Ramada Plaza Resorts Orlando/Ft Lauderdale Vacations
Time-wasting, Manipulative, Attempted Rip-off

My husband got a phone call a few days ago (Oct 30), telling him he had won a free trip to Florida from Ramada Plaza Resorts. The lady he spoke to gave him their website address and told him to check it out and she would call him back later.

We both had a look at the website and admittedly, the hotels did look very nice, but we were skeptical as we hadn't entered any competitions, so how could we have suddenly "won" something?

She called back about 45 mins later and gave him the whole spiel about 5-star luxury hotels, free admission to the Disney theme park and Universal Studios, free car rental, etc... Making it all sound as tempting as possible.

As we only have one phone (no extension), I couldn't listen in and could only hear my husband's side of the conversation. He was just saying "yeah, no, hmmm..." and stuff like that, so I didn't take too much notice, until I saw him picking up his wallet and taking out his credit card! I stopped him at that point and asked him what was going on and he said that he had to pay 677 euros to 'cover the promotional costs'. I asked him for the phone and spoke to the lady myself, who gave me an obviously very well-rehearsed speech about all the wonderful stuff we'd be getting. When I finally managed to get a word in, I asked about the 677 euros, and she said it was to cover the cost of the promotion, things like administration and the cost of the long-distance phone call. (We live in Ireland, and she was calling us from the USA).

I then asked her if flights were included in this 'prize'. She became evasive and started waffling on again about what a great offer we were getting. I finally managed get her to admit that flights were not included. So that meant that not only had we got to pay 677 euros for our 'free trip', we also had to pay for our own flights from Dublin to Florida, and believe me, that doesn't come cheap! She assured me that they would find us the lowest-priced air fares available, through a very reputable company (the name of which she did not divulge to me, for some reason). I pointed out that no matter how cheap the flights were, they would still cost at LEAST a few hundred euros each (which she had to admit was true). I then asked if we did decide to go ahead with it, would the money be debited from my husband's credit card straight away today, to which she replied: "oh yes, absolutely" - as if this were a good thing!

My final question was "is there a cooling-off period, whereby if we accept the offer and then think about it and decide that maybe we don't want it after all, the money will be refunded to our credit card?" After much evasiveness and side-stepping, she admitted that the answer to this question was "no." She seemed surprised too, asking me what reason could we possibly think of for not accepting this wonderful offer!

So there you have it. - A "free" trip which turns out to cost 677 euros (plus airfares), which we're expected to pay for immediately by disclosing our credit card details and address details to a total stranger on the phone, without any written contract or any proof of where our money is going to. And on top of all this, no cooling-off period. NEVER trust any company that tries to sell you something without the option of changing your mind.

I'm not saying that this is not a legitimate company. It may well be, but their methods of doing business certainly seem very shady and I really don't see how any reputable company would behave in this manner.

In the end, I told her thanks, but no thanks and she put on a 'genuinely surprised' act, asking me why on earth would I turn down such an offer. She again launched into the original speech about all the offers and great deals we'd supposedly be getting, but I cut across her, saying 'thanks, but we're not going to change our minds', ended the conversation and hung up.

One final thing - in a further effort to convince me that it was all above-board, the lady told me that the Trading Standards Authority in London have given this company their full approval. I logged onto the Trading Standards Authority's website and entered "Ramada" in their search engine. It came up with no results. Again, this does not mean they're not a legit company, but it does make me wonder...
Very sorry for going on so long... Just wanted to get all the details down!
Thanks for your time.

Roisin
Dublin
Ireland

Company: Ramada Plaza Resorts Orlando/Ft Lauderdale Vacations
Country: USA
State: Florida
City: Ft. Lauderdale
Address: 2419 E. Commercial Blvd

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