Complaint Review: American Travel Partners

Last weekend my wife and I attended the Channel 6 Health Expo in Ft.Lauderdale and entered our names in a drawing for a 4 days cruise. A day or so later we were notified by phone that we were the winners. The representative on the phone, Glenda Carter, said we had won our choice of a 4 night Caribbean cruise, a Flyaway Vacation consisting of 2 free airline tickets to anywhere in the US, and an 8 Days/7 Nights Condominium Stay for up to 4 people in the US, Canada, Mexico, Hawaii or Nassau, Bahamas.

I asked her to send me an e-mail confirming these gifts. She said that the e-mail confirmation would not contain the 8days/7nights condo stay because it was a brand new prize, but we should be assured that we would in fact receive that gift. Later that day when we received her e-mail confirmation, it contained the first two gifts, but the third gift was a 3Days/2Nights Hotel Stay in the US. Although the sales representative said she represented RNG Travel, when I telephoned the number she provided the next day, it was in fact American Travel Partners/Spirit Incentives. I spoke with Aric Celeste, the operations manager there, and told him the situation. He said that the 8 Days/7 Nights condo stay was an obsolete prize that they no longer offer, not a brand new prize! I told him that he obviously has an employee training problem and asked him to rein in his telemarketer.

The moral of the story is: Beware of oral promises by telemarketing salespeople, as they will say anything to achieve their quotas of presentation appointments. Be sure to get it in writing before attending a presentation!