns. chris: what is it gonna take for them to get their money back? mike: well, i already talked to him. chris: we pressed alexander for answers about why the company cashed the $24,000 check, where the money went, and why the duncans were still waiting for a refund. mike: i don't know what you want me to tell you. chris: i want to know why it's taking almost a year to get them their money.

mike: we've just been struggling to pay them back. that's all. that's all i have to say. chris: the state contractors board says carpets & more had an obligation to return the duncans full $24,000 as soon as keith told them his mom sent the check by mistake. alexander said the company might've cashed the check as a deposit, believing it was just about to start the duncan job. mike: well, we took a deposit for a job. chris: if it was a deposit check, the state says it would've been illegal for carpets & more to accept a deposit of $24,000. rick lopez: they can require you to pay no more than 10% or a thousand dollars. chris: whichever is less. the contractor board encouraged keith to file an official complaint, which could prompt a state investigation. keith can also try another route. he can file a claim against the carpets & more bond. rick: all contractors are required to carry a $15,000 surety bond, so there is a level of protection that you're going to get with that if you do have a problem as well. chris: keith is weighing that option to finally settle

the 365-day dispute over unit 806. keith: it's unbelievable. chris: he also hired an attorney who's trying to broker a payment plan with carpets & more, but keith has low expectations the business will actually pay, even with the threat of legal action. keith: at this point, i don't think anything would surprise me with those guys. chris: well, we are happy to report an update. the day after our first story aired, keith told us carpets & more paid his mother back in full. this part bears repeating. if you hire a contractor, never pay more than $1,000 as a deposit. contractors cannot demand a deposit of more than a thousand dollars or 10% of the total cost of the job, whichever iss. if they do, walk away and find someone else. now, this october will mark one year since the deadly wildfires burned so much of napa and sonoma. many families are still unable to move on, and they

blame their insurance company. we heard that state farm customers were having difficulty getting their claims paid in full. we learned some had created a group online, so together with our sister station, telemundo 48, we extended an open invitation to meet members of that group one weekend. here's what happened. chris: saturdays at first united methodist, in santa rosa, are normally sleepy, but this saturday-- female: at least 55 folks rsvp'd. chris: seats fill up fast. female: we had 130 people here today. chris: today the church is packed with people and heartache. chris: please raise your hand if you lost everything. that's everybody. chris: everyone here lost their home in the wildfires. everyone here has state farm insurance, and everyone here says they feel state farm is shortchanging them. chris: who got everything out of their insurance policy they expected? that's nobody. chris: here's why: they say state farm is requiring them to do a detailed, item-by-item inventory of the contents of

their home in order to get 100% of their coverage. they can forgo the itemized list, but then state farm will reduce their payout by 25%. bill vosburg: i paid my premiums on 100%, and state farm ought to pay me 100% of my contents without the inventory. chris: lots of money is on the line, tens of thousands of dollars for most families. bob cheal: they could not have made it more difficult for us to do these inventories as well. chris: policyholders shared this recent letter from state farm that says the california code has required an innt the state told us otherwes: it statutorily required. chris: that's insurance commissioner dave jones. he asked ildanre claims. in a statement, state farm said it has. it agreed to and is following the state's expedited claims process, including increasing coverage paid up front to 75% without an inventory.

jones says insurance companies don't have to stop at 75%. he even wrote them and applauded companies that paid up to 100%, while also waiving the inventory. dave: some home insurers have waived it for north bay fire survivors, and i'm confident they could all waive it. chris: jones doesn't have the power to order them. these fire victims want that to change. chris: how quickly? all: now. chris: now. female: i guess, retroactively. chris: retroactively. female: retroactive, yeah. male: retroactively. chris: state farm told us the inventory is a simple listing of what was lost, but many fire victims complain it's not simple at all. they said the software they have to use is glitchy and cumbersome. state farm said it assigned specialized workers called it called the process "a personalized experience," but most policyholdehs. male: we're on our seventh adjuster. seven. seven.

chris: during our meeting, we met elsa hernandez. elsa hernandez: and my priority is free building. chris: she and her husband, luis, say their claim is being reduced by $60,000, unless they complete an inventory. elsa: that was, you know, our kitchen and our living room. chris: the couple invited us to visit the empty lot where their coffey park home once stood. the hernandezes want state farm executives to do what we did: visit them. elsa: we're not trying to get any more than what we feel is rightly ours, and we're not lying when we say we've lost it all. you can come out and see. chris: neighborhoods are still barren, six months after the firestorm. there are some signs life i gtiuld be happening out here if only their insurance claims weren't so difficult. diane malnekoff: it would've been such a relief if the insurance company just came in and said, "okay, we'll give you this, and we're done, and now you can move forward." there's no moving forward. chris: who's had the same experience, repeating

the process over and-- chris: people here feel the claims process is designed to be slow, to get them to give up, to take the settlement, and state farm to a friend? male: not now. chris: state farm told us back in january that the dollar amounts listed in its policies are the maximum benefits, not automatic payments. that's common insurance lingo if you look for it. now, here's what that means. you might think you're insured for, say, $237,000, but, really, you're insured for up to $237,000. you might have to fight to get 100% of that amount. well, here's one way to help: you can do a home inventory right now. walk around the house. snap photos in every room. document everything you own, then send those files to the cloud for safekeeping. announcer: from injured guests to no-show vendors,

a lot can go wrong at a wedding. there's a product that can protect a happy couple's big investment, but is it worth the price? that story when we continue.

