My husband and I received a postcard in the mail in July stating that we were to receive two "free" cruise tickets in exchange for sitting in on an hour presentation in Tampa. When we called about the deal, the lady on the phone would not give the name of the company but reassured us that the cruise was indeed free. Despite my reservations, we went to the office in Tampa where we were greeted by less than professional people.
We listened to an upbeat and interactive presentation about the CTA travel company. When it came down to the cost I nearly fell out of my seat. They started out with a lifetime membership fee of $5000 dollars which came down in $1000 incements if we subtracted items such as timeshares from our deal. Our salesman was nice and seemingly genuine.
We agreed to sign up and paid nearly $2400 for a membership. We were also given a second "free" cruise package for signing up.
We sent away for the first cruise package and received a notice in September that we had to submit an additional $50 processing fee. Really??? We just paid $2400 and now we are expected to shell out more?
My husband planned a trip to Key West late last summer to see his son who serves in the Coast Guard and is stationed there. He called CTA for their travel assistance to find him a hotel. They could only find him one and it was not a very good deal. He had better luck looking online himself. Even AAA found more hotels. It also took CTA nearly 24 hours to return my husband's call for service. Apparently it takes one business day to respond to all requests for service. That is unacceptable.
My husband and I recently came in to some financial problems and seeing that we are not able to travel in the near future because of lack of money, I contacted CTA to speak to customer service. I left a message and my call was returned by Cheryl Pumper.
I asked her if there was a refund policy on our membership. Our copies of the signed documents do not state that there is no refund policy. She advised me to send her an email in my "own words" and she would forward that to her higher-ups.
I sent the email on Wednesday, December 30th and received a reply today that my request was denied. There was no explanation given. I replied asking why and also left Ms. Pumper a voice mail.
In retrospect, my gut instincts were correct about this company. I would advise anyone not to fall into the CTA trap. If you get one of those cards in the mail, throw it away!
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