Complaint Review: My Dream Escape

I attended a local festival, whereby I entered a drawing for
a "dream vacation". On 5.11.2011 I received a call around 7pm where a
Gene Addis told me that I had been chosen from the sweepstake. He told me that I
would receive a free trip to Orlando, Coco Beach, and Key West, Florida. He
told me that I was the one person who was chosen. Later, however, he told me
that they chose 50 people for this promotion. He talked for about an hour.
Toward the wrap-up of his sales speech, he told me that over 40,000 people have
taken this promotion in the last five years. Lastly, he told me that I would
only have to pay $349 per person for this promotion- a total of 21 days of
vacation. After I declined payment, he told me that he could do the promotion
for $398 per person but that I would need to give them my credit card. He then
handed me over to "Kim", his director. 

 

Because all of the facts were contradictory I decided to
look into reviews of the company. I found that the their BBB rating is a D,
with 34 complaints taken against them as of 5.12.2011. Then I discovered that they have
multiple websites under various names and addresses. Here are some that I
found:

 

1. My Dream Escape www.mydreamescape.net

2. My Sunny Travel www.mysunnytravel.com AND
www.mysunnytravels.biz

3. Magical Dream Escapes www.magicaldreamescapes.com

 

Today, 5.12.2011 I received a call from Gene Addis again. He
put me on the line with his "director" who told me, upon my
questioning, if this deal was available for others too. She answered "Yes,
that's exactly what we want. We want people to get the same deal for the same
price." This completely contradicted the fact that Gene acted as if I was one of a
handful of people who were chosen. This is false advertising and is fraudulent
activity.

 

On 5.12.2011 from 2:04PM-2:17 EST I called Kim and talked to
her about my negative findings about the company. She told me that many companies in Florida
go by the same name. I told her that I had called the local Chamber of
Commerce, Hallandale Beach Chamber, whereby the chamber did not have any information
in their database regarding this company. Kim told me first that the company is
My Dream Escape, not any of those other names (listed above). Then I told her that the
mysunnytravels.com website matches that of the current website mydreamescape.net.
Only then did she admit that the company goes by those three names. I also
asked to have a copy of my original entry form, whereby her reply was a laugh.
As I revealed more and more to her of my research of the company, she became
irate and said that I obviously was not going to let her find a resolution and
that she would pass this on. As I waited to hear from her manager or boss, the
phone line went dead, meaning she had hung up on me.

Luckily I did not go through with giving my credit card details, as there were many red flags raised throughout the time I spent over the phone with these company representatives. After reading about other's experiences with this company, I see that I was spared from a major scam. 

Please heed my advice and do not deal with this company. Additionally, it is my opinion that this company will soon change its name again, going under a new alias. I hope you too will not fall for this scam.