chris: welcome back. you can buy insurance for just about anything these days. policies cover everything from home, to auto, to fine art, and even travel. well, you can add weddings to that list, so we checked out wedding insurance for you. chris: it's a perfect spring day in gilroy, beaming brides- and grooms-to-be get a taste of the perfect wedding day at a wedding expo. for allison and shawn, the big day is approaching fast. allison: we're getting married on 8/18/18. chriherepending a lot of money to make their matrimony memorable. shawn: twenty-five. allison: twenty-five. shawn: twenty-five k, yeah. allison: thousand, yes.

female: i'm so glad you guys could make it. chris: they expect everything to go just right. female: short, sweet, and perfect. allison: oh, my god. chris: but weddings are not always perfect. shawn: thank you very much. patty spiers: 'cause you never know what happens, unfortunately. chris: patty spiers has planned weddings for 20 years. patty: everything from planning every last detail to playing psychologist sometimes and talking down brides. chris: she knows from experience that some problems just can't be avoided, like, say, a heat wave. patty: when i got the bride into the church, it was 121 degrees. the a/c in the church gave out. chris: that's why patty recommends the one thing we didn't see a booth for at the expo: wedding insurance. d suess with having my couples do that, peggy liu: help me get in my dress-- chris: peggy liu says she could've used insurance after her wedding. peggy: obviously, photographer is one of the biggest and most important things for a wedding, and we found our photographer,

actually, through a dear friend's referral. chris: just one big problem: the photographer she hired didn't deliver the album for two years. peggy: it just kind of dragged out for--i mean, we didn't really understand, really. chris: if peggy had wedding insurance, she might've been covered. wedsafe, a company that sells wedding insurance, says an event policy might cover things like postponement or cancellation, when events are out of your control, like a medical emergency, severe weather, or military deployment. some policies might even cover you if the bride or groom gets cold feet or if either loses their job and can no longer afford to pay for the reception. insurance can also recover money when you pay a vendor who doesn't deliver, like the $4,500 peggy paid. chris: peggy turned to us for help, and we got her $600 back. wedding insurance might have gotten more. peggy: that sounds something that i could've greatly benefitted from.

ri pegs the cost of an average wedding in the bay area at just shy of 40 grand. so how much does wedding insurance cost? wedsafe tells us its' policies start at 75 bucks and average around $200. patty: there's very little that you can get when you're planning a wedding for 250 bucks. chris: allison and shawn began to see that firsthand while browsing the booths at the expo. wedding insurance wasn't part of their plan. allison: we haven't looked into it at all. chris: but they vowed to research it. chris: if your car is worth 25 grand, you have insurance. how about your wedding? allison: that's true. that is a very good point. chris: as with, a iit's vital a for example, with wedding insurance, disputes over the taste of food probably are not going to be paid. canceling due to a preexisting medical condition also is likely to be excluded. if the bride or groom get arrested and you have to cancel,

they're not gonna cover that either. stolen gifts might be covered, but if you've left them in an unattended vehicle, you can probably forget about an insurance payment. these restrictions will vary, so please, please, please read the policy before buying it. it won't be as fun as sampling cake, but it is critical. announcer: still ahead-- phil wiseman: it is a lovely car. announcer: lovely, but incomplete. a luxury car buyer feels misled. what you need to know about car advertising and your rights as a consumer. that's coming up on "nbc bay area."

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make sure they got it. if not, call the bank right away. better yet, pay with a cashier's check. if you deliver the check in person, you'll know exactly who has your money. carefully review e-mail addresses. crooks use phony, lookalike return addresses that mimic the real sender's account. don't use your phone to open e-mail during a real estate transaction. your computer might be more secure. crooks are spoofing phone numbers too, have a problem or a tip? give us a call, or submit online. we respond to every call and inquiry. chris: welcome back to our "nbc bay area responds" special. i'm consumer investigator chris chmura. all right, say, you drop 40 grand on a car. you expect to get all the bells and whistles, but a san francisco man told us he did not get what a salesman

promised: an important and expensive part of the car he had just bought was missing, and when he spoke up about it, the dealer went silent. chris: phil wiseman splurged-- phil: i just felt good in it. chris: on his luxury sedan. phil: this is an infiniti, a q70l. chris: this gently used, leather-appointed, 330-horsepower chariot spoke to him. female: on cue. phil: but it is a lovely car. chris: so he bought it for $40,000, but within days, the infiniti began pushing his buttons because he couldn't find certain buttons: adaptive cruise control, collision warning, lane departure alert, and blind spot monitoring were nowhere to be found. phil discovered the entire technology package was missing. phil: when i bought the car, i was told that there was a tech package in the car. chris: phil said the used-car salesman at mercedes-benz

