Complaint Review: Affordable Vacations International - Sunnyvale, CA 94085-4014 California

I received a phone call from a company that offered me 2 tickets for a free 3-7 day cruise, 2 airplane tickets, and a 2 night hotel stay in exchange for attending a 90 seminar about their travel services and directed me to their website at TourSeminarInfo.com

3 different people talked to me on the phone to assure me this was a legit opportunity, and give me a confirmation number. I asked many times to see if I would truly receive the free offer mentioned, and received plenty of reassurance.  I asked what the name of the company was that was doing the presentation, and I received a lot of evasive answers and they did not share that it was Affordable Vactions International.  

I attended the seminar at the Hilton on Arden Way in Sacramento. After waiting for a while and filling out a form that asked us questions about ourselves and our travel habits, they showed us into a conference room where each table had each couples names. The presentation lasted just over an hour, and a slide shown on a large screen showed many beautiful resorts and the logos of reputable companies that Affordable Vacations International supposedly had a relationship with.

The offer was for $10,000 (discounted for "today only" for $8995) plus a $299 account activation fee and a $295 a year membership fee in exchange for getting super low travel rates because of their supposed relationships. My wife and I declined solidly and were showed the door.

Upon leaving they gave us these supposed "free gifts" that they had made such a big deal about to get us to attend the presentation, and the certificates we received are from "Fun Times Travel" and require activation fees in order to use them. Upon doing further research here at Ripoffreport.com, Fun Times Travel certificates appear to also be a scam where they take people's money and do not offer even a discount on the service advertised.  

The certificates are going in my trash.  

I went to the Affordable Vactions International Website (avi4fun.com) and they claim to be A+ rated with the Better Business Bureau on their faq page, but on the BBB.org website their company is not even accredited . Besides for calling themselves Affordable Vacations International they called themselves "Travel Center" and used the idea that their building is next to Great America to give them some kind of validity as a big travel group.

If you research "Affordable Vacations International" on the internet, there is almost no information about them out there except for their very simple website, yet they claim in the presentation to have approx 200,000 members and make themselves sound like a solid company that has been around a long time.  This is nonsense, I believe they are a fly by night operation that probably changes their name as soon as the heat is on.  

I want to warn other consumers that I believe this company is a scam, and I think that Affordable Vacation International or the "Travel Center" are taking advantage of uninformed consumers.