America Vacations, or Corporate Travel Specials, or Squanto Management Vacation package scum through TripAdvisor
This is the history of the scam I have experienced from this company or companies.
1. Fax from TripAdvisor (October-November 2015)
My office received several faxes about travel specials for $99 per person for 5 days & 4 nights to destinations that included (verbatim):
2. My phone call to 844-859-2101 (Dec. 8, 2015)
I called the number listed (844-859-2101) and I was connected to an agent who asked me for an email address to which I would be receiving an email for confirmation
3. Email from Corporate Travel Specials via DocuSign(Dec. 8, 2015)
Immediately after my call, I received the email from Corporate Travel Specials. Although in the body of the email it stated corporatetravelspecials@gmail.com, the message came from dse_na2@docusign.net.
In the message, it stated "Corporate Travel Specials sent you a document to review and sign." I clicked the "Review Document" button and it sent me to a DocuSign website. I filled out the form and received two receipts from DocuSign within 12 minutes of one another: 1) The first one looks like an electronic copy of a paper receipt, 2) and the second one had "Squanto Management" as the letterhead.
Although vacation package was advertised as $99 per person, I was charged $600. I have a DocuSign Envelope ID and receipt number to prove it.
4. Endless phone calls to 844-859-2101 (January-July 2016)
I was told I could call any time after the new year (Jan. 1 2016) to make the reservation. This was the beginning of numerous phone calls to 844-859-2101, during which I was instructed to wait for various lengths of time between 7 and 55 minutes for the next available agent. I kept asking agents for their direct line, their extension and their email address. Some where kind enough to give me an extension (e.g. 1006 for Michael James, 1006 for Justice, none for Tyra or Jamie Adams). I ended up speaking with four different agents for seven months. I was never able to connect with the agent directly because the phone number sent me on an endless loop to the main line. The only form of reaching a human being was by dialing "0". Then, the person answering, who more often than not was Jamie Adams, went and fetch a given agent personally.
Every time I called I was instructed to call at a later date because the desired dates of travel were too far in advance. However, not a single agent was straightforward enough to tell me "Call exactly six months in advance of travel dates". No, instead I was being told to call a couple of weeks later or a month later, to then hear that I had to call later. Every time I called I was put on hold for long periods of time, often holding for a sum of 10-50 minutes every time the agent decided he/she needed time to fill a form, call a place, or consult with someone else.
5. My last call (July 6, 2016)
The last agent I spoke with (i.e. Tyra) had me wait the longest to speak with her, a sum of 46 minutes between sporadic, fast and useless phone interactions.
After 50 minutes of nonsense, I prompted her to tell me why after seven months trying we were still not able to book our vacation. She quickly replied that there is no such thing as a vacation for $600 (let alone the $396 they advertised). Instead, the minumum cost, after peak season fees, holiday fees, and booking fees, would be $1155.60 and an average of $2500-$4100, excluding airfare and other forms of travel.
At that point, I was angry and told her I was going to hang up and never call again. This is one of the most shameful scams out there. And these people should be legally prosecuted for what they are doing.