This is the complaint I have filed as I want to warn everyone out there about Travel Service Network, and Vacation Galleria. I am not sure who is responsible for refunds or to take the blame for fraudulent sales tactics that deceive people into believing what a deal their vacation club is, when it reality, it is not one bit what it is cracked up to be.
Here is my story, and I will also include the email response I got from the first complaint I have filed with Mark Hillman, who is in charge of refunding supposedly. I called the Travel Service Network Customer service line to see about getting a refund on their travel club that I was sold in September at a 90 minute presentation I was listening to at the Vacation Galleria in Minnetonka, MN to receive a free trip, 2 night, 3 day stay in Vegas or Florida, air and hotel, just for listening. Free? Right!
What is so free about it that you find out later you have to send money in, and supposedly you get it back. You find out the truth after the fact. Anyway, I was given Mark Hillman's name after calling the Travel Service Network customer service line. Here is my story and I will add how Mark Hillman responded to it.
I told him that prior to the presentation, a representative called from Vacation Galleria in Minnetonka, MN to offer me this free trip as I said if I came in to listen to their 90 minute presentation. He said however, there were a few conditions in order to receive this or to see if I could qualify. He then asked me if I made over $40,000.00 a year. I said, "NO." He then asked if I was married. I too said "NO, but I am engaged." He then asked if I lived with my fiance.
I said, "NO." This should have been my first clue on how shady this company is. All of a sudden we could qualify as if we combined our incomes, that showed we made over $40,000.00. Then, he said we basically had to make it look like we lived together. So he recommended that I put my name on and envelope with my fiance's name and mail it to his address, then just bring the envelope in when we came to the presentation.
I told this to Mark Hillman, and he emailed back and said I was the one who lied to get into the program. He told me that I deceived Vacation Galleria. I have all this in writing as proof. From emailing him my written documentation or complaint about how I felt deceived by this compnay and wanting my money back, I have his response as proof on how he took my documentation out of context and accused me of the fraud and scam that I was accusing them of.
Can you believe this guy? And if you check out this company with the Better Business Bureau, it lists them as have a satisfactory rating. What does that mean anyway?
How do you feel about knowing a company can pay to become part of the Better Business Bureau to have them protect their business when they are out to deceive their consumer's? I don't understand. Again, I am writing all this information to save everyone out their who could possibly be victim's of this, and to warn you that it is only a scam.
And I am also hoping that if you've been a victim of this, that you too could help put a stop to this and write your complaint as well. The speaker they have is quite entertaining. He is good at what he does and very convincing. He shows examples of trips, on paper for the eye to see, of incredible vacation destinations at an unbelievable price.
It doesn't say: Starting at $399 for example, or from: $399, on every trip he had on this paper, it was a firm set price of say $399.00. Would that make you a believer? It convinced me. The words from or starting at: before an amount is what makes me think obviously that it is much, much more than just $399.00, but to see a firm price, I was convinced, as many in the room were. So my fiance and I took the bait.
They make it sound so appealing with their brutal sales tactics. You can have anyone you want use this membership with you. You can inherit it down to your kids. So after signing the contract, of course, we wanted our free trip as that is the main reason we came to listen to this. We received these tickets that had an expiration date of November. I confronted the representative about it, and he appeared to be very new.
Not only that, but you really do not have to know much as the speaker comes around and truly cons you into what a great deal this is. Again, he was good at what he did. You were sold from hearing the presentation, not by the little rep behind the desk that was just there to make sure you signed all the right spots on the contract.
He told me to ignore that expiration date on the tickets. Make sure you read all the MVI compaints on this website as it is a major scam. Mark Hillman told me that I had 3 business days to cancel this contract. Okay, how are you suppose to learn anything about this company, especially in 3 days when they don't even get your name or membership into their computers for 2-3 weeks.
And when you finally are in, you then can visit their website. This is where I learned of how they scam people. If you visit the travel service network, look at every price they have. It has the word FROM in front of it. There are no firm or set prices as we were showed on paper in the presentation.
Mark write's back that this is not a scam. You can get an upgraded room for more money starting at, he says. That is not the point I am arguing here. These hot deals, hot week specials are like slim to none as you have to check the availability on them. Okay, so I did. I tried calling the 1 800 number. I have never once gotten through, even in the middle of the night, as the line was busy.
Prove to me that this is a real destination or that someone really stays here when you cannot get through. What was there... One room available? Probably. Back to the "free" vacation to Vegas. I found out later from a friend I recommended to go listen to the presentation that he was told that you have to call within 30 days of receiving the tickets to enroll, whatever. We were not told this, therefore, we did not call.
Mark Willman accuses me that supposedly I admitted that I didn't read the terms and conditions of this free vacation. What a liar. I just said that we were not told by our representative that we had to call in order to enroll or receive this trip and that I had to hear it through a friend which then made it a few months to late for us and that we could not qualify.
Well let me tell you this, my friend and his wife did everything by the book on how you had to send in your $50 each person and choose your departure date of when you wanted to go within the time frame they asked for etc... Well read all the other complaints against this company. Same thing happened to them.
They tried calling, they never got to speak to anyone. Their $100 is gone and they never got to take their trip on the date they wanted. Now its next to impossible when they can take it. How would you as a consumer feel if you went through all that I and many have, in writing your complaint as a documentation they requested, were accused, in writing, of being a liar, and saying that you lied to take advantage of Vacation Galleria, and that you falsified your credit application?
I have this all in writing from Mark. I also have my written documentaiton in writing. Did I lie? I don't call it a lie when I was told all this, meaning, to write my name on an envelope to make it look like I lived with my fiance. I call that manipulation. If their conditions or qualifications were so strict and honest, by the book, why did this representative tell me how to deceive to become a candidate? I guess this is the whole business they are in.
Out to deceive people by their lies and scamming all of us with their grossly exaggerated amounts to make it look like vacations are so cheap, and that within taking a few trips, you will have your membership paid for. What a joke. It doesn't even help to check them out first through the BBB as this company paid for protection. They paid BBB to lie for them saying they have satisfactory ratings.
Why can't I get money back when I haven't received any goods or service here? Not even the so called free trip. Doesn't it make you think that this company could just shut down any day now with thousands of people's money and there is nothing anyone can do about it? Do not be a fool or be taken like I was. Nothing is free or as good as it sounds. They certainly prove that.
Christine
Hudson, Wisconsin
U.S.A.
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