I will try and explain to the best of my knowledge what this experience was like from A-Z.
I received a voucher in the mail that stated $1600 to use for vacation. I called the toll-free number and spoke to a sales consultant. I was a single student living on my own at the time. I was offered the package for vacation in FL and cruise to the Bahamas. I was told all I would have to pay is $498 per person. Well I wanted to go by myself, i thought it was a good deal for what they said on the phone so I gave them my credit card number. After that was said and done they told me that the balance would have to be paid before I took the vacation. I asked them what balance then they stated it was for 2 people. I told them I was the only one going and they said it was the same price. I spoke with a few people and was basically convinced that I already agreed to the deal and there was no way out of it. I purchased this in 2004. I received a call about a year later stating that if I paid my balance they would give me another year to schedule my vacation and if I paid an extra $100 they would upgrade my room on the cruise ship to an outside cabin and would upgrade my rental car. I would've taken the vacation sooner but I did'nt have anyone to go with.
I made a deal with my sister from Chicago that if she paid the airfare I would give her the other ticket since we both have spring break the same time, we just used this as as spring break vacation. I gave my sister the number for the resort so she could get plane tickets, they told her we would be staying in Ft. Lauderdale, arriving and departing from Ft. Lauderdale so we got plane tickets round trip for Ft. Lauderdale. We arrived around around 8pm and proceeded to the rental car center. We picked up our Chevy Cobalt (small crappy car) and proceeded to the welcome center located inside the hotel. We were told we had to visit a resort and take a tour to pick up our cruise vouchers. When I bought the vacation they made it sound like I would tour the facilities I was staying at. But in reality we had to drive 25 minutes away to a time share and hop in a sales persons car drive around town and then go back to the resort and be harrassed and pressured into buying time share.
Even after I told him no 3 times they kept pushing asking if I could afford it and changing figures, and last offering us forclosured time shares. After the 3 1/2 hour ordeal with them we were exhausted we got dinner and went back to the hotel and went to sleep. The hotel was nasty and smelled bad, the water was yellow and the drains didnt work, I took a shower in a puddle of water and the toielt didnt flush. We then got up early the next day to board our cruise ship. When I saw the ship I about cried, it was tiny compared to the other ships and was so old. The ship smelled of rotten eggs and I ordered double beds and they gave me 1 double bed. Since I was traveling with my sister I wasnt going to sleep in the same bed as her so I ended up sleeping in a deck chair. The food was nasty and so was the water, the entertainment was horrible. The day in the Bahamas was really only a few hours and we didnt have time to do anything fun. The ride was rocky and bumpy, it gave us both headaches, and were told by the captain not to complain because it could be worse. I was so releived to get off the dumpy boat.
We drove to Orlando we got their late because it was a 3.5 hour drive. We had enough time to eat dinner pick up our hotel vouchers. When we picked up our hotel vouchers we were told to take another tour. We explained we were not willing to go on another time share and the women explained it was nothing like what we did in Ft. Lauderdale so we agreed. It was a 1pm the next day. The hotel was dumpy and smelled like urine. The wall sockets was busted and sparked when i plugged my laptop in it. Wallpaper was peeling and the air conditioner was loud and noisy. We got up and went somewhere to eat breakfeast, we drove around a bit and then went to the place to take a tour. The lady at the Ramada Plaza Resort Lied to us it was exactly like the other time share and was basically identical, fortunatly we got a very nice sales person that tried to get us out of it but it didnt work and we ended up going through the entire thing again. Another 3 hours wasted. Same thing over again. We ate dinner and went to sleep. The next day was our last day in FL we had to leave early about 1am just to catch our flight so we didnt do much that day. We went to seaworld but only for 2 hours because thats all we had time for and went back to the hotel, took a nap and then drove back to Ft. Lauderdale to return the rental car and catch our flight. We drove a total of 816 miles on our trip that wasnt suppost to have much driving at all. Both hotels did not have free breakfeast so we had to buy our own. Some of the other expenses that we were not aware about were the following:
2 Nights Ft. Lauderdale Hotel Charges: $24.00
Cruise Ship Charges: $79.00
3 Nights Orland Hotel Charges: $36.00
Rental Car Charges: $65.50
I did some research and I could've booked the same hotels, same cruise, and same rental cars for less than the $1100 I spent. I was definetly scammed into this time share trap. I don't even feel like I had a vacation, I feel like the whole trip was on their behalf. Which it was. At least I will never get scammed like this again. I learned my lesson. I will not let this go and I want to see this company shut down so they dont scam anyone else... I felt so bad for the other people on the trip because I know they were getting scammed too. How can Florida let this company stay in business? If anyone can help me please do so. I will write my letter to attorny general, bbb, and fraud agencies.
Irvin
Mishawaka, Indiana
U.S.A.
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