Complaint Review: Vacation Services of America

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT do business with this company.  As others have pointed out "Save on Branson" sets up appointments for them with travelers who agree to listen to a presentation in order to get some free show tickets, etc.  Everything from check-in right through the presentation and even the initial sales pitch was friendly enough, in our case, but when we made it very clear to the first salesman that we were not going to purchase anything on that day, without doing our homework first, we were handed off to another salesman who is without a doubt the rudest, most arrogant and inflammatory salesman I have ever encountered.  My wife and I were badgered, insulted, and even told that WE were being rude all because I asked my wife what time it was (they had kept us well beyond the promised 90 minutes and we had other things we wanted to do with our day besides sit through more of their rudeness and no-taking-no-for-an-answer pushiness).

After being insulted for the final time I told my wife to grab her things because we were going.  This salesman - Matt - continued to ask questions about what was keeping us from buying a membership with them.  I told him that he just wasn't listening to us at all because we had made it very clear that we were quite interested in the travel club but were simply not about to purchase anything that day.  We told him that if we were interested after checking into things further that we would potentially buy in somewhere down the line in a few years... but not now.  We even went so far as to say that we would do anything we could to ensure that he and the first salesman would split the commission (rather than it going to a completely new individual).  He just wouldn't accept that answer.  Rather than doing what salespeople in other businesses usually do in that situation and say something like, "well if you’re not ready right now that's understandable but if you ever want to come back and do business with us in the future then here's my card... I'd love to earn your business... etc., etc...", he pointedly asked why we would even bother to come to a sales presentation if we had no intention of buying.  We told him it was to collect the freebies... what did he THINK we came for ?!!  To hear a sales pitch about something we had no intention of buying at the moment?  Give your head a shake - no one in the room was there for that reason!  We were all there because we were WILLING to sit through a presentation in exchange for some freebies - that's it, plain and simple.  Surely they should know this and be happy if they make the occasional on-the-spot sale.

As it turns out, the presentation was actually pretty intriguing and got my wife and I thinking that perhaps this travel club might actually be something that we would truly be interested in belonging to at some future point but that is the kicker with these people - they need your dollars TODAY because if you get back to your hotel and look them up online as I did (and as anyone reading this is doing right now) you soon discover that it would be a HUGE mistake to do business with them and that is why they push so hard, to the point of being extremely pushy and rude, in order to get things wrapped up right then and there.  They KNOW they are not getting your business tomorrow.  That is surely the reason why they downgraded the deal they offered us three times in order to sell us SOMETHING but when we still said no, even at their "lowest possible" price that's when we were basically told to get out.

When we left the building I saw a woman outside who was headed back into the building and I thought I recognized her as one of the employees of the company.  When I asked her if I could give some feedback she said "certainly".  So I proceeded to tell her how friendly everyone had been, except for Matt.  I mentioned how much of a jerk he had been in terms of the way he had treated us but at this point she defended him and told us to get off their property.

I hope that anyone reading this will stay away from this company and warn their family and friends to never visit their place of business either.  There are lots of other much less aggravating ways to score some free show tickets than to subject yourself to what we went through (and evidently many, many others have gone through as well).  Incidentally I have yet to read ONE positive report about this company.  Every website I have visited with respect to VSA has numerous complaints about them but not one positive appraisal.   While we did not personally suffer from having been scammed the way numerous others have reported, nevertheless our experience of being greatly offended and harassed is simply not acceptable.  What kind of a business treats its potential customers this way?!!  It is clear what they are doing, or trying hard to do, and it is most definitely to rip people off.  Do NOT let this happen to you.

Final word... where we live there is a very successful car dealership that advertises on the radio "at ___ we don't sell cars... we help you buy them."  With this kind of approach to sales it's no wonder why they are so successful.  They are not pushy.  They know that their product is an expensive one - one that people are not prepared to purchase upon first visit/inspection.  They know that in order to earn your business it will take time and they believe that you will come back because they are confident that they can satisfy the customer's need without having to be pushy, rude, or insulting.  Well at VSA, they are not about helping people to buy anything; they are all about the sale... TODAY... like in the next 10 minutes.  Not only is their approach pushy, rude, and insulting, but - bottom line - it's ineffective.  In the end they're not even good at what they do.  They are just a bunch of limited-talent sales bullies who don't know the faintest thing about how to treat a customer the right way.  The only satisfaction my wife and I can salvage from this experience is in knowing this – that they simply are bad at what they do and did not get so much as a nickel from us.

P.S.  Do not do business with “Save on Branson” either.  They are the front for this company.  IF VSA did their own booking and offered the freebies that you and I want while vacationing in Branson we’d research them beforehand and stay away.  They need to hide behind SOB (interesting abbreviation, isn’t it) otherwise no one would ever attend their presentations.

Get the word out, people.  VSA = garbage company run by bullies, and SOB = their shield.  You can do so much better elsewhere (to arrange travel) or even on your own, and you don't need SOB in order to save while in Branson, either.