I am writing to express my extreme anger over Vacation Station's business practices. My fianc and I received a telephone call on Friday, January 9 from a private telephone number that wouldn't show up on our caller ID. We weren't home at the time. When we returned and listened to the message, it said, This message is in regards to an entry form you filled out to awhile back to win a new car. These entry forms were located at thewhoopsOak Park/Antioch/Merriam/Mission/Metcalf Mall. As soon as you get this message I need you call me at my toll-free number, 1-888-767-8946. Congratulations!
First of all, I don't believe we have a mall here with such a long name. But we called back anyway, thinking we might have actually won a car through a legitimate contest. That was our first mistake. The man told us that we had been selected to win one of four prizes at a live drawing, a 2003 Explorer, $2500 cash, a seven day Bahamas cruise, or a 27-inch TV. One of these was guaranteed, he said. The worst we could do was end up with a TV. All we had to do was come listen to a promotional presentation for Grand Getaways Vacations. Our drawing was to be held at 10am, but they would do a second drawing at 2:30pm for those winners who couldn't make the earlier drawing. Since we were led to believe that this was a legitimate contest that we'd actually entered, we went to the Overland Park office the next morning at 10am. It was hard to find first of all. This put doubt and speculation into my mind immediately. There was nothing around to indicate a live drawing anywhere.
We went in though, curious to find out what was going on. We filled out some more forms, and about this time the "travel counselor" assigned to us was asking some pretty personal questions. When we told her we were getting married she asked us if we planned to have any children. I told her that was quite personal. All of this was an obvious attempt to get our guard down so the salesman could work on us during the presentation, and I didn't appreciate it. After a few minutes of listening to piped-in reggae music, this man comes in and says, Wow folks, all this music makes me want to get up and dance! Let's all get together and talk about travel! He was very slick in his demeanor. Then we were filed one by one into the torture chamber. How many of you value your money? He asked. Where would you take your dream vacation if you could go anywhere you wanted, anywhere in the world? He went around the room and asked everybody where we'd all like to go. He started flashing brochures around and talking about beaches, cruises, and living the good life. He also said that the company spent $214 per person to get us to that seminar.
(Hmmma little subliminal guilt trip thrown in free of charge?) When he got to the all-inclusive vacation speech I mentioned that my experience at one of those in Mexico wasn't all that great. Did he listen? Nopehe cut me off and kept going around the room. (Couldn't have this spoiling his prospective sales now could we?)
He talked about how great it is to go on cruises and get massages. Yes that's great, but he didn't mention the fact that you have to pay a separate fee for those services. All he talked about was how we were going to save a bunch of money on every kind of travel we could possibly imagine, and never have to go through red tape again. After this thing was over I could not believe the price to join club and get their Platinum membership. Seven thousand dollars??? Let me say it again. Seven thousand dollars??? Are they out of their minds? Do they think people are going to hand over that kind of money just like that? I suppose it does happen or maybe they might not be in business, but who knows. Of course if we couldn't afford their Platinum package we had other options, say for a week's worth of travel we could sign up for a small monthly payment, with low interest financing of course. We decided to leave. It was really uncomfortable for both of us. They snatched away any documentation regarding the packages and it was obvious they weren't going to let anybody leave the premises with it; everybody had to make up their minds right then and there.
By this time, I had a feeling this prize we had "won" was going to be bogus. When we gave them our claim number, we were handed a scratch card. Just as I suspected. Wow. But it wasn't the seven-day cruise we were told about on the phone, nor was it a TV, or anything else remotely resembling what Mr. Dilensky had told us. It was an MTA Florida/Bahamas package that I wouldn't send my worst enemy on. We were also told the vacation was transferable if we didn't want it. It was not. When I got home, I read the fine print and did some searching online. I found out some very interesting things. First of all, the hotel in Freeport is a 2 star dump. Http://www.islandpalm. Tripod.com just in case you would like to see the pictures.
I could smell the mold in the bathtub. My flesh crawled as I turned on the lights and saw hordes of cockroaches scattering about. The cruise was a one-day roundtrip ferryboat to the Bahamas and back. I checked usacomplaints.com and it shows that Grand Getaways is a scam and part of MVI, which has been brought up in these msg boards for fraud. When I read all those personal stories I was appalled.
On the website http://www.vacationtoursusa.com if you look very carefully, it states that people with $45,000 in household income are selected for the presentation. So basically this means that we did not fill out an entry form to win a car; we were specifically targeted from a list of consumers by telemarketers, despite all the new do-not-call laws! And why on earth would we want to stay at a 2 star dump in Freeport, 7 minutes from the beach, normally costing $75 a night if we make that kind of money, even if it is free? I wouldn't stay in a place like that here in the states! Not indicative of the glitzy vacations they are trying to sell in their seven thousand dollar package.
When I called on January 14 to speak to the owner Richard Loman, I was told that he is a busy and important man who owns several companies. Unfortunately today he was out of the office flying around the country to handle all of his properties. I left a message for the vice president to call me back. As of today, January 16, I have heard nothing. This only confirms my suspicions that this business is a fraud and not to be trusted. Sorry Mr. Loman, but I value my money too much to get taken in by this. I just hope nobody else parted with his or her hard earned income that day.
Signed,
Glad I didn't fall for your scam
S
Overland Park, Kansas
U.S.A.
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