The company, RCI, calls consumers on the phone, and invites them to attend a 90 minute presentation in return for a $1000 gift certificate.
I received the phone call on February 12, talked to the phone agent on February 20th, and visited their office for on-site presentation on February 14th. I attended the sales pitch in Oak Brook (a Chicago suburb): 903 Commerce Drive, Oak Brook, IL 60523.
Lot of things are unethical on how they implement their sales:
1. On the phone, the company's representative or agent does not specifically say that this is for resort time-share.instead, they say that the company has just opened a new travel agent office in your city. Perhaps, most people will not attend the presentation if it for time-share.
2. The $1000 gift certificate can be redeemed only at https://www.pickyourgifts.org/. All the products at this website are marked-up 50% to 100% over other comparable Internet shopping sites. Just pasting the name of the product in Google provides this information.
3. The company charges 30% shipping and handling for redeeming the gift certificate.
4. The scam is since the products are already marked up 50% to 100%, and the consumer is paying 30% in cash for shipping and handling, there is no thing free here.
5. On top of this, when you attend the on-site presentation, the sales-person asks you make the decision before you live the premises. Perhaps, they feel that once people go home and try to redeem the gift certificate, they will not feel the same about RCI.
The company should discontinue this practice, issue ethical promotions to everybody affected by this, and issue an public apology.
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