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Global Vaction Network, Global Connections No "LUXURY" found here, only hassle and lies Overland Park Kansas
These people are a huge scam, what they promises in Luxuries vacations are all lies to get you to pay big bucks. In our case it was $2,918. At least I was smart enough to put it on a credit card so when we found out what their idea of luxury is we just did a chargeback.
First off they tell you, you have to be married to take part in this scam, that should always be a red flag right there. Then you go down to your local location to meet with someone which turns out to be a group meeting (which they failed to mention) where you get to watch a PR video on how great these people are. They claim to not be a time share, but they really are.
Then they hand you over to a sales guy. Ours kept talking down to us, and when I said I'll think about it he said how many minutes do I need to which I would laugh and say, I'll let you know in the coming days, he would say, well this price can not be offered to you again as it would be against the law, this should have been the other red flag. No company turns down money if you come back to them later on.
I do not know of a law that says that, nor did he show us the law. He also said, we would never be able to afford Luxury vacation without them, maybe he said this because we put down $30K a year for salary. Oh, yeah we had to fill out a forum before the PR video.
They claim to put you up in luxury condos or 5 star Hotels. We told him we go skiing out west every year and we already stay at 5 star Hotels and Luxury condos. He still talks down to us, and he feels we are going to say NO, which he is right. So he gets up and walks out and a different guy comes in. The next sales guy is a lot better talker, a lot better sales guy. My wife feels this is a great deal, even after the first asshat. I am against it but I tell her this is on her if we get screwed.
They tell you about a few different packages and we take the cheaper one, to which they say it can be upgraded at anytime. We are to pay the $2,918 in payments or they will take a check or credit card. I opt for the credit card as protection. Remember this is for a lifetime membership where you still have to pay a fee per week up to your allotted weeks, ours is one week a year the fee we would pay is $96 for the week. Plus there is a yearly fee of $200. So that means we paid $296 for the week. The price is not bad if it is a luxury condo or a 5 star Hotel. We have paid $3,200 for one week in Lake Tahoe for a 5 star Hotel. If we want to say take another week after we use up our allotted week we get a discount you just pay more for the week, if I recall right it was like $500.still a great deal if you do get to stay at nice places.
We meet the manager, and he has us sign a Membership Agreement. I purposely do not sign the spot on the agreement that I shall give them 3 business days notice to cancel, I figured skipping that and if they did not notice leaves a way out. To which they do not notice as the pile of paperwork is thick.
The guy claims we will have our membership cards in a few days and then we can checkout the website and book our location for the winter. A day goes by and a lady calls from Global Vacations Network, she sounded like an old Grandma and she was nice to talk to, not someone you would complain too, besides we did not have a reason to at this time. She said we were being recorded, I tell her that is okay. She then asked me a few questions which at the time I found odd. Are you Bob Jones? I replied with a YES. Were you born on 3/xx/19xx? to which I said YES. Are you happy so far with your membership? to which I said YES. Then she says thank you and have a nice day. I did not think much of it except it was very odd at the time.
A few more days go by and we get the membership card. The wife and I our very excited so we log in and check out there website. First off there is nothing offered where we go skiing, which has us calling the manager at the place that sold us this package. We told him where we go and he said not a problem they always have stuff al over especially for skiers. He said they do not always list places yet for the winter as it was too soon. It was fall and most places start to offer deals, and promotions. He claimed he would look into it and have someone call us.
We continue to look around at other areas and the places they listed as Luxury were dumps, even looking through the web to find the same places with reviews from people you got the feeling these were far from luxury condos, plus non of them were close to the ski slopes (sorry I'm spoiled I like to be on the slope or at least near it). I do not like to tire myself out before I get to the slopes by walking a mile in boots.
Another day goes by and we get a call from Global Vacations Network. She sends me an email and tells me they found a place for us and if we approved of the place we just shoot them an email back to confirm. I take a look at the email and the place she said we could get; it was very far from the lift and another dump. I've stayed in Motel 6's nicer then the places they were picking. I email the girl and say, NO this will not do then I email her what I want 5 star Hotel we want to stay at on the slope and she never even says yes or no that it can be done (during our sales pitch they told us we could pick a place and they would make it happen, if you get there and our not happy they will load you into a limo and haul you down the street and let you pick what you want to stay in, I have a feeling this is total BS). I get back another email with more options, all still far from the lifts, and all dumps compared to what we have stayed in.
At this point I want to cancel, so the wife gets home and we decide that this is not as advertised and the next day I will cancel this. Besides at this point we have used no service and we feel they are not out anything yet, nothing has been easy and I'm tired of dealing with the lady on places that are far from luxury.
I call the manager he says he will look into the matter. I do not hear back. I call again, and again, and even threaten that I will come down and make a sign and let everyone know that there is NO luxury in your packages. I then file with the BBB, and the Attorney General. That at least right off the bat got me a name of some guy that would call me (some VP). I forget the name now but at the time it sounded made up. I also went ahead and started a chargeback with my credit card company.
