In the beginning of April I recieved a brightly coloured Happy Birthday postcard stating that I had two free airline tickets and a free rental car voucher waiting if I were to call within the next 72 hours. I was informed I had to sit for a 60 minute presentation in order to claim these gifts, and since I had done something like this before and recieved my gift, I accepted.
That following Thursday I went to Bentley Travel located in Parsippany, NJ. After a 90 minute very rehearsed pitch, complete with a powerpoint presentation stating an excellent rating from the BBB and the mentioning of spicific all-inclusive resorts I had stayed in before they told us (and the entire room of people) we were over paying because we were buying vacations retail, and they had them for wholesale and cheap. The prices they quoted were unbelievable.
When the presentation ended, my boyfriend and I decided to entertain the salespeople and ourselves and listen to the rest of what they had to offer. What started off at $9,000 for today only slowly dwindled down to $4,000 (minus hidden fees) and the inticing 2 free vacations, one cruise to the Caribbean, and one all inclusive stay in Mexico. What sold me, was the promise that the all-inclusive Caves Resort in Negril, Jamaica was one of the resorts included in this "membership".
Unfortunatly I bought into this and the salesmen Ken and Dan were all too willing to sign me up with a Bank of America RCI Rewards Credit Card so that I could finance this. Dan promised he would be sending me a confirmation e-mail that following Monday with a link to a CitiBank card that I could transfer the balance to and not have any APR.
Monday came and went and no e-mail. I had a terrible feeling and called the company and spoke to Jackie, one of the ringleaders. She told me there was nothing I could do but sit back and enjoy the package. So I tried that. Then I tried to claim my free airline tickets and rental car.
After paying the supposedly refundable $75 and $50 deposits, I recieved nothing and the phone numbers given to me were out of service. So I began to call Dream Vacations and complain. At first they told me to write a letter and fax it. Which I did and no answer. Then they took down my number, no call. Then one girl hung up on me and it took another two weeks for someone to pick up my phone calls.
The last time I talked to someone I asked her why I never recieved my free incentives and why after checking the website I learned that the Caves was not discounted by any means. She told me that in order to recieve the free trips I needed to request them and I needed to qualify, and that just because the Caves was not on there didnt mean she couldnt book it. Then she gave me a quote higher than that of what I found on! Finally I asked her about the CitiBank card to which she responded that not only was Dan fired, but she would have to talk to someone with more authority about that and then get back to me. Needless to say, I never heard from her again.
After complaining to Bank, they pretty much say that there is nothing I can do and one telephone rep even went as far as to say "you are screwed."
Now I am out $4,500 and with nothing to show for it but the fact that I can pay just as much as Joe Shmo to go to Hawaii because he will book through Expedia, and my fake travel agency will also book through. The difference is, he did it from his computer and I paid someone $4,500 to do it for me. Wonderful.
Please stay away from this company. Someone somewhere in Florida is rich right now because of the suckers like me that believed this. Apparently I am not the only one, but one of over a thousand that bought into this. After doing some research I found out that this company has pocketed over five million dollars for pretty much nothing.
My plan now is to print out all the comments and complaints from the web and pass them out as flyers at the meetings.
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