I too was sucked into this scam, here is how: I was at the Hobby Show that was held at the International Centre in Toronto near Pearson Airport. Near the entrance there was a promotion for a free trip to Ft. Lauderdale and the Bahamas. I entered the contest without giving any second thought, and soon forgot about it entirely.
Several weeks later I received a call telling me that I had won a vacation. I remembered entering some contest at the hobby show and knew that this was it, though at the time I didn't even remember what the prize was.
The woman on the phone spoke very quickly, and I must not have been paying full attention to what she was saying - the only thought that had crossed my mind was that I had won the raffle that I had entered a few weeks ago.
So to make a long story short, I was suckered into it, and realized what was happening within 5 minutes of hanging up. I immediately called my credit card company, but the transaction had already been processed. Then thankfully I came across this website.
A few days later I called the Canadian number (1-800-203-9783) to cancel my trip and obtain a FULL REFUND. The rep on the phone tried to offer me other packages and reduced rates but I remained firm on my decision to cancel. When I stated that I wanted a FULL REFUND, however, he claimed that it was not possible, even after I mentioned the Florida Statues of Trade document, since some of the funds had already been allocated to Ramada's sponsors and parters in the Bahamas. At this point I knew he was full of BS and asked to speak to a supervisor. He said that he didn't see what that would accomplish, since his supervisor would tell me the same thing that he did about the partial refund, but I persisted and remained polite, and was eventually transferred to a supervisor.
Once I was on the phone with him, I explained the situation to him, and quoted the number of dissatisfied customers that I had seen on this website, and as soon as he heard that, he implemented the cancellation with no questions asked:) No sales pitches, no "better offers", just exactly what I asked for. I asked for a cancellation reference number and his name and ID, and he happily provided them, and that was it.
3 or 4 days later, the charges were reversed, and I now have my money back! Of course the Canadian Dollar dropped about 4 cents from the time that I purchased the vacation to the time that I cancelled, so I ended up losing $25 in the currency conversion difference, but I will consider that to be my own punishment for getting suckered into this in the first place.
Gotscammed
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
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