I receieved an invitation in the mail to attend a presentation at the Doubletree in Annapolis. This Doubletree hotel is located at 210 Holiday Court, Annapolis, MD 21401. The invitation promised free round trip tickets and a 4 day 3 night cruise on either Royal Caribbean or Carnival. I was supposed to attend with my wife.
On August 18th, we drove to Annapolis to attend the presentation, and a man who claimed to be a self made millionaire by the name of Terry Wattemaker (?) told us all kinds of what turned to be fantasy about how membership in Global Explorers travel club would save us 30% on international trips, how we could get cruises on top of the line cruise lines at 50-60% off and how we could get 5 star hotel and resort bookings at greatly discounted rates.
Several couples attended and many appeared to buy the memberships of almost $6,000 plus annual fees of $199. The Terry character wore us down with promises of cheap international fares (as low as $800 for fares normally at $1,400) and we signed up for a package that cost us $2,345.
About 4 days after that presentation, I smelled a rat and tried to put a stop check but that was apparently too late as Citibank went ahead and paid Global Explorers. A lady called Janey/Janet called me from 941-487-3668 and welcomed me to the club but when I asked for a refund there was no response. I have now called 20 times or more to speak to Janey or Andrew but with no response.
I believe that the Doubletree Hotel or its parent have culpability in this. Several salesmen who claimed to be from Global Explorers made slide presentations and asserted among other things that they dealt with companies like the Hilton Hotel Group and other premiere companies. Several of us relied on the fact that Doubletree/Hilton could not let a travel group invoke the name of the Double tree or the Hilton in vain and that therefore this presentation was legit. If any lawyer/lawyers are considering taking up this case, consider the Hilton chain as defendants because they know who these scam artists were, and they knew or should have known that their company and other reputable hotel chains were being used as part of the fraudulent presentation.
This is a scam, there is no access to any premiere 5 star hotels, just the run of the mill stuff, the airfares to Africa were cheaper on Expedia, the cruises were not any cheaper than any other website. Anyone who attended Annapolis Doubletree August 18th and wants to add to this please do so, they must be scamming thousands if not millions of people.
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