Last week I was informed by phone that I won a free cruise to the Bahamas if I would simply participate in a survey. After the survey, the man on the phone gave me a website addy and told me to go register. He said a "travel specialist" would give me a follow-up call the next week.
I went to surveyclaim.com to register using my email addy and zip code as instructed but was not allowed access to the site.
Earlier this evening I was contacted by a travel specialist who wanted to mail me my tickets. He told me my trip would be aboard the Caribbean Celebration (which doesn't exist, as far as I can tell).
After all the wind-up, he mumbled something about paying a port fee and tax of $59.00 each for my wife and myself. "Which credit card will that be on, sir?" I told him I didn't have a credit card on me, buy that my wife has the two cards we share (a lie). He instantly became snotty and forceful with me and threatened that I would have to pay over $700 for the same cruise if I called back later in the evening, as I had suggested.
I asked to speak with his floor manager and he turned me over to a woman who told me the same thing. I told her that holding me over a barrel like this is a rotten thing to do and couldn't possibly be good for the company's P.R. I asked her why I couldn't call back in two hours with a credit card number to pay for the port fees and she responded that I will have lost my chance and those were the rules. It's a first-come, first-served situation. I simply said "goodbye".
I immediately googled Caribbean Cruise Lines scam and usacomplaints.com popped up with some amazing stories from regular people like me. I am so grateful for this website and your stories. Then I noticed that some of your stories were written four and five years ago! Wow, they're still using the same tactics!
They didn't want me to hang up the phone and call back because I might have the opportunity to google the company and read your stories ;-) I wish there was a way to stop these people. I read a couple rebuttals from "employees" of Caribbean Cruise Lines stating that this was not a scam. It is an undeniable fact, however, that CCL is employing misleading tactics and is preying on potential victims who don't think as quickly on their feet as some of us. I can understand how the elderly would lose a fair amount of money on this racket. The best advice I can give you is to never give out your credit card number to someone on the phone - especially if they called you unsolicited!
Good luck and God bless.
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