Jennifer Macdonald wanted to take her teenage son on a European vacation before he graduated high school and went off to college.
She said she spent six months planning the trip. She booked two cruises, one to Rome and the other to Greece, with a quick stop in Germany.
She said she bought trip insurance just in case.
“Because of the cost of the trip, and because there’s so much going on in the world, I just thought it would be safer,” Jennifer told NBC 7 Responds.
She said she picked Trip Mate because they were one of the few travel insurance companies that cover medical expenses.
On the last day of their trip, Jennifer said she started having a pain in her stomach.
“I didn’t feel well and we were traveling through the airport and um I had had signs in the morning, you know bleeding and stuff, and I just wasn’t feeling well,” said Jennifer.
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She said she collapsed as soon she got to the hotel in Frankfurt, Germany.
Jennifer said she was taken to the hospital. Doctors there found she had a gastrointestinal bleed. She spent nearly two days in the hospital and had two surgeries to repair the tear in her stomach.
Jennifer said she and her son were forced to extend their hotel stay and they missed their flight back to the states.
She said the bill for the ambulance to the hospital and the surgeries totaled $2,810. After factoring in her missed flight for her and her son, meals, and two extra nights at the hotel, Jennifer said she spent just under $3,800.
She said she made sure to get all of the receipts so she could file her claim with Trip Mate.
“I talked with the travel insurance and said what do you need and they told me everything,” Jennifer told NBC 7 Responds. “I had the doctor fill out everything and give it to me and then I went in and paid the bill and got the bill and everything before I left Germany.”
She filed the claim once she arrived to her Carlsbad home. She said she thought it was the end of the story.
It wasn’t.
“You can’t reach anybody,” said Jennifer. “They will keep you on hold for thirty minutes and will say, ‘I’m sorry our lines are flooded, you know, we will call you back within 24-hours, leave your number. And then nobody would ever call me back.”
Four months later, and according to her, fifteen phone calls later, she still hadn’t received a check.
That’s when she contacted NBC 7 Responds for help.
Added Jennifer, “After you guys stepped in a supervisor called me back, apologized, told me they were going to pay the claim. It was amazing.”
In a statement to NBC 7 Responds, a representative from Trip Mate apologized to Jennifer for the inconvenience. The representative said the reason for the delay were some discrepancies in Jennifer’s claim.
Jennifer said she has since received a check from TripMate for $3,796.96.