At this point when I could get Gus on the phone at GDN (he is the manager) he just would say he could not do anything as we were past the 3 days. I told him I never signed that spot, he looked it up and agreed but still would not do a thing to now help. Needless to say this time took about a week now to play phone tag and get the run around.
Global Vacation Network claimed I signed the paperwork (contract), and I faxed that too my CC company and they saw I did not sign that spot agreeing on the 3 business days to cancel. Then Global Vacations claimed they had me on tape. They also tried to claim that spot was for if I cancelled, no it does not say that. But that is what they were spinning to the CC Company. Yeah, remember that recording I found odd, they use that against you for these cases. They must have a lot of people decide to cancel. This had me in a pinch, I told the CC people this had nothing to do with the service after I received the membership cards and could look into the product I had bought. GDN was trying to say I never made a complaint, and I let them know I did not even know what that call was about so thus I was not going to be rude to people I did not know. I went around and around with them on this. On one hand they had a tape, on another an incomplete contract not signed although with a spin attached to it for the CC dispute people.
Maybe 4 weeks go by and then out of the blue I hear from the Attorney General, and also from that VP from GDN. It seems to my best guess the Attorney General was looking into the matter and scared the poop out of GDN. The VP said that he would let us go from this contract and we will get ALL of our money back, he would mail out a letter with some forms for us to sign. One was a gag order, screw them at this point I got the money back ;-) I just don't want anyone else getting screwed. Besides they broke their gag order rules. We sign and return the documents through signature and delivery confirmation to an address in KS, and I happened to be in KS so I mailed them right from there. By their contract we were to receive our money back within 5 business days.
Guess what, we never did receive money back from GDN. I called my credit card company and faxed them the contract to which they reversed the charges again and said because of the NEW contract they will stay. So thus I feel GDN broke their second contract by not returning the money making me have to do more work to get the money they promised us backin the end it took a chargeback. So thus by them breaking the deal, I am free and unbound from the gag order. Even a call to the VP asking about why no money had been given back got a reply of, I do not know we issued a creditmy CC company never saw a credit come inso that was BS.
I even received a call right from the Attorney General on this whole mess. I told the Attorney General that this was settled but they (GDN) should be looked into for their business practices.
Another part of the whole deal that sounds attractive at first is that you can buy items such as cars, household good like stoves and microwave from them at wholesale prices. Once you have the card you can look at the website for that stuff. Come to find out the prices were pretty high, and not a good dealmy local stores have better deals and that is from a store. SO internet prices really beat their prices (wholesale my a*s). I wonder if these people are the same as Direct Buy that you see on TV.
Here are some addresses and information I have should you need it:
Membership Agreement Address on Forum:
Membership Processing Office
5320 College Boulevard
Overland Park, KS 66211
Phone: (913) 451-0960
Fax: (913) 451-0048
Eric Stout
Operations Manager
(913) 451-0960 ext 230
Global Vacation Network is an authorized distributor for Global Connections, Inc.
Global Vacation Network
Member Service Director
Gus Metropoulos
16740 21 Mile Rd.
Macomb Township, MI 48044
Phone: (586) 228-8770
Fax: (586) 228-8774
Member Services
1-800-879-7779
www.globaldiscoveryvacations.com
Travel Services: 1-800-299-9617
Expressways (Recorded Message) 1-800-958-9174
Hotlines (Recorded Message) 1-800-944-9173
Global Connections
600 Cleveland Street
Suite 430
Clearwater, FL 33755
Phone: (727) 467-9000
Fax: (727) 467-9097
9350 W. Highway 192
Suite 104
Clermont, FL 34714
Phone: (863) 424-3373
Fax: (863) 424-3321
2208 Highway 17 South
Suite 102
N. Myrtle Beach, SC 29582
Phone: (843) 361-9901
Fax: (843) 361-8981
400 S. Atlantic Ave
Suite 110
Ormond Beach, FL 32176
Phone: (386) 615-4900
Fax: (386) 615-0911
7300 W. Camino Real
Suite 115
Boca Raton, FL 33433
Phone: (561) 417-7559
Fax: (561) 417-7513
Gwardy
Monument, Colorado
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Shelly
Phoenix,Arizona,
U.S.A.
WOW....... What sam !!!!!!
#2Consumer Comment
Fri, September 05, 2008
I have filed a report. At first I did not think these were the same companies, but they are. The one I went through is Global Travel Group, Scottsdale, Arizona. They are the same, I noticed the same email (www.globaldiscoveryvacations.com) as you gave on your report. Well here is all the info I have on this end: Hopefully this will help someone else from making the mistake my husband and I have made.
Global Travel Group
16427 North Scottsdale Road
Suite 145
Scottsdale, Arizona 85254
Office Phone: 480-346-4084
Office Fax: 480-334-3772
Contacts were:
Anna or Carla
Travel Services: 1-800-285-6665
Buying Services: 1-800-879-8717