If it sounds too good to be true...
My Husband signed us up for a 1 hour presentation at Sunshine Vacations in Dublin, OH. For sitting through just 1 hour of presentation, we'd receive a free dinner for 2 @ Applebees, and a 3/2 free trip to Las Vegas or Orlando.
We arrived on time to find ourselves amongst a very cheap set of offices, with 'pimpish' looking representatives scurrying about. We were offered, coffee/tea/water to drink (filtered water, mind you... Not bottled). Our rep, Debbie Williams, spent the first 10-15 minutes of the presentation with 'chit chat'—gathering info about our personal life to use in her plan to sell us on this scam and offering information I could have cared less about re: her's. I was sensing that this wasn't going to take only an hour.
In the end, her offer was $12,000 for 30 weeks of vacation that would cost us additionally a $329 annual membership fee to Sunshine Vacations, a $99/trip processing fee, and $400 for each week of vacation we would book. (Then add to all that any airfare you might incur to get to said vacation destination, and food and miscellaneous expenses)."Um, no thanks". Enter her manager (aka. Head pimp).
This guy is a whiz w/numbers! Amidst "Ooohs/Ahhhs" from Debbie over the generousity this sleaze is extending us (literally—no joke. "Oh, wow!", "Hmmm!", "Ahhh!"), he'll override Debbie's ridiculous offer and give us 8 trips for $3,000 (and all the other fees mentioned above)."Not interested. We need to get going as we've been here much longer than we were told". (1.5 hours at this point). They give up, and with fewer smiles and a noticeable difference in the enthusiasm, we are shuttled to a waiting room for our free travel voucher.
Victor (aka. Authorization pimp) greets up w/handshakes and smiles to his broom closet office. (Which incidently includes a picture of him w/a modelish looking girl snuggled together with a teddy bear. Victor is the Paul/Judge/Fake Hand guy from CSI with about 250 extra pounds on him and a head of thinning, greasy hair beginning at a much-too-early age). He addresses only my Husband. Big mistake, Victor. He informs us that he is the only person authorized to make the offer we are about to be presented with. Behind 'door #3' sits the original 30 trips (all fees still included) for just $600! Wait. What?! What was $12,000 45 minutes ago is now $600?! Lol! Victor surrenders our travel voucher after a full 2 hours' worth of presentations. No Applebees dinner (wasn't going to spend any more time trying to wrangle that one out of them).
We saw a couple entering as we were exiting, *had* to comment: "One hour turned into 2 hours; and you can talk them down to $600 in the end if you're really interested in what they're scamming".
We ripped up the voucher after realizing that a free 3/2 trip would amount to a flight on a 30 year old puddle jumper of a plane to accomodations that would probably make a $19.95/night dive in Miami seem desirable; and then confirming our suspicions by reading Ripoff.
So in conclusion: it is (too good to be true).
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