My wife and I received an offer for a 90 minute presentation on Western Horizon Resorts at a no-so-nearby location of Camp Verde, Arizona.
The offer, which was mailed to us, had a scratch-off lotto type system. The card read that if you have four out of five "dollar signs", you get a free Plasma TV, retail value of $1299. Hey, great deal, right? Three "dollar signs" got an LCD television, estimated at $799.99, and a camcorder for two "dollar signs", which I think was $299. Or $249.
My ticket noted 4 dollar signs out of five. Sweet. So naturally, I get right on the phone and call and, first verify that I qualify for a plasma unit. The receptionist asked me if I had 4 dollar signs on my ticket and I said yes. She then congratulated me for winning the plasma just make sure to bring your winning ticket in! So now that it was verified, I made a reservation for a tour. Im not a rich guy, but I qualify for affording the timeshare, and a free plasma is a free plasma! Who wouldnt drive two hours each way for that?
As well, we were promised on the flyer a free 3 day, 2 nights stay. They told us when we arrived that they werent going to honor that because the promotion is too successful. However, since we arrived an hour early, we were able to tour the campsite/resort and they even gave us a key to an unoccupied room that someone had just checked out of to preview. Ahh. No room for us at the inn, but an empty room to preview. How odd! But still, there was something to be said for a RV campground membership - since we REALLY enjoy camping.
But okay, we're here now, and we're excited about getting a plasma TV, so I'm even ready to listen to consider buying a timeshare.
We sat down, and I excitedly noted that we have an offer for a free Plasma television. Our presentation guy looked at the invitation and said, "No, you are mistaken". Naturally, I'm shocked, and so I asked why! He explains that the "fine print" of the mailer notes that the "dollar signs" had to be in a SEQUENTIAL order. My wife and I look at each other, and our jaws DROP.
For instance, to qualify for the Plasma you'd need four dollar signs IN A ROW:
$ $ $ $ x
Mine looked like this:
$ $ $ x $
Underneath EACH prize, however, it says "Four Dollar Signs gets you a plasma TV", and they said so on the phone when I called to verify that, and then set the appointment! Apparently the fine print said that they had to be sequential, but since they refused to give me the flyer back, I was unable to even verify that. The presenter, then seeing our disappointment, in all his fine professional candor noted, "Well, you don't have to stay here if you don't want to..."
Didnt even blink an eye. Not even an Im sorry. He was obviously READY for this.
Right. More than a total of 4 hours of driving in our SUV (to fit the TV in, since plasmas don't come in less than a 37" size), and the presenter dryly notes that "we don't have to be here"!! My wife told me that we were here, we might as well listen to the presentation and get the $799 value gift that we DID qualify for the LCD panel! And she was right. It was a long drive. Don't confuse that with how unimpressed she was the night before, she moved the furniture around to accommodate the new stand we got last week that would hold a plasma set (our old TV stand would not have, so we got rid of it), but anyway, at least we weren't going home empty handed. (or so we thought, at this point) So okay, on with the presentation. After careful review, my wife and I decide to decline, partly because the price outweighed the benefits for our situation. And part of that decision was factored in because we were both kind of pissed about being tricked.
(And heres an idea. If you want people to buy something from you, dont piss them off so badly that they hold a grudge against you for 90 minutes while you try to sell them something and act like they are throwing their money away when they dont buy from you!)
The last straw was when my LCD "valued at $799.99" was given to us.
This is the closest picture I could find:
<a href="" target="_blank"><!--dle_image_begin: http://img211.%20Imageshack.%20Us/img211/673/gotechhw9.jpg|--><img src="/img211/673/gotechhw9.jpg" style="max-width:100%;" alt="Western Horizon Resorts Deceptive Offerings for Campground Timeshare Tours, Promises Plasma TV, 3 days-2 Night stay, then says they're booked for the rest of the promotion and gives 7-Inch LCD "television" and Gas Coupons!"><!--dle_image_end--></a>
except my model is the GTV-7-TFT instead of the bigger 7.1 inch version pictured here.