of san francisco had sent him this e-mail, listing the infiniti's features, including the tech package. phil whipped up a message. phil: and so i sent it. no response, so i sent another e-mail. no response. then i left two telephone messages. no response. chris: phil calculated the tech package costs three grand, new, so he wasn't gonna let that kind of money just slide. after hearing nothing from the dealer for seven weeks, he'd had it. phil: so i contacted you. chris: we contacted mercedes-benz of san francisco. we initially got no response too, but on our third try, phil received very good news. phil: full money, 100%. chris: forty thousand dollars? phil: forty thousand dollars. chris: the dealer manager, mark santos, agreed to buy back phil's infiniti. he declined to go on camera, but in a note, he wrote, "as we strive for nothing less than complete customer satisfaction, even though it may have been miscommunication,

we offered a complete refund of all monies paid." santos also sent a copy of a disclaimer thatterials. it reads, "while every reasonable effort is made to ensure the accuracy of this information, we are not responsible for any errors or omissions contained on these pages." chris: if they're not responsible, who is? female: so the vehicle dealer would be responsible. chris: the dmv told us a blanket disclaimer doesn't give auto dealers latitude to offer one thing but deliver another. the business and professions code requires them to be truthful. mercedes-benz of san francisco insists it made an honest mistake with phil. chris: here's the dmv's advice for preventing a dispute like phil's the next time you're shopping for a car: take pictures of the advertising. keep copies of every e-mail they send you, and point t then, if you're still not satisfied, file an official complaint. female: so we would recommend to phil to file a complaint with the local dmv investigations office. phil: it was off the mark.

chris: phil is still driving the infiniti, by the way. after our involvement, he negotiated a partial refund instead of a buyback. he's satisfied and confident his call to us made it possible. chris: california law is actually pretty good to car buyers. in fact, a car buyer's bill of rights covers us. it's just two pages long but full of important protections, so i say, read it, print it out, and take it with you whenever you visit a car dealer. announcer: up next, the new national tax law has big implications for californians. how you could prepare now to prevent filing headaches next spring.

at at&t, we believe in access. the opportunity for everyone to explore a digital world. connecting with the things that matter most. and because nothing keeps us more connected than the internet, we've created access from at&t. california households with at least one resident who receives snap or ssi benefits may qualify for home internet at a discounted rate of $10 a month. no commitment, deposit, or installation fee. visit att.com/accessnow to learn more. well, this year it's more important than ever, really. that big tax law congress passed could make a huge difference in how much you owe or get back next year, so you need to take action this year. chris: when congress first talked of tinkering with the tax code, its ideas included ditching the old 1040 form.

paul ryan: we're making things so simple that you can do your taxes on a form the size of a postcard. ruth godfrey: yeah, right, uh-huh, it's gotta be a huge postcard. chris: ruth godfrey sits on the board of the national society of accountants. she told us the changes congress passed actually made the tax code more complex. ruth: there are massive changes. chris: ruth and the irs don't always see eye to eye, but they do agree that the new tax code requires almost everyone's immediate attention. raphael tulino: a lot of us are gonna be affected by the amount of taxes we pay based on this law, so maybe consider some tax planning now. chris: start with your paycheck. bug payroll to make sure the amount you send to uncle sam each payday is enough to meet the new law. raphael: one of the things you wanna make sure people are doing are taking a look at their withholding because employers are now using different withholding tables than they have in previous years. chris: other big changes are triggering potentially costly questions for almost every family. the personal exemption is gone. will that wipe out your refund?

but the standard deduction has nearly doubled, so should you still keep receipts and itemize? property and state tax write-offs are newly capped at 10 grand, so should you even bother? basically, everyone has tax decisions to make today. raphael: based on the new law, it's gonna have an effect in some way, shape, or form, on all of us, and you wanna take a look and see what your withholdings are, see what you're paying as a taxpayer. that way, you'll avoid a big surprise chris: if you're confused, ruth recommends an hour or two with an accountant. ruth: even if your professiol o. chris: if you have a consumer problem, please let us know. head to nbcbayarea.com/responds, or call us, 888-996-tips. thanks for joining us, and have a great evening.

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krasinsk the latest on demi lovato. ou tuesday demi was rushed to the hospital. later natalie and derek will be here. they will share their stories o struggles, the things that i've been through. i'm a different person today.

everything that i've been through shaped me sbinto the person that i am today. >> that was demi less than a week ago but last week after an apparent overdose she was rushed to the help. thankfully she is awake and responsive and with her family. the 911 call refers to her as unconscious, but it's still unknown what she overdosed on. a source tells us it was not hein previously reported. she was given narcan, a medication which reverses the effects of an opioid overdose ♪ i don't know why i do it every, every time ♪ ♪ it's only when i'm