Complaint Review: Ramada Plaza Resort

Looks like Rip Off Report consumers woke up officials to help with monetary restitution. Article is in todays Ft Laud Sun Sentinel. You must link fast to see what to do, as after a few weeks, they may take the info down.


http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-zplaza22sep22,0,231317.story?coll=sfla-business-headlines


Travel firm promises to repay $400,000 to clients who alleged fraud

By Tom Stieghorst
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted September 22 2006

For the second time in six years, a Fort Lauderdale travel firm has reached a settlement with Florida regulators and will pay refunds to consumers who alleged it engaged in telemarketing fraud and deceptive advertising.

The settlement follows thousands of complaints logged by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services over five years about Plaza Resorts Inc., which also does business as Ramada Plaza Resorts.

In the settlement, announced Thursday by Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, Plaza Resorts agreed to refund $400,000 to unhappy customers and change several business practices. It did not admit liability and said it settled only to resolve an investigation.

Plaza Resorts sells travel packages that require customers to attend a time-share pitch. A typical $1,400 package might include two nights at an Orlando hotel, three nights at a Fort Lauderdale hotel and a cruise to the Bahamas.

Consumers lodged 2,862 complaints about Plaza Resorts from 2000 to mid-2005, when Crist and the consumer services agency launched a joint investigation. Among the complaints: the hotels were shoddy, refunds were hard to get, there were hidden fees for rental cars or port charges and time-share tours weren't described as mandatory.

William Huddleston, a retired computer manager in Columbia, Mo., said Ramada Plaza charged his debit card without permission in August, leaving him overdrawn at his bank. "I was highly upset about that," he said Thursday. "I'm really happy to hear that somebody actually took action."

The settlement requires Plaza Resorts to increase disclosure. It will put its actual business location on all printed materials, state extra fees, costs and taxes in clear language, and "clearly and conspicuously" say a time-share tour is a condition of travel.

Plaza Resorts must also monitor its credit-card chargeback rates and formally investigate if the rate exceeds 5 percent of sales in any six-month period.

In 2000, Ramada Plaza Resorts and National Travel Services Inc., also owned by Fort Lauderdale businessmen Daniel Lambert and James Verrillo, settled lawsuits with 17 states that accused the companies of deceiving consumers about travel packages.

That settlement was focused on representations about the quality of the hotel and cruise line, said JoAnn Carrin, a spokeswoman for Crist. In Florida, the companies deposited $1.5 million to be applied to refunds for consumers.

In the most recent settlement, Plaza Resorts agreed to pay $400 to each consumer who complained to the attorney general since March 2005 about a trip taken who has not gotten a refund. Consumers can file a claim at 866-966-7226.

The attorney general's office said it has received 294 complaints since April 2005. Plaza Resorts has refunded about $200,000, Carrin said.

Plaza Resorts will pay $75,000 toward the cost of the 16-month investigation but will escape being fined by the state.

Efforts to reach Lambert or Verrillo through several of their offices were unsuccessful.


Ken
Neptune City, New Jersey
U.S.A.