Ebay's listing has it new in the box for $30.00 (As of 4-4-08, this listing has two days until it expires) To be fair, I sent an inquiry to the manufacturer of the televisions company (GoTech) and requested to know the MSRP (retail value, since that was what was stated on the flyer) on the unit we received. I will post their response when I receive it, and even then, the unit from Western Horizon Resorts is useless in less than a year when digital transmissions take over the analog signals. The whole "digital conversion" thing. Theres no way that a portable 7 LCD screen is worth what they said it was. Maybe if it was 19 or 23 with a new digital ATSC digital tuner, $799. Makes sense! So again, Ill post the response from the manufacturer before I draw a final conclusion on that.
So for more than 4 hours driving, 1.5 hours of presentation time, a "used up" day off, and the expectation of getting a plasma television, we were given a shoddy parting gift, and denied our 3 days, 2 nights stay. To offset that, they offered $100.00 worth of gas coupons! The flyer DID say that a prize of equal value may be substituted out. But substituting a two night stay of relaxing and unwinding in the Camp Verde Mountains for GAS COUPONS?
Oh gee, thanks, guys. That about covers half of the gas from where I live to the Presenters property, roundtrip in an SUV - but still, is less than the value of two non-member nights stay at the resort including hook up fees, hence, bait-and-switch. And the suspicion that False Advertising in the overhyped value of the gifts (again, to be confirmed later) has happened here.
If nothing else, hopefully this will serve as a warning to others who might be willing to drive long distances, like we did, with similar expectations (and understandably so!) only to be let down with disappointment and an insult to both your time and intelligence.
Perhaps I was foolish for expecting even a quality plasma, but Western Horizon was dishonest in noting that I even qualified for it, representing first the gifts on the phone, then the value of the gifts, and switching out the other offer for coupons. Thats low class. Wait, I take that back. Thats NO class!
And if your Western Horizon presenter can do THAT with a straight face, I can't imagine what happens after I sign a paper for a lifelong membership contract with your campground!
I will check and add to this report every month on usacomplaints.com until I get a satisfactory response from Western Horizon in Camp Verde, or Western Horizon Resorts Headquarters in Colorado. My dealings with the local campgrounds asshattery was pretty much finished when I drove away today, so the latter is preferred over the former.
I have wasted enough of my time in this ordeal trying to get what Western Horizon promised me already (!) to spend MORE time to go finding who is responsible in their promotions department, trying to find an email for their customer relations department in order to get even more of a run-around, or even a phone number for their Headquarters. I honestly have better things to do than spend one more minute, other than informing other people of Western Horizon's deceptive fine print practices, on this issue. And Im only doing this because I feel like such a jackass for believing a good offer, and I dont want anyone else to go through this.
I respected your establishment while I was there because there were guests present in the Park Office, where our orientation was. I don't believe the confrontation I wished to have at the time regarding this issue should have been in front of any of your members on your property, and I left your park with dignity and respect. For me, and your guests, I mean. Not the presenter, and not the bullcrap deceiption from Western Horizon. That's why I'm addressing it here.
So now you can answer to this in public, Western Horizon, and return some of that respect I showed to you in advance.
And you can do so at your leisurely convenience. Whenever you feel like getting around to it. Here. The problem is now YOURS for potential members to review and quiz you about. Its not my problem anymore. The ball is truly in your court. And I await its return.
Isnt this great? Boy, you guys at Western Horizon fooled me good! I wasted a beautiful day for a lame television set. You guys even got my wife to re-arrange our living room ahead of time to accommodate a television that should have been at least 37, but ended up being the size of a plastic DVD case. I can eat a sandwich bigger than the size of television I ended up with.
Boy, won't that 7-inch beauty look awesome on the new TV stand!
Perhaps you can arrange some PR paper shuffler to respond, saying how you strive for commitment to satisfaction and excellence, and youre sorry that I misunderstood your offer, and then inject some legal disclaimer about how you technically broke no laws, and how the focus should be your campground anyway.
Why don't we just skip past all the pseudo-professional bloated buffoonery and address the intentional deceptive tactic you wasted my day on?
0 comments